IHSI Diversity Committee Monthly Resources
Each month, the IHSI Diversity Committee shares resources and learning opportunities with the rest of IHSI staff. Curating and sharing these resources allow us to educate ourselves on various topics related to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. As an institute devoted to promoting all forms of health, we want to share these resources more broadly with our campus and community stakeholders. We hope that you will find them as useful as we have.
Mutual Aid creates healthier, more resilient communities
This month, IHSI communications manager Amy Clay shared resources on mutual aid networks.
Recent changes to social support systems, including cuts, interruptions, and more stringent administrative barriers to programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Plan (SNAP) have led to more people struggling to make ends meet. Mutual aid is one of the most critical tools that communities can use to take care of each other.
Mutual aid refers to the practice of resource sharing and building communities of care. Intended to offer care and fill the gaps that government and nonprofit programs cannot meet, mutual aid can take on a variety of forms, from supporting those who cannot access traditional support systems to helping communities respond to natural disasters and other crises.
The North Bay Organizing Project (NBOP), for instance, organizes several mutual aid networks to respond to natural disasters, provide protection and support to immigrants and asylum seekers, offer community medical clinics, and other supports needed by members of their community.
They created a carousel (in English and Spanish), introducing the concept of mutual aid, providing examples, and suggesting how people can get offer mutual aid during climate crises. This graphic featured here discusses the history, examples of mutual aid activities, and importantly the philosophy of “solidarity not charity” that guides many mutual aid efforts.
Mutual aid efforts surged during the COVID-19 pandemic as community members mobilized to meet the needs of their neighbors. As we encounter new problems with deteriorating governmental support, local groups and organizations have been quick to mobilize and communicate the resources available to our food insecure neighbors. Champaign- Urbana Public Health maintains a list of local food resources, including little, free pantries encouraging people "to take what you need, leave what you can."
Beyond its value in meeting material needs, mutual aid also offers a sense of belonging and pride among all mutual aid network participants, and helps to build healthier, more resilient communities.
We have a few mutual aid networks here in Champaign-Urbana too. During the early days of the pandemic, community members came together to meet the needs of those most vulnerable or impacted by COVID-19. Their efforts coalesced to form CU Mutual Aid. While less active these days, CU Mutual Aid still runs a Facebook page where they share resources and requests for aid. They recently coordinated efforts to respond to the SNAP crisis.
In honor of Trans Awareness Week, we want to highlight our local Name Change Fund. Started in Fall 2023, the Name Change Fund has given money to over a dozen people in five states.
Martha Mills, the founder of our local Name Change Fund, has also helped five people go through the process of filling out and submitting the forms, getting a court date, and updating their name in different places after it has been legally changed.
Mills, who works at University Laboratory High School, says they do the work to “to help people live as their authentic selves.” You can learn more and donate to the name change fun by checking out their Instagram account.
If you have 2-3 minutes: Check out the full carousel, What is mutual aid? created by NBOP.
If you have 12 minutes, check out the TED Talk, How One Small Idea Led to $1 Million of Paid Water Bills to learn how a programmer took to Twitter (before it was X) to make a difference.
Take a deeper dive into the research: In Virtual Solidarity, Concrete Care: A Review of Mutual Aid Online, human computer interaction researchers from the Wellness Technology Lab at the Georgia Institute of Technology examine how organizers have been using technology in their mutual aid efforts to provide mutual support and foster collective well-being. They presented their findings at The ACM CHI conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Take a look at the full paper or watch this nine minute presentation video.