 Well, hello everybody. Welcome. Welcome to Brain Club. I'm Mel Hauser. I use she they pronouns and I'm executive director here at all brains belong. I'm going to share screen and get us oriented to our community agreement, except motor plan for doing so. Maybe the automatic capacity. Okay, here we go. So today we will be discussing. Visions for community inclusion. And I'll introduce our panelists in just a few minutes, but for many of you, this is your first brain club so welcome welcome to brain club. Our weekly community conversation, our community education program about everyday brain life. This is a very intentionally created education space for the broader collective ABB community to provide education about neurodiversity and related topics of community inclusion. Just as a reminder, this is an education space. This is not for medical or mental health advice. It's though though we do have support groups at ABB this one is not the support group so this is not a place to solve individuals specific problems this is for general education purposes only. It's also not a place to debate philosophy and view of the world and by view of the world I mean that we all have different brains and bodies and there is no one correct type of brain or body. Safety is the most important thing to us here, and in addition to affirming all aspects of identity, including neuro type gender, sexuality, race, disability, ethnicity and all other forms of diversity. We need to, you know, name that we protect this space very intentionally, because we are really trying to create a space that feels different from many of the other spaces that people spend their time in. The collective access needs of our group take priority over the individual as we come into this space, which is a space where people can collectively learn and unlearn together, feel safe and experience something different from the outside world right from the very first time, which is why we try to intentionally facilitate the way that we do. And that being said how we facilitate is that all forms of participation are okay here. 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 look at the camera or sit still. You can move and fidget and stim and eat and take breaks and anything that needs doing. And everyone's welcome here, adults, kids, pets, anything goes and observation is a completely valid form of participation. We also want to create space for everyone to be able to share their ideas. Most of our, most of our brain club today will be hearing from our amazing panelists, but we will have time at the end for questions and conversation, and we'll create space for everyone to participate at that time. When we, when we get to that place all formats of communication are okay you can unmute and use mouth words you can type in the chat. The chat is going to often run in parallel to what's happening on on the screen, I might read out selections, but often the chat is running faster than mouth words run. So please don't feel like you're missing anything if you choose to just close the chat and not look at it. Speaking of all types of access needs closed 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 the live transcript closed captioning icon. And if not look for the more dot dot dot and choose show subtitles. And if, if you don't, if you change your mind, and hold on. Okay, good, you're, you're, you're on it Sarah you're letting folks in for a way you're perfect. Yep, we're all set. So show subtitles for hide so it has been turned off. And that's my visual cue to open up the chat box so that I actually see it and by the way direct messaging is also enabled so if there's anything that you need. If you feel comfortable for any reason if there's anything that we can help meet your access needs please send a direct message at any time. Okay. So, inclusion. Inclusion is a big word and means different things to different people. It also is unfortunately often overused and used in spaces that doesn't in spaces where the basic prerequisites for inclusion are not met. Today we are so so pleased to be joined by five community six community panelists, representing five organizations. And what I'm going to do is, I'm going to introduce everybody. And then what we'll do is I'll put the little zoom spotlight on each organizations representative one at a time, and we will have the opportunity to hear from everyone about their work their organization their vision for inclusion at the end we'll have time for questions. And this is kicking off by the way, a theme, a theme of the month of health and belonging. So, today, we are joined by Alyssa Chen from the Education Justice Coalition, Cal Arbor from the price center of Vermont, Max Burroughs, and I'm sorry Hassan I'm going to add your name to the slide. Indy, sorry from Green Mountains of Advocates. Indy Scherner from ACLU of Vermont and Wei Wei Wang from the Vermont professionals of color network. And so, is Alyssa here yet Alyssa had asked to go first. Okay. So, does, do any of our panelists want to go first because then I'll spotlight you and introduce you. I'm happy to go for Max. Do you and Hassan want to go first? Yeah. Okay, great. Let me turn the spotlight on here's Hassan's pin. And then we find Max, searching and identifying and clicking. There you are. Okay. Add pin. Okay, perfect. Max Burroughs is the outreach director for Green Mountains of Advocates. He is a person with a disability on the autism spectrum. And Max meets and connects with people with intellectual and developmental disabilities throughout Vermont and the country, speaking up for true inclusion. He also helps people with disabilities become better leaders in the self advocacy movement. And Hassan, would you be able to tell us about, and you can do this in any order, but I would love, love, love to hear anything you'd like to share about yourself as well. Sure. Hi, my name is Hassan. I work for Green Mountains of Advocates. I work with Cameron Topper and Max. And together, we work together with the Green Mountains of Advocates, with some of the South Advocates people from our group. And we have a Green Mountains of Advocates, a small group. And I'm out, so you might have heard that before, some of you. So we are doing the South Advocates support, however we can support the South Advocates. Thank you. Well, Max and Hassan, we're both, I'm so glad that you're both able to join us. I'm wondering if you can tell us about, tell us more about Green Mountains of Advocates. So Green Mountains of Advocates is a statewide self advocacy organization. We support 20 plus local groups all over Vermont. The important thing to know is