To Write Love On Her Arms

Aired May 7, 2023: Lisa Foxx talks to Chad Moses, Director of Outreach and Experience from TWLOHA. To Write Love on Her Arms is a non-profit movement dedicated to presenting hope and finding help for people struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide. TWLOHA exists to encourage, inform, inspire, and also to invest directly into treatment and recovery.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
Lisa Fox here, thank you forlistening. This is the iHeart so Cal
Show. May is Mental Health AwarenessMonth, and I saw this organization had
a nice involvement with our LA Marathon, one of the many charities attached,
and so I wanted to feature themon the show because you know, sometimes
it's important to tackle not so funtopics and it's important for people listening to

(00:22):
know that people are going through theseheavier things and that if someone listening is
going through this, that you knowyou're not alone and there is help available
to you. Thanks to write Loveon Her Arms, it's a nonprofit organization
that aims to present hope for peoplestruggling with addiction, depression, self injury,

(00:43):
and thoughts of suicide. This organizationexists to encourage, inform, and
inspire and also to invest directly intotreatment and recovery. These are wonderful people
who do so much for people whoare hurting, and I'm so happy to
have on their Director of Outreach andExperience, Chad Moses On from A to

(01:03):
right Love on Her Arms, Hi, Chad, Hey, Lisa, how
are you doing today? I feellike I need a hug right from the
start, Like, can we justgona be a radio hug right now,
that's my ability that embraces coming yourway. Yes, yes, well,
Chad, I'd like to ask foryou to share how this organization got started.
I read the story on your website. Te I know you kind of
like refer to yourselves as TWALA,right, Twala just the acronym to right

(01:26):
love on her arms. So whenyou go to twloha dot com, that's
their website. But I love thestory that Jamie the founder shared as to
how this organization kind of accidentally gotstarted so many years ago. Yeah.
Well, I mean you hit somany of the buzzwords right off the bat.
This name, it's it's long,and it begs a question, what

(01:49):
the heck does that mean? Whatdoes too write Love on our Arms stand
for? And originally, like youmentioned, it was a story. This
began seventeen years ago. Actually wejust turned seventeen when the story was originally
written. There was no idea thatthis would turn into a radio call,
no idea that this would turn intoa movement, no idea that this would

(02:10):
turn into anything more than just thestory that was being told, which was
about our friend who is a historicaland a still living her. Her name
is Renee, and the story wasabout her first five days in recovery from
drug addiction and finding help with selfinjury, all through the context of community.

(02:30):
I could spend you know, allfifteen minutes of this and maybe even
another hour just kind of going throughthe nuances of the story, but to
really kind of put it, youknow, the rubber to the road immediately,
this is trying to meet a friend, you know, in her darkest
moments, a time when she wasinitially denied entry into a treatment facility.

(02:50):
And what was going to be theresponse, you know, was that something
that a group of friends would justshrug your shoulders and say that sucks,
we believe in you, or what'sthis going to be an invite pacitional experience,
something that said, look, webelieve in you, we believe in
recovery. But Renee, this isn'tabout you anymore. This is going to
be an US thing. Wherever wego, we're going to get there together.

(03:10):
So a story was written about whatthose five days looked like before she
could re interr treatment, and thatstory found its way onto a very popular
website at the time, maybe you'veheard of it, MySpace dot com.
MySpace, Yes, where it allbegan MySpace, So I often say that
we are MySpace years old. Butbut from there this was a new world

(03:34):
of storytelling, of interactivity, ofpeople's stories colliding with one another. And
in due time people found this storyof Renee finding help and they said,
you know, this actually sounds alot like my best friend, or actually
this sounds a lot like my dad, or you know, if I'm honest,
it sounds a whole lot like mecould hope and help the options for
me as well. So in manyways, LESA, we emerged as a

(03:59):
respond to your response to a story, people saying I get it. And
from there it just turned into aquestion of how much further can we go?
What are all the threads that wecan pull, and ideally, what
are all the places that we cancontinue to build bridges to meet people where
they currently are into the places wherethey can find the hope to help the

(04:20):
healing that they deserve. I knowyou have some high school programs I want
to touch on in a bit,but really, I mean this is something
that touches all ages, all races, all types of you know, every
type of person addiction, depression,self injury, thoughts of suicide touch on

(04:40):
You know, it's a weird thingto say, what is your target demographic?
I mean this can touch everybody.You know, depression doesn't discriminate.
Yeah, yeah, I'd say ifyou have a pulse, you you are
well within our demographic. The realityis, like you mentioned that these are
equal opportunity challenges, that depression doesn'tcare about the size of your bank account,

