Empowering Lives
Fenix Collective is a peer-focused organization which serves the greater Charlotte metro area, centering on women, girls, BIPOC and LGBTQIA + folks who are incarcerated or coming home from incarceration. We focus on three areas: wraparound services and support, holistic mental health and wellness, and advocacy. We want to help you move from simply surviving to thriving within the community!
Wraparound Services and Support
The beauty of the Fenix Collective program is that it starts BEFORE reentry: we believe the incarceration time is when change has to happen, when relationships can be mended and built, and we are here to support in whatever ways we can.
We provide mentoring and essential needs assistance while incarcerated. Right now, we mentor and assist over 40 women and gender-non-conforming folks behind the walls in local detention centers, federal prisons, and NC state prisons. We correspond with them, send books and money for critical needs, and work with them on creating goals, release plans, and do our best to make a difficult time less difficult.
Upon release, we will make referrals and help you get the services and resources you need to get on your feet and launch! This includes Welcome Home baskets after release from confinement or incarceration, emergency needs kits, gender-affirming care/hygiene supplies, transportation, food, laptops and digital literacy training, and more. We opened Fenix House in November 2025 and currently house 5 folks!
Holistic Mental Health and Wellness
We support substance abuse recovery and mental health challenges through peer support and referrals to services and evidence-based programming as needed. Our services are all peer-based, not hierarchical, because we believe that we are here to help one another heal through the sharing of experiences, honesty, and mutualism. We believe in the spirit of Ubuntu: I am because We Are.
We can refer to behavioral and medical health services as needed, should the peer request this type of connection. We work with trusted local partners who are FOR US, and will help our people navigate systems of care with lived experience and understanding of how those systems work.
We support recovery in whatever form your journey requires. We believe in harm reduction and that not all progress is linear. Whatever pathway your recovery takes, Fenix is here to help you walk that path—you are not alone.
Advocacy Initiatives
We advocate for women, BIPOC, and LGBTQIA+ folks during and after incarceration, including voter education and mobilization work, policy change advocacy, direct nonviolent action, and other initiatives that build civic engagement and bring power BACK to the people. We engage in mutual aid and power-building with and on behalf of our confined and newly-released siblings, focusing on BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ folks who are systemically oppressed and the most at need. We work with local, state, and national organizations to partner with them, learn from them, and be part of something greater than ourselves. Whether it is doing voter engagement and education, advocating for policy change, engaging with local leaders to make those policy changes, or participating in civic demonstrations, Fenix tries to center our people in this work and make a difference.
