My name is Cynthia Coupé and I am presenting on neurodiversity in the workplace. Hidden differences, how to be inclusive when you don't know. So I kind of want to get, have it be more of a conversation than me just talking at you. So I'm curious how many of you are familiar with the term neurodiversity or neurodivergent. All right, all of you are kind of, some of you more than others. Great. So neurodiversity is really the term that describes everybody's brain, right? Each brain is diverse. It's like a thumbprint. Everybody has their own unique thumbprint. We all have our own unique brain. The term neurodivergent refers to things like autism, ADHD, dyslexia, anxiety, tick disorders. There's a bunch of different things that can fall under the term neurodivergent. It's not a, there's no classic definition for it. It's just a term that was coined in 1998 by a woman named Judy Singer who does a lot of autism work. But it's come to most classically mean these different neurodivergent conditions. It is about 30 to 40% of the population is, is guesstimated to be neurodivergent. We don't really know because it's a hidden difference and a lot of people aren't identified. A lot of us don't know that we're neurodivergent. How many of you in the audience know somebody who is neurodivergent? Yeah. How many of you, how many of you are managers or any of you guys managers? Okay, great. Do you have people in your workplace that you know are neurodivergent? That you think are? Like probably. That's pretty, I mean, that's pretty common. We'll go into that some too. So there was a research poll done in England in London and they, and it was actually specifically for their tech force. And they found that 40% of people didn't want to share that they were neurodivergent, which like it's like surprising and not surprising at the same time, I think. Why don't people want to share? Well, it's hidden. I think there's a lot of stigma still that we're breaking past. A lot of us don't know. I, I'm not, I have a learning disability. So I fall under the term neurodivergent because of that. But I didn't really think that I had autism or ADHD until my daughter got diagnosed at 10 years old. And I went through that process and I was like, no wonder I missed it. She's just like I am. So, but she has some stronger presentations. So they were more obvious. Also it's later in, you know, diagnostic time. So people, so, so it's just become more popular to be able to diagnose people. So a lot of times people might have gotten to be, how old was I when that happened? 45. I had no idea.  I've done this work for 20 plus years. I've worked with people that were autistic for 30 plus years. And I missed it because what we're taught that means what we are, you know, what we think it means is something different than it, than it actually does. So that's kind of my platform is like, let's break that down and have a real conversation about what that means, what that means to be that person and what that means to have people in the workplace like that too. So, so what I kind of wanted to just to get if you guys are willing to do this with me, what do you think could be some negative effects for a person that is neurodivergent in the workplace if there aren't accommodations for them? It's okay if you don't know too, but I'll wait a little bit. Yes. Yeah. A lot of communication problems, right? A lot of times people that are neurodivergent communicate differently, whether that means that we take things really literally. We don't want to make eye contact. We talk rapidly. Maybe our thoughts aren't linear. We're kind of all over the place. We misunderstand things. Maybe we ask questions inappropriately.  Like there's a lot of social cues that that we might miss. Yeah. Communication is definitely one of them. I'll go through the list. I have unemployment. People that are neurodivergent are highly, highly unemployed and underemployed. So sometimes they have a job, but it doesn't really fit their true abilities. So, you know, I know a lot of people, they're younger, but, you know, they work at the grocery store because they can get a job there, but they have far more skills than that. It's just the grocery stores have figured out how to like support somebody that has autism. The percentage of people that are unemployed, I think, that are autistic is it's like up to 85%, which is staggering. But also if you think about autism, there's a very big spectrum, right? So there are some people that are nonverbal. They don't talk. They, you know, they look like what we might classically think somebody that's autistic looks like. And then there are people like me who don't seem like we're autistic, but it all falls under the same diagnosis. So when I think of 85%, I think it's probably mostly the people that have autism that would need a lot of supports in the workforce. Depression, not surprising, right? If we're not being seen for our abilities, we're not really having a job or a life that we would like to be living, that can cause depression. It doesn't mean that people that are autistic or neurodivergent are more likely to have depression. It's just that the lifestyle is more likely, you know, what happens as a result can lead to depression. I think it's 30% of people that are neurodivergent tend to be, or three times more depression in people that are neurodivergent. Suicide, of course, is also higher. Again, unemployment, depression, suicide, burnout. This happens a lot in the workplace. We get a job, we're really good at it, so we're given a lot of extra work. And also, sometimes our jobs fall into our special areas of interest, and so we do them until we burn out. We're seen in less as in the workforce. So maybe we're not included in things because it looks like we don't understand or we don't care. And this is not just workplace, too. It's community in general, friendships even. Our communication styles, like you were saying, they're different. So that can lead to some negative effects. We don't have friend groups as easily. We're not promoted in jobs. We're not given raises. There's quiet quitting. And then othering. That's when it's like, oh, well, I'm not this way, but you are. So that can happen a lot, too. Like, oh, I understand that for you, but not for me. So when we aren't supported in an environment, these are all things that can happen. So that seems super tragic, right? Like, oh, God, this is hopeless. So what do we do about that? Well, luckily there's a lot of research that's coming out. There's a lot of changes that are being made about what helps. It's all very new, though. It's like, I think the groups that have been formed that are looking at this are only about four or five years old. So it's still in its infancy stages. There's a lot of really great stuff that's being done to help people that are neurodivergent, that are obviously neurodivergent anyway, have jobs. There's partnerships that are happening. There's a bunch of organizations where you can say, hey, I'm a tech company, or I'm a whatever kind of company I am. I'm looking for employees, and then they work with people who are neurodivergent, and they'll match jobs, and then they'll offer support through all the way through. So some things that we're also seeing that work in jobs are work buddies. So setting up cohorts. So you have somebody who has been working there a while, or maybe they're neurotypical, and you partner them with somebody who's neurodivergent or has special needs or accommodations. Active recruitment, looking at how we're actively getting people into the workforce. Lean-in circles are another thing that's being done. That's groups that are getting together and talking, and then trained coaches. So coaches like myself that would come in and talk with the managers or the organization and get more information. So really, I mean, so I talk about this a lot. What we can't do is really create a system. There's no way to say, hey, here's the five things that you need to do to support your neurodivergent employees. We know that there are some things that we can do. We know that we change hiring practices. That's where a lot of people are missed because when we're hiring, the way that a typical job interview or even a typical job application are don't support the needs of somebody who's neurodivergent. Is anybody familiar with that, like changing hiring practices or that hiring practices are difficult for people that are neurodivergent? Speak to that if you can. Sure. Open Source is a very challenging environment for someone who is grant-friendly. The open source community is not welcoming to you and you feel like you're getting shut out. Then that's not on your resume. And then when you come to us, it creates that kind of filtering out. Sure. So just for the video. So at my company, we value open source. We value people who have open source experience, especially in engineering, and because if you look at the Linux Foundation stats on this, and it's not just with folks who are neurodivergent, but especially for really anyone who's not white cisgender male, you find that people don't feel welcome and they get pushed out. And so it's a challenge then in the hiring practices where when someone goes through the engineering interviews and we look at the resumes, all things being equal to the nature of where I work, that the person with the open source experience gets the edge. And it's a real challenge to try and adjust that so that we can be more welcoming of someone who either was an open source and felt pushed out or someone who didn't even feel welcomed in in the first place. Right. Yeah, absolutely. So changing what we're looking for and changing how we accept that too, right? Yeah, that's a big deal for sure. After you have applicants, which is always a struggle to find good applicants, I'd be curious to know if you have thoughts on how to handle the interviewing and selection process in a way that isn't unintentionally excluding anybody. Something that I try to do is have multiple phases of the interviewing process that are different in form. So there's some email conversation, there's a quick phone call, maybe a Zoom with a couple team members, there's a written aspect to it so that if somebody kind of seems to fall flat and one of those things, maybe the other area will reveal some strengths. Yeah, absolutely. And that's really good actually. So looking at different ways so that you can see what that person is like in different environments is really important. Something else that's also really important is a lot of times interviews are questions towards a person that they don't know what those questions are and that's typically really difficult for somebody who's neurodivergent. I mean, depends on a lot of things, but it's difficult because one, statistically, and I know this from my own experience too, something that we're not always good at is selling ourselves, talking ourselves up. We don't see our strengths in the same way that somebody else does. Also, taking things literally or having to answer questions on the spot can really shut us down and be difficult. So changing that style, where either you're giving the interview questions beforehand so the person knows what it is that they can expect or you're letting them know something about what the process is going to look like because that can create a lot of anxiety too. Also, we take things very literally. I had this interview not that long ago, actually. Luckily, I got hired for the job, but I was interviewing with to do a... I was going to lead a panel for the mainframe industry and they interviewed me and I didn't realize that it was going to be an interview.  