#TeamGSR's Building Power Training Series- Mutual Aid 101, 5/14/2025

    8:23PM May 15, 2025

    Speakers:

    Gabriela Santiago-Romero

    Keywords:

    Mutual aid

    community organizing

    resource sharing

    skill sharing

    emergency response

    community resilience

    trust building

    cross-generational work

    community engagement

    tool library

    volunteer coordination

    neighborhood support

    proactive mutual aid

    community networks

    block clubs.

    Want to be able to co govern with you. I think this is something that we haven't seen in the past. It's really a movement that we see going on in local governments that I'm proud to be of, really trying to make sure that we change what it is, what we define as politicians, as civic leaders, ones that work together with our residents. I have a background in social work and community organizing, so it's incredibly important for me to create opportunities where we work together, and this is one of those paths. So thank you for being here. Thank you so much to safe Stephen, A and E for hosting us. From the applause for any safe Stephen for hosting us, and thank you again for being here. If you know our events, you know that we start on time and on time, so we wrap it up around 730 we do have dinner for everyone here. We're waiting for some plates as soon as they get here. I think I'm going to pause for everyone to grab some food. Come back, because today we'll hear all about discussion around best practices, around mutual aid, wondering. Please raise your hand if you know what mutual aid is, beautiful by half and half great. So we get to learn about what it is, how we use it in the past, and how we can use it really in our future. Briefing, some housekeeping before we get started, want to make sure that folks know the restrooms are, the restrooms are going to be women's down here, women's fair men. Thank you Lavida, who's also a part of the congregation here. Thanks for being with us also. Thank you to pastor Williams for hosting us here today. But really appreciate seeing someone for having us so restrooms. Oh, oh, good to know. Well, wonderful. Thank you both for being here. As you mentioned, restrooms are in the corners. The Dinner will be served shortly. Today is all around talking about how we currently do mutual aid, what it means, what it can mean for us, and then some best practices. We're going to begin with some brief presentation, really conversations around what mutual aid is. We'll have a wonderful panel to talk about how, currently, Detroit is utilizing mutual aid and emergency response, or being proactive in things that we need in our in our neighborhoods. I really hope to wrap up with people getting to know one another. We're all neighbors here. We all have resources and talents and skills, so learning what, what we have to offer, how we can support each other, to ensure that we are supporting our our neighbors moving forward,

    um, doo.

    Doo, doo, doo. I'm just reading my notes because I want to make sure I don't forget anything. No, I think we're all set. That was, that was the big portion of today. Here's the agenda again. We'll have dinner shortly. Oh, I see plates. Plates are here again. We'll go into what mutually it is. We'll have a beautiful panel. We have four or five panelists with us here today. We'll go into a community tool box that is currently being offered to the city to learn more how to utilize it. Any questions from some folks here, and then we'll wrap up, really, when we wrap up, want to make sure that people get to know one another, share resources, how we can be able to work together. Moving forward, I want to make sure that people eat, but we're not distracted some food throughout our meeting here, so we're going to pause, take about 10 minutes, grab your dinner, come back, and then we'll go into our presentation. But Dinner is served, y'all, thank you for being here. Grab some food, and then we'll come back in about five minutes. Thank you. Oh yeah, thank you. McShane, Bob Roberts, do you all love Bob? You

    the information that we have with you. Bring

    up our panelists. Make space for questions and for organizing, but thank you again for being here. If you still have to get dinner, please go right ahead, grab your dinner. Grab extras. Use the restroom to care of yourself as we spend time together with us, with all of us this evening, so we will now go into just really a brief overview of what mutual aid is. So what is mutual aid? It's very simple. It's really all about resource sharing. Quick question, Was everyone able to receive a handout? Okay, great. So the handout is going to be important while we speak today, and I'll go into the handout once I'm done going over this portion. And this will be quick, because really, we're going to talk about the examples that we see every day in our communities. But what it is is resource sharing. So I actually don't believe in this concept that we don't have enough. We live in the richest country in the world. We have plenty of resources here. Many people who have resources here. And when we come together, when we bring it together, we have enough. We've seen this over and over again, unfortunately for us, when it's come to flooding, when it's come to maybe our neighbors, homescape. On Fire, coming together, making sure they have what they need after the impact has happened. And currently, right now, we have a government that is trickling down from the top, that is completely disinvesting from our communities. And as a council member who has experience in community organizing and social work. I'm here to tell you, the government will not save us in this moment. The way that the federal government is moving it is one that is not protecting and serving the majority of us. So we have to turn it into our communities. We have to look into ourselves and to our neighbors, which we do already hear so deeply, and I love so much about us. But let's hone in on this. Let's own it. Let's use it as a resource, as a skill that that can help us and protect us moving forward. So it's really all about resource sharing. Who has, maybe not just money, but who has clothing, who maybe, maybe a neighbor that's had children, that might have clothes that you children could use, right? There are so many ways I think about resources that we never really bought in the past. So what are the resources that we have? How can we share those? How can how can we save those and share those with our neighbors? It's also skill sharing. There are organizations I failed. I can't remember the one. There's an origin in Michigan, a community has come together. They have a lot of people in their community that might be wheelchair bound, children or seniors that might be wheelchair bound. This community in Michigan, let me find the information and share it with you afterwards as examples of mutual aid. But they come together every month. They gather their resources. They gathered this the people that had the skills to build wheelchair ramps. And then once a month, they identify a home in their in their community that might need a wheelchair ramp, and then they go and they build a wheelchair within a day, with the resources that they, that they have, with the people that have the skills to build those wheelchair ramps, to make sure that people in the community are able to come in and out of their building. Other ways that we see this, we might know this as maybe a larger system, right? Like, what do you have? What do I have that we can share with each other? Yo, this is like a wild thing to talk, to talk about right now, but this is where we are. This is where we are. It's unfortunate, but let's be honest. Let's be prepared. Let's be ready to take care of each other and our neighbors when things go bad, because we've seen it happen, unfortunately, over and over and over again, but we see this already, and it's going to talk about the time bank talk a little a little bit more about how this looks like in real life, in a proactive way. But there are ways for you to exchange for service, and people call it bartering, but this is really just skill sharing. If you're able to fix a car, can you fix cars at a low rate for your neighbors? If your neighbor can't afford to fix their car, can they maybe fix your porch? Can they fix your roof? These are things that we can do for each other that, quite frankly, our capitalistic system does not want us to think about, and I think it's really important for us to push the narrative, to recognize that we have the skills, we have, the talents, we have, the resources they have to come together to serve all of us. And quite frankly, we know this, especially if we go back to the examples of the Southwest flood, when we called for donations. Wow, we got a lot of donations. People have a lot of stuff. Again, in the richest country in the world, we have a lot of things. Y'all, we don't have to hold all the things. We can share the things people that need it. And quite frankly, that's how we should do it, how we should think about it, and how we're going to be able to survive in the long term, especially with currently, the governments and billionaires thinking us fighting them against each other. We don't have to do that. We know that we can put our resources together, put our skills together, support each other in the long run, so we can barter exchange service, help each other get to know one another. It's going to take neighbors getting to know one another to understand the resources and skills that we have. We saw this very clearly during COVID and during the Southwest flood response. During COVID, I was a part of the Southwest cares initiative. We came together. It was me, and then Michelle Martinez, and then nige, and then everybody else, and then it goes, 2040, of us, volunteers from across the district, coming together, putting our names up to volunteer to pick up food, drop it off to our neighbors, to give up to pick up medication, drop it off to our neighbors, to give our COVID stipend to our neighbors that may not be able to to have received it, we already know what mutual aid is, and we do it. I think it's important that we own it, that we hone in on it, especially right now in times of uncertainty. But more than anything, let's be proactive. And I'm excited to talk about what it would look like for us. Just think about this all of the time. So. So that we don't have to rely on other entities or other systems to take care of us, because we got it. So really want to center communities around everyday mutual aid, not just during emergencies. Talk a little bit about what that can look like in a minute, but in a nutshell, that is mutual aid in your sheets, where you have the paws and then the back. It says mutually. If you go to the back of that shoe, you can walk through this together, but it really is what I just shared. Oh yes, please. If you wouldn't mind, we'll pull it up on the screen shortly. You backside,

