Podcasts about wio

Es ist wieder soweit! Die Merci Jury 2025 startet mit der ersten Jury. Wir haben TAZ und FAZ bei uns. Für die TAZ schreibt Musikjournalistin Wio Groeger und für die FAZ Peter-Philipp Schmitt. Mit den beiden und Sonja, Alkis und Marco gehen wir die ersten zehn Songs des Eurovision Song Contest 2025 durch.Schweiz:Zoë Më - VoyageIsrael:Yuval Raphael - New Day Will RiseEstland:Tommy Cash - Espresso MacchiatoIsland:VÆB - RóaPolen:Justyna Steczkowska - GajaPortugal:NAPA - DeslocadoSchweden:KAJ - Bara Bada BastuSlowenien:Klemen - How Much Time Do We Have LeftUkraine:Ziferblat - Bird of PreySpanien:Melody . Esa DivaGewertet wird in Eurovision-Manier, also von 12-0 ohne die 9 und die 11. Aber natürlich darf die Jury auch mehrmals 12, 10 oder auch 0 Punkte vergeben.Die Standardfragen am Schluss stellen wir auch noch: Es finden sich noch einige Songs vom Eurovision-Jahr auf beider Playlist: Bei Wio ist es "The Code" von Nemo, bei Peter-Phillipp ist es der ukrainische Beitrag "Teresa & Maria" von alyona alyona & Jerry Heil.Die Frage nach dem Lieblingssong aller Zeiten ist bekanntlich schwer zu beantwortet, Wio entscheidet sich (als ABBA-Fan) für "Waterloo" und bei Peter-Ühillipp ist es Alexander Rybaks "Fairytale", der Siegersong von 2009..Das war Merci, Jury I - drei weitere mit Gästen folgen und in der fünften Episode seid ihr dran. Mit euren Votes. Schickt uns eure TOP 10 an  marco@mercicherie.atUnd wenn ihr auch mal stimmlich bei uns vorkommen wollt, dann schickt  auch eine Sprachnachricht mit Namen, woher ihr kommt, und warum ihr wem 12 Punkte gebt. Creators: Marco Schreuder & Alkis Vlassakakis & Sonja RiegelMerci Chérie Online:www.MerciCherie.atFacebook: MerciCheriePodcastInstagram: mercicherie.atTikTok: @merci_cherie_podcastbluesky: @mercicherie.atBitte bewertet uns und schreibt Reviews, wo immer ihr uns hört.

At the top of this Best of WIO episode featuring Elizabeth Gilbert, Mike reads a new piece that he wrote for Elizabeth's Letters From Love Substack.(Recorded November 2024) Author Elizabeth Gilbert wrote one of Mike's favorite books about creativity, Big Magic. She also wrote a book that, to her surprise, become a cultural phenomenon: Eat, Pray, Love. Mike and Liz discuss the unexpected impact of Eat, Pray, Love, and what it was like for Liz to watch Julia Roberts portray her on the big screen. Liz gets candid about the ups and downs of a creative life, including the reasoning behind the cancellation of a novel she wrote that took place in Russia. Plus, some bawdy jokes and stories care of Liz's uncles and grandfather, and the surprising reason why Liz was stopped at airport security. Please consider donating to The Loveland Foundation

Watch on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9csnav_1y90  In this video, Aaron Henriques debunks the myth that entrepreneurs need an agent to set up a business bank account in Dubai. He explains that the process is relatively straightforward, especially with banks like WIO, where accounts can be opened quickly via an app. Aaron highlights the unnecessary fear and complexity that some agents instill in people, stressing that for most businesses and entrepreneurs with proper documentation (Emirates ID and residency visa), opening a bank account in Dubai is simple. He encourages viewers to handle the process themselves and save time and money. Start your business in Dubai with my agency, Handlr Zone: https://handlrzone.com/yt    Mentions:  https://www.wio.io/ https://www.mashreq.com/en/uae/neo/ https://www.adcb.com/en/business/    Follow: https://www.instagram.com/aaronhenray   00:00 Debunking the Agent Myth 00:26 Convenience vs. Fear Tactics 01:25 Personal Experience with WIO Bank 01:39 Traditional Banks vs. Challenger Banks 01:59 Step-by-Step Bank Account Setup 02:16 UK vs. UAE Banking Challenges 03:15 Residency Visa and Emirates ID Requirements 03:45 Why You Don't Need a Consultant 05:01 Conclusion and Final Thoughts   #opportunity #motivation #success #businessstrategy #DubaiBanking #BusinessBankAccount #DubaiBusiness #FreeZoneCompany #MainlandCompany #WIOBank #EmiratesID #DubaiEntrepreneur #BusinessSetup #DubaiResidency Disclaimer at https://aaronhenriques.com/disclaimer

On this episode, Laura Enyedi, MD, Laura Periman, MD, and Dagny Zhu, MD, are live from Women in Ophthalmology discussing the meeting, their takeaways, empowering women and the practice of gratitude. Intro 0:02 In this episode 1:10 What brings you to Women in Ophthalmology? What excites you about this meeting? 1:30 Periman discusses private practice management. 3:06 Zhu and Periman discuss the obstacles women face as leaders in medicine and managing private practice. 4:10 Enyedi, Periman and Zhu discuss the “why” in medicine. 6:22 Enyedi, Zhu and Periman talk about balance between career and family. 9:20 How did you divide up the chapters in your career? 13:21 Enyedi and Periman talk about setbacks. 14:51 Zhu, Enyedi and Periman discuss the mentorship program offered through WIO. 15:39 Periman discusses the financial help provided by the Mend the Gap scholarship. 19:26 Enyedi discusses the community at the WIO meetings. 21:27 Visit the WIO Mentorship Program to learn more about finding a mentor. 22:10 What is coming up for you in the meeting? 22:20 Zhu talks about presenting Periman's study on ocular effects of different cosmetics and discuss the impact of cosmetics on dry eye disease. 23:26 Enyedi discusses her session on bite-sized gratitude and three good things. 27:45 Three good things. 32:30 Thanks 34:45 Laura Enyedi, MD, is a professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics at Duke Eye Center and medical director of South Durham Ophthalmology in North Carolina. Laura M. Periman, MD, is founder and director of DryEye Services and Clinical Research at Periman Eye Institute in Seattle, WA. She can be reached @Dryeyemaster on Twitter. Dagny Zhu, MD, is a cornea, cataract, and refractive surgeon and medical director and partner at NVISION Eye Centers in Rowland Heights, CA. She can be reached on Twitter @DZEyeMD. We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to podcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @Healio_OSN. Disclosures: The hosts report no relevant financial disclosures.

Wio Bank has become one of the fastest Neo-Banks globally to achieve profitability. In its first full year of operations, Wio reported a revenue of AED 266.4 million and a net profit of AED 2 million. Wio has over 50,000 Wio Business and 40,000 Wio Personal customers… and in today's episode we go through the How they achieved such amazing success!I speak with Prakash Sunkara, Chief Financial Officer at Wio Bank - and I have to say he's a CFO that sounds like a CPO! He is absolutely super customer centric!We discuss Wio's story, their mindset and how that sets them apart, what's the definition of innovation - in the eyes of Jayesh Patel, Wio's CEO; and ways of working to bring it to life, the how they reached profitability, what happens once they hit month one of profitability, and finally we put Prakash in the hot seat with some fire side questions!It's a fascinating conversation!Prakash has a long career in Financial Services and as a CFO - across both traditional financial services and FinTechs. Wio Bank is disrupting banking for consumers and small businesses in the UAE and has created an all-in-one digital financial platform to reboot banking for everyone!We cover,(00:00) The framework behind hitting profitability in year one(03:55) Wio's Mission and Customer Focus(05:52) Achieving Rapid Profitability(06:37) Mindset and Ecosystem in Dubai(08:23) Innovative Approaches in SME Banking(13:05) Continuous Innovation and Customer Needs(20:50) Strategic Thinking Behind Profitability(25:53) Introduction to Platform Banking(26:15) Innovative Features for SME Banking(27:27) Customer-Centric Approach(30:14) Scaling and Growth Strategy(33:32) Teamwork and Company Culture(39:36) Profitability and Sustainable Growth(47:22) Challenges and Future FocusFollow for more discussions on how to build great FinTech products with Customer and Commercial Impact and stay updated on the latest episodes.

Jest oazą spokoju. Wioślarstwem, gdy miała 9 lat, zainteresowali ją Robert Sycz i Tomasz Kucharski. Teraz sama może stworzyć historię i zainspirować innych. Niedawno wraz ze swoją partnerką Martyną Radosz wywalczyła awans na Igrzyska Olimpijskie. Cel? Oczywiście medal i to najlepiej złoty.Gościem 86. odcinka CAFE AZS jest Wioślarka AZS AWF Kraków Katarzyna Wełna.Bartek Wasilewski zapraszam!

We've got the preliminary numbers out for GDP for UAE economy, we crunch the numbers with Ed Bell, Senior Director, Market Economics, Emirates NBD. Plus, analyst Josh Gilbert from eToro on those Nvidia earnings beating expections. Wio bank has achieved profitability in its first year of operations, we speak to CEO Jayesh Patel. And ss World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab (semi) retires, former Davos boss Fred Sicre joins live in studio.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Jayesh Patel, the CEO of Wio Bank, shares insights on establishing a neobank in Dubai. He discusses the vision behind Wio Bank, focusing on serving tomorrow's businesses and customers through improved banking apps, embedded finance, and banking as a service. Wio's success lies in focusing on SMEs first, prioritising user experience over technology, and understanding the diverse needs of different business types. Patel highlights the importance of customer research, simplicity in financial products, and industry partnerships for addressing evolving revenue models. He emphasises Dubai's vibrant FinTech ecosystem, driven by government initiatives, access to capital, and a diverse talent pool, making it an ideal location for FinTech startups. Jayesh's strategic approach and customer-centric focus have quickly led Wio Bank to profitability, showcasing the potential for growth and innovation in the region's financial sector.

Join us as we delve into the dynamic world of sports officiating with one of its brightest stars, Cat Conti. With a career spanning over two decades, Conti has not only shattered glass ceilings but also redefined the landscape of officiating in traditionally male-dominated sports. From her pioneering journey as one of the first female officials in NCAA Division I football to her groundbreaking role as an NFL official, Conti's trailblazing spirit and unwavering dedication have earned her respect and admiration across the sports world. In this exclusive interview, we uncover the insights, challenges, and triumphs that have shaped Conti's remarkable career, offering a glimpse into the passion and perseverance driving her pursuit of excellence on and off the field. If you are female looking to become an official yourself, or you already are and you want to talk to other females who are going through the same challenges, go to Cat's Instagram account @CCtheladyref and let her know you want to be added to the WIO email list --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mikedthereferee/support

Dr. Courtney Dunn is a trailblazer in the world of orthodontics. As a practicing orthodontist, wife, mother, and founder of Women in Orthodontics (WIO) and Dunn Orthodontics, she's known for her unwavering support for other female orthodontists.Dr. Dunn has seamlessly blended her professional success with a passion for supporting and empowering her female colleagues.As the Co-Founder of Dunn Orthodontics, a multi-location orthodontic practice in Phoenix, Arizona, Dr. Dunn has navigated the challenges of growing her practice to where it is today. She started 2 locations from scratch and bought 2 practices.Recognizing the unique personal and professional challenges female orthodontists face, Dr. Dunn founded Women in Orthodontics. This initiative is more than just a Facebook group; it's a vibrant community that provides tactical training and unwavering support for women in the orthodontic field.WIO provides a supportive space where women orthodontists can receive peer support tailored to their specific needs.In this episode, she shares some of the unique challenges women face in the profession, what happens inside the WIO Facebook group, and many other interesting topics.Tune in!Key TakeawaysIntro (00:00)Dr. Courtney Dunn's background (01:41)Buying a practice vs starting a new practice (10:02)Work-life balance (18:37)Women in Orthodontics (23:38)Gender dynamics and sexual harassment (29:29)Women orthodontists' experiences (33:28)Additional Resources

In This Episode This week we begin our episode with the third in our special series on fintech visionaries reimagining the future of finance. Brett King is joined by Jayesh Patel, CEO of Wio Bank, and Thomas Kuncheria, EEMEA Senior Vice President for Advisors Client Services at Mastercard. Wio, the UAE's first platform bank with a mission to transform banking in its region, is focusing on three core capabilities -- digital banking applications, embedded finance and BaaS. Through partnership with Mastercard, Wio is helping customers thrive in this digital world, offering personalized features and seamlessly integrated services with a goal to make banking simple, transparent and secure, offering customers access to tools to manage their finances effortlessly and at lower cost than other alternatives. It's another interesting piece in the series spotlighting the benefits of partnership and empowering partners to disrupt and revolutionize. Then, are non-traditional loan underwriting criteria -- i.e. market, environmental, community data -- important when painting a picture of a SMB loan applicant? JP Nicols speaks with serial entrepreneur Ron Benegbi, Founder & CEO of Uplinq Financial Technologies who believes so, and whose latest venture, a global credit assessment platform for SMB lenders, has built, in part taking a page from his own personal story. a platform to empower lenders to distill different kinds of data and information for credit decisioning that might enable SMB lenders to approve and manage risk on loans that they might have otherwise declined based on traditional loan underwriting criteria. https://youtu.be/ikalSI19V6A

In this episode, hosts Laura Enyedi, MD, and Susan MacDonald, MD, sit down and chat with guests Carey Powers, Ali Salo and Tiffany Haynes, to discuss women in leadership, live from the Women in Ophthalmology meeting. ·       Welcome to another episode of Mend the Gap :01 ·       Live from Women in Ophthalmology :11 ·       Introductions :15 ·       Learning from women leaders at WiO 2:56 ·       Leadership lessons from “Raise Your Play” session 3:26 ·       Discussion of “Leave Mean Girls Behind” by Jennifer Cross 5:48 ·       Miscommunication 8:57 ·       Men Who Champion Women 10:22 ·       Being assertive vs. being authentic 14:32 ·       Finding your strengths and neutralizing weaknesses 15:47 ·       Women's influence in the US 18:38 ·       Thinking back to the women who came before 19:38 ·       What advice would you give to your younger self based on your experiences? 21:00 ·       Thank you 24:15 We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to podcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @Healio_OSN. You can follow Carey Powers on LinkedIn. References: Henderson B. WIO Honorary Lecture – A vision for change: Examining the past, advancing the present and shaping the future of gender equality in health care. Presented at: Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium; Aug. 24-27, 2023; Marco Island, Florida. Nijm, Lisa, et al. Keynote session: Raise your play – leadership lessons. Presented at: Women in Ophthalmology Summer Symposium; Aug. 24-27,2023; Marco Island, Florida. Laura B. Enyedi, MD, is professor of ophthalmology and pediatrics at Duke Eye Center and medical director of South Durham Ophthalmology in North Carolina. Tiffany Haynes is the vice president of clinical operations at Epion Therapeutics. Susan MacDonald, MD, is president of Eye Corps and associate clinical professor at Tufts School of Medicine. Carey Powers is the founder and CEO of Powers & Company and is a host for the Ophthalmology Innovation Source (OIS) Podcast. Ali Salo is the regional business director, east region, at RxSight Inc. Disclosures: The hosts and guests report no relevant financial disclosures.

Order and disorder, a freeform haze of garbage guitars, shorted electronics, found detritus, collage, linear songs, sounds from strange lands. Contact me at btradio85@gmail.com. Archives at brianturnershow.comG.I.S.M. -  Nuclear Armed Hogs - Detestation (1983, re: Relapse, 2020)PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS PIGS - Big Rig - Live In New York  (BC, 2023)SSTIL - Efekt - V/A: Jeszcze Młodsza Generacja (Tonpress, 1986)KULT - Piosenka Młodych Wioślarzy - V/A: Jeszcze Młodsza Generacja (Tonpress, 1986)NAIROBI SISTERS - Promised Land Dub - 7" (1975, re: Death Is Not the End, 2023)THE ALPACA BROTHERS - Not the Time - Figment (Zelle, 2023)THE NOVA FIENDS - Arbitrary - The Nova Fiends (cs, Garden Seat, 2023)ICK - Start a Fight - The Sick EP (BC, 2023)LAUGHING CADAVERS - Danse Noir - V/A: Found Sounds (cs, Thoughtcrime, 1986)LEO LACKRITZ - Age of Dinosaurs - Crazy Enough (BC, 2023)HEARTS OF DARKNESSES - Deux Deux Brown - Music For Drunk Driving (Schematic, 2004)RÉGIMEN DE TERROR - Mi Propio Camino - 7" (La Vida Es En Mus, 2023)GASP - Impact Miracles - Split w/Full of Hell 12" (NL, 2023)THE BUG - Floored (Point of Impact) - Machine III (Pressure, 2023)ML - Fierce Atarian - Corrupted Desires (Termina, 2023)ROJIN SHARAFI - Boloor - Zangaar (Zabte Sote, 2023)AMIR HAYAT - Asquiring Chamun - Garden of Flowers (Radio Khiyaban, 2023)KRIS GRUDA - Volunteer Slavery/Improv - Plays For You (Palilalia, 2023)OB OVO & SHA 261 - The CIA, It Dances - V/A: 80s Underground Cassette Culture: Volume 2 (Contort Yourself, 2022)THE FALL - Entitled - Hey! Luciani 7" (Beggars Banquet, 1986)SAVAGE ROSE - Trial In Our Native Town - In the Plain (Polydor, 1968)H.N.F. - Bida - Dům Na Demolici (cs, NL, 1988)MASAKI - Dox - Tubo (cs, Stratosphere Music, 1982)ORPHX - Wildpitch II - As Your Skies Are Fading Away (split w/Karem) (Zhark, 2022)ALE MANUAL - Real Da Vinci - Real Da Vinci (BC, 2023)

This week we sit down with Dr. Grace Sun to learn about Women in Ophthalmology, the many ways students can contribute to this important organization, and valuable lessons about stepping outside of your comfort zone. Dr. Sun is the president of Women in Ophthalmology and an Associate Professor of Ophthalmology at Weill Cornell Medical College where she practices as a comprehensive ophthalmologist and cataract surgeon. She received her MD at Weill Cornell Medical College and completed her ophthalmology residency at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. She served as the Program Director of Ophthalmology Residency at Weill Cornell Medicine for 10 years and currently serves as the Director of Ophthalmology Clinical Practice at Weill Cornell in Lower Manhattan.  Time Stamps: 4:24- What is Women in Ophthalmology? What is their mission? 7:41 - Mastering the "nice 'no'” 10:00- The power of women in leadership and their ability to bring attention to structural issues preventing gender equity in ophthalmology  11:02- How medical students/trainees can serve as allies to their female colleagues  17:00- Why representation matters 18:00- What ways are medical students involved in WIO? 21:24- Dr. Sun's advice on overcoming awkward conference encounters 26:35- Why are fewer women comfortable mentioning their partner's application status during residency interviews, despite the SF Match offering no couples match option?  Citation: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsurg.2022.07.026 29:30- Rethinking the residency training model as a potential solution for dealing with gender equity issues 32:05- Research as an advocacy tool and an investigative tool… we have to ask "why" 36:00- The importance of normalizing conversations about relationships and family planning  39:43- Dr. Sun's parting message on preserving female representation in ophthalmology and its impact on the field 

Wojewódzki Inspektorat Ochrony Środowiska jest organem administracji publicznej, istotnym dla wszystkich prowadzących działalność gospodarczą. Przez wielu nazywany jest często policją środowiskową – mówi Dawid Mielcarski, senior manager, adwokat w Andersen w Polsce. W podcaście „Prawo w firmie” Dawid Mielcarski wyjaśnia jakie uprawnienia ma WIOŚ. Czy każda firma może zostać skontrolowana? Jak przygotować się do tej kontroli i jak ona może przebiegać. Podcast „Prawo w firmie” to porady prawne oparte na analizie przykładowych problemów przedsiębiorców. Odpowiadamy na najczęściej zadawane pytania w kancelariach prawnych. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jayesh Patel is the CEO of Wio Bank. Recently launched less than a year ago, Wio bank is remarkable because it targets a segment of the population that may be the most under-served in the world: micro businesses, which account for over 99% of all business activity in the world.Jayesh is highly passionate as he discusses the evolution of banking in practical terms. He talks us through how the relationship between banks and the public has historically transformed with the advent of technology. However, customers often need to be made aware of the labor required to make these transformations possible.Transitioning to online banking took over a decade, and implementing mobile banking also took many years of work to build the infrastructure reliably. Jayesh also discusses:The role of neobanks in the global economyNavigating the imminent slowdown in the funding cycleThe longterm impact fintechs have had on bankingOur website

