Savvy Ladies was founded in 2003 and has helped over 10,000 women on their path towards financial freedom. Savvy Ladies teaches women about personal finances in an authentic way that encourages them to take control of their financial future. With Savvy Ladies’ education, women learn how to make proactive choices about their finances, identify their life goals, and move toward a more rich and rewarding life. Savvy Ladies provides seminars, webinars, workshops, and hotlines that encourage networking amongst women, and create a secure forum for women to ask financially-related questions. Savvy Ladies is not associated with another organization and provides unbiased education about personal finances.
Financial instability is a gender-wide problem; one that is not specific to geography, culture, or even economic background. Many women are raised to believe they do not need to take care of their own finances. Numerous studies, however, indicate that living without financial awareness leaves women particularly vulnerable regardless of marital status. An Allianz Life Insurance Company survey revealed that 90% of women feel somewhat or not at all financially secure. Almost half the women in the study said they have a fear of losing all their money and becoming a homeless bag lady.
Savvy Ladies is committed to changing these statistics. With the help of Savvy Ladies, women start making educated and individual choices about money. They learn the importance of financial planning so they can protect themselves against economic hardship and proactively build a stable future to ensure a rewarding and productive life for themselves and their families.
PoweredUp Talk Radio stars Sandra Beck of Motherhood Incorporated and Linda Franklin of The Real Cougar Woman. The show airs live Tuesdays at 3pm PST/ 6pm EST and is available for download and lives stream at http://www.powereduptalkradio.comand http://itunes.com. To reach Sandra or Linda please contact them directly at Sandra@PoweredUpTalkRadio.com and Linda@PoweredUpTalkRadio.com.
From New York City to Los Angeles “Powered up with Beck and Franklin” gives women of all ages permission to live the life they have always dreamed of. Why live in black and white when you can choose the brilliance of 3D and Technicolor?
Each week Beck and Franklin and their high-powered guests will be here to cheer you on, to share their challenges, their successes and what they have learned from their failures. It’s all about women supporting women. The stories and practical tips on sex, beauty, money and so much more are designed to help you re-connect to the powerful woman you are.
Fabulous knows no limits. It’s time for you to expand your boundaries.
Head Trash. Baggage. Beat up. Rode Hard. Put away wet. No matter what you call it, there seems to be a lot of stuff going on in my head post divorce. Some of the thoughts rolling around in the ol’ noggin have to do with the unbelievable array of choices out there today for this 40 something single mom of two active little boys. I have total baggage. I have a head full of trash – which my wingman pointed out this week. I personally like to call it matching luggage. Just like I am not divorced…I’m recycled.
Yeah well, even with the new labels going on dates after a long term marriage or relationship is a challenge. For me, my head gets in the way. For many of us I think, which is why I am writing this today. Here’s what goes on in my mind when I first get to know someone.
Is he a pedophile, serial killer, rapist or felon? Does he do drugs? Is he bad in bed? As I smile and chat in a completely false but friendly way my mind ticks over looking for leaks in his story. Has he been married? Is he married? Why did it end? Is he a cheater? Does he pay his taxes? Does he use Tide? What does he think about the War? Does he like cheese? When he finds I’m on a Military radio show is he going to be creeped out, proud, excited or bored to tears. Why is he still single? Why am I still single?
Then I slide into the self punishing thought process. As he is chattering away about his likes, dislikes and what he is looking for I go to the area of: You just want to get laid. I just want to get laid. Oh, that’s not good. What are you interested in me for? I am mortgaged up to my eyeballs. I’m in hock for braces, summer camp, soccer balls and new tires. I’m over 40. 4-Tee. How’s that grabbin’ ya?
At this point, I’m so engrossed in my own internal chatter that I have completely missed everything he has said over coffee which is my favorite place to go on a first meetup. I don’t call them dates. That freaks me out – too much pressure in that one little word. And coffee implies I don’t need to stay if I don’t feel the love. The guy is still talking away, smiling at me and I am relieved that he can’t hear the internal nut job spinning its tale. Apparently I’m good at masking my feelings, my fears and the jibber-jabber going on in my head.
