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Groups We Support
We started this project to raise money and material support for small, local, grassroots community groups and projects that traditionally have difficulty finding funding. We believe that the struggles for social justice are not separate, but in fact all linked together in a broader struggle for liberation - an injustice against one is an injustice against all. In networking and supporting diverse groups and people, regardless of our own race, nationality, gender, sexuality, we all become stronger.
Treasure City is not a charity in that we only give support to projects that empower people towards the goals of community culture, education, resistance, or infrastructure. For this reason, we ask that organizations which receive our support also support us in a way that works for both of us. Some examples of such reciprocity include providing a volunteer who would commit to fill a shift at TCT once a week for one month, redirecting patrons of your organization to TCT for needs we might be able to fulfill, distributing information about us alongside your organization's information, etc. Read more about Mutual Aid here.
If you are a group that meets these criteria and would like financial, material or promotional support from us or to use the space for events, contact us here. In addition, we have window space for groups we support to promote their events and free blank t-shirts (and other clothing) for screen printing.
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Our Main Beneficiaries
Inside Books Project / myspace page
- An all-volunteer non-profit founded in 1998, sending 18,000 free books a year to Texas prisoners. IBP works with prisoners to create change, both in their lives and in the system that has incarcerated them - books are the agents of that change. Prison support projects have a very difficult time with funding, which is why TC supports IBP. We are now supplying text books to IBP so they can build an educational library at the Travis County Correctional Complex (Del Valle). To find out more about Prison Abolition, visit the Critical Resistance website. For a list of Political Prisoners in the United States, such as the Angola 3, visit this page at PrisonActivist.org.
- TC provides financial and material support for IBP: 1000+ books.
Yellow Bike Project / myspace page
- An all volunteer, non-profit, dedicated to providing human-powered transportation for the people of Austin, running a community bike shop, and educating kids and adults. YBP has two bike shops in East Austin, including a small one at Treasure City Thrift.
- TC provides free space for a YBP neighborhood bike shop, bike parts and t-shirts for screen printing.
Other Beneficiaries (past and present)
(ACT UP) AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power / myspace page
- Works to improve the lives and contribute to the self-empowerment of people living with HIV/AIDS.
- TC has provided promotional support and free meeting space for ACT-UP.
- Believes that all sentient creatures, regardless of their species, are deserving of moral consideration and moral treatment and actively works for that goal.
- TC provides promotional support for AFA.
- Inspiring the Austin community with bicycles and other alternative forms of transportation by creating unique human powered vehicles, bicycle-based theatrical performances and educational programs for youth.
- TC provides promotional and material support for Austin Bike Zoo.
Austin Food Not Bombs West / Food Not Bombs network
- Meets every Sunday at 6 P.M. at Woolridge Park (Guadalupe & 9th st) to share free vegetarian food. There are hundreds of autonomous chapters sharing free vegetarian food with hungry people and protesting war and poverty throughout the Americas, Europe, Asia and Australia.
- TC provides promotional support for FNB and in the past was a location for FNB feedings on 2 days.
Austin Independent Media Center
- A collective of volunteer journalists and media activists who aim to inform and organize the community about important issues affecting our society.
- TC has provided promotional and financial support for AIMC
Austin People's Legal Collective
- A group of activists committed to providing legal trainings, doing legal observing and supporting folks throughout the entire legal process, from arrest to trial, when necessary.
- TC has legal support materials available in store
- Operates a community bike shop that repairs salvaged bikes & offers bicycle & bike trailer workshops. We have sent over 500 bicycles to Cuba, Mexico, and Central America and currently support a community bike shop in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.
- TC provides promotional and material support for BAB.
Blacklands Neighborhood Association
- The neighborhood association for the Blacklands area of East Austin.
- TC provides material support for BNA: 20 boxes of clothes (baby, kid's, women's professional).
CampCamp Queer Performance Night and GAYbiGAYGAY
- Camp Camp is Austin's queer performance night, usually at Bouldin Creek coffee shop, first Thursdays. 9pm. Free, all ages. GAYbiGAYGAY is the gay music event on the last day of SXSW.
- TC provides promotional and material support for CampCamp and GAYbiGAYGAY.
Casa Marianella / Posada Esperanza
- Serves as a shelter for recently arrived political refugess and migrants, including a Posada Esperanza, an emergency shelter for homeless immigrant women and their children.
- TC provides material support for CM: 30 boxes of clothes (baby, kid's, men's, women's). There is a 50% discount for TC customers referred by CM.
Deloney Street Community Garden & City Farm
- Two recently established green spaces in East Austin that are being turned into community gardens and center for permaculture and biointensive gardening. They are seeking volunteers to start work on projects now.
- TC provides promotional support for any free community garden and permaculture projects in Austin.
- Educating and empowering people to create a healthier environment through waste prevention. They started the first curbside recycling program in Austin and now operate two rural recycling drop-off centers and a recycling drop-off and processing center in downtown.
- TC provides a 20% discount to all members of EA and has made a commitment to EA's Landfill Diversion and Zero Waste programs.
