Herbalista Health Network
Once you invite herbs into your life, how it will flourish! How many aromatic adventures you will have and sweet memories you will make. How many hard times you will survive and friends you will help! How the world will thrive!
Because our medicine chest is greater than a pill bottle. It is filled with wise weeds and knowing trees. It is filled with nourishing people who share their remedies with each other. It holds the stars and the blue heron.
It’s a medicine of place. And it’s strong.
Herbalista ATL Clinics
Herbalista recognizes healthcare as a fundamental human right and provides free, holistic services to under-served communities.
Here is a list of clinics and herbal services offered in 2019:
1 First Aid Station
The Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference First Aid Station
10 Community Health Fairs
Mercy Community Church, Atlanta, GA
10 Herb Cart Clinics
Mercy Community Church, Atlanta, GA
40 Harriet Tubman Foot Clinic Sessions
Mercy Community Church, Atlanta, GA
2 Permanent HerbCare Stations Installations
Parkview Recreation Center, Lumberton, NC
Mercy Community Church, Atlanta, GA
17 Pop-up HerbCare Stations
Mutual Aid Disaster Relief Gathering, Lumberton NC
Queer Apocalypse Skill Share, Atlanta, GA
Mercy Community Church (10), Atlanta, GA
Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference, NC
The Helium, Atlanta, GA
cOMingle Festival, Atlanta, GA
Imagine Festival, Atlanta, GA
Georgia Herbalists Guild, Atlanta, GA
HerbShare ATL
We offer community programming, aimed at spreading the knowledge, building the Atlanta’s living plant apothecary, and creating stronger relationships with each other. All of our classes are either free, by donation, or on a sliding scale basis!
7 Solidarity Medicine Making Workshops
Parkview Rec Center (3), Lumberton, NC
Edgewood Learning Garden, Atlanta, GA
Eventide Brewery, Atlanta, GA
Migrant Connections Festival, London, ENGLAND
Wild Routes Tour, Glengarriff, IRELAND
10 Herbalista Community Health Fair Wellness Class Series
Held each month at the Health Fair @ Mercy Community Church, these series include trainings in first aid, medicine making, aromatherapy, materia medica, and more!
1 Herbal First Aid Training
Mukuru Kwa Njenga, Nairobi, KENYA
6 Plant Rambles
Urban Food Forest @ Browns Mill, Atlanta, GA
Brownwood Park, Atlanta, GA
Cascade Springs Nature Preserve, Atlanta, GA
Southside Beltline Trail, Atlanta, GA
Grant Park, Atlanta, GA
Connally Nature Preserve, Atlanta, GA
2 Grow a Row Skillshares
Seed Starting, Wylde Center, Atlanta, GA
Harvesting and Drying, Urban Food Forest @ Brown’s Mill, Atlanta, GA
HerbCare Stations
Our love of HerbCare stations continued to grow and in addition to offering pop-up stations in Atlanta and Dublin, we installed permanent stations in two locations with plans for more in 2020.
The first installation was in Lumberton, NC at the local Parkview Recreation Center. This community is recovering from being hit by two hurricanes over the last few years. We stocked the Station with safe, effective herbal tonics to support the community. Remedies like Rose spritzers, salves, lavender inhalers, Fire Cider and more! We also provided a mini-reference library so folks can learn more about the remedies as they enjoy them.
We also installed a permanent station at Mercy Community Church, which is home to our monthly health fair and the weekly Harriet Tubman Foot Care Clinic. Their services are aimed to provide care and comfort to folks without shelter to call home. This community can’t get enough of the Fire Cider, Immune Defender, and Deep Energy Tonics! As small an offering as an HerbCare Station might seem, it is an extremely effective tool that can make all the difference for someone sleeping each night in the elements!
Community Health Fair
February 2020 will be the 5 year anniversary of our monthly Health Fair!
