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OWN YOUR BRAND SHOW with Victoria Odekomaya
Welcome to the OWN YOUR BRAND SHOW where you'll learn how to own and grow your brand and market your business. Every week I interview entrepreneurs and/or share branding, marketing and business tips to grow your influence, build a profitable business and make an impact.
Victoria Odekomaya is an award winning photographer, brand & marketing strategist with over a decade of experience. She is passionate about helping women fulfill their dreams and purpose effortlessly.
Click to be featured, advertise on the show or connect with Victoria: hello@thelimstudios.com
OWN YOUR BRAND SHOW with Victoria Odekomaya
Healing Takes a Village: Trauma, Recovery & Courage | Epi 59
In this deeply moving Behind the Brand episode, Victoria sits down with Audrey Weger, CEO of Grace Horizon—an anti-trafficking nonprofit serving women and families recovering from violence and exploitation. Audrey shares the real stories behind the healing journey: what trauma looks like, why it’s often hidden in plain sight, and how workplaces and communities can respond with empathy and accountability.
You’ll learn:
- Why many survivors don’t realize they’ve been trafficked
- What it really means to offer trauma-informed care
- How Grace Horizon has helped over 100 women and families rebuild from the inside out
- Practical ways you can support survivors and do your own healing work too
Whether you're a leader, parent, or just someone who cares, this conversation will challenge and inspire you to build a more compassionate and courageous world.
🔗 Featuring in the latest edition of Boss Ladies Magazine
🌐 Learn more at gracehorizon.org
//ABOUT
Victoria Odekomaya is a Nigerian American and former drug research scientist turned brand and marketing expert. Through her Creative Agency, LiMStudios, she specializes in brand photography, video creation, and strategic marketing. Victoria's mission is to empower female entrepreneurs to be SEEN, KNOWN, and HEARD, enhancing their visual presence and attracting their ideal customers to build a BANKABLE PERSONAL BRAND. Victoria's scientific background has honed her analytical thinking, attention to detail, and problem-solving skills, which she integrates into her branding strategies. Her 23-year journey to U.S. citizenship reflects the perseverance female entrepreneurs need to overcome challenges in branding and marketing. This fuels her dedication to empower women to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams.
In 2022, Victoria launched the BOSS LADIES CAMPAIGN, giving participants a celebrity photoshoot experience to enhance their confidence and brand visibility. The campaign promotes these women through features in BOSS LADIES magazine, appearances on Victoria's 'OWN YOUR BRAND SHOW', and recognition at the BOSS LADIES GALA. The gala not only celebrates women but also raises funds for local non-profits, so far raising $19,000+ for Dove Recovery House for Women and PINK RIBBON CONNECTION.
For sponsorship/business inquiries, visit https://mtr.bio/limstudios or email hello@thelimstudios.com.
Our organization started actually as an outreach of a local church back in 2010. And then, as time kind of went on, they realized oh wow, there's a lot here that we actually need to have professionals addressing and that sort of thing, and so we actually got our official nonprofit status in 2016. And so we've been doing this work since then. At Grace Horizon we talk a lot about practicing courage and rediscovering wholeness, so we provide wraparound supports for people who are recovering from trauma. We take a whole person approach to that. If you read through our website, you'll see that we say we approach this work through the three R's through relationship, recovery and resource support, and it feels like if those three pillars are there, then a person has an excellent chance for healing in their lives.
Audrey W:The three E's of trauma it's a pretty standard way in the social work field to understand trauma. It's the events that happened. Usually those things were completely overwhelming or unbearable in some way. It is the experience of those events. You know so how that shows up for you, and then it's the long-term effects of those events. Unfortunately, trauma is not something that's easily defined, because what may be traumatic to one person is not traumatic to another person. It's interesting when we think about this question of how do we become a more trauma-informed workspace, because we don't know people's stories that are coming to work for us sometimes, right, and I was thinking for your listenership, it might be helpful to talk through that a little bit Of like what you know, what does that even mean? Like, how do I do that? Do people actually?
