Lifting Lowellians Assistance and Mutual Aid

When the pandemic hit, several community leaders, residents and Lowell Alliance staff came together to build mutual aid in the community.

We met on Slack, on Zoom, sometimes at a distance with masks (though in those early months, we largely barely left our homes). Quickly we developed tools and opportunities for people to help donate or provide extra food to those in need, and ways to do deliveries to those who could not leave. The Lowell Public Schools struggled at times to get food out to families, so LLAMA and LEJA members came together to support food delivery for homebound families in need, and their children. The team even ran a short-term food pantry, thanks to the support of Pawtucket Congregational Church on Mammoth Rd.

We recognized how insufficient the municipal response was at the time and pushed for months to have meetings with City Hall. Major Lahey at the time agreed to meet and his assistant, Karonika Brown, helped facilitate these meetings, so that we could ask questions and share what we and other social service professionals were seeing one on one and in the community with families.

As the pandemic drew on, but it became easier to socially distance and things opened back up, the group shifted to affordable housing and other community-based education. Vaccine education was still needed, but so was eviction defense and tenants’ rights education.

The LLAMA Facebook page (which publishes information and urgent need community requests) and the group continues to exist through the infrastructure that was initially created. Visit the Facebook page here to connect with your neighbors, give and receive mutual aid, and help maintain the social and civic ecosystem in your community. You can also donate directly to the shared fund which gets distributed to families in urgent need.

Venmo: @Lowell-LLAMA
Cashapp: $LowellLLAMA