EUCLID, Ohio — As a singer, Erika Kayne is enjoying the R&B music that’s playing overhead, but she’s not at a club or music studio. 

Kayne is nine months pregnant and was in a medical center for her regular maternity checkup, but this office is anything but regular.

African American art lines the walls, and the rooms are named after notable Black women.

The Village of Healing is a Euclid health center aiming to provide health care for Black women by providers who look like them.  

The center was founded by Dàna M. Langford and Tenisha Gaines, two Black women who wanted to provide not only health services, but also meet the social and cultural needs of women like themselves.

“They’re like my aunties, cousins and sister," Kayne said. "They’re amazing."

The health providers and staff are all Black women and offer gynecological, obstetrics and mental health care.

Renee’ Makupson is the nurse practitioner who tends to Kayne.

“It feels amazing," she said. "It feels good to work with my people, to be able to help my people and be able to relate to my people at the same time."

She said the environment makes women feel safe.

“I’ve had people say they wouldn’t say half what they say in another office,” Makupson said. “It’s a safe zone here, judgement free.”

Kayne said the clinic has done a wonderful job but health care for women of color needs to improve.

“We have a long way to go," she said. "There’s some change, and they’re starting here in the Village of Healing.”

She wants women who look like her to find a place they’re comfortable with, a place where they find the type of comfort she’s found at this practice.