Resources!

What IS #BacktheBlack? It's a mental health movement made by Black Iowans for Black Iowans to explore support for mental health in the ways that make sense to them. It's a way for us to find out more about what's going on in Iowa for us that helps us regulate our mental health in traditional and alternative ways. It's a resource segmented into the areas of our community that need to be supported - youth, their parents, men, women, seniors, and Black Iowans who also identify as part of the LGBTQ+ community. 

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We have stats on how mental illness is impacting these specific groups of our community in Iowa and specific ways that each group can receive support that fits their specific needs. We put thought into the barriers each group faces and sought to make materials that could support that. 

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#BacktheBlack has opportunities for Black Iowans who want to help in more leadership ways, such as designating their Black-owned business as a Safe Space to talk about mental health, including hosting #BacktheBlack events. Or Black Iowans who want to go into the specific areas of our community with culturally-relevant presentations that provide information especially for that group, language for mental health illness that makes it easier to understand, and the ability to answer questions. 

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To check out this incredible resource, click HERE.

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To read the press release from our sponsor and the organization that had the vision to fund and support this great project, click HERE.

There is so much better representation out here for Black women expecting a baby. For a DV survivor, that time is even tougher. Get the support you deserve for free from a Black Doula, Sis! 

 

Eligibility:

2021 Federal Poverty Level Guidelines
Family Size 100% Poverty Level 375% Poverty Level
1                       $12,880                           $  48,300
2                      $17,420                            $  65,325
3                      $21,960                            $  82,350
4                      $26,500                           $  99,375
5                      $31,040                             $116,400
6                      $35,580                            $133,425
7                      $40,120                             $150,450
8                      $44,660                            $167,475
Over 8, add per person: $4,540 $17,025
 

If you meet these eligibility requirements, call the Agency person for the county you live
in and tell them you are seeking doula services via the IDPH Community Based Doula
Project:

Blackhawk: Michelle or Tonya at the Black Hawk County Health Department
319.291.2413
Blackhawk: Brooke Schlee Brooke.Schlee@unitypoint.org

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Dubuque: Vicki at the Dubuque VNA 563.556.6200 Ext. 1916
Dubuque: Vicky Gassman vicki.gassman@unitypoint.org

Polk: Ask for the Doula Project at EveryStep 515.558.9946
Polk: Becky Borgman bborgman@everystep.org

Scott: Ask for the Doula Project at Scott County Health Department 563.328.4114

Scott: Briana Boswell briana.boswell@scottcountyiowa.gov

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If you do NOT meet the above requirements, you can still get a Black Doula! Please send an email to the following
contact person for the county you live in with your location, delivery hospital and due
date.
Iowa Black Doula Collective doulas@iowablackdoulas.com

You go to a doctor's office for a regular appointment, or because you need something medical further investigated, or you're preparing for surgery - and IT happens. As Black women, we know the 'IT':

1. you can't get answers

2. you're not taken seriously

3. your situation is dismissed, ignored, or worse!

Now there's help from Black women by Black women and it's called Black Women 4 Healthy Living! You can reach out to them to get expert guidance from their nurse on how to handle the situation! It won't be in the moment, but you can leave a message and get resolution. 

Go to their website's contact page to reach out to them now: BW4HL.org/contact

With a Black woman as its Founder & Executive Director, this revolutionary place is set up to meet the out-of-the-box needs of trauma survivors in mind. Not just DV, but survivors of any types of trauma.

 

We are learning about them, but have had very encouraging conversations with their Founder/Director, Alyson R. Simmons, CNPM, CA, and don't want to wait to tell you about them!

 

Need a masseuse? They have it! Need to be validated? They will! Need someone to coordinate your care needs? They will. Free services with them for one whole year! 

To learn more about them: Click HERE

To get signed up with them:  Sign up HERE

Poor pregnancy outcomes is one of the manifestations seen for Black women due to the long term elevated levels of cortisol that accompany DV. Counting the kicks for your baby is key to early detection of problems for the fetus or the mother during pregnancy. 

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Learn more and even download the free app HERE!

The DART - Des Moines Area Regional Transit system - the public transportation also known as the bus! If you are rebuilding your transportation situation and need to use the bus, you're gonna need to know for sure that the job, the house or apartment, the daycare, the church, etc., are on a reliable bus route. 

