It's June, friends, and this month is all about putting the #ACTwithPRIDE icing on this tasty cake we've been cooking up together! This month as we're closing out for the season, we wanted to take time to reflect upon the progress we've made so far and get feedback on the shared action plans we've been working to develop over the past six months. Here's what's coming up...

Action for a Peaceful World @ Our Alaskan Oasis

In September of 2021, we will be evolving our work based on everything we have heard, shared and discussed over the past year. We aim to serve as a model for the transformation of educational supports and services to meet the unique needs of the neurodiverse humans we serve in order to minimize harm, maximize autonomy, and ensure assent first always. We will do this through three 10-week online offerings (September-November 2021, January-March 2022, and March-May 2022) as well as a 6-week in-person offering in the summer (July-August 2022).

Educational Coaching - Monday through Thursday we will provide educational coaching services designed to support individuals on their personal life journeys. These services are aimed at dismantling the systems of oppression that are deeply engrained within the primary, secondary, and continuing education systems by ensuring all offerings are person-centered. We will only implement curriculum and programs that are founded in Direct Instruction, Precision Teaching, Prosocial Skills, Personalized Systems of Instruction, and Self-Directed Education.

DEAL with BABS - On Friday mornings, we will gather together in a Study Circle. This will provide us an opportunity to come together as a learning community to share wisdom with others based on things we've learned recently as well as pose questions for which we need support finding answers.

ACT with PRIDE - On Friday afternoons, we will gather together in an Action Circle. This will provide us an opportunity to come together as a community of emerging activists to share our action plans with others, seek feedback on our plans, and get the support we need to bring our plans to fruition.

Tipsy Unicorns - On Friday evenings, we will gather together in a Story Circle. This will provide us an opportunity to share our accomplishments with the community and seek solidarity in celebrating, uplifting, and amplifying these stories in the service of inspiring and empowering others!

Stories Heard from our Honored Guests

Our mission is to #FuckingListen to stories of oppression and liberation, #BeRadical in our development as accomplices, and #TakeAction in the service of dismantling systems of oppression that meets the quality expectations of established activists and their communities in an efficient way. To that end we welcomed 10 guests on the Tipsy Unicorn podcast this season, listened deeply to the stories and perspectives they shared, engaged in reflective conversations about what we heard, and worked to develop a shared action plan that addressed the concerns, hopes, and dreams.

Here are the links to all the Tipsy Unicorn podcasts we've dropped this season! Take a listen!

Check Your MO with Cammie Morgan

Address the System with Denise Ross

Privilege, Power, and Parenting with Akilah S. Richards

Life Changing Mission with LeAsia Leach-Thompson

The Point of No Return with danyelle beal

Social Power is Renewable with Harry Hirsh

Listen and Act In Solidarity with Sarah Alford Hart

Be Open to Listen and Change with Rachel Cullen

Radical Introspection with the Bearded Behaviorist

Find What Feels Good with Sarah and Worner

Lessons Learned from our Honored Guests

We hope that you have taken the time to listen to some or all of the podcasts we've dropped, and we also acknowledge that this is A LOT of listening and this modality does not work for everyone. Here are a few of the key gems we harvested along the way from our guests:

• Fucking Listen! Really Listen! Deeply Listen! Just LISTEN!!!
• Check your motivating operations - why are you doing what you are doing?
• Ask yourself questions and check in with your intentions
• Understand why you’re doing what you’re doing and what it means to you
• Remember that all behavior makes sense once you understand the context
• Take care of yourself, get more spiritual and realize it’s all about LOVE!
• Understand that everyone is impacted by racism
• Be humble and understand that there will always be more to learn
• Stand up, speak up, show up, and do something
• Start small and stick with it!
• Join the conversation and be diplomatic
• Validate the fears and values of others to build social power
• Get in touch with your goals, values, and defense mechanisms
• Learn to let things go - not everything needs to be addressed
• Join groups, listen, and participate - show solidarity - carry it forward
• Minimize harm, maximize autonomy, and assent first

Action Potential Generated in the Action Circle

• Honestly explore our lenses and filters
• Accelerate development of effective accomplices
• Activate transformation through shared empowerment exercises
• Proactively guide history by facilitating connections
• Champion the evolution of the educational, behavioral health, and criminal justice systems.
• Advocate recognizing and celebrating our differences while also inviting change to expand and reach new potentials as a community.
• Build and nurture community connections through shared positive action.
• Inspire others to work on learning more and changing their opinions or actions through modeling reflective listening.
• Lead through modeling actions by aligning our behaviors with our values.
• Establish and maintain a space to unite people in a positive feedback loop of mutual support.
• Cultivate and nourish partnerships through shared joyful experiences.
• Develop an online learning community that specifically utilizes direct instruction and precision teaching to teach the basic skills (e.g. reading, writing, math, creative expression, and sciences), and things such as the Prosocial Skills, Self-Determination, Foundational Toolbox for Life, Appreciative Inquiry, and other related topics.
• Reparations to the Nth degree: individual grants would make a strong case for Universal Basic Income because it would clarify the needs for us all, individually and as a collective, so the government would know what we need and not just what they think we need.  People could drive their own change and get their first level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs met.
• Learn more about marketing, to reach the people we know are out there waiting for us.  We need to generate more content that is useful and relatable.
• Get better at using analogies in order to teach.
• Continue to affirm ourselves and show up authentically.
• We need to show up for ourselves, to reflect the change.
• Being aware of how we may be showing up in non-beneficial ways; we need to reflect on that.
• Start thinking of others and how they may perceive what we do and say daily, even/especially when we’re frustrated.
• Keep learning and diving deep into these questions.
• Media outlets should stop doing things that are detrimental to society.  People are susceptible to that.  If the big picture isn’t promoting what we’re talking about, movement forward to where we’re trying to go as a society will be slow.
• People need to act out of love and push their personal and cultural agendas to the side.
• Get comfortable and calibrated with applying organization mindset to yourself, and combine it with empathy to maintain relationships based on understanding what other people want while setting boundaries.
• Practice, test, and update the tools we need to help other people with overhauling oppressive systems by replacing them with better ones.
• Step into situations, observe them and what people want, offer help, and learn and update from what is less effective than we hope.
• Learn to observe and reflect more, but at the same time deliberately lend a hand to people who have made their living on a culture that doesn't do things deliberately.
• Distribute 5-minute open mic signs.  Give people opportunities to listen to and be heard by their neighbors, across cultural lines, so they can connect and start doing things as a community again. Pass out the socioeconomic health survey at the open mic hotspots.  Also, grant proposal forms, and a link to Don’t Read This Book!
• We need to stop being scared of each other, and living our lives.  Everyone’s afraid of losing things and getting in trouble, and our giant ridiculously complicated system makes inaction safer than action, but if people practiced living and got experience and used it, they’d find they don’t need to be on guard all the time.  There’s a risk, but it’s manageable.  People need to interact in person, even if it’s outdoors.  Hopefully, people will start mending bridges and not being scared of each other.
• Throughout human history, the law of the jungle has been the way things are unless we build on it.  If we run on automatic, that’s how it’ll be.  We need to actually try and be creative with solving problems.

