Institute Description

Muslims For Just Futures (MJF) is a grassroots organization that builds power in Muslim communities through collective care, organizing, advocacy, and movement-building. MJF works actively to build a society where our communities live with dignity, power, and freedom. We are rooted in the DMV and committed to building long-term power and base-building in the region with a focus on centering working-class communities and women. We are also committed to building grassroots power nationally through the Muslim Abolitionist Futures (MAF) National Network.

We are thrilled to launch our 2025 Muslim Women's Organizing Institute, focused on organizing locally against local, state and federal level anti-immigrant policies: from deportations and surveillance to the Muslim Ban and more.

This institute will create an organizing cohort of Muslim women in DC, MD and VA who will further develop their leadership skills as Muslim organizers, advocates, and community-builders. We invite those who seek to build long-term Muslim community power in the area while having a political home to apply. For this institute we are especially looking for organizers in Virginia, though applicants across the DMV are welcome to apply. We especially encourage groups of 2-3 organizers from the same city/county/locality to apply, so you can both connect across region + get to build deeper with fellow organizers locally.

This institute will take place in person in DC and VA. See below for the health and safety precautions we will be taking to mitigate COVID spread.

Participants can request a stipend (see below) for their time and effort, to cover costs related to transportation, childcare and missed work, and to generally allow for this organizing and training opportunity to be accessible to all.

The institute will cover:

• Political Education: How to understand Islamophobia and the War on Terror, the ways it shows up locally, and where we can identify opportunities for change and intervention
• Organizing, Basebuilding and Campaign development skills: An introduction to power-building strategies we can apply to enact change. We will cover the nuts and bolts of organizing and base-building, how to build relationships, conduct outreach, and move people to action.
• Frameworks of community defense: We will dive deeper into the ways the far-right targets our communities and how state surveillance, criminalization and policies target and harm our communities, and the ways we can keep each other safe. Potential examples we may cover include mutual aid work, immigration defense and more.

Instructions to Apply: Please submit your online applications using this form. You can email Sana at sana@muslimsforjustfutures.org with your questions.

The deadline to apply is Sunday July 20th at 11:59pm.

This application should take 30 minutes to an hour. You will be asked to upload your resume

We will reach out to applicants for interviews between July 23rd-27th and make our final decisions for this cohort by July 28th.

Our first session will be August 9th.

Time Commitment: In order for this program to serve as a valuable experience for you and because each session builds off the previous session, participants must commit to the entirety of the program. All sessions will happen over the weekend
Lunch and snacks will be provided.

Training Dates:
Session 1: Saturday August 9th & Sunday August 10th, 10am - 5pm
Session 2: Saturday August 30th & Sunday August 31st, 10am - 5pm
Session 3: Saturday Sept 6th & Sunday Sept 7th, 10am - 5pm
Graduation: Sunday Sept 21st 4pm-6pm

Participants who are interested in engaging long term with our membership and our local organizing will be prioritized.

 

FAQ 

Who are we looking for?

We invite Muslim women who are 18 and older and have at least 1-2 years of experience in activism, community organizing, or community-building to apply, and who are connected to other Muslim spaces where they are interested in doing deeper community building and organizing.

Please note we are focusing this cohort on applications from Muslim women who live in Washington DC, Virginia, and Maryland, with a preference for Virginia as one of the primary places we are focusing on building deeper relationships.

We are also looking for individuals who identify with MJF’s work and mission, are rooted in the region and/or have a long-term commitment to building power locally in the DC, MD, and VA region. We will also prioritize individuals who apply and identify as working-class and/or are committed to building working-class power in the DMV.

 

Why are we prioritizing working class Muslim women/building working class power?
MJF is committed to building the leadership of working-class Muslim women. We know that the war on terror has led to so many resources being pulled out from Muslim communities, with working class communities being the most impacted. 

Health & Safety - COVID precautions:
COVID continues to cause serious health issues and long term disability. While vaccines limit some harm, COVID infections can and do still cause a vast range of health problems and can still cause disability or death, especially with many repeat infections. 

We are in a time with very little government acknowledgement for the many people who are suffering the ill effects of long COVID, or those who are immunocomprised and unable to participate safely in public life because there are no precautions in place.

To protect each other and our other community members, we will take these COVID precautions during this organizing institute:
- Stay home if you are sick - follow up with facilitators or other participants to catch up
- Testing before the start of in person sessions (tests will be provided)
- Masking with a high quality KN/N95 mask at all times indoors (masks provided)
- HEPA filters in our indoor spaces
- Lunch/meals outdoors

We keep us safe!

 

We can offer a limited number of $250-$1000 stipends, with a priority for folks who are working class. If you are not sure if you should receive a stipend or not, we encourage you to answer the following questions for yourself (no need to share the answers with us).

These stipends would be disbursed at the end of the institute [my mid-September].

Training specific:

• Are you able to comfortably pay for transit, childcare or other personal costs associated with attending this training?
• Attending this training won't lead to lost income

Other considerations:

• Are you and your family homeowners?
• Are your bills or credit cards on autopay?
• Do you have easy access to healthcare or health insurance for you or your family members?
• Do you have zero to no debt?
• Do you have a safety net composed of “financially stable” or wealthy family and friends?
• Does your income only support you, and not other loved ones?
• Do you expect to inherit money or property?
• Have you (or could you have) attended graduate school?

[Questions adopted from AORTA coop]
 

If you answered mostly no's, you would qualify for the full $1000 stipend.

If you answered more no's than yes, you may qualify for the stipend - you can choose to ask for the full stipendnor take a reduced rate

If you answered mostly yes's, you would not qualify

Note: in order to distribute stipends we will need to collect information such as W9 paperwork, and the stipend would be taxable