Cecilia Gentili’s 2022 memoir, Faltas: Letters to Everyone in My Hometown Who Isn't My Rapist, was met with critical acclaim. In it, she details the peril and promise of growing up Trans.  In a titular moment Cecilia writes a letter to her childhood rapist’s daughter, “And there was one other thing he knew: I was a girl. He saw I was Cecilia. He saved my life and ruined it forever.”

This abused Argentine Trans kid grew up to be an immigrant, actor, writer, journalist, sex worker, activist, and advocate. Translash media is doing a beautiful tribute following Cecilia’s death last week and they will make additions throughout the rest of this month to celebrate her life and achievements.

Reclaiming Herself, Empowering Community

Cecilia spent intentional time in therapy reclaiming her power after untold amounts of childhood trauma.  On that journey, she became a force of nature, a blueprint for the kind of energy that can change a community and impact the world.

Those who knew her describe her role in the community as similar to an effective backbone organization. She coordinated, strategized, and leveraged different forms of power; bringing resources to bear that definitively improved the lives of LGBTQ+ people, especially Trans folx, especially through her organization Trans Equity Consulting.

Mutual Aid, Collective Impact

We wanted to be more than in awe of Cecilia, we wanted to find tools that would help us apply the lessons of her life’s work.  To that end, there are two frameworks we thought might help us in terms of organizing for impact at work, at home, in our unions, or as a volunteer.

Mutual aid, collective impact.

What is Mutual Aid?

You probably heard about mutual aid during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic but ultimately may still be wondering what it actually is? Mutual aid is where everyday people get together and discuss each other’s needs, then they come up with a plan to share/find resources to meet those needs outside of formal power structures within society. They also organize against incumbent power structures that cause the lack of resources in the first place.

Check out mutualaidhub.org to find out what kind of mutual aid is happening near you.

The Collective Impact Philanthropic Model

For those that have some form of nonprofit or for-profit institutional power, the Collective Impact model can help you craft work that impacts the root cause of problems.  Defined in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (SSIR), “Collective impact is a network of community members, organizations, and institutions that advance equity by learning together, aligning, and integrating their actions to achieve population and systems-level change.”

Community Empowered

Cecilia Gentili mastered both mutual aid and collective impact before there were formal studies or frameworks that institutions endorsed. Her life was an example, even a template, to help us learn how to empower and care for our communities.

Here are some other intersectional examples of inspiring, empowering work in several communities:

• In Harlem, Perri Ormont Blumberg of Yahoo News highlighted 3 socially conscious for-profit business owners Veganhood, Triple T-Shirts, and Natural Ash
• The Sahan Journal’s Ibah Ansari and Cynthia Tuthe profiled Zahra Wahidy’s work at the Afghan Cultural Society in Minneapolis Minnesota, “which started off as a cultural and educational organization, took on the role of a refugee resettlement agency” acting as the backbone organization for Afghan resettlement in Minnesota
• According to the AP’s Thalia Beaty, foundations are building conversations and legal funds to protect against DEI attacks from right-wing extremists
• In his podcast, William Lawrence co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, discusses mutual aid with two founders, Jerry Norris of The Fledge and Julia Miller of Punks with Lunch