Team One Future | Jerin Anne Jacob

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Get to know the fabulous people behind the magic at One Future Collective!

Jerin Anne Jacob, Chief Operating Officer and Editor in Chief

Tell us about yourself!
I currently am an MPhil-PhD Research Scholar with the Advanced Center for Women’s Studies at TISS, Mumbai. As an educator, I thrive on my passion for teaching to foster radical and progressive thinking among young minds. A passionate lover of literature and languages, I swear by the power of words changing lives and creating change. I read and write as I please, nodding all assent to the ever satiating power of poetry and literary portkeys, while also validating their power to enable social change and thus further the cause of social justice. Right since my childhood, I have also nurtured a penchant for art and craft, both of which I run to when I need to escape to a lone, safe space to rest, dwell and create.

Tell us about what you do at One Future Collective.
As the Chief Operating Officer at OFC, I co-lead the operations, mainly the educational initiatives. I facilitate workshops and training sessions, and also help host the Youth MeetUps and the Sanskaari Girls Book Club’s Mumbai Chapter meetings. I lead OFC’s flagship digital advocacy initiative – The Thought Project, under which I oversee the blogging, editing and publishing of articles, the designing, planning and execution of various digital media campaigns.

Why One Future Collective?
At OFC, team members have always got each others backs; the drive and vibe is super young, super curious and super infectious; we all firmly and passionately believe in the cause of inclusive and intersectional social justice; we are all okay with making mistakes but super adamant about learning well from them; the ruling team value here is empathy.

Your favourite One Future Collective memory.
Every first at OFC has left its mark, and is a favourite memory- the first youth meetup, the first certificate course, the first workshop, the first training session, the first Townhall… and the so many firsts that OFC is yet to have. I am still collecting memories, you see?

What inspires you?
‘If there is social justice, we will not need social service’, this guiding statement that OFC abides by has always reached out to me deep and inspired me to the core. After every workshop, session or training that we conduct, the questions and discussions that follow with the participants and their genuine drive for learning leaves me satiated like nothing else. It is this palpable impact, and the need for consistent pursuit towards building an intersectional, inclusive society for all that keeps me going.

Top three book recommendations.

  1. Ms. Militancy by Meena Kandasamy
  2. Em and the Big Hoom by Jerry Pinto
  3. The Doodler of Dimashq by Kirthi Jayakumar

Anything else you would like to add.
To anyone who asks me why I work with One Future Collective, my answer has always been- ‘One Future Collective and Gender Justice: the able couplet to the social change sonnet I believe in.’

Mapping and negotiating power

Uncuff India Episode 10: Dimensions of conflict and peace: visioning a utopian world

Uncuff India Episode 9: Civic space and dissent: A pathway to social justice