Podcasts about empower youth

Switching Shop Management Systems isn't as hard as you think! Give Shop Controller a try HEREIf your DVI isn't certified, you're losing customers! Get a FREE certification when you touch HERE!Travis Troy is the co-chair of the Vision Hi-Tech Training and Expo. Today he and Braxton talk about the importance of face-to-face networking and how events like Vision offer valuable opportunities beyond online training. Travis says today's repair shop must adapt to meet changing expectations and stay informed on what's changing in the industry to keep up, or be left behind.00:00 Empower Youth to Preserve Industry06:11 Continuous Learning in Business07:49 Hitting Rock Bottom Spurs Growth11:32 Appreciating Behind-the-Scenes Technicians14:47 Post-COVID Consumer Business Shift17:40 Strategic Planning for Implementation

In this episode of the Farmers Insight Track podcast, Duncan Masiwa sits down with Lufuno Nethsikhudini, a passionate Limpopo-based farmer. Lufuno is making waves in the agricultural space, farming with Bonsmara cattle and a variety of cash crops, and he's now venturing into poultry with plans for a chicken hatchery. From his early exposure to agriculture through school visits to commercial farms, to overcoming significant challenges in funding and weather disruptions, Lufuno shares his journey, lessons learned, and the importance of patience and commitment in farming. He also discusses the crucial role of financial discipline and record-keeping in managing a diverse farming operation.

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with retired professional soccer player, Tony Sanneh, about the programs his foundation has developed to empower young people to become the best version of themselves. Guest: Tony Sanneh is a retired professional soccer player and the founder and CEO of The Sanneh Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul that aims to create positive social change through soccer, education and health. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.     

MPR News host Angela Davis talks with retired professional soccer player, Tony Sanneh, about the programs his foundation has developed to empower young people to become the best version of themselves. Guest: Tony Sanneh is a retired professional soccer player and the founder and CEO of The Sanneh Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in St. Paul that aims to create positive social change through soccer, education and health. Subscribe to the MPR News with Angela Davis podcast on: Apple Podcasts, Spotify or RSS. Use the audio player above to listen to the full conversation.     

Racist encounters, both subtle and overt, continue to plague society and take a severe toll on the mental and physical health of people of colour. However, innovative research shows how we can equip youth and adults with the skills to navigate these stressful situations and emerge stronger. Dr. Howard Stevenson and his team at the University of Pennsylvania are pioneering new approaches to help people cope with racial trauma and find their voice.

Freddy Jackson, founder of the Love No Ego Foundation, shares his mission to help youth aged 10-18 develop self-awareness and emotional resilience by overcoming societal pressures and the influence of ego. Freddy explores the distinction between thinking less of oneself and thinking of oneself less, advocating for a balance between self-awareness and selflessness. Freddy also discusses the importance of embracing fear and surrendering to reality rather than resisting it, fostering growth, gratitude, and a deeper appreciation for life. Personal anecdotes illustrate his dedication to nurturing relationships with family and loved ones, emphasizing presence and meaningful connections. He reflects on the transformative power of love in overcoming challenges, celebrating differences, and living with purpose.--Freddy is an inspirational and transformational lecturer and speaker, social-emotional learning (SEL) mentor, health and wellness trainer, educator, author, and founder of The Love No Ego Foundation.Freddy's Love...No Ego philosophy serves as the foundation for success, strengthening the motivation needed for change, igniting intuitions, identifying and removing egotistical behaviors, minimizing stress and conflict, and facilitating valuable, purposeful, and practical action steps that enable participants to grow and perform better than their everyday pressures despite their chosen industry.Domestically, as well as internationally, Freddy has delivered powerful, engaging, and relevant presentations, mentored, consulted, and conducted workshops for individuals, teams, and organizations, improving insight, sustainability, and resiliency.WEBSITES:https://www.lovenoego.org/https://www.mrlovenoego.org/SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS/HANDLEShttps://www.instagram.com/mrlovenoego/https://www.linkedin.com/in/thelovenoegofoundation/https://www.facebook.com/MrLoveNoEgo/https://www.youtube.com/@mrlovenoegohttps://www.tiktok.com/@mrlovenoego Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Welcome to Highest Aspirations, an education podcast focused on providing educators with inspiration and strategies to help multilingual learners achieve their highest aspirations. We have a very special guest with us today, the co-founder of CoolSpeak, Ernesto Mejia. Mejia is the proud son of Mexican immigrants, and a true example of the American dream. Diagnosed with the rare disease of Guillain-Barré (ghee-yan bar-ray) Syndrome at the age of 16 that left him temporarily paralyzed, he was not supposed to be a successful student, much less a College Dean of Students. But through his hardships, Mejia learned to never give up on life. He now speaks to students, parents and teachers about overcoming obstacles and never giving up on the American dream of education.  In this episode, we cover the meaning and importance of youth empowerment, the work of his company CoolSpeak, and how we can align programs and speakers we bring into a district with the needs of the audience and goals of the school. Click here to download the ⁠full episode transcript ⁠. To find more podcast episodes and show notes/key takeaways, ⁠⁠visit our podcast resource page.⁠⁠ For additional free resources geared toward supporting English learners, ⁠⁠visit our blog.⁠ To expand your connection within the Ellevation community by join our⁠ ⁠⁠Ellevation Educator Facebook Group.⁠ To learn more about Mejia's work with CoolSpeak click here. 

For more than a decade, The Opportunity Youth Forum at the Aspen Institute's Forum for Community Solutions has been working with a growing network of urban, rural, and tribal communities across the U.S. to build and scale reconnection pathways that achieve better outcomes in education, employment and overall well-being for opportunity youth. (Opportunity Youth are young adults, age 16-24, who are not engaged in work or education.)Based on their work with a network of 40 communities, along with thought leaders and funders across the field, OYF is advancing four key principles that, when brought together, help empower youth to lead thriving and healthy lives. These principles are: Belonging, Meaning, Wellbeing, and Purpose (BMWP).OYF has brought together what they are learning from their communities on these core concepts, along with academic research and thought leadership. Out of this collaboration, they are developing a BMWP framework as well as a series of examples that demonstrate that when young adults are supported in an environment where they feel they can have a thriving future, the outcomes for both them and their greater community are more successful.In this podcast conversation, we talk with OYF Director Geneva Wiki about this developing BMWP framework, what the concepts of Belonging, Meaning, Wellbeing, and Purpose mean, and how to operationalize these practices into your own work.Full transcripts of our podcasts are available at collectiveimpactforum.orgResources and FootnotesOpportunity Youth ForumTargeted Universalism at the Othering and Belonging InstituteYouth & Young Adult Wellbeing reportCentering Youth in Well-Being Research and Programming: A Guide for Adult AlliesPodcast: john a. powell – Operationalizing Equity in Collective ImpactLife Course frameworkPurpose and Identity Processes LabMore on Collective ImpactInfographic: What is Collective Impact?Resource List: Getting Started in Collective ImpactThe Intro music, entitled “Running,” was composed by Rafael Krux, and can be found here and is licensed under CC: By 4.0.The outro music, entitled “Deliberate Thought,” was composed by Kevin Macleod. Licensed under CC: By.Have a question related to collaborative work that you'd like to have discussed on the podcast? Contact us at: https://www.collectiveimpactforum.org/contact-us/

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

American students are in trouble. About a third of students in the youngest grades are behind on reading. Only 36% of fourth graders are proficient at grade-level math. The newest National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP)–the nation's report card–shows eighth-graders' history scores are the lowest on record since the assessment began in 1994. And what's more, every single state experienced teacher shortages in at least one subject. Dr. Kendra Newsome, co-founder of fitlearning which transforms the learning abilities of all children. This is not a franchise and it's not a tutoring conglomerate. They're a highly specialized program that provides unparalleled service to every kind of student. fitlearners.com sageintl.com

Clarence Nero will share his wisdom from his lived experience and his contributions to youth with innovative writing projects. He is an Associate Professor at Baton Rouge Community College, author, and screenwriter whose accomplishments include his critically acclaimed novel, Cheekie: A Child Out of Desire, nominated for 'Best Books for Young Adults' by the American Library Association and selected as 'One of the Best First Novels' by Library Journal which he adapted into a screenplay and is currently in pre-production. He served as a literary consultant to help his students self-publish a book called “Voices from the Bayou” that he adapted to the stage with the LSU Theater Department, and he then wrote the screenplay that led to the making of the short film “Voices.” He is the writer, producer and director of the stage play, “Trauma on this Land.” In 2011, after his brother was murdered in New Orleans, he launched the Bayou Soul Youth Literary Conference to empower and inspire Louisiana high school students

Clarence Nero will share his wisdom from his lived experience and his contributions to youth with innovative writing projects. He is an Associate Professor at Baton Rouge Community College, author, and screenwriter whose accomplishments include his critically acclaimed novel, Cheekie: A Child Out of Desire, nominated for 'Best Books for Young Adults' by the American Library Association and selected as 'One of the Best First Novels' by Library Journal which he adapted into a screenplay and is currently in pre-production. He served as a literary consultant to help his students self-publish a book called “Voices from the Bayou” that he adapted to the stage with the LSU Theater Department, and he then wrote the screenplay that led to the making of the short film “Voices.” He is the writer, producer and director of the stage play, “Trauma on this Land.” In 2011, after his brother was murdered in New Orleans, he launched the Bayou Soul Youth Literary Conference to empower and inspire Louisiana high school students

Clarence Nero will share his wisdom from his lived experience and his contributions to youth with innovative writing projects. He is an Associate Professor at Baton Rouge Community College, author, and screenwriter whose accomplishments include his critically acclaimed novel, Cheekie: A Child Out of Desire, nominated for 'Best Books for Young Adults' by the American Library Association and selected as 'One of the Best First Novels' by Library Journal which he adapted into a screenplay and is currently in pre-production. He served as a literary consultant to help his students self-publish a book called “Voices from the Bayou” that he adapted to the stage with the LSU Theater Department, and he then wrote the screenplay that led to the making of the short film “Voices.” He is the writer, producer and director of the stage play, “Trauma on this Land.” In 2011, after his brother was murdered in New Orleans, he launched the Bayou Soul Youth Literary Conference to empower and inspire Louisiana high school students

Amidst recent discussions about the Youth and Sports Ministry's performance, what are the gaps and strides that have been made in fortifying the sports ecosystem and empowering youth? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Hafiz Marzukhi speaks to Adam Adli Abdul Halim, Deputy Youth and Sports Minister and MP for Hang Tuah Jaya, Melaka.

In this compelling episode, we sit down with Byron Sanders, a visionary whose dedication to fostering greatness in youth has reshaped the landscape of opportunity. As the celebrated recipient of D Magazine's 2022 Most Admired CEO Award, Byron's leadership at Big Thought has closed the opportunity gap and championed a new era of creativity and empowerment. Join us as Byron shares his insights on the transformative power of education, the importance of systemic opportunity, and the journey of instilling confidence and innovation in the next generation. This is a story of purpose, passion, and the profound impact one individual can have on countless futures.

The universe always has a way of bringing life full circle when we least expect it. I always talk about my “Harvard to Healing” journey and today's episode affirms that this unique path was well supported by many. Barbara Best was the Executive Director for Harvard Kennedy School's Center for Public Leadership which directly financed much of my tuition while I was a student at Harvard. In this conversation, we explore the nuances of elite education and why in this day and time we need Spirit Leadership to guide us as we navigate greater challenges in empowering our youth and create thriving communities. About Our Guest: Barbara Best is a community organizer, youth advocate, and system change leader who is passionate about building systems of care to empower youth and communities to thrive. Drawing on experience as Executive Director of the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership and leadership roles at the local, state, and national levels of the Children's Defense Fund, Barbara empowers mission driven organizations and cross sector leaders to catalyze transformational change while advancing equity and sustainability. Barbara spent 13 years at the Children's Defense Fund, rising from outreach coordinator to Texas Executive Director, opened offices in Houston and the Rio Grande Valley region along the Mexican border, and mobilized regional coordinators in ten Texas cities to restore health coverage to 176,000 uninsured Texas children. As Executive Director of the Harvard Kennedy School Center for Public Leadership, Barbara led the rapid expansion of public service fellowships from 51 to 118 graduate fellows over a five-year period, with 36% U.S. students of color and 32% international students from 29 countries. Barbara holds a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard Kennedy School and a bachelor's degree from Duke University. Barbara is currently pursuing a Doctor of Education Leadership (Ed.L.D.) at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Guest Info: LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/barbara-best-6131368/ Connect with Erin Patten: Website: themetabusiness.world Email: info@erinpatten.com Instagram: @iamerinpatten Podcast IG: @themetabusinessmillennialpodcast LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/iamerinpatten YouTube: youtube.com/@iamerinpatten WANT MORE? Which MetaBusiness Avatar are you? Take this free 15 questions quiz to find out: www.themetabusinessquiz.com FREE Masterclass: Get Aligned and Live Abundantly Masterclass https://www.erinpatten.com/courses/get-aligned-and-live-abundantly Visualize to Actualize https://www.erinpatten.com/courses/visualize-to-actualize Podcast Disclaimer: By accessing this Podcast, I acknowledge that the entire contents and design of this Podcast, are the property of The MetaBusiness World, or used by The MetaBusiness World with permission, and are protected under U.S. and international copyright and trademark laws. Except as otherwise provided herein, users of this Podcast may save and use information contained in the Podcast only for personal or other non-commercial, educational purposes. No other use, including, without limitation, reproduction, retransmission or editing, of this Podcast may be made without the prior written permission of The MetaBusiness World, which may be requested by contacting admin@themetabusiness.world. This podcast is for educational purposes only. The host and guests claims no responsibility to any person or entity for any liability, loss, or damage caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly as a result of the use, application, or interpretation of the information presented herein.

Jamy Bechler recently appeared on the popular "Generation Youth" podcast hosted by James McLamb. If you work with youth in any form or fashion, then you'll want to check out this interview. You can also watch the youtube version of the interview at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5PQx_xHcSM  About this episode ... In the realm of sports coaching, the focus is often on techniques, strategies, and performance. But what if we could achieve even greater success by emphasizing empathy, compassion, and understanding? Strategies based on degrading and belittling individuals do not foster long-term success. Instead, let's promote a compassionate and uplifting approach, highlighting the importance of understanding each player's or teen's uniqueness and leveraging it to their advantage. Whether you're a sports coach, a teacher, a parent, or someone interested in youth development, this episode provides invaluable insights. It's a testament to the transformative power of compassionate sports coaching and the significant role it plays in shaping our future leaders. About the GENERATION YOUTH Podcast ... Welcome to the Generation Youth: Podcast, a beacon of understanding and inspiration in the evolving landscape of youth culture. Hosted by James McLamb, the founder of Generation Youth and a renowned expert in youth leadership development, this podcast brings together leading voices in the field of youth culture, influence, and education. From in-depth discussions with authors, educators, and trendsetters to insightful analyses of current events affecting our youth, the Generation Youth: Podcast serves as a vital resource for anyone interested in shaping tomorrow's leaders. Tune in to explore fresh perspectives, innovative strategies, and the powerful stories of young individuals making a difference. Together, we are building a future filled with promise and potential. About Jamy Bechler ... Jamy Bechler is the author of five books, including "The Bus Trip" and "The Coach's Bulletin Board." He also runs the "Success is a Choice" podcasting network. Prior to his work as a leadership consultant, he spent 20 years as a college basketball coach and high school athletic director. Bechler now works with high-level individuals and teams, helping them maximize their potential in the areas of leadership, culture, and teamwork. Where to find more of Jamy ... Twitter: @CoachBechler - https://twitter.com/CoachBechler Instagram:@bechlerleadership - https://www.instagram.com/BechlerLeadership LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamybechler/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JamyBechlerLeadership Youtube: @CoachBechler - https://www.youtube.com/@CoachBechler Success Is a Choice Podcast: https://jamybechler.com/podcast/ Online Leadership Program: https://theleadershipplaybook.thinkific.com/pages/teams  Email: jamy@coachbechler.com  Website: https://jamybechler.com/  Episode highlights & time stamps ... [0:00] Intro [2:12] Who is Jamy Bechler [7:45] Success is maximizing your potential [12:46] Dynamic plays for youth [17:21] Be better or bitter [25:27] Find the best way to inspire [31:04] Focus on life lessons for life skills [37:20] Finding solutions for making things better [41:13] How you do anything is how you do everything [43:54] See the good in people [46:22] Outro   - - - -  Each week, the SUCCESS IS A CHOICE podcasting network brings you leadership expert Jamy Bechler and guest experts who provide valuable insights, tips, and guidance on how to maximize your potential, build a stronger culture, develop good leadership, create a healthy vision, optimize results, and inspire those around you. - - - -  Please follow Jamy on Twitter @CoachBechler for positive insights and tips on leadership, success, culture, and teamwork. Check out our virtual sessions for parents, coaches, students, and administrators at FreeLeadershipWorkshop.com. These sessions are free and cover a variety of topics. - - - -  The Success is a Choice podcast network is made possible by TheLeadershipPlaybook.com. Great teams have great teammates and everyone can be a person of influence. Whether you're a coach, athletic director, or athlete, you can benefit from this program and now you can get 25% off the price when you use the coupon code CHOICE at checkout. Build a stronger culture today with better teammates and more positive leaders.  If you like quotes, then you'll want to check out Jamy Bechler's new book "The Coach's Bulletin Board". It contains thousands of insights, thoughts, and quotes are contained in this book. Please visit JamyBechler.com/BulletinBoardBook to get your signed copy. - - - -  Please consider rating the podcast with 5 stars and leaving a quick review on iTunes.  Ratings and reviews are the lifeblood of a podcast. This helps tremendously in bringing the podcast to the attention of others. Thanks again for listening and remember that “Success is a choice. What choice will you make today?” - - - -  Jamy Bechler is the author of five books including "The Captain" and "The Bus Trip", host of the "Success is a Choice Podcast", professional speaker, and trains organizations on creating championship cultures. He previously spent 20 years as a college basketball coach and administrator.  TheLeadershipPlaybook.com is Bechler's online program that helps athletes become better teammates and more positive leaders while strengthening a team's culture. As a certified John Maxwell leadership coach, Bechler has worked with businesses and teams, including the NBA. Follow him on Twitter at @CoachBechler. To connect with him via email or find out about his services, please contact speaking@CoachBechler.com. You can also subscribe to his insights on success and leadership by visiting JamyBechler.com/newsletter.

Give young people tools to solve their own problems and they'll have the capacity to solve the world's problems. Connect with Glenn and join a program.Connect with Glenn and join a program. Connect with Glenn and join a program. Connect with Glenn and join a program. Connect with Glenn and join a program.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Children's education is top of mind across America. Today, Cheri talks with Dr. Staheli Meyer, the new Executive Director at Empower Youth Foundation in Reno, Nevada. They do fantastic work! Empower Youth helps at-risk children get a foothold on their studies. They work one-on-one with each student so that even kids that are 1 or 2 grades behind in their school studies can catch up quickly and many times, exceed the learning levels if kids in their classes. But, the Foundation needs your help. Donate and get involved. EmpowerYouthFoundation.org 775-826-1111 Sageintl.com 800-254-5779

Karen Rangel, Founder and Youth Resilience Coach for Youth Fit2Lead, is joined by Erin Tanner, a facilitator for Youth Fit2Lead, to talk about the mission and programs of the organizations focus on empowering teenage girls.

Street Safe Bridgeport seeks to reduce crime and empower youth

Liberation Station is a children's book store that was created on the belief that youth need a safe space for discovery. A space centered in humanity, joy, and curiosity. A physical space located in downtown Raleigh in view of the capital building made for the perfect location in the eyes of Victoria Scott-Miller and her family. Starting with bringing curated books and folding table to pop-up events and transitioning to online sales made Victoria feel like they were being "stretched in a way that minimized our presence." We talked about the importance of taking up space and how challenging a system that bans books is in her DNA. She brings her childhood of listening to Juicy J and Three 6 Mafia to her confident approach to designing a space that anyone can feel safe to learn, read, and grow. Find out how you can support their new location at https://liberationstationbookstore.com/Links:Website: https://www.honeyandhustle.co1:1 Consultation: https://angelahollowell.lemonsqueezy.com/checkout/buy/a0d1b976-39d0-4d1f-b2ee-5f5e3e6d7691?logo=09 Lessons We've Learned from our Podcast Guests: https://angelahollowell.lemonsqueezy.com/checkout/buy/7474a4cf-9bfa-4431-89a4-9660920f8ed1?logo=0Digital Tools for Video Creators: https://angelahollowell.lemonsqueezy.com/checkout/buy/ce13789d-4a20-4f0f-b8a6-8ea7d9647c2b?logo=0

This month Sioux Valley Energy's Training and Development Coordinator Chinelle Christensen introduces two students from the EMPOWER Youth Leadership Class of 2022-2023. Lily Fods represents Chester Area School District and Ashirvad Sharma is from Brandon Valley High School.

Breaking Records and Breaking Barriers: An Olympian's Mission to Empower Youth and Women in SportsOur guest today is Dr. Sarra Lajnef, an exceptional athlete and inspiration to many. She's a Tunisian Olympic swimmer, rower, and triathlete who has achieved remarkable feats in her career. Sarra holds two Guinness World Records, a Triathlon Pan Arab Championships Medal, a FINA Master Swimming 4 times World Championship, and a UAE National Rowing Championship title.Aside from her impressive athletic achievements, Sarra is also a member of various committees and organizations in the sports industry. For example, she's part of the UAE Triathlon Federation's National Teams Committee, the Tunisian National Olympic committee's Women and Sport Commission and Athletes Commission, and the FINA Athletes Safeguarding Council.Despite facing challenges and setbacks, Sarra's journey is one of resilience and hard work. She's become a role model for aspiring athletes, especially women, and her story will inspire anyone looking to achieve their dreams. We're honored to have her on the show today, so sit back, relax, and prepare to be inspired by Sarra's incredible journey.CONNECT WITH SARRAInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/sarralajnefofficial      LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarralajnef CONNECT WITH SAFWebsite: https://www.safwanalturk.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/safwanalturk Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/safwanalturk New to Saf? A father, founder, and business executive who left corporate life behind to create solutions that help people build healthy lifestyles.Special thanks to my 14 year old son for helping with the video editing. Follow us/ subscribe/ rate/ share - We are on Apple, Spotify, and YouTube. superhumanswitchpodcast.com Thanks a lot for listening.

SuperBetter Uses The Psychology Of Game Play To Empower Youth And Young Adults With Keith WakemanKeith Wakeman is the CEO & Co-Founder of SuperBetter, a digital education & mental well-being company. The SuperBetter framework uses the psychology of gameplay to empower youth & young adults to build skills, overcome obstacles & achieve their goals. Published studies show that playing SuperBetter improves resilience and mental health. Over 1 million people have played the SuperBetter mobile & web app. SuperBetter is a recent winner of The World Economic Forum Youth Mental Health Challenge.If you're interested in empowering youth mental health, SuperBetter invites you to become a financial stakeholder in their company. Learn more and reserve your spot here. Support the showRate the show: If you enjoyed this episode, please consider providing an honest rating of the show here www.mentalhealthtodayshow.com/reviews/new . Disclaimer: The Mental Health Today Show is for educational purposes only and should not be interpreted as therapy. If you are seeking therapy, please contact a licensed therapist for help.

