I'm raising funds for Sunshine Sanctuary, a community-centered space in Connecticut being created to bring holistic healing, outreach, and mutual aid to people who need it most. After a local soup kitchen was evicted by the church where it had operated for 11 years, it became painfully clear that this was my opportunity to step up and reciprocate the blessings I've received.

This effort is deeply personal to me. I was chronically homeless since my adolescent years, and felt like I didn't belong anywhere, until I learned how to start and run my own business in the shelter while sharing the knowledge with other families. I would love for Sunshine Seer LLC to be a part of something bigger, because I know how much it matters to be met with compassion and real support during one of the hardest times in life. I want to help people feel seen after dehumanizing trauma, find healthy coping mechanisms, connect with others, and learn valuable skills.

I remember traveling from place to place, waiting on lists and systems to give me a chance, while falling through beurocratic gaps. My lived experience is a big part of why I want to help create a space where people can find warmth, dignity, connection, and care without judgment.

The goal is not only to replace one lost location. It is to build a shared commercial space for outreach and mutual aid in multiple forms, supporting community food access, serving as an affordable and comfortable warming center during harsh weather, and offering a hub for workshops, classes, markets, wellness programming, spiritual gatherings, arts, education, and community events.

This space is intended to support unhoused people, those recovering from trauma, victims of domestic violence, LGBTQ+ people, non-denominational pagans and spiritual people. Just as importantly, this space is meant to help destigmatize several vulnerable and often persecuted populations, offering community by creating a place where support, belonging, and healing can exist side by side.

Transitioning to independence and re-learning executive function skills can be very difficult without support and where other spaces stop offering services after you're housed, this is a place where we can continuously grow and evolve together.

Brian's Angels is one example of a group that benefits from having access to this kind of space. Brian's Angels supported me when I was homeless, and their work reflects exactly why spaces like this matter. While they have their own fundraiser, there have been several barriers towards finding a space, and this campaign is focused more broadly on securing a space that can support groups like theirs along with other community-centered efforts.

The holistic network is full of practitioners with lived experience, from those who have overcome addiction, domestic violence, being unhoused, and other hardships who enjoy serving the community. Guided meditations, yoga, breathwork, sound baths and other services offered in a space like this can create a profound transformation with peaceful nervous system regulation, which has been proven to reduce crime rates and in some cases, prevent mental health crises. Connections to other service providers, therapists, recovery spaces, and non-profits makes this an even more important facility.

Funds from this campaign will go toward the security deposit, first month's rent, insurance, utilities, and other startup costs needed to secure the property. By creating a multi-purpose space, the vision is to connect a network of support beyond what currently exists while also building something more sustainable for the long term through workshops, events, paid programming, monetized content creation, entrepeneual and employment support, and space rentals.

If you are able to give, share, or support this fundraiser in any way, it would mean so much. Your help can make Sunshine Sanctuary possible for people seeking food support, community connection, holistic healing, and a place to feel safe and seen.