I want to preface this by saying this is not victim blaming. This not calling people online lazy or grifting or whatever.
But an underlooked proponent on why some people are nearing homeless and crowdfunding heavily rn is bc society has failed you by making it as inconvenient as possible to learn about social systems and programs that already exist to help your situation as well as not having enough programs and aid.
Lemme give some examples. I have been unemployed for 10 months. My mom told me about a paying job training program a month ago after I already decided to mive in with her to find work, because nothing was coming up in my own city. My best friend didn’t know about affordable housing assistance in my state until she talked to my dad about it on a chance encounter. Some people on here have to see posts about much cheaper alternatives to their current prescriptions or medical plans because its not in the interest of their doctors paychecks to tell them about it. I would have waited to get vaccinated and not have crowdfunded for Uber money if I had known they were going to give free vaccine rides the next month. But I wouldn’t have really known this until I opened the app once that program started, because it is in their interest to keep taking my money until its their desired time for me to reap their “generous” services.
What I’m trying to say is that this is an under discussed aspect of how capitalism fails people. When you are forced to make your life and work and finances so singular and self interested, you are cut off from community and equivalent social services to proper government assistance. You literally don’t know that there is help somewhere out there for you unless you’re told.
I believe a professor I had called this “cultural wisdom” but I haven’t been able to find the social science articles that expanded on this. It’s a practical knowledge of local systems that allows someone to function and thrive in that system. The example she used was having an understanding that banks can hold your money, but the practical aspect of accessing your money (in a convenient and easy manor) was knowing about ATMs and how to use them. But unless you have an account or someone ready to inform you, there’s no dedicated time or milestone where someone learns this.
And that’s just with a machine designed to give you YOUR money, let alone complex social service programs.
I want everyone who crowdfunds for hospital bills to know they probably don’t have to oay them at all. Just find the financial aid office of the hospital. It’s on the website BY LAW. Find the form. Fill it out. Get the bills canceled or lowered! You don’t need crowd money, you need the government’s money that’s already set aside for your medical care.
GO TO, MESSAGE, OR CALL YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY. Libraries are focusing more and more on community resources, support, and outreach. If you genuinely don’t know something or feel uncertain or are in a new situation, a reference librarian will not only help you sort your thoughts through their reference interview but then help you arm yourself with knowledge from reliable and often local sources. It doesn’t even have to be a question to Ask A Librarian. You can simply say “I’m in this situation now. I don’t know what to do next./I’m not confident I know everything I should or want to know.”
As a librarian, I’m boosting this. Libraries and librarians are good at knowing what resources are available locally and more broadly as well as helping you navigate eligibility for things, possibly helping you apply to things (although call ahead and ASK where that’s concerned, because you might need a scheduled appointment to be able to be given the one-on-one attention you deserve. Libraries get busy and if you need one-on-one help, sometimes an appointment is a good idea.) They’ll know what the local government can offer and what else is in the area, we cultivate lists and handouts and pages on our websites for this stuff. It is completely free, you don’t need a library card (which is also, btw, free, if you do want one), and if you have old fines or lost a book five years ago, we don’t care about that as much as we care about helping you find a local food pantry or shelter or a career center or whatever. You are not bugging us or interrupting us from our work, your information needs are our work and you are not being too taxing on us, this is what we’re here for. We are good at helping you figure out what exactly it is you’re trying to find, and you can make a librarian feel all nice and fuzzy and validated in their career choice if we can help you with a problem.
A lot of local libraries also employ social workers or work with networks of them, so you’ll have someone specifically trained in finding local resources and aid. There’s a lot of crossover between librarian reference work and social work, but there is a difference in training on how to help manage difficult situations.
It all depends on your local library, but many modern and community-focused libraries and librarians understand social resources are the new reference norm & will collaborate with orgs.
Library programs are also usually great help with things that usually cost a ton on their own – a previous one i worked at offered discounted driver’s education by working with a local company; deeply discounted defensive driving courses to lower your insurance rates; even career counselors! A lot of libraries also have wifi-hotspots and even Google chromebooks you can take out too!
I also encourage folks to seek local social workers who work for organizations to offer aid and resources for free or low cost. For example, if you have happen to have access to an EAP (employee assistant program) they’ll often have social workers and counselors on hand to help.
Remember that if your local library doesn’t have the resources or programs you might be looking for, tell them (nicely). Good libraries have a feedback or suggestion system. Speaking to a librarian and saying you wish the library had (x) service or (x) program (especially if you know it’s offered at other libraries in your area) is usually enough to get things kick-started!
a lot of east asians are talking about kinoko’s art. i bet a lot of you have seen her art before (me as well, i really used to like some of her illustrations but i had no idea that she’s a white woman).
east asians are warning about how she fetishizes asian women and asian culture. the artist calls herself KINOKO, she’s a french woman.
a lot of my mutals follow her, this is her account, pls, stop supporting her!
Take note of how a lot of places removed seating essential to elderly and disabled people during the peak pandemic period when we still thought transmission via surfaces was likely and then just never returned them and probably never will.
A good samaritan in our neighborhood weather-proofed some old church pews and secured them where the benches our city took away used to be.
Love the ppl in the notes like, “but what if you sit on it and damage it? 🥺” Hydrants are cast iron. Cast iron has more compressive strength than steel. And they’re built to contain 40-100 psi. When was the last time you sitting down damaged an unreinforced steel bench like these?
And you think someone sitting on a thick cast iron structure is gonna hurt it?
And no, the ground is not accessible seating. You really gonna tell a 90-yr-old person to just sit on the ground? How tf you think they’re getting down and back up without falling? How about a person with a cane? Someone who’s pregnant? Now that there are no benches bc 😱 a homeless person might use them and be visible 😱 what do you expect those ppl to do? Also stop existing?
