Things are moving and shaking in 2012 for KCCA!
Wrap-up of Recent Events:
We had our coloring book binding party on January 6th and got all 18 of our new books bound! This batch of radical coloring books includes several new pages with awesome drawings by KCCA volunteers. We use these books to fund-raise and start conversations whenever we table or hold our own events. We made this batch with folders of various colors to make the covers a little more exciting, and one of our volunteers is creating a silk screen with our logo to put it on the front page, and eventually to make t-shirts!
We had our second Kid’s Corner at Charis Books and More, our local independent feminist bookstore located in Little Five Points on Sunday Jan. 8th. Just like the first one, this was a great success with lots of kids and parents showing up to experience some of Charis’ awesome selection of progressive kid’s lit and to eat free pizza. We sold a coloring book, handed out several flyers, added a volunteer to the list serve, and had lots of fun hanging out with kids and parents, reading about how to be more environmentally-friendly in our every day lives. Our next Kid’s Corner at Charis will be February the 5th at 2pm. Come out, and bring the kids!
Get Sleazy for Social Justice New Years Extravaganza was a wildly successful party. Around 60 people showed up throughout the night and we raised $175. We also have tons of leftover alcohol so another fundraiser will be in the works soon! This fundraiser and our next will help fund our trip to Detroit for the Allied Media Conference, toy box supplies, pizza for our Kid’s Corners at Charis, materials for coloring books, and possibly t-shirts, buttons, and stickers in the future. Update on the budget: KCCA now has $497 in its account. Woot!
Upcoming Events:
Kid’s Corner at Charis, Sunday February the 5th, 2pm
New Volunteer Orientation Saturday Feb 4th, 5pm, location TBA
Planning Meeting Sunday February the 15th, 6pm, Charis Books
KCCA is providing childcare at the Death Penalty Abolition Summit Saturday January 28th, 9:30am-2:30pm, at Ebenezer Baptist Church
Other Updates
Last year, several KCCA organizers went to the Allied Media Conference in Detroit, Michigan. There, we participated in the Kid’s Track, got lots of footage for our radical childcare documentary, built relationships, organized, and strategized with other childcare collective activists from across the country with the Intergalactic Conspiracy of Childcare Collectives (ICCC,) and talked to tons of folks who came to our table about how to start a childcare collective, nuts and bolts of running one, etc. It was incredibly inspiring and productive and we are excited to be planning for the 2012 AMC! Last year, caucuses served the function of allowing folks in similar networks to come together and further their relationships, and talk strategy and long-term organizing. These took place during meal breaks and were way too short to accomplish everything we hoped to accomplish during the childcare caucus! Fortunately, this year, AMC is structured a little differently, and is featuring a full day on the Thursday before the AMC starts for folks to have network gatherings; basically a one-day mini conference for folks in various networks to do all the things we tried to squeeze into caucus meetings. The AMC gives ICCC members a yearly collaborative project and it has been a wonderful launching point for us to work together collectively. We will be having a radical childcare network gathering at the AMC this year, and folks from KCCA and several other collectives from other states will be busy coordinating it in the coming months. Here is our official description of the gathering which will be in the program:
The Intergalactic Conspiracy of Childcare Collectives (ICCC) is a network of collectives who support grassroots organizing through childcare. We began to take shape two years ago at the US Social Forum and continued building together by organizing the Kid’s Track at last year’s AMC. This Network Gathering will be a space to discuss shared politics and our vision for a movement that prioritizes kid friendly spaces, intergenerational invovlement, and communal caretaking. The day will include discussion on why we are doing this work and why it’s important, a creative project that will give us something tangible to leave with and share, and general relationship building. The room is open for anyone who is interested in radical childcare collectives, but we will be focusing more on vision, networking, and our experiences in doing this work, not on how to start a new collective. We will be also be tabling throughout the weekend which will be a time for more intra-collective nuts and bolts discussions, as well as building new relationships with potential new collectives.
Woohoo! Thanks for reading, more updates coming soon!
-Amariah
