Sustaining through Community

Every session has its own magic, but May 2023 was something special. It feels like we are back on our stride post-pandemic and the safe sharing of physical space with other people was a gift. The session was a reminder of the importance of this work. School of the Alternative is a place for humans to connect and build, to imagine a world that is kinder and more equitable, and to fill up our cups so that we have the energy to go back to our home communities and do the work it takes to enact the change we envision.

Today we launch our annual fundraiser, with a goal of $5,000. Together, we will raise the money to bring this creative and healing experience to a new cohort of people in 2024.

In past years, our fundraiser has been titled: “Radical Accessibility.” All of the money raised was allocated to new scholarships and to increasing staff and faculty stipends. We know that the more financial barriers we are able to remove, the richer our programming and community will become, and we are proud of meeting that values-driven goal. This year, we are committing to making SotA as financially accessible to students as it was last year, and also raising money towards covering operating expenses, as our costs for food and lodging go up.

So this year’s fundraiser has a slightly different goal: to maintain, to sustain, to continue to exist, as the world around us gets hotter and more expensive. Our 2023 campaign, “Sustained by Community,” speaks to that goal. If we raise $5,000, we will be able to continue the 9 weekly scholarships we offered last year – four full need-based scholarships and five Black equity scholarships. And that’s it. We will still be fully volunteer-run, with donated supplies and a frugal food budget; we will still be drawing in the scrappy art room and eating a lot of bulk grains next May. But the math just works for the community to come together again, with new people to join and be lifted up, and for us to move forward together.

School of the Alternative is a deep breath away from the normal: fresh air, time as an optional concept, freedom to access our truer selves - not the selves the world asks us to be. SotA offers space to play and experience meaningful and creative learning. This space matters, please help us maintain it.