Victoria O:really heal from trauma completely? Do people actually really heal from trauma completely? Hello and welcome to another episode of the Own your Brand Show. I'm your girl, victoria, and today we are talking about something that is heavy yet super important in our community. I have the awesome privilege to talk to Audrey Weger. She is the CEO of Grace Horizon and today we're going to be breaking down some of the important and hard work that they do and how they impact the community. So, without much ado, let's get into it. Yeah, how are you doing today?
Audrey W:Doing good. Thank you so much for having me here.
Victoria O:Thank you for coming, yeah, doing good. Thank you so much for having me here. Thank you for coming. Well, first of all, before we dive in, I just wanted to say that I love working with your group. That photo shoot was like the best of the best.
Audrey W:We love to laugh and we have a good time working together.
Victoria O:I love the dynamics between your group, and we'll get to that later, but before, tell us a little bit about your organization, grace Horizon, and the work that you do.
Audrey W:Yeah, so I mean, the simplest way to explain it is Grace Horizon is an anti-trafficking agency in central Indiana, but we found that that lens was kind of too narrow because so many folks that we work with honestly they don't realize that they've even been trafficked until they get into their healing journey and they have to be kind of down the road to be able to even admit that to themselves because it's such a vulnerable thing. And so we say we're a community of survivors in central Indiana supporting each other in recovery from violence and exploitation. So that includes human trafficking, that includes sexual exploitation. So the biggest issues that we deal with human trafficking, sexual assault. We have childhood sexual abuse and then also domestic violence. So usually our folks have had one of those four, but most of them have had multiple of those issues that they're dealing with in their lives.
Victoria O:Wow, so you said something that kind of made me think okay, wait a minute, Some people don't even know they've been trafficked. Yes, Tell us a little bit like can you help us understand that a little more?
Audrey W:Well, I think that the story that has been told in our culture about human trafficking is the story of the movie Taken right so they think, oh, it's a global issue, it affects people way far away.
Audrey W:It's not here in my local community, but it very much is. It's usually I mean from that movie the stigma is oh, it's somebody who I don't know, who might like kidnap somebody and take them to a different country or something like that. But what it looks like here in central Indiana is that it's usually familial or familiar trafficking. So typically it's somebody that has is close to the family or a family member, that kind of coerces or uses fraud or force in some way to be able to then manipulate somebody into that sort of a situation. One example that I'll give you I gave a talk a while back and afterwards there was a woman who came up to me and she said I today found out that I've been trafficked, and she said by my husband my ex-husband at that point.
Audrey W:But she said he had a gambling addiction and owed money to some not great people and as a way of payment for his debt he was like it's horrible, I know, but if you just do this this one time, then they're going to forgive all my debt. And so she did that. You know, thinking I'm saving my marriage. I'm, you know, helping him on the path to healing, like I'm going to be the you know the good guy in this moment. And then you know it kept happening and so, through his gambling addiction, she was trapped in a human trafficking situation. So those are the sorts of stories that people just don't realize. Oh, that's me, that's my story, oh my goodness.
Victoria O:Yeah, you would think like, even in a like oh wow, Sorry, I'm still trying to wrap my head around that one.
Audrey W:Yeah, it's a heavy and hard topic you know, I mean it's just a hard topic to talk about.
Victoria O:Wow, so how long have you guys been in existence?
Audrey W:Our organization started actually as an outreach of a local church back in 2010. They realized, oh wow, there's a lot here that we actually need to, you know, have professionals addressing and that sort of thing, and so we actually got our official nonprofit status in 2016. And so we've been, yeah, doing this work since then.
Victoria O:That is incredible. So tell us a little bit about the actual work that you do to help people.
Audrey W:Yeah, so at Grace Horizon we talk a lot about practicing courage and rediscovering wholeness, so we provide wraparound supports for people who are recovering from trauma.