    please, yes, starting here, and I wonder if you can, thank you so mutually. This is nothing new. Y'all. We have been doing this. I think before capitalism, we've been doing this before this new system that we live in. Now, it's important that we come together, because it's how we're going to be able to survive in really, really hard times. This is not charity. This is not charity. This is helping your neighbor who's going to help you when you need it. That is survival. That is beautiful to me. This is about serving each other. This is about activism and educating ourselves and how to best use our resources that we currently have because the government is currently giving order to billionaires. How do we use what we have for our people? This how to build a mutual aid network is incredibly important for us today. We have on the back of your sheets a mutual aid pod, and you can take this home with you to work on it once you talk with us a little bit more. But in this mutual aid pod, you find yourself in the middle. Who are your neighbors? What are the skills and the resources that you have? What are the organizations that we have? What are the businesses that we have? Who are the leaders that you have? You have made by you back, always, but this was incredibly important for us during the flood response. Immediately, if you were an impacted residents, you called on your friends and your neighbors to see what was going on. They then called on me, on my agent, on everybody else who was able to confirm what was going on. We were able to say the police are there to help you, not to take you away, right? Because we were had to communicate with people what was going on. We then got to turn on to our nonprofits like DHC, you and I to say, these are the resources that we needed to come together to serve our people, and that's how we were able to survive. And we're still going through this. Impacted residents of the flood are still, still dealing with with the flooding impact. If you go down to it, this is something I encourage everyone to do after you leave today, ask yourself, Who on your block Do you know on your on your in your neighborhood, who might be able to take care of your children? Child Care is mutual aid. My mom went to my aunt who took care of 15 kids at her house, you know like and then we went around to different aunts and different moms. Those are the skills that someone has to take care of your children. It's a we need to safe places for our kids, right? We need to lean more on our neighbors, who have the skills and resources. So one, build out your pod map. Where are you? What are the resources that you have? Pull out your neighbors and what do they have to be able to provide for you, connect to them. Can you help me if I need to call on you to pick up my kid after work? Can I call you if I need to cut my grass because I'm not mobile? I'm happy to do translation for you in Spanish, French, Bengali, whatever the case may be. If you have a senior in your family that just want to talk to someone, happen to talk to them for three hours if you're able to take care of my child for one there are, there are different ways to share what you have when you're able to offer with your neighbors. Once you find them, find a buddy that you can work with. For for us, when we responded during COVID, we could not do that work alone. We had to identify residents that were throughout the district, who was in four to 10, who was in 4217, who was in 4209, or the points of contacts that we can call if there are any issues. These things are important y'all and again, none of this is requiring our government, this is all requiring your neighbors and people in your neighborhood to know each other, identify your support zone, the way that we're building out our block club leadership so that we're able to organize ourselves to also create policy and budget changes. We need to organize our neighborhood for mutual aid. It the same way that we identify leaders to advocate for us, and we've identified leaders who are able to support us in times of need. You can start small. You can start with five people, 20 people, whatever the case may be. You want to be able to communicate for us. WhatsApp is a favorite or signal. Now that WhatsApp is owned by, you know, so, so, so find, find safe channels of communication where you're able to communicate with your folks to let them know what's going on. If I was to look back right now to the WhatsApp that we have, it's, it's, it's beautiful. From the first day of the flooding. We're like, Hey, who do you know in the neighborhood's been impacted? How can we help? Let's gather volunteers. I can go back to our conversations with with with my neighbors, who are looking out for each other, quickly coming up with resources and strategies to help each other. Get this started. Get the conversation started again. Who needs help? Who needs what? I've got this I can help and then begin to do the work. So this is just a very quick overview of what mutual aid can look like, but really excited to talk about the proactive ways that we can use mutual aid. So this is for you to take, for you to look over. The overview and mutual aid is, if you wouldn't mind scrolling up, back up. TJ, please do go home. Review this one sheets, expand it, make it bigger, but utilize this time to over to also look at who you have in your neighborhood, who you have in your network, to be able to help you, to provide you with the services that you need, we can move next back to our presentation,

    proactively conversations that I'm looking to have with you all here before we Get into our panel. But what are the possibilities through our office? I am I have an incredible staff who, by the way, I did not have introduced themselves, which I would like to do right now, because they are part of the team that helps us make this work happen, and they're going to help us with this new stage of what we're trying to do, but I'm going to have TJ, introduce yourself briefly, and then we're going to go around. Good

    evening, everybody. My name is TJ rogers, pronouns, he him his. And I'm the communications and Engagement Manager for the office. Thanks for being here this evening. CJ,

    everybody. Joel Reyes, plan community registered Services Manager for the office. Hi everybody. Jalen community resident services intern for the council member. He him Nice to meet you

    all. Good evening. Everyone. My name is Ray Duncan. I am the policy advisor. My pronouns are she for hers. Hi everyone. My name is Kristen Diag. I am a council member's Chief of Staff. My pronouns are she, they and thank you all

    for being here. Thank you, team, round of applause. Team, oh, my god, the newest member of Team. GSR, just walked in the door. You you. Oh my God, I need to stop looking that way. Okay, so, oh my god, I do I have I don't have I don't have children. I have dogs. I'm a dog mom,

