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NYC-DSA Covid-19 Response
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COVID-19 MUTUAL AID &
ORGANIZING RESPONSE

🌹#NYCDSAMutualAid🌹

Hey Neighbor!

In these fast moving and uncertain times, it’s important that we show up for each other and remember that we are not alone.

Mutual aid is a powerful way to build strong connections- we all have something to offer and we all have something we need.

The COVID-19 global public health crisis has thrown every contradiction and failure of capitalism into striking relief; at this time more than ever, we must turn to our community networks for solidarity and collective care.

That’s why NYC-DSA has partnered with other grassroots groups in all five boroughs to help create Mutual Aid NYC (MANYC), a city-wide directory of local mutual aid responses. You can use MANYC as a hub to find local mutual aid infrastructure in your neighborhood and plug in directly.

We want to avoid duplicating efforts and support existing groups as much as possible. If you have a pre-existing relationship with a community group, reach out to them and listen to what they need. If you know of any groups who are or may be doing mutual aid work already, please have them fill out the MANYC group intake form if they’re interested so we can support them by having our Neighborhood Point People funnel volunteers, resources, and aid requests to them.

SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER!

Shortly after you fill out your information, a Neighborhood Point Person will contact you and let you know how you can get plugged in to support an existing aid group, or help them start one in neighborhoods where none exist yet.

They may add you to an existing neighborhood Slack, or our new Mutual Aid Slack for neighborhoods that don’t have their own communication infrastructure yet. There, you will be able to see aid requests that come in from Airtable, and coordinate with each other to fulfill them.

BECOME A NEIGHBORHOOD POINT PERSON!

On our volunteer intake form, there is also a section to sign up to be a Neighborhood Point Person (NPP), which is more involved than being a general volunteer. As an NPP, you will be heavily involved in coordinating volunteers, bottom lining scaling up these mutual aid groups, and supporting them long-term.

There are various Neighborhood Point Person (NPP) roles you can help fill, including:

If you indicated that you’d like to be a Neighborhood Point Person (NPP), download Signal if you haven’t already, and we’ll add you to a group chat to explain next steps! There will be several NPPs per neighborhood and a core team to help you out!

We will also hold a training for all Neighborhood Point People via Zoom on Sunday, March 29 at 3 pm to fill you in on everything you need to know!

This training will include:

DONATE TO THE NYC-DSA MUTUAL AID FUND:

The Abolition Action working group of the NYC-DSA Socialist Feminists recently launched a grocery fund to provide necessary direct aid and support to local communities and individuals affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

This fund is a continuation and expansion of those efforts!

To request financial support, we will be providing an aid form for people to fill out. Small-cash grants will be distributed to those who request them on a first-come, first-serve basis. Please stay tuned to this space and our social media accounts for updates.

Donate at: bit.ly/covid19aid

OTHER CITY-WIDE RESOURCES:

NYC DSA POLITICAL EDUCATION:

FACTS & NEWS ABOUT COVID-19:

HOW TO ORGANIZE DURING A PANDEMIC:

DONATE TO SOLIDARITY FUNDS:

TAKE ACTION:

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:


HELP US BUILD:

We are looking for support: these documents were put together in a few hours by some comrades and we definitely need help from more people to get this thing going on the scale that we need. Here are some roles that need to be filled:

Spreading the word - We need to spread the word about what we’re doing in concise and clear ways to ALL parts of New York - help us make and distribute flyers, spread the word online, and reach out to other friends.

Translations/Language Justice - Please reach out if you have capacity to translate some of our materials into Spanish, Yiddish, Hebrew, or Haitian Creole.

Organizing The Orgs - Why reinvent the wheel? New York City is filled with awesome organizations that already have tons of resources and skills. We want to form networks with them to maximize mutual aid! Help us reach out to existing networks and figure out how to power up together.

Budgeting - Determining financial needs and distribution based on principles of harm reduction and effectivity.

Something else! - We are dreaming of a hotline! A way that students who don’t have access to school lunches still get fed! Your brilliant idea!

We know there are many members looking for an outlet to help right now, and are working to identify the places we can do the most good while protecting our neighbors and ourselves. We will follow up as soon as possible.

Email nycdsacovid19@gmail.com to get involved.

About Us, Comments & Suggestions

We are a group of DSA comrades from Abolition Action, Socialist Feminist Working Group, Mutual Aid/Disaster Relief, Ecosocialism, and rank-and-file who saw many community COVID-19 guides coming together all over the place. We decided to collect them in one place and offer you a chapter-wide mutual aid resource sharing opportunity . Request changes or additions by making edits + suggestions through this link. You can contact us directly at nycdsacovid19@gmail.com. At this time our main priority will be organizing DSA-specific resources and those of other coalitions organizing across the entire city.

Not a member of DSA (yet)? Join here. 

bit.ly/nycdsacovid19

Thanks to Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville (MAMAS) and Mutual Aid Jamaica Plain for their brilliant resource hub templates. Thank you to the NYC-DSA groups Abolition Action, SocFem, Media, Ecosocialist Working Group, and MA/DR for your tireless effort getting these resources developed.

Want to add a resource we’re missing? Email us!