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Relax, there's help for that! Call DART at 515-283-8100 and wait for a customer service agent to tell you: 

1. If a bus goes to that area

2. If it will get you there at the time you need to be there

3. If one does, when you need to catch it - and its transfer connections - to get there on time

4. Where you need to catch it - even which side of the street!

5. How much you need for bus fare

6. Where you can get a monthly pass, and more!

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If you feel like you are comfortable with using the online feature DART has, you can plug in the info and look it up for yourself by using the DART Trip Planner

The Section 8 Housing Waiting List opens up on November 17th.

Click for more information: Link

Find the press release attached HERE

One of the most important things that you want to happen as a survivor is to know that the abuser canNOT violate your peace once you move away from the place where you had to deal with their oppression. 

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The Secretary of State has a wonderful, free program for you to utilize to protect your address from the abuser and those who want to share the information with the abuser called Iowa Safe at Home Program. 

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You get a legal substitute address, and believe us, they have thought of everything to protect your home's new location. 

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Click for more information: Link

To complete the application click HERE

Want to call them and talk to them about it more? Call them at 515-725-7233.

Their slogan: "BIRTH, BUT WE DROPPED THE  'B' FOR BIAS." 

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Yassss!

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Firstly, this app available for iPhone or Android, is a place where you can put in the name of your hospital and tell your birthing experience. It doesn't have to be recent either. Just put in all the information that matches the time of your birthing experience. Why is this important?? Because Irth is gathering data to hold hospitals accountable for the way they treat Black AND Brown patients during the birthing process!! Download the app and put yours in today!

 

Are you trying to figure out where to have your precious little one?? Well, this app/website can also tell you the ones that rank the highest for good experiences for US.  

 

There's even a resource page where you can find birthing centers, Black breastfeeding orgs, doulas, and lactation consultants! You canNOT afford NOT to look at this resource!

Beautiful, 

are you or your daughters having a gap in what you need to financially support your therapy and what your insurance will pay? 

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This may be what you've been looking for. 

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We found this organization from NAMI's website - National Alliance for Mental Illness - on their culturally-specific section for Black people dealing with mental illness. We do not have any clients that have utilized this resource yet but had to share the information from a reliable resource like NAMI. 

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The funds are available on a quarterly basis so if resources are utilized when you inquire at their link, sign up anyway to be placed on a waiting list. 

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Learn more and sign up here.

If you are sometimes just looking for a place to go for podcasts, recipes, blogs, that you feel like are just for you as a Black woman, give Mocha Health a try! 

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Here's the link to start browsing, Beautiful: Link

Here it is, Beautiful. Your personal #permission to REST. "Rest is Resistance" is the tagline and motto for this place created by a Black woman FOR Black women to teach you how to rest as a form of resistance. 

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Her manifesto called "Rest is Resistance" was just published in October 2022 in case you'd love your own personal roadmap!

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Learn more and rest HERE!

She understands, Beautiful; then she takes a faith-based approach to helping you find answers. Her book, 'This Too Shall Pass' takes a real-life look at the life of a child sexual assault and adult domestic violence victim-survivor's experience and offers solutions to begin healing. The book and workbook, along with other tools are a blessing and strength. If you're in the DSM area, you may be able to get this set autographed.

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Learn more and heal HERE!

If you benefit or believe you will benefit from affirmations  we believe you will absolutely LOVE NWAffirmations.

 

These are guided affirmations made by Black people for Black people.  You can find them on our YouTube playlist or Spotify. 

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We have included some of our favorite ones for you on this special audio resource page right here on this website: NWAffirmations.

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Undo the subtle ways society has taught you not to love yourself as a Black person. Love your Blackness, love YOU. 

If you or your teens are ages 14 - 18, and you've been looking for a way to improve your physical fitness, this may be what you're looking for. If you're looking for some inspiring young leaders who created a way for Black/Brown youth to be motivated to better physical health through one another, you've got to check these folks out! 

 

Go to their website to learn more about Empowered Youth program by clicking HERE

This is a place led by Sister Loretta Windsor, owner of Queens Abundant Life Meditations and co-founder of Sistars Girl Talk. This place is for us, Beautifuls. This place is for us to rest, get it touch with our bodies, and heal in the ways our culture has always done so. This place is for us to get back to our roots. 

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This space has been here faithfully for the last 4 years, and since we know about it we can tell you. You're going to want to follow Sistars Girl Talk on IG or Facebook so you can see the events on the last Sunday of every month and know what's happening so you can clear your schedule and partake. 

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Instagram (@sistarsgirltalk): HERE

Facebook (@sistarsgirltalk): HERE!