The purpose of the 19th District Mutual Aid group is to provide material support to and be in solidarity with our neighbors.

For the last several years, neighbors from across the northside have come together in solidarity with and support of our most vulnerable neighbors. Together, we have built trusted relationships with asylum seekers and unhoused Chicagoans and helped folks meet basic while welcoming them to our city and community.

**100% of the funds you give go directly to services our neighbors need most. Our current top priorities are legal support, emergency rental support (as it becomes increasingly more challenging for people to travel to work without fear of being detained), and support for basic material needs.**

Our strategies shift in direct response to the needs of our community and feedback from our neighbors. This work is currently focused on providing material support (clothing, toiletries, home goods), emergency housing assistance, and legal support to asylum seekers.

We have hosted a series of legal help desk clinics with Roa Immigration, a trusted immigration attorney who has a long and respected history representing immigration cases and who led our previous asylum clinics.

Thanks to philanthropic support, we connect individuals and families with limited scope legal support free of charge. At clinics, people learn of changes to their application or status due to changes at the federal level designed to sow chaos and confusion, folks discover that they were eligible for programs they were unaware of previously, and many return for a second appointment to amend their asylum applications - a necessity to continue their cases.

We always center the dignity of our neighbors and welcome folks with hospitality thanks to the hard work of volunteers to secure food donations, and we spend time walking all attendees through the process of establishing a Family Emergency plan and the necessity of doing so ahead of the invasion of ICE agents and federal troops.

Attendees also have the opportunity to get basic needs met by our supplies team including jackets, baby clothing, blankets, and more.

We want to continue to host these legal clinics and expand the number of appointments available to provide real time guidance to our community as the legal landscape changes dramatically.

We work closely in partnership with other organizations on the Northside including our philanthropic partner since our founding, Lake View Lutheran Church, St. Mary of the Lake, as well as Resurrection Lutheran Church, ONE Northside, Centro Romero, elected officials at all levels, and many others organizations, faith communities, and individual neighbors who make this mutual aid network so robust and responsive.

You can read more about the past work of District 19 Mutual Aid and ways to get actively involved on our website, including our continual support of new arrivals staying at the 19th police precinct for over 100 days, our rental support and legal clinic programs, and the ongoing and remarkable supplies team that gets basic necessities in the hands of people who need them at shelters across the Northside and city and directly to folks across the entire city:

https://sites.google.com/view/19thdistrict/home

Photos of attorneys, paralegals, volunteers and clients at our recent legal clinics and of our incredible supplies team that supports more than 80 individuals each week with critical material needs -