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The Mutual Aid LA Dispatch #7 (October) - El Despacho #7 (Octubre)

OCTOBER 2022

MUTUAL AID LA: GOINGS-ON

Hello. Thank you for choosing to open up the October 2022 Pumpkin (Dis)patch 🎃✉️. We’re relieved you’re here because Los Angeles has really outdone itself this spooky season and we really don’t want to be alone. It’s scary out there. I’ve been thinking a lot about fear and the power it has over us since having a recent conversation with a friend about all-or-nothing thinking. She shared that this binary mindset had been preventing her from showing up to the efforts and projects I had invited her to over the last couple of years, from food distributions to even remote opportunities. If she couldn’t commit to staying for the entirety of the activity, she didn’t end up going at all, that time or ever really. When she compromised and showed up for the portion her schedule or energy allowed, she ended up attending more frequently.

I’ve seen myself stuck in similar cycles where the more I don’t partake in something the more the chances of me partaking in the future go down. We experience fear around being new to something because being new means being vulnerable. You’re entering a situation having to admit you don’t know everything, which is hard for a lot of us. I don’t think it’s something we’re taught to sit with. An instructor (Hi, Sophie Reff) once called this practice ‘beginner’s brain’ and encouraged us to embrace it and try to always have it. When we show up in a new-to-us environment, we’re taking a risk on all of these unknowns and the illusion of being in control isn’t really there to protect you. What if people are judge-y? What if I don’t understand the question? Will I be the only one not wearing black? Will it be obvious I’m not as well-read? It’s a little scary. And experiencing moments of discomfort in one setting can be enough to avoid putting yourself in a position like that again.

You can begin to see how not showing up to something perpetuates more not showing up. And you can see how feelings of shame for not having gone yet get layered in. But if we resist the all-or-nothing thinking and dip our toe in here and then there, we’ll bypass those feelings of shame and fear. On all scales, for groups and individuals, things are scarier alone and the best way to combat fear is collectively, with others. So, that’s what we’re inviting you to do. Let’s all join efforts, show up to things and dip our toes in, give it a second or two and continue to show up when and how we can. No giving up. Always look outside ourselves and be open and willing to try something different and try consistently. There’s no better time to face your fears than now.

We mean it, right now. Join us THIS SATURDAY OCTOBER 15th for a MUTUAL (AFR)AID HALLOWEEN FUNDRAISING BASH featuring spine-chillingly familiar live music by The Screech Boys, a supernatural DJ set by T.P. Dutchkiss, costumes, candy, food, drinks and carnival-style fun all at The Robinson S.P.A.C.E. in Filipinotown. We suggest an RSVP and a donation of $10 or more, but nobody will be turned away for lack of funds, and of course Halloween attire is gravely encouraged. We’ll see you there!

*You may notice a few new elements have been added to the dispatch this month, like highlighting what groups and mutual aid efforts offer in addition to the ways you can contribute. We’ve also translated the dispatch into Spanish, which you’ll find right below the English version. Our goal is to make this useful and accessible to as many people as we can. Feedback is always welcome.

October 14, 2022

The Mutual Aid LA Dispatch #6 (September)

SEPTEMBER 2022

MUTUAL AID LA: GOINGS-ON

Hi! It’s been a moment but the dispatch is back with its sixth installment and we’re grateful you’re here right now, reading it. Before anything else, we’d like to uplift the Services Not Sweeps coalition and community that have been fighting the expansion of the immensely harmful, violent, and deadly 41.18 ordinance, which makes it illegal to sit, lie, sleep or store property in public and is intended to harm our unhoused neighbors. We have witnessed up close how this ordinance truly destroys lives without offering any meaningful path to shelter, much less housing. When people are swept and displaced–oftentimes moving just a few blocks away–they can lose connections to services, life-saving items like medicines and identification and a familiar community needed for survival. This destabilizing paired with the severe lack of available services makes 41.18’s existence, and especially its expansion, even more illogical, violent, and cruel to our unhoused neighbors.

Unsurprisingly, the abuse continues at city hall as our City Council chooses to limit public comment, leaving very little to no time for the very people who are affected by this ordinance to address the council. We support our community of housed and unhoused organizers who shut down the council meetings in an attempt to give the public a chance to speak – a people’s public comment. We wholeheartedly reject the comparison of this demonstration of first amendment rights to the January 6th insurrection. The violence and racism shown by the council members themselves and through LAPD is beyond unacceptable, and we all need to be opposing their actions, racism, and violent legislation.