We were just going to talk and they were going to learn a little bit about me and it very clearly turned into this interview and they were asking me all these questions and I was like, they're simple questions. Tell me about yourself. Then they're like, well, what do you know about the mainframe? I froze and I was like, oh my God, I think the project that they're talking about... I don't have a tech background. I'm like, I think the project they're talking about is called the mainframe project, but are they asking me that or are they asking me what a mainframe computer is? Do I know what a mainframe computer is? I think it's the brains of the community. I'm thinking of all these things. I'm just like, well, my brother's in tech. He could tell me if I needed to know and they're like, okay. I'm just like, oh God, that was so embarrassing. I told my daughter and she's like, oh, mama, that wasn't good. I'm like, yeah, it really wasn't very good. You're right. But luckily they stopped, passed that, hired me anyway. Had I known those questions beforehand, I could have asked clarifying questions in response. Oh, hey, you asked me about the mainframe. Did you want this? What exactly did you mean? Or I would at least be prepared to answer it. I knew all the answers. I just froze in that moment. My head was going a million miles an hour and I just kind of shut down. And I think also we're working... I mean, it can appear surprising. These places where we're hit up against a wall is surprising for us, but it's also surprising for the people we're working with because you were just there, everything made sense, and now you're somewhere else. What happened? So anyhow, changing hiring practice, changing the way that we're hiring, changing the way that we're recruiting also is really important. Something else that some companies are doing, I was reading about recently, is during the hiring process, they kind of have the person shadow the job for a week or for a certain period of time so that they can make sure, not only are they a good fit for you, but do we feel comfortable in that job environment too because it's just as important for us that we feel good as it is for you. So I think that's a brilliant strategy really. Then you might have time to see more information too. Something else, yesterday I gave a presentation on the SDDI reboot, the employee working groups that I'm facilitating with those also, but somebody was talking about being able to interview people differently in the way that you can give them the questions so that they can ask those ahead of time and also letting them ask you questions. So there's a lot of little things that can be done to change and recruitment again too, partnering with universities, partnering even with high schools, letting more people come in and observe can be helpful too. Of course accommodating employees is a really big one also. I don't know if you guys know of any accommodations that you offer employees or what that might mean, but if anybody does, feel free to share. You'll need the mic again too, sorry. Have you found for neurodivergent employees that remote work is a net benefit or are there any trade-offs to the employees growth, especially I'm thinking for someone who's new and starting out in their career. So I feel like what I've seen and what I've heard is that it is actually a benefit to be able to have that flexibility. Whether that means that you're choosing your schedule some or you're choosing the hours of day that you're working or you're choosing if you're coming into the office versus being online. A lot of people who are... I mean everybody, right? It kind of applies to all of us, but I feel like when we're at our best we're going to do our best and so if we're able to sort of have some flexibility with that, oh hey, come in whenever you want, work whatever hours you want, but if there was something that felt like agency and choice with that, then it does seem to be more productive for sure. Yeah. And that's one of the blessings too that we've kind of got to play around with during COVID is what works. I think we've all seen how some things work a lot better and some things don't, but being able to have choice between seems very helpful. Any other employee accommodations you guys can think about? So some that are pretty classic are offering environments that have the ability to have reduced noise or reduced visual input or, you know, a quiet space to work because a lot of times people who are neurodivergent get overwhelmed by sensory. So sights, sounds, sometimes smells, right, there are certain times offices are like this is a scent-free zone like don't wear any perfume because it is a real thing. It can bother people. So those are some fairly typical employee accommodations. Well, I'll get into this in a minute. Training managers, of course, is also really important because if you're managing people that are neurodivergent, whether or not you know that they are, you're going to have, I would say, at least 30% of your workforce is probably neurodivergent. Whether or not they know it and I honestly don't think that we need to know it. The goal is to create an environment where people are comfortable being themselves, no matter who they are. We don't need to know. And people don't need to disclose that to us. It's helpful, of course, but again, it's the whole environment change. We're asking to change an entire system. We're really talking about changing an environment, which doesn't happen like I said earlier. I wish I could give you five rules, but I can't because we're dealing with people and everybody is different and every manager is different and every work environment is different. So while we know that changing hiring practices and accommodating employees and training managers and working on different communication strategies work, that's going to look different in every environment. So it really takes finessing and facilitating and being open to change and then it's almost like a bottom-up approach. Listening to what do your employees want. How can you have those conversations? How can you have those circles or the support networks feeling comfortable? A lot of times it takes somebody who is vulnerable enough or outspoken enough to say, hey, this is me. These are my needs. This is what that looks like for me. And I think by the time we're adults, a lot of us do know what our needs are, whether or not we're neurodivergent. We're like, well, I know that I work best in a quiet environment. So that was something I was going to go back to with the accommodating employees or even during the interview process is like asking people. So what works best for you? Or I had a manager yesterday how they had an employee that was performing fine and then work got really stressful and they kind of had a meltdown. They just sort of shut down. And the manager was like, I didn't know what to do because I didn't know this would happen to them. And I didn't want to be inappropriate, but I wanted to know if I could help them or call somebody or and I do, I know a lot of other managers that I've worked with, they have employees who are neurodivergent and they come in with their support system and their support system and sometimes they're family. Like sometimes mom is calling the manager every week and checking in on their kid which might seem really weird, but that's what's worked for them. So finding information like that out can be helpful in the process also. Again, obviously it's sensitive information, people don't have to disclose but being open to, hey, are there any special accommodations that you have or I have employees that this happens to them. That can be helpful too. Communication strategies, again, I think knowing different ways to communicate, not taking things personally can be very important. You see somebody that's doing something different, okay, they're not looking at you, well we might have judgments about that but maybe we can ask why. Well, why might that be? What can I do differently or are they answering the question anyway? What we really want to do in our work spaces is to create a culture of communication where everybody feels free that they can communicate what they need. It's inclusive and they're accepted. That's the goal, but again, it's going to look different in every place that we are based on all of the things, right, based on the people. We're talking about working with people, so there's no blanket approach except for to start being more inclusive, to change some of the hiring practices, to change the interviewing process, to build in groups of people that would be allies or buddies with your workforce and then to create a culture where it feels comfortable being able to talk about yourself and ask for your needs too. I think that we need to focus on ability, not disability. I think we're more the same than we are different and that's the opportunity here is to start talking about how we are the same or how our differences actually can unite us because we probably all can relate to being in an environment that felt overwhelming. What do we need to do with that? Maybe we can have some compassion or some understanding for the people that we're working with that have maybe more of a need in that area. So focusing on the why. Why is this happening? What can I do to support it? And then learning styles. I think learning styles is a big one too.  Have any of you guys played the game Risk? It's like a lot of rules if you read through them. I haven't played for a really long time and I was playing the other night and so I had to go over the rules and read them and I was like, I'm a visual learner, but the rules weren't making any sense. So then somebody was like, I'll read them and I was like, this really doesn't make any sense. So then we started having to just play the game and I was like, oh, I get it now. But if somebody wasn't sensitive in that way, even in the work environment, I just told Johnny what to do and he couldn't figure it out. What's wrong? I gave them the written directions, they're kinesthetic learners, maybe they need to be shown. So thinking about different ways that we can adjust so that people can understand what we're talking about. Any questions? There's so much to say on this subject I could go on forever, but... In terms of the recruiting side of things, is there any advice or best practices on I don't know, in a job posting, is there something you should say in there about neurodivergent applicants welcome to apply? Absolutely, I think that always feels welcoming. In some ways, it's helpful to start talking about the elephant in the room. And I think that by doing that, it allows people to not have to hide. So if you're like, hey, we're welcome neurodivergent applicants. A neurodivergent applicant, if I read that, I'd be like, wow, that's so cool. Then it would give me an opportunity to even ask you, so what does that mean to you? Do you accommodate people like me? Rather than feeling like I have to hide it or being like, oh, by the way, I'm neurodivergent. It just gives that freedom. I was thinking about your earlier comment about asking people if they need any accommodations, which seems obvious for an existing employee. I'm a little, I'm not sure how you would do that in the context of interviewing an applicant because that also sounds like I'm fishing for potentially confidential whatever medical information. Yeah, I know. That could be very, I don't know, very uncomfortable for somebody to ask. I don't know how you... Well, I mean, I don't have a perfect answer for this. I mean, I know that some hiring like how you can check if you're male, female, what's your race or ethnicity, you can also do that with neurodiversity, right? Are you neurodivergent or do you have a disability? Which is also kind of an awkward question because I personally don't view it as a disability, it's a different ability, it's not a disability, but that's a whole other... As the hiring manager, I suppose you could just as part of the process just say, by the way, we do recognize and offer and blah, blah, blah. If you need something... Exactly, you can kind of let it be known. I know it's one of these things to travel, it's a big topic, right? And there's not... Again, we don't know the right way to do it, but a lot of it is just starting with creating an environment where it's comfortable enough to disclose. And sometimes that takes one employee that's like, hey, I'm going to talk about myself. I'm going to be outspoken. I know a man who is in the main industry and that's what he started doing. He was 50-something when he got diagnosed with autism. And he's like, oh, interesting. And then being the person that he is, he started talking about it more with his manager and with another employee that he was very comfortable with. And as a result now, his organization has lean-in circles where they meet regularly. And it's interesting because the more that happens, first, some people join and they're like, okay, well, we'll listen to what this means. And then it kind of catches on. And then his job is changing a lot. He feels more comfortable there. He has more friends. So sometimes it's just taking that initial risk of being open. Even in that way of like, hey, we're open to this kind of thing. So any other questions? Yeah. So I'm an open source project maintainer. What I would like to ask you is, do you have any advice for folks who are maintaining projects or trying to drive managing open source communities in terms of having the door open for folks who are neurodivergent when, unlike a workplace where we only, we are, a lot of us are fully remote or we're only interacting through GitHub or other source system or through Zoom calls and there's different companies there's the only thing that might control or guardrail our behavior is a code of conduct. So is there any kind of advice that you might have for projects that want to be opening and have that door there so that people can come in? Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think, again, like I think because we're dealing with people, the best way to do that is to start with ourselves, you know, I mean, which doesn't mean we have to be like you know, it's like so how do I again, like calling the elephant in the room so whether we're like, you know, I just learned recently that probably half of us are neurodivergent and I don't know exactly what that means but like, I know that sometimes I prefer to have my camera off or I move around a lot when I'm in front of the camera so if you guys can be patient with me or is there anything like has this been difficult for any of you or can, you know, like trying to call it out in a comfortable way I think is the, you know, it's not it's not a perfect blanket solution but I think that whatever we can do to show that we're comfortable talking about that whether or not that's like, hey, I learned this new thing, does this apply to any of you? Or can I make this better for any of you? Sometimes, you know, and you might get answers that are, you might not get any answers but at least we're trying and you know, being open about having those conversations I think is what is important, you know? Yeah. Is this on? Oh, it is on? Kind of on that note I feel like I've attempted to try to encourage more like anonymous surveys as a way to to kind of kick off those conversations of just learning how people identify and areas that may or may not be represented in the space and then take that to a conversation or a meetup but I've been facing some challenge doing that by privacy concerns doing it either it eat both as a company or doing it as part of the community and I've faced pushback on both sides companies don't want to collect that information because it's highly sensitive and personal and these aren't customers so we don't have an agreement with them we don't have a contract we don't have so there's a lot more guardrails on being able to do it as a company so when I tried to support it as part of a community I've also had issues where the Code of Conduct Committee or the steering committee wasn't comfortable having those types of questions be put into their contributor survey so I feel like what I've struggled with is sometimes it can be really hard to speak up in those settings if you don't know you're not the only one I feel like that's a hard barrier so I've been trying to encourage these types of things to create more visibility but then facing those challenges where nobody wants the liability of having that data I'm just kind of curious how you seeing folks approach that so some ways that I've seen people approach that is again kind of gently starting some of those conversations so I mean even it was part of a main frame project where they were having different panel discussions but it was like I was leading a panel discussion on neurodiversity and so they found actually it was really interesting because their goal was to find people that were in the main frame industry that were willing to talk about it and I was interviewing them but we only ended up with one person one person that was willing to talk about it then we had there are three people but it was like I was talking about it from my side this man that works for the main frame industry was talking about it from his side and then there was the son of somebody who used to work for the main frame industry who talked was talking and then there was a woman who works for a company that like does job matching so she like finds people that are neurodivergent and then supports them in the workplace or that's what her company does and so so that was fascinating to me because it was too vulnerable it was too raw for people to come forward but as a result of that conversation that people watched and came to so many people were like oh my gosh I can talk about this for myself now I see what that means right and so that then that created like a bigger understanding and a bigger you know more conversations like that and so I think that you know that's also like how one of those lean-in circles had started initially was that to keep that conversation going then they had these regular meetings and sometimes it's I mean this individual he's like well I guess I'm the only outspoken one but now there's other people in the industry that have started to step up and speak so sometimes it's just literally having those conversations for people to listen to and it doesn't seem like anybody's maybe listening or there's you know real buy-in you don't really know what's happening but it's doing something I mean it's a lot there's so much stigma there's so much stigma about it right like being able to see ourselves that way or being able to say that we're like that because we don't want to be seen as you know lesser than or different but on the same token like it creates more like it creates better inclusivity you know like we're happier people and our workforces