About the Convening
We’ve made the case for equitable grantmaking for years. Now is the moment when we push forward, put our ideas into practice, and make progress.
GSP’s 2023 Biennial Convening: The Forward Moment will take place August 30 – September 1, 2023 in Orlando, Florida. Our programming centers on four key focus areas: Climate, LGBTQ+, Immigrant, and Criminal Justice. Our goal is to offer a space for our network to better understand the South, its tradition of resistance, and to move resources into the communities that need them most. We will also host our annual membership meeting and a Learning Tour of local partners working to build power in the greater Orlando area.
What You Can Expect
The Forward Moment offers an array of sessions, skills labs, celebratory events, and learning tours aimed at educating participants about the cultural, geographic, and political context of the South while grounding our learnings in central Florida. We are finalizing our agenda and will provide updates soon. In the meantime, check out our session descriptions below:
Session Descriptions
Reformation and Abolition: Building a Collective Vision
How do we move away from punishment towards justice within the criminal-legal system? Expand
What solutions do abolition and reformation offer us? Hear from grassroots organizers as they explore the roots, connections, and departures between abolition and reformation and map out how communities are utilizing both ideologies to actualize justice within them. We are building a collective future where communities are free from oppression by the criminal-legal system. Join us to explore how you can help build the ecosystem to achieve restorative justice in the South.
Disenfranchisement and Criminalization: Tools for Voter Suppression
In the last two years, more than 130 bills have been introduced across the nation that would increase the involvement of law enforcement in the voting process. Expand
Legislation passed across the South has confused, disenfranchised, and criminalized communities exercising their right to vote. Join us to explore the ways activists and organizations can work together to ensure a fair and accessible voting process and how you can invest in building a stronger movement to protect democracy leading into the 2024 election cycle.
Centering Black, Brown, & Indigenous Communities: Building Community Resilience Against Climate and Environmental Warfare
Explore the long history of environmental and climate-based warfare against communities of color and its impacts on their health, wealth, and resiliency. Expand
Together, we will investigate the many issues around resource access, storms and disaster response, and the scaffolding effect of climate and environmental toxins in communities with deep connections to land and place.
Investing in the Infrastructure of Climate Justice: The Long-Term Strategy
The persistent rhetoric of our current political climate seems to fall on the extreme sides of a spectrum, with climate change denial on one end and the fear that we are doomed and beyond saving on the other. Expand
This binary thinking offers no surety for the long-term investment in climate justice work. How can the philanthropic ecosystem support climate justice across silos to center communities who are most impacted for the long-haul? Learn from funders and practitioners invested in the work to ensure community has access to the resources and resiliency needed for generations to come.
Safety & Security: Building a Collective Strategy for Supporting Undocumented Organizers and Community Groups
In the face of a sunsetting DACA policy and newly introduced asylum bans, we must ask: who is keeping immigrant communities safe? The answer is: each other. Expand
Work with community organizers and their allies to develop tools for supporting undocumented organizers, including security around public information sharing. Dive deep into the intersections of immigration and criminalization and learn how community safety measures help to prevent perpetual harm.
Funding and Organizing for Immigrant Justice Beyond the Border States
In recent years, we’ve seen immigrant communities in border states infiltrated and separated by ICE, but they were not the exception. Expand
Immigrants in other parts of the US have also faced detainment and have been forced from detention center to detention center, with no regard for them or their families. What does the detainment process look like and how can we disrupt it? Learn how we can all participate in protecting immigrant communities regardless of where we live in the US. Explore existing legislative wins and current opportunities at the federal, state, and local levels to advocate for immigrant communities within and beyond border states across the South.
Meeting the Moment of anti-LGBTQ+ Legislation: Progressive Organizing and Advocacy Strategies
We envision a South where every LGBTQ+ person can thrive, with full lived and legal equality. Expand
Unfortunately, there is a surge of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, oftentimes targeting the most vulnerable members of the queer and trans community. This session explores some of the most pressing issues, needs, and long-term organizing and advocacy strategies to push back on anti-LGBTQ+ attacks. How are you meeting the moment of what’s needed by LGBTQ+ folks right now?
The Inherent Queerness of Southern Movement Work
Queer and trans leaders are on the front lines of every facet of social justice work in the South, especially queer leaders of color. Expand
From reproductive justice to power building, to legal advocacy, these leaders are building power and solidarity to resist siloing efforts. Join us to discuss how we define social justice work that includes, celebrates, and places the needs of queer and trans leaders at the forefront.
