Find the word definition

WordNet
mutual aid

n. arrangements made between nations to assist each other [syn: international logistic support]

Wikipedia
Mutual aid

Mutual aid may refer to:

  • Billion Dollar Gift and Mutual Aid: Canada's gift of $4 billion to Britain in the Second World War
  • Mutual aid (organization theory), a tenet of organization theories.
  • Mutual aid (emergency services), an agreement between emergency responders.
  • Mutual Aid: A Factor of Evolution, a biology book by anarchist Peter Kropotkin
  • Mutual aid, in social work with groups.
  • Mutual aid society, various organizations formed for the benefit of members.
Mutual aid (organization theory)

Mutual aid is a term in organization theory used to signify a voluntary reciprocal exchange of resources and services for mutual benefit.

Mutual aid (emergency services)

In emergency services, mutual aid is an agreement among emergency responders to lend assistance across jurisdictional boundaries. This may occur due to an emergency response that exceeds local resources, such as a disaster or a multiple-alarm fire. Mutual aid may be ad hoc, requested only when such an emergency occurs. It may also be a formal standing agreement for cooperative emergency management on a continuing basis, such as ensuring that resources are dispatched from the nearest fire station, regardless of which side of the jurisdictional boundary the incident is on. Agreements that send closest resources are regularly referred to as "automatic aid agreements".

Mutual aid may also extend beyond local response. Several states have statewide mutual aid systems. Examples include Washington and Oregon statewide mobilization programs. MABAS (Mutual Aid Box Alarm System) is a regional mutual aid system, headquartered in Illinois, with 1500 member fire departments in Illinois, Indiana, Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, and Missouri.

Utility companies usually also have mutual aid agreements.

Usage examples of "mutual aid".

The enemies no longer feared, nor could the subjects any longer trust, the application of a public revenue, the labors of trade and manufactures in the military service, the mutual aid of provinces and armies, and the naval squadrons which were regularly stationed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of the Tyber.

We have cut off all possibility of intercourse and of mutual aid, and may pursue at our leisure whatever plan we find necessary to secure ourselves against the future effects of their savage and ruthless warfare.

We have no law but the single principle of mutual aid between individuals.

It seems that Prince Kropotkin was quite mistaken to believe that all animals practise mutual aid and that only human beings murder one another.

Soldiers and citizens, of whatever nation you may be, re-establish public confidence, the source of the welfare of a state, live like brothers, render mutual aid and protection one to another, unite to defeat the intentions of the evil-minded, obey the military and civil authorities, and your tears will soon cease to flow!

Within a world which remains, despite all our efforts, hard and indifferent to men's hopes and trials, these small societies for mutual aid offer the unfortunate a source of comfort and support.

The morning had not been so bad, he reflected, though Roelstra's suggestion about mutual aid and defense troubled him.

Among other things he made it seem that our relationship was one of mutual aid, as though my strength were equal to his, my worth to his, my need of help paralleled by an equal need on his part.

The basic plan was for mutual aid in the event of any attack but Sylvia relies on intuition and Jeanne is basically a gambler.

Will there be some opportunity to discuss the possibility of mutual aid?

They're talking about a meeting of the honest communities sometime this autumn or early winter to discuss mutual aid - especially about the bandit problem.