Welcome & Context: How to Use the Mutual Aid

Why This Matters Now

What This Toolkit Offers

How to Use the Toolkit:

Guiding Principles (Before You Begin)

Step-by-Step: Starting a Local Mutual Aid Program

Step 1: Ground in Purpose & Values

Step 2: Form a Core Team (Start Small)

Step 3: Identify Real Community Needs

Step 4: Map Collective Resources

Resource Map Template

Step 5: Start Small and Act Quickly

Step 6: Communicate Clearly and Inclusively

Step 7: Set Up a Low-Barrier Request Process

Step 8: Match Volunteers to Requests

Step 9: Care for Each Other While You Work

Conflict Transformation Template

Care & Wellness Check-In Form

SECTION 1: Basic Info

Sustainability Reflection Template

SECTION 3: Needs & Support

SECTION 4: Notes for Care Team or Coordinator

Step 10: Reflect, Document, Adapt

Welcome & Context: How to Use the Mutual Aid

The work of showing up for one another, especially in times of systemic failure and political uncertainty, is sacred. And it’s not new. Communities have always taken care of each other when institutions didn’t. That’s what this resource is all about: reviving and reimagining those practices through the lens of solidarity, not charity.

 The Mutual Aid Toolkit is a hands-on resource, not a checklist or a top-down model—it’s a flexible, practical guide built from the experiences of grassroots organizers, neighbors, and care workers across movements. You can use it to launch, strengthen, or re-ground a mutual aid project in your own community.

Why This Matters Now

As part of the Solidarity in Action campaign, we know that real resistance must include caring for one another. We’re organizing not only to change policy, but to build new systems of support rooted in our values. When we start food deliveries, care check-ins, ride shares, or community healing spaces, we’re doing more than meeting a need—we’re building the future we want to live in.

Mutual aid isn’t about charity or saviorism. It’s about:

• Survival and resistance
• Sharing power, not hoarding it
• Making sure no one is alone

What This Toolkit Offers

This guide walks you through the step-by-step process of starting or sustaining a mutual aid effort—from gathering a team and naming your values to building a resource map and designing care systems that prevent burnout. It includes:

• Templates for team roles, care check-ins, and conflict transformation
• Tools for assessing needs and mapping community assets
• Practical tips for outreach, documentation, and inclusive messaging

But more than tools, this guide helps you ask powerful questions:

• What needs are not being met in our community?
• What does it look like to resist isolation and abandonment?
• How can we practice care and solidarity—not just in what we do, but in how we do it?
  

How to Use the Toolkit:

Whether your group is just getting started or has been active for years, this toolkit is a living document. Add to it. Revise it. Share it. Use it to fuel your work—not to constrain it.

Let this toolkit be one of many things that holds us accountable to each other and to the world we’re building: one rooted in care, justice, interdependence, and freedom.

Guiding Principles (Before You Begin)

Mutual aid isn’t a service or charity—it’s a act of survival and resistance. It builds collective power while addressing immediate needs.

Key concepts to hold as you start:

1. Solidarity, not charity
   → Everyone gives and receives support. It’s about collective liberation, not helping “the needy.”
2. Mutual aid resists systemic abandonment
   → It shows up where systems fail and replaces isolation with interdependence.
3. Participation, not professionalism
   → No degrees or credentials needed. Mutual aid is led by and for the people most affected.
4. Practicing new ways of being together
   → Your group is a mini version of the world you’re trying to build. How you treat each other matters

Step-by-Step: Starting a Local Mutual Aid Program

Step 1: Ground in Purpose & Values

Before acting, define why you’re doing this and how.

Do This:

• Read or discuss Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis by Dean Spade with your group if you have not already done so.
• Write down shared values: equity, anti-oppression, transparency, trust
• Name what your project is resisting (e.g. poverty, isolation, state neglect)

Reflection: “What needs are not being met in our community—and how can we meet them together?”

Why We Exist:

We started this project because…

[Template]

Use this to root your group in shared intention and political clarity.

Include: group mission, shared values, and your “why.”

Our Core Values:

• Solidarity, not charity
• Anti-racism and abolition
• Mutual respect and care
• Sustainability and accessibility

What We’re Building:

We envision a community where…

Step 2: Form a Core Team (Start Small)

Mutual aid begins with trust. You don’t need a big group, just a committed few.

Do This:

• Gather 3–6 people who share the values above
• Set a regular meeting time (virtual or in person)E
• Use consent-based role sharing: facilitator, wellness, logistics, finance, outreach

Care Principle: Center relationships and mutual support from day one.

Use this to define rotating or shared leadership roles.

[Template]

Step 3: Identify Real Community Needs

Let those impacted lead. Don’t assume—ask.

Do This:

• Host listening sessions or one-on-one conversations
• Use an anonymous need collection tool (Google Form, paper box, hotline)
• Avoid saviorism: support with people, not for them

Tools: Simple survey, post-it wall, translated forms

Step 4: Map Collective Resources

Mutual aid isn’t about what you don’t have—it’s about what’s already in the community.

