Mercy Quaye photo
CTCORE’s Raven Blake, Ashley Blount and Camelle Scott.
Contributed photo
Semilla Collective’s Sarah Eppler-Epstein and Eden Almasude.
Two groups of local community organizers have set up grassroots “mutual aid” funds with the goal of providing everything from grocery runs to educational support to direct cash assistance for vulnerable New Haveners during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Those two new fundraising efforts are the New Haven Area Mutual Aid Fund and Mutual Aid for Connecticut.
The first was founded by three members of the local immigrant and labor rights group, the Semilla Collective, and the second spearheaded by the local racial justice advocacy outfit, CTCORE-Organize Now.
Both represent Elm City community organizers’ latest efforts to respond to the dual public health and economic crises caused by the coronavirus outbreak: to pool resources, provide direct aid, and tap into informal, decentralized networks of support in order to help low-income New Haveners most likely to be hardest hit by a job loss or a school closure or a hospital visit related to the pandemic.
They also represent alternatives to larger and higher-profile fundraising efforts recently announced by Yale University, the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, and the United Way of Greater New Haven.
“It’s just an additional way to reach people who might not be reached through some of the forms of assistance going on right now,” said Semilla Collective member and New Haven Area Mutual Aid co-founder Sarah Eppler-Epstein. “This is more nimble. We have the ability to distribute money more quickly, directly to people, because we’re not going through various bureaucratic systems.”
“All of this work has been community-led and powered,” said The Narrative Project Founder and CTCORE spokesperson Mercy Quaye.
As of Friday morning, the New Haven Area Mutual Aid Fund had raised $5,950. The CTCORE mutual aid fund had raised nearly $5,000 as of Wednesday.
Click here and here to read more about each effort.
And click here to learn more about another Connecticut Mutual Aid, which serves New Haven, Waterbury, Bridgeport, and Hartford.
Grocery Runs, Translation Services, Cash Support
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CTCORE volunteers prepare groceries for distribution.
Quaye said that CTCORE is serving as “community stewards of resources” in its new statewide mutual aid efforts.
The organizers have sent out this form asking people to indicate what they need or what they can offer during this time of crisis. They’ve stressed on their website that they are currently looking for volunteers who can translate to Hindi, French and Haitian Creole, Portuguese, Arabic, and American Sign Language.
As of Wednesday, 205 people had filled out the mutual aid form, Quaye said, “half of whom are people in need.”
“The CTCORE leaders have been making calls to those who have signed up as providers to connect them with people in need,” she continued. “The needs they’re filling are grocery runs and similar errands, educational support, helping parents and families navigate various systems (DCF, food, education etc), and other things as needed.
“They’re also working with people who are able to provide counseling services and emotional support to families. They’ve prepared their volunteers to conduct no-contact transactions so that both the providers and the individuals in need are safe.”
She said CTCORE has also partnered with Love Fed New Haven to promote access to healthy and affordable food during the pandemic, and to demand that the state explicitly identify urban farms as essential services exempt from the governor’s executive order shutting down all non-essential in-person work.
Quaye said that CTCORE is also “following the lead of the Connecticut Bail Fund and has signed on to their concerted effort to demand the release of individuals who are currently incarcerated.”
“Shift More Money Towards People Who Need It”
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Eppler-Epstein: Focus is on cash.
Eppler-Epstein, a Guilford native and current Yale Law School student, said that the New Haven Area Mutual Aid Fund is focusing its fundraising and distribution efforts primarily on providing direct cash assistance to needy New Haven families and individuals.
Eppler-Epstein, who goes by they/them pronouns, said that they and fellow Semilla Collective organizers Eden Almasude and Kelly Hernández Naranjo founded the fund not as direct competition with institutional fundraising networks like the Community Foundation, but rather as a supplement geared towards helping those who might not have any connections to or trust in established nonprofits.
They said mutual aid funds like this one can be particularly valuable for undocumented immigrants who are afraid to provide too much personal information in their efforts to receive much needed support and who may not have bank accounts or formal identification.
Eppler-Epstein said that the fund plans to distribute all of the money it has raised so far in $100 increments to families or individuals with the help of community “intermediaries” who are already distributing groceries and meals to New Haveners in need.
“We are trying to piggyback on other deliveries already happening as much as possible,” they said, “adding cash support to deliveries that will happen regardless, so we aren’t adding too much risk of spreading the virus.”
Eppler-Epstein said that the focus of this mutual aid fund is on cash: raising and distributing as much as possible directly into the pockets of people who need it, no questions asked.
“The motive behind creating this fund was to be able to shift more money towards people who need it,” they said.
Series logo by Amanda Valaitis.