STL Mutual Aid 2023 - Annual Update
Published on December 18, 2023 by Julia Ho
Hi friends,
2023 has been a year full of changes and transitions as we attempt to grow and reimagine what mutual aid can look like in our St. Louis community.
In an effort to grow our capacity and strengthen our mutual aid community, we received two grants from the Missouri Foundation for Health and the Endeavor Foundation. One grant provided funding to allow us to hire four, part-time positions to support STL Mutual Aid - an internal communications coordinator, external communications coordinator, and data manager, in addition to our existing roles of hotline coordinator and fundraising coordinator. This was a huge shift for us because it was the first time we were able to get consistent, paid support for these areas of work. The other grant we received allowed us to work with Girl Louie, a creative storytelling agency, to raise awareness of the impact of mutual aid by crafting a series of events for the community to gather, share resources, and collectively imagine a future rooted in mutual aid. We see the creation of these positions as an extension of mutual aid; through these grants, we are able to provide opportunities and sources of income to members of our community.
Since receiving this additional support, we have:
- Hosted our first public in-person creative storytelling event at Urban Chestnut. The event focused on housing justice, which brought together 50+ attendees, 7 partner organizations, and reached 600 people through social media.
- Launched the CommUnity Closet to provide household, cleaning, and hygiene products to anyone who needs them. So far, we have distributed 17 bags to families in the community as well as a box of supplies to the Unhoused Union biweekly.
- Although we are still not taking new financial solidarity requests, our STLMA fund continues to give $500 one time support to people on our waiting list. In 2023, we have already distributed $32,500 to 65 financial solidarity recipients.
- Developed a Data and Privacy Policy to ensure that information shared with us by the community is protected, secure and never shared without consent. Our Privacy Policy can be found on our website, stlmutualaid.org, or click here.
- Supported the Unhoused Union which developed a transitional housing program that has moved 17 people into self sufficiency, created and deployed mobile cooling and warming centers, provided 19 households first last and deposit assistance to get stable housing, organized trainings in harm reduction, first response bullet wound treatment, conflict resolution, and sanitation, established a downtown encampment for physical resource donation and distribution, coordinated weekly food drops in the 63107 area code for 12 households and organized weekly haircuts for the homeless
- Increased our social media presence by helping to crowdfund for community members and sharing information on a consistent basis about what is happening in our network
- Developed a monthly newsletter that keeps the community updated on our work and highlights other mutual aid resources, upcoming events, and news in the St. Louis area. Our newsletter has already reached 2,128 people.
- Sponsored 6 events in partnership with Mike Africa Jr, St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline (SQSH), Cary on the Ball, Link STL, Potbangerz Neighbors United Block Party, and The Leadership School
- Recruited and trained 4 new Admin Circle members to grow our collective leadership
- Collaborated with Girl Louie, a creative agency and storytelling studio, to help us boost engagement with past and new community members, create powerful testimonies inspired by the people that we have reached through a creative lens, and redesign of our website which will include our new storytelling platform – stay tuned for more updates on that soon!
- Collaborated with St. Louis Queer+ Support Helpline (SQSH) with developing the SQSHBook, a community owned, queer-centered resource database, open and vetted by community members
As a reminder, we are NOT a nonprofit organization, we are a network of people who believe in a decentralized form of community support and solidarity where individuals and groups can come together to provide assistance to one another without relying on traditional hierarchies or formal institutions. Thankfully, due to the fiscal sponsorship and support of Open Collective Foundation, we are still able to receive tax deductible donations and apply for grants. In order to promote transparency amongst our community members, the money we receive from these grants appears in our Open Collective, available to view on our website.
If you would like to help support and maintain our growth, you can do so by contributing here. We are grateful for the grants we’ve received, but we know that these grants won’t last forever and we cannot continue our work without the direct support of our community. Monthly and small donors like you are still and will always be the foundation of our network.
Our hotline is still open to receive messages at 314-200-5120 and emails at [email protected], and we respond to calls and messages as quickly as we can. We can share a graphic with immediate needs with our network on social media. We are also looking for volunteers for our hotline team and to deliver food and supplies. If you’d like to help out, we welcome you to reach out to Shakelia at [email protected].
THANK YOU to all of those who have supported us over the years by donating, volunteering, sharing our work, showing up for your neighbors, sharing your own stories, and more. We are excited to keep building with you in 2024.
on