Dearest ARM of Care team;

You are all the colors, shapes and images on our blank canvases.  Your canary yellows, deep blues, sea greens, earthy browns and pastel pinks are what we need to encourage, inspire and activate the creativity in those who have been commercially sexually exploited and those at risk for exploitation. Thank you for giving so much of yourselves so that others can create on their own blank canvases.

The restoration work we do is also valuable for prevention.  Many of the self-care tools our participants integrate into their own lives keep them from being trafficked again in the future.  ARM of Care not only provides services throughout  Northern California, but also we are a part of Contra Costa County’s Task Force for Human Trafficking.  We want you to know that the county is working hard to address the issue of Human Trafficking. In this county there are at least 22 cities, all in need of programs to address both prevention and restoration.  If you are receiving this newsletter and live in another county or out of state, feel free to check out the local resources in your community serving those who have been trafficked.

Walking in downtown Walnut Creek a few weeks ago on a Saturday morning, I reported to the police a situation where I suspected a girl being trafficked.  She looked lost and disheveled.  I asked if she was ok and she told me about a man who dropped her off. I asked if she had a phone and she said no. I asked if she knew where she was and she said Concord, even though she was in Walnut Creek.  As she was looking around, she told me she saw the man’s car and a few moments later I saw this man walking to get her and then took her back to his car.  I was able to report his license plate number to the police.  I want to please ask you to report anything like this that you may see no matter where you live.

Please check out Contra Costa County’s Coalition to End Abuse’s website to learn the signs so that you can recognize and report activity that you suspect may be human trafficking.  https://www.contracostacoalition.org/learn-the-signs

You can also put in your phone the National Human Trafficking Hotline which is 1-888-373-7888.

Many of you who were able to come to our 7^th Annual Reach to Restore fundraiser got to hear from our featured speaker, Lisa Whitehouse, who shared about her horrific experiences of being commercially sexually exploited. She shared ways she has learned and continues to learn to take care of herself which include discovering her own interests and creativity.  Thank you to all who attended, showering her and those ARM of Care serves with so much love and care.  Hats off to all who participated in some way for our Reach to Restore Fundraiser on September 8, 2019.  Thank you for donating over $30,000 to enable us to keep “reaching to restore”.

You are the hope that brings all kinds of artistic, movement and recreational expression to a population that needs to know how valuable they are.

On behalf of ARM of Care’s Board of Directors, staff, volunteers, agencies and youth and women we serve, THANK YOU!

Amy

Dearest Co-Workers,

We are able to “Reach to Restore” because you have chosen to be involved in the work of ARM of Care. Thank you for finding practical and creative ways of supporting and partnering with us. This year we have worked with Love Never Fails, Community Violence Solutions, Juvenile Hall in Martinez, Independent Living Skills Program, Freedom House, Without Permission, Pillars of Hope, Ruby’s Place, and Chords for Progression. We get to watch the youth shift their position, posture, attitude and affect – sometimes quickly, sometimes slowly. Whether it is in an hour movement and mindfulness class, a two hour creative craft project, or a Bay Area sporting event – transformation happens. They are making new memories. Positive ones. Which are replacing difficult ones. The positive memories build on each other. And then over time they independently engage in doing them on their own. They think differently about themselves and their relationships. They know how to help themselves. They move and walk through life differently. They have tools to take care of themselves. Feeling habitually helpless is the most common denominator of those who have experienced trauma. ARMof Care programs, whether a distraction from their regular routine or a meaningful pursuit, show them that they have creative ways to bring fulfillment to their own lives. For example, one of the girls at juvenile hall has been practicing a coordination exercise she learned in class and she reported to the class that “it helped her head not feel so jittery.” We witness them telling their stories through a variety of materials such as blue jeans, fabrics, buttons, ribbons, and beads and discovering things about their past, present and future where they can inspire themselves. We witness them feeling refreshed dancing out of the Holiday Ballet in San Francisco, the first show they had ever attended. Our hope is that they become their own greatest resource. Just giving them a safe space to be themselves, free of rules or expectations, enables them to come alive and heal the places that trauma has been stored in their bodies. You have given all you could and more. These are your children and you have taken them into your lives through your generosity and kindness. We are grateful to our grantors (In-N-Out, Lowell Berry, Noll and Share the Spirit), corporations (Genentech, PG&E, and Shell) and you and your families. Your resources give those we serve the internal resources they need to improve their lives. Your giving puts strength in our spine and shoulders so we can reach out our arms with care and tenderness where there is pain or harshness. May your investment bring meaning and positive memories to your 2019. With care,

