Meowdy y’all! Welcome back to the Catnip Corner. Today’s topic is Mutual Aid.
So, obvious first stop:
What is Mutual Aid?
The idea is pretty simple. A community, working together, can provide support and aid for someone within their community who needs it.
So when you donate $10 to the GoFundMe for someone within one of your communities: that’s Mutual Aid.
When you get together with friends and build a food package or do a grocery shop for another friend who’s struggling: that’s Mutual Aid.
Whatever your communities are (and here they’re pretty centered around trans people, other queer people, and many flavors of neurodiverse), helping out within them (and, of course, receiving help from them) is Mutual Aid.
Why do Mutual Aid?
If you want to give aid to people, you have a number of choices. You can give to charities and non-profit organisations, large and small. You can give to those you see on the street—either collecting for something, or the homeless.
But Mutual Aid is about giving, directly, to people you know or those around you know, for a specific need they have.
Let’s have a real life example
One of the biggest Clowder contributors is Lexington. He heads up the GFX and Content Editors teams. He gives us graphics, videos, and more. In fact, all the gfx you see on here? Was done by Lexington.
Right now, he needs some help. It’s almost time for his top surgery, and he needs some funds to buy things to help care for himself afterwards, and some funds for transport and admin costs to legally change his name and then renew his visa.
Here’s Lexington telling us a bit more about what he needs, why, and what you can get in return for a donation:
These marathon streams are something I do from time to time, to try and help those around me raise the funds they need for anything from top surgery, like Lexington, to new equipment, to rent. We get together as a community, we bring in everyone we know, and we ask politely for people who are able, to contribute.
Incentives
It’s important to note that incentives and rewards are optional. We like offering things in return for donations, and we’ll often have various members of the community offering to give things as well. But Mutual Aid does not and should not rely on getting something in return.
Come and join us
If you’re reading this one the day it comes out, come and join us! The stream begins at 11AM PT (check here to find your local time), and will run for up to 6 hours, depending on donations—every $1 adds more time! And every penny we raise will go directly to Lexington.
And if we don’t see you there, you can still help! Contribute right here!
That’s all for today—I’ll let you know how the fundraising goes!
But in the meantime, please do subscribe and share!