Tuesday January 18th, 2022

Photo by  Lee  Ann Cline on Unsplash

Today happens to be...Winnie the Pooh Day

Yesterday we observed: Martin Luther King Jr. Day

In 1955, King helped organize the first major protest of the African American civil rights movement: the successful Montgomery Bus Boycott. He advocated in nonviolent resistance to segregation in the South. The peaceful protests he led throughout the American South were often met with violence, but King and his followers persisted, and the movement gained momentum.

A Visual History of Martin Luther King Jr.

Learn more about Martin Luther King Jr. 

Check In – 5 Mins

Describe your 3 day weekend. What did you do? Did anything happen over the weekend that was exciting for you? 

Important dates– 10 Mins

Can you share any examples of dates that you keep track of every year? An anniversary, a pet's birthday, or even your birthday are all examples of dates that you might celebrate through out the year. Share the date or dates, you always remember each each year.

• Why is keeping dates important to us? 
• What service date is most important to mark down? Your ISP? 
• When is our ISP usually scheduled? 

Body Break - 5 mins

Get away from that computer screen and move however you like! 

Our Annual Meetings  - 10 mins

How do you start to plan for your annual meeting?

What are things you must do in preparation with your team? Share what you've done in the past with the group.

Tracking Habits & Progress toward Goals 10 -mins

Questions to consider for participants:

• How are you tracking progress toward the goals you made for your ISP?  
• How can tracking our habits and our progress toward our goals help us each day? 

Sharing About Our Year 

At annual meetings, how have you shared about your year? Have you ever made a video about your year? Did you create a scrap book to show images or art work about the last year?

• For your next annual meeting, how can you share your experience of virtual program? 
• Brainstorm and try to come up with 3 different ways that virtual programming can be shared at annual meetings. 

Body Break - 5 mins

Drink some water. Is it time to refill your glass or go get one? 

Wrap Up & Review  - 10 mins 

When is your next annual or semi-annual meeting? How are you tracking your habits and goals? At your meeting, how will you share about your experience of From Hope to Home? 

What did we learn today? 

--------------------------------------------

What are we doing this afternoon? 

Wednesday January 19th, 2022

Today happens to be...National Popcorn Day

Are you interested in reading a bit about the history of popcorn? Check out this cool website with a timline of events with photos. 

Check In - 5 mins.

If you could recommend one movie from the last 2 years what would it be?

Habits - 10 mins.

What are some habits you like to track? Can you share if you've found any habit trackers online that you like?

Social Group's in my Community - 10 mins. 

With the new year in full swing, we see a lot of hype about trying new things and making new goals. Have you heard much about making new connections with social groups in your community? 

Using the white board to discuss, track and write responses:

• What social groups are you in connection with?
• How often do you meet up with this group?
• Is this group online or in person?
• What new groups would you like to be involved in?

Reminder that the Client Advisory Commitee (CAC) is still looking for group members. 

Well Being- Taking care of our mind and body- 10 mins.

Are you currently taking steps to help improve your well being? Being busy with work, friends, home life and other activities we often forget about our own mental health. We must reminder ourselves to  take breaks, nourish the body and to slow down.

Here are some tips to help our well being:

• Get proper sleep
• Eat a balnaced diet
• Expose your body to sunlight
• Exercise Daily
• Mediatate
• Journaling
• Give back to your community
• Read a book
• Keep Learning
• Be Present in Nature
• Be social and stay connected
• Find or pratice a new hobbie

Have you pratice any of the tips above? Do you have new tips that you would like to share with the group? Do you have any artifacts of things that help decrease stress in your enviroment that you would like to share on camera?

Optional: Yoga Health Benefits- How it helps our brain

Body Break-

Move a bit, stretch!

Optional: Share apps that you may have on your smart phone or other smart device that you use to help with mental health and well being. Some popular ones are daily exercising apps, sleep progress apps, postitive affrimations and more. 

Article on 10 free apps for wellbeing and mental health

COVID-19 Mitigation Moment - 10 mins.

On Wednesdays we will always take a few minutes to discuss our Covid Mitigation moment. I know that we have spent a lot of time in the last year talking about ways to keep COVID-19 contained, but now is a better time than ever to review simple ways we can all help with battling Covid.

Cleaning Frequently Used Spaces & Places -10mins 

One of the important things to remember while working on COVID - mitigation is cleaning up surfaces that we touch frequently throughout the day. 

• What are some places you frequent throughout the day?
• How often do you think you touch things you forgot you touched?
• Where do you want to make a habit of cleaning? Doorknobs, tables, sinks? 

We will continue Covid Mitigation Moments each Wednesday!

______________________________

What did we learn today? 

______________________________

What are we doing this afternoon? 

Thursday January 20, 2022

Today happens to be...Penguin Awarness Day

After you learned a bit about this day, check out the live stream from the Montery Bay Aquariums penguin exhibit!

Check In - 5 mins

Review topics discussed on tuesday and wednesday. 

Best Food - 10 mins

What is the best thing you've eaten in the last year?

