Today, October 18, 2023, the world seems to be falling into chaos on so many levels. Beyond the increasing threats of environmental devastation, there is the complete dysfunction of the US Congress. Economic stresses are increasing as prices for everything are skyrocketing. Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East threaten to draw more countries into their conflicts. And killing thousands of people, of children.
I usually write about those things. But now it’s overwhelming to even try to figure out which of these many threats and injustices to write about, let alone what to say about them.
As I often say, I try to discern what the Spirit is leading me to say. Recently, I’ve been led to revisit Transformative Mutual Aid Practices (T-MAPs). The subject is relevant to help us deal with all these stresses in our lives. And a framework to support each other.
[A note to people of faith. From what I’ve been learning about T-MAPs, I don’t think faith is talked about specifically. Rather, you can include that in the parts of T-MAPs related to what gives you support. I think T-MAPs can be helpful for faith groups, such as Quaker meetings, as a better way to do justice work and communal care.]
Mutual Aid
I’m not always successful in explaining why my focus for the past four years has been on Mutual Aid (and Transformative Mutual Aid Practices). One is my lived experiences working in my Mutual Aid community. Not only of the many ways this community serves the survival needs of our community (our neighbors and ourselves) but also how powerful this is in our own lives and care for each other.
This is so because Mutual Aid is about a completely different way of thinking and being. The root of injustices in our society is the hierarchical structure of everything involved in our economic, political, and, usually, social structures. All hierarchies are power relationships and enforce a model of domination. The heart of Mutual Aid is a focus on preventing hierarchical structures. Mutual Aid is not just another approach to living and working in a community. It is about changing the very basis of how communities work.
These quotes are from “Mutual Aid Is Essential to Our Survival Regardless of Who Is in the White House. Mutual aid is inherently anti-authoritarian, demonstrating how we can organize human activity without coercion” by Dean Spade, truthout, Oct 27, 2020. Dean Spade is the author of the essential manual about mutual aid, “Mutual Aid. Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)“.
T-MAPs
Transformative Mutual Aid Practices (T-MAPs) are a set of tools that provide space for building a personal “map” of wellness strategies, resilience practices, unique stories, and community resources. Creating a T-MAP will inspire you to connect your struggle to collective struggles. When we make and share our T-MAPs with others they become potent tools for healing and liberation.
The acronym T-MAPs stands for Transformative Mutual Aid Practices
Transformation
We understand that we’re always in a process of transformation and growth; we’re not just in a process of ‘recovery’ or going back to some state of health (that we may have never known). As our lives change, it’s helpful to leave tracks for ourselves about where we’ve been and where we want to be going. T-MAPs help facilitate this process.
Mutual Aid
We also understand that just working on our own “self-care” isn’t enough; we also need mutu aid. Most simply, mutual aid is when people help each other. Historically, mutual aid has been a way that people have self-organized to create interdependent networks of support. People might help each other with things as basic as growing food and building barns or as abstract as education and mental health support.
Practice
When we think about how personal and community change happens, it’s pretty clear to us that the only way to grow and evolve is to intentionally practice what we want to see happen in our lives. Practice might be as simple as not getting on our smart phone as soon as we wake up in the morning, or as intentional and deliberate as a daily sitting meditation practice. Practice that happens with groups of people has the potential to change the world.
The mental health of all members (of your group) should be supported in an ongoing way. Go around the circle so that comrades can indicate to the group if:
▪ they would like others to reach out to them for a period of time or in an ongoing way, and how
A Call for Prefigurative Mental Health Support and Communal Care Within Radical Groups and Organizations
▪ they would be willing to reach out to others who ask for that support
▪ they are currently unable to provide support to others
▪ they would like people to hang out with when they are not feeling well
▪ they are available to hang out with others to decrease their isolation during difficult times
▪ etc
Additional resources:
T-MAPs is licensed by Jacks McNamara and Sascha DuBrul under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
Quakers and Mutual Aid 