What we’re about
Welcome! The Yarrow Collective is a group of people who have experienced psychiatric diagnosis, suicidality, trauma, extreme emotional distress, addiction, recovery, discrimination, and more.
We are people who have found beauty in our sadness,
who have found trap doors at “rock bottom,”
who have broken our hearts on the wind and found our names within,
who have nightmares about mental hospitals,
who kinda-sorta-sometimes liked therapy and medication,
who found community in rites of passage,
who needed to define our stories in our own terms,
who realized we were the experts of our own experience,
who trouble linear timelines of healing,
who sometimes are still really struggling, and
who dream of alternatives.
Some of us reject labels like “mental illness,” “diagnosis,” and “recovery,” while others of us identify with those words as useful and meaningful to our stories.
The Yarrow Collective is borne out of a need for alternatives, a need for community, and a need to reclaim our stories in the ways that are meaningful to us.
All that to say, here at the Yarrow Collective, we’ve “been there,” and we’re here to envision & cultivate what healing, support, and empowerment can look like through alternative options to the current conventional system.
If you resonate with these experiences, join us at any of our events and gatherings!
**Please note this group is not private, meaning being a "member" of the group and your RSVPs may be visible to the wider public. Check out this page for more information on changing your own privacy settings on your MeetUp account. We do not require RSVPs to attend any of our groups, so you are more than welcome to peruse our page & get the information you need to show up confidentially. To give us anonymous feedback, check out this form.
Upcoming events (4+)
See all- Unity in Community140 W Oak St, Fort Collins, CO
When we find ourselves no longer wanting to continue on we lean into the practice of liberating ourselves from staying silent.
Unity in Community is held by a collective of trained facilitators with a diversity in lineage and lived experience, to hold space for those needing connection and community.
We hold space for witnessing, and being witnessed so that we can return, reclaim, and remember our roots. “Pain witnessed is pain transformed.” -Caroline Mazel-Carlton
This group is free, welcoming and friendly, and we provide snacks!
Location is now at the BIPOC Alliance, located in the Oak Street Mall in old town Fort Collins.
For accessibility requests or other questions, email:
lucrecia.medrano@yarrowcollective.org. - Saving Ourselves (Online)Link visible for attendees
Join us in “Saving Ourselves”. Saving Ourselves is a liberatory harm reduction group aimed to shift the paradigm of harm reduction from a public health view or approach. This is a space for People of Color to gather and speak about our unique shared experience without judgment. Many of us have experienced the discrimination, judgment, and other harmful stigmas that are associated with being a Person of Color in a white dominant society.
We are here to acknowledge, support, and accept each other as we are , while sharing knowledge and resources to lift each other up, all while keeping each other safe. We know that we can not rely on society to save us, so we hope that together we can gain the knowledge and resources to Save Ourselves!
With love to Shira Hassan, author of Saving Our Own Lives, whose book was such an inspiration in dreaming up this group.Every Tuesday, 5:30 - 7pm MST, via Zoom.
This is a free, drop in group.
Meeting link: https://zoom.us/j/94720480841
Meeting ID: 947 2048 0841Join by phone:
+13462487799,,94720480841# US (Houston)
+16699006833,,94720480841# US (San Jose)
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+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)