What has Catalyst looked like over the years?
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Read more about the Catalyst experience in Nicole White's blog post
What is it??Catalyst is a week-long summer program for empowering young Kentuckians as leaders, changemakers, and community organizers. If you're interested in practicing a healthier way of being together, building people power, and finding connections to young folks (our age range tends to be 15-30, but it's not a hard rule) across this land, this is for you.
We strive to create a youth-empowered space that is always growing in our actions to divorce white supremacy and settler colonial conditioning. A process that is never done but is the way forward in creating strong, healthy, and restorative communities on this land that is primarily Shawnee, Aniyunwiya (Tsalagi/Cherokee), Chickasaw, and Osage land (Colonially known as Kentucky.) We work with an environmental lens in ways that acknowledge our environment touches everything. It intersects with everything--abolition, workers rights, housing rights. Being liberated in and with our environment means it takes all of us in all of our sectors. |
We put in a lot of effort to ensure folks can access this space despite barriers. You can help cover someone's meal, gas, lodging, etc. if you give a little.
You can also send the funds directly on venmo @jaesledge with "Catalyst" in the tag. Sending them to this way helps, for an example, get gas money to folks more directly.
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Being able to access this space is extremely important to us. Please reach out if you want to go but there are barriers. We offer gas support, transportation/carpools, and more to help you get there. Let us know if you need childcare, wage stipends, etc. and we will do our best to make it happen. You should be in the room too! The program is offered at a “pay what you can” rate for all participants and the site is ADA compliant (we will provide participants of details on the space and programming to identify any needed accommodations).
What will I learn at Catalyst?
Workshops that have been included before are direct action, base building and mobilization, radical visioning, and campaign strategy, among others. We've had some amazing guest speakers--some of which also gave their time to Catalyst as trainers and directors. A few of our past speakers and mentors: organizers of #OUR444MILLION a campaign against a proposed 444-million prison facility in Letcher country (which ended up being a win!), REACT (go follow and stay informed), organizers of Fight Toxic Prisons, Mijente on their organizing for Sanctuary Ordinance in Louisville, Lexington's Food Not Bombs, and so many other amazing people.
Our goal is to create a space that doesn't foster a needless sense of urgency with time. A space where we challenge hierarchical power dynamics and disposability culture. This is a great space to practice organizing our own people in a way that fosters accountability, community care, and restorative practices. At the same time allowing us to dive deep into this learning and give participants choice to maximize what they get out Catalyst. You can't learn everything about this work in seven days, mostly because it's a never ending process of learning and adjusting. But hopefully this will give some essential building blocks and a support system that empowers you in this work moving forward.
Young Kentuckians that want a better world can often feel isolated in their communities, and building this statewide network through trainings delivered through a "Kentucky"-specific lens will break this isolation. Our hope is for participants to use the network formed at Catalyst to put roots here and fight for change for decades to come. The history on this land is rich with fighting oppression and creating strong communities despite the powers that tries to make it otherwise. We do this work because we know we're not disposable, this land is not disposable, and we only win when we learn and act collectively!
Our goal is to create a space that doesn't foster a needless sense of urgency with time. A space where we challenge hierarchical power dynamics and disposability culture. This is a great space to practice organizing our own people in a way that fosters accountability, community care, and restorative practices. At the same time allowing us to dive deep into this learning and give participants choice to maximize what they get out Catalyst. You can't learn everything about this work in seven days, mostly because it's a never ending process of learning and adjusting. But hopefully this will give some essential building blocks and a support system that empowers you in this work moving forward.
Young Kentuckians that want a better world can often feel isolated in their communities, and building this statewide network through trainings delivered through a "Kentucky"-specific lens will break this isolation. Our hope is for participants to use the network formed at Catalyst to put roots here and fight for change for decades to come. The history on this land is rich with fighting oppression and creating strong communities despite the powers that tries to make it otherwise. We do this work because we know we're not disposable, this land is not disposable, and we only win when we learn and act collectively!
Catalyst Experiences
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