Suggested Reading from our Honored Guests

The following 28 books were compiled from recommendations provided by the guests on our podcast. This is an awesome list of resources which will form the basis of our study circle beginning in the Fall of 2021. Pick up one or more of these gems to add to your library and continue your learning journey!

Ido in Autismland: Climbing Out of Autism's Silent Prison by Ido Kedar

A Mismatch of Salience by Damian Milton

Trauma, Stigma, and Autism by Gordon Gates

Neurotribes by Steve Silberman

You're More Powerful Than You Think by Eric Liu

Don't Read This Book! It's a Waste of Your Time by Harry Hirsh

Don't Mourn for Us by Jim Sinclair

Welcome to the Autistic Community by ASAN

The Explosive Child by Dr. Ross Greene

Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins

7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey

The Four Agreements by don Miguel Ruiz

Becoming by Michelle Obama

Crossing Over to Canaan by Gloria Ladson-Billings

Strength to Love by Martin Luther King

Dear Strong Black Woman by Jennifer Sterling

The Body Keeps Score by Bessel van der Kolk

This Will Be My Undoing by Morgan Jerkins

The Other America by Martin Luther King Jr

Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski

Unfu*ck Yourself by Gary John Bishop

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X Kendi

Raising Free People by Akilah S. Richards

Mistakes Were Made But Not By Me by Carol Tavris and Elliot Aronson

The Science of Fear by Daniel Gardner

The Gift of Fear by Gavin de Becker

Walden Two by B.F. Skinner

The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt

Gifts of Generative Gratitude for our Guests and Crew

Here is a compilation of all the people, organizations, and movements to which we would appreciate directing your privilege and resources as we work together to continue to generate behavioral momentum through expressions of gratitude. By sharing our resources, we can drive the continuation of action in the service of our shared vision of a fully liberated society.

• Autistic Self-Advocacy Network: “Nothing About Us Without Us” - https://autisticadvocacy.org
• Autistic Women and Non-Binary Network: “Neurodiversity is for Everyone” - https://awnnetwork.org
• Youth Partnership Uganda: #EndChildMarriage - http://youthpartnershipuganda.org
• Humanity Forward: "We have the momentum, we just need you." - https://movehumanityforward.com/ 
• Values to Action: "Proven Science. Active Change." - https://www.valuestoaction.com/
• Black Lives Matter: "Join the Movement to Fight for Freedom, Liberation, and Justice." - https://blacklivesmatter.com/
• Life Changing Missions: "Become the best version of you!" - https://lifechangingmissions.com/
• Black Applied Behavior Analysts (BABA): "Empowering the Black ABA Community" - https://babainfo.org/
• Lifespan ABA: "Therapy that makes a difference!" - https://www.lifespanabanc.org/
• Phreedom Holistic Healing: "Learn. Heal. Evolve." - https://www.phreedomhealing.com/
• Spelman College: "A Choice to Change the World" - https://www.spelman.edu/
• Color of Change: "Do Something Real About Injustice" - https://colorofchange.org/
• 4 Kids: "A Home for Every Child" - https://www.4kids.us/
• Susan G. Komen: "Join our Fight. Change Lives." - https://www.komen.org/
• Love, Sex, ABA: "The podcast where pop culture and ABA meet!" - https://www.patreon.com/Lovesexaba
• Blvck Womxn Worldwide: "Blvck Womxn Driving Powerful Solutions" - https://www.blvckwomxnworldwide.org/
• Beautiful Humans Change: "Committed to Dismantling Systems of Oppression" - https://www.beautifulhumanschange.com/
• The Heartwood School (ALC): "Artfully enabling students to pursue their curiosities" - https://www.heartwoodalc.org/
• Akilah S. Richards: "A child-trusting, anti-oppression, liberatory, love-centered approach to parenting and caregiving" - https://www.patreon.com/akilah
• Merch from the Bearded Behaviorist - https://legendmasters.com/collections/bearded-behaviorist
• The LEAP Institute: "Equitable Access for Aspiring BCBAs" - https://www.leapaba.org/
• Sex ABA 2022: "Affirmation, autonomy, harm reduction, and human rights" - https://www.facebook.com/SexABAConference/