Audrey W:We take a whole person approach to that and that means that we're doing things like sitting down and talking with people about we have a trauma therapist so she's helping them kind of process those trauma memories and to be able to teach them, you know, new coping skills and that sort of thing.
Audrey W:We've got a housing coordinator on staff and she helps folks who, again, there's just so many layers to trafficking and to violence and exploitation that people don't think about.
Audrey W:And so a lot of times if you're leaving, let's say, like a domestic violence situation, typically what an abuser does is that they have turned off all of your possibilities for support in other places, turned off all of your possibilities for support in other places. So they have either intentionally isolated you or broken relationship with other people in your life, so that way you have no one else to go to. That means that when you want to leave, you don't have anybody to call, and so that means that then when you want to leave, you're typically going to a shelter or you are becoming homeless, or you're living in your car, or maybe possibly you have a friend that they let you sleep on their couch for a little while, but that's not the typical scenario. So having a housing coordinator on staff to be able to get people into safe, long-term housing solutions is really important. I'm so proud of the work that our housing coordinator has done. Over the last year, we've actually been able to help 37 people get into safe, sustainable housing situations.
Audrey W:Oh my God, that's, incredible yeah it's been amazing she's done such good work with that Wow and so you guys work with.
Victoria O:What is your demographics? Children, women, like? What does that look like?
Audrey W:Yeah, we. I mean we serve women and their children and so typically we have like 21,. Some of the oldest folks that we've had have been in their 80s actually. I mean you wouldn't think again. It's that stigma right of taken. It's a young person, it's a white person, it's a girl, often right.
Audrey W:But what we find is that this issue is not just that right it affects everybody at every socioeconomic level, and also men, not just women, and then of course also children. But we try to take a multi-generational approach to this issue because if we just help the woman let's say that we're working with, she might learn some coping skills. But then by the time that she's, I mean it takes like a five to seven year process this is not a short thing that we're talking about where it's like oh, three months, you go through our program, you're good, we're in it for the long haul. And so by the time that she typically is learning those skills to be able to implement them in her own life, then her child has been growing up with all of these same negative networks, I'll say, and then is usually being recruited into those same sorts of things, and of course she's going to go in after that child because it's her child, right. So there's just I mean, it's so important for us to take that multi-generational approach to it.
Victoria O:So I know we were talking a little bit before we started and you guys have been thinking about doing a podcast to help parents that have gone through trauma, to help their family. Then I was like, wait a minute, even those people that have not gone through trauma needs help too. But that's important, like you just said, like it's not just the one person that has gone through, you know, but it's the rest of the family too. And I know you have a special name for the community that you help. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Which one are you talking about?
Audrey W:So like you don't call them victims. Oh, yes, yeah. So a lot of folks in the victim services world will call people clients, but at Grace Horizon we call them participants and that's intentional, because we think we're not providing you a service Like you're the one who's actually doing the work. We're just walking alongside of you in that and creating space for you to be able to do that. So it puts I think the word client sometimes puts us on like different playing fields, you know, which also feels not great in this work. But I think participant feels also like oh, they're with me, you know.
Victoria O:But there's also some responsibility there too for the folks to actually do their own work and I know that we talked a little bit and I know you guys work, you know, very closely in terms of like forming relationships. Yes, I think that's also really good that you know participants gives you the room to form a relationship as opposed to clients, and it just makes it a little bit harder to form a relationship, right. Yeah, it just makes it a little bit harder to form a relationship, right yeah.
Audrey W:So if you read through our website, you'll see that we say we approach this work through the three R's, through relationship, recovery and resource support, and it feels like if those three pillars are there, then a person has an excellent chance for healing in their lives.
Victoria O:All right, so you are giving us an example, know an example of you. Know what trauma could look like, but I'm sitting out here thinking that somebody listening might be like have I gone through trauma? Like you know have I been sexually trafficked or you know domestic violence Like? Can you maybe like help us give us maybe some more examples or maybe define it, if you?
