Check out our interview on the WMAL Senior Solutions Show with Eric Stewart. The audio can be found here (under "Our Mission", and you can read our transcript below:
● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ● ●
Eric Stewart: "Hey, Marissa Martin joins me today, and it's my pleasure to introduce her to you. Marissa is the Marketing and Outreach Coordinator for Widow Care, which is a nonprofit organization that serves widows and widowers in the DMV. Marissa, Good Morning."
Marissa Martin: "Good Morning, and thank you for having me!"
Eric Stewart: "It's my pleasure, Marissa. You joined Widow Care about 3 1/2 months ago, and I asked you to come in today so you could share a bit of our vision for Widow Care, and some of the new steps that we've taken to engage the DMV. Tell us a bit about what you're doing."
Marissa Martin: "Sure. Well, Widow Care's mission is to provide accessible content, connections and programs to the 680 thousand DC metropolitan residents facing the loss of a spouse, so they can become empowered in their walks through grief and new challenges. We have a variety of different programs, including monthly peer support groups, social meetups and an online directory of resources where we connect members with local service providers to help them with financial responsibilities or whatever it might be that they need."
Eric Stewart: "So, as an example, if a listener went to widowcare.org, saw something and had a question, they would just contact Widow Care, you'd respond directly to them and give them some instruction or guidance or even help them research what their need might be?"
Marissa Martin: "That's correct, and they can also reach out to request mentorship with our new Widowed Mentorship Program."
Eric Stewart: "Explain that."
Marissa Martin: "Sure, so we connect volunteer mentors with mentees, and they offer a listening ear, and guidance with our website or connecting with various different resources. A lot of the times, the volunteers are widowed themselves and they've gone through similar tragedies. It's a very relaxed atmosphere and a place to speak about grief."
Eric Stewart: "One of the missions of Widow Care is to provide reciprocation from widows to other widows, and actually, some of the basis for the development of Widow Care followed the example of Ruth and Naomi in the Torah and the Old Testament story of two widows (the mother who lost her husband and her step-daughter who lost her husband) and how they cared for one-another. In the mentorship theory, we have two widows who are caring for eachother, although it doesn't have to be a widow, but two widows could care for one-another: one who's already been there, maybe has already felt and dealt with much of what the new widow might be facing, and can give them the guidance and support that they need during the time frame. It's a mission that's now outworking through our mentorship program, and I'm very excited to see you bring that forward. Widow Care is also focused on the peer support and social opportunities for engagement. Tell us about some of those that are coming up."
Marissa Martin: "We're hosting our February Peer Support Group on Thursday, February 7th at 6:30pm. That's just a space where you can talk about your grief with others in the area. Then, we're also having our February Social Meetup for Dim Sum Dinner on Tuesday, February 19th where we're all going to get together, eat some Dim Sum with good company and people who understand the grief and new challenges associated with widowhood."
Eric Stewart: "And then in March?"
Marissa Martin: "In March we also have our peer support group on Thursday, March 7th, again at 6:30pm, and then we're also going to be hosting a social meetup for an International Night, where there's going to be live performances by various cultural groups and then there's going to be a variety of food."
Eric Stewart: "Mmm, that always sounds good, and then, in April, I think you're working towards something although we're not announcing it yet on the date, but we're working towards something really special. Tell us about that."
Marissa Martin: "Sure, so in April, we're going to be hosting a speaker series. We're going to have a variety of local service providers come and give their expertise, and we're also going to be inviting some authors and some grief speakers as well, so it's going to be a very exciting event."
Eric Stewart: "Widow Care was founded with the principle that, by providing relief to the distresses that every widow and widower feels at different phases, different times in their widowhood, that we'll enable a widow or widower to live a more robust and engaged life, and that Widow Care can just serve as a catalyst to see positive change through connections and content at widowcare.org. We thank you for your investment in Widow Care and for your guidance and leadership as the Marketing & Outreach Coordinator. If you're listening and would like to speak with Marissa, we are also entertaining volunteers for Widow Care and she is taking applications right now for very specific positions. We invite you to call her, and the phone number is (301) 917-4741. Again, thats (301) 917-4741 or marissa@widowcare.org. If you can't remember all of that, just go to widowcare.org and there will be a place on there that you can reach out and contact her as well. Thanks for joining me today!"
Marissa Martin: "Thank you for having me!"