Cover of A Matter of Survival: Organizing to Meet Unmet Needs and Build Power in Times of Crisis by Shailly Gupta Barnes & Jarvis – PDF Publication March 5, 2025
Photo Credit: Kairos Center

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, survival organizing has continued en masse, in response to ongoing effects of the pandemic, as well as climate crisis, hunger, housing insecurity, the denial of health care, police violence, deportation defense, increasing militarism and other systemic failures of our society. As Vilchis from Union de Vecinos remarked, “Health crisis, housing crisis, all of these crises are still there. The material conditions have not changed, we just have less money and are more disorganized. The risk of losing your life to COVID is less, but your job doesn’t pay enough to cover rent or other costs of living. For many of us, life has gotten worse, but we’re not coughing as loud.”

This is particularly true for poor, low-income and marginalized communities. Cosecha will be “depending on projects of survival even more,” said Adorno, especially as it anticipates more intense attacks on undocumented people. Sycamore Collaborative is expecting hunger to continue to grow in its community. “We will hit the ‘million meal’ mark soon,” said Rev. Tañón-Santos, “and there has to be a way that we can foresee this happening and figure out how to prepare.” In Kansas City, the Bethel Neighborhood Center does not want to be “surprised…we need to be more prepared than ever,” said Sonna. Under a second Trump administration, these and other communities are also facing dramatic cuts to social welfare programs, precipitous climate breakdown, greater repression from militarized police and law enforcement and a regressive, anti-democratic political movement.

In this context, a vast network of projects of survival can play an increasingly essential role in keeping our communities safe, while politicizing and preparing grassroots communities to take coordinated action together as part of a broader social movement. Whether through mutual aid, ministry or community organizing, meeting material needs is an act of resistance in a society that punishes the poor for their poverty and misery — and prioritizes billionaires over the rest of us. If and when these efforts can be connected, scaled up and strategically organized, projects of survival can anchor the call for a society where all of our needs are met, today, tomorrow and for generations to come.

Excerpt from the Conclusion of A Matter of Survival: Organizing to Meet Unmet Needs and Build Power in Times of Crisis by Shailly Gupta Barnes & Jarvis Benson, PDF publication by The Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice, New York, USA, March 5, 2025, p. 73.

A Matter of Survival: Organizing to Meet Unmet Needs and Build Power in Times of Crisis is a bold and urgent report that unearths the extraordinary networks of care that have sustained communities through the pandemic and beyond. Drawing on insights from more than 40 leaders and 35 grassroots organizations, the report offers a framework for “projects of survival,” as well as recommendations for activism, organizing, social justice ministry and philanthropy today. 

Both a roadmap and a rallying cry, the report reveals how survival organizing can transform into a powerful movement for systemic change. Indeed, as political extremism threatens democracy and economic inequality deepen, amid climate breakdown and escalating violence, this report challenges us to see beyond mere survival—to reclaim power, mobilize communities, and demand a just future for all. 

This isn’t just a reflection on the past—it’s a call to action for the battles ahead.

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The Kairos Center for Religions, Rights, and Social Justice is a national organization committed to building a movement to end poverty, led by the poor. Originally named the Poverty Initiative, the Center was founded in 2004 by a group of students, organizers, educators, and community leaders at Union Theological Seminary in New York City. Drawing on the power of religions and human rights, they are a center for movement strategy, coordination, and education among the poor across all lines of division. Among other projects, they co-anchor the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival, representing the 140 million, poor and dispossessed Americans who live just one crisis away from disaster.

Kairos is an ancient Greek word, describing a time of great change, when the old ways of the world are dying and new ones are struggling to be born. During a Kairos moment, existing systems and structures fall apart, leaving havoc and misery in their wake, while also creating the possibility for a new kind of leadership to emerge, one that can move society in a different direction.

We are living in a Kairos moment today. Our economic, political, and social institutions are unable to adequately respond to the crises of our times, relying instead on fear, force, and violence to maintain social control. This has emboldened a regressive political movement that has gained influence and power. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, we have seen another way to respond to these crises, one grounded in the extraordinary commitment of those taking on the ordinary responsibilities of meeting our unmet needs.