This past July, Material Aid and Advocacy Program celebrated 5 years as an independent organization! Located near Longfellow Park in Cambridge, their mission is to support and empower unhoused and underhoused community members, through material aid, access to resources, organizing support and advocacy opportunities. Working with unhoused community members and allies, they seek systemic solutions that address the root causes of homelessness, poverty, and inequality.
Did you know that 75% of MAAP's funding comes from direct donations by people like you? We encourage you to make a direct donation on top of choosing to pick up your craft supplies on Wednesday. Together we can help make a #MaterialDifference so MAAP can continue to strengthen their organization - "sustainably responding to the self-identified needs of unhoused people; for community members to share in all aspects of leadership including organizational priorities; and for MAAP to be financially stable enough to be “home” and provide support for that leadership..."
Looking for more ways to help?
Check out MAAP's wish list for survival supplies and urgently needed gear.
or donate gently used, freshly washed, or new items on Tuesday and Thursday between 8 AM and 5:30 PM to 5 Longfellow Park, Cambridge. Please leave donations in the bin outside the double doors facing the driveway of the Meeting House (the building to the right of the driveway).
And get involved by speaking out against "sweeps" and the criminalization of unhoused people. Erasing unhoused community members from public spaces is inhumane. "Unhoused community members need and deserve investment in self-identified and evidence-based solutions not punishment for surviving poverty on the street!"
*Since launching the We Care Wednesday initiative in January 2017 we have donated over $72,918 to a variety of nonprofits and mutual aid funds doing essential work in our community as well as other places. From the Mayor's Disaster Fund to BAGLY to Movement Voter Project and Found In Translation. We select organizations that we feel represent not only our commitment to a better, more equitable world but also our desire to "do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."