 to speak up for myself and not let anybody else talk for me. The training made me male-responsible. Now I can speak up for myself. I did speak with our advisory board of directors. I also talked to some of our executive board members about starting up a public speaking group for our consumers here, and the response was very positive. What I would tell another director is public speaking is very beneficial, especially, I would say, to people with disabilities. Our goal is to have our consumers going out in the community doing public speaking to various organizations, service organizations, such as the Dallions Clubs, Kiwanis Clubs, different business groups, the Rotary Clubs, to the schools, and to the community in general. I think we've made a commitment that we want to be more involved in the community, and I think public speaking is one very positive way of doing that. It takes quite a bit of commitment. I think it starts with an interest. That commitment, it's not only one hour or two hours every two weeks or per month. That commitment has to be almost on a daily basis. So there's encouragement to work on your public speeches. There's encouragement to keep going with the public speaking program. The public speaking training involves three things. One is to meet four hours once a week, and it could be during any day of the week, Monday through Friday. It involves staff people helping out, assisting. It involves the third thing is involves adapting the training towards the people's needs and how to get them involved in public speaking. I would like to say three things about self-aguracy. First, it is important to all people. Second, it gives you something. And lastly, it helps you in making a lot of choices. Thank you for coming today. You write what's on your mind, and then you write it down on paper, and then you practice and practice and practice it until you can say it from your heart and in your soul. I like in the training that everybody have input. I use pictures because I can read. That pictures is the one that's going to make me remember what I'm going to say. I think what the hardest is when you stand up and talk by the microphone. I like to make a speech of honesty, work, and respect. When they first started, their speeches were maybe 10, 20 seconds, maybe one or two sentences. Some were very, very shy, wouldn't leave their seat, wouldn't stand up. Now they're standing behind the podium. They're speaking up to five minutes. I've seen much improvement. Even in their speaking skills, some of the consumers or the speakers might not be able to pronunciate a lot of words, and you might have a hard time understanding them. And now you find that when you listen to them, that you can actually understand the words they're saying. They become more confident. There are many things that change in their lives once they become involved with the speeches and the training. They become more confident, for example. And I see them volunteering for committees. And not only just being part of a committee, they will volunteer to be the chairman. And so eventually, I can see them becoming leaders. Hello. My name is Sreba Haas. I am here to give the I-Speaker speech. I am a 14-year-old. I live in Canada, providing, I think, California today. I'm going to be talking about my life. Christopher said his name is Christopher Beringhouse. He's here to give an I-Speaker speech. 24 years old. He lives with a care provider in Lakeside, California. And today, he will be talking about his life. One of you women start to do it in practice. Gives me very good eye contact with other people. Public speaking is a lot, and do it with other people, following your dreams, following your heart. I wanted to speak self-aggressive, conference in a large group out in the community. And you're nervous, and you want to learn how to relax, is that you do it very quietly for no one could be able to hear you or see you when you are sitting down and being introduced. Beth is introducing me. I'm sitting down. I just take a few deep breaths, getting ready, maybe tighten my fists, and then let go, release all of the tension. Maybe quietly I want to maybe wiggle my legs a little bit, and maybe go like this, but don't let anybody see it. How I practice, I just went in my room, shut my door, and I looked in my mirror, and I said, you can't do it, Crystal. You can't do it, Crystal. And my chores include washing dishes, taking out trash, and cleaning the house. I vacuum, and I also dust my room. What do I do in my free time? On the weekends, I watch TV, and I like to make floral baskets. Baskets. I also enjoy eating out. My favorite food to order is a hamburger, French fries, and rice. You got it. Listen to your heart and follow your dreams. You could do anything if you put your mind to it. During the day, I think during a certain program hours, we found out that, you know, truly in the morning, transportation might be an issue. So getting everybody here by 10 o'clock, 9 30, 10 o'clock, going to late afternoon 2 through 2 30 was the ideal time. You know, we basically concentrated work on other days. During a normal work week, we'll have about 30 hours of work per week. We basically set aside the Wednesday for the teaching, the training, and we put the work on the other day. So there was no lost work. It just was shifted to some other days. And I think everybody realized the importance of the educational importance of the training. And no money was lost. It was just shifted to the other days for training. I decided to help with the speaker group because it went hand in hand with the self-advocacy group that I've been working with. People, if they're going to be self-advocates, need to be able to speak out. And this is a wonderful way to encourage development of communicating. This is, like I said, this is my first time I really enjoyed this to be with my friends. And this is really an experience for me. And I really enjoyed it. And I'm glad there is a puppy speech. We can go out in the community. The motto we've used where we have our speeches, the evaluations, the opening with a Pledge of Allegiance, the thought of the day, the joke of the day, it's used at Toastmasters all over the country, all over the world. And I think it's a well-proven method for developing good public speakers. After the training to continue to work with the consumers, the big emphasis is to make sure that you take the time and that you set those meetings and you don't let it fade away because it's very important for the speakers and their lives and how much they've grown with this. Like, I could talk to people, individually people, but get it in front of people, I couldn't do it. But now, in the public speaking thing, I can do that. Yeah, if I can do it, so can you do it. When the night and we should give these a good hand.