Remember when Twitter was *the place* to find out if you'd just experienced an earthquake or if there was a flyover to open Fenway Park but you were the last to know? It was also a place where you could find people doing really amazing work and writing about it. We connected with artists and craftspeople all over the world, we joined conversations about public transit and affordable housing, and we went viral for an evening for using swear words while discussing the Vice Presidential debates. It's also where we found invaluable resources in 2020 and until that very rich but terrible businessman bought the platform, it was where we found other event organizers and immunocompromised folks grappling with the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency.
Which brings us to our December We Care Wednesday recipient, Community Change Inc. We've been following Shay Stewart-Bouley on Twitter for years. Shay began the popular blog, Black Girl in Maine in 2008 and is the Executive Director of Community Change Inc. Community Change Inc. promotes racial justice and equity by challenging systemic racism and acting as a catalyst for anti-racist learning and action. This past September they held their 2023 Drylongso Anti-Racism Leadership Awards and Shay shared on Twitter that they worked diligently to provide a COVID-safe event at great expense. This resonated with many of us who have continued investing in COVID safety precautions to make their events and spaces accessible to everyone. To show appreciation for not only the important work CCI does to shine a spotlight on the roots of racism, while specializing in educating and organizing White people for antiracist action but also for their efforts to create spaces for all to share, we chose to end the year donating to them.
We can't stress enough how monetary donations are one of the most important ways you can support all the organizations we donated to in 2023. In the current racial climate and in light of increasing white supremacy violence, your financial support has never been more critical to Community Change Inc. Nonprofit organizations and industry groups have been warning that donations this year are down and without donations many organizations will need to make devastating cuts. We recently read that CCI no longer has a Communications Coordinator due to the drop in financial support and budgetary constraints.
There are also other ways to support CCI! This Boston-based organization seeks folks willing to volunteer their time and skills at CCI programs or in their Boston office. Attend one or all of their events and take the time to learn about their work which officially began in 1968 when Horace Seldon founded Community Change Inc. Seldon was moved to action after the release of the Kerner Commission Report, which, for the first time, officially classified racial unrest as a “white problem.” Since their founding, CCI continues to work with a multi-racial constituency to equip people with the knowledge and skills necessary to take effective action, to support movement building tied to an action agenda, and to educate policy makers on institutional racism and its public policy implications.
*Since launching the We Care Wednesday initiative in January 2017 we have donated over $72,918 to a variety of nonprofits and mutual aid funds doing essential work in our community as well as other places. From the Mayor's Disaster Fund to BAGLY to Movement Voter Project and Found In Translation. We select organizations that we feel represent not only our commitment to a better, more equitable world but also our desire to "do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."