(05:00):
and anxiety doesn't really care about yourcollege degree or continuing education. Thoughts
of suicide and disordered eating and selfinjury, they don't care about the color
of your skin, if you hada a stable home growing up. These
are all things that affect all people. We are really in the business of

(05:21):
humans sustainability, trying to ensure thatthe stories that we interact, whether they
are in moments of celebration or inheavier moments, moments that demand to retreat,
were there to meet people in whatevercontext they may find themselves in.
Because again, you know, itdoesn't have to be you currently struggling with
one of these challenges to be affectedby it. I don't ever, in

(05:46):
my fifteen years of serving this organization, I've never had to convince someone that
depression is real or that addiction isa problem, or that we need to
be treating conversations about suicide with waymore compassion and way less judgment. I
don't have to convince people about thisbecause you you have your own friends,
your own stories that are constantly atplay in your head. When I say

(06:09):
words like depression and anxiety and substanceuse disorder, odds are, you're not
thinking about the words so much asthe names in the faces of the people
you love that are walking those thosejourneys. So we're there to support everyone,
whether you're a student, whether you'rea teacher, whether you work in
you know, first responding world,whether you just have a nine to five,

(06:31):
or whether you are currently one ofthe millions of people that are trying
to make sense of a post pandemicworld and what that means for your career
and your aspirations. We are here, frankly, just for you. If
you're listening, We're here for you. And how does it work? What
is that first step? I'm assumingthe first step and someone taking action and

(06:51):
reaching out for help is to goto write love in her arms your website.
Yes, yeah, so the websiteis certainly a great central hub of
our activity, whether that's learning aboutour various programs. You mentioned our high
school outreach program, which we callbetween the Bells. You can learn about
different ways you can partner with usduring key fundraising campaigns and awareness campaigns right

(07:15):
now being a great one for Maybeing mental Health Month. We have a
web page solely dedicated to ways toactivate people within your own community about ways
we can reimagine what mental health means. We have blogs, we have podcasts,
We have a number of different touchpoints on ways that people can engage
with these conversations. Like I justmentioned, I don't need to make people

(07:39):
aware of these challenges, but oftentimespeople, you know, we lose track
of the conversation because no one reallyknows or feels comfortable in saying the first
words. So we're there to beconversation starters. From there, we have
a whole page on our website that'sjust dedicated to finding how so if you're

(08:00):
listening to this and you're like,wow, I could really you know,
use someone in my corner. Wehave resources that are organized by topic,
by key identifiers, by specific challenges, and then we also have a tool
on the website where you can findaffordable mental healthcare options by zip code.
So something literally write in your ownneighborhood is going to be there for you

(08:22):
on an affordable basis. So thewebsite, like you said, is the
central hub to kind of get theball rolling. And you know, as
I'm hearing you talk and say thesewords, gosh, it must feel like
these words can feel like a dirtylittle secret, like a dirty secret,
or you know, someone's mortified thatthey're going through this or truly does feel
isolation of being alone in terms ofthis addiction and depression and self injury and

(08:46):
thoughts of suicide. But I lovethat the T shirts, the merchandise that
you sell that funds these programs,that funds the recovery, that funds ways
to help people. These the sloganson these shirts are so beautiful. I
was going to start crying reading theslogans. These are, I mean,
talk about words to live by.Because again going back to the founder,

(09:09):
right, he wasn't able to affordrecovery, a recovery program for RENEE,
but he saw he sold T shirtsright to pay for it. And that's
still what you guys are doing.And oh they're so inspiring. Yeah,
yeah, So merchandise has certainly beena huge part of our story in in
a unique way. You know,not many nonprofits get to make it to

(09:31):
seventeen years and and fewer still getto do that by primarily funding their efforts
through the sale of apparel. Butthat's also opened the doors in some really
amazing ways. So we're frequently outand about. You said that you met
us first added the La Marathon.Shout out to my coworker Amber, whose
effort you know, yeah, shedoes an awesome job and getting us in

(09:54):
front of a ton of people throughendurance events. I helped coordinate our efforts
in getting us out to Pride eventsand out to niche conferences and specifically out
to music festivals. Each year wetry to make it out to forty or
fifty different live music and lifestyle events, and because we know people show up
there. People are looking for community, people are looking for safe places where

(10:18):
they can feel at home in theirown skin. And from there, you
know, that's that's how you builda bridge, right First, you need
to acknowledge where you are, andthen we point out where we're getting to
and along the way we can buildsomething that feels a bit more stable but
the shirts do that on a locallevel as well. The shirts allow us
to show up at these events asyou know, kind of a non threatening

