 Well, hello, everybody. Welcome. Welcome to Brain Club. My new thing is I discovered this quote a few weeks ago and I can't stop thinking about it. So I'm sharing it again like last week that I think really captures, I know for a few of you, this is your first Brain Club. And I think this captures like what we try to do here. You never change things by fighting the existing reality to change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete. And I think what we try to do here at Brain Club is to provide education about neurodiversity first and foremost, but it's more than that. It's about bringing people together based on a shared vision of what's possible and to contribute to systems change by shifting social norms, developing shared vocabulary, shared concepts and seeing these concepts play out through the stories, the stories of community panelists like those we'll hear from today, the stories of so many people in our community. This is a space where people can collectively learn and unlearn and feel safe and experienced for many people, something that's different from the quote outside world and really promoting new ways of thinking and being. We believe that's how you collectively change the world. We do want to say before we begin, this is an education program. Only this is not for medical or mental health advice, this is not a support group or brains belong does have programs that do all those things but this is for education purposes only. So it's not a place to discuss or solve individual specific problems or process individual circumstances. Those of participation are okay here at Brain Club and you can have your video on or off and even if it's on we don't expect anything of you we certainly don't need you to sit still or you know look at the camera or any other neuro normative construct feel free to spigot or stem or eat or breaks or whatever else needs doing. Welcome to communicate in any format that you are most comfortable with you can also send private chat messages to a member any members of our staff. And in addition to affirming all aspects of identity. We really strive to protect the collective access needs, you know the access needs of the group, giving space and making sure to limit what we talk about to the impact of experiences not distressing events. So that's a bit of access commentary. Close captioning is enabled you just have to toggle it on if you'd like to use it. So depending on your version of zoom you might see lab transcript closed captioning but if not look for the more dot dot dot and choose show subtitles and you can also do the same for hide subtitles if you want to turn them off. So that's my visual support to open the chat box so that I will actually see what you're all saying Hi everybody. Speaking of the chat box we got feedback a couple of weeks ago that some folks versions of zoom or depending on what device somebody's on. If we're using the thread feature we're like replying and thread some people can't see that. We're trying this experiment we were asking folks to type in the regular chat box, instead of the reply thread so that everyone can access the contact. All right, so our topic for today connection is the path to health is actually the topic for the month. What we know is that lacking strong social connection is really bad for health, it has the equivalent harmful impact on health is smoking 15 cigarettes a day. We know that the overwhelming majority of neurodivergent adults struggle with loneliness. And we think about all of the different ways in which community members are other when we think about the impact of intersectional marginalization, the loneliness just stacks and stacks. And to quote from Dr. Rebecca Murphy was the author of the book together, which will be discussing at this month's book chat the last week of the month. Social connection stands out as a largely unrecognized and underappreciated force for addressing many of the critical problems we're dealing with both as individuals and as a society. And so, you know, as we say here at all brains belong to do anything for the neurodivergent community who must do everything. And so, you know, social connection bringing people together based on shared interests and a shared vision of what's possible that is so so for us so critical to health. Which is why this is our theme of the month. And so we'll be talking, we'll be talking about this theme in several different ways throughout the month. But today, we'll begin by hearing from leaders in our community. Asynchronously will be joined by Keegan Alba for the executive director of dad guild Sheila Linton the executive director of the root social justice center. And live will be joined by Luke Rackers the director of development and communications for central Vermont Council on aging and Chris Hansen the executive director of intentional peer support. Thank you all so much for being here. So what we'll do is we'll hear from our pre recorded panelists. Just start so let me turn off my share screen and David take it away and while the video is playing feel free to you can ask questions in the chat those panelists are not here but if we can answer the questions will will pass the questions back to our panelists and circle we'll have next week with responses but feel free to use the chat while you're watching the video would would would love to hear about death. Yeah, sure. So, my name is Keegan Alba, you see him pronouns and I'm the executive director at dad guild. We are a nonprofit organization that was founded in 2019 working to engage dads and masculine identifying caregivers in their roles as parents and nurturers. We do this through providing like a wide range of avenues into our community. So we do play groups for like dads and kids we do whole family events we do dads night out events where people will go and like, you know do trivia, or go play basketball or pickleball. We do monthly campfires outside for people to like share how they're feeling. We need, we do a new dad cohort so like a group when you have a baby and you need a community to, you know, experience that with we have that workshops but groups podcast Facebook group. We have a couple, we do a couple, three virtual events every night every month as well. So like to zoom check