He wants to meet for dinner and a movie? At least that’s what I think he said. Oh God, I haven’t heard a thing this guy was talking about. What was his name? I have missed the entire sales pitch he threw at me for the past 15 minutes. I smile and say that would be nice, hoping he never calls me.
What was wrong with him, you ask? Nothing – absolutely nothing! I didn’t hear a word he said much less was able to make a cognizant, coherent and compelling decision either way. He could have said he eats goat brains, likes to punch old people, and thinks Sydney Crosby is overrated and I would have smiled and nodded. I didn’t hear a damn thing.
The problem was me. I wasn’t ready. He never called me and for that I was glad. I had jumped into the pool way too soon and it showed. I believe in life after love tanks, but at a pace that feels comfortable to each person in their own time frame.
See my ex-husband when he walked out on me and the kids had already set up his life with his girlfriend. They would live in her house, give her husband the boot, get settlement money from their spouses and ride into the sunset. It was nice and tidy and it unfolded just like that. For me I was left holding the bag: the mortgage, the car payments, the insurance payments and the kids.
Those are hardly aphrodisiacs. You don’t hear anyone say ever, “Hey baby, you’re so hot because you pay the gas bill” or “It turns me on when you crawl under the water heater, scrape out the spider-webs and relight the pilot.” One meetup guy asked me why my neck and cheek were so red and I said I was warm from the sun. In reality, it was because last night in the freezing windstorm and a pipe broke to my house and I went out to shut off the main valve at the street and scraped myself reaching into the ground. When men do that it’s manly. When I do it, it’s just kind of a klutz-fest that results in flesh wounds.
But this is what life is like when you are a single mom in the sticks with no one around to help you. It’s hard to be sexy when you are the man and then you get good at the man things and you wonder what you need to meet someone for anyway. It doesn’t make any sense. It just is. And honestly, most times I’m just too darn tired from keeping all the balls in the air to get ready for a meetup.
When I went out into the dating world for the first time all of those responsibilities hung over my head and made it impossible for me to relax and enjoy meeting someone. In reality, I didn’t want to meet someone, form a partnership or a relationship. At that time I just wanted to not feel alone, scared and adrift with overwhelming choices, decisions and responsibility. Dating wasn’t the solution. Getting myself in order was.
When you get back in the saddle, don’t be so hard on yourself. My first meetups after I did were total disasters. I walked out in the middle of a date because my head was spinning. I just left. Excused myself. Went to the loo- kept on walking right out the door. I had no idea what I was doing because I was doing what I thought I should be doing – not what I needed to be doing …which was just chill. I was the dating train wreck careening forward on one rail.
If you do this, or you meet someone who does this, just let them go. It’s nothing personal. It’s just that most people out there don’t know what they want, what they need or what they are looking for. Even me. Every day I keep changing, growing and learning about myself. I know there is going to come a time when I have to let people in. I’m doing so now but at a ridiculously slow pace compared to others, but to me it’s all I can do. I am the queen of conversational deflection. Let’s talk about me? Sure! So, how are YOU doing?
When you Bounce with Style, you don’t ricochet like a lunatic all over the place. Well you can, but it’s not fun. You hit bottom and you rise at your own pace. Bouncing with Style is about knowing what’s best for you, with whatever you can do in your own time frame, and the hell with what you think you should be doing. I’m here today to give you permission to take it slowly. Find yourself. Create the life you want and when life throws a snowball at your head – Bounce with Style.
My mom who loved the beach as much as she loved to laugh.
Who falls into their mom’s grave? Me.
It was my crashing moment of glory to signify the end of a terrible year. I had suffered through a nasty divorce from a cheating, balding BurgerMeister-MeisterBurger while raising my two little boys three thousand miles from my family as I built my own Girl Power company. I went through a foreclosure, buried my mom from breast cancer, and my two little dogs died a month apart. At some point, I started to giggle. No one would believe this.
