Captain Save a Flow operates in Oceanside, California. Oceanside is a vibrant community in North County San Diego. CSAF plans to expand into serving the neighboring cities of North Carlsbad and Vista, as well.
We volunteers reside in Oceanside, and see firsthand the increasing financial distress of our neighbors. We witness the need for period products while volunteering with other local organizations. According to 2020’s annual homeless census, the City of Oceanside’s unhoused population was on the rise. By May 2022, there had been a 30% increase in this population1. Instead of standing idly by, CSAF stands in solidarity with locals to create a unified voice. Our motivation is to bring awareness to the period poverty escalating in, “our own backyard”!
The experiences of menstruation by people who are homeless, however, has been historically overlooked by the public, civil society actors, policy makers, and academics. 2
- Layne, T. (2022, May 19) Oceanside Population Now Has The Highest Population of North County. from https://voiceofsandiego.org/2022/05/19/oceanside-now-has-the-highest-unsheltered-homeless-population-in-north-county/ ↩︎
- Chapter 4: The Realities of Period Poverty: How Homelessness Shapes Women’s Lived Experiences of Menstruation. The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK565627/]. ↩︎