What is mutual aid? And why are more people turning to informal efforts to help each other?

When major disruptions happen in communities, often the first people to respond are the residents themselves and their neighbors.

- By THALIA BEATY

When the pandemic shut down daily life or after a disaster like a hurricane or wildfire, people get together to take care of each other.

Even outside of a crisis, some who struggle to meet their needs may turn to mutual aid, the practice of finding resources from within a community and exchanging them for free.

Now, in response to government funding cuts, high prices and political uncertainty, especially targeting immigrants, interest in mutual aid projects has picked up, organizers and participants say.

"The exciting part about mutual aid is that you can really get together and help people in a really meaningful way just by pooling resources and being willing to reach out," said Mary Zerkel, who lives in the Rogers Park neighborhood in Chicago.

Mutual aid practices have a long history, especially among immigrant and Black communities in the US, like the Black Panther's Survival Programs or informal pooled savings circles.

Examples include sharing food, exchanging household goods and clothes, or organizing shared items like tools. In recent years, groups have helped people access reproductive healthcare, including abortions, and coordinated collective responses to immigration arrests under the umbrella of providing mutual aid.

In 2019, Zerkel helped start a shared artist and community space in her neighborhood along with a local chapter of Food Not Bombs, a longstanding mutual aid group that distributes food. When the pandemic hit, they cleared out the art supplies.