Shelley Alward-MacLeod 0:00
Hello, and welcome to Season Two of Within Our Reach, a podcast all about accessibility, inclusion, and leveling the playing field at work and in our community. I'm Shelley Alward MacLeod, and I'm joined by my co-host, Blake Hunsley. And today, we're joined by Reachability CEO, Tova Sherman, to mark National Accessibility Week, or NAW, and to learn all about everything new coming to Reachability in the coming months. Tova, welcome back to the show. We're so happy to have you here.

Tova Sherman 0:25
Well, thank you. It's nice to be home, and certainly I am home here at this particular podcast in this particular office at reachAbility's main office. So great to be here, and very excited to be coming up to another National AccessAbility Week, or NAAW. And you know it's funny, it doesn't come off the tongue like a really lovely name, terrible.

Blake Hunsley 0:44
acronym, you know

Tova Sherman 0:46
Well, I'm not discussing the acronyms today because we're going to need more than 45 minutes - but what I will say is that I'm really excited about what it represents, because I think we misunderstand it, and I want to start there, if you don't mind, because I know you haven't had a chance to ask me anything, actually

Blake Hunsley 1:00
Perfect timing, because I want to mention this episode will air on the morning of our NAAW finale open house. So, if you're hearing this the day that it goes live, which is Friday, June the fifth, then come by our offices from one to three, that's right, one

Tova Sherman 1:14
to 3pm right here on Joseph Howe Avenue, 3845

Blake Hunsley 1:16
Joseph Howe Drive, suite 201

Tova Sherman 1:19
You can not only visit all of us, but of course, Neo, the therapy dog, will be here, and Shelly, the co-host of the podcast, will be here asking folks really interesting questions, which I think is one of the fun things happening, and of course, we're going to have very unique prizes and the usual stuff, but back to what its about, because that's what I'm really interested in, it's about celebrating, and I think that gets lost in the process. It was initially created as a week to truly celebrate accomplishments by folks with all kinds of disabilities, and if you've been listening to our TikTok this past week, you will know that I've talked about every sort of key type of five types of disabilities, and a little bit about them, and accommodating folks, and wanting us to remember this isn't a one type of disability , it's about uniting folks with disabilities, their families, their friends, their coworkers, and really celebrating disability. No, woe is me. No, oh, I feel so sorry for you. It must be awful. Forget it. Nobody wants to hear it. What we want to talk about during National AccessAbility Week is accomplishments and movement in the right direction towards creating authentic workplaces where being yourself is actually celebrated, not avoided. And that's why, to me, NAAW is this exciting time, and if you can't see my smile, I hope you're hearing it, because I can't wipe it off when I talk about celebrating the accomplishments of all the stakeholders in the world of persons with disabilities.

Blake Hunsley 2:55
which does beg the question, because I know it's going to be a long answer, and you have lots to talk about. What are we celebrating at ReachAbility, what's new and exciting here that we're so proud to be telling everyone about?

Tova Sherman 3:04
Right. Well, I really appreciate that segue, and I can see why you've got a co-host here, Shelly. He's just smooth, so sorry. Okay, I like him very much. This

Blake Hunsley 3:12
is why we only have you on once a season now, as opposed to more often

Tova Sherman 3:15
Now you have outtakes to use, and I'm your girl, anyway. More importantly, it is exciting this year. Maybe that's why I'm smiling so much, because we are sort of introducing so many new things, you know. At ReachAbility, if anyone's ever heard me speak, or any of us, or read the book, Win Win Win: 18 Inclusionisms, you need to really integrate and welcome persons with disabilities. That book that I sort of take wherever I go, but the reason I mention it is because there's a common theme in all of it, and it is not talking about best practice, which is important. I have a belief that best practice means we've settled, we've gotten comfortable. I believe in the term next practice, and there's no point, I think, in the year, while you couldn't walk into reachAbility and go, what's new, and actually not have heard the answer, and I think that's why we're so celebratory. We think that with very tight budgets, and yes, we also felt the squeeze in the past funding year. I will not deny it, but with limited budgets, limited manpower, and commitment capacity, and the ability not to necessarily pay people what they're worth. We've still managed to create some really important next practice activities to either integrate into existing programs or create new programs. The best example of that right now is BERY. You know, and BERY is a program that, first and foremost is in partnership with Boys and Girls Club, an agency that's very dear to our heart, and any one of us neurodiverse kids growing up can tell you Boys and Girls Clubs and those of that ilk were extremely important in normalizing some of that neurodiversity, at least in, you know, in an accepting way, so. So, for us, being able to take a program which is really about building emotional regulation in youth,

