Community care is often contrasted with individual self-care. Audre Lorde wrote in 1988 that caring for herself was "an act of political warfare," a line about survival as a Black lesbian with cancer. Advocates note that her idea of self-care was rooted in community, not consumer products.
Black and other marginalized communities have long relied on community care because public systems excluded them. Mutual benefit societies after emancipation pooled money for burials and illness. In 1969, the Black Panther Party began its Free Breakfast for Children program and later ran free health clinics. During the COVID-19 pandemic, neighbors organized grocery delivery and rent funds.
Community care overlaps with mutual aid but is broader, covering emotional support and rest as well as material needs. It recognizes that burnout in activist and caregiving work is a structural problem, and that sustaining movements requires sharing the load.