are stronger when we're you know acknowledge it and have people that are neurodivergent in the workforce too so sometimes it's just gentle things like that you know that are very unassuming and kind of informative that can start the conversation Any tips or recommendations on how to deal with colleagues or managers when they're being neurodiversity non-inclusive like I think the example the risk example is perfect and applies to me if you just keep the rule set this is ridiculous nobody understands it or some people don't not showing them how the game is played they click right away and the same has happened to me and others on the workplace just give me the rule set nobody understands anything how do I tell a colleague stop doing this you're being neurodiversity non-inclusive I mean I guess first question is do you know are there any like written in accommodations or do you know if if HR has you know like is HR supposed to be neurodivergent friendly I guess very good question very likely not I think it's a very new thing that I'm learning a lot here about I'm on the diversity committee on my company we talk a lot about belonging and inclusion on all the other minorities but not really neurodivergent which is ridiculous so I'm going to take a little bird walk I will answer your question but like the thing that's so fascinating to me neurodivergency neurodivergency is the one thing that's like across all people like it's equal it's not more in men, it's not more in women it's not more in white people, it's not more in people of color it's equal I mean the statistics might not show that because of the way that our testing has been done it shows that it's mostly white males but that's not actually true so it's everywhere it's equally everywhere so like if we can figure out how to accommodate people that are neurodivergent then we've got like we're accommodating everybody you know it's such a great thing wow I could go on a long bird walk but I won't I'll come back so that's a difficult question to answer because a lot of it depends on the manager some managers naturally get it maybe they have kids that are neurodivergent maybe they have a partner that is maybe they are themselves or they're just naturally open to doing things differently so if it is that type of manager great then you could probably be like hey I've noticed this thing I always feel like for me when I'm approaching somebody that you know like I basically have to tell them you're doing this wrong I always come from me hey you know I noticed this thing for me I noticed that I have such an easier time understanding it when it's shown to me I'm wondering if you could do that more I know that that's also true for Jacob you know I was telling him something that was so weird the other day I gave him the instructions and I thought he didn't get it and then he did it I showed him and he got it sometimes that where it's sort of like you're putting the heat on yourself in a way sometimes that can help somebody so they don't feel like you need to do this different but again this is such a new idea in so many ways for the industry and it is I feel like unfair to expect that all managers are going to be able to get it not all teachers can teach all people not all managers can manage all people so I think that like it needs to be restructured completely or at least have like a neurodivergent manager support that like helps anyhow but that's usually how I approach that or if there's somebody else that maybe has a better in with the manager that is like an ally for you in the workforce or you know something like that and then depending like on again you know on what the manager's like learning style is or what their interest area is sometimes people like to read sometimes it's sharing an article with them you know about like hey here's an article for you or here's a TED talk that I watched that was really interesting or something that would help expand their idea of learning styles or you know information it's the best I can offer you're welcome there's a can you I'm concerned about bottlenecks you know like it is very much like what this gentleman was just saying you know why should this be left to a manager you know this is nuts absolutely like so like this has to I hate to use top down but this this has to be recognized as having value like at the highest levels of the organization we'll talk about hierarchy another time but and then people need to kind of have the resources that they need to be able to tap into this as and when necessary yeah right so it's just like oh yeah we've got this issue I don't have any experience with this where do I go right some help with this there may or may not be somebody's experiences yourself on the team as opposed to just be like mumble mumble I guess we can't deal with it shove it under the carpet yeah absolutely I agree so there is a project that I'm I mean hopefully it's going to go the direction we want to but I mean I say this because it's a volunteer run at this point right so when things are all volunteer run like people run out of time and then the project never gets done so it's the SDDI reboot for employee working groups so we have one that's neurodivergent neurodivergent then we have one that's talent pipeline and then we have one that's that's DEIA so diversity equity inclusion and action and so what we're trying to do is for the tech industry find what the best practices are like everywhere not just for tech but like that then can be employed what's working what's not working and how can we become a resource hub like can we get information online so if you know a manager is like whoa hey or an employee even right like I need help on this information and then you know have like an online resource directory for that so that's what we want to do right now we're at the very beginning stages and we've basically we're starting a questionnaire so we can find out more about our practices that are going on we have like statistics on who it is that's in the workforce and we know kind of some things that are being done but we're looking into industry standards and then also just you know what's working and what's not working for different employees so hopefully we'll have that in like a year yeah what I meant more I mean that's all that sounds very promising and thank you for working on that I'm thinking like more of an incident incident response situation like this stuff is hitting the fan yes people are being affected now we all know the impact of this yeah so how does triage occur in a way that it's not like I'm not all warm and fuzzy not interested you know as a person like this is actually affecting one of our greatest contributors yeah we need to shore up some resources and make sure this person feels supported even in an interim state just saying yeah this is absolutely an issue of significance we are going to allocate resources to this you will not be pushed aside yeah there's even that interim state where you go out and hunt down these resources right you recognize that this is in fact an issue that is not to be pushed aside yeah yeah I mean I don't have a perfect answer for that I wish that I did because again it takes buying right so it's either going to come bottom up because the employees are like I have to be heard or it can come top down I mean it should eventually be top down anyway right it should be like you said this is important these are affecting our employees but it doesn't always start that way I mean and you know so in term there are resources out there but it has to have you know awareness of the managers and HR and where to go and what kind of information and how to support but they need to understand that it really matters so it's but I would wonder like what is your experience been with regards to kind of regular training like some people when they think about that oh we have to go to mandatory diversity training right versus like no no here's like why this actually matters like whether or not you can articulate that to your target audience is not the issue the issue is like this matters to us as a company as a culture if you're here this should matter to you yeah absolutely I mean I think it's important I think it's a good place to start right I don't think there's one prescribed way to do it but I do think then at least somebody's had exposure to it it's going to capture some people it's not going to capture everybody right but it is important to have that awareness out there and I think you know our systems are so big that that we want big things to be able to change those systems to right but so like like a training is like a big system here's a here's a thing for a lot of people to take this course or whatever good good start but then the fine the fine of it is going to take you know more individual focus yeah I think what you're alluding to is literally from the get go like in the hiring process there need to be probes put out to truly identify whether or not people are aligned with regards to these particular values and I have not seen that personally like you know they might start slinging some words here and there but but there's not actually an intent to uncover the level of buy into that kind of ideology yeah yeah I agree and on that note we have to let the next people get set up thank you guys so much


The storied and powerful federal agency, a Cold War necessity, salesman and safety watchdog, reluctant regulator, distrust of the agency grew. It is time the responsibility for regulation should be free from conflict of interest.


What McVeigh is doing with these players is just really something special. It's like the NFL coaching version of Chopped, the cooking show, where it's like you open your basket and it's like you have to make a top 10 offense out of Puka Nukua, Kyron Williams, Van Jefferson and Tutu Atwell. And McVeigh is just whipping up a carbonara. What if we flambé it and then we're gonna put it over with like a nice reduction and with like a cherry glaze and then everyone's like, oh wow, well done. Like I don't know if we've really seen anything like this before. I mean, two truly unknown randos, like dominating fantasy football in the first month of the season.


