Image Description: Red and pink paper hearts fall from the sky over a white-ish gray background.
Hello and welcome to February! We hope you enjoy your favorite sweet treats and self-care this month. <3
Upcoming:
Tools To Take Care: A Community Self-Care Event
Image Description: A light blue background has black font reading "Tools to Take Care" There is a dark teal illustration of a person crossing their legs with their arms at their sides. The info below is on the image, as well as Survivor Cards' logo and Touch Education's logo. Survivor Cards' logo is an open white envelope with a letter coming out with their organization name on it in black handwriting. A teal heart is the seal. Touch Education's logo is blue and green font. The "touch" has a line under it, barely touching the "o" in "touch"
Are you interested in learning more about self-care and yoga? Have you wanted to learn about stress and its impact on the body? Do you want to give back to survivors of trauma by writing? Join Survivor Cards in collaboration with Touch Education at Practice Yoga Cincinnati, 7745 Five Mile Rd Cincinnati, OH 45230 on March 25th from 1-3 PM for this free, community self-care event! Matt Howe with Touch Education will be giving a presentation on stress and its impact on the body, while Nicole Howe will teach us self-care exercises and lead us in calming yoga. Afterwards, we will write letters for Survivor Cards' current drive benefiting NYAP (National Youth Advocate Program) of Cincinnati. This event will be capped at 15 attendees, so please RSVP ASAP to reserve your place. All materials will be provided. Please consider wearing comfortable clothing!
Touch Education is a massage and bodywork education company with two private practices in greater Cincinnati (Green and Anderson Township) Their class, Bodywork for PTSD has been taught all over the country since 2012! They teach massage professionals how to work with trauma and help build resiliency to stress via the nervous system. Thank you to Practice Yoga Cincinnati for allowing us to use your space!
Ongoing:
February Card Drive
Image Description: White wooden shiplap background with black and pink font. The image reads "Join Survivor Cards for our February Card Drive benefiting NYAP (National Youth Advocate Program) of Cincinnati. February is written in pink cursive. At the bottom of the image is a clothesline with red paper hearts clipped to it with clothes pins. Survivor Cards' logo is in the middle of the clothesline.
Please consider joining us for our February card drive benefiting NYAP (National Youth Advocate Program) of Cincinnati. NYAP is a private, non-profit agency that has a non-negotiable commitment to do what is best for children, youth and their families. They serve foster care youth who have experienced mental health and substance use disorders, as well as survived trauma and the families who care for them. Our goal is to collect 100 cards for this amazing organization! Contact us at survivorcards@gmail.com for writing tips, supplies, mailing and drop-off information!
Spread the Love Fundraiser
Image Description: A dark pink square with a lighter pink square in the middle. Each corner of the image has multiple pink shades of hearts scattered around. The image has the text below in black and a reddish pink. There is a pink and white heart in the left hand-side that looks doodled. Survivor Cards' logo is in the right corner, an envelope open showing a piece of paper coming out with "Survivor Cards" in handwriting. A teal, heart seal is in the center of the envelope. Will you be our Valentine? Please join us for an online fundraiser for Survivor Cards on Facebook!
Our goal is to raise $500 for 500 cards! Funds raised will cover materials and supplies, postage, stickers, snail mail goodies and resource for 500 cards for 500 survivors of trauma. Please invite your friends & family using the Share button in the fundraiser page. Fundraiser ends February 28th.
Recent:
YWCA of Dayton Card Drive
Thank you to everyone who participated in our card drive for YWCA of Dayton! YWCA Dayton is dedicated to eliminating racism, empowering women, and promoting peace, justice, freedom and dignity for all. These cards will go to women and children entering their domestic violence shelters and housing programs. They currently have three domestic violence shelters and two transitional housing programs over two counties! We met our 100 card goal in no time at all with all your help!
Image Description: A screenshot of a shared post from Survivor Cards on YWCA Dayton's page. The original post is an image of 100 completed cards being filled with resources and snail mail goodies like affirmation cards and stickers. YWCA's additional commentary is below. YWCA of Dayton shared our post about the card drive we did for them. They added "Our clients deserve dignity and respect. And these beautiful cards from Survivor Cards that arrived today are a perfect reminder of that for the women and children we serve." This is why we do what we do.
Your Survey Feedback
Image Description: A light green background features two lime green chat squares with lines symbolizing sentences.
You spoke, we listened!
Thank you to everyone who responded to our 2022 End-of-Year Survey.
