Connecting the Disconnected

0:01 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. Hello and thank you for tuning in to a Sharp Outlook on K four HD Radio and Talk or TV. I am Angela Sharp, your host. Our arm chair discussions with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and information to be successful in business and to prepare you to be your best self.

0:55 Hello and welcome to a Sharp Outlook. I'm Angela Sharp, and today we want to talk about pretty much the state that the country, the world is in right now, and we want to start helping those that are hurting to connect. We need to start connecting the disconnected. Are you struggling or you know someone who is. You want to get help, but there are no places to turn in your community and you don't want anyone to know you have a problem. Did you know that only ten percent of addicts seek treatment the other ninety percent of addicts are stuck feeling as if they have no options.

1:42 One in five individuals suffer from mental illness and it is and it is the number two cause of disability in the country. Suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the US. One in three adolescents students have been bullied. One in five teens have witnessed online bullying. Forty seven percent of parents report a child victim of bullying, and forty percent of people experiencing bullying on a weekly basis in the workplace. Our society has become ill. And when we have the sick family, what do we normally do We get them some help. We don't watch our family suffer and not reach out to try to help.

2:34 We try to get help for our families because we are all members of the human family and we need to learn about the various tools available to make our family whole again. Unlike other treatment approaches, Red Path, which we're going to discuss today, doesn't give you the tools to safely revisit your traumas. Their holistic program draws your attention to the effects that are having on your life today. They understand that you are the only person who can own your trauma and it is part of your life story and you alone carry it with you. Through the Red Path process, anyone can come to terms with their past and work towards building a brighter future. Through online peer supports, self directed exercises, and visual graphic aids. We give you the tools you need to help you find your own way out, to help you build a new life free from the traumas of the past. My guest today is Peggy Shaughnessy, and across the substance abuse misuse continues to be a growing concern. There is a need for an alternative approach to substance abuse treatment and aftercare.

4:00 Well that's where Peggy Shaughnessy comes in. She has developed a program that is offering skills to address underlying problems associated with addictive behaviors. Peggy is the founder of White Path Consulting and the developer of the Red Path programs. She has worked extensively with the Correctional Service of Canada to educate staff and management on Indigenous issues, to provide needs assessments for Aboriginal men and women offenders, and has developed programs to assist people in their life struggles. Her programs deal with issues relating to addiction, domestic abuse, bullying and empowerment. Since two thousand and four, the Red Path Treatment Program has been changing lives and communities in Canada by focusing on trauma that lies at the heart of an addiction and helping people educate themselves about the reasons they are struggling on the ground. The program has achieved remarkable results and for many, especially people living in remote areas where addiction and abuse often is unnoticed, it became clear that a different approach was needed and Shaughnessy is an author of a new book contributed for Writings, manuscripts, and journals. She is known as the Emotions Warrior in her passionate struggle to transform healing and wellness programs for

5:31 those struggling in the life journey. Peggy currently holds her honors Bachelor of Science and master's degree and recently received her PhD. She harbors a profound belief in the power of connecting the disconnected through Aboriginal knowledge and worldview. I would like to ask Peggy to join me so we can talk about Red Path and how we can help our sick family members. Hi, Peggy, good morning. How are you this morning. I'm great looking forward to sharing this information so that someone that knows someone that's hurting, or even someone that's listening that is struggling right now can seek help and to get healthy and to get whole and to be able to live, you know, discover how they can start building a life of happiness and contentment and wellness. Can you elaborate on the Red Path program?

