Present

We are a Philadelphia-based grassroots collective comprised of Black women, femmes and non-binary individuals who raise funds to support our community based solutions and to provide tangible resources to Black folks of marginalized gender experience, specifically women (trans* and cis), femmes, and other gender expansive folx. Our overarching goal is to improve Black women and femmes Quality of Life by dismantling The Systems of Oppression, which we’ve identified with the help of bell hooks and the Combahee River Collective as the Imperialist White Supremacist Capitalist CisHeteroPatriarchy. Through our work, we want to shift the reality and culture of how society holds, supports, protects and educates our communities while we’re simultaneously developing for ourselves the tools and language to thrive against the systemic oppression reinforced by local social determinants impacting us daily.

The Safety Net Mutual Aid is on-going mutual aid fund supports community members in their time of need by providing emergency support (bills, groceries, shelter, supplies, resources, etc.) to prevent them from falling through the cracks. This Mutual Aid fund is for Black folks of marginalized gender experience, specifically women (trans* and cis), femmes, and other gender expansive folx.

In 2018, WWC developed a mental health and wellness networking event called Healers & Helpers Therapy Matchmaking which aims to help connect Black women in the mental health field (therapists, doulas, psychologists, life coaches, etc.) with Black women in the community who are searching for support from someone who shares similar cultural experiences and works from an intersectional, trauma-informed and Healing Justice lens. Not being able to find culturally competent mental health practitioners when seeking support keeps many Black folx away from engaging in long-term therapeutic care. We saw a need to bridge the gap many of our members were experiencing, but understood we had to address this need for care in an affirming and normalizing format (i.e. panel of providers speaking about the intersections of oppression and healing, matchmaking style activities, virtual streaming options, hosting the event in public venues when in-person, etc).

The BLTF was created in 2020 to provide financial assistance to Black people of marginalized gender experiences (i.e. women, non-binary, gender non-conforming, trans, etc.) to increase access to mental health and wellness support. The Fund is designed to provide financial support in recognition of the fact that we are often shut out of or hesitant to access care due to financial barriers.