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Updates 12/19/21:
  • We are struggling to provide long-term, reliable support to our existing 17 recipients. Because our recipients make consensus decisions on how all funds are allocated, they have voted to ​CLOSE the Fund to new folks until further notice. 

  • To get on the waitlist: chcbrroqtipocfund@gmail.com <3

  • Mutual aid groups across the country are facing a sharp decline in donations due to the extreme economic impact of COVID-19. The failure of government to implement adequate safety nets for everyday people means many folks just don't have extra funds to give away, or already have obligations to support friends + family in crisis.​

  • Before the $600 federal weekly unemployment benefits ended, we were able to provide our recipients with $400-$800 in survival funds a month...which had incredible impact on our folks ability to stay fed, sheltered, on hormones, etc. Today, we are able to raise only a fraction of that each award cycle.​ ​   ​​

We hope to see an increase in supportive programs from the new administration, and as a result more support from our community in the coming months!

​Who We Serve + How
All recipients are Queer / Transgender / Indigenous / People Of Color (QTIPOC) living in Chapel Hill, Carrboro or rural North Carolina. Many recipients do organizing work of their own. Some organize with us, but only if they want to. Our recipients make consensus decisions about how all funds are allocated. All recipients are under/unemployed due to Covid-19 and are not approved for the $300 weekly federal pandemic unemployment benefit. Most have never received a stimulus checks, and many face barriers or are not able to qualify for a stimulus or unemployment due to their non-filer / undocumented / formerly incarcerated status. And the bills just keep coming. So we send our recipients $-$$$ (depending on availability) to survive. Mostly through Paypal, Venmo and Cashapp. We figure out other ways when folks don't have bank accounts. Funds are given with zero strings attached. 

Who We Are
We are a rapid-response mutual aid initiative. We do not have 501c3 status or fiscal sponsorship. None of our organizers are paid for their work. So far, we have been approved for two grants totaling $1,500 from the Campaign For Southern Equality, a $500 grant from Southern Vision Alliance, and a $10,000 grant from the Third Wave Fund. We are grateful to these organizations for funding autonomous groups like ours! Of the more than $60,000 we have re-distributed since the pandemic hit, $48,000 was contributed by members of our beloved community <3 

Our Organizers
​Sharon P. Holland is an African-descended queer Elder who is a professor at UNC. They organized with ACT-UP in the 80’s during the AIDS crisis, and have supported anti-racist and anti-HB2 work here in Chapel Hill. Her approach to community building is inter-sectional and encompasses deep connection to this place and its people, as their grandfather was active in Durham Civil Rights in the early 50's and her mother, a UNC alum (‘61) was a plaintiff in the Blue school desegregation case. They came back to the Triangle to teach and to continue her family’s social justice legacy.

Bakari Roscoe is a young Black queer activist who organizes around food/housing justice and harm reduction, with a huge affinity toward diverting resources to community members fighting houseless-ness and substance use disorder. He co-founded The LGBTQ Pop-up Center of Carrboro + Carrboro’s Queer Family Dinner after the 2016 election. He does mutual aid work almost exclusively and has been handing out harm reduction supplies like Narcan /clean needles and getting food to those who need it in Chapel Hill since he was a teen.
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Our silent organizer is working class, white, and gender non-conforming. They are an independent grassroots activist who has worked collaboratively with orgs like SONG NC, Equality NC, BYP100, The LGBTQ Center Of Durham, TGI Justice Project (TGIJP), El Centro Hispano, and more. 

Press + Foundational Support:
Daily Tarheel 
Equality NC

    Want to contribute another way? Reach organizers here:

#We Are What Community Looks like

 A Visual History of Mutual Aid BELOW