Jonquilyn Hill

I've been thinking a lot about my neighbors lately, what it means to help them, what it means to be in community with them.

We spend so much time online talking to strangers, but how are the people down the street doing?

I've asked myself this question a lot lately, but it first entered the back of my mind around the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, when groups sprang up across the country to help people who were sick or who were caring for others.

Here in D.C., where I live, I saw so many listservs pop up, people offering to grab groceries for neighbors or to give away masks that they made.

And even though the needs have changed since 2020, there are groups all around the country that are still going strong.

Neighbors helping to meet the needs of neighbors rather than relying on government assistance or charity.

This type of help is known as mutual aid.

I'm Jonquan Hill.

This is Explain It to Me from Vox.

And this week, we talk to folks around the country who are engaging in this work right now.

Mutual aid is not just another form of aid.

I'm Devin Curtis, and I live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, working and organizing with Triangle Mutual Aid.

So we like to make a home for people to come and say, and I like to fix people's cars.

So, okay, so now we have a car repair circle where people teach each other how to fix cars.

I think all of us, all of us are just like aunties on the block here.

And so we just are always looking out for our kupuna, which means elder on our block, in our neighborhoods.

I'm Nicole Eugenin, and I am part of Maui Rapid Response on Maui, Hawaii.

Mutual aid for us works because we're out in the streets, we're out in the houses, we're listening and observing our neighborhood, and we see that Auntie or Tutu has not left her house in a week.

And we're going to go knock and ask if she's okay.

We have, you know, a team that is responsible for the food mutual aid.