For Episode #31 we visit with visual artist, Gary Mack. He shares his views and experiences when it comes to the interplay between art, community, passion, drive, connections, influence, and resilience.

For more about Gary and his creations from the heart, go to www.garymackart.com. 

The Growth and Resilience Network®
©2017. Steve Piscitelli. All rights reserved.
www.stevepiscitelli.com

Music by ©Billy Bowers (www.billybowersjax.com). Used with permission.

This episode follows up on a topic we explored in our April 2017 podcast titled “Enhancing Life Through Sports and Recreation" (https://youtu.be/imSNwj8aEsE). We had a specific focus at that time on people with disabilities. In addition to the usual work-life demands, our friends, family members, co-workers, and neighbors with disabilities have a few more challenges to address on a daily basis. How do they do it? What services are available for them?

This episode shines the spotlight on four participants from that program who will tell us what this program means to them and their fellow participants.
*Don Bergman
*Sarah Williford
*Matt Sechrist
*Chris Fonner

©Steve Piscitelli. 2017. All rights reserved. www.stevepiscitelli.com
The Growth and Resilience Network®
Music by Billy Bowers (www.billybowersjax.com). Used with permission. All rights reserved.

This episode looks into the connection between growth, resilience and accommodations for our students. While there are laws/mandates that guide accommodation requests and approval, what happens if a student does not get what he/she needs? How can students advocate for themselves—and how can parents advocate for their children? Sometimes the process might seem overwhelming.

Elijah Armstrong helps us (begin to) sort through these topics. Elijah, a college student at the time of this recording, explains accommodations from the perspective of someone who challenged (in court) his high school for appropriate classroom accommodations. He uses that experience to share his insights about what parents, students, and the school personnel can do to help students.

His website: www.equalopportunitiesforstudents.org.

You can read more about the lawsuit, Elijah mentions in the podcast at these two links:
http://jacksonville.com/news/metro/2014-05-10/story/jacksonville-mother-alleges-disability-discrimination-against-sick-son

http://jacksonville.com/metro/news/education/2017-05-10/duval-school-district-settles-stanton-discrimination-suit-80000.

The Growth and Resilience Network®.
©2017. Steve Piscitelli. www.stevepiscitelli.com
Music by Billy Bowers (www.billybowersjax.com). Used with permission.

My guests for Episode #28 take a look at leadership as it relates to elementary school students. And their perspective is that of student leaders. Listen to four 5th grade students who lead their 1st-5th grade classmates at Atlantic Beach Elementary School (Florida). How do they help themselves and their classmates reflect and grow when it comes to experiences with failure, for instance? Or bullying? Or simply the challenges of childhood? What are the attributes of effective leaders?

Rather than listen to "adults" tell us what the students need to do, for this episode we hear about leadership in their own voices!

The Growth and Resilience Network(R).
(c) 2017. Steve Piscitelli. www.stevepiscitelli.com

June 2017 marks the second anniversary of The Growth and Resilience Network(TM) podcast channel. Join me for this retrospective of the guests who took time to share insights about growth and resilience. I have grouped the clips into categories (with a few guests to each category). Here are the approximate points at which each category starts:
*It's about the audience: 00:00
*Leadership: 05:34
*Working parents and work-life integration: 06:24
*Thriving with disabilities: 09:44
*Children and resilience: 12:36
*Physical fitness and discipline: 16:18
*Women, entrepreneurship and leadership: 17:18
*Creativity: 22:44
*Planet earth and climate change: 28:11
*Community service and integration: 30:58
*Curiosity and making a difference: 37:29
*It's not about me. It's about you: 39:29
*A comment about the soundtrack: 40:04

You can also download this podcast at http://www.piscitellipodcasts.libsyn.com/ and on iTunes.

Music by Billy Bowers. All rights reserved. www.billybowersjax.com.
(c)2017 Steve Piscitelli www.stevepiscitelli.com. The Growth and Resilience Network(TM)

Episode guest and experienced middle school teacher John Louis Meeks, Jr. helps us examine resilience as it relates to middle school students. 6th, 7th and 8th grade students. How do we help them reflect and grow when it comes to experiences with failure, for instance? Or bullying? Or simply the trials and tribulation of early adolescences? And what role do parents and teachers play?

All photos of John in a school setting provided and cleared by John Louis Meeks, Jr.--and used here with his permission.

You can also download this podcast episode by going to Libsyn.com (http://piscitellipodcasts.libsyn.com/...) or to iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/g...).

Thank you for sharing. A kind review on iTunes would help this podcast channel as well.

Music soundtrack (used with permission) provided by (c) Billy Bowers (www.billybowersjax.com).

Podcast (c) 2017 Steve Piscitelli. All rights reserved.
The Growth and Resilience Network(TM)

Occupational Therapist and Program Manager Alice Krauss gives us an inside look at a free, community-based multi-sport program that serves individuals living with physical and/or visual disability. She tells us how Brooks Adaptive Sports and Recreation nurtures a higher quality of life with its holistic focus on Fun, Fitness, and Friendship!

You can also download this podcast episode by going to iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/g...). Thank you for sharing. A kind review on iTunes would help this podcast channel as well.

Music soundtrack (used with permission) provided by (c) Billy Bowers (www.billybowersjax.com).

Podcast (c) 2017 Steve Piscitelli. All rights reserved.
The Growth and Resilience Network(TM)

This month's podcast episode explores the topic of women and and their involvement (or lack of involvement) with community development. Guest speaker, Chris Hoffman (City Council Member, Business Owner, Executive Director) reflects on why more women are not involved in community development--and what needed resources they can bring to the conversations in their communities. See http://stevepiscitelli.com/media-broadcast/podcast for more details.
Music by Billy Bowers (www.billybowersjax.com). Used with persmission.
(c)Steve Piscitelli, 2017. The Growth and Resilience Network(TM)

For this episode, we take a different perspective as we look at resilience and it’s relationship to climate. Scientist and environmental consultant Adam Hoyles. www.onsiteec.com helps us move through the rhetoric. Among other topics, Adam will help us understand why we should care about climate change, why it's so controversial, and the human impact.

(C)2016. Steve Piscitelli. The Growth and Resilience Network(TM). All rights reserved.

Music by Billy Bowers. Used with permission. www.billybowersjax.com