CAC Community Conversation: Impacts of Funding Loss & Attacks on CBAs

Over the past few weeks, we have felt deeply grief-stricken by the dismantling and defunding of essential sites for information access and preservation of cultural heritage and community knowledge.

While media coverage has primarily focused on the impacts of funding loss on large museums, libraries, and archives, we want to ensure that the devastating impacts on community archives are not overlooked. Making space to reflect and ground ourselves together is essential right now. Strong and strategic solidarity is what we – community archives and memory workers need to face increasing attacks on our memory work.

We invite you to join us for community conversations and grounding exercises on May 7th and May 19th, where we can share our experiences of loss in this moment and discuss how to move forward together.

Event Details

• Date: Wednesday May 19, 2025
• Time: Time: 5:00 HT, 8:00 PT, 11:00 p.m. ET
• Registration is free but required. Please RSVP in this event page. Registration will be capped at 100 participants.

Accesibility

Our sessions are not recorded. Live transcription and closed captions are enabled during the live Zoom sessions.

Together, we will reflect on:

• What is making your work feel at risk?
• What is making your work feel protected?

About the Community Archives Collaborative

The CAC is an emerging peer support and resource-sharing network for memory workers, educators, and activists working to honor long traditions of survivance and liberation.

Through mentorship, public programming, and knowledge creation initiatives, the CAC advocates for worlds grounded in collective care and remembrance – for our ancestors, ourselves, and our futures.

Community Archives Collaborative Event Policy

Please note: All CAC events are currently virtually hosted.

Our events aim to:

• Build skills and collective power around community-based archiving and storytelling.
• Foster connections among memory workers across different geographies, generations, and subject areas. 
• Develop sustainable strategies for memory work—whether financial, intellectual, or emotional sustainability. 

In order to encourage this, we use these practices: 

• We ask that attendees pre-register so that we can adequately plan for the number of participants, and to minimize the risk of “Zoom bombing” and other disruptive tactics.
• We sometimes use breakout rooms to enhance opportunities for dialogue, though we do not require any attendees to participate.
• We do not record events or use AI-enabled note taking services to ensure privacy for attendees. 
• We use closed captioning to enhance accessibility. 
• We follow up with registered attendees via email to provide summaries and links to resources mentioned or utilized in the events. 
• We survey attendees at the end of each session to learn how we can improve future events. 
• We remain open to feedback on events through our email address hello@communityarchivescollab.org.
• We welcome event proposals and collaborate with prospective facilitators to ensure that compensation reflects all the labor involved in the planning process, event hosting, and post-event reflections and communications.

Let's keep in touch!

Stay tuned for announcements about our upcoming events, publications, community resources and more. Follow us on social media or join our mailing list here (We try our best to move slow and with intention, we won't spam your inbox).