Brooklyn Unchained: Caribbean LGBTQ Immigrant Support Group

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“Breaking the Rejection Cycle, Building Community”

Meeting Dates: Last Monday of every month, from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Meeting Location: Brooklyn Community Pride Center - Crown Heights: 1561 Bedford Ave, Suite Ground A, Brooklyn, NY 11225
Registration is required. RSVP HERE at https://bit.ly/BrooklynUnchained

Launched in 2015, Unchained is a pioneering initiative in New York City, offering a unique peer-to-peer support group through the Caribbean Equality Project. For nearly a decade, Unchained has been at the heart of our Healing Justice work, providing a empowering space for Caribbean LGBT+ immigrants, those impacted by HIV, and survivors of family rejection, discrimination, intimate partner violence, and sexual assault to heal and build community.

Unchained is dedicated to creating a compassionate environment where individuals can embrace their cultural identities and experiences as Queeribbeans. It is a brave space focusing on healing and community-building through intergenerational dialogue and discussions to end stigma, foster healthier relationships, celebrate diversity, promote personal empowerment, and encourage family acceptance.

Our members find solace and support in conversations and creative healing around coming out, family dynamics, LGBTQIA+ issues, social norms, healthy relationships and dating, sexual fluidity, and overall health and wellness. Here, you’ll find guidance and understanding as we navigate a collective journey of storytelling and reflection, rich in culture and intention.

The Caribbean Equality Project’s Brooklyn Unchained group has roots in building community in a time of unprecedented isolation and grief. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic in NYC, we expanded our healing justice work to meet the emotional needs of the Caribbean LGBTQ+ community in NYC and beyond. Launched in 2020, during a global pandemic, as a virtual version of the inaugural in-person Queens Unchained support group, the Brooklyn Unchained iteration quickly became an international safe space to heal and unpack the pandemic, the isolation, unresolved feelings, and the uncertainty that came with it. The virtual group evolved into a transformative therapeutic space, support network, and a staple independent of its in-person Queens counterpart. Amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, we created a virtual space to connect locally, nationally, and globally with the Caribbean rainbow family during this era of physical distancing and spaciousness, self-isolation, and staying home to stop the spread of the coronavirus.  

Our goal to provide hyper-local healing spaces in neighborhoods with strong Caribbean ties, such as Little Caribbean in Brooklyn persists. The Brooklyn Unchained group will hold both in-person and virtual spaces for participants to release anxiety, combat loneliness, gain tools for managing stress, and be resilient.

Mohamed Q. Amin (he/they) is the guest facilitator of the support group, and L (they/them), Healing Justice Manager, coordinates the program and facilitates Queens Unchained.

RSVP HERE at https://bit.ly/BrooklynUnchained. Email info@CaribbeanEqualityProject.org or call our confidential hotline at 347.709.3179 for additional RSVP support.

About Caribbean Equality Project:
Caribbean Equality Project (CEP) is a grassroots community-based immigrant rights organization that empowers, advocates for, and represents Afro and Indo-Caribbean LGBTQ+ people in New York City. Through public education, community organizing, civic engagement, storytelling, and cultural and social programming, the organization focuses on advocacy for LGBTQ+ and immigrant rights, gender equity, racial justice, immigration, mental health services, and ending hate violence in the Caribbean diaspora.

To learn more about the Caribbean Equality Project and for regular updates on our work, connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube at @CaribbeanEqualityProject, and Twitter at @CaribEquality.

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