ins and a game night. So, you know, our philosophy, or one of our many philosophies is that there isn't the one solution to meet everyone's needs that people have a variety, have a wide range of needs and what they feel comfortable with and what their preferences are and also just where they're physically able to show up and not show up. And so trying to provide as many avenues into our community, so that it doesn't require, you know, things like geographic location or financial status, or what your immune system looks like that those are not barriers to participation. There's a firm belief that when we engage men and male identifying folks as nurturers and we promote a version of masculinity that's rooted in love and empathy and vulnerability that our kids are better off. There's so much research that developmentally kids do better when dads are engaged and supported. They have themselves experience huge benefits. I could go for a while around how men are struggling right now mental health wise loneliness. Suicide, you know the rate of suicide for men is four times that of women here in the state of Vermont and nationally. So it supports men's mental health, and then also advancing issues of gender equality, preventing violence and dismantling systems of oppression. I think that by, you know, historically men in our society have a lot of power. And so one, how are we supporting them and engaging them as caregivers and then to how are we, how are we, I guess like leveling the playing field a bit like there's a lot of research that the amount of money that women leave on the table because they step away from their jobs to care for a child once they're born is pretty astronomical. It's like hundreds of thousands of dollars over a lifetime if they take five years off after the birth of a child. I've never had a conversation like this with the idea of like, you're really, you're really from a social justice perspective you're not in addition to engaging and supporting a group of people at the exact same time. You are facilitating the redistribution of power away from the people you're serving that is fucking mind blowing to me. So tell me more about that. It's, it's been a fine dance to walk. I mean, at first we were like, we don't want to scare people away because the idea of even just men getting together and talking was like such a foreign concept that we didn't want to scare people away but now that we've grown. We have like, you know, we have to, we have four staff. We have a network of about 1000 dads across the state. We've provided I think like 800 hours of community based programming over the past five years. We're a growing network that has just had a significant impact that we just as we're collecting data we're seeing the impact that we are having on our communities and our families. Now we can definitely, I feel like we can speak a bit more confidently about like, hey, part of our goal here is to dismantle systems of power and redistribute that power. Like, I don't want to use the phrase smash the patriarchy because even that phrase in itself is violent. I think, I think that like, I don't know, hug out the patriarchy or like, I don't know what the phrase is but but that is what we're invested in doing. Part for me like part of reimagining inclusive community. If anyone not have, you know, freedom to access the resources that they need and in a, you know, dignified respected way, you know, like no one wins. Yeah, no one wins and everyone suffers in a patriarchy and being able to have that shared understanding and look at how are we all perpetuating this and what can we do about it. And the idea that there's something about the mech like like the different mechanisms by which people might go about reimagining systems in a more equitable fashion. What I'm hearing from you is the idea that community connection and the for all of those reasons so it's it's it's not just, you know, provision of resources it's the idea of community and the health. The, you know, the co regulation that like there's the skills, right there's like so that you're addressing many mechanisms of that redistribution of power, like, in a way that if you skip the community aspect it's not like go to a training and you'll learn the thing to dismantle the patriarchy. It's, you're doing something far bigger than that. We're not, we're not, we're not experts we're not coming here being like hey, this is how you parent. It's like, no, the idea is like talk to everyone like getting form but yeah let's read books let's do workshops and then let's discuss like knowing that it's one solution doesn't work for everyone, but building community and like having conversations about it and learning from each other. It's just such a powerful experience. Absolutely. So how can folks get involved with dad guild. Yeah, so folks can get involved with dad guild, you can go to our website dad guild.org, and we're on Facebook, and Instagram, so if you search for dad guild. One thing I will stress because sometimes folks are like, Oh, it's just for dads. That's not the case. If you'll if you'll look at our website we try to color coordinate our calendar. We have like a winter programming guide up that says like what's what's for whole families what's just for dads, because we also like, we want to be a part of this and re envisioning what like healthy parenting looks like in building community where it's, we're not putting down people, we're being vulnerable we're being honest, we're connecting with each other. And so, we try to be as inclusive as possible, while also not like taking too far away from our mission. But what that looks like is you know having these whole family events. So we've done, we're taking a break for the winter but we do a playgroup for transgender and gender non conforming caregivers. And then this winter, there's a couple opportunities for families with neurodivergent children who there's some bowling events where there's a private bowling alley that we have rented out. So we're taking like spare time bowling where this overstimulating if that's too much for a family that here's an opportunity to, you know, go bowling with a family in a very low stimuli environment. So I just encourage folks even if you're not a dad just like check out