Creating Ecosystems of Care Through Mutual Aid
Flattening Hierarchal Aid in the Early Months of COVID-19
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/27607Keywords:
COVID-19, mutual aid, collective care, non-hierarchical structuresAbstract
As COVID-19 (Coronavirus Disease) spread in the United States in Spring 2020, conventional safety nets were overwhelmed and unable to meet widespread and growing needs. Mutual aid practices proliferated as an essential form of resource provision and community care, including exchanges of food, financial assistance, and social connection. Our qualitative study interviewed 25 individuals engaged in mutual aid in Colorado, USA to investigate the perceived benefits of providing and receiving care through mutual aid in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. We found that nonhierarchical care offered entry points to equitable ways of supporting communities through and beyond crisis. The non-hierarchical approach to care described in our study illustrated redistributed power and agency to meet community needs, and decentering institutional decision making. The experiences of mutual aid participants propose a significant ideological shift regarding our sense of care and community when conventional systems are insufficient to meet collective and individual needs, and suggest a need for future expansions of and changes to social work practice to embrace non-hierarchical care.
References
Adler-Bolton, B., & Vierkant, A. (2022). Health communism: A surplus manifesto. Verso Books.
Aldrich, D. (2012). Building resilience: Social capital in post-disaster recovery. University of Chicago Press. https://doi.org/10.7208/chicago/9780226012896.001.0001
Beito, D. T. (2000). From mutual aid to the welfare state: Fraternal societies and social services, 1890-1967. University of North Carolina Press.
Bell, F. M. (2021). Amplified injustices and mutual aid in the COVID-19 pandemic. Qualitative Social Work, 20(1-2), 410-415. https://doi.org/10.1177/1473325020973326
Bender, K., Littman, D. M., Dunbar, A. Z., Boyett, M., Milligan, T., Santarella, M., & Becker- Hafnor, T. (2021). Emergent media scan of digital mutual aid organizing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Community Practice, 29(3), 280-298. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705422.2021.1980477
Benfer, E., Bloom Robinson, D., Butler, S., Edmonds, L., Gilman, S., Lucas McKay, K., Neumann, Z., Owens, L., Steinkamp, N., & Yentel, D. (2020, August 7). The COVID-19 eviction crisis: An estimated 30-40 million people in America are at risk. The Aspen Institute. https://www.aspeninstitute.org/blog-posts/the-covid-19-eviction-crisis-an-estimated-30-40-million-people-in-america-are-at-risk/
Brulle, R. J., & Norgaard, K. M. (2019). Avoiding cultural trauma: Climate change and social inertia. Environmental Politics, 28(5), 886-908. https://doi.org/10.1080/09644016.2018.1562138
Castro-Correa, C.-P., Aldunce Ide, P., Wyndham Vásquez, K., Mena Maldonado, D., & Pérez Tello, S. (2020). Transformation of social capital during and after a disaster event: The cases Chañaral and Diego de Almagro, Atacama Region, Chile. Natural Hazards 103(2), 2427-2440. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-020-04091-9
Cohen-Chen, S., & Van Zomeren, M. (2018). Yes we can? Group efficacy beliefs predict collective action, but only when hope is high. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 77, 50-59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2018.03.016
Colting-Stol, J. (2022). How mutual aid and community care ignite further grassroots organizing possibilities for long-term change: Reflections from the case of Kapit-Bisig Laban COVID Montreal (Linked arms in the struggle against COVID). Alon: Journal for Filipinx American and Diasporic Studies, 2(2), 141-146. https://doi.org/10.5070/LN42258019
Creswell, J. W. (2013). Qualitative inquiry & research design: Choosing among the five approaches (3rd ed.). Sage.
