Sirrita Darby

  • Detroit Heals Detroit, Inc.

  • Funded with support from KKR

  • 2021 Global Fellow

Sirrita Darby professional headshot
  • Detroit Heals Detroit, Inc.

  • Funded with support from KKR

  • 2021 Global Fellow

bold idea

Build access to healing, joy, and liberation for Detroit youth through healing justice, youth-led organizing, and asset-driven strategies that combat systemic and generational trauma.

organization overview

Detroit Heals Detroit is a youth-led organization committed to establishing Black, Indigenous, and people of color youth-led abolitionist healing spaces Detroit and beyond. Detroit Heals Detroit takes a holistic approach to combating trauma by shifting to a healing-centered perspective, reminding young people that they are not just their trauma. It also works toward building consciousness and organizing against social inequities that uphold trauma. The overall goal is to build access for young people: access to healing, access to joy, access to liberation, access to new possibilities.

Personal Bio

Dr. Sirrita Darby is the co-founder and executive director of Detroit Heals Detroit. Born and raised in Detroit, Michigan, Sirrita has always been committed to combating social inequities. As an abolitionist educator in Detroit, she saw how trauma infiltrated the lives of her students inside and outside of the classroom. There she developed a strong commitment to centering healing in her classroom and in her community. As an extension of a class project, Sirrita founded Detroit Heals Detroit alongside her students to foster healing for other Detroit youth. Sirrita earned her doctorate in educational leadership at Michigan State University, where she did extensive research on trauma in Black, Indigenous, and communities of color and analyzed the radical solutions necessary to combat it. She also received a master’s degree from the University of Michigan and a bachelor’s degree in social relations and policy from Michigan State University. Sirrita is committed to helping create Black, Indigenous, and people of color healing spaces that lift up joy, brilliance, hope, and justice, promoting healing for liberation and not just for survival.

  • Organization/Fellow Location ?

    Our most recent information as to where the Fellow primarily resides.

    LANSING, United States

  • Impact Location ?

    Countries or continents that were the primary focus of this Fellow’s work at the time of their Fellowship.

  • Organization Structure ?

    An organization can be structured as a nonprofit, for-profit, or hybrid (a structure that incorporates both nonprofit and for-profit elements).

    Nonprofit

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