Hello and welcome to Under the Dome, returning to Town Meeting TV as part of our ongoing legislative coverage. Thank you for joining us. We'll be checking in with legislators from around our coverage area. And today we're kicking it off with Ray Garifano and Karen Dolan from Town of Essex and Essex Junction specifically. And we'll be talking about the issues they're looking at in the legislature and just what the legislature has been like this session. And if you'd like to watch, you can always watch a YouTube slash Town Meeting TV or on our channel at Comcast 1087 or Brillington Telecom 17 or 217. And if you have a question you'd like to ask, you can call in at<PHONE_NUMBER> and we'll get you on the air. So thank you for joining us guys. It's nice chatting with you and nice having you in here. Thank you for having us. Yeah. We're just talking and for both of you, this is a somewhat new experience. You're both new representatives. So I was wondering if you would like to talk about that. Ray, let's start with you. Sure. So I'm very new. I was appointed on January 18th to replace Mayor Beth Redman who sadly had to step down. She had done some amazing work in the house in her time there. And on my first day, on the 18th was the first day that legislators actually came back since the pandemic or had the option of coming back. So I got to experience first day with a lot of my colleagues, similarly who especially folks that were elected in 2020 that hadn't really had the opportunity to be in person. And since then in the last two and a half months we've had a couple iterations of what hybrid looks like and it feels like we're in a really good rhythm of just a few people who zoom in and most of their activity is in person, which has been really wonderful. Yeah. I think Karen? Yeah. I think some similar thoughts for me as well. This is my first biennium serving and it has been kind of a lesson in going with the flow. But also I feel like it has been a reflection of how we can work through things. So it was on Zoom, we made things happen, made the best of it, switching to the state house, we're able to come together. So for me that's been a big part of it, it's like okay, you know, like we are a team in the state house and how do we keep moving things forward? And for me too, like starting remotely, it is what it is, like we didn't really have any other option but in some ways it was kind of easing into it. For me, also for my family of two school age kids and so we were able to kind of adjust and then this year being fully in the state house, I can see what we were missing last year, last session. You know, the more experienced folks were like, oh, this is not like we're missing a big piece of it. I didn't know what I didn't know and so now seeing that we're in the state house you can see like you can really connect with folks, you can build on conversations, you can follow up on the things that you heard and hear and hopefully know a little bit more too. Right. Well, great. Well, thank you guys for stepping up to be a part of the legislature and I think it's very interesting experience for, you know, doing the remote portion of it and then coming into the state house. It's interesting. It's an interesting perspective. So I want to dive into kind of the big question in Essex and Essex Junction for the last several years which is separation. So I wonder if you could give us a little overview of what that process is like. So Essex Junction separation and then just where that's at in the process. Yeah. I can start with things. So saying that it's been a few years in the making, I think it's a few decades, maybe even centuries in the making that we've been in this and we are in the home stretch of really a milestone of hopefully having a new city in Vermont which is really historic. So tomorrow it actually goes up for third reading in the Senate and this is our charter change bill to separate and it, you know, had a unanimous vote on second reading last week in the Senate. So hoping the same thing continues and then it will be to the governor for his signature and it has been a tremendous journey and I think Ray will probably share like, you know, we've gone through different things and if you had asked, you know, a year or two years ago the plan was merger to come together and that didn't happen and so now our village is really excited to become a city and really focus on our community and building, building forward and hopefully the same for the town as well. Ray, do you have any thoughts from? Yeah. I think similarly, you know, in the town I think right now we're just really focused on moving forward and really leveraging the opportunities that this change brings us. I think there's a lot of great economic development opportunity within Essex Town. We've had a lot of population growth in the last decade with the New census numbers coming out. So it's exciting. You know, I think many people may not have been excited about the outcome and the way things turned out. As Karen mentioned and as you know, this has been going on for decades. But in one sense it feels good to not have the conversation anymore, the question of are we going to separate, are we going to merge? So now we're going to be separate. We love working with our partners and our other community members, same as Westford and now the city of Essex Junction will continue to do that. The town offices have brought on new staff and are really gearing up for really working on services and efficiencies and opportunities for growth and development. So it's exciting time I think for the Essex Town community. So let's talk about committees. So you're on the Human Services Committee, that's right. And you are on the Corrections and Institutions and Government Accountability Committee. Is that right? Yeah. So Corrections and Institutions is my regular committee and then the Government Accountability is the one that I guess it's session long, but we kind of meet mostly in the off-session. Okay. All right. So let's talk about some of those bills that you guys are looking at right now. Ray, do you want to start? Sure. I'm currently with crossover behind us. We are working on looking at the Senate bills that have been crossed over to us and over to our chamber. So what we have been taking testimony on the last couple of weeks is the modifications to Vermont's patient choice and end-of-life laws and that has been really interesting. That's S-74 and really updating the law. We were the second state in the country to enact a law for end-of-life issues and the end-of-life laws. And it just needs some updating in the process the physicians and the patients have to take in order to move through the process. And we've been hearing from various family members and physicians and advocates about what needs to be changed. So it's nice to be able to have the opportunity to update the law to be more in line with what we've learned in the last 20 years of this movement moving forward. We're also looking at S-206, which is planning and support for individuals and families impacted by Alzheimer's disease. We haven't started taking testimony on that. We'll be taking testimony this week. And we also looked at S-91, which is the parent-child center network and again there's already language in statute about the parent-child center network. This is really strengthening that language and solidifying certain things. So it's not a money bill at this time. That's where we are right now. Some of the big legislation that we passed prior to crossover had to do with a lot of opioid substance use disorder bills the governor had in his budget and the big budget, a lot of programs that are going to be implemented. And we also had the large settlement from the opioid settlement that we received last summer that needed certain legislature to set up an advisory committee and processes to draw down that $64 million over the next 18 years. Great. Yeah. Karen? Yeah, there's a lot going on. So I feel like that's one of the benefits, just kind of thinking about being in the hybrid remote is that in Essex there's five of us on the delegation and we're in different committees and there's so much that is going on this session. So to have us on those different committees in following the different pieces it is just really such a benefit for our communities that we're so connected because I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't say this, but I don't know how people keep up with all this stuff because we're doing lots of good work. So I can share a bit about what's going on in my committee. So an interesting piece about my committee, which of course I learned when I started and got on there was that corrections and institutions is unique in that it is a money committee and also a policy committee. So money committee and working on the capital bill and policy of working for corrections policy. And so the big piece that we work on with the institution side, the capital bill is we just passed that out of the house. It's now in the Senate, but that includes $261 million in spending, it's mostly bonded dollars for infrastructure. So that is our buildings, our construction around the state. It's also a lot that has to do with clean water initiatives, which I didn't necessarily think of, but there's a lot of that. And we've actually got a lot of federal funding that has come in in the past year. And so we incorporated a lot into this. There also is a lot of community grant programs, which I was exciting to learn more about and see how we could boost those because again, it's the money coming in to us as a state and then how do we get it to the communities that need that. So we're excited to have that move forward. And then some things that we are looking at on the corrections side, the policy part of our committee is justice reinvestment, which is getting, because we're trying to reduce