Radical Resourcing
Through radical resourcing, we reject the scarcity model that tells us we—what we have, what we are, who makes up our community—are not enough. Radical resourcing reminds us that resources are not always external, and that much of what we need in order to collectively survive and thrive comes from within. We acknowledge our inherent value as part of a larger whole working for new possibilities. We own the power we have to make our visions real. We recognize that when it comes to resourcing, collective dreaming, and doing the work to build the new world we want, we are what we need.
It’s true: the work of organizing, healing, and growing takes money. Funding from both foundations and donors—through large gifts, small gifts, community collections, and sustaining gifts—has made trauma-informed counseling available to more than 200 people impacted by police violence in the last year alone.
But this work also takes presence; the presence of people willing to become part of a community of care.
In order to create the expansive sustainability we will require, radical resourcing also acknowledges and welcomes the value of necessary contributions outside of monetary support. Valued and valuable support can look like so many things:
Organizing child care for a community meeting so people who need to be there can attend
Volunteering personal expertise to create art, document events, or communicate stories
Responding to and sharing calls-to-action to hold elected officials and systems accountable
Collectively making food to nourish people at meetings and events, or connecting with local restaurants who might donate
Committing to educating ourselves and having conversations about our vision with others, even when it is not easy
Offering resources you already have—access to a printer, a car, a computer—to help with a mailing to incarcerated survivors, transporting supplies to an action, or necessary research
Showing up to a court date to remind those targeted by structural violence that they are part of a community of care
When we think about supporting the work of healing, creating and dismantling, it’s easy to feel like we can never give enough. But a person’s care, someone’s generous gift of time, energy, and skill, is always as valuable as money. What if we thought about the abundance of what we do have and what we can give instead of what we’re missing or can’t pay for?
By exploring radical resourcing, we understand that we need each other to shape and achieve our vision. By practicing it, we begin to inhabit that new reality. By building a new reality we co-create the world we each deserve.