Mutual Aid Resources + Community Actions
Food mutual aid & grassroots food access
Really Really Free Market:
Catalyst Social Centre (5 munro st, coburg) hosts a thing called Really Really Free Market (RRFM). It's self-described as a Freegan community grocer, giving away surplus food to the wider community and runs on mutual aid principles!
Pickup only, Mon & Wed 1-2pm @ Catalyst Social Centre
Website
The Cabbage Patch:
The Cabbage patch is a shared community garden at catalyst and it's open to anyone! It grows free food and treats the process and growing as a way to share skills and resources. The garden beds are designed to be accessible and everything that is planted is communal!
Website
Food Not Bombs Naarm:
Active since 1996! They cook and share vegan food around Naarm - on the streets, at protests, fundraisers etc.
Their instagram says they operating times and location is: "Tues Collingwood & Wed Coburg"
The Food Angels:
Mutual aid group cooking home meals for LGBTQIA+ people in crisis.
RISE Food Bank:
It is run by refugees and ex-detainees. They give out free dry food, fruit and veg every Friday at their drop-in centre. They also campaign to abolish immigration detention, have been collecting laptops for students who've recently arrived in Naarm from Gaza (mail to 247 Flinders Lane, Melbourne 3000), and refuse money from anyone invested in detention centres, prisons or land grabbing!
Website
Open Table:
Open Table runs weekly vegetarian community lunches in North Fitzroy and Carlton, cooked from rescued food, plus a free fresh food market every two weeks. There are no eligibility requirements or referrals, anyone can come! They also run No Waste Cooking Workshops.
Website
The Community Grocer:
The Community Grocer runs fresh produce markets on public housing estates, around 30% cheaper than supermarkets. You can volunteer at the markets or donate Grocer Gift Cards.
Tues @ Atherton Gardens (Fitzroy), Wed @ North Richmond, Fri @ Carlton estate
Website
First Nations
Mutual Aid 4 Mob:
Mutual aid for mob, helping relieve a little stress from the lives of mob doing it tough through skills sharing, money sharing and food sharing. They post requests from community members, like rent arrears for a young single mum or help for a young queer person.
Blak Dot Gallery:
Blak Dot is a First Nations-led, artist-run gallery that's been going since 2011. It moved to Balam Balam Place in Brunswick in April 2025, a block from TCB! It relies on donors and volunteers, and money from the shop goes to the artists. They run an artist market, workshops and something called Kulture Kitchen.
33 Saxon St, Brunswick. Open Thu-Sun
Website
Support Page
Pay The Rent:
Pay The Rent is a grassroots collective based on Kulin land. The money is only ever distributed by a Sovereign Body of Aboriginal people from a range of clans and nations. It's suggested as a percentage of your income (1% is the rule of thumb), and it can apply to events too.
Website
Dhadjowa Foundation:
Apryl Day founded Dhadjowa after the inquest into her mum Tanya Day's death. They support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families whose loved ones have died in custody, with peer support, money (including for funerals) and help campaigning. They take no government funding!
Website
Warriors of Aboriginal Resistance (Vic):
WAR is a direct action collective of young First Nations people, behind the Invasion Day rallies.
Djirra:
Djirra is an Aboriginal Community Controlled organisation that supports Aboriginal women and kids experiencing family violence. They take packaged food donations for their drop-in, Koori Women's Place.
292 Hoddle St, Abbotsford
Website
Black Rainbow:
A national volunteer-run organisation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander LGBTIQA+SB people. They give out $300 microgrants (including for hosting community events) and phone and data credit.
Website
Victorian Aboriginal Legal Service:
VALS is an Aboriginal Community Controlled legal service that's been running for 50 years.
Website
Mutual Aid Market Naarm:
They run markets where all the proceeds are split between First Nations and Palestinian mutual aid funds.
Palestine
El Rahman Inc:
El Rahman is a community funded organisation based in Broadmeadows. They help house Palestinian refugee families arriving from Gaza, giving them furniture, white goods, clothing and food, and they cover rent and utilities until families can support themselves. They also help people experiencing homelessness and family violence.
