WEBVTT - Waiting for the Next Disaster 0:00:11.760 --> 0:00:14.400 Good morning, peeps, and welcome to wik a f Daily 0:00:14.480 --> 0:00:19.000 with Meet your Girl Danielle Moody, recording from the Home Bunker, Folks, 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:24.160 I want to take a minute to talk about something 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:27.880 that I try and inject in most shows and most weeks, 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:32.760 but it's come up a lot, particularly since the shooting 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:39.080 in Tennessee on Monday, which is mental health. And you know, 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:42.159 I've gotten a lot of tweets from people. I posted 0:00:42.200 --> 0:00:46.800 a video on both Instagram and TikTok yesterday about what 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:49.360 it means to take care of yourself during these times. 0:00:49.400 --> 0:00:52.599 And I know that a lot of us right by 0:00:52.680 --> 0:00:58.600 virtue of working and you know, having families and taking 0:00:58.640 --> 0:01:03.240 care of whether it's children or elderly people. Just continue 0:01:03.280 --> 0:01:06.880 to power through, continue to power through in a way 0:01:06.920 --> 0:01:10.640 that does not acknowledge the feelings of overwhelm, that does 0:01:10.680 --> 0:01:14.600 not acknowledge and allow ourselves to sit with the fear 0:01:15.760 --> 0:01:18.520 that many of us are living with. There is a 0:01:18.520 --> 0:01:24.200 lot of fear, and rightfully so, because this world, this 0:01:24.360 --> 0:01:28.520 society that we are living in, is incredibly unpredictable. Now 0:01:28.520 --> 0:01:33.080 people will say, look, life is unpredictable. You know, you 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:37.880 many of us have lost people that we cared about unexpectedly, 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:41.920 through accidents, through disease. We know that life is unpredictable, 0:01:42.240 --> 0:01:45.640 but what it feels like right now is that we 0:01:45.680 --> 0:01:50.440 are just sitting ducks, literally, just sitting ducks, just waiting 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:55.360 for the next mass shooting, waiting for the next disaster, 0:01:55.520 --> 0:01:59.800 waiting for the next insurrection, waiting for the next you know, 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:04.720 historic storm, waiting for the next derailment, waiting for the 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:07.320 next announcement of a town that doesn't have clean water. 0:02:08.400 --> 0:02:12.280 And so what I say to all of you is 0:02:12.320 --> 0:02:14.000 the same thing that I say to myself and the 0:02:14.040 --> 0:02:16.920 same thing that I've been saying all week. You know, 0:02:18.400 --> 0:02:23.919 turn it off. That doesn't mean to ignore what is happening, 0:02:24.520 --> 0:02:29.079 but it's to understand when you've reached your limits, when 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:33.359 it is okay to tap out and make sure that 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:37.400 you are getting outside and going walking that you or running, 0:02:37.800 --> 0:02:41.280 that you are, you know, moving your body that you 0:02:41.400 --> 0:02:44.600 are able to you know, sit, whether it is in 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:49.280 prayer or in meditation or just taking some nice, slow 0:02:50.200 --> 0:02:54.800 deep breaths, you know, if it is going and sitting 0:02:54.800 --> 0:02:58.399 in nature, or focusing on a houseplant that you may have, 0:02:58.560 --> 0:03:02.480 or taking a care of a pet. But folks, it 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:07.480 is really really critical that each and every day, a 0:03:07.520 --> 0:03:13.080 few times a day, that you allow yourself to just pause. Now, 0:03:13.160 --> 0:03:15.960 I gave examples of things to do that is not 0:03:17.840 --> 0:03:21.919 a way to neglect how you're feeling, but it's a 0:03:21.960 --> 0:03:27.000 way to balance your feelings, you know. I find and 0:03:27.040 --> 0:03:34.600 as many people therapists and doctors have said, crying is cathartic, right, 0:03:34.760 --> 0:03:39.520 Like it's okay to cry, It's okay to have moments 0:03:39.680 --> 0:03:45.800 of breakdown. Right. It's when we start wallowing and marinating 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:50.160 in despair and in hopelessness that we need to be concerned. 