Sista Afya Community Care (SACC) is dedicated to providing culturally-centered mental health care for Black women and girls in Chicago. Founded in 2017 to address the mental health inequity facing Black women on the South Side, SACC has spent nearly a decade building trust as a source of affordable, culturally responsive care, and in recent years has extended that same model to serve Black adolescent girls ages 13 to 17 by offering free, weekly individual and family therapy led by licensed clinicians who reflect their clients’ lived experiences. SACC takes a whole-family approach to healing, working with girls and their families to strengthen communication, address intergenerational patterns, and build the lasting conditions for girls to truly thrive.
Many Black women and girls on Chicago’s South Side are facing a mental health crisis that’s largely hiding in plain sight. Girls in particular carry unique stressors, including racism, adultification, sexual harassment, and community violence, often without the support to process any of it. Access only makes this harder: in high-hardship South Side neighborhoods, there are just 0.2 licensed clinicians per 1,000 residents. Left unaddressed, this kind of strain in adolescence doesn’t remain in adolescence; it can follow girls into adulthood, shaping school performance, economic stability, and physical health for years to come.
The Girls Opportunity Alliance Fund will enable SACC to launch Black Girls Blossoming (BGB), a quarterly group therapy series in partnership with Gary Comer Youth Center, giving girls a consistent, safe space to connect with peers and process shared experiences through the Black Girls Smile Group Coaching Curriculum, which builds coping skills, conflict resolution, self-esteem, self-care, and effective communication. Unlike traditional therapy models that focus solely on the individual, SACC engages caregivers as active partners in their daughters’ healing, building home environments where girls can truly grow. By investing in both individual and group care, the fund will move SACC beyond one-time programming into sustained, relationship-based healing, reaching a minimum of 20 girls through individual and family therapy and 60 girls through group therapy and community events. SACC’s model is already proving effective: 80% of girls receiving therapy through the organization report improvement in mental health symptoms and coping skills, and this investment will help more girls, and their families experience that same lasting impact.
For more information about Sista Afya Community Care, please visit the organization’s website.
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