About the Mutual Aid category

General Discussions Mutual Aid
#1

Need a bit of help? Looking for someone to look check in on a pet while you’re away, or a last-minute babysitter for an evening? Need some help getting some piece of technology set up? Is your car in the shop and you need a ride to go pick up groceries or a prescription? Or maybe you just need someone to talk to for a bit. That’s all mutual aid, and your community is here to lend a hand when you need it. Just ask here!

Something to remember though, is that mutual aid is solidarity and support, not simply charity. Everybody has something to contribute to our community, and everyone has something they need. That need could be as simple as someone to talk to for a bit, some help moving furniture, or help getting around after an accident.

You have a skill or a resource that can help someone in our community, and this is where you can let folks know how you’re able to help!

#2

Two things I wanted to make clear about mutual aid and our townhouse community:

  1. Mutual aid is not meant in any way to replace the strata council! They are still responsible for the management of the strata corporation and all the common / shared-common property. It is up to the strata council to manage landscapers, cleaners, or any other companies that have been contracted for services, as well as the money collected via strata fees.
  2. Mutual aid is not just for disasters or crises, it’s not charity or a way to “save” people, or anything like that.

At it’s core, mutual aid is just trying to build a better community through solidarity and cooperation. It’s recognizing that we all have different strengths and weaknesses, and helps us to plug in and help make the biggest difference – right here, locally.

There are no roles, or commitments, or anything like that. If all you can contribute is that you make amazing cookies to share with neighbours or for a bake sale, that’s great! Anything you can do, from small gestures to big projects helps us build a stronger and more stable community. Something as simple as giving someone a ride to get groceries because their car is at the mechanic – that’s mutual aid! It’s not big grand gestures, it’s mostly building community through small actions to help your neighbours.

I don’t know about you, but I don’t want Stanley Green to be like the apartments I’ve lived in where I didn’t know any of my neighbours. I’ve got skills and resources that I want to use to help anyone and everyone who needs that help.

If you’re still a bit unsure, there are plenty of resources out there online that can probably explain exactly what mutual aid is better than I can.

Lastly, if you don’t want to participate – that’s totally okay! Please don’t disparage the idea of mutual aid or folks who reach out for help, though. Everybody has times in their life when they need help, whether it’s with troubleshooting a computer issue or getting groceries because you’re sick and can’t leave your place. Just because you haven’t needed help doesn’t mean other people won’t, and trying to shame people when they need help is not useful for anyone.

Some quick resources to look at if you’re curious:

Guides:

Articles about mutual aid: