Renewing our commitment to the work as The Inner Activist
In the middle of the pandemic, and after more than a decade of delivering training on inner work, social change and leadership development, the Inner Activist halted operations and closed its doors to the public.
For nearly four years, the Inner Activist project faced an internal crisis and breakdown of relationships, one that we have come to learn is an all-too familiar pattern across social change communities and organizations.
We lost colleagues and community members in the relational turmoil, but some of us stayed through and with the trouble. Together, through deep and often difficult conversations, the IA community began to work through the issues and examine how they were shaped by power asymmetries, counterproductive approaches to conflict and accountability (such as lateral violence and ‘cancel culture’), and the intersections of race, culture, gender, and class. In the process, we came to recognize that what we were experiencing was not unique to IA, but reflected broader patterns within social change movements and communities of service.
We recognize that not all movements and organizations are able to withstand periods of relational breakdown. It takes resources, willingness, and skillful relational work to make it through. Some of the lessons are deeply personal, and witnessing the critical need for those fighting for social justice to remain in community is why the IA is reentering community with a focus on Transformative Justice.
“We are in a particular time in history where folks are navigating conflict differently, in a world that is significantly polarized, and sometimes in that polarization, we have a tendency to forget our humanity. We think we need to do better in the way we hold conflict, and some people are doing this work around transformative justice. We want to learn from them, and we invite people to learn and maybe dive deeper into that practice with us.”
– Jorge Salazar, Director of the Inner Activist
On August 14, 2026, the Inner Activist launched its first public event in partnership with Simon Fraser University’s Morris J. Wosk for Dialogue, a panel discussion on Transformative Justice. The panel was chaired by Dr. Aftab Erfan, the new Chair of the Inner Activist Leadership Committee and Wosk’s Executive Director, speaking with practitioners of Transformative Justice, Katie Robinson, Shannon Perez-Darby, and Aslam Bulbulia. The panelists collectively reflected on their work on carceral systems, domestic violence, and workplace conflict.
This event was in many ways Inner Activist’s renewal and reentry into the social change communities. Transformative Justice is a central theme of this renewal, in recognition of the need for ways to address harm, conflict, and accountability beyond punitive and colonial systems. In connection with this rebirth, the Inner Activist earlier this year renewed and expanded its Faculty Team and brought on a Leadership Committee to refine its direction and ensure alignment between public offerings and internal processes.
“Everybody comes from a vast range of diverse experiences, practices, and lived experiences, which I think, even if we weren’t dealing with the content we have, just having this group of people leading a workshop, being in conversation with each other, already kind of gives us, gives the people around us, an opportunity to grow as better leaders.” – Jorge
Jorge Salazar will continue in his role as Director of the Inner Activist. We spoke to both Jorge and Aftab for this article about how they see the value of the work of the IA today, and why Transformative Justice.
The Inner Work Needed for True Change to Happen
The need for the Inner Activist comes down to a resource gap between institutional and activist communities and spaces:
“When I'm in big organizations, I have a lot of support and training, coaching, and internal development resources and tools. And when I primarily was an activist, those resources were really not available, not in the same way. Our society is not set up for activists to have access to these resources, and Inner Activist to me is about closing that gap.” – Aftab
For Aftab, that gap is personal. The ability to grow as a person that is reflective of the realities of many people, and stay attentive to your inner landscape is an important skill and capacity to have, no matter how you exercise your leadership in the world. Everyone needs the inner skills as they navigate systems and complex community dynamics, she says. Aftab’s decision to join the Inner Activist Leadership Committee also feels like a way of supporting her own younger self, making up for what wasn't available to her, and expanding what was, for more people to benefit from. She's also drawn in by the people. She has deep resonance with the Inner Activist community and internal culture, and it feels like a supportive space for her own personal journey and for doing this work alongside people she feels aligned with.
“A lot of our work is around personal growth and development, but it's also about recognizing the systems that oppress us. And I think there is a lot out there right now trying to erase that work — like all of a sudden there are people who deny the existence of racism, the existence of heteronormativity, the existence of patriarchy. So we are saying, no, these things exist. They're socially constructed, but they exist. And we still need to do a lot of work to tackle those issues, even within myself - particularly within myself.” – Jorge
Aftab points to another layer of that work: the cost of holding other people's pain, and what it takes to keep doing it without being overtaken by it or shutting it out. In her time in movement spaces, people often came to her with what they were suffering, most of which she couldn't fix. A mentor taught her mindfulness and somatic practice for it. Take in what's hard, let it move through you, breathe it back out, rather than either absorbing it fully or walking it off. As she puts it:
“Those internal capacities matter. They're important for our own survival, so we can keep doing the work, and for making sure we don't harden or put up a shield or separate ourselves from the realities we are trying to shift.” – Aftab
In the Fight for Social Justice, We Need to Stay in Community
As Aftab put it, there is a lot wrong with the world. Activists are in some way the most visible component of society that is trying to change it. And so we have our work cut out for us. But because we are part of the world that we are trying to change, we are also struggling with the same things within our movements and our community groups. Patterns of oppression and destruction and conflict and blindness are replicated in the fractals where we do our work.
“Unless we figure out a way to work with those dynamics within our movements and groups and coalitions, our work can't be effective in the world or it will struggle. Maybe it will solve something, but it will create another version of the same problem. The opportunity that the Inner Activist provides is to look at those dynamics that we're trying to change in the world but look closer to home, within our communities, and try to have a more responsible relationship with them. – Aftab
This new chapter of the Inner Activist will result in programming built on its previous focus on personal growth, while adding a stronger emphasis in conflict to ensure that people are more equipped to address it.
Stay tuned for more ways to join this community!