We read every single piece of feedback and are working on making improvements so this year can be bigger and better!
Some responses and changes we've made in response to your feedback:
Serving More Foster Care Youth Trauma Survivors
Seeking Out Organizations That Serve Spanish Speaking Survivors and Non-English Language Speakers
Planning More Volunteer Events
Volunteering Opportunities for Young Children
Volunteering Opportunities for Families
Volunteer Opportunities for Older Adults & Seniors
More Business & Organization Partners
Online Volunteering Events
Sharing Bios on Our Board Members and Their Qualifications
& More Card Drives!
If you have more feedback for us, questions or concerns, please email us at survivorcards@gmail.com We always keep an open door!
Meet Your Board!
Image Description: A blue background, features the large font reading “Alyson Wick” A rounded portrait of Alyson shows her, a smiling, blonde person with blue eyes, a smile showing teeth, and a blue dress on and light pink cardigan. To her left is an illustration of a potted plant. To her right are portraits of her 4 cats in a column. In the bottom left corner is an illustration of an open book on top of a closed book. Alyson is the founder and active president of Survivor Cards. (Pronouns: She/They) She lives in Cincinnati, OH with her husband and 4 cats. She has lived experience with trauma and PTSD, and 4 years of social work expertise. She is currently acquiring her peer support specialist certification. Alyson loves books, plants and trying new food.
Image Description: A purple background with a rounded portrait of Avery. Avery has on a black shirt, is flashing a peace sign and is looking at the camera. Their hair is short and teal with black underneath. They have greenish blue eyes and black eyeliner. Their ears are pierced on the cartilage. Their nails are black and pointed. In the top right of the image is an illustration of crafting supplies. Under this are red health hearts from a video game. Below that is an image of Avery's yorkie dog Hunter. He is wearing a little harness. To the left of Avery's portrait is an illustration of a spoon. Avery is the secretary of Survivor Cards. (Pronouns: They/Them) They live in Warren, OH with their adorable Yorkie dog, Hunter. Avery is a survivor of trauma and has C-PTSD, along with chronic illnesses. They have goals to go back to graduate school to earn their PsyD in Clinical Psychology. They enjoy doing all sorts of crafts and playing Stardew Valley.
Image Description: A teal background features a rounded portrait of Michelle. Their hair is short and cropped to their ear on one side and longer (about shoulder length) on the other. They are smiling and looking at the camera. They are wearing a floral shirt with blacks and pinks and pink lipstick. She is also wearing a blue lanyard. To the right is an illustration of a person's arms and hands writing on paper. Below that is an illustration of a sticker that says "mental health matters". Under that is a picture of Michelle's little white dog. The dog's fur is soft looking and somewhat curly. To the left of Michelle's portrait is a purple music note. Michelle is the treasurer of Survivor Cards. (Pronouns: She/They) She is a child and adolescent therapist specialist in trauma and suicide prevention. They use novel writing and music as coping skills, as well as snuggles with their dog.
Self-Care Jar
Image Description: A light green background with a darker green grid pattern over it makes up this image. Dark green font reads "Self-Care Jar" There is a clear jar filled with yellow and red hearts. Below are the steps for making a self-care jar and this info is below in the blog.
Valentine's Day is typically a day dedicated to love and relationships, but have you considered using this time of year to focus on your relationship and love for yourself?
Consider making a Self-Care Jar!
A Self-Care Jar is a jar with ideas of self-care activities for when you're feeling in a funk and need an idea of a way to boost your mental health or replenish yourself.
Depending on who you ask, there are 8 kinds of self-care:
Physical
Emotional
Spiritual
Intellectual
(Think: Learning new things, stimulating your mind, trying new hobbies)
5. Social
6. Personal
(Think: Your hobbies and interests, getting to know yourself, your personal identity)
7. Relational
8. Safety and Security
(Think: Financial health, environmental health, keeping a safe and secure home) It's a good idea to include a variety of these in your self-care jar and you can even color-code them so if you're needing to do a specific kind, you can pick one out.
What You'll Need:
A jar or another kind of container
Slips of paper or popsicle sticks
Something to write with
Self-care ideas (You can make your own list, use this one for inspiration, or consider identifying your "self-love language" or take the love language quiz here)
As always, thank you for being here and subscribing to our newsletter! As of today, there's only 47 days left until spring! If you have any questions for us, please feel free to email us at survivorcards@gmail.com