    but so my team is very rooted in community organizing and mutual aid, and we are very rooted in CO governance with our residents. What are the possibilities of mutual aid for us? Let's talk about it today, and let's do it. Our office holds these building power training series Quarterly. We try our very best to do it quarterly. What if we do quarterly gatherings, or we do mutual aid work, what if quarterly we come together and we put all of our is it vegetables that we grew is it clothing that we no longer have, that we grew out of? Is it money that you might have had left over in the bank? Who knows if you've got it? Can you put it into a mutual aid account? I'm not sure

    you hear her? Oh, my goodness,

    sorry. Okay, that's our newest number. I

    just want to spark some ideas with folks. What do you want to do with us? What do you want us to be able to do together with our block clubs? We can do quarterly gatherings. Y'all, what are we doing? Are we are we cleaning up a neighborhood once a quarter? Are we identifying the neighborhood in our district that needs some help? Are we coming together to do the cleanup? We can do these things together. I really want to challenge us to make mutual aid a normal practice, not something that we do just out of emergencies. Out of a crisis. This should be a muscle that we build currently, some example, again, I mentioned the example in Michigan. I'm going to find that name of the organization that comes together every month. What if, every month we want to identify a senior that we want to visit, that we wanted to spend some time, to talk to us, to spend some time with us. We are able to do these things. And the time bank I was going to talk about, we'll talk about how they currently are being proactive and sharing residents skills and time together. And then there are southwest pride. Nine is here to represent southwest pride. We'll talk about, yes, the way that we respond during crisis and emergencies. I will stop there, because now we're going to go into our panel talk about these possibilities, experiences that we've had in the past. So thank you to our panelists who have been doing this work for so long, who have been building this work with me and other residents in the neighborhood. I love you all so much. Let's talk about what we've done and what we can do. Starting with Alyssa from you and I, if you would mind joining us, we're gonna have you join us here. Dhtc, anyone's here from agency? Rachel, come on and join us. Thank you for being here. Good to see you. She was in the middle of the flooding response work, making sure that we were all coordinated and ready to go. NY Asia from Southwest Detroit pride and then Alice from the time bank as well. If you wouldn't mind joining us, give them a round of applause. Y'all.

    Alright, so now that we've talked a little bit, a very brief overview of what mutual aid is, what it currently looks like, and what it can look like, I'm going to ask each of you to introduce yourself who you are, and what does your organization do regarding mutual aid. I'm going to start with

    Alice. Okay, hi. My name is Alice Bagley. I'm with unity in our community. Time Bank. Time Bank is a way, as Gabby was sharing for people to exchange services using time instead of money as the unit of exchange. So like, I had someone help me clean out my garage, which was great. It took a couple hours. That person then used those hours to have someone help them spread mulch in their yard. The person who helped them spread mulch was able to use some of those hours to get a ride to an appointment, and maybe that person then took those hours to get Spanish lessons or something else. We always say that the you can exchange anything that you can measure in time, and we really encourage people to be creative about that. So I'll leave it there for right

    now. Thank you. Alice, hello,

    my Asia. Let's see. I'm with Detroit southwest pride, and we do a little bit of anything and everything. We started off in 2011 with some peace marches, which led to other conversations about, what are other things that people in the community want to do, right? So whether that's, you know, we all want to be physically active a little bit more, and we need buddies, so we're gonna go walk in the park together and and we're gonna go visit different parks, because we want to see, like, what's happening in the neighborhood. So we're gonna go to the parks. We know somebody that needs a crib, so we we donated a crib, and then that person was able to donate something else. And so really, anything in it and everything,

    yeah, literally, Thank you, Rachel.

    Hello everyone. My name is Rachel Marquez. I use she, they pronouns. I'm with Detroit Hispanic Development Corporation and our mutual aid effort. Our project is called Progetto Lucia Esperanza. It is project of charcoal and hope. It was really started out of a need that we saw someone came who was a recent arrival to Detroit and had nothing, essentially just needed their basic needs met, and we weren't, at the time, set up for case management, but what we did know is that we had staff who are bilingual and could help connect with them and as well as connections with other resources and organizations that can help. So it really started there, and we piece field it and got them the support that they needed, but really used COVID Lucha and Esperanza as an opportunity for our base to get more involved with their work, build their leadership development skills, as well as receive support if they need it, as well in exchange for their time and volunteering. So thank you.

    Thank you, Alyssa,

    Can y'all hear me? Yeah. Hi everyone. My name is Alyssa Avila. Pronouns, she. Her, I'm the Director of Development and communications over at urban neighborhood initiatives. What that means is I oversee our volunteer in donation strategies within our organization, and so a lot of the work that I do is around mutual aid, and how do we ensure that we can continue leveraging the platform that we have as an organization to access resources that are untapped. So for example, really connecting with larger corporations to support our mutual aid efforts and also the land development. So a large a large focus area of our work is land stewardship, where we do lot development throughout the community, and we also do mural, mural artwork. And so we have volunteers of anywhere from one to 50. Volunteers come out at a time, and they come out and help develop our our parks and the other, the other thing that we do around mutual aid is also, what are we ask ourselves when there's situations like the flood or, you know, if a mom comes to us and she's like a newcomer, we ask ourselves, what are the resources in the partnerships that We have as an organization that we can connect this person to, because we're not the only one doing this work. There are so many other people doing these this work, and they do it great and and how, what are the relationships that we have to build in order to continue to do this work even better? So we ask those questions of ourselves often, so that we can continue to build connections and also build Facilis networks of mutual aid.

    Thank you all so much. I'm going to ask the next question, which might be a little hard, but I believe everyone received the questions you need to be okay. And one word, what does mutual aid mean to you, and I'm going to begin with you. Alyssa, I'm

    going to say connectedness,

    the connection of people. Yeah, connectedness. Rachel, I

    want to say resilience. Naisha, I'm going

    to say care.

    Alice, i Alice reciprocity,

    if you want. Thank you for the work that you do. It's really beautiful, and we, I believe, have all seen it in real time, and it's incredibly important. Wondering what brought you or your organization to mutual aid. Naive. Did you talk a little bit about the origins of how you began to organize, walking and then listening, if you wouldn't mind me sharing a little bit more about the need for mutual aid for your organization? Yeah.