Even writing this I have to shake my head. I had truly become the Bad-luck Schlep-rock of Southern California. I never rains here, you say? Stand next to me. I could have stayed in my year long funk drawing on my own face with an editing pen while falling asleep working from home. I could have eaten myself to Hindenburg proportions daring my broken heart to stop beating with the threat of another Hershey Bar. But I didn’t.
What I did do was Fail Forward.
My first date after a ten year marriage, I got my feet tangled in the straps of my purse on the floor of my escort’s car and lurched out of the car onto the blisteringly hot Los Angeles grime filled sidewalk like a prisoner in ankle shackles. Thank God that “Orange is the new Pink” had passed or I truly would have been the Jail-Bait Date.
I fell apart on a flight to Dallas, sobbing so profusely that the flight attendants who brought me tissues broke into tears. Then later, on the same flight, I choked on a peanut.
Most notably, I called the disenfranchised body trader…uh…affair partner of my then still legal husband…right in front of her family at their picnic a “b$tch” and said though she might be driving my Lexus she would never be me. For months my kids would double over in laughter about mom’s use of the “b-word.” putting their hand on their tiny hips, wagging their finger just like me and doing their best imitation of my snotty upper East Coast accent.
When I got my graduate degree in business from Northwestern there were no classes teaching me about not hiring your husband’s mistress in your family business or disgracing yourself in public during emotional turmoil. I might have be highly educated, but I didn’t win any dating etiquette or travel awards that year. I surely didn’t win any parenting awards. But I did in my own mind get a big fat award with a sparkly sash, a glittering crown and a massive cardboard check for a $1 million because I got through it while keeping my sense of humor along the way.
I know that the day they buried my mom, when I walked on the green carpet that covered the hole like I was walking on the red carpet in Hollywood and fell right into her grave up to my knees, that my mom was pulling my leg. She was telling me from the great beyond not to take life too seriously, to remind me that love transcends death, and to find the smile even in life’s most serious moments. She also told me it was okay to punch my little brother in the arm for posting a photo of that moment on Facebook.
See, I might not have recovered as gracefully, thoughtfully or as kindly to me and others as I wanted to. But I kept going, even if it meant failing forward. I share my foibles with you to make you laugh, and to help you see the bright side of dark times, not to feel sorry for me. I think my life is entertaining- like one big action-packed dramatic thriller where you sometimes get to write the script. I mean really, how many people can say they fell into their mom’s grave?
Bouncing with Style is all about how you rebound. It’s about doing the best you can and not beating yourself up if you say…fall into a grave. When we choose to see the good, the funny, the absurd and the downright freaky we get a little lift… a little joy….a little tingle that washes away the gray.
Sandra Beck is an author, company owner and host of two popular radio shows. Visit her at www.sandrabeck.com.
Lisa Cypers Kamen of the Harvesting Happiness Company is internationally recognized as an acclaimed documentary filmmaker, positive psychology life coach, devoted philanthropist, author, radio and television talk show host, renowned happiness expert, public speaker and mother of two children. As an expert in her field, Ms. Kamen educates both private and public audiences on building and rebuilding foundations for happiness in the face of personal trauma, maintaining new-found happiness in various environments and expanding personal development Lisa has also regularly contributed to publications and blogs such as Military Spouse Magazine, Positively Positive, Inspire Me Today, Huffington Post, and Rizzarr.
As a well-respected philanthropist, Ms. Kamen works with the Salus Foundation to benefit the SulaxamiSchool for Girls in Lucknow, India. After extensive training at the University of Santa Monica and the Center for Deployment Psychology, Ms. Kamen began the Harvesting Happiness for Heroes organization. Harvesting Happiness For Heroes® is 501 (c)(3) Nonprofit organization which aids post combat military veterans and their families in rebuilding a foundation for happiness through Post Traumatic Stress Disorder therapy. HH4Heroes offers personalized reintegration coaching techniques for soldiers and caregivers in need.