- Greater Austin Garage Arts (G.A.G.A.) provides ready re-made fashions from upcycled articles of clothing and other post-consumer materials as well as how-to information and materials for folks that share it's drive to DIY
- TC provides material and promotional support to GAGA. GAGA provides material and promotional support to TC
- A building materials recycling and resale center, providing good quality new and used building materials at greatly reduced prices, to support the housing projects of Austin Habitat for Humanity.
- TC provides material support for HHR: large quantities of construction materials, doors, blinds, etc.
Home Made Boat Zine / homemadeboat@riseup.net
- An Austin-based zine containing news and listing of local radical projects.
- TC has carries copies of HMB.
- J is responsible for a number of free murals in the 12th street neighborhood, including mentoring local school kids in the creation of Mount Blackmore on the the side of Treasure City.
- TC provides promotional and material support for J's work. He has created 2 murals for us, as well as a mural for our neighbors, Black Butterfly
- Robert King learned to concoct his special praline-like candy from a fellow prisoner at Angola State Penitentiary in Louisiana. King spent 29 years in restricted confinement before being exonerated in 2001. His Candy is available for sale online and at Treasure City Thrift.
- TC provides promotional support for King and releasing the remaining members of the Angola 3.
KPWR - People's Will Radio / myspace page
- A web-based radio project, providing a safe and accessible space for local under represented members of the community and a forum for grassroots community programming.
- TC provides promotional support for KPWR and individual radio shows. We also provide material support: a mixer, 2 microphones, microphone stand, records, cables, computers and computer parts.
La Semilla Childcare Collective
- La Semilla Childcare Collective is a group of individuals who believes that childcare is a right. We work in solidarity with groups who are aligned with our ideas of autonomy, liberation, community building, and self determination.
- TC provides promotional and material support for La Semilla
Legal Assistance for Microenterprises Project
- LAMP provides free legal services for low income residents of the Texas RioGrande Legal Aid service area to start or sustain their small business.
MonkeyWrench Books / myspace page
- An all-volunteer, collectively owned and operated radical bookstore in North Austin. They have an extensive collection of radical and hard to find literature and media, and a space for community events.
- TC provides promotional and material support for MWB: 200+ books and t-shirts for screen printing.
- For 13 years, PeopleFund has made over 265 loans totaling almost $16 million to small businesses, schools, healthcare providers, and to develop affordable homes. They also focus on Entrepreneur Development, Community Education and Research and a Community Housing Trust
- TC provides promotional support for PF.
Project Abundant Life: Free Angola Capeoira Society
- An African-Brazilian art form combining fighting techniques and dance movements, ritualized gestures and the theatrical improvisations, percussive rhythms and rhythmic songs. Its origins lie among enslaved Africans taken to Brazil who wove element of their cultures from which they came into a shared response to their oppression during slavery and in its aftermath.
- TC provides promotional support for PAL.
- Queer Sol is a multidisciplinary artist collective founded by Queer People of Color to explore our diverse abilities, and share our experiences. Queer Sol seeks to provide a safe space for queer identified people of color and their allies to meet, dialogue, connect, and enact social change through artistic means..
- TC provides promotional and material support for Queer Sol.
Radical Encuentro Camp / myspace page
- A bi-annual camp to build solidarity amongst diverse communities, grassroots organizers and activist groups in Texas and beyond, through the use of popular education.
- TC provides promotional and material support for REC: tents, chairs, cookware, food, medical and educational supplies.
- A radical bookstore located in South Austin, that has sponsored readings and political forums from internationally known writers of color, human rights activists, and indigenous artists.
- TC provides financial and promotional support for RB.
Radical Urban Sustainabilty Training (RUST)
- An intensive weekend workshop focused on skills related to building autonomous communities in today's cities. The many innovative sustainability features on display at the Rhizome Collective are used as teaching tools.
- TC provides promotional support for RUST.
- A collectively-run, non-profit organization that maintains a community space in East Austin. They are working to build the world they want to live in, where the dominant values of competition, greed and exploitation are replaced with cooperation, autonomy and egalitarianism.
- TC provides promotional support for RC.
- A small group of Austin artists and engineers who shared a common vision of utilizing technology to provide and explore new mediums for art.
- TC provides promotional and material support for RG: non-working electronics and electrical appliances, to be cannibalized and made into robots rather than landfilled.
- A collectively-run radical infoshop and community space in Houston. They have a lending library, meeting space, free internet access, clothing exchange, zines, pamphlets, and books for sale.
- TC provided financial support for SB after they were burned down in 2007.
- SkillShare Austin aims to build community self reliance through interactive workshops and the free exchange of skills and knowledge. Ongoing projects include a publicly accessible database of local skillsharers and regularly scheduled workshops at diverse locations around Austin.
- TC provides promotional and material support for SSA: you can sign up for SSA at TC and we provide t-shirts and underwear for screen printing.
Texas Roller Girls / myspace page
- A worker/skater-owned and operated roller derby league, born and bred in Austin.
- TC provides promotional support for TRG and financially sponsors Honkeytonk Heartbreaker, Olivia Shootin' John.
Trouble Puppet Theater Company
- Produces adapted historical works that reflect today's political landscape- all with puppets.
- TC provided promotional and material support for TPT: fabric and material for puppets and costumes.