In this episode of The Impact Collective, I sit down with Shadille Estepan, Communications and Creative Manager of Born This Way Foundation to discuss the organization's initiatives to drive kindness across communities worldwide, train youth and adults to be there for each other, and spread awareness and resources for mental health support. Born This Way Foundation was founded by Stefani Germanotta, also known to the world as Lady Gaga, and her mother Cynthia Germanotta in 2012 to raise awareness of the need for mental health and empowerment support amongst the youth population. Since then, it's grown into a network of changemakers advocating for the elimination of stigma surrounding mental health, the validation of emotions, and the uplifting of peers. Learn more about Born This Way Foundation at www.bornthisway.foundation and follow the org on IG at @btwfoundation Don't forget to subscribe to The Impact Collective wherever you get your podcasts to learn more about modern-day nonprofits that are leading the way in both NYC and beyond. If you liked this episode, please rate and review the show -- it really helps with rankings. Until next time! TIC Socials: Pod: @impactcollectivepodcast Host: @emmashahidalthans --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app

Dee Torgerson, Director of VR General in Minnesota, joins Carol Pankow in the VRTAC-QM Studio to take a close look at VR service delivery through a post-pandemic lens. Dee presented at CSAVR and was part of the National Rehabilitation Leadership Institute (NRLI) that produced a paper titled, "Now is the Time: Advancing Services to Individuals with Disabilities by Reenvisioning VR Services." The pandemic forced VR agencies to offer services in new and flexible ways to meet the evolving needs of individuals with disabilities and employers, and Dee and her team at Minnesota General rose to the occasion. Listen in as Dee talks about bringing her vision to life.    Listen Here   Full Transcript   Re-envisioning VR Service Delivery with Dee Torgerson- Minnesota General - Meeting People Where They Are At   {Music} Speaker: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the Manager Minute. Joining me in the studio today is Dee Torgerson, Director of VR General in Minnesota. So full disclosure, I have worked with Dee off and on since 2006 and two different agencies and in different capacities. And I've always been in awe of her stellar management skills and she is just an all around good human being. So Dee, thanks for joining me today. How are things going at Minnesota General?   Dee: Hey, Carol, you are too kind, but it's great to be with you talking with you today. Things are doing well at Minnesota General right now. We're in a good place. And of course, in Minnesota it's fall. So people are happy like it's the great Minnesota get together at the state fair. It's the Renaissance Festival, Labor Day weekend. People with young families, all the kids go back to school on Tuesday. So parents are ecstatic. So we are happy in Minnesota.   Carol: Well, for our listeners out there, you're going to get to hear two Minnesota accents. We laughed. You and I were like, Oh, they're going to get a whole lot of the Long O's today. So buckle, right? So D, you were part of the National Rehabilitation Leadership Institute that's also known as NRLI. And I was reading the paper your team wrote and I caught your presentation at CSAVR. Some of the things you were saying really intrigued me and I wanted to dig in further. Your group's paper was titled Now is the Time Advancing Services to Individuals with Disabilities by Re-envisioning VR Services Delivery. Your group talked about the challenges that started in 2014 with the passage of WIOA and the new requirements like Pre Employment Transition Services, Section 511., There was increased order selection and of course the pandemic was the cherry on the top. So all of this has created the situation where VR agencies must offer services in a new and flexible way to meet the evolving needs of individuals with disabilities and employers. So you had some really interesting things you're undertaking at Minnesota General. And I want to just let's dig in. So can you give the listeners a little perspective about Minnesota general? Like how many people do you serve, how many staff do you have and what's your overall budget?   Dee: Yeah, absolutely. You know, it's interesting when we talk about VR, there are two significant time frames. We talk about pre WIOA and post WIOA and now we talk about pre pandemic and post pandemic. So it's like in VR, our world is centered around that time frame, but in Minnesota, so actually I'm coming up on three years as director in Minnesota, General VR. Prior to that I was a regional director. So I've been in the VR program about ten years, and prior to that I've always worked in some type of rehab, private, public nonprofit, had my own business for a while, you know, and at my age now we say over 25 years we don't want to say how long it really is. So it's been a long time. I have been in some type of VR system, but coming up in three years as director, one of the things when I came in as the director to this position in Minnesota general, actually at the time we had sort of this like flat leadership reporting structure. I had about 14 senior leaders reporting. To me, it was interesting. I thought it was pretty unmanageable. One of the things I put into place, it took me two years to get this into place, but I now have an executive leadership team I added two deputy director positions. So one of them many of you probably worked with in the past, she's been with the Federal VR program for lots and lots of years. Chris McVay, she's our Deputy Director of Disability Employment Services. So essentially she oversees all of the field work. And then we had a new person come in to VR as a Deputy Director. She oversees our operations and partnerships. Michele Basham, And many of you will have an opportunity to meet with her coming up. And then another long term person who fills out our executive leadership team is Jennifer Koski, and she oversees our new quality assurance program. She's helped get that up and running, quality assurance and staff development. So Chris came on just less than a year ago. Michele is about six months in. It's a very new structure, so we're still settling into it. But as a director, it's fabulous to have that small, tight knit group that you can really dig into the details and get some things moving with. But a little bit about Minnesota General, we have about 365 staff. If we were fully staffed, we should have close to 400. We have about 50 vacancies which we have had for a very long time.   Carol: That's a bunch.   Dee: That's a bunch, yes, We're in a similar situation as many other states. And honestly, right now it's a little bit of the perfect storm. We had a state hiring freeze. We really never were able to recover our positions after that. In Minnesota, we have had really low attrition and we didn't have a lot of retirements and then the pandemic hit all of that. Was amplified. We lost one of our strong VR Masters programs in Minnesota, lost one of our pipelines of people coming in. So we're experiencing all of the things many other states have been experiencing for a while, but it's sort of is all hitting us at once. So it's something I could talk about a little bit more later. But we're in a staffing crisis just like everyone else. Around the country in 2019. So again, pre-pandemic, we served about 16,000 people in Minnesota. This past year, the pandemic hit that decrease just like others had seen in 2022 program year. We served about 13,000. We are quickly edging up to close to. I expect that we will meet or surpass that 16,000 a month. In years past, we've served up to 18,000 folks.   Carol: Wow. Good on you. That's great. That's moving up. Is it changing, though, the group that's coming back in, is it more younger folk or what?   Dee: Yeah, it's changing. So we've seen sort of this gradual picking up of students that were serving. I would say it's gone from 40%, 50% recent years. Last couple of years, we've seen about 60% of who we serve are students. That's in addition to the pre potentially eligible that we're serving. And I'll tell you the new trend, we were just looking at our new applications, 75% of our new applications are students.   Carol: I mean, we've had a significant focus since, again, WIOA on serving those students. So Wow. That's significant.   Dee: in many ways it's not surprising, but there are a lot of needs, especially coming out of the pandemic.   Carol: So definitely you've been talking about kind of your pandemic numbers pre and post. So I'm sure too that the upswing in the students with schools being back and all of that and not just online, I'm sure all of that's played into those students coming back up.   Dee: Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. I just wanted to comment real quickly about our budget. We have a actually a very healthy budget. In the past, we've had a lack of resources. We've had categories closed and now we have a lot of money, but I don't have staffing. So we've always had order of selection for many years. For a few years we had all categories closed for many years, like over ten years we had all but one category closed. In 2020. We were able to open up three or four categories. We still have our fourth category closed, which is those who don't have any functional limitations, the funding to open that up, but I don't have the staffing to open that up. So that's our situation right now. But we're sitting we have a healthy budget right now. We're budget of about 71 million.   Carol: Oh, wow. Good on you. Yeah, I didn't remember it being that big. That is big.   Dee: Yeah, we got re-allotment. We got everything. We asked for it. There's a lot of money available. As many of you know, our program income with the ticket to work, we earn nearly $6 million in program income, which is the most we've ever earned. And then, of course, we all got a bit of a bump in our 110 awards as well.   Carol: Yeah, pretty incredible.   Dee: And we have a healthy state match, which we're blessed to have.   Carol: Yeah, we've always been fortunate in Minnesota with that state match for sure. I know not all states have enjoyed that same benefit. That's just been a blessing to have that.   Dee: Right.   Carol: I know your group at NRLI really did a nice job outlining the current challenges facing VR. Can you talk more about those challenges that were outlined in that paper as it relates to Minnesota General?   Dee: Yeah, I can go a little more in depth at that. Actually, we wrote the paper. I was just looking back at the date. It was in October of 2021, so it's already been a year ago. So when I look at the challenges at the time, they're much different than the challenges we face right now. But they were the precipitous of us writing this paper and diving into that and really working on how do we re-envision across our nation the VR service delivery system. So I'll talk about what those challenges were at the time and perhaps talk a little bit about where we are right now. Certainly the challenges. So as October 2021, we were still in the pandemic talking about what are things going to look like when we're coming out of the pandemic? How are we going to rebuild our system? We had, I think, as others have seen, to a sharp decrease, certainly a new applications. Many of the people who were already in our caseloads, we were serving, they're like, you know, I'm just going to wait and see how things turn out. I'm not ready to get out into the environment and work right now. So we had a lot of cases on hold. And of course, as you all know, the schools were in turmoil. So there weren't a lot of I mean, people just weren't able to focus on our services. They're just trying to keep students educated at the time and that really was  the focus.   Carol: Yeah, absolutely.   Dee: Yeah. And so we because we've always had at least 50% or more of our services going to students. We had invested in technologies including laptops and cell phones and some other things for those. So about half of our staff in Minnesota were already equipped with many of those mobile devices and trained on them, but half were not. So that was the challenge, just getting all of the technologies available. I think everybody experienced this. It was hard just to get the equipment and then training people to use that equipment and all of the new software's and making shifts and the policies and learning about electronic signatures and implementing all of that. So it's a steep learning curve. And, you know, it's not just about getting that equipment out there. You have to have somebody managing all that, managing those assets, helping to do the training, helping to get the equipment in people's hands. Fortunately, I had a great team working on that. We were able to get those technologies out to the other half of all of our staff pretty quickly while we were all working remote.   Carol: Good for you. I know some states said they had to send staff home with their desktops. like it was just a nightmare, getting that networked through. So I wondered how that went, because we all know sometimes that I.T. purchasing can take a hot minute.   Dee: Yeah. And we did a little bit of that, too, with desktops. Luckily, we didn't have to do a lot of that. We did a little bit of it. I remember the day so clearly it was a Friday afternoon. Y'all got to be out and you have to set up everybody and they need to be working in their home by Monday at noon. Ok, I mean, you know, and we did it and we ramp up and it was bumpy. It certainly was bumpy in the beginning. But now we're in a really good place with that. Lots of technologies we built electronic signatures and other new policies and ways of doing the work into our systems. So I think one or the other significant challenges in Minnesota is we VR general in Minnesota. We were heavily embedded into our one stop systems like for many years. There was a big effort about 20 years ago I think maybe more to embed., many people still talk about it. Remember that, to embed us into those one stop systems. So in Minnesota we have 18 comprehensive sites, but we have over 50 locations all across the state and we were in about 40 of those locations. And again, I would say VR, like we had the most staff, we had the most space, we were paying the most money, we were heavily supporting those physical locations. So when we were all out teleworking and we're like, there's a lot of things changing. We need to do this differently. We need to shrink our space. We need to have people working in a hybrid environment. People need to get out in the community and meet people where they're at. So we knew that would include, as our leases expired, reexamining our physical footprint. And that was no easy task to take on because of sort of how the system was set up in Minnesota. And frankly, we couldn't have done it without our broader agency support in doing that work. So we did a lot of prep work, we did talking points. We met with all of our workforce development partners. And I won't say that it went really smooth because they didn't like the even though the message made sense and we were doing the right thing, they didn't like the message and they weren't ready to make those same changes that we were moving ahead with. So it was bumpy, but it has settled down a little bit. We've actually vacated only about seven sites across the state. We're still in about 30 different sites, but we continue to reevaluate that. And now we're finally a year into this, starting to hear some of those workforce development partners say, you know, we get that vision. We're looking at shifting services and models also. But it's taken a year of very intensive strategic work to get to that point.   Wow. That's significant.  Well, it's been tough because that was a very political situation, too, in Minnesota,   Dee: very political. We had to give our governor's office a heads up. There was letters and phone calls to our commissioner and governor. We knew that would happen. So we were able to give them a heads up with that. But that still made it really difficult. So it was absolutely very political. I think the other when I'm thinking about challenges at the time, as many of you know, in the midst of the pandemic, we had the George Floyd murders and civil unrest, much of which originated in Minneapolis. And that certainly was impactful to a lot of what we've done. We also have reports in Minnesota just about the inequities in employment. We're doing great. We have the best unemployment rate in the nation. However, there is absolute definite inequities in that employment rate when you're looking at people from other cultures and people of diverse backgrounds. So that's been also a huge focus area for us in Minnesota, in our agency overall and within VRS. And we had to really think about those underserved communities. And how are we reaching out to them? And one of the things we know is that they don't just stumble into a one stop center. We have a new American team that we're working with, a lot of those different cultures. They're not trusting of government and government locations. So we knew that we had to get out in the communities. We had to meet people where they were comfortable in order to make a difference in that. So that was a huge kind of incentive or motivator reason why we wanted to do that.   Carol: We learned from you with your new Americans team. I know when I was at the blind agency, definitely we had met with your team and took some really valuable lessons to help us as we were working with our specific group of folks. So they were spot on good people.   Dee: So that was a huge part of it. And then of course, Minnesota is right in line with all of the federal data about the gradual decreasing enrollments, and we are decreasing outcomes, all of those things. And it's like we can't keep doing what we've been doing because we're going to get more of the same. We have to change some things up and we have to do some things differently. And in VR and the federal program, there's such a focus on informed choice. Yet we never gave people a choice of how, when, where they receive services like you come in at this timeslot Monday through Friday. Actually, typically this was more like two days a week between the hours of eight and 4:30. You got to show up at my office and you got to get there. And we live in Minnesota and I'm telling you, Minnesota in January, it is brutal. I mean, thinking about the physical barriers that people have to go through, we serve, most of whom we serve are people with mental health challenges. That's been consistent over the years. It's still remains true. So we're working with people who have anxiety disorders and all sorts of mental health disorders that are already barriers to them getting out, navigating the landscape, finding transportation. We're trying to serve people who don't have resources. They don't have transportation ways to get to our offices. Those are issues that we had to find a different way to address that.   Carol: Well, knowing you, I love that you like to reflect and you're so great at laying out a vision. So what is that vision you have for service delivery for Minnesota General?   Dee: You know, Carol, I was thinking back to you and I worked at a previous agency together many, many, many, many years ago. And I think both of us have always had a passion for customer service. I came from private industry nonprofits where you had to focus on that or you could not be successful, or if you ran your own business, that has to be at the forefront of everything you do or you're going to fail. And I felt like that was sort of missing in VR. Like we got so caught up in all the other things and processes and things we forget about the person that we're serving. And in Minnesota, we actually had implemented a huge strategy around providing person centered services. Now most people in VR and I will tell you, most people in general VR said, I already do that. That is not true..   Carol: It wasn't Necessarily true   Dee: Because sometimes we get caught up and all of these other things. So when we were even in a previous agency, I don't remember the name of the video, but you implemented that because again, we're trying to get people to focus on the customer. It's the  fish video philosophy.   Carol: Fish philosophy. Yeah. And I was doing that whole how we could provide good customer service even though we're the government. I did that training all over. In fact, I brought it to SSB, I did it there and I have done it actually since in my AT work as well. Oh funny.   