that we self advocates run the groups. When we get involved, we realize we are not alone while facing tough times. We feel proud of who we are. And self advocates say, and quote, we don't care how different we are. We like it that way, and quote. In our groups, we learn from each other. Yes, we can learn from people who do not have a disability, but getting information from our peers often increases the likelihood that we will understand the message. We enjoy each other's company, but we are not just a social club. We are part of a, we are part of the civil rights movement. Inclusion is by far the most important value of our movement, but we also value peer to peer connections. So at Green Mountains of Advocates, we spend a lot of time presenting to students, doctors, government workers, business leaders, leaders of faith communities, police officers and more. We want them to know that people with disabilities have a lot to offer, and we provide examples of how to interact with disabled people. In one example, we show people how to create documents in plain language. Let's see, I also want to mention that GMSA has been around since 1994, so next year will be our 30th birthday. And Hassan, if you have any thoughts you'd like to add to that? Well, that's, Green Mountains Advocates is a team in the state. We are a local group, like, from Green Mountains Advocates, like, some of them is like from the agency, some of them from outside the community. So I'd be a small group for the South Vecacy, we try to do our own goal from what we know and also like what we want to do with our team, like some of the team, they have their own goal, what they want to do with the community, with some of the community and some of the South Vecacy. That's it. Thank you for sharing that. I wonder, when we speak about the word inclusion, what does inclusion mean to each of you? So the bottom line is this. The bottom line is we want what you got. We want to learn. We want to be seen as equal members of society. When given opportunities and accommodations, we contribute so much to our communities. Unfortunately, people with disabilities are often looked down on more than looked up to society continues to like send a strong message that we are not capable. We are too slow. It ties into the false idea that we as people with disabilities are not able to do a lot of things for ourselves like adults. Unfortunately, it is a pretty broadly accepted mindset and it casts a shadow over our desires to work, go to college, you know, date, travel, get married, raise a family and much more. An inclusive community means people presume competence, whether it is at school or work or in social settings, people and systems would not be judging us and resist the urge to decide what we can and cannot do. You know, that our rights are respected. We have the same opportunities as everyone else. This includes real work for real pay going to college getting married and raising a family. That society respects all of our identities. People understand the connection between the different isms like to see how ableism and racism intersect. This understanding can open the door toward achieving justice. And when we need services, we should be able to get services that respect all the parts of us. People should not say we are too complicated. Hassan? Well, for us, for me, I will say this. Everybody has their own pace. We have our own pace. And when it comes to our own way of doing them, when it comes to how we live for ourselves and also how to train our own. And so that is what I'd like to say, because everybody has a different way of doing them when it comes to how they live their own life. And about how to free everybody from anybody else. So they say about making your own freedom. And also, like, when it comes to a suffocacy, not just about what we need, also, we need to know about that different barrier, like also from the different cultures and different religions too. And because like everything what we do is also have a different type of barrier when it comes to helping other people. And that's it. I'm nodding and taking all that in because, you know, everything that you both said is so important. And we don't see that everywhere. We don't see that happening. So what what what would you like the community to know about your work how to get connected with your work to be part of something that is so important. You know, I, we have relationships with organizations such as, you know, legal aid, Vermont family network, the Vermont worker center and government offices, you know, we work together to address disability issues. We like to work with organizations within the disability field. Not a problem at all, but we have found that working with organizations outside of the disability field like 350 Vermont, just one of more than one organizations. Our issues become everyone's issues. Anything you want to add us on. Yes. And also, when we do ask a team some of the problem when we saw a problem also make other problem too. Like every time one you have asked is asking in the group what we connect with other community and also with our own connection with other people. Everything what we do is like connecting to other than and so we are like connecting to other organization and also for ourselves to and also every time when we are connection with other organization. It's also making us like give up like giving us a little bit about it's bringing and also about the opportunity what we want to do with our own community and with other people. Absolutely. Is there anything else that either of you would like to share. Well, I think that you, I think that you asked also about involvement. Am I correct I think you, I think there are two questions and one and I wanted to point out the involvement part like, I think that, you know, to get how to get people involved with, you know, our organization there are many ways for self advocates and allies to get involved with and say, you know, attend some of our webinars, you know, join one of our, you know, you can join one of our 20 plus local groups throughout the state. And that's about to our annual conference that happens, you know, voices and choices. You can visit our website, you know, Facebook and YouTube pages. And finally, we take the lead on a national project called SARTAC. SARTAC stands for the Self Advocacy Resource and Technical Assistance Center. And we have weekly meetings with 50 plus self advocates from at least 35 states. And we get to hear what other advocates are working on all across the country. And we've been doing this for about four years and have developed great friendships with