and see what we're all about and, you know, we're, we're not just an organization we're a movement, and I'm not just the director I am also a client. My name is Clinton. I use she her pronouns. I am the co founder and executive director of the root social justice center. And I identify as a black indigenous fam that is born and raised in Vermont and currently living in southern Vermont. And a little bit story about the route. I'll tell you a little bit about what the root is and then I'll tell you maybe a little bit background about how the root was created. So the root is a Vermont based nonprofit BIPOC which is black indigenous people of color led organization centering blackness. We prioritize BIPOC people and their communities by shifting resources to BIPOC communities for leadership connection healing education and the arts and support BIPOC led racial justice work. Just so people know a lot of times people ask me about what is centering blackness me. And so we like to define that how we do for ourselves. For us. A piece of centering black this is why we use that term is because we in the society live in an anti black society, where in this country black folks are really put at the bottom. And so we recognize that colonization of our country has meant that there are practices and ways that do not benefit us and systems that do not benefit us. So, when we talk about centering blackness it really mean it means honoring all types of black people, but it also ultimately means celebrating us and honoring us and creating policies and practices that intentionally lift up and protect black people. And it also means celebrating and having joy of our art and and and and eradicating or taking away that white supremacy culture that we've been born into in our society. And when we talk about centering blackness it's not only centering black people but it's centering people of color. And through that when we lift up the bottom everyone gets lifted up. So we we we make that distinction because some people question why black why centering why this why that and when we hope that people will take away is that by doing this we are really lifting up not only black people but other by five people and other people who have been marginalized in their lives. So, the roots, we are happy to be celebrating our 10 year this year, and we were co founded by four individuals, one of those people being myself, another person being Mal Motel, Alex Fisher and Angela Burkfield. And all of us were sort of not sort of all of us are or were racial justice, social justice, advocates community organizers, academic people, people who were in that realm and we wanted to provide a space in the community where people could have a physical space that was safer to come together to mobilize to organize to connect to build relationships and to really work on the issues that they wanted to work on. So we sat around Fisher Alex Fishers table, and we brainstorm these visions and ideas, and we came up with like, yeah, let's create a center. And so we found an accessible, affordable place in the downtown Brattleboro area. And then we decided to open that up as a community center for us to have a shared working office space for our own individual social racial justice endeavors. And then to open it up to the community for that mobilizing that organizing in that community connection. Can you share a bit about what your vision for inclusive community looks like our vision is really, it's simple and complex at the same time right there's always a yes and over here at the root. And so what it really boils down to is Vermont BIPOC communities have the resources we need to thrive. And how we do that, what is really important to us, and why I'm really happy that we're having this conversation is because within our BIPOC community, some of the intersectionalities of the BIPOC community that we do focus emphasize on is youth is people who are differently abled, and that could mean whether physically or brain wise or however it might be, and queer and trans folks as well. Those are really when we are really planning events and where we're really connecting and really collaborating. Those are the other intersectionalities among others, but those are always at the center of the work that we do, because we really understand that youth have been really marginalized, if that's a word, and have been left behind and have been shut down and have been silenced and they're the next generation to hopefully carry on the work that we all are doing. We realize that queer and trans folks are clearly still under attack, and and and need safer spaces to also be in. And we realize that all people show up differently, and that we want to be able to be not only as inclusive as possible, some of the ways that we do that is by creating opportunities for belonging affinity spaces for BIPOC people within their intersectionalities. We are hosting programming events in our physical space that bring BIPOC together for the purpose of healing development, developing collective leadership skills and building social power. You know, there's all different types of power and we really believe in social power, which is relationship building. There is nothing better than having the relationships that you need to carry out the work that you need and to make the systemic change that is needed for our communities. Are there programs that you'd like to share with our community? I would love to share our programs with you. So yes, we have six different programs. So Food Sunday is an affinity of BIPOC affinity space. We do occasionally have mixers and when we say mixers that means that people can invite their their white partners or allies or community people that are safe enough to be in the space. We also have a program that is Youth for Change and Youth for Change is a youth led program based in anti-racist principles working to dismantle white supremacy culture and other harmful structures and systems to shift power. What's important about Youth for Change is one, it's a multiracial program. It is from 12 to 22 and the reason why it's 12 to 22 is because it's inclusive of adults with disabilities or different abilities and we understand that when you turn 18 that is not real that you're an adult and magically