    So we're all on Facebook and Facebook groups. So it started off with there was a Facebook group called I grew up in Southwest and so a lot of people were reflecting on all the good things that used to happen, or the things that were offered from the government or from community residents that may be no longer out there. And at the same time, there was different things happening in the neighborhood, community, violence, things like that. And we know that some of those things happen because of misunderstandings, because lack of communication, because you don't know your neighbor, you don't have those relationships. And so scarcity and things like that are part of part of the things that keep us divided. And so on that platform, I grew up on Southwest, you know, people were like, yeah, like, we used to do these things. And so we're like, why aren't we doing them now? Like, you have this, I have this, we have this. Why don't we just get together and do it? So we've done things like get together at Boyer Park, Burger King Park, Dragoon and burner. And so we use resources from other people. Or like, Hey, you and I can use some of your garbage bags, you know. And hey, what does she make over? Can we get these flowers? And then we started doing things like that. And then also, just like, What are other things that people want to do? Like, hey, I'm home. Tuesdays from three to seven. Why don't we do these art projects, Easter egg hunts, back to school, events, things that are already happening, but also building and wanting to uplift other people because other organizations, because, you know, sometimes it's confidence and sometimes it's just lack of being plugged into places. And, you know, Detroiters, we're all like, skeptical, and we're like, Yo, who is this? And so you need another person to kind of vouch for the program or for the person. And a lot of things happen outside of this lack of community involvement, right? So, like they're not going to do it for us, we're going to do it for us. And. How do we how do we create a community in the with for our kids, that or for other people's kids, or just in memory of our of our parents, things like that, who took care of the neighborhood in a way that is respectful to what we want to

    see. Thank you, Angel, and you're absolutely right, right? We've seen the government work for us. Give us resources. Give us that mobile library, you know, give us what we need,

    mobile swim, the mobile pole, all the things, right? We need to bring those back. To bring those back,

    I bring that back the

    bank. I edited it. Get any of that. I got a bank,

    and I was too short.

    Y'all got the good stuff. I got the bankruptcy. But what we've learned right where we were, what happens when we don't invest, when we disinvest, when we when we don't care, and where we are now, we have to do it ourselves. You're absolutely right, Rachel, if you wouldn't mind sharing a little bit more, you talked about someone came into your organization. Why else that you guys delivered mutually? Yeah. So

    it started as a clothing closet set up by our community violence intervention team, but it was really that we saw a need. It was that one individual that was our our person that we wanted to help, but it was more so what we are seeing in the community. He wasn't the only one who was coming into Detroit at that time and needing these things. We are seeing people all over so our response was, we saw something that needed to be done. Let's figure out how to make it happen. Even though there wasn't funding for it, there's still no funding for our mutual aid network, but we knew that we have the connections possible to help these people, one of our ex team members, Scotty Cardenas, she helped contact a local pastor, Pastor Granado, and he was able to help Michael get shelter another one of our our people on our staff, Jesse, he was able to connect with Michael and get him a job working in construction. And so we also were connected with Freedom House. We had shelter and different food opportunities. So we had these relationships already built. It was just time for us to define it more and write it out. So we're intentional about connecting with each other and helping more people who come. I

    love that thinking about opportunities as mutual aid is such a wonderful way of thinking of it. It's more than just leadership development. It's about, how do we continue the values to create the systems and a network that we need? Wholeheartedly agree, that's why we have interns in our office. That's why we do g, d y t, because I want people to continue to do this work. I have been a part of a ton of youth programs. I think I've gone through all of them, including Judy y t, including Judy y t, and now I'm here, right? So I completely agree.

    Yes, please. Yeah. It was also an opportunity to expand with our base. We have a group of Oden with us who are involved in different action, different action networks. And so we really wanted to provide a space where they're able to come in and help us distribute, organize and clean the products, as well as receive the help themselves. So we really wanted to elevate our own, our own group and base build as well as hear about the stories for the people who are coming in and receiving help, we wanted to be intentional about the people coming in and building relationships with them, talking to them about what mutual aid is and our vision of what we're trying to create and help flesh out, and also have them come and be an art and volunteer.

    We don't need handouts. We need partners. We need neighbors to help each other, and we can do that together. Thank you, Alyssa.

    I think for us, because we're a youth centered organization, right now, I'm going to lean into the youth. Our youth right now, they're very disconnected from the networks that we used to have, and so right now, it's so necessary and important for them to see individuals who can hold themselves accountable and also be themselves and take up space in these rooms and in these places because they're not comfortable doing it. And so we really need mutual aid as a model for young people to be able to tap into resources and not fear asking for help. I think, as someone of color, I know how difficult it is for us to ask for help, right, and mutual aid is one of those things where we have to acknowledge that sometimes there's a gap, right, and mutual aid is important so that we can fill the gaps that we don't always have, whether it's a skill, whether it's a donation, whether it's a blanket or a water bottle, like I think there's so many gaps that we don't acknowledge, or gaps and we've been taught to we're at a point where we're excited. In them, we're accepting that it's okay for us to have gaps in the schools, and it's not okay. We're at a point where it's okay for kids not to have breakfast in the morning. That's not okay and and so mutual aid is so going to be very necessary in the coming years so that we can fill the gaps that our families have and that our communities are enduring.

    Thank you, Alyssa, it also sounds like unfortunately in the society is a lot of shame when it comes to asking for help. Why do you need our help? Why don't you have it all together? Why don't you blah, blah, blah, because this is hard, because we don't get paid enough, because things cost a lot of money, because we are dealing with a lot of issues. And I wholeheartedly understand young folks feeling like, How is this possible in this country with all these quote, unquote opportunities, and I'm struggling, there is, I believe, a lot of shame in asking for help. And again. I mean, I really wanted to change that culture. It's okay to ask for help. We need it. My team will tell you, when I started to delegate tasks, things got better. To ask for help, things got better and things got done because I wasn't holding everything. Because we can't do everything ourselves. This is another reason why mutual aid is so important. Alice, how have you seen mutual aid work in and why did you start this work with the timing?