–AMY

Dear Reaching to Restorers, We tip our hats to you with great respect and admiration as this year was a record fundraising year for ARM of Care’s annual “Reach to Restore” event. You contributed $27,000! May our thank you to you be felt to the tip of your toes.

It costs ARM of Care about $431 per year – per youth that we serve, and to date in 2018, we have served close to 400 youth. This year we expanded into two more new agencies. Because of your generosity we have an opportunity to add more in 2019.

Our ARM of Care staff and volunteers meet once a month for training and to share stories of our work from the month. One story is of a girl who was resistant to participating in one of our programs. After the program, she wrote on her evaluation to “please come back”. Another is of a girl at Juvenile Hall who punched a wall just before we went in to teach a class. She was able to identify what happens in her body when she can feel anger building, and how it feels at the height of her emotion- like she is going to explode. We were able to do some movement with the parts of her body that get very tense and by the end of the class she felt more relaxed and “lighter”. Another girl’s life story book that she made told of how being loved is helping her transition from a caterpillar into a butterfly.

Speaking of butterflies, my mom who passed away in August, was a collector of butterflies. You also sent $5,000 in lieu of flowers as a donation to ARM of Care in her memory. Before she passed away she asked if the girls were going to be healthy, if they were going to be ok?Because of you, we could tell her “Yes”… we are providing a safe environment and giving them the tools they need to help them be healthy. THANK YOU.

Amy

Lise Bodine, ARM of Care, Director of AdministrationContact Phone:925-709-4276; email:info@armofcare.net; www.armofcare.net

ARM (Art, Recreation, Movement) of Care receives grant from Share the Spirit

Walnut Creek, CA(October 8, 2018)–ARM (Art, Recreation, Movement) of Care is pleased to announce it has received a$2000grant from Share the Spirit East Bay, a program of the Bay Area News Group –East Bay Times, administered by the Contra Costa Crisis Center. The funds support holiday-themed creative arts programs for exploited (or at-risk) youth and young adults at local community agencies to encourage their recovery from trauma. ARM of Care uses art, recreation, and movement in our recovery programs to help heal and empower young women and men, while also encouraging healthy self-care practice stores to relives. Research shows that engaging in creativity and imagination can help and change patterns in the brain and the body.

ARM of Care works in residential and day programs including Community Violence Solutions;Freedom House; John B. Davis Juvenile Hall for girls; Love Never Fails;Independent Living Skills in Contra Costa County; and Ruby’s Place.Many of these young adults in these agencies were or are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation. Our goal is to heal as many youth as possible through therapeutic, playful and new experiences.

“Holidays can be especially hard for the youth we serve. Participating in holiday-themed therapeutic programs including card and gift making, attending performances, and sharing a festive meal, is so important to develop traditions that bring meaning and to experience the joy of sharing and caring these young people truly deserve.”

Amy Lynch, President and Founder of ARM of Care

Share the Spirit awards annual grants through a competitive application and review process, and each year several awardees are featured in stories in the East Bay Times.

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ARM stands for Art, Recreation and Movement. ARM of Care was established in 2012 as a 501(c)3 non-profit in Walnut Creek, Calif. ARM of Care’s mission is to use art, recreation, and movement along with other creative therapies designed to help heal, restore and empower youth and young adults who were(or are at risk of) ongoing severe trauma due to forced commercial sex trafficking. Trauma affects every part of a person’s life, so we use activities that address body,mind,and spirit to reestablish wholeness and well being.

