Give Hope All Year Long

Home of Healing Thru Art

Welcome to StandUp-SpeakOut of North Carolina

We continue the fight to end sexual assault and domestic violence through advocacy, prevention training, group therapy, mentoring and a fundamental concept for survivors called Healing Thru Art.

Pledge to SpeakOut!

Girl SpeakOut "Camp Resilience"

Girl SpeakOut Summer Camp 2021

Registration Opens FRiday April 2nd

Girl SpeakOut Summer Camp 2021 is back and ready to have another amazing summer with your child. We understand that finding the right activities for the summer can be a tough decision, especially as the world begins to open up and safety still remains a concern. Keeping the girls engaged, empowered, creatively active, and safe is our main focus. We can assure you that not only will your daughter have the most amazing experience at Girl SpeakOut Virtual Camp 2021 this summer, but we will do all we can to provide support to parents as well. Girl SpeakOut’s vision is to help boost confidence, build self-esteem, mold self-worth, and inspire girls to SpeakOut, and take on an active role in their schools and communities against all forms of violence. What’s so AWESOME about Girl SpeakOut this summer, is each girl will be able to express herself through different forms of art, coupled with learning efficient tools for self-care and maintaining a healthy holistic way of life through mindfulness and movement. We are providing her with an experience that will have a lasting impact. Girl SpeakOut is a place where your daughter will learn new skills, make friends, grow in confidence, gain a sense of independence, and own her gifts through expression of the arts.

Registration begins Friday April 2, 2021 and open until May 15th. We do encourage early registration as the camp does fill up quickly.

Our Mission

Art Therapy

To empower individuals we serve by providing advocacy and therapeutic support through Art Therapy for children and teens who are victims or witnesses to domestic violence and sexual abuse.

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Art Therapy

Art Therapy is the therapeutic use of art making through creative writing, spoken word/poetry, painting, sculpting, music, and dance. Through creating art and reflecting on the art products and processes, people can increase awareness of self worth while learning creative methods to manage symptom-related stress in conjunction with traumatic experiences.

Speak Out

Art Therapy

Speak Out

At SUSO, our programs are centered in the belief of valuable affirmations and the importance of speaking things into existence as a model of confidence and self assurance. Speaking Out is as much about standing up for what is right as it speaking greatness into your life.

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Meet Our Founder, Monica Daye

MONICA DAYE IS THE VOICE FOR MANY SILENT WHISPERERS…

A leader, advocate, poet, and victim advocate. Originally from Durham, North Carolina, this fearless woman touches audiences around the country with her biting poetry, soulful stories and heartfelt commitment to the healing of women and community. Through the gift of spoken word poetry, Daye shares her intimate story of surviving sexual abuse and domestic violence. As the founder of STANDUP- SPEAK OUT, Monica's personal mission is to speak out and act out against sexual violence and domestic abuse. STANDUP-SPEAKOUT (S.U.S.O), was founded in the Spring 2004, developed as a community outreach program against domestic violence and sexual assault. Daye organized S.U.S.O's first series of community events in April 2004 to promote awareness related to violence against women. In addition, to community outreach, S.U.S.O launched its first community-wide collection drive in April 2004--collecting personal hygiene products for battered women’s shelters and rape crisis centers in the state of North Carolina. Since the launching of S.U.S.O the programs and services have expanded from a small outreach program to a locally recognized 501c3 non-profit organization.

Daye obtained her Masters of Science in Multidisciplinary Human Service with concentration in Nonprofit Management and Leadership. In addition, Daye received certifications in Contemporary Theory in Mental Health Counseling Public Health, and completed her Bachelors of Science in Psychology from the University of Phoenix. Daye envisions ways to utilize the arts as a way to assist people in overcoming traumatic experiences. Using her own life journey as a model for a therapeutic process, Daye has effectively used poetry, music, journaling, visual arts, drama and dance as ways to unlock the mystery of pain that hindered her own emotional instability. As a mental health and human service provider currently works with victims of abuse and batterers to get at the root causes and to end the vicious cycle of domestic violence. As both a victim of and an abuser, Daye seeks to show the emotional scars caused by abuse, and how those abused grapple with understanding and contending with the consequences of that abuse. Daye believes there is a thin line between victim and abuser when trauma is left untreated. Daye's journey is a celebration of the power of transformative change. She believes Art Therapy paved the way for the emergence of an empowered woman. Daye stands up and speaks out to those denied their own voice and passionately believes "healing begins through ART".