Pods are hyperlocal text message groups or phone trees of you and your neighbors. Since not everyone has access to online communication, neighborhood pods and other efforts below are how to connect and help your local neighbors.
Got Stuff To Share With Neighbors? Use Free Shelves!
Volunteers in town are organizing Neighborhood Free Shelves on their streets. Have stuff you don’t need, but is too good to throw out? Looking for something useful, but can’t afford it (or no time to shop)? Talk with your neighbors about setting up your own Free Shelves - a local version of the popular Everything Is Free group on Facebook!
Volunteer To Setup An Arlington Helps Pod
Arlington Helps is asking for folks to sign up as Neighborhood Point People, where you’d take on the responsibility of reaching out to your neighbors, moderating a neighborhood group chat or phone tree (on WhatsApp or another communication tool), and staying in touch with the other point people for resource sharing.
If you have the capacity to take on this role, please let Arlington Helps organizers know, and they will set you up with a toolkit of how to get started.
Looking to join your Neighborhood Pod?
The volunteers are Arlington Helps are managing pod volunteers and mappings - be patient, it may take a day or two to get your new pod listed in their map! New pods are springing up every day!
Map not displaying? Click to see Arlington Helps Map of Pods.
Pods are part of a larger mutual aid network!
See a larger a map of pods in neighboring towns. This broader pods map is maintained by Mutual Aid Medford and Somerville as well as Arlington and parts of Cambridge. The Arlington Helps Pods program is adapted from their frameworks.
Living somewhere else in Massachusetts? Find your local mutual aid network here.