Dee: And that's just I mean, again, that's one of the things I'm just so passionate about. It is one of the reasons I came into government in the first place is I thought, you know, we can do things better. And if we focus on the people that we're serving, we can do better. So that really has been the basis that sort of like when I talk about my vision, that's what it's about and it's about meeting people where they are again, overcoming all of the barriers that we talked about. We have to figure out how to meet people where they choose. We have to give them choice in the beginning of the process or the rest of it doesn't even matter. We don't give them choice, get them connected, get them engaged right away. As soon as that first phone call, that first time they're walking through the door, that first time they're connected with someone, none of the rest of it matters because we're not going to get them connected, interested or engaged.   Carol: Yeah. Then on the other end, they're the people that you're closing them out because you can't find them, you know, and they're no longer interested.   Dee: And that also we have to go find them. We have to go find them, and we have to make connections with the people that they trust. And it really is about empowering. That's part of our mission statement. Empower Youth and Adults with Disabilities. How do you empower them? Empower them by giving them choices and meeting with them where they're most comfortable. And it makes a difference. You as the counselor, like you get better, quicker, faster engagement. You get better information. You get a better relationship, better collaborative relationships. So that really was, I think, sort of the focus point of my vision. And the other part of it, it's about timing. Like, you know, have that vision for quite a while, but the timing isn't always right. Sometimes you need to wait for the right moment. And I'm telling you, coming out of a pandemic, we had everybody already teleworking. Our agency had done surveys of our staff. 90% of our staff wanted to continue to telework. That's significant. If we would have tried to make everybody go back into the offices full time and we had every counselor had a large office somewhere, they were all in their offices. If they weren't out in the schools providing services, they were in their offices meeting with participants. That is how we were set up pre-pandemic.   Carol: Oh yeah, I remember your group, we were working on that whole like remote work policy telework. Before that, before I left the agency in 19, I remember being in a meeting with you and I remember staff going, We can't do that. We can't work from home. We can't do any of that. There's going to be workers comp, nothing like a pandemic to show everybody actually you can get work done from home. It was so interesting.   Dee: Absolutely. You can, and, like meeting people virtually like we continue to do that as part of our service option. It has to be part of the service option. We have to give people choice. You want to meet in person, you want to meet virtually. Do you want to meet? We just chat over the phone and get our work done because and again, think about all of the barriers that people have. It has greatly increased our engagement with many other types of populations that we weren't as engaged with and parents and families, busy parents and families, they're like, This is so awesome. We would have come to VRS much sooner if we knew that we could connect this easily. So we have to continue that. There is no way we could not go back to the way that things were before.   Carol: That's awesome. So as you're implementing this vision, what kind of like roadblocks or challenges have you faced along the way and how are you addressing those?   Dee: Well, that's a great question. I mean, you talked about some of them, just the telework people. I mean, obviously, we could do virtual services and we could still do them well. We had to adapt and change a lot of things quickly. And the pandemic, frankly, helped us to do that and to do that quickly.   Carol: Silver lining.   Dee: The silver lining, I mean, that is and that's what I'm talking about. Timing like that was the time. It still is the time to make those changes. I would say the biggest challenge is sort of that one step center challenges. That was a huge challenge that we had to work through just any kind of change we were coming off of all the changes we had to implement in WIOA and we're changing the whole direction of services and a lot of things. And then we had the pandemic and then we're implementing because we needed to these different ways of providing services. We had to get pretty good at change management pretty quickly and understand it well and staff are still they talk about change fatigue and it's like, I get it. But we also have to hire people for that kind of flexibility and people who have that same vision or can easily, you know, understand and take on that vision. One of the things, as part of our new service delivery strategy that we decided to do in Minnesota was because we did actually surveys of our customers that we serve. But one of the ways that people want to be served, they want to continue to come into our offices and meet with us. But as equally important to them was us coming into their homes and providing services. Now, I come from the private industry. We I mean, I did that for 30 years. I met with people in their homes. It was just part of that world. It has never been a part of the federal VR program world.   Carol: Except on the blind agency,.   Dee: Except on the blind agencies.   Carol: We were use to doing that!   Dee: You're right. We're used to and we learned a lot from you. And we actually worked with Natasha Jerde is there now and now we work super closely with her and she actually helped us sort of implement some of these in-home services. But you're right, services has been doing it forever. Lots of other state agencies, but not certainly not Minnesota General VR. It was a very new concept to people. There was a ton of fear around it and I thought, Whoa, this will be awesome. We're going to do in-home services. Whoa, nobody else? Nobody else was woaing  about that. There was actually a lot of fear, a lot of barriers. We've been working on that piece for over a year and we had to, of course, wait until things loosened up around the pandemic. I wasn't going to layer that on top of all of the other craziness. So we're trying to figure out coming out of the pandemic, but we're now piloting we have a group of champions and we have some initial policy developed and we're piloting it this fall. I do expect, like if you come back and talk to me two or three years from now, it's just going to be part of what we do and we will have gotten across and gotten over those barriers and challenge.   Carol: Well, I'm confident you will make that happen for sure, because with your woo. I know that. Woo.   Dee: woo. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. I'm looking forward to when that is just one of the many ways that we provide services to people, because I think it's important and of course what we're hearing to the people that we serve is that it is indeed important.   Carol: So you mentioned doing the survey, and I know I was super intrigued when you talked to me about that before, and actually you had shared it with me and I sent it to some other states because they were wanting to do something similar. But what did that survey of the customers tell you? Were there any kind of surprises in there?   Dee: Yeah, I think it was less surprises and more about just reaffirming that people want services in a variety of different ways. So we did the survey and it was with our current participants. We did it in spring of 22, so just recently and we had over 1000 people complete the survey. So it was a fairly good response. It's always limitations in a survey. We had to do it through email at the time and it was those that we were currently serving. But one of the things that came out is that most people, most respondents, 41% prefer some hybrid model. They want to meet in person once in a while, but not all the time. They want to meet virtually. They want to connect with us by phone, connect with us electronically. I don't think that was much of a surprise. What was a little bit surprising to me, about 31% wanted. Only online services like that was a pretty high number. But also at the time, that was the way that we were connecting with people as well. And the other thing we asked was locations like where you want to meet and meeting in our offices, 45% wanted to have the option to meet in our offices and 40% to me that's a high number. 40% wanted us to be able to meet with them in their own homes. And then the third type was community locations.   Carol: I can completely believe that. When you think about Minnesota, though, like you said, our weather, it sucks, you know, and so...   Dee: right.   Carol: People are dragging through. They're going to the bus and then they had to change buses and then get to the place and check in. And then they're late and the counselor comes up and then they're mad at them. Like, well, they were very dedicated to get here because they were late for the appointment, not realizing like there is a blizzard and they're trudging through the snow and it's horrid.   Dee: Right, that is absolutely it. Yeah. We talked a little bit in the survey, too, about barriers people have to services. And again, that was a little surprising to me. The top barriers, stress and anxiety was one of the top barriers. We have to be able to address that with people and help people feel calmer in order to be able to engage with them. Lack of transportation was one of them and at the time again, it was spring of 2022. So we're still in the pandemic or towards the end of it, but lack of jobs that people wanted to apply for. So the survey was a piece in time. And one of the questions we had is, how do you know people want services this way? So let's ask them. Let's find out.   Carol: Yeah. So that was brilliant. That is brilliant.   Dee: And it's something we will build in. We know that we need to check this occasionally. We need to find a way to reach out to people besides email. To get broader perspectives. We need to also do some similar surveys to people who didn't get engaged with their services and find out sort of what the barriers were there. So more to do on this survey, but I thought it was a good start and gave us some good information to start with.   Carol: Well, absolutely, because I know other folks have been really wrestling with they don't know what the service delivery model should be. And when you shared that with me, I was talking to them because everybody's assuming, well, clients all want to come to the office. Well, maybe not. You know, maybe not. So asking is the best way to find out for your state what needs to happen? Because, again, every state is very different. Some are small, some are big. There's lots of geographic and urban rural issues and all of that. I just think such a fundamental place to start.   Dee: Yeah.   Carol: You know, I was wondering, you speaking, we've been talking pandemic. So how is long COVID impacted you and are you starting to see customers coming in with long COVID?   Dee: We are. We actually started to see customers come in pretty early. With long COVID. We don't have a good way of tracking that data. We can get to it and take a little bit of work and we will be looking at it. But I know anecdotally because I ask as I'm meeting with folks around the state, that is not an unfamiliar new disability. We're seeing quite a few people come in now with long COVID.   Carol: Yeah, we've been doing some work on that at the VRTAC., Roseann Ashby is a consultant on our team, formerly with RSA for decades. She is fabulous, but she has really dug into the long-covid and how it impacts VR and how do you work with that and eligibility and all of that. And she's actually recording a webinar a little bit later this month that will be available for folks to listen to.   Dee: That's awesome.   Carol: Yeah, she's got some great info on that.   Dee: Yeah. And again, I think it's an area that we could do some more focus and reach out towards because we're just getting the people that happen to come in but not necessarily focusing on it. So I look forward to hearing that.   Carol: Oh yeah. So what kind of lessons are you learning along the way as you're trying to pivot. You've got a pretty big ship there. If you would have 400 staff, if you have them, and from 16 to 18000 individuals that you're serving and all of that. But have there been any kind of those aha moments or kind of key lessons you've learned as you've been trying to re-envision this new way?   Dee: Yeah, I mean, a few things. You know, most of my background was in working and running smaller organizations. So as you talk about a big ship like it's definitely different running a big ship and making those turns and making those changes. A few things, learning along the way, whatever you implement, any change, whether it doesn't, even if it's a great idea and people want the change, you are still going to have a third of the people who are, whew, this is awesome. A third of the people who are on the fence and undecided and a third of the people who are going to work against you and detract and do nothing but complain. So one of the things that's been so important is to make sure you're hearing from all of those people, because I'll say even before we did, for instance, a survey of staff, 90% of staff wanted to work. The loudest voices we heard from were those who didn't want to telework. They're like, Let me back in my office. I need to be in my office. I have to see people in my offices. If that is the only voice I would have listened to, I would have had a really bad perspective of what was going on across the agency.   Carol: Good point, good point.   So third point, I had to work really hard to make sure we're hearing the whole, hearing all of the voices and to do some different things. And it's not one way to do that. There's multiple ways that we've had to do to make sure we're hearing about the whole and I would say the other just huge learning and huge lesson is making sure that people understand the why and not just like a quick thing like that. They deeply understand the why and that everything you do connects back to your mission, whatever your mission is, you know, our mission serving participants, people have to understand that and know one of the great things about working in VR, one of the reasons I love being here is because of people we hire. They're not the best paid. They're not I mean, we have pretty good benefits and things, but they're mission driven people. They're here because they love the work that we do. So you have to tap into that and have to make sure that they are able to make those connections and understand the why.   Carol: Yeah, we're the people-people.   Dee: the people-people, the huggers, as you used to say.   Carol: Although there's a few non huggers amongst us like don't touch me.   Dee: I know. Yeah.   Carol: So what kind of suggestions or advice would you give to others as they're going to re-envision the way they deliver services? People are just struggling across the country with what to do. We've got to do something different. We know numbers are kind of tanking and we've got to bounce back. We got to come back and do this differently.   Dee: Yeah, definitely. And yet to be seen. I mean, we're implementing these changes. We're in the midst of it. They don't necessarily have the data yet to show that it's successful, but I hope that we'll have the data a few years from now to show that it's clearly been successful. But we'll see. Again, I just think we can't keep doing what we were doing. We have to do some things differently. And if ever there was a time, a perfect time to make some of these changes, I really think that now is that time to do that. We're all in a hiring crisis, and so it's time to sort of relook at who we're hiring and make sure that we're hiring the right people to do those jobs, and that it's not just people who are good at managing the cases, doing the kind of the casework pieces, like you really have to have people who have that focus on customer service and willingness to focus on that and flexibility. We're in an environment is not going to be the way things were many, many years ago. I mean, VR was very, very, very, very stable with very little changes that it just is not. The current environment is not going to be the way of the future. We're going to be faced with constant changes, those that come at us and we have to adapt to and those that we need to implement in order to keep our programs viable. And I'd say just expect resistance and know you have to build that into your strategies and your plans. It's just always going to be a part of any changes. And to be thinking about the data like what is the data we do need to be tracking in order to show that this has made a difference or made an impact.   Carol: I like that and continuing to kind of tell the story because that's the only way RSA Congress people can know what's going on. They look at the data like what's happening to this program. And I think the way the world has evolved, especially like pandemic, I mean, everybody was ordering from Amazon, holy smokes, you know, instant. Nobody's going out anywhere. We all have everything coming to our house. People are just really used to this instant delivery. They want to binge watch Netflix. They want to get it all right now. They don't want to wait. String it out over six months.   Dee: I want to go chat with somebody and get an instant response. I don't want to wait two weeks for somebody To get back.   Carol: That's right. That's right. You are Spot on.   Dee: And that telling the new story is so important. And it's something like, honestly, we're struggling with a bit here, too, in Minnesota because common performance measures don't do it. The data we're tracking and reporting on doesn't do it, like how do we tell the new story? So in Minnesota, it's about the students. Those are long term results. We don't have instant results. We're on our ways to tell that story in Minnesota. Another factor is we had the highest number of subminimum wage earners. Now we're down to number two. So we're making slow progress. That is not a place that we want to be, however. But we've gone from five years ago of serving almost zero people with developmental disabilities ICD, to it is now our number three category of, number three disability area that we're serving. So huge change, huge shift in who we're serving. And again, we're doing customized employment. It's very intensive wraparound supports that we're providing. It's more long term. How do we tell that story? Because we can't do it in the typical ways. So that's a new challenge for us.   Carol: Absolutely. But you've got the right people. You got Kari Marsh there. She can figure that out, but she is so good.   Dee: That's true.   Carol: She will figure out how to make that data.   Dee: She is fabulous. Yeah.   Carol: If our listeners are interested in seeing your paper that your group did, is there anywhere it's posted or where would maybe be the best way they could get that?   Dee: So it was a part of NRLI, who, by the way,, they're taking new applications for the new cohort. It is an awesome experience. So NRLI, which is part of San Diego State University. My understanding is they're going to be posting those papers soon on their website. Otherwise, one of the leaders of that program is Fred McFarland and he said if anybody's interested, they can email him as well. So F M C f a r l a n at SDSU dot edu.   Carol: Excellent. That'll be awesome. Well, I look forward to having you back in a year or so to find out how your data is looking and how everything is going with this implementation. I think it's cool, but you always have to start somewhere, you know, when you have these kind of visions and that's the important thing you get to actually try it and not discount like this isn't going to work before you even go there, so good for you.   Dee: Absolutely. Well, thank you. I so appreciate. Obviously, we love talking about these kinds of things, so I appreciate the time to be able to talk about that. And again, I can't wait to see where we are in a year or two from now.   Carol: Yeah.   Dee:  I think it's exciting time.   Carol: Me too. That's awesome. All right. Have a great day.   Dee: Thanks, Bye bye.   {Music} Speaker: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Rachel Levine wants to “Empower” Youth With Gender Affirming Treatment TO GET YOUR 10 FREE ENTRIES TO WIN THE 702 HP RAM TRX + $10K CASH, ALL YOU GOTTA DO IS JOIN THE HODGETWINS TEXT/EMAIL CLUB & YOU'LL BE ENTERED TO WIN! Patriotic Apparel: http://officialhodgetwins.com See Hodgetwins Live on tour: http://hodgetwinstour.com Hodgetwins Children's book: Http://hodgetwins.bravebooks.com Follow Hodgetwins: Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thehodgetwinsInstagram Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hodgetwins Twitter: https://twitter.com/hodgetwins Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/hodge_twins Other YouTube Channel: Politics: https://www.youtube.com/conservativetwins Askhodgetwins: http://youtube.com/askhodgetwins --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/hodgetwins/support

