Gwyneth & Bryce: Pro-Voice?

From the Daily Dish:

Gwyneth Paltrow and Bryce Dallas Howard have teamed up to offer new mums advice on how to cope with postpartum depression.

Paltrow battled the illness after the birth of son Moses, her second child, in 2006, while The Village actress Howard recently admitted she too had gone through a period of depression after she welcomed her first child, Theo, in 2007.

The pair is offering fans help with the devastating condition in Paltrow’s Goop newsletter, with the Oscar winner opening up about the “darkest and most painfully debilitating” time of her life.

She writes, “When my son, Moses, came into the world in 2006, I expected to have another period of euphoria following his birth, much the way I had when my daughter was born two years earlier. Instead I was confronted with one of the darkest and most painfully debilitating chapters of my life. For about five months I had, what I can see in hindsight as postnatal depression, and since that time, I have wanted to know more about it. Not only from a hormonal and scientific standpoint, and why so many of us experience it, but from the perspective of other women who have gone through it.”

I look forward to the day when celebrities come out to offer advice for other women who have had abortions on how to cope with their feelings and experience wellbeing.  It’ll happen.

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Five & Thriving: Please Donate to Exhale Today!

Please join me in celebrating a very special anniversary.

2010 marks the 5^th Anniversary of our talkline’s expansion from a limited Bay-Area, bilingual service into a national, multilingual one that is available every day!

It is with the help of people like you – our supporters – that, five years ago, we were able to respond to demand from women and men throughout the United States seeking a safe place to talk after an abortion.  I write to invite you to make a special gift to Exhale in commemoration of this significant time in our history.

We grow Exhale and our free programs in direct response to the needs of our callers.  Part of what motivates and inspires us as an organization is finding new ways to respond to our callers’ needs with fresh ideas and innovative projects that make our pro-voice mission real in their every day lives.  Listening carefully to our callers over the last five-years of national, multilingual service has led Exhale to:

• Develop Post-Abortion E-Cards that help loved ones respectfully acknowledge the personal abortion experience of someone they care about.
• Grow an Online Community that facilitates supportive connections among women who have had abortions.
• Advocate for Social Science Research that deepens our understanding of the social and emotional experience of abortion.
• Create Storytelling Forums that ensure personal abortion stories are heard with dignity and respect.
• Provide Thought Leadership that offers our nation new opportunities to transform conflict and create abortion peace.

The reality is that at this exciting moment Exhale faces real challenges.  Our revenue from private foundations is down and our call volume is up. We are faced with the challenge of declining revenue and increasing demand.  Exhale is using this difficult financial time to be the organization we’ve always dreamed about becoming.  We are putting our organizational values and beliefs into practice and strengthening the culture (risk-taking, abundance, excellence) we have worked so hard to build.

Exhale is an organization of copious strengths and assets and with the generous contributions of people like you, we can leverage them in new, creative ways moving forward.  For every dollar Exhale receives as a donation, we turn it into $2.50 of volunteer service.  We more than double the value of your gift.  Over a third of our budget is contributed through the time our volunteers donate to our mission.

Please give generously today and help Exhale thrive for the next five.

We are so grateful for the support we have received since the day we first launched the talkline in 2002 and in the five years since we significantly expanded our service. We know that together with supporters like you we will thrive for the next five – and many more!  In commemoration of our 5^th Anniversary of listening to women from around the country (and beyond), in multiple languages, every day of the week, I invite you to support Exhale by making a special donation today.

Our goal is to raise $15,000 by August 31st. Help us reach our goal and make a donation today!

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Exhale Board Member Julie Davdison-Gomez to speak at Nonprofit Day 2010

Julie Davidson-Gomez, Exhale Board Member

Exhale Board Member, Julie Davidson-Gomez, will be speaking on a plenary panel at CompassPoints Nonprofit Day 2010 on Next Generation Organizations on August 31, 2010.  Here’s more:

We have heard much about next generation leaders but little about the way their leadership styles are embodied inside organizational walls. What exactly does next generation leadership entail, how are their organizations structured, what practices are in place, what do their boards look like, and how are operations adapted? CompassPoint has identified a set of characteristics that we think demonstrate how next generation leaders are transforming their organizations to operate in a fundamentally different way to raise the bar on mission impact. Come join our panel of leaders and hear their stories of how their organizations have integrated next generation leadership principles into their organizational DNA.

She’ll be joined by Moderator: Marla Cornelius, Senior Project Director, CompassPoint; Olivia E. Araiza, Executive Director, Justice Matters; Miho Kim, Executive Director, Data Center* and James B. Lin, Global Ministries, Glide Foundation/Glide Memorial UMCP*.

Don’t miss it!

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