.png)
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast
FXBG Neighbors Podcast
EP #201 How Yet Stand Helps People Notice What They Feel
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Stress doesn’t usually announce itself. It shows up as irritability, shutdown, overwhelm, and that quiet feeling of “something’s off” you can’t name. We’re joined by Elaine Crocker, founder of Yet Stand Inc, a Fredericksburg VA nonprofit built to make mental health awareness practical, everyday, and stigma-free.
Elaine explains what Yet Stand actually does: helping people slow down, check in with what they’re thinking and feeling, and use simple tools like breathing to steady the body so the mind can catch up. We talk about Yet Stand’s “power chats” and why interactive, trauma-informed workshops matter, especially for youth mental health. Through a partnership with Stafford County schools, the organization brings these conversations directly to students, with a goal of expanding beyond high schools into middle and elementary grades.
Elaine also shares the personal story behind the mission, including childhood trauma, years of addiction, and the long road of therapy, training, and recovery that turned pain into purpose. If you’ve ever thought about launching a nonprofit, her advice is blunt and helpful: be ready, get clear on your purpose, expect your focus to evolve, and take compliance and reporting seriously. We close with ways the community can support Yet Stand, from donations and events to getting involved with the board.
Subscribe for more local Fredericksburg stories, share this with someone who needs a reset, and leave a review to help neighbors find us.
Elaine Crocker
Yet Stand
+1 571-393-1693
Welcome And Guest Introduction
SpeakerThis is the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Dori Stewart.
Speaker 2Welcome back to another episode of the FXBG Neighbors Podcast, where we share the stories of our favorite local brands. I'm excited to introduce you to my guest today. We've got Elaine Crocker joining us, and she is with Yet Stand Inc. Elaine, welcome to the podcast.
Speaker 1Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2I'm really excited to dive in and learn more about you and this organization. So let's start
What Yet Stand Does
Speaker 2there. Share with us what is Yet Stand.
Speaker 1Okay, so Yet Stand, uh, it's a nonprofit uh here in Fredericksburg uh that I founded in March of 2022. Um and we focus on mental health, um, emotional health, um, and it's really informing and raising awareness. Um, so we find that a lot of people are just not really aware of kind of their day-to-day, to day-to-day mental and emotional health. Like, what's going on? What am I thinking? What am I feeling? How am I, you know, um maybe I'm irritable. Why? You know, I'm stressed, what do I do? I'm feeling overwhelmed, you know, just kind of your day-to-day stuff. Um, and so it's helping people to take the time to pause and to reflect and to think about where they are and what might be going on. Um, and then it's also providing tools and resources so that in any moment you can just stop and just, you know, sometimes you might want to just stop and remind yourself, okay, breathe. You know, and that just brings your blood pressure down, your heart rate down, you know, and it and it helps to to kind of even you out, you know, so you can think clearer. And um, and so that's what we
Power Chats In Local Schools
Speaker 1do. Uh, we go into the schools. Um, we do have a partnership agreement with Stafford County Um schools. And so we go into the schools, and um primarily we we've been we've been focusing on the high schools, um, but we are looking to get into the lower grades, you know, the middle, even the even the even the elementary. It really a lot of that I think, you know, we think should start as early as possible, you know. Um, and so we go into the schools and we do what we call power chats. And power being there's knowledge and power. I really do believe that we know, you know, you know better, you do better, think better, act better, all those things. Um, and then chat, um, because it's very interactive. The workshops are very interactive. Everybody's talking, everybody's asking questions, and you know, we do role plays and various activities to help, you know, uh the kids to understand, you know, the different topics that we're that we're speaking on. Um, and then we do community workshops. So uh we actually have something coming up in October. We're gonna focus around music and spoken word and how and how healing and how reflective and and calming and all those things that writing and and music can be. So we're gonna hold a community event in October. Um, and so yeah, that's what that's what we do. Like I said, it's about providing information and raising raising awareness.
Speaker 2I love this so much, and it's something that is so needed in our community. So thank you for creating this and and the fact that you are a partner for the schools and bringing it directly to our students. Yeah, I know that that was not uh an easy thing to do. I I imagine you've worked very hard to get to this point. So tell me, I want to learn about you and I want to learn about how you got this organization going.
Speaker 1Okay.
Elaine’s Story Behind The Mission
Speaker 1Um, so it really started, you know, a lot of times organizations like this start out of our own experiences, you know, uh whether it's you know painful experiences or whatever, but usually it's it that that's kind of how we start these kinds of things, which was my case. Um, so I started the organization. Um as a child, uh I experienced a lot of different things, traumatic type of experiences, uh sexual assault and you know, bullying and you know, things like that. And um we didn't have resources, we didn't have tools, there were no conversations. Like I never I can't even remember the first time I even heard mental health. Uh, you know, I was well into my adulthood before I even heard, you know, that those words. Um, and so um, you know, I didn't know what to do with what was going on with me, what I was feeling, what I was thinking. So I acted out, you know, uh got into a lot, a lot of trouble. Um, I experienced drug addiction for many years and things like that, just trying to cope, you know. Um, and when I got to the point where um I, you know, wanted to better myself, better my life, that's when I started learning. And by then I was well into my 20s. Um I wanted to uh figure out like what to do, how how can I live life better? You know, like there's gotta be different, there's gotta be better ways of coping, and you know, um, and so I you know went into therapy and to drug rehab and to self-help books and just anything I could find, you know, that that you know that could help me to understand myself, you know, and my whys, and you know, who I am and and and those kinds of things. And so I've learned a lot through that. Um, I've done a lot of various trainings, you know, and trauma and crisis and sexual assault and domestic violence and all kinds of trainings I've done. I've worked in group homes for women um who are drug addicted and coming out of jail and prison and all of those things I learned a lot. And so with this organization, it was okay, now that I know all these things, um, I felt like pass it on, you know, especially when I see when I can clearly see so many youth going through the things that I went through, you know. Um, and so it was like, yes, that now that I now that I know these things, you know, pass it on and and and help others, you know, and you know, hopefully help somebody not to kind of struggle and you know the the way that I did, or even if they are giving them tools and resources, how they can get out. Because you can, if you do the work, you have the information and you use the tools and the resources, you can you can get out, you can do better.
