SWIM Ohio Network

The Social Work Is Mutual Aid (SWIM) Ohio Network is a volunteer-led, grassroots effort to build a resilient social work community.

We believe in solidarity, not charity and encourage our Network to take what you need and share what you can. We came together as a response to the outcome of the 2024 election and recognize that building authentic relationships, creating communities of care, and taking care of each other is critical in the days ahead.

We understand that we are only as strong as the most vulnerable in our community and strive for our collective liberation. Efforts are currently focused in the Northeast Ohio area, but we anticipate expanding across Ohio quickly. Please sign up wherever you live and share with your social work network!

Examples of Solidarity, Not Charity

We envision the SWIM Ohio Network as a responsive community of care and support and offer the following examples as an illustration of our vision:

Offering knowledge about how to make jam or can preserves
Offering tomatoes from your garden in exchange for help weeding the garden
Requesting a “meal train” after surgery or unexpected unemployment
Requesting a ride to a local community event or offering to carpool
Offering extra toiletries or cleaning products
Offering to exchange books you have already read with another member
Requesting mutual support to process the outcome of the 2024 election
Requesting help downloading Signal on your phone and learning how to use it
During community-wide power outages, offering to share electricity and charge devices to members without power.

Our Process

Any social worker or social work student is encouraged to participate in the SWIM Ohio Network. We will ask for some identifying information to verify that you are a social worker or social work student before adding you to our Network. This information will not be shared or available to anyone besides our Core Organizing Team. As we increase our capacity and bandwith, we may open the Network to other helping professionals like Counselors, Marriage & Family Therapists, etc.

Submit Member Request

Social workers or social work students will submit a request to join the Network. The Core Organizing Team will confirm the request and add the new member to our Network.

Access the Network

Members are able to add themselves to our SWIM Directory and request/offer items, support, or knowledge.

Use the Network

Members facilitate their own matches of requests and offers.

Community Guidelines

Our work is guided by the values, principles, and standards outlined in the NASW Code of Ethics.
We keep us safe and use encrypted email, text, and cloud-based services to facilitate our Network. We strongly encourage all members to sign up for a Proton Mail account and the Signal app before engaging with the Network.
Network members are encouraged to use pseudonyms or nicknames when posting share requests or offers. We support sharing as much or as little information as you feel comfortable.
We are in solidarity with each other and support anti-racism, the LGBTQIA+ community, immigrants, marginalized populations, disability and climate justice, and the labor movement. We are pro-people and anti-capitalist.
We lead with kindness toward each other and call each other in.
Offers to share items, support, or knowledge are freely given. Offering items, support, or knowledge for monetary payment is not permitted in our Network. Mutual exchanges among members are encouraged, but not required or expected.
This network is not to be used for clients as a social work referral network or to connect clients to resources. It is solely to be used as a network of support for social workers.

Welcome to the Social Work Is Mutual Aid (SWIM) Ohio Network!