6:32 So I developed the Red Path Program as a result of working in federal prisons and seeing that, you know, these men that I worked with was mainly men, were really suffering. And so there was an elder named Old George that at one time worked in the person he's passed on now, and he used to tell us the story all the time that we had four rooms. We had the physical room, the emotional room, in the psychological room, in the spiritual room, and if we didn't visit each one every day, we'd never be in harmony. And you know it's funny. We'd hear this story over and over until finally it hit me that most people can't even open the doors in those rooms. So that took me to the table to create what I consider the four room theory and sort of the model of the Red Path programs where you know, in the physical room is where we hold our trauma in all those things that like we've gone through in our life, those events that have caused us hassles in our life. Maybe not the right word, but let's say hassles in our life. And then in the emotion room, the emotions that are attached to those events. And in the physical room, really what are the questions the unanswered questions that really don't have an answer, you know, like, for instance, why did that happen to me? You know?

7:49 Why am I stupid? Why am I not good enough? Like all of those questions that we that really have no answer. And then in the spiritual room, what do we usually do as an outcome? Do we you know, use do we cut ourselves? What do we do as an outcome of all those things? And I tell my clients all the time and the people going through the program, I can undo your events. They happen to you, they're part of your life, but I can work with you on the impacts that they've done on your life. And I think that's sort of where what we do here in our center is different, because we're looking at the impacts. We don't get them to keep repeating the same story over and over and then it just is the story of their whole life. How does somebody do the coherent whole of their life their whole life story rather than a piece of it. And so we get them unepacked things throughout the process of the program and in using that four rooms and that eventually you use those four rooms to unpack it. But then once you've unpacked it and you are in your daily life, you can if you've had a real bad day today, you can say, oh, my boss was the jerk? You know, what was the emotions tied? What was my thinking? And what am I going to do? I'm going to use the four rooms as a tool. So what started out sort of as a model became the main tool of the program then where you teach people how to unpack what they're carrying through a slow process, and then how can I use

9:21 it them once I've unpacked so that I don't keep keeping things inside any longer. So what became a theory became the main tool within the program itself. Wow, that sounds wonderful because it makes you acknowledge all the areas that are being effective by an event that happened that you keep repeating, you keep reliving, because you keep retelling the story so many times you become that story over and over and over instead of, like you say, going through those rooms and you know, setting free. But it's probably pretty scary to open those doors. Yeah it is, And a. Lot of times they're so locked up it takes a while to even get the lock off them in order to open them, right, And and so that sometimes sometimes people go through our programs more than once. You know that it's like that onion, you know, you start at the skin and then you keep unraveling it or and and people tend to go not always, but go through it more than once, just because going through the process and the support as well. Right So, because often once somebody stops listening to your story, often that's when people will go back to their old habits. So you know, I can tell my story over and over again, and then nobody is there to listen anymore, So what good is that story? And so that's what I think some programs,

10:53 perhaps some people fall through the cracks as a result of that of not really coming to the end understanding on why I was doing that. In the first place. It's always looking at the why rather than the behavior itself. Right. I used to go to the alcohol drug treatment centers here in the state of Washington on a weekly basis, just counseling and you know, with those clients that were there and hearing their stories and and just you know, just listening to some of the things that had happened in their lives and you know how they're going to try to, you know, get past that. I tried to deal with it from a spiritual basis, you know, bring them to that spiritual door. You're you are valuable, you are enough, you are worthy, you are special, you are gifted, you know, just trying to give them to think about something other than the trauma. And then the drugs brought on trauma too, And the addiction is a lot harder to stop than most people think. You think it's like, oh, you know, over eating, you just stop eating something. But it's a little more difficult, it seems, because, yeah, the the the chance of them healing is quite a fight.

12:22 You've also done work in the prison system to bring healing to incarcerated individuals. You know, what was your treatment like dealing with those that really feel extended hopelessness. Well, so that's where my passion lies is working with the hardest of the hardest. I guess I piloted the Red Path program in in a maximum prison and a medium institution with high risk populations mainly and in mainly indigenous populations at that time. I've sort of expanded since that. But and so I think that everyone has the right to heal. I think everyone does, and for these men to make a lot of them more lifers, so they might not get out for twenty five years, but they still had to live their daily life. And I look at I wasn't just happy helping the men that I was putting through the program, but making it a little bit safer for those that were guarding them as well.

