A Roots of Healing Wellness Community Research Initiative
What happens when Black women have more opportunities to connect, belong, experience, and live well?
Roots of Healing Wellness is exploring how intentional community, meaningful social connection, new experiences, belonging, joy, and opportunities to participate in life may influence the well-being and quality of life of Black women.
But we don't want to decide what wellness and community should look like for Black women without Black women helping us build it.
That's where this project begins.
Can community be part of wellness?
We often talk about wellness as something individuals are responsible for creating through exercise, nutrition, stress management, therapy, rest, and self-care.
Those things can matter.
But our well-being is also shaped by what exists around us.
Do we have meaningful relationships?
Do we feel like we belong somewhere?
Do we have people to experience life with?
Do we have opportunities to learn, explore, laugh, contribute, and try something new?
Do we have something to look forward to?
Do we feel connected to a community?
The Village & Wellness Project is exploring a larger question:
How does participation in intentional community influence stress, social connection, belonging, and quality of life among Black women?
Maybe community isn't just something that feels good.
Maybe it's part of what keeps us well.
We want Black women at the table from the beginning.
This project is being developed using principles of Community-Based Participatory Research, often called CBPR.
That means community members are not simply participants at the end of the process.
Black women will help us understand:
- •What community should actually look like.
- •What makes participation difficult.
- •What experiences women want more of.
- •What wellness means in real life.
- •What outcomes actually matter to women.
- •What should be measured.
- •What works.
- •What doesn't.
- •What should happen next.
We don't just want to build something for Black women.
We want to build it with Black women.
We're starting with conversation.
Before launching a larger community wellness pilot, Roots of Healing Wellness plans to bring together a small Community Council of approximately 8–10 Black women from the Greater New Orleans area.
We are intentionally looking for women from different:
Some women may be mothers. Some may not have children. Some may have young children. Some may have adult children. Some may be entering entirely new chapters of life.
Different experiences are valuable.
You do not need a background in research, public health, healthcare, or community work. You simply need to be willing to share your perspective.
Questions we want to ask together.
What makes life feel heavier than it needs to?
What helps you feel connected?
Where do Black women find community today?
What makes it difficult to participate in community?
What would make you actually want to leave the house and attend something?
What experiences would you like more opportunities to have?
What does living well mean to you?
What makes somewhere feel like a place you belong?
What is something you would love to experience, learn, or try if you had people to do it with?
If we knew this project was working, what would be different in your life?
We're not designing the entire program before listening.
Connection
Gatherings, conversations, friendships, shared meals, walks, and spaces to simply spend time together.
Experience
Opportunities to try something new, explore New Orleans, experience arts and culture, learn, create, travel locally, and discover new interests.
Wellness
Joy, recreation, movement, rest, nature, creativity, relationships, belonging, and quality of life.
Contribution
Opportunities for women to share knowledge, volunteer, teach something, recommend resources, organize experiences, mentor, and contribute to the community.
The final program will be shaped by what we learn from the women participating in its development.
What we hope to learn.
Perceived Stress
Does participation in intentional community influence how stressed women feel?
Social Connection
Do women develop meaningful relationships and feel less socially isolated?
Belonging
Do women feel like they have people and places where they genuinely belong?
Quality of Life
Does having community, experiences, relationships, and things to look forward to influence how women feel about their lives overall?
We are also interested in the stories behind the numbers.
What changed?
What didn't?
What experiences mattered?
What relationships continued?
What surprised women?
What should we do differently?
The goal isn't simply to prove that our idea works. The goal is to learn.
Money shouldn't determine whose voice gets included.
One of the questions we're exploring is how community wellness opportunities can remain accessible to women across different economic circumstances.
Our long-term model may include paid memberships, sponsored memberships, community partnerships, sliding-scale opportunities, business sponsorships, and funded community access.
For the initial research and pilot-development process, we are actively exploring ways to reduce financial barriers to participation.
Help us build the village.
Interested in shaping The Village & Wellness Project? Complete the interest form below.
Submitting this form does not obligate you to participate and does not guarantee selection for the initial Community Council or future pilot.
Want to help make community accessible?
We are also interested in hearing from community organizations, local businesses, cultural institutions, researchers, universities, healthcare organizations, funders, and other partners interested in supporting community wellness.
What if the village isn't something we're supposed to find?
Maybe it's something we're supposed to build.
The Village & Wellness Project
A Roots of Healing Wellness Community Research Initiative
A Community for a Fuller Life