As the U.S. continues to grapple with a nationwide call for change around its various social shortcomings, including troubling racial disparities, more attention is being paid to the country’s mental and maternal health care crisis faced by Black women.
“It’s more critical than ever to address inequity in our healthcare system,” says Bree Jenkins, licensed marriage and family therapist and founder of The Gathered Fight initiative, which aims to sponsor Black women seeking therapy and a Black therapist. “Many Black Indigenous people of color (BIPOC) can’t afford mental health care or have avoided getting treatment for fear of abuse, misunderstanding or indifference from their mental and primary care providers.
Jenkins continues, “The lack of emotional and mental support affects Black women greatly, which affects Black motherhood and families.”
The American Counseling Association echoes Jenkins’ concerns, noting that compared with people who are white, BIPOC are less likely to have access to mental health services, to seek out services or to receive needed care and also more likely to receive poor quality of care and to end services prematurely. And as if that wasn’t enough, add pregnancy and parenthood to the mix. Black women are at higher risk of postpartum depression, childbirth complications, premature birth and death during and after childbirth.
While the roots of these disparities are multifaceted, and the crisis might feel daunting, several organizations have stepped up to the challenge of making a difference. Here, how various initiatives are creating change.
1. Black Mamas Matter Alliance
Organization:
Founders:
The founding Black Mamas Matter Alliance Steering Committee members include Angela Doyinsola Aina, Elizabeth Dawes Gay, Joia Crear-Perry, Kwajelyn Jackson and Monica Simpson.
What they do:
BMMA creates policies that support improved maternal health, rights and justice for Black moms and conduct research that supports this important work.
The Black Mamas Matter Alliance (BMMA), founded in 2013, is the result of a partnership project between the Center for Reproductive Rights (CRR) and SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective (SisterSong). According to their site, BMMA is a “a national network of Black women-led and Black-led, birth and reproductive justice organizations and multi-disciplinary professionals, working across the full-spectrum of maternal and reproductive health.”
According to BMMA’s website, the alliance “serves as a national voice and coordinating entity for stakeholders advancing maternal health, rights and justice.”
In partnership with CRR, BMMA created a Black Mamas Matter toolkit that includes research on maternal health as a human rights issue, stats on maternal health and morbidity and information on the rights of pregnant and birthing parents. They also offer webinars and literature that dive further into these details.
How to support:
You can donate, connect to receive news and updates and follow on social media (Instagram or TikTok).
2. The Loveland Foundation
Organization:
Founder:
Rachel Cargle
What they do:
The Loveland Foundation aims to bring opportunity and healing to communities of color — especially to Black women and girls — through fellowships, residency programs, listening tours and a therapy fund.
Writer and lecturer Rachel Cargle established The Loveland Foundation in 2018, after seeing her birthday wish fundraiser, called Therapy for Black Women and Girls, take off. After raising $250K to offer therapy support to Black women and girls, Cargle decided to continue the effort through Loveland.
Through partnerships with Therapy for Black Girls, National Queer & Trans Therapists of Color Network, Talkspace and Open Path Collective, Loveland Therapy Fund recipients gain access to a comprehensive list of mental health professionals across the country providing high quality, culturally competent services to Black women and girls.
How to support:
You can donate, start a group fundraiser, share info on the organization in order to raise awareness around the Foundation and follow on Instagram.
3. Black Girls Breathing
Organization:
Founder:
Jasmine Marie
What they do:
Black Girls Breathing is an inclusive platform that offers meditational breathwork classes, meant to aid Black women and girls with chronic stress.
Therapy doesn’t always have to look like a one-on-one talk with a psychologist. For founder Jasmine Marie, a breathworker and mindfulness practitioner based in Atlanta, supporting Black women’s mental, spiritual and emotional health means creating a safe space for them to actively nurture themselves via meditational breathwork in an environment curated especially for them.
After all, Black women suffer from physical and mental ailments linked back to chronic stress more than any other group: heart disease, strokes, high blood pressure, ovarian, cervical and breast-cancer related fatalities, anxiety, depression and reproductive system challenges, notes Marie. And by reframing the body’s response to trauma and triggers, breathwork can reduce chronic stress, anxiety and depression.
The community, which hosts women aged 18 to over 65, recently introduced their Sunday Balm Membership Community, which offers access their breathwork classes (in high definition and full length videos), audio meditations, a private community of Black women healing together, and additional actionable and inspiring content.
The organization is pledging to impact one million Black women and girls by 2025.
How to support:
You can donate and follow on social media (Instagram and TikTok).
4. The National Black Doulas Association
Organization:
National Black Doulas Association
Founder:
CEO Tracie Collins founded the organization in 2017 after working as a birth professional for nearly two decades.
What they do:
According to their site, the National Black Doulas Association is equipping Black and BIPOC birth workers and families to combat the alarming rates of black maternal mortality and morbidity, through a comprehensive directory and trainings.
The organization offers a compressive, professional, and accessible directory of doulas and other relevant practitioners. They also train, mentor, and empower aspiring doulas and offer programming to educate and support families.
How to support:
You can donate and follow on Instagram.
5. The Gathered Fight
Organization:
Founder:
Bree Jenkins
What they do:
Sponsor Black women seeking therapy and pay Black therapists competitive rates for their work.
Back in 2020, Bree Jenkins, a licensed marriage and family therapist based in Los Angeles, saw the pandemic, paired with the brutal killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, lead to her inbox overflowing with Black women requesting therapy and other Black therapists checking in because of the intensity of their dual role as Black women and healers.
Making matters worse is an existing list of disparities: “In the therapy world, Black therapists are taxed,” notes Jenkins. “We have majority Black client populations, who often have more trauma and less resources to pay for our services. We often take on a higher caseload of lower cost or free labor even though we ourselves are more likely to have higher student loan burdens and greater financial need for full paying clients. We underearn our white therapist counterparts — as in most other industries. Black clients often can’t afford services, struggle to get connected with culturally competent therapists and Black therapists often can’t afford discounts. The cycle continues.”
This led to The Gathered Fight. Donations go to sponsoring Black women in need of mental health services with 4-6 therapy sessions.
How to support:
Donate to The Gathered Fight’s GoFundMe and share the initiative on Instagram.
