REUNITING COMMUNITIES AND ENCOURAGING COLLECTIVE AWARENESS AND ACTION.
WHAT WE
STAND FOR
Forward Indiana believes everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of themself and of their family, including food, clothing, housing, medical care, necessary social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livelihood in circumstances beyond their control.
WHAT WE
(& YOU) DO
Forward Indiana facilitates action through mutual aid via multiple avenues, including community pantries and gardens. We are not a non-profit or a business, we are everyday people assisting one another through acts of solidarity.
COMMUNITY PANTRIES
The community pantries are designed to provide 24/7 access to free food. They are community sustaining and an act of solidarity, not charity. We work together to fill them with non-perishable food items for anyone and everyone to take. We currently have pantries in Fort Wayne, Waynedale, New Haven, Columbia City, Syracuse, and Leesburg.
COMMUNITY GARDENS
We have started two community gardens! One is located at 347 W. Packard St. and the other is at 4209 Lillie St. Both gardens follow the same model of the pantries, solidarity not charity through mutual aid and direct action. Plant what you can and pick what you need.
“It is a radical act to bypass
the system to help your neighbor.”
WHAT IS MUTUAL AID?
Mutual aid is a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit. Different from a charity, mutual aid is the horizontal movement of resources in a community as opposed to the wealthy giving to the needy. We are a support system for one another.
Mutual aid efforts are inspired by horizontal solidarity rather than top-down philanthropy. They aim to create permanent systems of support and self-determination, whereas charity creates a relationship of dependency that fails to solve more permanent structural problems.