Michele Hays started Back On Their Feet, a mutual aid Facebook group, after the Women’s March in 2017.

At the time, she said she saw community members coming together to provide supplies, appliances and furniture for one family struggling to obtain housing. But by December, Hays realized only a small group of people with Back On Their Feet were serving hundreds of families.

“I discovered that the people who had been helping were tapped out. And that was because a large majority of people who had been doing the large majority of the work in the group were kind of middle class,” she said. “We did not have the support of the very wealthy in Evanston, who are the people who should be supporting mutual aid efforts.”

So, on Jan. 14, Hays posted on Facebook announcing she would step down from Back On Their Feet. She isn’t looking for another “figurehead” to lead the group, she said, because she doesn’t want the community to think one person can support all of Evanston. But after about six years, Hays said the group needs new members, moderators and administrators who aren’t burnt out.

In the past, people have requested the group’s support for fixing cars, meeting rent, buying groceries and getting possessions out of storage. Sometimes, Back On Their Feet starts GoFundMe campaigns for requesters or connects them with existing services.

Some nearby volunteers like Jo Peer-Haas, a Rogers Park resident, help out on and off with tasks like driving and buying requested items.

“People who have more should help those who don’t,” Peer-Haas said.

But with thousands of members in the Back On Their Feet Facebook group, Hays and group administrator Renee Murphy Phillips said they’re frustrated when they can’t always fully address what residents ask for.

Phillips said insufficient support from outside organizations also makes the job more difficult.

“It’s hurtful when … we have an agency that will work with us, with the ask, but (they have) a lot of red tape,” Phillips said. “(Sometimes) the person that’s asking for the assistance just can’t meet all the criteria.”

The mission of Back On Their Feet is especially important to Phillips because she doesn’t want to see the Black community continue to be priced out of a city where her family has lived for five generations, she said.

Now, with Hays planning to leave “cleanly” in the next few weeks, she and Phillips said they aren’t sure what may be next for the group. Phillips said she’d love to see someone fill Hays’ shoes, but Hays said she doesn’t know who has the capacity to take on more work. 

On Facebook, Hays posted to say Back On Their Feet may be in danger of shutting down without at least four more volunteers to admit new members, approve anonymous posts and ensure rules are followed. The group currently has five administrators in addition to her, she said.

“I hope that the group at least keeps going as the sort of marketplace and resource for information and referrals,” she told The Daily. “But it needs other administrators and moderators in order to do that. So if we don’t find that, the group is going to have to close and that will make me very sad.”

Mutual aid needs to be a collective effort, Hays pointed out, and she hopes her departure will inspire people to work more collectively.

More than anything, Hays said she feels angry — angry that people who could step up haven’t and that money gets wasted on charity parties rather than being spent to make a real impact.

Back On Their Feet just can’t affect change on the scale necessary to support all of Evanston’s low-income residents, Hays said. She’s hoping to focus on government advocacy to make social services more accessible after leaving the group.

“I want to help people, but I am one human being,” Hays said. “No matter what I do, I’m just scratching the surface.”

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @avivabechky

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