Action
When we care for each other in active, hands-on ways, we build the kind of community where no one has to carry hard things alone. The Care is Resistance Action page is a place to turn compassion into collective care through community-led Care Teams, mutual aid projects, and everyday acts of support that help our neighbors access food, healthcare, harm reduction supplies, and basic needs every person deserves.
This work is deeply rooted in Health Brigade’s history. During the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, activists and community members at Fan Free Clinic created Care Teams to support people living with HIV and AIDS who had often been abandoned out of fear and stigma. They cooked meals, showed up for appointments, sat beside hospital beds, and reminded people they were not alone. That spirit of care still guides us today.
In a time when fear, isolation, ICE presence, and systemic barriers are keeping many people from accessing food, medical care, and safety, being good neighbors to one another matters more than ever. Care Teams are a way to show up together with courage, kindness, and shared responsibility. You can create a Care Team with your family, neighbors, business, or community group, or become a Care Queen (“Don’t be a drag, be a Queen!”) and join joyful, values-driven simple one time projects that put care into action for the Health Brigade community.
Food Boxes for our Neighbors
Sometimes care looks like showing up with a box of familiar food. Through our first Care Team project, community members can come together for a simple, one-time, hands-on act of solidarity by building culturally appropriate food boxes for Latine and Afghan immigrant patients and families at Health Brigade.
Many families we serve are experiencing a new level of food insecurity. They are avoiding grocery stores and public spaces right now out of concern for their safety with an increased ICE presence. We believe everyone deserves food that feels familiar, comforting, and connected to home. These boxes offer dignity and a powerful way to show up and let our neighbors know that our community cares about them.
Gather a few friends, family members, coworkers, or neighbors, fill out our form, and we’ll send all the info to build a box and help support another family in a direct and meaningful way. Small acts of care matter, especially right now.
Holler at us if you want to help deliver food boxes too!
CaRe TEAMS AND CARE QUEENS!
During the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and 90s, community members at Health Brigade, then the Fan Free Clinic, created Care Teams to support people living with HIV and AIDS. People showed up for one another with meals, rides, check-ins, advocacy, and everyday acts of care rooted in dignity and community.
Today, we are reviving that spirit to meet this moment as federal and state cuts to public healthcare and the growing presence of ICE leave many of our neighbors struggling to access food, healthcare, and support.
Care Teams are a way to gather your friends, family, workplace, faith and community groups, or neighbors to care for Health Brigade patients and programs in real and practical ways together. And if you want to bring a little extra joy to the work, you can become a Care Queen too. (Don’t be a drag, be a Queen!) We even have crowns.
Big, small, you gather the team, and we’ll send the simple one time project! Sign up for the list below.