From Aaron Scott, Missioner for Anti-Poverty Organizing and Staff Organizer for Chaplains on the Harbor:
Dear friends and family in struggle and hope,
What a year it’s been! We broke ground at our new permanent site for Harbor Roots Farm, overhauled all our outreach programs to meet COVID safety protocols, marched for Black lives and an end to police brutality and got help up by a militia, expanded our shelter to operate every night from November through March, hired four new staff from off the streets and out of jail, got three of our staff trained as Certified Peer Counselors, took part in mass digital gatherings with the Poor People’s Campaign, and are on track to hire three more farm apprentices in January.
We do the work we do because we know that real transformation does not come from the top down, but from the bottom up. In a year that has been tumultuous and unpredictable for much of the world, at Chaplains on the Harbor we’ve found our footing more than ever. Some of this is because we’re good at navigating chaos. Some of this is because, in a poor community, sickness and death are always close by, and we’ve figured out how to continue organizing under those conditions already. But absolutely none of what we do would be possible without the support we receive from The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, our community partners, and supporters like you.
Your collective support makes it possible for us provide shelter, serve meals, distribute Narcan, grow food, publish a prison newsletter, reunite families, organize for human rights, create living wage jobs, and unite struggling people on the basis of shared dignity and survival despite all the forces arrayed to divide and conquer the poor. Our long-term dreams right now look like a food truck, a land trust, and therapy co-op for Medicaid recipients. You all helped us make it this far in 2020. Please join us in facing 2021 with the same outlandish, dogged, revolutionary hope and donate today.
Lift up the humble, fill the hungry with good things!
Blessings,
The Chaplains on the Harbor Team
I am blessed to be able to support this work in a (very) small way. Prayers and the few $$ I send I pray will bless you all. Sarah, St Bede, Port Orchard.