Podcast 257: Mutual Aid Startup Guide

Mutual aid projects are a natural place for herbalists to gravitate, and setting one up in your community is easier than you think! Our mutual aid startup guide is a free resource we offer you to help with this. You can download it right here:

Mutual Aid Startup Guide

In today’s episode we want to emphasize two key things about this: First, it doesn’t have to be an enormous undertaking. You can start with a small circle of friends, and build from there. The keys are consistency and continuity of communication.

Second, getting started can be very simple! So often, people feel hesitant to begin – thinking they need a fully fleshed-out concept and perhaps some financial backing before they start. But mutual aid can be something that fits into your schedule and that lifts you up instead of burning you out.

We discuss three examples to show what mutual aid can look like at different scales: a small personal support network, a medium community fix-it club, and a larger community disaster response team.

We hope this episode inspires you to get started, and if you have any questions, reach out to us!

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Episode Transcript

Katja (00:14):
Hi, I’m Katja. And I’m here at Commonwealth Holistic Herbalism in Boston, Massachusetts, and on the internet everywhere by the power of the podcast. Ryn is working on new material for our Clinical Skills course, and I just really wanted to talk to everybody about mutual aid. So, that’s what we’re going to do today. This is the Cliff Notes version of our new Mutual Aid Startup Guide. You can download the entire guide. The link is below. But I wanted to give kind of a short version that we could share by audio and video as well. So, now you have it in all three learning channels. You can read it, you can listen to it, you can watch it. And that can help everybody kind of visualize this work a little bit more. There is so much information on the internet about mutual aid groups, and a lot of it is really, really awesome. In fact there’s a lot of it out there that we love. And we linked to our favorite stuff at the end of the guide so that you can see all the stuff that we like to work with too. But there was a part about mutual aid that I feel isn’t really talked about very much, and that’s what I wanted to focus on in this startup guide.

Katja (01:30):
So, the first part is about literally getting started. And the reason that I wanted to focus on that is because these days I feel like it’s so hard for people to find time, even for important things, even for things that they really want in their life. We are all tired. We are overwhelmed. We’re overworked. And everything just feels hard right now. It feels really hard to start something new in a way that I don’t think was true 10 years ago. For me it was not true. And so I really wanted to spend a lot of time talking about how to build these networks of support, even if you don’t feel like you have a lot of time or energy. Even if the idea of starting something new is a little bit overwhelming for you. Okay. And then the other thing that we really wanted to focus on is that this is something new, right? You have probably heard about mutual aid at some point in your life. You’ve probably heard the phrase. But the word mutual aid – that’s two words, whatever – it can mean about a million things. And so what should it mean to you? And thinking that through, going from infinite possibility to what do I want in my life when you’re already tired and busy. It’s like, yeah, you want more support. You want more community. But what does it even look like? And how do you get from nothing to that level of support and commitment, right? How do you visualize what it should be? And then how do you make that happen? So, those are the areas that we really focused on specifically with this guide. And I think that’s important because I really think that there is room in almost everybody’s life for mutual aid. There are so many ways to do it. There is something that will work for you. But if you have a clearer picture of what it is that you’re trying to fit into your life, it will be a lot easier to build, right? So, that’s what we want to talk about today, is some concrete examples of these clearer pictures so that you can kind of see what that would look like, and how it would fit in your life, and then take action on it. Now, in the startup guide there are more examples. Today we’re just going to focus on three: a small, a medium, and a large. There are more examples in the guide.

Katja (04:10):
All right. Before we go any further, I don’t want to forget to do our reclaimer, so I will do that now. It is we are not doctors. We, me and Ryn, even though Ryn’s not here, but he normally would be. We are not doctors. We’re herbalists and holistic health educators. The ideas discussed in this podcast do not constitute medical advice. No state or federal authority licenses herbalists in the United States. So, these discussions are for educational purposes only. We want to remind you that good health doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. Good health doesn’t exist as an objective standard. It is influenced by your individual needs, your experiences, and your goals. So, keep in mind that we are not attempting to present a single dogmatic right way that you and everyone should adhere to. Everyone’s body is different. So, the things that we’re talking about may or may not apply directly to you. But we hope that they’ll give you some new information to think about and some ideas to research and experiment with further. Finding your way to better health is both your right and your own personal responsibility. And that doesn’t mean you’re alone on the journey. It also doesn’t mean that you are to blame for your current state of health. It just means that the final decision when you’re considering any course of action, whether it’s discussed on the internet or prescribed by a physician, is always your choice to make.

