Empower LeaJay's Journey for Community Healing

Dear Friends, Family, and Supporters of Community Healing,

I am reaching out to you today with a profound request to support a spiritual pilgrimage to Africa that will deeply enrich my capacity to serve my community. My journey has been one of immense challenge and profound transformation, and I believe this pilgrimage is the vital next step in expanding my ability to guide others towards their own liberation.

In 2012, budget cuts abruptly ended my work as a community leader advocating for women's and girls' rights within the juvenile justice system and the underground street economy. As a single mother of two daughters and an Oakland native, I was thrust into homelessness, living in my car. The system's decision to remove my children triggered a decade-long spiral of homelessness and substance use, a desperate attempt to numb the pain of losing my family.

Despite these struggles, my passion for advocacy and building supportive community in West Oakland never wavered. I was involved in the creation of Cob on Wood and fought tirelessly to protect our encampment on Wood Street.

It was after a traumatic fentanyl overdose in my daughter's backseat that a turning point arrived. With the intervention of loved ones, I entered a 90-day drug treatment program in June 2023. I was scared, and addiction whispered excuses, but I knew I had to choose myself, to reclaim this gift of life. It was a question only a clear mind, free from the pull of a high, could answer.

After completing treatment, genuinely supported this time, I returned to my community to organize and inspire. I shared my journey, supported peers in recovery, and on December 8, 2023, I was welcomed into the Homefulness community as a permanently housed, rent-free resident.

Now, living at Homefulness with 24 formerly unhoused individuals, we've created a vibrant Healing Hub. Here, we embrace practices like sweat lodges, group discussions, and ancestral ceremonies, offering vital recovery tools like anger management and relapse prevention to the unhoused community. My mission is to inspire hope, demonstrating how collective healing can transform lives and create lasting change.

My healing journey has increasingly connected me with ancestral and indigenous ways, proving successful in my 25 months of recovery. I've embarked on a path of transformation, drawing from my lived experience to understand and address the multifaceted expectations surrounding a healthy lifestyle.

To deepen this work and enhance my ability to serve, I am seeking to embark on a spiritual pilgrimage to Africa to further my understanding and initiation into Ifa. Ifa, with its emphasis on interconnectedness, empathy, and ancestral wisdom, offers profound principles that directly align with the holistic healing we are fostering:

Empathy and Compassion: Ifa teaches the interconnectedness of all beings, fostering empathy crucial for supporting individuals in challenging times, allowing for deeper connection and validation.

Character Development and Well-being: Ifa rituals promote virtues like patience, humility, and respect, building resilience and wisdom essential for navigating difficult situations and supporting others effectively.

Connecting with the Divine and Ancestral Wisdom: Initiation deepens connection with the Orisa (archetypal energies/forces of nature) and ancestors, providing spiritual guidance and insights invaluable for those I aim to help, offering perspectives beyond conventional approaches.

Promoting Social Harmony and Justice: Ifa principles inspire a commitment to social justice and community well-being, empowering me to advocate for positive change and a more equitable world.

While many programs offer 12-step models for abstinence, there are limited resources that integrate cultural practices to strengthen recovery foundations and address the unique intersections of challenges faced by the unhoused population. My lived experience, coupled with this deeper spiritual understanding, will enable me to provide unparalleled support.

I know the ancestors will guide me, and the Creator will provide what I need. I humbly ask for your financial support to make this spiritual pilgrimage a reality. Your contribution will not only support my personal growth but will directly translate into enhanced, culturally relevant healing programs at our Homefulness Healing Hub, empowering more unhoused individuals to find their own path to liberation and lasting recovery.

Any support, great or small, or even your prayers, would be profoundly appreciated as I take this vital step in my journey of healing and service.

With deepest gratitude,

LeaJay

ASE O

Your donation will directly support:

Travel, lodging, and meals for the pilgrimage

Initiation costs into the Ifa tradition

Sacred tools and offerings for ceremony

Integration resources for community healing upon return