REST 2026
ALL DONATIONS MATCHED 1:1 BY FOR REAL THERAPY
RESISTANCE. EMPOWERMENT. SOLIDARITY. TRANSFORMATION.
REST 2026 is a Black-centered Black History Month event series rooted in collective care, cultural memory, and radical healing. Presented by NeuroBloom Mental Health Collective in collaboration with For Real Therapy, this month-long series centers rest as a practice of survival, resistance, and liberation.
Through community gatherings led by licensed mental health practitioners, artists, and cultural workers, REST 2026 creates space for regulation, reflection, embodiment, and joy while raising funds for direct mutual aid in Sudan.
REST 2026 includes five community events throughout February, each exploring rest through a different lens.
REST is Resistance — Black Therapist Panel
REST is Regulation — Nervous System Reset Class
REST is Reclamation — Sudanese Valentine’s Poetry Workshop
REST is Remembrance — Sudanese Film Screening + Mental Health Q&A
REST is Release — DJ Set & Collective Dance Party
Each event is grounded in care, accessibility, and community healing
—> THE REST SERIES EVENT SCHEDULE & RSVP
What REST Means
Rest Is Not Withdrawal. Rest Is Strategy.
In a world that profits from our exhaustion, rest becomes resistance.
REST 2026 expands the meaning of rest beyond sleep or stillness.
Across this series, rest takes many forms:
Rest as resistance to burnout and disposability
Rest as nervous system regulation and collective grounding
Rest as cultural memory and ancestral continuity
Rest as embodiment, movement, creativity, and joy
When rest is denied, we create it together.
FAQs
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Sudan is currently facing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis, marked by mass displacement, food insecurity, and the collapse of essential infrastructure. As global attention shifts from one crisis to the next, entire communities are left navigating survival with limited visibility or support.
Many members of our organizing team and broader community hold personal, familial, and cultural ties to Sudan. REST 2026 is one way we refuse forgetting. One way we show up materially, not symbolically.
Funds raised through this series support Sudanese-led, community-run mutual aid efforts that prioritize dignity, speed, and direct care.
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Large humanitarian systems are often slow, bureaucratic, and structurally limited in how quickly resources reach people in crisis. In many cases, only a small fraction of donated funds ultimately make it into the hands of individuals and families after administrative and operational costs.
Mutual aid operates differently.
Mutual aid is community-led, relational, and direct. It moves resources through existing networks of care rather than top-down systems, prioritizing trust, speed, and accountability.
For REST 2026, this means:
Funds move through Sudanese-led community networks
Support reaches people directly, not through layers of administration
Care is guided by lived experience, not institutional distance
Mutual aid is not charity. It is a commitment to each other.
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All funds raised through REST 2026 support direct mutual aid, including:
Emergency food support
Medical needs and supplies
Direct assistance to displaced families
Community-based distribution networks
We intentionally prioritize direct aid over intermediaries to ensure resources move quickly and ethically.
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Our Transparency Commitment
Accountability is part of care.
Following the conclusion of REST 2026, we will share a general breakdown of how funds were distributed and the types of needs supported, while protecting the dignity and privacy of those receiving aid.
We do not believe care requires spectacle. Support does not require trauma exposure.
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For every dollar donated during REST 2026, For Real Therapy will match $1, doubling the impact of community care throughout the series.
When we give together, we give further.
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REST 2026 is a Black History Month series presented by NeuroBloom Mental Health Collective in collaboration with For Real Therapy, centering rest, resistance, and collective care through community-led mental health programming and mutual aid.
