Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Tour Begins

The “Building the Movement for Mutual Aid” Training Tour is back on the road this fall.

Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Trainers will be visiting about 20 locations in the West.  See our events calendar here.  More details coming very soon!

It kicks off at the Uplift Youth Climate Conference September 14-16, followed by an extended visit to Arizona to learn more about grassroots d.i.y. humanitarian aid practices of No More Deaths/No Mas Muertes, then numerous workshops in California, Oregon, and Washington.  In November we will also visit several communities in Colorado, Nebraska, Missouri, and Illinois (and maybe December will hold a few more in the Upper Midwest region – stay tuned!).

By the end of 2018, this extensive capacity-building  and educational tour will have visited at least 28 states. Wowza!  To tell the truth, we have been a little overwhelmed by the enormous outpouring of requests, but we see clearly that there is a great need for accessible and empowering education on how we can use the power of the people to overcome crises.

Our first “pilot project” run in the East was a great opportunity to initiate some new trainers, and by the end of the fall tour we will have doubled our number of practiced trainers.  We are eager to help others give workshops in their own communities, and we are excited to release the first draft of our Curriculum Booklet & Facilitation Guide very soon!

The workshop has been tremendously well-received in every community we have visited.  Trainers explain how natural storms turn into unnatural disasters through dangerous new forms of “disaster capitalism” and “extreme resource extraction,” and teach principles of grassroots direct action humanitarian aid and crisis response, sharing lessons learned from historical and current mutual aid groups and covering a wide range of topics such as “Principles of ‘Solidarity, Not Charity,’” “Using Privilege to Break Down Barriers,” “Building Power in Collaboration,” and “Overcoming Trauma Together.”

The time is right for developing a trained and empowered standing network of organizers and volunteers who can help communities rebuild with a vision centered on local community control, collaboration and innovation, and political, economic and social sustainability. MADRelief is developing a community of grassroots crisis responders, continually growing in size and efficacy, which will be at-the-ready to assist and empower communities to overcome natural and unnatural disasters.  With Hurricane Florence bearing down on the Carolinas and wildfires continuing all over the west, the feeling of urgency is felt by all of us.

MADRelief envisions a new form of humanitarian aid, one that is participatory and empowering. One that exemplifies the principle of “Solidarity, Not Charity.”  Founded by an already very active network of radical humanitarian aid workers experienced via Common Ground Relief, Occupy Sandy, the Standing Rock Water Protectors, and the long history of diverse movements seeking to make a better world possible, MADRelief is organizing a new network to facilitate inter-community disaster preparation and grassroots direct action humanitarian aid and crisis response.  This tour is the first step in a “training campaign” that will strategically and progressively build necessary skills and shared knowledge in environmental and social justice groups that are a part of the rapidly-growing MADRelief network.

We can’t do it without you all!  Please share our tour schedule and connect with us on social media:

facebook.com/MutualAidDisasterRelief

twitter.com/MutualAidRelief

instagram.com/MutualAidDisasterRelief

September 2018

October 2018

November 2018