Blake Hunsley 5:06
I was going to say we should tell folks what BERYstands for,

Tova Sherman 5:09
BERY youth with a Y. Anyway, building emotional regulation in youth, because we're starting too late now. Reachability is a building on existing programs, which is boss, and if you haven't heard about that, it's really is an emotional management and emotional IQ programming for adults, but now what we're taking it is we understand kids need that information sooner. Absolutely, and in a more, for lack of a better word, in a more palatable fashion. Yes, and for that reason alone, and I know Shelly, Shelly here is on the board of Boys and Girls Club, and she's certainly the person, probably, that brought me into that fold and reminded me of what great partnerships can look like. So, with that, I have to give you the kudos, Shelly, and your organization that you work with, but that's a great example of taking existing knowledge, what we do, what we do best at reachAbility, and then finding ways to affect more people, so here you've got BERY, which is building emotional regulation in youth, but then we also have a program for newcomers, because the truth be told, our clientele has drastically changed from being maybe different people with different barriers, certainly marginalized communities, but the newcomer element, the intersectionality that is coming in the door is so much different right now. We're looking at something in the range of 35% of our new clients are persons who are also newcomers, meaning they are people who are intersectional, dealing with being a newcomer, dealing with potentially having disability, dealing with, you know, financial challenges, it's all in front of them. So I'm really excited about the fact that we've also just initiated, in partnership with NS Power, and with support from their DEI, their diversity committee funding

Blake Hunsley 7:03
quietly from giving me my partners at some

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 7:08
people that are idea now some people are my friends at WCB are

Tova Sherman 7:13
using an idea concept they've built with those acronyms, so let's drop acronyms and move to the fact that we're doing some really exciting programming that supports newcomers in having realistic options, because they need to have a realistic approach, because you were this in another country, sadly, does not mean you're going to come here and start there, and it's been very challenging, and I can imagine emotionally how you know discouraging, I hear it all the time. So, my goal here is with that particular program, and we're working with Franco, who really has been building our boss program for a long time. Well,

Blake Hunsley 7:50
that's what I wanted to mention too, is that yes, this came out like everything we change up here at Reach Ability. This came out of client need, yes, but the reason we were so quick to recognize, especially among newcomers, is that the instructor of to throw one more acronym, boss, that's building on self-awareness and self-confidence, which, yes, I still have to look up after six years at Reach Ability, but the instructor is also a newcomer to Canada, and actually I believe currently a third of our staff are newcomers, so this program came about, yeah, largely because of client needs, and the fact that we're at almost 40% of our new people coming the door are new to Canada, but yeah, the staff are recognizing this as well. This is something a lot of our staff have been through at this point and needed to make some adjustments themselves,

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 8:30
and I think that that leads, not, you know, in Franco, who's the instructor of that particular program, who's a newcomer speaking in first person voice, facilitating that program? All the programs at Reach Ability, I think it's important to note, are facilitated by people from a first person voice, and I think that is actually what makes the clients fit in, because you know you have a person you know that's leaving the class, that's talking from real world, real life,

Tova Sherman 9:04
100% And if they don't even feel like they fit in, at least they know they're welcomed, absolutely. And I like to say that, because I don't know that I ever really felt I fit in, and I'm supposed to be in church, but I think I'm my own muse. But very importantly to me is that people feel welcome, whether that's the smell of some fresh food or whether that's just somebody saying, well, we have a joke here at Reachability that someone will come in and sit by the door and wait, and he'll be asked if we can do, he or she will be asked if they, we can do anything for

Blake Hunsley 9:34
so many. How many times? Oh dear God, these poor people come in for help, and then they're literally pestered with help and options. We actually thought about signs where they went, "don't bother, I've been asked, I'm fine. I don't want coffee, I don't want food, I don't want welcoming, I just want to be left till so and so is ready.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 9:49
Exactly, you talked about the smell of food, so that leads us in, I think, to a very important piece of something that's been new that we should be celebrating at Reachability is your work around food security. Food