(10:41):
voice, you know, just tryingto catch your eye through a cool design
or or through a phrase that makesyou stop and sink. And from there,
the hope is that you will wearthat in your community, that people
will see that ask questions, what'sthat mean? Where did you get that?
And if we're uncomfortable starting conversations aboutmental health, man, Lisa,
we talk about clothes all the time. Yeah, yeah, yeah, So

(11:03):
let's let Dan. If a pieceof cotton can be an entry point into
a potentially life saving conversation, thenso be it. I know, but
these are slogans, These are tshirts that everyone needs to be sharing these
messages. In fact, I'm like, okay, I gotta get on there
and see which ones I'm going tobuy. These are important messages that I
would love to see more of,you know, messages like you matter,

(11:24):
you are loved, we need youhere see I'm gonna start to get emotional
because these are what oh see hereit comes. These are like positive reinforcements.
People need to know these things,and these things need to be said,
See, Chad, I know thiswas going to happen, but I
always get emotional, but I justhate that. I know people, some

(11:46):
people listening right now are hurting,and this could be helpful, This could
make a difference. Yeah, yeah, no, And and that's so much
of it is that it can bea unique burden to be a tune to
the pain around us and not knowquite how to frame a conversation that fully
expresses the care that we want tocommunicate. And we've seen that, you

(12:11):
know, through this merchandise. Peopletalk about us. People talk to me
at the booth at music festivals aboutthe times where a shirt crossed their path
at the right time, at theright moment, and that was a call
to attention, that was a callback into themselves. And you know,
I've even this sounds made up,but I swear by it. In all

(12:31):
my travels, I remember going throughone of the busiest airports in the world
and noticing, as I'm chowing downon a bagel, a young woman who's
clearly having a really tough day.It's not her favorite day. It's written
all over her face, all overher body language, And then across from
her on a quieting path was aguy wearing one of our sweatshirts, and

(12:52):
you know, it's always cool tosee something that that you helped bring into
the world out here in the world, and so that that made me smile
just seeing him. And then Inoticed, as they get a little bit
closer, this young woman takes noticeof the sweatshirt that he's wearing, and
a little smile smears across her face, her posture straightens a little bit,

(13:13):
and you know, they don't knoweach other, they'll never meet. I'll
probably never see either of these peopleagain. And in that moment, it
became clear that all three of usshared some common grounds that even if we
didn't wake up with the same heartachesor the same celebrations, that we knew
that we were going to be partof a team, or we believed that

(13:35):
that perhaps we could feel part ofa team. And this is just a
really unexpected way to see that playout. So even you know, I
was talking with one of our designers, Alex, about, you know,
the value of nonverbal communication and inthese shirts being a piece of that equation.
So positive. I love another mantrathat I see in your website to

(13:56):
write love on her arms twa dotcom. You know, again back the
positive reinforcements, and it's like amixture of positive reinforcements but keeping it real.
You know, I think people needto hear more of this stuff more
often. You were created to loveand be loved. People need other people.
Your story is important. Better daysare ahead, and hope and help

(14:24):
are real. These are all Canwe just start plastering this all over the
city or would I get in trouble. I'm just like, let's make wallpaper.
Come on people now. I mean, I just would love to see
more of these messages intertwined in ourdaily lives. You know, I just
wish I saw these messages more often. But they are all over the beautiful
merchandise that you sell to help peoplethat are hurting. It's all on their

(14:48):
website to Write Love on her Armsdot com, so it's the acronym for
to write Love on her Arms.Twalla dot com, Twloha dot com and
Chad talk about where some of theproceeds go to specifically, Yeah, so
of course, you know, somuch of running a nonprofit is ensuring the
continuation of that. So a lotof it is trying to continue to fuel

(15:11):
our programs going back to our highschool program. Because of purchase of merchandise,
because of individual fundraising efforts, becauseof some corporate grants, we're able
to offer this high school outreach programat zero cost to any school that wants
to be a part of it.That's something that we take an immense amount
of pride in. Every Fall September, during suicide prevention months, we have

(15:37):
a fundraising campaign where one hundred percentof every dollar that comes in goes directly
to our treatment and recovery funds.This is helping to equip people to to
use our website to find these affordableand local options for help, and it
also goes to fund our scholarship program. So we know that in America,

(16:02):
mental healthcare is often limited by yourpocketbook, so we are doing everything we
can to ensure that you have accessto the care that you are looking for.
So on our website, if yougo to twloha dot com, in
the upper right hand corner, you'regoing to see a button that says find