Ms. Kamen currently resides in Southern California.
Please view the Harvesting Happiness Company Directory to discover more information about Ms. Kamen’s world- acclaimed workshops, life changing film projects, insightful writing, guest appearances, international philanthropic projects and radio and television programming.
PoweredUp Talk Radio stars Sandra Beck of Motherhood Incorporated and Linda Franklin of The Real Cougar Woman. The show airs live Tuesdays at 3pm PST/ 6pm EST and is available for download and lives stream at http://www.powereduptalkradio.comand http://itunes.com. To reach Sandra or Linda please contact them directly at Sandra@PoweredUpTalkRadio.com and Linda@PoweredUpTalkRadio.com.
From New York City to Los Angeles “Powered up with Beck and Franklin” gives women of all ages permission to live the life they have always dreamed of. Why live in black and white when you can choose the brilliance of 3D and Technicolor?
Each week Beck and Franklin and their high-powered guests will be here to cheer you on, to share their challenges, their successes and what they have learned from their failures. It’s all about women supporting women. The stories and practical tips on sex, beauty, money and so much more are designed to help you re-connect to the powerful woman you are.
Fabulous knows no limits. It’s time for you to expand your boundaries.
One of the things that happens when you divorce, when your spouse has an affair and you are left to pick up the pieces, raise your children alone or pay off massive debt is that you get a whole bucket of pain that seems to refresh on a daily basis.
It’s hard sometimes to figure out the source of the pain: anger, frustration, disappointment, sadness, disbelief, worry, fear, jealousy… well, you get the point. The end result is you hurt.
How to go from pain to productivity and back again.
And you hurt in a way that for many of us after a long marriage is only familiar in a distant memory when you were made fun of in grade school or had your heart crushed by a high school sweetheart. Only this time you can’t run home to Mom and Dad to ease your pain. Well, you can, but it’s just not the same because when you do, you heap a whole level of “I’m no longer a grown up – I’m a mess” disaster thinking on your head.
So it hurts. For many of us it hurts for a long time. It’s hard to breathe. Your chest feels tight. And the whole world can feel as if it’s on the attack even though it’s probably not directed at you.
I know that during what I call my bruised and battered stage if someone looked at me wrong, I thought it was me, my failure and it was intended to hurt me. I knew as a rational adult that the whole world wasn’t conspiring to hurt my feelings but like a tender bruise on your arm, the slightest touch caused pain.
I was abnormally sensitive to everything during this time. I see my friends who are going through the same process experience the same thing. Even the slightest hint of a cross word sends them spiraling into hiding and depression.
The hard thing about all of this is that most people don’t understand and tell you to move on, meet someone new, get out there. I’d like to offer to these well-meaning but mis-guided friends that you wouldn’t tell someone who just broke his leg to get out on the dance floor. But that’s unfortunately what people who don’t understand tell us to do.
Yes, we all have to get back into the saddle. Yes, we all have to move on. But moving on means moving through the pain associated with infidelity and divorce. That can take a really long time, especially if you were married for many years and/or you were very vested in the relationship.
The worst thing I did with my pain was sit with it. That was when I thought my butt grew roots right into the couch. The pain just knocked the wind out of me and I didn’t know what to do and I surely did not expect it. It was easier to be still. It was easier to hide. I didn’t want to see happy families. They did not make me feel better.
Because I was getting fat and my ego superceded my depression, I got off the couch. I dug out my dusty iPod and I walked. Sometimes I ran. Sometimes I hiked or swam or rode the stationery bike as if my life depended on it. Tears would stream down my face and mix with sweat. I could feel the pain energy dissipate. It would come again like waves in the ocean, washing over me. I could feel it bubbling in my check threatening to spill over at any moment. That’s when I knew I needed to move.
