The Juniatize Project

01/06/2022

Summer is here and kids are home. (Or for a homeschooling mom like me, the kids are always home. So does that also mean it's always summer? 😂)

Well, whatever it might mean there's one truth that remains - kids home All.Day.Long.

Don't get me wrong. I'm glad they're home and I love being able to hug them or be silly with them any time I want. But reality says I still need to work if I'm going to pay the bills.

For the longest time I was having all kinds of issues with kids barging in on Zoom calls - asking for stuff, wanting to hang out, you name it. 😤

Then, through the miracle of social media I stumbled upon a solution to the children always interrupting issue. (I really wish I remembered where or who I got this idea from because I would LOVE to give them credit. But the truth is I'm 43, running a business from home, and homeschooling 3 special needs children. There's only so much room in my brain anymore. 🤯)

Behold - the "Mom Is/You Can" sign on my door. I made it in Canva, laminated it and stuck in on a Dollar Store cookie sheet. I added a magnet and viola! Problem solved after a rather stern conversation with said sweet children.

Now, when I'm working I put the magnet in the appropriate box and the kids know what to expect. They also do much better if I make it clear when my meetings will end so I write "until whatever time" underneath. (I secretly always add half an hour in case the meeting runs over!!)

Now, especially when I'm on a discovery call I pop that magnet onto "Do Not Interrupt (unless there's blood, barf or broken bones) I can have professional, kid-free meetings without losing my mind!

What about you? What are your "Kids are Home, Still Gotta Work" solutions?

31/05/2022

As a domestic violence advocate you know that mental health is a serious obstacle for survivors.

That's why one of the fundamental pillars of The Juniatize Project is access to quality mental health services.

THE biggest obstacle to my starting The Juniatize Project was what was going on in my own head coupled with the trauma still stored inside my body. Thankfully, 4 years after leaving I finally found a counselor who really knew what she was doing and has safely and compassionately guided me in working through an incredible amount of trauma over the last 2 years.

Most survivors I know haven't had the privilege to receive that type of mental health assistance. So they continue to find themselves stuck and unable to move forward, especially when it comes to employment.

So my goal is to be able to offer quality, trauma-informed mental health services as an integral part of participation in The Juniatize Project's employment program.

Mental health services, more than any other part of my vision, is going to depend on partnerships with other organizations and individuals. I'm not even 100% sure what it might end up looking like. At first I thought it would mean independent mental health professionals being willing to donate one ongoing therapy session slot to one of our participant.

Now, after conversations with another organization helping survivors, I wonder if it's more about partnering with other organizations that already have solid mental health services in place.

Do you know any trauma-informed mental health providers who might be interested in partnering with us? If so, would you be willing to connect us?

14/05/2022

The last 2 weeks have NOT gone as planned. The goal was this huge social media push for the 2 weeks before Monday, May 9th. The first week went great. I was posting like a maniac. Making some really great connections and meeting some truly awesome people.

And then...cue the horror movie music...☠️

I got sick. Like, not a little bit sick, a lot sick. 102 degree fever for 4 days sick. My kids were running wild. My dad was picking up groceries and we subsisted on frozen pizza because I could barely get out of bed.

Needless to say, the social media posting came to a screeching halt. 😭

But, something happened late last week that I think made it all worth it. Even though I only posted for a week, I had a domestic violence advocate contact me about potentially hiring me to take care of her organizations social media.

But that's not even the thing that made it all worth it. It was something she said in our conversation. She said, "I could hire someone else to do it who probably has more experience. But I'd rather have you do it because you KNOW. I don't have to explain the dynamics of abuse to you. " When she said it I was like - right, exactly. But the true meaning of what she had just said didn't hit me until later that night.

I don't even remember exactly how it happened, but I was thinking about those 3 sentences she'd said while also listening to Mike Michalowicz's book Get Different. He was talking about figuring out what makes your business different from everyone else's.

And that's when the epiphany hit me like a lighting bolt out of a crazy Colorado thunderstorm. KNOWING the dynamics of domestic violence from personal experience is what makes The Juniatize Project different. But there was an even bigger lightening bolt that was about to hit...