(16:22):
help. So that's where you're goingto find a number of those resources I
was mentioning earlier, and at thebottom of that page you're going to find
information on how you or a lovedone could even apply for a scholarship if
money is the only thing standing inthe way of you and in the help
that you're you're trying to access.Look at that you've been with this organization
for fifteen plus years and obviously you'reso passionate about it. I can imagine

(16:44):
you must be one of the speakers, because I love that you all.
You know, you have speakers thatcan go out and speak at high school
or speak at companies. Right,you must be one of those speakers because
you're so well spoken and you careso much about helping people. I can
hear it your voice. Don't lie, I can hear it. I can
hear it. Thank you. Iappreciate that. Yes we do. We
love interacting with communities. We loveeducating folks that want to learn a little

(17:08):
bit more about what being a mentalhealth advocate looks like. Whether that's partnering
with our team in order to bringsuicide prevention resources to your neck of the
woods, or if that's inviting myselfor another team member to speak at a
lunch and learn one of your company'sERG sessions, Or if you're a student
and you would love to see uson campus. We're just an email away.

(17:32):
If you send an email to info, that's I info at twloha dot
com. The inbox is wide open. Uh, We're going to send us
any questions you may have. Andwe're definitely passionate about meeting you and helping
you serve your community because you havepeople everywhere and every neck of the woods,

(17:53):
up and down state of California andstates all over the country. I
mean you're you're everywhere, so Imean right, you're mill to get to
our community right when you reach outto the right people. Totally. Yeah,
we're mobile, um, I thinkwould probably be the fairest way to
say it. So we do haveour headquarters, is I mentioned earlier to
you just down the road from Californiain Florida. So literally just a hop

(18:15):
on, I tin and don't stopand mel gets you pretty close. We're
connected by Disney World, I guess. But so weird. I forgot that
the ten Freeway does go all theway to Florida. My boyfriend mentioned that
the other day and I thought,that's so weird. Just stay on the
ten, no, like really allthe way from the ocean to the ocean,
all the way from California to Florida. That is crazy, but for

(18:37):
sure we we try to be inas many places as possible. I believe
that Montana is the loan holdout stateto yet yet to have a to Right
Love on Our Arms events un Montana. If you have any Montana listeners,
hey, we can't work you.Um. I know we have to wrap
up, but um, what else? I love? Another way that you

(19:00):
encourage giving back and helping those whoare hurting by turning your birthday into a
fundraiser or to Right Love in herArms awareness campaign. Talk about that?
Yeah, yeah, So we've beenable to see, um, absolutely some
of the best that the internet hasto offer. And there's a super simple

(19:22):
way that you can use your socialmedia to directly affect us and your community,
and that's by donating your birthday throughFacebook. Um. Every time every
year your your birthday comes around,you're given a chance to to click a
couple of simple buttons and on ourwebsite we can help walk you through exactly
what that process looks like. Butyou can select the nonprofit of your choosing.

(19:45):
We'd be honored if you if youpicked us. But this is a
way that you can vary passively notjust raise money for us, but also
get the word out. The money'scool, but what's more important is maybe
Aunt Bertha Day, you haven't talkedto in seven years, you pop up
on her feed because it's your birthday. She does a little research and learns

(20:07):
that mental health is something that you'repassionate about. Maybe this is something that
she's been looking for anyone in herlife to talk to about it, and
this can be an open door tomaking sure that she feels a sense of
anti isolation, really a sense ofcommunity. And that's one thing that we've
learned, Lisa, is that somuch about this we're not trying to monopolize

(20:29):
the conversation of mental health. Wecertainly don't own a patent on the idea
of hope and help, but we'rethere to equip people. Our dream is
more people connected to more people,and that's really the spirit of our current
campaign for mental health months. We'vecalled it the show Up Campaign. The
idea is to show up for yourselfand then keep showing up for yourself,

(20:52):
and that means all aspects of yourself. Show up for your mind, show
up for your body, show upfor your heart, for your two unity
And in so many ways, whatwe know about mental health, what we've
come to believe about mental health,has been passed to us, has been
gifted to us by teachers that didn'tknow they were teaching. Sometimes that's rumors,
Sometimes that's gossips. Sometimes that's popculture, the TV shows we watch

(21:18):
or the movies that we go to. But what if we became really the
new authorities on what mental health looklike. What if we could in our
own ways, model what it lookslike to practice self care, to show
people what it looks like to havevulnerable and brave conversations to change these stigmas.
At the end of the day,stigma is really anytime that silence is

