Community

Centered

Care

DCMA is creating a more just health care system in DC by strengthening and growing an alternative vision for what health looks like for our community

About Us

Connecting our community to accessible plant medicine and education.

DC Mutual Aid Apothecary (DCMA) is a Black, femme, and queer-led mutual aid network stewarded by and centered in the needs of Black and otherwise marginalized communities in the District’s Wards 7 & 8. Since our founding in 2020, we have grown from a rapid COVID-19 response project into a healing justice hub of herbalists, community health practitioners, farmers, and organizers collaborating to provide accessible herbal products, education, and resources to an intergenerational community.

Rooted in practices of solidarity and community care, DCMA is building an alternative vision for a more equitable District health care system. Our programming and partnerships create spaces for our community to access herbal medicine and education, reconnect to ancestral plant knowledge, steward land, and build networks and relationships towards radical systems change.

Our Programs

We believe access to healthcare is a human right; we’ve created free programming that focuses on education, growing, and distribution of medicinal herbs.

Herbalism In Community Cohort

The Herbalism In Community Cohort is a six month training program for beginner and intermediate herbalists who are interested in deepening their understanding of how to take care of themselves and their community through the use of herbal medicine and other holistic health strategies. Members of the cohort will get hands-on experience working with plants, making medicine, and distributing those plants and medicine to the community through our mutual aid model. In 2024 we piloted a Level 2 program. At the end of its second year this program had trained 35 community herbalists and received over 200 applications.
Distribution Pop Ups

The Distribution Pop Ups provide our intergenerational community with access to free herbal medicine, holistic health care services, farm fresh produce and other resources provided by our 12+ community partners. These pop ups act as mini-festivals with DJs, book and clothing swaps, free movement and mediation classes, bouquet making, kids activities + more.
Plant Fest

Our annual Plant Fest provides thousands of free medicinal, culinary and pollinator plants to hundreds of community members in Ward 7 and 8. Our next Plant Fest is June 14th, at Lederer Gardens in NE DC.
Community Grower Program

This program allows us to source our herbs from a large variety of local growers. In exchange for providing participants with free seedlings, individual gardeners and community gardens around the DMV will donate a portion of their harvest to us for use during our medicine-making workshops and at our distribution pop-ups. If you would like to grow for us, reach out below!
Senior Pop Ups

Each year we partner with DPR’s Lederer Gardens during their weekly veggie giveaways to provide herbal products, custom herbal tea blends and consultations to seniors. These events provide hands on experience for our Herbalism In Community Cohort members and allow us to giveback to the elders within our community.
Community Medicine Making

Each year we offer a series of free drop in Community Medicine Making classes, where folks can get hands on experience making herbal medicine for our distribution pop ups as well as their own home apothecaries.
Support to Local Organizing

Since the beginning, DCMA has always worked to support local organizing. We have provided free herbal products to folks organizing jail support, street medics working during protests, and those working towards Palestinian liberation. In the fall of 2023, members of our Herbalism in Community cohort came together to respond to the need for nervous system support among organizers in our city. During that time, they created Herbs For Liberation, an educational resource on herbs for the nervous system with tea blends for grief and anxiety.