Here's Why Community is Important

We are continuing to push through this week as best as we can.  Now more than ever we need to come together to embrace and engage in community. I want to take a moment to reflect on why I started all of this in the first place--the Mommy Moves blog. Back in 2018, I created Mommy Moves because I fe lt like I needed the space to connect with other moms who share in the experiences of motherhood. It was a way for me to feel safe to share my motherhood experience, but also to normalize some of the trials associated with motherhood. 

I rebranded Mommy Moves to Courtney Chanel LLC in January of 2019 to expand my reach and support not only mothers, but Black Women and non-Black Women of Color. In that same year, I birthed the Level Up Luncheon, now rebranded to MillenniMom™, started I AM NOT SUPERWOMWAN™ and rolled out the planning of what will be an amazing conference event The EmpowHERment Expo™. In doing all of these things, I have prioritized the need to create spaces for Black Women and Women of Color.  The purpose in creating these spaces are to promote the safety and security of our communities to feel free to be transparent and transformative so that we can share in our experiences. To be able to just be present and do so without the judgment and need to explain our experience has been the most freeing and fulfilling product of engaging in these spaces. 

To remove ourselves from the 'white gaze' brings about a freedom from what whiteness represents--oppression. I put my energy in this because I am my client. As a Black Woman of Color, I find it important create spaces that are refreshing. Spaces where I have no problem telling white women that this is not made for you. This is not made for you to be comfortable. This is for us. There’s no way a white person could understand what we go through or provide the support we need to heal from decades of racism, prejudice, and bigotry. Healing can’t take place in the presence of those who represent the oppressor, even if they may not have directly contributed to the oppression. 

We deserve to feel safe. We deserve to be safe. Being with others who share in our experience brings about healing. We want to be able to share that healing and plan to help others within our community to succeed in healing.

I hope that you will join me in my most recent curated space today at 1PM, Breaking Ground: The Coffee Break LIVE (Meeting ID: 986-6740-2672 Password: COFFEE) as we continue this discussion on community with specific attention to these times.