like whatever you get caught off from all these things and it just is not realistic. So we wanted to make sure we intentionally were making space and prioritizing those populations for inclusivity. Just a little shout out, we will be having on February 23, 14 to 18 year olds and those who are connected to the Youth for Change program will be having a dance. And that dance we did have it before and it was so great to see those populations meaning BIPOC, queer, trans and differently abled youth, primarily in that space. It was beautiful because a lot of times you think of those youth and they're the ones who don't want to show up to the dance because it's social anxiety. They're bullied, they're ostracized, the crowd isn't for them like there's so many reasons why many of these people wouldn't even show up to maybe a school dance or maybe they show up to a school dance but they're not really comfortable there. This provides a space for them where they can be their more fuller authentic selves. We also have the I Am Vermont 2 program, which is a photo story project for BIPOC people to tell our own stories and convey that racial microaggressions have a significant impact in our lives. So a racial microaggression could look like I'll say what mine is. Mine is, you know, where are you from. I'm born and raised in Vermont and so people often will ask me where I'm from, but in the context of what they're asking me it's typically white people in disbelief that there are black people in Vermont. And then in disbelief that there are actually black people born in Vermont and then and then disbelief of like no but really where are you from I'm really from Vermont. And so it's a racial microaggression because there's this assumption that I'm a person of color that we are not from here don't belong here, and we're invisible lives and so there are. There's a bazillion racial microaggressions that people of color experience on a daily basis. There are other microaggressions that aren't racial that I'm sure the people that you work with experience on a daily basis. And so we are challenging those racial microaggressions in the statewide project that's an art project where we're taking photos of BIPOC people from all around the state. In those photos they have a whiteboard that talks that says what the racial microaggression is, or it says what they've how they responded or how they feel about it. And then those photos are framed and then they're created into an exposition and we have been curated in the Vermont State House numerous times we will be back there next February. We've been in museums we've been in schools we've been galleries we've been in restaurants we've been in a community community centers we've been all over the place and it's also been turned into a TV show through the YouTube. You can find it at I am remote to YouTube to where that our coordinator, Sean, takes those people that we took a picture of and actually interviews them in a half an hour interview. And then you get to know a little bit more about who the person is besides that micro rate racial microaggression and get to learn a little bit more about your BIPOC communities throughout the state. So this program includes the arts. It includes, um, it includes making white folks aware of the harm that they're creating for people of color. It allows people of color who live work and go to school in Vermont to participate and to get to know each other and to share our experiences and be in and be in community together because we're like oh my God that happened to me that happened to me I thought it was the only one. And it's, it's just a really great way to connect with people throughout the state. The other program we have is families United. Families United is a peer support group for people and families who have been impacted by the child welfare system DCF department of children families and want to create to systemic and institutionalized changes. Members share experience build relationships discuss resources and organize to influence change in the child welfare system and family or law or other legislative systems. Most of the people that I've worked with actually have had some type of disability and have been discriminated against because of their disability or different ability or how they think or culturally how they show up. And it has been a serious serious issue for families who have interfaced with the DCS system. And so being able to have them understand that they're not alone in their experiences is very key for us that just because they might have a different ability or disability that might not allow them to maybe fully care for their children in the way that some societies feel is necessary that does not mean they're not good parents, and it does not mean that they shouldn't be a part of their children's lives and we're strong advocates for making sure that whenever possible children can stay with their families. Another program healing and practice, and this is another multiracial space. And it is a multiracial collaborative of healing centered space for our BIPOC community, their families and our white racial accountability partners, which are primarily through our loss River racial justice and their families. And together, we create multiracial spaces for connection, healing, learning and building community in different ways where I can just show up. So we go on hikes, we've done meditation, we've done river days, we've done game nights, we've done educational workshops, we've done retreats and all sorts of things. So it's based on what do we want to do to connect at across races, or with multiracial families, how do we want to be connecting with each other and supporting each other. And then the last program that I'll talk about is BIPOC thriving network. The BIPOC thriving thriving network, I think is like the core one of the cores of the roots. And what that stands for is black, indigenous and people of color thriving network. We come together to sustain our communities, heal from racial trauma and organize collectively to build relationships, power and systemic change for the lives of people of color. But really what that breaks down to is, is healing. It's all about healing. We decided that healing needs to be one of the center