Updated September 2020.
Following input from KSEC members and the steering committee, KSEC has decided to cancel our in-person Spring Summit 2020 scheduled for the first weekend of April. In addition, due to the increasing severity of the COVID-19 outbreak and the need for social distancing to arrest its spread, we will be canceling all in-person membership events through the end of 2020.
In addition to offering a digital versions of our events when possible, KSEC is also organizing with our allies to create and distribute mutual aid resources. As a first step to ensuring justice for all, KSEC has endorsed this petition from Lexington Housing Justice Collective and several similar statements which you can find on our website. To read more about why COVID-19 underscores the need for a just transition, we highly encourage you to reference this list of demands from grassroots organizers assembled by organizer Kelly Hayes and this statement from the Climate Justice Alliance, of which we are a member.
We launched a COVID-19 Youth Mutual Aid Fund with the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project (STAY). Donate to the fund here. Funds will be available to young folks in STAY and KSEC’s service areas who are experiencing financial insecurity because of COVID-19 and associated wage loss or university closures.
Other mutual aid projects are in full swing around the country and region as we speak; you can find many of these resources on It’s Going Down’s COVID-19 Mutual Aid page. If you are working on a mutual aid project in Kentucky or Appalachia and would like KSEC to share your program, please reach out. If you are a KSEC alum, ally, or member with a need, please reach out. We will do what we can to help you. KSEC staff are closely following the news and tracking resources and may be able to direct you to the help you need.
We are also available to provide moral and social support. If you need someone to talk to, we will be offering digital social hangouts and check-ins via phone and video call. Let’s remain in community together.
We recognize this is a time where community care matters most. We recognize our responsibility to each other. We know that we keep us safe. By coming together with love, we can mitigate the worst of this pandemic and ensure that the most vulnerable among us are cared for. Social distancing is extremely important for vulnerable members in our communities, especially since COVID-19 symptoms can take up to 14 days to present and some individuals may be totally asymptomatic.
Please stay safe and take this time to affirm what we have always known to be true: We have each other, and we have the solutions we need. As Mariame Kaba said, “Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.”
With love and solidarity,
KSEC Staff and steering committee
Following input from KSEC members and the steering committee, KSEC has decided to cancel our in-person Spring Summit 2020 scheduled for the first weekend of April. In addition, due to the increasing severity of the COVID-19 outbreak and the need for social distancing to arrest its spread, we will be canceling all in-person membership events through the end of 2020.
In addition to offering a digital versions of our events when possible, KSEC is also organizing with our allies to create and distribute mutual aid resources. As a first step to ensuring justice for all, KSEC has endorsed this petition from Lexington Housing Justice Collective and several similar statements which you can find on our website. To read more about why COVID-19 underscores the need for a just transition, we highly encourage you to reference this list of demands from grassroots organizers assembled by organizer Kelly Hayes and this statement from the Climate Justice Alliance, of which we are a member.
We launched a COVID-19 Youth Mutual Aid Fund with the Stay Together Appalachian Youth Project (STAY). Donate to the fund here. Funds will be available to young folks in STAY and KSEC’s service areas who are experiencing financial insecurity because of COVID-19 and associated wage loss or university closures.
Other mutual aid projects are in full swing around the country and region as we speak; you can find many of these resources on It’s Going Down’s COVID-19 Mutual Aid page. If you are working on a mutual aid project in Kentucky or Appalachia and would like KSEC to share your program, please reach out. If you are a KSEC alum, ally, or member with a need, please reach out. We will do what we can to help you. KSEC staff are closely following the news and tracking resources and may be able to direct you to the help you need.
We are also available to provide moral and social support. If you need someone to talk to, we will be offering digital social hangouts and check-ins via phone and video call. Let’s remain in community together.
We recognize this is a time where community care matters most. We recognize our responsibility to each other. We know that we keep us safe. By coming together with love, we can mitigate the worst of this pandemic and ensure that the most vulnerable among us are cared for. Social distancing is extremely important for vulnerable members in our communities, especially since COVID-19 symptoms can take up to 14 days to present and some individuals may be totally asymptomatic.
Please stay safe and take this time to affirm what we have always known to be true: We have each other, and we have the solutions we need. As Mariame Kaba said, “Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair.”
With love and solidarity,
KSEC Staff and steering committee