the number of folks that we have incarcerated, especially in out of state beds. And so we're working to move folks from out of state into our state facilities and we're trying to collect that savings, that savings that we have from folks that we're not putting there is being intentional about how that's reinvested, focusing on transitional housing, on mental health, on domestic violence programming and such. So we're working on that. And we're also working on those criminal justice reforms to hopefully work on having fewer people be incarcerated. I was looking at something about S224, which is something coming up this week, which is I think around juvenile offenders. Do you have any thoughts about that one? I don't know. That one might be in Judiciary. I'm not familiar with that one. We're not talking about it in committee yet. And what I have found is there are some bills that, which is great that we're starting to look at the intersect between things. So there are bills that come in either through Judiciary, through corrections, or last year we had one that was in health care, because we're looking at the intersection between mental health issues, corrections, criminal substance abuse. All these things come together. And so what we're finding is that committees really need to communicate more into your end. So maybe it's coming our way. We haven't seen it yet. I'm interested in this government accountability. I guess it's not a committee exactly. It is. It's a joint committee that there's standing committees that meet throughout the biennium. And so government accountability is one of those. And how does that work? What's the process there? Yeah, so the piece that we're looking at with that is there are, I think it's 10 objectives that we're saying that we're trying to meet in Vermont for the well-being of Vermonters. I'm not going to be able to say all of them on the top of my head, but basically that we're taking care of all Vermonters. And there's these 10 metrics. And the goal is that it's for us as a legislature, are we passing legislation and moving legislation forward that is positively impacting these levers, basically? And so what the work is that we do in the committee is take a look, are we measuring the right things? Do we have the right objectives? And are we taking steps in the legislature to see how it's moving? And so one thing that just changed that we were working on recently is taking a look at how is, are these looking at through a lens of equity and looking at, are we collecting data to see, are we serving all Vermonters? But are we serving women? Are we serving folks who have different needs? Are we serving minorities? Things like that to make sure that we're collecting the data to really make sure we're taking care of all Vermonters. So we're going to be updating them and looking at them. But how it worked is we were meeting in the off session. And then once the legislature is back in, we kind of take a little bit of break and we'll see where it goes once the summer kicks in. Interesting, interesting. So are there any issues that you are personally passionate about, want to highlight, want to talk about? Ray, if you want to start with that? Yeah, I think one of my biggest kind of driving motivation factors for getting into this work is to be able to bring an equity lens into policymaking, to really understand and ensure that the right people are at the table when decisions are being made. I think often with good intentions, policymakers don't really think about every perspective. And I have just in the last two months of being there have seen that if that perspective is not at the table, those topics don't often come up. And again, that's not because people have bad intentions. It's just that it's hard to have that equity lens if you're not faced with it, if you're not dealing with that, whatever the challenge is. So really, I'm excited to have a voice to kind of always bring up, hey, have we thought about this from this group's perspective? And I don't always know to bring every perspective to the table, which is why I think in policymaking, we need to ensure when we're writing the laws and passing the bills that they include language specifically to be intentional about including all those different perspectives. And I'm seeing some of that work being done this session just in the last couple of months I've been there, which I'm really excited about, which I think has been missing from state legislature and policymaking for a long time. And in the off session, I work for the state. So having that perspective of seeing that work happening at the state level in government from the governor's office and the executive office of the racial equity to have alignment with all of that of those different bodies of work is something I'm super passionate about. And Karen? Yeah, I think definitely the diversity lens and equity lens is important. Something that I have been trying to kind of monitor as discussions are held with the legislature. Another one for me is criminal justice reform. And so my work outside of is working for the local community justice center. And before that, I worked out with the women's correctional facility. So I've seen firsthand how our system is and isn't working and where their gaps are. And so for me, that is something that I really am looking at with the policy that we're creating is how do we have an equitable system that is addressing harms that are being done in our committee, but also doing it in a way that is fair and equitable and isn't leaving people in a worse place than where they started from. And so some of the things that we, well one, it was out of judiciary committee was collecting racial statistics on race and I forget what the different pieces were of it. But one saying like, it does matter. Again, it gets back to that data piece which in some way people are like, this is really simple, why are we doing it? But that's the piece that you need in order to uncover where the gaps in the system are. And so one of the pieces that we're looking at in our committee is the midpoint review of probation which doesn't sound very interesting, but basically what it is is folks who are on probation should be getting a midpoint review. However, what we're seeing is looking at data, it wasn't happening for everyone everywhere. And so one of the pieces that we changed instead of saying may have a midpoint review, they shall, like we're kind of saying it happens because what we were finding is certain counties were moving it forward, other counties weren't moving it forward. And for me, that was an example of geographic injustice of just because you're in one county, you're kind of getting a different sense of the system. And so those are the things that we need to look at through all lenses to make sure that folks are being held accountable but being held accountable in a fair and equitable way. So I've already heard a few things touched on but I think kind of a general question I'm thinking about is themes for this legislative session. I know like one thing we've already hinted at a few times is COVID relief and I know a lot of COVID relief has gone through the legislature this session. So any thoughts about that in general themes or? Ray, how about Ray? Sure, I think I mentioned in the governor's budget and I think as a state, there has been a huge focus on opioid crisis and substance use treatment. So it's really exciting that our state is putting really investing some major dollars and effort and resources into this crisis and really helping folks not only to help those who are the most vulnerable but also a lot of prevention. There's a lot of money and effort going, will be going into prevention for the substance use programs. Also housing, I think we're in a housing crisis that has just been exasperated by COVID. So I think again, it's really exciting. I think we have a long way to go. Vermonters can't afford to live in Vermont right now. A lot of people are struggling, they're getting outbid by multiple cash offers and we don't have enough housing stock. So I think that's something that's been a theme across and also workforce development. I mean, Karen mentioned there's been so much stuff happening but again, the workforce crisis has been really hitting certain sectors like childcare, early childhood education, teachers, nursing. So again, exciting to see that there's some resources going to that but it takes time to get those online, get those programs implemented. So hopefully we're kind of on the way to getting out of some of these real big challenges that we've been facing that would just kind of make bigger by COVID and the pandemic. Karen? Yeah, I would echo a lot of what Ray just shared. The three that were coming to mind for me were affordability, definitely a theme, workforce development. And then I think a big one is climate action, climate solution. And so for me, affordability is a buzzword but it's also at the end of the day what folks care about, is how is the work that we're doing making their lives easier? Bringing taxes down or just making it accessible. And so one of the things that I've really leaned into as a lot of the legislation that we're doing is working to make things more affordable and accessible to Vermonters. We did do some specifics around tax credit. There's a child tax credit that passed out of the house but just the work that we're doing to expand housing options, the workforce development pieces, all these federal funds and really being intentional about how we use them and what type of programming and infrastructure we lift up is going to help the average Vermonters bottom line. So that definitely is a theme that we're hearing with it. Workforce development, as Ray mentioned, is huge this year. Again, because we don't have the perspective of knowing previous sessions, but my understanding is it gets