Established in 2007, The Isabella Santos Foundation (ISF) is dedicated to eradicating pediatric cancer’s devastating impact while honoring the legacy of Isabella Santos, her courageous fight against neuroblastoma.

About a year ago, we had a fabulous Small & Gutsy episode that featured Jazz Hands For Autism, a nonprofit organization that provides wrap-around artist education, development, promotion and placement for learners and aspiring artists on the autism spectrum enabling them to explore and express their talent. Services offered include: The Jazz Hands Concert Series: a semi-annual concert series and performance platform for neurodivergent artists, The Jazz Hands Musicians Academy: an individualized post-secondary music education and vocational program that prepares aspiring musicians on the autism spectrum for careers in music, and The Jazz Hands Junior Academy: in home and virtual music lessons taught by RBT (Registered Behavior Technician), meaning trained musicians and graduates of the Jazz Hands Musicians Academy
Join them in celebrating their 10-year anniversary on May 25th!
Get Tickets here: JHConcert21.eventbrite.com

If you’ve ever been pregnant or been in the process of adopting or engaging in a surrogacy, you know the milestones set for each month of that journey and the belief of trusting the process, medical and emotional, that everything will work out as it should, meaning you will have a beautiful little life to whom you will love, cherish, and tend forever; that amazing feeling of anticipation just before the arrival, making sure the nursery is set, all the loose ends are tied up…and that moment comes, and then, there is silence..utter silence. That is the experience of so many who have lost a child along that path, and so much harder and lonelier the closer you are to what should be the end of one journey and the beginning of your parental journey…this is just unnatural and unfair, and so, so very heartbreaking. Anderson Cooper does an episode on his podcast, Is This All There Is featuring a mother who experienced the Greatest Loss…beautifully shared and deeply painful to hear…

Check out their website: www.bornintosilence.org

Did you know that Black Youth are Almost Five Times As Likely To Be Incarcerated As their White Peers?

The following are some data points from the Sentencing Project, captured by Josh Rovner and Ashley Nellis

For a decade, incarceration disparities between Black and white youth have remained stubbornly high. As of 2021, Black youth were 4.7 times as likely to be placed, meaning detained or committed to juvenile facilities as their white peers. Forty-two percent of youths in placement are Black, even though Black Americans comprise only 15% of all youth across the United States. Since, Black and brown youth are more likely to be in custody than white youth, going to prison is a major life-altering event that creates obstacles to rebuilding lives in the community, such as gaining employment and finding stable and safe housing after release. Imprisonment also reduces lifetime earnings and negatively affects life outcomes among children of incarcerated parents. These are individual-level consequences of imprisonment but there are societal-level consequences as well: high levels of imprisonment in communities cause high crime rates and neighborhood deterioration, thus fueling greater disparities. This cycle both individually and societally is felt disproportionately by people who are Black and Brown.

So what do these statistics and social work brokering have to do with one another? You will soon find out by listening to this episode.

For more information, please visit their website: www.legendlegacies.org

About a year ago, we had a fabulous Small & Gutsy episode that featured Jazz Hands For Autism, a nonprofit organization that provides wrap-around artist education, development, promotion and placement for learners and aspiring artists on the autism spectrum enabling them to explore and express their talent. Services offered include: The Jazz Hands Concert Series: a semi-annual concert series and performance platform for neurodivergent artists, The Jazz Hands Musicians Academy: an individualized post-secondary music education and vocational program that prepares aspiring musicians on the autism spectrum for careers in music, and The Jazz Hands Junior Academy: in home and virtual music lessons taught by RBT (Registered Behavior Technician), meaning trained musicians and graduates of the Jazz Hands Musicians Academy
Join them in celebrating their 10-year anniversary on May 25th!
Get Tickets here: JHConcert21.eventbrite.com

My two guests today know this all too well as their passion for helping kids learn to read began as a young married couple when they joined a USC alumni program reading with students every week at the USC “School of Five” inner-city elementary schools. They quickly became aware of the alarming number of students […]

I remember putting my kids to bed at night when they were young - giving them the security and comfort of knowing that their worries should be about their little life, not the big issues of financially and emotionally supporting them, giving them a roof over their heads, food, clothes and the importance of having […]

What matters to you? It's a different question than what makes you happy, according to our guest today whom I will introduce in a moment. Happiness stems from what really matters to the individual and many of us have lost our collective understanding of what matters means. But, it's not too late - there's hope […]

I try to remind myself to be hopeful in times when I feel the walls are crashing in around me, maybe because of some bad news, like anything that threatens my children, my family, my health, my livelihood, the relationships I love and care about or maybe because of the state of the country, the […]

In 2007, Amber and Tony Bender faced the unthinkable; they heard the words, your daughter, Addi has a brain tumor. Addi was sixteen months old and underwent with her family a year of surgeries, chemotherapy, hope and heartache and finally, the sadness of brave Addi needing to let go - I truly cannot imagine the […]