To Write Love On Her Arms - USI Chapter

Hey members!! 

I just got back from the 1st ever TWLOHA Summer UChapter Conference in MElbourne Beach, Florida!!!!

First, let me just say that Florida is absolutely beautiful, and you al almost had to find a new secretary because I did not want to leave!! haha! But I am back, and I have to say it one one of the best weeks of my life. I learned so much about the topics we deal with in our UChapter, and I have so many great ideas for us this semester!!! I would definitely recommend going to a MOVE Conference sometime if you ever get the chance! The connections I made with UChapter members all over the US are so special, and the opportunities to trade ideas and info with them were priceless!! Plus, spending my free time with a great group of people galavanting across the beach, surfing, and playing frisbee wasn’t too shabby either;) Our last evening together, we all got a very special opportunity to spend the evening at a formal reception dinner with all the TWLOHA staff, who are all incredible people!! I have never felt so loved or as at home as I did with all the incredible people this week. I am really looking forward to this semester, and I can’t wait to share everything I learned with you guys!!! 

With Hope, 

-Haley Anderson <3

For our Eating Disorders meeting, we brought in a very special guest, Amy Cavanaugh, to speak to our group. She put together an awesome presentation about disordered eating, and had some great questions for us.

We discussed topics such as:

-the “Media Effect”

Unhealthy thoughts about beauty are being imprinted in young children by what is shown in the media. Also, there is a certain “image” that is consistently being thrown at us by the media. Most models generally look the same: thin, nice skin, long hair, etc.

We also watched a video from the Dove evolution campaign that showed what a model actually looks like before hair, makeup, and photoshop are added to alter her appearance. This causes a distorted perception in the minds of people seeing these models. 

-What is “health”?

We discussed how health does not equal weight, and whether you are skinny or not does not define whether you are healthy or not. Health is unique to every person according to their body type, eating habits, level of activity, and how they feel about themselves. 

We also watched a number of great videos that I will get the links for to post on our blog here. 

Announcements:

- we are having another Open Mic Night on Thursday April 19 in the Student Life Lounge from 8-11 pm. Please tell your friends!!

- We are having our “Born This Way” meeting this weekend, Sunday April 15!!! we will be making t-shirts, and we will also be nominating members for recognition. 

-We are still needing people for the Media Committee and the AFSP Committee, so if you are interested, please tell Haley or Erin!

This week’s meeting was run by Haley, Jojo, and Cody. We had a small group but we still had some great discussions about supporting others and how to keep ourselves healthy. We started off with this quote from Renee about how a person has to want to help themselves before other people can help them:

“Rescue’s not possible if you don’t want it for yourself. I think one of the misconceptions about me was that this group of people just found me and came in and saved me. That would have never worked in a million years! Once you want it for yourself, you have to fight for it. You have to make that decision and be willing to do whatever it takes. Then, you can have a community come around and support that decision. But it really starts with you making a firm decision that you want help.”

We started out our discussion of how to support others with these questions:

1. What do you do to support a friend in need?

2. What kind of support do you look for from them?

3. If an acquaintance were to reach out to you and offer their support, what would make you willing to accept their support? What would make you not willing?

After we got the discussion going, Sam and Cody both shared some of the methods of support that they learned at this years MOVE conference, and the tips that they learned. In order to remind everyone of TWLOHA’s purpose, we read the Mission statement together. 

“To Write Love On Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.’”

We then discussed what the words “encourage, inform, and inspire” meant to us, and what we could do for others that would fall under those categories. We also reminded ourselves that none of us are trained professionals, we should offer people hope and encouragement or someone to talk to. We should also refrain from giving advice and instead encourage others to seek professional help. 

We then moved our discussion to what we can do to keep ourselves healthy. 

1. How many of you have ever felt overwhelmed when trying to help a friend through a tough time? 

2. What are some ways to keep yourself physically/mentally/emotionally healthy?

One important thing to remember is that you can’t help others unless you are healthy yourself. You also can’t force someone to get better, they have to want to do it for themselves. You also have to know when it is time to step back and let them be. 

Ways to stay healthy!

1. Get enough sleep

2. Take care  of your body/eat well

3. Make sure you have “me time” when stressed

4. Know when to say no, don’t take on too many responsibilities!

We ended the meeting by watching some of the WEARe TWLOHA videos and going over what the project is. 

Our next meeting will be April 1 and the topic will be Eating Disorders, for which we are bringing in special guest speaker Amy Cavanaugh

Announcements:

-Open Mic night THURSDAY!! Please spread the word/sign up for times to work the info table at the event

We started off the meeting by each sharing something good that happened to us during the week. We then introduced our meeting topic, “Our Values”, by reading of each value and it’s description. We then asked our members to tell us which values they thought were our strengths, and which values they thought were our weaknesses. In the “Strengths” category we had Community, Help, Hope, Honesty, and Encouragement. In the “Weakness” category we had Sensitivity and Intentionality. Then we had a few that we felt fell in-between the two categories, such as Courage, Humility, and Love. We then discussed some ways that we can strengthen our weak and in-between values, such as being better organized in order to strengthen our intentionality. The idea to reward members for displaying values was brought up, and this idea was met with great enthusiasm! The next meeting was set for March 25, and the topic was set as “Support”. 

Announcements 

-We are planning an Open Mic Night for this semester, Erin is going to set up the date this week so that we can start planning and advertising.

Officer Elections Results

President: Erin Gillingham

Vice President: Casey Gillingham

Treasurer/Fundraising Coordinator: Cody Williamson

Secretary: Haley Anderson

Event Coordinator: JoJo Kenney

To end the meeting we did a community building activity with a beach ball with questions written on each section. We threw the ball to each other and answered the question facing us on the beach ball. 

Our next meeting will be Sunday March 18

Don’t forget that today’s meeting will be an election meeting to appoint new officers!