13:50:50 >> Testing the captioning. 13:57:46 . 13:57:56 >> SIERRA: Hello. Welcome to the APRIL Coordinators Connect. We're going to get started in about three or four minutes when 13:58:00 everybody is jumping on. 13:58:59 >> SIERRA: Hello, everybody. We're going to get started in just about two minutes. Thanks for joining! I get to see everybody's new 13:59:04 setting now. I like it. We'll do some home tours later. 14:00:07 >> SIERRA: Hi, everybody. Thanks for joining. We're going to get started in just about a minute. We're going to give another minute 14:00:16 for everybody to jump on and then we'll start chatting. And Chris, your photo is amazing. I love it. 14:00:23 >> CHRIS: Thank you. 14:01:17 >> SIERRA: Okay, hey, everybody. Thanks for joining. This is the IL net call for youth coordinators connect. I'm going to go ahead 14:01:30 and screen share in case. Most of us have probably figured out a little bit about technology by this point. But in case you need some 14:01:39 updating 14:01:55 Okay. So hi, everybody, again. So, I'm Sierra Royster. I'm the youth programs coordinator for APRIL, which is the 14:02:05 Association of Programs for Rural Independent Living. This is part of ILRU. And then as APRIL. And then the National Council on Independent 14:02:23 Living, NCIL is probably how you've heard of them. And then Utah State University center for people with disabilities. Today I really 14:02:33 wanted to focus on how are we providing services and how can we support you all, what information can we share as a group for today's 14:02:42 call for being at home in our new living situation, most of us, with COVID-19, and how we're able to serve young people. We 14:03:03 had a call a couple of weeks ago. And oh. Sorry. I just remembered I have to turn on my resume recording. So, I know that many people 14:03:10 were on a call not too long ago and asking about youth services and school programs. So, I hope we can cover a lot of that today. Just 14:03:21 a few housekeeping things. So a couple of ways you can join today. When you scroll over the bottom of the screen, a menu bar should 14:03:30 pop up on your computer. On that, and sometimes if you're on your phone or tablet it can be on the top of the screen, as well. But 14:03:39 a microphone should pop up for that. And then also, and you can click and select that or unselect that to mute and unmute yourself. 14:03:45 I know there's a lot of stuff probably happening in the background and everybody is home. So if you just remember if you're not talking, 14:03:54 if you could mute yourself to keep the background noise down, that would be great. And if you want to join and have the ability to join 14:04:05 us by video, there's also a camera that you can turn on and off, as well. That will allow us to see you or not see you. Some 14:04:12 of you have figured out how to do pictures on here, which is amazing. Good job for you all, because I haven't figured that out yet. 14:04:22 That's the way you can mute and unmute yourself. For today, we do have closed captioning for today. On that same menu bar, you'll see 14:04:33 a tab with a CC. A little square box with a CC in there. That will let you open the captioning and see that, as well. And then those 14:04:42 of you that are on the phone, if you could press * 6 to mute yourself, if you are not already in the conversation or if there is background 14:04:48 noise. And then * 9 if you want to raise your hand to talk. 14:05:10 So, I think that Okay. So if you're not already connected with us, I encourage you to follow that link to make sure I have your e-mail. 14:05:20 If you did not get this straight from me, that means that your e-mail was not working for me. So e-mail me and let me know that you're 14:05:30 not getting it. Today is the Youth Coordinators Connect agenda. Just kind of intro. We're going to be talking about our program. 14:05:40 I do want to be discussing a little bit about the solution sharing piece , if you have direct questions. And really this is what we're 14:05:49 going to be spending the majority of our time today, is COVID. So I'm just going to go ahead and let you know, I am home with two little 14:05:58 ones. They may pop into the screen throughout this call. I apologize, if so. Okay. And just a reminder, if you are not speaking right 14:06:15 now, if you could go ahead and mute yourself, you can do that on the screen. Let's see. Or you can do that by hitting * 6. 14:06:28 Okay. So I guess let's just go ahead and start the conversation and see where everybody is at. (Chuckling) 14:06:42 She's napping, clearly. Okay. So, is everybody home? Is anybody not at home at this point? 14:06:56 I'm taking that everybody is at home, at least by the background and the cool pictures, at least. 14:07:08 Okay. So, the first thing I wanted to just ask is what do you all want to know? What is something that would really help you with your 14:07:17 programs right now? Or where are you all struggling with those things? And you can again * 6 to unmute yourself if you're on the phone 14:07:25 or the microphone to unmute yourself. 14:07:36 >> This is Paige from ABLE South Carolina. I know every state's VR is working a little differently, but ours has actually stopped funding 14:07:48 for our pre-ETS work until they kind of get their staff up and running. Since we're a contractor, I think we fall a little lower 14:07:57 on that totem pole. So we really had to figure out what our funding looked like in order to continue working with our youth. So we 14:08:05 kind of jumped in and started some online things through Zoom just to keep them engaged and make sure they're connected and getting resources 14:08:14 they need. And then we're really just trying to work with our VR to get that contract up and running again so that we can expand 14:08:22 and continue serving those youth. So that's kind of where we're at right now. 14:08:38 >> SIERRA: Very good. Now you can hear me. Are you have (echo) are you having good luck with hearing back from the youth? Are they 14:08:40 joining the Zoom calls you're holding? 14:08:49 >> Yeah. It's kind of a mixed bag. There's ones that we definitely connected with, unlike those ones that were in the schools for six 14:08:56 weeks and then were out. There's a couple of them. We had a couple of teachers who signed youth up and followed up to make sure they 14:09:03 were attending and were using it as part of their e-learning packets and school work that they were required to do. So that certainly 14:09:12 helps. But it's kind of a mixed bag. We've tried in the mornings and afternoons, and then we're going to try different 14:09:15 days next week to see if that maybe changes attendance. 14:09:25 >> SIERRA: Okay. Anybody else? How is that working? What are you finding with your program? 14:09:31 >> Sarah Harris. Can you guys hear me? 14:09:33 >> SIERRA: Yeah, I can hear you. 14:09:47 >> All right. Awesome. Just making sure. So Sarah Harris, central valley in Fresno. It's been creative. (Chuckling) We've been working 14:09:55 remotely since March 17th. I'm still providing service, you know, one on one, over the phone, via Zoom. And what I have found to be 14:10:03 like one of the best things to do right now is to work on things like person-centered plans and resumes. Because those are things that 14:10:15 you can sit over the phone and work on. We also started last week, we have a youth group that's for ages 16-28 called Be About It. 14:10:18 You don't just talk about it, you got to be about it. 14:10:26 We started last Friday our virtual hangout, which will be happening every week. We actually had 20 youth on the call, which was awesome. 14:10:35 So I'm blind. So I had other people telling me what some of the youth were doing. Some were exercising, some were laying on their bed, 14:10:44 some had walked away completely from the call. (Chuckling) So that was kind of fun. But that seems to be working pretty well. 14:10:52 And thank you. I just heard that come through. I'm actually blind, guys, for those of you who don't know. It's kind of cool because 14:11:00 I can still hear all the messages come through. And I suggest if you're able to do that, you know, give it a thought. Because our poor 14:11:07 youth are staying at home and they are super bored, too, and we want to make sure that they're staying engaged. And one of 14:11:15 the things that I want to suggest is what I'm doing Friday is to talk to them about social media safety. Because if I'm getting ten 14:11:22 Facebook requests a day, they probably are, too. And we want to remind them to not allow everybody to your be your friend, especially 14:11:30 people you don't know, because it could end up being a weirdo. So that's just my suggestion. So things are going pretty well. But it's 14:11:41 so funny. I feel like I'm busier than ever, which is cool. 14:11:46 >> SIERRA: You said you're doing Google Hangout, is that how you were meeting? 14:11:47 >> No, Zoom. 14:11:58 >> SIERRA: Zoom. Okay. So Zoom seems to be the ticket. And Paige, I heard you were doing that. Were you, or anyone else on the call, 14:12:06 when this got brought up. I heard it from staff and other places. How are you making sure that your Zoom calls are safe? I know that's 14:12:15 the big thing because if people can hack something they're going to hack it. How are you all ensuring the safety of those groups and 14:12:18 things? Or are you able to? 14:12:25 >> I don't think we're able to, to be honest. The hacking has always kind of happened. I think it's just more in the spotlight right 14:12:31 now. It's more just kind of crossing your fingers and watching your participants that come in, that kind of thing. But I don't 14:12:36 know that there's, you know, a whole lot that can be done. Maybe I'm wrong. 14:12:49 >> This is Michael here from Montana. I think the most we've done is just really limit where we share the links and the passwords so we're 14:12:59 not sharing it over open public media. We've established a lot of Facebook groups, specific to different programming. So whatever 14:13:13 the Zoom might be, whether it's our yoga class or wrestling group, we only share the link. I can elaborate on those if you want. 14:13:22 We only share within those Facebook groups and make sure that our youth are aware that if they share them on their public outlets, social 14:13:31 media, and otherwise, that there is a potential to be hacked and, you know, and end up with a troll. So I think in addition to like limit 14:13:42 sharing, you have to make sure your participants know what hacking could look like. And in specific, trolling. If the you're trying 14:13:51 to do a group, you don't want to share it and have somebody unrelated with weird motivations coming in and messing with your 14:14:01 time. And so far, fingers crossed, we haven't had any issues. 14:14:18 >> This is Lana Gonzalez from LINC from Boise, Idaho. I've found a few articles about ways to prevent it. Using the password. There's 14:14:23 a few good articles that are pretty easy to Google and find, just so you know. 14:14:35 >> SIERRA: Awesome. I didn't think about the screen sharing. Thank you. 14:14:37 >> Super good point. 14:14:45 >> SIERRA: Those were good. I'm trying to remember them. Password and making sure you prevent who can screen share and things like 14:14:52 that. Those are all good. It sounds like youth are really joining in to what everybody's doing, though. They're wanting to engage 14:15:01 in those ways. Does anybody else have experiences with how you're engaging? Do you want to share that? 14:15:11 >> This is Amy from Tyler, Texas. I have another question for you guys as far as using distance technology. 14:15:25 Has anybody had any concerns about HIPAA and whether or not you guys feel like we're considered to be sharing protected health information 14:15:34 by doing trainings online or anything like that? We've been trying to figure that out in our office. 14:15:56 >> This is Mels. One of the things that we've been making a point to do up in our office in Spokane. We'll still be using 14:16:02 whatever media we can get our hands onto help consumers. But anything confidential, like I stated in the beginning, a couple weeks 14:16:16 ago we had our complete digital intake ever. And making sure it's like yes, we're talking through a Facetime right now, however, our 14:16:28 intake form, which, you know, has social security, disability history, medical, that only stays in our e-mail channel. It's only going 14:16:39 to our at what our center is dot org. For us it's DACNW. But just making sure anything that is confidential stays within 14:16:47 those e-mail chains. Don't let anything be public. Don't send it over Facebook. Don't send it over anything but e-mail. Just to keep 14:16:55 it as safe as possible. We live in a world where everything can be hacked. But that's the approach that we've been taking with it. 14:17:02 >> Thank you. 14:17:10 And thank you for the chat responses, too. That's all very helpful. 14:17:16 >> This is Mary. 14:17:21 >> I know you guys have been talking about that. 14:17:27 >> Yeah. We've been working on this issue about confidentiality. The first thing I want to say is this. We all understand that these 14:17:37 are different times we're living in. So the regulations and they're more lax now. But I am going to drop something 14:17:47 in the chat, if I can figure out how. One of our centers in Iowa came up with a form that they're having consumers to sign. And it's 14:17:55 basically just informing the consumer that we're going to do the best that we can to have confidentiality today. However, with, 14:18:05 you know, staff members being at home with family members and it being a little more loose with who might be popping into your screen 14:18:13 at any moment, they put together a document where consumers can sign it, just letting them know that. We're going to do the best that 14:18:22 we can, and also it may not be completely confidential, just so they're informed. And we're hearing that that is acceptable. Because 14:18:31 right now we're just all kind of doing the best we can with what we have. You know, we are talking right now about what are the best 14:18:44 platforms. You know, I've heard bluejeans is HIPAA compliant. Zoom is, as well, as long as you use password protection. If you 14:18:54 get Google Suite through Google Meet, then you can also add a password and that is also confidential, electronically. But that doesn't 14:19:05 account for the other folks who might be popping into our rooms. So I'll try to drop that in Sierra. If you want to use 14:19:08 it and adapt it, feel free to. 14:19:16 >> SIERRA: Awesome. I'm just going to catch up on some of the comments we're seeing in. Some people are using Google Meet. I use Google 14:19:25 Meet for school. Not for me, but my daughter. That has closed captioning already filtered in. You're not going to get the CART level 14:19:35 of closed captioning. But you're going to get pretty close, at least from my conversation. I tried some harder words, and it got 14:19:42 almost all of them. There's also that option. So some people are using it for staff meetings, but not necessarily consumer meetings, 14:19:49 because that doesn't really, it might not fall into the HIPAA piece, because there's not necessarily passwords sometimes. And then I'm 14:19:59 seeing discord, which I know Mels, you're the one who introduced me to do. Some other people started using that, I'm probably 14:20:12 going to mess it up. That's a gaming chat room that you can also use just for chatting, as well. Did I get it? 14:20:24 >> Yeah, that's correct. Discord was meant for gaming. It's made to take up less data or energy from your computer so you can do the 14:20:33 high-energy things like playing games. But I introduced it wider, ever since we all went remote. I introduced it wider to 14:20:41 our DAC offices, all four offices. And it's been working really well. It's nice to be able to communicate with people, especially, 14:20:47 honestly even after all this, I want to continue this form of communication if you have satellite offices. It's really helpful to 14:20:52 be able to have like those quick conversations that don't take up a whole e-mail. 14:21:07 >> This is Masha in Casper. Speaking to Mels' point, because I'm actually a college student. Hi Mels. One of my professors 14:21:17 is actually using Discord to communicate with the students. He's able to because a lot of professors, at least down here in Wyoming, 14:21:29 a lot of professors use slide shows to get across their content. And so the one good thing with my professor is he's able to, you know, 14:21:41 we're able to conversate through audio and stuff. But he's also able to do a live stream and share his computer screen with us 14:21:48 so we're able to see the slide shows that he's talking about. So if you have somebody who is more of a visual 14:21:57 learner as opposed to an audio learner, I feel like that would be a huge asset to just trying to explain something that might be a little 14:21:59 more complicated to understand. 14:22:03 So that's just my two cents. 14:22:18 >> SIERRA: Okay. I know there's just so many of those live pieces, as well. So I see there's even more coming in. You guys are sharing 14:22:31 so much good information on here. One of our panelists said one of the remote webinars I've done suggested we do a remote platform release 14:22:37 form. I'm not quite sure what to include on that, if anybody has any thoughts on that one. 14:22:51 And then Zoom does have CART access. You have to get CART separately. To add it in. So that was one of the questions, as well. So if 14:22:57 you're on this call, on the menu bar, there's a CC button that's going to pop up. 14:23:08 And Mary did just drop in all the information for authorization of telecommunication stuff. So that's on there, as well. What else is 14:23:12 everybody doing? What questions do you have? 14:23:27 >> I have a question. This is Mels. I was wondering what apps or whatever it's called are y'all using to get those digital signatures 14:23:36 for things that need to be signed but we're not there in person so they can't physically sign it. I know I've seen people use Docusign, 14:23:45 but I'm not sure if that's a subscription service or what that is. I wanted to throw that out there and see what everybody 14:23:46 is using. 14:24:03 >> Hey, Mels. This is Alaisha. We're using, a few of us at our organization, have been using Dochub. And Dochub is a completely 14:24:14 free Google add-on. You can just select it when you open up a document, you click "open with." You can click add 14:24:22 or it may already be there. But you can click add a signature and insert your signature directly into the PDF and then save it as a PDF 14:24:31 or to your Google Suite. So that's been helpful, because Docusign, yes, I do believe is a subscription service. Yeah. 14:24:53 >> SIERRA: Thank you. And somebody else said our state is going to get a verbal signature and then 45 days after emergency to get an in-person 14:24:59 signature. They're in Virginia. Not all programs. Thinking about the different programming that you have. Paige was 14:25:01 saying South Carolina is similar. Okay. 14:25:12 Really does anybody have any other ideas that you've been doing? The other thing I wanted to just ask, too, how are you engaging young 14:25:23 people? We know that a lot of times this is not very fun. And sometimes it may be what we need right now is to have a group of people 14:25:34 on a call, but how are you making sure that one you're keeping it engage besides just talking. Or secondly, 14:25:39 how are you keeping things accessible so that youth are able to access what you're doing? 14:25:59 >> Sierra, this is Beers in Missoula. We moved what we were doing physically in our community center online. I apologize. 14:26:16 There's an upset bulldog behind me. You hear that. So we've been able to use Zoom. Also, Facebook has through Messenger has a pretty 14:26:18 good video service. 14:26:24 And Google. We've been going through what's most accessible to the group we're working with as far as technology. And we've had pretty 14:26:35 good engagement. So, on Wednesdays, I think I mentioned we did have a yoga class. We're Zooming that from 4-5. And we 14:26:45 actually got more attendance. So typically we see 6-8 people. But because we're able to throw it out to a larger community, you know, 14:26:58 we got 15 people in and out of that. We also have the wrestling group that I mentioned in regards to having fun. It's probably the 14:27:08 program that has accelerated since we took it online. So in that group, a lot of our students, and when I say students, I mean people 14:27:24 we work with and engage with on a weekly basis. High school to thirties. He was a professional wrestling fan. In this group we 14:27:39 talk about wrestling. Each one of us, if we want to, we come up with a character. We decide if you're a heal or a hero. And you can 14:27:54 come up with entrance music. We don't do any physical wrestling. But we'll roll D&G dice to see who would win this match. Now 14:28:03 that we're online, we do promo videos. 90% of it is the back and forth between wrestlers and calling people out and kind of setting 14:28:14 up that drama. So in our group, it's all voluntary. But if you want to, we're trying to keep one video a week. So the student is at 14:28:30 home using their laptop or their cell phone, filming a promo video. I'm a Hangry Hobbit, that's my wrestling persona. But yeah the 14:28:43 Hangry Hobbit would call out Fashion Man, who is another one of our wrestlers. John, so setting up challenges, whether it's through 14:28:53 wrestling or not. But they're doing technical lounge challenge. So to win, they have to take pictures and post a video of them lounging 14:29:04 during quarantine. So who can lounge the best is the current competition. And then on certain nights there's wrestling on TV. We open 14:29:15 up a group chat on Messenger and we all watch remotely and comment and chat during Facebook. We're moving our improv group. There's 14:29:25 actually a number of improv groups, games that work really well on Zoom. So we're going to go live with that here this week. And 14:29:41 then some D&D groups and role-playing groups that we started have moved pretty 14:29:46 seamlessly online. Yeah, we've had pretty good engagement so far. Yeah, that's what we're doing to have fun. 14:29:49 >> SIERRA: Who wants to follow that one? 14:29:59 I am now requiring if you are going to speak you must speak using your wrestling name. 14:30:04 (Laughter). 14:30:08 Hangry Hobbit. 14:30:19 >> Yeah, I can send you kind of the schedule, given that we are on a virtual format. And I think this would be cool for all of us. Because 14:30:33 some of those boundaries are lesser now if, you know, if anybody on the call is working with students that would be engaged by this. 14:30:40 Because you know they're into that, we'd be happy to have them as a part of the group or help connect them with something, as well. 14:30:54 >> SIERRA: That's awesome. That's a lot. And I think that also goes to show that what you're doing really in person, yes, you have the 14:31:03 physical contact and with somebody else, but a lot of what we do is so engaging and we have the ability, a lot of times, for the technology 14:31:15 to do be to really just transform that onto a video and everybody kind of modifying it to do it remotely in their own homes. So keeping 14:31:29 that consistency of what they enjoyed. Even it is wrestling matches of bubbly drinks. 14:31:43 >> I wanted to jump in because my co-worker put nit the chat box. This is Erin from LINC in Boise, Idaho. We have a pretty brand new 14:31:55 group. We only meet once a month. We are meeting next week or the week after. And we're going to do, we're going to try jackbox.TV. 14:32:03 You have to go through a process to get it onto your computer. But it's pretty simple after that. You have the host share their screen 14:32:17 and basically anybody who has you do need two devices. Like a laptop and a phone. A laptop and a tablet or iPad. Or a phone and 14:32:35 an iPad. But one is to be on the call and the second device is used to do drawing. And basically it's a little bit like like . 14:32:47 >> It's a little bit like Pictionary. Everybody on their own device so they don't see it, tells you what to draw. And then everybody 14:32:55 draws something, and then it submits to the big screen on Zoom, where you can see what is the thing that this person drew and everybody 14:33:03 guesses what it is, and you get different points for tricking people into guessing the right thing. It's just super engaging. We did 14:33:11 a practice run with our staff and we really did have a lot of fun. So we're kind of excited about giving that a try next week. I've 14:33:18 done it with my kids and family members across the country and it's been really engaging for them. 14:33:30 >> SIERRA: Awesome. That's really awesome. And there were some others. Patrick had put in. I'm trying to scroll back up to what Patrick 14:33:41 had done. He did a virtual, where did it go? A virtual field trip to NASA, I think. 14:33:46 >> Hello Sierra. 14:33:48 >> SIERRA: Hi Patrick. Do you want to share? 14:33:59 >> Yeah, last week what we did was our personal museum tour of NASA. What we did is we did some research the week before of a blog that 14:34:10 has all the museums around the world and it has a list where we could do a virtual field trip. We selected NASA. Something more 14:34:18 exciting and interactive. So then what she did is she organized the whole conference through Zoom. And from there the 14:34:25 youth joined us and that's how we see each other, just like we're doing right now. We're visiting NASA, and at the same time we're talking 14:34:32 about it. So tomorrow we're going to be having our first virtual movie with our youth tomorrow. 14:34:41 >> SIERRA: Awesome. And then Mary, I'm going to call on you again, since you're on here. You're going to hate that you joined in. But 14:34:49 can you get that same link before of all the games that are online? Or is that already on our website? 14:34:52 >> It's on our website. I'll pull it downright now. 14:35:05 >> SIERRA: Okay. So with all of these other activities, thank you for sharing that Patrick. With jackbox, with that Pictionary kind 14:35:13 of game. There's a lot of online gaming options, as well, something as simple as Uno that you can play with somebody else. We have 14:35:22 linked that, too, to our website. And Mary is going to drop it into the chat, as well. For different games. If you want to add it 14:35:30 into what you're already doing and have people connect that way, as well. That's something that popped into my mind as you all were talking 14:35:38 about these different things. The virtual field trip, if you can figure out the logistics of getting everybody on the screen like Patrick 14:35:46 did, there's so many virtual field trips that people are offering. The zoo does a whole thing every day on different animals. There's 14:35:53 all sorts of different places that you can go right now. There's the state and federal parks that you can go and tour. So if you 14:35:58 could do that as a group, I think that would probably be very good. 14:36:05 And I'm thinking all the field trips that our youth always wanted to do and it always involved traveling through multiple states. We're 14:36:13 like, all right, where's the money for that? Hey, click here. It's online. I would have loved that then. 14:36:22 Oh, and Amy is asking how would you do a virtual movie day through Zoom? And then I'm going to kick that out to all of you. 14:36:38 Look, Mary is already answering it. When you host, you can click on the controls and click and share the sound through Zoom and then 14:36:47 you can share the movie screen. I shared my screen earlier to show you. It looks like that would be the best way to do that then. 14:36:56 >> Sierra, you actually have to allow yourself to share the sound on your computer. It's on that dot, dot, dot, when you're 14:37:05 the host. You click that and you say I want to share sound through my Zoom. I've been setting up tutorials with people one on one. 14:37:10 I've been happy to do that with anyone if they want. 14:37:18 >> SIERRA: Yeah. And that's something, April, I don't know if you're aware. Mary has always worked from that fine kitchen, well not that 14:37:29 fine kitchen, but this new fine kitchen, as well. I've always worked from this room. If you have questions, we're not experts on Zoom. 14:37:35 But I've done some trainings and we messed up a lot and learned a lot. We can help you through some of those processes, as well. 14:37:44 I guess does anybody else have any questions or any of those types of things. I know we threw out a lot. I do just want to make sure, 14:37:51 as we are coming up with all these virtual ways of doing everything, make sure you know who your group is, and who your participants 14:38:06 are and their accommodation needs. So if you are doing something visual, which is awesome. If you're doing yoga or the Pictionary, 14:38:15 it's a great way to engage. Make sure somebody can audio describe what's going on. Or that there is some sort of captioning, if 14:38:21 that's needed, as well. Let's make sure that we are definitely being inclusive, because I know right now so many schools and programs 14:38:29 are going well, we don't have time to accommodate. And I think that's just so important for us as centers that we are making sure that 14:38:38 all the people that want to join and participate in our programs have the ability to. Which all leads me to we're talking about everything 14:38:54 being online. What are you doing in those rural areas where you may not have people who don't have internet access? How are 14:38:59 we keeping those people engaged? Does anybody have thoughts how how you're doing that? 14:39:18 >> Hi, I'm Shae with Utah. And we are in a very low income area. Most of our students don't have internet. They don't have cell phones. 14:39:27 They don't have anything like that. Something that we just decided to do was just do weekly phone calls with them. So stay connected. 14:39:35 That way we have that opportunity to still connect with them without using the technology that they just really don't have access to. 14:39:42 >> SIERRA: Can you share when you're doing those phone calls and you're doing some things, can you share a little bit about what those 14:39:43 are. 14:39:56 >> Right now, we're mostly pre-ETS. They're talking about self-advocacy. So we just started this week. We're still trying to figure 14:40:05 out what fun things we're going to be doing. My team, we've kind of been talking about maybe doing some games. Even just talking about 14:40:14 what they're doing, keeping them engaged, kind of just checking in with them. Because right now we're kind of finding nobody is 14:40:23 even doing that with them. To kind of make that connection. So, like I said, we're still working on the funner things, but we're getting 14:40:24 there. 14:40:35 >> SIERRA: And I think that's really good to make sure if that's what you were doing before, that brings that normalcy for so many, 14:40:43 as well. And what I'm hearing a lot of is people are needing to know the strongest advocacy skills now to make sure they are still being 14:40:49 involved in what they need to be involved with. Whether it be school or an outside activity, as well. So I think that's awesome. And 14:41:00 I know that so many people across the country are facing that. And this is an awesome way that they're doing that. I'm curious 14:41:11 if our town could do that. Mary just dropped in about a rural town in Oregon that took their school buses with wi-fi and parked them 14:41:21 in rural communities for folks. That's something that you can ask your school systems for. There's a lot of internet providers 14:41:28 if you just have a phone line they're offering free internet service. You just have to call and sign up. Sometimes that requires an 14:41:38 all-day event. But that's also something to encourage them to look into. So you mentioned like your pre-ETS program. How are you 14:41:50 guys keeping? Or are you, I guess, I know Shae you said you were. But is anybody else continuing their programs that they were doing 14:41:58 as far as I cannot get my words out at all as far as the skill-building or the advocacy or any of those types of things, the services 14:42:09 that were provided outside of the engaging fun stuff, which we know can sometimes dual purpose some of those services. Are 14:42:12 you able to do that? I know you said you were doing it by phone, but. 14:42:26 >> Our department of ed kind of stepped in and helped us out with some of that. And they're really connecting us with teachers so that 14:42:38 we can share some of we're converting a lot of our lessons that we do in the classroom into Google classroom format. So pre-recording 14:42:45 videos of that direct instruction piece and then trying to translate all of those activities into something that they can do virtually 14:42:51 through that classroom. So that's been helpful to connect through the teachers that way and continue with some of those students that 14:43:03 we've been seeing all school year. It's a little different. And there's some learning curves with that. And sharing some of that 14:43:15 role with a teacher more than just coming into a classroom and then leaving. More communication on that room. That's been super helpful 14:43:22 for us. Google Classroom is a learning experience, and one that I have not enjoyed very much. But I think it's good because it provides 14:43:32 a lot of outreach and it's a tool that can stay and that hopefully we can use once we find whatever normalcy that will hopefully come 14:43:33 back soon. 14:43:42 >> SIERRA: And then Shannon, I'm unmuting you now if you want to join into the conversation. 14:43:52 >> Hey all. So similarly, I've been trying to communicate a lot more with the teachers and this semester I've been working with students 14:44:02 in a more rural community. And it seems like what I've heard a lot with the kids, especially at the alternative high school, they don't 14:44:12 have access to those phones and those laptops, computer things. So doing the Zoom meeting with one of my classes is going to work, because 14:44:23 all of those girls in that class have access, but for this other class, the teachers are like I've only been able to get a hold of two 14:44:30 of my students out of seven. Things like that that are actually participating in the online stuff. That's been a problem on our end. 14:44:38 And I know my co-worker who was working here in town, their teachers were just struggling so much with just the remote learning aspect 14:44:51 for his class with their own material that they're just like let's just hold off because their kids are so overwhelmed 14:45:03 already. It's been hard to get the fast track pre-ETS going, too. But I'm going to speak with one class about soft skills like flexibility 14:45:07 and adaptability. And just talk about jobs that require that. Things like that. 14:45:15 >> SIERRA: Awesome. I'm glad that you brought in that alternative school piece, because I think those are schools that definitely we've 14:45:23 been involved with that may not have those resources or support at home either. So thank you for bringing that up. Anybody else? 14:45:31 >> I actually had a question for Shae. I was wondering, I know you're touching base with people by phone. Have you thought about, or 14:45:42 are you sending packets at all in the mail? That's one thing that we've been trying to talk about. Some consumers tell me that 14:45:49 they're real scared about opening their mail even. I just was wondering if you've tried that. If it seemed to work at all. 14:45:56 >> SIERRA: There you go. 14:46:07 >> It's something that we thought about doing the packet stuff is something that the school is doing. Because we're such a low-income 14:46:20 area, the school is sending packets. One of our requirements is it has to be an interactive service. Brainstorming a way 14:46:30 to do an interactive process with the students. That's why we thought doing a phone call would be more interactive than just sending 14:46:37 the packet. We have talked, I am doing a weekly meeting with my team. Maybe we'll save all the information and send it out like once 14:46:43 a month, kind of a review of everything they went over so they do still have that information. But that's kind of where we are with 14:46:43 that. 14:46:58 >> That's great. That's what I was wondering. As a supplement to the phone call. I'm hearing from people. If we're just doing a phone 14:47:02 call, then we've missed the people who are visual learners and how do we do that. (Chuckling) I don't know. 14:47:21 >> Yeah, just once a month. That way it's not too overwhelming. They've been getting a weekly packet from school and honestly that's 14:47:23 not very fun or interactive. 14:47:31 >> Has anybody else had any luck with the phone calls or mailing packets or anything like that? Anything beyond the computer technology 14:47:31 piece? 14:47:48 Marcie, did you want to join? Okay. Maybe? 14:47:50 >> I can. 14:48:05 >> I was just going to say I called a couple youth. It was like pulling teeth for their parents to even get them on the phone. 14:48:12 It was like if they're not doing school, they're just so connected with their friends. A couple of them said they're Zoom chatting with 14:48:20 a group of friends every day. They get online on Xbox and chat. They have a feature in there where they can like interact with their 14:48:28 avatars and chat. And it's just kind of like they didn't even really want to talk to me. So that was kind of a challenge. 14:48:42 I got uh-huh, uh-huh, yeah, no, yeah. So, I checked in. I did what I could do. I said I'm here if you need something. But, you know. 14:48:43 Teenagers. 14:49:01 >> SIERRA: We've had to advocate with her with the school beyond just the students for accommodations. 14:49:12 And that honestly brings me to where I'm getting a flood of e-mails. Your students that you may be working one on one with, maybe you 14:49:23 work with them in groups at the school, but how are they, how are your students getting with the IEP accommodations? Or the 504 accommodations? 14:49:31 I'm seeing a lot, a lot of people going oh, well, there's nothing we can do, good luck. Here's what you got. Have any of y'all run into 14:49:36 that? I see that you're advocating for that Paige. 14:49:55 >> Yeah, I feel like we're getting a flood of e-mails from parents. I had one this morning where she said the description of non-reader 14:50:07 is totally different with me now, now that I'm going through this work with my student. And I realize the lack of assistive technology. 14:50:14 Now this parent is ready to advocate for A.T. for their child, but it's a lot harder to get right now. We can only refer to so many things. 14:50:22 We're having to do a lot of can we sit down with you, Department of Ed, and talk through what this looks like on a larger scale? Because 14:50:29 it's happening all over the state and not just within, you know, one particular district where we can really make a connection and work 14:50:31 with. We're seeing it all over the place. 14:50:49 And I don't really know, I know with things constantly changing and those waivers and hands in the air. I know there's conversation 14:50:57 of not even looking at extended school year unless there's extreme regression. I feel like there's a lot of unknown in that. And it's 14:51:03 definitely something that we need to be advocating for and working together to make sure students are getting what they need, but I 14:51:11 feel like just the way things are constantly changing day-to-day, it's really hard to kind of keep up with what is happening and where 14:51:15 things are getting lax when they shouldn't and vice versa. Of 14:51:36 >> SIERRA: There's another comment in there is IEPs will have to be done remotely and adjusted. Everybody I know working with an 14:51:44 IEP says oh that just needs to be postponed. Doesn't count right now. That's what we're seeing a lot of unfortunately. But I like 14:51:52 working with the Department of Education and going ahead and letting them know. I think also let's them know that there's not just 14:51:59 a parent there, but there is an organization that is an advocacy organization at the center for independent living that is watching, 14:52:08 too, and is there ready to say no, that's not right, I think sometimes help. That they can't just sweep some of those things under. 14:52:25 Oh, and you said. And Brooke said I've heard of CILs doing a Facebook Live activity for those who have access. I think going 14:52:34 back to how you're connecting with students. So that Facebook Live piece. They're already on there a lot of times or Instagram Live. 14:52:41 They're already on there, as well. That's something that we're coming up against a lot of. 14:52:52 >> If I could just mention something a little bit. This might be a little bit off topic. But, the one thing I would like to stress, if 14:53:05 you guys know any youth. So like I'm 24, and I live by myself. I go to school, go to work, all these type of things. And I'm actually 14:53:14 working with the youth down here right now who's in a similar position as I am. She's getting ready to graduate high school and go into 14:53:25 college. And I had the school district actually reach out to me and ask for my help because I had no help when I was getting ready to 14:53:37 transition from high school to college. And so the one thing I would say is if you know of any youth that are being successful in your 14:53:43 programs, or previous youth that have been successful within your programs, utilize them to connect with your other youth. 14:53:50 Because they're going to connect with people that are their same age a lot more than they're going to connect with 14:53:58 you. I hate to say it that way. But that's the one thing that I've noticed with the youth that I'm working with because she doesn't 14:54:07 really she hadn't really been engaging with her school director as much as she's been connecting with me. And I think that's 14:54:14 just because she and I are in such similar situations and I can relate to her and help her through the process. I may not always have 14:54:25 the answers, but then that's why I turned back to my bosses and my coworkers and I say this is what the situation is, how do I explain 14:54:41 this to her to where it makes sense. So that's my two cents. If you even if they're in a different state, reach out to those youth. 14:54:48 I know for myself, if you would like any help from me in that sense, I'm more than happy to help in any way that I can. 14:55:00 >> SIERRA: Thank you, Masha. That's a really good point. Somebody else from a comment? 14:55:09 >> It's Mels. I just wanted to add, because this is something we've been talking a lot about at our center. This is the time for peer 14:55:17 support if there ever was one. There's always time for peer support, but specifically right now. I just got off of a census project. 14:55:25 I was like oh my gosh our numbers are bad. Because all of our canvassing got canceled. Wait a second. Every single other person 14:55:33 is in this boat. So like in personal life, it's like okay, I'm going to make sure I'm reaching out to one person that I know a day to 14:55:42 make sure they're okay. But for professional life, it's like if you usually reach out to a consumer a certain amount of times, potentially 14:55:50 double that. Or just that check in. Even if you can't fix the problem, the ability to listen. I know at least 14:55:54 from the feedback that I get from the consumers we have up here, it's helpful. 