Known as "Triple G": Grace, Growth, & Glory (GGG) is a peer support group for women sexual abuse survivors and women overcoming mental illness on a journey of healing, growing, and evolving in community. Please choose a page for further information regarding our mission, founder, our support groups, agenda overview, events, and how to get involved if interested!
"I'm right where I need to be with GGG"
Grace, Growth, & Glory
fyi: We are accepting fellow peers and advocates to host and co-host meetings for the support groups as we expand. If you are interested or want to know further information, please email us at [email protected] or click the envelope icon at the bottom of this page. Thank you!
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Mission
Images are by Lulia lun, fat camera, unsplashed, istock, and our founder Elle Renee.
Our Mission at Grace, Growth, and Glory is to provide and promote a safe, respectful, and healthy environment to build community with peers that are on a similar healing and evolving journey. We encourage transparency, validating our voices, active listening, mindfulness, releasing, and activating grace, faith, and our purpose. Doing so, we hope to elevate understanding, accountability, boundaries, insight, healthy friendships, self-image, support, confidence and much more. We strive to heal and grow mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as individuals in community.This space highly encourages women of color and all who are culturally aware and not insensitive to people, discussions, and topics within these communities as participants. As there continues to be a lack of support and representation for women of color within these spaces, this will be inclusive as we strive to mend the gap.All meetings are hosted by a peer/advocate with similar experiences within a structured environment.
Peer Support Group for Women sexual abuse survivors
The peer support group for women SA survivors are held every Wednesday at 7pm CST via zoom. When you sign up you will receive the link and meeting code in the follow up email.
The new trimester begins on November 13th, 2024.In the near future, GGG plans to expand and host in person meets and events monthly. As for now, it will remain weekly online.
Images by Lulia lun
This support group is for women who have experienced sexual abuse at any point in life that may be struggling to overcome the effects of it or want to expand their resources and community. Whether it is to learn better coping mechanisms, releasing guilt, speaking your truth, acknowledging the pain, damage, or struggle it caused; this is a place for you.If you just want to connect with other survivors or work to gain the hope and faith that was lost within your journey, this is a space for you too.
Our participants are encouraged to go at a pace they are comfortable with as no one is forced to do or share what they are not ready to yet. We will meet you where you are and progress from there. We will be mindful and give trigger warnings respectfully as we navigate through topics and discussions that may be uncomfortable for some.We hope our participants gain more knowledge, insight, support, resources, community, hope, faith, and confidence than what they entered with.
Images are from unsplashed
Images by Lulia lun
We plan to have many highlights and fun moments as well to lift the mood, and switch gears when needed to help put our minds at ease in between time. It is important to have balance.For information regarding the agenda for the trimester, please visit the "Agenda" page. To join this support group, please visit the "Sign Up" page.
Peer Support Group for Women overcoming Mental Illness
The peer support group for women experiencing and overcoming mental illness are held every Sunday at 7pm CST via zoom. When you sign up you will receive the link and meeting code in the follow up email.
The new trimester begins on November 17th, 2024.In the near future, GGG plans to expand and host in person meets and events monthly. As for now, it will remain weekly online.
This support group is for women experiencing and overcoming mental illness. Here at GGG, we are very familiar and aware of the trials and tribulations that come with living with mental illness and the journey of receiving the proper diagnosis, help, and care to get better. We also know how it may be difficult to accept certain diagnosis, and how overwhelming it can be learning about it while finding an effective wellness plan. With that being said, we want to provide a safe space to aid as a middle ground.
Images by Lulia lun
We are hosted by peers and advocates who are within the same community who may have the same or similar experiences and can speak from a place of understanding, non-judgement, care, insight, and experience.We know the importance of having resources, connecting, supporting, and learning from peers as we heal and deal with mental illness in our everyday lives. We know how much it can help and uplift spirits as being alone in a period of transition in a mental health journey can be discouraging, isolating, and even disheartening. If you feel like that or simply just want to connect with peers, find accountability partners, or discover and practice ways to cope, express yourself, find relief, or restore hope, faith, and support; this is a space for you.
Images are from unsplashed
Our participants are encouraged to show up as they are, unmask, express themselves, share their story, concerns, experiences (good or bad), and work toward progressing. We encourage building healthy relationships with self, other people, growing in confidence, self-validation, emotional maturity, understanding, community, and so much more.We do not force any participants to share or participate in whatever they are not comfortable with. We meet you where you are, and progress from there.
We plan to have many highlights and fun moments as well to lift the mood, and switch gears when needed to help put our minds at ease in between time, as it is important to have balance.For information regarding the agenda for the trimester, please visit the "Agenda" page. To join this support group, please visit the "Sign Up" page.
Agenda Overview
Agenda Overview is provided to our participants and potential participants to get an idea of the structure, scheduling, topics, and books that we plan to incorporate in the trimester for our support groups.
Please keep in mind that it is not concrete or the exact plan as it is adjustable depending on how things progress and what the participants choose. For accuracy and current details on what we our covering, we recommend attending a meeting as there will be recaps and reminders provided there, or via email.There will be multiple options, polls, and discussions for feedback throughout the trimester to take into consideration and implement for improvement. It is important that we are mindful about participants and their confidentiality and navigate with integrity to ensure a safe, respectful, and inclusive community with GGG. For those reasons, certain specifics, names, and dialogue will not be included. We also ask our participants to uphold these same principles.
