Supporting healing and connection in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
Mindfulness Programs for Community Well-Being
Supporting healing and connection in Charlottesville and Albemarle County.
About The RESTORE Project
Our Mission
The RESTORE Project is dedicated to enhancing the well-being of historically rooted communities in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, VA. We strive to create an inclusive environment where individuals can explore mindfulness and healing practices that resonate with their cultural backgrounds.
Support Our Community's Healing Journey
Your generous donations help The RESTORE Project provide mindfulness-based programs for historically rooted communities in Charlottesville and Albemarle County, VA. Together, we can create spaces for self-discovery, connection, and restoration.
We Love our Community Partners!
We believe in the power of community and the importance of working together to achieve our goals. At The RESTORE Project, we cultivate partnerships with organizations, businesses, and individuals who share our commitment to rest, healing, and collective well-being. Click below to learn more about our collaborations.
Meet the Founder & Executive Director
Native, Descendent, Current Resident & Community Teacher
Meet the Founder & Executive Director
In October 2022, I found myself yearning to connect with a deeply rested version of myself—one that I had never truly met before. As a homeschooling mother, the sole breadwinner at the time for a household of six, a Black woman, an entrepreneur, I felt the weight of it all pressing in too closely. I was tired of hearing myself say, "I'm not okay." I knew something had to change.
So, I took a radical step. I made a bold, faith-filled decision to block off the entire month of November for deep rest and restoration. One of the questions I carried into that rest period was inspired by Tricia Hersey’s then newly published book (only days before), Rest is Resistance: "How can I support myself and my community?"
By the end of those thirty days, the vision for The RESTORE Project came through as clear as day. I filled pages and pages with what I saw, and from those words, action emerged. I began hosting rest installations in spaces where Black people have historically gathered in large numbers—places I knew intimately from my own childhood. I returned to the meeting spaces where my parents, local church leaders who grew up in the Prospect, Dice Street, and Vinegar Hill neighborhoods, and their parents (my grandparents) had taken me Sunday after Sunday. I set up sanctuaries of stillness in the very places where my community had long gathered in faith, resilience, and resistance.
The numbers are staggering. At the time of this writing (2025), Black women face the highest rates of hypertension, maternal mortality, cardiovascular disease, and intimate partner violence. We are more likely to live in poverty, less likely to receive adequate healthcare, and more prone to exhaustion from laboring within systems not built for our thriving.
I am these numbers. My mother, my grandmothers, my aunties, my cousins, our national she-roes—we are these numbers. And this is why I founded The RESTORE Project. This is why I am ferociously sowing into it. Not just because we deserve rest. Not just because we deserve restoration and to thrive. Also because: justice.
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Your support and contributions will enable us to meet our goals and fund our mission.
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