MUTUAL AID
Mutual aid is an organizational model where voluntary, collaborative exchanges of resources and services for common benefit take place amongst community members to overcome social, economic, and political barriers to meeting common needs. This can include physical resources like food, clothing, or medicine, as well as services like breakfast programs or education. These groups are often built for the daily needs of their communities, but mutual aid groups are also found throughout relief efforts, such as in natural disasters or pandemics like the COVID-19 pandemic.
​Amid an unrelenting pandemic, economic crisis, and increasing climate disasters, the need for mutual aid networks has grown significantly. These crises expose the deeply rooted systemic inequalities in our society—including in humanitarian aid. And mutual aid has always played a role in filling those gaps.
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FREE MARKET IS HERE FOR YOU.
Think thrift store, add in non perishable foods and... everything is free. Donate what you can, take what you need. No questions asked, no strings attached.
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Next Market Days:
December 21st 3-7pm Community Holiday Party at Seaman Village Community Center
January 9th 3-7pm Free Dinner and Free Market at Seaman Village Community Center
January 30th 3-7pm Snacks and Market at Seaman Village Community Center
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Donation Drop Off Days:
December 1st 5-7:30pm Free Market and Toy/Gift Drive at Seaman Lions Club Park and Seaman Village Community Center
December 6th 3-5pm West Union Courthouse
December 21st 3-7pm Holiday Party at Seaman Village Community Center
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We are fundraising to sustain our free markets and our free community dinner events as well as fundraising to build and install "little libraries" around Adams County, filled with items that are needed. We are focusing on accessibility. These little libraries will have food, reproductive healthcare and harm reduction. Until then, we have our free markets that will include these items. We will be submitting an application for our project in hopes we can receive a mutual aid fund to help us get this effort quickly moving. Every dollar counts. Every donation matters. https://secure.actblue.com/donate/eoaohioindivisible or you can also venmo our lead, Taryn at taryn-penrose. If you’d like to help with our mutual aid efforts of the free market itself, we’d love for you to be involved! We are running these drives at all of our protests, activities and events and hope to have donation boxes at small businesses that support these causes once we have established the little libraries. You can find all of the details and lists for each drive below. We are seeking someone who would love to help me put together a project proposal for these installations so if that’s you, reach out.
UPCOMING WORKSHOPS
These workshops will begin in January 2026 for Adams County and surrounding areas.
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Banned and Non-Fiction Book Club
Every 2nd Thursday of the month
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Sexual Violence Awareness and Support Group
Every last Tuesday of the month
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Kids Club
We will try to make this every week or bi-weekly depending on the Club activity.
If you have a skill, talent, expertise in a trade or hobby and interested in being apart of our mutual aid group please comment what you can do to help your community. It also doesn't have to be an essential trade. Joy and beauty is also included. Cashless credit or time banking/swap or sharing. We want to lift everyone up to their best selves. Providing basic needs and positive conditions will help us all. Everyone has needs and offers. What are your needs? What do you want to engage in mutual aid.
Physical, material, emotional, social, spiritual.
Short term, long term.​​
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Form coming soon!
​BRING BACK THE VILLAGE.
It’s time we start helping out our community and those in it as much as we possibly can. Mutual aid is crucial in times especially like these and even the smallest of things can get someone through their day. We are gathering a complete list of every mutual aid group, event or fundraising/drives in our district. Where we can find resources and our basic necessities. From food to shelter to DV help and therapy. To clothes and blankets, free plan B or HIV testing. Any and all. We are also trying to create a system to help us through the winter and probably the incoming years.
Under our community resources page, you will find all of these resources we know we have in our areas or where to find what you would need. More is being added as we find them for you. Our resources can also be found there one we have it all organized. ​​
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Eventually we hope to create a bigger system that involves everyone including small businesses. As the times change and more of us struggle and struggle harder we are going to need our community to lean on and that is us. We all have a role in the revolution and we’re here when you’re ready with a wide range of different things you can choose from.​
Ideas to support ourselves and our community
Examples and Ideas of Mutual Aid:
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Create a food pantry (were trying to have little libraries built in Adams county)
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Supper clubs or pot lucks.
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If you're an educator you could help host workshops or classes.
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If you make candles you can help if we lose our electricity and we can trade what we’re able.
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Sharing music, movies, puzzle, games etc. Take and give back system.
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Friendship or free family events and activities (we have Appalachian Edge Ohio Indivisible Community Events and Activities we’ll be getting back to very very soon if you'd like to help, we need it)
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First Capital Pride in Chillicothe hosts a Free Market (that we were inspired by to have in Adams County)
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Community garden or if you grow food, can provide food for our network. (Our lead has space for a large garden to grow and feed our communities)
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Help with home projects.
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Dumpster diving and give away what you find.
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Water each others plants when one goes out of town.
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I have traded a photoshoot for a coffee table, record stand, loaves of homemade bread, a client made me their family’s Indian french toast for a session and ive traded my hairstylist half of her wedding total for 6 hair appointments and much more. Just for some more personal examples!
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You can also add some ideas, just email us! (Add at the end the county you live in)
Dumpster Diving
Saving waste from dumpsters is legal as long as they are on public city street. Also if you have permission of the owner of the company or building. Although this practice (or the way they got around it in law) should not be illegal due to all the corporate waste.
https://www.rts.com/resources/guides/food-waste-america/
We recommend you read or listen to this book by Dean Spade called Mutual Aid. We are in dark times and we need to focus on what we can do for our community.
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We did try to start a community garden and compost drop off area for Peebles, Seaman and Hillsboro but we didn't have enough help to keep it going. But there is much more we can do and keep doing and try to do.
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With the lack of villagers to help sustain a mutual aid project right now we have decided the best thing for us to do would be build little libraries and install them throughout Adams County. We are having a fundraiser to help with these builds. If you'd like to help make this happen, every dollar counts.