Circle City Mutual Aid has been archived.

As of February 27th, we learned that our fiscal host, Open Collective Foundation, is dissolving effective December 31, 2024. Please see their update...

Published on March 4, 2024 by Jacq

Budget

Transparent and open finances.

Fund Disbursement

About

What We Do
Weekly, we gather to offer direct aid and share in community during what we call, Sunday Shares. This includes first aid, hygiene, harm reduction, survival, and basic needs items -- in addition to intermittent consultation with medical professionals from our street medic crew; community-building activities and games; and home-cooked vegetarian/vegan meals shared by our comrades, Food Not Bombs-Indy.

On Tuesdays, we prepare. Biweekly, members of our collective meet to assemble various hygiene and survival kits during what we call kitpacking parties. On alternating weeks, we attend to the admin, finance, and social media needs of ccma out in the open at our cowork+collab events. During this time we share skills and knowledge, grow deeper in our relationships, + learn to lean on each other.

And our capacity continues to grow! There are even rumors of a well-stocked + maintained food box and a fledgling book club (aka Book Bloc) swirling about. . .

Our History

A group of medics and volunteers formed during the summer of 2020 in collaboration with local, grassroots harm reduction activists. They provided direct aid to community members downtown Indianapolis during protests and marches.

After the protests fizzled out, community members wanted to continue this vital work. They joined Sunday Shares with Food Not Bombs (FNB) Indy, whose solidarity with the Indianapolis community spans decades. As we continued to see the increasing need for harm reduction and survival items in our community, we remained diligent in organizing to continue sharing with our downtown neighbors. We called this new constellation of like-minded co-conspirators Circle City Mutual Aid (ccma). ccma has now been operating as a collective since June 2021.

Our Values

CCMA holds deeply our core values of: transparency, reliability, sustainability, and solidarity. We are committed to building community in the spirit of collaboration, working hand-in-hand with other local groups and all our housed and unhoused Indy neighbors.

Our Timeline

June 2021 - First meeting as a collective, selecting our name, goals, and core values
September 2021 - Obtained our fiscal host, Open Collective Foundation
June 2022 - Stood in opposition to Prop 256
October 2022 - Held our first Mending Day skill-share
October 2022 - Held our first kitpacking party
February 2023 - Held our first cowork + collab nite
June 2023 - Installed our first free food box
November 2023 - Held our first Sewing Party skill-share
December 2023 - Held our first public community book discussion, a Book Bloc partnership with Ujamaa Community Bookstore

Our Future

Future Shared Goals and Dreams Include:

Continued Growth + Partnership with other like-minded Groups
A Shared Space for Storage, Meetings, and Office
Additional free food boxes / fridges
Support and Fostering of Other Share / Distro Locations

Our team

Maria

Admin

Chuck

Admin

Jacq

Admin

Luc VT

Admin

James wehmeier

Core Contributor

Britt

Admin