Help Support the Community

Hello Hello,

This is the first time we are crowdfunding since we are a charity so we are a bit nervous!

For those who don't know us, we are Spit it Out Spit it Out, an award-winning organisation dedicated to opening conversations around consent, mental health and healing through creativity, accountability and community care. We work to create a lasting change in our community and create a support network among people who have endured trauma and mental health crises through an intersectional Transformative Justice lens.

Spit it Out began when the BBC aired Lea's documentary, Spit It Out, for the first time. The film followed Bee’s journey, two years after being raped. Showing how she uses music, poetry and performance as a tool for recovery and how this helped her to regain her confidence and realise the power of sharing her experience in supporting other rape survivors.

Bee and Lea had become close friends and decided they wanted to continue the adventure together. The film acted as a springboard for what has become a vibrant community of artists, performers and partner organisations. This experience showed us that there was still a strong taboo around trauma. It felt impossible for people around us to open up about their mental health. We decided to create a collective of talented people dedicated to opening conversations around sensitive topics in a safe and relaxed environment, which has grown to become the grassroots charity that Spit it Out is today.

During the pandemic, we organised online events every week and launched the Aye Campaign. We used online talks, Q&A sessions, resources and art to bring people together and offer learning opportunities for people who were suffering during the lockdown. When the lockdown started to ease, we decided to start organising in-person events again. We created meet-ups where 20 to 25 people would come every month. We started talking to our audience and realised people wanted us to organise more activities as a way to fight loneliness and give them tools to overcome times of crisis.

Today, we organise up to 15 free activities per month and we are constantly running out of space. We also created free creative resources, using different art forms to educate and empower our community: The Spit it Out Podcast and the Phlegm Magazine! We also organise the Spit it Out Festival every June:)

Our work is important in supporting communities to come back together, celebrate who they are and start the conversation about topics that are important to them through art and creativity. We feel we are part of a new wave of activism, that demands a more inclusive approach from those institutions, that continue to marginalise our voices and ignore our demands for equality. We want to use our voices and creative talents to fight for a future where it won’t be taboo to talk about gendered

We need your support in keeping our work going. Restricted funding and budget cuts mean we are struggling. We need your help to continue offering free workshops, 1/1 support in a trauma-informed and accessible environment. We want to make sure all our events keep being free or pay-as-you-can and we truly believe this GoFundMe could help us for the next year.

FAVOURITE QUOTES (2023)

“I think SiO's work is incredibly important as diving into things like transformative justice will only positively influence how Scotland grows and changes in the next few years. We need spaces like SiO to continue to educate people and encourage them to imagine and pursue a better future for all.”

“SIO is making an impact in a way higher volume and shorter time. it’s amazing to see large communities behind it, that are marching towards the same goal. It also gives a sense hope and motivates me to keep going.”

“I believe Spit it Out is at the forefront of creating community and providing people with the opportunity to question the systems will live in, imagine something better and then showing us how to take steps to make it happen. As mentioned above, for festival workers, it would be great to know more about events ahead of time.”

“Spit it out have helped me grow more as an artist than any other organisation or collective. Being comprised of some of my closest friends and family, this charity is incredibly dear to my heart and I wish nothing but success for future festivals and grassroots endeavours.

“Honestly I loved the whole lot it was one of the most empowering, inspiring and transformative festivals I have been to in a very very long time, it was deeply nourishing and wholesome and I enjoyed every moment of it allowing me to authentically myself throughout my whole experience which speaks volumes of the incredible staff and volunteers who I would like to thank from my heart and soul for curating this incredible space where I saw anti-oppression in practice and the way that staff and volunteers were around me just being there to hold space for my conversations to been able to listen to me and support me through the rollercoaster of emotions was such an incredible time"

“I would like to thank SIO for the incredible feeling of safety whilst I was there knowing that there was mental health first aid trained volunteers and staff present able and on standby to support me in case of meltdown was so vitally important and the love that was shown around me was incredible and I loved that there was dedicated safe and quiet space was so lovely I really also appreciated the safety in knowing that if I was unable to afford events that you would prioritise and support people who have financial issues with no questions asked was incredible feeling of safety knowing I could participate was incredible.”