0:03:51.600 --> 0:03:54.720 But we should be having conversations with each other about 0:03:54.800 --> 0:04:00.600 how we are feeling. Asking yourself as well as your 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:05.360 friends and family, are you okay? You know, how has 0:04:05.480 --> 0:04:08.320 all of this news, How has it been hitting you? 0:04:09.720 --> 0:04:14.280 What you know, mechanisms for processing have you been using. 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:18.120 I have told many of you that I have been 0:04:18.160 --> 0:04:20.640 in therapy over the last five years. It is the 0:04:20.680 --> 0:04:24.279 best money that I could ever spend. You know, I 0:04:24.400 --> 0:04:27.880 had the privilege during the pandemic to begin a meditation 0:04:27.960 --> 0:04:32.640 practice that I continued to this day. You know, on Monday, 0:04:33.880 --> 0:04:37.360 after the news broke, and I'm on social media and 0:04:37.400 --> 0:04:41.840 I'm furious and the rage, you know, began to subside. 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:45.160 The grief set in, and I got off of my 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.640 couch and I turned off my television. I put my 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:52.440 phone on do not disturb. I took out a book. 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:58.839 I did a long meditation and some breathing, and I cried. 0:04:59.560 --> 0:05:02.800 I for the families. I cried for the children. I 0:05:02.839 --> 0:05:08.359 cried for those I cried for the children that were taken, 0:05:09.520 --> 0:05:13.880 that were killed, the administrators, the custodian that were taken 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:18.919 that were killed. But I cried for all of the 0:05:19.080 --> 0:05:26.720 children and the administrators, the teachers, the families, the community 0:05:26.760 --> 0:05:29.239 that would now have to join a club that nobody 0:05:29.279 --> 0:05:33.320 wants to be a part of. Because while we sit 0:05:33.440 --> 0:05:36.719 and we grieve for those that are lost, we're not 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:42.960 really understanding the trauma that these kids are now going 0:05:43.000 --> 0:05:49.880 to live with and grow into adulthood with, right as 0:05:49.920 --> 0:05:53.200 well as those teachers and those administrators. Like, look, we 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.280 can tell ourselves logically like, oh, this will never happen again, 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:01.640 or but it's not true. It may not happen in 0:06:01.640 --> 0:06:04.080 that particular school again, but we know it's going to 0:06:04.160 --> 0:06:09.839 happen again. And so with each shooting, our anxiety, our grief, 0:06:10.279 --> 0:06:13.080 our fear go through the roof and we take that 0:06:13.279 --> 0:06:17.800 on in a very physical and real way. You know, 0:06:17.880 --> 0:06:20.680 I spoke about this on the Mary Trump Show that 0:06:21.480 --> 0:06:24.240 I've gone to the dentist recently to find out that 0:06:24.320 --> 0:06:29.839 I pretty much ground my back molars flat. They said, 0:06:31.520 --> 0:06:33.600 are you under a lot of stress? They and I 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.479 literally laughed at the dentist. I am, I under a 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:41.680 lot of stress? Yeah, just a little bit, right. But 0:06:41.839 --> 0:06:49.640 if we don't find purposeful, therapeutic and healthy ways to 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:55.920 release the pain, emotional and physical pain that we are in, 0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:02.960 it will turn into disease ease. So it is not 0:07:03.080 --> 0:07:08.480 about becoming ostriches and ignoring our feelings. It is about 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:14.880 processing those feelings, building community to process those feelings, finding 0:07:15.200 --> 0:07:20.720 healthy habits to help us process these feelings. Because the 0:07:20.800 --> 0:07:28.280 overwhelm is real, and it is okay, dear friends, to 0:07:28.560 --> 0:07:34.400 not be okay all the time. So you know, I 0:07:34.440 --> 0:07:40.080 really hope that you really do heed this and take 0:07:40.160 --> 0:07:47.280 this advice that I offer, because it's something that I 0:07:47.400 --> 0:07:52.920 literally tell myself every day in the mirror, which is 0:07:52.960 --> 0:07:59.320 why walking has become my salvation in a lot of ways. Okay, 0:07:59.320 --> 0:08:04.320 Coming up next, dear friends, my interview with Don L. 