The people who need our KNOWING are domestic violence advocates and shelters. 🤯🤯🤩

So...The Juniatize Project is officially open for business!!

We help domestic violence advocates and shelters optimize their online presence with the help of survivors who KNOW exactly what they're wanting to communicate.

Spread the word!

28/04/2022

Part of me still can't believe how fast all of this has started happening. When Taylor gave me those scholarships in December and suggested this whole thing could happen a lot faster than the full calendar year I was expecting I remember wondering what on earth that would even look like.

But here we are! Four months in and some of the original ladies who accepted those scholarships are becoming the first employees of the agency. Our weekly cohort meetings are turning more into staff meetings where we discuss pay structures and company culture than about the ins and outs of the coding course.

I'm different on account of the faith and trust these 5 incredible women have put in me and this crazy vision of mine. Parts of me that I was always told were bad or "too much" are being shown to be exactly the things I need to get this crazy dream off the ground.

And they are kind enough to share their own experiences of how The Juniatize Project has been a force for good in their own lives. It truly is a privilege to be building this boat while we sail it with this brave and creative group of survivor sisters.

27/04/2022

I've been posting all these stories about the why and how of The Juniatize Project over the last few days...

But I get a lot of questions about how exactly we're going to pay our employees. Like...where's the money coming from to train & pay these ladies?!?

The answer is that we are a for-profit agency that provides WordPress web design and social media services.

We rescue mission-driven businesses & non-profits from website and social media despair! 🌈

That means that every time a business hires The Juniatize Project to build or maintain a website or manage their social media our employees get paid!!

So, does a business owner you know desperately need to update their website?
Or maybe they don't have one at all and are pulling their hair out trying to DIY one 😭
Do you dare even ask them how long it's been since they did any website maintenance? (Cue the horror movie music...☠️)

Maybe they're drowning in trying to create and post to their social media accounts and just don't want to do it anymore! 🙅🏻‍♀️

If so...would you mind telling them about the work The Juniatize Project is doing and send them our way?

Don't think you know anyone who needs our services? Someone in your network might! Remember that infographic about social capital a day or two ago? Would you be willing to lend The Juniatize Project some of your own social capital by sharing this post (or any of our previous ones) on your own social media accounts? It just might connect us with someone we never would have reached!

27/04/2022

What's in a name?

There's a lot when it comes to both The Juniatize Project as well as my own name.

A lot of people know that I'm in the process of changing my entire name from Jennifer Jones to Junia Judson. If it's not obvious, The Juniatize Project is derived from my new name.

So why Junia? Well...I grew in a church culture that believed certain verses in the Bible said that women weren't allowed to do a lot of things men can - namely preach and teach men.

After I left my abusive marriage I really started to reevaluate my beliefs around what the Bible says about men and women. And even though it's only one verse in the Bible, a single verse made me realize that maybe I could believe something else about women's roles. That verse is Romans 16:7.

"Greet Andronicus and 𝐉𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐚, my fellow Jews who have been in prison with me. They are outstanding among the apostles, and they were in Christ before I was."

It doesn't seem particularly significant, but for me it was; because, Junia is a woman's name and she was an apostle. Not only an apostle but she's called "outstanding among the apostles". There's lots of history behind Bible translations changing her name to a male version. If you want to learn more, you can check out this blog post: https://juniaproject.com/who-killed-junia-part-one/

For me, Junia's existence meant that maybe everything I'd learned about women in the church might be different. Which then spurred my name change.

So...when I was thinking about business names I was in a connection call with Onsa of The Devoted Dreamers podcast along with some other dreamers. The long and short of our brainstorming was my new name Junia + Optimize because when I first started my business my messaging was around optimizing businesses' online presence. Now, I'm working to optimize survivor's financial realities.

The "Project" part comes from the fact that I'm very aware that this whole endeavor is much, much larger than just me. It truly will be an ongoing project that will continue to grow and evolve to meet the needs of domestic violence survivors.

I'd love to hear about the origin of your business name!

When I first began wondering how to harmonize my church’s restrictions on women with scripture, I came across a mention of Junia, a female apostle, and it startled me.