The Edgewater Mutual Aid Network began as a grassroots, community effort to provide relief through a mutual aid model to those being affected by the Covid-19 outbreak in the Edgewater neighborhood of Chicago. We are an autonomous mutual aid network, not a state-based charity effort. We believe mutual aid to be one strategy that works within a larger movement to dismantle capitalism, white supremacy and heteropatriarchy. Our mutual aid efforts attempt to address the multiple crises that those in our community suffer from, doing what the government cannot or will not. 

We provide weekly groceries, hot meals, clothing, medical resources and personal protective gear to those in need. We distribute necessities to the houseless in Uptown and Edgewater and we support them in the fight for safe housing. Resources are provided by our weekly food drive, local restaurants, grocery stores, and community mask makers. Organizing alongside other neighborhoods we’ve started to implement infrastructure that would allow anyone to access free wifi from most city blocks. In addition, we organize a neighborhood copwatch to hold Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the police accountable for their actions. In our reading group and political re-education groups, we discuss and integrate the tactics of those who have come before us: labor radicals, prison abolitionists, underground abortion and community health clinics. 

We acknowledge the Anishinaabeg, Niswi-Mishkodewin (Council of the Three Fires): Ojibwe, Odawa & the Potawatami and dozens of other tribes as the original stewards of this land who were engaged in mutual aid practices and molded and cultivated this land that we now reside on. 

By calling our hotline at (312) 324-4278 or filling out the online form, neighbors in the community can receive information on housing, eviction and rent/general strike support, financial assistance and ask for support with food, clothes, medical supplies and personal protective gear.

We are collecting non-perishable food, clothes and supplies for our community in Edgewater. You can drop donations off Saturday & Sunday from 2-4pm through 12/19/2020 at Edgewater Presbyterian Church at 1020 W Bryn Mawr Ave, Chicago, IL 60660