This summer’s wildfire season brought on many hardships for Okanagan residents. The fires, many of which began through artificial means, displaced a large number of locals in Peachland and Vernon. These locals were forced to evacuate and many lost their homes altogether. Being displaced so suddenly means you are forced to pack your life into a bag or two and leave with the possibility that everything you own may not be there when you come back.
On the brighter side, the community in the Okanagan and especially in Kelowna came to the aid of the evacuees and set up a number of aid programs to supply housing, food, and other items to those who needed them.
On Facebook marketplace, in specific, many listings popped up of support for evacuees. Furniture, places to stay, pet food, and any number of things were put up for free for the sake of mutual aid. Neighbours were lifting each other up during their times of hardship to keep each other strong as a community, recognizing that sometimes things happen outside of our control. These strong community bonds hold us together as beings who can recognize similarity beyond circumstance.
Though the smokey sky kept everyone in Kelowna afraid of their own possible evacuation, the work of both organizations and individuals warmed our hearts and showed that small but effective action can help others.
However, it made me wonder a lot about the broader mutual aid networks which exist in Kelowna for those who need them, and who is considered ‘viable’ for mutual aid.
The ‘mutual’ in mutual aid implies that this aid goes both ways. Community members help each other to make a community stronger on the whole which provides mutual benefits for everyone involved. Most people want to help others and most people desire a strong community wherever they are. So who do we consider our community?
On many of the same Facebook groups which helped the evacuees and victims of the wildfires, you will find many comments and angry locals speaking ignorantly about unhoused people as if they were not people at all. There are many complicated individual situations and systemic issues which can affect social perceptions of any group, but treating individuals in our lives and communities as simply pieces of a whole is reductive and leads to broad-stroke generalizations about people who others often know very little about (which can be seen in the attitudes some Kelowna locals have).
If the same mutual aid was applied to other struggling community members and neighbours year-round, would our community not be stronger and happier on the whole?
Many of us are in positions of privilege, which is not necessarily something we chose, but we do choose whether or not we use our privilege for the betterment of others positions in life. As the weather becomes colder and it becomes harder to live unhoused, consider using some of your money or some of your time to help others in your community.
Luckily, this help is easy to provide through the many wonderful mutual aid organizations that already exist in Kelowna and are open for volunteers and donations year-round. Organizations such as Solidarity Sundays are composed of locals hoping to help others on a donation basis. They accept volunteers through their instagram and donations through their Patreon page.
The Central Okanagan Food Bank also accepts donations and volunteers through their website as well as through their physical locations at 2310 Enterprise Way in Kelowna and 203-3710 Hoskins Rd. Often food banks get donations of canned food, however, items such as pads, tampons, items for baby care (diapers, formula), clean socks, deodorant, thermal blankets, handwarmers, tents, sleeping bags and others are very much needed as well. This food bank also provides funding to school snack programs, post-secondary grants, and other wonderful projects which strengthen community.
If you are looking beyond organizations to a more individual level of support then get a group of your friends together and brainstorm your own ways to help your community. Talking with others about mutual aid can be valuable and lead to greater reflection on the ways in which our community helps us. Something as simple as giving out blankets and snacks to people with your friends can help more than you think, even just in strengthening the bonds we have to each other as people.
Thank you to everyone who works hard to support those in need.
