 Thank you, Sage. Welcome South. We call in the West, the grandparents from the West, all our grandmothers from the West and all their tears from their poverty. And we call in all the emotions of, and all the lakes and the rivers and the oceans and the clouds and the rain that washes us clean. Our emotions are the heart of our being. They're allowed. They're okay. They are sound, and they are our access to healing. And we invite the West. Welcome West. All the spirits, water is life. We invite the North with a sharp sense of direction and that sense of knowing and being sure even though we've been told that we're not supposed to be sure about anything as women and people that aren't white. And we invite all of these grandparents, all the spirits, everything from a million generations, from a million feet down into the earth. We invite all the forces of the North today to come in and heal us, the eagle, the broad perspective, and all the medicine that we don't even know about from the North. And now we invite all the spirits from above, all our grandmothers, all their pain and all the bank accounts, they didn't get to open. And their husbands, it's even sad next to them that we're concerned about why they had to co-sign for them to get a credit card. And we invite all the stars and all the spirits from infinite past and the infinite future because the world is new for us every day. We don't know what's up there. We welcome the powers of above, welcome above. And then if folks feel like it, you can touch the ground right now if you're able to, both your hands or one hand, if you feel like it, you can stand up and lean over. We're going to feel into the earth and invite all the energy from the drumbeat of life. It's down there that's holding us, holding our feet in place, holding us and our counting minds. We try to figure out what's in our bank account every day and try to stay grounded in the matters of the earth, even though we're all so much infinite soul inside of us. We need your support earth and we know you need us. We're here for each other. We're a team. We're all a team together, all of us living beings in this amazing network of life. Welcome all the ancestors and all the spirits from below. Welcome below. And now touch your bellies. If you feel like it, we're going to invite in the spirits from inside of us. And you can breathe in. Just feel your really tender body. It's amazing. There's so many things that we need to think about in our minds. We invite the feelings of our body. We invite all the miraculous healing that's available because of the mechanisms and the technologies, the extraordinary technologies established millions of years ago that is our body. Welcome the spirits within us. Welcome within. Thank you. So I think that should get us a lot of helpers here today. Yes, please. Welcome to the unseen. We couldn't have done this without our sponsors. We're really grateful. I'm going to let Shonda introduce our sponsors. I'm Jacqueline reiki. I'm really glad to be with you here today. And I co produced this event with Shonda Williams, Kimberly Pierce and the Vermont kindness project. So, so excited that you made it. Thank you guys. Here's Shonda Williams. Hello everybody. I'm Shonda Williams and I'm co visionary for this event. You may have seen me with Lost Nation Theater. You may have seen me with Montpelier Community Gospel choir. The Vermont kindness project with Kimberly Pierce. Those are just a few of the organizations that I belong to. So my grandmother's hands with the everything space and Dr opening Emmy is here today. So I want to acknowledge the powerful people that are here in the room. And so we want to acknowledge our sponsors. First, the Abinac people who we are on seated land. I think it's important to acknowledge them. Also, we have capstone community action is here today. That's actually our next presenter. And we have Lori Cozar and Margaret Ferguson who just retired after what 35 years. Twa 23 years of, let's give her a hand. That's amazing. Because I don't really think anybody stays at a job these days for 20 something years. Most people are bouncing around. It's really, really interesting. We also want to acknowledge national life is here. Can you just stand up and say hello to everybody. That's Anne. And I guess crystal she she may be taking a bathroom break. Okay. We also want to acknowledge the Donna Hugh Foundation, Senator Perch like was going to be here today. But I guess he hasn't come in yet. And I also see Liz sharp is here from capstone. Hey. Oh, hey, Rosie. Yay. Well, welcome. We also have empower transformation Ray Carter who's here. Ray, you want to. Yeah. Thank you for that. And an economy of our own a very special lady Ricky guard diamond, the author of screw nomics and public banking Vermont is here, Ricky. Yes, and her books are going to be available for sale today so please take advantage of that I'm in the process of reading it now. We are also doing the public banking Vermont group, which has been powerful in my life as an African American woman being open to these doors. You know, the blocks are being lifted from the institutional racism that I've experienced for most of my life. So, you know, it's a very powerful thing and last but not least Amy Kavanaugh and the Montpelier Community Gospel Choir volunteers. Raise your hands people. Yeah. Olivia, where's Olivia. Oh, she's at the table. Yeah, that was the lady with with the curly hair who greeted you today. So, um, you know, thank you for everybody for just pitching in and supporting us we really really appreciate it. And just want to say like, as an African American woman who recently has migrated to Vermont. I'm here just like five years. I've just learned to be open to some of the different modalities of thinking and getting out of my traditional mindset. So, you know, you might see things today that are just, you know, it's not the norm. I think that's, for me, it's taken a lot to get out of the norm, because the norm has not really helped me and getting out of that patriarchal norm and making my own. So I just invite you all to be open minded to be present today. And if something just feels odd to you like it's a little too hippie dippy, just, I've learned to just go with it. Just go with it. I mean, I really feel it has put me on a more positive trajectory. So I'm like, okay, don't bash it just keep open mind, go with it. And so I promise it's going to be for the better. Okay. All right, so let's get started with mine and Jacqueline story. Jacqueline, if you want to just know. Okay. All right, so this all started with an email. Okay. And I want to say I just want to, you know, start the trajectory. It all started with an email with opie me Dr opie me parham. And putting us together to talk about money. I don't even remember what the email