P.R.I.D.E. For Black Women & Girls
As part of our social justice priorities, The Gathering has curated P.R.I.D.E. for Black Women and Girls.
P.R.I.D.E. is an acronym for Positive Racial Identity Development and Embodiment. We create space for authentic dialogue and build community where Black women and girls can reclaim their stories and be reoriented toward a trauma informed theology rather than a theology that is trauma inducing. We partner with community-based non-profits, NGO's, and faith communities who serve Black women and girls who are cisgender, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, living with HIV, and who are survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation. P.R.I.D.E. services include providing, hygiene packets, educational, and Positive Racial Identity workshops, back-to-school supplies, holiday gifts, advocacy for reproductive liberation, gender, racial justice, and HIV/AIDS activism and advocacy.
Our P.R.I.D.E. Pilots & Conductors* Program creates opportunities/experiences/spaces that facilitate the flourishing of Black women LWHIV in Dallas/Fort Worth. We use the terms "pilots" and "conductors" intentionally to identify with the mission of Harriet Tubman who liberated enslaved Blacks through the underground railroad. Pilots were persons who went South in search of enslaved people seeking freedom; Conductors were free individuals who guided enslaved people to safety and freedom. P.R.I.D.E Pilots identify and connect with Black women living with HIV to determine their willingness and readiness to participate in our services. Conductors will support them on their journey of internal transformation. To accomplish these goals, we will also train persons as Disclosure Navigation Specialists who assist and support Black women LWHIV in experiencing emotional, physical, and spiritual safety when disclosing their diagnosis with friends and family members. Our Lead Disclosure Navigation Specialist has been living with HIV for over twenty years.
LiberateHER Circles - The 4th Tuesday of each month at 7:00PM CST
The purpose of LiberateHER Circles are to support the flourishing of Black women LWHIV by strategizing with them to:
1. Release Fears - associated with Black women's intersectional realities of being Black, female, and HIV+.
2. Reclaim Voice - issues like negotiating condom use, leaving and healing from abusive relationships (some women remain in unhealthy relationships because they feel depressed, discouraged, and downgraded);
3. Re-member Self-Worth - Quite often the self-worth of Black women LWHIV is undermined because of their intersectional identities as Black, women, economically disenfranchised, and being HIV+; and
4. Resist Trauma Inducing Theologies - Our Womanist clergy are theologically trained (all hold at a minimum the Master of Divinity). One womanist clergy holds a Doctor of Ministry in Transformative Leadership, and another is completing her Ph.D. work in Biblical Interpretation and Hebrew Bible. Two clergy are cis gender, one is trans non-binary, and the other self-identifies as lesbian.
*Conductors - The term was reintroduced to us as a strategy for liberation in the work of Dr. Melva L. Sampson, Womanist Homiletician, creator and curator of Pink Robe Chronicles and The Clearing, digital hush harbors that center the faith and spirituality of Black women.
For additional information about the P.R.I.D.E. Ministry please go to the P.R.I.D.E. website or contact Dr. Irie @[email protected]
P.R.I.D.E. is an acronym for Positive Racial Identity Development and Embodiment. We create space for authentic dialogue and build community where Black women and girls can reclaim their stories and be reoriented toward a trauma informed theology rather than a theology that is trauma inducing. We partner with community-based non-profits, NGO's, and faith communities who serve Black women and girls who are cisgender, non-binary, LGBTQIA+, living with HIV, and who are survivors of sexual abuse and exploitation. P.R.I.D.E. services include providing, hygiene packets, educational, and Positive Racial Identity workshops, back-to-school supplies, holiday gifts, advocacy for reproductive liberation, gender, racial justice, and HIV/AIDS activism and advocacy.
Our P.R.I.D.E. Pilots & Conductors* Program creates opportunities/experiences/spaces that facilitate the flourishing of Black women LWHIV in Dallas/Fort Worth. We use the terms "pilots" and "conductors" intentionally to identify with the mission of Harriet Tubman who liberated enslaved Blacks through the underground railroad. Pilots were persons who went South in search of enslaved people seeking freedom; Conductors were free individuals who guided enslaved people to safety and freedom. P.R.I.D.E Pilots identify and connect with Black women living with HIV to determine their willingness and readiness to participate in our services. Conductors will support them on their journey of internal transformation. To accomplish these goals, we will also train persons as Disclosure Navigation Specialists who assist and support Black women LWHIV in experiencing emotional, physical, and spiritual safety when disclosing their diagnosis with friends and family members. Our Lead Disclosure Navigation Specialist has been living with HIV for over twenty years.
LiberateHER Circles - The 4th Tuesday of each month at 7:00PM CST
The purpose of LiberateHER Circles are to support the flourishing of Black women LWHIV by strategizing with them to:
1. Release Fears - associated with Black women's intersectional realities of being Black, female, and HIV+.
2. Reclaim Voice - issues like negotiating condom use, leaving and healing from abusive relationships (some women remain in unhealthy relationships because they feel depressed, discouraged, and downgraded);
3. Re-member Self-Worth - Quite often the self-worth of Black women LWHIV is undermined because of their intersectional identities as Black, women, economically disenfranchised, and being HIV+; and
4. Resist Trauma Inducing Theologies - Our Womanist clergy are theologically trained (all hold at a minimum the Master of Divinity). One womanist clergy holds a Doctor of Ministry in Transformative Leadership, and another is completing her Ph.D. work in Biblical Interpretation and Hebrew Bible. Two clergy are cis gender, one is trans non-binary, and the other self-identifies as lesbian.
*Conductors - The term was reintroduced to us as a strategy for liberation in the work of Dr. Melva L. Sampson, Womanist Homiletician, creator and curator of Pink Robe Chronicles and The Clearing, digital hush harbors that center the faith and spirituality of Black women.
For additional information about the P.R.I.D.E. Ministry please go to the P.R.I.D.E. website or contact Dr. Irie @[email protected]