Jessi Klein: This Is the Reason For Comedy (Recorded July 2022)Jessi Klein is an Emmy-award winning comedian, writer, actor, and author, with a resume that includes Inside Amy Schumer, Saturday Night Live, Transparent, Kroll Show, and the voice of Jessi Glaser on Big Mouth. On top of all that, WIO listeners may remember her from Mike's film Sleepwalk With Me where her character places a pizza pillow around Mike's neck and then sprays him with tomato sauce. In this episode the two old friends punch up jokes and discuss why writing about being a parent can be a third rail subject. They also go deep on Jessi's New York Times-bestselling book “I'll Show Myself Out” and Jessi explains why the title of two of her book chapters are “In Defense of Drinking” and “Your Husband Will Remarry Five Minutes After You Die.”Please consider donating to Moms Demand Action

"Gry dla 3-4 latków: Potwory do szafy, Wio Koniku, W ogrodzie, Kot Stefan"Często słyszę pytanie:Kiedy zacząłeś grać z córkami w gry planszowe?Odpowiem trochę przewrotnie, to one zaczęły grać ze mną.Pierwsza styczność z grami dla nich to 2-3 latka, ale w formie zabawy pionkami, figurkami, żetonami. Im bardziej kolorowa gra tym lepiej, więcej bajerów dużych ładnych elementów oznacza więcej frajdy.Frajdy z zabawą grami planszowymi, nie grały w nie, po prostu beztrosko się bawiły.Dopiero, z czasem chciały od tych gier więcej i więcej.Pierwsze porażki, łzy, gniew na pechowy rzut kością.Foch bo przegrały lub dzika radość, ponieważ udało się pokonać rodzica.Te emocje to nieodzowny początek przygody z grami planszowymi.Kolejne partie w ulubione gry nauczą współpracy, planowania, wygrywania i przegrywania.Warto grać z dzieckiem w gry planszowe od maleńkości.Najpierw się pobawią, a po chwili nawet nie zauważycie jak zaczną Was pokonywać w coraz bardziej skomplikowane gry.Od czego zacząć?W tym odcinku opowiemy z Hanią o 4 grach(a tak naprawdę o 4 i jednej gratis:) dla najmłodszych.3-4 latki powinny poradzić sobie, choć wiem, że z każdym dzieckiem jest to sprawa indywidualna.Właśnie po to opowiadamy z córką w podcaście o grach planszowych Crash Board nasze wrażenia z gier, byście mogli sami wywnioskować, czy te gry są dla Was i Waszych bliskich.Posłuchajcie o "Potworach do szafy" od Granny, o "Wio koniku" oraz "W ogrodzie" od Haby, by na koniec dowiedzieć się co sądzimy o "Kocie Stefanie" od Egmontu.Gra "Potwory do szafy" przeznaczona jest od 1 do 6 osób w wieku od 3 do 8 lat i zajmie ok. 10 minut.Gra "Wio koniku" to również 10 minut Waszego czasu dla od 2 do 4 osób w wieku od 3 do 12 lat.Gra planszowa "W ogrodzie" od HABA trwa ok. 10 min, jest dla od 1 do 4 osób w wieku od 3 do 8 lat.Egmont wydał grę "Kot Stefan" dla 3 do 6 osób w wieku 4-104 lat, sama gra potrwa 15 minut.Nasz podcast o rodzinnych grach planszowych: Crash Board, jest inny, ponieważ opowiadamy o grach z perspektywy taty gracza i jego córki.Ja jestem Maciek i od ponad dekady gram w nowoczesne gry planszowe.Nasze zbiory to ponad trzysta gier i ta liczba nadal rośnie.Hania to moja 11-letnia córka, miłośniczka zwierząt, marzycielka, uwielbia rysować, rzeźbić oraz lepić i kolekcjonuje wszystko co się da – po tatusiu. :)Razem tworzymy zgrany zespół, który nie zawsze się zgadza, ale zawsze dobrze się bawi nad planszą.W każdym odcinku informujemy o najciekawszych newsach dotyczących rodzinnych gier planszowych z ostatniego tygodnia.Przygotowujemy listę premier i zapowiedzi, które warto mieć na radarze.Jeśli chcesz się podzielić swoimi uwagami lub może chcesz posłuchać o konkretnej grze planszowej, napisz do nas na: crashboardpodcast@gmail.com.Nasz profil znajdziesz na Facebooku i Instagramie, po prostu wpisz w wyszukiwaniu: Crash Board.-MaciekPS. Gry pochodzą z prywatnej kolekcji.

Może będą Państwo zawiedzeni (A może nie? Mam nadzieję…) Bo to nie będzie o żadnej diecie. I o żadnych trickach na schudnięcie. A jednak to będzie o diecie: ale rozumianej tak, jak ją opisuje grecki źródłosłów: „sztuka życia”. Poznamy także kilka historii, na przykład historię pewnego starszego pana, „Chłopczyka walczyka”, jak o sobie mówił. I dziewczyny, która 50 kilogramów temu… A inspiracją do tej rozmowy była dla mnie piosenka „Wio koniku”… Dziwne? Ciekawe? Mam nadzieję. Posłuchajcie! Zapraszam serdecznie. Foto: Rafał Masłow

Może będą Państwo zawiedzeni (A może nie? Mam nadzieję…) Bo to nie będzie o żadnej diecie. I o żadnych trickach na schudnięcie. A jednak to będzie o diecie: ale rozumianej tak, jak ją opisuje grecki źródłosłów: „sztuka życia”. Poznamy także kilka historii, na przykład historię pewnego starszego pana, „Chłopczyka walczyka”, jak o sobie mówił). I dziewczyny, która 50 kilogramów temu… A inspiracją do tej rozmowy była dla mnie piosenka „Wio koniku”… Dziwne? Ciekawe? Mam nadzieję. Posłuchajcie! Zapraszam serdecznie.

Jessi Klein is an Emmy-award winning comedian, writer, actor, and author, with a resume that includes Inside Amy Schumer, Saturday Night Live, Transparent, Kroll Show, and the voice of Jessi Glaser on Big Mouth. On top of all that, WIO listeners may remember her from Mike's film Sleepwalk With Me where her character places a pizza pillow around Mike's neck and then sprays him with tomato sauce. In this episode the two old friends punch up jokes and discuss why writing about being a parent can be a third rail subject. They also go deep on Jessi's New York Times-bestselling book “I'll Show Myself Out” and Jessi explains why the title of two of her book chapters are “In Defense of Drinking” and “Your Husband Will Remarry Five Minutes After You Die.”Please consider donating to Moms Demand Action

Aaron Thompson, Assistant Division Director for the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation, joins Carol Pankow on this 14th episode of Manager Minute to talk about how Utah is making rapid engagement work. Carol has discussed this on two previous podcasts; however, each VR agency has tackled this differently. It is intriguing and exciting to hear about how different VR programs are confronting the dilemma facing VR on declining applications and consumer engagement.  Learn about Utah's “Back to Basics” approach, how they implemented this approach and how they involve their counselors and customers. From Utah's unique Performance Dashboards and Blueprint Systems, there is so much to learn about how Utah is making rapid engagement work. Listen Here You can find out more about VRTAC-QM on the web at: https://www.vrtac-qm.org/   Full Transcript   VRTAC-QM Manager Minute: Putting Customers First-How Utah Makes Rapid Engagement Work!   {Music}   Speaker1: 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. I am so fortunate to have Aaron Thompson, assistant division director for the Utah State Office of Rehabilitation, joining me in the studio today. So, Aaron, how are things going in Utah?   Aaron: Well, first, thank you for having me. And things are going pretty well in Utah. I think we're spending a lot of focus. We're going to be talking about getting back to basics and really kicking off a lot of the initiatives that we have in the works.   Carol: Cool. Good to hear. I can't wait to get into it. So, Aaron, I know you've been with the agency for over 17 years. You've held a variety of positions from counselor to supervisor to district director, field services director to where you are today. And I know you've seen and done a lot in your career, which really leads us to this very important topic we're going to discuss today. The idea is really called rapid engagement, and I know I've discussed this on two previous podcasts. However, each VR agency has tackled this in a different way, which is super intriguing and exciting when tackling this dilemma that's facing VR on declining applications and declining eligibility. So VR is a program where we're over 100 years old now, and with all the longstanding programs, there can be a tendency to layer on additional policies and processes until we get buried under a bureaucracy of our own making. So when we visited back in March, I was really energized about the approaches you've taken in Utah and hoped our listeners would feel the same energy and enthusiasm as they hear the Utah story. Your director, Sarah Brenna, also briefly spoke about the efforts in Utah and the efforts around rapid engagement during the CSA VR conference. So I'm excited to explore this further and let's dig in. So Aaron, can you give the listeners a little background about the Utah program, like how many customers you serve, how many staff you have, and how the pandemic has influenced your numbers of applicants and individuals being served in the program?   Aaron: Certainly I appreciate the overview of the resumé and all the details. I've had a fun opportunity to move into a few different positions, but within us two are something that I think is interesting, is like we're one of the first five state VR programs as the program nationally was celebrating its 100th anniversary. That was also our anniversary that year. So we have a really unique position as being one of the flagship state agencies for people with disabilities. And we're a combined program, but we also have different specialized programs for people who are blind, visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing. We also handle the Social Security disability determination and also we oversee the independent living contracts. But we're the VR program at our core. We have a staff of 250 counselors, support staff directors. We also have our in-house Pre-ETS program benefits planners and also a division that focuses on assistive technology services. So for that context, prior to the pandemic, we were serving about 17 to 18000 people with disabilities coming through VR. And certainly like a lot of other state agencies, we were hit pretty hard. We had a drop in applicant and individuals choosing to suspend services or delay. And of course, our priority at that time was ensuring that our staff were safe, that our clients were safe, and keeping the program going and doing that same shift as everyone else, adapting our procedures, getting people doing telework and remote work. So as we were entering the pandemic around that same time, we were in the process of clearing out our order of selection wait list. So we had this slump where we were getting in more applicants, and then it was a bit of a setback. But now we're in that process of rebuilding, getting out there, re-engaging with the community, identifying new partners, not just resting on this being the new normal, but seeing what else that we can do that's new and different to get our numbers back up. So thankfully, the drop has stabilized. So we're really working on rebuilding those new applicants coming into services from VR.   Carol: So about how many people are you serving today then?   Aaron: So currently we're at about 16,000 people who are coming through the VR program, so the drop has stopped, but we're working on that rebuilding and really focusing on some of the local level partnerships that our clients and staff are making out there and also trying to be different. We realize we can't just go back to the same referral sources and do things the same. So we're really challenging ourselves to get our name out there and move past the phrase that I hate hearing about VR being the best kept secret. We really want to be out there and let different types of disability groups know that we're here and how we can help them.   Carol: Yeah, I agree with that. I hate that too. About the best kept secret. I used to say that I'm like, Why don't we want to be a secret? We want people to come in the door. So tell me about the impetus to implement your back to basics approach. What caused you to want to dig in and do things differently?   Aaron: I think it's interesting. During that time we had gone through about a 4 to 5 year period of a lot of significant change. Now change us something that's the normal we adapt to. But for context, we had a change in leadership. We had to rapidly implement an order of selection. And then we also moved from being under an education agency as our DSA and moving to Labor. We had a new case management system. We went paperless. Then of course all the fun with implementing WIO policies and procedures and audits. So we were in a constant cycle of change and as you said, layering. So we felt a need. We heard it from our clients, we heard it from our staff to take a step back because they wanted to know what are our priorities. And we also want it to be more intentional and less reactive. I think we were just in an environment and a culture of responding to change. So we did a lot of talking with our directors, with our frontline staff, and there was a consensus that they knew to do their jobs, but they didn't understand what their priorities were. What can we focus on now for the coming year, for the next two years? And we actually had an interesting conversation with one of our new deputy directors who was learning about VR and wanting to know what are your indicators, what are your outcomes? And he asked the question of what does good look like? And it was a good challenge not to raise it in a way about compliance or numbers, but his question was No, tell me, what does good VR look like? So we took that as an opportunity to really think about again, like, what are our core activities, things that we know at that management level. But there was a disconnect with our staff. They didn't feel like they were being counselors. They felt like they were being case managers, having to check the box, having to do the compliance piece. So we really wanted to look at what are our needs, what's going to benefit our clients, and what are the barriers that can't be solved by putting out another policy, doing another technology change, we're really stripping things back to the core. So that's how the conversation got started about getting back to basics and what that meant for Utah VR.   Carol: I bet you were really happy about that new case management system and going paperless in light of the pandemic. I mean, like what timing?   Aaron: It positioned us very well to be agile and adapting to the pandemic and being able to get all of our counties out there doing Telework and serving their clients event well.   Carol: So let's chat some specifics of back to basics. How did you implement this approach and what went into it and how did you involve your counselors and customers?   Aaron: Well, one of the first things that we did is we did some research. We were really digging into the theory of constraints and identifying some of those limiting factors or the bottleneck in the VR process. So we've got some focus groups together with our directors, our program specialists, and we pulled in our counselors to do some VR process mapping of start to finish even when we're going out in the community and doing outreach and then identifying those points of constraint. And some of the biggest issues that we were encountering was how we have things set up with our eligibility developing plan. We felt comfortable once we got our clients engaged in services under an IPE. But then we also identified another constraint point at the end of the VR process. When someone's job ready, we saw significant delays with our clients being able to get employed in the areas that we were supporting and training them and we saw a pretty significant drop off. So by working together and doing a process mapping, we also got feedback from our client assistance program, the State Rehab Council, and we really dug into our consumer satisfaction surveys where people were coming in and just due to those delays with eligibility or working through their plan, I think that's where we saw a drop in motivation if it wasn't happening in a timely manner. And then we also looked at some of our numbers and of course, we saw the longer someone was sitting in an applicant status or eligible that's or we were losing people, we could see a clear correlation. The longer it was taking to achieve those milestones, the less likely someone was going to come in and participate and stay engaged. So I think by doing some of the foundational research and also pulling our staff into those focus groups to see about the VR process, from their perspective, it really informed on what we were going to do to address that problem that was identified.   Carol: So you talked a little bit about data changes. What do you see now in your data?   Aaron: I think when we primarily look at our data eligibility, when we started, of course, we were compliant, but it was about 49 days to make an eligibility decision. And then with plan development, I think our mindset was. Compliance. So we were doing it at 85 days and of course that was like, Oh, we're compliant, we're doing it right. But is that what best for the client? And even looking at the end, I'm a bit embarrassed to say, but it was taking our clients who were supported employment or even working with an employment specialist about 160 days to get employed when they were job ready. And of course that's where we saw that connection to the motivation. And when things were happening, that's when we saw that disconnect with the counselors and the clients not communicating. So now we're in a good place. I still think there is room for improvement following the pandemic and getting back to normal, but with eligibility, we're doing that in under 27 days. Our plan development has had the biggest drop in the time that it's taking. We're at about 50 days and then that time to placement when they're working with an employment specialist, our internal employment specialist is under 60 days. So I think the parts that we can really control, support our clients and inform it's working. I think people are moving through it and I think they're doing it in a way that feels right and comfortable and really supports that. Client Counselor Alliance.   Carol: Well, that's really encouraging. I mean, that's great progress. And I'm sure from the customer viewpoint, when you think about all of this and sort of wanting that rapid engagement when we're ordering from Amazon and we want it overnight delivery that...   Aaron: Next day.   Carol: Yeah, I'm sure customers are very much appreciating, getting this, moving through the process, getting into their employment more.   Aaron: Quickly. It was really interesting getting that feedback from our CAP program. I mean, they were one of the first to tell us, you know, we're not getting the calls that we use to a significant portion of their time or people who didn't understand, am I eligible for services? What's next? Or I got this eligibility letter and I haven't heard from my counselor. I don't feel like I know what to do next. So that was a pretty hefty part of what we were working with them on. So to get that feedback of we're just checking in, we're not getting calls about this, what's going on, and I think we were able to happily share well, here's the reason why and here's what we're working on.   Carol: That's terrific. Kind of an unintended fun benefit from all of this, right?   Aaron: If you can get that seal of approval from CAP, you know you're in the right direction.   Carol: Yeah, that's great. So I want to talk about the performance dashboards. I know when you showed those to me, I was really blown away with everything that you can see and there was a great deal of transparency there. How did those come about and how are you using them today?   Aaron: I love our dashboard, so we use Tableau for data visualization to pull that information from our case management system and present it in a way that's usable that really connects with what we're looking at. And initially it was developed for management use at the admin level and for our regional managers. But we had a good conversation about, well, if we're seeing this and we're going to talk to our counselors about performance and numbers, they should be able to see the same information. So we really wanted to lay it out there in a way that wasn't like a compliance or it got you, but so they could use it to inform on their work and serving clients so they could see closures, MSG's, the days to eligibility to base the plan so they can have a better understanding of what our goals were. And I think when we have some of those initial conversations about rapid engagement, moving people through the process, I think we have people who were a bit concerned or have reservations. So being able to see other counselors who are making it work, I think it was like, oh, well, it can be done. And so we were really also encouraging them to reach out to your other offices and districts that they've developed a pathway or best practice. What can you learn from it and what can you implement in your own offices to show that something's doable, achievable and how to prioritize? So being able to see it, our counselors really like it. They feel it's a tool that helps them do their job and also how to prioritize.   Carol: Very cool. So how did you set your stretch goals in these different areas and get staff to buy in on that?   Aaron: First, it was really talking about setting an ambitious target and that was something that we were challenged to do, something that would really move the bar. And we had a conversation with our regional managers to say, Here's where we're at. Where do you think we can get to? We didn't want it to be a conversation where they felt that something was already decided that they didn't have input. So we wanted people to be comfortable, know that we were going to set some milestones and also letting them know that this isn't a process where you're going to be dinged. If we don't achieve it, we're really just looking at how we can push our program. I'd do it in the right way and talking with our counselors about why we're doing this. So I think I can confidently say it was a 360 process of what does good look like, what are you hearing? And we always try to use that framework of if you came in for services or a family member, when would you like to see things done? So we knew that they would still encounter barriers with records and appointments and follow through. But by setting those targets and people feel comfortable knowing, Hey, we can try, we can learn from it, we can share resources. That's how we came to setting those stretch goals by setting an ambitious target. We knew saying we're going to do it two days faster isn't going to move the mark. And so we exceeded those expectations.   Carol: I love that. I think that's a really great way and a nice approach. So staff could feel comfortable, like you're not all getting the axe right.   Aaron: And that's what we didn't want it to be something that this is in your performance plan and this is your standard. It's what can we do that's best for our clients? And I think everyone could get on board with that.   Carol: Yeah, I really get that sense. So your people really felt part of this whole process and that it makes everybody gets on board and makes it so much easier to move the train for sure. So I want to switch gears for a minute. You had something really interesting that came up that the governor's office had championed. Can you tell me tell our listeners a little more about this blueprint system?   Aaron: Would be happy to. So we have a great champion in our Governor's Office of Planning and Budget. The director was actually a former VR client in another state. She's someone who's blind. So she gets the VR program, she gets what we're setting out to do. And some of the biggest problems that we've had is coordinating with other agencies that are serving the same people. A lot of times people might be connected with the workforce development programs or TANF, and so they have competing goals, priorities and interests. So by doing this program, it pulls in other social service agencies to really develop a blueprint for supporting customer success. So we have the VR program. Hannah We have corrections, adult and family services and juvenile justice. So we all have an agreement in place where it pulls information from our case management systems, where it populates and identifies a match. So if there is a VR client who is also connected with corrections, when we register the cases are counselors will get an email and if they go into the system, they will see the name of who their counselor or case manager is, their contact information. It also pulls over information regarding any type of employment or family reunification plan that they have and also the milestones of what they're working on. And our expectation was, hey, if you get a notification, call that other case manager, have a conversation, involve the client. And we really wanted to make it about teaming together so much as a counselor, you feel like you're doing it by yourself, but pulling in everyone as a team to really talk about what are our priorities, how can we help our clients? And getting in that framework of giving our clients the right services, the right amount, the right time, and how we can support each other and work in tandem. So we've had this blueprint system for almost two years, and I think another gain that we learned from it is we had a lot of assumptions that the other programs knew what we do with VR. So it was really good to be able to educate them and give them more of an understanding. And so when they can see some of our plan information shared, I didn't know VR could do that or I didn't know these were the types of employment outcomes that you could help your clients with. And Oh well, what do you need for eligibility? I have that assessment. I can give the release and send it over to you. So we have people coming in our doors already having an application, having their records sent over, and that also helps speed up some of those rapid engagement milestones that we set up.   Carol: Yeah, I thought that was extremely awesome. I mean, like, it's just the coolest system I'd ever seen. When you demoed that, is there any information about this for our listeners? I just didn't know if there was something on the website, like the state's website or what would be the best way for people to find out more if they're interested in understanding more about the blueprint system?   Aaron: There is information on Blueprint Utah dot gov. It takes a link to a page that provides an overview and the philosophy of the program and any of the State VR agencies are welcome to reach out to me for more information. But truly having that champion with the governor's office made it work. I thought there would be the barriers with consent and data sharing, but we got the agreements in place. So having that push was a really great gain for us and also for our customers.   Carol: Yeah, I thought that was so cool. It'd be great if somebody could leverage the work that you all have done and take advantage. Having a similar system in their states. It was pretty amazing.   Aaron: Really happy to share.   Carol: That is awesome.   Aaron: And on that website there is information about the MOU that we developed.   Carol: Great. You know, as with any new initiative, it can be a lot for staff to pivot. And how are you engaging in recognizing staff participation and achievement with all of these initiatives that you've been putting into place?   Aaron: It's a lot. As we said before, I think people understand the reasons why we're doing something new and different. But I think overcoming that change fatigue really involved having their feedback and buy in and also looking for what we can take off of their plate. So something that we also did as we were running these new initiatives, we had counselor focus groups about time savers and it was really a true brainstorming session for them to give feedback about policies and procedures that were getting in their way that we could take back and then make adjustments and show them. It was your feedback that led to us making this change that also helps the quality of work in your job. In terms of recognition, we've made it a part of our culture with celebrating the new initiatives that we're putting in place. So at our annual in-service training, we give awards and recognition for like the district and offices that have the fastest time to eligibility, the fastest time to development of the plan. And we give incentives out that administrative leave and some of the other incentives that we can give. We want it to let them know you're doing something that benefits your clients, but we also recognize what you're doing and the adjustments that you're making. So it's kind of prompted some healthy competition and our staff pushing each other because they know that we appreciate it. They're helping, their clients are getting something and we have a district that will say, hey, we're coming for all of the awards this year. So it's nice to see that out there.   Carol: That's hilarious. There's nothing better than that healthy competition between districts. It's like, I'm coming for you people.   Aaron: It's out there back and forth. That's like a race to the finish those last few months towards the end of the performance year.   Carol: Yeah, good out of you guys. That's great. So what advice would you give to our listeners about taking steps to move in the direction of rapid engagement? I know we've gotten a lot of people out there. This is a buzz topic right now, but what are some good practical tips you'd have for the listeners out there?   Aaron: Think you really need to go into the mindset of customizing what works best for your stay and what works best for the unique challenges and barriers that you have. I think with every program that's going to look a bit different, and I think by having that conversation in terms of what are our needs, what does good look like for our agency, what are the other things that we have going on that might be barriers and how we can overcome that, have the conversation. Don't limit it to just being an administrative level, pulling your counselors. They're the ones who are doing the work, seeing the people, getting that direct feedback from your consumers and utilizing it really helped inform on what we needed to do and how we were going to go about doing it. I think that's the best advice I could offer is have that conversation and involve different people and different perspectives and make it work for your program.   Carol: Well said, Aaron. Well said. I really appreciate that and I thank you for joining me in the studio today. I appreciate this time with you and just learning about what Utah is doing to be successful. So I wish you great success.   Aaron: I appreciate it. Thank you for having me on and allowing me to share our story.   {Music} Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening.