I would wash the floor. Vacuum the house. Clean the car. Organize my office. Go through my things for donation. I would stack wood. I would keep moving until I could feel the pain energy leave. I imagined myself with this huge ball of pain in my chest and it radiated outward and I would run the battery down and it would dim. When it recharged and showed up again, I envisioned it getting smaller each time it came back. You know what? It worked. My pain ball is so much smaller and I don’t know what to tell you about why it worked, I just know that it did.
There were also added benefits that I was no longer living in a mess. Things were neater and orderly and I felt more in control when I got things together. There is nothing worse than being in a funk and looking at a giant disorganized mess.
I invite you to imagine your pain energy ball running out of steam. I invite you to imagine that each time you wear out your pain battery, it gets smaller. I invite you to join me in turning your pain into productivity.
Everyone has to bounce at some time or another in their lifetime. I invite you to Bounce with Style with me.
Sandra Beck is an author, coach, speaker and popular radio host. You can learn more about her by visiting www.sandrabeck.com
Lou Paget on Poweredup Talk Radio with Sandra Beck and Linda Franklin Tuesdays 3pm PST on Toginet.com
Lou Paget is a certified AASECT* sex educator and grassroots researcher whose quest for accurate, practical information for herself has created a highly successful international seminar and product company with a focus on lifestyle and cultural trends that impact our sexuality, health, and relationships. Paget began organizing her Los Angeles-based women’s focus groups on sexuality and health in the early ’90s.
What she didn’t anticipate was that her small, informal discussion groups would explode into some of the most popular and revolutionary sexual forums both nationally and internationally.
Lou Paget has single-handedly given the arena of sexual education and information a more accessible and honest attitude. Her corporation’s name, Frankly Speaking, Inc., is inspired by an acronym for the principles she values most in sexual education: Freedom, Respect, Accuracy, Non-judgmental, Knowledge.
Lou’ Paget’s one-hour television special on the WE Network, MAKING LOVE HAPPEN WITH LOU PAGET will premiere on Tuesday, August 1st. Her 5th book, HOT MAMAS: THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO STAYING SEXY THROUGHOUT YOUR PREGNANCY AND THE MONTHS BEYOND released with Gotham Press, January 2005. Lou Paget has been busy in all other media as well. Her extensive media list can be found here.
As she continues her quest for information in the field of relationships, Paget has been prominetly featured in the HBO program REAL SEX, and the massively successful British documentary SEX TIPS FOR GIRLS. Equally respected by her peers in the fields of sexuality research, she regularly presents at national and international professional conferences. Paget is also expanding into different seminar markets, taking advantage of more international marketing opportunities, developing product lines of adult novelties that work, and expanding her broad media collaborations.
With her trademark calm, fearless intelligence, Paget delivers the core essence of information about intimacy. As an international bestselling author of FIVE books, translated into TWENTY-SIX languages, and represented in over SIXTY countries with over THREE million copies sold, it is clear that global audiences are hungry for Paget’s expertise. When it comes to intimacy and sexuality, Paget says, “Common sense isn’t all that commonly practiced but we all want it.”
* American Association of Sex Educators, Counselors and Therapists.
PoweredUp Talk Radio stars Sandra Beck of Motherhood Incorporated and Linda Franklin of The Real Cougar Woman. The show airs live Tuesdays at 3pm PST/ 6pm EST and is available for download and lives stream at http://www.powereduptalkradio.comand http://itunes.com. To reach Sandra or Linda please contact them directly at Sandra@PoweredUpTalkRadio.com and Linda@PoweredUpTalkRadio.com.
From New York City to Los Angeles “Powered up with Beck and Franklin” gives women of all ages permission to live the life they have always dreamed of. Why live in black and white when you can choose the brilliance of 3D and Technicolor?
Each week Beck and Franklin and their high-powered guests will be here to cheer you on, to share their challenges, their successes and what they have learned from their failures. It’s all about women supporting women. The stories and practical tips on sex, beauty, money and so much more are designed to help you re-connect to the powerful woman you are.
Fabulous knows no limits. It’s time for you to expand your boundaries.