Katja (05:32):
All right, one other thing. If you are listening to this episode right when it comes out, then there is still almost a week left in our 20% off sale for July of 2025. That is 20% off everything unlimited. So, if you are interested in mutual aid, you are probably also interested in the Herbal First Aid course or the Emergent Responder program, which is everything that happens after first aid, right? It is organizing your community for disaster response. Everything from just how do we get enough supplies to be ready for what people will need? All the way through to what if somebody’s having a baby, and there’s nobody to deliver the baby, you know? And so emergency childbirth is in there. There is water purification and building shelter. And long-term first aid support or austere care support is all in there. Also, you might be interested in the Community Herbalist program because that covers really all the stuff that people are going through with their health on a daily basis. And if we’re thinking about building more support into our lives, and you as a person who loves herbs are thinking about how can I support people in my community with herbs, then the Community Herbalist program is perfect for you. You could get also the Accessible Herbalism course, which I will talk about a little bit later. That is all about making herbalism more accessible to more people in your community. Or you could get all of our courses, any of our courses, the code is unlimited. The code is hawthorn. Don’t worry, you don’t have to remember it. It’s in a banner at the top of the website, so you’ll see it again. But hawthorn will get you 20% off all of our courses. Even if there’s payment plans, it’s 20% off every payment. Yes, excellent. Now, if you’re listening to this podcast, and it is not July of 2025, don’t worry. We do this every year in July and December to make our courses more accessible to everyone. We do appreciate everybody who enrolls in courses during the other months, because that helps us keep going. So, if it is some month that isn’t July and December, and you’re listening to this. And you’re like ooh, I really want to go get a course. Then thank you. We appreciate that. But we put the sale in place on a regular, every-six-months schedule so that everybody can know and everybody can plan reliably for the discount just to help make this a little bit easier for everyone.

A Small-Sized Personal Support Network

Katja (08:05):
So, let’s go ahead and work through these three specific examples. I picked a small, medium, and large example. So, even if these ideas are not exactly what you would want to build in your life, I’m hoping that they will still look like something that you can recognize and then just adjust them to meet their needs. For each example, we’re going to go through a visualization of what would happen, like what it would get you. And then we’ll talk about how to get it going. All right. And then just remember, more details in the downloadable guide. It’s free. Just click the link and grab it. Okay? So, the first, like our small example, is a personal support network. And not like personal, one person, but supporting each other on a personal level, right? So, in this case, you would choose a few friends to team up with and then set up a dedicated chat group. Everybody would check in at a particular set time. Maybe it’s Friday, mid-afternoon. Everybody’s going to share what’s going on in their lives, especially about the health, and their workload, and their stress levels. Everybody’s going to talk about where they need help or where they have capacity to help, right? And then arrangements can be made for sharing the workload. That might be babysitting. Maybe one person in the group has a really stressful thing going on this week. And if somebody could just take her kids for a couple of nights, it would really help a lot. Yes. What about helping with housework? Maybe somebody in the group has been dealing with cancer, and they just can’t keep up, you know? So, you could organize for somebody to go each week to help with housework. To be mowing somebody’s lawn when their back goes out, right? Like they did something, and it just hurts, right? So, no problem. I’ll come over and mow your lawn after I mow mine. It’s fine. Or cooking dinner if somebody is sick, or just overwhelmed, or whatever.

