So, this isn’t the first post ever made like this, but I’m trying to do something a little different than just posting a bunch of links. I’m only gonna include resources that are international, common, displayed either as a map or as a geographically-sorted list, and easy to participate in, to make this masterpost as accessible as I possibly can. If you’re reading this post you’re probably an English-speaker with an internet connection, and so with that in mind my goal here is that any given link you click will have a decent chance of having something near you, and there will almost certainly be at least one link on this list with something you can plug into
Groups
- Mutual Aid Wiki - A map of mutual aid groups of all kinds, largely (but not exclusively) ones started in response to the pandemic
- Food Not Bombs - A map of free public meals from rescued food waste. Can be a little outdated
- Buy Nothing Project - A list of hyper-local gift economy groups
- Trash Nothing - A list of local groups where people give and request things that would otherwise be thrown away
- Transition Network - A map of local groups seeking to build sustainable circular economies from the ground up, for people, not profits
- Industrial Workers of the World - One big labor union for everybody, with local chapters across much of the world
Locations
- Slingshot Collective’s Radical Contact List - An international catch-all list of projects
Intentional Community Directory - A map of communes, housing coops, land trusts, eco-villages, and similar communal living projects
Repair Cafés - A map of spaces where you can show up and have your broken items repaired for free (or volunteer to do so for others)
Sharing Spaces
Little Free Library’s Sharing Box Map - A map of little free libraries that have been converted into sharing spaces for food, personal care, or hygiene items
Freedges - A map of community refrigerators for sharing food
Little Free Pantries - A map of sharing boxes for non-perishable food
Can’t Find Anything?
None of these lists are comprehensive, and these aren’t the only resources available either. Try using a search engine or looking on social media with keywords like “[your location] mutual aid”
If you’ve looked everywhere you can think of but are still coming up short, you can DM me (not on anon) with the rough area where you live and I’ll try to find some stuff for you
Maybe you could start something yourself! Here are some resources: How to Form an Affinity Group, Small Town Organizing for Anarchists, resources for mutual aid groups from Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, seven steps to starting a Food Not Bombs group
If you don’t have even a single accomplice to start an affinity group with, there are still actions you can take on your own! Check out my #practical tag for ideas