Survival Fund for Shelter Workers

This fundraiser is for the recently laid-off employees of Trinity Place Emergency Youth Shelter.

On April 15th we were notified that the shelter we work for is closing in less than a month. This shelter has existed in Asheville for over 30 years. The decision to close the shelter comes from our regional manager under our parent company Caring for Children and Eckerd Connects. Unfortunately, we (the staff) were notified of this decision after our funders were informed, making it extremely difficult for us to protest or reverse this decision. But, believe us, we are trying.

At the beginning of April, across the board, raises were approved for staff. So it comes as a huge shock to us that the shelter is closing now- after motions towards sustainable living wages were just put into effect.

We are a small staff, and we have been struggling to make ends meet while we do the important work of ensuring that children in crisis have safe, secure temporary housing.

Many of us are living paycheck to paycheck, with no resources to make ends meet as we face losing our jobs in mere weeks.

This fundraiser is meant to cushion the full-time caseworkers who are losing their jobs.

This fundraiser is for the lead caseworker who moved to Asheville to work at Trinity Place 5 years ago, and is now scrambling to find a way to support herself and her home.

This fundraiser is for the full-time caseworker who is going to grad school in the fall and has no way to make ends meet during the summer until she leaves.

This fundraiser is for the full-time employee of color who was promised a place to live at Trinity Place over the summer. She now has to find new housing and employment and is (like many of us) unable to obtain unemployment.

This fundraiser is for the full-time transgender staff who was 80% saved up for gender-affirming surgery. Unfortunately, he will now have to dip into that savings to survive after losing his full-time job.

This fundraiser is for the full-time nonbinary caseworker who now has to scramble to find work in an affirming environment after giving a ton of flexibility and energy into their position at the shelter.

This fundraiser is for the number of PRN workers who have helped keep this shelter afloat.

One of the benediciaries is hosting this fundraiser and will withdrawal the money in his name and distribute it through venmo/cashapp/cash to each beneficiary. Money raised from this fundraiser will be divided equitably based on need and wages lost among Trinity Place's laid-off caseworkers.

We deserve better. The community deserves better.

We have dreams that one day community resources will not be at the mercy of out-of-state nonprofit funders and that children's needs will not be forgone by the foster care industrial complex. However, we must make sure that our own needs are met as we put our heads together to strategize how to fill the massive hole that losing this shelter creates in the community. There is nowhere in the state or surrounding area that serves children in crisis and between placements in the way that trinity place does.

Donate and share to support us as we figure out our next steps.