Rock Recovery: Bodily Trust is a Two-Way Street

Rock Recovery works to bridge gaps in resources for eating disorder treatment and education by removing the barriers of stigma, cost, and accessibility and by connecting people to clinical community and quality care. The Catalogue for Philanthropy recently had a chance to interview Heather Clark, their new Clinical Director, about her work and why it’s so important to make peace with food and our bodies.

Catalogue: What led you to become a counselor and Clinical Director with Rock Recovery?

Heather: My path into the counseling field was very circuitous. I’ve always found psychology fascinating, and I’m very people-oriented, so counseling turned out to be a good fit for me. I’m also over 15 years into recovery from my own eating disorder, so I have always gravitated toward working with clients struggling with food and body issues.

I did my clinical internship at an eating disorder treatment center. I loved working as a part of a team and have been waiting for the right opportunity to get back into a team setting ever since then. When I saw this opportunity at Rock Recovery, I was very excited because it feels like such a good match with my values. I’ve been acquainted with Rock Recovery since I started in private practice six years ago and I have loved their mission to increase access to eating disorders care.

I really appreciate how their therapy groups fill a real gap in outpatient care for disordered eating. I also find Rock’s nationwide faith-based support groups to be such a unique and powerful offering. And, on top of all this, they operate from a weight-inclusive, Health At Every Size® stance, which is a top priority for me. So, it was a perfect fit.

The Health At Every Size® Principles and framework are a continuously evolving alternative to a weight-centered approach and promote health equity, support ending weight discrimination, and improve access to quality healthcare regardless of size.

Catalogue: How would you describe your philosophy and approach to your work?

Heather: My approach is weight-inclusive, trauma-informed, and strengths-based. I understand healing food and body issues to be a rebuilding of trust between the self and the body. It’s a two-way street – the body learns that you are trustworthy to care for it, and you learn that you can trust your body to always give 100% for you, and to manage your energy storage (weight) without your interference. I value Health At Every Size®, body diversity, and food freedom. I also emphasize the acceptance of emotions, self-compassion, assertiveness, and building shame resilience.

Catalogue: What is something you aren’t often asked about your work that you’d like to share?

Heather: Eating disorders are the second most deadly mental health condition, second only to opioid use disorder. This is really serious, and I wish that parents, educators, and policymakers would recognize this, seek out education about prevention, and enact change.

In fact, kids are 242 times more likely to develop an eating disorder than Type 2 diabetes, based on the CDC’s numbers on the incidence of these two conditions. And yet, when we hear people sounding the alarm about the health of our kids, it’s centered around weight suppression (during a time when kids should be gaining weight, not less) and avoiding certain foods.

Catalogue: What is a challenge you’re facing in your work with Rock Recovery and how are you dealing with it?

Heather: I think the evergreen answer to this question among nonprofit organizations is funding, right? Besides that, I think a lot of therapists right now are either maxed out or over-worked, and I think our team is no exception. The need is so great, but there are only so many hours in the day, and we all have families and personal lives of our own to juggle, as well.

Catalogue: What about your work with Rock Recovery excites you or gives you hope?

Heather: I get excited about seeing more and more people gain increasing levels of freedom in their recovery. For so many, lack of access to care is a real barrier to this freedom. Rock Recovery is working to change that.

Rock Recovery never wants finances to be a barrier to accessing the care people need and deserve. We offer all our services – from therapy groups, to individual therapy, to nationwide faith-based support groups – on a sliding scale, which means that we adjust the fee for the service according to the person’s income. This excites me and gives me hope for the mental health field. I hope more organizations will follow a similar model in other niches within mental health care.

Catalogue: What is something about Rock Recovery’s work or impact that you’d like to celebrate?

Heather: Rock Recovery is growing rapidly and we’re expanding our Maryland services to meet the needs of the people we serve. We’re now accepting Maryland residents for individual counseling and in our Breaking Bread meal support and therapy group, which is very exciting.

Catalogue: What is coming next for Rock Recovery?

Heather: We’re very excited to start two new therapy groups in the fall to be able to serve even more adults and adolescents who need our help! We’re launching a lunch break meal support and therapy group for adults, as well as an 8-week therapy group for teens ages 14-18.

