Ridgewood Mutual Aid Project

We're in a public health crisis and neighbors in Ridgewood, Queens and surrounding neighborhoods are coming together. We need your support to make this work possible. 

The Ridgewood Mutual Aid Project was formed when organizers with the Ridgewood Tenants Union (RTU) put out a call for volunteers in the neighborhood to come together and support other neighbors in need during the COVID 19 pandemic. The Ridgewood Tenants Union is an anti-gentrification, independent and tenant-led housing rights group run by volunteers that was formed in 2014 to build tenant power and fight displacement in a neighborhood long controlled by homeowners and the politicians that advocate solely for them. 

 

We put out that call on March 16. The weekend prior, four organizers with RTU met right before the city started to shut down to curb the spread of COVID 19. We already knew that the local government would not provide our community with the resources it would need to ride out what we were about to experience. At monthly RTU tenant assemblies we start meetings by going over four main tenets: 

Mutual aid has always been at the very foundation of our work and since March 16 2020 the Ridgewood Mutual Aid Project has grown by over 600 members that have agreed to practice safety protocols while engaging in mutual aid work. Our original fundraiser raised over $50,000 since we launched in March and with these funds we have been able to provide groceries and other support to over 400 families in Ridgewood, Maspeth, Middle Village and Glendale.  Immigrant families are still in need, however,  and we'll need to raise more funds to make sure their needs are being met as we continue to organize against evictions and other housing issues. 

Please join us! To get involved visit our page at: https://www.ridgewoodtenantsunion.org/join/

If you would like to see how our previous donations have been used, please check this document: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dmn0X_zpjx4-z1hQgyHXtLX8CTPV9QZ-2okKkehBPzU/edit?usp=sharing