I’ll be honest with you: we’ve raised $13,800 towards our goal of raising $40,000 by Dec. 31st to support an increase in our capoeira teachers’ wages. We are deeply grateful for every donation thus far, but have a long way to go to meet our goal. This matters.
Why?
All of our teachers except for Mestra Cigarra hold other jobs—sometimes with grueling schedules—to make ends meet in the notoriously unaffordable San Francisco Bay Area. We need to pay them more so we can retain these incredible team members who do so much for our community.
Balancing availability for teaching with other jobs is a common challenge for our teaching artists. Our primary youth teacher, Instrutor Soldadinho, frequently has to decline teaching requests from local schools because he must attend to his other two jobs.
We need to address this issue, and unfortunately, like many aspects of life, it comes down to funding.
The fees we earn from our classes only cover 40% of our operating expenses. Each year, we need to secure funding for the remaining 60% through grants and donations. But we must make it work: we’re dedicated to providing our community with the artistic, musical, and physical education it needs and deserves. That’s why I’m reaching out to you: I hope you can help our teachers teach.