Safe Space for Hurricane Helene Survivors and Supporters
Asheville Can is a community for Western North Carolina's unstoppable and resilient Hurricane Helene survivors and beautiful and generous supporters. By locals for locals, we advocate, destroy roadblocks and provide tangible steps to get your needs met -- and claim the life that's been waiting for you.
Welcome! Choose Your Path!
Survivor
This includes people who are locals (even if you also, like many, do myriad things as a supporter). If you are a person who survived Helene, choose this.
Supporter
Individual (nonlocal) ally of Asheville and WNC (visitor, former resident, have friends/family there, just someone who cares about this area), nonprofit or business.
Asheville Can...
Help Ourselves
Some days can feel impossible, but at Asheville Can you'll always have neighbors to give you a boost, connect you with resources, and share ideas and advice.
People say you can't beat the system. Of course you can!
We have all the hacks to cut through red tape, know and defend your rights, and access the support and services you're entitled to with ease.
Sure, the game is rigged. But we've got the cheat codes.
Enjoy Life, Not Just Endure It
Everyone deserves:
food, water and the basic necessities to survive
health and wellness
safety, freedom and transportation
access to benefits entitled to under law without obstacles, unfair denials and nefarious red tape
unconditional acceptance free of discrimination
enough income (doing what you love, not what you do just to live) to sleep easy at night
and a comfortable, harassment-free, livable and affordable home to do so.
Fight for People Before Profits and Politics
Hurricane Helene amplified ongoing crises in housing, income and discrimination. The very agencies that should be our lifeline often are adversaries, not advocates.
There are landlords profiting off of people's pain. There are public servants who stopped serving the public.
Politics are just a distraction. It's not us against us. We all want the same thing: to live a life we would want our kids to replicate. We're in this fight with you.
"Well-aimed slingshots can topple giants."
(Maggie Kuhn)
Be Part of the Launch
This Helene survivor community is by Western North Carolina locals and for locals (no organizations or corporations or government agencies, although we plan a directory to find and review those). We want your input to figure out the biggest challenges locals are dealing with right now, what is falling through the cracks, and what we should prioritize. Every question is optional, and all answers will be kept confidential. We just don't want to assume what is needed most, we want to listen first.