Why a Collective?
SRLP functions as a multi-racial, inter-generational collective of people committed to a broad understanding of gender self-determination. As a collective, we recognize that it is essential to create structures that model our vision of a more just society. We believe that in the struggle for social justice too often change is perceived as a product and not a process. We seek to use a non-hierarchical structure to support work that aims to redistribute power and wealth for a more just society. We also strongly believe that our community-based structure, which maximizes community involvement, will support the sustainability of our work and the accountability of SRLP to its constituency. We have developed an organizational structure with five equally important teams and a Board working together on a shared vision and mission.
The Direct Services Team runs our legal clinic, makes determinations about how to take and handle cases, advocates for policy reform within institutions that impact our community, and sustains relationships with allied service providers. The
Public Education Team creates and implements our trainings for other groups and organizations, creates and distributes our public education materials, develops and maintains our website, and creates and implements SRLP’s media advocacy work.
The Fundraising and Finance Team is responsible for raising money for our operations, coordinating our budget-planning process, maintaining relationships with our donor base, creating fundraising events, and administering our financial systems.
The Collective Development Team is responsible for recruiting staff and collective members, for making policies and programs regarding SRLP’s diversity, and developing policies and procedures for SRLP staff and collective members.
The Movement Building Team develops the skills, leadership and political power of low-income transgender people and transgender people of color to participate in our movements for gender, racial, social, and economic justice. The Board is charged with oversight of the legal, ethical, and moral responsibilities of the organization and its financial health. By creating an organization that functions as a collective, SRLP is developing a structure where people committed to gender self-determination, and trans, intersex, and gender variant people can take powerful leadership roles in transforming their own lives as well as their community and the world.
Prisoner Advisory Committee
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project holds a strong belief that the people most affected by the systems of violence and oppression we fight are the best people to lead that fight. We also believe that social justice organizations must find ways to directly involve the members of our community who have been separated from us by the criminal injustice system. The Prisoner Advisory Committee (PAC) is one way to overcome the enormous state-created barriers to communication and political participation for the people who are most affected by the prison industrial complex. More info at http://srlp.org/PAC
Collective Handbook
Our Collective Handbook provides a comprehensive introduction to our structure, and is made available to every potential collective member, so that they may have a full understanding of how we operate. This document, and the structure it represents, was put together with help from the folks at The May First Technology Collective and the Community Resource Exchange.
More information: Check out The Nonprofit Industrial Complex and Trans Resistance, an article written by SRLP Collective Members.
