kaitlinlpettit

Because of you, people had a safe place to go in 2025. Imagine needing a bathroom, and having nowhere to go. For many people living without shelter, that’s a daily reality. But this year, you changed that . Because of you, toilet access was clean, reliable, and treated as the essential infrastructure it is. (If you’ve ever had to go right now, you already get it.) Because of you: 7 toilets stayed open and clean 365 days of reliable access 200+ people served each day 4 locations across the...

For the full version of this article, check out our free Substack post. On a trip years before Toilet Equity existed, our founder Paul Padyk found himself standing on a wooden platform over a creek in a high Himalayan valley. There were no trees to hide behind, only the river flowing below, and the uneasy relief of needing a bathroom and not having one. The smell, the exposure, the sound of water carrying everything away: it was a small, sharp lesson in vulnerability. A few weeks later, in a...

For the full version of this article, written by TE CEO Kaitlin Louise Pettit, PhD, check out our free Substack post. At Toilet Equity, we’re used to dealing with what falls through the cracks. We give people a place to poop—it’s basically our superpower. Unfortunately, our funding sometimes does the same thing. This year, I dreamed of doubling our toilet footprint in the Grand Valley. Instead, our plans had to shrink to match our budget, leaving hundreds of neighbors—unsheltered folks, gig...