On this episode of Manager Minute, we are delighted to discuss Colorado's Employment First initiative. On the panel, we have: Patricia Henke, Colorado Office of Employment First (COEF) Director Meghan Greene, CIE Manager, CO VR Katie Taliercio, Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing (HCPF); Colorado's State Medicaid Agency Katie Oliver, Colorado Department of Education Cheryl Carver, Colorado VR They are involved with a very innovative and successful collaboration in Colorado pertaining to their Employment First initiative.  We believe it's an outstanding model illustrating how multiple agencies can effectively partner in an Employment First initiative to serve their consumers better. We have the pleasure today to understand how this is working in Colorado, so you may be able to move in a similar direction.   Here are some useful links discussed in the podcast: Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Colorado Colorado Office of Employment First Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Finance Colorado Sequence of Services for Students and Youth with Disabilities   Listen Here   You can find out more about VRTAC-QM on the web at: https://www.vrtac-qm.org/   Please stay up to date by following VRTAC-QM on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @VRTAC_QM   About VRTAC-QM Partnering with State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies (SVRAs) to enhance service delivery and maximize outcomes through quality program and resource management. The purpose of the VRTAC-QM is to provide training and technical assistance that will enable State VR agency personnel to manage available resources, improve effective service delivery, and increase the number and quality of employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. The VRTAC-QM provides TA and training in VR program and performance quality management, fiscal and resource quality management of the VR program, and general quality management of organizations. You can request technical assistance from the VRTAC-QM by contacting your TA Liaison directly, contacting any member of the Center you wish, or by filling out the information on our main website and clicking on submit. While on the main website, join our mailing list to receive updates on training and new activities occurring within the Center.     Full Transcript   Leveraging Employment First initiatives to improve consumer services across agencies in Colorado.   {Music} Speaker1: 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, we're delighted to have a whole crew from Colorado with us this morning in the studio. We have Patricia Henke Colorado Office of Employment First. Meghan Greene with Colorado VR. Cheryl Carver also with Colorado VR. Katie Taliercio, CEO with the Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing. And Katie Oliver, Colorado Department of Education. So welcome to you all. I appreciate you being in the studio today. These fine ladies are involved with a very innovative and successful collaboration in Colorado pertaining to their Employment First initiative. We believe it's an outstanding model, illustrating how multiple agencies can effectively partner with their Employment First initiative to better serve their customers. We have the pleasure today to understand how this is working in Colorado. So you may be able to move in a similar direction. So let's get a little background on Employment First. Employment First is really a framework for systems change that is centered on the premise that all citizens, including individuals with significant disabilities, are capable of full participation in integrated employment and community life. This national effort, formerly originated from the Office of Disability Employment Policy, when on August 8th 2018, they hosted 15 federal offices, including representatives from the departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, Housing and Urban Development, Veterans Affairs and Justice, the National Council on Disability, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Social Security Administration to learn about and discuss the newly launched Employment for State Leadership Mentoring Program. Today, many states, such as Colorado, have adopted Employment First initiatives through formal state legislation and dedicated state funding appropriations in an effort to establish this framework so this objective can be met. So let's dig in. Meghan, I'm going to have you start us off with a little background about why the importance of partnering is so critical and a little more about your state Employment First legislation and the state's competitive integrated employment focus.   Meghan: Thanks, Carol. Yeah. So as you can see from all the different Colorado partners here, we love partnering together and it yields really great results for our state. Kind of, along with the background that you just gave in Colorado, priority is really that competitive integrated employment for all working age persons with disabilities. All people are capable of full participation, employment and community life. With the WIO definition of CIA as a shared goal and a shared vision of the supportive employment process across all of the Colorado State systems, with an emphasis on the use of those evidence based practices like customized employment or individual placement and support or benefits counseling to support that competitive integrated employment for the people that we serve in Colorado. This is really shown in the work that we all do that has been completed utilizing a state level systems framework and by aligning employment related policies, service delivery practices and service funding structures between our state agencies. Some of the examples of this alignment and collaboration is in. 2016 Senate Bill 16-77 was passed, which effectively prioritized Employment First in Colorado and required state agencies to convene and develop the Employment First Advisory Partnership between the Department of Education, Department of Human Services, Department of Labor Employment, which is where DVR sets and our state Medicaid agency, health care policy and financing in 2017. This Employment First Advisory Partnership was fully established and in 2018 the Employment First Advisory Partnership developed and publish some strategic recommendations for all of our state agencies and partners to work on and support Employment First in our state. And this also supported our Senate Bill 18 one four five, which was a passing into law which effectively created requirements for training and supported employment providers standards. So really a great outcome and support across our agencies for the people we serve. Of all of us coming together to move those services and support for employment for so long. And in 2019, Colorado State Legislature approved a budget appropriation which effectively developed our Colorado Office of Employment First, and you'll hear later from Patricia Henke and more about that. She is the director of our Colorado Office of Employment First, and it utilized our State Council Cash Funds and DVR match to support these efforts. Federal funds are prioritized for training and our certification of support and employment service providers, and any remaining funds are utilized to provide vocational rehabilitation services to eligible individuals with the most significant disabilities. So all of these partnerships coming together to really support Employment First across Colorado and leveraging different funding sources and different initiatives together, we've had several different examples of what this yielded and one of them was. For employment, first, full time employees within the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation that focused on evidence based practices for supporting people with most significant disabilities with their employment and career goals, this legislation and these efforts supported two positions within our Medicaid agency to start a pilot for performance based services, and we'll hear more about that from Katie Taliercio hear later. We also again have established the Colorado Office of Employment First to support employment efforts in our state, so lots of wonderful things happening from all this partnership and work together.   This also establishes and supports the focus of competitive and integrated employment and shows really the passion and collaboration and partnership among all of us around the value of Employment First within our state and all the initiatives that we're working together on to support Employment First. One of the things that has been a real big focus for the division of Vocational Rehabilitation is that we've set a long term dream goal of increasing the prosperity gap for individuals with disabilities by 10 percent and 10 years, and this is a huge goal for us. And in order to really achieve this, it's imperative that we support all Coloradoans with achieving those goals. We really want to make sure we're supporting Employment First efforts and really engaging with all of our partners on these goals to make this happen. That Employment First advisory partnership that I mentioned earlier that was created through legislation, it continues to meet in perpetuity, actively working on these recommendations that they set forth a couple of years ago to support competitive integrated outcomes in our state for employment and always looking at new recommendations for Colorado and Colorado agencies to support the continued work. So that's kind of a big bird's eye view overview of kind of some of the work and legislation and collaboration that happens in Colorado to really support our shared priority of employment. First for all, Colorado.   Carol: Meghan, this is really exciting to hear. I had come from an Employment First state and we did not. We didn't have that same level of support. I think legislatively for all the things that you guys have been able to create here in Colorado, I think that's super exciting in the partnerships that you've been able to develop and to sustain and carry on. I think that's very cool. So, Patricia, we're going to swing to you. Can you tell us more about the Colorado Employment First initiative and what successes have you had to date and what's the partnership like with VR?   Patricia: Absolutely, Carol. And thank you so much for having Colorado on the podcast today, and thanks, Meghan, for that description of how Employment First initiatives have really evolved in our state. It is pretty amazing and impressive to hear it all over again of all of the amazing work that's been happening for so many years to move these initiatives forward. So as Meghan mentioned, the Colorado Office of Employment First was envisioned by the Employment First Advisory Partnership, and we are just a little over two years old now, so we're still pretty young in our operations and existent really proud about what has been accomplished thus far. And so our team actually is employed by the University Center of Excellence Developmental Disabilities, which is Colorado's, UCEDD and is housed at JFK Partners at Colorado University. I think that's a differentiation I wanted to make because a lot of folks in our state and nationally think that we're state employees and in fact, maybe employed by the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation. So I wanted to differentiate that it's a contractual relationship with VR and Colorado University and that we're all housed and employees of CU. It was really important, although we are housed at the UCEDD it was really important for the disability community and the Employment First Advisory Partnership that our work have across disability representation, and this was very eminent when the legislation was coming together in 2016. And so I want to communicate that that we are very much across disability organization and that we work on behalf of all individuals with various disabilities. And so our vision for the Colorado Office of Employment First is essentially to create a culture of inclusive, meaningful and competitive employment for all people. We are charged with changing perspectives on what it means to work, and we are working every day towards demystifying processes for families, for individuals with disabilities who are interested in employment. We are promoting barrier reducing policies and practices. We highlight and create awareness about options for support towards competitive integrated employment. We're continuously researching innovative strategies and technologies and ultimately helping employment providers and job seekers know about strategies that are going to lead to those competitive integrated employment outcomes. So we do this by really three bucket areas, which is our mission statement. And this is leading Colorado toward. Unemployment reaching all people with disabilities through one collaboration, which we're talking about today and why that is so important to systems innovation, we're continuously looking at kind of our existing systems and asking questions about what's working well and what can we work towards changing if needed and three training excellence and technical assistance. As Meghan mentioned, Senate Bill eighteen one forty five was key legislation that really move the needle on expectations around training and provider qualifications in our state to provide competitive integrated employment services. I'm going to transition to talking about some general successes of the Office of Employment. First, it was hard to choose whether there has been a lot of accomplishments over time and these accomplishments that have occurred in collaboration with everyone here on this call and other partners in our state. I want to mention that Colorado Office of Employment First does not do any of our work in silos that we model effective partnering and continue that movement forward to affect change and progress in our state. So I wanted to mention how the Colorado Office of Employment First has worked towards creating an employment for community in this state. When we got started in 2019, I was hired in November 2019. We had six months in our first year and although there was a pandemic that occurred three months into our start date, we were able to reach 3,000 people in 6 months through training, technical assistance webinars, other opportunities to start the conversation about employment. First, create that awareness and essentially try to move the needle and change mindsets in our state. In Year two, which was a full year, we doubled that number and reach 6,000 individuals and we continue to reach more and more people to engage in the conversation around Employment First and really create that employment for community and movement. So we're really proud of that. We do this in partnership with HCPF and the individuals here on the call today, as well as the advocacy community and families and job seekers and service provider organizations. Another area I wanted to mention, which I think really does illustrate the collaboration and partnership and what can occur when individuals come together towards a common goal and a shared vision. And this is really an emerging area for Colorado that we're really excited about, and we think it's really important. And what I'm speaking to is benefits counseling and disability benefits. One, as we know, many individuals are fearful of going to work, or it's not so much going to work, but are fearful around what's going to occur to their benefits or health care. And this can create a barrier to competitive integrated employment. And the Colorado Office of Employment First was charged specifically with bringing disability benefits one hundred one to Colorado. This was a key part of the budget appropriation that the disability community strongly advocated for. And so this was an 18 month long project, and it's just one example of how partners have come together towards the shared vision and commitment. Colorado has been unique from other states that have implemented disability benefits one on one and that we've had an in-house subject matter. Expert Melanie Hornibrook, who I have to mention on the Colorado Office of Employment First Team and through the Employment First Budget Appropriation, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation also had allocated staff person to work on behalf of benefits counseling, which provided the foundation to bring over 20 additional subject matter experts together to develop the content for Colorado's Disability Benefits 101. The core partnership with the Colorado Office of Employment First and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation has also supported creating awareness about benefits counseling and DV 101. To want to elevate this conversation even further or this movement around benefits counseling kind of under the umbrella of employment? First, as we acknowledge and recognize that we needed to increase capacity with having certified benefits counselors in our state. So we are partnering with DVR to provide the opportunity for nearly 50 individuals statewide that represent urban and rural communities to become certified and benefits counseling. We are partnering with Cornell to create two Colorado cohorts to support this effort, and the individuals that are interested in becoming certified benefits counselors is vast. We have educators, service providers, family members, independent contractors and many of them are already providers of DVR and health care policy and financing. The Colorado Office of Employment for us is also looking at. How to braid these services across education, DVR and Medicaid and other state organizations so that we can continue this practice of grading services, partnering and making it seamless for the customer, the job seeker, and we really see this as a key intervention and necessary service to continue to move the needle about knowing that employment is possible and that work can interact with your benefits and you can actually earn more money in doing so. And there are so many other ways I could talk about collaboration and partnership and that our other partners on the call are going to speak to. So with that, I'm going to just say thank you and we appreciate this opportunity, and I will now transition it back to you, Carol.   Carol: Well, thanks, Patricia. You really packed a lot into that into those few minutes. I loved that you brought up benefits counseling. We actually are going to feature that in our podcast next month with another state and some pretty interesting initiatives. So I was excited to hear what you folks are doing in that area as well. I also was struck when you talked about demystifying processes. We've been talking a lot about that without using those words. Exactly, but I liked how you said that and very excited about what you're doing. So now we're going to transition over to Meghan and Katie T to discuss the DVF partnership with the MOU and the roundtables and your sequencing of support and employment initiatives.   Meghan: Thanks, Carol. I'll kick us off and then Katie is going to jump in here in a minute. But DVR and our Colorado Medicaid agency, I would say a really long standing at this point partnership where we are actively working together for innovative ways to support Employment First and the people we serve, employment goals in Colorado and some of the things that have really helped. Aside from just us being good partners to each other with this is formal interagency agreements. So our interagency agreement is a really great example of helping to foster that partnership and in it has some great information about mutually developing processes to capitalize on our partnership and to support the people we serve. We've designated supported employment leads that really interact and ensure that we're actively meeting and developing processes together ongoing. Our interagency agreement really also outlines that we develop and update our statewide best practices together in partnership and maximize seamless service delivery to individuals with services. We provide training and guidance jointly. You had mentioned Carol, our roundtables, so in our interagency agreement, it states that we will every year go out and provide some roundtables to our providers, our community center boards, our DVR local offices to support the active practices and best practices of supported employment in reaching competitive integrated employment. We just completed some roundtables this last year with our local DVR offices and are jointly talking and having frank conversations about best practices and how to really partner together. Katie Taliercio, who will talk here in a second and DVRs Darby Brumley. We're really integral in making those happen and having really great conversations and training together and doing that in partnership really models that partnership that needs to happen at the local level. I also really talks about how we can support people who have been within subminimum wage and how to help them reach those employment goals and get to competitive integrated employment and provide information and resources about career pathways and is really committed to doing that and agree to work collaboratively with all of our partners across the board, as well as share pertinent training opportunities and really making sure that it's outlining those partnerships that really make the sequencing of services that we're known for in Colorado, that Katie is going to talk about here in a second, as well as our partnership opportunities happen so that AIA is a really good foundational document and then our just general partnership and the importance that we both as agencies place on our partnership and actively meet and support that it has been really integral to furthering competitive integrated employment in Colorado and modeling the partnerships that happen across the state. I will kick it over to Katie to really talk about those specific logistics and partnership outcomes that have happened.   Katie Taliercio: Thanks for having me be a part of this podcast. And of course, as you hear people talk, you think of a million more things you want to maybe touch on. So I will try to be brief and try not to duplicate what's already been talked about. One of the more exciting pieces that's just come to my mind as I hear people talk. And another outcome for this partnership and collaboration, I think across the board is that in 2021, Colorado passed Senate Bill two one 0three nine, then is the elimination of minimum wage in Colorado. Is very exciting for us. But while people are transitioning out of minimum wage, we also get to introduce some new services through the Medicaid waiver. And I think the reason that this passed is because of the collaboration and partnership with all the state partners. And I think it's coming from a federal level to. State level and then to all the people that are doing the work and all the people that are looking for jobs, it's kind of all coming together. But the neat thing about the new legislation is we were able to tackle some of the barriers that can happen within the Medicaid waivers for people to get competitive, integrated employment. And so we're increasing the amount of job development and job coaching people can receive, and we are introducing benefits counseling services into our waiver, which is very exciting. And another thing that we're pretty excited about is the Medicaid buy in, which is going to allow people who are in their developmental disabilities waiver and intellectual and developmental disabilities waiver utilize buy in. So people who are currently having to say no to raises or work more hours or things like that is all due to change coming up really quickly here in Colorado. And that I do feel like as a partnership, we've all come together to figure out what can Medicaid do to partner best with other services around Colorado that are available? Another aspect that's coming to mind a lot, and Patricia talked about this a little bit, but the braiding of services and the sequencing of services has really become a neat tool. And the more we talk about it, I think we've learned that the language we use is really important. Certain things that all the acronyms that Medicaid have is are different than the acronyms that vocational rehabilitation has. So how do we talk about that better? And I think maybe Katie might talk about that too. I think that's been one big lesson that we've been learning is how do we communicate with Medicaid case managers and counselors and others providing services? But also, how do we make sure that people looking for jobs are aware of what's available to them? And the better we do, the more people can be advocates for themselves and say, Hey, I want to do this, and here's what I know is available to me. I think we've been learning a lot about that. And then I just want to mention, too, that any thing that's happened, I think across with the milieu and setting up the roundtables together and doing a lot of collaborative work with all of the state partners and advocacy agencies and job seekers themselves has been that we've learned how to do this virtually, and I think that's really helped inform the work going forward and what Medicaid needs to do. And sometimes I joke around with some of my team internally that I've worked more with state partners and I have with my internal team. And I just think that really speaks to the level of how we're all putting these puzzles together. And when we come up against the barrier, we can pull together a bunch of people that say, OK, can I do this? Can Medicaid do that? How can we make it work together? And ideally so that we're providing enough services that it's seamless for the person receiving the services? So I hope that I tackled most of the things that we're excited about and some of the outcomes in Medicaid. And pass it back to you, Carol.   