Tova Sherman 10:02
security, I mean, by the grace of God, go I. I'm not gonna lie, and maybe that's one of the reasons. Again, as my own muse, I'm very conscientious of what we're doing in the community, where no one is treading, and now everyone's got small food programs, don't misunderstand. But when we had folks coming in for full day programming, whether for a week, two weeks, even four weeks, we always realized we were losing so many people, especially in the last couple of years, and post-COVID, we were losing a lot of people to food insecurity, whether that's when the food bank was open. I'll never forget, Blake, and you were there, and a young man came up to me and said, I haven't had meat in three years because I basically get my food from the food bank and there wasn't at that time proteins like of that nature, so I was obsessed with the fact that we had to have meals here, but we had to have meals that had a protein like meat, of course, we always have vegetarian and halal and gluten free, whatever people need, the idea is you're going to eat right and you're not going to leave here unless I try to make you eat, but most importantly, we wanted to ensure that that sense of welcoming through the smell of food, and people don't have to leave because of it, and anything left, take it with you, and it was such a big piece of people saying they felt the welcoming through the food, and you know, we've all grown up, I know I'm the youngest of five kids, and I grew up around food, being where people felt connected, and I'm certainly not the first or the last person who's going to talk about the connection of community and food, but I want to acknowledge that I don't know that we appreciated the power of a simple meal and a simple please come in and sit down, have a right, have a little oatmeal, it's a cold day, or have some soups and things like that, so first the food was great, but in a next practice approach, What do we do now? Well, I'll be honest with you, that's something I would do want to share, and that's the work we've been doing since really September of last year, and now we're as a pilot, and that was working within the shelter system, ACSS, the Atlantic Community Shelter Society. Thank you so much. Another one, but has been incredibly great about allowing our facilitators to come in with, again, what are we good at, our strengths, and that is a course specifically designed for residents of these five in the case so far in the pilot that we have gone in and serviced, and what we have done is short three hour a day programming for two weeks in house, Monday to Thursday, and it's on. I'm worthy, I have a lot of value, I have a lot of skills. What else am I going to do in my life? It doesn't need to be an ending, it's a beginning to so many ways, and allowing them to connect to any programming right here at Reachability as sort of a next step, so we've been doing that work in five different shelters since September, and we, of course, are so blessed to be able to bring food along. Yes, and that's where I was tying in the shelter work again, I was bringing it back around to the food, and that is, we bring meals, hot meals again, proteins for the folks there. Sometimes meals aren't the issue, it's more snacks, and we'll go in with that. It's what is individually required, and we have had some incredible success in helping folks remind themselves. I'm not looking for how many went to work, remind themselves of their value, their individual value in a community, in a society, and in a certainly North America, where having that homeless tag somehow makes you less again the intersectionality of that, it could go on for weeks.

Tova Sherman 13:37
So now we're hoping that we can formalize some of that work, now that we've really piloted it, figured out what works doesn't, and if anyone is listening to this podcast, I'm looking for the donation of a remote classroom or something that we could use as one, because the one thing, God bless, the shelters do not have excess space, they're just not like, here's your private built classroom, Tova, enjoy, but I'm so honored to be involved in bringing programming, not not the essentials as people would define it, but I consider it essential. It's dignity building, it's self-awareness, it's also managing emotions when you haven't had to, per se. We all know there's a lot of neurodiversity. We all know there's a lot of different types of challenges that folks face in those environments, but I also know that the majority of the people need some hope, and the majority of people need someone to remind them of their value, and that wasn't happening enough for my taste, and that's why we went in there.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 14:41
Yeah, I think you know, Tova, I think that you know several little points on the things that you've brought up when you talked about, like, you know, food security and sharing a meal or providing food as bringing people together. Yes, absolutely, and I. Think there's even studies that show that food security, being able to eat, helps cognition in school. That's why you know, like, and reverting back to the Boys and Girls Club, who, for years, one of their big claims to fame was providing breakfasts, and then in Nova Scotia, the province has taken on some of that, plus the healthy lunch program, because they've recognized that when children have something in their stomach, they can eat the cognition, they're able to pay attention, and that's no different from adults, so we're starting, like, with food security, but then you, you talked about dignity, and I feel all of these things like come together, like when somebody comes here and has a sense of welcoming, they feel like they belong, they're getting some food, and we're delivering programs that sure potentially give them some skills right to go out into the workplace, but really it's starting with the whole dignity. Who am I? I have value. I actually do have something to offer, and let's explore that.