Audrey W:can yeah. So one of the easy ways to do that is to remember the three E's of trauma. I just talked about the three R's, now we're talking about the three E's.
Audrey W:But the three E's of trauma. It's a pretty standard way in the social work field to understand trauma. It's the events that happened. Usually those things were completely overwhelming or unbearable in some way. It is the experience of those events. You know so how that shows up for you, and then it's the long-term effects of those events. So it's not something it's.
Audrey W:Unfortunately, trauma is not something that's easily defined, because what may be traumatic to one person is not traumatic to another person. So I'll give an example of just a kind of a benign example of if you're at, let's say, a school they're in elementary school, kindergarten, through sixth grade or something like that and they have a fire drill, maybe a kindergartner this is the first fire drill they've ever been to. They've never heard of it. You know, don't have any context for this, right. And so they hear loud bells. It's overwhelming physically for them because of the loudness of the noise. They are maybe separated from, you know, their teacher or however. That looks right. But it could be traumatic for them, right. For a sixth grader who has other coping skills and kind of has, you know, a little bit of knowledge about how that goes, they're like, it's like every other day, right, so it's not traumatic at all to them, and so that's part of the challenge, I think, of defining trauma. But if we remember those three E's, I think that helps to give it some context. That's good.
Victoria O:Yeah, that's good Wow. And then so there's this notion of trauma-informed care. Can you help us understand what that means?
Audrey W:Yeah, so often when we're talking about trauma, we're talking about things that happen for people that were not their choice right, and so that's part of the sense of overwhelm that you feel from those moments, and so I think part of trauma-informed care is actually offering choices to people, reminding them that they do have a choice in this moment and then walking them through what those choices are and what the outcomes could be for them.
Audrey W:I think often, especially when we're talking about trafficking situations, I think the average age of entry into a trafficking situation is 11, 12, 13, 14. It's really young, which is just really heart-wrenching. But when you are entering into that life so young, you don't have decision-making frameworks even built in your brain yet, right, and so when somebody then controls your entire life, you don't have a choice. You know these things are happening to you and so part of trauma-informed care then is okay. Well, here are the options. Let's walk through those together. What would you like to do? And that can feel really overwhelming for folks at first because they're like wait what you want me to choose.
Audrey W:You know like what?
Audrey W:I thought you were supposed to help me, yeah exactly Exactly, and so there's kind of an incremental approach that we take to that. But yeah, it's one of the pieces that I think is really helpful. Another piece to trauma-informed care is going at the pace of the participant, so we have to have a lot of patience. One of the illustrations that I give to my staff that we review often is you can't look at a green apple and say, be red right, you cannot just say, like be ripe, I want to eat you right now.
Audrey W:Like I want to pick you right now, like let's go. And so it's the same thing with people. We just have to be patient, we have to create an environment where they can ripen right where they can learn some of these other coping skills and then, when they're ready in their own time, then they're ready and then we're there right, the relationship has been built, that bridge has been built, and then we can funnel them to the right resources. Wow so.
Victoria O:I know you mentioned before like at least five years is how long you're working with people.
Audrey W:Yeah, yeah. So typically five to seven years is what we see as the length of time that it takes really for somebody to stabilize, to learn new coping skills, to change old mindsets, to develop some of those decision-making frameworks, all of those sorts of things.
Victoria O:Wow, that is incredible, and I know you guys also maybe do some work around like workplace. Can you tell us a little bit about that? I know I have a question here, yeah. Yeah go ahead.
