Black Girls Breathing Pledges to Support Mental Health of 1 Million Black Women By 2025

Black Girls Breathing has pledged to expand its online network of 16,000 members to aid in the mental health of 1 million Black women and girls by 2025.

Founder Jasmine Marie is happy to see the growth of her breathwork company since its launch in 2018. But she’s fully aware of the health disparities plaguing Black communities, especially when it comes to the topic of mental health. Now Marie is using her brand to help address the gaps.

“I don’t want to keep talking about the gap. We’ve identified gaps in our own research on Black women and their access to all types of healthcare, not just mental health,” Marie told Well + Good. “I’m tired of talking about statistics. I want some solutions, and I want support for the solutions and the resources.”

Now Marie is using Black Girls Breathing to address the inequities in the healthcare industry as it relates to mental health. To do this, the brand will work to provide “accessible mental health resources” and fill in the gaps with “data and research on the demographic…to influence the industry at large through policy and programming.”

Black Girls Breathing is using five pillars to achieve the new goal. First, they will expand their virtual breathwork community beyond the United States. “We have a global community,” Marie said. “We’ve been able to expand into markets because of the nature of online. Second, she is working with licensed psychologists and researchers to launch a breathwork facilitator program.

Third, they will expand in-person breathwork sessions throughout different cities within the U.S. Fourth, they will explore new options for hosting in-person sessions. Fifth, Black Girls Breathing will launch a new online platform for its expanded community.

“We plan to base [the program] on research, on science,” Marie said. “It’s been such a beautiful learning for me to be connected with different Black researchers who were validating my vision and what we’re doing, and the conversation that we’re having, not only within the data space, but also on the healthcare provider side.”