Shanon Williams-Hughes hails from the Northside of Pittsburgh and attended the University of Pittsburgh earning her bachelor’s degree in Social Work.  She has worked in the vast field of social work in broad capacities inclusive of counseling, advocacy, and having founded many projects and organizations.  

Shanon is the Founder and Chief Care Administrator of Self Care Housekeeping, the country’s first spatial wellness service created to help improve overall well being by tending to the “head, heart, and home.” Self Care provides trauma responsive in-home and virtual care to improve their clients’ relationship with space and self.  

In addition to Self Care Housekeeping, Shanon is a professional mediator and founding member of Sacred Ground Collective offering conflict navigation and consultation services. She is also a volunteer mediator with Just Mediation Pittsburgh facilitating housing mediation. 

She hosts a podcast called “See Us,” where she highlights and uplifts the voices, experiences, and brilliance of people who mainstream media would not typically cover. The podcast has been effective in garnering support and partnership for her guests as well as offering healing for the individuals telling their story and community for those listening. 

The See Us Podcast is a project of The Narrative Justice. Their ultimate goal is to hold mainstream media accountable for its representation of people – especially those most marginalized. 

She is the Founder of The Wellness Collective, a sustainable mutual aid collective serving Allegheny County.  The Wellness Collective has been a reciprocal neighbor for hundreds of neighbors since their inception in late 2019 and has brokered over $250K in community support which primarily went directly to the needs of neighbors.  

The Wellness Collective’s mission is to fill the gaps of existing systems and social safety nets so that all of our neighbors can attain sustainable, healthy, and thriving lives.  

The group provides services such as their For Goods Delivery Service, which contracts with local companies and organizations to provide delivery service so that they can provide free delivery to neighbors who need food and other essential items, however, transportation is a barrier.  They also host events such as their Mental Wellness Speed Dating series, which is an opportunity for those seeking mental health and wellness services to meet with multiple practitioners and decide who they will work with based on their own criteria.  

“It has been my life’s work to show up for people who are largely made invisible, written off, and “otherized” in the face of society.  To advocate for another human being’s humanness is not only empowering for the individual, but it changes the narrative of what our society holds as core beliefs.  This shift of consciousness is no small thing.  Narrative is the most powerful tool in our possession.  If we are able to collectively influence the global narrative to be person-centered, then we will have effectively accomplished the ever-sought after “change” we want to see in the world.

I like to think that many people set out to be helpful.  However, without a core understanding of the “why,” it is easy to get stuck on the “what” a person has or has not done.  In my work with both Self Care Housekeeping and The Wellness Collective, a large component of working with existing organizations is unlearning and unskilling their presuppositions about “why” their clients are in the positions that they are in.”