Katja (10:11):
These are kind of everyday sorts of things, right? Maybe you are going to the store, and somebody else is having a hard week. And so you say hey, I’m already going to the grocery store. What can I bring you? Send me your list. I will just bring it to you. So, it doesn’t really have to be a huge burden. It’s part of what you would already be doing. You could visualize this through kids too. If you’re already taking care of your kids, you can add somebody else’s kids for a day. It’s not like it’s a huge, huge thing, right? Or maybe somebody in the group is sick, and you’re making a big batch of soup for them. Make a double batch. And now it’s soup for your family. It’s soup for your friend. And so it fits into your life because these are tasks that we can stack into stuff we would already be doing. So, even if we don’t have a lot of time, we can still help each other. Now because this might be a friend group, right, these are people that you already know. You might already be talking to them a couple of times a week. But here’s the thing. This network, this support, this mutual aid is about a commitment. A commitment that you make to one another that you will show up at a certain time, even if it’s online. It does not have to be an in-person meeting. It can be that we chat with each other via our text chat group or whatever app you like to do that. You know, we don’t have to add an in-person meeting to the stuff you have to schedule into your week. So the location is not the important part. The commitment is the important part. And it is that at this time, we all will talk about what we need, and how we can help each other. That commitment is the important part because it’s not always easy to ask for help. It’s not even easy to receive help when someone else offers it, and you didn’t even ask, right? Usually we just are like no, no, I’m fine even when we’re not fine. And so that’s what this commitment is about. That’s what the mutual aid is. It’s not just like yeah, there’s people around. I guess I could ask them if I need it. It is really committed to supporting one another. All right.

Katja (12:43):
So, and that kind of leads me right into the why is this great section of our example, of our thing that we’re visualizing, right? It’s always good to have some help. It’s true. More than that, it is actually even better to help others. There is so much research on how helping others actually makes us healthier. But it’s more than that. Having a commitment to tangibly support one another – even if it is just a few friends – and to allocate time in each week to really do that builds a deep feeling of connection and security. And in the end, you’re going to see it will turn out that the connections that you are forming by helping one another and accepting help from one another become really, really strong. And if something more serious happens, whether that’s a serious illness, or a death, or a disaster, you will already have all of the structure in place to help one another. You won’t even have to think about it. It will literally be your first instinct, because you have spent time training with each other as a group to do this kind of support. And so, yeah, maybe in the beginning it just starts off with oh, hey. Oh, you’re going to the store. Could you just pick this thing up for me? I won’t have time to get it. But in the end it becomes so much more than that. So, it’s sort of great on an everyday basis. And then when something comes up that’s completely unexpected, it’s even more great.

Katja (14:27):
All right. How would you start this kind of group? Like I said, this kind of group doesn’t need to have any kind of in-person meetup time. That’s cool if it’s convenient, and you can do that, but it isn’t necessary. It is helpful if folks in the group live reasonably local to one another, but it isn’t necessary to be neighbors. Just close enough that you can drop kids off, or drop groceries off, or whatever else, right? Now, it’s not impossible to pull this off entirely virtually if you don’t have anyone local who you can trust to build this kind of support with. It would be different. It would look different because you can’t just drop off groceries at somebody’s house, right? You can’t just run over, pick up their kids, and babysit them for the day. But meeting virtually is not nothing. Even if you cannot do tangible in-person stuff, there’s still a lot you can do even if you’re not co-located. But for this, for the purposes of this example, let’s focus on a small local group. So, if you were going to start this, think about people you already know. Are there folks who you are friends with who are already reliable in your life? Which is to say they’ll show up when they say they will show up. Maybe they’re just as busy as you are. But if they say they’re going to do something, they’ll do it, right? And are those people that you have a good relationship with? And if that’s the case, you’re done. You have what you need to start off. Just pick a few of those people and host a get together. Maybe the first one you do in person, you know, to just share the idea with them. And make sure to communicate that you’re not just talking about friendly hangouts. As a group you might actually already text each other sometimes. Maybe not the whole group of people that you’re planning on, but you might already be texting each other regularly just to complain about work, or talk about the kids, or whatever else is going on. This isn’t that. This is about specifically coordinating committed support for one another. And so that’s the part that you really want to get across from them or across to them. That you’re going to set up a specific space, a group chat, a whatever, with a specific schedule for check-ins. And a specific method of how we volunteer to support one another, and how we make sure that everybody’s getting what they need. So yes, you might also still keep texting each other to talk about ugh, you wouldn’t believe my day at work, whatever. But this is a specific time that you’re setting aside intentionally as a group in commitment to each other to talk about what everyone needs and who can be supportive to those needs, right?