Carol: Thanks, Katie. It really strikes me as I'm listening to you all talk about what you've done. I mean, this has really been a journey, and it feels like that foundation that was built back in 2016, and you guys keep kind of brick by brick building more upon that foundation. So it's just taking you into such a great direction in such a broader, whiter, deeper collaboration. I think that is super cool. I did have one kind of follow up question. I was just wondering, I'm going to kick it to you, Meghan, just to ask, how did the pandemic affect the work you were doing? Because we know kind of put lots of states in a tailspin. I just wondered if you guys were able to pivot quickly using technology and stuff. I was thinking about the roundtables you were holding and all of that. Do you have any thoughts about how the pandemic impacted your work the last couple of years?   Meghan: Yeah, absolutely. That's a great question, Carol. So I would say it absolutely affected people's attitudes towards work and their comfort level towards work. It affected how we approached our work as state agencies and had some, I would say, pros and cons to how we pivoted, right? So like Katie mentioned, we kind of had to pivot virtually in that virtual world, and our roundtables in previous years were people driving around the state and meeting in person, which is always wonderful to me to take time. And you might not be able to reach as many people in person. Whereas one of the benefits of pivoting virtually, especially with that specific initiative or meeting with local CVS and DVR offices together, is we were able to really see increased attendance and rural areas really able to be a part of those conversations more than they had been previously. And I think that extended beyond just those roundtable events, but really also the services that we're able to provide. One of the examples that I use is benefits counseling and benefits planning across our state. People have been able to pivot to provide that service virtually as well, and maybe we can reach more people in rural areas now that that service can be provided in a virtual way. So that's just one very specific example that DVR and service providers were able to pivot. And so really leaning into that virtual world has been a challenge and that we're learning how to do that well and effectively, right? It's a new mode of completing services, but also has some positives in that we really are able to reach people that maybe we weren't able to reach before, but it also really highlights the need and importance of assistive technology and technology. In general and how we make the people we serve and job seekers comfortable with technology and learning that so they can truly access services in a more virtual world and support them with their job goals. So that's been a real focus and highlight for how do we make sure that people are comfortable with that and then it can open doors, right? So if we're really, truly supporting competitive integrated employment, it really opens some opportunities for people who may not have thought about some of the work goals or competitive integrated employment they could do before that. Now they could in a more virtual world and may have more virtual options for employment as well. So it's been very interesting road that I think has opened lots of different opportunities and mindsets and brainstorming for new innovative ways to do services in that virtual world.   Carol: It's a little bit of a silver lining out of all of that kind of craziness of the last couple of years. I love that you said that really kind of that comfortability of the individuals and using technology in that focus and really opening new doors. So I think that is wonderful. So now we're going to pivot a little bit and talk to Sheryl and Katie O about the education partnership with DVR. And I understand that you have an MOU and you do some joint training and there's something called the sequencing services tool and you have a whole sequencing of services development process. So do tell me more.   Cheryl: Thank you, Carol, and you're absolutely right things that we are so excited about, and it is so nice to see them actually coming to fruition now. Since we've been working on the sequencing of services for the past three years now, I think it is to actually have an outcome and Katie O is going to speak to that a little bit greater in detail. I want to talk more about how DVR and our Colorado Department of Education partner as a whole, similar to the interagency agreement that Meghan and Katie spoke about between DDR and health care policy and finance. Colorado has an interagency agreement, but also a cooperative services agreement between CTE and DVR, both of which have been in place and grown and expanded and shifted over the last 30 years. Our interagency agreement at the state level allows DVR and CDC to model our expectations at the local level when collaborating to provide services to transitioning youth, which is something we have upheld as being key to being successful in those partnerships. The interagency agreement itself helps to ensure that CTE and DVR are collaborating for all activities related to transitioning youth to provide technical assistance, support training, even program review to our local education agencies and our district DVR partners, as well as some of our external partners when we can pull them into those activities. The technical assistance, support and training, as well as the program review, also apply to any and all of our school to work initiatives such as Colorado School to Work Alliance program that supports district transition goals through the provision of pre-employment transition services and VOC Rehab Services. Our project search sites, which is a transition program for high school students with more significant needs, as well as our pipeline project, which is promoting career technical education to students with disabilities so that they can begin to see that as a viable career pathway. And currently we have an enhanced services pilot going on with our school districts, which focuses on using the discovery process to develop customized work based learning experiences and will buy next school year offer benefits counseling, which Patricia mentioned earlier. Our interagency agreement has been the precipice for pilots new initiatives, the development of tools and cross system trainings not only between DVR and CDE, but also other partners across the state. Our federally mandated agreement, which here in Colorado is the Cooperative Services Agreement, gets a little bit more into details, right? It talks about our roles and responsibilities of each of our systems. It gets into discussing the financial responsibilities of each agency. It includes a dispute resolution process, talks about how education and VR should be collaborating in the provision of services, how we will work together on the transfer or sale of assistive technology from education to VOC rehab when it's appropriate, and it covers the policies of each system that affect transition, our cooperative services agreement is the model that we have used in the past to develop a template for local working agreements. Those local working agreement templates are currently being recreated, and that is all thanks to the push of sequencing of services. But it will specifically define the transition responsibilities between education and VR partnerships in order to minimize duplication, ensure access to services for youth and support ongoing and effective working relationships. Again, all of this aligns so perfectly with our Sequencing of Services project and our drive to create useful tools for more efficient grading of services with the appropriate providers at the right time for students to improve outcomes, raising those expectations in employment for those students. And the key piece to this, of course, it requires increasing agency coordination and collaboration with an understanding of one another systems. So since I've mentioned it frequently and everybody else has alluded to it, PTO is going to kick us off talking about the process of how we got to sequencing of services and do an overview of that tool.   Katie Oliver: thank you, Sheryl. Just really exciting to be here to talk about the work that's been doing, and I know that Colorado has always been proud of their relationship in, particularly with VOC Rehab, but we've also had a very strong relationship with other state agencies, hence a lot of our presence here today. So we've really embraced our relationships. We cross-train, we kind of talk to each other systems. We've learned so many things over the years due to our partnership and those interagency agreements, whether they're actually formalized on paper or that we've just been together for so long trying to figure out our common missions and visions and having those conversations and building those relationships with other state agencies. It's just been a real pleasure and it's been a lot of fun over the years. We have obviously identified lots of gaps as most states do as well. We want to make sure that we're increasing our outcomes for students with disabilities, ultimately getting them employed and self-sufficient and involved in their communities. And so we know that that has been such a forefront for our partnership over the years. And we've talked about this. We've had different models. We've had different partners at the table for years before and we really had kind of a transition continuum. And so we were still missing the boat somewhere. So we sat down had some conversations back in 2019, and particularly it started a little bit more with the folk rehab and the Department of Education. And we said, OK, for some reason, no matter how much our best laid plans and transition planning, we're still not getting the outcomes we want for our students with disabilities. We're still missing them. So how do we make these connections? We're trying to have that smooth transition process handing the baton to the next system, whether that's other adult services, whether it's post-secondary education or employment. We're still dropping the baton somewhere. We're all speaking different languages. We're not coordinating, we're not braiding and blending funds. Let's start talking about this and let's really beef this up so that we can have more of a presence and more consistency across our systems so that our family and ultimately the youth are knowing what's happening next and really emphasizing and enhancing that coordination and that planning for those students. So back in 2019, prior to the pandemic, we came together and started talking about how we would like to proceed with some sequencing of services. So we created a Colorado transition team or partners for students with disabilities. We have representatives, obviously here today from VOC Rehab from Colorado Office of Employment. First, we had the Department of Labor and Employment, the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing Department of Higher ED, our Office of Behavioral Health. We had career tech ED and community college representatives. We had council representatives from the council, the Developmental Disability Council of Colorado. We've had parents from our peak parent center. We've also had some transition coordinators as well be involved with this work. So we pulled together and started kind of brainstorming about how can we create a shared vision? How can we create consistent language and ultimately help our families and students navigate the world outside of K-12? And so we created a shared state vision, which I think is something really important to share. You know, for years, we've been saying all means all. And so in Colorado, we've adopted that at our department and other departments. But you know, we are still missing very key people and that we're missing those students that we're really not capturing every student. So we changed our shared state vision to represent a little bit more of. Individual presents, so we say each and every student, regardless of their disability, has a right to transition to the adult life that includes, of course, partners at this table. Education, employment, independent living. We want full community participation and the right to make decisions in and about their own lives. So we also know when we recognized why we were creating this work that we needed to start partnering at younger ages, not just in high school. We want to start trading down to the middle school level. We know that there are students that drop or lose engagement around eighth to ninth grade transition. And so we want to keep those engagement efforts happening and keeping those students eye on the prize of that ultimate goal of employment someday and being successful. We know that we needed to create high expectations and create that self-determination for those students. Cheryl mentioned increasing that agency coordination collaboration. Absolutely. We have so many different members and state members at the team, and then we have one hundred and seventy eight school districts out there in Colorado with other partners and their local community. And so how do we infiltrate some of the state level work into the local so that we can create that coordination and having those really rich discussions and focusing on that individual students so that student level planning and of course, creating consistent messaging. So with the assistance of Jennifer Stewart and the Colorado Office of Employment, first, we were able to create kind of a framework and pull these two partners together, as well as partners from our national technical assistance that are on transition, Ruth Allison and Jackie Hiatt. They have been very instrumental in helping us facilitate this process and kind of put it to paper and make sure that all of our voices are heard and that we're moving forward. Hearing what other states are doing, too has been really a cool experience, but we created a framework and so we created six course student outcomes that we all, as state level department partners agreed upon and how that looks. So we have. Building self-determination and leadership skills was a certain outcome that we thought was really important to achieve postsecondary success, build skills, to safely navigate community and access the services, understand post-secondary options, develop competence and computer and digital literacy, having that expectation of competitive employment and understanding disability and health management. And we have a beautiful logo that kind of pulls it all together on our website, which is open to anybody to check it out. It is WWW.CDE.state.CO.US/SequencingOfServices, or you can Google and you can put Colorado sequencing of services and it should get you where you need to. I know that's quite lengthy, but again, that's WWW.CDE.state.CO.US/SequencingOfServices. You will be able to see that framework. The core outcomes from that framework. We actually created ages that these activities should be happening. We talked about who is responsible, having those conversations that we agreed upon at the state level. So what is DBRS role? What is the school's role? What is ticpods health care policy and financing role or the local community center board? And having those conversations and breaking them down into examples of those skills that we would like to see or be attained by the students? What are the parents responsibilities? And having that coordinated conversation that really could help drive that IEP planning process. So that's been really good. So I even lean to my other partners if there's anything else that they would like to add from a partner perspective about this tool before I kind of talk about our next steps and what we've been doing with our pilot. Anybody else have anything else to jump in at?   Cheryl: Not yet, Katie. You're doing great.   Katie Oliver: Perfect. All right. I just wanted to be inclusive because it's their work too. So from there, currently we have the state template. We have a local template. We have currently for pilots here in Colorado that are pilot the piloting this work intensively with our partners, Mesa School District on the western side of Colorado, we have our Denver, our largest school districts. We have Weld County, which is a more rural community up north. And then we have another rural community down on the south side of Colorado Pueblo. And so we've been really focusing on building those internal and external champions at the local level. So we have some people who have identified these goals and particularly most of these pilots started with education personnel wanting to create more interagency collaboration. And so we took these champions who are very excited, have personal goals about it for their district and for their families and their students, and we started discussing roles and responsibility. What are the roles in the community? What other community providers are in your community that we want to bring to the table and have conversation so that we're creating this template, this kind of map or tool that can help these discussions with community members. So despite turnover, you know, oftentimes there's been so much turnover, whether it's in special education or other state agencies is there has been so much turnover, but information does get lost or it's inconsistent. And so that was another focus of our area was we let's get this in writing in our community and put our templates in so that if Joe Smith wins the Powerball next week that we're going to have the same information and the person that's replacing them will have this the same information and understand the partnership so that we can make sure that's consistent, which has been a big hiccup with several different local players as we're a local control state. And so we've we started that. So right now we have the four pilots. That's where the intense work is being done. However, we as a state team want to continue the vision of creating interagency teams around the state of Colorado and other communities that it may not be as intense that we're doing right now. However, we want to continue to build those conversations, making sure the right people are at the table. We do have some sites already, some areas in our communities that already have established interagency teams. So how can we make sure that they have the right tools to make sure that their partners stay at the table, also not just show up to the table, but stay at the table? So that was really the intention is that our families are getting the information or they're able to share that information or be present to share that information for families and students getting ready to go on to whatever system or how do we overlap and so that there is no baton dropping in the future? So that has been a lot of exciting work, and we're currently working on an individual template for a student to work through or maybe an individualized education program at an IEP meeting. They could talk about it and really drive the planning process so that elements of the academics or the school is infiltrated into those conversations so that the course of study is being aligned. The goals are being aligned with what their goals are. And it's been really a lot of great work. We have one pilot ready to do a student level one, and I think once that student level show is filled out that template, then I think everybody is going to really start to see how that connection and planning from all the partners of the table were responsible for the success of that student. So that's what we're really excited about here in Colorado is that all that work that's been done?   Carol: Well, thanks Katie and Meghan. All right, Katie and Cheryl, I should say sorry. And Meghan and Patricia, everybody and the other Katie. But I can tell I get that great sense from you. Each talking, everyone's super excited. You bring a lot of energy to this topic, and I appreciate you sharing that website. I was writing down notes if you all would see my page, I have just dozens of notes about things that you've spoken about and I know others are going to be interested in. I know our listeners are probably going to want to reach out at some point to different folks that are on our panel today to talk about this. But I am going to turn it to Meghan to give us the last words and really to kind of tie a bow on it for our listeners out there. What advice would you give your VR colleagues and how to make this really work in their state because you all didn't just do this overnight? It's very evident the long journey you've been on. But for those folks that are just starting out, what advice would you like to give them? And Meghan, that's to you.   Meghan: Thanks, Carol. My advice, as you can see, is really leaning into the value of the partnerships and the value of the ideas and wonderful work that happen across your state and really trying to build those partnerships and relationships with advocates in your state, state agency partners, the people you serve and really try to bring everyone together and having everyone at the table and those partnerships and relationships be a part of the solution and working towards the solution. As you mentioned, Carol brings a level of energy, a level of excitement and having everyone be a part of that solution to support people with their employment goals really kind of kicks things off and gets those next steps. And what that could look like for your state could be very different or individualized, depending upon those conversations, those rich conversations that happen when everyone's at the table. So really just setting the table and making sure that people are there and then talking about how to keep people there and building that and spending the time on those relationships and partnerships and publicly doing that together really can lead to those coordinated legislative updates, coordinated initiatives between state agencies and coordinated services at a local level for the people that we serve. And just I'm leaning into that. The importance of those partnerships really leads the way.   Carol: So, Meghan, if somebody wants to reach out, what would you suggest? What's the best way for someone to contact or is there a website they should go to or what do you think?   Meghan: We have several different websites and I think they all kind of link together, which again shows that public partnership between all of us. But I think anyone on this call would be happy to receive a reaching out and support. But our information I know Sheryl and I as information is listed on our Colorado DVR website and we can always give you our email contact information, Carol. For people to have that, I know CD's website has lots of. Great information, and Katie mentioned the sequencing of service tool, and I know they have a sequencing of service email, you can email for any specific information related to that. And the Colorado Office of Employment First, as Patricia talked about, has a wonderful website and has lots of great rich information in the email that you can do there. And so we'd be happy to share all those websites and email information as well for you to have along with the podcast.   Carol: Thank you. I really appreciate that you all have been so generous in sharing aspects of this model with us in the past, which we've also greatly appreciated. And I really hope today's conversation helps the VR community think more proactively about how the various employment and first initiatives can be leveraged to achieve to improve partnerships, improve outcomes for our common consumers across our agencies. So thank you all for joining this very important discussion to help us empower one manager at a time, one minute at a time. And I wish you just continued success and all you do. Thanks a lot.   {Music} Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC 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!

