Podcast: Peer Support for 911 Dispatchers with Kristin Boyes, Lenexa, KS

Kristin Boyes
Dispatcher
City of Lenexa, Kansas
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911 Peer Support Program

911 Peer Support Advisory Committee

MARC 911 System Overview

Healthy Dispatchers Make Healthy Communities

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Episode Transcript

 

Lauren Palmer  00:07

Coming to you from Kansas City, Missouri, this is Gov love a podcast about local government. Gov Love is produced by ElGL, the Engaging Local Government Leaders network, we engage the brightest minds in local government. I’m Lauren Palmer, the director of local government services for the mid America Regional Council, and today’s host. Before we start our episode, don’t forget to register for hashtag ELGL 21. The all virtual ELGL annual conference on September 23 to 24. This event is packed with local government learning plus connections and networking opportunities. Tickets are just $80 with discounted rates for students so register today. Today, my guest is Kristin Boyes, a dispatcher for the Lenexa police department in Lenexa, Kansas, and the co-chair of the 911 peer support Advisory Committee for the Greater Kansas City region. We will be talking about the important but often overlooked role that communications workers play in protecting public safety in our communities. Specifically, we will learn about our regional 911 peer support program that helps dispatchers manage the stress of their jobs. This is the first episode in a two part series about peer support. In our next episode, we’ll cover a similar commander level Peer Support Program. Kristen, welcome to Gov Love. 

Kristin Boyes  01:26

Hi, thank you! Excited to be here and talk about some peer support. 

Lauren Palmer  01:31

Great. Well, we are glad to have you. We will start with a lightning round of fun questions just to help you get warmed up. So first question: what irrational fear do you have?

Kristin Boyes  01:44

I am oddly afraid of lotion. Just like your regular hand lotion body lotion. Yeah, I hate the way that feels the sliminess of it. And I remember, as I was growing up as a kid, and like junior high, my friends would chase me with lotion. Because they knew I hated it. And so of course now I have this like scarred into my memory.

Lauren Palmer  02:07

Oh my gosh, traumatized by bottles of hand lotion. 

Kristin Boyes  02:11

Right?

Lauren Palmer  02:12

So what about like sunscreen?

Kristin Boyes  02:15

I like to spray, I don’t want to do the lotion.

Lauren Palmer  02:19

I’ve never heard of this before. I’m so glad you chose this as your fear. I find it fascinating. And I really feel like we’ve like opened a window.

Kristin Boyes  02:29

I now have a child, a four year old and so I had to put lotion on her when she was a baby. And it was terrible.

Lauren Palmer  02:36

Wow. Well, I’m glad you got through that for the sake of your child. I’m sure that was awful.

Kristin Boyes  02:41

Absolutely. 

Lauren Palmer  02:43

Okay, our next question, hopefully, it’ll be a little more uplifting. What was your favorite vacation?

Kristin Boyes  02:49

So I was lucky enough to go to Maui. Two years in a row back in 2015 and 2016. And it’s just amazing. It’s so beautiful. The first year that we went was our daughter’s senior year. So we went kind of as a graduation present for her and got to go both years with a group of like six of our closest adult friends. So just experiencing that and being in that beautiful environment was amazing.

Lauren Palmer  03:20

You know, what’s better than going to Hawaii once? is going to Hawaii two years in a row.

Kristin Boyes  03:26

Absolutely. 

Lauren Palmer  03:28

It sounds amazing. That’s a place I’ve never visited that I’ve always wanted to go to so you’ve really put that seed back in my brain. 

Kristin Boyes  03:36

There you go. 

Lauren Palmer  03:38

And our final question, what is the worst movie you have ever seen?

Kristin Boyes  03:43

So I don’t know if this is the worst movie I’ve ever seen, but it’s the movie I’m most scarred from. And that’s the movie Stick It which is like a gymnastics movie. I was a college softball coach for several years and my players always wanted to play that movie on the bus. And so I didn’t really enjoy it the first time. But by about the 23rd time watching it. I certainly did not enjoy it at all.

Lauren Palmer  04:10

I have so many follow up questions. Why did your softball team love this gymnastics movie? 

Kristin Boyes  04:18

I wish I could tell you, I have no idea. 

Lauren Palmer  04:21

Um, I don’t remember if I’ve seen this movie. It seems like the kind of film that I would love. It’s probably like on Netflix and I maybe watched it a dozen times, but-

Kristin Boyes  04:31

Right?

