During my grade school years, I was taught that being a good citizen required community contribution, however small. Over the years, I have spent countless amounts of time attempting to figure out how I could make the most meaningful impact in the communities I cared most about. I spent time pursuing in community-forward careers, volunteered with organizations I felt moved by, and donating when possible.
Ultimately, I came to the decision that I could create the most profound impact utilizing my unique skills to volunteer my time (feel free to ask about this) and maximize my economic impact through my work as a companion. As such, I am donating 10% of the proceeds from each booking to charitable causes that resonate with me. You may choose an organization from the list below, or allow me to choose one at random.
Bay Area Worker Support- BAWS is an organization providing mutual aid, social support, and education for Bay Area sex workers. I have had the privilege to be safe, happy, and comfortable with what I do and believe in working towards creating a world in which everyone is guaranteed autonomy, choice, and space for joy in their line of work.
KQED– KQED is a public radio, TV, and podcast station providing local news coverage, reporting, and arts/culture events. I grew up reluctantly listening to KQED every time I got in the car with my parents. Since then, I have come to deeply appreciate the unique, and often overlooked, perspectives KQED features. I believe that high-quality, publicly available journalism is vital to any democracy, especially on a local level.
Prescott Circus– Prescott Circus is a West Oakland youth circus and theater initiative that provides access to arts education to underserved youth attending West Oakland public schools. As someone who once was a youth circus performer training in West Oakland, I have seen how much access to arts can transform lives and hope to gift another struggling student with the chance to build life-long skills and experience quality arts education in school.
MECA– The Middle East Children’s Alliance is a Berkeley-based organization that provides aid, empowerment, and education to children in Lebanon, Iraq, and Palestine. As a Middle East Studies graduate, this organization connects deeply with the communities I spent time studying, living amongst, and writing about. Having spent time living in Jordan and visiting other parts of the Levant, it is difficult to unsee the scale of tragedy impacting youth in the region. My hope is that the focus on education and youth engagement will allow for the empowerment of a frequently forgotten generation of children in the Levant.
Internet Archive– The Internet Archive is a digital library preserving websites, texts, movies, software, etc. for public use, much like a physical library. Internet Archive exists with the goal of providing “universal access to all knowledge”. As student who has sobbed in frustration more than once while hitting a paywall to access journal publications, books, and articles integral to my research, I can’t help but to be an advocate for universal access to knowledge.