acupuncture - investment in human capital

Hi, my name is Jamila, and I am fundraising to pay my tuition for acupuncture school at POCA Technical Institute.

For the last 70 years in this country, acupuncture has primarily been available to the wealthy. However, during those 70 years, we’ve seen glimpses of acupuncture being more communal and accessible to all people through the work of the Young Lords, Black Panthers, Lincoln Detox Center, and Dr. Mutulu Shakur, (see Dope is Death). The outcome of these radical healers is community acupuncture. Community acupuncture clinics democratize this healing modality making it available and accessible to all people.

I believe in this democracy. I believe in humanity. I believe that we must invest in the health of our greatest human capital, the worker. Community acupuncture in the United States has been a gift to and from the worker. My dream is to bring community acupuncture to the worker, specifically in the South and Midwest. I am a student at POCA Technical Institute solely because they are the thought leaders and experts in community acupuncture. They will train me to become an acupuncturist (and a damn good one) and teach me how to run a successful high-volume small business. They are also the only affordable acupuncture school in the country.

As a proud Christ-led black woman American worker, I tried to fund this venture on my own. I was successful for the first semester but fell behind while unemployed and actively looking for a full-time job after moving my family to Portland, OR to attend school.

Here is where I’d like to invite you on this journey. I need help in paying my tuition, and I am also looking for financial backers who want to invest in the healing of human capital. I came to acupuncture school to bring community acupuncture to areas in our country where there is little to no presence of this resource. The Midwest and the South, where the bulk of working Americans reside, need quality and affordable healthcare options, like community acupuncture.

Any amount you can invest is greatly appreciated. I have an outstanding balance of $3000 and need to pay my tuition and clinic fees of $4000 by September 9, 2022, a total of $7000 in a few weeks to progress towards my second year.

If you like to read further, I share a little background information about my journey with acupuncture…

About ten years ago, I was introduced to acupuncture as a healing modality to address some pain in my body. I started with a private acupuncturist in Western Massachusetts. The experience was life-altering; literally, the pain was gone after two to three treatments. I enjoyed receiving acupuncture, but unfortunately, I could not continue with regular treatments because the cost was too prohibitive.

Then I found Community Acupuncture! At the time, I had no idea its connection to the black liberation movement (Dope is Death), but it was for me, a safe, healing space that was affordable with a sliding scale "pay as you can" set up. And I went religiously for two years.

I also learned that community acupuncture had it's own community as a cooperative structure. A significant number of community acupuncture clinics around the country were connected to POCA (People's Organized for Community Acupuncture). I would go to as many community clinics as possible (shout out to Urbana, IL, Philadelphia, PA, Nashville Tn, Greenfield, MA, and Roanoke, VA!).

During this time in 2014, POCA Tech was born. A technical school that trains folks to be acupuncturists and highly encourages the proliferation of acupuncture community clinics around the country. I became intrigued; for five years, I watched from afar, dreaming of when or if I should enroll. Weighing the pros and cons of beginning a new career that required me to move cross country for three years to go to school was a constant pendulum in my mind.

In 2019, I decided and submitted my application for the fall of 2020. Well, we all know what happened in 2020; plus, I had a newborn that I was not willing to risk her health to commute for the 1st year back and forth to Oregon. I deferred to cohort 8 and began the program in 2021, commuting monthly, until I moved my family here in January 2022 full time.

This leap of faith has been one of the most challenging and most rewarding joyful experiences I have had. It has not been easy, but it has been seamless and abundant in hindsight.

Healing is a part of our human birthright. This is important. Everyone has the ability to heal themselves and acupuncture aids the human through this process.