In this episode, David and Joey chat with Dominic Colón, the inaugural recipient of Donja R. Love and National Queer Theater's Write it Out! (WIO!) Prize, about the power artists have to shape and shift culture, the importance of prioritizing self-preservation, and the impact of people living with HIV telling their own stories. Dominic Colón is an award-winning writer and actor from the Bronx. Recent plays include Prospect Ave. or The Miseducation of Juni Rodriguez (Rattlestick Theater). His play The War I Know has been developed by the Latinx Playwrights Circle, LAByrinth Theater Company (2021 Barn Series), and SOLFEST (2021). His short play Where Are Our Angels? was a recipient of the 2021 Latinx Playwrights Circle & Pregones/PRTT Greater Good Commission. Selected directing credits include: The War I Know (LAByrinth), Eduardo Machado's Marquitas (Rattlestick Theater/Pride Plays), and Episodes 4-6 of The MTA Radio Plays at Rattlestick Theater. Colón's half-hour television pilot Papi made the inaugural Latinx TV List, a curated list of the 10 most promising pilots created by Latinx writers. He was recently selected to be a part of the inaugural cohort of the Sundance Uprise Grant and is currently a staff writer on the upcoming Netflix series Pink Marine. Connect with Dominc (he/him) https://www.instagram.com/dominiccolon/?hl=en https://twitter.com/DominicColon?s=20&t=LbcDHIkytPdrt8JxNDSGfQ Connect with David (he/they) http://www.davidmendizabal.com/ https://www.instagram.com/its_daveed/ Connect with Joey (they/them) https://www.instagram.com/mxjoeyreyes/ https://twitter.com/mxjoeyreyes Follow The Sol Project http://www.solproject.org/about-us.html https://www.facebook.com/solprojectnyc/ https://www.instagram.com/solprojectnyc/ https://twitter.com/solprojectnyc This episode was mixed and edited by Iris Zacarías (she/they) https://www.iriszdesigns.com/ https://www.instagram.com/irismarcelina/

Dagny Zhu, MD, and Susan MacDonald, MD, talk with Alison Early, MD, Regine Pappas, MD, and Shanika Esparaz, MD, about homemaker and mom hack tips for those balancing family life and a career in medicine. Welcome to another episode of Mend the Gap :42 The topic :52 What inspired this topic? 1:57 Guest introductions 3:23 What were some of the hacks that you found helpful? 6:09 How do you prioritize your meals? And how do you make it easier? 6:55 Working part-time 18:08 Figuring out how to be most efficient with your time and finding a practice that will support your schedule 25:54 How do you balance conferences while having babies at home? 36:40 Thank you for listening 46:12 We'd love to hear from you! Send your comments/questions to podcast@healio.com. Follow us on Twitter @Healio_OSN, @DZEyeMD and @ShaniEsparazMD. Dagny Zhu, MD, is a cornea, cataract, and refractive surgeon, and medical director and partner at NVISION Eye Centers in Rowland Heights, CA. Susan MacDonald, MD, is president of Eye Corps and associate clinical professor at Tufts School of Medicine. Alison Early, MD, is an ophthalmologist specializing in comprehensive eye care, cataracts, diabetic eye care, dry eye and glaucoma at Cincinnati Eye Institute. Regine Pappas, MD, is founder of Pinnacle Eye Center and past president of WIO. Shanika Esparaz, MD, is a double board-certified ophthalmologist, medical retinal specialist, cataract surgeon and lifestyle medicine specialist. She is also a clinical assistant professor of surgery for NEOMED. Disclosures: Early, Esparaz, MacDonald and Pappas report no relevant financial disclosures. Zhu reports consulting for Alcon, Lensar, Visus Therapeutics Advisory Board and the EyeSafe Advisory Board.

