We Are HER Announces 2021 Retreat; Looking for Support

Like many businesses and organizations, we had to pivot when COVID hit last year.

Through our organization We Are HER, several volunteers and I had planned a five-day retreat in Paradise Valley for 15 survivors to attend. The point of the retreat? To help survivors of domestic violence or sexual assault find healing through connection, story sharing, and education about trauma.

One week before we selected the 15 survivors who would be travelling to Montana to attend our retreat, the news of the pandemic broke. We called an emergency board meeting and decided to cancel our retreat.

I was devastated. I knew this retreat had so much potential for these 15 survivors to connect and heal in meaningful ways. The possibility of a 2021 retreat has come up at every board meeting since and our board has had differing opinions on whether or not hosting a retreat is a safe idea.

Fortunately, with the release of several vaccine options, we've decided to move forward with a retreat with one rule: we're only allowing Montana survivors to participate to minimize any risks associated with travel.

I am so excited to announce the first-ever We Are HER Survivors Retreat; HER will host 10 survivors August 30- September 3.

However, with just receiving the green light, we are in need of support for our retreat. Not all of our workshop hosts and speakers are able to participate this year and we'll need people who are trauma-informed to lead workshops for these survivors. Last year, our workshop presenters included a yoga instructor, a sex therapist, a dietician, an applied theater graduate student who had previously worked with Haven in Bozeman, and a domestic violence educator.

We also need sponsors to help us pay for travel scholarships, insurance, meals, and stipends for our workshop presenters. We're estimating this retreat will cost $8,000 and we want to make sure that the survivors who attend do not have to pay for anything while they are with us.

That's why I am inviting you to participate in Give Big Gallatin Valley's annual fundraiser. This 24-hour event happens May 6th and 7th. This celebration of giving connects generous community members with causes they care about most and raise important, unrestricted funding for nonprofits. The goal is simple - inspire people to come together, show pride in their communities, and contribute to support the life-changing work of local nonprofit organizations.

We Are HER is a first-time participant of this fundraiser and has the opportunity to win a matching grant; quantity of donors, not amount of money donated, will help us get a matching grant of up to $1,000. Please share our page https://www.givebiggv.org/organizations/we-are-her with anyone who might be willing to give a dollar or two... your support makes all the difference in creating a healing experience for our survivors and allowing us to continue the work that we feel called to do.

Here's what a donation can mean to We Are HER:

A $50 donation can pay for a travel scholarship for one survivor to our 2021 retreat.

A $100 donation can pay for one year's worth of Survivor Meetups.

A $250 donation can host one digital educational workshop for up to 200 survivors.

A $500 donation can pay for Season 3 of the We Are HER podcast.

But even a dollar makes a difference. I invite you to participate, as well as to join our mission at http://www.weareher.net and learn more about the work we do.