What is Help the Helper?

Help the Helper is a resource for the friends and family of a person who lost their home. 

Before Help the Helper, the expectation was that the person who lost their home was responsible for figuring out what they were supposed to do—and how. However, it's unrealistic to expect someone going through such a stressful and chaotic experience to be able to do that. At the same time, they likely have loved ones who want to help them but don't know how.

This guide offers step-by-step guidance for the first four weeks after someone loses their home.

What is the history behind this resource?

Kurt Daradics and Baron Miller founded a think tank called Meeting of the Minds in Westlake Village, Calif., a community inspired by Benjamin Franklin's Junto. At these meetings, which took place between 2008 and 2011, Moriah Harris-Rodger (now Scoble) was enthusiastically introduced to Sloane Berrent (now Davidson). 

Moriah later went into tech marketing and moved to Northern California, and Sloane moved to Pittsburgh, Pa., and started a nonprofit that helps to resettle refugee and immigrant families. Still connected on Facebook, Moriah saw Sloane's post on January 10, 2025, encouraging Sloane's network to collaborate on the concept of a "community-driven platform to connect those in need of temporary housing with people who can offer it" in order to help people who lost their homes in the Los Angeles wildfires.

The brainstorming began that week. The group gathered resources and discussed how best to get the resources to those in need. Moriah combed through them and drew on the experience of losing her home in 2022, as well as her expertise solving problems through content marketing. On January 14, 2025, she proposed the idea of Help the Helper to the group, bought the domain, and started developing the resource with master wordsmith Kristi Colmenero, who herself had to evacuate her Pasadena home due to the Eaton fire. 

What they developed is this first iteration of Help the Helper.

How can I contribute recommendations to improve Help the Helper?

Email recommendations to ContactHelpTheHelper at Gmail dot com.

What are the plans to develop this resource?

Based on the contributions we receive:

• We will collect and share resources for people affected by large-scale disasters.

• We will advertise Help the Helper to people who would benefit from it.

• We will establish a nonprofit that supports people with virtual assistants if they do not have loved ones who will help them.

The donations we have received so far covered the initial site and the cost of the domain into 2030.

How do I share a story about how Help the Helper benefitted me or my loved one?

We'd love to hear your story! Email it to ContactHelpTheHelper at Gmail dot com. Please include the following if it can be made public:

• The first name, city, and state of the person (or people) helped

• The first name, city, and state of the helper(s)

• Photos of those involved 

By providing the items bulleted above, you confirm that those mentioned approve for their information and/or photos to be made public and used by Help the Helper.