community resources
The Roots
Of Community Health Herbal Network.
Our work is rooted in empowering our communities.
These projects are some of the rootlets of our network.
Wild Violet Underground - free + sliding scale community herbal + wellness care - centering trans + queer health + wellness
Wild Violet Underground is a multigenerational collective of queer people of color that organize and facilitate free and sliding scale wellness services to rural queers living in and passing through middle Tennessee. Wild Violet Underground offers free and sliding scale community health services, wellness education, herbal training, and mobile pop-up style free clinics. Standing in solitarily with land defenders, water protectors and warriors against all land and resource colonization, we offer pop-up first-aid + wellness clinics upon request/invitation, supporting BIPOC led environmental and social justice movements throughout the so called "United States". Wild Violet Underground also offers pop-up style wellness spaces for queer and trans communities and gatherings.
For more info, contact wildvioletunderground@gmail.com
Community Roots - free clinic held on Muscogee/Creek territory in so-called "Atlanta"
Community Roots is a pop-up free-clinic that provides herbal medicine as well as health and wellness education to marginalized communities in the Atlanta area. This free herb clinic currently offers herbal resources, one-on-one herbal consultations, herbal tea, and free hot meals for youth and volunteers monthly at Lost-N-Found Youth, a queer youth center that provides safer space and resources for queer youth without housing. In addition to the clinics, the Community Roots team stocks a Self-Care Station with vitamins and herbal remedies that are left at the center and available for people to access at any time. Community Roots aims to empower those they work with and their collective members through education about herbalism, healing, and wellness. Contact us at community.roots.clinic@gmail.com
The Pawpaw - community apothecary held on Shawnee, Yuchi, and Katuah territory (historically shared hunting territory of Shawnee, Yuchi, Katuah, Muscogee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes) in so-called "middle TN"
The Pawpaw serves as a community medicine chest and apothecary for the large queer community in rural Tennessee, providing free medicine and health services for queer, trans, and gender non-conforming folks, whether they live in the area, or are just passing through the gayborhood. Queers in the country often times face systematic social barriers that can make it easier to find a local organized hate group, than it is to find compassionate, indiscriminate, quality health care. This can be especially true for rural trans people and queer people of color, trans women, poor queers and queers with chronic health conditions. Although herbal medicines can not always replace what necessary modern medicine provides for many, The Pawpaw helps minimize the community's sole reliance on an industrial healthcare system that prioritizes profit and lacks queer, trans, and LGBTQIA+ patient competency.
Middle Tennessee Med Shed - 1st aid station + free community clinic held on Shawnee, Yuchi, and Katuah territory (historically shared hunting territory of Shawnee, Yuchi, Katuah, Muscogee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Seminole tribes) in so-called "middle TN"
The Med Shed was built several years back, during a work party at a southern, rural, queer community land project and educational center that provides safer space for queers, trans, and gender non-conforming folks, all tucked into the hills of middle TN. The Med Shed operates as a year round first aid station and a free herbal and wellness clinic during gatherings and work parties, offering health care, first aid, herbal consultations, massage, skill shares, and tasty herbal teas for queers, by queers.
Sister Snake Scholarship Program - honoring Dine/Ho-chunk sister - Amber Snake
The seed of this scholarship program was planted by Amber Snake, our truly missed Dine/Ho-chunk sister, shortly before she crossed over to join our ancestors. This scholarship program is an effort to adjust some of the social disparities we face in the world by removing some of the barriers that limit Indigenous participation in important inter-generational healing work and community health care projects. The Sister Snake Scholarship Program aims to provide opportunities to re-cultivate or nourish care giving skills and fund opportunities for Indigenous people who are providing care (or interested in providing care) within their communities. Funds raised for the Sister Snake Scholarship Program have been donated to support Indigenous self-organization in relation to healthcare, and has funded travel expenses for Indigenous people to access herbal educational offerings around Turtle Island. We are also accepting donations of long-distance learning courses and books to add to the scholarship program. To contribute to the Sister Snake Scholarship Program, or to find out more information about the program please contact us at sistersnakescholarship@gmail.com
with paypal, add a note: "Sister Snake Scholarship" when donating.
