Giving Opportunity: Safe Spaces for BIPOC

We’re excited to share a giving opportunity to support a new local organization called Safe Spaces for BIPOC and Allies. One of the local BIPOC-led (Black and Indigenous People of Color) organizations from whom SURJ UV takes our cues for action, Safe Spaces is dedicated to providing resources and support to the BIPOC community in the Upper Valley, building stronger communities, and dismantling white supremacy.

We encourage people to move beyond the mindset of “charity” which allows for income-proportionally small “donations” and push towards giving models of solidarity, which encourages people to contribute larger, perhaps uncomfortable, amounts, proportional to their wealth privilege.

We welcome everyone’s contributions — some of us can contribute $5, some $500, and others, $5,000. As always, you can use this sliding scale as a guide.

Offerings

Some of what we plan to offer are round table story telling, and other methods of sharing experiences, an alliship program that offers a safe place for opening conversation, resources and services for dismantling individual white supremacy and privilege. A safe place for the bipoc community to strengthen relationships, study and develop strategies for moving forward in the midst of what we as a society are experiencing. Programs for all like soul food sunday, game nights, book clubs, yoga and meditation, movie/documentary showings and alternative medicine resources for the bipoc community that would otherwise be inaccessible.

Mission

Safe Spaces seeks to create space for Black, Indigineous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) and Aspiring White Allies to connect, learn, and heal as we fight for our collective liberation. Safe Spaces will strengthen individuals, communities, as well as institutions, businesses and agencies through creating partnerships with other established racial justice organizations to provide guidance, resources, and physical and figurative space to work through Systematic, Systemic, and institutional prejudice and racism. Together, we will address implicit and explicit bias, beliefs, and actions in order to dismantle white supremacy and build stronger communities