We are also hosting a continuing education event on body-positivity in youth, coming up on June 2nd, that is aimed at helping educators, doctors, and others to recalibrate their approach to health and wellness teaching in school settings to prioritize body acceptance and eating disorders prevention.

Catalogue: Finally, how can readers help support and advocate for Rock Recovery’s mission?

Heather: We’d love for readers to support our work by donating one-time or becoming a monthly donor so that more people can access the treatment they need and find freedom from disordered eating.

If you or a loved one are currently struggling or wondering if it might be time to get help, please reach out to see whether we might be a good fit for your needs and schedule an interest call on our website.

I’d (also) encourage everyone to learn more about Health At Every Size® and to promote body diversity every chance they get.

An Open Book Foundation: Learning is Like Planting Seeds

“I never knew birdwatching could be so fun,” a student, and now citizen scientist, at Cleveland Elementary School exclaimed while on a nature walk around the school.

Earlier this May, students were visited by Lenora Todaro, sidewalk naturalist and author of Sea Lions in the Parking Lot: Animals on the Move in the Time of Pandemic, a children’s book containing twelve real-life stories of creatures around the globe who reclaimed their habitat during the COVID-19 quarantine. Over the course of three days, students brought the urban wildlife lessons from the book to life with discussions of the habitats they found around DC and how to make these more welcoming for birds. They also build seed bombs together – clay balls filled with dirt and seeds that can be tossed anywhere for wildflowers to grow.

In a previous residency, students worked alongside author-scientist Heather Montgomery to build model bridges that would conserve wildlife by helping them across busy expressways.

These hands-on activities are intentionally coordinated by the team at An Open Book Foundation, a children’s literacy nonprofit that just launched a new STEM residency program to connect different writers, scientists, and researchers with classrooms across the Greater Washington area. “Science tells us that the probability of learning something is (higher) when we’re actually doing it,” says Josarie Molina, their Education Director. “(That’s why) we’re creating opportunities that are concrete and experiential, and those are the ones that’ll most likely stick.”

As someone who’s melding her previous experience as an art teacher, school librarian, museum educator, and more in this role, Josarie knows how to create and iterate spaces that are collaborative, experimental, and, most importantly, joyous. “Stress is not conducive to learning or teaching. So, what An Open Book does is the total opposite. We’re creating spaces (where students are comfortable and happy), so they can just enjoy knowing each other, the books, and learning. I think that is certainly paying off.”

Inspired by another program they started during the pandemic that brought artists and illustrators into classrooms, these STEM residencies allow An Open Book (AOB) to excite students who are already interested in nonfiction and figuring out how things work while providing teachers with one more way to align with school curricula.

Prior to each residence, teachers and authors are invited to engage with each other so that teachers can share what their students are interested in, what the classroom culture is like, and what students have been studying recently, while authors can inform teachers of how to prepare for the residency environment. This ensures that authors can really connect with students and share their experiences from a genuine place.

The AOB team then assembles all the materials students will need into packages that they deliver to students at school. From the book students will read to pens and pencils to items like binoculars for the nature walk, no item is too small for these packages, which also come with a short letter telling students – in both English and Spanish – that these materials are now theirs to keep and use during the residence and beyond.

“This is another aspect that’s really important for the residence,” Josarie states. “There’s a vision and hope that students will pick up a practice that they can continue working on. With the (urban wildlife) residence, hopefully the students will continue using their binoculars and paying attention to all the city wildlife, looking at birds in different ways, and talking to other people about it.”

86% of students who participated in the STEM residence program said they’d like to learn more about science – a strong indicator that AOB’s experiential model makes an impact. In addition to giving students pre- and post-program surveys, the AOB team also collects quantitative and anecdotal feedback from the teachers and authors they work with to continually refine and improve their programming.

Most recently, students at Houston Elementary School connected with Tony Hillery, Founder and Executive Director of Harlem Grown, a nonprofit that inspires youth through urban farming, and the author of a book by the same name that tells the true story of students from an underfunded school who turned a vacant lot into a functional farm. The AOB residence ended with students planting their own seeds that they can return to, and watch grow.

“I like to think these students will carry this as a positive experience throughout their lives,” Josarie shares. “We’re metaphorically and physically planting a seed. In my mind, that’s how I see the residence – it’s like planting something that will continue.”

