Hey John,

Too many of our comrades are being burnt out to the point that they’re forced to leave the climate justice movement entirely. It’s a burden that carries on within organizations, no matter how dedicated they are to fighting systems of oppression. As a “baby organizer”, I’m afraid of meeting the same fate the deeper I get into this work. Making your first donation now will directly support youth (and seasoned) organizers as they navigate protecting our communities while honoring their own capacities and wellness.

At Power Shift Network we prioritize community and self care in hopes of this ethos spreading across the movement. If we want the climate justice movement to be a push towards collective liberation, we need to bring everyone into a culture that ignores capitalism’s push for over productivity because a practice of slowness and care will lead to a sustainable and energetic fight. Your dollars aren’t just going towards material resources, it’s also going to real people with a ton of passion who are trying their best to fight for the future we all want while taking rest and self care seriously (and encouraging you to do the same!).

Building a culture of wellness hasn’t been made as much of a priority as it should be. Lack of resources and being stuck in a cycle of our comrades doing the job of three people while constantly working to raise funds that are hard to come by is a cause of why this system can feel so suffocating.

With the extensive amount of work we need to do to get to where we want, PSN prioritizes staff’s wellbeing— we get Fridays off, get great benefits, are flexible with mental health breaks and days off, and we heavily lean on a disability justice praxis because we’re a staff of neurodivergent folks. We have to take care of our people. With your help to give our staff the tools we need to perform, we can continue this difficult work of confronting and fighting systems that are rigged against us all, while fighting the nonprofit industrial complex, all while trying to be human.

We need resources that not only keep us afloat, but that provide a surplus to actively disperse funds to young folks organizing in frontline communities, like Bvlbancha, where we’re hosting our next climate justice convergence. Support us in any way you can so we can all push for a culture that can sustainably and energetically fight for a just future.

En solidaridad,

Nathalie Peña, Communications Coordinator at PSN

Nathalie has a short curly bob with bangs and has on light colored frame glasses. She's wearing an orange long sleeve under a green tank top