Creative Interventions Toolkit: A Practical Guide to Stop Interpersonal Violence

by Mimi Kim

The Creative Interventions Toolkit is a practical guide to community-based interventions to interpersonal violence, also known as community accountability or transformative justice . It is written for everyday people, including survivors, people who caused harm, and friends/family who want to help without turning to the police or services. Community-based interventions build on friendships, family connections, and caring relationships to address violence rather than solutions that rely on policing and punishment. While friends and family are often the "first responders" to violence, many of our communities have lost basic tools to end and prevent violence. The Creative Interventions Toolkit aims to re-build these skills and offer models that can help us with safety, accountability, and community self-determination. The Creative Interventions Toolkit (1) basic information on the dynamics of interpersonal violence (sexual violence, domestic violence and family violence/child abuse); (2) special sections for survivors of violence and for people who have caused harm; (3) guides for facilitators and friends/family who want to help; (4) a basic model or framework to move forward to confront and transform violence; (5) lots of tools for safety, accountability and coordination; and (6) stories from everyday people who have used community-based interventions. Readers will gain knowledge and specific strategies to break isolation and create solutions that can be adapted to many different situations and communities.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Reference, Abuse, Psychology, Activism

576 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2019

Reviews

[zara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve referenced this book for years — we used the Creative Interventions anti-oppression policy to inform our anti-oppression policy at an organization where I worked, Collective Action for Safe Spaces, and I’ve referred repeatedly back to the list of questions for assessing who the abuser is in a given situation, but I had never actually read it all the way through until now that the workbook has become available in print. Now that I’ve read it, I realize that it’s helpful to read it all the way through to better familiarize yourself with it so that you have a sense of which resources are available to you when a situation of violence comes up, but it’s also designed in such a way that if you only read one section, the most important points will be repeated so that you don’t miss essential information. In every section, for example, readers are reminded to read the section on the basics of interpersonal violence that everyone should know.

This book looks really intimidating, because it’s huge, but it actually has a pretty large font, there’s a lot of space for readers to write in their own notes, and there are also many worksheets meant for use by people involved in ongoing violence intervention processes. It’s incredibly comprehensive and practical, and I especially appreciated the stories of violence interventions — in particular the ones that involved whole communities intervening. The Alan Jenkins article at the back of the book gave me so much to think about regarding shame, remorse, apologies, and restitution. If I were to recommend only 3 sections to people who don’t plan to read the whole book, I’d say definitely read section 2.2, the essay by Connie Burke, and the Alan Jenkins essay.

I tried to keep in mind while reading this book that it was created as an intervention to the anti-violence movement’s reliance on carceral systems to show that there are options and answers to the question/s: “what do we do with the rapists and abusers?” but even then I found myself wondering why interventions to support an abuser’s transformation included so many tools (the floorplan/blueprint, the roadmap, the staircase of accountability, the article about finding a good therapist for people who have caused sexual harm, etc) while pieces focused on survivor support were limited to survivors’ immediate safety needs and a note that survivors’ healing journeys are deeply personal. It felt like there were several gaps when it came to the survivor support section. For example, I didn’t see any mention that there might be multiple survivors/victims, which I feel is fairly common and it’s hard to know how to balance competing needs for safety, confidentiality, and collaboration among survivors who share an abuser, so I’d love to see some resources around that, and I also didn’t see much discussion of retaliation, which for me was by far the most painful aspect of the abuse/violence intervention. I also know that one single book isn’t meant to cover every single scenario, so I’m mostly including these notes in here to encourage folks (including myself) to keep building around these gaps. I’ll also be making use of the website to share stories to add to the archive!

Overall, just an incredibly comprehensive and useful tool that I know I will continue to rely on and recommend to others!

[Corvus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading Creative Interventions Toolkit brought up a thousand thoughts and feelings. As a result, this review ended up being both a review of the book and a blog of the thoughts and feelings (moreso than usual) that it awakened in me.

The Creative Interventions Toolkit was assembled by the organization by the same name and is available for free via PDF on their website or in print version via AK Press. I really liked the design of the print version. It was easy to read, follow, navigate, and I felt engaged by the layout. I have not examined the PDF version to be able to say if it is similar. The print version is gigantic- think of a textbook. This is intimidating, which the authors do acknowledge, and at first I found myself frustrated with it. I wanted to read it cover to cover in order to give it a proper review, but there is so much repetition. I finally reassessed how I should be reading it and that improved the experience. This book works less as a "read this cover to cover if you want a successful accountability process" and more of a combination between a textbook (where a teacher would assign only some relevant chapters throughout class) and a collection of independent sections that can be read alone (with the proper foundation set up in the beginning of the book.) Reading it like this meant "cover to cover" was more like reading only certain long form sections.

