Harm reduction and mutual aid by Tea Sierra

Peep this q&a around the importance of harm reduction, mutual aid and care work!

1. What do you mean by mutual aid and care work?  

2. What is harm reduction? Why is it particularly important right now?  

3. Why have alternative care models, like mutual aid organizing, becoming more popular during the COVID-19 pandemic?  

4. What can I do to create a mutual aid care web in my own community? 

5. How are practicing mutual aid and harm reduction informed by an abolitionist politic? 

Tea Sierra is an organizer, public scholar, yoga instructor and harm reduction practitioner based in Atlanta, GA. They hold a Bachelor's degree in Economics, a Master's Degree in Urban Studies from Georgia State University and will soon be in a Ph.D program at the University of Minnesota. 

An interdisciplinary scholar and cross-issue organizer, Tea has worked professionally as an urban planner, a disaster planner and as a public health policy practitioner. Their expertise are in the fields of healthcare access and the social determinants of health; harm reduction (drug and sex work decriminalization); environmental justice and climate change; and housing access and urban expansion as it relates to the condition of Black folks in cities. 

As an abolitionist and an organizer, Tea currently works with The People's Response ATL (@tpratlanta_) and the Justice for All Coalition to create mutual aid infrastructure, including a care web, to ensure all Atlantans, namely those queer/trans, dug users and sex workers experiencing houselessness, have access to the resources they need to survive and engage in drug use and sex work in a way that reduces harm and eliminates criminalization. 

Follow them on IG/Twitter: @colonizedlocal 

And on their organization platforms, IG/Twitter: @tpratlanta_