Account is a youth-led and member-led project pushing for change, healing, and justice in all things related to policing.
WHAT WE DO
Movement Building
To create the radical change we need, we believe groups fighting the same fight need to be better united and connected. Account hosts events, conferences and forums aimed at building a stronger movement in the fight against police injustice and oppression.
Youth Outreach and Political Education
We need better education and more awareness to empower our own communities - people who have lived it - to lead the way.
Account delivers outreach to young people supporting them to learn more about the history of resistance to policing, giving them tools to become future leaders in the movement.
Participatory Action Research
We believe that knowledge is power. We also believe that we can become experts and use our own research to create a change. Account creates research to support our community to tell its own story, and to develop a better understanding of how we can create change.
Learn more about our research here.
Art Therapy
For many people who have experienced injustice, art can be a tool for healing and empowerment. Account uses poetry, music, spoken word, art and theatre as tools to heal from the injustices that our communities have faced. This art is also a way to create joy and celebrate life.
Intergenerational Connections
So much gets lost if we fight this fight without the guidance of our elders. Account connects young people with previous generations of organisers and activists to learn the lessons of how we can win.
Watch our mini-documentary Community Healing here.
OUR VISION
We want our communities to be able to thrive and flourish, in a world free from fear, violence and harassment.
We want to live in communities that are united, powerful, safe, loving and nurturing.
This means a world where people’s needs are met, and where police and state violence are no longer facts of life.
We demand an end to the wars that leave our communities feeling like ‘the trenches’.
This means an end to the wars within the community. It also means an end to the wars waged on our community by the system and the state. It also means an end to the wars waged on oppressed people all around the world.
We want to dismantle the system that tells us that putting wrists in handcuffs or putting people in cages is the catch-all solution to problems in our society.
As spoken by one of our founding members, our vision is for a world where young people in our communities “grow up” able to “stand tall, walk with confidence, lesser than no one.”
We know that this vision may take generations to reach.
The struggle for this liberated future will take patience, perseverance, and care for ourselves and care for those we fight alongside.
To this, we are committed.
Our Principles
FREEDOM FOR OUR PEOPLE
Our communities at home and abroad are living in a world made by oppression, injustice and inequity.
We believe that local and global freedom and liberation will come and that it is our duty to fight for it.
UNITY IN THE COMMUNITY
We believe in building intergenerational unity and collective power in the community.
We refuse to see our communities as ‘vulnerable’, ‘needy’ or ‘marginal’.
Instead, we believe our community has powers, talents and strength.
BUILDING THE MOVEMENT
We believe in the powers of our young leaders, kings and queens, to lead the movement for justice and liberation.
We believe that to win we need to build better relationships between different groups, communities and organisations who are fighting the same fight.
THE FUTURE IS RADICAL
We are not here to ‘tweak’, ‘tinker’ or put ‘sticking plasters’ over systems that have been designed to harm and control our communities. Instead, we believe radical change is necessary.
We believe in the hope of a safe, secure and liberated future where all our needs are met. A future where we can thrive, not just survive.
HOLD THEM TO ACCOUNT
We believe it is necessary to advocate for our community by speaking truth to power.
We are committed to fighting against tokenism. We will only engage with power on our own terms, from a place of honesty, integrity and strength.
HEALING IS NECESSARY
Our membership is united by first hand experiences of injustice and oppression.
We believe that to build power we also need space to heal and build resilience.
LOVE IS THE MOST POWERFUL TOOL WE HAVE
While rage may fire us up, only love will sustain us.
We believe in the power of love for self, love for community, and love for the future we are fighting for.