Even with the reading adjustment, I do think it could have been condensed into a shorter volume. I adore that this book is written with everyone in mind- not just small communities of far left organizers with extensive vocabularies and organizing skills. I think they do a good enough job explaining things that condensing a lot of it would make the book far less intimidating and more likely to be used by those who need it most. This book is clearly written by people who wanted it to be able to be used by a far larger audience. They are true abolitionists who clearly have put immense thought and care into its creation. I am very grateful it exists.

Here's where I talk about myself too much and the thoughts this brought up. Let me get one thing clear- this part of this post is me talking to an audience of "my" people. So, I am writing with the assumption that we all agree that most sexual assault accusations are the truth, much -but definitely not all- harm happens within or is worsened by oppressive and authoritarian power dynamics (patriarchy, white supremacy, etc,) capitalism is a hellscape, authoritarianism is never a good thing, and violence* should be reserved for defense or when other options don't work. Many people who rape are cis men, men who are raped are usually raped by other men, people who use sexual and domestic violence often do so repeatedly to multiple victims. The state often ignores, belittles, abuses, retraumatizes, or is violent to survivors especially of marginalized groups and is especially hard on people of marginalized groups who do harm (especially towards the dominant group such as a Black man accused of harming a white woman.) The vast majority of the time, courts and the police do not solve the problem and/or make things worse. Some people are so horrifically manipulative, devoid of empathy, purposefully predatory, and may never be ready for or interested in accountability. Some people unfortunately need their asses kicked, faces spread around, and to be kicked out for the safety of communities. Some even are killed in self defense by survivors of their violence or their community. But, these outcomes (I will argue usually) are not the case. What I am saying is that my discussion in this post of the messy nuances around violence and accountability is not meant to undermine these central realities.

*What constitutes appropriate and effective violence (or violence at all) is a whole other essay and this is already long, but you catch my drift.

I generally had a very complicated and traumatic life before I found sobriety and then organizing. I've had chronic physical and mental illnesses since childhood, a slew of really screwed up experiences and violent traumas, drug addiction from a young age that wrecked my life, all on top of being what my current psychologist calls a "hypersensor-" meaning I am generally a mess inside my head and easily overstimulated even in normal, everyday scenarios. About 15-20 years ago, I got really involved in various forms of anti-authoritarian organizing and LGBTQ communities, the former of which I ceased most participation in around 4 years ago due to my health worsening. I saw and learned a lot in that time- including how to fail at accountability and transformative justice both in my own life and watching the efforts (or lack thereof) of others. Despite our strong desires for an abolitionist society, we're all products of this world and we bring that and all of our trauma and internalized oppression with us. Despite our willingness to fight together in the streets, sometimes we struggle to call in our friends when we see abuse happening right in front of us. That is why this book brought up so much for me. It covers real life, not simply (sometimes imaginary) binaries.

Humans in general (in my limited USAmerican experience) really like to point the finger at others. We love hating rapists, abusers, and fuckups of all sorts. We love thinking of them as one dimensional monsters- completely different species from ourselves. We love calling out that Karen's racist joke on twitter or shaming the ignorant in order to prove to ourselves that we're not like them (anymore.) Get a big enough group together and those dynamics can make canceling someone incredibly intoxicating and feel like "community." Sometimes, even often, the person being canceled doesn't deserve it at the far reaching levels that canceling extends to.

We are often hypersensitive from our own traumas and experiences with oppression. We truly want to see a better world and society. The ideas that people who do harm might actually still be complex and human, that situations of violence are often very complicated, that sometimes people who make accusations can be wrong, that entire communities can be responsible for abuse (not just the person who directly did harm,) and that we can't just solve abuse and violence by tossing out the trash... well... suck. We all do harm. We all cause conflict. Sometimes we do harm because we grew up learning it was normal. Sometimes we are more vulnerable to harm because we grew up learning it was normal.

In small communities especially, social capital can sometimes outweigh everything else.

