CRISIS Part 3 - Care-Based Safety in Michigan

One Million Experiments is back in your ear for Season 3, and we're diving deep with experiments around community crisis response! As our sociopolitical reality births crisis after crisis, the 1ME squad of Dame, Kiss, and Eva dig deep with three different experiments to learn how we can better show up in moments of communal and structural crisis. They also  are joined on every episode’s Peer Review by special guest Deana Lewis, a founding member of Just Practice Collaborative–a group that builds communities’ capacities to respond to intimate partner violence and sexual assault without relying on state-based systems. As we figure out what redefining and creating safety look like under the carceral conditions of our time, it’s just as true as ever that we don’t need one answer to how we get free–we need one million experiments.

On Episode 3 of this season, the crew talks with Liz Kennedy and Sheri Wander of Care-Based Safety, an experiment working in the cities of Ann Arbor and Ypsilanti in Michigan to build a community response program that brings loving, unarmed support to people directly impacted by structural violence – without police. Currently in the third iteration of their pilot program, they are a daily downtown presence in downtown Ypsilanti responding to crises as they arise in real time, including: basic first aid (wound care, wellness checks); overdose prevention, reversal, and aftercare; noise complaints and neighbor concerns; and distress related to mental health and other stressors. Liz and Sheri talk through how they've battled cooptation, their collective decision-making practice, and how they've learned to make sure their presence is both welcome and useful.

SHOW NOTES

Support Care-Based Safety - https://www.instagram.com/carebasedsafety

Watch the 1ME film - https://www.respairmedia.com/one-million-experiments

Check out 1ME online - millionexperiments.com

Learn more about Respair - respairmedia.com