    Yeah, so I was not one of the founding members of the Southwest Detroit timing, but I'll talk a little bit about one of the why one of the founding partners, bridging communities, tried to start it, and how the expectations actually ended up being different, or the reality ended up being different than the expectations. So many of you probably know bridging communities, a senior serving organization, so they were one of the founding partners of unity in our community. And I mean, for them, it was all about filling gaps for seniors. You know, they had specific services that they could provide, like, rides to medical appointments, but they couldn't, like, they didn't have the capacity to, like, take seniors to the grocery store, for example. And so they were like, oh, like, the timing can help to fill in these gaps. But what it turned out is that the seniors, like, Sure, they wanted rides to the grocery store, but really they wanted to share their skills. They wanted to be the ones providing the help. They were the ones who were like, well, I'm retired, but I've still got a lot to offer. Like, let me, like, run this craft class. Let me do this, let me do that, right? And so that's like, the mutual in mutual aid is that we're not just people who ask for help. That's huge, and seniors are bad at that too, but Right? But like a good but also, people are more likely to ask for help if they have already established trust with someone, because they've already helped them. If I've helped you, like, you know, take care of your kids and then or take care of your dog, and then you're way more likely to ask me for help when you have, like, a need. And so, you know, I think that that's the big reason that, like, you know, mutual aid, a you know, I think the the solidarity over charity thing, right? Like you're going to ask for help if you have that trust already established. So, yeah, thank

    you, Alice. How do you guys define success in your mutual aid efforts? Because it sounds like it can be a range of of different, different levels of this can look like. But how does, how do you, how do you measure success or impact in your work. I'm gonna start with

    Rachel, yeah. So it really depends on the situation. In the case of Michael, who I was telling you about earlier, it was him coming back to us and talking about how he was authorized to get work and he started his own construction company. And so he came back and he thanked us for the work and is still continuing to be involved in the program. So that's a success story for us. There's also like metrics that you could measure, sure we gave out a certain number of care packages and all that. But for us, it's more so about the relationships that we build along the way, with the flood response. In particular, we got really close with these other organizations, like like you and I, like Southwest pride, like COC SCBA and others, building those relationships, while also the relationships that we build with the volunteers who come in, as well as the relationships with the residents as we're going to their doors. So I think it's the seeing people receive the services, but also internalize the vision and come back to help others, is the way we would measure success.

    Thank you, Alyssa,

    that's a hard question, but that was a hard one, not the one word one, but I'm going to lean into something that ally said earlier, is the established trust on. I would define successful mutual aid as established trust between someone who's who's giving and someone who's receiving. I think that's so so important in a time right now where we're living in uncertainty and there's so much distrust amongst people, and so I would define it as establishing trust within our communities and our neighbors.

    Agree, Maja, this is

    hard. I think there's two different ways I work with another organization called inside southwest Detroit. And so one of the things that we talk about, and it's very hard to measure on, like for grants and stuff like that. But we also do it no matter what is the only relationships, right? So you got the person from the Clark Park side of Southwest Detroit hanging out with the person on the ground, and they're all kicking it. And before that, that used to be not a thing, like all the Western kids are not hanging out with the childish kids that are not hanging out with Northwestern kids, and you're all just kids. You know what I'm saying? Like, it's there's nothing different. And so, or them hanging out with graffiti artists, hanging out with seniors, hanging out with everybody in the same room, and they're having mutual they're having conversations about, like, hey. Like, this is how you start a girl, and this is how you do graffiti. And like them asking questions like, Well, how do you do that? And so those unlikely relationships really help build community, because everyone needs to be connected in order for this kids to work. And then the other part is, like Alice was saying, like the reciprocity, there's kids that were have grown up with Detroit office pride, like attending Easter egg hunts, going and doing back to school events that are now able to stuff eggs, that are now bringing their children to the Easter egg hunt and things like that, helping fold the clothes for the closets and things like that. And so people like, Hey, I don't know if you remember me, but I was here for this thing, and I want to give back to the neighborhoods and contribute in a different way. And so that's very successful.

    Thank you, Alice.

    I mean, I feel like everyone covered what I was gonna say, but I guess I'll just say, like, one of the things that, like, lets me know when we're succeeding is one of the events that we have every month is, is family game night, which everyone's excited to our flyers are up there. But, um, but like, when new people come to game night, I think, like, that's, you know, like when people want to, like, spend their evening time with each other. Like, that's when the relationship is real, you know,

    thank you. Agree. Seeing the full space of people listening and learning with us is a complete success for me. It's really exciting so that we're able to learn together and really build this network that we want to do to keep us on time. I'm going to pause us on this panel. We have a brief presentation on a new initiative the city has around a tool bank, as I believe Tony is here. Hi, Tony, this is this is your time to shine. I'm going to give you the mic for you to share with folks that we have here around what the city is doing regarding our time bank or our tool bank. Excuse me, we have a tool bank. We talked about how we can utilize our time, our resources, our skills together. The City of Detroit is now investing in tools that we can share with one another to be able to do some work that we need in their neighborhoods. So Tony will share with us what that is. I'm going to ask the panelists to sit and learn with us, and then we will go into Q and A's from the public, because I do want if those have any questions for the panel for Tony, we'll do that before we wrap, but I want to make sure, oh,

    cheer Tony, so now I

    can go over to Tony, because it's a good break to hear about what option now the city is investing in and then we'll go into some questions that we have remaining. But thank you, Tony.