Katja (17:36):
Okay. Now, if you don’t know anyone that you can rely on, you’re not out of luck. You can actually advertise for this sort of thing. Although you may not want to immediately say I want to form a tight knit pod of mutual support, right? Because all right, we’re going to sort of like prescreen the people. But one good way to do that is maybe host some meetups at the local library. Now, you don’t know who is going to show up, so hold on to your ultimate goal. But instead you’re going to talk about a discussion group about an issue that’s important to you, about a book that you really like. Maybe it’s a low-key skill share about something that’s important to you. This is going to help you meet some folks who have similar philosophies with you or similar priorities to you. Because if you are hosting some kind of a thing that you’re already interested in, and it attracts people who are also interested in that thing, right, you’ll know you already have something in common. And so that gives you a chance to meet some people and see if there’s anybody that you click with. And see if there’s somebody who you feel comfortable saying hey, let’s meet again. And then ultimately that you could talk to about doing this kind of mutual aid with.

A Medium-Sized Community Fix-It Club

Katja (18:57):
All right, so our medium example here in terms of time commitment, and difficulty level, and whatever. Let’s use the example of a community fix-it club. So, this could start out with three to five people. Ultimately, it could grow to be as big as you want it to be. But maybe we just start off with three to five people who know how to fix things. And then we’re going to hold regular hours in a public place. It might be a community room at the library, or the school gym, or the VFW hall, whatever. And we’re going to fix stuff, right? So, it’ll be important to have people who have different kinds of fixing skills. So, maybe mechanical skills, or electronics, or sewing, all that kind of stuff, because community members are going to bring items in need of repair to be fixed. Ideally they would be fixed for free, although it’s a great idea to have an anonymous donation availability, right? So, an anonymous donation would be like if people want to make a donation for the repair, they can do that. But the donation jar is in a location that it wouldn’t be seen who is giving a donation and who is not giving a donation, right? Just so that nobody feels ashamed, or required, or any of those kinds of things. So, I just want to be clear. You don’t have to never take donations. You don’t have to only do it for free. But if you make it free for anyone. And if you want to make a donation, you can, but nobody’s going to see if you do it or not. Then that makes everybody feel comfortable. It kind of levels the playing field, right?

Katja (20:54):
Also, anybody who brings something to be fixed, they can watch you fix it. And that helps them learn, but it also helps people get to know one another. You who are doing the fixing are getting to know all of the people who are bringing things in to fix. So, every conversation that you’re having with somebody as you’re fixing their stuff is another thread in the web of strengthening the community. So, all of this project is going to allow people to save money, right, because they can keep items in use instead of replacing them. That also reduces waste. Like all the way around this is a good thing. But you are also creating a community center. Ultimately, more projects could be tackled in this space as you develop and grow. More types of what you fix but also more types of projects. Like now that you’ve got this space that people know to come to and that people are starting to get to know each other, you could add in a community apothecary. You could add in an herbal free clinic. You could add in food distribution. All kinds of things could get added into this later, right? You don’t have to do it all from the start. But it has a lot of growth potential but starts off as sort of a medium-level project.

Katja (22:19):
All right. So, let’s think about why is this great? Well first off, it’s great to fix things instead of buying new things, right? But this becomes a community model. I mean, like a model of community, right? This idea of neighbors helping neighbors and folks getting to know each other as they hang out in this repair space. All of that is building connections that in case of a later disruption or emergency become essential. Every time that somebody shows up, it is strengthening community. And everyone who is there working together volunteering… Sure, maybe somebody comes in with a lawnmower to fix, and you never see them again after that. Okay. But that’s not how it’ll be for everyone. And eventually other people who can fix things will show up and want to be part of the group. This group that you’re building, yeah, every Saturday morning you’re just fixing stuff in the community. But then when a flood happens, when a wildfire happens, when a hurricane happens, you already have this group of people who are already cohesive. They’ve already been practicing every Saturday, depending on each other, working together with each other, sharing skills with each other. And so when something comes up that is necessary to have that kind of cohesion, the community already exists. The strength, the network already exists. Okay.

