08/11/2020
Dearest Community,
I don't think it is any secret that the last few months have been quite challenging for many organizations including Care Through Touch. While we all know that touch would be so beneficial right now with all that is going on, we are finding ourselves in a moment where touch is not safe, preventing us from caring in the ways in which we are used to.
We were lucky that during the first few months of the pandemic, we were able to continue to find ways to stay involved and funded, however I don't think any of us imagined that things could get to the point that we are at now. Despite receiving the Paycheck Protection Program, EIDL Disaster Relief Advance, and a few other emergency grants we are now finding that continued income of any kind looks unpredictable and unlikely. Grants are mostly being redirected to causes that need the funding the most right now (healthcare, food, housing, and education), individual donations are down across the country (as people struggle to meet their own basic needs), and all of our community partnerships are currently on pause. Unfortunately we are not alone. Candid (formerly Foundation Center), which provides a platform where nonprofits can locate grants, has predicted that around 11% and potentially up to 37% of nonprofits will have to close their doors by the end of the pandemic.
Despite all this, one thing remains true. Touch will be needed more than ever once things do reopen and none of us want to see Care Through Touch close permanently.
I have spent the last month in difficult and honest conversations with Mary Ann, our bookkeeper, staff, volunteers, partner sites, other directors in the neighborhood, as well as other foundations trying to brainstorm a way through this and although there were some incredible ideas, the fact remains that none of the them would provide the income needed to stay open. Without a dramatic shift in our finances we are on the trajectory to run out of money by January 2021 and it appears unlikely that things will be much different by then with the way our country has been handling things.
Mary Ann and I have made a decision with the board for me to step down as director in order to preserve our funds, giving the organization the greatest chance of survival after Covid. Currently, I am working with Mary Ann and our board to put the nonprofit into hibernation by the end of the month and Mary Ann will become caretaker of the organization until we can safely return to the work. From there, either Mary Ann will continue on as Director, another Director will be brought in, or the organization will close in a dignified manner knowing that it tried everything it could during this challenging time.
It has become clear that the best way for CTI to continue living its Mission is by having Mary Ann document the teachings of Care Through Touch so that they can be shared more broadly. In releasing these manuals, as well as the photo/storybook that John and Jane have been working on, people all over the globe will be able to join in the Mission of Care Through Touch, spreading programs such as ours to more communities during a time when people will be hungry for ways to rebuild and reconnect.
We believe that CTI will be even stronger once the Pandemic passes, as so many are experiencing the mental, physical, and spiritual effects of social isolation and are educating themselves and talking about the importance of social justice, equity, a radical shift in our economic system, and the trauma of poverty and how these things affect people, communities, our country, and the world. For the first time in history more people will understand intimately the work we are doing in the community and its importance.
I would like to invite you to read a book that has been moving me greatly and that is incredibly relevant to these times: My Grandmothers Hands: Racialized Trauma and the Pathway to Mending Our Hearts and Bodies Book by Resmaa Menakem. I am finding this book to be the most elegant and comprehensive manual on how trauma lives in the body that I have ever read. It is everything I have been trying to find the words for regarding the work we participate in when grant writing, all in one place. It is my hope that reading it will not only inspire us all, but also jump start Mary Ann on her next journey of sharing her own wisdom in written form.
Most of all I hope you all keep in touch. I intend to continue volunteering and also know that with my loss in income I am likely going to be leaving the Bay Area in order to find a place that is more affordable, making it hard for me to be as present as I have been these last two years. That said, this is not so much of a goodby, but rather a rejoining of our community in a new, but familiar way.
Thank you for always supporting us along our path and most of all thank you for caring.
Warmest of virtual hugs,
Heather Dickison
Director & Practitioner