things that we do. So when we talk about we center blackness, when we talk about the intersectionality of youth queer, trans and differently able people, one of our other main things we do is surrounded around healing. In response to ongoing impacts of systemic racism and white supremacy culture that we continue to center blackness and through that we created a mutual aid supportive network, which allows BIPOC folks in Vermont to access financial funds for their needs and connect to a network of folks able and willing to support them and their needs in their lives. So what this looks like is we currently, if you live in Vermont and are a BIPOC person, you can go to our website and apply for up to $500 for whatever that need that you have in your life. In addition to that, let's say, hey, I need $1,000, but we're only offering 500. If you want us to kick it out to our network of people who might have other financial resources to donate to you personally to help meet that gap, we can do that as well. In addition to that, the networking part is what's really key is that we're not just giving out money and being like, bye, we're hoping that you connect with us and want to show up to our programming that you want to volunteer that you want to engage with us. So the networking part is also like, well, I have this financial need, but you know what I really need is I don't have a car and I need a ride to the doctors next week. You know, I really need, I have this interview for a job and I really need some childcare. You know, I have section eight that's about to pound on my door to do this inspection. I need somebody to help clean my house. So the networking part where we have a group of people who are established for specifically working with BIPOC people who have an analysis that will not harm us. We at least we're pretty sure they won't to where you can access them as a resource for your everyday thriving and everyday needs as well. So, and then you're making connections, you're making relationships with those people. You're making relationships across race and really building community through that. David. And so now I am pleased to introduce Luke Rackers from Central Vermont Council on Aging. I'm going to put a little less zoom spotlight on you. Hold on a second. Where are you? Spotlight. There you go. Hello everyone. Thanks so much for having me today. And I appreciate these opportunities happening over zoom because I am overcoming one of those fun winter colds. So I apologize if I need to take a few second break to take a drink or cough. That's what's happening if you seem to go off camera. So I appreciate these zoom happenings. I'm going to share my screen just to help me keep in line today with what I have to share with you. So again, my name is Luke Rackers. I use the pronouns and I am the director of community engagement at the Central Vermont Council on Aging. Just a little bit about me. I have a background in music and the arts. I was a pianist, composer, music educator and a teacher as my first career. But I moved to Vermont in 2016 and came to CVC away as an American member doing direct service in the community as my American position. Now I've held multiple positions here, mostly in the volunteer department, but I also started a new position. We're one of the first in Vermont to offer this position. I'm a community engaged text specialist position to help older adults bridge the digital divide and provide devices and internet options counseling and training for older adults to help them stay connected. I was a director of development and communication for a few years and now meeting all of our volunteer programs and community engagement work. I'm also a graduate student in gerontology and have really strong interest in creative aging, LGBTQ plus issues and aging, end of life issues, social isolation and loneliness, which we'll talk a lot about today and habits of mine as we age. A CVC away is one of five area agency on aging in Vermont. No matter where you are in Vermont or the country, you're in an area that has an area agency on aging or a council on aging as they're sometimes known. These organizations date back to the 1960s from the older Americans Act and exist to support older adults and caregivers and their families in Vermont to help people age with dignity and choices is our particular mission at CVC away. But we provide programs and services that help people maintain their independence and live in their homes and communities as long as possible as they age. CVC away offers lots of different programs and services to help people accomplish that goal of living independently staying in their homes and communities as they age. We have an information assistance line that anyone can call whether you're a family member caregiver or older adult. We offer internet options counseling. We have a family caregiver support program, case management and options counseling and that's what things like applying to our three squares food benefits in Vermont or fuel assistance housing application assistance and any resources and supports to help people maintain their independent living nutrition and wellness. And you've probably heard of meals on wheels on all of those meals on wheels programs run through Center Vermont Council on Aging. We have 13 partner sites and senior center in our service area who deliver those meals. And we have exercise and wellness classes in the community. And these bottom two programs and services are the ones my department really has most attention to and that's volunteer services and community engagement and our social connection initiatives. So in our community engagement, we have direct service volunteer opportunities and these are opportunities for volunteers of any age to support older adults and caregivers in the community. And this could be rights to doctors appointments and grocery shopping, hoping with organizing papers, transportation to medical appointments and just providing companionship really everything we do in the direct service world comes down to providing companionship. We also have a couple of American senior programs, including our senior companion program and our RSVP program and that program focuses on recruiting volunteers for companionship, delivering meals on