Che Johnson-Long
Community Organizer | Somatics Practitioner | Community Security Trainer
About Che
Che Johnson-Long is a Community Organizer and Prison Abolitionist with a deep love for movement strategy. For over 15 years she has worked with Trans and Queer communities of Color and formerly incarcerated people developing strategies to divest from prisons and invest in community safety.
She currently serves as the Community Safety Political Education and Trainings Coordinator with Vision Change Win where she co-designs community safety and security curriculum, provides one-on-one and organizational support, and coordinates VCW’s safety and security programmatic offerings. She also serves as a Board member of the Audre Lorde Project, Sur Legal Collaborative, and Third Wave’s Accountable Futures Fund Advisory Council.
Che is the former Organizing Director of the Solutions Not Punishment Collaborative and the founding coordinator of the Atlanta/Fulton County Pre-Arrest Diversion Initiative, only the fifth of it’s kind in the country and the first initiative of its kind in Georgia aimed at reducing recidivism for those most impacted by addiction and extreme poverty.
In 2013 Che Co-founded the first Bed-Stuy Pride in Brooklyn, and the first Community Security school for Trans and Queer people of color both projects of the Safe Outside the System Collective of the Audre Lorde Project. For the past 12 years she has trained organizations and communities on internal safety strategies for mobilizations, events, and neighborhood copwatch.
Additionally, Che is a sixth year Generative Somatics practitioner specializing in movement group and organizational trauma work. Che holds a Juris Doctorate from Georgia State University, comes from a long line of Blues music lovers, and calls Atlanta home.
She is a big fan of her community, her dog, and all things sci-fi.
chejohnsonlong.wordpress.com 