Swansea Mutual Aid Resource Treasury

02/18/2026

Be sure to check out our Swansea Mutual Aid Resource Treasury Community Page as well as our Discord: https://discord.gg/kWbKECcN2

02/18/2026

Good afternoon SMARTies,

SMART Founder and community member Moe Hurst here with, what I hope to be, a weekly video introducing the new folks to who we are as a community, reinforcing those values, and highlighting projects and stories from all around the SMART community.

We agree that community is our best shot at survival as systems of care continue to be dismantled.
We agree that the source of our resilience is our solidarity. It is in solidarity that we share our time, resources, knowledge, skills, celebrations, and sorrows with one another.
We agree that the only path towards justice is equality. It is through equality that we maintain trust, erode shame, and build community.
So why do we identify as a mutual aid community? Isn’t it just like charity if I am donating things to the SMART Box or people asking online for help?
Aboriginal Artist/Activist Lilla Watson said: “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.”
So lets take a look at this image from Mutual Aid Toledo.

Crucially the hierarchy of the “charity” model is reliant on the maintenance of a balance of haves and have-nots. By its nature, the charity must decide “who is needy enough” or “who is worthy of help” where mutual aid says, everyone is worthy of help, and everyone has needs, and everyone has something to offer their neighbours. “(Charity)... Hopes to ameliorate social injustice.” The folks that made the image used a ten dollar word. I’m just a high school drop-out, I had to look it up. It just means “make a bad thing better.” So the charity model says “we can work within the system to reduce social injustice.” We know what the world looks like. We know where things are headed. The existing system is crumbling, and being actively dismantled by people who will never have to worry about where their next meal is coming from. Our only chance to make it through this comes from radically transforming how we care for one another by centering community over hierarchy.
I’m not old enough to know if it was just something from TV or if we ever were the type of society where you could just ask your neighbour for a cup of sugar, but I do know our greatest advantage as a species is our ability to enhance one another through cooperation and compensate for one another through care. If that’s true, then whether we ever were or not is irrelevant. We can be.
One way we at SMART are practicing this in the world are our direct aid drives, and grocery runs coordinated by our project steward and SMARTie Katja. When neighbours approach the community with food/grocery needs too large for any single member to take on, they coordinate with community members in our Facebook, and discord groups, as well as members who do not use either to pool resources to purchase, and often pick-up and deliver groceries. In this way, the community is able to share the difficulty of the member and the load becomes lighter on all of us.
As always Community, Solidarity, Equality,
Moe Hurst SMART (founder)

02/10/2026

Good afternoon SMARTIES

I’m Moe Hurst, founder and member of the Swansea Mutual Aid Resource Treasury Community.
As our community continues to grow and evolve, I am reminded from time to time that many of the people who participate in the various different aspects of this project may not be aware that they are only participating in small parts of a larger community. With the pace that some sections of our community are growing, I want to try to make regular videos that are a combination of community update, and reinforcement of the values that we as a community have agreed define our identity.

The opening paragraph of our community bylaws says:
“Swansea Mutual Aid Resource Treasury … exists to meet the needs of our neighbors through collective care, shared resources, and a commitment to mutual aid. We believe in the power of community, solidarity, and equality as both a guiding ethic and a practical strategy for survival, resilience, and justice.”
By joining and participating in SMART projects, this is the fundamental principle you are agreeing to stand on.
We as members of this community agree that community is our best shot at survival as systems of care continue to be dismantled.
We agree that the source of our resilience is our solidarity. It is in solidarity that we share our time, resources, knowledge, skills, celebrations, and sorrows with one another.
We agree that the only path towards justice is equality. It is through equality that we maintain trust, erode shame, and build community.
And that completes the circuit. Lightbulb on. SMART.
Our bylaws later say:
“We aim to empower members of our community to organize, share, and lead their own projects, while providing a common platform for coordination, visibility, and resource pooling.”
The first project was the SMART Box. Then the facebook community. Now in addition to those we have a Discord, book club, food shares, direct aid drives, a candlemaking project, and so many people with new ideas about how to improve existing projects.

Friends all it takes to get a project going with SMART is a plan, a project steward (someone to liaise with the board of stewards) and two or three other members willing to get to work on it. If you have a project centered on the principles of Community, Solidarity, and Equality, let’s work on it together! We have monthly board meetings with public comment time, and quarterly meetings and activities for the whole community! Let’s solve problems together.

Stay SMART, Stay safe, my friends
Community Solidarity, Equality
-M

11/09/2025

****Update - He has been found

Please contact the police if you see him.e

09/23/2025

These principles guide everything we do. They shape our mission and keep our community strong.

07/08/2025

There is a monthly meeting this Saturday, July 12th at 3pm at the Belleville Public Library.

We will hold a vote to ratify the draft propaganda of our bylaws. Please review them before attending.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/14UgeAfZx9UHaRGmhjVCT0qytsB-ji1oE1B9-2iP55z4/mobilebasic?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwLaV0RleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHnhrmDDLhAPYTrNaQFD-IyKBR7d5qqfz6ELc5ZU4OQdIghj0KhMGq9Hx6mHi_aem_p9CX2N06oqnm7tusREXVvA

If you are unable to attend in person we will be streaming the meeting in our discord serverer.

Join the discussion by following the link below.

https://discord.gg/Q4dCFJzK

That and our Facebook Community Page
Swansea Mutual Aid Resource Treasury Community Page are the best ways to keep up with thee goings on at SMART.

If you are new to discord it can be daunting, but please visit the channel labelled
“🗺️-community-directory” for an up to date roadmap of our little online village. If you get lost shout for a Block Captain and someone will be able to help you get acquainted.

Other items on the agenda for the meeting are,

Opening nominations for group officers (ratification pending)

SMART Box update
SMART Kids update
Tornado Relief update
New Projects
Open discussion

Community, Solidarity, Equality
-M

Check out the Swansea Mutual Aid Resource Treasury community on Discord - hang out with 51 other members and enjoy free voice and text chat.