Herbal Calls to Action
+ Community Care Resources
I’ve created this page to help folks get connected into and support community calls to action with a focus on herbalism and herbal care. As more and more folks are limited their time on social media or getting off it entirely, it felt needful to have a space where many of these calls and resources can be found.
In addition to herbal calls to action, I’ve provided resources on starting your own low-cost and free herbal clinics, learning more about becoming or supporting street medics, and other resources to help us navigate the many great changes we are living through and to call forth a more kind and just world. This could easily become a vast list of links, so I’ve tried to keep my scope small (primarily focused on resources for herbalists) while also finding (mostly) free resources including posts I’ve made over the years on community-focused herbalism and activism.
Moving into 2021 I’ve started to add more resources on helping to deprogram friends and family who have fallen into conspiracy theory and mass delusions which has become prevalent in so many of our communities during the pandemic and which I and many consider to be a mental and community health crisis (not only putting those who believe in these false narratives at risk but emboldening violent actions and white supremacists).
I’m grateful for the folks who’ve created these calls, maintained these lists, and created the many resources you’ll find below. I’ll update this list periodically and will notify folks via my newsletter. I hope what you find listed below if of use to you and your community!
Latest update: March 2023
Newly added resources are marked with a ⭐️
Herbal Calls to Action
Herbalista Free Clinic’s Calls to Action is a page full of herbal action and aid organizations from around the world as well as global herbal calls to action. It’s a great place to start if you’re interested in supporting free clinics and social justice movements. Herbalista is also distributing free herbal care packages and are looking for donations for the project.
Herbalists Without Borders has a Supplies Needed page which links to herbal clinics currently looking for donations. It also includes a great list of the types of herbal medicine usually needed for particular communities and disasters. They also have an extensive list of free and low cost herbal clinics.
Rootwork Herbals is committed to “lovingly handcrafted community herbalism that is accessible and uncomplicated; utilizes common plants for health and wholeness; honors the earth, the plants and the people.” Become a supporter of The People’s Medicine Project: Reclamation which provides BIPOC a safe, experiential education in working with common plants to help heal themselves and their communities.
Solidarity Apothecary has an ongoing Call-outs for Solidarity page which includes calls for a growing Prisoner Herbalism Collective and many more. They also have a growing Mutual Aid Directory that is definitely worth checking out.
Harriet’s Apothecary is another world-changing project describing itself as a “healing village led by the brilliance and wisdom of Black Cis Women, Queer and Trans healers, artists, health professionals, magicians, activists and ancestors.” There is so much incredible work happening here and be sure to check out their 365 Days of Affirming Black Life and Amplifying Black Love project.
How to Support an Herbal Call-to-Action is my own guide to how you can make the work of herbal first responders and community healers easier.
Start a Free/Low Cost Herbal Clinic
Herbalista Free Clinic has an incredible list of resources to draw on and years of success in serving communities in need.
How to Set Up a Mutual Mobile Aid Apothecary by Shumaisa Khan lists all the ways you can begin running your own mutual aid clinic with lots of links to folks doing just that.
Sliding Scale Series is my own work on the sliding scale and other systems of financial access that you may or may not choose to use if you charge for any clinic services.
Street Medics
Street Medic Guide : Resources for street medics as well as for those wanting to learn how to become a street medic.
Street Medic Wiki : Includes a guide to street medic organizations as well as many more resources for you and your community.
⭐️ Do No Harm Coalition: Street Medic Bridge Training for Medical Professionals is a two hour online course full of great information.
⭐️ Riot Medicine: A free text-book length guide to street medicine.
Meet the ‘Grandmother of Street Medics’ tells an important part of street medic history that we all should be celebrating.
Community Herbalism + Mutual Aid
Covid 19 Community Care Guide by Herbalista Free Clinic : Comprehensive and wonderful. Be sure to check out their Covid 19 Community Care page, too.
Covid 19 Resources is a vast collection of articles by a variety of herbalists collected by The American Herbalist Guild.
WHO’s Hand Sanitizer Formulas : Cheap and easy to make and useful in a variety of settings.
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief : A great website to check out, especially their extensive list of collective/community care projects mostly focused in the US but with resources useful for everyone everywhere.
Immune & Respiratory Herbs: A Resource for Tribal Communities during Covid-19 : A well-designed and accessible resource created by Indigenous herbalists and their allies.
Decolonizing Community Care in Response to Covid-19 by Jade Begay of NDN Collective reminds us that “[n]ow more than ever it is imperative for us to decolonize from individualism and reconnect with ways of community care.”
Queering Herbalism’s BIPOC Healers + Resources : Finding herbalists that understand our cultures and where we come from is healing in and of itself.