Ustawa o Inspekcji Ochrony Środowiska, która pozwala kontrolerom przesłuchiwać, a przesłuchiwanym nie gwarantuje możliwości uchylenia się od odpowiedzi na pytanie, jest niekonstytucyjna. Zmiany do ustawy wprowadzono w 2018 r., po serii pożarów na składowiskach odpadów. Chodziło o to, by kontrolerzy WIOŚ mieli realne możliwości przesłuchiwania osób, które podejrzewają o szkodzenie środowisku. Ale wylano dziecko z kąpielą, bo częściowe wprowadzenie do ustawy przepisów karnych, bez dania przesłuchiwanym możliwości odmowy odpowiedzi na pytanie narażające go na odpowiedzialność karną, powoduje, że przepisy mogą naruszać konstytucję See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

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Agradece a este podcast tantas horas de entretenimiento y disfruta de episodios exclusivos como éste. ¡Apóyale en iVoox! Regresa nuestro spin off dedicado a homenajear a los grupos y artistas musicales que más nos han marcado. En esta ocasión nos vamos hasta Barcelona para desgranar la carrera de uno de los grupos más importantes del indie pop en castellano: Love of Lesbian. Durante estas casi hora y media, haremos un recorrido desde sus comienzos en 1997, cuando aún cantaban en inglés, hasta el actual 2022 con la gira de su último disco hasta la fecha V.E.H.N. La narración y los datos aportados han sido extraídos principalmente de la página web oficial del grupo, pero sobre todo del site Musicoscopio al cual agradecemos su excelente labor de documentación y citamos su excelente artículo dedicado a la banda, el cual os recomendamos encarecidamente leer: https://www.musicoscopio.com/love-of-lesbian/ Deseamos que os guste y recordad suscribiros así como compartir el programa para hacernos llegar a más gente. No olvides seguirnos en nuestras redes sociales: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/Criterio-Cero-Podcast-104165178594088 Twitter https://twitter.com/CriterioCero Instagram https://www.instagram.com/criterioceropodcast/ Este podcast está disponible en otras plataformas como Spotify, Podimo, Google Podcast, Amazon Music, Audible e iTunes. De paso aprovechamos para recomendaros podcasts que no debéis perderos: MondoRetro, Hudson´s Podcast, Puede ser una charla más, Luces en el horizonte, La Catedral Atroz, Thanos tenía razón Os dejamos la playlist de los temas que han sonado durante este episodio: - Afrodite - Shine it - Maniobras de escapismo - Mi personulidad - Houston, tenemos un problema - Música de ascensores - Marlene, la vecina del Ártico - La niña imantada - Noches reversibles - Los colores de una sombra - Me amo - Club de fans de John Boy - Segundo asalto - 1999 - Incondicional - Te hiero mucho - Los seres únicos - Belice - Oniria e insomnia - Fantastic shine - Wio, antenas y pijamas - Si salimos de esta - Los toros en la Wii - La fuerza del destino (con Iván Ferreiro) - Planeador - Bajo el volcán - Los males pasajeros - IMT - Océanos de sed - El yin y el yen - Viaje épico hacia la nada - Sesenta memorias perdidas - Cosmos - Viento de oeste - Escuela de danza aérea - Catalunya bondage - El sur - El mundo - El poeta HalleyEscucha este episodio completo y accede a todo el contenido exclusivo de Criterio Cero Podcast. Descubre antes que nadie los nuevos episodios, y participa en la comunidad exclusiva de oyentes en https://go.ivoox.com/sq/1355645

Full Transcript Shannon Austin, Executive Director of Vocational Rehabilitation at the Pennsylvania (PA) Department of Labor and Industry and Carole Clancy, Bureau Director of Special Education at the Commonwealth of PADepartment of Education join Carol Pankow and Missy Diehl in the VRTAC-QM Studio to talk about the important partnership between Vocational Rehabilitation and Education and how collaboration and commitment helped create and implement a strong partnership in Pennsylvania.   Check out and subscribe to the PA Transition Resources and Transition Tidbits on the web at https://www.pasecondarytransition.com.   Listen Here   You can find out more about VRTAC-QM on the web at: https://www.vrtac-qm.org/   Please stay up to date by following VRTAC-QM on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @VRTAC_QM   About VRTAC-QM Partnering with State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies (SVRAs) to enhance service delivery and maximize outcomes through quality program and resource management. The purpose of the VRTAC-QM is to provide training and technical assistance that will enable State VR agency personnel to manage available resources, improve effective service delivery, and increase the number and quality of employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. The VRTAC-QM provides TA and training in VR program and performance quality management, fiscal and resource quality management of the VR program, and general quality management of organizations. You can request technical assistance from the VRTAC-QM by contacting your TA Liaison directly, contacting any member of the Center you wish, or by filling out the information on our main websiteand clicking on submit. While on the main website, join our mailing list to receive updates on training and new activities occurring within the Center.     Full Transcript   VRTAC-QM Manager Minute: Education and VR - Let's Talk Collaboration     {Music} Speaker1: 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, I am so fortunate to have representatives from both VR and education to join me in the studio in an extra special bonus as having my colleague Missy deal helping me facilitate this conversation. Today we have Shannon Austin, Executive Director of Vocational Rehabilitation at the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. And Carol Clancy, Bureau Director of Special Education at the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Education. So welcome to you all.     Carol Clancy: Thank You.   Shannon: Thank you. Glad to be here.   Carol: Today, we're going to dig into the very important topic of the partnership between VR and education that was brought to the forefront through the passage of W Iowa. When Missy talked with me about tackling this topic, you two were at the top of the list for people to connect with. we're now seven and a half years post WIOA passage, and states are at varying degrees when it comes to collaboration and cooperation between VR and education. We know that there are so many linkages between IDEA and WIOA in terms of transition and collaboration, and it's critical for a state as large as Pennsylvania. With well over one hundred and fifty thousand students with disabilities. We're really excited to hear from our Special ED and VR directors in Pennsylvania and how they've been able to not only talk about collaboration but create and implement a strong partnership. So let's dig in. So, Carol, I'm going to kick this to you first. Can you tell us a little bit about your role and your agency and kind of the whole landscape in Pennsylvania around the students with disabilities?   Carol Clancy: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having us here today. It's a pleasure to talk about this topic that we are super passionate about. I'm the director of Special Education for the Pennsylvania Department of Education. I am one of many bureaus at the Pennsylvania Department of Education that works collaboratively to support K through 12 plus students as part of the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education. The role of the Bureau Special Education is to ensure that students eligible under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act receive the educational services they're entitled to, to ensure that LEAs maintain compliance with IDEA and to provide the technical assistance to the local education agencies to ensure they have the knowledge base and the skill set, as well as the best practices to meet those expectations. There are about 300,000 students that receive special education services across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and 500 local education agencies. Each one of those local education agencies are ultimately responsible to ensure providing free and appropriate public education. Pennsylvania is also divided up into 29 regions. Each one of those regions has an intermediate unit that provides regional support and services to those local educational agencies in a variety of capacities. These intermediate units have training consultants that are able to go into the schools, into classrooms and to provide the necessary coaching and training that teachers may need. They are a central support system for that region and a liaison between the local education agencies and the Bureau of Special Education. Finally, the Bureau Special Education also has our technical assistance arm, the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance System Network. This technical assistance provides an array of trainings, resources, asynchronous synchronous coaching supports to intermediate units, as well as local education agencies based on needs that are surfaced through monitoring or need service from the field that is also divided up into three different regions a west, central and eastern region.   Carol: Holy smokes. That is a bunch. Thank you, Carol. So, Shannon, I'm going to kick it over to you. Can you tell us a little bit about your role and about your agency? And kind of like, how many offices do you have, how many students are you serving and all of that good stuff?   Shannon: Yeah. Pleasure to be here with you guys today and just really talk about our partnership with the Department of Education and working very closely with Carol over the last two and a half years. Currently within OVR. I am the executive director of OVR. We have about eight hundred and fifty staff or at full capacity. We are considered a combined agency, so we have the Bureau of Vocational Rehab Services and the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services. We're serving every disability population. We also are one of the few states that have a comprehensive rehab training center, HTC Commonwealth Technical Institute, where we are also doing training and Pre-ETS and working with young people in this space. We have 21 offices, of which six are co-located in various locations throughout the state. Structurally, when we're looking at doing transition and pre-employment transition services, we have a division that is dedicated to transition services and pre-employment transition services, and they really focus on the policy development training and they're doing training with the VR staff. CRRP community rehab facilities providers that we may on board to do services in this space, employers at times to develop different work based learning experiences and may be key stakeholders that we may have to engage with. And then the crucial part that we're here to really talk about is implementing of programs and services.   We currently have vocational rehab counselors and early reach coordinators that are assigned to all the school districts that we have, and that includes the public, the private and those cyber schools. We have a referral system that is in place where they are working with the school districts, whether they are going in. We have a resource schedule for the cyber schools where we're working with them. We also have designated days where we're going in there monthly, weekly, biweekly into school districts based on just the referrals that we have throughout within a certain school district to meet the needs of those students to implement pre-employment transition services. And with that, some of the structural things that we have that we are really doing with the school districts or the LEAs within the Commonwealth, we have a lot of interagency transition, continual meetings that we're doing. So we really take a team approach. And as we go in a little bit further and talk about some of our MOU work, it's really going to highlight some of the things how we look at transition services and pre-employment transition services within the Commonwealth. Another thing that may make us slightly different than some states, we also have Act. 26, what is a state mandate for over in collaboration with the Department of Education to really collect and report data related to high school students with disabilities and with facilitating the process of job and career development between the local education agencies and employers. And according to the outline of Act 26 in coordination with LEAs, OVR, provides information in developing individual education plans for high school students with disabilities to ensure that job skills training is included in their plans when appropriate and when possible. Overall, our staff will attend education planning meetings, so IEPs, in person or alternative format, whether it's video conferencing conference calls when invited by the LEA's. So that's the basic structure of what we have in over and kind of where we're at. We currently in a year, we're serving anywhere. When we begin to look at the numbers, we have a data sharing agreement between us and VSC where we share data. And with that, in any year, we are serving anywhere from 165,000to 180,000 students that meet that criteria of 14 to 21 years of age in the state that fall under pre-employment transition services.   Carol: Wow, that's a bunch, great.   Missy: Are we ready to dive into the next question, Carol?   Carol: You bet. Missy.   Missy: All right. So can we talk a little bit? Maybe we'll start with Carol again. We'll just kind of yin and yang. You two describe a little bit about your relationship between the two entities, Education and VR in Pennsylvania and what it looked like before what it looks like now. How it's evolved?   Carol Clancy: Sure. Shannon and I started in our positions about the same time, and we are both really motivated to cause a positive change, particularly in this partnership between OVR and education. We actually met three Decembers ago, which is amazing, but I know that we both walked into that room knowing what we both wanted out of that meeting and not sure we were going to attain it. But it was very quick into that conversation. We realized we were on the exact same page and it created a strong synergy not just between Shannon and myself, but our teams. It was really an enlightening moment when we were like, we are in the right place at the right time. So it was that December meeting that we started to really have the conversation about what are the issues in the field and how we wanted to work together to fix them for the better outcomes of students with disabilities and our shared passions. And it was from that time that we set the mission, the vision and the agreement that we were going to have a stronger collaboration. I think what helps this work tremendously is that Shannon and I are direct from the field. We came from the field and we experienced the complexity of implementing and partnering on this work, and we experience what happens when there isn't a strong collaboration.  So bringing that lens and keeping that at the forefront of our minds as we are developing the implementation of the MOU, I think is what is keeping it strong. We certainly are just the run of the work, but we are not the ones doing the work. We have a very strong team beneath both of us that are worker bees that are very passionate, that really are bringing the work together in creating the moment you in a way that can be implemented. I think communication is the key. We have had structure team meetings that have happened regularly, either on a monthly or a twice a month meeting. But Shannon and I communicate regularly. I can commit that we communicate weekly. It may be a. Well, meeting, it may be a conversation between the two of us. It may be a quick meeting. Phone calls for driving somewhere. It could be an email or it could simply be a text. What we communicate minimally on a weekly basis just to make sure the work is moving.   Shannon: I don't want to duplicate what Carol has said because it's all accurate and true. I just want to put it in, probably in a historical perspective of really our relationship. Prior to us coming together and working and doing a lot of the collaborative work over ourselves had found ourselves, and we had an RSA monitoring and we had some corrective actions that we had to deal with and one of them which was updating our MOU with education. With that being said, our MOU had I think it was back in 2011, so it was very outdated and that was our starting point. And prior to that, there really was limited communication between OVR and education. And I think us stepping into our roles, as Carol said, coming from the field brought a real fresh perspective and a commitment on both of our parts, really to come together to make it work. We brought our field perspective, we brought commitment and leadership to our conversations and as we knew that we had to do some compliance stuff, which was the beginning of our relationship and working on the menu and working with the tax center and really coming into a comprehensive agreement with you guys. It was our starting point. And with that commitment of time of bimonthly meetings to really work on the MOU, you start to learn that one. We were speaking different languages, but we have the same intent and collaborating and coming together to really make sure that we were ensuring that we were having a seamless transition of services for the students that both of us were working with coming through our system. And we wanted them to go from school to work and working with both of us as Carroll does her part and we transition them, whether it's to the post-secondary education or to work and through that process. It has been just a growing. At first, I want to say it probably wasn't easy, but it became very organic and it just grew with time and just really our commitment to coming together to implement a very seamless service between both of us and our teams as we developed MOU for the Commonwealth.   Missy: One of the things that I noticed was you too have been so successful in bridging that language barrier between the language and the way that VR works and the language and the way that education works and presented that united front looking at that best way to serve students. How would you say what's that key ingredient, so to speak, in making that happen for Pennsylvania?   Carol Clancy: Sure. So I think that when we brought the teams together, we were able to speak about what are the barriers, what is not working in the field, and they surfaced really quickly on the very most basic level. The fact that sending our students with disabilities or our families with students with disabilities kind of through a gauntlet of fabulousness between the school and adult life was something we didn't want to do anymore. And knowing that this happened because the people that are the front line, the teachers most often who are at the front line are the ones communicating with the families didn't have the information that they need to start. A successful path is where we wanted to start to make sure at the ground level in the trench, the ones doing the work closest to the people needing the support had the information that they need. We wanted to remove those barriers and knowing that if we remove those barriers provided support through the process, we would be able to improve the work that we do. So how did we get to that? I think we really went down to the very granular level. What needs to happen to have this be successful and our building up from that point with the end in mind. It is really important that we are providing tangible supports that can be implemented. So we've developed a series of resources that are accompanied by webinars and training and coaching. Things can't be implemented if you just say this is how it needs to happen, you need to lead the people that direction. So we created the resources and the training and the support, and we want to have the whole group. So with every resource we create, we are creating a parent or a student companion document in the language that they understand and a visual that they can understand. We're also partnering with all of our groups, so I have worked with our PTI and we all have Shannon and myself have done webinars with them, so we're communicating to our families. Any time we have face time providing updates to my special ED Advisory Panel, to all of our advisory groups, to the local education agencies, to the intermediate regional meetings, every time I meet with them, I'm providing an update about where we are in the work, where we're heading. What they can expect, where they need to look for the information so that we are all on the same page and I'll stop there and let Shannon add in as long as she includes the joint website.   Shannon: So just to add on to what Carol talked about, one of the things it truly has been, Melissa, I think you have seen because you've been here kind of from the very start. It is really, truly been a journey for both of us, and we have been expanded by this partnership professionally, but also agency wide in this partnership that we've had. And the thing that we started out from the very beginning is that we said that we want it to be intentional what we were rolling out. But the thing that I think is key is the really the menu was really the glue that brought all of us together and really gave the building blocks and the fundamental pieces that we needed to be clear on what we wanted to do because we were very specific in our planning and the policy and the procedures and coordinating these services for students. So it gave us an opportunity to outline what services look like between the two agencies. It talked about how OVR was going to work with the local education agencies and planning the transition of these students. It really went into great detail on how we were committed to continuous communication. What was planning going to look like, what was the implementation going to look like was the procedures and policies and trying to coordinate these services for students. We're committed to the commitment of our partnership and making sure that we are implementing the services defining real clear expectations between over BSE, the lawyers and families, to the point that on the very onset, when we started to plan and put together and formulate our workgroup, it included various pieces. It was me and Carol and our teams. But it also included advocacy groups, parent groups, a consumer. There was providers that were part of that planning because we really wanted to make sure that we were looking through the lens of whoever was touching the MOU so that there was clear understanding of what we were doing. Roles were defined. We drill down on a toolkit that would make it very implementable for the field because I think our full background coming from the field. We did not want it to just be a document in black and white format. We really wanted to be tangible, something that they could put their hands on and really utilize it as a tool in their toolkit in order to bridge the gap of the services between both of our agencies. And I know we'll probably get more into this, but there were several collaborative areas as we talk about the website appointment connection positions that we've had an opportunity and more things are going to come out of this to really shepherd the view and our partnership and how it's going to increase and expand with time.   Carol: You're teeing us up nicely for the next question. I really get that good sense of that commitment and that collaboration that you all are having. Can you describe the work, now you've given some little nuggets that you all have been doing in Pennsylvania for students and your specific collaboration activities? And Shannon, I'll kick that to you first.   Shannon: So with our 2 years of work, that was the hard part and making sure that we had a planning or strategic MOU in place between the agencies and being clear in our expectations and what we were doing with that, we had a huge rollout here in Pennsylvania and we were able to kind of launch our MOU to the public March 2021. With that being said, me and Carol did a series of ATAND webinars where we introduced the MOU to the public and all stakeholders involved in second transition in Pennsylvania. So the first one had to do with unpacking Demo Q, and the next one had to do with engaging stakeholders and strategic alignment of our efforts. A lot of these were like panel discussions and just laying of information with both our agencies on that. We also launched a new secondary transition website that had various key stakeholders with that, the resources and it really, when you look at the website, it's through the lens. So it's not only done collaboratively, it's through a lens, no matter who the stakeholder is, whether it's the parent, the student, the provider or the school district or individuals from our agency, they really have a sense of the resources that are there and the toolkits that have been built out for them so that they have full understanding of that. We also have some initiatives that I know me and Carol. I'm going to I'm going to leave some of that for you, Carol, to talk about maybe the Navigate Team Navigator position and the youth ambassador position. Those are forthcoming that are really going to support the MOU that we rolled out. But there's been several opportunities where we have collaborated over the last year. We have presented at the transition conference this year to really talk about the MOU. We have a huge presence that was virtually we have worked with. Various agencies like Peel, Hispanic agencies to connect to Hispanic students and parents to really talk about them and the resources that are in place so that it can really highlight all the good work that's going on in Pennsylvania.   Carol: And Shannon, can you share that website address?   Shannon: Yes, I can.   Carol: That'd be great.   Missy: I think it's  PASecondaryTransition.com, right?   Shannon: Yes.   Carol: Excellent. I'm sure our listeners are definitely going to want to check into that. So Carol, Shannon gave you a little leeway there to talk about a couple of things. So please share.   Carol Clancy: Absolutely. I'll comment on 3 joint initiatives. I wanted to say that everything that Shannon is speaking about and that I'm going to speak about is a joint effort. And what I mean is you can't draw a line between what VR did and what education did. It's really just meshed together and collaboration so that the outcomes reflect this joint effort. 3 things I'll talk about is the Employment Navigator, the student ambassador and the Collaboration for Employment initiative we have upcoming this year. So the Student Ambassador Initiative is an effort to create paid work experiences for students with disabilities supported by over to become just that student ambassadors. What their roles would be is to be mentors, role models for other students with disabilities and during the transition world to help guide them along the way. From the student's perspective, these positions would be doing speaking engagements, mentoring, engagement and work experience while they're at the local regional intermediate units or any other approved service provider by OVR. We're really looking forward to this because it speaks volumes to the efforts that we're putting into people with disabilities, meaning that they are the consumers. So what better way to have them be the spokesperson for the services that they are entitled to? So we're looking forward to that beginning. It's in the process of hiring right now. Another initiative that is coming out in the near future are employment navigator positions. Again, these are positions that will be funded by OVR, hired by our regional intermediate units. And the purposes of these positions is to fill that void that occurs between school age services and adult services. We often lose our families or our students in this gauntlet of uncertainty between that path, between school age and adult services. So this employment navigators role will be just that fill that void, for example, benefits counseling. It can be extremely complex for anybody to understand. You really need to be an expert in that area, and it can become a barrier to some people with disabilities seeking employment. So we're going to have the employment navigator become an expert in that area to help support our students or our young adults with disabilities, to navigate that, to lead to continued competitive integrative employment in the future. And the last thing to speak to, which is important, is our collaboration for employment initiative. So this initiative is an adding to the work that's happening by bringing in the Office of Developmental Programs because we know that this support system is a 3 pronged support. How does education, how does employment and how does potential support services work collaboratively to support all students with disabilities to transition to competitive integrated employment? We each have our own languages, our own functions, our own case managers, but our case managers at the field level need to work together.  Education, the case manager and support coordinators need to work collaboratively to support these families, but we all speak a different language. It's difficult for all three to sit at the table at the same time. So through the state initiative between all three agencies, we will build that condition to happen. We are going to build conditions where the last series of trainings and webinars and intentional time to bring those three parties together at the regional level, to have a conversation, to understand the work that each other does, so they can strengthen the work they do together and to look at their regional needs and develop strategic plans based on their region on how to move this work forward for equity of all students. Because if you look across Pennsylvania, what's available in regions is not equitable and the need may not be the same based on the region. So we're going to have these parties come together, learn about each other, learn about the work that we do understand how they intersect just as similarly as we have between OVR and education, and then work to enhance what's available at the regional level across the state. So there's a lot more to come, but those are three of the top level things that will be coming in the next year.   Carol: So I just want to follow up on that for a minute. So for our listeners who are saying, Oh my gosh, I mean, this all sounds super exciting and they want to get a little more information, would you say Shannon is the best to go to the website? Is there a particular person they could reach out to? What would be the best way for other folks to get a little more information if they want to try to mirror something in their state?   Shannon: I think me and Carol have really kind of kept an open door, so. There's other states that may want to do this, we'd be open for that, to talk to them on some of our things that we have done, but the biggest thing is probably to look at the website, a lot of the resources that were developed. Everything from our menu to the toolkit. A lot of the resources are on our website for them to access.   Carol: Perfect. Thank you. I appreciate that.   Carol Clancy: If I could just comment on that on the transition website, there is something called transition tidbits that you can subscribe to. So whoever is interested, they can subscribe to transition tidbits and it'll give you everything updated that we're doing in Pennsylvania regarding transition. And we've already had hits across the world. So we have hits all over the country, but we've also had hits in Europe and other countries based on the work that's happening.   Carol: Good to know. That's awesome. So Missy, I'm over to you now.   Missy: Yeah. And I think you all kind of touched on what we were going to get too next because, you know, I think what we get so impressed by with what's happening in Pennsylvania is not just what you've wanted to do, but the actual implementation of it. So when it comes to the professional development or creating those sustainability pieces with regard to the tools or the positions, what's coming next for you guys? What's next?   Carol Clancy: Well, I think that both Shannon and I operate with the perspective that there really isn't any limit. So we have the 3 things we want to implement over the next year. But we already brainstorming what is the following year. But the priorities are these 3 initiatives coming forward. But we would anticipate as much as we can developing tools for the fields targeting deeper and deeper to our area of needs, such as focusing on particular populations. What students that have blind and visual impairments need is very different than what students with autism may need, or students with very complex abilities that may need some customized employment options. We certainly want to work and focused on developing them and developing the community. There is a lot of work at Pennsylvania, at the state level directed toward employment of people with disabilities. So we're aligning our work with the governor's initiative, which include initiative around preparing model employers. And Shannon, I'll let you talk about that because you've been much more involved in that, but we are going to ensure that the work that we're doing is lined up with the overall work at the state level to support employers.   Shannon: So as Carol said, we have so much going on here in Pennsylvania beyond just the agency. When you're talking about employment and individuals with disabilities like we are probably at the center of our purpose when it comes to WioA, IDEA,, we are employment first state, we have that twenty six. We're also very active, as Carol said, in a grant to really focus on employer engagement and over our course as a dual customer system, and that we work with customers with disabilities, but we also engage with employers to make sure and become that bridge for them. And here in Pennsylvania, we're at any year working with anywhere from 2,000 to 3,000 employers. When you look at all the placements that we do here in Pennsylvania, so the commitment that we have in trying to bring it to the next level is always something that we're trying to expand current relationships that we have with employers to see where we can do more, especially with high school students, because I think WIO was really a turning point for the VR system, and some will say that it was earthshaking because we was not working with students 14 to 21 years of age prior to this. So with the implementation of WIO, it really was a key changer for the VR system and the workforce system in itself that we would establish ourselves as part of the 6 core programs in the workforce development system to do more collaboration.   With that being said, we should be strategic planning together. We should be cutting down supplanting of services, duplication of services and there needs to be more coordination, collaboration. And with this during the MOA, it has allowed us over and education to do exactly some of the things that WIO intended in the workforce system. So what are we going to do? We're going to continue to do a lot of professional development. We're committed to that. You're no stronger than your workforce, me and Carol. We're doing the policy. The policy has to become alive and implementable and practical for the field. So we're committed to make sure that they have the toolkit that the tools that they need in order to implement the services and they need to understand the services. My hope is that we are cheerleaders for the staff that we're going to encourage. We're going to uplift them and give them the support that they need and understand what it is to implement the service and work with students and families here in the Commonwealth to make sure that the service is implemented seamlessly.   Carol: Well, what you two Are doing is so exciting, like this is unbelievable, and I'm thrilled and I'm sure our listeners are like going, Oh my gosh, but how do I start? So I want to ask both of you and I'm going to ask Carol first. The advice that you might have for states who are struggling because we still have that, I know we're seven and a half years in, but we still have states like we're not talking the Education Bureau, not talking or there's disagreements. Or maybe there's talking, but they're really not getting anything going. Do you have any advice for those states that are struggling?   Carol Clancy: Yes, I can. I think the number one thing to keep in mind is the students in which we serve. Keep them at the front of every conversation and the mission. Because if you get siloed in your own agency and the rules you need to follow or the missions behind your agency, you really can lose what your focus is supposed to be. So stay focused on the students and the outcomes that you are responsible for together. So that's a mission. Enough to work together is that there are outcomes that need to happen and that you both need to work toward that you're both accountable for. But I think most important and we've said this numerous times, but I'm just going to emphasize that enough. You can't forget the field and how it's implemented. Often at the state. We can create best practice in an ideal scenario, but it loses its translation in the implementation if you don't know what it looks like to be implemented in the field. So if they are on a place where I would say they need to start talking to the field, they need to start talking to the people doing the work right now. What are the barriers? Why isn't it working and working from that point forward to know what should be happening and their language should be? What do you need? Here are some options. What can I do to help? How can we support you and blah blah blah? Not this is how it's supposed to happen and do it. It has to be. What do you need to make this happen? And we're here to help you. And what's the best way we can help you to make this happen?   Carol: Well said, sage advice. So Shannon, I'm going to leave the last words of wisdom to you.   Shannon: So just a couple of things in agreement with everything that Carroll said. My background is business services, so I'm going to start right here. Relationships are key. Unless you have a relationship, you don't do business with people you don't trust. That is the same thing that we have been talking about through this whole process is about relationships. There has to be a starting point. If there is none, begin to get one. If you have one, strengthen it. I think that's our starting point because me and Carol prior to this do not have a working relationship whatsoever. So it was from the very beginning, but the MOU was our starting point. The second thing that made it successful or has made it successful is our commitment to this partnership and collaboration. Commitment has to start from the top. And when I tell you that it filters down through the layers, it becomes a very intentional document when working through and trying to create one, the MOU.. But just a partnership that we have because of the MOU. It created the environment where we were really strategically planning on what our partnership was going to look like. We were very clear on that expectation. Who was going to do what we wanted to make sure that we had supporting documentation for our staff. So we were very intentional in how we were going to roll out the MOU with our staff. We committed to communication, continuous communication. We don't know what we don't know and what we don't understand. We need to clarify, especially at this level, because if it's cloudy and unclear at the top, it's going to filter down through the agencies and implementing a policy. I'm in strong agreement with Carol saying that we did not want this employee to just be a document where it was just a policy. We met the requirement. We met the compliance piece of the obligation. We wanted to make sure that it was implementable, that it was a live living document that we were constantly put in our eyes on because we were committed to the mission of transitioning students that we were working with in both our systems and that we were working together to do that and that we were on the same page. And literally through this process, it continues to grow. And really, the sky is the limit for anyone that's willing to put in the time the work and the effort and the commitment to doing something as we have in Pennsylvania.   Carol: Well, I'm adding an exclamation point to that word commitment that you said over and over this morning. I just think that it's incredible and it's coming through loud and clear. So thanks to you both for taking the time today to discuss this really super important topic, and we wish you the best in all of your endeavors. Thanks much.   Missy: Thank you, guys.   Shannon: Thank you.   Carol Clancy: Thank you.   {Music} Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR one manager at a time, one minute at a time brought to you by the VRTAC 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!

