Hope Stone, Inc.

Houston-based, performing arts nonprofit not only keeps hope thriving for the art of dance, theater performance and children’s outreach, but brings life to a one-of-a-kind residency program that supports performance artists in the early stages of their artistic journey.

Although performing arts remain lively, diverse and exciting in Houston, arts education is clearly lacking in our society. A sluggish economy and lack of funding to support arts education programs tend to be the biggest culprits. Yet those concerned few who continue to believe in the magic of the arts and embrace the mind-boggling impact it continues to have on diverse populations surge forth without hesitation to create exciting pathways for gifted artists in search of artistic development, growth and success.

That’s Jane Weiner, in a nutshell.

Weiner, the Bowling Green University graduate (degree in deaf/elementary education, with a minor in dance), newly hitched (her better half, the wonderful Eric Mallory) and mother to 5 furry children (3 cats and 2 dogs), has lived and breathed dance and the performing arts for as long as she can remember. As founding executive director and artistic director of Hope Stone, Inc., the main hub to Hope Stone Dance Company (a professional dance & theater performance company), Kid’s Play (Hope Stone’s outreach arts program for children ages 6-18) and HopeWerks (an innovative residency grant program offered to emerging choreographers and performance artists), Weiner provides stellar artistic guidance and instruction to kids on the cutting edge of gifted and talented and young, gifted artists who teeter on the brink of uncertainty and desire to establish long-term careers in dance and the performing arts. Her decision to be a beacon of hope to aspiring artists didn’t surface overnight, but rather is the composite of privileged opportunities of working with some of the highly esteemed in the industry; a firm belief that there is no greater gift than being an “open door” for others; strong advocacy for the advancement of the arts; and the muse of her younger sister Susan (a 17-year breast cancer survivor), whose middle name (“Hope”) would emphatically snag naming rights to Weiner’s performing arts organization (hence, the name Hope Stone).

Per Weiner, “Prior to my transition to Houston 15 years ago, I experienced a wonderful dance career touring the United States and internationally for 11-plus years as one of the founding members of the Doug Elkins Dance Company in New York. When Susan was diagnosed with breast cancer, I moved to Houston to be with her; it was a tough period for her, yet she experienced a host of miracles and is still here to talk about it. After Susan got on her feet, I began to explore “the arts” in Houston and grew to love the “open arms” community here – enough to establish Hope Stone, Inc. in 1997, where we initially concentrated on community artistic performance, art outreach to at-risk children, and community dance and movement classes. The Kid’s Play program was created in 2002 to make arts education accessible to all children, with satellite locations in Houston, Katy and New Orleans and recent partnerships with four new schools and after-school programs (Harbach-Ripley Charter School; Positive Playdates; Cristo Rey Jesuit College Preparatory School of Houston and Change Happens). We now service more than 500 kids. In 2004, we snagged a small, renovated loft to create Hope Center, our home for both our year-round dance and movement classes for children and adults and for our nationally acclaimed professional dance company, Hope Stone Dance Company. In 2006, we moved into the Tribeca Lofts, our current 3,500sf space in Houston’s historic Fourth Ward. With the support of a hard-working, savvy board of directors, we’re working hard to expose art to even more people.”

HopeWerks, a space grant offered to budding performing artists, is clearly an “open arms” concept, and to date, one-of-a-kind in Houston.

Many new artists struggle with the expense of creating and presenting work and even starting a new company. Through HopeWerks, select artists are given 3 months of unlimited rehearsal time at Hope Center to create and debut their work, as well as learn all the business aspects of presenting a performance. “While dancing in New York, 98% of our rehearsal space was free because of the generosity of 3 gym owners who understood our struggle as artists and were kind enough to make complimentary accommodations available to us. I believe that young performers today deserve the same testing ground and the same opportunity. Through HopeWerks, I empower young artists and provide them workspace to explore their creativity without them having to worry about paying the rent and the electric bill and other associated costs. I am happy that I am in position to give back to our community in this way.”

