The Missing Piece in Women’s Wellbeing May Be The Presence of Community
A woman may often keep going long after she has stopped feeling whole. She often raises children, maintains a career, supports a family and meets every expectation placed before her while carrying experiences that may never have been given room to surface. Tamika Davis, founder of Project WOW, believes this disparity between functioning and healing is integral to how women’s well-being is understood.
Davis argues that women are often conditioned to put their own well-being behind the needs of everyone around them. “I think women are socialized to show up for others and make sure other people’s well-being is on their list,” she explains. “And so their own well-being is oftentimes either not on the list or very, very down at the bottom somewhere.”
She believes her observation points to a wider problem in which care becomes something women are expected to provide rather than something they are equally entitled to receive.
The need for stronger forms of connection has gained recognition in public-health policy. Recent studies show that one in six people globally experiences loneliness, while there is a greater need for social connection to be treated with the same seriousness as physical and mental health. Many organizations have also argued for community-based mental health systems that bring support closer to where people live and connect.
Davis arrived at the question through experience. Her childhood included tumultuous circumstances, followed years later by a marriage that lasted 23 years, four children and divorce. She eventually entered a partial-day psychiatric program, but the experience left her questioning whether conventional therapy was addressing what she actually needed. Davis notes the issue was not a rejection of professional care, but the realization that the help she needed could require a different kind of environment alongside it.
Creativity became one of those environments. During one of her darkest periods, Davis auditioned for an episodic play, earned a role and performed. The experience gave her what she describes as a “lifeline.” That discovery eventually informed Project WOW, the Detroit-based initiative she created to encourage women to keep moving forward while creating space for conversation, self-expression and community.
Its methodology reflects that philosophy. According to Davis, Project WOW brings women together through its Soulful Sister Circle, where candid conversations can create opportunities for support and resource-sharing, alongside Healing Harmony and creative performance work. Davis sees these activities as complementary forms of support alongside professional treatment.
Her experience facilitating women’s gatherings has also changed how she thinks about what communities already possess. Davis recalls occasions when she has opened a circle without knowing where the conversation would lead, only to watch one woman identify a need and another realize that she could help. “It’s always amazing to see how resourceful women are,” she says.
Project WOW has supported numerous women, according to Davis, while reaching many more through its wider community engagement. Its next chapter, she believes, should extend beyond individual programs. She envisions a wellness hub where women could encounter recreation, healing and intentional creativity in one accessible setting, with opportunities to learn practices that could then be carried into their own homes and communities.
The ambition also carries a policy dimension. Davis believes women’s wellbeing deserves recognition as a community concern rather than a private responsibility women must manage after everyone else has been cared for. Michigan’s own public-health platform has emphasized the importance of women’s mental and behavioral health to the wellbeing of communities. Davis is encouraging other like-minded women to join her and become a part of her movement.
The question Project WOW raises is what might change if women had more spaces in which they could reconnect before reaching crisis, speak without performing strength and discover that support can exist among peers as well as institutions.
Davis’s answer is rooted in her own recovery. She wants women to understand that adversity does not have to determine the limits of their lives. “You can rebuild,” she says. “When life happens, as it inevitably does, you can still rebuild; you can keep going, and you can make it. You can make it whatever you want.”
Davis believes a woman’s hardest chapter should not become the definition of her life. If healing can happen through connection and the discovery of one’s own agency, she notes, then communities can help make those opportunities accessible. That possibility, Davis posits, is the foundation of Project WOW’s future: a growing community in which women have room to heal and elevate, rather than spending their lives merely learning how to endure.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not substitute for professional medical advice. If you are seeking medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider.
