From Welfare to Well-Being
Happy Spring!
And welcome to all of our new followers that we gathered from the CT NOFA Conference! It was so cool to connect to other folks who care deeply about the land and our relationship to it. We are so glad that you are here.
Speaking of the land, who else is with me on feeling recharged after some sunshine and warm air? ✋
Our girl Mandy is also a fan, and shedding season has begun (re our picture here- ALL the fur)
We have been busy here at SGS, with two tabling events, and preparing for the Great Give on May 1st & 2nd. We are aiming to raise $25,000 towards our goal of building our educational platform, building our capacity, and towards Mandy’s care🌟
Be on the look out for a series of emails on this from us soon!
Nicole here, and in speaking of online education, I have been pursuing the Companion and animals for Reform and Equity’s (CARE) Racial Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (REDI) bronze certification. It has been a tremendous learning experience as a white cis woman, and I am extremely grateful that there are learning opportunities like this available to me.
To my fellow white folks, if you haven’t taken this training, you are missing out.
One of the many learnings I have gathered so far is the proposal to shift our language from “animal welfare” to “animal well-being.” CARE team members describe within the training platform how the word “welfare” holds historic, and active, traumas for BIPOC communities.
Social welfare systems have been used in our country to perpetuate systems of racism and systemic oppression of communities. Through perpetuating racial disparities, positioning marginalized communities to be seen as bad, “lazy,”, or in need of being saved, creating trauma in children and families by separating them from each other, and so much more, our “welfare” systems have done far from seeing people be well (Rebecca even wrote her dissertation about it!).
Thus, in solidarity with CARE and in alignment with our values of growing, learning, and unlearning the ways in which we contribute to white supremacy and other harmful oppressive systems, we support this language change. We will be working to change our online and printed materials to having “well-being,’ and accredit this change to the CARE group.
We also hope to purchase & integrate this training as a requirement for the rest of our board members on our team.
To purchase this curriculum, we need donations. Actually, if you donate to us to purchase the curriculum - you are supporting both missions - win/win, right?
In understanding the traumas that have come from social welfare systems, we also know that capitalism leaves us financially strained and in scarcity mode. We get that - we have a horse - we REALLY get that.
If donations aren’t feasible for you, that is perfectly okay. We are grateful that you are here reading this blog post.
If you would like to help in other ways, there are opportunities to do so within our upcoming Great Give fundraising effort. Here are some ideas:
🌷Consider becoming a Peer Fundraiser with us for the Great Give. It’s like selling girl scout cookies, but better. Send us a message and we can set you up!
🌷Do you have connections to folks who have philanthropic interests that might align with our work? Pass along our Great Give link, and invite them to consider us for their charitable gifts this donation season
🌷Send this email to 3 fellow animal lovers and ask them to join our listserv
And also - take the CARE REDI bronze course! 🪙
We continue to hold gratitude for this learning, and are excited to continue sharing our journey with you.
All Our Love,
Nicole and the SGS Team
