It takes a Healer: Funding Futures 4 Black Healers
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About the Philly Funds Black Healers* Project: We are funding the work of Black Healers with creative imagination and prophetic visions starting from within our own Movement Chaplaincy community.
* Emotional and spiritual labor, especially outside the boundaries of traditional faith communities, is often under-resourced and little recognized. And it’s often done by women, queer, and trans people. Financial resources, in addition to other support, is important to provide healers and care workers with the resources they need to offer themselves with full cups as they pour into others.
* In launching Philly Funds Black Healers, we dream of a world in which Black Philadelphians thrive. We dream of a world in which emotional care, healing and spiritual accompaniment for Black communities and movement leaders in our city is supported, fully resourced, and recognized for the essential labor that is.
Imagine this... “When I can have some space we might be able to provide healthy food options, healthy drink options that will also help you as you are engaging in this space. Then we’ll have a space for you to do the body work. So the cafe will be a place where you can lounge, sit, you can breathe, you might be able to hear someone recite something that is life affirming, that speaks to you, that you can reflect on. Just that whole cafe, coffee spot, jazz, poetry, creativity, vision and healing… I just saw that in my head. I know I feel alive and creative in those places and I receive vision in those places. So I’m hoping that in some way we’re able to create that kind of space for others.” - Rev. Dr. Jamie Eaddy
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What do we mean by healing? Healing is a broad word and broad work. For this effort, we mean personal and communal healing that takes oppression and injustice seriously in understanding the roots as well as the response. Healing is an effort to holistically address embodied trauma, loss, and moral injury hopefully resulting in a renewed sense of self and deeper understanding of personal strength.
For more info, check out: Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective or The Healing Trust
*************
About Philadelphia Movement Chaplaincy Network: We are a multiracial, multifaith group of movement chaplains gathered initially in response to the Movement for Black Lives’ Week of Action in June 2020. We are continuing to build together for a racial justice movement in our city. We believe Black Lives Matter and that our skills for presence, prayer, joy and witness make the movement stronger and more resilient.
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For the first round of our Philly Funds Black Healers Project, Philadelphia Movement Chaplaincy Network is calling on our community to give to the work of two Black women grief workers in our network, Rev. Dr. Jamie Eaddy and Medina Jones.
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Priscilla Tennant spoke with Rev. Dr Jamie Eaddy and Chaplain Medina Jones about their communities. Check out their visions for Black Futures:
“Healer is a general term, but I show up in various roles within the community. I am a grief and death doula. I serve a local congregation as well as the minister of congregational wellness and pastoral care. I am a loss navigation specialist, a person who comes alongside you as you navigate your way through loss - not just death. It is in those intangibles that we enter into: if we think about this year, we entered into 2020 with certain hopes and a vision about what this year might mean to you that somewhere around April started to fade and it felt like a loss. I come with you to navigate that loss. Just loss, however you may experience it. I come alongside you and help you Re-Member yourself. .” - The Rev. Dr. Jamie Eaddy, on her role as a Healer
** The Rev. Dr. Jamie Frederika Eaddy is a Womanist Theologian, Loss Navigation Specialist ™️, Death Doula, chaplain, author and artist, with over 20 years of experience providing direct support to and advocating for survivors of abuse.
** Dr. Jay is the CEO of Thoughtful Transitions, LLC and the founder of The Re-Membering Station, and provides holistic support to individuals and communities navigating their way through trauma, grief and loss.
** She also serves as a Death Doula with a specialty in ambiguous loss, sudden loss and traumatic loss. However, her work with loss does not center solely on death; she helps people navigate all kinds of loss, including the loss of relationship, identity, normalcy, etc. She hosts Dr. Jay’s Grief Café for community healing where people have an opportunity to begin/continue working their way toward healing..
** She enjoys art, traveling, 90’s hip-hop, jazz, poetry, believes in therapy, Black Girl Magic, and that Black Lives Matter. She incorporates all of this into her healing work.
