It’s been an incredibly tough few weeks for the entire Campaign for Southern Equality team and our communities in Asheville and the Southeast at large. While we’re relieved that everyone on our team is safe and accounted for, many lost their lives to Hurricane Helene, neighborhoods and communities are only just beginning to grapple with the material destruction of the storm, and basic utilities like water, power, and service have not yet returned to significant swaths of the region. This has been and will continue to be a traumatic, exhausting, and scary time for so many, and we hold so much grief in our hearts.
So many in our community – including our staff, friends, and neighbors – need help as we all recover from the damage and trauma caused by the storm. And we’re extremely thankful to everyone who is donating, contributing supplies, or volunteering their time to help folks get through this challenging time.
In the last week and a half alone, our team at the Campaign for Southern Equality has distributed critical supplies like water, food, medicine, and baby supplies to Western NC, plugged into welfare checks and food distribution efforts, and more. Your support has made all this possible and will empower our team to continue supporting our community through this crisis.
We are seeing extraordinary courage, love, and grit in action. Our team is so honored to be connecting with efforts to get essential supplies and resources to those in urgent need – a need that will go on for a long time as the search and rescue process continues, we await critical infrastructure coming back online, and we head into the recovery and rebuilding stages. We’re encouraging many members of our staff to prioritize hurricane relief efforts over their day-to-day jobs, while a smaller team will continue to run the Trans Youth Emergency Project and the Trans Kids, Our Kids book tour this fall. We will get through this crisis – as many other communities have – together.
We recognize that many rely on us for news about LGBTQ+ communities, breakdowns of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation, and other critical issues impacting LGBTQ+ equality. Since some members of our team are based in areas that have not been heavily impacted by the storm, we’ll resume posting news and updates to our social media, sharing research about legislation, and spreading queer joy wherever we can, even as we continue to share updates about Helene.
If you’d like to support our work helping stabilize and rebuild Western NC, click here to donate to the Campaign for Southern Equality. All donations will go directly to relief efforts like supplies deliveries, food and water distribution, as well as an upcoming supply closet for queer and trans folks in the region – and we’ll provide regular updates about how these distributions are going. In addition, here are some amazing organizations working hard on Hurricane Helene relief:
BeLoved Asheville
BelovedAsheville.com
Instagram: @belovedasheville
Facebook: BeLoved Asheville
TikTok: @belovedasheville
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief
MutualAidDisasterrelief.org
Instagram: @mutualaiddisasterrelief
Appalachian Voices
appvoices.org/helene-relief/
Instagram: @appalachianvoices
Facebook: Appalachian Voices
World Central Kitchen
wck.org
Instagram:@wckitchen
Facebook: World Central Kitchen
Rural Organizing and Resilience WNC
ruralorganizing.wordpress.com
Instagram: _roar_wnc
United Way
unitedway.org/hurricane-helene#
Instagram: unitedway
Facebook: United Way
Tri Cities Mutual Aid
etn-helene-response.github.io
Instagram:@tricitiesmutalaid
Holler 2 Holler
Instagram: @holler2holler
Facebook: Holler 2 Holler
Voices of Florida
voicesofflorida.org
Instagram: @voicesofflorida
Facebook: Voices of Florida
And here are some local and regional news outlets and social media accounts that are sharing in-depth information on the storm, relief efforts, and more:
Mergoat Magazine
Instagram: mergoat.mag
WNC Helene Resources
bit.ly/wncheleneguide
Instagram: wnc.helene.resources
Facebook: WNC Helene Resources
Blue Ridge Public Radio
bpr.org/live-updates/live-blog-hurricane-helene-wnc
Instagram: blueridgepublicradio
Facebook: Blue Ridge Public Radio
Discover Asheville
Instagram: @discoverashvillenc
Please take care of yourselves if you were impacted by Hurricane Helene or you’re in the path of Hurricane Milton, check up on your people, and follow guidelines from local officials.
