Financial Support for Former TRP staff
Donation protected
Many of you have expressed a desire to support The Former Reformation Project Staff. I’m part of a coalition of folks who are working on supporting the TRP former staff who resigned on May 29th, 2019 by providing them funds for healthcare coverage and essential living costs. All healthcare plans provided by TRP ended May 31st 2019 for the 6 staff who resigned and their final paychecks for those staff who resigned will be June 12th. To alleviate and allow time for these leaders to adjust into different roles I am starting a gofundme page to help them find some stability in this tragic and hard time. The TRP Staff who resigned or were terminated have lost their residual income and all have specific needs that need attending to. Would you join us in raising the modest amount of $7,447?
These gifts will help these folks navigate their essential living costs as they transition into knew sustainable incomes over the next 3 months.
The staff has been encouraged and so thankful for the wide number of different people that have written letters of support. You can read more about their reasoning for leaving here:
"As of today, I, along with every other staff member besides the executive director, no longer work for The Reformation Project.
For the last 7 years TRP has strived to create a culture that dismantles the white supremacy that informs most forms of exclusion, especially exclusion of LGBTQ people. We know that this is only possible when we work to challenge existing power & do so through an intersectional lens.
As many of our leaders attest, the harm we’ve sought to undo has never been just about the authority of the Bible or how to interpret it. It’s always been about a power imbalance: the ability to make change existing only in the hands at the top of unilateral structures. One big way in which TRP challenged the traditional/white/corporate model of NGO management was by implementing a highly collaborative peer supervision model among the organization’s directors. After operating under these principles, & months of codifying policies, our ED unilaterally decided to end the supervision model, make himself supervisor of all directors, & declared no further discussion, leaving the directors to feel they could support his decision or leave. He terminated a director and through this effectually shifted all the dynamics of our workplace.
Despite the years we’ve given, the relationships we’ve built with our leaders, the partnerships formed, & the energy we have brought to the cause of pushing for policy shift in churches to become fully inclusive of LGBTQ people, the only option left for us now is to leave TRP.
To all of our leaders/supporters: know the movement is better than this. Trust & believe in your own collective wisdom, agency, experience, theological acumen, & community organizing training. Change is possible, necessary, & worth fighting for.
For the whole story and how to contact us please check out and share https://www.reformationcontinues.com
The former staff are super appreciative of your financial support. They also hope to all be able to find great opportunities in other social justice organizations so they can continue this work. If anyone knows of opportunities, please share: [email redacted].
These gifts will help these folks navigate their essential living costs as they transition into knew sustainable incomes over the next 3 months.
The staff has been encouraged and so thankful for the wide number of different people that have written letters of support. You can read more about their reasoning for leaving here:
"As of today, I, along with every other staff member besides the executive director, no longer work for The Reformation Project.
For the last 7 years TRP has strived to create a culture that dismantles the white supremacy that informs most forms of exclusion, especially exclusion of LGBTQ people. We know that this is only possible when we work to challenge existing power & do so through an intersectional lens.
As many of our leaders attest, the harm we’ve sought to undo has never been just about the authority of the Bible or how to interpret it. It’s always been about a power imbalance: the ability to make change existing only in the hands at the top of unilateral structures. One big way in which TRP challenged the traditional/white/corporate model of NGO management was by implementing a highly collaborative peer supervision model among the organization’s directors. After operating under these principles, & months of codifying policies, our ED unilaterally decided to end the supervision model, make himself supervisor of all directors, & declared no further discussion, leaving the directors to feel they could support his decision or leave. He terminated a director and through this effectually shifted all the dynamics of our workplace.
Despite the years we’ve given, the relationships we’ve built with our leaders, the partnerships formed, & the energy we have brought to the cause of pushing for policy shift in churches to become fully inclusive of LGBTQ people, the only option left for us now is to leave TRP.
To all of our leaders/supporters: know the movement is better than this. Trust & believe in your own collective wisdom, agency, experience, theological acumen, & community organizing training. Change is possible, necessary, & worth fighting for.
For the whole story and how to contact us please check out and share https://www.reformationcontinues.com
The former staff are super appreciative of your financial support. They also hope to all be able to find great opportunities in other social justice organizations so they can continue this work. If anyone knows of opportunities, please share: [email redacted].
Organizer
Rachael Ward
Organizer
Decatur, GA