Katja (23:53):
So, how would you start this? If this idea was really exciting to you, how would you get this going? Okay, well, first you’re going to need to know how to fix things or how to manage and organize things. Maybe you don’t know how to fix things, but you’re really good at organizing. That’s okay. You’ve just got to know people who know how to fix things. And if you don’t already know them, you can advertise for them, right? In this case, you do want to just right off the bat say what you’re doing, right? You would put up a flyer that says I’m starting a community fix-it club, and I’m looking for people who know how to repair this list of types of things, right, and are interested. And I’m looking for people who are interested in repairing stuff instead of buying new stuff. That’s not a lot of words to put on a poster, but it does get the point across really clearly about who you’re looking for, the skill and the mindset right? Now, you’re also going to need a place to meet, like I said, like a VFW hall, whatever, whatever, a local bike shop. There are so many options. You’re also going to need tools. Now, your volunteers might, and honestly probably do, already have their own tools. And they might be perfectly happy using their own tools in this endeavor. Maybe everybody has a bin of tools that they bring on Saturday morning to the place or whatever. Who knows? Maybe there’s a space where people can even leave tools there to be used or whatever. Or maybe over time somebody’s moving, having a yard sale, doing whatever, and tools start showing up for use at the community fix-it club, right? All those things can happen. But in the beginning, we’re going to probably expect that the people who know how to fix things are going to do that with their own tools.

Katja (25:43):
If you take anonymous donations, they can be used to repair or replace tools that wear out. You can provide a menu of types of things that can be repaired at your fix-it club. And then over time as more volunteers join, you can expand your menu. So, maybe you start off with a person who’s good at sewing and fixing things made out of fabric. You have a person who’s good at fixing lawnmowers, snowblowers, stuff like that. And a person who’s pretty good at fixing electronic things, or also kitchen appliances, stuff where maybe the connections wear out or something like that. And so you have your menu. Like these are the sorts of things we can fix at fix-it club. And at the bottom you can just say hey, as a big poster right at the bottom you’d be like can you fix things? We are accepting volunteers, whatever. And then that’ll be more things that your club knows how to fix and more people that are weaving themselves into the community that you’re building.

A Large-Sized Community Disaster Response Team

Katja (26:53):
All right? Now let’s try a large example, right? This would be like a community disaster response team. And this would be a team of people who are intentionally training and preparing for whatever kind of disaster is common in your area. That’s wildfire, flood, hurricane, whatever. But here’s the thing. For a group like this, having the skills and having some gear is not enough. You also have to have regular events so that you can keep your team cohesive, and so that you can let the community know who you are. Both of those things are an essential part of being prepared. Being prepared isn’t just about the gear. It’s about how well does everyone work together. So, these events that you do to maintain that could be community meals, right? That would allow you to practice large group food preparation and distribution, which is a skill you’re going to need in a post-disaster environment. But it also is building comradery between the group and building connection between the community and your team, right? You could do community workshops like building and using a first aid kit, which is really important. And not everybody has a first aid kit. You can use our first aid kit packing list, even if you need to. I mean, you may have ideas for yourself about what you like in a first aid kit, but we have our herbal first aid kit packing list available that you can just download. And you could use that as your starting point for building a workshop. You could run campaigns to make sure that people are individually prepared with an evacuation bag and/or a shelter-in-place stash depending on what is most appropriate in your area. Sometimes both is appropriate.