Our support groups begin November through February. Our mid-year check point in June will be our annual in person meetings (view our "events" page). In July and August, we will follow up and resume our meetings over zoom before we break until the new trimester in November.
Events
For any upcoming events that Grace, Growth, and Glory will host, co-host, or participate in, the information will be provided here. If you are signed up to be part of the community, you will be emailed this information and receive current updates first.
I.E: In person meet opportunity at NAMI paint workshop 04/22/2023
AFSP "Out of the Darkness" Chicagoland Walk- 09/14/2024
NAMI Walks- Chicago, IL. 10/05/2024
Our support groups begin November through February.Our mid-year check point in June will be our annual in person meetings. Either in a span of a weekend or bi-weekly. The meets each day will encompass two or one of the following: Brunch, dinner, a fun activity, volunteering. This is exclusive to our participants and hosts only.In July and August, we will follow up and resume our meetings over zoom before we break until the new trimester in November.
Meet the Founder:
Elle Renee
Elle Renee is a creative, esthetician, entrepreneur, writer, advocate, and victor. She was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois.
Images by Lulia lun
Elle started her mental health journey at 19 years old when she first learned about it while pursuing a degree in social work. It was very taboo within her family and culture, so it was not a topic of discussion or taken seriously throughout her life. It was not considered a concern outside of the stigmas associating it with people deemed as addicts, weak, or "crazy".Elle later learned the truth and the importance of it as she realized how much of the symptoms and behaviors were similar to what she witnessed and experienced in her life, community, household, and surroundings growing up. Wishing she learned about it sooner, she sought out answers and the knowledge to help reflect, understand, and discover more about mental health and her possible diagnosis. This aided the beginning of her healing, mental health, and renewed spiritual journey.
She studied and self-taught for a few years before expanding out to try therapy and medical options.Experiencing the high & lows throughout her mental health journey, she struggled managing her work and social life; finding the help, support, resources, and knowledge to help her heal and improve in the ways she needed. Learning how to navigate this changed the trajectory of her life, and a new purpose was found.In this journey, she had to face trauma and repressed memories and emotions leading to the reflection of many situations and experiences she never properly processed or healed from. This highlighted some of the unhealthy ways she coped, and the unhealthy mechanisms and behaviors she adapted or accepted due to it.This further emphasized her willingness to seek understanding and help, turn a new leaf, change her surroundings including everyone within it, and figure out a plan that would be most effective for her to heal and get better, no matter what or how long it took.
Images are from unsplashed
Images by Lulia lun
At that moment, Elle chose to no longer accept or enable patterns that caused her to destruct, self-destruct, mask, be a shell of herself, accept mistreatment, the bare minimum, or become like her father who never sought out to properly treat his diagnosis, heal, or better himself in healthy ways.She did not want to numb herself, dissociate, live in pain with the bad memories replaying. She did not want to be hostage to negative thoughts, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, or any of the bad, hurt, disappointment, vengeance, and resentment that emerged in her healing that was shelved throughout her life.It took Elle many years of learning, unlearning, reparenting, accountability, forgiving, studying, finding support, praying, growing, leaving, isolation, grieving, advocating, hospitalizations, and many trials of therapy, and treatment plans to finally find what was the most effective for her.She was then able to create a new normal to where she can live at peace, in her truth, have joy, love, gratitude, know her worth, potential, and feel God’s love and favor over her and her life despite everything she went through. All that once seemed impossible.
Almost a decade later, Elle continues to fight the good fight against the stigmas, trials & tribulations, misinformation, and miseducation regarding mental health and sexual abuse.She advocates toward finding an effective wellness plan, getting the right care, resources, and support in community (holistically, medically, and spiritually). She advocates for black and brown women going through a similar journey and how to support them.She addresses the intersectionality of Christianity and mental health including how to navigate it, build a foundation, find purpose, healing, and peace through God’s word and growing a relationship with Christ. She also discusses a variety of topics and stigmas surrounding it.She continues to do her best to learn, heal, help, live, follow her dreams, and inspire other people to do the same— no matter where they are in their journey.
Images are from unsplashed
Healing is not definitive, as it’s a journey and constantly changing. Therefore, finding a sense of support, care, community, and resources along the way can help in more ways than none. It can spark just enough hope and be the very reason someone keeps trying. This is what led Elle to create these support groups.Her hope is to help mend the gap within her community and help reduce the challenges that other women may experience within their journey."Life is hard enough, and this is to be a place to aid in easing the burden of those hardships to the best of our abilities; not add to it." -Elle Renee
Contact
Let's keep in touch! Follow us on any of the social media accounts listed below. We look forward to connecting with you soon.
Please visit the "Sign Up" page to join our email list to receive information and updates regarding the support groups and upcoming events.
Thank you!
Sign up form
Sign up to join our community. You will receive updates and reminders for the support group, necessary links, and upcoming events. Please specify in the message box which group you would like to join (or both).
For any other questions or concerns, please email us at [email protected] or click the email icon below.
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