The Yarrow Institute for Organizing and Analysis was initiated in 2023 to develop and share research and tools and offer accompaniment to advance the organizing capacity of grassroots movements.
What We Do
Yarrow Institute supports movements in three main ways:
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Tools and materials
1) we turn research into political education materials and creative organizing assets to help organizers and activists navigate challenges and obstacles in their campaigns and projects;
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Accompaniment
2) we accompany organizers and activists—through consultation and coaching, research support and skills development—to develop winning strategies and get into their strongest fighting form;
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Movement building
3) we facilitate relationship building and network development among organizers and activists who might otherwise not be connected.
Together, these approaches build the capability and confidence of social justice movements. Better equipped movements are more able to more powerfully meet the moment.
Yarrow Institute is a partner in practice —supporting organizations and organizers to meet goals they have set. We provide tools to strengthen political practice, not just to develop theories; we conduct research and offer analysis. Sample topics of materials developed to date include: economic drivers of jail expansion, the environmental impacts of prison and jail construction, non-carceral responses to gendered violence, organizational defense, and the relationships between rising authoritarianism and the prison industrial complex.
The Context
The current period poses substantial challenges to social justice movements.
Intersecting societal, economic, political, and environmental crises compel movements to prepare better to contend for power. Many organizations lack the necessary capabilities and confidence to be well-prepared for the fights they will face. Yarrow Institute is a partner in practice, equipped to increase organizers’ and organizations’ effectiveness.
Yarrow Institute seeks to contribute sober, evidence-based information, packaged in usable, accessible tools and materials that organizers can easily apply to build power.
The landscape for social justice organizations is increasingly restrictive, with groups facing mounting threats and penalties. The punishment system also continues to evolve. It has become increasingly difficult to avoid surveillance, policing, courts, and imprisonment regardless of a group’s area of focus. This climate, coupled with the decreasing availability of financial resources has left many organizations destabilized and questioning how to meet their missions.
Many capacity building resources are aimed at building basic skills and foundational understandings. Yarrow Institute prioritizes organizers and organizations ready to move beyond the basics to apply their politics in practice. In a period increasingly fueled by “hot takes” and social media influencers, Yarrow Institute seeks to contribute sober, evidence-based information, packaged in usable, accessible tools and materials that organizers can easily apply to build power.
Who We Are
Yarrow Institute core members have extensive movement experience with particular expertise in prison industrial complex abolition, advocating for racial and gender justice, and facilitating community-based interventions to interpersonal harm.
Collectively, Yarrow Institute members represent over 150 years of movement experience, with an average of about 20 years experience per member. Core members have experience as organizers, educators, trainers, facilitators, counselors, researchers, and community safety practitioners; we understand what is needed to advance movement goals and have the experience to get organizations into their best fighting form.
We collaborate with organizations and organizers that are applying their political principles to organizing efforts. While Yarrow Institute’s experience and expertise position it best to support organizing for prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition, our support is available across sectors. We have a special interest in working in the US South (especially Appalachia) and with rural communities.
Yarrow Institute Core Members
Shana Agid, Amna Akbar, Rachel Herzing, Amelia Kirby, Naomi Murakawa, Jack Norton, Judah Schept