Welcome to This Way Up

The purpose of this site is to aggregate real free resources, and methods for how to get the most needed things for free, with the end goal of creating a decentralized network of "helpers" which can lift poeple out of homelessnes/poverty with nothing but this webiste and the resources it links.

Quick Links

Philosophy

This is meant to be a non-religious, non-profit, non-political, decentralized, and fully open movement. The goal is to eliminate all knowledge-based barriers which currently prevent homeless/impoverished people from actually being recognized as a human being by the system of our society and lifted out of their situation. To a contributor, this site will be a place of discussion and theorizing new methods for independent people navigating the system of our society to get all the bare minimum needs for their life met (and therfore create methods others may use). To a visitor, this wiki should be a place which provides maps, guides, and tips which altogether create a real roadmap they can use to get out of poverty. In the end, the information here should be detailed and informative enough that a person can act on their own to get out of poverty, or a seperate individual can eliminate an individual's poverty by introducing the impoverished person to the resources described here.

Core Tenants

The collection of knowledge here is fully open source, meaning no homo-sapien (living or dead) should be prevented from accessing, using, editing, or adding to it. None of the original information on this site should be considered copyrighted, and falls under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) 4.0 License or newer. Any copyrighted work should be linked to instead of posted directly onto the site.
The infomation here should be unbiased in tone, verifiable, neutral, and encyclopedic; with manual-like instructions on how to use each resource it describes.
Contributors cannot push personal opinions; instead, they summarize what reliable sources say. If a resource is no longer useful, it should be removed and disregarded instead of disparaged.
Efforts will also be made to ensure accessibility to the site's information, even when without internet access. Printed reading materials and other offline versions can and will be made as necessary to allow full access to the website regardless of what is perceived to be the "proper" way to gain access.
Despite the end goal of decentralizing social work, the main version of this website will be centralized to Github. All contributors who wish to edit/add to the website, or discuss potential edits/additions, will need to do so through the already existing mechanisms of the website's github repository

Goals

A robust wiki of resources which can easily and readily provide food, water, shelter, healthcare, transportation, independant transportation (motor vehicle), clothing, childcare, financial care, and/or mental healthcare.
A seperate "Guides" section which provides detailed step-by-step guides on how to access each resource the website visitor might need; including addresses, business hours, websites, and what forms of ID/items a person might need to gain access to each resource.
A map tool which can create printable maps of cities, with keys to indicate the locations of each resource in a given city.
Kit guides detailing useful physical items for one to keep on them to best use the resources this website details.
Print-ready materials showing the basic resources a person needs to get started.
Direct connection with already-decentralized solidarity communities to participate as a ready resource of shelter/community for the visitors to this website.
- Trustroots.org, Squat The Planet, Couches.org, BeWelcome, WarmShowers, etc.
Set-up of a perpetual archive for this website and its printable resources.

Contributing

Want to become a contributor? Check out our How to Edit guide to get started.

Acknowledgements

The logo for this website is globally recognized as the ISO 7000 - Ref-No 0623 , a “Pictorial marking for handling of goods”, and is in no way counted as exclusive to us. Because it’s a standardized symbol for public use, under the CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication, it cannot be copyrighted, patented, or trademarked in any meaningful way. We do not claim to do any of these things and fully release any legal right to claim as such.

The information provided on this website is for educational and informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Nothing contained on this site should be construed as creating an attorney-client relationship or as providing legal counsel of any kind. Please see Legal Disclaimer for further information.