You are needed

Sharing a letter I sent to family and friends earlier this week.

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Dear friends and family,

If you’re like me (and we’re friends or family, so you likely are), you may be worried during this time. Worried you could get the virus. Worried the economy is going to tank. Worried about what the future may hold.

You may also be worried about others. I’m worried about people for whom home is not safe, who are in abusive situations. I’m worried about my grandma in Texas, and all people who are elderly or disabled and living alone. I’m worried about people who are pregnant. I’m worried about people who are incarcerated or in detention centers. I’m worried about people who live without homes. I’m worried about people living in countries where access to clean water and where healthcare infrastructures are weak. I’m worried about anyone who doesn’t have a choice to stay home or whose jobs won’t exist without human contact. I’m worried about anyone facing additional challenges during this pandemic, far beyond the reality of our Netflix and Zoom meetings and Amazon delivery.

I’m less worried about you, friend, if I’m honest. Ultimately, you and I have the means and the access to financial resources that will help us weather this storm. At the same time, it has been laid bare, via this global pandemic, just how broken the systems are that undergird our WEIRD middle-class existence. We are seeing the extent to which governments and politicians prioritize the extraction and exploitation of natural resources and labor to feed wealth accumulation, with brazen disregard for the human lives upon which our global and local economies depend. It’s time to ask ourselves: if our current comfort and convenience is made possible only through the exploitation and suffering of others, are we really living a good life? 

Luckily none of this is intrinsic to our existence. It has never been more important for us to find new ways to sustain ourselves and our communities. We are a global community, like it or not, and our shared vulnerability and interdependence is now undeniable. 

I’m writing you to share my belief (and my life’s work) that it is with generosity – not greed – that we will survive this pandemic and any crisis to come. Fighting for the dignity of all people means sharing what financial resources I have – fast and without strings – and asking and supporting other people in my position to do the same. 

We know this pandemic will hit us differently. We can stay home. For the most part, our jobs and professions will continue. But as COVID-19 exacerbates existing inequities and injustices, it will further marginalize those who are already vulnerable both in the United States and beyond as the pandemic hits the Global South. 

Yet there are the people who can and do see and imagine other ways of being – every day – through community organizing. You see, for many people around the world, the end has come and gone many times already. They have never been able to depend on exclusionary systems rooted in capitalism, racism, and patriarchy. Despite these inequalities, visionary community leaders dare to build powerful and proven local efforts, particularly in Black and brown communities, in our backyards and around the world – grounded in what tethers us to each other and to the planet. 

Giving and donating to them is how we can hold each other lovingly while the world is hurting. Let every foot of distance we keep from another person become a thought of how you can help other people, should the need arise. 

These times are challenging for all of us. But we cannot let fear turn us into people that only focus on “our own.” Over the years, I have had the privilege to learn about mutual aid around the world, or efforts in which people take responsibility for caring for one another to resist the controlling hierarchies and system-affirming, oppressive arrangements of charity and social services. And what community leaders teach us is that financial liquidity is what’s most needed in a crisis. It’s time to invest in the true first responders in their communities, going above and beyond to reach people and places that mainstream nonprofits, NGOS, and governments are not in the wake of COVID-19. 

So can you join me, and let your donations flow right now? It is time to trust that what we give, we will also receive. I have pasted below a list of “tips” for short-term giving during this crisis, as well as the list of organizations I have supported during this time.

Beyond just staying at home, it will take all of us to meet the scale of this crisis. We can effectively use our privilege at this time. We can use it to act. We can express our solidarity, courage, and love through our giving. 

May you be well, peaceful, magnanimous, and generous at this time. Reach out any time.

With respect and connection,

Jennifer

Giving Tips (via @jesssolomazing)

1. Set a new monthly “stretch” budget for giving, including money saved from being isolated/quarantined. 
2. Identify trusted “intermediaries”, i.e. people or organizations embedded in their communities and working directly with people affected. 
3. Identify people, service providers, or small businesses you want to support directly, based on your own existing relationships. 
4. Assess the different kinds of capital to have access to at the moment, e.g. savings, family networks/assets, etc.
5. Make targeted asks to others to match your giving. Make these challenges fun and joyful. Invite them to share in their abundance by acknowledging others’ very real needs at this time.
6. Think more about a longer-term giving strategy, to ensure that your money is flowing aligned with your values, to people and organizations who are focused fighting for the rights of all to a good life – as a consistent political stance – not just as charity. 

Jennifer’s Giving List

• Local DC/DMV: 
  • Ward 2 DC COVID-19 Mutual Aid (See also the DC Mutual Aid Network for other wards in DC.) 
  • Black Lives Matter DC and the M4BL DMV Money Pot for Mutual Aid Efforts
  • Diverse City Fund (supporting community organizers)
  • DC SAFE (crisis intervention for domestic violence) and DASH – District Alliance for Safe Housing
  • We Are Family (senior outreach) 
  • DMV Restaurant Worker Relief Fund
  • DC Abortion Fund
  • PopWorks Africa’s Doula Fund, which supports doulas in DC and Baltimore to provide free services to black parents
  • For other direct giving opportunities in DMV & Baltimore, see nomunomu.org.
• U.S. National:
  • Database of Localized Resources During COVID 19 Outbreak
  • Detention Watch Network
  • Farmworkers COVID-19 Pandemic Relief Fund
  • Family Farm Defenders, National Family Farm Coalition, U.S. Food Sovereignty Alliance, and the National Farmers Union
  • COVID-19 Emergency Mutual Aid Fund by Indigenous Environmental Network
  • Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund by National Day Laborer Organizing Network
• Global:
  • Thousand Currents’ Above & Beyond Solidarity Fund
  • Urgent Action Fund’s COVID Crisis Fund for Feminist Activists 

More on Mutual Aid and Collective Care

• What is mutual aid? Big Door Brigade
• What Is Mutual Aid, and How Can It Help With Coronavirus?, Vice
• How lending circles and mutual aid groups create community resilience, by Jassmin Poyaoan
• Letter on a plague year: Everything is on the table, Jennifer Cooke
• Localized database for mutual aid efforts in the US