Mutual Aid for Families of Children with Disabilities

I am collaborating with people in my communities in the Northern Rio Grande corridor to create a mutual aid group organized around distribution and sharing for families of children with disabilities. A child in our community died last spring and we're doing it in honor of him. We are starting with a focus on redistribution of big-kid sized diapers, feeding tube supplies, and wheelchairs/strollers. There is some interest in moving into mutual aid childcare by parents of disabled kids for other families with disabilities. Also, there is curiosity about flexible employment options for parents who often need to attend to kids' medical needs but still are trying to work.

It has emerged slowly and steadily over the past year with lots of gently-paced communication and low-pressure intention to build that moves at the pace of the people who want to be involved.

In Spring 2025, when Medicaid was stopped very briefly, it became clear that even minor disruptions in Medicaid supply chains could have catastrophic impacts of kids dependent on this system for all of their food, life-sustaining medical care/devices, and daily living supplies. As a community of people with several commonalities (rural land-based living, disabilities, and parents/children) we're working on building our connections to try and meet one another's needs while being more connected. Families of kids with disabilities are often categorically excluded from employment, community activities, and cultural events.

Work and Economies, Bodies

Access to time, limited knowledge of mutual aid, internalized beliefs about the importance of institutions.