13:22 And so if you could keep the prison at less tension, that there would be less opportunity, I guess you could say for a riot or something within it. For instance, one person I was sitting in there was fifty three stabbings in fifty one days. They sent me in to interview the men there to see if we could get some calmness in the person. And so that's sort of how Redpath was developed, was through the prison they didn't have programming that could help people. And I'm a researcher at the university, so we did a research component to it to look at, you know, the different scales and that's where I developed what I call the AAI and that's one hundred and two questions where we can we use the four rooms sort of it. The numbers fit into those rooms and we look at optimism like different anxieties, you know, performance anxiety, like how will people do in social anxiety? How well will that person do in a group setting? And where what area that they probably need the most work kids. So those scales came out of the prison as well, because in Canada we have quite a few prisons, so I was able to do, like on the reliability in the validity component of that scale, collect the data from all federal persons in Canada. So I have this database so somebody couldn't just say, well they were the worst of the worst that you did that the pilot with. So that's where our programs that we use here came out of, is that that sort

14:56 of pilot programs within the federal persons. And then it took me to Guam. I trained some tomorrow people in Guam on our programs there as well. So they read a book that a chapter of my work was in and they asked me to come. So I been to Guam. It's a really awesome place. And and so I don't know they were hoping to use it the prisons there as well. I don't know if they ever had the chance to. Yeah, yeah, I I also used to go to prisons. They were mainly men prisons. And then this is difficult for me. I was assaulted and have my own trauma that I needed to deal with, and I was advised to actually go back to the prison. I said, I can't look at those people. Yeah, And then I did go back and I shared with them what had happened to me, and one by one, different ones stood up and said, I'm sorry that happened to you. I'm sorry that I did that to someone else. And I mean the whole room was crying by the time they all finished, and it helped me break through the door and heal.

16:24 I just I just needed to hear that I'm sorry, and I think they needed to say I'm sorry. And it was sure, it was just an amazing moment. I don't you know, but I understand what you're saying, I really do. Why do you feel Indigenous spirituality was so crucial in assisting in, you know, those that were incarcerated. Well, I've always been an advocate and I've always he's been a fighter. I came from poverty, and you know, I've had my own issues with abuses and that as well.

17:07 And you know, you often wonder why you go into persons, and one of the reasons I went into the federal persons in Canada was, you know, it wasn't until nineteen eighty five that Indigenous offenders who are allowed their first sweat inside the person. You know, we've had Muslim leaders that were able to go into Kingston Penitentiary as early as eighteen ninety nine, and Indigenous populations in Canada weren't allowed to have their first sweat, which is a very sacred thing, in nineteen eighty five. And so to practice spirituality inside a person in Canada still as difficult, and I think that's sort of what took me into the person. I was a student, my undergraduate I went in through the Indigenous Studies department at Trent University and to visit the Brotherhood and saw that they didn't have a voice, and so I saw the strength of the sweat lodge when I'd be there to help with that so that they could have it, and I saw the strength that that gave them, and so I knew that, you know, my, when I started my business, it was to help men coming out of person and so I named it White Paths Consulting because in Cherokee, when you translated, it means contentment, happy trails, and that to give these men, and so I wanted, like, like you said, my, my, it's always been connecting the disconnected, and I know that that's what really when these men were able to find their their

18:39 indigenous spirituality for some for the first time inside a prison wall and they felt connected, I knew that, you know, that had to be part of of the healing processes, connecting the disconnected through that. Like you see that in language, you know, and the indigenous language is nothing like the English language. If you look at the Irish language, it's the same. You know in Ireland that will fight that a country with out a language is a country without a soul, and I think that is so true here in Canada as well, for indigenous populations across the country. That language is the most important. So it is that connection. Yeah, it really truly is. And you know, I know some people have gone to the boarding schools, the residential schools years ago and taking away their language and their culture and things like that. It was like taking a part of who they are away and losing that connection to you know, your historical past. Is it leaves you wandering around, don't know where you belong, and it does.