In this episode, we're happy to have as a return guest the Reverend Jumanne Bradford, co-founder of Engage, Enrich, Empower, Youth Project, Inc. (aka E3Y Inc).  E3Y Inc is a nonprofit organization that provides mentoring, tutoring,  and leadership services in the DC Metropolitan and Prince George's County, Maryland area. Their goal is to provide academic support and mentoring services to the youth in their communities.  We are fortunate to call Rev Bradford a friend and are beyond delighted that he agreed to pay us a second visit so he could re-CONNECT with us and get us up to speed with his amazing journey.

Among the people who are diagnosed with HIV, many are young people. In this episode, host Gabriella Spencer talks with Marshun Redmond of NMAC to discuss how we can take steps towards understanding the problems with HIV/AIDS among youth, and celebrate the effort young people are making to fight the battle against HIV/AIDS.Marshun Redmond went through the Youth Initiative Scholar program with NMAC. Marshun had his own story and wanted to use that story to help others. Marshun tells us why he got involved with the Youth Initiative, why it was a safe space, the importance of peer-to-peer education, and how it led him to bring the leadership skills and tools he gained into the community. Lastly, Marshun leaves three important pieces of advice for the youth. To connect with us further, or to find more resources on race and HIV/AIDs, visit our website. You can also find us on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

The energy transition is the generational challenge of our time. It can not be solved by researchers in their ivory towers, nor policymakers in the country's capitals. Instead, we need all parts of society to engage and work towards a common goal. One group that is often overlooked, but that is key for the transformational processes that we are going through, is the youth. First, if today's youth is not empowered they won't be the ones who can do the heavy lifting in 5-10 years. Second, there is a lot of climate-positive projects that young gals and guys can do already today. To empower youth, a group of friends of mine founded Student Energy some 15 years ago in Calgary, Canada. Their mission is to empower young people to accelerate the sustainable energy transition through a variety of initiatives, including university-based Chapters, and the largest student-led energy conference in the world. In this podcast episode, I talk with another friend of mine Meredith Adler. Meredith is the executive director of Student Energy and helps build this wonderful organization. Go check it out. — The NTNU Energy Transition Podcast aims to function as a knowledge hub that empowers individuals and organizations in Europe and beyond to tackle climate change and move our global society toward carbon neutrality. New episodes every Thursday. The NTNU Energy Transition Initiative was established to deliver world-leading research on energy transition strategies, to achieve the Paris ambitions in an efficient and realistic way. Every spring we organize the NTNU Energy Conference in Trondheim, Norway. You can find us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and on our webpage. Please reach out by mail to energytransition@ntnu.no.

Joseph, Greenwald and Laake has been representing clients in suburban Maryland and the District of Columbia for almost 50 years. With offices in Greenbelt and Rockville, Maryland, we have lawyers who focus their practices in diverse areas of the law, including employment and whistleblower actions, family law, estates and trusts, civil rights, business planning and commercial litigation, personal injury, medical and professional negligence. In this episode Robert Scheer & David Bulitt discuss the following:    How and why Comfort Cases was founded? When youth age out of foster care - what are their options   What government is/is not doing enough of to help youth in foster care? How foster parents are abusing the system/going in to it for the wrong reasons.  JGL LAW FOR YOU brings you up close and personal with our lawyers who will be discussing how to navigate the many legal processes,  developments in the law, other current events and how they may affect you. You can find us at www.jgllaw.com, on facebook and twitter.

