Reparations Action Working Group

Mutual Aid: A Friendly Approach

On Saturday, October 29th, BYM’s Reparations Action Working Group and Rashid Darden offered a new workshop, Mutual Aid: A Friendly Approach. Rashid Darden of Friends Meeting of Washington presented an engaging and interactive experience that walked Friends through the surprisingly colorful history of mutual aid. How do fezzes and tents connect with food pantries? What’s the difference between charity and true mutual aid? Friends explored answers to these questions and built skills necessary to begin their own mutual aid ministries in their local meetings. 

Meeting Facilitator, Rashid Darden. Black and gay for over 40 years, Rashid is a member of Friends Meeting of Washington where he has served on the Peace & Social Concerns Committee. In BYM, he served on the Growing Diverse Leadership Committee. From 2021 to 2022, he convened the Transatlantic Friends Worship Group, which, for 52 consecutive weeks, centered the spirit-led leadership of people of color as an essential element of the Quaker testimony of justice. He has been Clerk of the Fellowship of Friends of African Descent since 2021 and works as Communications Manager for Friends General Conference.

The Reparations Action Working Group is under the care of the Growing Diverse Leadership Committee. The formation of the Working Group was accepted by the Supervisory Committee acting on behalf of Interim Meeting in Third Month 2020 during the SARS-COVI-2 pandemic.

Listed below are the current members of the working group.

Reparations Working Group Annual Reports