Hope Stone, Inc.
1210 W. Clay Street, Studio 26
Houston, Texas 77019
713.526.1907
www.hopestoneinc.org

By Susan M. Bynam
Photography by Gabriella Nissen

I Am Waters Foundation
From the Runway to the Streets: Elena Davis gives Houston’s homeless a message in a bottle

Rags to riches
Elena Davis has graced the pages of Cosmopolitan and Harper’s Bazaar, but life wasn’t always so glamorous for the founder of I Am Water. One of four siblings, Davis was raised in California by a single mother who struggled to make ends meet. “We led a very transient lifestyle. I went to a dozen different schools. Food was an issue because we relied on food stamps. My mother was often at work or school, so my older brother Doane always made sure we got something to eat, even if it was just sharing a can of soup.”

At age 16, Davis moved to Paris. On her second day, she scored a photo shoot with GermanVogue. “I never stopped working after that,” she says. Avoiding the pitfalls of the supermodel lifestyle, she built a solid career. “I never went to parties. I was afraid to go out at night because of the terrible neighborhoods I grew up in,” she recalls. Eventually, she returned to the US and was able to help her siblings pursue their own dreams.

In 2009, Davis founded I Am Waters, a nonprofit foundation that provides safe, transportable water to homeless individuals and shelters. During the summer of 2011, I Am Water delivered 300,000 bottles of water throughout Houston, Ft. Worth and Austin.

Giving water, hope and inspiration
Access to safe drinking water is a real problem for the homeless, especially during the hot summer months. “If you are homeless, you can’t get the key to the gas station bathroom. If you try to access a faucet or a hose, you might be trespassing,” says Davis. “And the shelters don’t have the funds allocated for take-away water.”

Staying hydrated is key when it comes to overcoming difficult situations. “What we are hearing from the shelters is that the homeless who come in and use services are able to go on more job interviews and stay away from the shelter longer because they have three to five of our bottles that they can put in a bag.”

Those bottles are labeled with inspirational words: LOVE, HOPE, PEACE and DREAM. “When a homeless person finds out that a bottle of water was made expressly for them, that it wasn’t a castoff or a second-hand thing, with this specially branded package, it makes them feel that somebody on the outside knows that they’re there,” Davis explains. “It has a big impact on how they perceive themselves.”
The true face of homelessness
“The homeless label engenders preconceived notions that they are mentally ill or have been in prison,” says Davis. “We want to shift that perception. They could be anybody.” In fact, 1 in 3 homeless are families, according to I Am Water. Those individuals – including children and single parents – may be less visible but their stories are often compelling. “They are just people, like anybody else. We all have a certain idea of what we want for our life, but then life happens. You can’t always predict whether you’re going to lose a job, or if someone in your family will get sick, or if you are going to become sick and end up spending all of your money and having to sell your house and the life that you had to pay off bills. These are very common stories.”

As part of their Image Campaign, I Am Waters has made a habit of photographing the individuals at the shelters it serves. A copy is offered to the subject and another is used in published material to put a face on homelessness. The photos are taken on white backgrounds. “It’s about removing them from their environment. A lot of how we perceive ourselves is based on the cues we get from those around us. When we show them the printed, laminated photographs, it brings out a flood of hopes and dreams,” she says. “It’s very powerful. Some of them haven’t been photographed since they were children.”

Keeping it green
I Am Waters bottles are 100% recyclable. The Foundation provides shelters with recycling services to help reduce waste. But another factor is helping keep litter to a minimum. “As it turns out, we’ve heard from the shelters that the homeless collect the bottles because the words mean so much to them. They peel the labels off and stick them on their wheelchairs, tents and sleeping bags,” explains Davis. The Foundation also minimizes its carbon footprint by bottling all its water locally in Lubbock.