Shayne Hood is a highly motivated, compassionate and progressive individual, as well as being highly regarded in the fields of social work, community services and education.But as a young man, Shayne had personal experiences of family violence, addiction, and criminality, which have all contributed to his determination to help and inspire people caught in negative cycles to find positive and constructive ways to rebuild their lives.Shayne's vision is to transform the misconceptions of the people who are criminalised or marginalised in society by developing new approaches, teaching and support methods that create positive social impact. Combining his own lived experience, with the support and guidance of other relevant professionals and organisations, Shayne has designed and developed dynamic ways of working with people experiencing disadvantage. This has led to dramatic changes in system structures, practitioner experience and most of all positive outcomes for people that previously felt disconnected and disempowered.Shayne strongly believes that we can all play a part in helping marginalised people re-write the challenging stories that have kept them trapped in hardship, and replace them with powerful narratives that reflect strength, aspiration and hope.Socials:Website: Shayne Hood ConsultingWebsite: Wounds & Wisdom Website: Cutts Avenue311 JournalLinkedIn: Shayne Hood FB: Shayne Hood Insta: Shayne Hood @shayne.hoodInsta: Shayne Hood aka Johnny Brixton @johnnybrixton Enjoy the visual here on Youtube

Our youth and young adults have so many more options than we did as kids. We were taught that you go into college or a trade; those were your two choices. Today, kids are creating their own model of what life will look like in adulthood. But to ensure their success, we need to help them develop their voice and agency. They need to know how to speak up and speak out and allow their voices to be heard--literally and figuratively. In the literal sense, podcasting is a great option. And in this episode of our podcast, I'm talking with James Healy, a certified StoryBrand Guide and editor of this podcast. We talk about his experience teaching podcasting to a group of high school students, why audio is so important, how kids' tech skills transferred into podcasting, and the use of the StoryBrand framework. We love that we can give our youth so many opportunities in today's tech savvy world, and that next steps after high school can be so varied now in support of our rainbow of learners.   About James Healy: Many professionals struggle to position themselves as an authority and get their message heard. All too often, great ideas and content never gets created. Insights and wisdom that could impact people and change lives are lost. James Healy specializes in helping these experts connect and engage with their ideal clientele as thought leaders in their field. He's an author, a podcast host and producer, and a book publisher. James is also a Certified StoryBrand Guide and implements the proven StoryBrand framework into powerful authority positioning strategies like brand messaging, book authorship, podcast hosting, and more.   Jump in the Conversation: [1:40] Agency for millennials [3:10] The art of podcasting to empower youth [3:45] How James began in podcasting [6:48] Youth in wilderness - how two worlds collide [10:37] Design thinking as a teacher [11:27] Voice and choice for our youth [13:10] Learning isn't one size fits all [13:54] James's learnings from podcasting [16:27] Tech savvy youth - how their tech skills translated into learning podcasting [17:38] Transferring podcast learning to other formats [21:40] What is StoryBrand framework [27:02] Giving students tools to look at things from a different perspective [27:23] Applying the framework to college essays [29:16] Turbo Time [34:53] What people need to know about student voice [36:46] Passion in podcasting: voice matters [38:26] James's Magic Wand [40:12] Maureen's takeaways   Links & Resources Episode 30: Creating Student-Centered Learning Spaces Episode 64: One Stone High Mountain High Institute Voice-Only Communication Enhances Empathic Accuracy The StoryBrand Framework Barack Obama's and Bruce Springstein's Renegades podcast Scott Simon's Up First podcast TED Radio Hour episode: A Better You Headspace app Matt Cutts: Try Something New for 30 Days Teenwise Seattle podcast Email Maureen Maureen's TEDx: Changing My Mind to Change Our Schools The Education Evolution Facebook: Follow Education Evolution Twitter: Follow Education Evolution LinkedIn: Follow Education Evolution EdActive Collective Maureen's book: Creating Micro-Schools for Colorful Mismatched Kids Micro-school feature on Good Morning America The Micro-School Coalition Facebook: The Micro-School Coalition LEADPrep

Jesse Levine, founder of Alex Levine School of Guitar, joins the program to discuss how he founded his school in tribute to his son Alex Levine. Alex was a developing singer/songwriter and outstanding teacher who was deeply loved by his guitar students and their parents. Discover how Jesse is empowering youth through music, the life lessons and skills that students learn, and how he is creating a powerful community to support young people. 

As the grandson and grand-daughter-in-law of legendary Jacques Cousteau, Philippe and Ashlan Cousteau are not only carrying out the family legacy of ocean advocacy. They are also successful ocean explorers, activists, authors, & flimmakers in their own right. Listen as they share how a purpose driven life motivates their ocean saving initiatives, such as their youth strategy devised to empower youth through their family NGO Earth Echo International, & an oceans survival tool kit collabed with Oceans Unite.

Rasheda Kamaria Williams is an award-winning mentor, speaker and author of “Be EmPOWERed: How to Live Above & Beyond Life’s Drama” – a guidebook and journal written for and inspired by girls. She is the founder and chief empowering officer for Empowered Flower Girl and a staunch youth advocate. For more than a decade, Rasheda has been committed to making a difference in the lives of women and children. Since 2001, she has personally mentored numerous girls and young women. Her passion and advocacy for community and social change have earned her numerous accolades, including Kumon North America’s “Impact Award” and SASHE’s “Top 10 Companies for Women and Girls.” She also was named one of “29 Inspirational Female Entrepreneurs Who Are Positively Impacting The World.” A survivor of bullying, Rasheda was featured in Cosmopolitan magazine in the article “Being bullied changed my life.” Her journey from excluded to empowered motivated her to launch Empowered Flower Girl in 2010. In addition to her work in the community, Rasheda is a dance/movement enthusiast. She is a former bellydance instructor and dancer. ----more----In this episode we talked about: >lacking support during her college years led her to empower young girls and how that helped her grow and become stronger >being a mentor to others takes the light off of yourself and allows you to focus positive energy on others >those that she mentored transformed HER life as much as she transformed theirs >Rasheda shared how vital it is and how it could change the world if people would do what brings them joy and happiness ----more----Click here to learn more about Rasheda and Empowered Flower Girl: http://empoweredflowergirl.comvia Facebookvia Instagram

HEY! Helping Empower Youth’s mission is to provide an opportunity to inspire, motivate and mobilize young people to take action that changes their world. My guest on Stories Connect People podcast is Marc Boyd. Marc is the co-founder of an organization that help youth on the Westside of Atlanta that are in some of the most dire situations. His organization is HEY! Helping Empower Youth. You will immediately see Marc's passion for youth, he sees himself as a young boy in many of THESE young boys. He has dedicated years to helping build their life skills, STEM skills, entrepreneurial and leadership skills. He talks a little about his childhood, his hustle to earn money, going into the Marine's and how he was recruited to Lockheed Martin building C130s in a top secret clearance position. It was during a layoff where is began working with underprivileged youth in the Non-profit sector. His creativity in helping youth people learn math by fixing bikes will touch your heart. You will see his commitment, daily dedication and how he has even opened up his home during covid to help provide a place for learning. He discusses the work HEY is doing with a small group of the Atlanta Water Boyz and how they are inspired and motivated by their own poverty. HEY is helping them earn money the safe way and teaching them skills that are helping them to build a foundation in their life. Marc addresses the controversy surrounding the Atlanta WaterBoyz and his perspective on Black Lives Matter. Bottom line is Marc has a heart of gold and you will see how his investment is changing lives. Welcome Marc to Stories Connect People podcast Take Action: Facebook @HelpingEmpowerYouth www.helpingempoweryouth.org Connect, learn more, donate and volunteer Stories Connect People Podcast Subscribe to Stories Connect People podcast Listen, Like, Review, Share Engage with me on Facebook & Instagram @ Stories Connect People Pinterest - Stories Connect People To potentially be a show guest, share feedback, or make recommendations email me at polly@storiesconnectpeople.com Stories Connect People podcast available on all podcast platforms

In this week's episode, I speak with Carmela who is the Executive Director of FLYTE, a non-profit that empowers youth through travel.  She's also a non-profit & data analytics consultant, math enthusiast, remote worker, and self-proclaimed chocolate chip cookie connoisseur.  Since 2012, she's been intentionally creating a life that combines her love for youth empowerment, travel, and social impact. --------------- This episode is sponsored by Integra Global. As a remote worker, it can be such a headache to find out what the different requirements are when it comes to Heath insurance. That's why I'm so glad that I found Integra Global and their comprehensive plans!  They don't ask their members to build a plan, because how do we know what we'll need? Their insurance covers it all and everything is built-in.  If you want to know more, check out Integra global.com and see how they can give you the coverage you'll need and maybe some you never knew you would!  Which means less stress and panic! Go to IntegraGlobal.com for more details.  --------------- Hey Offbeat Family, I really your listening to this episode. I would love to hear more from you and what you think of the podcast. Contact me: hello@theoffbeatlife.com Show credits: Audio Engineer: Ben Smith - Vagabond Podcast Productions  

How are young people responding to the Coronavirus crisis?What's it like to manage a soap factory during the pandemic?How are young people using the internet to build bridges between generations during lockdowns?How does this virus exacerbate the ongoing economic crisis and rates of youth unemployment?Young people's voices are often the last to be heard during a crisis. Young people have rarely deemed the experts and they don't usually hold positions of power in their communities. In this episode, we flip the spotlight. We'll hear the experiences of young people during the Coronavirus pandemic and how they are harnessing their power to take localised action in their communities in a way that big organisations and governments can't. We'll hear from young people running a blood bank in Pakistan, a community conversation facilitator tackling fake news in Ethiopia and young people volunteering in Bangladesh, Canada, Quebec and Italy.Find out more about:The Empower Youth for Work Project https://www.empoweryouthforwork.org/Apathy is Boringhttps://www.apathyisboring.com/ Power shifts projecthttps://oxfamblogs.org/fp2p/category/power-shifts/

In this episode Geoff and Gerry are joined by Mike Kuhn and Todd Strauss. Mike and Todd are members of the PICL management team promoting youth mountain biking in Pennsylvania to inspire healthy lifestyles, build strong communities, and teach respect for the environment. Together with their team, many parents and volunteers they strive to build strong minds, bodies, and character in an equal and inclusive environment.A very inspiring conversation about youth cycling, building a community, cycling-life and much more.PICL is a member of the National Interscholastic Cycling Organization (NICA) PICL's vision is: Empower youth through mountain biking!"We are driving toward a future where every student in PA has access to Adventure and Competitive mountain bike programming and is encouraged to robustly engage in community service through Teen Trail Corps directed trail stewardship activities.Every day we work to develop and support programs and curriculum that allow us to reach into communities across the Commonwealth and introduce students of every skill level and background to the many diverse, positive benefits of mountain biking.We welcome students with all levels of riding experience and invite them to explore this life-long sport. We provide class-leading Competitive experiences across the state, with more to come as we grow in more places, but there is no mandate to race. For riders uninterested in racing, We've created an entirely new opportunity – to participate in Adventure experiences, which are open to those who just want to explore and smell the roses. Students can incorporate Adventure rides into their racing schedules too. We weave threads of community service and character development through it all, even as we're out having a blast weaving our way through PA's incredible forested single track trails.Our goal:At least one PA Interscholastic Cycling League program in every PA county by 2025. Get in touch to find out how you can make this happen where you live!"http://www.pamtb.org/https://www.facebook.com/PAMTBRACEhttps://instagram.com/pamtbrace/https://twitter.com/PAMTBRACEhttps://www.nationalmtb.org/

We are joined this week by Gillian Burt, Executive Director of Project Canoe. Project Canoe is a charitable organization that provides less fortunate youth with the opportunity to experience wilderness canoe trips in northern Ontario each summer. Founded in 1977, Project Canoe has been using the wilderness travel to instil confidence and a sense of meaning among youth for over 40 years! Gillian shares with us some fun stories of past campers, the positive and lasting affect these trips have on the youth, and some future plans that the organization has in store. Website: https://canoe.org/Instagram: @project.canoeFacebook: @ProjectCanoe

Gwyn Wansbrough is the Executive Director of Partners for Youth Empowerment who work to bring more arts and creativity into all kinds of educational settings. Here, we talk about her work, her personal journey, and a range of inspiring organisations and approaches.If the conversation inspires you to bring some more creativity into your own education work, PYE runs excellent facilitator trainings, partners with schools to make classrooms more creative and shares a range of free training resources online. As it is a specific favourite of both Gwyn and me, we discuss Theatre of the Oppressed in the conversation - if you are keen to learn more and use that in your work, Augusto Boal's book Games for Actors and Non-Actors is a fantastic resource. Other organisations that Gwyn recommended people interested in this space should check out include UWC, the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, the Greater Good Center at Berkely, the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL), and the Search Institute. Gwyn also referred to Youtube videos documenting PYE's Creative Classrooms work - here they are: Video 1 and Video 2.As always, if you have any comments or questions, I'd be happy to hear from you. Email me at lukas.wallrich@empower-training.deTheme music from https://filmmusic.io: "Zigzag" by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com) Licence: CC BY (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This podcast is powered by Pinecast.