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:09.320 Brown from the Empower Her Institute to talk about something 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:14.520 good that is happening in schools with young women of color. 0:08:15.080 --> 0:08:18.160 And I really enjoyed this conversation and I hope that 0:08:18.240 --> 0:08:24.320 you all do too. Folks. I am very excited to 0:08:24.560 --> 0:08:28.480 welcome to woka F Daily Don L. Brown, who is 0:08:28.480 --> 0:08:34.360 the President and CEO of Empower Her Institute. Don you 0:08:34.480 --> 0:08:37.240 come to woke F at a good time and also 0:08:37.280 --> 0:08:40.960 a bad time, a time when we are recognizing that 0:08:41.000 --> 0:08:44.559 there is a pandemic that we are not talking about 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:48.160 in this country, which is that of the mental and 0:08:48.200 --> 0:08:53.520 emotional health and well being of our nation's youth. And 0:08:53.840 --> 0:08:58.240 a CDC report had come out that stated that from 0:08:58.240 --> 0:09:01.680 twenty eleven until twenty two one, this ten year spanning 0:09:01.720 --> 0:09:07.280 report says that suicidal thoughts and behaviors of young people 0:09:07.800 --> 0:09:14.040 had increased at an alarming rate and disproportionately affects girls 0:09:14.040 --> 0:09:17.360 of color. Can you tell us some more about this 0:09:17.600 --> 0:09:22.360 crisis that we don't seem to see in the news 0:09:22.480 --> 0:09:27.160 or in the headlines in the way that we should. Yeah, So, 0:09:27.480 --> 0:09:30.640 what the CDC report essentially said is exactly what you 0:09:30.840 --> 0:09:34.839 just mentioned. That we are seeing an increase over the 0:09:34.880 --> 0:09:38.959 past ten years with a significant increase over the past 0:09:39.000 --> 0:09:43.640 three to five years of a suicidal ideation with girls 0:09:43.640 --> 0:09:48.520 of color. And you know, often in our country, when 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:51.840 we were talking about girls of color, it isn't something 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:55.720 that makes the news right, and so it's not shocking 0:09:55.920 --> 0:09:59.080 that it has. What we're seeing as young people are 0:10:00.040 --> 0:10:05.120 experiencing significant trauma, and that increase comes from everything from 0:10:05.480 --> 0:10:08.800 the social social media. There's been an increase of bullying 0:10:08.960 --> 0:10:13.040 as a result of social media. You know, we're making commons, 0:10:13.080 --> 0:10:15.439 children are making comments to one another like kill yourself, 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:18.760 things that we even when we were bullying each other 0:10:18.800 --> 0:10:20.920 back in the day, we were saying those kinds of things, 0:10:20.920 --> 0:10:23.520 but it becomes a joke that feels like so much 0:10:23.559 --> 0:10:28.800 more for them. We're seeing, you know, young girls are experiencing. 0:10:28.840 --> 0:10:31.160 What we're not talking about is that black and brown 0:10:31.240 --> 0:10:35.880 girls specifically are experience and massage in law. They are 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:39.040 experiencing high increases of that which we are not having 0:10:39.040 --> 0:10:43.600 conversations about, and they think that there's something wrong with them. 0:10:43.720 --> 0:10:47.359 There is normal teenage angst that's happening, but the conversations 0:10:47.360 --> 0:10:50.600 aren't happening to support them through what is happening in 0:10:50.640 --> 0:10:53.200 their bodies. What's happening in their emotions and their feelings. 0:10:54.080 --> 0:10:58.040 Everyone thinks, we're looking at social media, everyone's life looks perfect, 0:10:58.280 --> 0:11:01.160 and so they think something is wrong with them, that 0:11:01.240 --> 0:11:06.240 their life doesn't feel that way. UM. And the conversations 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:09.719 that are happening amongst one another when we talk, when 0:11:09.760 --> 0:11:14.440 they talk about UH supporting one another is more around 0:11:14.960 --> 0:11:20.440 UH discussions of UM harm and UM and supporting one 0:11:20.440 --> 0:11:23.960 another in group decisions around harm. So we are that, 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.640 you know, this is what's happening in the world right now. UM. 