People’s Health Sanctuary is excited to host the second Healing Day in a monthly series of events. Healing Day is a way to connect with community members, healers, providers and anyone invested in building a robust network for communal health across the Capital District.  We will be offering services from holistic healers, resource sharing by healthcare providers and service groups, child activities, and free food. The next Healing Day will be September 9th, so put it in your calendars!

We strive to “re-member” what community health can look like, so we welcome community members, and we will be offering healing work on donation basis including body work, yoga, and energy work. In addition there will be community resource & healthcare information, movement activities, food, and child and family-friendly activities!

• 10-12 pm DE-FENCE: Medicine in the Margins workshop
• 11:30-12 Opening Circle and Introductions
• 11 am-ongoing: Clothing giveaway by Dope Thrift Finds
• 12 pm Yoga with Desirea (inside PHS space)
• 12 pm Youth movement activity outside with PHS community health intern Nilaan
• 1-2 pm Kids activity with Root3d: Own your feelings with sound meditation
• 1 pm: Cooking Demo with Cornell Extension
• 1-4 pm Meditative listening sessions with Lisa Schonberg: The Insects are Present
• 2 pm: Collard City Growers Medicinal Plant Tour with Sienna Thiem
• 3 pm Yoga with Desirea (inside PHS space)
• 3:45 pm Closing Circle
• Food, snacks, grilling during the day!  

Throughout the day, we will be hosting several amazing bodywork practitioners doing donation based healing!  Sign-up with them will be on a rolling basis:

• Massage– Grassroots Mind Body Energy- Justine: I’ve been a professional Licensed Massage Therapist since 2014.  I am a graduate of The Center for Natural Wellness School of Massage Therapy in Albany, New York. In addition to being a proficient and passionate Licensed Massage Therapist, I am also a Usui Reiki Master and a nationally certified Addiction/Recovery counselor and Abuse/Trauma counselor with credentials of ministry through the Universal Life Church. I’m a passionate healer with an alternative approach and am dedicated to helping clients move through a wide range of physical, emotional and spiritual transitions in the most efficient and transformative way possible.  My treatments are specifically tailored to the needs of each client to make sure they receive the approach that works best for them. Time and again my clients and I have seen the incredible healing transformations that can take place when a total mind/body connection approach is taken.
• Massage– Sara S: is a vegetable farmer and licensed massage therapist. She is passionate about helping other laborers mend their bodies and tend their hearts. Sara trained at the Center for Natural Wellness in Albany and primarily does sports, Swedish, and prenatal massage.
• Reiki, energy healing, intuitive spiritual readings- Root3d: We are here to center the liberation, healing, + power of BIPOC by rooting within the 3 dimensions: the mind, body, and spirit. Root3d offers workshops, weekly group healing classes and talk therapy groups, as well as individual sessions.
• Yoga with Desirea
•  Medicinal plant sketching and sensing with Margaretha Haughwout, who is hosting the DE-FENCE workshop

In addition, we will be hosting tabling with community partners: 

