Presented by Streamate, ELEVATE continues to change the narrative around people engaged in and/or who work adjacent to the adult space.

ELEVATE is an initiative that recognizes adult industry members and allies working to positively impact their community through advocacy, direct support, and/or creative endeavors. ELEVATE spotlights a different Community Partner featured on social media to bring awareness to their causes and their work within their community each month.

ELEVATE has announced that Avril Heals is their community partner for April.

After losing a close friend named Avril, Minnie Scarlet and Jae Ortiz came together to create Avril Heals as a tribute to honor and uplift trauma survivors. Avril Heals puts accessibility and inclusivity at the forefront by offering creative arts healing spaces centering around BIPOC, queer people, and sex workers who’ve experienced gender and race-based trauma. The organization’s current services include community groups and workshops that explore revolving creative writing and art healing themes.

Streamate Director of Community Relations, Vanessa Eve, lauded the initiative, “the amount of care and intention that Minnie and Jae have infused into Avril Heals is palpable. It’s inspiring to see individuals recognizing needs within their community and being proactive to meet those needs, especially in situations where there may be limited or inaccessible options.”

Executive Director, Jae Ortiz, a trauma recovery coach and art therapist in training, explained, “When building creative art spaces through Avril Heals, we focused on what we personally understood so that our approach could resonate with other sex workers, queer people, and BIPOC that were like us.”

Fellow co-founder and Director of Communications, Minnie Scarlet, has a background in sex work, art, and digital marketing. “Sometimes, experience in sex work can be regarded as a setback instead of the asset it is,” Scarlet noted. “We couldn’t be prouder to be partnering with ELEVATE to continue highlighting sex workers and their allies.”

As part of their ELEVATE community partnership, Avril Heals will host a mini-series of exclusive free virtual pop-up workshops during April:

Wednesday, April 19^th at 12pm PDT/3pm EDT – Body Scan Art Workshop
Thursday, April 20^th at 6pm PDT/9pm EDT – Black-out Poetry Workshop
Tuesday, April 25^th at 6pm PDT/9pm EDT – Zine Making Workshop

To register for the workshops, go to beyondsexwork.com. Details on each workshop can also be found there. Learn more about Avril Heals at avrilheals.org and follow them on their Twitter @avrilheals and Instagram @AvrilHeals. For more on ELEVATE head to their Twitter @beyondsexwork and Instagram @beyondsexwork.