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Pledge Your PTO This Juneteenth!
Your donation will support the rest and leisure of Black mothers and women living in communities impacted by poverty-induced gun violence.
Pay it forward. Donate Today.
More than 41,000 Americans lose their lives to
gun violence every year. Your support helps
us build structures that intercept poverty-induced gun violence and support the healing and empowerment of Black mothers and women impacted.
Your Donation will directly support Black mothers and women.
Our BLOOM program is a 6-month wellness program giving Black single mothers and women on Chicago’s south and west sides access to healing resources. Participants undergo a curriculum rooted in the pillars of self-love, nourishment, and transformation through leisurely and wellness activities such as group counseling sessions, yoga, community gardening workshops and homework assignments. Our program creates the environment for participants to grow into the gifts already inside of them by gaining skills and tools to prioritize rest, leisure, healing, and growth in community with one another.
We believe that an investment in these untapped leaders is an investment in their communities and a stride toward the end of poverty-induced gun violence.
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"I’m a single mother and a lot of times when you’re in a situation like that you forget to make time for you. Being in this program has taught me, 'you matter too.'”
Gloria, BLOOM 2022
Because true, holistic, far-reaching repair from the oppressions of enslavement requires an innovative approach to communal investment. It requires you.
Because Black Americans have been historically denied rest. Because Black Americans are twice as likely to get insufficient sleep. Because Black Americans are less likely to have time and access to leisure. Because Black Americans need allies in our fight for liberation.
Let’s be for real—you wouldn’t have this day off without the advocacy of Black women.
Most notably, Ms. Opal Lee of Marshall, Texas. Since 2016, she has marched to have the legacies and liberation of enslaved Black people honored nationwide through the recognition of Juneteenth. Though the Emancipation Proclamation was passed in 1863, it only became implemented with the passage of the 13th amendment on January 31, 1865, legally freeing enslaved Black people. And even after this passage, in some Southern states, Black people were still in bondage.
Juneteenth marks the true end of chattel slavery in America, which came with the freedom of over 250,000 enslaved people in Galveston Bay, Texas on June 19, 1865.
And if we really want to get into it—the very celebration of this holiday makes it clear that for Black people in this country, true freedom has always been precarious, complex.
What does it mean to be legally free but societally, culturally, and systemically subjected? To be able to buy a home, but be denied a housing loan because of the color of your skin; to be able to access welfare services, but be demoralized for it; to be able to vote, but be intimidated, harmed, and blocked from turning in a ballot; to be told to heal, but be given no resources to do so?
This is the impact of your donation on Black mothers and women.
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By the end of the program....
reported feeling guilty for practicing self-care.
reported believing they have power as a member of their community.
reported a more positive relationship with preparing & eating food.
reported feeling like they had more of a community to rely on at the end of the program than they did at the beginning of the program.
Help us Reach Our Goal!
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