Do This:

• Inventory your team’s and community’s time, skills, money, space, tech, cars, etc.
• Create a shared “community asset map”

Example Assets:

• Volunteers with translation skills
• A borrowed van or community fridge
• Local printer willing to donate flyers

Track the assets in your network—people, skills, materials, space.

Community Resource Inventory

For information on building relationships and coalitions  view the replay of our Solidarity in Action Training series session with Christina Jimenez

Solidarity in Action: Building Relationships & Coalitions w/ Cristina Jimenez

For additional resources check out our  Building Partnerships and Coalitions Toolkit  which includes activities like:

• Holding a coalition clinic
• 8 key points for building coalitions

Step 5: Start Small and Act Quickly

Avoid endless planning. Get into action.

Do This:

• Choose one clear, simple project (ex, meal delivery, ride coordination, care calls)
• Pilot it with a small group of recipients
• Build feedback into the process
• Use the suggested menu of options as a reference

Reminder: You don’t need to solve everything. Start where you are.

Step 6: Communicate Clearly and Inclusively

How we talk about issues with people can either compel them to take action and communicate shared values; or it can alienate us from the very people with whom we are trying to build community. Review the Indivisible Learning Lab Toolkit for “Messaging for Solidarity w/ Race Class Narrative”.

Do This:

• Avoid “helping the needy” language; say “we care for each other”
• Translate materials and provide low-tech options
• Use social media, flyers, SMS, posters, and word-of-mouth

Include: Contact info, hours, how to request help, how to get involved

Step 7: Set Up a Low-Barrier Request Process

Make it easy for people to ask for what they need—no judgment or documentation.

Do This:

• Offer multiple options: Google Form, SMS, voicemail, in-person ask
• Ask only what’s essential: What do you need? When? How should we contact you?
• Let people remain anonymous if they wish

Tip: Be clear that there are no eligibility requirements or proof needed.

Step 8: Match Volunteers to Requests

Develop a system to connect needs and offers.

Do This:

• Use a shared spreadsheet or simple database
• Assign one “dispatcher” or coordinator per week
• Always confirm with both the volunteer and the recipient

Model horizontal coordination—not centralized control.

Step 9: Care for Each Other While You Work

Burnout and internal conflict are common in mutual aid groups. Plan for it.

Do This:

• Create regular reflection and check-in spaces
• Make it normal to rotate roles, take breaks, and name limits
• Build conflict resolution tools into your culture (use a values-based response)

Remember: Your group’s well-being is part of the mutual aid.

Conflict Transformation Template

Help your team respond to tension in a non-punitive way.

When Conflict Arises…

Ask as a group or care team:

• What happened?
• What values were not honored?
• What is the impact on the group?
• What does repair look like?
• What supports or boundaries are needed?

Our Agreements:

• We are allowed to make mistakes.
• We stay in a relationship as long as it's safe.
• We prioritize repair over punishment.

  ---

Conflict Response Form

1. Grounding: What Happened? Describe the incident: what, who, when, and where.

2. Values in Question

• Solidarity & mutual respect
• Consent & accessibility
• Transparency & shared leadership
• Conflict transformation
• Other: ___________

3. Impact Reflection — Note emotional or relational consequences.

4. Care & Repair Needs — Identify what support or boundary is needed moving forward.

5. Resolution Plan

Follow-Up Debrief - Reflect on learning, accountability, and future adjustments.

Care & Wellness Check-In Form
For Volunteers & Mutual Aid Participants

SECTION 1: Basic Info

Sustainability Reflection Template

Use monthly or quarterly to check in on group health.

Group Sustainability Reflection

• What feels alive or energizing right now?
• What’s feeling heavy, stuck, or unclear?
• What’s one thing we could pause, simplify, or shift?
• What roles need more support or rest?
• What new energy or people can we bring in?

SECTION 2: Wellbeing Check-In

1. How are you feeling physically?

• Great
• Okay
• Tired
• Unwell
• Other: ____________

2. How are you feeling emotionally/mentally?

• Grounded
• Stressed
• Disconnected
• Overwhelmed
• Other: ____________

3. Do you feel connected to the group or supported in your role?

• Yes
• Somewhat
• No
• Not sure

4. What has felt hard recently (if anything)?

SECTION 3: Needs & Support

5. Do you need support right now?

• No, I’m okay right now
• Yes, I need to talk to someone
• I need help with a task/delivery/check-in
• I’m not sure, but I’m feeling off

6. Are you interested in:

• Taking a break from volunteering
• Shifting roles to something requiring lower energy
• Being paired with a buddy/check-in partner
• Receiving groceries, supplies, or other support

SECTION 4: Notes for Care Team or Coordinator

Anything else you’d like to share with us?

Step 10: Reflect, Document, Adapt

Mutual aid is ongoing. It evolves as needs shift.

Do This:

• Debrief with your group regularly: What’s working? What’s not?
• Invite feedback anonymously or in listening circles
• Document what you learn in a shared space
• Zine, logbook, or public update = community accountability