wheels, exercise classes in the community and a lot more. We have a few new volunteer activities that we're working on developing, including our technology navigators or companions, volunteers who are paired one on one with people in the community to help provide support and training to help learn how to do things like you zoom so they can connect with friends and family members. And my department also talks a lot about ages and awareness. We have some community events. I do a lot of creative aging advocacy and work on community partnerships like our work with all brains belongs Vermont and we'll have some community partnership grants that come out again this year. So one of the things I'd like to focus on today related to social isolation and loneliness and connecting people as a path to hope. As now mentioned earlier in slides, I started a program in the pandemic called enhancing social connection through arts and technology. There's several components of this and one is providing a creative care kit that's packed with supplies and materials that last many months of practice for people and includes a binder of activities that are developed by a professional teaching artist in Vermont. And people have the opportunity to be connected with a creative companion volunteer who will contact program participants a few times a month just to help inspire and motivate their work and tell stories that arise through artwork because we know that those meaningful stories and connections really arise through that creative process and we want to foster that and encourage that. We also offered video tutorials and additional resources that we find to participants on live zoom sessions with the teaching artists. We will provide iPads and individualized tech support again to help people with that connection. Internet options counseling to make sure people they have the access they need to participate in things like zoom calls and then additional training through other partners we have in the community like technology for tomorrow. We offer live classes through senior planet and get set up which is a platform that all older Vermonters have access to for free right now which has hundreds of classes online. So one of our goals is to help older adults overcome the barriers and blocks to creativity and connection. And that's why there are so many components to this program because we are trying to provide a customized experience that help people overcome any blocks or barriers on their creative journey and finding ways to support the creative journeys of their adults especially people who are engaging in creative practices for the first time or needing to engage in creative practices in their homes. We know there are a ton of wonderful arts opportunities in our local communities. We're trying to help alleviate this opportunity barrier for people in their homes. To me it's a barrier that often gets overlooked when we're thinking about access especially for older adults and how we can bridge the divide with our programs to make sure we're still connecting people when they need to participate from their homes. Creative aging for me is such an interesting part of healthy aging and connection. I love this quote by Maya Angelou. You can't, and apologies for the typo in Maya Angelou's name there, you can't use up creativity the more you use the more you have. I love that quote and just a few photos from our creative aging celebration which we host every year to highlight the work from our program participants. We know that creativity can impact our social, emotional, physical, mental health in so many different ways. It's why it's such a passion of mine. And creativity really helps with that connection. Activities connect people by helping us do with rather than do for and the stories that arise through art making provide unique opportunities for meaningful connection and sharing. These photos here of our participants artwork are two great examples. Every time I see people's artwork from the program I asked them, why did this come about? Tell me the story. How did you develop this piece? The one on the left here is a participant who lives in Vermont and I learned that she at one point lived in New York City and lived through a major hurricane in New York City. And this is her remembrance of her that hurricane and umbrellas blowing all over the city during that time, I think back in the 1980s. And another one on the right here. This is a program participant who got really into painting and drive has been sending a greeting cards to her family members, friends, since starting our program about three years ago. And we recently just received an email from her daughter thanking us because they continue to get these cards. And they learn things about their mother and grandmother because of what she's painting on the front of these cards. So such such a great way to build that connection intergenerational to this photo just shows one way we connect people both via creativity and that technology. Some of our volunteers will connect with folks on zoom and this is one example of our volunteer on the screen and our program participant getting ready to show their painting to our volunteer screen. I think I'm running out of time here so I'm going to want to skip skip skip a lot of my slides here, but that is to say you know my focus recently has been on building these creative volunteer activities that are all centered on companionship. We have a ton of volunteer opportunities at CDC away for all ages. And so I certainly encourage you to check our website. That's a great place that you go can go to review the different opportunities and there's a forum on the website to express your interest in volunteering as well. Because we know volunteering is not only good for those who are serving but also good for you. I think about all the ways it enhances your life as well. We also like to talk a lot about ages and awareness at CDC away and hopefully this will be more conversations we can have with you Mel going forward in the intersection between ages and ableism. We know it's so they're both so pervasive in our society and so many different ways. And we see it in our faces these days with an election coming up and seeing that we have candidates who are apparently