New Year, New Us
It’s a new year and, as tends to happen, changes are afoot. There are some pretty significant and exciting updates over here that we wanted to share.
We are our own independent organization and have a new name!
Last year we were under the fiscal sponsorship of the Midwest Access Coalition (thanks, MAC!) but right at the end of the year we got our independent c3 status approved and are running independently! With that also came a new legal name - Apiary for Practical Support. We’re still working through how/where to use it but if you start seeing that name appear places that’s why.
We are no longer a membership organization.
This is slightly older news, but in case you missed it - we have decided to move away from a membership organization and towards a technical assistance model.
You’ll see a couple of things we’re working on below; we will be providing these tools, trainings, and resources to any self-identified practical support org free of charge, not just those previously listed as members. In fact, we’re working to secure funds that would allow not only for them to get assistance from us for free but to regrant additional funds to those we work with to help ensure the longevity of their projects.
We are restructuring our team (slightly).
After much deep, collaborative conversation about our respective goals, interests, and the needs of both our individual selves and the organization more broadly, Tessa and I have decided to shift titles and responsibilities. I am officially taking the title Executive Director and Tessa is becoming the Deputy Director. This decision gave us some much-needed internal clarity about how and where we spend our time and may mean that I am no longer in spaces that I might have been before and vice versa. We’re figuring it all out in real time.
Our goal is still for Apiary to have a Co-Directorship model in which power and responsibility is held equally, but in the moment we are in right now, that is not realistic nor one that is actually in the best interest of each of us as individual people or as an organization. As we stabilize and grow, we’ll be constantly reassessing our roles, how and where to expand or contract, and this may shift again sooner than we expect. But for now, at this moment, this is what we have decided feels right.
We are building exciting things.
We have two major projects we’re working on in the first half of this year:
Directory: we’re working with the folks at ineedana.org (INAA), NNAF, and others to build a database of all funds, PSOs, clinics and other relevant resources that not only shows what exists but also, behind a login, allows PSOs, clinics and funds access to information about how and when to refer to an organization. The goal is to build a tool that when it gets bad (like we all know it will) it will be easier for people to be able to quickly and easily refer clients to orgs outside their immediate regions/relationships. Practical support organizations will be asked in the next month or so to send updates on their services and practices so that we can have the directory ready for people to start using by the end of April. Access will be managed by the INAA team.
Blueprint: We’re also working with MAC, Brigid, Fund Texas Choice, and the Northwest Abortion Access Fund to create a blueprint for long-distance practical support - a model from which new and existing organizations will be able to learn how to do the work. We’re currently in the data collection phase - we (mostly Tessa) are sitting with each of the four orgs and understanding in depth what they do and how they do it, from databases, to values, to forms. From there, we’re going to draft an initial proposal of what the broader blueprint should look like, offer it to our four partners, then debate til we get it right. Once it (either in part or in full) is finalized, we at Apiary will use that blueprint to start training organizations on how to expand or improve their operations and programming and use it as a model for new organizations moving into this work to learn best practices and not reinvent wheels we (as a movement) have already built. Our goal is to take the labor of having to train new groups from existing leaders and to create uniform systems and standards of care that will make referrals between organizations easier.
We are building our Board.
Because we’re now our own independent entity (and therefore need to) and because we know that we’re going to need some real support to get through this year, we’re starting to build our Board. The job description is here - we’re offering monthly stipends of $150 to our Board members in acknowledgement of the labor that is required to do such a thing and reduce inequity in who “gets” to be a Board member. Please share or, if you’re interested, apply. We’re aiming for up to 5 members onboarded in the next few months.
That’s all for now! Just a couple of quick things!
In solidarity,
Marisa Falcon
Executive Director (!!!)