JASS (Just Associates)

JASS (Just Associates) is an international feminist organization founded in 2003 as a community of practice by activists, popular educators, and scholars from 13 countries. Working with women and diverse organizations and social movements in 27 countries, JASS trains and supports activist leadership and grassroots organizing and builds and mobilizes alliances amplified by creative media strategies to influence change in discriminatory institutions, policies and beliefs. Our agile regional and international structure and processes link grassroots activism to local-to-global solidarity and action, placing frontline activists and agendas at the heart of our social justice work. JASS documents the messy process of change to generate cutting-edge knowledge about power, movements and change to shape theory, practice and policies for advancing women’s rights and democratic change. WHAT JASS strengthens and mobilizes the voice, visibility and collective power of women to advance rights and end violence. We train and support activist leaders linked to women’s organizing on diverse justice issues from sexuality, HIV and land rights to protections for human rights defenders. WHY The unfulfilled promise of women’s equality cannot be realized without mobilizing the power of women’s voices, knowledge and numbers for sustained pressure and influence on policies, institutions and social norms. With growing backlash and violence today, organizing women is also about protecting activists and their organizations. HOW JASS’ holistic movement-building strategies work to train and support activist leaders, promote grassroots organizing, and build and mobilize broad alliances to respond to urgent problems, and opportunities for strategic influence of powerful institutions; we amplify women’s voices, agendas and media outreach, and we document our efforts to generate important analysis, how-tos and knowledge directly from action.