Katja (28:58):
Because, you know, everyone should have some water, right, some extra water stored. Everyone should have some food available for a couple of days. Everyone should have… There are some things that everybody should just have, and not everybody does. And so you could run a whole campaign for the community saying okay, we want to make sure that everybody has what they need for one to three days of an emergency event. And that would be really cool. You also could even be teaching in the community workshops of what would you do for the first one to three days in a disaster and an emergency event. All of that means that you are building relationships with the community and building relationships with each other in the group, practicing. Delivering a workshop, it’s a slightly different skillset. But the skills are common between that and the work you would be doing after a disaster, right? Communicating with people, clearly communicating ideas in a way that is engaging, and people want to hear. You still need that even in a disaster situation. It’s not all shoveling and whatever physical stuff you imagine after a disaster. Your group could also be building relationships with other local groups that are appropriate for you to get to know, like paramedics or fire responders. Or if your area has a CERT team, that’s a community emergency response team, then maybe you are spending time intentionally building relationships with those groups so that in a disaster situation you are better able to coordinate, right? All different kinds of regular events could be happening. In addition would be regular trainings for the group. Everybody would have different skills, but there would need to be cross training on various skills. And then you would also need to identify what are skills that we need that nobody in our group has, and how can we get that training.

Katja (31:07):
So, this is a lot of organizing, a lot of communicating, a lot of kind of management of resource. But also management of how we all work together, and what skills we need to do the jobs that we need to do. And then also organizing and managing your interactions with the community. So, this is a really big project, right? All right, well let’s start off with why is this great? Why is this worth doing? First responders are amazing, but they are stretched really thin. And in a big emergency, there just aren’t enough of them to help us all. There just aren’t. So, building community response teams means that more people get help fast. In a disaster situation, training is very important. So, if you are forming a team of folks who are intentionally building the skill sets that will make them safe first responders, then that will also mean that they will not themselves become people in need of rescuing, right? So, doing this preparation work ahead of time means that the people who want to be of assistance in an emergency are really prepared for it ahead of time. And that’s going to make them much more successful in assisting people, right? And then also those community events could be helping people now with food, with skills, with awareness, and letting people know that help is available in emergency. But sometimes people need help that isn’t an emergency. And so those activities that you’re doing that serve to train your group and keep your skills sharp, and keep your connections going, and all that kind of stuff, they’re also strengthening your community today.

People & Skills to Start Your Own Group

Katja (33:03):
Okay. So, how would you start a really big endeavor like this? Well, some cities and towns already have CERT programs, that’s community emergency response teams. So, if you don’t know how to start, and you don’t necessarily have friends who are into this kind of thing, you can join up with them. Not all towns and cities have them. But talk to your town clerk or your town administrator and find out if your town has a CERT administrator. Alternately, you could call the fire department and emergency services, and they would also know. All right, but not everybody has these teams already in place. Or maybe your town does, but you just want to build your own group. Maybe you don’t want to be hooked into the town official group. There’s nothing wrong with that. Even if your town has an emergency response team, like a civilian emergency response team, that still isn’t going to be enough people, right? So, it’s fine if you want to start your own kind of group. You are going to need a larger number of people than in our other two examples, right? And they’re going to need a broader and deeper skillset. So, you’ll need folks who are nurses and home health aides. Home health aides are really great in this situation because their job is to go to different people’s homes and help them in their homes. In an emergency situation, going to people’s homes may be part of your work. You may be going to people’s homes and making sure that people have their medications. And that okay, all the pharmacies in our area were wiped out by the hurricane. But once a day somebody’s driving a hundred miles that way where there still is a pharmacy. And we’re collecting all of the prescriptions that need to be filled, and then we’re coming back with them, right? Whatever kind of emergency arrangements that you’re making. And so nurses are important because nurses are always important. Nobody can live without nurses. But home-health aides are also really, really important. So, having both of those on the team are going to be great.

