Radical Resourcing
We are unapologetic & unwavering in our support for people and communities facing the violence of state repression. We are uncompromising in our support for immigrant, BIPOC, trans, queer, disabled, poor/working class, Palestinian, and are many other communities targeted by the violence of this regime. We are increasing our movement support and capacity to meet the moment that we are in. We are healing with the land and offering ourselves in service to the community.
Let us know how we can better support in these times, we take care of each other.
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We give more than we take
We are an outdoor based preschool and we also collaborate with other communities to create diverse ecosystems of learning and regeneration. None of this work is done in isolation. As we build our systems of care and resilience, we take care of each other to sustain in joyful revolution. This can look a lot of ways, and here we hope to share some of our ways into community, to care taking, and to radical ways of being together. Please share what wlse might feel helpful in this space, we build this together.
A deeper dive into ways to be in community - Mutual Aid
Ask people what they need
Mutual Aid is not charity.
We, as a worker-owned cooperative and as a Public Benefit Corporation, have intentionally built-in systems for our organization to function in both non-hierarchical ways and reciprocally beneficial functions within our community.
Mutual aid is a model of cooperation where people in a community exchange resources and services to help each other.
Mutual aid is an organizational model where voluntary, collaborative exchanges of resources and services for common benefit take place amongst community members to overcome social, economic, and political barriers to meeting common needs. This can include physical resources like food, clothing, or medicine, as well as services like breakfast programs or education.
Honor the history of this work
The Black Panther Party began the Free Breakfast for School Children Program, or the People’s Free Food Program for youth in 1968.
Police raids eventually ended these programs, at the direction of the FBI's COINTELPRO agenda to dismantle the Black Panther Party.
Radical work needs to know its radical roots & the lineages we work in. The Black Panther party founded many community programs to serve and meet the needs of the black community in many cities across the us.
The free breakfast for schoolchildren program was set up in Berkeley, California, in 1968 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton. It was the first significant community program organized by the Panthers, and perhaps the most well known. By the end of 1969, free breakfast was served in 19 cities, under the sponsorship of the national headquarters and 23 local affiliates. More than 20,000 children received full free breakfast (bread, bacon, eggs, grits) before going to their elementary or junior high school.
Other survival programs were free services such as clothing distribution, classes on politics and economics, free medical clinics, lessons on self-defense and first aid, transportation to upstate prisons for family members of inmates, an emergency-response ambulance program, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, and testing for sickle-cell disease. The free medical clinics were very significant because they modeled an idea of how the world might work with free medical care, eventually being established in 13 places across the country. These clinics were involved in community-based health care that had roots connected to the Civil Rights Movement, which made it possible to establish the Medical Committee for Human Rights
What are some Mutual Aid Projects?
There are many ways to show up for and with your community.
Dean Spade is an American lawyer, writer, trans activist, and associate professor of law at Seattle University School of Law. He wrote a book called Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During this Crisis (and the Next). Here is a short video he made about some radical ways to support via Mutual Aid.
Community Fridges
There are lots of ways to feed each other, support food rescue & reduce food waste
"Denver Community Fridges is a mutual aid project aimed at combatting food insecurity and reducing food waste in the Denver Metro area, which is located on the stolen land of the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and Ute. We are a prison-industrial complex (PIC) abolitionist group that works in alignment with the movement for Black liberation and restoration of Indigenous sovereignty. Our team is non-hierarchical and is 100% volunteer ran.
We recognize that food insecurity is intimately linked to other forms of injustice and aim to work collaboratively with community members to meet people’s basic needs. We deeply believe that community work must be done collectively in order to be successful, so we encourage all members of our community to engage with the fridges in ways that feel restorative and supportive to them.
Additionally, we understand that our community members in the most vulnerable circumstances know their needs best, therefore we do not police how much/how often someone takes from the fridges. There is more than enough for us all."
Community Food Justice Orgs
Denver Community Fridges
Denver Community Fridges is a mutual aid project aimed at combatting food insecurity and reducing food waste in the Denver Metro area, which is located on the stolen land of the Cheyenne, Arapahoe, and Ute. We are a prison-industrial complex (PIC) abolitionist group that works in alignment with the movement for Black liberation and restoration of Indigenous sovereignty. Our team is non-hierarchical and is 100% volunteer ran.
Mutual Aid Monday
Mutual Aid Monday is a grassroots, mutual aid community in Denver founded in November 2020 by Kelsang Virya. We are composed of community members that care deeply for our neighbors experiencing homelessness. There are many ways in which we are aiming to be in solidarity with our unhoused neighbors.
Denver Compost Collective
Denver Compost Collective is the result of an active intention by communities in Denver to reclaim our ability (and our natural right) to mitigate our climate impact, to heal our local ecology, and to regenerate our community food systems for this and future generations. We do this by engaging with Denver's apartment communities to collect food "waste". We then transform this "waste" into a high-value, nutrient rich resource: compost. Our company partners with Denver-based nonprofits, low-income community farms, proactive communities and community activists, who all share a common goal: putting top quality, home-grown compost into the soil to help heal our ecosystems and produce healthier food for our shared communities.
Herbalists Without Borders vision is a global community where all people have access to affordable natural and botanical health and wellness. To bring that vision into reality, we work with community-based chapters to create educational, advocacy, and grassroots model projects to fill the gaps in health justice internationally.
Resources to share
We know some folks are looking for more support & resources, toolkits, places to research or volunteer, and more. We are hoping to be another place to compile things that can help.
We take care of each other, so please take whats useful, and don't hesitate to email us with something you think should live here to help resource our communities.
Books we are reading
Community Orgs
Bread & Roses Legal Center
We provide a variety of representation including defense against criminal charges, gender affirming legal services, access to reproductive health care, record sealing, resolving warrants, and more based on an individual's ability to pay. We believe that our clients know what they need and place them at the center of our representation.
Joy as Resistance
Joy as Resistance exists to increase radically inclusive, supportive spaces for queer youth. We do this by offering individualized mental health services and mentorship, and by equipping educators, families, and community partners with services and strategies to implement in every space occupied by LGBTQIA2+ youth.
Party for Socialism & Liberation
The Party for Socialism and Liberation is made up of leaders and activists, workers and students, of all backgrounds. Organized in branches across the country, the PSL brings together a new generation of revolutionaries alongside movement veterans with decades of experience. Together we are fighting for a system where the government and the economy are controlled by poor and working people, not billionaires and their state.
Operation Olive Branch
Grassroots movement to support & amplify aid requests of Palestinian families. We prioritize transparency and community-led decision-making, directly partnering with local mutual aid initiatives to support their critical needs. Guided by a majority BIPOC core council of advocates from occupied Turtle Island and Oceania, this global solidarity initiative uplifts and empowers the communities we serve.
More tools & resources
(720) 802 2667
We are here to be in community with you. Please reach out & connect with us!
Guidance, Toolkits, and more from the City of Denver to know your rights, talk to immigration lawyers, and more.
1-844-500-3222
the 24/7 National Hotline to report ICE agents in your community.