Audrey W:Sorry. Yeah, it's interesting when we think about this question of how do we become a more trauma-informed workspace, because we don't know people's stories that are coming to work for us sometimes. Right, and I was thinking for your listenership, it might be helpful to talk through that a little bit of like what you know, what does that even mean? Like, how do I do that? You know because? So I'll give an example of my family and I used to live in Berlin, germany, for a while and there and I used to do some of this work there, and one of the women that we worked with she ended up going to a hotel to get a job and was cleaning and those sorts of things. She realized that there were all of these plastic bottles that you know were just kind of laying around, and so she collected those and then was able to turn those in for a little extra cash on the side. She didn't know that it was a hotel policy that she was supposed to collect those and return them to the hotel so that way they could return those and get the cash back. So what it looked like on the outside was to the boss, right, they made a lot of assumptions. They said this person is stealing from us, they are being manipulative or they're being, you know, insert the blank right with all the judgments and oftentimes as bosses, we come to those situations and we read a situation and we go this is what's happening. What we can do when we become trauma informed is we can say what do I know about this person? What else might be happening in this moment? What do I know about this person, what else might be happening in this moment, considering what trauma they might have been through and how that might be informing their behavior at the moment. So I'll give you an example from my work with Grace Horizon. Because we have I'm so proud and grateful that we actually have survivors at every level of leadership in our organization, and so that just feels, yeah, it just feels so good.
Audrey W:And as someone who is a survivor of complex trauma myself, I understand very intimately the road of healing and just what it takes and how you really do need people who are just a little further down the road than you are and have those spaces where you can figure some of this stuff out. So there was one moment where I, as the boss, came and was like here's the requirement for this next weeks or whatever. The person that I was talking with reared up, was like no, was reared up, you know, was like no, no, I can't do that, you know. And as the boss in that moment, I had a choice, right. If I was not in a trauma-informed space, I might say, well, this is part of your job, just deal with it. You know, like that's it, like that's all you got. You have responsibilities, that's it. You got to do it.
Audrey W:Instead, in a trauma-informed workspace, I was able to say because I know who she is and what her trauma has been and some of maybe what might be behind that behavior, right, and I was able to say, hey, I hear in your voice that you're really worried about this, and so I would love to have a longer conversation about this with you.
Audrey W:This is part of your job requirements, but I want to talk about how we make that work for you, and what it came down to was they were concerned about, you know, some of the other people in their lives and being able to show up for those people, right, and so we were able to have a workaround and to really make it work for all of us. Being trauma-informed doesn't mean we just let people walk all over us, right? Or just like, oh, they have trauma, that's it, you know, like they get to do whatever they want to. There is accountability there too, but it just means that we're coming at it, looking past the behavior and saying what else might be going on here, and then helping them regulate in the moment and then offering choices to help move forward.
Victoria O:Yeah, that's really good, I mean I guess. I mean I know you have the training, but that takes a lot of wisdom training empathy, you know.
Audrey W:Yes.
Victoria O:That is powerful what you just said. Is there like a program out there to like even maybe train buses on how to do stuff?
Audrey W:You know what? I don't know of any, but I think it's a great idea. Maybe we'll put that in our podcast later, right?
Victoria O:right, right, because I think, like you know, it would just be, you know, just beyond that, so just friends to relationships in the daily life. So it would be nice, it would be good for us to be sensitive or be aware, you know, like you said, informed, like there might be something else going on. I'm curious, though do people actually really heal from trauma?
Audrey W:completely. It's an excellent question. Okay, I think yes, they do. I think also no, they don't. So there's kind of a both and sort of situation here to your question. I think yes, they do heal from trauma because I think the effects of it tend to lessen over time when you learn what your triggers are and how to move through those big, overwhelming emotions. And then also, no know, because it's not that the triggers ever go away, it's just that you learn to move through it more quickly. So I don't know if you've heard the term neurons, that that fire together, wire together.
Audrey W:So this is talking about neuro neurobiology and science and all of that sort of stuff. So what we're doing when we're helping folks heal is we're creating new neural pathways in their brains. That means that has to be done consistently and repetitively over time to be able to create that new pathway. So that way, when a trigger happens, then they go. Oh, I know what to do with this. It's okay, I'm reminding myself I am safe in this moment, even if this person does look like my past abuser, right, and so it's things like that that they start going through and are able to then, you know, function and show up the way they really want to in life, as opposed to the trauma just kind of takes over and you know it. Your, your body's trying to keep itself safe.
