Mutual Aid Beacon Founder Dara Silverman

Photo credit: Michael Isasbell

Dara Silverman is the organizer of Mutual Aid Beacon, a decentralized network of volunteers who are helping people in need during the coronavirus outbreak.

These folks (250 and counting) are delivering groceries, running errands, providing emotional support and assembling neighborhood pods to care for those Beaconites who are struggling as the shutdown grinds into its second month.

For example, “A lot of seniors are lonely if they live alone,” Dara says in this week’s Beaconites podcast episode. “They used to go to gathering spots and those are all closed down. The biggest part of this is uncovering that a lot of the poverty and a lot of the loneliness was always there and this just exacerbates it. A lot of the people who we are delivering food to have always been insecure. They’ve always been hungry. It’s just showing some of the holes in the social fabric that we have.”

Dara continues, “This has heightened that need of how do we stay connected, and building that structure not only with COVID but also beyond.”