It’s no surprise that infidelity and divorce leaves you angry and bitter. This is normal. This is natural and when I look back at that difficult time I like to reminisce about some of the bitter, angry things I did to get through the day. They strike me as funny today. I know we are supposed to take care of ourselves, but it’s also great when you can look back at the things you did to get rid of some of the toxic feelings.
For me I took abject delight in an incident that happened at my youngest son’s preschool. Since my ex and his girlfriend got a toe hold before I did, most people thought the girlfriend was my son’s mother. This sent me into paroxysm like nothing else. During the school year I sat in the back while she and my ex and her children sat in the front like the perfect family. She brought roses for each child’s mother at graduation, a large cake and gifts for the kids. You would have thought the Pope was signing “you are my sunshine” for all the fuss they made.
Slinking out the back, avoiding my own children because I could tell my presence embarrassed them, I did my best to hide behind the floral arrangement that my ex brought for the pre-school teacher that signified to me the death of my marriage. That’s when I heard the girlfriend calling my name.
“Run!” I whispered to my friend who happened to be a hot 28 year old man/sexy body guard/cougar fodder for the other mothers and he told me to stand strong and face her. He held my hand when I turned around.
“This is for you because you are one of the mothers,” she said, handing me a white rose. I really wanted to bitch-slap her with the flower and ask her who she is kidding, but my youngest son was standing there with happy eyes that mommy was getting a flower. I wanted to ask her to stop picking up said son and asking people if he looks like her, but I swallowed my bitterness.
The best part was the following day which was my custodial day and I got to take my son to the pre-school after party at the bouncy house. The mothers that I had avoided for a year all sat around like hens in the barn yard – pecking away at each other about whose child was better, brighter, prettier and more athletic.
No one talked to me except one mother who looked at me and stated that I was so lucky to have such a wonderful stepmother for my children. That she is amazing and I should count my lucky stars. She went on to say that she is such a good friend to all of them.
I smiled in my own catty way and said, “I used to feel that way. She was my good friend until she started sleeping with my husband in my home while taking a paycheck from me when I was pregnant with my son. It made for a really awkward baby shower, you know?”
Dead silence would have been deafening. I don’t know what story my ex and his girlfriend spun, but it clearly wasn’t what I experienced. I know it was totally rude, mean, bitter, angry and bitchy for me to drop a bomb like that at a children’s party but I did it and like a bird flying out of your mouth there was no taking it back. So I sat there smugly, smiling a little because every dog has his day and that day was mine.
I never saw those women again. At least I don’t remember them if I meet them, but I’m for darn sure that they remember me. Did I air dirty laundry – like it was flapping in the winds of a tornado. I sure did. Do I regret it? Nah, not so much. What was a pivotal moment for me, was probably a few days of gossip for others over did you hear what she said.
Learning to laugh at ourselves even in moments that we might not do today is a big part of Bouncing with Style. No one is perfect. Sometimes we say things we regret. Sometimes we say things we don’t. Have some fun with the bitterness and anger. And don’t judge yourself too harshly for the things you do! It’s all part of Bouncing with Style.
Sandra Beck, owner of Motherhood Incorporated is the host of three popular radio shows Military Mom Talk Radio, Motherhood Talk Radio and Poweredup with Beck and Franklin.
Cynthia Rowland is the creator of Facial Magic, the revolutionary, facial exercise system and the innovative, easy-to-use Luscious Lips pump that restores youthful fullness to your lips in just seconds. Cynthia is also the founder and president of Rejenuve, Inc., a company dedicated to providing men and women highly effective anti-aging products. Cynthia has discovered “The Facial Fountain of Youth.” As creator of the Facial Magic system, she is doing pioneering work. She helps women and men aged 25 and up to lose 10 to 15 years off their faces simply by doing European spa exercises that help tone, tighten and lift facial muscles. No cosmetic surgery, injections or electro-stimulation are needed! Already, more than one million women and men worldwide in more than 40 countries are fans of Cynthia’s Facial Magic and Luscious Lips products.