19:48 It is really important for them to be connected. Those sweats are powerful. I know at the treatment centers up here, they would they allowed them to have the sweats and it really helped them to you know, get stronger, get their identity, get that strength from you know, the singing and the drumming and the prayers, and so it was, Yeah, it's really really important to do that. What are some of the techniques that can change trauma and institutional life and move it from brokenness towards transformation and healing.

20:28 Well, I think first is a lot of people have lost their connection with their family, with the people that love them, and I think it's that sense of belonging and I think that that hug we always I used to get into trouble in the prisons, the wardens would say, you can't touch those men, and I'd say, well, then kick me out, because I'm giving them a hug before I leave, sort of thing, right, And it's that human connection. And you know, there's people that come to our center that I tell them I love them because my heart really does. And is that professional? Probably not, but oh well, that's why it's my own center. And so I think that that's the start. But a clan mother once told me that we should teach people things four different ways and then everybody will leave knowing something. And so in our programs, we use storytelling, we use pictures, we use different exercises, so they have to do group work. Who takes over that leadership that usually sometimes is the most quiet person. So we try to do things still in a way that it goes from one session to the next, but that there is so many different ways to do it that you know that everybody's leaving unpacking something. And so I think that that human connection and that that authenticity.

21:44 I guess that's what people usually thank me for, is my authenticity. Sometimes it's not really good words that I say, but they might not be in the dictionary. Some of them that I say, But I think that's the main thing. I have a few people that have come right from the hospital, but you know, they attempted suicide, and you know, I make some of them text me twice a day and might I just might have to press it and send a heart back that I read it, but they know somebody else on the other side read it. Yeah, So you know, you wouldn't want like five hundred people doing that every day. For you, it's nice to go home and sort of relax. I do pottery on the side, so I like to unwine some days. But I think just to know that there's somebody that cares mm that just that connection, just that little heart.

22:34 Yeah, it means somebody, somebody noticed me. Somebody knows I'm alive, somebody recognized that I exist. I mean that's just so important. When you're isolated and there's no one reaching out or coming into contact with you, well, I just can't even imagine that kind of loneliness. That's torture within itself. Own some of the other things, you know, going to the corrections facilities, are there tools for the staff and management so that you know they can maybe be more helpful in the prison systems.

23:16 So over the years, you know, Canada, you know, are forced to maybe not forces in the word that to hire a percentage of different racial people, like and so for indigenous populations, they have hired some indigenous people. Often those are the very people that cause more trouble than the person before them. I don't know if they are trying to prove themselves or not. Also there's staff trainings where they have people come in to teach them. So over the years, it's been a few years now that I've gone in and discussed residential schools and hit treaties and historical things. But you know, a lot of times the staff, you know, there is high percentages of racism and discrimination. And so when you're forced to do something, when it's a mandatory thing, you know how how much listening is happening. Like I don't know if you can see here, but in my office, I have a big picture here of residential school.

24:22 Oh yeah, yeah. Just to remind people, you don't need a whole lot of discussions when you see that picture. Yeah yeah, So I mean, you know, hopefully a few people when you talk. I don't I think it's unfair to say none of them wanted to learn that. But you know, in Ontario, we pretend here that there's no racism and discrimination. When you go to the west and you go to the prisons, like in Winnipeg, sat Saskatchewan, in those provinces, it's in your face, like when they know you're coming to see and the indigenous population, they bring out the dogs. They you know, it might make you wait for two hours to get in to see the men. But in Ontario they pretend it isn't here. And sometimes I think it's easier when it's in your face. You see it coming well, swept under the rug. You never know when it's going to come up. You know.

