Aisha McGainey

I am a licensed social worker who brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to my role as a Social Work Supervisor at a nonprofit agency specializing in anti-oppressive social work approaches to supportive housing. An active community member, I am deeply committed to pouring into the community I call home by advocating, stewarding, and uplifting the rich culture in Edgemere, Queens, NY, an often overlooked part of New York City. Becoming a FireSoul is an extension of the passion that guides both my professional and personal ethos.

When I transplanted into Edgemere, NY nearly six years ago, I found myself deeply yearning for community. Moving away from my friends and family into a transportation, food and recreational dessert, I began attending local events with organizations in hopes of finding connection. While I learned a lot about the community, its resilience, its ongoing fight for environmental justice and effects of coastal flooding, many of those spaces did not feel aligned with who I was or what I was seeking.
 
Eventually, I became a volunteer at The Garden by the Bay and soon after, a trusted member of the community there. In the garden, I witnessed something powerful: change is not simply found, but created. Through collective care, shared labor, and imagination, our garden blossomed into something far greater than a green space. It became a place of restoration in a community where people of color often have limited access to safe and welcoming nature environments.

Living in Edgemere over the years, nature has become essential to my own wellbeing. It offers a space for reflection, grounding, and healing which is often missing in fast paced urban neighborhoods like ours. A Sacred Place would further deepen the mission of our garden by intentionally creating a space for pause and restoration for community to enjoy. It would serve as a reminder that nature is not just something that we live amongst, but something that sustains and restores our faith, hope and ability to dream.