PoweredUp Talk Radio stars Sandra Beck of Motherhood Incorporated and Linda Franklin of The Real Cougar Woman. The show airs live Tuesdays at 3pm PST/ 6pm EST and is available for download and lives stream at http://www.powereduptalkradio.comand http://itunes.com. To reach Sandra or Linda please contact them directly at Sandra@PoweredUpTalkRadio.com and Linda@PoweredUpTalkRadio.com.
From New York City to Los Angeles “Powered up with Beck and Franklin” gives women of all ages permission to live the life they have always dreamed of. Why live in black and white when you can choose the brilliance of 3D and Technicolor? Each week Beck and Franklin and their high-powered guests will be here to cheer you on, to share their challenges, their successes and what they have learned from their failures. It’s all about women supporting women. The stories and practical tips on sex, beauty, money and so much more are designed to help you re-connect to the powerful woman you are. Fabulous knows no limits. It’s time for you to expand your boundaries.
Began by the efforts of a group of philanthropic Vietnam Veterans, one residence was opened in 1994. UVBH is proud to say we now operate and support 24 locations throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties (23 for housing and 1 for our headquarters) and provide services to over 185 men, women and children on any given day. Primarily, UVBH was formed to work with the homeless veteran population of the Tri State area and continues to do so; we work with veterans who come to us with physical disabilities, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Traumatic Brain Injury, mental health issues and/or alcohol addiction. Many years ago we expanded our efforts to include assisting the non-veteran population and the issues they face, including homelessness, drug and/or alcohol addiction and job skill/readiness development.
UVBH places each person or family that comes to us in the home and program that best supports their needs. Along with a safe and structured living environment we provide our residents with a host of supportive services, including Case Management, transportation for medical visits and appointments, education and job placement programs and services as well as coordination of all mental and emotional counseling. We also connect our residents with entitlements.
Of our 23 housing locations, 9 homes are for veterans only, one of which is dedicated to female veterans and one of which is dedicated to Frail & Elderly. Our non-veteran housing includes 2 Congregate Emergency Shelters for homeless families and one home for non-veteran females in recovery from drug and/or alcohol addiction. Beyond those, we support 4 homes that house both veteran and non-veteran males and 8 apartments which serve as permanent residences to both populations.
Our efforts reach beyond those that reside with us. We assist Operation Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn returning veterans and their families through a job assistance and placement program called Military and Family Assistance Project. In addition we assist those in our community who are in need by providing vouchers they can use in our Thrift Store and Food Pantry, which are both located at our headquarters.
Within UVBH a community spirit among residents and staff is established. Many of our staff are former residents. Every aspect of life is given attention and residents are provided every opportunity to develop the necessary coping skills for successful return to independent living. With an 85% success rate and an extremely low rated of recidivism, UVBH offers all who come to us an excellent chance of overcoming the dire circumstances which brought them in.
Social plus media. That’s different than Social Media. Take a minute to think about it.
I must say this to people at least 10 times a day. You have to put the social into media. Roughly translated you need to be social (sorry, yes you have to communicate with people) and you need some media (photos, videos, songs, sound files, podcasts, finger painting).
I know I sound obnoxious and snarky, but there are a lot of people out there including some of my clients who share the belief like Kevin Costner in Field of Dreams that if you build it they will come. It just doesn’t work that way. Once you have your site up or your blog or your Facebook page you need people to get a push in the right direction: right over to your site. This is not as easy as it sounds but I want to give you a primer on how social media is used in our experience.
Twitter: effective in driving people to your site.
Facebook: great in communication with people or groups to find leads.
Linked In: great for peer to peer business communication and networking.
Pinterest: great for driving links back to you site after posting images.
Google+: great for communication with people or groups to find leads but second to Facebook.
WordPress: excellent place to post your advertorials. Well that’s it. Seems overwhelming but it’s really not. Knowing how and where and when to use social media is an art form, a business tool, an advertising strategy and a whole lot of fun, but can be a huge time suck to your day. Want to know more?
