In 2020, we began discussing our shared vision for wellness in the Black community. With an unnamed dream and unfounded organization at the time, we simply referred to the initiative as “The Collective.” Soon after, we were connected with a local media personality, community leader, and founder of a youth-serving non-profit who partnered with us to address a growing need for mental health services for young Black and Brown teens in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) area.
With the introduction of this community therapy program also came the official establishment of Kinnect Wellness Network, Incorporated, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. “Kinnect,” is a combination of the words “kinship” and “connection,” speaking to our mission for increasing wellness for marginalized racial and ethnic groups as well as our values of community and collaboration.
We are proud to say that through our therapy program’s partnership with another community organization, we have helped provide over 300 free therapy sessions to Black and Brown individuals in the community. In alignment with our values of equity for clinicians, the contracted therapists in our network were paid a reasonable fee per session for their services. The cost to run the first three phases of our program has totaled $36,140 financially, in addition to our leaders' countless volunteer hours of dedicated time.