Caring For One Another
The Loyola Mutual Aid Network is a tool for graduate students to utilize the power of community, allowing us to help one another during the COVID-19 pandemic and the ongoing movement against anti-Black racism and police brutality.
The university has not demonstrated a commitment to providing financial relief to graduate students who have lost employment and who are not paid during the summer. Our response to their lack of commitment is this non-financial mutual aid network, where we are committing ourselves to doing what we can to support one another. Although we do not have money to spare, we can provide for one another in so many other ways.
W H O ​
Any graduate student at Loyola University Chicago is welcome to join the Loyola Mutual Aid Network!
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W H A T
The Loyola Mutual Aid Network is mean to connect graduate students and graduate student workers and facilitate the exchange of non-financial items and actions.
This community network operates on Slack (a free platform that can run on a mobile app, desktop app, or in your browser).
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We especially encourage the use of the Loyola Mutual Aid Network for connecting and organizing resources, people, and actions related to the current racial justice activism efforts.
(Joining the LMAN will also provide you with access to the group's community on Signal for safer activism!)
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H O W
1. Click the "Request Access" button to provide your request via a Google Form.
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2. Your request will be reviewed to ensure that only members of the Loyola graduate student community are admitted to the group chat platform.
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3. After your request is reviewed, you will receive an e-mail invitation to the Loyola Mutual Aid Network Slack.
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4. Accept the invitation, and begin posting requests and/or offers!
New to Slack? See our Tips for Getting Started with Slack below!
Click here to request access to the Loyola Mutual Aid Network.
Examples of Mutual Aid Requests and/or Offers:
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+ Running an errand (picking up groceries, moving a piece of furniture, picking up medication)
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+ Giving or receiving a ride to/from somewhere (doctor, vet, a protest)
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+ Borrowing tools/household items (need a drill, food processor for a recipe, ladder, sewing machine, etc, without having to pay for one)
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+ Meal or snack preparation to offset grocery costs and kitchen time
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+ Pet care while working/out of town
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+ Face masks/hand sanitizer/gloves donations
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+ Social/wellness needs such as phone/video call check ins
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+ Assistance with graduate work (someone to look over your paper, listen to a practice presentation, conduct a mock interview, give feedback on a syllabus, help with setting up an online class, etc.)
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+ Help with filing paperwork (unemployment, food stamps, taxes, financial aid, loans, citizenship, etc.)
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+ Access to free laundry
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+ Childcare
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+ Skills/services (learn/teach/assist with gardening, music lessons, sewing, cooking, tarot reading, yoga, etc.)
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+ Access to green space (someone’s backyard!)
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Questions about the Loyola Mutual Aid Network can be directed to
CONTACT US
Tips for getting started with slack
Slack is a popular communication platform that allows users to create searchable conversation threads about different topics; individuals can also customize their notification preferences, and send direct messages to other users.
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1. Download Slack (you can use their mobile app, desktop app, web interface, or all three! Your account will sync across all devices that you're logged into.)
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2. Set up your account with the link from your invitation e-mail (which you'll receive after submitting your access request form!)
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3. Once you're in our slack workspace, select "channels" to join (you'll automatically be in the #general-chat, #mutual-aid-items, and #mutual-aid-actions channels, but feel free to join or suggest others for LMAN admin to create!)
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4. Adjust your notification settings in Settings → Notifications (we suggest choosing "Direct messages, mentions & keywords" and "Notify Me About Replies to Thread")
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5. When posting, you can tag other individuals with the "@" sign. You can also send a notification to everyone in the channel by tagging @everyone or @channel (though we suggest doing this sparingly!)
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6. You can send direct messages to other users as well. We suggest using this function when sharing contact info or other private details!
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7. Only LMAN Admin can add new members; if you'd like to share access to the network, you can either direct your friends to this page, or send an invite request to Admin on Slack.
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More documentation about Slack can be found here!
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