Mass Redistribution Fund Announces 2nd Round of COVID-19 Aid to Frontline Grassroots Organizations
Saturday, June 13, 2020
Coronavirus IMAGE: CDC
Funds collected by the MRF will go to 27 grassroots organizations working at the front lines of the COVID-19 crisis to support renters facing eviction, undocumented families without access to food and others- as well as organizing policy campaigns to ensure a just recovery from the pandemic and beyond.
Many residents enduring financial crises as a result of the economic shutdown, such as undocumented hourly workers, cannot access government aid or unemployment benefits, despite paying taxes. The MRF provides support to individuals and foundations seeking to contribute directly to frontline relief during the coronavirus crisis.
“The power of the Mass Redistribution Fund is that we’re a strategically organized response to allocate funding to groups that are chartering the future survival of our community by transforming money into immediate aid and political power,” said Monique Nguyen, MRF advisory board member and Executive Director of Matahari Women's Worker Center.
MRF was initially funded by MA residents who pledged to donate their stimulus checks to join a growing movement of people putting community health over personal wealth contributing to a diverse group of direct relief funds and urgent efforts across Massachusetts to stabilize families, workers, elders, prisoners and immigrants, and to amplify the long-term changes we need for community resilience next time a crisis hits.
“ As grassroots organizers, broad collaboration is key to successfully taking our common fights to the next level,” said advisory board member Alex Papali who serves as the Green Justice Organizer at Clean Water Action. “MRF is building the solidarity we need to make meaningful changes for oppressed and under resourced communities.”
The Fund is supporting 27 recipients - an increase from the 20 recipients that received funding during the first allocation - that are all Massachusetts-based grassroots organizations working to meet the continuous needs arising from the COVID-19 crisis and to achieve a just and sustainable recovery.
“At the Pioneer Valley Workers Center, we are thrilled to partner with the Mass Redistribution Fund to support our Undocu-Worker Solidarity Fund meant to help those who have no other source of income at this time,” said Margaret Sawyer, Co-Director at the Pioneer Valley Workers Center. “Our initial funding from MRF was supplemented by donations from over 900 individuals and foundations, and in the past two months, we have been able to send $195,000 to 450 families, nearly all restaurant workers and farmworkers who are not employed or not fully employed due to COVID.”
Here is the official list of recipients:
Activated Massachusetts African Community (AMAC)
Alliance to Mobilize Our Resistance (AMOR)
Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE)
ARISE for Social Justice
Asian Community Emergency Relief Fund
Boston Ujima Project - Worker and Resident Care Fund
City Life/Vida Urbana
Center for Cooperative Development and Solidarity (CCDS) COVID-19 Emergency Fund
Chelsea Collaborative
La Comunidad
Cosecha Massachusetts - Immigrant Community Mutual Aid
Dorchester Not for Sale
Egleston Square Main Streets
Essex County Community Organization (ECCO)
Families for Justice as Healing (FJAH), with Sisters Unchained
Haley House
Jericho Boston
Mass UndocuFund
Matahari Women Workers' Center Care Fund
Merrimack Valley Project
Mutual Aid Eastie
Mutual Aid Worcester
New England United 4 Justice (NEU4J)
One Chelsea Fund with Green Roots
Pioneer Valley Workers Center - 413 Undocu-Worker Solidarity Fund
South Asian Workers Center
Women Encouraging Empowerment (WEE)
“Relationships created through the MRF advisory board and MRF recipients are early materials of mutual aid infrastructure,” said advisory board member and Director of Boston Ujima Project, Nia Evans.
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