Tova Sherman 16:14
Well, I can't negate the fact, though, because you mentioned it, that we have employment programming as well. But for me, and on the new front, let's use that as a segue. On the new front, one of the most exciting things happening in employment right now is the.. and thank you to our funders, the Province of Nova Scotia, on this piece, because it's.. it's hard to explain and sell sometimes, but it's essential, and that is allowing those that have graduated from our employment program, while we're working with them, while we're job developing for them, while we're getting things in place to also participate in a number of important activities and supports, for instance, right out the gate we have a program now called the Front Desk program, and it's for clients who need to get a little work experience under the belt, build a resume, but also build those real skills and confidence, that's what it's really, is Shelly. People think they can't do things that they all can, and I only want to give them a chance to do it. And instead of them hearing, "Oh my god, I'm so afraid this is my job, and are they going to be mad at me? They're surrounded by folks who totally get it, who want to ensure success, have no ulterior motive, except for their success, and are providing them immediate attention, answers, and support to let them know it doesn't have to be a scary place to work. And we're doing an honorarium stipend, it's not a hired, it's more like an experience work experience, but we're able to rotate that position. We've had folks who aren't going to do front desk type work, but are going to come in on that program and maybe work on a film inside the office or work on some other pieces. We've also added to the employment program going to the library and getting a library card. We've added some activities that involve going out more and getting into the community and volunteerism with Marcus, who has a whole volunteerism program, and I should remind everyone again, all of these new things, all of these things that have been proven successful, there's no charge to the client, we will always find a way to cover it between our partnerships, obviously very strong partnerships with the Province of Nova Scotia, but also through foundations and grants, like mentioned Nova Scotia Power being one. We've recently received a lovely, small but important grant to support food services in the shelters from Halifax International Airport Authority funding. So we're always trying to find the stop gap, because continuity is everything for humans, and if we keep cutting from them, or we're here today and gone tomorrow, and you know it's almost like you need a new community book every year of who's doing what in the community, especially in the NGO field, because it changes so fast, and we want people to feel the continuity of coming to a place and knowing we're going to figure it out together. I had a lovely woman come in out of the blue yesterday, it was so interesting, and she needed some information about immigration for her sister. They were waiting for some information. I mean, it's got nothing to do with what we do, but I had 20 minutes till the next meeting, might as well. And she came in my office, and we called, and we got the information she required, got her her next steps. I printed them all out for her, I circled the key things, and she thanked me, and she left, and I'm sure I will never see her again. I hope, because I hope things go very well for her and her family. But people just randomly can come in. Same thing with lunch, right?

Tova Sherman 19:30
Like, there's there's a few folks in the community, God bless them, who will come in and have a little lunch, and I always try to kind of go interested in anything at all, because you know you don't have to come and get a job tomorrow, but you know we're here, and we love the services, but don't worry, because not only is there food, there's also emergency supplies, from underwear and socks down to soap, shampoo, we have all of that, and we have a small free library, primarily with children's books, recipe books, and things like that, that have been donated and. Key about that is to have a space where if you need something, come in this one room and figure out what it is you need, and no one cares. Everyone wants you to be better, and you don't have to sneak it out or hide it, because the truth is, we're honored that you come here and that you need it, and we'll do everything we can. But the fact is, we can't do everything, and nor do we try. I

Blake Hunsley 20:21
will say one of the slogans we use around your use a lot is 'nobody goes nowhere' which makes it sound like you can get anything from us, which is definitely not the case. But I told a client yesterday, he was coming in, and he was very grateful about something we had done for him, and then he looked a little hesitant. I said, 'Yeah, okay, but what do you still need? And he said, 'I just need a bus ticket to get home, man. But I hate to ask, I said, 'It's the smallest thing, first of all, and second of all, if you're here at Reachability, ask, ask for whatever you need. The worst thing we're going to do is tell you no, but a lot of the time, if it's not something we do directly in house, we know somebody. We have a lot of fantastic community partners. If we can't get you what you need today, there's a very good chance someone we work with is going to be able to meet with you tomorrow and get you kind of set out on that path.

Tova Sherman 21:00
It's all about where you can go. Thank you for clarifying that. It's not so much about where you'd like to be, but where you are, honestly, and that's part of the work you do here. And it's sometimes it can be tough. Franco will tell folks this is not going to be an easy one, but what he'll, they'll come out having a better understanding of why it is they've been struggling so much, and there's some steps involved, like with this new program, emotional regulation in newcomers, and that particular program again being very powerful in letting people know reality. Here it is now. Here's what you've got to understand about how you're going to go forward. How can we support you in understanding culturally, emotionally, intellectually, that this is where you are, and once we can get to that point, we then support people in going wherever they need to go in order to again have that sense of knowing, going nowhere, and I've always felt very strongly about that.

Blake Hunsley 21:47
The ERIN program, as well, the emotional regulation of newcomers, so far at least it is still kind of in a pilot stage has been very malleable by necessity, so we've had some group sessions that have gone incredibly well and been really good for helping people open up, make some connections, realize they're not the only person in the room having the exact same frustrations with bureaucracy in this country, but we've also had some people come in who are in kind of sensitive refugee situations, some people who, if their commentary about the state of things in their home country was known, then that could cause some trouble for people back home. So, they've met individually, one on one with our instructor, and had some really intense, emotional, kind of cathartic moments that they wouldn't have been able to have. They would never have felt comfortable having that in a group session. So that's

Tova Sherman 22:41
what news about. It's about pivoting, reachability. I mean, I go back to COVID, because frankly, folks, if you aren't thinking we're all affected by COVID, you're not thinking. I'm sorry. I really believe everyone is slightly more traumatized than they realize from the experience of COVID, especially young people, because of key times that were literally lost. That's

Blake Hunsley 22:59
essentially why we did the for youth emotional regulation program. Yeah, COVID made that very clear. We're all still having some rage issues, as we talk about a lot around the office, but the youth who were stuck at home had their school absolutely messed with, of course, that's having knock-on effects still. So, with that in

Tova Sherman 23:16
mind, we've got to be that pivoting agency, and we've always been, which I love, small enough to pivot, but clearly punching above our weight in terms of what we can accomplish. We're

Blake Hunsley 23:25
nimble, we like to say.

