Faith-based mutual aid flourishes amid pandemic, protests
BROOKLYN — Groceries. Prepared meals. Face masks. Prayer requests. Housing. Rent assistance. Mental health care. Spiritual guidance. Career advice. Transportation.
The requests for help keep coming at Forefront Church, at all hours of the day and night, and Zanifa Franck keeps responding.
“If you need aid and we have it, we’re going to give it to you,” says Franck, direct deacon for the Brooklyn church’s active 12-member care team, launched at the pandemic’s onset in an effort to live out Forefront’s anti-racist mission. “There’s no parameters or criteria or rules for how you get aid.”