Putting relationships first: mutual aid
The topic under discussion on 23rd February 2022 in our putting relationships first cell was mutual aid: how can we do more to support it?
David Robinson from the Relationships Project, who is our thought leader for the cell, opened the discussion by reflecting on the context and what we had learnt from the pandemic, which had demonstrated particularly in its early stages the value of mutual aid and the positivity it can bring. In the repeated cycle of lockdowns some of this had partially faded, and for some there was a feeling of exhaustion and fears about the economy had led to a sense of helplessness. But there was still learning and potential on which to build.
We then heard about the We-volution model of self-reliant groups (SRGs) from its founder Noel Mathias and Deborah Murdoch from one its groups in Greenock.
Debs explained that 7 years ago she had joined the SRG as a young mother to meet new people and was introduced to the philosophy of ‘meet-save-create’. The group built mutual trust and through these connnections she and others had learnt that they had skills which they can share and transfer, sometimes leading to the creation of new businesses or to people taking on leadership roles, helping to train other women. She had started working with Ratio, collecting data on how connections helps their groups and creates power. For her, the SRG and We-volution were ‘a movement and a family’, not an organisation.
Noel told us how the idea of SRGs had come from the practice of self-help groups in India. Their key impact is to put people, primarily women, in control of their lives, often in places or amongst people who are stigmatised in the way others, incorrectly, see them. We-volution see individuals as entrepreneurs rather than consumers - everyone is an entrepreneur, not least in the ‘enterprise of being human’. It is a relational model, he explained, where people learn to empower themselves and find their own agency, and a major shift in thinking away from ‘fixing to connecting’.
We-volution helps set up these groups but also creates peer groups from across the individual SRGs who become friends within the wider SRG family and learn from each other, with wisdom percolating through connnection. We-volution see their role as movement building, enabling access to financial support and capacity, mobilising participations and creating learning.
They’ve found SRGs and the wider movement can have huge impact in terms of systemic change - growing social capital, improving mental health and positively impacting the lives of children, he concluded. You can read a blog by Noel for a Better Way about We-volution’s work here.
We then heard from Richard Harries from the Institute for Community Studies, formerly from Power to Change. He has written a blog for a Better Way in which he invented the word ‘takepowerment’, which he said might capture the We-volution philosophy. Richard explained that the Institute for Community Studies would shortly be publishing research looking at mutual aid at home and abroad. He highlighted some lessons, including:
they found that there was a correlation between community wealth, community owned assets and well-being.
The location of community assets, including places to meet, and the level of grants mutual aid groups received, made all the difference.
Levels of trust, access to digital tools, support from local authorities and the existence of faith based groups were also important.
Working with mutual aid groups can be scary for local authorities because of the level of risk but in the pandemic they were forced to do so, with good results.
Other points made in the break out groups and plenary discussion included:
charity and mutual aid are very different models. ‘When we do change to people , they can experience it as violence, when we allow people to do change for themselves they experience it as a liberation.’ As Mother Theresa said, ‘the poor will never forgive you for the charity you do to them.’
Mutual aid is a relational model, one of ‘takepowerment’, with potentially huge social impact, unleashing the ‘enterprise of being human’.
The pandemic had challenged local authorities to do things differently, and conquer their normal risk aversion, and their support for mutual aid was important.
We heard of community based organisations which were also a form of mutual aid and where people would not be able to tell who are staff, volunteers, or local people, as they work together mutually.
Mutual aid does not have to be small-scale and it is not new either: for example, in the 1790s it was widespread in relation to famine support and in Mumbai, when the mills closed, the women got together and set up a popadum business which was worth £250 million.
Mutual aid is not exclusive to any demographic and it works.
There is no one model, it’s important not to be prescriptive and it comes and goes. The use of IT, free access to community spaces, the ownership of community assets and capacity-building support are factors which can aid success.
The key to making it work is to create the conditions in which human beings can be human.