Audrey W:And so it's just like this was the reaction, right that my body had to be able to keep me safe. That's right.
Victoria O:I know you talked a little bit about some of the things that you do to help people. So, beyond the housing, what are some of the other programs?
Audrey W:Yes, yeah, so we have a children's coordinator on staff and she's amazing. I mean, my whole team is just amazing. You got to meet them.
Victoria O:Yes, they are the most fun, fun team and I love that.
Audrey W:like you said, every one of them has they're recovered right, so they understand Right, yeah, they all have that sense of I mean, either they've studied for a long time or they have personal lived experience of these things too. And so we have a children's coordinator on staff, we have a coach on staff, and then we've also got a social worker on staff and then we have kind of some support people with a volunteer coordinator and then an admin person in the office. Those folks are part-time right now, but the yeah, the real work happens with those full-time folks who are kind of wrapping around that person to say what do you need? How can we help? You know, hey, here's what I'm seeing. I'm going to reflect back to you in this moment what you're telling me.
Audrey W:You know, it's all of those sorts of things Able to, like I said, care for the whole person.
Victoria O:Right. So on an average, how many people? I know you said there was 36 that you've helped. You know the homes, but in a year? What is the average of people that you work with?
Audrey W:Well, I can tell you this last year we had 106 people that we helped.
Victoria O:And that's when you multiply the family members, that number just grows exponentially.
Audrey W:Yeah, it does.
Victoria O:So you're really doing like incredible work.
Audrey W:My team is yeah, they're just amazing Wow that's amazing, that's really great, wow.
Victoria O:So, as a boss, how do you balance being a manager but also doing this hard, incredible work? I know you gave an example, you know, with your staff, but like that's going to be tough, you know, like, how do you balance?
Audrey W:that Well, the other thing that I think makes us unique as Grace Horizon in terms of workplace culture is that we have a really strong value of self-care and boundaries, and so when we're able to put those things in place, it helps to preserve us, I will say, for this work in the long term. I was thinking about you know, as a leader, so there's several different thoughts happening in my brain at the same time. So let me see if I can sort them all out here, but I was thinking as a leader.
Audrey W:I actually got to talk to a group of students at a university not that long ago and we were talking about how you have to have compassion, you have to have competency and you also have to have courage to be a really good leader.
Victoria O:It's like the three again the three Cs, the three Rs, the three Es, the three Cs.
Audrey W:So we got it all. But I think in those moments then you know, when you're having compassion for someone, if you reach that point where you're getting irritated oh my gosh, they're calling again, you know, or like whatever that is then that's kind of a red flag for you to say I need some self-care, like I'm pouring from an empty cup. That means that then I need to take a step back and say what do I need in this moment?
Audrey W:So, for me as a person of faith, like a lot of times I'm returning to prayer or to journaling. Or, you know, I'm the one who teaches our trauma-informed yoga classes, you know. So I'm doing some of those sorts of things to fill myself up. Or, you know, I encourage my staff, for example, on the weekends, I'm like turn off your phone, Turn it off even just for a few hours at a time. You have to have space where it's just you and you can.
Audrey W:You can actually replenish, and everybody has different ways that they replenish right so whether that's baking or cooking, or it's spending time with friends or going for a jog. I mean, there's so many ways that we do that, but that's that's one of the things that we tag often in our staff culture.
Victoria O:That's so good because, as I'm thinking about this, you being there, listening, helping, you know the participants. It's almost like there's a dump that is happening. Transfer, yeah, you know. So I love that you prioritize self-care in your organization because you're holding that space, and if you guys are not, well then Right.
Audrey W:Then we can't do the work yeah absolutely so.