Full Transcript In episode 6 of Manager Minute, employment and VR take center stage during October's National Disability Awareness Month. David D'Arcangelo, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind (MCB), and Natasha Jerde, Director of State Services for the Blind of Minnesota (SSB), join Carol Pankow to talk about the state of employment, today's challenges, and the initiatives and practices they implemented to improve employment for individuals with disabilities.   Learn how David and his team at MCB increased their customer base by 25% over the last year and how partnerships and creativity in Minnesota are helping to increase the number of people with disabilities being employed.   Find out more about VRTAC-QM at https://www.vrtac-qm.org/.                                                                       Stay up to date by following VRTAC-QM on Facebook and follow us on Twitter @VRTAC_QM.   About VRTAC-QM Partnering with State Vocational Rehabilitation Agencies (SVRAs) to enhance service delivery and maximize outcomes through quality program and resource management.  The purpose of the VRTAC-QM is to provide training and technical assistance that will enable State VR agency personnel to manage available resources, improve effective service delivery, and increase the number and quality of employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities. The VRTAC-QM provides TA and training in VR program and performance quality management, fiscal and resource quality management of the VR program, and general quality management of organizations. You can request technical assistance from the VRTAC-QM by contacting your TA Liaison directly, contacting any member of the Center you wish, or by filling out the information on our main website and clicking on submit. While on the main website, join our mailing list to receive updates on training and new activities occurring within the center.    Full Transcript:   Speaker1: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management conversations powered by VR, 1manager at a time, 1 minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: So welcome to the manager minute, I am so excited to have David D'Arcangelo, Commissioner of the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind, and Natasha Jerde, Director of State Services for the Blind in Minnesota. Thank you both for joining me today. Natasha, you've been in your position for two years now. So how's it going in Minnesota?   Natasha: Well, first, thanks for having me, Carol. And for others, I'm actually filling in for detail magazine with Minnesota General, so I am representing both. So I will speak globally and with Minnesota. We are definitely going through a state of evolution because not only are we going through COVID, we are also one of the states that really are going through the racial reckoning that's been happening when George Floyd was murdered. So we are having a lot of diversity and inclusion efforts in addition to trying to figure out what VR is going to look like in this new era. So it's been a challenge, but it's also been an opportunity as well.   Carol: Yeah, it definitely has been a heavy load and thank you for pinch hitting for Dee, too. I knew you could represent both, so that's great. And David, I saw you just had your three year anniversary in August. So how are things in Massachusetts?   David: Thanks for having me on. Things in Massachusetts are going well. I'm excited to talk about all of the various programs that we have. We haven't let COVID stop us at all. We continue to move forward. We're doing realignment projects. We've done a bunch of those that we'll talk about. Hiring is up good things happening in Massachusetts. I know we're going to go into more detail.   Carol: Good to hear it. Well, October is designated as a National Disability Employment Awareness Month, and when I was thinking about an October topic, well, it just made perfect sense to talk about employment and VR. David, I remember last year when we were on a call with RSA and they were highlighting VR's 100th anniversary. You presented what was happening at the Mass Commission and you really had some exciting things happening for customers during the pandemic. And I love following all the work that you do on your social media and I saw y'all have a podcast as well. And Natasha, I know your team well, and they're always creating some wonderful ways to build partnerships with employers and create interesting and lasting relationships that have helped to improve employment opportunities. And you're also a really good partner with Minnesota General. I know two years ago we held the roundtable and recognition of employers in Minnesota during this very month to celebrate National Disability Employment Awareness Month. I just wanted to talk for a second about some Bureau of Labor Statistics and as I was looking things up as of August 2021, the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that unemployment rates for persons with disabilities are 11.5 percent, compared to five point one percent for persons without disabilities. And the labor force participation rate for people with disabilities is 35.6 percent, compared to 75.8 percent for working age people without disabilities. Now, the labor force participation of people with disabilities is higher than it was prior to the pandemic, and John O'Neill, he's the director of the Center for Employment and Disability Research at the Kessler Foundation. He said that this actually has been a bright spot during the pandemic as people with disabilities, and he thought maybe out of economic necessity remained engaged in the labor market. He says the last time that we saw labor force participation at this level was July of 2009. But even given all of that, you know, that bright spot, much work needs to be done to increase the number of people with disabilities in the labor force, which really ties directly to the mission of VR. So I know these past 18 months have definitely been a challenge for you both pivoting to remote work for your staff, figuring out new ways to provide services to your customers and figuring out the reality of this new world of work. And in some ways, I'm really hopeful that the pandemic has proven there are new ways in which work can be done that's going to benefit our consumers in the end. So let's dig in. So, Natasha, can you paint us a picture of your agency? Like, how many people are you serving right now? Do you currently have a waiting list and how are your employment numbers looking?   Natasha: I have both Minnesota blind and general here at Minnesota Blind. We're at about 650 individuals we're currently surveying. And if you look at 2, 3, 4 years ago, we were usually in the 700's. So our applications are still down, but they are trending upwards. We haven't had a waiting list for a few years. All categories are open. Our employment numbers are slowly trending upwards. 2021 brought much higher well, not much higher, 3 higher than 2020. But we are looking to get back our 2019 numbers slowly but surely. And as for Minnesota General, they've had a downward trend. There are about 2000 fewer applications and serving 11 percent fewer applicants than they did in the previous year. Our numbers are pretty on par with the national trends. Minnesota General has been offering services to all people on the waiting list. They reopened their final 2 priority for service categories, which had been closed since the fall of 2014. They have effectively eliminated the waiting list. They are seeing rates of employment at the time of exit decrease overall about 13 percent decrease, which is very identical to the national trends.   Carol: That's big news, though on the waiting list, that's good stuff. That is really good stuff for both of you. So, David, paint us a little picture of your agency.   David: Basically, everything I'm going to talk about is on our website. So let me just start with that. If people hear something that resonates with them, please use us as a resource. We want to collaborate with you. Go to Mass.Gov/MCB Mass.Gov/MCB and find out all that's going on with the Massachusetts Commission for the Blind. We've seen a 25 percent increase over our previous year in terms of VR despite the pandemic, so that's really a testament to our team, our counselors, and most especially though, the consumers we work with who have persevered and there's just a lot of opportunity in Massachusetts. Some of that might be related to the pandemic, actually. You know, COVID has put real strain on the health care system. We've seen hiring there. But even other service industry things, we've seen hiring there to go back to John O'Neill's data point, which I believe in John very much and Andrew out Anvil that does the entire program first Friday of the month at noon, I faithfully listen to the number come out and they do a great job since the data has been collected in 2008. Yeah, I mean, we made a great amount of progress that COVID happened. We slid all the way back and now we've slowly regained. So at least we're back to where we were, which I think is a good thing for people with disabilities. Specifically to Massachusetts, though, we've seen that, we've seen our VR program increase and consumers typically we have, you know, somewhere between 850 and 950. Now we're at about 1050, 1038 consumers. Exactly, actually that we served as of June 30 at the end of the fiscal year. And of that, we had 155successful closures, and many of those were six figure closures. We had a significant amount of people that got a high level job, so that's very encouraging to us and we've had some good results. I know we're going to talk about some of the specific programs we're looking at pre X, we're looking at the mid-career professional and even older adults who want to reenter the workforce or continue to work beyond retirement age.   Carol: That is super exciting news. It really is. I love it. That's what I remember you talking about with RSA when we were doing that. Other call it like a year ago, like these six figure positions, that's that's incredible. So now that we've gotten this kind of picture of what's going on in general with your agencies, let's just look a little bit at the overall employment picture in each of your states. So what's your employment rate kind of look like and what are your hot employment markets and sectors? And David, I'll go to you first. I know you started a little bit on this. I'll let you expand.   David: Yeah, as I indicated, health care remains strong. In Massachusetts, we're hovering right around five percent for the general unemployment number. Our labor participation rate among the general population remains strong. Unfortunately, among people with disabilities, we're still looking at around two thirds of all working age people with disabilities who are not in the labor force. To me, that's job one, right? That's job one for our agency, for our counselors, is engaging our consumers and trying to get them resolved to want to work. That, I think, is because before you can get the job, we know how to get them the job once they're resolved, but they've got to be resolved to want to work. So that's job one. Then the second part is getting them a job, which is it's not easy, but it's easier, right? I think we're doing well. We've put together public awareness campaigns to really try to get out there. We use actually real allotment dollars from RSA to launch our What's Your Vision campaign, which we're out on TV with 30 second ads. We've been in print or on social media again, go to mass dot gov food slash MQB to check out the full campaign. I know there was a plethora of real dollars coming from RSA, so if you're looking for something to do with those dollars, we've proved the proof of concept that you can do it and it can be effective because we're having more people come to MQB.   Carol: Very cool. Yeah, I'm looking forward to looking at that link. So Natasha, how about you? What's going on with the employment overall? The picture in Minnesota?   Natasha: Minnesota is looking great. Our unemployment rate is at 3.8percent, which is well below the national average. Our labor force participation rate is 67.8 percent for all individuals and about 48 percent of Minnesotans with a disability are employed, and that's compared to about 38.8 percent nationally. So the numbers are looking great. And when you're asking about hot jobs across the board, everything is hot right now. Job vacancies are at a record number. Employers across the state are reporting difficulty finding workers. The demand is especially high in health care and social assistance. But those other areas that really were hit hard during the recession, including food service, hospitality, those are soaring right back.   Carol: Wow, thank you for that. So it's no secret that the pandemic had a huge impact on employment and the economy as a whole. But can you tell us how the pandemic has affected employment for the customers you serve in particular? And are there any lessons you learned during these past 18 months you're putting into place for the long term and attached? I'm going to punt that one to you first.   Natasha: We actually had a lot more opportunity than challenge when COVID hit, so we did have a number of individuals with disabilities who were laid off primarily because they were in the service and hospitality industry, and that was hit especially hard. But with COVID, it really showed that teleworking is completely and utterly doable, and all of these job postings we're seeing now are for remote workers. And when you're working with people who have transportation barriers who also live in very rural settings, this has been incredible and they're getting jobs and we're able to accommodate those jobs. The biggest struggle, though, is because we are so remote and virtual is accessibility issues, and we've been doing a lot of education of employers, of our own employer, the state of Minnesota, how to make sure everything is accessible so that if someone is working virtually, they can still do their job. And how we implement accommodations in a virtual world look very different. I think our biggest lesson learned is you just need to roll with it. You have to be flexible and you can't get locked into the way you used to do things. So we did things we didn't think was actually possible. We've done virtual adjustment to blindness training. We've even done virtual job site accommodations where they would walk us around on their phone or their laptop showing us the worksite, and we had been able to give suggestions and ideas how to accommodate without ever leaving our house. You just have to throw the book out the window is what we learned.   Carol: I bet your team has been super busy. I bet those guys are just like, Wow, but it's got to make the work super interesting.   Natasha: It's so much fun. I have never seen such creativity as I have these past 18 months. We have tried anything and everything, and it's been incredible. We're going to use a lot of those things from here on out.   Carol: Oh, very cool. So, David, I know you guys are always super innovative at the mask commission. So what about you? Tell us about how these last 18 months have impacted you and employment for your customers and kind of any lessons you've learned?   David: Yeah, really. Just a big credit goes out to our team and our consumers, one for being resilient. And we closed Friday, March 13 at five o'clock and we were open for business Monday morning, 9:00 a.m. Our counselors were already equipped with mobile laptops. Aware, which is our case management system, is all in the cloud, so we were positioned well to be able to work in this remote environment. So that's helped our counselors and our team. But additionally, I got to agree in Natasha's right, and I think you all listening to this podcast will agree the amelioration of transportation as a barrier or at least the significant amount of that as a barrier has been a game changer. It's really a paradigm shift and is unlocked. So many potentials for not only blind people, but all people with disabilities. I think that the permanence of that opportunity is a huge takeaway, a silver lining. Covid is a very serious situation. A lot of people have suffered, so I don't want to say it's a great thing because we wouldn't want to trade that right. But this is really help people with disabilities. And I think in the long term, it's going to continue to help them. I think that's the top of the full thing. And how can we leverage that even further? Is there are things we can collectively go to RSA for or I think, you know, Carol, I also sit on the National Council on Disability. Although I'm here as commissioner today, I'm trying to influence people on the federal level to think outside the box. And let's consider if there are other ways that we can leverage, whether it's being online or any technology that we can use to bring to bear for the benefit of people with disabilities to work.   David: I think more and more of that is coming, and that's a good thing. We're getting some of the other things we've been doing, though we just want an award. I'm pleased to say for our graphic novel that we put together our Patriots Best Practices guide. That's a good thing. We're trying to engage those students and their families who traditionally you know how some of these RSA guidelines go. They're very dry. They're on an eight and a half by 11 piece of paper typed print. This is engaging. We find once you put it in the kids hands, they can't put it down and they're learning about all the steps of VR and the families are learning about that. That's a good thing because we really believe it takes a village and back to the other thing we were talking about where you've got to get the person with the disability resolved to want to work. And yes, they come about that ultimately on their own. But if their families are in on it, their friends are in on it, the community is on it and telling them, Hey, this is a good thing. Work brings independence, self-determination and it really, you're going to be contributing to something. I mean, I would assert somebody's self-identity really work is intertwined with that. So we think that things, whether it's the what? Your Vision ad campaign, this Preets practices guide, all of the other work that we're doing, trying to get out into the broader community. We think that rising tide will lift all ships.   Carol: So is that price guide also on your website, David?   David: It sure is Mass.Gov/MCB. Additionally, we have a companion website that goes with it that shows you the graphic novel and is audio described at the same time. And I think that's quest for independence. It's the UWW, AMC B Dash quest for independence. Again, go toMass.Gov/MCB. You'll get the link to it.   Carol: Awesome. No, I'm sure there's some people going to be interested in that as well. That's a bonus tip all listeners for the price guide. That's great. So it might be a little early on seeing this yet, but have you either have you seen any kind of the signs of the long COVID starting to impact customers? David, I'll ask you that first, have you started to see that?   David: Yeah. So in Massachusetts, we haven't seen too much of that, but we have seen hesitancy getting back out into the community a little bit. And on the consumer side, you know, so we're only going to do that when people are comfortable because it's really it's safety first, it's safety first for our team, for our counselors and then additionally for the consumers. We haven't seen too many breakthroughs, fortunately or too much spread in our community in Massachusetts, which we're grateful for. We have a high vaccination rate. I think Massachusetts leads the nation in the percentage of our people who are vaccinated. I think that's contributed and helped really open things up in Massachusetts here. I wouldn't say it's back to what it was pre-COVID, but I think we're trending in the right direction and hopefully sometimes we'll be able to put this behind us.   Carol: Good. Good, Natasha, what about in Minnesota? Are you seeing any signs of like the long COVID in customers?   Natasha: We have not. Between both general and blind. We haven't seen a single applicant or customer who is dealing with long COVID. Part of me is, yes, it might be too soon, and the other part of me is thinking, I don't know if individuals really are realizing that those long term effects are going to have a disabling impact on them, and they may not even realize what VR is or what disability is. They were living and working just as anyone does. And then this happened. So I think there might need to be some awareness out there in the future.   Carol: I can see a campaign coming. I can see David like launching a campaign around this, how we going to serve the long COVID folks. So back in the day, I used to have this personal philosophy. I like to tag to start with, you know, about employment, and I always felt that I wanted our customers to achieve and obtain or maintain family sustaining wages. And I don't focus used to be like, what? Like, what is that? But I didn't want people to just get a job. I wanted them to give more than a job. I was hoping it could lend itself to a career and moving up and having a ladder and buying a house and doing all of that. So what is your personal philosophy around employment and people with disabilities and Natasha, I'll ask you first.   Natasha: My first philosophy is I agree with you, Carol. Any old job does not mean a good job, and family sustaining wage is essential. My other philosophy is I don't believe there should have to be a philosophy around employment of people with disabilities. I mean, frankly, VR is a long term goal needs to be that we aren't needed, that the only factor in any employment situation should be that the individual can do the job and it should not matter if they have a disability or not. And employers need to recognize that every single person brings value and strength to the organization. And we are doing a family sustaining wage study in Minnesota, and 93 percent of individuals with disabilities who are part of the data did not receive a family sustaining wage. 93 percent, there should not be a gap and they should not be relegated to entry level employment, minimum wage employment if they want and need to do more. My philosophy is there shouldn't have to be one.   Carol: I love that here here, Mic-drop on that boom. So David, how about you? Even though we shouldn't have to have one? Do you have a personal philosophy?   David: I certainly do as a consumer myself, having been completely blind multiple times in my life and now being legally blind right on 20-200, there is a significant amount of suffering that occurs with people with blindness, people with disabilities in general. Coming to that acceptance, that disability is going to be part of the natural human condition, I think is the first thing. So once you can come to terms with that, then it becomes the greatest secret right, which is we become what we think about. So if you focus and your resolve that you want to work, you will achieve that and then move up. And so it starts with goal setting and a plan and all the things we talk about in VR, the tried and true methods of sitting down with your family, with your extended circle and drawing up that plan and sticking to it, the path to prosperity is paved by perseverance. You got to hang in there for everyone hundred you ask you. I get 99 no's, and you can't give up until you get that one, yes, even if it's at the hundredth time, so you've got to hang in there, that is. The number one thing is that perseverance, because people with disabilities are naturally inclined to solve problems to hang in there. Whether it's the Accenture study that we know that people with disabilities outperformed in terms of being on time in terms of having less absenteeism, in terms of being productive in many ways. Those are all good traits, but it starts with overcoming the inherent challenges that come with disability. And then once you do that, then come into VR. We've got programs and services, and we've got great professionals who know how to provide opportunities for you.   Carol: I love that. Oh my gosh, I'm glad you said it. That Accenture study as well. It's back to the basics. I always think we used to talk about that. Going back to the basics. I know sometimes it's like, Oh, here's a flashy new program that's going on, but really, it is back to the basics. I am going to ask you, though, have you had any other types of initiatives or practices that you put into place around employment that you're hoping are going to help to move the needle forward? And David, I'm going to kick that to you.   David: So let's talk about some of the realignment projects that we do. I think year one realignment projects that we did. Twenty four separate realignment projects, we follow that up with another six this year. I think we're doing another 6. So we're talking everything from the graphic novel that we talked about to we launched an employer challenge during the pandemic. We get great response on that from the business community, where we challenge the business community to, hey, do one more thing. That's the name of the campaign. Do one more thing. Everybody can be a mentor. You can offer one more internship. How about interviewing and then hiring and then promoting and retaining all of those things? So that's what that campaign is centered around. We launched our Career View podcast. We've got twenty one episodes there on all types of VR topics. We have special guests and staff and counselors sharing their insight, by the way that's available on our website Mass.Gov/MCB. You can also find it on SoundCloud, Apple and Google. So we have our nationally recognized summer internship program. This year, we had nearly 70 individuals participate that joins more than a group of 700 that we've had over the years. In October, we had our job fair. We do that annually at Radcliffe and with partners like Perkins School for the Blind, Carroll Center for the Blind and other community stakeholders. This year we had 40 career ready candidates who pitch themselves. We did reverse pitches, which seem to be a very effective model in the 20 personnel executives that we have loved it and we're getting placements out of that job fair. We did the 60 second elevator pitch, so if you want more information, contact me, be pleased to share it. We did a reach for the stars, which was in that event where we gave out gifts to the people that had the best pitches. And then for Nadeem, we created blogs and worked with our sister agencies, MRC and Match Commission for the death of Hard of Hearing to get it out through their communities to make sure that people know that, yeah, it's about blindness, but it's also about people with deaf blindness and people with blindness and other disabilities as well. So whether it's the virtual town halls that we're doing, I came day celebrations. I mean, we've got a lot of events going on. My team has worked so hard and I think we have the advantage, though, of such institutional knowledge and just great human resources here in Massachusetts with our team at MCB and the consumers. I mean, you just got to have a willing consumer group that wants to take part.   Carol: Well, I think you need to have a session at NCSAB or CSr CSAvR and all the things that you're doing because I could just see, like my old director, wheels are turning. I am sure colleagues from across the country would be like, What are you doing? I want to know more about that.   David: Sign us up. I mean, there is a number of other studies that we did realignment projects. I think in total, Carla and I, who's our communications director, Carla Cathy, does a terrific job. I think we stopped at 52 different projects that we've done over the past 24 months or something like that. So we've got a lot going on. Check us out. Mass.Gov/MCB to find out more.   Carol: Holy smokes. Thanks for sharing that. So Natasha, I know you're representing you and Dee, so are there any other initiatives or practices that you all are doing around employment to move the needle forward?   Natasha: I got sent a whole list that Minnesota General has been doing, but I think the biggest thing I wanted to share first is that we are doing most of these things together. I think Minnesota General and Minnesota Blind had had a long history of being very isolated from one another and siloed. That is no more. We do almost everything together and as one voice, and so a lot of the things I'll be talking about, we are doing this as a team, but with employment, I think pre-employment is the first place we start is when you build that. Relationship between a student and work, so a couple of things that we're doing at SSB is bring your a game where students are meeting monthly and they get information about an Alexa game and then they play that game with their family and friends, and then they come back together with their peers to talk about the game and how it relates to jobs and job skills. And then we also did an open mic night so that we can encourage the artistic side of our students. And they came, Well, they're going to be coming on the 28th. They're singers and bands and poets and comedians and storytellers, so they'll be able to share their talent. We're also expanding our pre-employment transition services programs. We're adding another work opportunity navigator who's going to be focused on providing work experiences in the northern region since we have a ton of students up there and a lot of need. We're also entering into a contract with the third party to host liability insurance so that we can get more students out there for work experiences. That's been our biggest barrier, so we figured let's get over that so we can get students paid work experiences. We have a program in Minnesota called the Connect seven hundred program, which is great but could be better. But Connect seven hundred is like Schedule A, where a person with a disability can come in and have a noncompetitive interview. And the Connect 700 program has just soared this last year. And the stats are that someone who applies for Connect 700 with the state are nearly twice as likely to get hired than someone from the general public firsthand. SSB has had a number of vacancies in every single vacancy, has had to connect 700 applicant and almost every single vacancy has been hired from a Connect 700. So that's been a really great experience. Another huge project, and I'm going to say it's 2 projects. The first is the elimination of subminimum wage. Legislature created a task force to eliminate it by 2025 and going hand in hand with that is our collaboration with the Department of Human Services to help people who are on waivers and receiving vocational rehabilitation to get jobs. We're doing something called service provider alignment, so if someone's on a waiver and getting vocational rehabilitation services, they can have the same provider from start to finish. We have a new framework called Engage Plan, Find and Keep so that it helps people move through that process without any delays so that they can get into employment. And there's no back and forth of who's paying for what. So it's a seamless experience. And then I could go on and on with 50 more things, but for sake of time, I won't. But the final thing is we have increased our collaboration with our WIO partners tenfold because they have connections. We don't we know disability, but they have connections with the business community we often can't replicate. So we've been doing a lot with our title 1 and title 3 partners. And so with that, I'll turn it back to you, Carol.   Carol: Well, I know that's been on your heart for a long time. You've always talked about that partnership with the WIO partners, and that is so critical. You both have so much happening. And so I want to lead us into our National Disability Employment Awareness Month, little part of our discussion and how each of your agencies is drawing attention to this month. So, Natasha, I know that I was following on social media as well and saw that there was an employer event earlier in the month. So can you tell us a little bit about how that went?   Natasha: Yeah, we had over 400 attendees. We invited the creators of the windmill training. If you're familiar with windmills, Milt Wright is the company, and the two owners of that corporation actually came and presented. And the topic was music within disability inclusion in a business world, and that recording is available on YouTube. And if you go to our Career Force website, it's available on there. We also unveiled something called disability inclusion bite-size learning modules for employers, and they are 20 minute modules and there are five of them that employers can go in and learn about disability inclusion, and there's tip sheets and tip cards and how they can incorporate it into their business. We've also done a number of blog posts and of course, we celebrated White Cane Day and we posted three videos regarding White Cane Day and what it means for people with vision loss. And fortunately, our governor is very much in support and issue two proclamations one for NDI and one for White Cane Day.   Carol: Yeah, that was awesome and I loved it. I saw your video too, promoting White Cane Day. I thought that was really well done. Both of you are good at the old social media and David, I follow the mask commission all the time on social media and I saw you were part of a panel a couple of weeks ago for National Disability Employment Awareness Month.   David: Yeah.   Carol: and also I saw there was a podcast dropped and you had a couple of other tweets out and some really cool things with customers. I just wondered if there's any things you want to highlight about the special month.   David: Again, just a shout out to our team for doing such a great job with all of the social. Media, Caller Kath is doing a great job, but did a VR panel with the state exchange for employment for people with disabilities, a seed project which counts on state governments, has an affiliate. It's the National Association of State Personnel executives. So NASPE they had their conference in Boston, so they wanted to hear from me. So we were able to present there about hiring people with disabilities. So we're a model employer state. We talked a little bit about that and how they could do things in their state. So that was good. But we kicked off the month with our vlog and our ad campaign that I mentioned previously. What's your vision, which is on TV and it's in print and it's really getting a lot of traction. We had our job fair. We had our employer of the year and then our Reach for the Stars contest, which we talked about. We had our virtual town hall with our transportation authority, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority, about barriers and making sure that people with disabilities have their free or reduced Charlie card in Massachusetts. If you're blind, you have a free travel pass to be able to travel throughout the public transit system. So we talked about that we had a white pain awareness day and celebration where we had some mobility awards within that program. That was fun, but we had a provider's council presentation with the disability commissioners all throughout Massachusetts about human services and things like that. We presented to higher education professionals at Lesley University. We did an event for parents of children with blindness and visual impairments for the Boston Public Schools and New England College of Optometry. Again, just more of the reallotment project. So it's very busy at MCB, but it's a good thing. And I think that's one of the reasons why you're seeing the amount of consumers coming in for VR is up. The amount of closures is up. So it's a good thing. I think it's working.   Carol: I'd say so, David, I think you need to train your peers. I have never seen anyone quite like you and how you've promoted and really gotten traction in Massachusetts and have made some really cool things happen. I think it's amazing. And Natasha, I just wanted to say so that if people wanted to follow what you were talking about with the mini modules for the employers, I looked it up and it's CareerForceMN.com. So if anybody wants to listen to that, definitely. David's promoted his website to a number of times, but folks should definitely go to both because I think that you will get a lot of rich information that is applicable in any state. It doesn't have to be that it was developed for Massachusetts or Minnesota. What's being said are things that are pertinent anywhere. So I know we need to close up here shortly and I just want to ask you each. So if you had a shiny VR crystal ball and you could forecast what is happening with VR 5 years from now and how would employment for VR look? And what do you think needs to be done to just overall improve employment for individuals with disabilities? Natasha, I'm going to go to you first and then I'll go to David   Natasha: O if only I had that crystal ball. You know, I think we can't have VR look the same in 5 years from now as it does 5 years ago. I think we have hung our hats on the old way of doing VR for so long, and we really, really need to reimagine across the board how we work with our customers and everything that David says. This is what I hope that all VR agencies embrace. We need to connect people to not just any old job. We need to be focusing on advancement. We want people to never have to come back to VR. But yeah, that's the majority of our cases. Are people returning. That's why we need to invest people for the long haul and we need to make sure that they have everything that they need so that they do not come back. And the way that we approach businesses, I think, has been kind of archaic and has been from this. Well, we're going to convince you to hire people with disabilities, but we need to be driving home that the expectation is if employers want talented, loyal staff, a strong business model that embraces diversity and inclusion and a workforce that actually reflects their stakeholders and customers, then they cannot disregard the disability community. And VR needs to be the leader in that message. And it cannot be. Just please hire someone with a disability that's not going to work, and that's not our approach anymore.   Carol: Well said. Well said. So, David, how about you? Do you have a crystal ball?   David: Wish I did. But the great poet Santayana said those who forget the past are condemned to repeat it, so I think we need to look back. Let's look back at starting with like Smith's best act and all of that and see how much progress we have made. And even it just contemporarily when we're talking about we did away with homemakers, that was a big VR thing. Right now, it's imminent that we're going to get rid of. 14C, that's another step. You know, I look at programs like the SBA8A program. Let's get included in that. I look at Randolph Sheppard as we've seen the pandemic just crushed so many of those vendors there. What can we do now to expand that program or to get that program into other sectors or industries to keep that alive and keep people entrepreneurial? So I. I think the future's bright for VR, I believe in incremental change. These are long standing challenges that are profound. And so to me, it's like, what can we do to look at the existing program, incorporate all of the good things that we've talked about, all of the things that we've been hyper accelerated to learn as a result of COVID. It's the transportation piece that we talked about, the technology piece that we talked about. Let's keep that going so we can provide our people with access to the opportunities. And I'm just very confident that we're trending in the right direction. I want to keep it going.   Carol: Well, thank you, David, for those positive words at the end. I really appreciate that. I think you two are both such a visionary and just talented leaders, and I'm really looking forward to the work you all do over these next five years. Very excited. Thank you for being on the show. I appreciate your time. I know you're both busy.   David: Thank you, Carol.   Natasha: Thanks to you all.   Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR. 1 manager at a time, 1 minute at a time brought to you by the VRtAC 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!