About Share the Spirit –

Share the Spirit has been helping East Bay’s most needy during the holidays for nearly three decades. The project is a partnership with Bay Area News Group –East Bay Times, administered by the Contra Costa Crisis Center, and grants are awarded annually. At its core, Share the Spirit is created with gifts from generous people committed to local causes, many of them are East Bay Times readers. For more information, visit sharethespiriteastbay.org.

Dearest Community Heroes;

You continue to ARM those we serve with the creative tools they need to activate the resources inside of themselves as well as resources around them.

Awareness of the issue of Human Trafficking in our county, state and country continues to increase, which means we become more equipped to not only address the issue, but to abolish it. It is great to see the younger generations coming together to address the issue, as it is their peers who have become the targets for the traffickers.

Recently, two students from Northgate High School, Rose Young and Allison Wade asked if they could help ARM of Care as a way to fulfill their Senior Project. These two young women were involved in November 2017 in taking a group of young women to a ballet performance sponsored by ARM of Care. Prior to the event , they were part of a group that made a lovely Thanksgiving meal for them. At the dinner, Allison asked one of the girls what she missed most about not going to high school (she was trafficked during most of her high school years). The girl responded, “the Prom.” Thus the idea for creating an “All Girls Prom” was born!

Rose and Allison raised funds, rallied community support and organized all the details for a memorable event. The April evening included a catered meal served by a few young men, a magician, dancing, festive decorations, a photo booth with take-home photos in frames (with sashes and crowns that read “Prom Queen”) and special gift bags.

Later that week, those in attendance created personal scrapbooks to remember the event. One of the young girls said, “This is the best party I have ever been to!”

All the volunteers that helped before and at the event showed the young women what is necessary to bring healing- respect and love. This demonstration of care served to rewire their nervous systems (their thoughts and feelings) to receive and know that they deserve love and respect.

This special program and our regular programs continue to need your support. Please join us on September 23rd for our 6th annual fundraising event so we can grow together as a community in addressing this issue.

Disrespect for a person, disregarding their well-being and letting evil overtake one’s life and mind is at the root of this problem. It is hard to get our minds around those who would sell or buy human beings.

We have heard it said that “hurt people hurt people”…that it is why it is important to address our own personal hurts and injustices. When we do that through a consistent time of self-reflection in our own lives, our own healing serves to reverberate through our community, and to offer healing in a variety of creative ways to those who are victims of any crime.For the sake of ARM of Care’s work, I am specifically talking about for those who have been sexually abused, violated, exploited and those at risk for these crimes.

I do believe each of us has a part. It begins with caring for ourselves which includes understanding our own hurts and failures, gifts and interests, and the personal injustices we each have experienced and how we have overcome them. Thusly, we can be available to do our part to help right the injustices done to those in our midst.

We are grateful for your part in inspiring everyone we serve… to feel like the Prom Queen and the Prom King! We wonder what your sash or crown would read. Our sash and crown on you would read “Hero of Queens and Kings”.

With Crowns and Sashes, Love and Respect,

Dear ARM of Carers!

We can’t say it enough… “We couldn’t do what we do without YOU!”

Not only have our winter months been filled with both sunny days and rainy days, but so have the lives of many of those whom ARM of Care serves. We have seen youth and young adults struggle with what seems to us the simplest of tasks and have also seen them succeed with a brand new challenge.

A high school foster care boy who was once embarrassed because he didn’t even think he could draw a line is now excelling in school in his drama program. A young woman who always gets nauseous when she exercises because of the physical abuse she has incurred, doesn’t give up, keeps wanting to exercise the next time we come, and finds new ways to move that make her feel better. A high school girl at Juvenile Hall sits and keeps her head down the whole time we are doing a movement program and at the end, displays the tiniest of smiles when we use our imaginations and pretend to give her a bunch of flowers.

We are grateful for every opportunity to be in front of the over 100 youth we have served so far in 2018. We made prayer flags as an offering to welcome a new year. We created Valentine’s cards for ourselves and others while finding things we love and appreciate about ourselves and others, used clay to depict the shape of our emotions, danced with a professional dancer, and got to use a local Pilates studio to teach classes on the Pilates equipment.

We have lots of fun activities to look forward to! Some of our Special Events include: our All Girls Prom in April, a Mt. Diablo hike in May, a theatre performance in June, a Giants game this summer, and surfing in August and September.

