Natasha Dansie and Danielle Cook met seven years ago working for Utah State University in the Department of Family and Human Development.
Although they worked in different areas they operated under the same grant and quickly became friends. In August of 2018, shortly after Natasha lost her mother unexpectedly, Natasha met with her now business partner Danielle at a conference they attended for work. Natasha felt as though there was more the two of them could do and create together.
Several months later in May of 2019, Danielle lost her father, also unexpectedly, after he summated Mt. Everest. Natasha and Danielle met for lunch three weeks later, both feeling driven by forces outside of themselves to do something more to bless the lives of families.
They felt the need to do more in addition to what they were working on currently with their jobs at the university. After brainstorming, talking about values and ideals and what mattered most in their lives, Danielle and Natasha came up with Arise.
Arise’s goal is to provide relationship education to strengthen families and all other relationships. They want everyone, moms especially, to be able to have a place of inspiration and support and resources where they feel like they can turn, to refocus on the things that matter most.
Arise offers free webinars discussing topics ranging from discipline to screen safety to communication in the home. Arise has active social media accounts, especially Instagram, where they interact with their community, sharing stories and posts on enriching the family.
Natasha and Danielle launched their company one year ago this August with a fantastic retreat in Bear Lake, where moms were able to get away from everything for several days and focus on their relationship with themselves and those fundamentals needed to focus on their connections with their spouses and their children.
The COVID-19 virus has changed how Arise interacts with families and schools and corporations, but Natasha says it has been an incredible blessing to offer support and resources online for families through Arise.
They found the support is sorely needed as families navigate everything that is now new and grieve over the loss of things they thought they would be doing these last four months with family trips and high school graduations and weddings.
Although the world has changed the things that matter most are still the same.
“Loving the people who are close to us, serving the people who are close to us, and strengthening the relationships which matter most to us,” Natasha said, “is what gets us through these difficult times.”
You can find Arise online at ariseworkshops.com and on Facebook and Instagram. “It’s easy for all of us to get distracted by our work from the things that matter most,” Natasha said. (Gibson is a Serve Daily contributor.)
