Joy Menagerie purposely works towards liberation and healing. Over the past few years connecting with food has been the work we’ve about shared the most. While we’ve been feeding bellies, we’ve also been feeding and fueling mind, soul, and spirit. Sometimes the off-grid support we offer is within the “surviving” mode. Just this week, Dolly and our extended team have offered crisis counseling to people suffering suicidal ideation, dealing with being fired without cause, facing loss of housing, and grieving sudden and traumatic death. The disintegration of our societal safety net means that there’s not a readily available structures to help people navigate these crises. Sure, there’re crisis lines, but they’re anonymous and overworked. Having a known sympathetic ear and connection to networks can be the difference between surviving or falling deeper into financial and emotional despair. Joy Menagerie provides triage support and networking so that our community can survive and begin to thrive.
There is thriving every week at Joy Menagerie too. We’ve been celebrating college acceptance, straight As, new jobs, and reconnecting with ancestral home places. These surviving and thriving supports interweave. We all are experiencing highs and lows in this time of upheaval. If we don’t acknowledge and celebrate the highs, we can’t survive the lows. If we don’t survive the lows, we can’t thrive and contribute to our community. We’re normalizing mutual community support. We openly discuss and dismantle systems of oppression, including racism, white supremacy, and the structural hoarding of resources.
Surviving is necessary, thriving is joyous. We support both. Your financial support is needed to allow us to thrive in our work.
Give directly –friend to friend– (not-tax deductible)
- Venmo @dollyjoseph,
- PayPal or Zelle dolly@dollyjoseph.com or
- check to Dolly Joseph
Give via Virginia Organizing (tax deductible)
- check to Virginia Organizing (memo Joy Menagerie) or
- via this link.
