Libera

Children & Teens - We held Libera Model Groups with over 120 girls from five counties in juvenile detention, foster congregate care homes and emergency shelters, and public middle and high schools. We helped them identify their personal barriers and connected them to school and personal counselors, nonprofits, social agencies, books, anxiety and depression apps, crisis lines, and other empowerment resources. Each received a free Libera Workbook. Our listeners provided extra support for students by collecting food and clothing for students in need, helping with housing, and distributing resource cards with mental and emotional health tools, plus abuse prevention resources, to students. We also served as Listeners (mentors) at 8 body safety assemblies in K-12 public schools for 3,700 students. We listened to many students' stories, and reported cases of abuse to CPS and West Virginia State Police in at least six situations, while also helping some students with anxiety, bullying, and suicidal ideation. We distributed over 3,700 resource cards to each of these students with the Child Abuse Hotline, Crisis Text Line, free anxiety apps, and where to look for help. We also distributed and showed three videos that we created of age appropriate stories of women in Libera who experienced childhood sexual abuse, online stalking, and human trafficking. These women told their stories and talked about how to prevent abuse and stalking, and talked about online safety and human trafficking prevention. We launched our transitioning foster youth mentoring program in the fall of 2022.Our program will focus on the three key areas of Mentorship, Professional Training & Coaching, and Social Enterprise. We provide our Libera groups and also provide Substance Use Disorder prevention awareness and connection to our SUD recovery specialists through our Libera Recovery Specialist. By the end of 2022, we had created an application for the program; engaged our Libera Recovery Specialist; created a mentoring program outline and phases; and created an extensive Resource Database for transitioning foster youth.

Lila Bear Explor(her) Club - Launched in the fall of 2022. Our social enterprise curates and sells educational subscription boxes and will employ and train transitioning foster youth. We executed a soft launch of our first box in Q4 2022, and will fully launch our subscription-based business model in Q2 2023. We created our first Lila Bear Explor(her) Club STEM Activity Box in November of 2022, and sold 27 and had 452 sponsored and donated to schools with low educational attainment in West Virginia.The "Reach for the Moon" Explor(her) Club box helps girls (and boys!) EXPLORE the world of space as they LEARN about Katherine Johnson, the moon, and the universe and inspires them to TAKE ACTION for themselves, the planet, and their community. The boxes are about educating and empowering girls for a brighter future.

Mentoring & Peer Support & LovePacks - LovePacks to empower and resource West Virginia At-Risk preschool through 18 year olds: The Covid-19 pandemic has severely impacted the emotional and mental health of students' physical, emotional, and mental wellness needs. We pivoted during the pandemic to create LovePacks. LovePacks are drawstring backpacks filled with mental health and crisis tools, along with abuse prevention videos, books, and resources. During 2022, these were distributed to 3,072 Pre-K through 12th grade foster youth in 30 counties. The LovePacks include: age appropriate books with anxiety and depression help - videos on body safety, online safety, human trafficking prevention - a "Mindful Caregiver" tool to help caregivers with anxiety and stress - Foster Children Bill of Rights & contact information for the WV Foster Care Ombudsman - journals with writing prompts - anxiety & depression tools - pens & hand sanitizer imprinted with crisis text line numbers - bullying resources - stress balls - handwritten cards telling them how valuable they are - motivational stickers - coloring books for calming and distraction.

Professional Counseling with our Libera Counselor: Our Libera Counselor served over 40 youth and women to provide free or low cost individual counseling or group counseling to empower them to find more freedom and agency. We listened to and led 18 West Virginia Women from many counties through our Libera Model Groups and Listener trainings and meetings, helping them to identify their personal barriers and connect them to nonprofits, social agencies, counselors, books, CD's, and other empowerment resources to help them overcome their barriers. Each received a free Libera Workbook and Libera Listener Training Manual. We trained 18 West Virginia women in effective mentoring/listening through Suicide Prevention modules, Group Facilitation, and other rigorous peer support materials, including Motivational Interviewing, to multiply our reach and listen to more WV women and teens.