Audrey W:Another thing, victoria, that I'll tell you with my own staff, I actually heard this from one of my therapists forever ago, and she was talking about having a physical routine that helped you to release all of the energy that you've just received from someone after you've met with a participant, and so I shared that with my staff to say, you know, after we meet with folks, sometimes like we need to brush off our shoulders, I mean physically, do this to remind yourself I don't need to carry the weight of what they just told me, right?
Audrey W:Or for some folks it's going and washing your hands Again, you're releasing that energy. You're saying, okay, I'm going to move on from this moment. Right, for one of our folks, they actually rolled down all the windows in their car after meeting with folks. You know, air it all out, whatever that looks like for you. I mean, you know each person can choose their own, their own way of dealing with that, but some kind of I mean I think so often in our culture we're so cerebral, right, we just all get stuck in our brains and we need to get back into our bodies sometimes. And of course, there's folks that are vice versa, right, right, but that can really help us sometimes to release that.
Victoria O:I like that. I like that you're also giving practical examples and you know activities, things to do, so can you share any like transformational story? I know that there's some things that you may not be able to share but like, yes, you guys do amazing jobs. So let us know some of the things.
Audrey W:Yeah, thank you. Yeah, because of confidentiality, of course we always share.
Audrey W:Conglomerate stories is what we talk about, and so these are things that a lot of our folks face, but there's no identifying factors where you could point back to one person's story, and so one of my favorites was a few years ago. We had a woman who came in and, because of the trauma that she had incurred, she was I mean, literally like shoulders hunched, chin down. She would not look anybody in the eye. You know just was very soft-spoken um. You know just was was very soft spoken Um, and after three months of consistently working with our social worker and with our folks, she would come into the office and she would have her shoulders back and down and her her you know her heart space was open and she was looking at us in the eyes and she was joking with us and it just was this. It was a beautiful transformation, and that happens consistently for folks when they come to Grace Horizon. Wow, that's so powerful.
Victoria O:Like I'm getting chills just hearing that story. Wow, it's incredible. Wow. So you do all of this amazing work and I know there's some people out there thinking how can I? Well, first of all, like, how can they reach you if they think that they need your help?
Audrey W:yeah, yeah. So, um, they're welcome to email us. Info at gracehorizonorg is, you know, a great way to reach us. We also have our website, gracehorizonorg, so there's lots of information on there. Call our office. I mean, we'll kind of the process that I'll say for folks if you think that you are in need of our services, then you would call. We would set up what we call a discovery conversation just to say, okay, you know what's happening for you, can you tell me a little bit about what's going on? And then through that conversation, we're able to see, like, if someone's a good fit for our services and then we're able to do an intake and set them up with you know, the right people and depending on their goals and that sort of thing.
Victoria O:Now, if they are not, for whatever reason, like I imagine that you you know, send them, give them resources, right?
Audrey W:Yeah, yeah, we I mean there's all kinds of resources, we have great community partners. They're listed on our website as well but it really takes all of us, you know. I think that's one of the things that I'm so appreciative about working in the nonprofit sector is that there's this willingness to work together that I don't I'm not sure was there 15 years ago, but we're all coming together kind of in this moment, right now to say like, oh, it's us, you know, it's all of us together doing these little acts of kindness on a consistent basis, and that transforms our homes and our communities. Right, it takes a village.
Victoria O:Yes, yeah, now I know you do all of this incredible work, but it requires money. Yes, it requires resources. It does. So for someone out there that is thinking how can I help Grace Horizon? What are some of the things that they could do to support you, right?
Audrey W:now, yeah, so I mean the easiest one to point to is on our website there's a give button and so you can go and select give.
Audrey W:We are really hoping to get some more monthly donors and so, even if it's a small amount that you're able to give every month, that would be an incredible help to our organization.
Audrey W:There's also volunteers are needed for different things.
