Halò, agus fàilte gu Mutual Aid Inbhir Nis
Mutual Aid
Inverness
Hello, and welcome to Mutual Aid Inverness
About Mutual Aid Inverness
How can I use this site?
In the near-future, I aim to develop MAIN to include more links to resources like:
- Information on airborne pathogens and the importance of clean-air
- The use of LLMs/AI (for example, ChatGPT) as an accessibility tool
- Under-utilised benefits for energy savings and green transport (Home Energy Scotland, etc.)
What is it for?
The goals of MAIN are entirely centred on values of social justice, including human rights, public health, and climate justice, with both a global interest as well as a specific focus on issues that affect Inverness and the Highlands.
The intention (and long-term plan) is to expand MAIN into a more readily digestible/easy-to-understand source of information for resources and subjects that have significant impact on marginalised, under-represented, and especially intersectional groups, both locally (Inverness) and within the broader Highland area.
MAIN is, at its heart, a love letter to my children.
It is how I have decided to “leave things better than how I found it,” something I - admittedly somewhat selfishly - have become increasingly more concerned with since their births.
We love Inverness, and all of us doing better makes it a safer, healthier, kinder Inverness for everyone.
Intersectionality means understanding, in essence, that we are the “sum of our parts”; our roles, labels, cultures, abilities or disabilities, genders, neurotypes, etc. can be enhanced and complicated by each other, but certainly do not exist in a vacuum.
And neither do we, as humans in a society.
(Listen Up Research, 2020)
but for now...
The resources I list are the ones I’ve interacted with personally.
There’s a popular expression among marginalised groups along the lines of,“When you’ve met one [person from a specific group], you’ve met one [person from that specific group],”and while sloppily paraphrased just now, it does apply.
Community Resources
“I want more support with...”
I cannot speak authoritatively for any experience but my own. That said, in my lived experiences, these are the resources I’ve observed positively contributing toward shared goals of accessibility, mutual aid, and social justice.
ADHD Support for Women and
Non-binary people
High quality and localised Autism support Facebook page
Emma is well-established to be a tremendous source of support in particular for disability and LGBTQI+ issues.
[I am continuing to assess for the best options for inclusion/discussion on this page, but can provide basic signposting upon request.]
...but what about help with...?
I recognise that the type of resources I talk about on MAIN are not always the types of resources that people are in immediate need of, or are explicitly looking for.
Like so many autistic people, I have specific areas that I tend to focus on, particularly since members of well-represented groups tend, naturally, to have more services already available and well-signposted.
I will be continually (but gradually) expanding on a list of commonly-requested services and resources that may be outwith what is covered here, and I am happy to hear suggestions of what is most helpful to be directed to.
Community Projects
with
(Source: United Nations 2024)
Highland Mask Bloc
Building off of themes of accessibility, the HMB aims to distribute both high quality respirators to help protect against the aerosolised spread of COVID-19 as well as myriad other harmful viruses, as well as literature to help community members make informed decisions about the way they safeguard the health of themselves and their loved ones.
Accessible Inverness
This project focuses on advocating for improving service accessibility within the area, with a special focus on the areas of adoption of accessible tech, and increased cultural competence for service providers and community members.
He asks me why I am wearing a mask don’t I know they aren’t required anymore? And I want to tell him how sad it is that so many people are only willing to help each other if they are required to, but I am tired so instead I just say: yes, I know they aren’t required anymore.
Highland Mask Bloc
I’d like to help!
What’s a
“mask bloc”?
Supplies may be sporadically available at first, but I do have some ready to go now for both adults and children! Please send me a message and let’s figure out what you need and what we can do.
I very strongly recommend that everyone visit CleanAirCrew.org to learn about how to mask effectively (believe it or not, there are right and wrong ways to do it!) in order to ensure you’re getting the most protection you can.
A mask bloc is about as grassroots a movement as you’re likely to find when it comes to the COVID-careful community; it is an acknowledgement that we cannot be protected unless we are all protected.
The aim is to be able to supply high-qualify, effective respirators (N95+/FFP2+) on demand throughout the Highlands for as long as they are needed (pending funding).
That’s great! I have a donation page set up here, something I aim to not have to rely on indefinitely, with the goal being to apply for whatever funding is available to support this sustained initiative (please get in touch if you have any suggestions!)
Values*
*This is not an exhaustive list, but it is a snapshot of high-impact social justice issues that significantly inform the moral foundations of MAIN.
We are watching Israel genocide an entire people in front of our eyes, and each of us need to be asking ourselves what we want to be able to say we did about it.
The idea that what counts as valid knowledge and understanding is often gate-kept by those in power (known as “epistemic justice,” a term coined by Miranda Fricker).
We share knowledge with each other in more ways than through state-sanctioned institutions - including through informal channels - and have it still be a valid knowledge transfer.
A highly contagious, extremely dangerous, rapidly- and constantly-evolving airborne pathogen has become politicised to the extent that our governments have abandoned their duty of care in mitigating damage and protecting us.
The urgency and dire threat of COVID is not being accessibly communicated to us, and it’s time we learned to look after ourselves - and each other.
Disability Justice
Almost everyone, at some point in our lifetimes, will experience disability - including disabilities that may not be immediately “obvious” to others.
Unfortunately, many will need for it to happen to them before becoming interested in Disability Rights.
We need access, support, and rights, now. This means designing a society where we can all navigate without needing unnecessary support - because it’s a society set up for everyone to be able to access.
Reach out!
how to connect:
There are countless reasons why someone might be unable to rely on a phone conversation as a means of communicating effectively.
I had trouble narrowing down my favourite reason, so due to several disabilities, please use text-based communication to relay important information!
