Amna
1/5
TL;DR: Dear BIPOC siblings (especially Arab/Muslim) steer clear of this place - sick joke!
If you were referred here or are considering Stella's Place, PLEASE take the time to read this and consider other alternatives. I fully back Kathleen and Lara’s reviews below. This is a corrupt twisted private business venture and NOT some noble “charity!”
My experience here was deeply hurtful, and traumatizing as the staff perpetuated the very trauma I sought support around!
I would advise you to look into the roots of this organization. They’re not actively working to support the Arab and Muslim communities, in fact they’re doing the exact opposite.
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The founder of Stella’s Place (Donna Green) is a Z10nist, as are the org’s partners and funders. The racist Z10nist ideology of dehumanization and annihilation of brown and Black folk, especially Arabs and Muslims, is bleeding into the way the staff operate. It clearly determines which youth are welcome and safe here and which aren’t, and whose experiences are respected and whose aren’t. The cognitive dissonance is real with claiming to support BIPOC communities but somehow with fervent Z10nism. This organization is guilty of pinkwashing and perpetuates homonationalism.
This space is clearly designed for a very select few in mind and is guilty of false advertising and performative support and allyship for BIPOC. The anti-racist, anti-oppressive, trauma-informed framework they claim to work from is merely lip service. Services specifically for BIPOC are subpar to nonexistent. As a POC Muslim, I felt tokenized by the staff in this space and ignored when I expressed my concerns about lack of inclusion with them. Do not be misled by the occasional photos/Canva art of BIPOC individuals on their website or socials or the posts about Black/Indigenous History months.
I came to Stella’s Place at a really vulnerable time in my life as per my psychiatrist’s orders for their DBT group therapy.
I then went on to try their other programs and accessed their space for 1.5 years. I felt like I couldn’t talk about my lived experiences as a visibly Muslim woman in the space whilst others had more of a voice. The staff are dismissive, rude, immature, and unprofessional.
A staff member assumed that I was homophobic because I’m a hijabi Muslim. Another judged me when I came out as queer and shared the above experience with them - I lost a peer training due to this. I was genuinely looking for acceptance and community at a very vulnerable time in my life and it’s deeply upsetting with the way I was received.
When I was accessing services there, a certain individual was allowed to make continuous racist and Islamophobic comments and jokes in the shared café space, which was very triggering for me as a POC Muslim. I feel like all the sessions in the social anxiety group were wasted addressing the incidents with this individual, so I didn’t actually benefit at all from the group whatsoever and left. I spoke to staff for months to no avail!
I also spoke about the ge-nocide in P@lest1ne in a counselling session and mentioned “historical and collective trauma” and I was scoffed at. Another clinician in another session proceeds to call it a “conflict/issue". I saw a total of 4 clinicians. The clinicians use the colonizer’s language like, “war” and “peace in the Middle East." Dishonest.
Stella's Place perpetuated the very trauma that I sought support around.
This is what led me to researching the background of Stella’s Place and discovering that the organization is rooted in Z10nism. They could not possibly care less about the people in P@lest1ne who are suffering beyond comprehension or any brown and Black folks for that matter!
Guidelines on community interactions were posted in the facility per my request after several meetings with various staff including the manager, which included notes on not displaying racist or bigoted behavior, and these were all removed after barely a week.
If you’ve been referred to or are considering Stella’s place, please seek support elsewhere!
0 STARS.