back to that intersection on criminal justice reform where all these committees are working together. Our commerce committee took on working basically with every committee of being like, we know workforce is an issue across the board. What is it that you see in your policy area that needs to be done around healthcare workers, around in our committee, it was looking at correctional staff. In others, it's teachers. It's across the board, we know we're in a crisis in what needs to be done. So there was a huge bill that was passed and really excited for what can move forward in that. And then the climate change one is, I feel, I don't know, I think that's like the most bills. I feel like every week we have something that's related to climate solutions, which is wonderful because I again, I think about that with our youth in the longevity of our communities, our planet. So I'm always excited to come home and tell my kids about the great climate work that we're doing, because I know that's really important to them. But some of that has been around forestry, redeveloping our Act 250 process. One, these are things I don't even know and I learned about as we're doing it is that there's microplastics and compost and making sure we get that out of it. And then of course, clean heat standard was one that just passed, which I'm really glad that it did because I know it was a bit controversial. So we'll see where it goes in the Senate and then also looking into a lot to promote electric vehicle infrastructure. So excited about all that because I think that's the direction we need to go. Great, great. Any last thoughts before we get going? This is blown by pretty quickly. Yeah, any last thoughts you wanna share with the community before we go? Yeah, right. Yeah, I'll just say it's really been a privilege. I didn't have the process of an election and kind of planning to be in this role and it's really truly been an honor and a privilege to serve Essex in this way. And I'm excited to continue and eager for the election season coming up. But on the other hand, Vermont as a community where all of us were facing a lot of big challenges and I'm really thrilled to have an opportunity to help work with my colleagues on the house to work on those major problems. And thank you for having us here. This has been a great opportunity. I would say similar thoughts. It really has been an honor to serve by community in this way. That's one of the reasons why I got into this is wanting to give back to the community. And so seeing it like this is what we're doing is we're making decisions each day that impact so many Vermonters. And I've just really appreciated the community input that I received. Granted, we are going through this big thing right now of looking to separate and become our own city. So folks are engaged, but I don't know if it's also a piece of going through the remote hybrid. Folks are contacting us on a regular basis to share their input on legislation and that is so important. And so I really feel like I can be a voice for the community when I'm hearing from folks. So I think I would ask, keep doing that. Keep reaching out. I want to be a voice for our community. And yeah, looking forward to what's ahead. Right. Well, thank you both for being here. Thank you for serving your town so well, so effectively. And thank you for tuning in to Under the Dome. We'll return next week. It will be here Mondays at 12. Next week is representatives from South Burlington. We'll have John Kalaki and Martin Lalonde on. And you can watch this and other local political coverage on our website at ch17.org. You can also find it on our YouTube channel. That's YouTube slash town meeting TV. And on our channels Comcast 1087 and Burlington telecom 17 and 217. See you next week.


Hi friends, welcome back to my channel and welcome if you're new here. My name is Jen. I'm a certified weight loss and nutrition coach and I'm on the WW or the Weight Watchers Blue Plan. Happy Friday. It is another Friday, one of the best days of the entire week. It is another weigh-in, workshop topic, recap and I'm going to share with you how my week was. It was crazy and set some goals moving into the next week. So if you're excited for today's video, don't forget to give it a big huge thumbs up and if you're new or you haven't yet subscribed, I'd love to have you here. Hit the subscribe button and click the bell right next to it so you never miss a single video. Down in the description box, you will find nutrition coaching. I do offer personalized to you macros and calories as well as one-on-one coaching in both 30 and 60 minute sessions. So head on over and check out nutrition coaching links, discounts, all my favorite things. And of course my Facebook group are also down in the description box. We'd love to have you join our community over there. It's a pretty fun place to be. So let's jump into this week's WW workshop, set some goals for next week and of course this week's WW weigh-in. I hope you had an absolutely fantastic week. I had a very stressful week. If you follow my channel, you know that Diesel, my lab, recently went in for ACL surgery. In fact, this last Friday, so it's been a full week now since his surgery and it has been rough. Very rough for him, of course, and very rough for me as well. Troy, my husband works four days a week, so he's gone a lot of hours each of those days and of course I am the primary caregiver of Diesel. It's hard for him to walk around. It's hard for him to move. I have to help him off the bed and outside and up the stairs and he weighs over 100 pounds. So it's definitely not a small feat, but the most challenging part has been the fact that he will not take his medicine. He's so smart. He knows when it's in food and he won't eat it.  I've contacted the vet. All of the suggestions that they gave us are not working. He is literally the worst dog I've ever had when it comes to taking medication. So that has been a huge struggle and we're talking medication 13 to 14 pills two times a day. So that's been really the hardest part. I haven't gotten a lot of sleep because I've been worried about him and sometimes he'll whine during the night because he wants outside so you have to get up and take him outside. It's been a week. It's been really hard. It's a six to eight week recovery period. So really we're just getting into it. So that's been a bit of a challenge for me when it comes to just having energy to do day to day activities. More or less get in my workout, track my food. I did share in my Facebook group. If you're not in my Facebook group, head on over join us. We'd love to have you. I did share that I decided to put off tracking for at least the first week or two of Diesel's recovery. And on a side note, because I'm so busy with Diesel and then whenever I have a moment when he's sleeping, I'm doing things around the house. I haven't been eating very much and that's been a bit of a struggle as I don't think I'm eating enough. More or less eating too much. I just had to take tracking off of my plate during his recovery. He has to be forefront and the most important thing, not tracking my food. So with that being said, I have been able to get my workouts in two to three times a week, just depending on what Troy's three days a week off look like. If he has a lot of appointments and errands, then someone has to be here with Diesel. But I've been able to at least get in two, if not three days of working out, which has been huge. It's been really important for me for self care to get my workouts in. So this week's been rough. It's been one of the hardest weeks as far as mentally that I've had in a while, just taking care of Diesel and Palmer's still a puppy. He's less than six months old. So it's like having two young babies to take care of. So it's been a struggle. It's been a struggle. So this week's workshop topic really came at a perfect time. And this topic this week is about taking time for yourself, doing things for yourself. Sometimes we just get too busy with life to really think about ourselves and to do self care or just to do small things that help us feel better, that rejuvenate and fulfill us mentally. It's hard for us to make time for that when we're so busy with all of the other factors of life, but it's so incredibly important to make time for yourself. So WW wants to share some tips and tricks on how you can start implementing a little bit of self care. Tip number one is to make a list of things that you enjoy doing activities or things that really make you happy, that make your heart feel fulfilled. And when you're making this list, think about four different areas of activities and how you can incorporate those a little bit more into your life. Area number one is just about you. What types of activities do you like doing when you're alone, solely just you. Maybe it's reading or painting or taking a walk. What about activities that involve others, whether it's friends or family?  