HOW TO CREATE A LOCAL POD / PHONE TREE FOR MUTUAL AID

GET BACK TO THIS RESOURCE AT

For now: http://bit.ly/neighborsupportNYC, soon: http://mutualaid.nyc 

Contents

CONTEXT

PHONE TREE HOW-TO

STAY SAFE WHILE YOU BUILD YOUR LIST: PUBLIC HEALTH TIPS!

REACHING OUT TO YOUR NEIGHBORS

Adaptable Building Flyer in English & Spanish

Notes to Leave on Neighbors’ Doors

Follow Up One on One by Phone or Online

Stay Connected

BUILDING UP: CREATE A LOCAL NEIGHBOR SUPPORT NETWORK / POD

WHO MADE THIS SITE?

CONTEXT

People are worried and are also trying to be there for each other in ways large and small. The purpose of this resource is to help folks put together a very local phone tree: the first building block to help make sure that folks stay connected no matter what, and receive the support they need in a timely way. Many of the people who will most need support are much less online and may not want to share their private information and intimate needs with strangers on the internet, for example via an open Google Sheet. And if lots of folks volunteer but no one is there to coordinate them, good intentions will go to waste. This resource is for folks who are willing to help serve as coordinators to help their buildings or blocks create a phone tree. Make a phone tree as soon as you can THIS WEEK - it will only get harder.

The following pages provide a basic how-to of how to create your phone tree. We will continue to add information about creating support networks as we find or come up with it, and some of the resources we drew from or were inspired by are linked at the bottom here.

See a template intake form to create a phone tree here. You can:

• Download and print a PDF of this form here.
• Click this link and hit “request access” to receive an editable version you can copy to make your building’s phone tree.
• Use this as a model to make your own form. Note: we included the questions we did, at the level of detail we did, after reviewing the COVID-19 forms of many other grassroots groups in NYC and nationwide, and reflecting on our experiences during Sandy. It is important to balance (1) volunteers having the information they need to prioritize outreach and provide appropriate forms of support, and (2) vulnerable residents needing to have their privacy protected. Do not collect information about specific medical needs on your intake form!! If more details are needed, get them in a 1 on 1 conversation later.

Stay strong, stay safe, stay loving!

PHONE TREE HOW-TO

General tips:

• Work with the people & structures folks already trust! If you have a tenant association, faith community, or local organizing group that already connects folks in your area, try linking up to them.
• Language justice: if many of your neighbors speak a language other than English, you NEED to make sure your phone tree is accessible to them, too! Work with bilingual residents to serve as floor captains and help with outreach. Get your intake form translated if you can. Otherwise, have a bilingual floor/block captains reach out to any residents who need interpretation; the floor captain can enter answers into the English-language form on the resident’s behalf based on their answers.
• Digital divide: online forms are OPTIONAL, not required for either neighbors or floor captains.

• Many of the mutual aid resources that have been going around are Google Sheets and forms. These are very helpful for coordinators but are not accessible to folks who lack computers or aren’t as tech-savvy, including elders, the people who are most likely to need help.
• That’s why floor/block captains and a phone tree are essential! Reach out to residents, talk to them by phone, and take down their answers on a paper form or in the online form.
• Floor/block captains do NOT need to know how to use Google Docs/forms, what’s most important is that they have good relationships with their neighbors & willingness to reach out to support each other!!!

• Go with what folks are most familiar with if you want to use emails and phone numbers to create additional ways for folks to get in touch, such as a WhatsApp group, Facebook group or Google Group. People don’t have time right now to learn a new platform, and you don’t have time to teach them! Phones are best because they are most accessible to everyone.

See the following pages for a detailed illustration of how to make a phone tree!

STAY SAFE WHILE YOU BUILD YOUR LIST: PUBLIC HEALTH TIPS!

If you are above 50 or have a chronic health condition, do not go out if you can avoid it. Your demographic is seeing a high mortality rate with this disease! You can still help to build your phone tree, but please do your part of the work remotely/from inside.

If you’re not in a high-risk category, you have a bit more flexibility, but remember that you can spread COVID19 even if you’re asymptomatic. Wherever you go outside your apartment, to protect yourself and folks more vulnerable than you are, prepare yourself to fight the spread:

• Use a disposable tissue to open doors or touch anything: hand railings, elevator buttons, even items in a grocery store. Consider it contaminated after you use it and throw it out.
• Carry hand sanitizer. Apply it whenever you touch something potentially contaminated.
• Keep 6 feet distance from other people. I know, this is New York and that’s hard but try. If you are expected at an event where you won’t be able to do that, cancel.
• Wash the packaging of anything you purchase with water and dish soap. Other people have touched that container before you.

For more public health best practices around COVID19, please see here. For specific advice about how to stop the spread in apartment buildings, see here.

REACHING OUT TO YOUR NEIGHBORS

Adaptable Building Flyer in English & Spanish

MayDay Space has a great template for a flyer you can put up in your building in English and Spanish. Get it here!

Notes to Leave on Neighbors’ Doors

You can print (or write out!) copies of the contact sheet below and flyer the houses/apartments right around where you live. Tape the note to your neighbors’ doors, or talk to them at a safe distance (see public health tips above).

Follow Up One on One by Phone or Online

As soon as you can, collect basic information from everyone. We suggest you use our Phone Tree Intake Form to make sure you get the right info - enough to target help where needed, not so much that their sensitive info is put at risk.

If you don’t already know the person well already, you might want to start with some getting-to-know-you topics, such as:

1. Hi neighbor! We don’t know each other well yet and I’d love to get to know each other a little better.” Share basic info about yourself, and why you wanted to reach out to folks. Ask things like: “What about you? How are you feeling about this pandemic right now? How are your friends and family?”

