On March 12, 2020, Kevin LaCherra, a coordinator with what’s become North Brooklyn Mutual Aid, posted in a Facebook group asking if anyone had volunteer opportunities. He and his neighbors were starting to realize how serious the coming days and weeks would be, and he wanted to help.
In short order, he and another community member, Danielle Franco, put together a Google spreadsheet where locals could type in what they needed, and others who had the resources could volunteer to help them out.
At the same time, similar efforts were springing up around the neighborhood — people were asking for, and offering, help in Facebook groups and Slack channels, and one group was even pinning up posters with a phone number and an email address for people to contact if they needed help.
“All of us kind of connected with each other, we were like, ‘Well, we don’t want to duplicate efforts, let’s bring this together as something, let’s make this something,’” LaCherra said. “So we called it North Brooklyn Mutual Aid.”
Title card photo via North Brooklyn Mutual Aid website
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