In March of 2020, Kelvin Taitt had just recovered from COVID-19 when he was approached by one of his close friends who wanted to start an initiative to support their community, in a time of deep crisis. Kelvin immediately embraced the idea and formed East Brooklyn Mutual Aid (EBMA), alongside two neighbors and a community advocate. For Kelvin, taking immediate action was of the utmost priority. “After recovering from COVID, I was looking for ways to support the people that lived around me: my friends, my family, my neighbors. For me, it was an immediate yes. We knew that providing food was the best way to support our neighbors. So that’s exactly what we did.” 

Since 2018, Syreeta Gordon has been at the forefront of Kangaroo Birthing, an organization dedicated to improving maternal health outcomes, particularly for Black women. Throughout her journey, she has utilized numerous ioby projects to crowdfund for various ideas and events. We sat down with Syreeta as part of our 15 ioby stories project to learn more about the growth, challenges, and future of her work in the field of maternal health.