2. General concerns: “What are you/your family concerned about right now in regard to COVID-19? What do you think this may mean for you?”

3. “What resources, skills, interests, knowledge do you hold that you would be open to sharing with our neighbors?”

As you’re talking to folks about the health questions on the phone tree intake form, provide context and address any concerns:

4. First ask if they are generally in one of the high-risk groups listed on the form, or think they might end up needing support. If they hesitate with this question, you can say something like: “This is just for me to know because there are a lot of people on our floor/block and I want to make sure I know who to prioritize reaching out to just in case! I also want to ensure volunteers know if they need to take any extra precautions to not spread the virus to you if they come to offer help. Does that make sense?”

5. Ask them if there is anything else they’d like to share about their health, but THIS IS NOT REQUIRED. You can ask things like: “Is there anything else you feel is important for me and other volunteers to know about, such as where you pick up prescriptions or which clinic you go to? I won’t share this information with anyone on our floor/block, but it would help direct volunteers to you if you end up needing support.” Please note, it is not safe, responsible or consistent with HIPAA guidelines to request or collect detailed information about medical conditions unless you are a medical professional, and DO NOT enter any such information into any digital form accessible to others besides you and, if needed, a very small number of other volunteers. 

Stay Connected

• Create a group chat for your list and as people text you, add them to the group. We recommend WhatsApp but whatever works for you all.
• Troubleshoot as needed - helping folks download whatsapp and get set up if they need it, answering questions, and asking neighbors to help bring more people in.
• Phone trees should be between 5 and 30 or so. If there are more than 30 neighbors interested, make more than one tree and figure out point people to connect them if needed.
• Stay in touch with folks. Check in every now and then, even if there is no immediate crisis. Social distancing can be tough, and it’s nice to stay connected!

BUILDING UP: NEIGHBORHOOD NETWORK

Again, a phone tree is an important FIRST step to make sure you are able to be in touch with everyone who may need assistance down the line. Once you have gotten your local phone tree in order and not before, you can take these steps to help build out your local neighbor support network:

1. See if there is already a local group working in the same area. You can see info about many of the existing neighborhood groups here. Reach out to see if they have a list that the captain of your phone tree can join; if not, ask them if they want to collaborate together locally. You’ll need an email list, not just a spreadsheet or FB group, to help coordinate folks locally.
2. Create a Google Group for folks to join. Remember that a Google Group can’t reach everyone which is why the phone trees are key, but they are a great way of connecting many people and making asks of many local volunteers at once.
3. Figure out how you want to receive potential info from volunteers. You can use an existing list, or if one doesn’t exist yet:

• You can share the link to the Mutual Aid NYC General Volunteer form, and we’ll send detailed info about folks in your area back to you.
• You can also contact Mutual Aid NYC and we’ll create and send you a new volunteer intake form just for your area, in AirTable or Google Forms, whichever is easiest for you to use.
• Note: We made this volunteer intake form based on our experiences during Sandy and knowing the kind of information coordinators really need if they want to connect support to those who need it. We strongly recommend using our form or copying it exactly.

4. Post in existing local groups that are not related to COVID19 relief, and invite folks to fill out your volunteer form and join your local Neighbor Support Network. You should also reach out to any local community groups and institutions that already have strong connections with neighbors. You can say something like: “I’m working to build up a network of folks who are interested in helping to build local phone trees to make sure we stay in touch, and field requests for support from neighbors in need. If you’re interested, can you please join this Google Group and fill out this form? PM me if you’re able to help w/digital coordination, outreach or translation. You can also find instructions on how to make your phone tree here: bit.ly/neighborsupportNYC. This is urgent to do NOW.”

• Note: if you’re connecting to an existing local group such as a faith community, it is not necessary for everyone in it to join your listserv. Talk to whoever coordinates that existing network to see what they think makes sense. It might be better to forward requests to that person to share with their network, since people are more likely to make use of and respond to people they already have trusting relationships with. These existing networks are also a great way to build phone trees!

5. Ask if anyone else is able to help provide digital coordination to your local group listserv. You can send this ask to your Google Group once you have it, and follow up with folks who indicated willingness to do this on their volunteer form or in a DM to you. Digital coordination means being in touch with other digital coordinators and people who are helping to build local phone trees; scanning responses from potential volunteers in your neighborhood to try to match needs with offers if any needs arise that a local phone tree group is not able to meet on their own; and approving new requests to join your neighborhood listserv. It’s helpful to have more than one person do this, including at least one familiar with AirTable, Google Forms or whatever you’re using to collect responses from volunteers.
6. Seek help for interpretation and translation. Do this as early as possible in the process. Doing it before you reach out widely is ideal!

WHO MADE THIS SITE?

This resource was created by Adrien Weibgen (on Twitter @AdrienWeibgen), one of the many folks who helped launch Mutual Aid NYC. Adrien helped launch and run People's Relief, the largest post-Sandy grassroots relief effort in Coney Island. People's Relief trained hundreds of volunteers to bring support to sick, elderly & disabled residents trapped in their buildings without working elevators, heat or hot water, an initiative the New York Times called "better organized by the City." Adrien has published work on the legal obligations of governments toward people with disabilities during times of crisis - research that shows that most cities in the U.S. are wildly underprepared for disasters of any kind, so we’re all we got.

Thanks to Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville (MAMAS), Mutual Aid Jamaica Plain, and Seattle/King County COVID-19 Mutual Aid for tips, and inspiration in facing the pandemic with community instead of fear.