sustainsinglepages

sustaining
eachother.

To sustain life in a
community is to
give and to recieve.

By nature, humans are ecological beings.
We thrive when we can interact in an ecosystem,
giving and receiving our energy to maintain
a dynamic but grounded body.
The ideal of the American Dream creates a mode
of individualism and self preservation that isolates
the individual from the communirty they inhabit.
We have to look past the ego that we build up
and reach out to our peers in order to hold each
other up. When the world is unstable as it is, and
constant tragedies and traumatic events leave
us repeatedly vulnerable to losing our safety as
individuals, we must turn towards the community
to find and build support in our ecosystem.

one can connect to their ecology in many ways.

Pooling
community
resources

Pooling and sharing resources is an important way
to build a strong and sturdy foundation in a
community.
This can be done on a small scale, like building neighborhood
community farms and greenspaces.
-Baltimore Farm Alliance
-Baltimore Food Fridge
Or it can be done on larger scales with mutual aid funds
and community resource centers!
-National Resource List (Linktree)
-Baltimore Mutual Aid & Emergency Relief Fund (FB)

redistribute wealth and resources

give donations, time, or civic engagment

Volunteer/donation opportunities:
Bmore Community Food
OSI Baltimore
Strongcitybaltimore
Baltimore Corps
Baltimore Community Foundation
Maryland Philanthropy (Covid-19 response funds)
BALT Community Bail Fund
NAACP
ACLU Maryland
Baltimore United for Change
BUILD
Find more at volunteermatch.org

One can also directly redistribute their wealth.
Buy from local artists, farmers, and small businesses.
Join co-ops like Hidden Harvest, or buy from farmers markets
and local farms at Farm Alliance of Baltimore
Baltimore black-owned businesses:
Urban Oyster
Fishnet
Ekiben
Land of Kush
Gangster Vegan
Pennsylvania Black Arts & Entertainment District
Ivy Hotel
Cedar & Cotton
Mess in a Bottle
Find more at Madeinbaltimore.org
Commission small artists to create work at places like
Make Studio or buy from art markets!
Look past the big corporations that already control our
communities.

Take civic action to protect yourself and those in your
community.
Enact your own voice and elevate the voices of others.
VOTE in any elections that you can, and/or help others
exercise their right to vote.
Find voter resources on When We All Vote’s linktree
Protest with groups like Good Kids Mad City and the They
Them Collective.
Stay informed. Staying informed on a constant influx of
(often horrific) events is exhausting and painful. But to
remain active in a system, especially when you are in the
position of privilege, is to educate yourself on the topics
that surround you. Listen to others.
Respect those around you. Right now that means keeping
distance and wearing masks. Sometimes things are inconvenient
to ourselves, but it is worth it to go slightly out of
your way to protect others.

Having sustainable and equitable communities is not simply
about redesigning the systems within it or aspects of it, it is about
changing the individual’s point of view. We must redesign the
way that we look at our communities. Look to those around
you with empathy and communal care, and connect yourself
to them. They are a part of your ecosystem, and to ensure the
success of that ecosystem you have to work for and with them.
Consider that the self is not limited to your body,
but to the entire ecosystem that you live in.
Allow yourself to give, but also allow yourself to receive
.
Amidst tumultuous times like these, it is most important
to invest in your community, to hold those
around you up. so they may hold you in return.
When the systems in place are not sustainable,
we must sustain each other.

by ANNA FERN