In episode 17 of the Impact India podcast, I chat with Raj Jain of School Chale, a creative not-for-profit and educational content platform that creates design driven stories to teach and empower young people at school, online, and on TV.

Wardell Julius Clark and Regina Victor are stars who just keep growing in our Chicago theatre community. We had an amazing time talking with them recently about all of their adventures. They are work and life partners and as Gary said, "extraordinary creative artists and human beings." They also did a beautiful job introducing the show. Voice over agents, take note. Regina Victor works as a theatre director, producer, dramaturg, arts journalist, and mentor. Regina is a non-binary femme who grew up in Oakland, now residing in Chicago. Regina attended boarding school at Phillips Exeter, then studied theatre, religion, and dance at Santa Clara University. They have worked with and been mentored by, among others, Phylicia Rashad, Anna Shapiro, Raelle Myrick-Hodges, and Danya Taymor. Victor has helped develop world premieres by Antoinette Nwandu (Breach:...), Brett Neveu (To Catch A Fish), Sarah Ruhl and Morgan McNaught (A Persephone Pageant), and Loy Webb (The Light, His Shadow). Regina will be direct a world premiere of Pro-Am at Sideshow in May. They have recently been named to be the first Associate Producer ever at Court Theatre. Regina founded an arts criticism platform called Rescripted in 2017. Rescripted’s mission is "to reprogram the way we critically engage with each other using an empathetic lens, while cultivating critics and adding new voices to the field." It is a collective of artists who engage with each other's ideas and opinions openly. Regina mentors young critics through a program called The Key, which has produced some terrific new critics. It is produced in partnership with the Chicago Inclusion Project and is hosted by Steppenwolf Theater Company. Wardell Julius Clark was raised in Fairfield, Alabama, where he toured the country as a child with the amazing Sparkle Dance Company. Read about their mission and programs here. He went on to audition for DePaul University's acting program, which is extremely competitive. He got in to the program, didn't get cut, and has been working here in Chicago ever since. He was a very successful actor for the first 10 years of his career, then asked Ron OJ Parsons if he could assist him on directing Gem of the Ocean at Court. He tells a wonderful story about his first (triumphant) directing gig on Insurrection at Stage Left. Next up was Wardell's hugely acclaimed production of The Shipment. He has been booked as a director since... We recently saw and were blown away by His Shadow, which Wardell (with Sydney Charles) directed, with Regina serving as Dramaturg. It was truly not to be missed. The good news is it was recorded for the archives at Harold Washington Library, so you can see it there. Wardell is a company member at one of our all-time favorite companies, TimeLine, and is a member of their amazing Living History Education Program. Regina is working on a wonderful project at Lyric Opera called "Empower Youth". More to say about these upcoming projects, but can't wait to publish their episode. So come back to this site for updates.  

On this episode, we'll sit down with Tara Laurie, CEO of Youth World Education Project youthworldeducationproject.com This resilient woman is an agent for positive change. Watch our show to learn about her work with our youth. --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/punctuationwith1period/support

MasterCard aims to formalize informal sector

Welcome to the show Arsheen, the founder of Daraja Foundation, a non-profit based in Calgary. Arsheen lives in Zanzibar and helps youth in an orphanage over there. She worked in the orphanage when she was over there after university. Arsheen talks about how and why she started the foundation and what her goals are with it. She shares some of the touching success stories of some of the kids she has worked with and watched them grow into entrepreneurs and working adults. Arsheen also shares some of the biggest lessons she's learned about business and life while running a foundation for youth. https://www.darajafoundation.com/ https://www.instagram.com/darajafoundation/ https://www.instagram.com/arsheendhalla/

Hisham Moharram describes himself as an agripreneur and an environmental and social justice activist. His life's goal is to establish a local food economy and to show people that we can produce food with environmental stewardship and faith-based agribusiness at the core. About Dr. Hisham Moharram Moharram holds a bachelor's degree in international agriculture and agricultural mechanization, a master's degree in horticulture and a Ph.D. in plant breeding, although he earned his degree, is that US universities. He was born in Egypt and work there conducting agricultural genetic engineering research and on medicinal plant botanical products in the early 2000's. He took a position at Rutgers University and worked on natural plant products and international agricultural development. In 2007 he made the conscious decision to use his scientific knowledge and experience in international agricultural development consulting in a way that would directly benefit people and the planet. From this decision came The Good Tree Project, an organic farm in Ocean County, New Jersey. What is The Good Tree Farm project and why did you get started with it? Okay. So The Good Tree Farm project is going be what I will work on from now until I am long gone. It is to me the combining of everything that has passed in my life to date so that I can do my best in the years that remain to one please my maker, and put what he gave me to the benefit of people and planet. Simply put it is an ambitious project. It will not be completed in my lifetime. It will probably go on and on as far as trying to "get done" for many generations because it's about people and planet, and there's a lot of work to do and a lot of places the objectives of The Good Tree Farm project need to be met. What are those objectives of The Good Tree Farm project? I look at our society today, and you can almost take it across the world regardless of level of development or culture, there is a drastically increasing inequity in societies. And collectively, a as a species, a human beings are--despite the detractors and the deniers--having such an impact on the ecosystem that this a spaceship called planet earth is an actual peril. And in Islam, the teachings of our Prophet Mohammed include a saying where he likened those who would sit by and watch while somebody did severe damage to two groups riding in a ship in the middle of the ocean. The group that has water is on the upper deck. The group that doesn't have water, fresh water, is on the lower deck. So not out of ill intent and greed, but out of one thing to be less troublesome, someone had the bright idea of saying, let's just make a hole beneath us and we can get all the water we want. And the Prophet said, if they let them be and they made that hole, the ship would sink and everybody would peril. So we have to stop those who for ill intent or misguided good intent would do such damage that everybody is going to go down with the ship. We're at that point, in my opinion, as a species with respect to this planet and all the other species that are on it. We have both a responsibility and an incredible power over the system and that's part of what we will be judged upon as that's what Islam teaches us. And we are messing up pretty badly. So those of us that can say or do something need to, because on the day of judgment we will be asked why we did not. I'm simply trying to have an answer. The Good Tree Farm project is an organic farm, what are the activities you're engaged in to sort of turn the tide? So I actually am trying to address a number of things with this project and it's all about finding the right strategic partners in each potential location. But ultimately what you're looking at is the most precious resource we have, which is the human mind. So if you take a community and you look at those in that community that are underachieving their potential, their God-given-potential, you look at the reasons why, and you should as a community or a governance governance body or what have you, attempt to address that so that these human beings can now get a little closer to fulfilling their potential. It's better for everybody. We have homelessness, we have runaway teenagers, we have substance abuse issues. We have people who either mistakenly got caught up in the system or made mistakes and went into correctional facilities and come out and they can't find jobs and they're not accepted. Sometimes with justified concerns on the part of the general public. But we have racial inequities. We have a system in place that is not by accident. It's by design over many, many decades, maybe even centuries. And there's a power structure and a wealth structure that's very deliberate, but it's putting a lot of people at grave risk and its cheating society out of the potential of all those individuals. So I'm looking at the youth, for example, who don't find a space for themselves in the economy or in their church or mosque or in their society. They're still human beings that can innovate to such an extent, but they don't get the opportunities. They're not part of perhaps the right class of society, so they don't get the breaks early. They don't get the incubation type of assistance from family members or their status or whatever. So it may be young girl in the slums of Nairobi, but she could be the next Einstein. We just don't know that. We may never know that because she will never get the chances to explore that potential. So with respect to entrepreneurship, with respect to understanding their role in protecting the environment, understanding their role in being better citizens and engage with the issues and what means they have to affect policy and bring into office better policy makers. These are issues that need a third space for those categories of people to have open, honest discussions, explore their potential, start healing and see what they can do. I can't address things in engineering because I'm not an engineer, but I'm a plant biologist and that's my field. So within my field I'm trying to through The Good Tree Projectt, basically bring together people who want to do impact investment locally with those demographics in their own community that need a helping hand on the farm. We can provide the housing, we can provide the incubator, we can provide a business opportunities we can provide-through that locally owned agribusiness--a means by which they can begin to strengthen the local food system of their home town where they grew up. Instead of everybody succumbing to the corporate model where you are simply a mobile labor and they'll, even if it's at a desk at a terminal, you still laboring for somebody and they'll take you across the world where they need you and when they don't need you, you get the pink slip. You've painted a very dark and complex picture of the issues that we're dealing with right now. But obviously an exciting aspect is the focus on youth and there's sort of a renewal available there. Could talk a little bit more about the how of how do you engage this youth in a meaningful way that is building their minds and what is the sort of new agripreneur as a result? So if you look at it, take it from the 1980's through to the late 2020s. Okay. That kind of decade of age bracket. My perception from just studying things and following a news reports and analysis of socioeconomic issues is that there is a large number of folks in that age bracket who either are underemployed, unemployed, or not finding themselves. Wondering whether the high cost of a university degree is really worth it anymore. And they don't know what to do with themselves as far as having a good life, enjoying it, but also feeling like they are fulfilling themselves and their potential. Within my focus I'm hoping to help someone who may be interested in starting a business growing insects. Of course they would have to be not afraid of insects. Why would one grow insects? Because there is a market for beneficial insects. There is growing interest in organic farming in the US and internationally. Well, one of the mainstays of organic farming is not spraying so the harmful insects--harmful in our view because they eat our crops, but they have their place in the ecosystem--we want to control their population. Organic agriculture does. But we don't want to destroy them. So if you wanted to take the agricultural chemical companies approach you with nuke everybody. But if you're going to do the balanced approach of live and let live, but control them so that they don't eat you out of business, then you will employ things like beneficial insects. They keep the population in check, but they don't wipe them out completely. Now you're starting organic farmer. Where are you going to buy your lacewings? Where are you going to buy your praying mantises, your lady bugs. And they're grown. They're reared by people who have businesses where people who have a love and a passion for entomology and insects and aren't afraid of bugs would basically develop a business. They rear these bugs for resale and they make a lot of money. That's a simple example. Take beehive's. Lots of interest in the declining population of bee colonies across the country. And the impact of, again, industrial chemicals used in agriculture. Someone who is really interested in that can develop different honey products because depending on the season, depending on the crop that they go to harvest pollen and nectar from the honey will have different flavors. It will even have some of the medicinal properties of the crop that they fed on. So you literally have different honey products. You can also include things like beeswax, pollen, propolis. You can raise the bees themselves to sell them to people who are starting up or adding to their beehive business. So again, it's an aspect where someone who's not afraid to bees and who knows how to handle them, can study and learn, can develop a business that they can take anywhere in the world with them. Just like the raising of beneficial insects. You take any other aspect of the diversified plan for a local agribusiness and there is going to be someone with a chemistry or biology or in some cases even physics, engineering, because we're talking about using shipping containers for year round production in a shipping container greenhouses. Making mobile homes for those farm agripreneurs, where they can literally haul their home from one location to another. We're starting another farm. The whole team can be relocated to help set it up. And their homes are there with them because they just got trucked over in shipping containers. Your goal at The Good Tree Project is to empower these faith-based communities and faith-based private schools in underserved communities by providing access to affordable organic produce and these apprenticeship opportunities related to food justice. Could you unpack the food justice piece that a little bit more and why that matters for your work? Yes. So food justice for me has to do with being able to afford high quality food and having access to it as far as just the logistics and the convenience. So when you look at where vulnerable, populations that don't have access to healthy food as easily or cannot afford it because they're not making the kind of income that can sustain purchasing from Whole Foods or whatever. Typically they are in what was a few years called food deserts or places where there aren't a grocery stores that bring in fresh food. They don't have necessarily an active farmer's market. They're not near farming communities. So the children or the youth of those communities, often many of them, if they're a faith, people of faith, communities of faith would have a Catholic school, but would have a Muslim school, would have a Jewish school, would have whatever it's affiliated with their faith. None of them get tax dollars because they're faith based. The schools that are public get tax dollars. They get lunches. They get access to a government funded access to a farm, produce that's local. Private schools don't do that, Can't. They can't access it. A lot of those locations also, if someone wanted to go to a farmer's market to buy for his or her family fresh produce, they'd have to drive very far. And often they work two or three jobs and they have one car and it breaks down a lot. So going to a distant farmer's market is a gamble. So again, how we got to get the food to them. So basically what I'm thinking is, okay, so a lot of these communities are disempowered also in the sense that they do not own property. That's another aspect of our country's history where minorities, racial or otherwise, were disempowered by making sure that they either don't or lose access to ownership of land. Whereas you look at the big churches in America, often they're white, they own a lot of land. That's one of the biggest land owners in America: churches. But the inner city black churches don't. The mosques don't. The Hindu temples don't. Owning land is something that these faith groups are new. They're still in their infancy in developing perhaps. But if you get these faith groups to be part owners of farms, if you get their faith based schools to be part owners, you can now also empower their own youth. Typically you'll have a few percentage points of the youth that are really interested and serious to make a go of it. That's often the case. So, but if you have a community with 5,000 youth, because there are 40,000 people in that demographic, you can easily find the number you want to go help and learn and then bring the produce back to their church or the mosque or their school and sell it for a profit that they share with the farm. Now the youth has learned and they brought the food back at affordable prices to their own community. It seems like a key challenge is if you want to get into farming, you need the access to the lands. So that's the key. Yes. And I've been this year in particular, I've been visiting communities to basically try and put together these strategic partnerships. Every single prayer place the key issue is we can't afford it. The farms are too expensive and the people saying that are the people who want to be involved in running a project. So basically a strategic partnership is like this: You're not a farmer, but you're an academician with a good job and you have a desire to put some of your income towards impact investment. You're not giving it away, you're investing it, but you want it to make a difference. Not simply bring you profit back to your bank account, but make a difference in people's lives. You want both, but you're moderating your desire for cash profit. So you put that together with the youth that want to own land. Now they both own the land. One is getting a return when the venture turns a profit, the others are learning and working hard because they've got a vested interest in the business succeeding. That's how they're going to make their career. So they've helped each other and they're co-owners of their own land locally. It hasn't gone outside the community in terms of ownership. What do you feel like has been your greatest success so far and your greatest learning experience? So I think that the greatest success I can point to is that I'm finding it not difficult to bring together the strategic partners in almost every community I've visited. Takes about a week. And I'm driving lots of places, meeting lots of people. Thinking and asking and talking and eventually you find in this community these are the right strategic partners. But the challenge has been to be able to access enough of their communities to convince those who have impact investment potential to go ahead and begin pulling their financial resources to empower their youth. The only way I can think of starting the ball rolling in that second challenging area is we're putting up our own real estate ownership in New Jersey as a collateral in every place that we go to. When they invest, they'll be investing to be part owners of an existing farm and their investment will go towards buying a second farm where they reside. So now they become owners in multiple locations. So five years down the line when we've got five farms, we've got share owners, part owners from five different communities in all of the five farms. It's a security issue. But it gets people who have $5,000 and are hesitant more encouraged to say Yeah, I'll go in and you. You put five of those at $25,000. You got $125,000. You can put a good down payment on a good piece of property. At the Duke World Food Policy Center we're trying to play a bridging role and it sounds like you have invested in being a matchmaker and all on all levels of what you're trying to do. So this has to be a lot more people because I cannot keep on trying to do it all. I'm reasonably successful. But for this to really achieve its potential, we need a lot more people jumping on board to do this.   Produced by Deborah Hill, Duke World Food Policy Center