September 2, 2022

The Mutual Aid LA Dispatch #5 (May)

MUTUAL AID LA: GOINGS-ON

Greetings! Welcome to our fifth dispatch, another installment of LA-based mutual aid and grassroots efforts for you to explore, support, and join. As we witness the city’s horrifying displacement of our unhoused neighbors through the so-called “CARE+” sweeps, the overmilitarization of LAPD and LASD, and the at-times overwhelming heat of summer upon us, we are also witnessing many people working so hard to fight back and care for our communities.

After a period of rebuilding Mutual Aid LA with long-term sustainability as a top priority, we’re ready to welcome people (back) into the fold for both in-person and remote forms of engagement. Here, we’ve got several opportunities ready and waiting. There’s always room for more at Produce in the Park , our free food distribution program in collaboration with the LA Community Fridges (Thursdays 11:30AM-1:15PM @ St. James Park near USC). Sign up and be sure to check out our new merch for purch!

Do you see yourself as the tapped-in type? Or do you aspire to be a tad more tuned-in to all the resources and efforts in L.A.? Great! Consider joining the Dispatch team! Yes, this here thing you’re reading right now. We could really, really use your help. Or, devote some time and skills to helping us build a countywide resource and group directory for everyone to utilize. Please reach out if you want to learn more about any of these opportunities!

May 6, 2022

The Mutual Aid LA Monthly Dispatch #4 (March)

MUTUAL AID LA: GOINGS-ON

Hi! We’re thrilled you’re here for this month’s collection of LA-based mutual aid and grass roots efforts and the array of ways they’ve got for you to contribute. We’re also excited for you to get to know March’s featured effort: Palms Unhoused Mutual Aid (PUMA).

Please open your hearts, calendars and pockets and give generously. Share this dispatch far and wide, as many groups are running out of funds and experiencing a low volunteer turnout. We know it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and hopeless when looking around the world and seeing the bleak reality, but we’ve got to remember and remind each other that there are things we can do that have an impact right here in our own neighborhoods. It is often there that people find meaning and light and reason to move forward.

If you are part of a mutual aid or grass roots effort or event and you’d like to be included in our April dispatch, please fill out the provided form. Even if the effort has been included in a previous dispatch, we ask that you re-submit new and/or recurring opportunities every month so we can keep this thing a current and useful resource.

March 10, 2022

The Mutual Aid LA Monthly Dispatch #3 (February)

MUTUAL AID LA: GOINGS-ON

Greetings from your friends at Mutual Aid LA! We’re excited you decided to spend a few minutes with our third dispatch–which if you’re unfamiliar–is a roundup of groups across Los Angeles engaging in mutual aid work. Mutual Aid LA was formed in response to COVID-19, but it’s clear there will be negligence by our city’s government with or without a pandemic. We’ve been reevaluating and shifting and building a new foundation so that our group functions as a network that connects people with groups and groups with one another. Accessible directories of mutual aid groups and resources are in progress, along with more in-person and remote opportunities to learn from and support one another. Share this dispatch, submit efforts you think should be a part of this dispatch and above all, use this dispatch to meaningfully engage with the city you call home.

FEATURED EFFORT: SOUTH HILL FRIDGE

The South Hill Fridge popped up just across the 110 from USC at South Hill & W 28th in August of 2020 as a part of the LA Community Fridges network. It’s often challenging to find a fridge host who can provide a reliable electricity hook up, an accessible location with foot traffic and width for the fridge to not be an obstacle, who is welcoming to all community members and who doesn’t collaborate with law enforcement, but the folks who run Cargo Costume, approached LACF ready to host and provide everything asked for and more.

The fridge serves a housed community in nearby apartments and the unhoused community in the surrounding blocks. A few months after first plugging it in, fridge organizers started to hear feedback from the unhoused community about how it was tricky for them to risk leaving their possessions to make the mile round-trip walk to a fridge that is often empty. And so, South Hill Sundays was launched and with the help of ready-to-eat meal suppliers like Joy of Sharing and The Good Karma, meals are picked up and distributed both by wagon to encampments and by hand at the fridge itself.

As organizers continue to build relationships with the surrounding community, they’ve expanded what they provide and are calling in more volunteers to keep it happening consistently.