was about exactly. But it facilitated a conversation about money and class. And then Jacqueline reached out to me and she says, would you like to, you know, open up an event to talk about this with other women. And I'm like, well, why not. Why not. So then I said, well, let's, you know, talk to some other people. And then it became a conversation with Kim from the Vermont kindness project. And then Ricky guard diamond with screw nomics and the public banking initiative and learning about, you know, the inequalities of women and their income. However, the state of Vermont, luckily is better than most. So we should be proud to live here, because we get a little bit more than the national average. And Ricky will explain that to you later on throughout the program. Then we had Ray through empower transformation. And so this is has grown into a big networking shift. So it all can just start from a simple conversation. And here we are. So I just wanted to acknowledge everybody is involved. And thank you. Yeah. So, next we're going to be having Lori Cozar. She is a financial and energy coach with green saving smart. She works for economic and environmental justice for low and moderate income Vermonters in the capstone community action service area in central Vermont so let's welcome Lori Cozar. Sorry, is that better. Sorry guys. Thanks. Thanks for coming out. I'm really honored to be here with so many other strong women in this room. And I'm going to go a little bit off script because this is a little hippie dipping, and I really dig that vibe. When we're talking about finances people can really not be hippie dipping at all about it because it's numbers. So bear with me a little bit as we dig into this. Hi, I'm Lori Cozar. I work for capstone community action. We're a community action agency and there are five regional agencies so if you don't live in central Vermont area. You have a capstone or excuse me a community action agency. We have Brock community action. We have CV OEO up in central or excuse me Champlain Valley. We have neck in the Northeast Kingdom and southeastern Vermont community action. And together these five community action agencies provide all sorts of different financial services for Vermonters. We have micro business Rosie Manning that there and Margaret just retired. We have bite attacks programs volunteers help you prepare your income taxes so that you don't have to struggle with that. We have programs for children and families head start community building voices against violence crisis intervention services for domestic violence and Franklin County. We have health and well being programs like the food shelves and housing assistance. And then we also have energy, energy actions like the weather station assistance program and the green saving smart program, which is what I do. These diverse programs deliver support to Vermonters were underserved, and that tends to be a lot of emails and single parent head of households. So a lot of what I do is environmental justice work. And that is especially the weather station and energy coaching that I do that energy coaching is in the form of helping folks to navigate all the resources, rebates and incentives that exist to help lower your energy burden, or what you're paying for energy. And basically, this is a economic justice tactic that the state of Vermont realize that low income Vermonters were disproportionately impacted by their energy bills they're paying more percentage of their gross annual income to pay for homes or for electricity for their homes. Weather station is certainly the first step in lowering your energy burden, but there are a lot of other things that present barriers to Vermonters and my job and the other coaches in the green saving smart program at the other five community action agencies help folks navigate those programs so that they can build their economic security and that's the economic justice part forward here. So, why is that financial piece so important. Why is the energy piece so important those two together constitute what's called an energy burden. And I know this isn't hippie Dippy when I talk about the energy burden, but I think most of us live in Vermont because we really adore the environment driving here today on route to was stunning. And I'm always so grateful that I live in such a beautiful, beautiful environment. Energy burden is how much you spend on lighting and heating your home, and you divide that amount total it up probably know what monthly expenses are for lighting and heating your home or annual, and you divide that by your gross income. And it's important to know that if that percentage that you come up with when you do that calculation is 6% then you have a high energy burden. A lot of clients that I work with one on one. When we tally up what they're paying for electricity and heating oil or wood or propane. They are what's called severely burden so they're paying over 10% of their gross income just for heat and light. The national statistics. It was a boring report and dries as dust, but the national average is 3.1%. However, for median low income folks. It's 8%. And so that's right in between a high and severe energy burden, but to go back to the economic justice this impacts low income households because they can't afford to upgrade LED bulb light bulbs are more expensive. So, if propane is cheaper than perhaps pellet furnaces so low income people tend to stick with the higher expense because they can't afford to upgrade the equipment in their home. Even with the incentives and rebates, there's still a gap, but the state of Vermont is trying really hard and the green saving smart program was funded by the legislature to try to help folks navigate all of this. So, what's really interesting about looking at the national statistics to me and I'm a little bit of a data geek that way is that BIPOC communities feel even more energy burdened they're disproportionately energy burdened. So, we have 6% of black households, 28% of Hispanic households and 36% of Native American households experience high energy burdens above 6%. And we've not even touched on single parent households which are predominantly female head of households. On the national scale, there's a problem, and the state of Vermont is trying to lead some change there and I really appreciate where we live. Okay, so however mantra is effective. Now that I've talked about the national averages. This graph that we're looking at here is energy affordability data graph and it shows for economic brackets based on state median income. You can see the x axis you can see the income and y axis is the energy burden. And you see it's broken down by electricity and dark blue on the bottom gas in green in the middle, and light blue on the top is for other energy sources and there's a stark