other leaders who have disabilities. Anything else you want to add to that, Hassan, if I missed anything? I think you got all about the same time. I was shared a little bit like for the Green Mountain Self Advocacy for us, like we try to make sure everybody understand for the self advocacy too, for other way like for us. We also making sure like people understand what we are trying to do and also making sure they know. And so we try to do like a little bit, a plain language to other things to making sure they understand. We can like sum the work what we do and also what the other organization do we don't understand. So we need to make sure people understand. So we try to make sure we understand. So we try to make a plain language to making sure easy for everybody and for us to. Thank you. And what we know when we think about plain language, plain language benefits everyone. And I think that it's a skill that I'm going to put a link in the chat to one of GMSE's webinars from earlier this year about plain language because it's a skill that I think everybody needs. Yeah. Agreed. Well, thank you both so much. No problem. And if you're if you're able to stick around for for questions after after we hear from other panelists that would be amazing. We'll do. Awesome. So I'm going to shine a spotlight on Indie. Here we go. Okay. Thank you. So our next questioner is a black gender queer hero divergent advocate social activist and somatic practitioner. They are the policy advocate at the ACLU for months and have focused primarily on criminal legal reform and police accountability reform at state house. and advocacy and has committed themselves to creating space for community members and policymakers to dream beyond the status quo. And outside of birth, they love playing with their three cats, spending quality time with their partner and moving your body. Welcome, Andy. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here. When I was writing that bio, it's kind of like, I want to say an out-of-body experience trying to like put into words how the work that I do and what I'm engaged in. But just to start off, I'm the policy advocate at the ACLU of Vermont. That means that I do legislative advocacy in the state house. Most of my job deals with legislators, so the people who are enacting our laws that impact our very lives. And as the policy advocate at the ACLU, I'm also able to engage in community and doing coalition work, which I love to do. I love being around people and just learning more about what we can be doing to just like create more inclusive, beautiful community spaces. So I wanted to share a little bit about the ACLU and then maybe diverge a little. So the ACLU of Vermont is one of 53 nationwide affiliates of the American Civil Liberties Union. It's better known as the ACLU. I feel like that's what is usually out there. The ACLU has been working to defend the rights and liberties of people for over a hundred years and has been doing this through legislative advocacy, litigation and various other community organizing to ensure that we are protecting people, people's rights and protecting people's abilities to like move through community safely and as they are wanting to. Some of these cases that we've been involved in regard racial equity, reproductive rights, policing reform, which is a big one, educational access, voting rights. And just about every other constitutional right you can imagine and the ACLU of Vermont is small. There's 13 of us. We have a comms communications department. So they do public educating, social media. We have development, which they do everything with money and raising money for this org and continuing our mission and value. And then the legislative advocacy team, as I said, does everything legislatively and lots of lobbying as well. And then our litigation team, there are three staff attorneys and they do really kick ass work to really protect the rights of people in this state. Yeah, so that's pretty much it about the ACLU of Vermont. Thank you, thank you for sharing. And from your point of view, what does inclusion mean? What does it look like? Oh my goodness, this is such a good question. I kind of want to answer it through two ways. I would say for the ACLU of Vermont, I would say inclusion means I would say inclusion means supporting the fight for freedom and unity, meaning that we are ensuring that everyone in the state can equally and equitably enjoy the common benefits of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, guaranteed to us by our state and our federal constitution. But that's a little heady and not in the body as much. And for me, I would say the inclusion is the active consideration for people's experiences and the active commitment to make space for different identities, to celebrate and uplift these identities in ways that continue to like center our needs and creating ease and abundance and joy and rest all of the things that we all deserve. So just a lot of creating space and being very committed to creating that space for people. Absolutely. What would you like the community to know about your work? Oh my, another great question. Sorry, I'm also trying to like see what the chat is. Oh, don't worry about the chat. I'll like, I'll bring this up and see. I like, it's, no, this is like, this is a brain thing. Like when you're the presenter and then the chat's going, yeah, you're trying to object. Yeah, just popping off. But, oh my goodness. What do I want the community to know about my work? Oh my gosh, in the work at the ACLU. I really want to say that we are committed to pushing the boundaries of the status quo through various policy initiatives and strategies. We not only do advocacy in the state house but we are really trying to engage in community more and to understand what people who are living here in Vermont really are wanting and needing to ensure that our civil rights and liberties are not being infringed on. So we focus on criminal legal reform as a very broad space of engagement. And we also do creating, we're trying to move into this space of like creating policy that really encourages legislators and policymakers to center our needs. And so I just, I think I want to maybe focus more on the less traditional work of the ACLU of Vermont which is economic justice. So we do a lot of like criminal legal reform and within that there's like smart just like, oh my gosh, I'm trying to find better words. We're just wanting to create a smarter criminal legal system. And within that we are seeing that what drives people to interact with our criminal legal system often is because of unmet needs and resources in community. And