Our History
In June 2020 Rachel and Yoda.Kai lost their six month old daughter, Amaru. After calling an ambulance for help, instead of being met with empathy and gentle care, Rachel was greeted by multiple police officers who arrived at her door with the EMT’s. They declared her home “a crime scene,” detained, and interrogated the family until abuse was ruled out. Directly following this traumatic experience, her Indigenous neighbors lit a funeral fire in her backyard in Southwest Detroit.
Her family was assisted and held by the fire keepers, community healers, therapists, death doulas, Reiki practitioners, tarot readers, musicians, herbalists, and dear friends who streamed in and out of the home funeral during the following four days. It was at this sacred funeral fire where the idea of a collaborative mobile healing unit that can respond to crisis, outside of law enforcement, was born. Amaru’s family experienced first hand how compassionate community care and expertise offer a safer alternative in de-escalating already tense situations.
Our Values
Motor City Mobile Wellness is a cooperative that believes Detroiters deserve access to safe, person and community centered wellness services that honor our dignity. We are committed to first listening to the expressed needs of communities, and then building networks of diverse care that allows healing within community. Our practitioners operate from a *social justice and *abolitionist lens that increases access to holistic wellness practices and resources that affirm the whole person and/or community.