Elkassem, S., & Murray-Lichtman, A. (2022). Mapping an integrative critical race and anti-colonial theoretical framework in social work practice. Advances in Social Work, 22(2), 628-646. https://doi.org/10.18060/24952
Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA]. (2024, January 26). Process of public assistance grants. Author. https://www.fema.gov/assistance/public/process
Fehr, R., Cox, C., Pollitz, K., Tolbert, J., Cubanski, J., & Rudowitz, R. (2020, May 26). Five things to know about the cost of COVID-19 testing and treatment. KFF [Kaiser Family Foundation]. https://www.kff.org/coronavirus-covid-19/issue-brief/five-things-to-know-about-the-cost-of-covid-19-testing-and-treatment/
Fernandes-Jesus, M., Mao, G., Ntontis, E., Cocking, C., McTague, M., Schwarz, A., Semlyen, J., & Drury, J. (2021). More than a COVID-19 response: Sustaining mutual aid groups during and beyond the pandemic. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.716202
Finley, L., Esposito, L., & Hall, L. (2012). Neoliberalism and the non-profit industrial complex: The limits of a market approach to service delivery. Peace Studies Journal, 5(3), 4-26. http://peacestudiesjournal.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/PSJ-Vol-5-Issue-3-2012.pdf
Haubner, A. (2024, June 27). New Colorado law eliminates entry level social worker exam, hopes to remove barriers of entry to profession. CBS Colorado. https://www.cbsnews.com/colorado/news/new-colorado-law-eliminates-entry-level-social-worker-exam-remove-barriers-entry-profession/
Hodge, J. G., Gostin, L. O., & Vernick, J. S. (2007). The Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness Act: Improving public health emergency response. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 297(15), 1708-1711. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.297.15.1708
INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence. (2020). The revolution will not be funded: Beyond the non-profit industrial complex. Duke University Press.
Jun, N., & Lance, M. (2020). Anarchist responses to a pandemic: The COVID-19 crisis as a case study in mutual aid. Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal, 30(3), 361-378. https://doi.org/10.1353/ken.2020.0019
Katz, M. B. (1990). The undeserving poor: From the War on Poverty to the War on Welfare. Pantheon.
Kim, M. E., Rasmussen, C., Washington, D. M., & Kaba, M. (2024). Abolition and social work: Possibilities, paradoxes, and the practice of community care (1st ed.). Oxford.
Landau, L. (2022). Mutual aid as disaster response in NYC: Hurricane Sandy to COVID-19. Journal of Extreme Events, 9(02n03), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1142/S2345737622410019
Lee, J. (2020). Post-disaster trust in Japan: The social impact of the experiences and perceived risks of natural hazards. Environmental Hazards, 19(2), 171-186. https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2019.1664380
Littman, D. M., Boyett, M., Bender, K., Dunbar, A. Z., Santarella, M., Becker-Hafnor, T., Saavedra, K., & Milligan, T. (2022). Values and beliefs underlying mutual aid: An exploration of collective care during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of the Society for Social Work and Research, 13(1), 89-115. https://doi.org/10.1086/716884
Lo, M. C., & Fan, Y. (2020). Brightening the dark side of “linking social capital”? Negotiating conflicting visions of post-Morakot reconstruction in Taiwan. Theory and Society, 49, 23-48. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11186-020-09376-3
Loumpa, V. (2012). Promoting recovery through peer support: Possibilities for social work practice. Social Work in Health Care, 51(1), 53-65. https://doi.org/10.1080/00981389.2011.622667
Marcil, S. (2023, January 17). Care economy: Why the US must tackle the looming care crisis. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2023/01/care-economy-us-major-economic-crisis-us-davos-2023/
Mutual Aid Hub. (n.d.). Home. Author. https://www.mutualaidhub.org/
Nelson, G., Ochocka, J., Griffin, K., & Lord, J. (1998). “Nothing about me, without me”: Participatory action research with self‐help/mutual aid organizations for psychiatric consumer/survivors. American Journal of Community Psychology, 26(6), 881-912. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022298129812
Nienow, M., Sogabe, E., & Husain, A. (2023). Racial disparity in social work licensure exam pass rates. Research on Social Work Practice, 33(1), 76-83. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497315221125885
Office of Inspector General. (2021). Lessons learned from FEMA's initial response to COVID- 19. Homeland Security. https://www.oig.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/assets/2021-09/OIG-21-64-Sep21.pdf
