Orion Staff Attends Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness First Annual Block Party

As part of ongoing efforts to enhance connections and partnerships with the local community, staff from Orion Family Services in Madison, Wis., attended the First Annual Block Party hosted by the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness. Held Aug. 13, 2024, the block party took place at Brittingham Park and was intended to be a space for the community to connect with local resources that may benefit their families.

The Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness was started by Lisa M. Peyton-Caire. Peyton lost her mother, Roberta Peyton, at the age of 64 to heart disease on May 22, 2006, and launched Black Women’s Wellness Day (BWWDAY) on May 22, 2008. Black Women’s Wellness Day is an annual health summit dedicated to informing, inspiring, and empowering women and girls to build and sustain healthy, thriving, wellness-centered lives, and brings together women, health partners, wellness practitioners, community leaders, and organizations in support and solidarity for Black women’s health

“I realized that what happened to my mother was not the exception, but the norm for far too many women in my family and extended community,” said Peyton-Caire on the Foundation for Black Women’s Wellness website. “Yet, I didn’t hear any alarm bells going off. Black women all around me were dying young in the prime of their lives form largely preventable illnesses, and no one was making a sound about it. We wept, we planned and attended their funerals, and went on with life accepting this as their fate … our fate. At that point, I knew I had to do and say something to change this course. Black Women’s Wellness Day was what I dreamed up as my contribution to saving our lives.”

Although the first annual event was plagued by rain, the community came out in full force, and Orion staff members were able to make many new connections. It was very rewarding to connect with the community that we serve. Niquanna Barnett, Orion’s clinical supervisor and individual and family therapist, even had the opportunity to connect with a mother whose daughter was in one of Orion’s groups at the local high school. The mother shared how the group had been helpful to her daughter. Orion staff are glad to hear about successful outcomes, especially when they are out and about at community events.