CHAI exists because healing is a collective right—not a privilege reserved for those with money, access, or proximity to institutions.

Across Minnesota, BIPOC, LGBTQ+, disabled, and low-income community members continue to face systemic barriers to care, while the healers who have sustained our communities for generations—cultural practitioners, artists, and credentialed arts-based therapists—remain underfunded and undervalued. CHAI was created to shift that reality. We invest directly in the people doing the work: paying practitioners, funding materials, and removing the financial barriers that keep community members from accessing culturally rooted and arts-driven healing. We uplift the truth that healing has always lived both inside and far beyond institutions—and we honor the artists and healers who carry that legacy by making sure their labor is resourced, visible, and accessible to the communities who need it most.