Siblings of Marsha Education & Rest Space

Aim: Our aim is to run a space where the most marginalised can rest & the wider community can learn to take the best care of each other

[Image of Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze Poppy growing from a brick in a wall in our community garden] 

Ever since I was a child, I've wanted to create nurturing, safe, peaceful spaces for people experiencing oppression and social exclusion- especially for mad, disabled, queer, Black Muslim *MaGes like me. (*marginalised gender expressions, including women) 

Living at the intersections of so many margins often means I'm excluded from just as many spaces as I'm supposedly welcome in because of legacies of colonialism and tired saneist/ableist/queer-antagonistic/misogynistic/racist/Islamophobic tropes that society won't let die, and so I've learned lots of ways to radically include the people these legacies and tropes kill. The term for this cause of death is "Social Murder", a concept introduced by Friedrich Engels, and expounded upon by Black feminist thinkers and activists such as Claudia Jones and the Combahee River Collective. 

I've spoken about Social Murder and my personal experiences of loss and activism as a youth and community engagement worker for over 25 years on Autistic Pride and BAME charity conference panels, and in the book Brick By Brick: How We Build A World Without Prisons published by Hajar Press.

Siblings of Marsha have been holding online community check-ins every Friday evening UK time, since Ramadan in 2023, but have been hosting Quran reading groups under other guises since 2010. These are global intra and interfaith virtual meetings where we discuss Quranic themes, current affairs, mutual aid and community care organising. We currently facilitate Quranic and Black Radical Abolitionist education, mutual aid and community care organising through the Siblings of Marsha Facebook group and the Facebook pages Justice for Victims of UK Grooming Gangs, Lil Accomplices and Hooked by Iqra, in cooperation with Trans Zakat Project, Rainbow Migration, Black Panthers, and a global network of mutual aid organisers, and we run a small community garden project where we hold events depending on the weather, and provide food, flowers and refuge for our neighbours and local wildlife. 

Our aim is to raise funds to facilitate a radically inclusive education space and haven for individuals and families who fall through the cracks in our current system because they need holistic, culturally-sensitive trauma-informed care, peer-support and advocacy. 

Our focus is engagement with families of young people and adults experiencing/who have experienced: 

-exclusion from the school curriculum (SEND/ESOL/other DEI issues); 

-school detention; 

-internal school exclusion/isolation; 

-fixed term and permanent school exclusion; 

-attending a Pupil Referral Unit;

-being a Looked After Child; 

-entry on gangs database or referral to Prevent; 

-risk of incarceration/institutionalisation, homelessness, deportation, statelessness or death due to structural barriers and institutionalised discrimination impacting on access to holistic care. 

We will achieve this by establishing a radically inclusive place of worship, education and rest for the whole community through fostering the promotion and practice of Quranic, Black Radical Abolitionist, Decolonialist and Disability Justice principles by

-providing a peaceful, enriching environment for worship for queer and trans people of all faiths first and foremost, creating an inclusive sacred space that welcomes all people with absolutely no compulsion to convert to any religion whatsoever;

-respecting and nurturing the natural environment;

-valuing diversity of gender expression and gender justice as an integral manifestation of Quranic, Black Radical Abolitionist, Decolonialist and Disability Justice principles and practice;

-facilitating inter-community and inter-faith dialogue and collaborating with others who are seeking change for social and economic welfare and justice;

-running community education workshops and classes that encourage community cohesion and cooperation, and promote personal and public safety, and physical, mental and emotional wellbeing, offering paid opportunities for community members to facilitate activities and events. 

[Image of illustration of handcuffs saying "but, to abolish the police, so much else would have to be radically changed" and a daisy replying "that's the point."] 

We will work with state services in a training provider capacity only, in order to avoid any perceived conflict of interest when acting as advocates for, or campaigning with our community. 

We welcome the opportunity to form working relationships with houses of worship and inclusive organisations internationally that share our aims within the context of their own religious/philosophical/political tradition.

Our dream space would consist of:

-fully equipped catering kitchen & adequate dining hall to host workshops, community cafe and dining events;

-accessible toilets, wudhu & showering & laundry facilities;

-activity hall separate from dining space;

-study room/small lending library;

-nap/chill/decompression space. 

In our dream space we would facilitate regular drop-ins and scheduled pre-booked workshops for all ages on:

-Building self-esteem & maintaining relationships 

(consent & boundaries, standards & expectations, DEI- amplifying racial, class and disability justice, and mental, physical and sexual health awareness) 

-Bystander intervention & conflict resolution 

resolving community issues through community accountability & mediation (victim peer-support and recording of injuries, etc., reducing reliance on policing with the aim to encourage redirection of funds and resources to anti-oppressive community education, health, and care services) 

-First aid drama workshops

facilitating basic first response planning for any every day emergency situation (stopping bleeds; treating burns, breaks & bumps; seizure, heart attack & stroke and mental health crisis awareness)

-Basic skills & facilitating skills sharing for promoting community cohesion, cooperation and achievement 

(budgeting & banking; meal planning & prep; childhood development & elder care; mutual aid & starting small, specific community care programmes i.e abortion/sexual health/maternity appointment booking & attendance and aftercare support system; birth & death doula group; babysitting hub; cv and reference writing, job search & interview prep group; running a menstrual product or nappy bank or a SuSu Hand/Pardner; bulk buying as a community to reduce grocery costs; running meal clubs, food banks, and clothes, seeds/plants, household items swaps; DIY classes and timebanks/skills swaps- tutoring, homework clubs, craft circles, etc.)

-Queering the Quran 

(exploring themes & characters in the Quran, and root word concordance in translations; reading the Quran as a revolutionary existential text; facilitating radically inclusive spiritual health programmes e.g Jumu'ah community check-in online & irl; dowsing, energy & frequency healing projects; interfaith queer and trans inclusive prayer & meditation space; exploration of various SWANA & diaspora religious & cultural customs & decolonisation theories & practices; facilitating community cultural histories/recipes/stories recording and sharing projects) 

We will rely heavily on income from ticketed events, paid professionals' and organisations' workshops, public donations, and limited funding from grants from sources other than the government and lotteries to run the rest space for vulnerable community members and our free community education activities and events. 

For my CV and references, further enquiries or clarifications, or to offer non-financial assistance to the Siblings of Marsha Community Education & Rest Space project, please feel free to send me a message at [email protected] or via Facebook, where you can also find links to more info: Justice for Victims of UK Grooming Gangs/

Siblings of Marsha's Linktree

[Quran 90:12-18] 

Do you know which is the better path?

Freeing others from bondage- physical or mental- and from any social, economic or political oppression.

Feeding in times of hunger, famine, war and natural disaster.

Taking special care of those who, despite being a part of the community, feel left out.

Helping those who remain needy though they toil in the dust.

Being of those who have chosen to be graced with belief, and become living reminders of perseverance and living reminders of compassion.

Those are the people of happiness.

[Image of Siblings of Marsha logo, with Marsha P. Johnson centered, the words Siblings of Marsha, Here and queer all year in the right corner, and an inclusive LGBTQ+ circle with the words No Pride for Some of Us Without Liberation for All of Us in the bottom left corner] 

Funding method

Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 14th September 2025 at 11:36am