S2 EP2: The Impact of COVID-19 with Patty Hayes and Ari Lozano
In the second episode of 2021, we hear from two guests who discuss the impact of COVID-19 on their lives and their work.
Patty Hayes is the Director of Public Health - Seattle & King County. She grew up in Longview, WA and entered the public health world after a career in nursing.
Ari Lozano (she/them) is the Program and Development Manager at All Girl Everything Ultimate Program (AGEUP). AGEUP invests in black, indigenous, and people of color youth in South Seattle. Their community is rooted in ultimate frisbee and committed to justice.
Our guests share their origin stories and the impact of COVID-19 on their work and lives. Ari talked about how the lack of activity and proximity to friends has upended the young people she works with in South Seattle. The rise in mental health impacts due to the pandemic is something we are seeing quite strongly in young people. Furthermore, there is a current surge of cases for young people in our region now.
Patty spoke about the impact on herself and her staff, who have been working 24/7 since our first case in a nursing home in Kirkland back in February of 2020. She also talked at length about the decision for the county to declare that racism was a public health crisis. This is something that the coronavirus pandemic has exacerbated even more in our communities.
All our guests shared personal and professional projects towards the end.
Ari shared about the upcoming GiveBIG 2021 campaign in early May and asked people to considering donating to the work of AGEUP and to other grassroots organziations, especially those led by BIPOC folks. You can find AGEUP on Instagram at @age_up!
Patty shared three things: 1) The renewal of Best Starts for Kids - the only public investment in the entire life-span of young people in the country! 2) The genesis of the UW School of Nursing's Center for Anti-Racism. This center will create what Patty calls "nursing disruptors" who are more able to provide culturally competent care in healthcare systems 3) She is considering formally studying Cosmology (string theory, quantum gravity, etc.) and would love to hear from any local scientists in this field!
Thank you to both our guests for this great conversation. Responses for any of these endeavors can be sent to us at f.nam@civic-commons.org. We'll happily forward along any notes to our guests.
0:00 - Introduction - Impact of COVID-19
0:48 - Patty Hayes Self-Introduction
1:11 - Ari Lozano Self-Introduction
1:30 - Ari explains what AGE-UP is
2:20 - Check-in Question Introduction about impact of COVID-19 in the county/city and with young people in South Seattle
3:30 - Ari's response about the impact on her work with young people
5:44 - Frank responds and talks about living in South Korea during the time of COVID-19 and what it's like there
6:42 - Ari talks about how AGEUP has pivoted to work with young folks on-line and how they are doing during this time
9:04 - Frank talks about the importance of proximity and the difficulties in not having that
9:57 - Patty talks about how she hasn't had a break since February 2020 when the pandemic reached Seattle.
11:49 - Current surge of cases in younger people and the emergence of the long haul syndrome of those inflicted by COVID-10
12:40 - Declaration of racism as a public health emergency
13:48 - Hope in focusing on community; to empower them and to address the long-standing racism here in King County
14:17 - Frank talks about the impact of Heather McGhee's Sum of Us book and the impact of white supremacy not just on BIPOC folks but alson on white people themselves
16:00 - The false narrative of zero-sum hurts all of us
16:50 - Ari tells us what she finds hope in - young people themselves and their brilliance and in the vaccine roll-out
18:53 - Frank talks about how Ari herself was a young person that he knew and believed in and it's great to see her continue the work
19:23 - Frank introduces the next segment where guests tell their origin story
19:38 - Patty talks about her childhood and how they moved up the West Coast as her parents looked for quieter and smaller communities. Ended up in a farm on Longview, WA.
20:30 - Hooked on the Patty Duke show which led her to be a candy-striper volunteer and that inspired her health career. She did over 1,000 hours of volunteerism during her high school years!
22:30 - Worked with families of people who had traumatic brain injuries at Harborview. She was also assigned to work with terminally-ill young people.
23:50 - This led her to pivot to government relations and public health
24:35 - Frank talks about the positive impact of nurses on himself and his mother during her battle with an auto-immune disease
26:30 - Frank talks about the impact of brain-trauma in a personal relationship with one of the young people he coached
27:07 - Ari talks about her life growing up in the Southend of Seattle. Her parents both immigrated from the Philippines and the family has lived in Seattle for almost her entire life outside of college
28:08 - The huge impact of ultimate (frisbee) starting from her time at Asa Mercer Middle School
29:10 - Full circle to go from a young person in the community playing this sport to someone running youth programs for people in the same community
31:02 - Ari feels she has her dream job!
31:31 - Frank talks about how the best people to work for community are the people from the community
33:00 - Frank introduces next segment where people share projects they are working on with the public
33:42 - Ari talks about AGE-UP's Spring Youth Internship and doubling their FT staff from 3 to 6 employees!
35:05 - They will hold workshops led/facilitated by young people for adults
37:43 - GiveBig is on 5/4 - 5/5. Please donate to us and support other programs, especially those that are BIPOC-led! Invest in our communities!
40:26 - Patty will mention three things
40:32 - The renewal of Best Start for Kids. A unique program in the country where there's a commitment to investments in the entire lifespand of a child's life. They just finished the first 5 years of this work and will be renewed for another 6 years!
41:27 - Patty works with the UW School of Nursing and they are establishing a first-in-the-nation center for anti-racism work for nurses. Not just work-force development but to really educate what she calls "Nursing Disruptors" so that the care is more culturally appropriate
42:59 - Patty is a student of cosmology and quantum loop gravity! She's interested in continuing to study that in the next couple of years. The wisdom of science at looking at the dynamic nature of the universe gives her great hope and inspires her curiosity.
44:58 - Closing of the podcast
Special thanks to Big Phony for providing music for the We Belong Here podcast.