VALU CO-OP x Coming Together Vancouver
Announcing Our Mutual Aid Collaboration With Coming Together Vancouver!
VALUe #6
We have an ethical responsibility to share resources, redistribute power, and use our artistic practice to serve our communities.
About the project
While many restrictions may be lifting in BC, we are aware that our journey through the COVID-19 pandemic is far from over.
We are SO excited to announce our Mutual Aid collaboration with Coming Together Vancouver—an incredible grassroots initiative formed to support community members in need, share resources, show solidarity for frontline workers, and amplify social movements.
It has been an absolute pleasure collaborating with this hard-working team to fight for critical access to healthcare, housing, and workers’ rights within our community. In order to support the needs of our communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, VALU CO-OP and Coming Together Vancouver have collaborated on an exciting set of artist-designed and artist-produced specialty items available for purchase in our online store. Made by our unionized co-operative workers in our Chinatown Studio, each item will be made with care, and will contribute directly to mutual aid initiatives in the Vancouver community. While the circumstances may not be ideal, we at VALU CO-OP are proud to have our first ever retail collection dedicated to this incredible cause.
CHECK OUT OUR ARTIST-MADE GOODS HERE!
In times of crisis, it is those with low-incomes, the elderly, immunocompromised individuals, and marginalized groups that are affected disproportionately. Our #vanmutualaid campaign is here to help address these ongoing inequalities by bolstering mutual aid efforts directly within our community. Recently we’ve been asking ourselves—what would a permanent mutual-aid society look like?
50% of all proceeds will be directed towards Coming Together Vancouver’s mutual aid community programs. Your contributions are what will make sustained, ongoing mutual aid efforts in our community possible, while also supporting the labour of hard hit local artists during this time of financial precarity. We aim to raise a minimum of $50,000 through this campaign by the end of summer 2020. Help us meet our goal of bringing real support to those who need it most.
Coming Together Vancouver began in order to provide immediate financial and social support to community members directly affected by COVID-19—from those who have been forced into unemployment, to those who are ill or self-isolating, to frontline workers who need the help and solidarity of their community. With this collaborative initiative, we hope to create more sustainable funding for Coming Together Vancouver to continue providing financial relief and mutual aid here in our community.
** Note about delivery times: In order to comply with important public health and safety orders, production and shipping times on all orders will vary. We will update this page regularly with estimated pick-up/shipping times.
About Coming Together Vancouver
Coming Together is a group of neighbours, community members, and organizers who came together as the impacts of COVID-19 loomed. We came together at short notice, brought together by a shared understanding of two things: the need for mutual aid, and the need to shift the narrative around what the pandemic experience could look like. We are bringing together people who want to tell a different story.
This is for all of us who want to connect to share resources, extend a helping hand to our neighbours, show solidarity for healthcare workers and the vulnerable, and highlight social movements that are fighting for access to healthcare, housing, and workers’ rights.
This is for people from across Vancouver to create the kind of community that we want to be a part of.
