Hello! Nat (Natalie Brewster Nguyen) here, founder and ED of Splinter Collective. This year has been expansive to say the least. What I put in my dreaming-of-what’s-possible box in terms of funding, we managed to achieve already, in just 5 months. It’s amazing, and I’m so grateful to our sponsors, donors, grantors, and everyone who has believed in our vision. I also want to shout out the most incredible team of co-creators who are building this organization and vision with me. I brought on our first staff member, Ronah, in April of 2021 as a leap of faith. I had reached a point where I knew I could no longer do this all myself, and while I didn’t have any outside funding yet, I was trusting that it was the right decision and the right person. As we’ve been building this together, and quickly bringing on more folks to be a part of the process, I am endlessly in awe of our collective capabilities and compassion.
As our funding has increased, so has our scope and capacity. It’s an exciting time to be a start-up, and I feel like we are genuinely in the right place and in the right relationship. We have an amazing core team of 15 currently building this project, along with our board members and several other folks contributing in big ways. This core team aka the Brain Trust (what one might call a staff, or a steering committee, or some such thing) is a beautiful and representative group of folks who are shepherding Splinter into a liberatory future.
We’re working on so many projects, in the arts, housing justice, food justice, eviction defense, Queer and Trans rights, community engagement, direct support of our unsheltered neighbors, education, and more. As this is our first proper year, everything is uncertain but I feel like we are solidly doing the work, building our network, and connecting with other folks and organizations who are doing the same. I have a lot of words and thoughts, but for now, I’ll just leave you with this, from Joy Harjo.
We were never perfect.
Yet, the journey we make together is perfect on this earth who was
once a star and made the same mistakes as humans.
We might make them again, she said.
Crucial to finding the way is this: there is no beginning or end.
You must make your own map.