Within Our Reach

Caralee McDaniel joins our hosts this week to talk about all of the ways she and the incredible team at the North Grove support individuals and families in the diverse, vibrant, and growing community of North Dartmouth. Caralee tells us about the North Grove's history, its mission, and its continuing role in helping to support healthy early childhood development. We also learn about the increasing role food is playing in building strong cultural connections, especially for new Canadians joining our community, as well as new programs for seniors, and how you can get involved and support the North Grove.

This week our hosts discuss psychedelic therapy with Amanda Grinter, a registered counseling therapist specializing in psilocybin-assisted psychotherapy and EMDR. (Also a former reachAbility counselor, welcome back!) Amanda explains that psychedelic therapy, used for thousands of years by indigenous communities, is a holistic approach integrating mind, body, and spirit. She details the therapeutic process, including preparation, the use of substances like ketamine, psilocybin, and MDMA, and the importance of aftercare and integration sessions. Amanda also touches on the legal, financial, and regulatory barriers that currently limit access to psychedelic therapy.

Kathy Jourdain from Worldview Intelligence joins our hosts to discuss the concept of worldviews and their impact on workplace culture and on hot workplace topics like return to office mandates and AI adoption. She explains the six dimensions of worldviews: reality, history, future, values, practices, and knowledge, and highlights the importance of understanding and discussing differing worldviews to foster inclusive conversations and better decision-making at work.

Janet Barlow, Executive Director of Hike Nova Scotia, joins our hosts and our frequent special guest, Milena Khazanavicius, to talk about accessible hiking in Nova Scotia. This episode looks at some of the challenges around facilitating accessible outdoor activities, explores some of the accessible hiking opportunities available for blind and partially sighted folks through Hike Nova Scotia, and gives some tips on how to be a good sighted guide on a guided hike with a blind or partially sighted partner.

Olivia Pliner, a recreation therapist at West Bedford Transitional Health, discusses the benefits of recreation therapy, which uses recreational activities to achieve health goals such as cognitive improvement and social integration. Olivia explains the basics of recreation therapy to our hosts, looks at different settings where it can be useful in bolstering personal wellness, in overcoming barriers like social isolation and mobility challenges, and in reducing overall strain on the health care system. This interview was recorded during Recreation Therapy Month (February). To learn more about the Nova Scotia Therapeutic Recreation Association, visit www.nstra.info.

Neptune Theatre's Sharisse Lebrun and advocate, activist, and reachAbility board member Milena Khazanavicius join us in this week's episode to talk about accessible theatre at Neptune and beyond, the intricacies of audio description, and why sometimes the most dignified words to use aren't necessarily the most polite ones. (Listener discretion is advised: this episode features explicit language, but it's all in the service of dignity and accessibility, we promise!)

In this week's episode, Halifax Regional Councillor Jean St-Amand (District 16 Bedford-Wentworth) joins us to talk about the city's Accessibility Advisory Committee and the accessibility challenges and opportunities facing Halifax today.

Hosts Blake Hunsley and Shelley Alward MacLeod discuss accessibility challenges in navigation with guest Avery Cote. Avery is the developer of Trek.iQ, an app designed to use accessibility data to help people with disabilities navigate cities like Halifax by providing real-time updates on accessibility metrics, such as crowd density and street closures. The app also includes a "street to seat" navigation tool for live events. Avery and our hosts discuss the importance of involving people with disabilities in the development process and partnering with businesses to improve accessibility.

In our first season finale, Tova Sherman joins us once more to talk about what it takes to start a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), and to share some of the lessons she's learned after 25 years at the head of reachAbility, a non-profit dedicated to advancing inclusion in the Halifax community. 

Content warning: This week's episode discusses the loss of parents after prolonged illness. Evan Dobbie is back as our guest this week to discuss his experiences as a caregiver for ailing parents for over two decades, and the impact that experience and the ensuing loss of both parents had on his life and health. It's a weighty topic but an important one, and Evan brings both sensitivity and good advice for those embarking on their own caregiving journey. 

This week our hosts are joined by Amanda Van Tassel, owner of No Hassle Dog Training (nohassledogtraining.ca), who discusses her journey into the world of entrepreneurship. As a business owner with ADHD, Amanda talks about the unique challenges she faced as well as the ways in which her neurodivergence can be an asset to small business owners like herself. 

This week Shelley and Blake are joined by local activist and advocate Milena Khazanavicius to learn about how we can all be better allies to members of the blind and partially sighted community. Milena shares her experiences navigating the world without sight for the past thirty years, and talks about actions large and small that we can all take to make our communities safer and more accessible spaces for people with low or no vision. 

reachAbility CEO Tova Sherman joins our hosts this week to talk about the agency's 25th anniversary, our history, and how the needs of our clients and our community have changed over the past quarter century. 

As part of reachAbility's upcoming 25th anniversary celebrations (join us at our open house May 30 from 1-3pm!) former client and current staff member Evan Dobbie joins hosts Shelley Alward MacLeod and Blake Hunsley to talk about his client journey through reachAbility. Evan shares his first impressions and the meaningful encounters that made his progress through reachAbility so successful, and Shelley shares her perspective as an HR and legal expert advising clients like Evan on what they can expect in the workplace.You can read Evan's contribution to our 2024 AGM report here: https://reachability.org/agm-2024-client-journey-report/

Hosts Blake Hunsley and Shelley Alward-MacLeod discuss the role of Educational Program Assistants (EPAs) in the Nova Scotia public school system. This week's guest is Chelsea Coffin, who speaks to her experiences as a parent of a child who requires EPA support. They explore the impact of EPAs on students unique needs, the need for proper training and support, as well as systemic problems like burnout and inconsistency in support.

In this episode, hosts Shelley Alward-MacLeod and Blake Hunsley discuss the concept of "work in the era of no retirement" with guest Colette Williams. They explore the challenges and benefits of older workers returning to the workforce, focusing on ageism and the evolving perceptions of retirement. They also discuss the systemic barriers older workers face, such as insurance and pension issues, and the importance of experience and critical thinking in the workplace.

Terri Roberts, a fitness instructor with nearly 20 years of experience, discusses her journey from a traumatic car crash in 1990 to becoming an advocate for fitness and disability. She also discusses her work at reachAbility, where she conducts workshops on safe stretching and strength training, and her efforts to bridge gaps in access to fitness for marginalized groups.

This week Shelley and Blake are joined by guest Markus Fortune for a conversation about authentic leadership. We look at what makes a leader authentic, whether authenticity is enough on its own, and whether authenticity is necessarily a good quality in a leader. Blake gets on a soapbox (again), Shelley shares valuable insight from her work as an HR pro (again), and Markus learns he was a leader all along (at last).You can access the article discussed in this week's episode here: https://hbr.org/2007/02/discovering-your-authentic-leadership

Guest Tova Sherman, reachAbility's CEO, joins us for a discussion on ADHD in the workplace.  Tova shares her experiences leading a workplace as a person on the ADHD spectrum,  Shelley talks about disclosure and self-management from the perspective of an HR professional, and Blake tries and fails to interrupt them both. (Yes, he also has ADHD.)

Guest Emmerie Parsons joins our hosts for a discussion centered around an article entitled "DEI and Socioeconomic Diversity" by Maya Richard Craven, which you can read here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/mayarichard-craven/2024/02/23/why-dei-needs-to-include-socioeconomic-diversity/?sh=2a40c23550b4