Founders Letter - Creating community care in chaos

Hey Babes!

Hoping you are all well and shifting into the Spring season as softly as possible.

It feels like every time I write this letter, the reality of how much is happening in the world looms. It doesn’t even feel like a repeat; it feels more like a loop.

With the crisis in The Congo, the continued genocide happening in Palestine, the legal ruling on the definition of a ‘Woman’ in the UK, the proposed changes to disability benefits and the recent assassination attempts of the President of Burkina Faso - Ibrahim Traoré to name a few, it feels like in so many dimensions there is unrest, corruption and division. Once again, it feels like the world is an unsafe and unpredictable place to live, especially as a disabled Black Woman.

Where do you start when it feels like the world is falling to pieces?

With so much happening, I often find myself in a state of paralysis.

It feels like any attempt is a drop in an ocean of chaos.

And maybe it is.

And maybe that is okay.

And maybe that is enough.

Finding methods and mediums to transmute rage and sorrow is essential in times like these. The onslaught of oppression can and must be met with the same level of resistance and communal care.

The best-case scenario for those perpetuating dangerous inequitable systems is that we suffer alone in silence. Every attempt and intention of connection, compassion and community is a form of resistance. It serves them for us to be divided and hopeless. It serves us to pour together resources and create systems of care that leave no one behind.

And what we can do to resist exists on a vast spectrum.

When you take the time to connect with your body when the world is overwhelming (which is designed to keep us disconnected) - You are resisting

Calling a friend, connecting, gisting, laughing, holding space in a system that keeps us running in circles to stay afloat - you are resisting.

Writing to your local MP or joining a march - you are resisting.

Giving and receiving mutual aid, whether cooking from a bigger pot and sharing a container of rice or body-doubling with someone to get through daily tasks.

“Without community, there is no liberation…” - Audre Lorde

There is so much happening in the world outside of our immediate control, yet it holds so much power that it can feel powerless to witness.

I am finding peace in considering my position and playing that position to the best of my ability, feeling that is enough. Then, I imagine how many others are doing the same and how powerful that collective contribution of resistance is.

Reminding myself that liberation and system change is a shared responsibility and trusting we have what we need to move through it.

We have come so far and have been blessed to stand on the shoulders of the generations who came before us.

I hope the generation after us will feel blessed by the path we continue to pave for them.

I hope they will tell our stories as we imagine theirs.

I wish you well until we speak again!

Lots of love

Vivienne x

Free Haiti - https://hopeforhaiti.com/

Free Congo - Tiktok & link to the petition

Free Palestine - Thread of ways to support

Free Sudan - Thread of ways to support

Suggestions of ways to support numerous causes, including Hawaii, Lebanon & Yemen