Our Mission: to create community arts spaces that center people impacted by gender and race based harm.
Our Vision: equitable, accessible spaces where queer and Black Indigenous people of color, including sex workers, have access to creative community healing.
We are the people we seek to serve.
Avril Heals seeks to empower people who’ve experienced gender and race-based trauma by creating spaces for folks to skill share in various expressive arts modalities.
Through removing financial barriers and centering folks with lived experienced, we aim to foster collective healing.
While we welcome all who have experienced trauma, our spaces are intentionally created to center the following communities:
BIPOC
LGBTQAI2S+
Folks who’ve experienced sexual harm
Former and active sex workers
First generation Americans and immigrants
Who We Center
Our Approach
Sometimes, the words to explain how we feel do not exist. So, at Avril Heals, we intentionally take a creative and holistic approach to healing that often deviates from Western tradition.
Transcending language and words, creative processes can serve as a more fluid form of expression. We use the expressive arts because the process of art making allows us to tap into undefined emotions and experiences our subconscious doesn’t always have the words for.
While acknowledging complexities of how trauma can affect sex and body image, we use a sex positive lens in everything we do to empower survivors to feel more connected and present in their bodies. We recognize that folks who experience harm are not a monolith. Through a combination of sex positivity, art, creative writing, movement and other creative healing mechanisms, we create trauma-informed spaces to foster community for folks at their own pace.
