Dear BAWS Community & Allies,
As COVID-19 cases rise, sex workers continue to be struck by the effects of the pandemic. Folks are making difficult decisions about their health, safety, and income.
Since March, the BAWS Mutual Aid Fund has been able to support 10-15 workers per week, providing over 250 grants total. We are very proud of this mutual aid program, and could not have done it without our community partnerships and your contributions. Unfortunately, donations have declined over the past two months. We need your support to cover this week’s funding requests and expand our reach. We want to reach even more Black trans women, outdoor workers, and recently arrested workers. We want to provide larger amounts and longer-term support that helps folks mobilize out their current situation. To do that, we need your financial act of solidarity — our goal is to attract $10k of support each month to sustainably care for our communities.
"These funds provided me with the most valuable thing in life - HOPE. Without it, I don’t know if I’d make it through this."
- BAWS Funding Recipient
Your donation to the BAWS Mutual Aid Fund is an act of camaraderie and care that makes a tangible difference in sex workers' lives. We know that there are many important people and organizations to support right now, so we want to let you know where your donation goes when you contribute to BAWS.
All of our funds go directly to local low income and working-class sex workers. We are partnering with local shelters and navigation centers to help reach more street-based workers. We actively prioritize Black, Indigenous, people of color, single parents, trans, NB, GNC, disabled, and outdoor workers when granting money. With these funds, folks have been able to meet their own needs by having more access to groceries, medicine, hormones, diapers, child-care, rent and shelter, and personal care items.
In addition to funding, our volunteer team has been working to connect funding recipients with grocery and phone bill gift-cards programs, and additional services and resources, to further the amount of care we can provide.
We ask you to take steps to sustain the BAWS Mutual Aid Fund by taking one or more of the following steps.
BECOME A MONTHLY DONOR. You can sign up to give $5, $10, $25, $50, or more a month. Re-occurring donations allow us to provide sustainable resources to local workers.
ONE TIME DONATIONS are always welcome
SIGNAL BOOST. Share this ask & link on your social media. Please help us meet our fundraising goals by spreading our information. You can write your own post or share our post on IG, Twitter, and this is a great link to share on FB bayareaworkerssupport.org/donate
HOST A FUNDRAISER. Our community has lovingly hosted photography sales, virtual strip clubs, online DJ dance parties, Zoom Cocktail-Mixing parties, and more! If you have a way to direct funds to BAWS, please reach out to bawsorg@gmail.com.
We appreciate all the love our community and allies have shown us. If you have donated in the past, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. And if this is your first time, welcome, we are excited to have you as a contributor!
Thank you for taking these crucial steps to sustain the BAWS Mutual Aid Fund.
Love,
BAWS Team