Katja (35:30):
You should have people on the team who know about construction, right? Both in terms of safely helping with rescue. Because people who are actively engaged in doing construction, they can look at a building and say it is not safe to go in that building, or it is not safe to whatever, right? Or to make this building safe, we will need to do this to it, right? So, these are people whose daily jobs already give them the skills to assess whether or not situations are safe. That’s going to be great for rescue but also great for rebuilding. They’re also going to know how to rebuild things, right? So, this is really, really an important skill that you might not be thinking about. You might be thinking about paramedics. You might be thinking about first aid. You might be thinking about Red Cross kinds of things. But a much broader skill set is actually really important. You’ll need to have folks who have safe food handling training, because in a post-disaster situation you may be providing food. And knowing how to keep that food safe from spoiling, from contamination, from whatever means that your community doesn’t get sick. Folks who know stuff about sanitation, folks who can do physical labor. So, yes, there is going to be shoveling. I can’t think of a single disaster that doesn’t involve shoveling stuff, carrying stuff, sometimes carrying people. Lots of disasters involve washing out roads. And the only way to get emergency supplies to people sometimes is packing them in, like literally hiking in with them. So yeah, you will need people who can just do that, who can just carry lots of stuff.

Katja (37:23):
You also are going to need people who have technology knowledge, right, and organizational knowledge. You might need people who have certain types of equipment, like fishing boats if you’re in an area that is a flood zone or that gets flooded really regularly. All different kinds of equipment are necessary in different situations. So, think about what would we need that is not like a normal thing to have. Or not abnormal but not everybody has it, right? And then, okay, well, how do we get that? You are also going to need places to meet, and they will be different kinds of places. It’s not going to be just one place. So, you’ll need places to host community events. And sometimes those places will need to have kitchen facilities, and other times they might need other things, right? You will need distributed places to store gear. Because If you store all your gear in one place, and that’s the place that gets washed out by the flood, right? So, we’re going to distribute the gear. And basically what this is coming down to is you’re seeing this is a big project with a lot of organization that needs to happen, right?

Katja (38:35):
It doesn’t start that way. You don’t start huge. So, you’re going to start with a core of five, seven people who are committed and have some of the skills that you need. Now in these beginning stages, make sure that you have someone with planning, and management, and organizational skills. That is going to help you succeed, right? If you have somebody who’s really good at that right from the beginning, then your group will be much more organized. Your stuff will be better planned. Everything will be better managed, and you’re more likely to be successful. So, this original group is going to be the group that is responsible for both planning what your goals are into the future as well as recruiting new volunteers. You’re going to need a bunch of volunteers for a group like this. And bringing them in, and getting them trained, and getting everybody on the same page about the goal, all of that takes a lot of work. All right, it takes a lot of work, but it’s also fun. It’s also nourishing kind of work. I don’t want to just be like work, work, work, work, work. It’s great work. But this is if you have the time to do this kind of thing.

Making it Herby

Katja (39:51):
All right, so that is three different examples that are drastically different in sorts of size and scope, and none of those examples were inherently herby in nature. But of course you could make any one of them herby. You could start a community apothecary as a part of your community fix-it club, as a part of your disaster response team. Or you could just start a community apothecary. So, that would be like getting folks together. Making sure that you have a supply of herbs that your town, that your people, that your community would need. And then also turning them into medicine. So, it’s fall. That means we are all making big batches of fire cider and distributing them. We’ve got lots of elderberry syrup, and it’s available for who needs it and all that stuff. It’s spring, so we’re making our allergy blends. It’s summer wildfire season. We’re making our respiratory blends, right, whatever. There are a lot of details for how to set up a community apothecary in the Accessible Herbalism course. But that’s of course not the only thing you could do to herb up any of these kinds of ideas. You can bring herbalism into first aid, herbalism into disaster response. In fact, it’s a great idea to be cross training in those ways.

Katja (41:20):
So, again, in the full-length guide, there are other ideas, some just straight up herbal and some also more general ideas. But hopefully these ideas give you a picture in your mind of what it could look like and what kind of commitment level that would be like. And just helps you to visualize a little bit more, get a little bit of excitement for doing this kind of thing in your life. Because you can do it. You can do it small. It can grow later if you want it to. But it is going to nourish you, and protect you, and support you as well. All right, well, that is what I wanted to tell you. So, this is where Ryn would say take care of yourselves. Take care of each other. Drink some tea. And download the Mutual Aid Startup Guide because it’s going to help you to get more support in your everyday life. Bye-Bye.