#PoorNotGuilty launched in September 2019 during a communication advocacy workshop with international petty offenses advocates held at University of Miami prior to the Petty Offenses Symposium: Challenging Criminalization of Poverty, Marginalization, and Gender Non-Conformity hosted by UM's School of Law's Human Rights Clinic, UM Law Review, UM School of Communication, National Homelessness Law Center, and Open Society Foundations' Human Rights Initiative. Attendees joined the workshop from Canada, Guinea, Guyana, Israel, Jamaica, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States.