Herbal First Aid and Aftercare for All Who Have Experienced Police Violence : A collaborative offering of herbal support for recovery from “bumps, bruises & burns, chemical weapons exposure, taser, handcuff injuries, & trauma.”
The Reclamation of Ancestral Herbalism : A beautiful read exploring the ways we recenter BIPOC herbal narratives and traditions.
Herbal Antivirals: Natural Remedies for Emerging & Resistant Viral Infections by Stephen Harrod Buhner : A good book to have on your shelf and includes a sections on protocols SARS and novel coronaviruses.
Herbs & Influenza: How herbs used in the 1918 Flu Pandemic can be effective today by Kathy Abascal RH (AHG): This is a really interesting read not only because it is one of the few books talking in-depth about the practices in Eclectic physicians in a way that is useful to modern practitioners. As a guide, I would say that this book is better suited to experienced herbalists than the casual practitioner.
Serving as an Herbalist During Pandemic : My early thoughts at the start of Covid19 on how we can serve our communities as people of the plants.
Herbs for Breathwork + Respiratory Health : A companion piece to my Breathing With Friends post about breathwork and community healing in the age of online gatherings, paying attention to herbs that help us to return to our breath and ourselves alongside respiratory aides are vital during protest season.
Herbal Baths for Self-Care + Community Healing : While herbal baths are not always a practical on-the-streets type of remedy, when it comes to take-home remedies for communities in need herbal baths and shower rinses are some of my favorite, low cost, and easy to administer remedies.
African-American + Black Herbal Resources : My own compilation of predominantly book-based resources to learn more about modern and traditional herbal practices written by and for African-American and Black folks in the United States.
Collective Resilience + Mental Health
The Response: Building Collective Resilience in the Wake of Disasters : Featuring over 30 case studies, interviews, and how-to guides to deepen your understanding of community-led disaster response and collective resilience initiatives to foster increased engagement with your neighbors, family, and friends.
Living With Worry And Anxiety Amidst Global Uncertainty : A simple guide with evidence-based therapeutic tools to help folks cope with our growing global anxiety.
Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change Changing Worlds : adrienne maree brown’s book is a love letter, a book of shadows, a gentle and powerful guide to creating movements which are not only sustainable but sustain us in turn.
Healing Resources for BIPOC Organizers & Allies Taking Action for Black Lives : Full of resources to help support our whole selves as we change the world.
Aorta Anti-Oppression Resource + Training Collective : A a worker-owned cooperative devoted to strengthening movements for social justice and a solidarity economy. Check out their amazing resources!
Compassion in Crisis : “Co-written and curated by Kailea Frederick and Kate Weiner with vibrant cover art by Vyana Novus, Compassion in Crisis braids together interviews with survivors of climate disaster and resources on disaster preparedness to provide our community with an accessible guide to resilience and regeneration in the Anthropocene.” Also available in Spanish.
Nourishing the Nervous System : “Written by somatically-oriented therapeutic guide tayla shanaye with cover art by Amy Berenbeim, this timely tome from tayla is an accessible and energizing guide to nourishing the nervous system during crisis. From embodiment exercises to reflections on the animal body, tayla will help connect you to practices to ground in presence & grow your capacity to care on the cusp of collapse.”
BIPOC Wellness + Fitness Instructors to Follow on Instagram : Author Jay Polish features a lot of cool folks including trauma-informed practitioners. Polish has also written about donation-based online classes featuring a lot of inclusive practices.
Leading Groups Online is geared towards helping folks facilitate online spaces during pandemic and beyond.
Untangling Oppressions + Growing Together
Anti-Racism Resources : A compilation of various media resources geared towards white people and parents to deepen their anti-racism work. Here’s an alternate link if you’re having trouble accessing the Google doc.
How to Talk to Relatives Who Care More About Looting Than Black Lives : An excellent guide to having difficult talks with relatives and friends about what is happening to our Black kin and why this is a conversation we all need to be having.
Talking to Kids About About Police Brutality : A community list with resources for all ages to help you talk about the realities of racism and the inherent violence of our policing system.
Racial Equity Tools : A vast collection of free resources for understanding race and racism.
White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (PDF) by Peggy McIntosh is a classic article written a few decades ago that is helpful in not only understanding and recognizing white privilege on a personal and systemic level, but her way of highlighting white privilege can easily be modified when talking about other privileges.
Ring theory can be helpful when learning how to support others during crisis by paying attention to where we are requiring emotional labor of others versus providing emotional support. And here is an article on how ring theory was developed which further helps to articulate its usefulness.
Misinformation + Covid19 : An exploration on how the ever-popular spread of conspiracy theories and questioning the reality of the pandemic supports the far right. (password: collectivehealing)
What to Say if a Friend Insists '800,000 Children Are Trafficked Each Year' : An article that offers useful ways to help deprogram friends and family caught up in the Qanon mass delusion.