25:21 The most perplexing thing for me is I don't I mean, I can say that during all of my career, I've never been approached with racism. I don't know. Maybe it's that look where she's not the one, don't say anything to her. I'm not sure. Or maybe it's just you know, angels protecting me. But when you really think about it, and we are thinking about the fact that we have one creator and he created everything in the earth, and he even created the human beings in the earth, you can't be angry with me because I am of some different or have more melanin or something like that. We only have one race. It's the human race. We are one family, the human family. I don't care what other boxes you want to try to throw people in, you still come back to. We have one earth, we have one set of oceans and seas. We have, you know, one group of people, and they're all part of the same race. You know they you know, we might have different colors. I want to just tell you, if you've got an issue with that, why don't you go up to the holy heavens and go tell the Creator you hate what he created. God, I bet you we have a really deep conversation, and you're not gonna like the

26:52 results of that conversation. Go check it out. I mean usually when next time you pray, go just shout out to him, I can't stand those other people you made, and then look up because lightning might be coming. And told me that it's not our job to judge. Yeah, it's the Creator when you get there, Yeah it will. It's even spelled out in all the books that they're reading, but they don't listen to that. And to have those kinds of emotions and feelings. I'm here to tell you will not be seeing that great golden city, but there will be some place for you, and you're not gonna like it. And is it worth? Is it worth eternal life in fire? I mean, think about that. I mean, it's such a ridiculous behavior. And I mean that too.

27:48 I'm not calling your names. I'm telling you your behavior is ridiculous because you act as if we had a choice. So since we didn't, you need to talk to the one who made that choice and YouTube battle it out and work it out and have fun with that because you're not going to like the results at all, and there will be there will be judgment for it, and I don't think you're gonna enjoy that. But that's a whole another show. You have. You've even I mean you were talking about, you know, sharing all that information with them and about the boarding schools.

28:33 But you even had an opportunity to testify at the Semen, the Senate Human Rights Committee about issues affecting an indigenous population, specifically those that are incarcerated. Is there any progress? So I was called as an expert witness with my background, with my work for many years to this Senate and they questioned me the Senate in regards to they were doing a study on incarceration, people being put in segregation and what I thought, and of course I'm going to talk about Red Pass in my programs. I don't know whatever came about from that report. It was a long, long study and I never really heard much from that.

29:25 But I mean, we do have a good Senate. We have no several people that sit on the Senate, and I know that they're always fighting, but I mean, you look at government, it just seems to be government is policy and a lot of talking. Often you don't see much change from the talking to the reality often, which is the sad part when government really is about policy and and not. The not the working bees, you know, yeah so and getting them to actually do something. I tell you that it's another foreign emide because I have to pay I'm not even I don't even have a choice. I have to pay taxes to pay their salaries for them to play games with people's lives and take away people's benefits and allow people to be hungry and homeless and naked and no heart, no empathy. I just don't understand that kind of behavior. I mean, I just wonder I wish I could have find someone who can tell me what's wrong with that person's heart, that you can sit there and watch people be homeless, or watch them be bullied, or watch them have no food and get glee out of that. I mean, that's talk about being sick. Now,

30:57 that's a sickness too. But you know, well, I think what happens is there's so many layers that everybody thinks the other layer is going to do something. So you know, we elect people that really aren't experts in any area that they're asked to look at. And so what I've come to the conclusion in all the years that I've thought sort of that very system is I don't think I belong in the system. And how do I leave that system and walk outside the system? And how does community heal community? Like if we think, after all the mess that we're in, it didn't just happen overnight. It progressively happened where we're already now in the world, in the world, not just in our own little areas of our countries. This is happening across the world. And so I think, as people within the world, it's time that we step outside that system and community, start healing community, just like it would have been when my great great grandparents were working with each farms or whatever in order to build their land or whatever it was. I think it's up to us now is to get on our feet and start community, healing community, because we can't. If we keep being relyant on a government, we're going to be even in worse mess. Yeah. Yeah, So I think it's time to step outside the systems because the systems aren't helping right.