• Blood Pressure checks with Chasing Health: Founded by Dr Omorogbe, Chasing Health Inc. teaches underserved communities of color about high blood pressure by providing free blood pressure screenings, health education, and coaching at barber shops, beauty salons, non-profit organizations, churches, and schools locally and abroad.
• Youth Movement with Nilaan of Strong Me! Family Weight Management Programs: Strong Me! Family Weight Management Program is a 24 week weight management program for families seeking help with improving their eating and exercise habits. Strong Me! has been helping families achieve success for over 20 years and has operated in several states and regions of the United States under the direction of Dr. Pride-Boone, a Board-Certified, Harvard-trained Pediatrician. StrongMe! is currently offering programs in North Troy, NY and working with the People’s Health Sanctuary in North Troy. For more information visit their website at www.strongme.org
• SNUG/Trinity Alliance: A play on the word gun, it is now an acronym that stands for Should Never Use Guns.  Each of us brings their own special something or quality you could say.  Together we work to reduce gun violence by mediating conflicts. With those that are at the highest risk of shooting someone and being. And unfortunately, we have lost some along the way. But this in-turn only makes us stronger.
• CEK RN: When you need someone to accompany you to your medical appointments or help you understand your treatment, turn to CEK RN Consulting, Inc. in Albany, New York.  Our team is guided by Coretta E. Killikelly, our founder. She is a doctoral prepared nurse and she has a Master of Science in Nursing, specializing in Adult Health Education, and with more than 19 years of experience in the areas of Geriatric, Ambulatory care, Management, Case Management, and Health Education.
• Cornell Cooperative Extension with Felisha Chandler: The mission of Cornell Cooperative Extension Of Rensselaer County  is to put experience and research knowledge to work through educational partnerships that improve residents’ lives and communities. Felisha Chandler from Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) of Rensselaer County is a Nutrition Program Educator.  Felisha’s primary responsibility is to educate the community about nutrition through CCE’s free Expanded Food & Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP).  She teaches participants how to stretch their food dollars and maximize the amount of nutrient rich foods into their daily diets.  Key audiences include families working to make ends meet, 18-25 year olds living independently, non-custodial parents, foster parents/ guardians and youth.  Felisha prides herself on teaching in a hands-on way that is fun and educational.  Her lessons allow for a full experience from nutritional content and smart meal planning to safe food preparation and sampling.  Felisha brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the program with over 19 years of teaching with CCE of Rensselaer County.  In addition to having degrees in Culinary Arts and Hotel and Restaurant Management from Schenectady County Community College, she has 13 years of experience being a Hospitality Director and was a Sou Chef for the WHMT Farm to Table series.  Recently, Felisha received certificates from eCornell in Wellness Counseling and Nutrition and Healthy Living, Medicinal Plants and Plant Based -Nutrition from the T. Colin Campbell Center of Nutrition Studies. Currently Felisha is working toward becoming a Registered Dietician with a specialty in wellness for those recovering from drug addiction and diabetes awareness and prevention for youth. 
• Project SafePoint: Narcan kits being offered for the communityHarm Reduction services 
• Equality for Troy: Combating systemic injustices and racial inequity in The City of Troy, NY and Rensselaer County
• Dope Thrift Finds:  Hi my name is Julianna! Over the past few years I have developed a passion for sustainable clothing. Personally, I love to have many options to choose from so I found a way where I can have many options without all the waste. Secondly, I try my best to prioritize well made fabrics like cotton because a lot of the clothes available today are made with synthetic fabrics disrupting women’s hormones in particular. Please feel free to share your finds on instagram tagging @dope.thriftfinds.
• Community Rising Project: The Community Rising Project, a Non Profit Organization is a (comprehensive) Advocacy, Advancement and Support center for individuals of Color and those that support them, who are directly impacted by trauma and their involvement in the justice system. We are community members that have suffered oppression and harm due to racism, sexual violence, domestic violence, incarceration, homelessness and poverty.
• Colorectal screening kits donated by Soul Fire in the City

We will be hosting community needs surveys throughout the day and we hope to use these Healing Days as a way to connect with the ever growing network of healers, providers, and community members.  We aim to “re-member” an ideal of communal health to aid us in the times to come.  We look forward to “walking while questioning” with you all.  

The Healing Day series takes place on July 22, August 12, and September 9 from 11am – 4pm at the People’s Health Sanctuary (3319 6th Ave Troy, NY). Please contact us at [email protected] with any questions.  

People’s Health Sanctuary (PHS) is a community-led mutual aid health initiative, based in North Central Troy.  Our theory of change is based in racial and transformative justice to create a liberatory model of community health care for all.  Our goal is to establish a central space to share health skills, provide basic integrative care, and explore ways to build networks of communal health.  The PHS is a space for gathering, sharing food, moving your body, working through grief, cultivating a sense of safety, and embodying a culture of care.

We are committed to lowering the barriers to access for events at The Sanctuary for Independent Media. For people who are hard of hearing or deaf, blind or low-vision, or whose physical limitations can interfere with a satisfying experience, let us know two weeks in advance so we can make appropriate arrangements.