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:30.320 Black and brown girls are experiencing racism and sexism and 0:11:30.400 --> 0:11:34.920 gender you know challenges UM in ways that and and 0:11:35.040 --> 0:11:39.600 there's there's challenges and questions around sexual identity UM that 0:11:39.720 --> 0:11:42.320 are now openly being discussed and yet still hushed in 0:11:42.320 --> 0:11:45.600 our community. UM. And so I think all of those 0:11:45.640 --> 0:11:48.719 things sort of poal on UM in addition to just 0:11:48.800 --> 0:11:53.160 the the the weight of what it looks like when 0:11:53.160 --> 0:11:56.000 we are when young people are, you know, dealing with school, 0:11:56.040 --> 0:11:59.400 we always want to say, hey, that's not a big deal, 0:11:59.760 --> 0:12:02.200 you know. I mean, though I got to work every day, 0:12:02.480 --> 0:12:04.679 but you know, having to go through tests and the 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:08.120 anxiety that comes with that and having you know, multiple 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:11.959 responsibilities and expectations on them and then being dismissed around 0:12:11.960 --> 0:12:17.760 that really those weights are heavy, and they do calls 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:22.800 additional trauma and a silencing of their voices. I think 0:12:22.800 --> 0:12:26.240 that a part of this, in a large way, one 0:12:26.600 --> 0:12:28.800 goes to the fact, and you tell me if I'm wrong, 0:12:28.880 --> 0:12:33.440 that we have never created the type of mental health 0:12:33.559 --> 0:12:38.920 infrastructure in our schools, right, correct, in our public schools 0:12:39.040 --> 0:12:46.199 to deal with the varying emotions, hormones, but very live 0:12:46.720 --> 0:12:50.760 and real trauma. You know, while while a parent could say, 0:12:50.840 --> 0:12:53.480 you know, as you mentioned in your example, say well 0:12:53.720 --> 0:12:55.560 you know, I have to work every day. All you 0:12:55.600 --> 0:12:58.920 have to do is go to school. Well, this is 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:02.240 a generation of children that do active shooter drills the 0:13:02.280 --> 0:13:05.200 way that we used to do fire drills. You know, 0:13:05.280 --> 0:13:08.320 we grew up. I would like to think that those 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:11.720 of us who are adults of a certain age grew 0:13:11.800 --> 0:13:14.760 up at a time when school was seen as a 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:19.320 safe place, right, like the worst thing that could happen 0:13:19.600 --> 0:13:23.160 was a fire, right that you were prepared for, and 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:25.920 you saw the fire doors, and you did those drills. 0:13:25.960 --> 0:13:29.679 But now we send kids to school all over this 0:13:29.760 --> 0:13:32.760 country and we can't tell them for certain that they're 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:37.160 coming back. That's just one instance of daily lived trauma. 0:13:37.240 --> 0:13:41.760 So can you speak to how that which has become 0:13:41.960 --> 0:13:46.280 regular headlines and a regular part of the American experience, 0:13:47.160 --> 0:13:52.679 also plays a part in what children are experiencing nowadays. Absolutely, 0:13:52.720 --> 0:13:56.120 there is no real discussion around social emotional learning. That 0:13:56.520 --> 0:13:59.719 is not happening, That is not a part of the curriculum. 0:13:59.720 --> 0:14:03.120 I know that there has now been discussions around schools 0:14:03.160 --> 0:14:06.080 and a school districts now that are beginning to introduce 0:14:06.080 --> 0:14:09.160 social emotional learning but as part of the curriculum and 0:14:09.200 --> 0:14:11.520 a required part of the curriculum. But for ten years 0:14:11.800 --> 0:14:15.000 even more, that wasn't happening. So no, there was They've 0:14:15.000 --> 0:14:18.559 taken health classes out, so they're not having conversations. I 0:14:18.640 --> 0:14:21.040 remember when I went to school. I remember not wanting 0:14:21.120 --> 0:14:23.200 us sit in there on those classes, but then loving 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:25.880 them afterwards because we had we got to talk about 0:14:25.920 --> 0:14:27.720 what was happening in our bodies and what was happening 0:14:27.760 --> 0:14:30.400 in our emotions, and they separated us male and female, 0:14:30.440 --> 0:14:33.160 and they had those conversations. That's been taken out of 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:37.040 the schools because of budget cuts, right, and so even 0:14:37.120 --> 0:14:40.320 something as simple as pe in many cases has been 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:42.600 taken out of schools because of budget cuts, and we 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:46.200 think about the stress reduction that comes with that physical activity. 0:14:46.560 --> 0:14:48.640 And then when you as you mentioned, when it comes 0:14:48.640 --> 0:14:53.200 to like psychology and having school therapists in public schools, 0:14:53.440 --> 0:14:55.200 when we look at the budget cuts, they got to 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:59.200 focus on the specifics of the education the abc D, 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:02.640 you know, requirements. And so when you look at somewhere 0:15:02.720 --> 0:15:06.480 like La County, which is where I am based, when 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.480 you look at LAUSD and other public schools that are 0:15:09.480 --> 0:15:12.400 in the area that we work with, a school psychologist 0:15:12.520 --> 0:15:16.360 gets five schools. So there's one school psychologist to five schools. 0:15:16.760 --> 0:15:19.240 When you think about that, they have one day at 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.680 each school. Sometimes they don't even have a full day. 0:15:21.880 --> 0:15:25.480 And that's your average. And so we have I work 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.040 with a thousand girls a year and we see them 0:15:28.040 --> 0:15:30.200 on a weekly basis. Most of them have no idea 0:15:30.240 --> 0:15:32.640 that there is a school psychologist because they have never 0:15:32.680 --> 0:15:35.480 seen that person, or if they do see them, they're like, oh, 0:15:35.520 --> 0:15:37.840 we see them like once every other week, like and 0:15:38.080 --> 0:15:41.000 nobody goes there because she's always booked, you know. And 0:15:41.040 --> 0:15:44.760 so when you're when we're dealing with those kinds of 0:15:44.800 --> 0:15:49.400 economical challenges and yet in the same situation as you mentioned. 0:15:49.560 --> 0:15:53.920 They're going through active shooting courses, right, they are learning 0:15:54.000 --> 0:15:58.400 drills who so that I never had to learn, you know, 0:15:58.480 --> 0:16:00.640 we've never had to learn those things. And you know, 0:16:00.680 --> 0:16:02.960 even just talking without girls, one of the projects that 0:16:02.960 --> 0:16:05.480 our girls do is a social justice Seemed project and 0:16:05.520 --> 0:16:07.520 they get to decide on a social justice issue they 0:16:07.560 --> 0:16:10.120 want to explore. And you'd be surprised how many of 0:16:10.160 --> 0:16:13.040 them wanted to have conversations. They either want to explore 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.920 an issue around race or they want to explore an 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:20.680 issue around shooting and gun you know, and gun control. 0:16:21.040 --> 0:16:23.200 And you know, one of the things that you know 0:16:23.280 --> 0:16:26.720 has been said is but nobody cares because there hasn't 0:16:26.720 --> 0:16:28.960 been a change in the policies and the laws. And 0:16:29.040 --> 0:16:31.800 people don't think that our young people are having those 0:16:31.800 --> 0:16:35.160 conversations or having those thoughts, but they are. They're very aware. 0:16:35.320 --> 0:16:38.160 They're very aware of what's happening in the world. They're 0:16:38.280 --> 0:16:40.840 very aware of the fact that, you know, there are 0:16:40.880 --> 0:16:44.000 no change in laws and policies. They understand that their 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:47.000 government has said, hey, you know, we know that this 0:16:47.080 --> 0:16:49.520 is happening, and we're just gonna keep praying for you, right, 0:16:49.960 --> 0:16:53.040 and so you know, those those are conversations that the 0:16:53.160 --> 0:16:55.560 girls are having, that they are having with us, that 0:16:55.640 --> 0:16:59.280 they say to us. And so we're not introducing these thoughts, 0:16:59.280 --> 0:17:03.560 they're introducing them to us. Right, So yeah, that does 0:17:03.600 --> 0:17:07.639 that plays a big role in this. And we we can't, 0:17:07.680 --> 0:17:10.000 you know, we can't negate the fact that you know, 0:17:10.119 --> 0:17:12.480 I remember going to school and we learned about officer 0:17:12.560 --> 0:17:16.280 friendly in elementary school and there was an officer who 0:17:16.280 --> 0:17:18.360 would come and I would grew up in DC and 0:17:18.560 --> 0:17:20.440 you know, they talked to us. And then by the 0:17:20.440 --> 0:17:22.160 time we got to middle school in high school, were 0:17:22.160 --> 0:17:24.200 a little you know, side out of an officer friendly 0:17:24.240 --> 0:17:26.600 because we had had our experiences at that point, right, 0:17:26.880 --> 0:17:29.439 But we also still under you know, but there was 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:32.880 still this idea that even beyond that, there was still 0:17:32.880 --> 0:17:36.080 this general idea that if it got down to it, 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:38.439 I could go I could call the police some you know, 0:17:38.560 --> 0:17:41.320 someone would you know, I could go to someone. Well 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.520 that has that idea is gone, right, And so our girls, now, 0:17:45.800 --> 0:17:49.280 our young people now in general, absolutely if they are 0:17:49.560 --> 0:17:52.640 young people of color, male, female, they are young people 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:54.400 of color. And then on top of that you add 0:17:54.440 --> 0:17:56.960 black and brown in and then you add on top 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:02.080 of that social economic challenges. Then absolutely they there's no 0:18:02.160 --> 0:18:05.560 idea of Office of Friendly at all anymore. There's no 0:18:05.680 --> 0:18:08.120 thought in them that that didn't come and it wasn't 0:18:08.119 --> 0:18:10.440 introduced in elementary school, and it hasn't and it won't 0:18:10.560 --> 0:18:14.600 won't be introduced because what they're seeing visually every day 0:18:14.600 --> 0:18:17.480 on social media looks very different. What they're experiencing in 0:18:17.520 --> 0:18:20.320 their communities looks very different. You know. I teach a 0:18:20.359 --> 0:18:23.800 class with my girls around the juvenile justice system, and 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:26.720 every school class that I go to, I ask them 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:32.000 who has been impacted either themselves or someone in their 0:18:32.000 --> 0:18:35.119 families by the justice system, and every hand goes up 0:18:35.160 --> 0:18:39.520 in every class. Wow, right, And so that that says 0:18:39.560 --> 0:18:43.000 something about where they where. The idea of who could 0:18:43.040 --> 0:18:47.160 protect them can't and won't. So I have to fear 0:18:47.200 --> 0:18:50.159 the people who have been put into the world that 0:18:50.200 --> 0:18:52.560 are supposed to protect me. I have to fear them. 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:56.080 I don't have somewhere to go in school, and that 0:18:56.160 --> 0:18:59.000 is my safe space, and you know, but yet I 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:01.640 don't have somewhere to go to to process my feelings. 0:19:01.960 --> 0:19:04.520 And then on top of that, you know, when I 0:19:04.560 --> 0:19:08.200 come home and I talk to my parents, there while 0:19:08.240 --> 0:19:10.600 they want to be supportive. They have their own traumas 0:19:10.640 --> 0:19:14.680 around socio economic challenges that's happening. You know, more children 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:16.760 in the household that they're trying to balance, and they're 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:18.600 just trying to figure it all out because there's such 0:19:18.600 --> 0:19:22.960 a big difference in the generational divide, right, that wasn't 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:26.240 necessarily there before, But there is a big difference. Again, 0:19:26.280 --> 0:19:28.720 we're not having we didn't have actors school shooting. I'm 0:19:28.760 --> 0:19:32.080 not that much older than I the girls that I served, 0:19:32.080 --> 0:19:34.560 but we don't have that. We didn't have that, So 0:19:34.800 --> 0:19:38.120 how do you have those conversations? Yeah, it's like how 0:19:38.160 --> 0:19:43.800 do you facilitate than conversations on issues that you don't 0:19:43.920 --> 0:19:48.639 have truly an experience or advantage point on, right, Like 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.399 I talk about on willkaf all the time, we talk 0:19:51.440 --> 0:19:54.000 about the night shootings, We talk about actors shooting drills. 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.240 I've never experienced one, so I honestly I don't even 0:19:57.320 --> 0:20:01.120 know what that entails, right, But I think about it 0:20:01.680 --> 0:20:06.280 as this disruption or this bell or whatever sounds you know, 0:20:06.760 --> 0:20:10.320 go off. You don't know in that moment whether this 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:14.720 is practice or it's actually happening. You go through this 0:20:14.960 --> 0:20:17.920 and then you're supposed to sit back down and learn 0:20:18.320 --> 0:20:22.000 exactly so that to me is already like you've created 0:20:22.080 --> 0:20:27.840 this experience that induces anxiety, then you don't have anything 0:20:28.040 --> 0:20:30.880 that brings that level of anxiety back down. And we're 0:20:30.920 --> 0:20:34.160 just supposed to ask these young people who are still 0:20:34.280 --> 0:20:38.840 learning how to regulate their emotions as their aging to 0:20:38.960 --> 0:20:41.919 then be able to just go right back to functioning. 0:20:42.119 --> 0:20:44.960 What number were we on? Like? What problem was I 0:20:45.040 --> 0:20:50.719 trying to solve? So I think about the ways in 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:55.680 which the people Dawn who are creating education policy, which 0:20:55.720 --> 0:20:58.440 is something that I went to work on Capitol Hill 0:20:58.800 --> 0:21:02.879 to do, us to try and create education policy from 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:05.919 the vantage point of an actual teacher, which I was, 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:10.920 and recognize that the people who are doing this haven't 0:21:10.920 --> 0:21:14.000 been in a classroom in fifty years. Do you know 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:15.520 what I'm saying? Like, they have not been in a 0:21:15.560 --> 0:21:20.240 classroom in fifty years. And you don't have to have 0:21:20.400 --> 0:21:24.320 an education degree in order to make policy around education. 0:21:24.440 --> 0:21:27.040 Let's not forget that party. And you don't have to 0:21:27.080 --> 0:21:31.440 have a child development degree, which is absolutely wild. But 0:21:31.520 --> 0:21:35.720 how do you with empower her? How do you deal 0:21:35.800 --> 0:21:40.720 with a society a government that really does not put 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:44.760 any emphasis on anything other than teaching kids their ABC's. 0:21:45.240 --> 0:21:48.359 And yet we know that schools in many ways should 0:21:48.480 --> 0:21:52.960 be the community focal point, right and a place of 0:21:53.080 --> 0:21:57.200 safety and healing and learning not only for the child 0:21:57.240 --> 0:22:00.159 but of their caregivers and their parents, and we do 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:03.439 the exact opposite. Yeah, And I think one of the 0:22:03.440 --> 0:22:06.000 things that I want to also just quickly say is 0:22:06.000 --> 0:22:08.880 that often, you know, as adults, we expect that we're 0:22:08.880 --> 0:22:11.360 going to have the answers, but we don't in this 0:22:11.400 --> 0:22:14.520 situation when now young people come to us and ask 0:22:14.600 --> 0:22:17.520 these questions, we don't have answers. And that's some part 0:22:17.520 --> 0:22:19.840 of why there's a fear to even have those conversations 0:22:19.840 --> 0:22:23.480 with them, because you have these conversations and then where 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:25.560 do we go. I don't have an answer for you. 0:22:25.600 --> 0:22:27.760 I don't have a solution, and so there's a fear 0:22:27.800 --> 0:22:30.240 to even have those conversations. And what we're seeing in 0:22:30.600 --> 0:22:33.920 policymakers now is because there's such a fear of that 0:22:33.920 --> 0:22:36.000 that they're saying, we just don't talk about it, don't 0:22:36.000 --> 0:22:38.680 talk about all these things that young people want to 0:22:38.680 --> 0:22:42.600 explore because we don't know how to, you know, we're 0:22:42.680 --> 0:22:46.159 uncomfortable with them, right, And so you know what we 0:22:46.320 --> 0:22:50.359 do and empower her Institute. We are a nonprofit organization 0:22:50.800 --> 0:22:53.880 based in Los Angeles County. We serve a thousand girls 0:22:53.920 --> 0:22:56.280 a year. We start with them from seventh grade through 0:22:56.320 --> 0:22:59.600 twelfth grade, and we are actually the only gender responsive 0:22:59.640 --> 0:23:04.679 non organization in LA that provides a social emotional learning 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:07.760 course during the school day. We are fully integrated into 0:23:07.800 --> 0:23:12.280 the school day. We work with Title one schools, which 0:23:12.280 --> 0:23:16.560 for those who don't know, our schools that are that 0:23:16.680 --> 0:23:20.240 have at least sixty percent of the young people who 0:23:20.280 --> 0:23:23.520 attend are qualified for free or reduced lunch. When we 0:23:23.560 --> 0:23:27.840 only work with bipop girls. And so we do a 0:23:27.880 --> 0:23:32.440 social emotional learning and a skills based learning course that happens. 0:23:32.600 --> 0:23:35.159 And then in addition to that, part of the course 0:23:35.280 --> 0:23:38.359 is mentoring and so they actually get monthly mentoring in 0:23:38.359 --> 0:23:41.760 addition to that by adult women. And our whole goal 0:23:42.440 --> 0:23:45.400 is to help them deal with the muck of being 0:23:45.440 --> 0:23:48.639 a team and processing all of that in order to 0:23:48.680 --> 0:23:51.520 support them to become career in college ready. See, we 0:23:51.560 --> 0:23:53.800 go to college, we go to school, and we say 0:23:54.160 --> 0:23:56.720 this is all about career in college readiness, right, But 0:23:56.800 --> 0:23:59.919 we miss the social emotional component. We miss the trauma 0:24:00.280 --> 0:24:03.680 that young people are experiencing that make it difficult for 0:24:03.720 --> 0:24:06.119 them to even concentrate on anything that has to do 0:24:06.160 --> 0:24:09.360 with career or college or anything else. And so what 0:24:09.400 --> 0:24:12.200 we do is we look at it from that perspective. 0:24:12.200 --> 0:24:14.160 We're looking at it from a lens of we've got 0:24:14.160 --> 0:24:17.440 to support you in the trauma in addition to supporting 0:24:17.440 --> 0:24:20.280 you with developing those skills and those resources and the 0:24:20.359 --> 0:24:23.040 access so that you can become a college and career ready. 0:24:23.320 --> 0:24:25.920 Our ultimate goal is to break generational cycles of poverty, 0:24:26.000 --> 0:24:29.520 and we understand what that means. We understand that we 0:24:29.760 --> 0:24:33.840 take a social justice lens to this work. We are, 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:37.600 you know, we take a where we're constantly looking at 0:24:37.760 --> 0:24:40.520 gender and race and the sort of levels of that 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:44.480 in working with our girls, and so we don't just 0:24:44.560 --> 0:24:49.320 have conversations about how to go how to prepare a resume, 0:24:49.400 --> 0:24:51.160 and how to behave in your first day of work, 0:24:51.440 --> 0:24:54.960 but we have conversations in addition to that about microaggressions 0:24:55.000 --> 0:24:58.240 and man splaining in the workplace right and in the school, 0:24:58.560 --> 0:25:01.320 and how to negotiate those situations and how to navigate 0:25:01.359 --> 0:25:04.199 those situations. So those are the kinds of conversations that 0:25:04.240 --> 0:25:06.399 we have when we talk about a budget, we're not 0:25:06.440 --> 0:25:09.760 just doing financial literacy from a universal perspective, but we 0:25:09.800 --> 0:25:12.360 talk about what does it sound like in your household 0:25:12.359 --> 0:25:14.359 when you talk about money, when parents, when you hear 0:25:14.400 --> 0:25:16.639 your parents talk about it, what does it sound like? 0:25:16.720 --> 0:25:19.640 Because it sounds very different in a household that's financially 0:25:19.720 --> 0:25:22.359 is challenged and struggling than it does in one that 0:25:22.440 --> 0:25:25.840