    Thank you. Thank you. Okay, good. Well, thank you councilman. And so thank you all for having me today. So yeah, and listening to the conversation that the panelists and you all have just been engaging in this perfect time to just segue into what we have recently launched, which is the serve Detroit tool library program. So this came about, well, let me say when I my who I am, Tony Stovall, volunteer coordinator with the Department of Neighborhood, some of you I have worked with before, and some other programs. And so again, a lot of my jobs, similar to them, is partnering volunteers who want to get involved in the city groups, our block clubs and community organizations and associations, pairing them with volunteers who want to give their time back and want to invest in Detroit as we know again, we are relying on a community to. Do the work of beautifying our neighborhoods and getting the things done and that us as neighbors or residents need. And so with that, there was some funding that was brought to us from council member durha last year, and it started out of the objective of, let's help our seniors, which we do our senior snow snow removal program every year, and so I'm grateful to lead that program. And so with that, wanting to expand that. And I said, Well, okay, well, let's look at that. Take a look at the dollars that are allocated. I said, But you know, there's such a bigger need when you're talking about, we can do this for a season, but then how can we make this a little bit long term? Because, as we know, we're outside doing the work. Tools are really, really big thing that's always needed, the actual, you know, we can get outside, but we may not have the materials that we need to do, the work that we need to do. So within the serve Detroit volunteer program, we were so glad to expand it with these dollars and create the serve Detroit tool library program. So again, one of the ways that we're able to that this kind of came out of about the service volunteer program is that, again, we get volunteers. We need those materials. They're like, some come with it. Some may need them. So with this tool library, we're able to provide our volunteers with the resources and the materials that they need. And then second, we're able to expand this as a program that can go more than just a season. And so in partnership with councilmember office and the approval of all of our council members who were so excited for this opportunity, and gratefully, thank you. I remember when we were at Council, you said, how can we how can we help even more? So appreciative of that and your support in this initiative. And so with that, we did a RFP that went up, went out citywide, and we had initially three, three organizations, some that are actually already doing the work. So on the flyer, you see the three partners that we have invested in one East Warren tool library. I'm not sure if any of you have worked with them under Motor City grounds crew, and they've been doing this work. And so with them, there was just one that we worked with and that had the capacity to actually be mobile. And so we're like, as I'm out here and we're working and doing these initiatives, we're like, we just need more, more and more and more. And so Bailey Park, who is on the east side as well. They are similar to many of you, a small grassroots organization that came out of the Google hunt, which is one of our neighborhoods in district five, and they actually just started doing this in the neighborhood. Some of we're learning many are actually doing on their own anyway. And so how can we support them in expanding so we've got East Orange school library, who already was doing the work. Their great resource, Bailey Park, is actually new to the scene in terms of doing it, but kind of grassroots now. We have actually invested in this community, and they can expand the program that they're doing in their neighborhood and across the city. They're going to be opening the satellite on the west side, and then premier group who already who is a landscaping company and construction organization, and they said, I want to get invest. I want to get more into the community. And so with them, they are a great resource. Where we're partnering with them, all of them will be hosting workshops to actually, so residents can understand how to use the tools, also project development. So if you're looking at you have a lot, and you want to develop this lot, what do you need? How can we help you? So project management is also something that's coming out of this tool library program. And again, community, they really want to get involved. So it's, yes, it's tools, but it's a whole plethora of resources. So as you see, you got small construction, construction tools, gardening, snow removals on the whole gambit. And if they don't have it, they figure out how to get it. They really want to get and be more involved. Every one of the three partners want to become more involved, as they already are heavily invested, but want to continue this work and are amazing to work with. Um, they've been super busy through motorcycle, motorcycle weekends. I know six and seven are coming up. Who got their projects lined up? Who's gonna be outside on Saturday? Anybody gonna be outside? Okay? You didn't register to get your flowers on Friday. We got flower day Friday. Yeah. So they've been a big, big, big partner for Motor City makeover too, but it's past that. It's all seasons. So what you on the flyer? It is on the serve Detroit page, which is on the city's page under the Department of neighborhoods. And the most exciting thing about this is it is free, so it is no charge if you are a registered block club or community association with the Department of neighborhoods that the organ, the tool libraries have the full like list of 600 600 plus block clubs, which I'm sure most of you already are associations, and this is a free service. We're doing a community and beautification project outside. But you also, if you're just an individual and you want to use this, there is a minimal fee that you can and again, and they will educate you on the process, on what you need, what for, what your project is. They really want to make sure that people are once safe, using the tools and actually getting the things that you need. Because sometimes we'll say, I need 50 of this. And they're like, Well, maybe not this, maybe it's that. So they're really, really helpful, but on the site, you have their contact information, their website, the full process of how to rent from any one of the three tool libraries. And we are so hopeful that we will have another RFP coming out soon. Fingers crossed, so we can expand it for e6 Listen, we're here for it. So we've got, we've actually been getting feedback. And I know Erin is in the back, our director for Department of neighborhoods. She was just out in the community, and she was just talking to another organization that actually has a tool library. Again, we didn't know until we kind of put it out there. And so again, to the point of coming together, working together, the more we're outside, and then making these connections and seeing what, again, each of us have and what we could do, and then we can build upon that. And so we're hopeful to work with this new partner. So yes, coming to the west side, Southwest, you know, we want to our goal originally was to have one in each district, and we're not going to stop until that happens. So again, I'm Tony Stovall, and if there's any quick questions on how people can rent, if you got any questions, if not is tour rentals, if you need volunteers, we are here to support so thank you.

    Applause for Tony. Thank you Tony, folks. We're gonna go ahead and now go back to our panelists, and we'll go into Q and A. I want to give folks as much time as possible with the 20 minutes that we have left for Q and A, but do want to mention Thank you Tony for talking about how you know we're inspired by seeing others. This city has had mutual aid happening for a long time. We share books through free little libraries. We share food through our fridge. Programs rights, so we know what this works looks like, but we can now turn it over to our guests to see if you have any questions for our panelists, for Tony, for the city, for me, and I also have some few more questions for the panel, if you don't have any. But now is our time for you all to ask any questions, share any ideas that you might have if you have them.

    I just want to say thank you for all of the expertise that is here. Some folk I know, some I don't. I'm happy to see these faces and learn what you do, and very grateful for the opportunity. I'm wondering, first of all, can we get the slide stack? Can that be

    sent to us? It can be in our newsletter? Yes.

    Okay, that's great. And then the second thing I would like to ask, in terms of the multi generational thing, how are you putting that together? And you know, what is your success with it? And do you have a lot of pushback across the ages?

    I'll start with Alice, and then nyesha, who I know do a lot of really beautiful cross generational work. Yeah.

    So as mentioned, we we were started, you know, and it's been 15 years since we started. So things, lots things have changed in the last 15 years, but really with a focus on seniors, but also, we have partnered with youth groups in the past. Are we? We haven't partnered with a youth group since, since COVID So I guess I'll put it out to those of you who do more youth based work. Would love to partner on some stuff, but I think again, it's like the trust thing and and one of the beautiful things that's come out of it is not just cross generational Trust, which can be hard, you know, people often fear young people, you know, but also because of the community we're in, you know, Cross Cultural Trust that often, right, some of the younger people are like a different you Know, are a different background, maybe, of different religion, different race, than some of the elders in the community. And it's a lot harder to be fearful of someone who just, you know, mowed your lawn for you, or shoveled your snow, right? And you're like, it can, like, you know, break open those prejudices in your brain and vice versa, right? Like people might think that, like, you know, I think there's the stereotype of the mean old lady who lives down the street who doesn't talk to anybody, but then, like, you know, she teaches a, like, a crafting class at your time bank, and you're like, Oh, well, actually, like, she's fine. She doesn't like it when we're loud in the morning or we. Whatever you know, like, who knows? So, yeah, I mean, I think those opportunities are definitely there. Things like the game night are also great for that. And some of the other activities we do, and part of why we have staff for our time bank is also to help with some of the technology things. A lot of the organizing we do is over a website which, you know, like, whether because of age or other reasons, not everyone feels comfortable with that, and so we, you know, we really let you know we're here to help people out with that and try and get rid of those tech problems. Yeah, I

    will also share less. Said, this is really one beautiful program where they have seniors playing with children. So they'll just like, be working out together. They'll be like, banging like drums together, and it's you got, you know, young folks and seniors working together. I believe young people keep older people young, you know, and keeps them going. So we have other examples in the neighborhood where this, where this culture, cross cultural, cross generational relationships work for each other. Naisha,

    yeah, I think sometimes, with different community work and grassroots work, sometimes people just want to be invited to something, right? So it's like that invitation opens up the door to other things. Hey, can you come and stuff some eggs? Hey, Chris, already, do you guys have some students that need some community service hours, putting people in the same spaces and then letting them have conversations and and I might say it's always easy, because we all have different, different ideas, different values and things like that. But sometimes you just need to be in the same spaces in order to see that, you know, and so, and sometimes there's more wisdom than than we know of because, like, like, I was just saying, like, you have those mental barriers of like, oh, this person this way, but it's just because you don't know them. So, yeah, sometimes people are just waiting to be activated or be nice.