Ayebatonye interviews the incredible Rez Gardi - Human Rights Lawyer, 2017 Young New Zealander of the Year, and Founder of Empower Youth - a youth-led charitable organisation established to empower, educate, and enable refugee youth and other marginalised youth in New Zealand to access new opportunities and pursue meaningful paths of their choice.   Find out more about Rez and her organisation Empower Youth below: https://twitter.com/rezgardi?lang=de https://www.empoweryouth.org.nz/   If you want to help, reach out to one of these organisations: https://www.refugeecouncil.org.au/ https://www.asrc.org.au/ http://scoa.org.au/   https://www.welcometoaustralia.org.au/  

Never miss another interview! Join Devin here: http://bit.ly/joindevin. Cynthia English founded Global Scribes to create an international peace movement for youth that empowers them to make a difference starting wherever they are. With members in 44 countries, the organization is off to a good start. Be a hero! Join the elite group of supporters who ensure that stories like this can continue to be shared! Visit heroes4good.org to become a hero now.

This week we are talking about keeping our schools safe with peer leadership. Julia Gabor brings us an excellent program that helps recognize teens that are at risk for violence and brings them into the mainstream with peer to peer workshops and more. Julia’s unique program may be that answer to help reduce school violence.

Tammy Craig is a dreamer, believer, and doer, and on the side she’s a life coach, Empower YOUth leader, yoga instructor, and small business owner! Her passion is changing the world one person at a time by helping them realize how rad life can really be! In this episode, she explains how yoga based on Upright Paddle Boarding can enhance confidence and self-love for adults and children alike.

Explore SADD's initiatives promoting traffic safety, substance abuse prevention, and personal well-being. Learn how teens and parents can work together for safer, healthier communities.

Phiona Mutesi, the Ugandan chess champion who inspired the movie Queen of Katwe, shares with communications officer Pabsy Pabalan Mariano her strategies for advancing her own life through education, and empowering youth through her support of a foundation. Mutesi and her coach Robert Katende sat down with Pabsy during the World Bank Group-IMF Spring Meetings 2017.

How many times have you wished you were more environmentally conscious as a consumer? Brett Edwards aka Mr. Eco can teach you how through rap! While in college Brett started free style rapping for fun, under the rap identity of “Mystery E” and one day while at lunch with his sister and dad they suggested, he should start rapping about the environment. And thus, Mr. Eco was born!   Since that moment Mr. Eco has performed at 270+ elementary/middle school assemblies to 135,000+ children in The United States, St. Lucia, Taiwan and Hong Kong, his YouTube channel has over 730,000+ views, he funded his second album “Renewable Rap” via Kickstarter, and sailed from Bermuda to Iceland with 5 Gyres studying ocean plastic pollution. That’s what I love about Brett, he is a passionate individual with a mission to empower youth to make a change in the world.   Get ready to learn from the following topics and questions: What it means to empower an individual and not necessarily just inspire them Why is it so hard for us to make changes in our lives? What you can do right away to start contributing to the protection of our planet? How to handle the haters or hecklers while performing? Why you should start your business now and not waste any time thinking about it? Current events, such as the recent governmental ban on micro bead in face wash and tooth paste.  How you should approach running a successful Kickstarter campaign? Along with some strategies and tactics to use along the way.   Additionally Brett references a blog post by Tim Ferris on how to hack Kickstarter funding, here is a link: http://fourhourworkweek.com/2012/12/18/hacking-kickstarter-how-to-raise-100000-in-10-days-includes-successful-templates-e-mails-etc/   Here is a link to Mr. Eco’s Kickstarter campaign for his second album: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/74628798/renewable-rap-mr-ecos-worldwide-youth-album.   If you are looking to invite Mr. Eco to perform at your school, please reach out to him at MrEco@MrEco.org he can also be reach on Twitter or Instagram at the handle of @MrEco or better yet, watch his music videos on YouTube.com/MrEcoOffical, oh and his person website is MrEco.org Deuces! 

In this shorter podcast (~ 40 minutes) Eden and I speak about his work at Aspen T.R.E.E. in Aspen, Colorado.  Eden is the Founder and Executive Director of Aspen Tree. Here is their mission and vision statement. OUR MISSION IS TO… Empower Youth and Build Community with Solution-Oreinted Education that connects People to Place, inspiring […]

TORI B. Amos, is an Author, Spokesperson, Image Consultant, Intuitive Reader, Reiki Master and Empowerment Lifestyle Consultant at Empower You. Tori helps others in re- claiming balance in their lives, from the inside out. With this inmind, Tori has developed exciting and innovative programs, seasonal cleanses, tips and techniques. Her first upcoming book, “ Empower Youth: A Guide on How To Connect with Your Youth or teen WhileBuilding Your Own Spiritual Grounding, continues to encourage positive movement and consciousness for the millennial generation and those who love and encourage them. Tori works with adults, families and children, to discover a greater awareness of self. She is passionate about teaching a lifestyle, that creates a more enjoyable and fulfilling life and encourages healing and peace of mind, for the total being.

r. Loretta Sweet Jemmott is the van Ameringen Chair in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing and Director of the Center for Health Disparities Research at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing. Dr. Jemmott also holds secondary appointments in the University’s School of Medicine and Graduate School of Education. In 2004 Dr. Jemmott was named Assistant Provost for Minority & Gender Equity Issues for the University. Dr. Jemmott has been involved in a number of research projects focusing on designing and testing theory-based, culturally sensitive, and developmentally appropriate strategies to reduce HIV risk-associated sexual behaviors among African Americans, the Latino-population and South African youth. She, along with her husband, Dr. John B. Jemmott, III, have been funded by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, The National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute for Nursing Research, for a total of about 86 million research dollars. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention selected her HIV risk-reduction curriculum entitled, “Be Proud! Be Responsible! Strategies to Empower Youth to Reduce Their Risk for AIDS” as a model curriculum which is being disseminated nationally as part of CDC’s program entitled, “Research to Classrooms, Programs That Work!” Dr. Jemmott has received many awards for her research and community efforts, including the Congressional Merit Recognition Award, The Red Ribbon Award for outstanding service in the field of HIV/AIDS, and the Governor of New Jersey’s Nurse Merit Award in Advanced Nurse Practice. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a member of the CDC Division of HIV, STD, & TB Advisory Council, and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Jemmott has published extensively in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention and adolescent sexual behavior.

Dr. Loretta Sweet Jemmott is the van Ameringen Chair in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing and Director of the Center for Health Disparities Research at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Nursing. Dr. Jemmott also holds secondary appointments in the University’s School of Medicine and Graduate School of Education. In 2004 Dr. Jemmott was named Assistant Provost for Minority & Gender Equity Issues for the University. Dr. Jemmott has been involved in a number of research projects focusing on designing and testing theory-based, culturally sensitive, and developmentally appropriate strategies to reduce HIV risk-associated sexual behaviors among African Americans, the Latino-population and South African youth. She, along with her husband, Dr. John B. Jemmott, III, have been funded by the American Foundation for AIDS Research (AmFAR), The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, The National Institute of Mental Health, and the National Institute for Nursing Research, for a total of about 86 million research dollars. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention selected her HIV risk-reduction curriculum entitled, “Be Proud! Be Responsible! Strategies to Empower Youth to Reduce Their Risk for AIDS” as a model curriculum which is being disseminated nationally as part of CDC’s program entitled, “Research to Classrooms, Programs That Work!” Dr. Jemmott has received many awards for her research and community efforts, including the Congressional Merit Recognition Award, The Red Ribbon Award for outstanding service in the field of HIV/AIDS, and the Governor of New Jersey’s Nurse Merit Award in Advanced Nurse Practice. She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a member of the CDC Division of HIV, STD, & TB Advisory Council, and a member of the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Jemmott has published extensively in the area of HIV/AIDS prevention and adolescent sexual behavior.