we are really interested in getting to the root, I would say and trying to build up better like structures and foundations to meet the needs of people. So I just want to put out there that we are part of the Fund Vermont Future Coalition. And I'm really excited about this. On Thursday, there's a press conference where they'll be calling on the state to raise revenue. So like taxing the rich, which is something I feel like we've heard, it's been like talked about but to know that there's actual momentum in Vermont to move in this direction and to raise revenue to help address some of our social service needs is incredible. And so I think that's what I want to highlight and to share about the work that we're doing. It's a new area that we're getting involved in but we see it as so crucial to the rest of everything that we are doing and really hope to just continue in this space and to advocate for meeting people's needs. That's really amazing. Thank you so much for sharing that. I didn't know about that. That's a big deal. Yes, yeah, it's been like, oh my gosh, I want to say like a four year conversation. There wasn't really, we weren't really sure if there was going to be like an actual campaign but yeah, again, it's just really exciting that we're coming together. I think the campaign is called fair share for Vermont. And again, it's just to center raising revenue so that we can have those social services that we're told so many times that we don't have the money for but we know it's there and just very exciting, very exciting work. Thank you. Thank you so much. And there's some questions in the chat. I think what we're going to do is we're going to save questions so we can hear from everyone. But first, Indy, I would like to ask how people can learn more about the ACLU of Vermont and get involved. Yeah, oh my goodness, there are so many ways. We have our website ACLUVT.org, if I'm saying that correctly, where you can learn about the wide range of issues that we work on a little more in depth. And also we have, I can link, I believe, if I have it here, we have a volunteer interest form that people can fill out if they want to get engaged that way. I do just want to put a plug in for those of us who are in central Vermont, Montpelier, East Montpelier, we'll be having a letter writing party next Wednesday. And this is just an opportunity to gather in community and to put pen to pen, pen to paper, oh my goodness, on the issues that matter most to us. So we'll be providing materials and talking points and helping people identify who their representatives are and offer guidance on how to write an impactful advocacy letter because that's so important and part of the work that we're doing. So we have that coming up. And if that's not of interest, the volunteer intake sheet is another way. Awesome, thank you so much, Andy. All right, Alyssa, are you ready? Swap out the spotlight. Hey, everyone. I mean, I'm gonna throw this little slide deck into that I just added a bunch of links to stuff too that I'm gonna highlight and you're welcome to follow along, but you don't need to if you like a visual you can. Amazing. And Alyssa, I'd love to introduce you. So before becoming an organizer at the Educational Justice Coalition, Alyssa worked in alternative high schools in Vermont and California. Alyssa is excited to be in Vermont growing an education justice movement at the Education Justice Coalition. Alyssa leads an internal work and coordinates the Education Organizing Committee as well as the Educators Color Group. Welcome, Alyssa. Hey, everyone, nice to be here. Do you want me to just share a little bit about our org to get started? Please do, we'd love that. Well, yeah, so we got started like, I guess seven years ago with the Ethnic Studies Bill that created Act One. And so this was an effort to try to change our standards at the state level. And since then we've grown into a broader coalition with a bunch of volunteers and grassroots projects which all share more about kind of all with the mission of trying to ensure that schools are equitable, inclusive, welcoming places for marginalized people of all different backgrounds. And so we are like an intersectional organization, which means people in our leadership and our volunteers represent different identities including BIPOC folks, people with disabilities, LGBTQIA plus and more. Thank you. For you, what does inclusion mean? That's a good question. I think it's, when I get questions and grants that will say like, how do you know your work's having an impact? I feel like it's all about like the stories we tell. And so tonight we were debriefing our Educator of Color retreat and someone was like, I didn't get to go, but I wanted to share the story for my friend. Like they're very introverted and they were very nervous to go and they just felt so welcomed and they were just so happy to be there and they really brought a lot back to our program. So I don't know, that story just stands out to me and it kind of like, when people ask us, how do we know our work's having an impact? It's the stories we tell. And so I think it's like, if the stories that youth in schools are telling about how they feel like welcomed and included and excited to go to school like it sounds very simple but if those are all the stories we start hearing out of schools like kind of our work is done and I know we're really far from that but I think it's about like, I can't define what inclusion is for all of you because everyone has different needs but if the stories you're telling me is like, I love school and it's a place I wanna be and it's a place I feel welcomed and seen and heard then I can say with some certainty that your school is inclusive. And so just recognizing that it means different things for different people and it's more of kind of a feeling and an experience that a list of checking things on a box. Not agree more. Thank you for that. What would you like the community to most know about your work that you haven't shared already? I guess two things stand out that are unique about our work. I think one is building a particular culture is very important to us and we really believe and like I've worked in different schools and organizations that have nice missions but then it can be very, it can be very painful or toxic or hard to work there. You don't get treated well, it's always very urgent. And so I think one thing I want people to know about us is we really see that the way we are with each other and the way that I interact with volunteers or staff or the spaces we build is the work itself. And so I think that is an important thing about our organization