Open Collective
Open Collective
Loading

The Womanist Working Collective

Fiscal Host: WildSeed Society

Our Community of Practice unapologetically centers our Quality of Life and livelihoods through Community Organizing, Mutual Aid and Holistic Wellness.

About


The Womanist Working Collective is a radical grassroots social action and support collective for Black folks of marginalized gender experience, specifically women (trans* and cis), femmes, and other gender expansive folx. While this language will never be enough to encapsulate all of the Black folx we center, we want to be clear that we affirm the full breadth of Black gender expansiveness and explicitly reject cissexism. Our Community of Practice unapologetically centers our Quality of Life and livelihoods through Community Organizing, Mutual Aid and Holistic Wellness. 

Vision
1. To exist as a supportive and empowering community network to shift Black womyn & femmes in moving past merely surviving, but thriving; Prioritizing physical, emotional, moral and social safety (or using trauma-informed care practices/Healing Justice Frameworks); Centering the overall health and wellness of our members and extended community.
2. To transition ourselves and our communities into an Ecologically Just* society. This umbrella concept encompasses bringing balance to the environment(s)/ecosystems we live in, ending social inequality (racial justice, economic justice, gender justice, reproductive justice, environmental justice, etc.) and dismantling oppressive governing structures guided by Imperialist White Supremacist Capitalist CisHeteroPatriarchy.
 
*[Ecologically Just] Ecological justice (JUSTICE BASED ON APPLIED KNOWLEDGE OF HOME) Ecological Justice is the state of balance between human communities and healthy ecosystems based on thriving, mutually beneficial relationships and participatory self-governance. We see Ecological Justice as the key frame to capture our holistic vision of a better way forward.
3. Black Liberation which improves our overall society at large.
 
Herstory
 
Established in October 2015 as an affinity group on Meetup, we began gathering as a group of likeminded Black women & femmes. Responding to our almost immediate growth and increased membership, we held our first strategic planning retreat in January 2016 and collective-wide data collection to gather vital feedback from our membership. From this survey and on-going evaluations, we began to shape and expand what was quickly evolving into an intentional Community of Practice centering livelihood and Quality of Life for Black womyn, transwomen, femmes and gender variant folks. Today, we continue building around the needs and feedback from our members to achieve our ultimate goal: Black Liberation!
Our overarching purpose is to improve Black women and femmes Quality of Life by dismantling These Interlocking Systems of Oppression, which we’ve identified with the help (read: text/work) of bell hooks, Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw and the Combahee River Collective as the Imperialist White Supremacist Capitalist CisHeteroPatriarchy. Through our work, we want to shift the reality and culture of how society holds, supports, protects, funds, heals and educates Black women, femmes and girls while we’re simultaneously developing for ourselves the tools and language to thrive against these interlocking systemic oppression reinforced by the local social determinants impacting us daily (i.e. Neocolonialism's Gentrification, Capitalism's poverty, White Supremacy's Racism, Cissexism's Transphobia, Heterosexism's Homophobia, Patriarchy's Misogynoir.

Black women often know exactly what it is we need, yet we are rarely asked or listened to due to racism, sexism, classism, colonialism, cissexism, heterosexism, ableism and a variety of other factors informed by various systems of oppression which hinder our self-determination and quality of life. The convergence of these products of power and domination in our communities lead to social determinants such as our disproportionate mental and physical health disparities, gentrification/displacement, sex trafficking, interpersonal violence, abductions, sexual assault, police brutality, murders, workplace discrimination and Push-Out, unemployment and more. We need to build informed, participatory and grassroots community solutions to the issues Black women and femmes are facing in our neighborhoods, led by us and for us. Focusing on the community will allow us to share resistance, organizing and mobilizing strategies where they’re most needed to have a real impact on our material reality.

We believe the projects we develop or support externally can help change the reality of how Black women and femmes thrive in this country, but at the very least this should help improve conditions locally and currently.
Some of our most notable moments have been the launching of our collective wide Time Bank in 2017 (Reciprocity Community Time Bank); being published in the Grassroots Fundraising Journal’s Winter 2018 edition where we wrote about our newly formed divestment from Capitalism strategy; launching our first annual event connecting Black women therapist to Black women seeking support at the African-American Museum of Philadelphia event in summer 2018 (Healers & Helper’s: Therapy Matchmaking); being published in Black Quantum Futurism’s Space-Time Collapse II: Community Futurism book in 2019 speaking about Black Radical Traditions and community-rooted solutions; soft-launching our worker-owned cooperative to reclaim our labor by owning our own Means of Production on 01- 01- 2020 (Womxnist Liberation Co-op); Fundraising, delivering and feeding over 200 Black families twice a week for a month during Philly’s grocery store closure (Free Food Box Program); and completing our first circle of mental health grantmaking by providing $500 grants to pay for low-income Black womyn & femmes to therapy services (Black Liberation Therapy Fund). 

Our team

Connect


Let’s get the ball rolling!

News from The Womanist Working Collective

Updates on our activities and progress.

WWC, OCF, and The Future (continued)

Good Evening, Today, you all received an email from OCF that your donations have been paused. You can still make donations to WWC. Here's a gentle reminder of how: To our Individual Donors: Until we resume, we appr...
Read more
Published on March 15, 2024 by Cierra Freeman

WWC, OCF and The Future

Founders, Donors and WWC Community: We’re sure by now that you’ve seen the message from OCF that they’re shutting down this division of their operations, and it affects over 600 collectives (Womanist Working Collective incl...
Read more
Published on March 9, 2024 by Cierra Freeman

WWC's Safety Net(work) is OPEN!

