Dear Catalyst Community,
We are excited to announce two online offerings we are launching in response to covid-19. First, Apply for our brand new class: Solidarity and Lessons for a Pandemic: Disability Justice, Transformative Justice, and the AIDS Movement. Second, register for our upcoming Grassroots Fundraising Training. There are hundreds of grassroots fundraising efforts right now, from raising money to bail people out of jail, to encouraging people to donate their stimulus checks to undocumented people who won’t get them. We are offering this training to support people to be strong, bold, effective fundraisers for these crucial campaigns!
New Class: Solidarity and Lessons for a Pandemic: Disability Justice, Transformative Justice, and the AIDS Movement
When: Thursdays 5/7, 5/21, 6/4 from 7-8:30p ET/4-5:30p PT
Apply Here by 4/22
As we all are doing our best to adjust to our new reality, we have the incredible leadership of our queer, trans, and disabled Black, Indigenous, People of Color and white anti-racist elders and ancestors to look to, learn from and build greater solidarity with.
This highly interactive web-based class is aimed to ground white organizers in some of the lessons we can learn from Disability Justice, Transformative Justice, and the AIDS Movement. What do these movements offer us in terms of how to build organization through crises, reject disposability politics, and build our collective community resilience? How do we integrate these lessons into our organizing and get our people behind the critical work that survivors, folks with disabilities and people living with HIV have been leading for decades? As white folks participating in this class, we will be looking at this through a lens of personal and collective survival and allyship.
The class will meet 3 times for 1 hour and 30 minutes each time. Class will take place every other Thursday starting on May 7th from 7:00-8:30 Eastern/4:00-5:30 Pacific. Space is limited, so we are asking participants to commit to attend all 3 classes and complete assigned homework. (That said, we understand that these are uncertain times and that things will come up that make following through on these commitments impossible for some participants).
We are limiting enrollment to 25 people so that we can run a class that is highly interactive and allows people to connect with each other and form a learning community. If there is strong interest, we will do our best to offer additional classes.
Please fill out the attached application with 1 paragraph answers. Applications are due by the end of the day on Wednesday, April 22nd, and we will let you know by Friday, April 24th.
We are excited to learn together how we can fight for survival and build a better world at the same time!
Online Grassroots Fundraising Training
When: Tuesday April 21st, 7-9p ET/4-6p PT
Register Here
Join us Tuesday, April 21st, 4-6pm PT for an online Grassroots Fundraising Training designed for white anti-racist organizers but open to all. This training is part of our campaign to raise $100,000 for National Bail Out’s (NBO) Black Mama’s Bail Outs. NBO began their bail outs last month in order to #FreeBlackMamas from cages and reunite them with their families so they can be alive, well and safe during the COVID-19 pandemic (and beyond). You are welcome to join this training if you are not part of that campaign, but want to develop your fundraising skills for other crucial needs in this time! In this training, we will give you concrete tools for fundraising, go over the components of a solid ask and practice, have space to talk about the feelings that come up when talking about money, and more. Grassroots fundraising is a critical tool for white anti-racists, especially in the time of COVID-19, as we can raise hundreds of thousands of dollars from our communities, while also having important conversations with people about why these campaigns are so needed. Join us to get tips and tools, be inspired, connect with others, and learn how to raise money to #FreeBlackMamas and #FreeThemAll.