That’s 5 years of free clinical services including herbal consultations, acupuncture, massage, reiki, reflexology, and more! That’s 5 years of free health classes on a range of topics from Diabetes 101 to Medicine Making, Herbal First Aid to Meditation. 5 years of tea stations and HerbCare Stations. 5 years of community building and sharing in the health with our friends and neighbors! Viva la Herbs!
Dublin Herb Bike
Dublin Herb Bike continued its mission of offering herbal care + comfort to marginalized communities in and around Dublin. The crew blends clinical care with community wellness education. Highlights from 2019 included:
- Weekly Pop-up HerbCare Stations at the General Post Office serving herbal remedies alongside Hope in the Darkness Soup Kitchen.
- Herbal crafting classes at the RAMSI (Refugee and Migrant Solidarity Ireland) Summer Camp!
- Edible and Medicinal Plant Rambles along the Grand Canal and Tolka River Valley
- Solidarity Medicine Making Workshops to stock the Dublin Herb Bike’s Herbal Apothecary.
Cork Herb Bike
Our sister clinic, the Cork Herb Bike, continued to offer herbal care and comfort at the Kinsale Road Accommodation Centre, supporting folks living in Direct Provision.
They held a series of Pay-it-Forward Medicine Making Classes, raising both funds and remedies for the Herb Bike. The best of all is that the medicines made by the community are then given right back to the community, through the Herb Bike clinics, building both solidarity and good health in Cork!
Follow their adventures on their Facebook page
Harriet Tubman Foot Care Clinic
It’s all about those happy feet and cheerful toes at the Harriet Tubman Foot Clinic. Offering over 40 weekly clinics in 2019, we do our best to provide the care our society has failed to do. We strive to meet every visitor to our clinic with open hearts and healing hands. All services are free thanks to the help of our volunteers and to generous donations.
With the rise in homelessness, diabetes, and an aging population, foot care is something our country can no longer afford to ignore. Last year our foot clinic coordinator, Lorna, finished her Diploma as a Foot Health Practitioner from the SMAE Institute in England. She had to travel abroad as this type of mid-level training is sadly absent from the curriculum in the United States.
We are grateful to the Mercy Community Church for hosting us each week and to the Mercy Care Mobile Clinic for supporting us and collaborating with us as we serve together each week.
Herbal First Aid
For over a decade Herbalista has offered herbal first aid at the Southeast Women’s Herbal Conference. Over the years our clinic has grown and flourished and this year was our most incredible yet!
Serving this temporary village of women and children has been a chance to show what health care can look like. It can be integrative, with difference modalities serving together. It can be sensational, filled with lovely aromatics and flavors. And it can be collaborative – not just collaboration between practitioners, but most importantly, between herbalist and patient!
This year we also set up a large HerbCare Station off of the Herb Bus next to the First Aid Clinic. By allowing folks more autonomy of care you could feel the health and vitality of the gathering soar. Fire Cider, Immune Defender, and Happy Heart were definite favorites, not to mention the Herbal Tea Bar!
Apotheker’s Ball Fundraiser
What a magic formula! ✨ Take one dedicated Herb Bus, add in equal parts of music and aromatic alchemy, simmer over the flames of community love, and serve it all up on a Saturday night! ? Great things happen when the ATL family come together!
Massive thanks to Chosewood Ballroom, Lloyd’s Rocksteady Revue, DJ Dookie Platters, Cherokee Moon Mixology, Three Taverns Brewery, Trees Atlanta, Garden*Hood Atlanta, and Marie-Lies of Rambling Creations who made our night; all our silent auction donors for sharing their gifts with us; the network of healers, growers, and medicine makers who lift Herbalista up; and the incredible crew, friends and family who keep us going day after day.
Our Apotheker’s Ball Fundraiser on November 9th raised over $5,000! And even more importantly, it continued to build love and connections in our community! ?
Thank You!
May we continue to put our beliefs to work
And demonstrate our love through action.
Thanks to all the hands and hearts who keep these clinics rolling,
the teachers who inspire us with their knowledge,
and the plants who nurture and heal.