WWC's financial mutual aid, Safety Net(work), is now open for applications but we need community to keep it funded! Please read below to under...
Read more
Published on July 10, 2023 by Cierra Freeman

Conversations

Let’s get the discussion going! This is a space for the community to converse, ask questions, say thank you, and get things done together.

Donate to our Fall Mutual Aid!

Published on October 28, 2021 by LaTierra Piphus

Helpers Sign-up!

Published on October 20, 2021 by LaTierra Piphus

We're still seeking Helpers* for our upcoming virtual Healers & Helpers: Therapy Matchmaking event on November 21, 2021Sign up deadline:November 8, [email protected] *Helpers: May include but is not limited to therapists,...

Contribute


Become a financial contributor.

Financial Contributions

Recurring contribution
Business/Non Profit Annual Sponsorship

Support us in transitioning ourselves and our communities into an Ecologically Just* society Commit to an annual sponsorship from $250 to $5000

Starts at
$250 USD / year

Latest activity by


Recurring contribution
Contributor

A monthly commitment from $1 & $5/month goes a long way to support WWC's efforts

Starts at
$1 USD / month

Latest activity by


+ 5
Recurring contribution
Advocate

Help us help our community. Give $10/month

$10 USD / month

Latest activity by


Recurring contribution
Sustainer

Can you afford to give more monthly to our project and mutual aid efforts? Commit to $20/month

$20 USD / month

Latest activity by


Recurring contribution
Solidarity

Meeting us half way is half the battle. Give $50/month

$50 USD / month

Latest activity by


Be the first one to contribute!
Recurring contribution
Accomplice

Do you believe strongly in WWC & have more to give monthly to our projects and mutual aid efforts? Contribute $100/month

$100 USD / month

Latest activity by


Projects

Support the following initiatives from The Womanist Working Collective.

Project
To earmark funds towards the Womxnist Organizing Center projects

Latest activity by


Project
To cover mental health and self-care expenses.

Latest activity by


Project
To cover mental health and self-care expenses.

Latest activity by


Project
To cover mental health and self-care expenses.

Latest activity by


Project
To cover mental health and self-care expenses.

Latest activity by


Project
To cover mental health and self-care expenses.

Latest activity by


Project
Earmark funds for Holistic Wellness expenses

Latest activity by


Project
Earmarked funds for membership expenses

Latest activity by


Project
To hold the donations going out.

Latest activity by


Project
To allocate money to organizer's ongoing professional development

Latest activity by


Project
To allocate money to bring on new co-organizers to the WWC team

Latest activity by


Project
This community-led self-defense club allows us to train to protect ourselves & our people against...

Latest activity by


Project
Our goal is to create educational content for Black people who’ve experienced harm and trauma fr...

Latest activity by


Project
To raise home expense fund for a family in our network

Latest activity by


Project
A service-exchange system that enables cooperation, interdependence and self-determination.

Latest activity by


Project
Our multistakeholder cooperative is raising start-up funds to strengthen our capacity to become s...

Latest activity by


Project
On-going mutual aid fund supports Black folx by providing emergency support. To Request funds, vi...

Latest activity by


Project
We're raising funds to offer $500 grants towards community member's therapeutic care expenses.

Latest activity by


+ 2

Events

The Womanist Working Collective is hosting the following events.

Past event
04:00 PM-10:00 PM UTC
Save The Date! Sign-up starting in November
Past event
11:00 PM UTC
Visit Eventbrite to select a date of your one-on-one time bank orientation.

Top financial contributors

Organizations

1
Samuel S. Fels Fund

$76,000 USD since Nov 2021

2
Borealis Philanthropy

$40,000 USD since May 2022

3
Philadelphia Foundation

$25,000 USD since Jan 2022

4
Bread & Roses Community Fund

$20,000 USD since Mar 2022

5
Women's Way

$20,000 USD since Mar 2022

7
Philadelphia Foundation

$10,000 USD since Jan 2022

8
WildSeed Society

$6,904.66 USD since Jul 2024

9
Peace Development Fund

$5,000 USD since Aug 2022

10
Resist

$3,000 USD since Feb 2023

Individuals

1
Lightful BRIDGE program

$500 USD since Nov 2021

2
KAMESH AIYER

$500 USD since Dec 2021

3
Amanda Jeanne Grolig

$500 USD since Jan 2023

4
Incognito

$400 USD since Nov 2022

5
KasturiLipman Family

$250 USD since Dec 2021

6
Julia Taylor

$200 USD since Feb 2024

7
Christine D. Morris

$150 USD since Oct 2021

8
Darasia Selby

$100 USD since Dec 2022

9
Amy Eusebio

$85 USD since Oct 2022

10
Kelli McIntyre

$73 USD since Mar 2022

The Womanist Working Collective is all of us

Our contributors 48

Thank you for supporting The Womanist Working Collective.

Jessie Keel

Admin

$60 USD

Cierra Freeman

Admin

$32 USD

Nahje Royster

Admin

$31 USD

Samuel S. Fel...

$76,000 USD

Borealis Phil...

$40,000 USD

Philadelphia ...

$25,000 USD

Bread & Roses...

$20,000 USD

Women's Way

$20,000 USD

Urgent Action...

$20,000 USD

Philadelphia ...

$10,000 USD

Budget


Transparent and open finances.

Reimbursement #223546
-$840.00USD
Paid
Invoice #213283
$
Today’s balance

$3,034.27 USD

Total raised

$222,003.41 USD

Total disbursed

$218,969.14 USD

Estimated annual budget

$8,800.34 USD