#1: MUTUAL AIDS (50WTMAC)
(This is Part 1 of the series, “50 Ways to ‘Make a Change’”.)
Get involved in mutual aids, or consider creating a mutual aid network of your own.
Mutual aids are exactly what they sound like — community support networks where you can either offer goods & services to help someone in need, or request those goods & services when you’re the one who needs them. More specifically, mutual aid might come in the form of housing, transportation, emotional support, food, storage, childcare, and so on. Having a network of people to provide all these necessities to each other is especially important during the pandemic.
Getting Involved in Mutual Aids
If you’re looking to offer or request aid from existing local networks, you should definitely check out Mutual Aid Hub. This site connects you to organized mutual aid efforts in your area: all you have to do is type your zip code into the search bar, and it’ll generate a bunch of mutual aid options near you. When you click on any of the results, you might be taken to a form that allows you to indicate whether you’re providing or asking for aid, or a page that acts as the mutual aid’s “community” — this’ll either be a formal website or social media group that provides extra updates and information.
Some mutual aids might be specifically designed for certain demographics — for example, there might be hubs that are meant to act as safe spaces for LGBTQ+ people, a particular racial/ethnic group, or even students that attend a certain university. As with any organization, you should consider whether you’re part of the community that a given mutual aid aims to empower before becoming involved in it.
If you don’t see any mutual aids in your area that match your needs, you might want to consider creating one. Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and activist Mariama Kaba put together this super helpful toolkit called Mutual Aid 101, which can guide you through the steps of organizing a mutual aid in your own community. You could also check out the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) for more information on community organizing, or look for a AFSC office near you, as they might already have connections to existing mutual aid networks you don’t know about.
To summarize, the four basic steps in creating a mutual aid seem to be:
Do your preliminary research, and identify the focus of your mutual aid. Determine the specific needs that your community might have, and look into whether or not there are existing organizations that suit these needs. If not, then…
Develop a “neighborhood pod” for support. Community organizing is no joke, and no one should have to do it alone. It might be a good idea to start with one or two people who are close to you, and build your network from there. You could do this by putting up flyers in your neighborhood, or publishing shareable social media posts that give basic information about the mutual aid you wish to start.
Build a sense of community within your network and establish guidelines & boundaries. Once you’ve spread the word about your mutual aid, you should get to know the people who are involved! Since you can’t really have in-person gatherings because of the pandemic, a Zoom or Skype call with community members is a great opportunity to discuss your interests, needs, and goals.
Start supporting each other. Maintain that sense of community you’ve built, and consider creating a website or multiple social media pages where people can easily access information and updates about your community’s organization.
All of these points are expanded upon in Mutual Aid 101, which — I can’t emphasize this enough — is INCREDIBLY helpful for any community organizer.
Even though it seems like there are a lot of considerations and steps to starting a mutual aid, don’t let that discourage you. At its core, a mutual aid shouldn’t be thought of as some grand “community service” endeavor. You’re basically just asking people to tangibly stand in solidarity with one another, and share in each other’s humanity.
If all this still sounds a little overwhelming and over-the-top, don’t worry. You’re probably already practicing various forms of mutual aid in your everyday life — if you’ve got people whom you rely on for support, and who also rely on you for support, then congrats; you’re doing the thing!
Evidently, mutual aids can take on many forms — and ALL of them are valuable. They can be as intricate as a formal community organization, or as simple as setting up a video call with some friends for all of you to check in on each other.
Whether formal or informal, mutual aids are crucial to getting us through not only this pandemic, but this period in American history. Because in moments like these, all kindness is revolutionary.