Maybe you're fulfilled by doing things for others, whether that's volunteering at your favorite charity or going through your clothes and donating the clothes that you don't wear to a good cause. Or maybe it's taking care of your health, trying a new recipe, incorporating a good home cooked meal. Or maybe it's heading to a yoga class or in my case, going to Jazzercise is a huge form of self care for me. Then you need to think about when, where and how often you can incorporate this self love. Be realistic. Think about your work schedule, your family schedule and the other things that you have on your plate and think about how many times per week you can incorporate whatever activity, whether it's alone with your family or friends or maybe it's a little bit of self care like going to your workout. Just be realistic about how much per week you can incorporate this. Maybe write this out on a calendar or in a planner. Put X's in the days that you know you're just not going to have time for really any form of taking care of yourself. And then in the days that you know you might have a little bit of time, maybe it's on the weekend or the early morning, put a heart, a clock, a star, something to remind you that those are days that you can incorporate that self care. Number three is parent activity from number one with number two. So let's say that on Saturday you have a heart, you know that Saturday you're a little more open to incorporate these things. Maybe that's when you want to host a game night or get in your workout or maybe that's when you want to head to the grocery store, pick up all the fixings to create a new meal. And lastly, schedule it. Schedule in time for yourself. So on that same calendar, write in that workout class or write in the meal that you're making or maybe write in who you're inviting to that game night. Put it in your calendar, put it on paper that way you're committed to doing it. Doing things for ourselves and doing things that are meaningful to us can really enhance our overall quality of life, but they can also keep you motivated and excited about your weight loss journey when we're taking care of ourselves and when we're loving ourselves, we're far more likely to take care and love others. So make self care and taking care of yourself a huge priority. I know for me with how crazy my life is right now, taking care of myself has been really important. I've been taking a little bit of extra time to do a sheet mask at night or put on an overnight facial mask or paint my toenails. And one of the main things I've been doing is after my workout, going to Starbucks and getting myself a coffee, something that I really enjoy and something that warms my heart and makes me happy. It's so important to take care of yourself and to take care of others. So for this week's weigh-in, considering I didn't track at all, considering I probably under eight most of the week, when I stepped on the scale today, I'm actually down 0.2. Most of the week I wasn't maintaining my weight. I did step on the scale a couple times and my weight just really stayed the same. But when I stepped on the scale this morning, I'm actually down 0.2 pounds, which is great. I don't expect to really lose a lot of weight over the next couple of weeks. But the fact that I'm still down in weight and not gaining weight, I'm going to take that as a huge win. So I've lost both weeks of the month of June so far, which again, considering my life is amazing. So I want to hear from you guys, how are you doing? How's your life been? And let me know down in the comments, did you gain? Did you lose? How your week was? And also think about one thing for self-care or self-love that you want to do this week and leave that down in the comments. That way we can share our ideas with others in the community because maybe you're doing something for you that one of us may want to incorporate into our self-care routine. And if you enjoyed this video, don't forget to give it a big huge thumbs up. And if you're new or you haven't yet subscribed, I'd love to have you here. Hit the subscribe button and click the bell next to it so you never miss a single video. Before I go, I want to say a huge thank you to everybody who's reached out and offered support and love and well wishes for diesel. It seriously means a lot to me. Hundreds and hundreds of you have either posted in my Facebook group or reached out to me directly and seriously, it means a lot to me. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Check out the description box down below for nutrition coaching, links and discounts to my favorite things. And if you're not in my Facebook group, we'd love to have you. Thank you guys again so much for watching. Happy Friday and I'll see you in tomorrow's grocery haul. Bye friends.


We all the way in the back seat in the third row all the way in the back On that wall mark now, it's the crew boy Nick in the back Damn in the front Everybody you got six seven deep thinking Walmart security walking around walking around with a hand behind his back With his mask on and nobody the police are out. So somebody's to cover for them Just came here for them because they making a boy That's three things so far obey dragon free and limit. I mean life But no, she wanted to do something The mental scrunch Lucky John's they mess it up like that pro-loot. Good. I ain't messing none of those like that None of those never have Reese's puffs. Jolly Ranch is serious nasty or yours.  Do I see what I bought juice? Do and going for like 30 minutes and came back before I do And they ran away you trick me and getting overtime at the job that he don't even work it For people that's good But thought he was a daddy we are here looking at the kids section You Got to make sure they bagging everything And I put himself to the side and not scan it Their car too and then we got to sit in the back done that Walmart getting a bunch of stuff that we didn't need and that we Probably won't even use The Swiffer stuff, maybe Yeah, what about the or a puss what about the cheese what about the matzka


Hello, I'm Charlie and welcome to Authentic Mental Health, the channel that offers advice and friendly support in our like-minded community. Today's video is coming up right after this.  Hello, I'm Charlie and welcome to the rewired soul. For those of you that know, my name's Charlie and from Authentic Mental Health and that was the intro for my channel. And as you know, we're not on my channel anymore. We're on the rewired soul. Chris is away for a week or so and he's asked me to fill in on his channel for him. So you're going to see me in a couple of videos on this channel. The first thing Chris and myself wanted to talk about on my first video on his channel was why I traded Authentic Mental Health. For those of you that have never met or seen me before, I run a YouTube channel called Authentic Mental Health and I created it in December 2016. Since then, I have over 9.5 million views and I'm almost at 90,000 subscribers, which is insane for me to even say or think about that many people subscribe to my channel and that many people have listened to what I have had to say. It's mind blowing. It really is when you think about the numbers. So why exactly did I create Authentic Mental Health? I'm currently 24 and at the age of 14, I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. And in 2016, I was 22 and I had a really difficult year. I didn't really want to leave my house. I didn't socialize. I bottled up how I felt. So I thought, how can I feel better about myself? How can I let all my emotions out? So I decided to video myself each day and just explain to the camera how I'm feeling. So in the future, I can look back at my videos and say, well, on Monday, I wasn't doing so great. Tuesday, I got a bit better. Wednesday, I went out. That's fantastic. Well done, Charlie. So I could see what I was doing, how I improve my life. Now, those videos weren't for YouTube. YouTube comes in later on in that year. Eventually, I got comfortable in front of the camera and I started to feel a lot better in myself from looking back on my bad days, my good days. It made me a more positive person. Instead of thinking negatively, I thought positively because I could see a change in myself. So in December 2016, I thought, maybe there's other people out there who are feeling like myself or they were feeling like myself, how I felt earlier on in the year. So I created a YouTube channel and I thought, what could I call it? So I came up with the name Authentic Mental Health. Authentic means real, so real mental health. So on my channel, I talk about my experiences with anxiety, depression. I make videos that I think other people who are suffering want to see and want to hear about. The channel is designed to be as positive as possible because as you know, in the world that we live in currently, everything is negative. You turn on the news, negativity. You watch TV shows, negativity.  Everything nowadays is negative. So I try and be as positive and as helpful as possible. The aim of Authentic Mental Health is to help as many people as possible. To help people be more positive in their life rather than negative. And that's the same with Chris's channel, The Rewired Soul. Everything is about positivity. We want to remove as much negativity in the world as we possibly can. That's why I think mental health YouTube channels are so important because people suffer in silence. Like I did for many, many years. I suffered in silence and I bottled everything up inside me. Then when I started making videos, I was releasing how I felt onto the camera. I was pouring my heart and my soul and my emotions out onto video. And that made me feel 10 times better. And when people comment or email me or message me on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, explaining how they feel or telling me, Charlie, thank you so much for creating Authentic Mental Health. You've done this for me. You've done that for me. You've helped me with this, that, blah, blah, blah. It makes me feel amazing and makes me less depressed because I know I've had a positive impact on the world. And I know it's the same with Chris. He loves it when people comment nice things. When people comment how you have helped them through their bad situations in life. And it makes myself and Chris less depressed because we're doing something positive to impact people's lives rather than creating negative content and making people negative. We're pushing people up and making a positive impact on people's lives. So that is why I created Authentic Mental Health. If any of you want to check out my channel, I'll leave the links in the description box down below and I'll see you tomorrow on this channel for another video. Take care guys and girls and I'll see you tomorrow.