Support the Community Acupuncture Project

Dear Community,

This April marks the 11th anniversary since the Community Acupuncture Project opened our doors. Now, more than ever, our society is seeing the need for community-supported infrastructure.  For models that rely on people, not profits. For systems that are based on trust and equity, where skills are valued and compassion is prioritized. We are writing to seek your financial support to ensure this neighborhood institution reopens and survives this economic crisis.

Our socially-responsible business model relies on being open AND busy. Our clinics have been closed most of March, to do our part in stopping the spread of COVID-19 and flattening the curve. Not being open means no income, however, the expenses of maintaining physical locations continue to pile up. We have never done a Go Fund Me Campaign before, but we have decided that now is the time to ask for your help.  

Not being open has been extremely difficult, not just financially but emotionally. Healers want to be providing healing in a crisis! Acupuncture is so effective at treating exactly what many in the community are struggling with right now: depression, insomnia, anxiety, fear, immunity defense, and pain. So many of us are experiencing these symptoms, and it is heartbreaking for us, as practitioners, to not be able to provide relief and support to our wonderful community during this pandemic.

We do not know when it will be safe to open, and we will continue to follow the guidance of the WHO, King County Public Health, the CDC, Governor Jay Inslee, and the advice of all the medical providers and scientists working tirelessly to provide accurate and current information for all of us to support the health of our world.

To make ends meet during this crisis, we have applied for any kind of financial assistance we can: the Federal Small Business Association’s disaster loan, the City of Seattle’s Stabilization grant for micro-businesses, and unemployment compensation for all employees who have been laid off due to clinic closures. We are working with the business association in the West Seattle Junction, the Office of Economic Development, and the Chambers of Commerce in Seattle, Burien, and South King County. We have reached out to our landlords and utility companies, asking them to work with us during these uncertain times. We are grateful to all the people working around the clock to creatively find ways to keep small businesses afloat as our local economy struggles. Despite all these efforts, we know that it will take more financial support to ensure that we will be able to reopen .

CAP wants to reopen! We want to continue to thrive as the community institution that you have sustained for the past 11 years. We want to be robust in the hours that we offer to you, in the number of shifts we can employ acupuncturists and pay them a living wage, and to continue to provide affordable treatments for the community seven days a week.

This fundraiser is seeking money from our communities to ensure that we can reopen. The funds raised would go towards April and May expenses including our rent, insurance, taxes, utilities, needles, and payroll expenses. 

Thank you for all that you are doing! We know there are so many people, communities, businesses, and organizations struggling right now. We are touched by all the compassion, creativity, and generosity rising from all of you. We are deeply appreciative of all the patients who have contacted us to buy prepaid treatments, to make donations and to ask how they can support CAP during this time.

Thank you for your support and your belief in the role the Community Acupuncture Project can play in your life and in our collective future.

#SmallBusinessRelief 

Love, Sonja and all of us at CAP

 

Some of the highlights from our past 11 years:

·        Opened three neighborhood clinics;

·        Gave over 76,000 treatments;

·        Employed 35 acupuncturists;

·        Mentored multiple students and interns;

·        Worked with over 40 volunteers;

·        Donated funds to over 45 community based organizations locally and nationally;

·        Collaborated with healers, educators and small business owners;

·        Offered accessible and affordable healthcare for our most vulnerable and marginalized communities;

·        Inspired multiple patients to become acupuncturists themselves; and

·        Participated in the leadership of our national coop of community acupuncture clinics.

We could not have done any of this without you.