About
Mission
Riverton Mutual Aid is a grassroots, volunteer-led network dedicated to building community resilience through solidarity, not charity. We exist to ensure that every neighbor has access to the resources, support, and care they need by fostering a culture of reciprocal aid and collective care.
We believe that we are all experts in our own lives, and that by sharing our diverse skills and resources we can build a more equitable and connected neighborhood.
Purpose
We bridge the gaps left by systemic inequities and traditional social services. We aim to:
- Facilitate resource sharing. Build a transparent, accessible system for neighbors to request help and offer resources — food, supplies, skills, time.
- Build community power. Empower neighbors to take an active role in the well-being of their community, moving away from top-down philanthropic models toward horizontal cooperation. Support and build participatory movements; expand solidarity.
- Foster social connection. Combat isolation by creating meaningful relationships between neighbors across different backgrounds, ages, and lived experiences.
What we commit to
- Direct aid distribution. Consistent systems — a community fridge, a tool library, grocery delivery — that meet immediate physical needs.
- Skill-sharing and education. Workshops and gatherings where neighbors teach each other, from urban gardening and home repair to navigating local bureaucracy.
- Crisis response. A rapid-response network for emergencies — extreme weather, public health crises, economic hardship, oppression.
- Advocacy and awareness. Identifying local systemic issues — housing insecurity, food deserts — and working collectively to raise awareness, help directly, and advocate for long-term solutions.
- Building new connections across neighborhoods that have been too segregated and atomized.
- Inclusivity and accessibility. Communications and physical spaces accessible to everyone — including non-English speakers and people with disabilities.
Guiding principles
- Democracy. Volunteers and neighbors collaboratively decide how we organize and how we help. Everyone contributes their knowledge and abilities.
- Solidarity, not charity. We work with our neighbors, not for them. There is no hierarchy between giving and receiving.
- No barriers to entry. Aid is provided without means-testing, documentation requirements, or judgment.
- Autonomy. We respect the privacy and agency of every neighbor involved, and the need to protect vulnerable people in our community.
- Sustainability. We're volunteers, working to keep this a long-term resource for the community.
- Not for profit. Philanthropic charity models tend to come from the for-profit world. Our model promotes solidarity and resource-sharing instead.
- Non-criminalization. As a group, we are not involved in criminalizing anyone in our community.