How Teach-Ins Can Offer a Place to Start and a Place to Stay

Without too much trou­ble, I’m will­ing to bet just about every­one can name three exam­ples of mutu­al aid in action in their community.

(It is impor­tant to me per­son­al­ly to point out how groups like Indigenous tribes, the Black com­mu­ni­ty, LGBTQIA+, Appalachian, and oth­er groups who are typ­i­cal­ly under­served and mar­gin­al­ized, have been doing for time out of mind what the rest of us are just now realizing—community is everything) 

Far from “X non­prof­it opened a mod­est four-mil­lion-dol­lar food bank com­plex,” exam­ples are often so much clos­er to home. That neigh­bor­hood mom who works from home has vol­un­teered to make sure all the kids get on the bus safe­ly when their par­ents are com­mut­ing. The phys­i­cal clean-up after a nat­ur­al dis­as­ter and goods dri­ves to replace those basic human needs in the recovery. 

These exam­ples show us two things. First, that we are already far more adept at car­ing for one anoth­er than we think. Second, that this idea of orga­niz­ing for care out­side of the nor­mal bounds of orga­ni­za­tions is not a new con­cept. What if we could bring our own strengths to the table and grow clos­er in care?

In fact, this kind of care in the com­mu­ni­ty as a response to a cri­sis, fill­ing a need gap in one’s pop­u­la­tion, or the ongo­ing need to lean on one anoth­er, is one of the first things I learned about mutu­al aid when I came across the term. 

Mutual aid is exact­ly what it sounds like, with one key dis­tinc­tion from char­i­ty or orga­ni­za­tion­al aid. Mutual aid:

• is based on the acknowl­edge­ment that every­one has some­thing to give and the fun­da­men­tal dig­ni­ty to receive
• fea­tures the com­mu­ni­ty at the cen­ter of this mutuality
• rec­og­nizes that only the com­mu­ni­ty knows what the com­mu­ni­ty needs and has access to.

In com­par­i­son, char­i­ty is often one-direc­tion­al, fea­tures orga­ni­za­tions or “high­er ups” as the cen­ter of care, and assumes a knowl­edge of the need rather than know­ing it from the source. Charity is essen­tial and has its place, but if you’re like me—someone who feels help­less in the cur­rent state of our world and wants des­per­ate­ly to do something—mutual aid pro­vides both the oppor­tu­ni­ty to exert some influ­ence over some­thing we care about, as well as a means of com­ple­ment­ing what char­i­ty accom­plish­es every day.

We have wit­nessed dozens of exam­ples of real peo­ple com­ing togeth­er for a one-off act of com­mu­ni­ty care and have prob­a­bly par­tic­i­pat­ed our­selves. But what if, when we coör­di­nate what peo­ple can give and what peo­ple need, we turn kind­ness into infra­struc­ture? What if we can find a niche in our community—a gap that needs to be filled—and tap into our per­son­al net­works to build some­thing that is infor­mal­ly com­mu­ni­ty-based and orga­nized, recur­rent, and last­ing? This can look like skill-shar­ing, resource exchanges, com­mu­ni­ty “phone trees,” neigh­bor­hood sup­port groups, shared tool libraries, or sim­ply iden­ti­fy­ing and respond­ing to com­mu­ni­ty needs in a repeat­able man­ner. These then become sys­tems built on ordi­nary generosity.

One of the most sig­nif­i­cant chal­lenges to this des­per­ate desire to do some­thing, for me, has been that I don’t know what I don’t know! I’ve been to lots of gath­er­ings late­ly where some amaz­ing peo­ple so clear­ly share my val­ues for com­mu­ni­ty and my desire to do some­thing. These groups exem­pli­fy the poten­tial of com­mu­ni­ty sup­port net­works to affect last­ing change and pro­vide aid. Defining what that looks like doesn’t have to be (and shouldn’t be!) a sin­gu­lar decision—the point is to co-cre­ate the com­mu­ni­ty we wish to see.

If you’ve ever want­ed to help— or need­ed help— your voice mat­ters here. 

We’re gath­er­ing input from neigh­bors about what they can offer and what they need. It takes only two to three min­utes to share your expe­ri­ences and hopes for a stronger, more con­nect­ed com­mu­ni­ty. The link to the sur­vey below is quick; only three of the ques­tions are marked “required,” and your lev­el of par­tic­i­pa­tion is entire­ly up to you! 

We already have the raw mate­ri­als we need for a sup­port­ive com­mu­ni­ty. We can learn tons of top­ics to help every per­son find their niche, their role, and their impact—together.

Please click the image below to take the survey.