I Am Waters Foundation is a nonprofit organization that relies entirely on private donations to fulfill its programs and has been supported with gifts from $10 to $100,000. To make a donation, go to iamwaters.com/donate/.

By Nadia Michel
Photography by Sofia van der Dys

The Altus Foundation

Taseer Badar

In 2010, more than 50 million Americans were reported as being uninsured. With the struggling economy and high national unemployment rate, the number of U.S. citizens without health insurance is growing continuously. In an effort to provide healthcare for the underprivileged and uninsured in the Houston, Beaumont and Baytown areas, Altus Healthcare Management Services – a healthcare organization established by a determined group of medical and financial specialists at ZT Wealth with the goal of ensuring the benefit of the health care dollar – has expanded their philanthropic efforts by creating a new nonprofit, the Altus Foundation.

The mission of the Altus Foundation is to develop resources for patients in need of healthcare services at an Altus healthcare facility utilizing philanthropic support and patient and community educational programs. The official announcement of the newly established foundation will happen December 3, during ZT Wealth’s black-tie, invitation-only 10th Annual Toast to Living Well affair. Other scheduled activities for the gala will include a substantial gift to The Rose, a local nonprofit whose mission is to reduce deaths from breast cancer by providing screening, diagnostics and access to treatment for all women regardless of their ability to pay.

ZT Wealth’s partnership with this nonprofit organization is especially important as The Rose provided 9,000 free patient breast care navigation services to Houston’s uninsured women in 2010 alone. “This partnership with The Rose will be a tremendous asset for our patients, our physicians and the communities we serve,” said Taseer Badar, Chief Executive Officer of Altus Healthcare Management Services and ZT Wealth. “We are very proud to contribute to The Rose’s legacy of ensuring that women needing treatment for breast cancer receive the best possible care.”

As President of the Altus Foundation, Badar is both excited and proud to establish the foundation and to be able to help those who are less fortunate. “We have five major goals for instituting the Altus Foundation,” said Badar.

“Those goals are to partner with communities to provide financial support and educational opportunities for Altus patients, including cancer and hospice patients, and to build and establish collaborative interactions between Altus and the communities we serve, including physicians, our vendors and community members. Also, we desire to provide cancer-screening and prevention services to the communities we live and work in, offer financial support for cancer patients undergoing treatment, and lastly, provide health-related educational programs for the communities we support.”

As a company, the executives of Altus HMS feel a personal responsibility to serve the community. “We at Altus have been fortunate and blessed. Establishing the Altus Foundation is our way of giving back to the community,” said Badar. “We strive to support those organizations whose missions dovetail with our foundation’s mission. Specifically, those who offer needed healthcare services to patients unable to pay for them.”

For over a decade, ZT Wealth has established powerful partnerships with clients seeking a comprehensive resource for financial freedom based on traditional, well-planned investing. Now, this trailblazing company is looking for ways to pay it forward, and their recent partnership with The Rose is just the beginning.

The establishment of the new Altus Foundation is a testament to their commitment of developing opportunities that will allow Altus Healthcare Management Services to reach out to Houston and its surrounding areas to provide quality healthcare without excluding those with low incomes.

“We wanted to establish a way for those who have received care at our facilities to get the help they need – whether at an Altus center or via our hospice program – and to provide support for others who need care and cannot afford it,” says Badar.

To learn more about the Altus Foundation, visit www.AltusHMS.com.

Securities offered through EDI Financial, Inc., Member FINRA/SIPC/MSRB

Advisory Services offered through EDI Investment Advisor Corporation

12221 Merit Drive, Suite 1020, Dallas TX 75251 214.528.4090

ZT Wealth, Inc. is not affiliated with EDI Financial, Inc./EDI Investment Advisor Corporation

The Independent Advisors and Independent Registered Representative of ZT Wealth, Inc. are affiliated with EDI Financial, Inc./EDI Investment Advisor Corporation.

By Kimberly Crowder