too old to serve in public office. But we see it in our personal lives and our structures and institutions and how we interact with each other. And hopefully we can all continue to have these conversations about ages and ableism and how they impact all of us. And I think I'll leave it there Mel. Thank you so much Luke and it sounds like that that should be a future brain club topic. Yes. All right let me remove spotlight and introduce our fourth panelist. I am very pleased to introduce Chris Hansen executive director of intentional peer support. Hi Chris. Hi everybody. Hi my name is Chris Hansen. I use she her pronouns. I live here in Burlington Vermont. And I'm originally from New Zealand. Nice to see you here Tanya from Queensland. I'm actually headed off there in a few weeks. And Aussies feel like neighbors on the side of the world. So I Mel said don't do a PowerPoint. Don't prepare. Here's some questions. So I am winging it. And that's good for me because I'm used to getting kind of tied to a PowerPoint. I'm also a person who's neurodiverse. And I also live with Tourette's and a stutter which may or may not turn up. I call it Fred when it does it just arrived in my life when I was 61 after a full new replacement. Which apparently makes me a unicorn that's not very very common. Anyway intentional peer support is really what I'm here to talk about. So intentional peer support was started by Sherry Mead. And she was living in New Hampshire at the time. And going in and out of psychiatric hospitals at the same time as she was doing some graduate studies and doing a lot of writing and research. And she realized that none of the mental health services in the community did anything for her. And she said that actually one day she said it to her psychiatrist and the psychiatrist said well why did you set something up. And so she did. She ended up with a grant for a small community centre. And they decided to set up what then became the world's first peer run respite. And a peer run respite is a community based alternative to psychiatric hospital. And it's run and staffed by people who have used mental health services themselves. And there are now a couple of hundred of them around the world or between one and two hundred of them around the world. So this has really really grown. And what Sherry discovered was that a couple of things. She was going in and out of the hospital and went and was also in school and realized that five minutes after she was in the hospital, she became what she calls a mental patient and learned to see herself that way. And she also did some internship at a domestic violence centre and discovered that people would come in, they'd be cold, brave and courageous and go to the doctor and come out shaking a bottle of pills saying, I've got a severe and persistent mental illness and I'll be taking these pills for the rest of my life. And she realized that there was something wrong with that. So her mission really became to find ways to connect, to learn to connect, realizing that many of us when we are in receipt of mental health services, learn to be on the receiving end and all of the relationships that we have here to help us and we lose any sense of reciprocity in relationships. And that certainly has been part of my background. I have a number of other psychiatric diagnoses I've acquired over the years and I've also had experience of getting locked up in the mental health service and losing a lot and deciding that the people who did the most for my sense of wellbeing were not the people who were paid to be there. They were my fellow inpatients who I sat with me or I sat with them or we sat with each other in the smoking room because that's where the best conversations were so I took up smoking. And that stayed with me. I came out of that thinking these are my people and this is what I want to do. So I reincarnated myself as a bit of an activist from health in the mental health services and started doing human rights work and then started looking at what are some of the alternatives that work. And intentional peer support was one of them. So intentional peer support is an organisation that provides training, provides peer support training and what we, our intent and our vision is to support one another to think about how to be mindfully present in relationships with one another and to think about how do we actually connect with one another in meaningful ways. Some people find that really easy, they can do it standing on their heads with their eyes shut and some of us actually have to really think about it and work at it. And Sherry was one of those people and the gift that that gave her was realising that it would be really helpful to be able to break relationships down and to see them as a way of being, but to think about them in certain ways. And I'm going to refer back to Queensland again, Tanya, because this was actually on my list of things to quote but there is a quote that came out of Queensland, Australia from a group of Aboriginal activists which says, if you've come here to help me, you're wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us walk together. And it's one of my favourite quotes and it really encapsulates the spirit of intentional peer support. IPS, which is the acronym we use for it, is about three principles and four tasks. The three principles are a bit like the polish on a dance floor. It's about shifting focus. The first shift is from helping one another. I've got it all together and I'm here to help you to learning and growing together and acknowledging that you may have as much if not more to be able to offer or contribute to me and my learning as I have to you. And that's a huge shift for many of us, particularly those of us who've been trained in human services. The second shift in focus is shifting the focus from the individual, from you or from me, to the relationship. What can we do to make this relationship work? What is this working? What does it need? How could we be present together to one another? And then the third shift in focus is shifting the focus from and sometimes through fear to hope and possibility. And if you think about in traditional mental health services, there's a lot of focus on what you don't want, what we've got to stop doing, what