Tova Sherman 23:26
Oh, is that what we say? I never knew that we're

Speaker 1 23:28
quick. Oh, yes,

Tova Sherman 23:29
I am not generally a nimble type, but I am quick, so I'll go with that. But most importantly is the fact that we respond. We responded with ERIN because we saw it, and then we look, and we say, what else is everyone doing? We had a lovely get-together, as you know, with ISANS (immigration society) right here to talk about ERIN, and how it would best function and work in the community, because we believe it's important that if folks are doing things that might seem to be stepping on each other, we want to make sure we're really symbiotic, that we're really flowing with each other and growing, not stepping on each other on the way we do things, and that's always been my thing. I always said it was like a lava flow. If it was full, I kind of kept flowing, but if there was a gap, I wanted to look at the gap and see what, if anything, we could do, or who we could partner with to make it happen, and that was very important to me.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 24:19
Exactly, and another thing, when you, we talked about ERIN, we talked about taking the library folks out to the library, out like to the malls, you know, to think about job opportunities. We haven't talked about certificates. This is all, yeah, we have some. Oh, you're

Tova Sherman 24:38
so good, Shelley. We did

Blake Hunsley 24:40
just see the lovely instructor walk by. Oh, that's a good memory click, but the truth is

Tova Sherman 24:44
it's another great thing that's happening again. It may not seem big, but when someone comes here now, we're able to offer some specific certifications that we would normally either send them out to or say, "I'm sorry, I can't help, and most importantly, is how clients are able to access first aid certification right in house with our own Herve who's been recently certified to work with the clients, and although it is not something that we're offering outside of house, because it's an in-house thing for our clients, it is something that we think is so important as we build resumes or refresh them. You know, when I see something that has a long time of nothing, I get nervous, but we have a whole afternoon. First of all, dedicated to other certs. What do you need if you're going into serving? Maybe you want Server Pro. If maybe it's just WHMIS, which you can do online. We have an area where we're going to have just for clients to get those certs and to work with Herve and get first aid certified as well. It's a much more arduous, but I am so impressed by the clients and the number of hours they put into it to do it and succeed in it and be able to add it as they're working in the front desk roles and transitioning through some exciting stuff.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 25:50
I think everybody

Tova Sherman 25:52
Herve will be there Friday at open house and I think we'll have them do some demonstrations. What do you think, Shelley?

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 25:57
That's a great idea. Okay, we can drag out the

Blake Hunsley 25:59
slightly terrifying baby. The baby scare me a little.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 26:04
I really love the certification, like, you know, coming from the, you know, HR and employment law background. I love the fact that we're adding this to people's skill set, so you know, people that are coming in here are, you know, often think they have no value, they think they have nothing to offer, they don't know what their transferable skills are, they don't even understand what that term is, in some cases.

Blake Hunsley 26:34
What are you good at? Nothing, all the time,

Tova Sherman 26:37
heartbreaking,

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 26:37
you know, getting a certificate, and I, you know, I was reminded when I was in yesterday, and Herve was getting certificates for the first group of first aid people to print off, and we were, they were going to get framed, so we could give these certificates, and while we think of that as something, you know, some of us think, oh yeah, certificate for people that are taking these programs, that's an immediate recognition and sense of accomplishment. So, for a lot of people, they can be leaving here with, you know, two or three certifications that most affect it, not only goes on their resume, but it gives them that sense of accomplishment. It's building self-esteem, and I really love that, Tova. I think that you know that thing that you've added, that's this whole, you know, taking best practice into next practice, always looking at where are we at, and in some cases that's eliminating certain things because they're no longer necessary, or we need to, as you said, pivot - that's a popular word everywhere, but pivot to what's needed for our clients, and who can we partner with? Because for those people who've been listening to our other podcasts, you've heard me say many times that one organization should not be the be all to end all. We have many, many just in HRM alone, never mind the province of Nova Scotia. We have so many great not-for-profit organizations, 100% and they all do a great job in their specific area, but as you termed, like the partnerships, this, you know, how can we make things more symbiotic? And I think that's appropriate. There's so many things that we can be doing, like you've pointed out, where we can be working with other organizations to have this seamless flow, Boys and Girls Club, ISANS, right? So this is great. It's one