that we care a lot about the culture and how we do the work and how we be with each other in relationship and not just what the impacts are. Because sometimes you can think you're having good impacts but it doesn't feel good, so it's not worth it. And then, yeah, on slide four, if anyone wants to check that out, I have a overview of our programs. We have worked for educators of color and schools once for educators of color. We have a really exciting education for social justice conference that I think some folks from all brains belong were there or joined us online. And so definitely would love to welcome and see anyone there. And we hope to continue to work with you all to think about access and how we can continue to make it more accessible. We have an emerging youth organizing program that I'm excited to share with people. There's a BIPOC statewide camp, the social justice summer camp in Chittenden County and a youth organizing leadership program. And I left my colleague Kayla's email and so if there's any youth on here and you wanna join our Instagram chat or there's like stipend and opportunities, for example, for youth to help plan our conference. And so if you're a youth on the call and you wanna get involved in helping lead workshops or plan conferences or just talk with my colleague Kayla and see how you can get involved. I wanna highlight that. And then I'll also highlight we have a class for educators. We also welcome parents and students to join because we think that it takes like a whole village and community to transform our schools to make them more inclusive. And that's like a sliding scale class. There's remote options, there's in-person options. We have our amazing team of facilitators and I'm piloting the curriculum with Burlington educators and so far people are really enjoying it. They like how self-directed it is, how interactive, how it really values people's knowledge in the room. And so we welcome anyone to join us in that. And then we also have a project because there's a lot of stories talking about the stories we hear that are not about inclusion. We hear a lot of stories about bullying harassment and so that's kind of in partnership with Indy and Mel joined that work recently. And so we wanna let folks know about that project. And if you'd like to share a story, we are hoping to use those stories to make changes in policies. Thank you. And Alyssa, I just put the link in the chat for that project. Awesome. So that's the narratives for change. It's where community members have the opportunity to share stories of bullying and harassment so that we can shine light on that because people don't get it. People don't know how common the trauma is. Thank you, Alyssa. And how, so you just listed a ton of things and I'm gonna link again your website for folks to get involved. So any other ways that you'd like folks to know about getting connected with the Education Justice Coalition? Yeah, I put this in the, you can look on the website but I put everything in the slide deck so it's all laid out. If you go to a website, you can go to the bottom and there's a listserv you can join. And that's great because you'll hear about like our conference or if you're a youth and you wanna join one more summer camps, you'll like hearing those pop up. If you'd like to help plan the conference, that's like a committee that's just getting started. We're having our second meeting tomorrow actually so you can even come tomorrow. So you can chat me or you can email me. We meet once a month and it's a really fun group of people trying to plan a really amazing conference. And if you're educator color, that would be me. If you're a youth, you can connect with Kayla. And then these two other opportunities I mentioned like if you wanna sign up for that class, we have that open for 10 more days. You can share that around or if you have a story or you're a parent who has a kid that has a story about bullying and harassment and you wanna share that to help make changes. I left that info there as well. Thank you, Alyssa. Okay, Weiwei, you ready? Yes. Hi, Alyssa. Just wanna say hi. Haven't seen Alyssa in a while. Hi, my name is Weiwei Wang. She, her pronouns. I am with the Vermont Professionals of Color Network. Am I supposed to introduce myself or Mel are you gonna do something? As you heard her talking, I was like, oh, I'm completely slacking because of my executive functioning I was supposed to introduce you. So Weiwei is the co-executive director of the Vermont Professionals of Color Network. Vermont Professionals of Color Network founded in 2019 is dedicated to advancing the prosperity of all professionals of color throughout Vermont by building from within. And in both her personal professional life, Weiwei brings a passion for community connection and development and refining accessibility for historically excluded communities through changing systems of oppression. Weiwei, welcome. Hi, I'm back. Yeah, so I'm one of the co-founders of the Vermont Professionals of Color Network we're a relatively young organization. Like Mel said, we started unofficially in 2019 and we started officially in 2021 as a 501C3 organization. Tina Rudin-Hira and I are the co-founders and also the co-executive directors at this point. We have amazing staff of folks and our mission is to advance the prosperity of folks BIPOC folks across the state. And that could mean economic prosperity if that's what prosperity means to you or it could mean social prosperity if that's what that means to you. We are focused on supporting folks to get access to existing resources and to build resources where they're not. So something that we know is BIPOC or global majority folks across the state are the last to know about a lot of different resources that are available and the last to be able to access those resources. So something that we're trying to do is to make sure that people are aware of those things that are available through social media, through our website, through speaking with folks across the state and our focus is really on three different groups. So professionals and we define professionals as actually we just created the statement. So I'm gonna read it out to you. We define it as an individual dedicated to developing expertise or skill or craft that contributes to personal growth and or social improvement and trying to kind of move away from what professional means from that traditional sense that is really might not fit who we are as individuals in today's working society. And so we support professionals, we support people who are building up businesses and nonprofits. So making sure that they have