Keep the Land in BIPOC Hands!

UPDATE: STARTING 12/30/2020, YOUR DONATION WILL BE DOUBLED! A GENEROUS DONOR HAS OFFERED TO MATCH ALL DONATIONS UP TO A TOTAL OF $10,000!!

JCARF is excited to announce our first ever land fundraiser! Help us raise $50,000 to support a local Black trans community member in securing their current home under threat of sale. 

This project is deeply meaningful for JCARF. Reclamation of land is essential to reparations work and equitable community building. When our organization was founded, it was with the intention of funding permanent and secure access to land, housing, and security for BIPOC people in our county. Check out Maiz's story below!
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Hello! My name is Maiz, I am a queer, trans non-binary artist living on 20 beautiful acres on the Olympic Peninsula.

I live on traditional lands of the Skokomish and Suquamish people, next to the Dosewallips river, on a property with rolling green pastures and incredible views of the cascades. Here we have access to a natural water source, and we are surrounded by rich and diverse life including trees, elk, medicinal herbs, and mushrooms. Myself and another BIPOC friend are part of a land project that started here with high hopes. At the center of our values was a land project to center transformative and healing justice, land back praxis, land stewardship and watershed preservation.

Unfortunately, White supremacy has shown itself yet again in broken trust with white folks involved in the project. Through power imbalance, with one white land partner holding 50% of the title, it is now under threat to be stolen and/or sold off, displacing myself and other land mates immanently. We, the BIPOC land partners, are raising funds to make this precious place a BIPOC only space, keeping the land in BIPOC hands. Our other white land mates stand in solidarity with our goal of buying out the toxic partner who is trying to steal the land for himself. We need your help in raising these funds!

Our vision for the project is “EdenSeed”, a resting place for Black, Brown, and Indigenous people, a reconnection and land back praxis,  a private transition space for trans* folks going thru affirming surgery, and for growing food and herbal medicines to take care of our community. A place to practice our spiritual in relationships to land. This space currently has housing and potential for more long term housing so we can disrupt the all too common cycle of fundraising for housing needs when landlords/property owners displace our BIPOC community. Because we have an established relationship with the land here, it is essential that we remain in our home to continue to live out our dreams for this wild, beautiful, and potentially challenging future that is to come.

Please donate and spread our story widely in your networks so that we may reach as many folks as we can.

Thank you so much for your support!