Theory of Change

AORTA’s Theory of Change is a working document that defines our shared vision for working towards equity and justice for all. It outlines the eight integral components that help us to ground in a our work and move in a strategic direction toward lasting change.

THE ISSUE 

We are at a precipice of change that can be felt across all aspects of human life. Within the US, we are experiencing the starkest effects of racial injustice, violent repression, and health inequities, all within a context of rapid climate catastrophe, the rise of global fascism, and attacks on democracy. While it is simultaneously evident that our social movements have reached new levels of power and effectiveness and reach, many people feel individually fatigued and powerless. We must subvert the systems of oppression that influence and impact our daily lives and are institutionalized within our movement organizations; and simultaneously unlearn the horizontal violence and psychological harm that plague our movements for justice. Collectively, we can deepen practices of principled struggle, working in coalition, and collective governance, so that we are able to “build the new world in the shell of the old.”

VISION

AORTA envisions a world where people are able to live meaningful lives full of sovereignty, honest work and joy, free from dispossession, exploitation, and violence and rooted in right livelihood and relationship to place. We desire for resources to be distributed equitably and power shared, and for solidarity to be cultivated amongst people using transformative justice, bridging our common humanity, and recognizing our fundamental interdependence. 

ASSUMPTIONS/STANCES

  • We anchor our approach in interpersonal, systemic, cultural, and organizational transformation.

  • All systems of oppression are interconnected, and dismantling systems of oppression will benefit everyone.

  • Deep change requires sustained effort and readiness. Change is sometimes slow and incremental, at other times emergent and rapid. 

  • Conflict and change are moments of great potential.

  • We align our work internally and externally with the practices of Black feminism.

  • We believe in a practice of leadership and followership.

  • We assume our own power and maintain our humility.

  • Racial capitalism* is unsustainable, untenable, and exploitative of people and the planet. *we use the term racial capitalism because capitalism in the United States is inherently, and historically, a racialized economic system of exploitation and debt.

CORE CONSTITUENCIES

  • We aim to be in accountable relationship to those who the current system seeks to erase, exclude and imprison—in particular, working class Black and Indigenous women and gender nonconforming people, disabled people, youth, and elders. Our work is located within movements, organizations, cooperatives, and resource groups committed to winning social justice and a solidarity economy.

ANALYSIS

The US was founded on enslavement and genocide, and those logics have been institutionalized into the fabric of our society. Social transformation requires a massive transition towards an economy rooted in right relationship and reparations, to the land and each other, and in governance rooted in equity, self determination and cooperation. We understand that the worldview and culture necessary for these massive shifts will need to be visiblized, remembered, and reimagined. Transformation is a path we are on, not a destination.

Traditional “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” work has often been used as an instrument to support performative, superficial shifts while maintaining the status quo. Effective organizational transformation requires reckoning with and challenging entrenched power structures, both internal and external to an organization, and a willingness to examine and remake structures, cultures, and behaviors that reinforce power imbalances.

BIG PICTURE GOAL/IMPACT

We will catalyze and sustain successful, leaderful movements composed of skilled, democratic, principled, and courageous people and organizations that are able to build collective power and work in solidarity through liberatory praxis (action, learning, reflection).

WHAT WILL BRING ABOUT THE CHANGE? (BIG PICTURE)

  • Liberatory education

  • Leadership development

  • Cross sector/issue pollination

  • Conflict transformation and healing

OUR NICHE OR ROLE IN SUPPORTING CHANGE

We bring an intersectional analysis of systemic oppression and movement-building into the world of consulting, facilitating, educating, and training. We help our movements renew a stronger sense of vision, goals, values, heart-centeredness, and purpose. We model and introduce liberatory structures for operations and governance so that movement organizations may align their internal practices with their externally stated values.

CORE METHODS

Our approach to facilitation, coaching, consulting, and education seeks to amplify:

  • Deep democratization and collective governance 

  • Leadership development 

  • Resiliency-building, healing, and the practice of principled struggle

  • Pollinating practices and approaches across sectors

  • Modeling cooperative structure, shared leadership, and collective governance internally

CORE COMMITMENTS (VALUES AND BELIEFS)

  • SOLIDARITY: We stand in solidarity with all struggles that uphold collective liberation and cooperation.

  • RESPECT: We honor the contributions of future generations along with those of our elders, political ancestors, and contemporaries.

  • PRIORITIZE THOSE MOST IMPACTED: We prioritize leadership development of young people and communities who are and have been most directly affected by oppression and colonization.

  • COLLECTIVE CARE: Operating a cooperative business demands that we center care for self, others, and community.

  • TRUST: To maximize our impact we take time to build trust as a team, so that we can balance autonomy and collective responsibility.

  • JOY: We value work with clients that nourish our souls, we make room for joy in our work.

  • ACCESSIBILITY: We aim to foreground disability justice and use  flexible strategies and mediums to open our work widely.

  • HEALING AND REPAIR: We believe in naming and repairing past trauma and harm in ways that center the strengths and healing of survivors of trauma and harm

OUR MOVEMENT ECOSYSTEM

We exist within the context of a wide range of national and regional left organizations; our strategies are informed by their visions and campaigns, our internal study and values, and solidarity among those working toward liberation and justice, including grassroots organizations, intellectuals, values-centered businesses, movement strategists, and others.