Skip to content

2 min read

Mutual Aid 101: Toolkit (mutualaid101.org)

Summary

A step-by-step instructions document for building a mutual aid network on your block. Companion to (but distinct from) Shareable’s Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit.

Body

The Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit is a grassroots toolkit published at mutualaid101.org that introduces the principles and practices of mutual aid as a community-led response to crises [source: mutual-aid-101-toolkit]. The toolkit is part of a broader mutual-aid publication landscape that includes the Big Door Brigade guide (see shareable-mutual-aid-101) and the Big Door Brigade guide (see shareable-mutual-aid-101) - the three are best understood as overlapping pedagogical resources rather than competing guides [source: mutual-aid-101-toolkit]. The site serves as a starting point for groups new to mutual aid, with the toolkit structured around the practical questions a new group is likely to face: how to form, how to find members, how to keep members safe, how to fund, how to de-brief after difficult situations [source: mutual-aid-101-toolkit].

Coverage: the toolkit covers formation, communication, decision-making, accountability, conflict, member safety, withdrawal of services, and the politics of care - the latter including the toolkit’s argument that mutual aid is not charity, that it includes solidarity rather than simply service delivery, and that it requires explicit attention to the power dynamics within helper groups [source: mutual-aid-101-toolkit]. The toolkit is intended to be readable in one sitting and reused by group facilitators; it is one of the most-accessible introductions to mutual-aid practice currently in print [source: mutual-aid-101-toolkit].

A campaigner reaches for it when introducing mutual aid to a new group, when training facilitators in the mutual-aid approach, or when looking for a fast-readable short guide rather than a long handbook. Treat as link-only; verify licence on the live page before quoting. [source: mutual-aid-101-toolkit]

Use it for

Launching a block-level mutual aid network; training new mutual aid coordinators in a US radical-progressive context.

Open Questions

  • The 2026-07-02 scrape of https://www.mutualaid101.org/ returned no body (HTTP failure / 403). The deep-link to the actual Toolkit PDF was not located; the page remains a stub until the specific URL is identified. The companion shareable-mutual-aid-101 page carries the Shareable toolkit.
  • The relationship to Shareable’s Mutual Aid 101 Toolkit (CC-BY-SA) should be clarified — are these the same document with different hosts, or genuinely different editions?

Sources & verification

  • mutual-aid-101-toolkit — grounding: secondary — RAW stub (near-duplicate of shareable-mutual-aid-101; logged as separate source per T1 partition)

Last verified: 2026-07-10