CONNIE RAZZA, CONVERGENCE MAGAZINE
National – In other cases, mutual aid work did feed the organization’s growth. West Virginia Can’t Wait saw such success when it incorporated mutual aid into its 2020 electoral work that it launched the “Hometown Heroes” program in 2021. The program gave small grants to local people who were already organizing mutual aid projects, and supported the recipients with coaching, leadership training, and mental health and safety support. Since it started, the program has seeded new groups into the state’s movement ecosystem, grown WV Can’t Wait’s leadership pipeline, and produced a few candidates for local elected offices; it has become central to the organization’s work. “We think that the shift away from traditional campaign tools to things like mutual aid and defense and governance is the shift that we’re going to need even more of as authoritarians get more power in America over the next 10 years,” said Stephen Smith, the group’s co-chair.
