INDUSTRY: Community Mental Health & Faith-Based Outreach
PARTNERS: LA County Department of Mental Health | Take Action LA | CalMHSA
LEAD ORGANIZATION: Lumos Transforms
REACH: 150 Muslim women and families across Los Angeles County
THE CHALLENGE
A Need for Healing, Held in Community
Muslim women face layered mental health stressors shaped by Islamophobia, migration, gender-based violence, economic strain, and systemic invisibility. Many also experience stigma or discomfort when seeking care, particularly in spaces that don’t reflect their cultural or spiritual values.
Lumos Transforms recognized an opportunity to shift this dynamic. As part of the Take Action LA 2025 initiative, Lumos designed and led a deeply rooted, women-centered event that prioritized sanctuary, sisterhood, and collective care. Working alongside Masjid Al-Shareef and trusted community partners, Wellness Day for Muslimahs invited women into a space where their full selves were welcomed—and where mental health conversations could unfold in safety and solidarity.
THE SOLUTION
Co-Creating a Culturally Grounded Day of Wellness
Held at Masjid Al-Shareef in Long Beach, the day-long event blended celebration of Muslim sisterhood, mental health education, spiritual reflection, and intergenerational dialogue. Lumos curated the full arc of the day—from program structure to speaker selection—ensuring each element reflected the lived experiences, identities, and values of Muslim women from diverse backgrounds.
Participants were welcomed into the community mosque which included nourishing halal food, a vibrant bazaar of women-owned businesses, festive spaces decorated for speakers, workshops, and a panel, and areas for children to play while mothers focused on healing.
Lumos structured the day around three pillars: reflection, connection, and access to care.
Key elements included:
- Spoken Word & Ritual: The day opened and closed with poetry from Peacock Secrets, a local Muslim artist whose performance created space for grief, joy, and recognition. These moments bookended the event as rituals of collective witnessing and affirmation.
- Keynote – Sisterhood as Sanctuary: Dr. Kameelah Mu’Min Oseguera of the Muslim Wellness Foundation offered a powerful address that named trauma and resilience in Muslim women’s lives, weaving personal narrative with spiritual insight. Her warmth and candor grounded the day’s theme—“We Are Each Other’s Refuge”—in lived experience.
- Life Stage Workshops: Three concurrent workshops explored how menstruation, pregnancy, and menopause intersect with mental health and identity. Each was facilitated by Muslim women providers who created spaces for honest, often long-silenced conversations.
- Elders Panel – Sanctuary as Practice: This panel brought together three local, accomplished Muslim women leaders to explore how Muslim institutions can serve as sanctuaries of healing, belonging, and empowerment. The discussion focused on reimagining Muslim organizations as spaces where women can find authentic community, exercise leadership, and bridge generational wisdom.
THE RESULTS
Access, Trust, and a Shift Toward Healing
The event offered more than information—it created a felt sense of safety that allowed women to show up fully, often in ways they hadn’t before. By rooting the program in cultural context, lived experience, and community wisdom, Lumos helped make visible what often goes unseen: the mental load Muslim women carry, and the resilience they practice every day.
“The Wellness Day for Muslimahs was nothing short of soul-nourishing.
From the moment I entered the space, I could feel the intentional care behind every detail—the colors, the vendors, the way sisters greeted one another, the warmth in the room. The sanctuary we spoke of wasn’t just theoretical—it was being co-created by everyone present. That is a rare and sacred thing.” – Dr. Kameelah Mu’Min Oseguera
Key outcomes included:
- Reduced Stigma & Increased Openness: This gathering reduced mental health stigma by creating a safe, inclusive space. Throughout the day, participants shared stories, posed vulnerable questions, and nurtured a rare and powerful sense of solidarity among Muslim women—across sects, geographies, racial and class identities, generations, schools of thought, and spiritual or political affinities. One participant simply said “I felt like I could breathe.”
- Expanded Access to Care: Lumos partnered with Muslim therapists and peer support workers, embedding them into the event as visible, approachable figures. No clinical services were offered, but attendees left with names, resources, and real human connections—lowering barriers to future care. A follow-up email included a curated LACDMH resource guide to extend access beyond the event.
Economic Opportunity & Cultural Celebration: The women-led bazaar featured refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs—many of them Sudanese—and created a joyful social space that honored the multifaceted identities of the community. The inclusion of halal meals, prayer breaks, and kid-friendly activities ensured the day felt both sacred and easeful.- Cross-Generational Leadership: The closing panel, Sanctuary in Practice, brought together Black and Indigenous Muslim women elders in positions of leadership, offering testimony, teaching, and inspiration. Their presence was a reminder that healing work is both historical and ongoing.
“What stood out most were the moments of vulnerability—when people spoke from the heart about what sanctuary means to them. Those genuine stories, exchanged between panelists and attendees alike, made the evening feel less like a panel and more like a conversation among old friends. That sense of shared experience and collective wisdom is something I’ll carry with me.” – Dr. Nayawiyyah Muhammad
CONCLUSION
A Model for Culturally Rooted Community Wellness
Wellness Day for Muslimahs reflected what becomes possible when trauma-informed care, spiritual grounding, and community design come together. With Lumos Transforms at the helm, the event wove together partnerships, community engagement, and facilitation into a program that felt authentic, joyful, and deeply needed.
By centering Muslim women’s voices and experiences—while holding a clear container for safety and healing—Lumos helped create a space that didn’t just reduce stigma, but actively built pathways to care and connection. Participants left with tools, inspiration, and a collective desire to keep going. Many asked when the next event would be!
This gathering stands as a model for future work that honors cultural specificity, uplifts grassroots leadership, and makes room for healing in community.