Website
Palestine Australia Relief and Action:
PARA is founded and led by Palestinian Australians. They have 60+ volunteers who case manage Palestinians trying to get to Australia, organise flights and housing, collect furniture and connect new arrivals with community. They're also looking for people who can offer arts and cultural experiences to newly arrived families!
Volunteers need a police check, WWCC and two references
Website
Palestine Children's Relief Fund:
PCRF has been running since 1991. It provides medical care for Palestinian children in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon, including sending kids overseas for treatment they can't get locally.
Website
Free Palestine Printing:
Free Palestine Printing started as a group of friends printing free posters, stickers and flyers for rallies and campaigns, to push back on how mainstream media covers Palestine. It's 100% volunteer run and all money goes back into print and action. They've also put out a callout for businesses that can offer work to people who've recently arrived from Gaza.
Website
Loud Jew Collective:
An anti-zionist Jewish activist group based in Naarm. They organise actions and fundraiser film screenings, make anti-zionist solidarity posters and more!
Website
Linktree
SWANA Queers Naarm:
A queer SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) mutual aid collective in Naarm.
Free Palestine Coalition Naarm:
The coalition behind the weekly protests.
Website
Palestine Toolkit:
A running list of Naarm callouts for refugee support and mutual aid!
Website
Police Accountability, Prisons & Legal
IRL Prison Solidarity Network:
Part of Incendium Radical Library at Catalyst. They run a letter writing program for people inside prisons in every state and territory, with monthly letter writing sessions. First-timers can come to an intro session that goes through the ethics of writing to people inside, and people with lived prison experience and family members are welcome too!
Monthly @ IRL Infoshop, Coburg (plus online sessions)
Website
Flat Out:
Flat Out does statewide support and advocacy for criminalised women, trans and gender diverse people. They help with housing, do outreach to the women's prisons, and campaign to replace incarceration with community care.
Website
Melbourne Activist Legal Support:
MALS is an all-volunteer organisation, running since 2019. They send Legal Observer teams to protests to document how police conduct and monitor protest rights in Victoria, and help movements set up their own legal support.
Website
Naarm Frontline Medics:
A street medic collective giving first aid and medical support at protests, rallies and direct actions.
Police Accountability Project:
PAP is part of Inner Melbourne Community Legal (formerly Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre). They take on police misconduct cases, help people with complaints and civil claims, do research and push for an independent police accountability system and an end to racial profiling. They also run a Walking Alongside Program and a Peer Advocacy Project for people affected by police misconduct.
2/508 Queensberry St, North Melbourne
Website
Smart Justice for Women:
A coalition of nearly 40 organisations working to end the criminalisation of women in Victoria, run by the Federation of Community Legal Centres and the Law and Advocacy Centre for Women. Their priorities include Poccum's Law bail reform, Aboriginal self-determination and housing for women.
Website
Fitzroy Legal Service:
A community legal centre that's been going since the 70s, doing criminal law, tenancy, fines, family violence and more. They run a free night advice clinic (appointment needed).
Level 4, Fitzroy Town Hall, 201 Napier St, Fitzroy. (03) 9419 3744
Website
Other mutual aid & skill-sharing
Brunswick Tool Library:
A volunteer-led non-profit where you can borrow tools, learn DIY and repair your own stuff, instead of everyone buying their own.
Basement 1, 127 Nicholson St, Brunswick East. Mon & Wed 4-8pm, Sat 10am-2pm
Website
The Bike Shed (CERES):
Run entirely by volunteers inside CERES in Brunswick East. They fix up donated bikes and sell them cheap, and run fix-your-own-bike sessions where volunteers show you how to repair your bike with shared tools.
Fix-your-own-bike Thurs 1-6pm, bike sales Sat 11am-4pm
Website
DanceWize (Harm Reduction Victoria):
Peer-run harm reduction at music festivals and events since 1999, run by 200+ volunteers with lived experience of the festival scene. Volunteers get trained in first aid, mental health first aid and peer education.
Website
Migrant Workers Centre:
Supports migrant workers and international students in Victoria to know and enforce their rights at work, with free legal help and Know Your Rights sessions. You can volunteer through their Work Ready program or become an ambassador.
54 Victoria St, Carlton
Website