Self-Advocacy -10 mins. 

Reaching goals, making progress and celebrating completed goals can all come easy if we have the support system that allows us to advovcate for our needs. Think abour your support system before answering the questions as a group. Feel free to use the white board option to keep track of responses. 

• Who is in your support circle?
• When you want help reaching a goal, how or who do you ask for help?
• If you aren't comfortable with a decision or goal, how do you advocate for something different?

Body Break (get up and move)

Article - 15 mins.

Need extra help or want some tips for self-advocacy? Check out this article: Tips for Self Advocates

• After ready the article(you can skim the article) (you can read the topics and see which ones the group would like to read more about)- which tips did you find helpful? Which tips are you already using? Which tips did you find suprising?

Rights Covered under the ADA -15 mins.

Presenter: Before diving into the topic- ask the group if they can define ADA- what do the letters stand for? If someone knows the answer, have them share with the group- if no one knows the answer- do some research together. 

• Now that everyone knows what ADA Stands for,  follow the link to read more about the ADA. The first 2 parts of the article give a short overview of the ADA and what it applies too. 
• After reviewing this part,  ask the group what they think would happen if the law was not in place? Or what they think would happen if someone happens to not follow the law.

Here is a second resource explaining ADA through a short video. 

• Which resource was your favorite?

Introduction to Tracking Our Habits - 5 mins

When starting a new habit, a good way to remind ourselves about completing the habit is to track it. 

What were some habit tracking ideas that we've talked about before?

• Ideas to create your own habit tracker with a bullet journal (note this is for inspiration, it does require a little extra time, but this may be the style that you look):Check out for habit tracker ideas
• Digital Habit Trackers for smart phones/devices:Check out this list and see if any may interest you.

Examples of Paper Habit Trackers that you can print or create yourself with pen and paper (or a computer):

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

• Shop for habit trackers: You can type in habit trackers on google and click the shopping tab to see which or how much one would cost. 

Optional: Lastly, you can also team up with a friend or co-work and become accountability partners. Which means you both can be there for eachtoher throughout the process of tracking your goals- as a team.

• You can cheer each other on when you feel low
• You can btoh check in on the progress made on both goals and habits
• You can share tips and tricks
• Sometimes all it takes is one person to motivate you to get the habit done, you can be a great supoort system.

What did we learn today? 

__________________________________

What are we doing this afternoon? 

Friday January 21, 2022

Today happens to be...Squirrel Appreciation Day

Short encouter with a Squirrel

Check in - 5 mins

What do you hope to accomplish today?

Share a habit you will work on - 10 mins

What habit did you decide on? Get ready to share the habit you've decided to track with the group. 

• Why was this habit important to you to look at?
• How will you measure your successes (no matter how big or small) over the next couple of months?
• How do you think you will handle setbacks if you fall off track? 

Did you know? 10 mins

Did you know it takes about 0.7 KG of cotton to make one pair of jeans? Did you also know that jeans are ending up in our landfills? And are being made at a fast rate in some dangerous work enviroments? We can help reduce the enviromental threats. Interested to find out more, check out this video. 

Body Break - 5 mins 

Get up, fill up your water bottle and move around a little.

The world's largest battery

What do you think it looks like? Check out this video.

Music: Can you guess the number one song on this day back in 1990? Take a wild guess!

• It's Michael Bolton's "How am I suppose live without you."
• Have you heard this song before?

Food: 5mins. 

•  Have you heard of the word vegan? If you have, let the group know what it means. You can also do a google search for the definition.
• Back in 2014, the UK claimed the month of Januray  to be the month where you try to eat heathly vegan meals- help decrease the earth carbon foot print. This challenge in january is called vegaunary. (Vee-gan-U-ary)
• Check out this website to learn a little more about this challenge. 
• Are you interested in some yummy recipes that you may want to try this month? Be sure to check out the recipes section on the website above!

Friday Activities to Explore - 20 mins

• Narrated Virtual Tours at the Smithsonian: This museum is located in Washignton D.C. All the way on the east coast of the United States. It is know for the wonderful history it holds about our earth and the human interactions. Take a look at its virutal tour page to see which exhibit interest you. (note each exbibit has its own video in place, be sure to enable captions at the bottom of the video)
• Where's Waldo Game: You can test those good observing skills and find waldo in teh pictures. In order to start the game, click on the box in the middle of the video, than click waldos face. (note, this video has sound, be sure to share volume too!)
• Quiz time: Do you know the most iconic disney songs? Check out this BuzzFeed Quiz! The quz begins at the large blue squares. 
• Kev Choice: Movements -Kev is a bay area artist that collaborative with the SF Symphony to create apowerful message with a lil bit of jazz, hip hop, classical and funk. Read more about him here. 

____________________________

What did we learn today? 

__________________________________

What are we doing this afternoon? 

Need some help deciding on an afternoon activity?

Spin the Activity Wheel!  

The activities are numbered. These numbers corrospond to brief activity descriptions listen in the linked document below. 

Activity Wheel Details