About Inner City Bliss
Our Story
Inner City Bliss (ICB) is a grassroots, Oakland-based, Black-led, practitioner-led nonprofit rooted in the belief that wellness is a form of resistance and healing is a collective right.
Founded in 2018 by community-based mental health advocate and wellness practitioner Andre Humphrey, ICB grew from his lived experiences growing up in environments shaped by poverty, violence, and systemic oppression. Andre wanted to create the kind of healing spaces he needed as a young person: spaces grounded in care, connection, culture, and belonging.
Since then, ICB has grown into a community-based organization providing trauma-informed, culturally responsive wellness programs for youth, families, caregivers, educators, and communities. Our work centers Black, Brown, Indigenous, AAPI, and historically marginalized communities, with a strong focus on creating accessible healing opportunities in communities that have historically had limited access to them.
We use mindfulness, movement, breathwork, restorative practices, nature, reflection, and other culturally grounded approaches to help people build resilience, strengthen emotional wellness, develop healthy ways of coping, and reconnect with themselves and their communities.
But our work has also taught us something important:
People don’t heal in isolation.
Healing is connected to relationships, culture, belonging, community, and the environments in which people live, learn, and grow.
That’s why Inner City Bliss is continuing to evolve.
We are interested not only in helping people heal, but in what becomes possible when people use that healing to support others, develop their voice, and participate in creating healthier communities.
Why This Work Matters
The communities we serve are navigating challenges that cannot be addressed by individual wellness alone.
Young people are navigating stress, trauma, disconnection, social pressures, and environments that can affect their ability to thrive.
Families and communities need more than services. They need spaces where people can connect, heal, develop their strengths, and have a voice in shaping the conditions around them.
We believe wellness can be a starting point.
A starting point for connection.
A starting point for leadership.
A starting point for change.
OUR APPROACH
HEAL → CONNECT → LEAD → CHANGE
HEAL: Build the foundation for wellness.
We help people develop tools for emotional wellness, healthy coping, self-awareness, resilience, and connection to their bodies and culture. Our practices include mindfulness, movement, breathwork, yoga, sound, nature, reflection, and restorative practices.
CONNECT: We don't heal alone.
We create spaces where people can build relationships, experience belonging, connect with culture, and strengthen their relationships with peers, families, and community. Connection helps transform individual wellness into collective care.
LEAD: Turn personal wellness into collective care.
We create opportunities for young people and community members to develop their voice, confidence, communication, facilitation, and leadership skills so they can support themselves and others. We believe people should not only participate in the spaces created for them. They should have opportunities to help shape them.
CHANGE: Help shape healthier communities.
We create opportunities for people, especially young people, to listen, learn, explore the conditions affecting their well-being, and participate in creating healthier environments and communities. Through community listening, research, civic engagement, partnerships, and community action, we help create opportunities for people to have a voice in what happens around them.
Inner City Bliss in the News
ICB is making an impact, and people are noticing. We’re happy that our work with Fremont High has been featured in this piece by ABC Channel 7.
Partners we've collaborated with
We believe in the power of collaboration and are honored to work with like-minded partners who share our mission and values.