In my own mental health struggles, I have perceived and declared things that were minor issues as being bigger forms of abuse. Sarah Schulman discusses "overstating harm" like this in Conflict is not Abuse. I have weaponized callout culture in ways that- in hindsight- I realize made the situation worse. I once completely cut off a dear friend when I found out she had been abusive to multiple women. I later realized it would have been far more helpful to do things the hard way and try to help her acknowledge the harm and do better. During a mental health crisis, a generally nonabusive partner of similar demographics was scary and violent towards me, had far more social capital, then tried to paint me as at fault/abusive to escape responsibility. I had a close friend who once helped me leave an abusive relationship, then started a partnership with the abuser 2 weeks later, never denying what he did and ghosting me. He abused her for years after that. He was celebrated as a pinnacle of trans community when he died. I have met multiple men who have done harm and agreed to "accountability processes" that were not processes at all. Some of their actions were minor and done once- even according to the survivor- but other folks took out their past trauma on them while offering them no way to do better (and they were actually willing.) It was a mess that didn't heal anyone. I have had friends deal with an extremely violent and unstable housemate who weaponized oppression lingo and community leaders to make said friends (who were also marginalized in more ways) out to be "unsafe," even while he was the one literally holding the axe. I have one parent who was an extremely neglectful and sometimes abusive alcoholic and died by suicide. I have another parent existing in a state of active paranoid psychosis, who refuses treatment, and constantly accuses people of poisoning, attacking, gang stalking, assaulting, etc her- including me at times. Regardless of reality- they are completely real experiences for her.

This book covers all of that shit. It doesn't go into the kind of detail I have here, which is why this post is more personal than a review, but it actually leaves room for real conflict resolution, discussion, and problem solving. Creative Interventions acknowledge that things can sometimes be clear cut (a man serially assaulting women and hopping from community to community) or more confusing (partners accusing one another of abuse at the same time.) They acknowledge that things can be messy (the survivor may be a straight up unlikable asshole, the person doing harm may be well loved.) They acknowledge that most if not all of us tend to feel and/or act defensive when confronted with the idea that we have done harm- especially if it was unintentional or out of ignorance. They acknowledge that some mental and intellectual disabilities may prevent someone from being able to be accountable in ways someone without said disabilities could be without ignoring the harm done and the need to do something about it. With all of these acknowledgements and many more, they offer real, concrete solutions. Neither I nor the authors have any illusions of perfection. I am sure mistakes can still be made. But, they're far less likely with these methods and far more likely to be mended in this sort of system.

Some of the stuff that was most enlightening for me were the sections on "the person doing harm" and their role in things. I have seen a lot of the survivor, community, and ally transformative justice tactics that they explain. I have rarely seen texts that go deep into what we can do when we're the one who has done harm. The section is thorough and covers a wide range of stages that a person doing harm may exist in. These range from those in a state of pure, unempathetic lack of remorse to those whose defensiveness is protection from their own shame to those who are ready, willing, and enthusiastic about doing better and healing the harm they have caused. It was freeing to read and be reminded that there will always be ways to do better, rather than wallow in shame and guilt (that can motivate, but can also take up massive space, and center the person doing harm.) Fearing and running from accountability can sometimes take more time and effort than the scary process of facing it head on. The skills in this book would apply across the board to all harm and conflict in my opinion- not just violence. I can see myself using things I learned in every day interactions with people in everything from very minor, one time mistakes to chronic, deeply entrenched problematic beliefs and behaviors. The authors acknowledge the reality that accountability does not mean a community will feel comfortable or that relationships will remain intact. It does not mean the person who was harmed will forgive everything and we'll all run off into the sunset alongside unicorns. It does mean, however, that the future is full of promise and the ability to do better and live better, regardless of how extreme the harm(s) someone has caused.

One thing on violence: Creative Interventions states that they are generally against violence used to shame or seek revenge on the person doing harm which, I admit, made me bristle for a second. I've seen some pretty awful predators do some really horrific things (including discovering I narrowly escaped a skillful grooming by a serial assailant that was committing horror movie style sexual violence against people throughout the community.) The idea of them being hurt feels perfectly justified to me. CI's explanations gave me a new outlook on how violent retribution can actually be giving the person doing harm what they want. In one of the personal stories (which are all extremely helpful and enriching to the text,) there is a description of a man who sexually assaults someone and submits himself in front of the group that confronts him, begging for forgiveness and not to receive the consequences the accountability team had planned. While some of them wished violence had happened, some said that it is exactly what he wanted in those moments- to get his ass kicked and therefore claim he had repented and to walk away from it all. If a man rapes a community member, we all go kick his ass, and tell him he's not welcome (which as I said, is occasionally all that's left to be done,) is that better than taking away his ability to access more victims, to get him to interrogate his issues, to support him in doing so, etc? It depends on the situation, but sometimes violence is the less effective way out. And, if you're a sensitive person like me, violence towards someone even if they "deserve it" can fuck you up. Sometimes the kindness of providing a process of redemption for someone who has done something despicable is really worth it.