    Unfortunately, in our society, we have been very prone to divide ourselves. I want to get back to a place where neighbors looked out for everyone in their neighborhood, and they knew who each other were and calling each other. We can get there. And a lot of places in our city are already there. Any other questions from both? Can I respond? Oh, yes, please go ahead,

    Alice, I think one, one thing that was we haven't mentioned about building these spaces for for multi generational groups, is creating safe spaces. I think a lot of times we bring people into the conversation, and it's not necessarily a safe space for them. And so it's not like it's important that you acknowledge people's differences and are also open to hearing those, because there are a lot of differences, and I think it's important that we create safe spaces where people's differences are okay. And it's so important. I it was so fun having for itself was pride doing the eggs up in our basement, so they came out and I had, we had some volunteers that are, it's an event. What happened?

    Talk about, this is a brave space.

    It's fun. It's funny, because there, you know, it was a whole group of, like 10 boys who work in our park. So the boys learn how to steward our park, and they're usually working outdoors, learning how to mow the lawn, doing all of this, like learning how to do the upkeep of the trees. And so it was a really hot day, and they were lucky enough to be inside and stuff eggs with our with our seniors, and so they, you know, they our seniors tend to share a lot of, there's no filter. We don't have a filter all the time. You know, if someone thinks that they're cute or like, like, Oh my gosh. Like, so it's very fun being able to experience that.

    Oh, literally, stuffing

    eggs for Easter, yeah, yeah, exactly. If y'all need to stuff eggs,

    we've got professionals, yeah,

    professional egg supper. Yeah? So for the for the Easter egg hunt, um, the 28 South was pride fills. What is it like? 10,000 eggs? Yeah, 1000, uh, eggs. And so our youth and like other residents, come in, and they just sit at the table and put a piece of candy and the eggs, and they're just all sitting around the table enjoying themselves and being in community, we got

    some supervisors there

    too, supervisors and making sure there's only one candy in the egg. And my friend Wanda, she's strict about the rules. Wanda's gonna, she's she's going to tell. Boys, Hey, I saw you put two candies in there. I love that. Yeah,

    so when we're doing mutual aid, we're also building community, yeah, and we're building those relationships, and we're building that trust that we need to be able to continue to do this mutual aid work. Any other? Questions, comments, ideas, suggestions.

    Can I ask you guys a question? Go right ahead, learning about mutual aid today. What are some ideas that you guys have? Like, how would you guys implement mutual aid in your your neighborhoods? How

    would you like it to be seen? Yes,

    yes. I just put out a call on Facebook that I'm about to go home and put together a Excel document of skills and resources that my friends have to invite my friends to also populate that document that way, without even having to build a community and look into that document and somebody that you know, or somebody that somebody knows, has that you're looking for, you can at least find who that person is. Yeah,

    I love that. It's gonna make me cry that. And it can look as simple as so right now in Detroit or in like major cities, everyone's a DJ now,

    and I want to DJ. I'm asking my friends, can you spin, how to DJ? Who's got, who's got this, who's got the who's got the disc that I didn't spin?

    These are, we have a living library. We have the we have the CDJs. So, oh my god.

    So it can be, right? It doesn't have to, only have to be in cases of emergencies. It can also be for holidays, for celebrations, for fun, for bringing us together. That is so important to me and to us. I believe, as Detroiters, we know how to party. We don't have a good time. We know how to celebrate. How do we share that with each other as well? That's one thing that my brain is at, is, how do we get more DJs, yes, ma'am.

    My name is Karen. This is my church home. Since I was eight years old. When I get a forgotten COVID box, it sits on my steps, and I can't figure out where I signed up, but there's a wooden table on the front, on my front line, and what I do is I take stuff off the box, sit it on the table, and you'd be surprised by the end of the week, someone has walked by and picked up what they need or taken it to someone. And you know that way I'm not wasting it and I'm not discarding it, because there are people out there, you know, since I'm right at the end of the block near the freeway, only a block from Grand River, they're going to up to the gas station or up to the liquor store to buy something in a can. So I just show them their steps and save them a few points. That's beautiful,

    exactly. Thank you. And Ms, Karen, we've got some gardeners here. What if

    we get together

    once a month at different places in the district and bring all our tomatoes, because we get a lot of tomatoes. Tomatoes grow right? Bring our basils, bring our herbs, and share those with each other. In exchange. There's clothing exchange, right? How do we do we want to come together once a month and bring the clothes that we have no longer fit us and exchange those books. You know, there's so many ways that we can share arranges with one another. Yes, we

    teach that stuff,

    man, please teach me.

    Oh, Rashad dolls class at Detroit executive director just around the corner, actually not gonna run the corner on the street. Two things, I'm loving the conversation. Second thing, we actually own, from my st Stephen folks. We own three lots right there past the fence, and I would love to collaborate and do something. I don't know if that's quite mutual aid, but, you know, I'm saying we're doing something. We got some money, so let's make something happen. Okay, thank

    you. That is mutual aid. You've got the space. Let's Let's fill it. Let's do something with it. Miss Carol in

    September. In September, United black love and Christian development. We're going to have a Health and Wellness Fair, so any vendors that want to sign up, we're going to have an at another church in this area, as you realize that we have at least 16 active churches, either online or in person, right in this little, little area. So I would love to anyone who wants to be a vendor. We're looking for

    people. Can you introduce yourself? My

    name is Evelyn Carroll, PRESIDENT OF THE. United block club for this area. And many of you have got flyers that on your door every couple of weeks that we put on put on your door for the activities in the area, and or you get an email from me for United block club, and our next meeting is the third Tuesday, the 20th at Arca deliverance retirement in Northville, 530

    Thank you. Our block clubs do an incredible job of creating mutual aid and supporting each other. Here. Any other cookies? Yes, when I one second, just because for hearing, for everyone to come here when

    I retired the first time,

    it's okay, my God, mother, she's retired two three times. She's still working, though, right?

    Well, I was told you don't retire. You retire. I guess I took a little but when I did retire, oh, I'm sorry. Dr Ventura song, when I retired, I started a block club for our large rock Community Association, now defunct, because after COVID, we just kind of flew off. But what I did was I a former pastor and a former professor. So what I did was I started a vegetable garden at a corner of my front house, in the front of the house, and everybody who would walk by kind of button hole, you know, roll up on them and tell them that they could come and pick anything they wanted. I kept bags on the front porch and didn't have to be home. And also started a tool tool bank of my own, and just told them, just text me, you know, I'll leave the tools on the porch. Make sure you bring them back, because I know you very appreciative.