O’Taylor, F. (2020, July 10). Rooting the Cross in its soil: The danger of sanitising grassroots movements during COVID-19 [web blog]. Durham University. https://www.durham.ac.uk/departments/academic/theology-religion/about-us/covid-19-blog-project/rooting-the-cross-in-its-soil-the-danger-of-sanitising-grassroots-movements-during-covid-19/
Partelow, S. (2021). Social capital and community disaster resilience: Post-earthquake tourism recovery on Gili Trawangan, Indonesia. Sustainability science, 16(1), 203-220. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00854-2
Pew Research Center. (2014). Party affiliation among adults in Colorado. Religious Landscape Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/religious-landscape-study/database/state/colorado/party-affiliation/
Rankins, M. G. (2023). We keep us safe, Venmo doesn’t: The impact of peer-to-peer payment apps on mutual aid and community organizing. North Carolina Banking Institute, 27(1), 240-283. https://scholarship.law.unc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1567&context=ncbi
Roberts, M. (2020, September 5). COVID-19 in Colorado timeline: The first six months. Westword. https://www.westword.com/news/covid-19-in-colorado-six-month-timeline-11782978
Roy, A. (2020, April 3). Arundhati Roy: ‘The pandemic is a portal’. Financial Times. https://www.ft.com/content/10d8f5e8-74eb-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca
Rollston, R., & Galea, S. (2020). COVID-19 and the social determinants of health. American Journal of Health Promotion, 34(6), 687-689. https://doi.org/10.1177/0890117120930536b
Saldaña, J. (2021). The coding manual for qualitative researchers. Sage.
Silver, C., & Hyman, D. A. (2020). COVID-19: A case study of government failure. Cato Institute, Pandemics and Policy. https://www.cato.org/pandemics-policy/covid-19-case-study-government-failure
Sharfstein, J. M., & Marx, M. A. (2020, March 30). Testing is just the beginning in the battle against Covid-19. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/opinion/coronavirus-testing.html
Shear, B. W. (2021). Conjunctural politics, cultural struggle, and solidarity economy: An Interview with Kali Akuno. Rethinking Marxism, 33(1), 6-29. https://doi.org/10.1080/08935696.2020.1844541
Solnit, R. (2009). A paradise built in hell: The extraordinary communities that arise in disaster. Penguin Books.
Sonsteng-Person, M., Spoth, A. P., Hostetter, R., Akapnitis, I., Barbera, R., Joseph, A., Mackey, C., & Garcia-Perez, J. (2023). A new world cannot be built alone: An abolitionist framework for collective action in social work. Abolitionist Perspectives in Social Work, 1(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.52713/apsw.v1i1.18
Spade, D. (2020). Mutual aid: Building solidarity during this crisis (and the next). Verso.
Springer, S. (2020). Caring geographies: The COVID-19 interregnum and a return to mutual aid. Dialogues in Human Geography, 10(2), 112-115. https://doi.org/10.1177/2043820620931277
Sustainable Economies Law Center. (2020, August). Mutual Aid Legal Toolkit. https://www.theselc.org/mutual_aid_toolkit#h_520969102961598471854421
Szreter, S. (2002). The state of social capital: Bringing back in power, politics, and history. Theory and Society, 31(5), 573-621. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1021300217590
Toraif, N., & Mueller, J. C. (2023). Abolitionist social work. In Encyclopedia of social work [Online]. Oxford University Press. https://oxfordre.com/socialwork/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.001.0001/acrefore-9780199975839-e-1553
U.S. Census Bureau. (2019). Quick facts: Colorado. Author. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/CO
Woodly, D., Brown, R. H., Marin, M., Threadcraft, S., Harris, C. P., Syedullah, J., & Ticktin, M. (2021). The politics of care. Contemporary Political Theory, 20(4), 890-925. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41296-021-00515-8
World Health Organization. (2021). Coronavirwus disease (COVID-19) weekly epidemiological update and weekly operational update (Coronavirus disease [COVID-19] Situation Reports). Author. https://www.who.int/publications/m/item/weekly-epidemiological-update-on-covid-19---28-december-2021
Zelnick, J. R., & Abramovitz, M. (2020). The perils of privatization: Bringing the business model into human services. Social Work, 65(3), 213-224. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/swaa024
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Tara Milligan, Kimberly Bender, Kate Saavedra, Danielle Maude Littman, Annie Zean Dunbar, Maveryck Boyett, Karaya Morris, Sophia Sarantakos
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
