help maleyah afford rent, utilities, and bills
Donation protected
Hi I am currently raising funds for rent, bills, and other additional expenses to get myself through the next two months.
This past year, I worked as a teacher at a Charter School in South Philly. I gave my heart and soul to my kids, and truth be told, those beautiful kids held me down so much. Teaching turned out to be nothing like I thought it would be, and I genuinely wasn’t ready to close that chapter. I had more to do, but I chose to leave after spending the entire year being taken advantage of as an employee, mistreated, and completely overworked and underpaid. As the youngest Black teacher, I no longer felt comfortable in my work environment. I left because I could not stay where I am not valued, treated well, and compensated fairly. The emotional/physical demands of work took an incredibly hard toll on my mental health this year. I struggle with PTSD and generalized anxiety and in the moments where my mental stress and work stress converged, I didn’t have the support of work to rely on. I had to keep pushing through, keep showing up, and the effects of pushing myself beyond my capacity for months on end, has caused, what feels like, irreparable harm to my mental and my body.
I spent this last year fighting to stay afloat, and I really don’t have much left in me. I’m tired, exhausted, hurting, and trying with everything I have in me to hold on. I am in the process of securing work for the next year. Continuously putting out applications, applying to places, accepting bookings, but it has gotten to a point where I can’t do it alone.
I fought to secure myself a living space in efforts to prioritize my mental, physical, and emotional health, but after everything I have been through this year, it is now at stake. The job i have secured, doesn’t start until the school year begins (around early September), so I am trying to raise money for rent/utilities/bills and groceries for August + September. If you have the capacity to, I would genuinely appreciate anything and everything you could offer. If you would like a shoot or food (yes I will throwdown for you) in exchange just let me know, I am willing and able to do anything.
I can’t lose my space. It means too much.
Organizer
Maleyah Peterson
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA