Weaving Community Connection: Organizing & Know Your Rights Training
On February 25th, more than 70 community members gathered at the First Unitarian Society of Denver for a powerful evening of political education, organizing, and collective skill-building. In collaboration with longtime immigrant rights leader Jeanette Vizguerra, Denver Justice Project hosted a Community Organizing and Know Your Rights Training grounded in our shared commitment to protecting one another and building systems of care, not cages.
The turnout itself was a reminder of this moment: people are paying attention. People are ready to act.
Naming the Harm
DJP opened the evening with an overview of the carceral system and the harm it causes at the municipal, state, and federal levels. We explored how mass incarceration and immigrant detention are deeply intertwined, how the criminalization of immigration has fueled a surge in federal detentions, and how for-profit prison corporations continue to rake in huge profits while Black and Brown communities are targeted, surveilled, detained, and forced into unbearable conditions.
We examined the financial incentives behind detention expansion and the ways local, state, and federal systems collaborate to funnel people into cages. These systems do not exist in isolation. They are part of a coordinated structure that prioritizes punishment and profit over dignity and care.
Jeanette Vizguerra spoke candidly about the conditions inside the GEO detention center, grounding our analysis in lived reality. Her testimony reminded us that behind every policy decision are real people, parents, workers, and community members, enduring inhumane treatment in facilities designed to dehumanize.
Knowing and Exercising Our Rights
Political education must be paired with practical tools. DJP facilitated a Know Your Rights training rooted in our fundamental constitutional protections. Participants learned:
How to navigate interactions with ICE
What to do if ICE comes to your home or workplace
Your rights when protesting or engaging in direct action
How to safely and legally document law enforcement and ICE activity in community
We distributed “whistle kits” containing Know Your Rights zines, provided Know Your Rights booklets, and guidance on recording and reporting ICE and law enforcement encounters. These tools are meant to move information quickly and equip neighbors to protect one another in real time.
Our Board of Directors played an active role throughout the evening—co-facilitating portions of the training and helping connect participants to hyper-local Signal chats that are being used to organize mutual aid efforts and ICE rapid response initiatives. Community members were also connected directly with CORRN and other immediate volunteer opportunities to take action now.
Weaving Stronger Networks
This gathering was not just a training, it was a step toward strengthening coordinated community response. Participants left with clear next steps, including a calendar of upcoming trainings and events throughout March to continue building knowledge and power together.
At DJP, we believe safety comes from organized community. It comes from relationships, rapid response networks, political clarity, and the courage to show up for one another.
February 25th was a powerful reminder that even though it feels like it, we are not alone and that when we come together with intention, strategy, and love for our people, we build something stronger than fear.
We are grateful to everyone who joined us and to First Unitarian Society of Denver for hosting this important space. We look forward to continuing to weave these connections and to seeing you at the next training.
In community,
Denver Justice Project
