There is a lot of misinformation on reciprocal linking and linking out in general. My thoughts are this.,
If the sites are based on similar anchor text/content/theme/keywords then you are not breaking any guidelines. I have a massive link out in my main site
Right to Buy from Council Tenants Advice Bureau (UK) Ltd and I have been using that for over 6 years and have over 1,000 page one SERP results on various search terms. Some of those sites have linked back. But they are all related sites. And you are doing exactly the right thing in thinking about what your readers will want to look at.
So 1 No
2 It cannot do any harm IMO