Building Skills for Community Autonomy
come hell or high water
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Safety & Security
Get clear on risks. Leverage relationships to mitigate harm. Grow the skills you and your organization need.
Team and organizational developmentDe-escalation trainings (embodied)
Risk assessment and mitigation
Incident and rapid response planning
Threat research and analysis
Home and office risk assessments and planning
Direct Action security planning
Basic digital security audit and planning
Basic and intermediate street medic training
Community-based Disaster Response and Preparedness training
Information management
Change management planning
Assessment and inventory of existing practices
*NREMT
*Remote EMT certified
*Medical Care Person In Charge certified
*Stop the Bleed Instructor
*Vision Change Win 2025 Fellow -
Anti-Racist Guidance
Get the support you need to become a principled, accountable, confident, and effective anti-racist organizer within resistance movements.
Identify what skills you want to build
Find practices that reflect your values
Understand your role and contribution
Build trust with key partners
Identify and grow the resources available
Take bold action
Invite more people into the work
Deepen historical analysis
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Embodied Leadership
Get familiar with what is happening inside your body. Heal from the impacts of trauma and oppression. Take action from your values. Build the skills to show up consistently in right relationship.
Develop a centering practice
Know deeply what you care about
Understand how reactivity shows up
Generate an internal sense of safety
Create more choices under pressure
Deepen the skills of negotiation
Move toward a positive and inviting future
Build intimacy with yourself and others
Grow capacity to move through conflict
Access sources of resilience
Grow your leaderships skills in groups and organizations
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Political Education
Ground your strategies in historical knowledge. Empower your campaigns with strong analysis. Activate your base through transformative methods.
Assess key learnings based on strategyCurriculum design and implementation
Emergent facilitation and adaptation
Content responsive to campaigns
Leadership development
Compelling narrative and relevant frameworks
Participatory methodologies
Continued learning resources and support
Methods grounded in access and disability justice
About
High Water Coaching
With a commitment to empowering community autonomy, High Water Coaching offers tailored trainings, workshops, coaching, and facilitation — grounded in embodied leadership practices and political education.
What People Are Saying
“Our movement work is facing terrain unlike ever before. The challenges call us to weave together political education, security, and a rigorous culture of understanding intersections, without underestimating challenges. High Water Coaching’s training in somatics, security, political education, and their deep roots in anti-racist guidance means their coaching is rich with what we need in these terrible times.”
— Carla W.
Fairness Campaign
“High Water created a security training that was tailored to my team and based on our organizational needs. They made the material digestible and brought a grounded and calm presence to topics that can often feel overwhelming. It was an excellent entry point that left staff ready to implement a new skill and committed to learning more. In times like these, I know having a more skilled organizing team that is able to make risk assessments will support us being able to stay steady in rapid response and uncertainty.”
— Sarah S.
Working Washington
“Working with High Water Coaching this year has been so supportive to our team at Momentum! We, like many, have been feeling concerned about increasing levels of attacks on our communities and want to commit to gathering in a safe and secure way. They supported us to design plans to do so. Through their guidance and facilitation our team reflected on our own experience, questions and concerns that were coming up for us individually, as well as things that we were hearing from participants directly. High Water introduced to us a risk assessment tool — a really helpful way to get a read on what are actual risks and not just everything bad that could happen— which helped us get sharp and clear on what we needed to actually build protocols and plans around. High Water approaches their work through a relational lens, encouraged us to trust the wisdom of experience, the experiences of those we are in community with, and using research to bridge the gaps.”
—Adiel P.
Momentum
“When the right came after me for my activism, I thanked my lucky stars that I'd already been well-prepared for that possibility thanks to High Water Coaching. They supported me to successfully complete a full digital and physical security assessment and preparedness protocol. And that's the hardest part! In this political climate, everyone needs to realistically assess and address their risks. HWC’s background in political education, organizing, somatics and movement security along with their patience and determination make them deeply knowledgeable and effective. ”
— C.G.
Showing Up for Racial Justice - National
“High Water Coaching is excellent at training, intuitive facilitation, and caring communication. They are also razor sharp in their understanding and analysis of why security matters for fighting organizations. I’ve seen them regularly forge that razor sharp analysis to effect the strategic security practice baselines for movement work, all the while deeply caring for every participant and ensuring practices of engaged group learning.”
— Jonathan S.
Constitutional Communications
“High Water is my go-to for questions about security and community safety, in any setting. Not only are they deeply knowledgeable on a variety of aspects of what builds community safety, their commitment to community and care comes through in how they are able to work through possibilities and practices in ways that leave me and the groups I work with feeling empowered and encouraged, that yes we can actually keep us safe in a multiplicity of ways. Safety planning can be scary and overwhelming, and High Water is able to hold that with gentleness as well as suggestions for starting places that help planning feel manageable and do-able. Their focus on relationship as the foundation of safety has been crucial, reminding me/us that we are not alone, that we build a more safe and thriving world together. ”
— Rev. Anne D.
FierceRev Remedies and Liberating Lineages Collective
“Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for that fantastic [Active Shooter and Stop the Bleed] course. I've taken similar trainings in the past and walked away shaken, scared, and worried about whether I would actually remember any of the material if I ever had to use it while surrounded by chaos and panic. I walked away from this training feeling relaxed, grounded, and confident that even if I couldn't remember everything perfectly, I could at least do something and not potentially cause further harm. You both have a gift, and we were all incredibly fortunate to share in it. Thank you not only for the training, but also for making sure that all of the participants were thoroughly cared for in body, mind and soul while being presented with difficult material.”
—T.
Columbia County Sanctuary Movement
“It is rare to find a facilitator like High Water that combines deep knowledge of the theory, real-life experience and personable and HUMAN connection around the potential challenges of learning embodied skills. The training structure was just right - enough time, enough repetition, a slow building of skill upon skill so that participants walked away with immediately implementable knowledge and the understanding of how consistent practice will enable continued growth. I recommend this set of trainings [Embodied De-escalation] for individuals and especially for groups that are interested in strengthening their internal cohesion in order to more effectively face the very real threats in current justice work. The more allies and partners that are trained in this basic set of skills, the safer I will feel on the front lines and the more effective we can be as a united front.”
—Anice C.
Louisville Community Defense Network
