To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is a charity that supports young people struggling with addiction, self-harm, depression, and suicidal thoughts. It promotes dialogue and supports organizations that provide treatment and recovery services. The organization began when Jamie Tworowski helped a young woman named Renee and wrote a story about her. TWLOHA emphasizes love, acceptance, and support and donates 25% of its income to treatment and recovery organizations. It hopes to prevent suicide, substance abuse, and untreated depression.
To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA) is a charitable organization that provides help and hope to young people who are struggling with issues such as addiction, self-harm, depression and suicidal thoughts. While the organization does not provide treatment and recovery services itself, it supports organizations that do and aims to promote the cause and stimulate dialogue about these issues. The goals of this organization are heavily promoted by musicians and bands, and many notable musical acts have donned the organization’s T-shirts and gear to encourage members of the public to support it.
The roots of To Write Love on Her Arms began in early 2006 when Jamie Tworowski met a young woman named Renee in urgent need of assistance. She was rejected from a rehab facility because it was deemed too risky due to her self-mutilating behavior and Tworkowski helped her get the assistance she needed. At the time, Tworowski began fundraising for Renee and wrote a story about meeting her five days before he entered rehab and his experiences with her as he encouraged her to seek help.
Renee may have started out alone and unaided in her story, but she quickly had a group of friends and supporters who wanted to assist her in any way they could, with open, loving arms. One of the major themes of the organization is love, acceptance and support. The name of the organization is a reference to a line in the story, when Tworowski says “we will be his church, the body of Christ that will come to life to satisfy his needs, to write love on his arms”. While the story certainly references Christian values and Tworowski describes himself as a spiritual individual, the organization does not define itself as a Christian group and welcomes all people in need without judgment or comment.
In October 2006, Tworowski realized that he could help thousands of troubled youth around the world the same way he helped Renee, and To Write Love on Her Arms applied for nonprofit status. Many people feel a deep connection to the organization and are deeply moved by Renee’s story, which reads like the story of many other troubled young people, except that she has a good ending rather than a tragic one. Since 2007, the group has donated 25% of its income directly to treatment and recovery organizations and has used additional funds to encourage open discussion about substance abuse and depression among young people.
The organization identifies itself with an assortment of slogans, including “Love is the movement”, “Hope is not a myth”, “Stop the bleeding” and “Rescue is possible”. The group hopes that increased awareness of the issues facing young people will bring more support, hopefully preventing suicides, struggles with substance abuse, untreated depression and other issues.
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