    Thanks, doc, that's beautiful in the back.

    Hi. My name is Lavida Brown, and I've been a member of this church for I'll be 75 in November, alright? And I just want to say that I want to welcome you here. I want you to know a little bit quickly about the history of our church. Our church is over 100 years old, and my father was the city council for eight years from this church, from Allendale neighborhood. He ran for mayor against COVID. Young back in the stall. This was in the 70s. So I have a lot of historical connections to this area. You're in our historical remembrance room right now, and we're putting it back together since the flood. But one thing I want you to go to and see before you leave this building. If you've ever seen the temptations movie, the first half hour, when they talk about the temptations, or when they talk about they talk about, okay, Otis and Melvin meeting Barry Gordy. It was in this building in the in the laboratory, in the gym, we used to have sock hops, we used to have roller skating. We used to have all kind of activities, and I had my paper to pass out for everybody to read, and the kind of things that used to happen, but do not leave here without looking in that gym, because you are looking at Hitsville, USA slash Motown. And I thought it was kind of funny. The first song that was played was by the four times this evening, and I saw okay, they knew where they were. So anyway, though we're working on a historical marker with the state of Michigan for our church, and so you're welcome. You'll find out about it, because we're going to have a big celebration when the markers are put up, when the markets put up. So thank you for being here today, and you're welcome back anytime.

    Thank you. Thank you for that that's exciting and very beautiful. I love the full circle, and yes, I know our Detroit roots in Motown very well, folks, we have five minutes left. I really want to respect your time. I'm going to ask one last question of our panelists. Give you all some updates on some work that we're doing before we wrap. Welcome folks to please exchange your phone numbers, names, information. We have some really, really wonderful people here to get some lunch out to be able to continue these conversations of how we support each other. Okay, thinking of the last question, I'm just gonna add, and with what advice do you have for someone that wants to start mutual aid in the community? And I'm gonna start with Alice.

    I hope that you'll all become members of the time bank. If you're not already, I see some members already out here, so go to our website. We have pamphlets over there. So yeah, please sign up for the time bank. We need your skills. We want to fulfill your requests. And yeah, who? Whatever you are, whatever you do, like, we need you to be a part of the time thing.

    Thank you, pleasure.

    Let's see what advice be open minded, also like, hold people kind of like, Yo, I know you, and you're gonna bring back my tools, because, you know, sometimes people are missing that in their life, you know. And if you ever see me just I'm always gonna say, what up to you? My mom works at the Family Dollar worn in liver noise. So if you ever see a woman with red hair, her name is Liz, Miss Liz, we all know her. So that's my mom.

    I know she doesn't she can't do it. She'll send me to go do it.

    Thank you. Nice, Rachel, the biggest piece of advice, we've kind

    of like hammered it in, but with a tendency to do this alone, like find your friends, know your community, know the different organizations and what everybody's working on. Get to know people, get to know people's strengths and your relationship with them. Because if not, if you try and do it alone, one, you're going to burn yourself out. And two, that can be really costly. We already have exactly what we need. It's just tapping into the people in our community to achieve those things. Thank

    you wholeheartedly. Alyssa,

    I think lean into two things. Well, I'm gonna lean into three things. Sorry, one thing just came into my head, which is, close smiles, don't get fed, you know, right? And so I think we have to speak up and advocate for ourselves and really be that and say the things that we need. And then the other thing, the other thing I would say is, if you're looking to do this, well, document record people's contact information, send people thank you. Thank yous are so important. Thank you people for their time. That's so so important to building trust and building mutual respect with people. And then the other thing I would like to lean into is everyone knows something. And so you you might not know that person for that one thing that you need help with, but I'm sure Sarah down the street might know, you know. And so really lean into that network and establish it and build those relationships with people. I think one, one thing that has been really helpful with, with being able to respond to the families who are impacted by the flood is, like, the the network that I have personally with, with the community, everyone was like, Oh my gosh. How do you know these, all these people, like, I didn't even know they were gonna show up. It just happened to be there, like niasia is fiance. I actually used to go to sleepovers with her, and so my Dallas is like my cousin, and we're just all doing, like it was, like a whole family event for me. And so I think really don't, don't be afraid to tap into your family and really get people activated. It's so cool to see people get activated and unionized over, over these things, not just when a crisis happens, but also something is cool, like a drug or treat or, you know, like a celebration for for the church as a historical land, like, that's amazing. That's awesome. So don't be afraid to tap into your network and just say like, Hey Wendy, I need you to show up with your junk for your Bounce House next week, please. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. So

    yeah, thank

    you. Thank you all. Round of applause for our panelists. There, they're all doing really, really beautiful work in our community. I encourage you to let to know them if you don't already know them, and I encourage you to be able to create the mutual aid networks that you need in your neighborhoods. And wholeheartedly agree we need to come together and get to know each other and need to know one another briefly, some brief updates and announcements from our office. We have tomorrow, we have our upcoming coffee Council and conversation. It's going to be at the Perry Outreach Center at 4217, so if you know anyone in the neighborhood, please join us. We're going to be there from 11 to 12pm there will be coffee, there will be donuts. There will be updates from our office. It's a good time for you to let us know of any issues that might be going on with districts for us to work on it. So please do come and join us. We also will continue our community office hours. We do not have an in district office. We travel around the districts. So we are going to be at equity Alliance next on Monday, May 19. From three to 5pm and there will be no office hours on the 26th that's Memorial Day. I might see you guys dancing that movement. Who knows? And then B seed will be joining us for our office hours. So on May 19, BC and DPW, oh, excuse me, no, I'm reading this wrong. Thank you for June. For June right now we have the land bank with us. In May. The land bank is plus in May. In June, we're going to have BCN, DPW, thank you. TJ, if you want to follow us along and what we're working on, follow sign on for our newsletter, our text messages, or our meetings. And I really, really want to encourage people. If you were inspired tonight, if you have an idea of how we can do mutual aid, give us a call, send us an email. Let's figure it out. I want to be able to help you. If you don't need our help, that's cool. You obviously, the government will not save us, obviously, but, but our residents, our community, our relations, will so really, really encourage you all to get to know one another. And thank you all so much for being here. I love you. After doing this work for this term, Truly, truly, truly, do not believe that I have the power. The power is here in this room for third people. So thank you all so so much with that. I hope you all have a great evening.

    That's it. Thank you. You

    Hi, Steven.