UPDATE Please see https://mutualaidarlington.org for more current information!
We Need To Get Organized
Arlington neighbors are doing some amazing things to help each other out this past week. Besides the widely-read Arlington List and the many Arlington Facebook groups, I’ve seen a half-dozen lists or spreadsheets of other good local resources or ways to help.
These are all great things to do, but what we need is a meta-organization that helps neighbors more easily find resources, volunteer in specific areas, and then connect people to get help. Doing this meta-organizing will multiply the efficiency of all the great people volunteering - but it will take effort and organization from a core team that can work together, and includes at least some technical skills.
One Way To Meta-Organize
Medford and Somerville have done an amazing job in building their site:
This uses a set of Google docs of different kinds to help organize both specific kinds of volunteers (drivers, cash, shopping, etc.) as well as hyper-local pods and the like. They’ve even translated a lot of the site and subpages into Spanish so far!
What’s really impressive is they’ve built a Google Doc that explains how to replicate their system for other communities! I would love to get started on this!
Can You Help?
There are many different Google docs or Facebook volunteer groups in Arlington - but there isn’t a good way to find all of them (especially if you don’t use Facebook).
So please check out mutualaidarlington.org where I’m collecting links to all local volunteer groups, and am actively looking for volunteers to help meta-coordinate all the other great volunteer groups in Arlington.
Bonus: Support Local Businesses is a Google Spreadsheet of various kinds of local Arlington/Lexington area businesses that are still open - often for take-out or drive-up service. Help them out!
Mutual Aid Organizations Elsewhere
- Medford and Somerville have an amazing MAMAS group, using Google Docs, and includes instructions on how to replicate their structure for other groups. Notes on how they map pods.
- Cambridge Mutual Aid (website)
- Brookline Mutual Aid (Google doc)
- Allston / Brighton Mutual Aid (Google Doc)
- Charles River Mutual Aid (includes BU) (website)
- Mutual Aid JP & Roxbury (MAMAS style Google Docs)
- Mutual Aid Cambridge (Google Form volunteer intake only)
- Mutual Aid Worcester (Facebook groups)
One great meta-list is this Google Spreadsheet of various mutual aid groups. and another larger meta-list of groups, and there’s a nice map of mutual aid groups in the US.
There’s a huge list of technology and organizing resources from the UK.
Other Great Resources? What Should I Add?
If you have other good resources, or other groups that are already doing meta-organizing around Arlington volunteers, let me know!
If you’re on Github’: just click “Propose change on GitHub” to make a PR. Otherwise, email shane@menotomymatters.com with your suggestions.
Thanks for reading!