DRK Beauty
Mental Health for Minorities
DRK connects users with clinicians to guarantee access to mental health treatments. It further provides free and subsidized therapy for minorities.
Mission
DRK Beauty Healing is a non-profit mental health and wellness organization. Nowadays, it offers access to both free and subsidized therapy. It focuses on helping people discover, experience, and build healing journeys.
Impact
Its impact relies on its support of minorities and oppressed social groups. It includes Black, Latinx, Indigenous, South Asian, East Asian women, and non-binary people.
Services
We provide both Experience and Development services. Our joint work with DRK focused on expanding the organization's capacities.
Goal
Since its inception, DRK’s goal has been to organize and unite vulnerable populations around the United States. Currently, it’s focused on providing mental health assistance to vulnerable people across the country.
Story
Over ten years ago, Wilma Mae Basta was suffering from severe depression. While being broke, she ingressed to a psychiatric hospital for six weeks. Yet, she left feeling that specific therapy was, on its own, not enough for her. This experience faced her with her specific health needs as a Black woman. After years of exploration, she arrived at a blend of clinical and spiritual therapy. As a result, DRK Beauty Healing was born.
The initiative started in May 2020 as an immediate response to COVID-19. It focused on the pandemic's impact on communities of color in the US. Given that the following years had a growth in racial strife, DRK kept growing. Nowadays, it's a network with more than 130 responsive clinicians. It has delivered 2000+ hours of free therapy. Also, it has helped over 300 people of color across 60% of America.
Challenges
Our technical challenges involved providing a fulfilling experience for each party. Firstly, we needed to ensure a pleasant interface for people that needed DRK’s services. And also to guarantee that volunteer therapists could list their services.
Technology
To apply our strategy, we relied on Figma’s wireframe efficiency. Once we defined the experience’s proposal, we moved it to Wordpress. Its light and visual structure allowed us to apply our concept easily. We used customized login pages for professionals and staff.
Stratregy
We took the platform's experience as a priority. To achieve high-quality results, we contemplate the networking process for both sides. On one side, there were potential and current users. For them, DRK's platform needed to be clear on therapy and counseling processes. Besides, it must show its payment option and professionals' availability.
Yet, on the other side, were the clinicians. In their case, they needed secure login within the site. Not only would this allow them to fill out forms on contact info. With this, DRK's staff can access therapists' degrees to confirm their credentials. As a result, the Beauty Healing network can ensure its available staff's suitability.