You can support An Open Book Foundation by donating, visiting their website, and staying updated on their work through email, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Tenants and Workers United: To Organize a Community is to Walk Behind the People

“If your voice is very thin when you go to that management office, how about 30 thin voices altogether? They sound much stronger when we do that.”

Paintings of the community courtesy of Elsa Riveros.

What does it mean to organize a community? For Elsa Riveros, a Community Organizer with Tenants and Workers United (TWU), the day-to-day looks like door-knocking and running meetings but underlying all of that is empowering community members to tell their stories.

“Asking a person to speak and say something (sounds) so simple, but how far from the truth is that?” Elsa asks. “When you’re eating with your children and you see mice and roaches running up and down your apartment, it has a lot to do with your self-esteem. We have been on our knees, and when you’re on your knees, everybody’s much taller and bigger and stronger than you. So, just stand up and say, “I am demanding this because the law protects me.” And it’s beautiful to see that’s collectively what we’re doing.”

Formerly a professional singer in Colombia, Elsa joined TWU after finishing her studies in political science to organize the largely Latino community in Arlandria – affectionately dubbed Chirilagua by its residents – around the Living Wage campaign. After four years of intense work, their efforts helped to create a living wage law in Alexandria that resulted in the total wage increase of $450,000 for the lowest-paid municipal and outsourced workers in the city.

“It was a beautiful campaign – marches on the street with hundreds of people,” Elsa shares. “One of them told me they can now quit one of their jobs and go home to help their children with homework instead of taking another job. See what you can do when you have a campaign and you’re organized? It’s just unbelievable.”

In addition to organizing for workers’ rights, immigrants’ rights, and police-free schools, one of TWU’s large issue campaigns centers on affordable housing. Even before Amazon announced its new Northern Virginia headquarters more than three years ago, rising rent prices had already been steadily displacing low-income residents. Amazon’s arrival only exacerbates the region’s decades-long affordable housing crisis. To address some of these fears, Amazon created a $2 billion Housing Equity Fund but, as Teo Armus reported in the Washington Post, only 215 units of more than 4,100 units they’ve funded so far will be set aside for residents making 50% or less of the Area Median Income (AMI).

A 2019 TWU survey conducted in the neighborhood revealed that 95% of residents earn less than 40% of the AMI. “Amazon’s investing in housing development here,” Mia Taylor, Development Lead at TWU, states. “But not for the communities we work with, who have lived in Chirilagua for decades. We are facing the threat of mass displacement.” Furthermore, 48% of the households they surveyed are paying 50% or more of their yearly income in rent. These are residents who, on average, have been in the neighborhood for more than 12 years.

“For people who have a lot of money,” Elsa chimes in, “you never see them on the street saying, “We want a golf club, we want a tennis court, we want a pool.” When they say they need to have it, they’re going to have it and it’s okay. But why would you come to a neighborhood to make it more beautiful and then say that we don’t deserve to live here because we ruin the neighborhood? Now,?we have to shout, “We want to continue living here, we want to stay, we deserve to be here.””

TWU first organized in the mid-1980s to stave off scheduled mass evictions of thousands of low-income renters in the neighborhood, and their desire to stay and fight to improve their community has led them through multiple victories. At the heart of their work is building relationships. From tenants rights education to leadership development, TWU helps residents feel prepared to speak in public, run meetings, and tell their stories authentically.

“(Residents) would tell you, “I’ll never talk in front of people. I can never do it.” And I say, “Yes, you can,”” Elsa recounts. “I give them a mic and they give a speech any president around the world would love to give because it’s honest and sincere and beautiful.”

Together, this rising tide of voices has won the community more than $100 million in living wage jobs, health care, public education resources, and more. They have founded a democratically owned and operated housing cooperative, the only home ownership opportunity available for low-income people in Northern Virginia. They have eliminated over $1 million in medical debt for low-income residents, and they have launched a worker-owned and -operated business with more than 230 cab drivers.

“TWU is so loud despite how small we are,” Elsa says. “You’ve got a main campaign, but you have all these individuals making things happen. They lead the campaign. You’re just walking behind them. And these individuals all have stories.”