Blake Hunsley 28:43
of the things you've mentioned always, whenever we, because we're really good at coming, coming up with great ideas for projects. I wonder why. Very excited, because most of us have ADHD, and yes, we see a shiny problem, and we have to solve it. Yeah, and you're very quick every time to say, right out of the gate, why reach is always the same question. Why reach ability? Is this for us, or is it a problem that someone else is either is already working, been working on, or should be working on, and we can help out on. We don't need to be the owners of something to feel excited about making a change. We

Tova Sherman 29:14
ask those that question and another because it's really a two question thing, and it's really I use it for grants, for foundations, for any activity that we're discussing, because we are a good percentage of us are on that ADHD spectrum, and we get excited fast with ideas, and me being probably the worst of all, so it's hard when it's coming so fast from the top. But what I will say is that, where was I? See, there it is. Why reach? Why reach? There's two questions. Why reach? And who else is doing it? Yeah, it ties into everything you've heard me say up to this point. You, as an agency, if you're listening, as, as a person interested in getting into the field, a new job, ask yourself two questions: why me, and in our case, why reach, and who am I up against, or in our case, who else is doing it, because. Those two questions are going to save you so much trouble trying to create a circle that fits in a square, and we have to acknowledge what we're good at, what our strengths are, where we don't have big numbers or things we can't do or can't take on, but we just have to know who else can create the relationship, and all of a sudden, the journey for the client, which is what it's all about, is a much smoother has that continuity I talk about, because I really believe in continuity is so important. If we're going to change the way people think about our society, those who've been most marginalized and engage and welcome and let them know there's great people that really want to do great things for no other reason than the power of the individual and authenticity in our community, and of course, starting that at work, so authenticity and work, which is something I'm very, very busy doing on the other side of programming, which is our social enterprise. You're not getting that golf tournament invite anymore, Shelly, or dinners. What we do is we try to create really powerful partnerships in the P3 community, meaning business, of course, government, and of course nonprofit, and be available as a resource, and around expertise of things like neurodiversity in the workplace, best practice again, best practices to next practices, and we recently did some great stuff around diversity for our friends at Fitness Nova Scotia, welcoming diversity at the gyms. I had a lot of fun with that one, as you can imagine, Shelley, and met some lovely people willing to train me. I thought that was nice. Sorry, go ahead, Blake. I was just thinking,

Blake Hunsley 31:32
when we go out and do these social enterprise activities, it's self-serving in an interesting way, because we're going out to talk to employers who clearly have demonstrated an interest in leading in a way that is inclusive and that makes their workplace more accessible and more welcoming, that's why they bring us in. Once we see them taking on that knowledge and really taking it to heart and changing policies and just changing the layout, sometimes the physical layout of their workplace, that demonstrates to us what kind of an employer that is. We take that knowledge back to our employment program, we're going to be much happier to recommend our clients go and apply for jobs at these people that we consider employers of excellence, because they've already demonstrated a commitment to really all of the things that power everything we do here, all of our core values.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 32:13
Yeah, I mean, I think the reachability as a whole, you know, the reason that reachability has been so successful 25 plus years in, in 27 serving our community, that you know, Toe talked a lot about the pivot, but these two questions are really the strategic direction of the organization, and it's kept us, because I've been working with the organization for 15 plus years now with Tova and her team asking these questions, because there have been times when you know we've like, oh, we need to do this, we should be doing this, and we have to like ask that question, Why reach? Who else is doing it? Why would we do it? Is there a piece that we need to do that we could partner with X, and that is what always continues to bring it back and allows us to be successful in the community, and I think that, that to me, is is super important in being able to offer things to our community in the area of accessibility and inclusion, and staying on top of that, so pulling that back to NAAW National Accessibility Awareness Week, we talked a lot about like reachability and the next next steps or next practices, and the great things that we have accomplished in the last year and in the past and what we're planning to do, what we're, what's the direction of NAAW Generally?

Tova Sherman 33:55
it's funny you mention that, because I'm, you know, I'm a little jaded as a, as both the first person voice, who person who lives with disability, and really disability is a very big piece of my life, and it's been a great piece of my life to try to work it out within myself as well as and support my community, and I think the concept of having a celebration week around, you know, persons disability can't, it sounds fantastic. I'm so excited, and I know there's flags, and I know there's, you know, proclamations, and you know some, some cool round tables, and things like that. And my challenge, frankly, and to know, I wish everyone great successes, and everything, but it's always the same faces, Shelley. How are we getting to the folks that don't come to proclamations? How are we getting to the folks you'll never see at, you know, certain things? You'll see some obligatory business, you know, doing things, and some who genuinely we work with some of them who genuinely care about that week and want to show a sense of celebration and commitment. Of that week, and we always get lots of calls. Blake can attest to, for the social enterprise, like maybe we should do something, and I appreciate it, every bit of it, but I don't know if we're preaching to the right audience, because I feel like we're always preaching to the converted in some way. Blake, I mean, you know, I'm really throwing it out there.