32:24 And what's so interesting is me being an accountant and also a tech person. You know, everything is within systems. But one thing I can say, I started out when when there wasn't even a personal computer around, and now we have, you know, personal computers in our little phones and watches and things like that. So I've watched the progress going outside of the system. We could have said, oh, you know, it's always going to be that way, but no, someone said, no, we need to create a new system and create a new system. Now we have AI trying to create a new system. This is a revolution for a whole new system. But why haven't we tried to have a new system of how we treat one another?

33:12 I mean, that's so you're right. Community by community, we have to get healthy, and each healthy community go help the other sick communities become Well, that's connecting the disconnected, because we need to get connected. Yeah, because I think what's happening is like, there's a few things, but one of the things, the things that I hear that I just cringe, is well, every word's like that, And I say, when are we going to stop that rhetoric? And when are we going to start saying everyone might be like that, but we're not going to be like that anymore. Like I have eight grandchildren, and if to the day I die, I will fight to get this system or at least a foundation. So like my grandson works for me, he's twenty two this year.

33:59 My daughter that works for me, And so I know that if I should die tomorrow, which I hope I don't, but if I should, that they can step in. They've been trained enough that they can step into my shoes. And I know for at least three generations it'll continue after I die. And so my job and my my time is to set that foundation. And how are we going to move outside the system, and how are we going to get people behind us in order to move it forward and so that I look at you know, that is my job that the creator set me to do, and then it that I have to work there that it can then continue because we've got to stop using same Well everyone's like that, like, if this is how bad it is now, what's it going to look like in ten years if we don't spreak?

34:46 Right, Yeah, we have to and and that's what that's why, you know, we have the elders who can identify, you know, the mess that our generation might have created. Now it's time to clean and clean the mas us up and give them this generation in future generations a chance of not only making money, that's all they think about, but living in harmony, living in peace, respecting one another, regardless of who the person is, respecting one another. Even if they've been incarcerated. They made a decision that they had to go behind bars for a period of time, but they're still human. Now it's a matter of okay, brother, okay, sister, you're now home. Let's see what we can do to help you get your life to the point where you can start living your dreams. You can start, you know, fulfilling some of your hopes instead of pointing fingers. So it's just well, well, I want to talk about you were inducted in the Peterborough Pathway Way of Fame this year.

36:03 How'd that feel. Well, just to explain what it is is these big stones that go into the ground in one of our areas that there's music fest and all that outdoors. So your name get herded into this pathway. And so when I first found out, I thought, oh, somebody can pee on me now on that pathway. That was the first thing. I've been nominated so many times. I used to have a restaurant, and I've done a lot of businesses within the city, and I've been nominated for business Women of the Year, and it got to the point where I thought, even if I was the only person that was nominated, I'd probably still not win. So it was quite a surprise because I was nominated for both the Barphill Humanitarian Award and the Samaritan Award, so I won the top award at it. There was eight people that were inducted, and so yeah, it was really nice because somebody that nominated me with somebody I'm not even really close to.

37:02 So it just shows you there are people that are watching you within your community. I've been fighting and working hard for the less fortunate my city for twenty years, so you know, it's sort of nice coming to the end of my well, I don't I'm sixty seven, so not quite near the end of my life, I hope, but you know, as you as you, as you're growing older, it's sort of nice to see that recognition. So and it was a lovely evening, the induction and stuff like that. So yeah, it was it was an honor. Oh yeah. I mean being heard is such a gratifying experience. I mean, we go out here, we work, we do different things, but we're not sure that people are really listening, have really heard us. And just to know that you're being heard, I mean, that's got to feel pretty good.

