From the 2020 Selection Committee

 This mutual aid project would be a needle exchange. It would start as simple needle and sharp container distribution. The main goal is to provide clean and safe needles for community members, as we know not everyone has access to medical necessities. If there is community need, the project will shift to clean needle pick-up/drop-off and used needle pick-up and disposal with the hopes of offering a space for community members to help administer IM injections for folks with prescriptions. This project is modeled off of the Shot Clinic in Minneapolis. 

Queer Coalition is providing $200 in mutual aid to Black and Indigenous, Nonbinary and Transgender people, and $100 in mutual aid to other Transgender, Queer, and Non-binary people of color in the Inland Empire. 

People’s Housing Coalition is a network of unhoused and housed people working to end homelessness through mutual aid, organizing, and advocacy. In July, PHC led a spontaneous two-week encampment of City Hall in Portland, ME that became a hub of mutual aid and solidarity, providing food, medical care, and camping supplies to 100-200 people. We are working with folks we met there to make our mutual aid work more sustainable. We are providing stipends to 6 unhoused and low-income people leading outreach and resource distribution, and training our core group in de-escalation and boundary setting. We will offer $20 stipends to unhoused people to attend meetings and give feedback on our priorities, with the goal of bringing more people into our work.  

The project’s goal is to collect books through monetary and resource donations and provide them to juvenile detention centers.  We want to move away from the United States’ punitive justice system by providing positive outlets to incarcerated children. We also want to provide personal protection equipment for those who donate.