Read our first Mama Fund Newsletter!
Storytime: How did the Mama Fund start?
The Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid (MAMA) Fund was birthed in community. MAMA Fund is a product of community. MAMA Fund is community.
On March 13, 2020 we got news that the State of Georgia will be shut down for two weeks due to COVID-19, and Tamika Middleton, a long-time community organizer and movement leader, decided to create the Metro Atlanta COVID-19 Community Response and Mutual Aid group on Facebook. The group was created as a space for friends, family, and wider community to connect, to share information and to resource each other during this global pandemic. Tamika has lived through Katrina and knew what was likely to occur in a time of crisis. More so, she knew how to resource Black communities that would inevitably be neglected by the government and whose experiences of this crisis would be worsened by years of injustice and centuries of dehumanization of the people who are most vulnerable. Our people. Our communities. Black People. Brown People. Immigrants. Poor People. LGBTQ Peoples. Workers. All of us who find ourselves in one or more of these groups.
This is the atmosphere out of which the MAMA Fund was born. It began with an open call to anyone inside of the Facebook group to come together to create a tool to collect money to give to people, who, we knew, would be negatively impacted by the virus. From that public call, 20+ group members joined the first organizing meeting coordinated by Tamika and Anana Harris-Parris, another administrator of the Facebook group. Over a month of meeting and exploring potential models, 13 of the original people became the Organizing Collective for MAMA Fund. Those original 13 members are: Leila Abadir, Lauren Brockett, Jill Cartwright, Jovan Julien, Abiodun Henderson, Nikishka Iyengar, Tamika Middleton, Dannielle Thomas, Dr. Yolande Tomlinson, Angel Torres, Kerrissa Vaughn and Britney Whaley. Members of the Collective bring skills in community organizing, political campaign development, fundraising, strategizing, data analysis, organizational development and management, digital communication, social media communication. Resources not found in the collective were sourced from our network. Above all, the Collective brings a commitment to justice, vision for building better systems than what currently exist, and a love of Black folx, Indigenous Peoples, and other peoples of color across Metro Atlanta.
From its inception-and it’s still true now-MAMA Fund was birthed to be a resource to community and to envision a new future with that community. It is one example of how we show up for each other in times of crisis and beyond. It was birthed in and from community and it will continue to grow with community.
Atlanta COVID-19 Emergency
Rental Assistance Program
Click here to apply!
Specific to City of Atlanta residents, check here to see if you live in the city.
SNAP (food stamps) Lunch Program
Georgia has started a pandemic SNAP (food stamps) program for families whose children are eligible for free or reduced lunches. Deadline for families to sign up is September 25, 2020, more information here
Find more resources here!