37:51 They heard you, they heard you. It's interesting the amount of people that come forward and say, like you know that you don't really even know, saying, oh, you've done this, this and this, and you know it. Then you think, well, maybe it's worth it because you're not doing it for yourself anyhow. You're doing it for the people that you're walking beside. And I think that you know, it brings their stories to the forefront. Two because in September they did a documentary on me, and so about two hundred and fifty people. So that was September seventh, which was my birthday. We had about two hundred and fifty people come out to watch that, and then two days later was the Pathway of Fame. And then right to October tenth, I defended my PhD. So it's been really an overwhelming month. And then today we're having all our city councilors come through our new building that we're in right now, so while we're speaking, they're going through, so like a lot of things are happening.

38:45 And then we're hoping to build a wellness center in the spring in another area not within the city, so a lot's really happening. So like all of the fights, and so just anybody listening, don't ever give up on your It might sometimes you might get tired and you just wonder if it's worth it at the end of the day. Like I've been doing this twenty years, I just wonder what the hell, Like I quit nursing twenty years ago, twenty five years ago, so I would continue this journey. And you know, is it always been easy? Not at all? But I think that looking back now, each step gave me something new to move to the next step. And if I hadn't, like you know, it took me ten years to do my doctorate, but I wouldn't have been able to write what I wrote six years ago. So it took that long because it needed to take that long so that I gained more knowledge and more information in order to write what was more relevant.

39:44 And so I think that for all of us in the human race, we all have to take steps to get I think to for a society that's going to be healed. Well, I'll tell you, going out helping someone else is probably the most gratifying thing I've ever done in my life. To know just that time that I spent, that time that I gave, that time that I shared changed people's lives. You know, I can't find any vacation or trip that makes me feel better. Then I know that just some words or some time or whatever has changed someone's direction and now they are succeeding, and now they are well, and now they have hope. That's really really important. And gosh, and you were talking about the documentary film, is it available for someone for us to see?

40:52 So I'll let you know when, but I know that the film, the documentary film maker, he's entered it into a contest. Because it's been entered in there, she can't put it up onto YouTube or anything yet, but when it is or I might be able to just share it with you, lease see it, but I can't put it out onto YouTube or anything yet until we know if it's been accepted into a film festival or whatever she wanted to enter it in. Okay, great, Okay your why Path Counseling Consulting provides training for Red Path programs and facilitators. How does someone sign up for this valuable training?

41:37 So right now, we've been training all across Canada. We've been really really busy doing that. I have two staff that travel. We also do it online as well. We've never done it into the States, and it's something that I've always really wanted to do. It's a three day training. Like I said, we can do it online. If anyone's interested, please feel free to so call us. I'll give you the number to call, and we trained people. It's a manual in it also, you're given the AAI and you get people to fill that out and we do the analysis on that. So a lot, and we train people on how to use that scale as well, and you become a license facilitator to run it and then you have a manual to run a twenty session program in your own communities.

42:30 Yeah, well, I you know, I know it's something very very very much needed here in the States. And so, yeah, them being able to reach out to be able to take those trainings, and you know, I've done a lot of trainings for different types of knowledge we were trying to do and training the trainer or facilitators and having them go out you know, it's a great way of getting that knowledge and getting that wellness out there where people can actually become a whole. So, yeah, if you'll share that, if there's if there's any uh, real rich people watching this, I want to partner to open a Red Path wellness center in the States.

43:24 I'm really happy to do that as well. Yeah, what's your info? What's your It's Peggy at Redpath dot Io, okay, and seven O five seven four zero two zero zero three is our office number. Okay, great, that's really really important. And so what what kind of explained to me what is the importance of connecting the disconnected. Well I say, think that it doesn't take a whole lot to look across our own countries right now, and we are truly living in a disconnect and so to connect people back to living to be the authors of their own story. Like like we've always said, we have a video out there, a YouTube video, red past Social network or red past, Like it's a whiteboard video. I don't know if you've ever seen it. It sort of talks like going through that. You see, how if we're able to live in in harmony, we're going to be connected.

