Meet the Black Woman Who’s Led Initiatives to Raise $500K for Local Black-Owned Businesses

Nationwide — In a society battling rising charges of loneliness, suicide, burnout, and racial inequity, one girl is main a grassroots motion that’s reimagining wellness as a path to non-public and communal therapeutic—and liberation. Michele Paul, Founding father of Let’s Get Social Raleigh (LGSR) and Creator of the Grownup Recess Competition, is main the most important grownup play wellness motion within the nation, proving that when communities put money into pleasure, connection, and financial empowerment, they don’t simply survive—they thrive.

As the most important grownup play-based wellness motion in America, LGSR blends play remedy, nature, and cultural therapeutic to sort out loneliness whereas rebuilding social and financial energy from throughout the neighborhood.

Her mission is daring and deeply rooted: to finish grownup loneliness and construct a community-driven wellness economic system that facilities play, nature, and fairness—particularly in Black and traditionally underserved communities.

What started as a private wrestle has advanced into a robust nationwide motion. After relocating to a brand new metropolis, Michele discovered herself remoted and disconnected. Conventional networking occasions felt shallow and transactional. What she longed for was one thing deeper—an area the place adults may collect, drop the masks, and simply be.

That area turned Let’s Get Social Raleigh — a complete wellness ecosystem designed to finish loneliness, cut back burnout, and uplift native economies by means of play, nature, and neighborhood.Her imaginative and prescient sharpened throughout an elementary faculty profession day when she requested college students, “When do adults cease enjoying exterior with their associates?” Their response—“After they’re grown”—revealed a quiet tragedy: someplace alongside the best way, adults started believing play isn’t important to our psychological, emotional, and bodily well being. Michele got down to change that.

At the moment, LGSR has grown into the most important grownup play-based wellness neighborhood within the U.S., serving over 75,000 adults throughout North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Its flagship occasion, the Grownup Recess Competition, is the nation’s main pageant devoted to grownup wellness by means of play remedy. Now in its third yr, it drew 6,500+ attendees from 20+ states and the Bahamas—a real “pleasure revolution” in movement.

However LGSR is about greater than wellness—it’s additionally about financial justice. In simply three years, the group has circulated over $500,000 again into Black-owned companies, supported 50+ native distributors, helped launch new entrepreneurs, and created a thriving native economic system that retains sources circulating one year a yr. Plans are actually underway to rent 30 staff in 2026, guaranteeing sustainable progress whereas staying true to its community-based mannequin.

“We’re not simply social—we’re soulful,” says Michele. “At LGSR, pleasure isn’t a luxurious—it’s a birthright. Conversations are bridges. Play is drugs. And each time we giggle, join, or heal, we’re creating the form of future our communities deserve.”

LGSR stands as a daring new mannequin for what wellness can seem like when Black pleasure, collective care, and financial energy are positioned on the middle. Michele is displaying that pleasure and justice go hand in hand—and {that a} neighborhood that performs collectively, heals collectively.

AboutFounded by Michele Paul, Let’s Get Social Raleigh (LGSR) is a grassroots, wellness-forward group on a mission to finish loneliness, cut back burnout, and relieve stress by serving to adults rediscover pleasure, the therapeutic energy of nature, and the energy of neighborhood. Its flagship occasion, the Grownup Recess Competition, is the nation’s main pageant prioritizing grownup well-being by means of play remedy. Since its founding, LGSR has constructed a neighborhood of 75,000+ individuals, circulated over $500,000 again into Black-owned companies, linked entrepreneurs with sources, and is getting ready to broaden its staff in 2026 to fulfill rising demand. Be taught extra at LetsGetSocialRaleigh.com.For press inquiries, contact occasions@letsgetsocialraleigh.com