I don’t often post requests for funding, but sometimes there are projects that just scream for support. This project, the Sycamore Family Resource Center in Lincoln, Nebraska, is one of them.
On a personal level, the Sycamore Center so closely resembles one of my own frequent daydreams–a grassroots community space for folks to learn about and engage in the full spectrum of their reproductive health. My fantasy is becoming a reality, and even though it’s hundreds of miles away in a city I’ve never been to, I’m psyched to help it grow from afar.
On a support-your-community level, one of the core organizers, Stephanie Dank, is (a) a badass and (b) one seriously energetic mama and reproductive rights advocate, who I trust to make the Sycamore Center everything it can be.
So, based on those two thoughts, I busted out a debit card today and supported their Indiegogo campaign. I hope you will, too.
Here are some of the down-n-dirty details about the project:
Our goal is to create an inclusive space that offers a wide variety of resources to help empower our community in making choices along the full spectrum of their reproductive health.
Our goal is to create access to resources that support informed consent in every stage of life.
Our ultimate goal is to restore an age-old model of care- one where community family support is rewarded and sustained by that community.
Sycamore Center is founded on these ethics:
- inclusivity
- diversity
- accessibility
- sustainability
We are advocates of:
- peaceful parenting & fearless birth
- healthcare for all
- evidence-based medicine & traditional healing
- sex-positivity
We have some real opportunities to provide education to low-income and minority childbearing families (eventually adapting a program designed by the Nebraska Dept. of Health and Human Services to provide prenatal and postnatal education and advocacy based on the doula model of care). We are currently expanding on our events to include support groups for fathers and people with postpartum depression, childbirth education classes, women’s health workshops, and more.
We’re starting the campaign to raise enough funds to incorporate with the State of Nebraska as well as file for tax exemption with the IRS (as a 501(c)3). We’ve met with attorneys from MEEM Consultants for Creative Endeavors and they have generously agreed to donate half of the required services for us to file.
Here’s the breakdown:
- $400 flat fee
- $300 filing fe
It’s been recommended to us that it would be wise to have a bit of a cushion financially, which is why our fundraising goal exceeds our legal fees. Our goal is to raise enough money to file by January 1, 2013.
In addition to achieving tax exemption, our fundraising goals will help support the growth of our lending library, the purchase of teaching aids, and the ever-present costs of printing materials such as flyers and brochures.
We are completely volunteer driven but are working toward a future in which we can create nonprofit sector jobs for birth workers and other professioals who are dedicated to creating safer and stronger communities.
Please join us.
