Black and Chronic needs help
Dear friends and community,
Black n Chronic really needs money to get a personal care assistant because she needs 24/7 care due to her chronic illness. Many of you are aware of the onslaught on benefits under the conservative government, which have hit people who are disabled, poor and of colour especially hard. Black n Chronic now only has 16 hours of assistance a week "“ she needs much more than this.
The money will be used for her daily care and also to help her move into a wheelchair accessible flat. Black n Chronic currently lives in a tiny flat up a flight of stairs which she can't use easily. She also cannot use the kitchen, and the bathroom is not very accessible either. But according to her housing association, she is not "˜disabled enough' to be put her on the priority transfer list to a wheelchair accessible house: their independent medical advisor says she is too young to need a level entry flat despite her being a wheelchair user. She has now found an accessible flat but needs money to be able to move in there. She wants to make this flat into an accessible space for community events, meetings and a safe space for people to recover and self care.
"¢ £10 could get her an hour of personal assistant support
"¢ £400 would get her the deposit for her new accessible flat
"¢ She also needs money towards accessible equipment and furniture
"¢ She also needs money towards removal/house moving costs
Many of you have read, liked and shared Black n Chronic's amazing blog posts (http://blackandchronic.tumblr.com/), which have given us much-needed reality checks and affirmations that queer, black, disabled and female lives not only exist and deserve sustaining, but that the politics born from this hard place has the potential to liberate us all. If you share our experience of reading and loving Black n Chronic's blog and getting loads out of it, now is the time to give back.
Black n Chronic is a queer activist, academic, artist who is passionate about the importance of always thinking about the connectedness of oppression. Her long term plans are to build safe, sustainable recovery spaces for struggling young people and young adults, who are so often pathologised and excluded from many services that should be there to protect and support them.
If like us you have had enough of the toxic messages that disabled people are not deserving or entitled to care and survival, please join us. If the right-wing, racist, disability oppressive state has long abandoned queer disabled people of colour, how can we rally around each other to build the kind of community that won't? We are inspired by the community building around access, disability justice and collective care that is happening elsewhere
(e.g.http://dreaminghome.tumblr.com/,http://www.femmegimp.org/femmegimp files/outofline.pdf). Please help us bring these models to the UK, and support Black n Chronic to write more beautiful pieces that have been so nourishing for so many of us.
Black n Chronic has been fighting for such a long time to get what she deserves and she spends so much time supporting other people. She could also use some support herself. Please help by donating some money (anything from 5 dollars to 50, 100 or however much you can) towards her personal care assistance.
"¢ If you can't donate any money, please help out by sharing this page with as many people as possible
"¢ If you live in or near London and are able to use stairs, please help out with organising, packing, recycling, moving furniture and cleaning
"¢ Please help at the new (wheelchair accessible) flat with decorating, organising and unpacking
"¢ If you have experience of advocating for people to get the government support they need and can offer some practical skills such as form filling, phoning and writing effective letters, please donate your time
"¢ Please email Black n Chronic if you can help out in any of the ways above, or can offer any other kind of support, at [email redacted]