difference from the zero to 30% median it state median income, compared to the 100% state. And if you look at this graph, you can see that people who are in that 100% state median income the higher earners aren't paying as large a percentage for energy, and it's crucial that we try to impact that for a lower income neighbors and try to help everybody lift everybody up for the energy efficiency revolution that is really coming to help protect our environment. And so if you think about navigating those services I don't know if any of you have looked at having to navigate weatherization and the applications. It can be overwhelming if you're looking at an electric vehicle. There are all sorts of rebates and incentives coming out, but putting it all together and figuring out what you can afford can feel really, really overwhelming. And that's where financial and energy coach can really come in handy. The five coaches together at the Community Action Agencies across the state all help our clients to navigate those programs. We offer one on one coaching. We go through your budget we look at everything that you are spending money on, we look at all your money in and your money out. Everything from what you're spending on food and heating, transportation, what you're paying for childcare what you're paying for your cat litter. We look at everything and we figure out where your money is going to try to help you navigate and save more money, build your financial capabilities, build your financial security, and help you get some of your goals and wants and needs met. Who qualifies for this wonderful free service. So this graph up here shows the qualifications to participate in our program. The first is you just must live in Vermont. So we live here, and you can apply. If your income is 80% of the state median family income. We can service you. If you are of the BIPOC community or identify as a new American household, you can earn up to 120% of the state median family income. If you see the qualifications for green saving smart. We can work with a really large range of Vermonters, and it's a lot of fun to do this before I was a coach my my quick story. I was really not interested in finances at all. You know my background is graphic design and I'm a creative person. I was an educator for many years. So we're not my strong suit and living with some of those choices that I made when I was younger ignoring those basic future planning things have impacted me and impacted my financial security. So I enjoy helping folks navigate all the systems and programs that we have so that they can have a little bit more security. So back to what we offer. As I said the custom community action agency and Barry serves central Vermont so I'm the central Vermont regional mean saving smart coach. But even if you don't live in our service territory, there's another coach that I can refer you to. I'm a coaching specialist that is ready to help income eligibility income eligible or Monders excuse me, help you build your financial skills that might be building a budget. It might be managing your credit. I have a number of clients who have about 20 credit cards, and they roll their debt through those credit cards to try and manage it, and it's quite a piece of work. So we we whittle that down and try to help folks to really build the credit build their credit scores so if they're applying for a loan for wanting a home, which is really hard right now with interest rates. If you if you want to build your credit score so that you can qualify for a prime plus loan, which is a better interest rate. If you are interested in saving for retirement, we can help you navigate that we analyze your energy burden if you're looking for an EV we can help you navigate the different programs. If you're interested in heat pumps or getting off of fossil fuels we can help you do that. And if, perhaps as many of my clients need other services, we also make referrals to partner agencies and programs throughout the state of our moment. So, if you need a green saving smart coach. If you'd like some help, please reach out to us. We can help you make decisions that are short term long term mid term help you meet all of your goals. Just make your life a little bit more easy. And I know that's not the most will kind of hippie experience to talk about finances, but it's really, really important to get your finances under control and it's not as hard as you think, especially if you have a coach by your side. Thanks a lot for listening to me today I hope you guys have a wonderful experience here. And Shonda and Jackie thanks so much for inviting me to present at this event. Thank you. Hopefully everybody got your love letter at the door. This besides, since I was very small reinventing every wheel without necessarily needing to is an alternative to a brochure or program that you might get at a normal conference. And it came about because we were talking about a month ago about this event that organizers were gathered and we were talking about how it's a movement it's a movement we're starting a movement and the wonderful Ray Carter, who's going to be speaking next. He surrounded us, and in the knowledge that the movement is in perpetuity, the movement is on the backs of millions of people that have worked for liberation before us. And the movement is happening and really what we're doing today is we're in a continue continuation of a movement and what we're doing is building relationships and we move and act, we have movements and activism through love. So that gave me the idea to make you guys a love letter instead of a conference brochure. And if you see on the first page, it says hey you, and that's for you to be able to begin a love letter to yourself today, whenever you're ready. And then as you go through the day if you want to write more. You can just unfold it and you can be all big and you can take up space like we're not supposed to do. As you spread it around and you can fold it and unfold it. And this is for you to write more and more and more love letters to yourself. And then the six of us have given you a message to take home with you because we want you to think of us like resources for you forever, we're here for you. So the six of us are a body of support and love that you can take away along with your own love for yourself. So there's a lot I could say about Ray Carter but suffice to say she really brought the love forward for me in terms of what we're doing here and you're going to learn a lot more from her yourself. I'm really really honored if you need a pen and raise your hand and I'll walk around. These are my personal pens. So please return them at the end of the day. But if you need a pen, raise your hand I'm going to come around and at the same time let's please hear a nice warm welcome for Ray Carter.