Welcome to the Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville (MAMAS) network! In these fast moving and uncertain times, it’s important that we show up for each other and remember that we are not alone. This mutual aid network has formed out of the COVID 19 crisis, but we come from and honor a long history of mutual aid organizing that looks different in different places and at different moments.
We believe:
- Everyone has something to offer and everyone has things that they need. No one knows everything but together we know a lot.
- Needing things is not a personal failure – we are living in a profoundly unequal society without safety nets. This is not our fault but we believe in taking collective responsibility for getting everyone through times of crisis.
- Every person deserves dignity and stability in their lives. No matter why someone is reaching out, we do our best to support them.
- All flourishing is mutual: individual well-being is collective well-being.
- This is an experiment, and we are flexible: learning from our mistakes, redesigning our systems as we go, and building our muscles of decentralized organizing. We remain committed to each other, even when we mess up.
- We have to trust in and fight for people we don’t know. This kind of work moves at the speed of trust (a learning from the Movement for Black Lives) and we choose to slow down, through urgency, in order to build trust and maintain accountability to each other and our network.
- Mutual aid will only get us so far – we are in solidarity with organizers making large-scale demands of our community and our politicians for an equitable world. We are just one community in a long history of mutual aid committed to collective surviving and thriving.
We follow these values by:
- Keeping it simple. We use low-tech tools that keep the barrier to entry low and our resources accessible to all. We prioritize accessibility, and try to make things easy to learn and participate in.
- Keeping it safe. We protect people’s information and offer community support if anyone feels threatened.
- Spreading out the work. We maintain a distributed organizing network where local levels can operate independently and create solutions for their specific needs.
- Finishing what we start. We respond to requests in a timely way and are transparent about what we can and cannot support.
- Listening and reflecting. We ask and listen to what people need, and shift our actions in response.
- Working towards language justice. We translate everything that we can and are building a multilingual leadership to support all of our neighbors.
- Centering racial justice. We know that wealth and safety nets have been systematically taken apart for people of color over generations, leaving people more vulnerable in crises like this. We commit to mutual aid support as a form of resource redistribution and weaving of a new community-held safety net for all.