Audrey W:I mean we cook meals for our community gatherings and actually later, even tonight, I'm going back and we have one of our community gatherings tonight that we're going to go and we have games and food and those sorts of things that are all set up, and so we need volunteers and those sorts of things that are all set up, and so we need volunteers for those sorts of things. You know also, like we have a little closet in the back of our offices where items are donated, and you know, because when we have 37 folks who have been put into new homes right, you have a lot have been put into new homes, right, you have a lot you need couches and beds and furniture and utensils for the kitchen and all that sort of thing, and so even keeping that sort of stuff organized is another, you know, possibility. Or moving people you know into homes and there's all kinds of ways to volunteer. But yeah, I would say those monthly donors is a huge way, and then volunteering is another way that could be a part.
Victoria O:So if you're thinking about supporting I'm going to just echo what she just said Monthly donors and then volunteer your time is so critical, you know. And then the monthly donors too, okay, thank you. It's so critical, you know. And then the monthly donors too, okay, thank you. Thank you. So I know you have some other ways that you help raise money. You have an event coming up. Tell us a little bit about that.
Audrey W:So we every year for the last I guess it's six years have hosted an event called the Golf for Freedom, so it's a golf tournament. This year we are hosting it at Sagmore Golf Course for the second year in a row. It happens on Monday, july 14th. There will be information on our website soon. It's not there yet, but it will be there soon with registration information or sponsorship packages or other ways to give to that event to make that successful, right? So?
Victoria O:by the time this podcast airs, it's probably going to be on the website already. Yes, and as far as sponsorship, you're open to all kinds of sponsorships.
Audrey W:Right. So we have, along with the Golf for Freedom, so it's the tournament side of things, where there's teams of four that go out and play, and then we also have an online auction that runs at the same time. And then we also have a um, an online auction that runs at the same time, and so we have different baskets that get put together, um, everything from like hair care products to, um, uh, like we had a huge golf bag that was donated, you know. So I mean it just it spreads the gamut, um, but all of that gets put online for that event and then open for that day and then closes at the end of the day. So there's all kinds of ways, yeah. Or if you want to just sponsor a whole, then you know you have there's media sponsorships and things like that, too, that sounds incredible.
Victoria O:So all that information will be on the website that we're going to put in the description somewhere here. You know how that already goes, so please make sure you visit the website and support monthly donors, time sponsorship for upcoming events and just stay connected to Grace Horizon. I think they're doing such an incredible work and it takes a village. Audrey, do you have anything else you'd like to add?
Audrey W:I maybe just would say thank you, I mean thank you to the folks who continue to get involved and continue to follow along with this work. Thank you to you for hosting us and for being involved with us, and then maybe a challenge for folks to do your own work right. I think that's the other piece that sometimes doesn't get talked about when we talk about these big issues is that we have such big hearts and we really want to help so desperately. Right, but maybe we haven't dealt with our own issues yet, so then we end up projecting our issues onto somebody else, and so that's again.
Audrey W:It starts with us, with each of us, and so another piece of our staff culture is taking care of us, to making sure that we're dealing with our own stuff, that's a whole podcast right there. Yes, I'll just have to come back some other time. Yes, absolutely, you know, I mean because it's so deep.
Victoria O:As you were talking, I was like, oh my God, okay. Anyway, I also wanted to add that Grace Horizon had the awesome privilege of photographing the entire group and they're featured in the Boss Ladies magazine that just dropped in March. So check them out. We had like this amazing story to tell a little bit more about what they do, but also visit their websites. Please donate monthly donation, support through sponsorship, as well as volunteer. We are here locally and there's so much that we can do together to help heal our community when we work together. So I hope you reach out to them. I know you're open, you know like to email, you know, and I know their team is just the best. I really enjoyed it.
Audrey W:Thank you, you guys are just so much fun. Yeah, thank you.
Victoria O:Yeah, so well, until next time, please do the hard work and then take care of yourself too, because we need you as well, yes, yeah. Thank you All right.
