No One Should Grieve Alone...
You’re receiving this email because of your previous interest in the Collective Loss Adaptation Project (CLAP) and/or the work of Rabbi Elliot Kukla. Before we share some exciting updates about our work, we want to take a moment to honor the creativity and wisdom of Sins Invalid co-founder and artistic director Patricia (Patty) Berne, who became an ancestor on May 29, 2025. Patty was one of the first supporters of CLAP and their collaboration has shaped our history, vision, and growth. #PattyLivesThroughUs
In the winter of 2022, Aya* got COVID along with most of her college class. In the following weeks, her friends quickly got better but she stayed too exhausted and sick to leave her room. Aya missed the people, places and precious activities that had once given shape to her life. She felt totally alone in these losses until she came to a disabled grief circle hosted by the Collective Loss Adaptation Project (CLAP). There, Aya connected with mourners marking a wide variety of losses from the deaths of people who are often seen as “better dead than disabled” to the loss of accessible places in a changing world. Aya was still mourning but she had finally found the caring companionship she needed to help her adapt to a new stage of life.
Because of your interest in the work of CLAP and/or Rabbi Elliot Kukla, we’re thrilled to let you know about some exciting growth that will allow us to help more people like Aya.
CLAP began in the winter of 2022 as an incubated project of SVARA: a traditionally radical yeshiva. We’re grateful for the years of nurturing we received there as we formulated our vision, and are overjoyed to announce that we are now an independent project, fiscally sponsored by the SPM Disability Justice Fund.
CLAP’s staff has expanded as we step into independence. Long-time Steering Committee member and Disability Justice educator and dancer India Harville is now CLAP’s Co-Director, along with our founder, Elliot Kukla. We’ve also brought on Jung Han Messinger and Opulence Abundance as coordinators for Development & Fundraising and Programs & Administration.
Growth requires scaffolding and support, especially as we continue tending to the collective losses of this moment, including pandemics, climate crises, the loss of rights, as well as genocide and political violence. CLAP is both unique and uniquely hard to fund, because the disabled grief we work with is so disenfranchised that it’s rarely even recognized as a need by funders. And yet every program we have offered has had an extensive waiting list.
As one participant shared with us after attending a virtual event: “I personally have been so overlooked and put off to the margins that I forget how wonderful it is to feel the sunshine of being seen and heard and witnessed with open hearts. Thank you for making this space a gift.”
Please help us continue to offer this desperately needed gift with a tax-deductible donation of any amount, you can now give a one-time gift here or a monthly contribution here.
If you’d like to stay in the loop about our upcoming groups and events - including our COVID-19 Community Art Memorial Installation (which is made possible by the generous support of Alice Wong and the Disability Visibility Project), Disabled Grief Circles, and upcoming Rapid Response Grief Support Events - subscribe and connect with us here; if you’d prefer to no longer receive these mailings, you can unsubscribe through the link at the bottom of this email.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at clapinformation@gmail.com. We look forward to connecting with you soon.
Warmly,
Elliot, India, Jung, & Opulence
The Collective Loss Adaptation Project (CLAP) Team