Sickle Cell Community Consortium

08/29/2026

🚨 CALIFORNIA SICKLE CELL COMMUNITY, WE NEED YOUR VOICES! 🚨

Treatment alone is NOT enough.

Sickle Cell Warriors need access to care, but they also need the support that makes receiving and navigating that care possible: transportation assistance, mental health services, patient advocacy, care coordination, emergency relief, caregiver support, and help navigating the healthcare system.

For more than 25 years, Cayenne Wellness Center has provided critical community-based support to individuals and families living with sickle cell disease throughout California. Now, with federal funding for key services ending, we need California leaders to help ensure these resources DO NOT disappear.

Cayenne Wellness Center and Children's Foundation is calling for $15 million over three years to help sustain these vital services.

And our community has already made its voice heard. On August 14, Sickle Cell Warriors, families, and advocates gathered in Sacramento, and 1,000 petitions were delivered to Governor Newsom.

But we are not finished. 📣

We need YOU to help us continue making noise.

🔴 Watch and share the message
🔴 Add your voice to the conversation
🔴 Contact your California legislators
🔴 Tell California Budget Leaders to protect community-based sickle cell care

California cannot invest in treatment while leaving Warriors without the resources they need to access that treatment, navigate their care, and remain supported outside of the hospital.

Our Warriors deserve more than survival. They deserve the opportunity to THRIVE. ❤️

TAKE ACTION:
https://cayennewellness.org/advocacy-day/funding-for-californians-living-with-scd/protect-sickle-cell-care-california/

Stand with California’s Sickle Cell Warriors. Share their stories and urge California Budget Leaders to protect coordinated, community-centered sickle cell care.

08/28/2026

Our partners at Cayenne Wellness Center and Children’s Foundation are speaking up for the sickle cell community in California, and we are asking our entire SC3 partner network to help amplify this message.

Coordinated care, trusted resources, education, and advocacy are not extras. They are essential to ensuring Sickle Cell Warriors receive the care, support, and respect they deserve.

To our partners: Please repost Cayenne Wellness Center’s original message, share it with your community, and tag California’s budget leaders. We may serve different communities and regions, but when one of our partners needs support, we show up.

California’s Sickle Cell Warriors should not lose access to the coordinated care they depend on. Let’s use our collective voice and make sure this message is heard.

Nothing For Us Without Us.


Cayenne Wellness Center and Children's Foundation Sickle Cell 101

08/26/2026

🚨 SC3 Office Hours are happening NOW!
Join the Sickle Cell Community Consortium team today, August 26, anytime between now and 6:00 PM ET.
This is your opportunity to ask questions, get updates, and connect directly with the SC3 team.
📩 Check your email for the link. If you did not receive it, please contact Dominique Goodson at [email protected].
Come on in, we are ready to connect with you!

08/20/2026

Today, we pause to remember and honor Genesis Jones, an advocate, leader, survivor, friend, and deeply valued member of the Sickle Cell Community Consortium family.

Genesis understood the realities of serious illness firsthand. She lived with sickle cell anemia and survived cancer, yet her story was never defined solely by her health challenges. She used her experiences to encourage others, elevate patient voices, and contribute meaningfully to the sickle cell community.

Her compassion, perspective, and genuine care for others touched many lives. Her influence will remain present through the people she encouraged, the relationships she built, and the advocacy she helped advance.

This has been an especially difficult season of loss for the sickle cell community. As we remember Genesis, we encourage everyone to make room for grief, care for your emotional well-being, reach out when you need support, and check on those around you. No one should have to process this loss alone.

We extend our heartfelt condolences to Genesis’s parents, grandmother, siblings, extended family, friends, fellow advocates, and everyone who knew and loved her.

Please join her family in celebrating her life:

Saturday, August 22, 2026, at 2:00 p.m.
Wade Funeral Home & Crematory
4140 W. Pioneer Parkway
Arlington, TX 76013

A repass will follow immediately at the funeral home. Additional information, including a livestream link for those unable to attend in person, will be posted on the Wade Funeral Home website as arrangements are finalized.

For service-related questions, please contact [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]).

January 5, 1999, to August 11, 2026

Genesis, thank you for sharing your voice, leadership, and life with our community. You made a difference, and you will be deeply missed. ❤️

08/19/2026

Partners, this is your friendly reminder that our Monthly Partner Meeting is happening this Friday, August 21, at 7:00 p.m. ET.

These meetings give us an opportunity to share updates, stay aligned, and strengthen the work we are doing together for the sickle cell community.

Please check your email for the Zoom link. We look forward to connecting with you Friday evening!

08/19/2026

Happy Birthday to our incredible Executive Director, Dr. Bailey! 🥹💕🎂

This birthday feels especially meaningful because we know this past year has come with its share of trials and tribulations. Yet, even in the face of your own storms, you have continued to show up, lead, serve, pour, and make sure this community keeps moving forward. That says so much about the woman and leader you are.

We want to thank you for the oil you pour out that countless people may never even see. For the prayers, sacrifices, late nights, difficult decisions, tears wiped away before meetings, and the weight you carry behind the scenes while still finding the strength to lead not only this community, but our amazing team.

Some people only get to see the fruit. We have the privilege of witnessing some of the cost behind it.

We pray this next year pours back into YOU. May God replenish every place you have poured from, restore what life has taken, and remind you that your labor, your heart, and your impact are seen. May this chapter bring you joy that doesn’t require you to fight for it, peace that doesn’t have to be earned, and blessings that exceed anything you could have planned for yourself.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Bailey. 💕 You are deeply appreciated, deeply valued, and so deserving of being celebrated today.

May your oil never run dry. 🙏🏾✨🎉

08/18/2026

Appy!

08/12/2026

Our hearts are heavy. 💔

This year, the sickle cell community has experienced so much loss, and once again, we find ourselves grieving the loss of another incredible pillar of our community.

We know this is hard. We know grief can feel overwhelming, especially in a community as close-knit as ours, where these aren’t simply names or faces. They are our friends, our family, our advocates, our warriors, and people who have walked beside us in this fight.

As we grieve, we also want to remind you to take care of your heart and your mental health. Give yourself permission to feel whatever you are feeling. Reach out. Lean on someone. Check on one another. You do not have to carry the weight of this loss by yourself.

Most importantly, we are here. We feel you. We grieve with you. We stand with you. ❤️‍🩹

One thing this community has always known how to do is come together. In moments like these, may we hold each other a little closer, extend a little more grace, and remind one another that we are still a community, still a family, and we need each other now more than ever.

To everyone grieving right now, we are sending you love, comfort, and strength. 🕊️❤️