This mutual aid effort raises money to purchase as well as collects donations of hygiene items, water, pet food, clothing, tarps, socks, blankets, and gift cards to distribute along with the meals. And they’re always scheming up more for the near future, like a resource list specifically tailored for unhoused individuals, a pet wellness clinic for the neighborhood’s many dogs and cats and a Drug Store day inspired by the organizers at MacArthur Park. Keep an eye on The South Hill Fridge, as it’s a beautiful example of a hyper local mutual aid project that has had challenges but even more growth, and therefore continues to be a hub of resources for the community in which it lives.

How YOU can contribute...

Add extra food and water to your next grocery trip and stock the fridge!
Sign up to clean the fridge or remove boxes from bulk food donations once a week
Source donated items for distribution or drugstore day (hygiene items, pet food, tarps, socks, blankets, etc. View a full list)
Sign up to become a pick-up/delivery driver for meals on Sundays
Sign up to distribute meals and supplies by wagon to the unhoused encampments in the neighborhood (for the social and fun-loving folks)
If you don’t live near the South Hill fridge, find out what Los Angeles Community Fridge is closest to you, and jump in or build on to what’s happening there.
Learn more about LACF in general and if there isn’t a fridge near you, look into what it takes to get one up and running.

February 14, 2022

The Mutual Aid LA Monthly Dispatch #2 (January)

MUTUAL AID LA: GOINGS-ON

Hello and Happy New Year! Thank you for taking a look at our second monthly dispatch. Below you’ll find a collection of opportunities to contribute to Los Angeles-based efforts in the form of time, money and/or items. If there’s a mutual aid effort you are a part of or think highly of and would like other folks to know how they can keep it cooking, be sure somebody from the group fills out this form in order to submit to be a part of next month’s dispatch!

FEATURED EFFORT: PRODUCE IN THE PARK

Every Thursday folks gather at the sweetest little parcel of land in the middle of the city near USC for Produce in the Park. It was started over a year ago by Mutual Aid LA organizers who coordinated pick-up of rescued surplus produce in Commerce, transport to Saint James Park to be culled and sorted and then delivery to several LA Community Fridges.

Neighbors of the park began expressing an interest in what was going on, and organizers adapted by adding a free produce bag component. Produce in the Park is now a steady operation distributing to more than 50 people right in the park and stocking at least 5 fridges every week. This is a true mutual aid effort as everyone is welcomed to show up, pitch in if they’d like and take as much as they can carry.

How YOU can contribute...

Head to Saint James Park on Thursdays at 11:30am to help cull and bag produce.
Volunteer to pick up and transport the produce Thursday @ 10:30am in Commerce.
Sign up to swing by Saint James Park around 12:30pm and pick up a few boxes of sorted produce and deliver to an LA Community Fridge of your choice.
Donate paper or sturdy plastic bags (contact produceintheparque@gmail.com to coordinate drop-off)

January 11, 2022

The Mutual Aid LA Monthly Dispatch #1 (December)

MUTUAL AID LA: GOINGS-ON

Thank you for opening the first Mutual Aid LA Monthly Dispatch! Mutual Aid LA is now focusing on being a connector and informational hub for localized mutual aid efforts across Los Angeles. We become a strong and sustainable people-powered movement when we lean on one another, collaborate, delegate, communicate and share resources and ideas. This movement remains people-powered if we keep bringing people in, so we created this dispatch as an invitation, a catalyst for jumping on in. Below you’ll find a collection of opportunities to contribute to Los Angeles-based efforts in the form of time, money and/or items. If you’d like more folks to know about the ways they can contribute to a mutual aid effort that you are a part of, fill out this form and we’ll get you in the next dispatch!

FEATURED EFFORT: MISS RODGERS’ NEIGHBORHOOD

Miss Rodgers’ Neighborhood is a Black woman-led organization “with a vision for Our Communities sharing and caring for each other as conscious acts of Love and Solidarity.” From clothing pop-up shops to grocery distributions in Compton and Watts to a comprehensive rental assistance program, we’ve been watching Miss Rodgers’ work and all-encompassing Neighborhood grow.

How YOU can contribute...

Volunteer every other Sunday at the People’s Free Food Drive Thru from 1-4pm in Compton. Email to confirm: The411@MissRodgersHood.org
Give money!
Donate new or gently used clothing to Miss Rodgers’ Pop-Up Shop. Email above to arrange hand-off.
Follow and amplify Miss Rodgers’ Neighborhood on social media. Make your circles aware of this effort and bring them in!

December 5, 2021