You can support TWU’s work by making a donation or volunteering your time. Stay informed about their ongoing fights for social justice by subscribing to their email list or following them on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Caring Unites Us
Greater DC Diaper Bank

Greater DC Diaper Bank was founded by a caregiver, for other caregivers.

In 2009, Corinne Cannon had her first child – and was struck by how difficult it was, even with all the support in the world. What if she didn’t have the resources that allowed her to provide the basic necessities for her child? Thus, the Diaper Bank was born.

1 in 3 Americans face diaper need – the inability to provide an adequate supply of clean diapers to their child(ren). For infants, that averages between 8-10 diapers a day.

Greater DC Diaper Bank (GDCDB) addresses diaper need and supports vulnerable families in our region by collaborating with partners to distribute essential baby and hygiene products and expand access to critical services. With over 75 partners in the region working in fields from healthcare to education, our partners use diapers as a gateway resource to build relationships with families. Partners are already providing a multitude of social services to the community – by offering diapers to families, those families are more likely to come in for health checkups, meetings with their case manager, or to start conversations about other needs that they have. 96% of surveyed partners agree that offering diapers helps build trust with their clients, and 88% agree that providing diapers makes clients more likely to keep scheduled appointments.

At the core of our work are moms and caregivers. Moms can be made to feel guilty or inadequate for not being able to provide diapers for their children – a feeling that leads to increased stress and emotional turmoil, which increases risk for maternal depression. 98% of the families we serve agree that receiving diapers allows them to parent how they want to and reduces their stress as a caregiver. It also increases their children’s health by reducing diaper rash, improving sleep performance, and creating happier babies overall.

Healthy, happy babies lead to happier, healthier communities. Every child deserves an equal chance and no mom or caregiver should have to go without the hygiene essentials they need to care for their baby.

“Each time I received (the pack of diapers), it was just like a load lifted off my shoulders. It’s one less thing – and one less major thing – to have to worry about. It’s just pure sadness, really, having to try to decide where to spend your last $25.” – Jessica, diaper recipient

A story from one of our partners emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the Diaper Bank, its partners, and parents:

One of our partners, Bright Beginnings, is a childcare center for homeless families located in DC that offers childcare five days a week. They were working with a mother who was bringing her daughter in, but not on a consistent basis. The social worker overseeing the mother’s case spoke with her, asking why the daughter wasn’t coming consistently to see how they could help. Though the mother said she would look into coming more often, the same cycle continued for a while.

Then, we began partnering with Bright Beginnings so that they could distribute diapers to the parents at their childcare center. This mom was one of the clients who began receiving diapers. Suddenly, the little girl was attending the daycare five days a week and showing up every day. The social worker overseeing her case spoke to the mother to ask her what had changed and why she was suddenly able to come five days a week. “With you buying my diapers, I can afford bus fare now,” responded the mother.

This mother had been rationing her bus fare, stretching out the days her daughter could attend the childcare center, to save money for diapers. With the 50 diapers she was now allotted each month, made possible by Bright Beginning’s partnership with Greater DC Diaper Bank, she was able to put that money towards bus fare, and towards her daughter’s overall wellbeing. Her daughter was now getting three full meals a day, socializing with other kids in a safe environment, and getting her physical, mental, and emotional needs comprehensively taken care of through a community of caregivers – all essential components of a child’s development.

While this number of diapers may seem small or insignificant, to a parent struggling to ration that $3.50 roundtrip bus fare, it makes an immense difference. Providing diapers to parents who need them creates a positive feedback loop of overall care for their child, opening them up to further services and resources that are essential for their physical and emotional health.

“Imagine how the trajectory of a family’s life changes with one diaper… (It says) come, let us help you, let us serve you, let us strengthen you as a family.” – Centro Nia, GDCDB Partner

We are proud to serve moms and families with our work and, during this time of year, we want to recognize all the moms we serve, in all the forms that they come in – a mom, an auntie, a grandma, a sibling, a neighbor, those we are connected to through life and love, some who chose us, and some we chose – all part of the network of caregivers working to raise the next generation.

Throughout the month of May, Greater DC Diaper Bank’s Caring Unites Us Campaign is raising money to serve and empower mothers in DC, Maryland, and Virginia by providing hygiene essentials to families in need. Learn more about diaper need, including how to get involved, on the Greater DC Diaper Bank website.