Blake Hunsley 35:17
You know what works more than anything to increase that audience, and it's the worst thing to be effective, is we always tell people, if you are lucky enough to not have a disability today, if you are lucky enough to live long enough, then you will have a disability, everyone

Tova Sherman 35:30
will have had, has, or will have a disability. Yes,

Blake Hunsley 35:34
so the only way to, the most effective way to increase that, that core audience is happening naturally, because not just if you end up, if you end up developing a disability, someone in your family will. It often takes that personal connection, unfortunately, for people to go, "Oh, wait, this really matters all of a sudden. So, that is when we tend to see the new faces. Oh, my brother just got diagnosed with this. Oh, I just got diagnosed with that. I would really love it if we could get some people out there, maybe shaking their friends and family a little, and saying, hey, instead of waiting until this is a dire issue of immediate importance for you, maybe just mentally plan ahead for that day by showing up this year and finding out how you can support people in the community. Right now, it is still self-serving. It's just self-serving for a few days ahead, not just for tomorrow.

Tova Sherman 36:18
I don't want to sound that jaded, though. I'm just saying, I would like the people who've never thought about it, never really considered it, to start hearing about it. Well, Iisrael 1800

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 36:26
think we have been successful, if you think about, like, from a reachability point of view, I, there, I think that look, every one of these awareness and recognition days, weeks, months, right, are there for a reason, right, because the work can't stop, and if we can make one person aware today, like to give them a piece of information that, like, it is one person at a time, like that's like we say, like one kind act, right? So I think about, like, the last few years of the open house, every single time there has been at least one, and that I'm there would be way more than one, but one person that I've had a conversation with, that it was the first time they came through the doors, they had no idea who Reachability was, they heard from a friend, or in some cases they happened to work in this building, and wanted to see what the heck was going on in here, and they came in, they had no idea those things were offered, and some information, and from that, okay, that's giving more people, right, that's no question, no question, I agree, I just think

Tova Sherman 37:35
on a universal level we need to be, it needs to be less of an afterthought, yes, maybe that's what I'm really feeling, that people need to really like you say, when it's gay pride, you know, it's gay pride. Now, I'm not saying we should be there, but frankly, why not? Why is it that the community of persons with disabilities can't come together and really build this powerful celebration of differences being welcomed in our community, because that's what we're talking the same language, and I

Blake Hunsley 38:03
was going to say, I think the celebration element does help, because for very valid reasons, we spend the other 51 weeks of the year looking at the problems facing people, barriers that get in our way, and trying to eliminate those, so to be able to take just seven days out of the year and be like, all right, what have we accomplished, what have you accomplished, what are you excited about, and highlight those. Yeah, I think you're right. That sort of element really does kind of generate a bit more, a bit more of a buzz. It's hard to get really enthused about something when you're only talking about the problems people face. So, it is nice to pivot for a moment,

Tova Sherman 38:33
and the people, that's all they hear about. So, that's why, when I started this conversation with you, when we talked a bit about what is not about, really, it is about celebration, and you're right, it's about not going, "Woe is me, not going, "This sucks, because it does, and we do what we've got to do, all of us, for ourselves, for each other. But the bottom line remains that we need to celebrate the successes, no matter how small, and no matter how few people are listening. And you're absolutely right, Shelley, I've never gone through our open house and not met a few people I've never seen, and have never seen us, and those few people to me are very exciting. I don't need 1000s of millions, but I sure love those couple of really interested people, and for that, I think we've had very successful,

Blake Hunsley 39:15
we've had that exact try not to

Tova Sherman 39:16
say, and then I dragged them on the board, not dragged it,

Blake Hunsley 39:23
not dragged on. No, they wanted. We have had that kind of person come into the open house. This was covered about who we are. And then we see them a few months later, and they're still interested. And then they're sharing our social media post a few months after that, and they're still interested, right? And the next thing you know, they're back asking to join. We had new board members reiterate the

Tova Sherman 39:40
differences of being on our board, in terms of it being so grassroots, so authentic, so organized, so professional, but still being really to the point, and getting things done, small group achieving really great things, punching up, celebrating that one day a year for two hours, june 5. One to three, we hope you're all going to come, because frankly, it is a representation of next practice, and the excitement of celebrating inclusion, welcoming, and most importantly, the accomplishments of our community, because one in three Nova Scotians self-identifies as living with disability. We know it's more than that. You heard me yell it over the mike. Everyone will have had, has, or will have a disability. So, I'm not looking for that empathy piece as much as I'm saying, hey, wouldn't you like a little bit more quality of life? I don't care who you are. So, that celebratory piece, you're right. I don't want to minimize it. I just would love it to be bigger and more organized and more celebratory in its most obvious form. You know, where's our parade? I'm sorry, but I want a parade, you know, that kind of thing. Anyway, that's that's kind of where I'm at,

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 40:47
and, and not only the new board members, or the new people that have wanted to sit on our board, yeah, we've also, from the open house alone, have made new partnerships,

Blake Hunsley 41:03
absolutely people

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 41:04
again, other not-for-profits who came again because they'd heard from a friend or somebody wanted to learn more about it. We got talking and realized again there's that, you know, continuity of service, or some maybe they have clients or members of their community that could benefit from our services, so again, while I, you know, I agree it would be great if we could just push a button and have everything fixed, we can't, we, we need to really celebrate these successes that may seem small, but again, 27 years reachability has been here, and that's not been accidental.