14:56:06 >> SIERRA: I love that. That's something that we can offer as being peer support. So using all of the services that we do regularly 14:56:15 I think is very important. And understanding that sometimes there's finding who that peer is, even if it isn't 14:56:20 you, I think is really great. And connecting with maybe it's somebody out of state, as well. 14:56:34 Yeah. That's what I've been suggesting to people, Mary. So Mary had just put in I've been wondering whether or not state IP programs 14:56:43 would be willing to send out laptops and iPads. They've been helping isolated youth at these times. Going back to our isolation 14:56:49 conversation from before. I've been suggesting that people reach out to their assistive technology program to see what they can offer 14:56:55 and how they can support. But that brings me back also to something I wanted to just mention during this call, as well, is just that 14:57:03 mental health piece. Sometimes it's not just a game that you need to play, or not just an advocacy skill that you need to learn, 14:57:09 but that you're in a house and you don't like it. And just connecting with somebody and being able to share that because you're stuck 14:57:18 there. And so having that place where they can come and share those thoughts or having that person that they can contact and whatever 14:57:20 method or means works for them. 14:57:30 And consumers are saying it's nice to hear a friendly voice. So definitely something to think about. 14:57:42 As you're having those conversations and all of that. Sometimes you don't need to teach those skills. Maybe sometimes it's checking in 14:57:48 with individuals and saying hey, what do you not like about this situation? Maybe I'll tell you the things that I don't like and maybe 14:58:00 that will help you. Do you like being stuck at home? I personally found out I'm much more introvert and comfortable with that process 14:58:07 than I thought I was. Turns out I like people on a computer screen. I think it's good to check in with everybody. I do want 14:58:18 to note, too, make sure you're taking care of yourselves. A lot of times when we're trying so hard to reach out to consumers, 14:58:28 make sure we are, as well. Feel free to reach out to us. This is why I love these calls. We are all pretty much doing very similar 14:58:35 work with similar populations. And if you're struggling, I can, if you send me an e-mail, I can send that out to the group and kind 14:58:42 of get group feedback on that, as well. So feel free to do that during this time from this call to the next time we have a call. And 14:58:49 if there is a particular thing that you all want to talk about or learn about, please let me know that, as well. Like I know somebody 14:58:59 had mentioned Beers, they would like to know more about how you're doing some of the things that you're doing. And maybe a lesson on 14:59:06 some of those things. If that's something that everybody is interested in, not just everything Beers is doing, but somebody particularly, 14:59:14 then let me know. And we can try to pull together some of the information. A couple of things I wanted to bring to your attention. 14:59:23 If there's somebody that would like to work on some of these things of how are we able to deliver services and how are we able to reach 14:59:29 young people. If you could contact me and let me know that's something you're interested in, we're trying to pull together a task force 14:59:37 of people serving young people to pull together some of these main ideas to really get some resources out and make sure that we're providing 14:59:47 it to those that maybe they don't really know how to do this. Or that need some support doing it. The other thing is we are in the 14:59:54 works right now of scheduling another meeting separately from these. But you all are invited. If you are running summer programs, 15:00:05 if you usually run a summer program, we are going to be doing discussion on now what are you going to do. Our youth leadership forum 15:00:12 here has now been canceled, because the university has canceled their camps and everything outside of any university work. So that has 15:00:20 been canceled for us here in this state. But I know there's lots of states that have summer programs through the centers or camps that 15:00:29 you run. And we want to be able to talk about that and kind of share some of those ideas. We're going to try 15:00:38 to pull that together in the next week or two. In you're interested in that, please let me know. I'll send it out through the Listserv, 15:00:46 but if you want to know directly, just connect with me. The other thing I want to make sure everybody gets, VR has sent out 15:00:52 an e-mail about VR collaboration ideas. They have some videos to watch. And one of the things we find is we have lots of videos that 15:01:02 we can watch right now. Since we may not have so many people to meet with. I encourage you, if you have not gotten that e-mail, 15:01:10 let me know. I dropped that e-mail into the chat box. If you could let me know, I'll send that directly to you. But there's a lot 15:01:17 of good information. Everybody is talking about this pre-ets funding. I know that's been a conversation for those of you who don't 15:01:27 have pre-ETS funding, that answers a lot of those questions. I would love to send that out to anybody who would love to see their 15:01:37 free time filled with lots of things. I think those are all my to-do's for today. Our next call is in two weeks. We usually do once 15:01:46 a month, but we're going to do two in April. The next one is April 21st. Right now it's on curriculum and material sharing. What 15:01:52 I kind of imagine is we're going to be talking about what curriculums could we offer in this setting. But I think it's also a good time 15:02:01 to review some of these curriculums and see what works for your program when we find our whatever normal was before. And that way you're 15:02:07 primed and ready for what you want to do if you're going to schools or having groups. So we're going to be chatting about some of those 15:02:22 options. And some of those are online options, as well. So please join us April 21st at 2 o'clock. And I did get everybody's messaging 15:02:32 in there of everybody who wants all the stuff. I'll capture that chat and send it out. If you have any questions, let me know. I am 15:02:41 dropping an evaluation into the chat box right now. So, if you need that, or if you could fill that out for us, if you could follow 15:02:48 that link, that can help us to make sure we're getting better here. But thank you all for joining us. Stay safe! And we will chat in 15:02:50 just a few weeks, April 21st.