Hi Reader,

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This week's unscheduled newsletter is a little off-topic, but still deeply connected to the ethos of the work I do here.

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If you've been here for a minute, then you know I'm actively seeking recurring contributions to support my mutual aid fund The Everyday Lawyer Solidarity Fund.

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So today, I wanted to take a minute to talk about the history of mutual aid in the black community, the lineage that my particular mutual aid is born from, and why that means so much to me.

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First, mutual aid became a thing in the black South during the period of enslavement. It was a way for free and enslaved black people who lacked access to resources to come together to pay for things like funerals, land purchases, caring for the sick, and sometimes to buy the freedom of enslaved folks.

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During the Civil Rights Movement, mutual aid through money, food, carpools, etc. supported activists fighting for the equal rights of black people, working-class people, women, and other marginalized folks.

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Mutual aid funds have a rich and deep connection to liberation movements. And for me specifically as a black woman, mutual aid is a part of my roots; it's a part of my ancestral history.

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So deciding to launch a mutual aid fund was a really big deal for me: mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I spent a lot of months agonizing over it (in hindsight, some of that was definitely unnecessary, lol) because I wanted to make sure I was doing it correctly and also for the right reasons.

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If you don't know much about why I started the Fund, here are some of those reasons:

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Supporting black founders in social impact innovation. I grew up near Baltimore and moved back here during the pandemic after living in California for nearly 15 years. My career background is in tech so I've been spending time learning about the tech scene in Baltimore to figure out how I can support founders, which is something I love to do.

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As you might imagine, the tech scene in Baltimore is very different from the one in San Francisco and LA. For starters, most of the founders are black, which is pretty amazing to see after spending 15 years in a sea of whiteness. But because most of the founders are black, there is a monumental difference in the availability of resources here (financial and social). Resources in Baltimore are much farther and fewer between than in San Francisco and LA.

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I won't get into the obvious structural and systemic reasons for that (though the book Palo Alto by Malcolm Harris is a great read), but just know that it's one of the reasons why I started the fund. Because most Founders here can't afford to pay me for the operational expertise I provide. Since I'm not in a financial position to work for free, I need a solution that allows me to do work that is important to me (supporting black founders) and also to have some financial stability while doing that work. The Fund is that solution.

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The other reason I started the Fund is because I feel confident that there is a clear path to me getting paid for this work by local entrepreneurship organizations in Baltimore eventually, meaning I don't need this support indefinitely. I just need it during the holdover period while I collaborate with these organizations to develop the business plans and funding strategies that lead to me getting paid for this community work. The good news is that work is already in progress.

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Creating resources for those who can't afford my 1:1 services. Another reason I started the Fund is because I have a list of nearly 15 resources I've been asked to create by people who can't afford to work with me 1:1 that I haven't been able to say yes to yet for financial reasons. The financial cushion from the Fund would allow me to say no to more 1:1 work so I can say yes to creating more free and low-cost resources that more people can afford to access.

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Some of those resources include a guide to understanding employment offers, a guide for negotiating severance agreements, a guide for getting reasonable accommodations for invisible disabilities in the workplace, and a guide for navigating independent contractor misclassification issues for freelancers (with special attention on California's AB5) to name a few. Trust me, my Asana "Resources to Create" list is very long and continues to grow every time I do a workshop.

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I firmly believe that legal knowledge should be accessible to everyone and I want to dedicate more time to creating accessible resources without putting myself in financial peril.

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Fundamentally this Fund is about increasing my capacity to say "Yes" to the things that really matter to me. Once I felt sure that was what it would allow me to do, I finally allowed myself to create it.

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A Lineage of Mutual Aid

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If you're still with me, I'd like to share (briefly) about the person who inspired me to create this fund, my friend Toi. Frankly, if you don't know who Toi Smith is, you should.

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She's a staunch anti-capitalist, a very brilliant thinker, and a tireless advocate for mothers and feminism who talks about everything from the injustices of care work to the responsibility of white wealth to the perils of being a black single mother, which she is 4x over.

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A few years back, Toi created a mutual aid fund to support the birthing of her organization Loving Black Single Mothers, which offers financial support to black single mothers during the holidays, summers, and in a newly launched program called Forever Flourishing, for a full year.

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She received $6,500 per month of mutual aid for a year to birth this project to support black single mothers who are often vilified and intentionally deprived of necessary resources and care by society.

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That was two years ago. Today, Loving Black Single Mothers is a fully funded community solidarity project that transfers nearly $250,000 annually of wealth from families who have more than enough to families in need that are led by black single mothers.

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Getting to know Toi personally over the past 4 years has been such a privilege for me and it was extremely affirming to receive her blessing in launching a mutual aid fund for The Everyday Lawyer. I recently had a conversation with her on her podcast for her newsletter about what it took for me to get to this point, which you can listen to here (fair warning: it's basically my entire professional life story and then some).

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But regardless of whether you listen, I want you to know this: my goal is to be the best legal resource for working-class people on the internet. Period. That's what I'm working towards and that's what I'm building. And to me, that doesn't look like some sort of business empire. It looks like community collaborations, profit sharing with people who help me build it, free workshops whenever possible, and decreasing costs over time as I get to the point of making enough money to be comfortable.

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If you'd like to make a recurring donation to support this vision, I welcome your support.

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Alright, thanks for hanging with me if you're still reading. I'll see you next week with a couple of resources and an announcement.

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Wishing you good health and prosperity,

Brionna

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p.s. More information about the Solidarity Fund can be found here and here.