Support Staff Presents: #HOMEfortheholidays

This year in lieu of hosting an in-person fundraising event, Support Staff will be joining the international Giving Tuesday campaign and celebrating #HOMEfortheholidays.

Why is this important to us? As a mental health education and awareness focused non-profit, we are working to build a happier, healthier hospitality community by breaking down the stigmas surrounding mental health, providing accessible and tangible resources to our community, and educating the food and beverage industry about what mental health is and how it affects their life. That's why this fundraiser and auction is SO important to us - we are actively fundraising to grow our current programs like the Please Hustle Responsibly Podcast and our education videos in collaboration with Healthy Pour, as well as launch a second round of the Comp Tab Relief Fund. In our first round of Comp Tab we were able to support 150 unemployed hospitality workers by distributing over $75,000, and with the second round of bar/restaurant closures we know that people in our industry need help now more than ever.

While the majority of our supporters come from the world of hospitality - we know that many of you may not. And to those of you who are on the outside looking in, we ask you to remember those of us that have been there for you throughout the years. Whether it is popping a bottle of champagne to toast a big win, curating the perfect experience to help you seal that business deal, hiding your engagement ring in the dessert, or even just being there to lend an ear at the bar after a hard day; please don't forget about us.

Our team is asking you to bid not only so you can enjoy a professionally-curated cocktail at home or impress your boss with the whiskey bottle of his dreams - but also bid to help keep the people that make up the hospitality industry afloat. These times are uncertain for all of us, but trust us when we say that our industry as a whole is at a loss for how to keep going in so many ways. Help us help those workers find what they need, from mental health resources to financial support to putting food on our own tables - trust us when we say that every bid truly counts.

Support Staff is a community of hospitality professionals working alongside mental health professionals, and community organizers to change the structures of the hospitality industry. Support Staff’s goals are to break down the stigmas surrounding mental health, give employers tools to better support their employees, and give hourly employees tools to better advocate for their well-being. The hospitality industry relies heavily on the emotional labor of its employees, which leads to the inevitable dehumanization of the individuals within this industry. It is an incredibly unsustainable business model, and has led to many untimely, and preventable, deaths. Support Staff’s target demographic encompasses all hospitality industry professionals within Chicago. Since mental health affects everyone – all socioeconomic backgrounds, all ethnicities, ages, and gender and sex orientations – nobody within Chicago's hospitality community is outside of the scope of our work.