If you made it this far, thank you for giving me your time and attention. This was actually even longer and I cut a lot out, but hopefully still made my points and intentions clear. I find that real conversations around this stuff, however difficult, can be immensely enriching and healing. If I've said some shit here you hate or just disagree with, and you want to have a real conversation about it, hit me up. Go get this book. If able, and you know someone who can't access this book due to language barriers, disability, etc, consider finding ways to help them access it. CI is also clear about that- they want everyone to be able to use these tools to prevent and heal harm in their relationships and communities. I hope to become a better human with the stuff I have learned in this book and I think others can, too.

This was also posted to my blog.

[emily gielshire · Rating 5 out of 5]

A necessary read for anyone in community. I mean that. Mimi Kim provides a blueprint for how to handle interpersonal violence, but also how to preserve our humanity in the process. I reference this toolkit incessantly & I highly encourage anyone interested in a safer, more just world to read.

[Tibby]

I started this book, maybe unsurprisingly, because of a situation in my local community that needed some of the pieces of this toolkit applied. I should have read it beforehand, but things don't always work out like that.

This is such a thorough resource and I hope people go through it before they need to use it. It walks you through all the steps of a possible violence intervention and is clear about how you can adapt it to whatever situation you are in and with whatever resources you have available to you. It is of course very possible to use this in the middle of an intervention or use it to walk you through, but I recommend sitting with it before your community is in crisis and needs you to already have the skills and ideas at your fingertips. The method is non punitive and non carceral and I hope people can start using this type of ethos in approaching everything from interpersonal violence to conflict to relationships. It's maybe not what we are taught to believe leads to safety and end violence and there are some hard truths in here (such as, not all abusers will take accountability and change and these processes must take that into account and that not all victims will want to leave their abusers), but the sooner we can accept these things the sooner we can build a better world.

It is long, but as they say many times in the book, these processes are complex and require time and effort and so they cover everything that needs to be covered. No apologies and no silver bullets.

[brinley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was so happy when I heard that they were making a book of this, because I tried diving into the online version of this several different times, but I am PDF screen challenged, lol. Something about having a print copy that I can hold really helps me focus on the material in front of me, as I find myself easily distracted when trying to read something online.

This book had so much thought and intention put into it, and I found much of it to be applicable not only for community accountability processes, but for organizing and relationship building in general. There’s a clear expertise (without pretension) that came out of many years of experimentation and storytelling in these pages, and I really appreciated how approachable this text was for someone who isn’t very experienced in interpersonal violence advocacy. It really emphasizes the practice of empowering everyday people, so the breakdown and organization, and splitting up of topics, made it really easy to feel like I could get something out of it. I want everyone to read this for that reason, since anyone might find themselves either in their own situation of violence or needing to support someone close to them through one.

It’s a large book though, there’s no denying it: at just under 600 pages, it can seem daunting to open this up. There are a lot of reasons for the length that feel justified—also because, there’s no one approach to handling crises, each one is specifically unique. Each situation has its own circumstances and people or resources available, so many different factors need to be considered and well thought through. It also approaches different learning styles through outlines, definitions, question and answers, stories (some of my favorite parts of the book were in reading these), visuals, and charts.

While I took the approach of reading this from beginning to end, there’s really no need to do that. You can skip to the parts most applicable to your situation if you’re in a time crunch; however, I really thought taking it in slow was helpful since there is so much covered. That’s probably easy for me to say though, since I read this while not in a moment of crisis or facilitation. Each section builds on the last, too, so there are constant reminders of what you might have read in an earlier section, to reinforce learning and help ease the process if you are skipping straight to one part.

I found the most helpful parts of this book were the tools, such as the worksheets, guided questions, charts, or other self-reflections—so I'm excited to go through the workbook companion, too (on their site at creative-interventions.org). Reading through this and not having to facilitate or assist in an accountability process means that I wasn’t able to fully engage with them, however. I also found the “helpful resources” at the end of the book INCREDIBLY helpful. I am glad those are included in there, and will be referring to those often as well—for future readers, don’t skip this part!

[Cin Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is such an important groundbreaking work. My only complaint is that it needed a good editing. And I’m not just bowing to the cop in my head here - the printed version was very hard to read at times due to missing sections, incorrectly placed sections, etc. Would and have absolutely recommended it to comrades interested in community accountability and transformative justice.