We want to provide Black hair equity in the shelter we run, and to folx we serve in the Mon Valley community! We are requesting funds to enable us to buy hair products specifically for Black hair so that black folx we serve can take care of their hair in the way they want. Team PSBG runs the McKeesport Downtown Housing Low-Barrier Shelter in the Mon Valley (outside of Pittsburgh, PA). More than half of the folx we serve identify as black, yet we don’t get donations of hair products for black hair! We have a Facebook page with our ‘wish list’, but many of the generous folx who fulfill those wishes for us, often have no knowledge or experience of what it means and what it takes to take care of black hair--so they get us things that they are familiar with. This leaves folx with Black hair working with products not suited to them or with small supplies of product that we struggle to pay for. We want everyone at the shelter to be able to take care of their personal care needs (their hair, specifically) in a way that makes them feel confident in themselves. (Our attached photo shows the cubbies where guests can get what they need. We don’t put out all of our supplies at once, but you’ll see how we lack in Black hair care products.) We are sending this proposal to both our local Pittsburgh chapter and to the Homelessness chapter.