access to grants and supporting them in writing the grants and our third group that we haven't yet touched but is part of our mission is to support and empower youth of color across the state making sure that they know and actually everyone that we support knowing, making sure that they know that they are assets to the community that we can also create a safe space for them whether it's in their homes in their communities in their place of work so that they can really thrive and they wanna stay here. And we realize that not everybody wants to stay here and that's okay but we really wanna make sure that folks are connected. So one of the biggest things that we do is to create networking or community based events because there's that Vermont saying of you can't get there from here. So wanting to make sure that people feel connected because sometimes you're the only person in the workplace or the only person in the community who looks like you. So having that sense of connection is really helpful both for personal development, for mental health for a lot of different reasons. So that's one of the biggest things that we do right now. And also just to make sure that people are aware. I think Max had talked about, I think it was Max or I apologize. Huzzahan. Huzzahan, thank you so much. One of you had said making sure that there's things that are at like a particular the written word is comprehensible to everyone. And that's also really important to us because we do also support on some level folks who are immigrated to this country who are refugees making sure that they have access to that information or folks who, yeah, from all different walks of life. So I think that's it right now. Thank you, Weiwei. So from your perspective, what does inclusion feel like and look like? So from my personal standpoint, inclusion for me is really important because that's the reason that there are five of us who started VTPOC and for me personally, that looks like not having to wonder if I belong in a room, not having to wonder where the grocery store is because I don't know the name of it, not having to wonder like what a snow tire is or what yak tracks are. So for me, it's being safe in a community and in a workplace. For me, it's being where folks are understood by others when they understand others, meaning like there's a culture in Vermont that is incredibly inaccessible and people don't take the time to explain. As an example, there was a visitor who came to speak at a conference and somebody had used the word foliage and the dude is from Chicago, he's never heard the word foliage in his life. And in my mind, I was like, I don't ever say the word foliage. I just say like the leaves are changing. And so he spent the better part of like three days not knowing what the F they were talking about, right? And so it's that kind of like accessible information, accessible resources that I'm talking about and it can be something that is so seemingly simple but it's incredibly exclusionary. So for me, it's that. And I also personally ascribe to this framework of access where we're really thinking about access from a lot of different standpoints, meaning is whatever resource we're talking about. Is it available to the person that is trying to use it? Is it physically accessible to the person who is trying to use it? Is it affordable to the person who's trying to use it? Is it accommodating the individual who's trying to use it? Is it trusted? Like, is it acceptable to the person who is trying to use it? And are they aware of it even? So those are the six components, like the six pieces of access that I like to think about. And that's not always available. And so when there's not, like any one of those components is missing, then I personally don't think that somebody is missing out. Somebody is not able to use that resource. So it's safety, it's access, it's being part of the community and being able to like eat really good food and being able to share and laughter in a way that you're not trying to hide who you are. So those are some of the things that I think about. Just taking all of that in, yeah. How can the community get connected with your work? Yeah, so where we have a website, it's www.vetpoc.net. Right now we're trying to think of ways to engage, to like get people more involved. How can they volunteer with us? How can they be a greater part of what we're doing? What we're coming upon is the fact that we have a little bit of different ideas and the community has so many amazing ideas and we would love to engage folks more in the development of it because like we are really realistic that we're not going to be able to meet everybody's needs. We simply aren't because we're just one organization. We talk a lot about relief collective. We talk about the NAACPs. We talk a lot about community resilience organizations. We talk about education justice coalition. We talk about all of these different amazing BIPOC-led groups and other organizations that are available across the state because we need to all work together. So, but in answering your question, go to our website, check out our Instagram. Our Instagram handle is at vtpoc-network. We have an event coming up on November 14th where you can learn more about our organization and what we've been doing and what we plan on doing over the next year. So, please come to that event. If you can, we'll have really great food. I think we're having Harmony's Kitchen caterer as well as Taino Kitchen, oh, I'm so sorry. So, it's gonna be some really great food and it's at the Vermont Comedy Club in Burlington from five to seven and I'll drop some more information in the chat. Awesome, thank you so much for your win. Thanks. All right, Kell, I'm gonna shine the spotlight on you. Welcome. So, Kell Arbor is the director of the health and wellness programs at the Pride Center of Vermont. Kell and the team provide joy-filled wellness events and connect people to health services. Pride Center has a physical location in Burlington and serves the state with services all throughout. Kell, welcome. Hi, everybody, thanks so much for having me. If folks need to pop off at seven, I'll totally understand. You can find more info about our work at pridecentervt.org. We serve the state of Vermont for two ST LGBTQ plus folks in both direct service outreach programs where we connect with folks through affinity groups and center-wide everybody under the rainbow fun things like the Large Pride Fest in Burlington. We organize that event. We have a safe space team that's part of the Vermont network surveying two ST LGBTQ plus folks that are experiencing violence and harm. We also train