(21:42):
the predominant voice in a conversation.So we can address that in our day
to day lives. Whether we're sharingthis interview, or whether we're sharing the
website, or whether we're just sendinga text to a friend we haven't talked
to him forever, all of thatis mental healthcare. Amen. And I
was gonna say too, And what'sgreat about this conversation. You know you're

(22:03):
not being preachy with anything either.You're just essentially opening the door to say
if you're hurting. If you're goingthrough a tough time, you're not alone
and there is a boundless amount ofendless amount of help and resources waiting for
you. But also just really kind, loving people with open arms. You
know, I said at the beginningof this conversation, let's have a group
hug. Let's do a hug oneon one here, And that's really what

(22:26):
it feels like. I would assumefor someone to reach out to your organization
to write love on her arms,and because you're going to need that love
and hopefully learn how to love yourselfagain through this process. So to know
that it's there through so many otherpeople who were probably hurting at some point
as well, or just another compassionateperson who gives it, you know what,

(22:47):
it's important to know that and tonot feel shame about needing help or
reaching out, because you are worthyand you do deserve it, and you're
here, so let's make the bestof it. You know, you're you're
here for as long as you'll haveyourself. So let's see where the journey
takes us. Right, I'm gettingI'm getting. I'm getting fired up now,
Chad, I'm getting fired up.Yeah, sorry, yeah, I

(23:11):
love it. I love it allright, Chad, real quick before I
let you go, What if you'rea mental health professional listening right now,
can they work with you, guysat all to help even more people if
it's someone maybe here in southern Californiaor really anywhere in the country if they
want to. How does it work? How do you work directly with mental
health professionals and helping the people thatyou help at to write love on her

(23:32):
arms? Oh that's such a greatquestion. So yeah, just to make
sure we're totally clear on this,we at to write love on our arms.
We are not the mental health professionalsourselves, we're not the counselors,
were not the treatment center. Wedon't pretend to be, but rather we're
there to connect people to these accesspoints for health. So if you're listening
to this and you are a mentalhealth care provider, we would love to

(23:56):
connect with you. On that samepage that I mentioned earlier, that fine
help to have that big blue buttonin the upper right hand corner if you
scroll down to the bottom, youcan join our database of affordable localized mental
healthcare options simply by pushing that suggesta program button at the bottom of the
page that will get you started onthe right path. To make sure that

(24:18):
we let your community know that youexist. Beyond that, we love having
brave and frequent conversations with mental healthprofessionals, whether that's through our social media
Instagram, live events, or TikTokinterviews, or even on our podcast or
a blog. We're not there tryingto undo your job. We're not trying
to replace you, but rather we'retrying to make your job as easy as

(24:41):
possible by pointing people in your directions. Sure, sure, and again to
buy one of these T shirts,to buy their merchandise, to help fuel
these programs, fund these programs,but to share these positive messages of reinforcement
and love. You matter, youare loved. We need you here.
I mean, there's so many wonderfulshirts and sweatshirts that spread that you know,

(25:03):
you'll be a walking billboard for hopepeople. Okay, And that's why
I'm going to buy a few,because I just love I love that part
of it, because, like Isaid, someone said, you know,
someone might walk up and say,oh, that's a you know interesting you
know, how can you feel sostrongly about that? What does that mean?
Better days are ahead? Thank youfor wearing that. Where did you

(25:25):
get that sweatshirt? You know?Right? Getting the conversation going. So
from an article of clothing that isfeeling programs that's helping people. I mean,
what's not to love about that?Right? I mean even if they
say nothing but noticed it, likeyou said earlier, that still has an
impact. We all win. Wedo, we do. And again,
anyone struggling with addiction, depression,self injury, and thoughts of suicide,

(25:48):
you are not alone. The folksat the right Love on her Arms are
here for you. There are somany people out there who who can help
you and be there for you.It's just a few clicks away, right
on your website, or you canjust google to write Love on her Arms.
But the direct website is TWS justthe acronym acronym Twloha dot com Twloha

(26:11):
dot com. And Chad Moses,you are a sweetheart and you sound like
you you just care so much.Good Lesha. So you need to do
a pride event. Pride Month isjust around the corner, So come do
some pride stuff out here in June. Darn it. Yeah, no,
we can't wait to get out less. No, we love our California friends
and family. Well, so yeah, if you're curious about where we're gonna
be, when we're gonna be there, hop on our website. We also

(26:36):
have an events page that'll let youknow where we're gonna be, when we're
gonna be there, in different waysthat you can join us at these variety
of events. Wonderful. I loveit. Thank you so much for your
time, because you know what youare loved, you matter, and we
need you here. I love it. Thank you, Lisa,