"Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville (MAMAS) began to organize on March 12, 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its anticipated impact on our communities. Mutual aid is about showing up in our communities and pooling our resources to make sure everyone has what they need. We honor a long history of mutual aid by remembering that we are not alone and showing up for each other."
"Neighborhood Pods are hyperlocal community groups. Pods build community, support each other, and keep in contact through text message groups or phone trees. Pods interact with the larger MAMAS network by providing or requesting support that cannot be used or filled within the Pod."
In collaboration with other organizers, I co-built this map of neighborhood pods. At the time of creation, these pods were descriptive (mapped pods reflected existing pod leaders and the neighborhood blocks they were already organizing). We filled in new areas with pods as folks volunteered to take on the pod leader role, so that neighbors who weren’t already connected could find their pod leader on the map.
See coverage of this project in the New York Times and the Boston Globe.