healthcare providers in how to work with our populations. There's a lot of inclusive low-hanging fruit at healthcare facilities. Folks have already named some of these strategies around language. When we see a single-stall bathroom and it has a man and a woman sign on it, that's transphobic. It doesn't need to be reiterated that the single-stall is just for men and women. It's a restroom for everybody. What does the word restroom even mean? That's not a very clear word. We coach people to use pictures. Is there a toilet? Is there a urinal? A baby-changing station? An active wheelchair. There's an in-motion wheelchair image. Having ASL, so some of those access pieces around language that folks noted are, like I said, low-hanging fruit. We're really behind the times in Vermont, so we can make some adjustments that will change access for all people. We talk about intake forms with both pronouns. It's not preferred. My identity is my identity. It's not a preference or a choice. So not saying preferred pronouns, not using the word other for a fill-in-the-blank category that literally is othering folks. What name people want to be called that resonates with them, that intersects a lot of different communities around the name that I wanna hear for my service. So it might not be the name on my quote-unquote legal documents. When we're asking for sex and gender markers, asking ourselves why we need those things, if it's gonna help us serve people better, if it's not, then it might not be relevant to ask. But there's times when we need to know one of those times is for insurance and to be able to match it up. So be clear that it's for insurance because I am somebody who is deciding female at birth. I have three different gender markers in the systems. I use X on my license. I'm still coded as female to get some health services because you're denied care if why would a man need testosterone or a pap smear? So there's things on the inside that a client might not know. So like what Max and Hassan do, we do a lot of patient advocacy around navigating systems. We're left out and harmed so much. I rarely see intersexed or ex-gender markers. X is unknown and unspecified. Those are legal gender markers in Vermont. Australia pulled them out from the Holocaust actually. And we have X for unknown unspecified. People are moving here in droves to raise their babies and to have all their gender-neutral kids, but they leave because our systems are not gender-inclusive. So we have a lot of work to do in our schools and in all of our healthcare settings and a lot of that technical support and access. We have tips and tricks on our website and also offer dialogues and lived experience panels. Sometimes folks need to hear stories from folks that have lived experience so that they can really understand the impact. I constantly hear folks say, well, we don't have enough Latina people living in Vermont to look at the numbers. It's a great time to use qualitative data. When we uplift the needs of the communities that we're most not serving, everybody's care is gonna get better through that. So all the intersections that we have, there's some commonality about some of these places with access. And I just wanna uplift what everybody else has already said. And we have a lot of neurodivergencies specifically in our two ST LGBTQ plus populations, a third of Vermont youth identify within rainbow communities. That's a large demographic and we're gonna keep seeing more and more people move here. So we have a lot of work to do to be that safer space. I think for me inclusion goes hand in hand with belonging that it's both that I show up and see myself on the intake forms in the images for outreach. I see myself in the people giving service that doesn't mean they're gonna serve me better but I might be more comfortable and open with somebody that has an identity and alignment with me. So we see more and more people want queer providers or trans providers, people of color, people with disabilities. I think that it's like Alyssa was saying that feeling and that sensation. And it makes me wanna come back for more when I hear people moving to Vermont and pretty immediately leave, I know we're not an inclusive state yet. So I know we have a lot of work to do in that and just connecting people to each other is a lot of our work here at the center, networking people. We had more than ever pride fest from the tip to tail of Vermont this past year across June and it's in Croyabula to have more community brewing up spaces to meet and greet and do what Weiwei saying, connect people to resources that they are just left out of knowing about. To connect with our work, there's lots of different things going on at the center. We have a web calendar, we do a lot of support groups for the community and that's a great way to warm handoff people into events. We have a pride hike event happening this weekend at Shelburne Farms, a great way to access mental wellness beyond one-on-one talk therapy is to go out and do a fun activity that you like to do with like-minded people. So we love those hikes. We're also showing United in Anger, one of the ACT UP documentaries on December 1st on World AIDS Day at the Savoy Theater in Montpelier. The AIDS epidemic had intersected all communities and we see a lot of their work still needing to be done around housing, healthcare inclusivity as somebody who was dying with an AIDS diagnosis and told that women don't get STIs. It infuriates me that we're really behind the scene with serving gender diverse folks with sexual healthcare. Medicaid just released their prior authorization for hysterectomies this past year unless it was for gender affirming care. That's absolute discrimination. We are everywhere giving access to hormones to people who are cisgender, who are men and women, but we're making it very difficult for trans and gender non-conforming folks to get access to hormones. So there's a lot of downright discrimination happening and a great way to plug in is get some training and resources. We are serving to ST, LGBTQ plus folks all over the state and we intersect every identity that's out there. A third of our survey respondents in 2019 identified as living with a disability. So we have a lot of intersection, somebody's access to care, might not be their gender identity is the biggest barrier to care. The BMI for surgery, the body mass index for surgery is 35. That's an incredible discrimination point for folks that want top surgery or other gender affirming care. So we don't always think about body size as being a major barrier to care, but it is for surgery. So there's a lot of layers to the intersectionality and lots of different ways to plug in. Thank you, Cal. And I also appreciate you supporting my executive functioning in layering in responses to my questions as you went. I appreciate that. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna leave you a spotlight. I'm gonna add your co-panelists back to spotlight. Except I don't even, I think that, hang on a second. Hold on. Add pen. It just happened. Hold on. It disappeared. Here's Alyssa. Add pen. I'm happy to go through and spotlight people if that's helpful, Mel. Can you find Cal? Where's Cal? Where'd they go? You were literally right next to me. I don't understand how that happened. So there we go. Wait, what? Great. Oh, thank goodness. So I'm gonna scroll up and Max, I know you have to hop off. So just hop off whenever you need to pop off. And if there's any lingering questions, I'll compile them. Scrolling up to the very beginning and the first question was around use of plain language, around professionals who use a lot of jargon. Does anyone have any responses to that? Was that the question from Amanda from DMP3 or P3P? Yes, and it looks like what that is, it's a disability in medicine mentorship program. So I did put my answer in chat, but I will answer it verbally as well. I don't worry about the balance between readability and prestige. I just, I mean, I simply need to understand things in plain language and about abbreviations, I make sure anything that is abbreviated needs to be spelled out and I address that. And also if there's any big words that are said in the document, I have to ask for clarifications. Now, I mean, in terms of, you know, readability, I know that sometimes when we come across documents that are not in plain language, we kind of use tools that will, you know, tell us like what grade level they are and then sometimes determine that way if we have to, you know, break down whatever we have to like, you know, break down from something else. I'll add to that. Part of it is get to the point. We use a lot of flowery language and talk around things. So it's not just that it's plain language, but that we're clear and specific and not using this pretentious academic speech that literally is not saying anything. Yep. Anyone else wanna add to that? I'm gonna connect this question to the last question in the chat. This looks like maybe, maybe, Kel, if you'd like to start with this one and then I'd love for others to join in. It's like, and the person who asked the question hopped off, but I think it's a, it's a, just good answer to the conversation around when professionals, particularly researchers or people collecting data, they want checkboxes. Um, what, what do you say to that? Given that the checkboxes often resulting in someone being othered? Yeah, sometimes all we can do is harm reduction in that moment. I like to show people the form that I have so they can see the options. There should always be a decline to answer. And if I decline, it shouldn't mean that I am then denied services. And sometimes that happens. There should be no case where no box keeps me from the services. Sometimes we can upfront offer questions that can be seen as me as the patient. And then I on the backside put it into the data that makes the most sense. So that front facing with that patient, they don't have to see the harmful. And then behind the scenes, I put it into the box that makes the most sense. For example, we have been HIV testing with trans women for many, many years. Would I call them a man who has sex with men? Absolutely not. Do I have to in the government database code them that way? Yeah. And so it's sometimes just keeping the information away from them having to visually see it can be one strategy, but having a blank line is best practice. You're never gonna have enough checkboxes. There's just no way. Bye, Max. Thank you. Does anyone else wanna add to the topic of the checkboxes that are othering for all kinds of topics? Hey, at all brains belong what we do in addition to gender with a blank line. I mean, just like all the categories like race is asked that way too. And we've never had feedback that patients mind being asked to write out a word or type out a word. It's just a way of not having anyone be in a situation to have to check a box fit in a container that they don't identify with or not see their identity represented in the words that we came up with. Yeah, and Kel's added in the chat. Anytime you gather data, ask yourself, why am I asking and what am I doing with it? Yeah, I'd love to open this up to probably have time for the one or two questions depending on how quick they are. Kel's adding eight of 10 healthcare facilities do not ask for sexual orientation or gender identity data and that's not helpful. So why do you think that is? Why do you think that healthcare facilities? That they don't ask? Yeah. Because our identities are seen as a choice and a preference and irrelevant to the care. And sometimes it is irrelevant. If it's the dentist, you might not need to know that information. If it's the gynecologist, you might want to know that information. So again, like why are we gathering it and then how we're doing that? Because it's seen as private information, especially in puritanical New England where though heterosexuality and cisgenderness is rampant in our faces, that there's any other types of gender or sexual orientations expressed is an absolute like abhorrence and we're treated that way. So there's a keep that private attitude around our identities. And then we don't feel like it is okay to bring it up when it is relevant to care. And we're just not believed. A lot of times folks are coming to appointments, feeling like they need to prove that they're trans or they're asked questions that don't honor, I'm a lesbian, stop asking me if I have risk for pregnancy. And I think we see that in so many instances of the I'm not believed, I go to seek healthcare and I'm not believed for so many reasons. You don't believe I'm autistic. You don't believe that I know what's going on in my body that I have this symptom. Like, it's your body. Of course that's what's going on for you. Of course that's your symptom, right? Like just, yeah. So I think that like zooming out, I think part of inclusion is that you get to show up as your true self and that people just believe you. Like that, thank you all. Thank you so much to India and Hassan and Max and Alyssa and Cal and Weiwei. Thank you all so much for being here. And thank you, thank you to all of you who have joined us for this conversation. And we'll look forward to seeing you next week where we'll be discussing the language of belonging. Bye.