*************
“Whenever I am doing care, it is with an awareness of the impact of colonization, and the impact of race operating as a caste system. Whether that is acknowledged or unacknowledged it still has an impact. The impact of living in a racialized society can create a sense of alienation from one’s self. Which calls us to be unknown to one’s self, or calls us to adapt. Our bodies are wonderful because they help us adapt and survive. I enter into spiritual care encounters with that awareness, and that gives me the ability to stand back and receive that person wherever they are.” - Chaplain Medina Jones, on Healing and Care Work
** Medina is a mother, womanist spiritual care provider, and an ICU chaplain at a level-1 trauma center in Philadelphia. She cares for parents alongside traumatic separation and death, and services persons experiencing difficult pregnancy related decisions and losses. Medina serves as a spiritual companion to families experiencing sudden and traumatic death and guides families through medically complex end-of-life situations. Medina aligns her care in ways that empower the care recipients spiritual beliefs and value systems to create a personal and meaningful experience.
** Medina received a Masters of Divinity with a focus on Psychology and Religion from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. While at Union, Medina studied spiritual care and self-recovery through womanist and black liberation theologies. She received her Bachelor’s of Art in sociology with a minor in criminal justice from Hampton University.
** Throughout Medina’s professional career, she has served as an advocate, chaplain, and spiritual care provider to victim/survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Medina currently serves on an IPV task force advocating for the well-being of victim/survivor patients in Philadelphia.
** Medina teaches religion and culture and established Womanist Spiritual Care LLC to provide spiritual care and emotional support to community members impacted by violence and Black womxn caregivers such as mothers, daughters, chaplains, and community organizers.
** Medina enjoys mothering her daughter, sharing intimate moments with her partner, writing poetry, and blushing over a good amount of sunshine and fried flying fish.
*************
We hope you’ll consider resourcing these essential Grief Workers right now. Stay tuned for future seasons of Fundraising to Black Healers in our community.
“With support I’d be able to continue doing the work I am doing and expand to do more community support. I would be able to gather community leaders, elders, and historians together to provide them with the emotional support they need to care for their communities. I don’t have the capacity to do it now, but the vision is there. For community caregivers such as aunties, grandmas, mothers, and younger persons caring for entire families I hope to establish a network of support.” - MJ
* Emotional and spiritual labor, especially outside the boundaries of traditional faith communities, is often under-resourced and little recognized. And it’s often done by women, queer, and trans people. Financial resources, in addition to other support, is important to provide healers and care workers with the resources they need to offer themselves with full cups as they pour into others.
* In launching Philly Funds Black Healers, we dream of a world in which Black Philadelphians thrive. We dream of a world in which emotional care, healing and spiritual accompaniment for Black communities and movement leaders in our city is supported, fully resourced, and recognized for the essential labor that is.
Imagine this... “When I can have some space we might be able to provide healthy food options, healthy drink options that will also help you as you are engaging in this space. Then we’ll have a space for you to do the body work. So the cafe will be a place where you can lounge, sit, you can breathe, you might be able to hear someone recite something that is life affirming, that speaks to you, that you can reflect on. Just that whole cafe, coffee spot, jazz, poetry, creativity, vision and healing… I just saw that in my head. I know I feel alive and creative in those places and I receive vision in those places. So I’m hoping that in some way we’re able to create that kind of space for others.” - Rev. Dr. Jamie Eaddy
*************
What do we mean by healing? Healing is a broad word and broad work. For this effort, we mean personal and communal healing that takes oppression and injustice seriously in understanding the roots as well as the response. Healing is an effort to holistically address embodied trauma, loss, and moral injury hopefully resulting in a renewed sense of self and deeper understanding of personal strength.
For more info, check out: Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective or The Healing Trust
*************
About Philadelphia Movement Chaplaincy Network: We are a multiracial, multifaith group of movement chaplains gathered initially in response to the Movement for Black Lives’ Week of Action in June 2020. We are continuing to build together for a racial justice movement in our city. We believe Black Lives Matter and that our skills for presence, prayer, joy and witness make the movement stronger and more resilient.
*************
For the first round of our Philly Funds Black Healers Project, Philadelphia Movement Chaplaincy Network is calling on our community to give to the work of two Black women grief workers in our network, Rev. Dr. Jamie Eaddy and Medina Jones.