Blake Hunsley 41:46
It's a slow and steady increasing victory, but that's not what ADHD people love. The slow, I want that fast,

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 41:55
but, but you know, stats will tell you that, like, sustained. I always say

Tova Sherman 42:03
it's not a sprint to the staff, they want so much to save everyone, and God bless, but the truth be told, this is a marathon, not a sprint, and I had to learn it the hard way, as someone so severe on the ADHD spectrum, that you know we've really got to be aware of the fact that we can't achieve everything, but we just keep trying, and then once a year, you know, during all week, and in our case, you know, our open house, one to three, there on the fifth. I only want to say that it is truly a celebration, and that's all it should be. It's a celebration,

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 42:34
absolutely, a celebration

Blake Hunsley 42:35
of our individual clients as well. This is going out to them, in particular. Please come,

Tova Sherman 42:39
past, present, future, come on in.

Blake Hunsley 42:41
Everything you do at Reach Ability, yes, it's all free. It's also anonymous. We're not going to be shouting from the rooftops about everything you've been doing, because it's hard work and it's tough progress that you're making. So, come, so we can celebrate you to your face, because we can't sit on a podcast and crow about all the wonderful things you've accomplished in the last year. If we could, we'd be sitting here telling stories for 10 more episodes, but

Tova Sherman 43:01
well, I could do that, but it's been 27 years. I mean, I got a few. You've got a few just

Blake Hunsley 43:05
from this year. Honestly, reachability also

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 43:13
had the benefit on the podcast of having some of those people who are reachability success stories. So we hope you all drop by on june 5 from one to three at the Reachability offices, and it will be in the podcast. So, if you listen to the podcast, as Blake said,

Blake Hunsley 43:32
you're listening to this on the morning of June the fifth. Yes, stop what you're doing, come down at you. Must have a little

Tova Sherman 43:38
bit of time, because we're releasing it that morning. And what are you looking for? Us waiting, I mean, that's lovely. I hope it is. This goes

Blake Hunsley 43:44
live at 7o'clock in the morning every other Friday, and by 9o'clock in the morning every other Friday, we have at least three people have listened to it. So there are some people out there shopping. I don't want to say people here

Tova Sherman 43:55
have partners, and it's not me,

Blake Hunsley 43:56
and it's not you think my partner's listening to a single. I know he isn't, but anyway, besides

Tova Sherman 44:02
that, besides that, anyway, most importantly, I want to thank you guys, because you've been keeping that voice in the community going. We're not always great at getting out there the way we should here at Reach Ability, and this piece is so important to people understanding who we are and why they should bother finding out more, whether partnering, you know, whether it's a stakeholder, a parent with somebody who's really struggling, all those environments are welcome. And so, even after june 5, in case you're hearing this past Friday, where were you? I want to say that our door is always open, and people can walk in, and we'll figure out if it's not us who can help you, who can, because nobody goes nowhere, and that's worth celebrating. Great,

Blake Hunsley 44:42
I think we're gonna end it there.

Shelley Alward-MacLeod 44:44
Perfect,

Blake Hunsley 44:45
Tova. Thank you very much for joining us for our 10th episode, and for NAAW, National Accessibility Week, again for the millionth time this episode, june 5, 3845 Joseph Howe Drive, Suite 201 Come and see us, come and eat with us next.

Tova Sherman 45:00
Celebrate stories.

Blake Hunsley 45:00
We are absolutely going to celebrate. Thank you, everyone. Thank you for listening to Within Our Reach. Season two of our podcast is made possible thanks to the support of the Province of Nova Scotia and the Support for Culture program. If you have feedback on an episode, an idea for future episode topics, or if you're interested in appearing as a guest, we normally say write to us at Within Our reach@reachability.org but no, come to the open house. Come and tell us in person. Come and meet Shelly and I. We are just as attractive as our audio personalities would lead you to believe. So, come and come and feast your senses.

Tova Sherman 45:28
You guys will be blown away.

Blake Hunsley 45:31
Thank you, everybody. All

Tova Sherman 45:32
right. Bye now.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai