ORGANIZATIONAL PAUSE
To our community,
July 2020
We are sending ease, lightness, love, and healing to you during a time where there is so much heaviness and pain. As many workplaces, nonprofits, and businesses are preparing to return to work, as a staff of predominantly Black folks and folks who hold a multitude of privileged and oppressed identities, Team ICAH is preparing to rest.
We were inspired by the Carolina Youth Action Project (CYAP) to plan towards a collective organizational rest when we were just beginning to navigate the pandemic. We gave staff space to process, shortened our work week, and lessened our work load. In this moment as the world around us continues to show us that Black lives are not valued, our minds, bodies, and spirits have grown even more weary.
Even in our state of exhaustion, as individuals ICAH staff has continued to engage with the movement for thriving Black lives, in this uprising: honoring and grateful for the youth who have used their rage to fuel the revolution. We as a team have still created space to participate in mutual aid efforts, support grassroots organizing efforts, attend actions and protests, provide jail support, raise funds and awareness, and love on the most vulnerable amongst us: Black people, femmes, children and youth, mamas, those incarcerated, TGNC folks, and those with limited access to resources that should be a right and not a privilege.
We are here at this moment of pause largely because of two of our Black Trans staff members, darien and jireh. They challenge us to name our needs, set boundaries, and motivate us to live out our Reproductive Justice values daily, including within the structures of our organization. They inspire us all with their radical imagination.
So now, we must rest. We must rest to resist every time our value and worth has been determined solely by our level of productivity and labor. Rest is resistance. Rest is a political act. We rest because so often our identities make it hard for us to prioritize rest. We rest because Black lives matter. We rest because our Black lives matter. We rest because of our commitment to healing, wellness, and collective liberation. We rest because of our commitment to our RJ values.
What does this mean?
June 22 - 26, ICAH began to transition to internal work only, with a focus on ensuring that we can collectively rest without worry.
July 1 - 31, we will pause. This means pausing programs, operations, staff meetings, participation in coalitions, workshop facilitation, most social media posting, etc. Staff will continue to be paid throughout this pause. ICAH board members will engage in board development work during the break.
August 3rd - 17, we will return to internal work only.
Monday, August 17, 2020, we will return to our public-facing work, clear as ever in our mission to ensure that all youth are safe, affirmed, and healthy. As we root ourselves in our identity as a reproductive justice organization, our values are our guide.
If you have an urgent need or request that cannot wait until August 17, our board of directors can be reached during the pause at info@icah.org.
We encourage you to find space to prioritize rest.
Take care,
Sona, jireh, darien, Choya, and Alyssa
