#4: Caregivers & Kids Building Communities of Care (New Zine!)
Welcome to the One Million Experiments Newsletter.
Dive into Episode 14 of our monthly podcast with Zara Raven from Queenie’s Crew, an abolitionist education and activity club for kids and their caregivers.
Launched in March 2022, Queenie’s Crew has been an experiment to engage children in learning about building communities of care without prisons or policing. They’ve engaged more than 300 caregivers, educators, and organizers with a monthly newsletter; crew members have taken more than 100 actions to hone their abolitionist imaginations; and they've hosted a number of events, including caregiver circles to discuss parenting with abolitionist values, as well as arts, crafts, and musical spaces with kids.
Interested in transforming the ways you relate to kids in your community? Join us on June 29, 2023, at the Building Your Abolitionist Toolbox session with Zara and 1ME and Queenie’s Crew creator Mariame Kaba (or explore the session later).
As part of this month’s offering, One Million Experiments teamed up with Zara and members of Queenie’s Crew to make a new zine: Caregivers & Kids Building Communities of Care. In this zine, Zara lays out different ways that you can support caregivers and small people in your lives with suggestions for personal, community, and systemwide level actions that we can all take.
Even if you’re not a caregiver, this content is for you. We all have a role to play in supporting the next generation of abolitionists. Mariame breaks it down like this:
In 1996, I attended a restorative justice training. It was my first encounter with this philosophy and practice and it was life changing. During the training, the facilitator told a story that deeply resonated with me. She shared that when the Masai warriors of Southern Africa greet each other, the first question they ask is "Kasserian Ingera" or “And how are the children?” The health of their society is determined by the well-being of their children. While I have since learned that the allegory may not be true, I’ve tried to measure my efforts to transform the conditions of the society in which I live by centering the well-being of children and young people. Over the years, I have organized youth leadership workshops, co-founded organizations with young people, and written books specifically for children. As PIC abolitionists, “How are the children?” is a powerful guide for our efforts and actions.
Explore the zine—including the excellent resource section—and share with your caregiver friends today.