In Amy Herzog’s masterful Mary Jane, we are invited into the world of a caregiving mother. As we dive into the experience alongside Mary Jane, we meet the other caregivers who become a network of support—sharing humor, spiritual camaraderie, information, and comfort.

In many cases, caregivers are unseen. Like Mary Jane, they are often unpaid and caring for family. The American Association of Retired Persons’ (AARP) 2025 Report shows that over 63 million people in the U.S.—1 in 4—are “informal caregivers” (unpaid). You or someone you are close to is likely a caregiver.

AARP CEO Myechia Minter-Jordan addresses the lack of systemic support for caregivers and those who need care: “Family caregivers are a backbone of our health and long-term care systems—often providing complex care with little or no training, sacrificing their financial future and their own health, and too often doing it alone.”

We tend to think of caregivers as adults, but young people are caregivers too! According to Support Caregiving there are over 5,400,000 caregiving youth in the U.S. The org shared this graphic, “Responsibilities of Caregiving Youth”, that outlines many of the tasks that caregivers of all ages often take on:

^{Responsibilities of Caregiving Youth graphic from supportcaregiving.org}

How can we support the caregivers in our own lives?
   
The Caregiver Action Network outlines some actions you can take to ease burdens on the caregivers in your life:

Offer Practical Help like bringing meals, completing household chores (laundry, mowing the lawn, shoveling snow, walking the dog), offering to run errands, providing gift cards for meal delivery or groceries.
 
Give Them a Break—stay with their loved one yourself (if you are qualified to care for them) or arrange for/contribute to fund a qualified caregiver. Caregiving is a 24/7 job and can be exhausting.

Encourage Self Care in Concrete Ways with a gift certificate to a salon or spa, or other activity that they enjoy, but don’t have time to do while caregiving (and the ability to use it by helping to arrange care for their loved one).

Keep Them Included and Show You Care by visiting, texting, listening, and continuing to invite them to activities even when they can’t attend very often. Caregiving can be isolating, and as we see in Mary Jane, community makes all the difference. 

Mutual Aid as a Community Response

The lack of support for caregivers is a systemic issue, meaning it is widespread and affects our system(s) as a whole, not just a part of society.

Like many other systemic issues, the best way to support those in need is through Mutual Aid. Dean Spade, author of Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next), defines Mutual Aid as “collective coordination to meet each other’s needs, usually from an awareness that the systems we have in place are not going to meet them.” 

Unlike charity, Mutual Aid is collective—we do what we can, and we work together to uplift everyone. That means while you are lifting others, other people are doing the same for you! Caregiving can often affect every aspect of a person’s life—primary caregivers often can’t work outside the home and can face financial issues like housing or food insecurity. Mutual Aid can benefit caregivers and those who need care.

^{The Future is Mutual Aid poster by Olly Costello}

But what does Mutual Aid mean for you? Solid Ground points to some key questions to ask ourselves:
 
1. Think about your own strengths. What skills, knowledge, time, tools, or financial resources do you have? Are you bilingual? Can you grow food? Do you have a big kitchen? A car to give people rides in?
 
2. Now think about your community. What do your neighbors need? Grocery help? Childcare? Transportation to appointments?
 
Mutual Aid asks us to use our strengths to uplift our communities. This can also mean actions like:
 
Donating blood—in Seattle, you can donate through Bloodworks NW and the American Red Cross
 
Building websites or providing tech help for individuals or small groups through orgs like Digital Aid Seattle
 
Sharing knowledge through Community Teach-Ins through orgs like WashMasks or El Centro de la Raza
 
On stage in Mary Jane, we see prime examples of a community coming together to lift each other up. Off-stage, we can do the same for our own communities.

Experience Amy Herzog’s Mary Jane, on stage March 19–April 19 in the Leo K. Theater.

Reserve Tickets »