We’re an initiative that prioritises collective power-building, values-based decision-making, and any organisational structure we have is in service to that work.

The Cambridge Dictionary defines “initiative” as “a new plan or process to achieve something or solve a problem,” and Merriam-Webster defines it as “an introductory step.”

Our work is an introductory step toward modelling a new way of organising movements. We recognise that current models of organisations have done and are making an attempt in imagining new ways of working within a system that was not designed for equitable institutions.

1. We do not make the assumption that what we are doing is completely new and is not being done. 
2. In our experience, past efforts have been siloed, have focused on the violence they hope to end while rarely envisioning what could exist in its place, and have started with pre-assumed frameworks – frameworks that emerged out of a colonial understanding of how poverty, violence, and harm occur.
3. Our efforts will begin with the development of a new cross-movement framework that is rooted in (and draws upon the existing wisdom of) grassroots, pan-African, queer, feminist understanding of the root causes of poverty, violence, and harm. This framework will help us identify steps needed to focus on the world we hope to create: a world of dignity.

This work will focus on resourcing grassroots efforts to co-create dignity. While we are not beginning as a collective, we are focused on sharing power in both our work and how we do it.

Thus, a collective may emerge from this work with CTI serving as a co-conspirator, convenor, and resource hub for local, community-based work. At the moment we operate as an initiative.