44:37 And so that's really an important thing. And I think that when we see people starting to connect with themselves, we see that glow again. And you know, as a nurse, I remember, you know, it's it's not hard to look at somebody and know that they're going to have Alzheimer's because they have that empty, empty look in their eyes. You look in their eyes and you can't see their soul almost anymore. Right, It's this emptiness. And and I see that with a lot of people with coming through my door that are in a really bad state with addiction in particular, and there's that emptiness there too. And I think that once you can get somebody connected back to maybe their soul. I'm not sure what they're connecting to.

45:21 You see that twinkle back in their eye, and so I think it's a very easy thing to see. And we see that once we when they start seeing a blow, the people around them want to get better as well. And so next thing, you know, they're bringing a friend here because their friend sees them glowing and they want to be like that. Right when all as we're doing is handing out pipes and needles and and that's our solution. We're in trouble. Yeah, yeah, well see, And that's that's the one thing about the whole so called healing planned. You know, everything, is you start getting federal dollars or any kind of government dollars, they're not really even looking at the goal of making people whole is how many units did you see?

46:12 You know, it's all about the stats. It's not about the success of these people becoming you know, viable citizens, becoming healthy, becoming dreamers, becoming people with purpose. They don't even care. It's like, okay, how many units. So then everybody's forced to just see as many people as possible, but maybe not be able to spend the time to get them all the way through the program. So, I mean, when we talk about changing systems, there's a lot of systems we need to look at what is our goal. If our goal is to actually help those people to be on their feet, to have a dream, to have a purpose, to become whole, become connected to society and community, then you just can't run them through. You know, a couple couple of days talks and everything's okay, and no follow ups and things. It takes some time, and they don't want to spend the money for the success. They just want to say, Okay, this is what we do with the money. We saw two hundred people, We saw five hundred people. But then of the five hundred, how many people have succeeded? Oh okay, well the percentage was two percent. So do you think there's something wrong with the program?

47:30 But one of the biggest problems is so I they can blame the addict. So I give you five million dollars and I say, but Angela, the problem I look outside is still the same. And you say, well, they don't want to quit. Like when you have a vulnerable population, you can put the blame back on them. Yeah, you can. You don't have to take any responsibility. But you've done with that money, right, and nobody's at because I can blame you. And so that's where the biggest problem is, especially when you're looking at funding and money. Everybody's running after the same money and everybody as long as you got all the right words in that you know, proposal, but nobody's questioning you because you can blame that person because they they're weak. You know, it has nothing to do with what you're not doing. The lens needs to go maybe on some of these organizations on really what are you doing? There's not enough watchdogs mm hmm.

48:40 But but the thing is, like I said, if they would actually change the narrative in the program itself or the funding you know, of the funds that they're giving out and so that it you know, you're actually wanting to succeed, then we would have more people that are are connecting that and not falling through the cracks and things like that. Like I said, there's a whole there's a whole bunch of systems that need to be put together. Well, if you if you told me that, if I showed you success, I get a million extra dollars. Yeah, then then you're going to see a change, but you're going to see if I got money because I showed the greatest success of all the organizations. All the organizations are going to pull up their socks a little bit higher than they were.

49:31 The Oh, that is a great idea. That's definitely a great idea for all of those who are actually ones that are funders. Let's let's let's look at what you're doing and kind of modify that a little bit so that we have a huge success rate. Peggy, thank you so much for being here this morning. I really enjoyed this conversation. I know our audience has learned a lot, and I'm hoping to see Red Path Services popping a ball ower the US because yeah, well I'm just getting these people whole is the best thing possible.

50:13 Thank you so much for being here. You too, and thank you for watching A Sharp Outlook Connecting the disconnected. This is our topic today. We're here every Monday at eleven am Eastern time eight am Pacific time, and as always, stay informed. I want to thank you for joining us on a Sharp Outlook. We have been informed and energized to take the next steps. We have posted links to websites and videos to learn more on today's topic. Please join us again next week for another thought provoking conversation right here on key for H Radio and Talk for TV.

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