Wellness Working Group

Healing is our birthright. Wholeness is our mission.

Centering Wellness as Liberation

The Wellness Working Group (WWG) is an internal body of the Vermont Racial Justice Alliance, established with a single, powerful purpose:

To ensure that descendants of the enslaved and the broader BIPOC community are able to live daily enjoying their highest levels of mental wellness.

We believe that wellness is not a luxury—it’s a right.

Not an afterthought—it’s the foundation.

True liberation cannot exist without wholeness.

Our work focuses on disrupting broken systems, developing long-range healing strategies, and nurturing wellness models that are led by us and for us—because our community deserves more than survival. We deserve joy, balance, and peace.

What We Do

The Wellness Working Group leads a wide scope of transformational work designed to build systems that care, heal, and affirm. Our work includes:

Systems-Disruptive Initiatives

We are actively engaged in creating alternatives to institutional frameworks that have historically failed Black and BIPOC communities. Our strategies push back against medical racism, institutional neglect, and mental health erasure.

Data Initiatives & Analysis

We advise the Data Team on the collection and analysis of data through a racial equity lens to inform wellness strategy and expose disparities. Our data work strengthens accountability and drives policy and community change.

Statewide Policy Engagement

We advise on policies that embed wellness into the core of Vermont’s equity and justice infrastructure—including mental health, economic justice, and prevention justice priorities.

Strategic Planning & Partnerships

From grassroots organizations to statewide institutions, we advise on partnerships and how leaders can embed community-led wellness into planning, programs, and funding models.

Richard Kemp Center Collaboration

We work in deep partnership with the Richard Kemp Center to host Community Discussions on Health and Wellness—creating safe, culturally grounded spaces where conversations become pathways to healing.

Current Priorities

We are focused on high-impact, long-term change. Our current priorities reflect the areas where wellness is most urgently needed:

• Shaping a Community Health and Wellness Narrative
  Centering Black voices and lived experiences in how Vermont defines “public safety” driving the narrative of “health wellness” and focussing the priority on the Black community.
   
• Building a Mental Health Continuum for ADOS and BIPOC Communities
  A culturally relevant framework for care that spans from crisis response to prevention and generational healing.

• Advancing Economic Justice as Wellness
  Recognizing that wealth inequality is a public health crisis, and equity in income, housing, and opportunity is essential to mental well-being.

• Pushing Forward Mental Health and Prevention Justice
  Ensuring prevention efforts are just, culturally informed, and intentionally address the mental and emotional needs of BIPOC communities.

Our Vision

We envision a Vermont where Black and BIPOC communities:

Lead their own healing
Access care that understands their culture and trauma
Thrive mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and economically
Are free from the burden of systems that harm
Live joyfully and fully—every day

Get Involved

Whether you’re a community healer, mental health provider, policymaker, student, or someone simply committed to a more just world—there’s a role for you in this work.

To learn more or to connect with the Wellness Working Group:

Email us at info@vtracialjusticealliance.org

The Wellness Working Group is where healing meets action.

We’re not waiting for systems to care for us—we’re building our own.

Let’s heal. Let’s build. Let’s be well—together.