The Umbrella Diaries

Who's Who at RAINN Over Houston????

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:30:00 GMT

Here's a little blurb about the wonderful people who will be participating in RAINNOverHouston: Love Street Light Circus ~ They'll perform the entire The Beatles Rubber Soul album! Love Street Light Circus is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt nonprofit organization that was established in 2008 to promote volunteerism among Houston’s musicians to benefit Houston’s children. We come together to stage unique musical events and to positively interact with the children along the way. We do it because we know that the love you take is equal to the love you make. Visit their Website. Hello Love ~ The Brainchild of JJ Worthen and Richard Whiting. Visit Thier MySpace. Houston Area Women's Center ~ They'll be supplying a speaker to tell us all about HAWC's services and how RAINN helps them help Houston area rape and abuse victims. Check Out Their Website. Hilary Roberts ~ A very special guest, Mrs. Roberts is not only a fabulous vocalist, but a rape and abuse survivor. She's coming all the way from Dallas to sing for us and tell us her amazing story of healing and hope! Visit Her MySpace. We are so excited about the generous participation of all these amazing people. Of course, Jennifer Grassman will also be performing and speaking. Here is Her Website. You Can Also RSVP On: Eventful FaceBook Or, Join The Cause On: FaceBook

Stand Up! Speak Out!

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:35:00 GMT

There's a new page on our website everybody! Stand Up! Speak Out! contains tools you can use to get the word out about the anti-abuse cause. Empower your friends by giving them the gift of knowledge. Everyone needs to know how they can reduce their risk of assualt and in turn, empower their family and friends to do the same.

Here's our new Public Service Announcement (PSA). Visit Stand Up! Speak Out! to copy and paste the Embed Code on your MySpace, Facebook, Blog, Website, or wherever else you can post it. Thanks for your help and support guys! We really couldn't do this without you!

Celebrate Recovery - Christian Trauma Recovery Resource

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 19:19:16 GMT

Hi All!

I had the opportunity to visit Fellowship of the Woodland's Celebrate Recover program last night. In light of the progressive mission of RAINN Over Houston to promote local victim's resources and educate the public, I decided to do my homework and try out one of these resources for myself. I was very positively impressed.

Celebrate Recovery is a Christian ministry which began at Saddleback Church in California. It offers free counseling and support for abuse victims and people dealing with addictions, marital problems, and difficult family issues.

While Celebrate Recovery is Christian-oriented, it is non-denominational, and I think is the sort of thing that anyone believing in God would feel comfortable participating in. The program takes place every Tuesday night at 7:00 PM and opens with a time of singing songs and prayer. The songs were “worship music” in nature, but were worlds away from Kum By Yah. It was more along the lines of Amy Grant or Steve Green.

After a prayer, Pastor Looney came forward and delivered a message analyzing why we as human beings are so prone to shun the helping hand of God. He made the point that we tend to want to "do it ourselves," and fear that God's Word may accuse us or require something of us that we don't feel strong enough to deliver at the moment. We often don't want to go to Church, read the Bible, or pray, because we don't want to be confronted by God's interpretation of how our lives should be lived. We feel misunderstood and uncomfortable. Pastor Looney very aptly addressed these issues and I felt that he answered many of the questions that the average Christian person deals with when healing from abuse trauma, addiction, or other personal social issues.

After the short sermon (I’m guessing it was maybe 20 min.), a long time program participant came and talked about his life and how God worked through Celebrate Recovery to enable him to heal, and therefore reach out to help others. That lasted maybe 10 min., and then everyone divided up into smaller groups of about 5 to 10 people. There was a group for men dealing with addiction, women dealing with addiction, divorce recovery, and or course, abuse and sexual assault recovery.

I found that it was very empowering to be surrounded by others who were humble and understanding. We all were open about our pain, yet positive that we could overcome through love and prayer. There was no judging, no criticism … in fact, there wasn’t even any advice given that was not gift-wrapped in love and sympathetic humility. I was very impressed that the program organizers had a heartfelt respect for the people they were serving, and the dignity and honor attributed to those who by all worldly standards had been robbed of their dignity, was frankly profound.

I highly recommend participating in a Celebrate Recovery program. There are programs at Churches across Texas (and in fact, across the USA) and you do not have to be a member of a Church, or even a professing Christian to attend. For a full list of program locations click here.

You can find more information at www.CelebrateRecovery.com. For information about Fellowship of the Woodlands' Celebrate Recovery program you can visit www.FOTW.org.

The following is Fellowship of the Woodlands statement regarding their Celebrate Recovery purpose:

"Our fellowship includes anyone struggling with a hurt, habit or hang-up. A hurt, habit or hang-up is anything that hinders our relationship with God. The feeling of being hurt can be anything from past or current abuse, abandonment, codependency, divorce, or various relationship issues.

"A habit is an addiction to someone or something such as alcoholism, drugs, food, gambling, shopping, sex or smoking. And hang-ups are various forms of negative attitudes that we use to cope with issues such as anger, fear, depression or unforgiveness."

From Deborah Duncan to the University of Houston

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 02:12:34 GMT

Wow! This last week has been incredibly busy. On Monday, I appeared on Great Day Houston, hosted by Deborah Duncan, to talk about the impact of abuse on children and how it affects their adult lives. The show went really well, and I got to perform about 3/4 of the way through. I also got to meet some wonderful people, including some of the staff of Bridge Over Troubled Waters, a non-profit shelter and victims resource based in Pasadena. You can check out their website here: www.TheBridgeOverTroubledWaters.org.

That same afternoon I had a conference call meeting with RAINN, which went very well. I will be meeting with them again tomorrow to discuss how we can combine our resources to get RAINN Over Houston additional press and enlist the aid of some major recording artists ... and no, I can't tell you who I'm talking to until I have all the details confirmed!!! Just know that I'm talking to some very famous artists and bands who I know you will be excited about.

On Wednesday I had a phone interview with a prospective sponsor.

On Thursday I had a face-to-face meeting with a partner, which went really well. Partners aren't quite like sponsors. They tend to be like-cause organizations that are interested in collaborating. They’re great for our cause because not only do they supply local victims with shelter, counseling, and other aid, but because together we can generate even more media buzz – which is great for everyone!

Thursday evening I babysat our neighbor’s kids, Friday I had a bit of a breather so I used it to get my music website up and running, and then on Saturday I had a gig at Salentos in Rice Village.

Today I had a phone interview with The Spring Observer, who is going to give some coverage to our October 20 RAINN Shower at The University of Houston with our partner SAFE (Stop Abuse in Family Environments). The event will raise awareness about abuse and sex crime statistics, which I am really excited about because college aged women are statistically 6x more at risk for rape then other demographics.

Phew! It was exhausting, yet very rewarding! And this week I'm doing it all over again. I'll update you regularly as I get feedback.