Mutual aid efforts are often the first to help people after a disaster. They can ensure more equitable distribution of resources and feed power-building work as they provide direct support to people who are hurting.
In solidarity and support to people impacted by the Los Angeles area wildfires, consider these actions:
If you want to donate money, you can give to a central fund run by the Movement Innovation Collaborative, who will redistribute all funds directly to power building organizations on the ground in Los Angeles County.
For renters affected by the wildfires, Los Angeles Tenants Union offers this resource guide, which includes Know Your Rights information.
Mutual Aid LA Network (MALAN) resource guide.
For those interested in local volunteering, Collidescope Foundation and Los Angeles Climate Week are mobilizing large-scale relief efforts to provide immediate aid and long-term support; fill out their volunteer interest form here.
Collidescope’s resource list includes shelters, supplies, distribution hubs, donation locations, animal boarding options, free meals, information, mental health resources, and legal resources.
In addition, they have an interactive fire relief effort map:
Send suggestions or corrections to [email protected].
Related reading
Below is a selection of previously published Convergence content on climate change, grief, power building, and mutual aid.
Holding Our Collective Grief
a Block & Build podcast episode with Sarah Jaffe and Malkia Devich-Cyril
Each person who has suffered a personal loss, as they come to discover and really relate to the reality that there is a politics to mourning, that there is a relationship between death and democracy, that their losses aren’t simply the result of some personal problem—this is where community organizing begins. There is really no difference between healthful collective grieving and community organizing.
Malkia Devich-Cyril, Radical Loss (@radical_loss)
‘We Care For Each Other, We Fight For Each Other’: Mutual Aid and Power-Building
Anna Duncan, Erica Chenoweth, Ginny Goldman, and Kate Hess Pace
Power is up for grabs during these climate shock moments. It is not neutral. It is not static. Power is either going to shift in our direction or it’s going to shift against us. So we have to prepare. Mutual aid is key. It’s not enough.
Ginny Goldman, Organizing Resilience
Blizzard Brings Buffalo Lessons in Power and Resilience
The onus should not be on individual people. This trauma is systemic. The deaths of our loved ones could have absolutely been prevented. In honoring the lives of those we’ve lost, we stand together to let our City know, we reject your sympathies. For any kind of healing process to begin, we need empathy and that starts with accountability.
Nicolalita Rodriguez
In the coming year, Buffalonians will attempt to heal. The only way that can happen is by rejecting cynicism that keeps us unorganized and choosing hope through collective action. If displacement, segregation, poverty, and climate catastrophe are all policy-driven phenomena, then by out-organizing the opposition Buffalonians can prioritize the passage of policies that create a truly equitable, inclusive, climate-resilient, and democratic community.
Harper S.E. Bishop, Our City Buffalo