LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WLFI) — Dozens of black community members in Greater Lafayette are hosting an online healing session. This comes in response to racial inequality and police brutality happening in the United States.

"I think all of us have collectively experienced this trauma of seeing George Floyd murdered, Sean Reed murdered, Breonna Taylor murdered and we need to come together and really create a space of healing," said Rachel Scarlett, member of The Collective and the Greater Lafayette Younger Women's Task Force.

The Collective is a caucus of the Younger Women's Task Force of Greater Lafayette. The group works to address issues for black and brown people within the community. While these killings are happening at the hands of police across the nation, Scarlett said it still hits home.

"The protests around the nation are about the blatant murder of black lives, the lack of care for black people's lives in this nation, and at this point, I think we all need to step up and do something about it and stop it really," said Scarlett.

Vanessa Pacheco, member of The Collective and Director of policy with the Younger Women's Task Force said the first step toward a solution is healing.

"We're trying to make sure that the black community in this town has a space to grieve, has a space to process, has space to really, before we take action together collectively, to really reflect on how it's impacting us individually," said Pacheco.

A counselor who specializes in racial trauma will be leading the video-chat. In addition to the group talking through the trauma, they'll also be singing freedom songs and working toward what's next.

"We'll talk about what are some solutions that we want to come together because as the folks that are the most impacted by violence, we want to make sure that we can come up with solutions together," said Pacheco. "If we know that folks are specifically impacted by something, and we know that they're the closest to the barriers that they see, we have to make sure that the most vulnerable people in our community feel safe."

The video-chat session is from 6 - 8 p.m.  For black community members interested in joining the chat, you can register by emailing collectivelafayette@gmail.com.