people are afraid that we're going to do. And some of us actually lose sight of what our passion, our aspirations, our desires are. So there's four tasks and I'm going to try and rock it through these really quickly and then tell you a little bit more about intentional peer support. So the four tasks and the tasks are a bit like the steps, the dance steps. The first task is connection and connection is something that is kind of intangible and we don't think about a lot often, but we know when we're connected and we know when we're not connected. And I like to think about connection as seeing and being seen. And we talk a little and we talk a bit about, you know, how do we connect? How do we disconnect? We all know what that's like. Some of us do it many times in a day, sometimes many times in an hour. But more than that, how do we reconnect? And what does that take? And is that possible? And that's a real challenge for most of us to sort of leave this little trail behind us of broken relationships and frequently don't even consider that relationship might be possible. Second, we talk about worldview and there's two or more than two worldviews in many relationships. That's the lens that we see the world through that's come from all of our life experiences and ups and downs. And, you know, that's our experiences of trauma and privilege and oppression and travel and success and what's been seen as failure and all of the aspects that make us. And it's about acknowledging my own worldview and being curious about yours and finding a way to hold both of those at the same time in a conversation or a relationship. And that's what we call the third task. First is connection, second is worldview. The third one is mutuality. And mutuality is you and me both present in the conversation. Me having the courage to share my vulnerability and my story with you. Sometimes me having the courage to ask you for what I need to tell you that you're scaring me or that I don't understand you or that's a hot button for me. And then the fourth task is moving towards as opposed to moving away from and it's really often what happens as a result of mutuality is that possibilities open up. But it's so different from traditionally many of the foci in our relationships which are what we don't want, what we are mad about, problems, what's going wrong and thinking about what is possible and where might we go from here. And I think of it as a bit like a martial art. It's an ongoing living practice. And for me, most of the time the practice is reflecting on what didn't go well and thinking about what I might do differently. So it's just like going to the dojo or going to a rehearsal for dance. So IPS, Intentional Peer Support is an organization and Mel, how long is this brain club for what time do you shut? So it usually will wrap up in the next couple of minutes, but say I am captivated by everything coming out of your mouth. So for anyone who needs to go at seven, which is in three minutes, we completely understand and respect you departing at seven, but I am determined to be succinct. So we provide trainings. There's a 40 hour core training, which you can do on Zoom. It's 10 for our sessions on Zoom, or you can do it in person. And if you're interested in that, you can contact me at info, I-N-F-O, at intentionalpeersupport.org. And if you're living in Vermont, you can get those. You can get that training for a very small fee. It may be $100 for a book. If you've got financial hardship, you contact us and we'll sort you out elsewhere. Other places that can be up to $900 each for what we call a pay per seat training, and we will provide trainings to organizations. And as well, you can train as a trainer and we've got a bunch of other trainings and practices called co-reflection, which is sort of reflecting on our practice together. So Mills put the contact details there in the chat. And yeah, and we are a small organization. We run ourselves as a social enterprise. And we're working at building ourselves into a co-operative. And I'm a co-director and we're working at having a co-operative of many, a number of directors moving into the future. And I'm going to wrap it up there because I'm just squeaking in under the seven o'clock. That was pretty impressive. Thank you. Thank you so much. And we probably have time for a moment. I did not mean to take away your spotlight. Put it back. I wanted to add a spotlight. There we go. Add a spotlight. We probably have time for like one question. If anybody has any questions or comments, feel free to use the chat or feel free to raise your hand. Your regular hand is fine. I also can say one more thing. Yes. Yeah, I also wanted to shout out to Sarah Knutson, who is part of the All Brains Belong community, who's just done endless work with us for us supporting us. So I just wanted to acknowledge that. And Sarah can also answer questions if you happen to know. No, sorry. I thank you. They then pronounce Sarah. So, thank you. And in fact, Sarah is our presenter. They will be presenting on the therapeutic aspects of social connection next week. Maybe that was not really a summary of what you'll be talking about. But anyway, I'm very excited for your presentation next week, Sarah. Well, I've just been so inspired listening to both of you and to all four of our panelists today, just like the incredible work that you're doing and it's, it's, it's, you know, I think so much of this is about learning all of the like incredible things going on in this community and bringing everyone together and breaking down silos and you know all of the magical things that come from that. Thank you both so much. And I also see Sarah's adding to that it's great hearing the framework of mutual aid and community based support from so many different communities. Yeah, great. You've seen themes right like we've heard several different versions of a lot of universality of what it means to bring to, you know, bring people together and, you know, relationships being the core of everything. So, thank you. Thank you so much to our panelists and to all of you for being here and we look forward to seeing you next week for for for Sarah's presentation on social connections medicine. Thank you all so much. Have a great day. Thanks. Thanks. Thanks, Luke.