*************
Priscilla Tennant spoke with Rev. Dr Jamie Eaddy and Chaplain Medina Jones about their communities. Check out their visions for Black Futures:
“Healer is a general term, but I show up in various roles within the community. I am a grief and death doula. I serve a local congregation as well as the minister of congregational wellness and pastoral care. I am a loss navigation specialist, a person who comes alongside you as you navigate your way through loss - not just death. It is in those intangibles that we enter into: if we think about this year, we entered into 2020 with certain hopes and a vision about what this year might mean to you that somewhere around April started to fade and it felt like a loss. I come with you to navigate that loss. Just loss, however you may experience it. I come alongside you and help you Re-Member yourself. .” - The Rev. Dr. Jamie Eaddy, on her role as a Healer
** The Rev. Dr. Jamie Frederika Eaddy is a Womanist Theologian, Loss Navigation Specialist ™️, Death Doula, chaplain, author and artist, with over 20 years of experience providing direct support to and advocating for survivors of abuse.
** Dr. Jay is the CEO of Thoughtful Transitions, LLC and the founder of The Re-Membering Station, and provides holistic support to individuals and communities navigating their way through trauma, grief and loss.
** She also serves as a Death Doula with a specialty in ambiguous loss, sudden loss and traumatic loss. However, her work with loss does not center solely on death; she helps people navigate all kinds of loss, including the loss of relationship, identity, normalcy, etc. She hosts Dr. Jay’s Grief Café for community healing where people have an opportunity to begin/continue working their way toward healing..
** She enjoys art, traveling, 90’s hip-hop, jazz, poetry, believes in therapy, Black Girl Magic, and that Black Lives Matter. She incorporates all of this into her healing work.
*************
“Whenever I am doing care, it is with an awareness of the impact of colonization, and the impact of race operating as a caste system. Whether that is acknowledged or unacknowledged it still has an impact. The impact of living in a racialized society can create a sense of alienation from one’s self. Which calls us to be unknown to one’s self, or calls us to adapt. Our bodies are wonderful because they help us adapt and survive. I enter into spiritual care encounters with that awareness, and that gives me the ability to stand back and receive that person wherever they are.” - Chaplain Medina Jones, on Healing and Care Work
** Medina is a mother, womanist spiritual care provider, and an ICU chaplain at a level-1 trauma center in Philadelphia. She cares for parents alongside traumatic separation and death, and services persons experiencing difficult pregnancy related decisions and losses. Medina serves as a spiritual companion to families experiencing sudden and traumatic death and guides families through medically complex end-of-life situations. Medina aligns her care in ways that empower the care recipients spiritual beliefs and value systems to create a personal and meaningful experience.
** Medina received a Masters of Divinity with a focus on Psychology and Religion from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. While at Union, Medina studied spiritual care and self-recovery through womanist and black liberation theologies. She received her Bachelor’s of Art in sociology with a minor in criminal justice from Hampton University.
** Throughout Medina’s professional career, she has served as an advocate, chaplain, and spiritual care provider to victim/survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV). Medina currently serves on an IPV task force advocating for the well-being of victim/survivor patients in Philadelphia.
** Medina teaches religion and culture and established Womanist Spiritual Care LLC to provide spiritual care and emotional support to community members impacted by violence and Black womxn caregivers such as mothers, daughters, chaplains, and community organizers.
** Medina enjoys mothering her daughter, sharing intimate moments with her partner, writing poetry, and blushing over a good amount of sunshine and fried flying fish.
*************
We hope you’ll consider resourcing these essential Grief Workers right now. Stay tuned for future seasons of Fundraising to Black Healers in our community.
“With support I’d be able to continue doing the work I am doing and expand to do more community support. I would be able to gather community leaders, elders, and historians together to provide them with the emotional support they need to care for their communities. I don’t have the capacity to do it now, but the vision is there. For community caregivers such as aunties, grandmas, mothers, and younger persons caring for entire families I hope to establish a network of support.” - MJ
Fundraising team (2)
Rachel Kipnes
Organizer
Philadelphia, PA
Jamie Eaddy
Beneficiary
Eli DeWitt
Team member