Your support enables them to receive hope through therapeutic play and personalized tools which help them care for themselves on a daily basis. On behalf of all those we serve, please hear their voices thanking you in splashes of bright colors, in unique shapes and waving thick and cozy fabrics as a sign of their gratitude.

Dearest Community; Statistics show that the incidence of human trafficking is not only increasing, but that it’s reaching epidemic proportions. Ongoing news regarding sexual misconduct by people in leadership, powerful positions and in trusted roles with children is beyond disturbing. How do we combat such a huge problem in our culture? We start with awareness.

We are all on a learning curve to honor and respect each other as valuable human beings with the right to be healthy and well, and to respect each other’s boundaries and differences. Everyone has the right to say ‘yes’ to those things that are good for us and for society and ‘no’ to those that are not. Inappropriate sexual behavior is where we have to learn as a culture to say “NO”.

At ARM of Care we see firsthand the destructive, disastrous and horrifying effects of sexual abuse and exploitation. We see girls who have been chained to beds, boys who witnessed their mothers being trafficked, and young women who have been beaten both physically and emotionally. Pain is always the result, and the response to pain is as unique as the individual who experiences it.

I’m proud of the work we do, which at its core honors the individual. We give those who are in pain an opportunity to develop new ways to be in the world and in their own body.

Our work helps create new pathways for the brain, so the patterns of pain can diminish. We do this by engaging imaginations through art projects, engaging bodies through movement and stretching, and stimulating curiosity and interest through positive, pleasant activities and cultural events. Learning to cultivate interests and engage in them is part of the healing and empowerment process.

In Creativity and Care,

Lise Bodine, ARM of Care, Director of Administration
Contact Phone:925-709-4276; email:info@armofcare.net; www.armofcare.net

ARM (Art, Recreation, Movement) of Care receives grant from Share the Spirit

Walnut Creek, CA(October 6, 2017)–ARM (Art, Recreation, Movement) of Care is pleased to announce it has received a$3000grant from Share the Spirit East Bay, a program of the Bay Area News Group –East Bay Times, administered by the Contra Costa Crisis Center. The funds support holiday-themed creative arts programs for exploited (or at-risk) youth and young adults at local community agencies to encourage their recovery from trauma. ARM of Care uses art, recreation, and movement in our recovery programs to help heal and empower young women and men, while also encouraging healthy self-care practices to restore lives. Research shows that engaging in creativity and imagination can help and change patterns in the brain and the body.

ARM of Care works in residential and day programs including Community Violence Solutions;John B. Davis Juvenile Hall for girls; Love Never Fails;Independent Living Skills in Contra Costa County; and Pillars of Hope. Many of these young adults in these agencies were or are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation. Our goal is to heal as many youth as possible  through therapeutic, playful and new experiences.

“Holidays can be especially hard for the youth we serve. Participating in holiday-themed therapeutic programs including card and gift making, attending performances, and sharing a festive meal, is so important to develop traditions that bring meaning and to experience the joy of sharing and caring these young people truly deserve.”

Amy Lynch, President and Founder of ARM of Care

Share the Spirit awards annual grants through a competitive application and review process, and each year several awardees are featured in stories in the East Bay Times.

###

ARM stands for Art, Recreation and Movement. ARM of Care was established in 2012 as a 501(c)3 non-profit in Walnut Creek, Calif. ARM of Care’s mission is to use art, recreation, and movement along with other creative therapies designed to help heal, restore and empower youth and young adults who were(or are at risk of) ongoing severe trauma due to forced commercial sex trafficking. Trauma affects every part of a person’s life, so we use activities that address body,mind,and spirit to reestablish wholeness and well being.

About Share the Spirit –

Share the Spirit has been helping East Bay’s most needy during the holidays for nearly three decades. The project is a partnership with Bay Area News Group –East Bay Times, administered by the Contra Costa Crisis Center, and grants are awarded annually. At its core, Share the Spirit is created with gifts from generous people committed to local causes, many of them are East Bay Times readers. For more information, visit sharethespiriteastbay.org.