W audycji: Pamięć września 1939. Spotkanie z Marszałkiem J. Chełstowskim. Lwów w oczach Ślązaków. Byliśmy pod Zadwórzem. Wio na piechotę – do Lwowa!

Wioślarska czwórka podwójna kobiet wywalczyła dla reprezentacji Polski pierwszy medal Igrzysk w Tokio. Specjalnie dla RMF FM znakomity występ skomentowała jedna z autorek tego sukcesu - Maria Sajdak.

WIO #170: Husband Auditions with Angela Ruth StrongWhat if you were a romance author and you decided that romance was simply an illusion? What if you then discovered a love that will last only find out you have cancer? As writers, we create all types of conflict for our characters, but conflict in real life often brings us to our knees. I'll be talking about all these things with my author friend Angela Ruth Strong. We're also talking about her new book Husband Auditions, which is adorable! I know you're going to enjoy our chat! For links on everything we chatted about in today's episode, visit: HTTP://triciagoyer.com/170 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #169: The Power of Writing It Down with Allison Fallon. Can good things come to those who write? Today's guest Allison Fallon knows that most people think of writing as a chore, but she considers it self-care. And, after this interview, I agree! For link on everything we chatted about in this episode, visit: HTTP://triciagoyer.com/169 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #168: The Nature of Fragile Things with Susan Meissner — I loved this interview with novelist Susan Meissner! Her newest novel, The Nature of Fragile Things, is so good! It's one of those I think about even when I'm not reading! I know you're going to love this interview between me and Susan! For links on everything we talked about in this episode, visit: http://triciagoyer.com/168 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #167: How Loving Your Neighbor Changes the World. I so loved chatting with Dave and Jon Ferguson about their B.L.E.S.S. way to loving your neighbor! You are going to pick up so much encouragement from this episode! For links on everything we chatted about in their episode, visit: HTTP://triciagoyer.com/167 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

#WIO #66 Is It Just Me? With Grace Valentine. If you have young girls in your life, they need to listen to this episode! Grace so encouraging and a great role model. They are going to love this episode! For links on everything we chatted about in this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/166 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #165: So Worth Loving with Eryn Eddy. Eryn's book is one that I want to get in all my girls' hands. It is a message I want them to know — you are so worth loving. I know you are going to love this conversation with Eryn! For links and everything we talked about in this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/165 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO 164 A Habit Called Faith with Jen Pollock Michel. If you are looking for ways to build your faith, you are going to love this episode! For links on everything we chatted about in this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/164 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #163: Faith, Farming, and Family with Caitlin Henderson. I so enjoyed chatting this week with Caitlin Henderson about her new book Faith, Farming, and Family! If you've ever had a dream of living on a farm, you're going to love this episode! For links on everything we talked about in this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/163 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #161: The Well-Watered Woman with Gretchen Saffles. You are going to be so inspired by today's conversation with Gretchen! For links and notes on everything we chatted about in today's episode, visit: HTTP://triciagoyer.com/161 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #159: The Life You Long For with Christy Nockels. If you're ready to discover how to really hear God in new ways, you aren't going to want to miss this episode with Christy Nockels! For notes and links on everything we talked about in this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/159 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #158: Love Centered Parenting with Crystal Paine. I so loved chatting about parenting with Crystal Paine! You don't want to miss this episode. For show notes and links on everything we talked about this week, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/158 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #157: Beyond the White Picket Fence with Sheri Rose Shepherd. You are going to be so inspired by today's episode! We chat about how our invisible God can become most visible when he is out only hope. Don't miss it! For link on everything we talked about on the show, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/157 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #156: Daily Acts of Friendship with Kendra Roehl and Kristen Demery — you are going to love this episode all about friendship with Kendra Roehl and Kristen Demery from The Ruth Experience! For links of everything we talked about in this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/156 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #155 Turn Your Season Around with Darryl Strawberry. Baseball fan or not, you're going to love hearing from Darryl's heart! For links of everything we chatted about on the show, visit: https://www.triciagoyer.com/155 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #154 From Burned Out to Beloved with Bethany Dearborn Hiser. We are talking about soul care for wounded warriors. I know your are going to enjoy this episode! For links to everything we chatted about on this episode, visit: https://www.triciagoyer.com/154 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #153 Grace Enough with Amber Cullum. Want to know what a Sabbath rest can look like for your family? You're not going to want to miss this episode! For links of everything we chatted about in this episode, visit: https://www.triciagoyer.com/153 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #152: Verse Mapping, Paris, and Travel with Kristy Cambron — I loved catching up with Kristy on her new verse mapping Bibles! We also chatted about her upcoming fiction — and a trip to Paris that YOU can take with Kristy! You're going to enjoy this episode! For links to everything we talked about on this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/152 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

Mima and Mel bring you your ultimate Valentine's Day gift guide for everyone on your list, every item is WIO approved from steals to spurges to fit every budget! Check out our Instagram for the guide!

WIO 151 Praying Scriptures for Your Children with Jodie Berndt - There isn't much more overwhelming than parenting! I know you'll be encouraged by this episode! For links on everything we chatted about in this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/151 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

Was ist eigentlich ein "WiO"? Und was macht es den ganzen Tag? WiO, das ist die Abkürzung für "Willkommen in Oranienburg" - einem kleinen Verein, nördlich von Berlin, in der Oberhaveler Kreisstadt Oranienburg beheimatet. Die Vereinsvorsitzende Ulrike Feldner erklärt, was ein WiO so treibt und welche Herausforderungen ehrenamtliches Engagement manchmal so mit sich bringt?

WIO #150 Is parenting sucking you dry? You are going to love this episode with Maggie Combs! Enjoy! Get links to everything we talked about in this episode at https://triciagoyer.com/150 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO 149 I loved chatting with Gary Thomas about Sacred Pathways — there are nine, just like the enneagram! Intrigued? You're going to love this episode! For links and notes of everything we chatted about in this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/149 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #148: Today on the podcast I'm chatting with Hannah Brencher about her new book Fighting Forward. I know you're going to enjoy this episode! For links on everything we chatted about in this episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/148 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #146: Defend Your Faith with Jesse Florea. Apologetics doesn't have to be a scary word. If you have kids, you're going to love this episode! You can get links for everything we chatted about in this episode by visiting https://www.triciagoyer.com/146 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #147: Worship as Soul Care with Kari Jobe. Kari and I talk all things worship, Christmas, and soul care. I know you're going to enjoy! You can get links for everything we chatted about in this episode by visiting https://www.triciagoyer.com/147 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

Wioślarze są w ogromnym niebezpieczeństwie. Zaraz zginą. Nad ich łodziami zawisła olbrzymia fala. Jej spieniona grzywa przypomina szpony drapieżnika, który już za moment rzuci się do ataku i rozerwie ofiarę na strzępy. W tym starciu z nieprzejednanymi siłami przyrody, słabi ludzie nie mają szans. Hen tam, w oddali widać ośnieżony szczyt świętej góry Fudżi. Czy ją także zmyje nadciągająca z lewej strony fala? Kiedy wpiszecie w okienko wyszukiwarki Google hasło: „Jaki jest najbardziej japoński obraz?”, to po naciśnięciu klawisza ENTER w mig wyświetli się wam zwielokrotniony wizerunek „Wielkiej fali”. Ten japoński drzeworyt, który wyszedł spod ręki mistrza Hokusaia, przez nas – Europejczyków – uznawany jest za sztandarowy przykład sztuki kraju kwitnącej wiśni. Rzecz w tym, że gdyby zadać to samo pytanie Japończykowi, usłyszelibyśmy zupełnie inną odpowiedź. Jaką? O tym wszystkim opowiadam Wam na życzenie jednej z słuchaczek - Sławy Sibigi – poetki z Tychów, która wysłała zgłoszenie na mój facebookowy fanpage DAWNO TEMU W SZTUCE i którą z tego miejsca serdecznie pozdrawiam. A jeżeli Ty też chcesz, żebym nagrała podcast o Twoim ulubionym obrazie lub artyście, pisz śmiało na messengera. Możesz mi nawet przesłać krótkie audio - nagrane nawet zwykłym telefonem. Powiedz, co chcesz, co czujesz -byle w związku z tematem. Możesz też kogoś pozdrowić - taki malarski koncert życzeń. :-) Kto wie - może usłyszysz się w moim podcaście. Przypomnę, że Wasze zgłoszenia tematów do kolejnych audycji przyjmuję na moim facebookowym fanpagu DAWNO TEMU W SZTUCE, jestem też na INSTA zatem zapraszam. Polecam! LAJKUJCIE! SUBSKRYBUJCIE! ZAPISUJCIE, BO TO DUŻO DLA MNIE ZNACZY! *** ZOSTAŃ ZE MNĄ I SUBSKRYBUJ MNIE NA YOU TUBE!➜https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMxRpfeSsXPvIzm0VulyU_g?sub_confirmation=1 MÓJ FACEBOOK (felietony+filmy+podcasty) ➜ https://www.facebook.com/zasztukowani/ Podcasty do słuchania tutaj: ANCHOR (podcasty)➜https://anchor.fm/dawnotemuwsztuce/episodes/ep-eblv2v SPOTIFY(podcasty)➜ https://open.spotify.com/show/0eiFSN9Z7gNQXJgLtQnqF8 i na wielu innych platformach streamingowych w tym Breaker, Google podcasts, Overcast, Pocket Cast, Radio Public. Można również wpisać w wyszukiwarce: "dawno temu w sztuce podcast" i wtedy w wynikach wyszukiwania znajdzie się mój kanał! MUZYKA: Na końcu podcastu - tradycyjnie - zagra dla nas młoda kompozytorka - Hania Derej. :-) Polecam jej stronę oraz koncert online. #HOVATOFF Meteor # Xue Hua Piao Piao / Yi Jian Mei --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/dawnotemuwsztuce/message

WIO #145 Ringleaders with Erin Weidemann. I loved chatting about Erin's series of amazing books for girls. I know you'll love this episode! You can get links for everything we chatted about in this episode by visiting https://triciagoyer.com/145 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #144 Calm the Heck Down with Melanie Dale. If you need a little inspiration in your parenting, you'll want to listen in! Enjoy! For links on what we chatted about and graphics to share for this week's episode, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/144 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #143 First 15 Emmanuel with Craig Denison. We're talking about drawing closer to God. I know you're going to be encouraged by this episode! For links for everything we talked about visit: https://www.triciagoyer.com/143 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO 142 Preparing Your Daughter for Womanhood with Robin Jones Gunn We're chatting about parenting daughters! You're going to love this episode! For links and everything we chatted about in this episode visit: https://triciagoyer.com/142 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO 141 The Money Challenge for Teens with Art Rainer. I'm excited to bring you this episode with Art. If you have kids, you're going to want to listen! Enjoy! For links on everything we talked about, visit: https://triciagoyer.com/141 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO 140 In a Boat in the Middle of a Lake with Patrick and Ruth Schwenk. We are chatting about marriage during hard times. Enjoy! For links of all we chatted about on the show, visit: https://www.triciagoyer.com/140 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO 139: The Color of Life with Cara Meredith. In this episode of Walk it Out, Cara Meredith shares her beautiful story of her interracial marriage and mixed-race family. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #138: Parenting First Aid with Marty Machowski. Today we're talking all things parenting with Marty Machowski. I know you will enjoy! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #137 For Girls Like You with the Pitt Girls. This is such a sweet episode. You're going to love getting to know the daughters of Winter n Jonathan Pitts. For links to everything we chatted about in this episode, visit: https://walkitoutpodcast.com/137 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #136 I'm so excited to chat with author Andrew Peterson this week about his music, the Wingfeather Saga, the Rabbit Room, and more! Enjoy! For links of everything we chatted about on this episode, visit: https://www.triciagoyer.com/walk-it-out-136-the-wingfeather-saga-with-andrew-peterson/ --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #135: Boy Mom with Monica Swanson. We're chatting all about raising boys! You're going to love this episode. For show notes and links to everything we talked about, visit: https://www.triciagoyer.com/135 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #134: Love Her Well with Kari Kampakis. Kari and I talk about ways to connect with our girls, and how to pray. If you have ANY influence in a young woman's life, you're going to want to listen to this podcast! For show notes and everything we talked about on the show, visit https://www.triciagoyer.com/134 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #133: Let Them Be Kids with Jessica Smartt. Such a great interview with Jessica on our kids and letting them be kids. You're going to be inspired by this podcast! For links and everything we chatted about in this episode, visit https://triciagoyer.com/133 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

WIO #132: Sky Full of Stars with Meg Apperson. Do you trust God? In today's episode, we chat about what it really means to trust God. You are going to be so encouraged! Enjoy! Get links and show notes here: https://www.triciagoyer.com/132 I know that you’re going to love this interview with Meg Apperson! --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/walkitoutwithtriciagoyer/support

Welcome to the Electromaker Show, episode 11! Here are the latest maker, tech, DIY, IoT, embedded updates from the week of August 17, 2020. This week saw MQTT running on the Wio terminal, a DIY Arduino-powered “Futurama” death clock, 3D-printed Spider-man mask, and more! We publish a new show every week. Subscribe here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiMO2NHYWNiVTzyGsPYn4DA Read the article: https://www.electromaker.io/blog/article/electromaker-show-episode-11 Listen to the Electromaker Show in podcast format: https://directory.libsyn.com/shows/view/id/electromaker MQTT on Wio Terminal: https://www.electromaker.io/project/view/mqtt-on-wio-terminal Arduino-powered Futurama Death Clock: https://www.electromaker.io/project/view/futurama-death-clock Colors of the Piano Reactive Light Strip: https://youtu.be/SFE_4Ii6NKU  Open-faced 8 Step Sequencer: https://youtu.be/ARQX9_Gwc9A Arduino James Bond Watch: https://www.reddit.com/r/arduino/comments/iapkka/regular_watches_dont_have_lasers_so_i_made_my_own/ 3D-printed Spider-man Mask: https://www.reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/comments/i99a63/3d_printed_spiderman_homecoming_mask/ Great Scott greenhouse part 2 - motorized window https://youtu.be/gsMqwNi4wT4 64-channel RTD Measurement Pi HAT: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/279405789/64-channel-rtd-measurement-for-raspberry-pi?ref=android_project_share 8bitCADE XL: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/jackdaly/8bitcade-xl-a-diy-educational-gaming-kit?ref=android_project_share Wainlux K6: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2109720319/engrave-your-creativity-anytime?ref=user_menu Inkplate 6 Wi-Fi Arduino e-paper Display: https://www.crowdsupply.com/e-radionica/inkplate-6

Wio

Er ist seit Jahren nicht mehr aus der Wiesbadener Eventlandschaft wegzudenken, ist Inhaber der Agentur WIO, veranstaltet so einzigartige Events wie "Wiesbaden.Feiert", legt selbst auf, ist gemeinsam mit "Sinnesgut" verantwortlich für die "Burgstraße" während des Wilhelmstraßefestes und hilft jetzt, während der Corona-Krise, der "gelackmeierten" Gastronomie mit der Internet-Seite wiesbaden.help (in Mainz mainz.help)ehrenamtlich. Ein Grund mehr, mit ihm über seine Anfänge, seine Lust aufs Kaffeetrinken und seine kongenialen Partner Daniel Redin und Wolfgang Vogel zu sprechen. Diese Podcast wurde per ZOOM aufgenommen. Der Zweck heiligt die Mittel:-) Shownotes 0:00 Einleitung 1:08 Begrüßung & Vergangenheit 7:05 WIO – von Künstler- zur Kommunikationsagentur 10:20 Büroalltag bei WIO, Audiluma & Sinnesgut 12:20 Corona-Krise und die ehrenamtliche Arbeit mit wiesbaden.help und mainz.help für Gastronomien 13:50 Entwicklung und Initiieren der Idee 15:40 Veränderung in den Gastronomien in der jetzigen Zeit 17:58 Live-Stream Party mit Zoom. Innovative Idee für die Zukunft? 21:30 Prognose für die Zukunft und die Sommerfeste 24:27 Quick and Dirty Fragen 24:40 Erste Platte 25:05 Buchtipp 25:30 Welcher Streamingdienst? 26:25 Wer ist der erste im Büro und dein Morgenritual 27:00 Podcastempfehlung 27:20 wiesbaden.help und mainz.help Aufruf 30:00 Gastronom deiner Wahl 30:30 Ende

#118 | Alles was du über VEGAN wissen musst ft. Wio
- Wenn du vegan bist ist diese Episode ein MUSS für dich. Wio, die Model und Influencer, mit über 90 000 Followern ist hat bei ihrer Community Fragen gesammelt, die ich beantworte.
Themen:
*Vegan und der Klimawandel
*Vegane Supplements- Was brauch ich wirklich?
*Soja und warum es gesund ist
*meine Beweggründe
* und vieles mehr :-)
-
Folge Wio auf Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/wioleta_daria/
- DAS BESTE VITAMIN B12, Vitamin D und Omega 3 gibt es bei Vivolife.de (10% Rabatt mit dem Code „shmonkey“)

Multinährstoff:
https://www.amazon.de/Daily-Vegan-PLUS-Monats-Vorrat-vegetarische/dp/B07VZ81W6C/ref=sr_1_15?__mk_de_DE=ÅMÅŽÕÑ&keywords=jod+und+selen&qid=1585464418&sr=8-15 - BKK PROVITA VEGANE KRANKENKASSE: https://bkk-provita.de/ernaehrung/axelschura/ -
LASS DICH VON MIR COACHEN:
https://axelschura.mykajabi.com/store
  JETZT Veganer Ernährungsberater werden:  https://ecodemy.de/veganer-ernaehrungsberater-ausbildung-fernstudium/?ref=131
- FOLGE MIR AUF INSTAGRAM:
https://www.instagram.com/axelschura

Season 2 of The Digital Orthodontist: Live! continues with the founder of the Women in Orthodontics Study Group and Conference, Dr. Courtney Dunn. We discuss what happens inside the WIO group, the challenges of working while pregnant, practicing with an Orthodontist husband, how to manage a large, 4-location practice, what Courtney is up to these days with the AAO, and much, much more.

Jerzy Brzęczek szykuje piłkarzy do kolejnych spotkań w Eliminacjach do Euro 2020 i przypomina, że grupa jeszcze nie jest wygrana. Wioślarze wywalczyli kwalifikacje olimpijskie, mają też medale Mistrzostw Świata. Hołowczyc a nie Przygoński triumfuje w Orlen Baja Poland, a kierowcy z polskiej czołówki rajdowej szykują się do pokonywania śląskich odcinków specjalnych.

Renata Kim rozmawia z Manuelą Gretkowską o strajku nauczycieli, o Wiośnie Roberta Biedronia oraz o wyborach do PE.

To już drugi wywiad z Ewą Radanowicz w naszym podcaście. Poprzednio realizowaliśmy go online, ale tym razem podjęliśmy decyzję aby na rozmowę pojechać do Radowa Małego, aby przy okazji wywiadu obejrzeć szkołę, zrobić kilka zdjęć, lepiej zrozumieć zmianę, jaka zaszła w tej szkole. Rozmowa dotyczy nie tylko tej placówki, ale zmiany jako procesu, który dotyczy każdego, kto decyduje się na rozwój. Dlaczego boimy się zmian? Co musi się wydarzyć, aby nastąpił rozwój? Jaki ograniczenia są w nas, które nie pozwalają nam na postęp? Jak pomóc innym przejść proces przemiany? O co chodzi w "Wiośnie edukacji"? Na te i wile innych pytań udało nam się znaleźć odpowiedź w czasie tych kilku godzin spędzonych w bardzo miłym towarzystwie.

To już drugi wywiad z Ewą Radanowicz w naszym podcaście. Poprzednio realizowaliśmy go online, ale tym razem podjęliśmy decyzję aby na rozmowę pojechać do Radowa Małego, aby przy okazji wywiadu obejrzeć szkołę, zrobić kilka zdjęć, lepiej zrozumieć zmianę, jaka zaszła w tej szkole. Rozmowa dotyczy nie tylko tej placówki, ale zmiany jako procesu, który dotyczy każdego, kto decyduje się na rozwój. Dlaczego boimy się zmian? Co musi się wydarzyć, aby nastąpił rozwój? Jaki ograniczenia są w nas, które nie pozwalają nam na postęp? Jak pomóc innym przejść proces przemiany? O co chodzi w "Wiośnie edukacji"? Na te i wile innych pytań udało nam się znaleźć odpowiedź w czasie tych kilku godzin spędzonych w bardzo miłym towarzystwie.

Tweeze recently went on the We Need More Crates podcast and dropped an all Can Con mix... Hold Tight, new episodes coming SOON!!!! TrackListing: Tweeze mix Ghetto Concept - Mista Crack Ed Maestro ft Showbiz - Fine tune the mic Kardi - On wit da show Infinite - I gotta get mine Choclair - Flagrant Black I - Where Im from Redlife - Ya done know Mathematik - Learn to earn Kardi - Rhyme shine and buss Da Grassroots - Price of livin Theo 3 Under pressure Wio k - Footloose IRS Tracks lament 1.5 King Reign - Happy endings Arcee - Strips Esh mix 5 dutch freestyle (exclusive) SBU - stars Isolated Showers - Shaun Boothe - Stomp Saukrates - Money or love Nefarius - Clarence Gruff - Mystery Unsolved

In the last week of our WIO series, Pastor Dione wraps it all up with how it comes together to make BCC who we are.

In week three of our WIO series, Dr. Jason Craig continues with the joining of the family and the church.

In week two of our WIO series, Pastor Dione talks about the next Orange principle - being the heart.

In week one of our WIO series, Pastor Dione introduces our curriculum and how it goes far beyond just teaching a lesson.

The WIO crew was busy performing at Phoenix Pride this week. In their absence Ernesto pulled together some of his favorites clips from season 1. Enjoy. The crew will be back with a post Pride show next week. Thank you for SO much for your support. Happy Pride