Speaker 2Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, you're such a gift to our community that you have created this and that you are doing, you're doing so much. Uh it's it's it's impressive. Congratulations on your success.
Speaker 1Thank you.
Speaker 2It's um I know that I know that it's a lot of hard work, and um I'd I'd love to learn how can the community who's listening right now and thinking, you know, they also love your mission, how can they help you, how can they support you?
Speaker 1Yeah.
Ways The Community Can Help
Speaker 1Um, well, of course, one of the ways is always donations, you know, um, and that um that could be through our um through our Cash App, um, which is Yet Stand Inc. Um uh and then attend, you know, if we're doing a community workshop, you know, come out, attend. Um, and maybe even, I'm sure others have stories that they can share, you know, that would help somebody. They'll come to the workshop, share. Um, and we even when we go into the schools, uh sometimes we take people in with us that have a that have kind of like that comeback story from youth to you know issues to where they are now in adulthood. And we take them in and we look and we and they tell their story to the you know to the youth in the schools. So those are some of the some of the ways that um that they could help.
Speaker 2Nice, nice.
Starting A Nonprofit Without Regrets
Speaker 2If if someone listening is is inspired and has been thinking about starting a nonprofit, what advice would you give them?
Speaker 1What advice would I give? Um, definitely be ready, you know, um, because and I say that because I wanted to start the nonprofit some years ago. Um, but there were just just aspects in my life and things where I really wasn't ready, you know. Um, and so then when I reached that place where it's like I knew, okay, I'm ready, I can take this on, you know. So definitely be ready, have a clear, have a clear vision, a clear purpose, you know, for what it is that that you know that you want to do. What is the what are the is the issue or the issues that you want to tackle, you know, um, that kind of thing. Be very clear on that, but also know that it can shift because our uh our our ours shift shifted somewhat. Um, because when I first started the organization, we were focusing on sexual assault because that was the primary you know trauma that I had experienced. But then, like I said, as as we were talking to people, I started realizing, you know, it's really more of a of a mental health issue now because what happened happened. The behaviors and the thoughts and the all the things that that the effects, the after effects, that really has more to do with your mental health and your emotional health. And so that's why we kind of switched it and really kind of honed in on those areas. So, you know, be willing, you know, and ready to maybe make some shifts. Um and uh yeah, and take your time to ensure that you understand the compliance issues, you understand, you know, the IRS regulations, you you maybe you have a lawyer, you know, just and be very careful as you're filling out the paperwork and and you know, and that kind of thing. Um, yeah.
Speaker 2That's really good advice. It's it's a lot more involved than most people think.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah. Uh yeah, there's definitely, especially the the compliance, like there's regular reports throughout the year, you know, that we have to do. Um, and then if you're getting funding from, you know, like government funding or that that kind of that's you know, a whole nother kind of reporting, you know, and you have to make sure your records are intact and are straight, you know. Yeah.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's really good advice. Thank you for that. So is there something that you wish the listeners knew about Yet Stand, maybe that we haven't talked about yet?
Building A Strong Board And Team
Speaker 1Um let's see. The only thing I can really think of is that um my uh the board of directors for Yet Stand um are very active. They're not just like sitting board members, they're very active. And um, so I have a um a woman who is a counselor, so she is a mental health counselor. Um, and um, and even though we're not counseling, but we do have that expertise of a counselor, you know, on the board. Um, and then we also have uh a lady who was a she's a life coach and she's um uh training and development guru, and you know, you know, so we have that kind of expertise uh uh behind us in terms of you know creating our curriculums and you know and things like that. So have a have an have a nice little uh professional, you know, board. Nice having a that would be the other that would be the other thing if if if if someone in the community was interested in being on a you know, being on the board, you know, we would be willing to talk to, you know, to talk to people and you know see how we could we could make that work.
Speaker 2Nice. Having a strong team behind you is is really important.
Speaker 1Yeah, yeah. That would be the other piece of that would be the other piece of advice. Yeah, have a have a strong team who who gets your vision, who can fill in uh strengths where maybe you don't have that strength, you know, and you know, really, really work to build a good solid uh team.
Speaker 2Nice.
How To Connect And Get Involved
Speaker 2If the listeners want to learn more from you, if they want to connect with you, if they want to uh, you know, uh be part of the board, anything like that, how can they reach you?
Speaker 1Okay, so they can they can email us at yetstand at gmail.com. Uh they can also go to our website to learn more about what we do and what we have done. Um, and that is um, I'm sorry, yet stand, goodness, my mind went blank. Yetstand.org. Uh that's our um that's our website. Uh so they can go there, like I said, and see what we've done in the past and you know, learn more about our mission and vision and and and that sort of thing. Uh and you know, if they want to be a board member, that would be a good place to start to see, you know, if they uh if they feel they would fit in.
Speaker 2Perfect. Well, Elaine, thank you so much for joining me on the podcast and sharing Yet Stand with us, and congratulations again on your success.
Speaker 1Thank you so much. I appreciate you.
Closing And Business Nominations
SpeakerThank you for listening to the Fredericksburg Neighbors Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to FXBG Neighbors Podcast.com.