Lauren Palmer  04:32

 No memory of what the plotline is. 

Kristin Boyes  04:35

I don’t know that there is one really, right. 

Lauren Palmer  04:37

Got it.

Kristin Boyes  04:38

I’m pretty sure I could quote the entire thing for you if needed, though.

Lauren Palmer  04:41

Wow. That’s impressive. I don’t think there are very many people who could say they could quote the worst movie they’ve ever seen. So that’s like your, your super talent.

Kristin Boyes  04:51

Claim to fame right there. 

Lauren Palmer  04:52

Yeah. Okay, well thanks Kristin for sharing a little bit about you. We will move now into our in interview, we want to start by just having you tell us about your career path. What led you into dispatching?

Kristin Boyes  05:08

That’s a great question. I think it’s purely by accident. I mentioned that I was a college softball coach, I played softball in college and got a degree in education and thought coaching was probably the path I was going to take in life. I was lucky enough to get a graduate assistant position in which I could get my master’s degree and continue coaching. And from there I went on became a Division Two head softball coach, I coached for about seven years, and then decided for multiple reasons to get out of that line of work and had really no idea what to do with my life. I took a job as an insurance agent, and realized very, very quickly that that is not for me. And I was just kind of looking for jobs and had no idea what I wanted to do when I grew up, grew up. I didn’t think I probably wanted to grow up. And this job at Lenexa, PD was open. And I talked to a couple officer friends of mine was like, What is dispatching? And would I be good at it? Would I like it? And they they all kind of said, You know what, I think that actually is kind of up your alley. And so I overnighted my application packet because I decided I wasn’t going to do it. And then I decided, oh, yeah, all apply and the deadline’s tomorrow. So we overnighted the application packet. And eight years later, here we are.

Lauren Palmer  06:30

Well, thank you for sharing that. You know, it’s a really common story. Kristen, we ask a lot, all of our guests that question and it amazes me how often we hear a similar response of, I sort of fell into it by accident. And so it’s just a friendly reminder to all of our listeners working in local government, always keep your eye open for good talent that’s out there in the world that maybe just hasn’t found their path into local government yet.

Kristin Boyes  06:56

 Definitely. 

Lauren Palmer  06:58

So I asked you to be a guest on Gov Love to highlight a group of local government public servants who in my opinion, are unsung heroes. Dispatchers are often out of sight out of mind compared to frontline, police, fire and ems first responders, but the work of dispatchers is so vital for public safety. I think most people are generally familiar with the role that dispatchers play to handle 911 calls. But I want to give you the opportunity to elaborate about your work and walk us through a day in the life of a dispatcher.

Kristin Boyes  07:33

Sure. So with my agency, we typically have three people working at a time. And obviously, that will vary depending on the size of the agency, the size of the city, some will have far more than that. And some unfortunately, will have fewer than that I know a few agencies that only have one person working at a time. And that absolutely blows my mind how they can handle all of that. But for us at Lenexa, so we’ve got three people working at a time. And we each have our own specific role that we rotate through throughout our shift. And one of those roles is being a call taker. So we handle all of the 911 emergency calls, as well as any admin calls that come into the police department. Everything funnels through us, whether it be a call for service, or it be a call that needs transferred to another division within the police department, whether it’s property or traffic or wherever that call may go. They come through us initially. And so the call taker will take any calls for service and enter them into the computer, where they’re then shipped over to our other role, which is our primary dispatcher, our channel one dispatcher, and that person is responsible for putting the calls out to the officers, telling them where they’re going, and what the call is about. They’re kind of our communication, frontline communication with our officers that are on the street. So anytime an officer wants to do a self initiated activity such as a traffic stop, or citizen contact they’ll communicate with our channel one dispatcher to do that. And then our third duty is our secondary channel or channel two. And this is basically our information channel. That’s where officers go to get criminal history of subjects they may be out with, they might ask us to find phone numbers for them for business owners, or if they’re in an apartment complex and they need management after hours. And it’s kind of more free speak or a little less formal than our channel one our primary channel. Kind of can just talk more conversationally on that channel. And that person is also responsible to answer any backup phone calls that our phones person can’t handle. So we rotate through those every four hours, which I like we get the chance to do everything in each of our shifts. We most of us work 10 hour shifts. So we get the chance to do each of the three responsibilities so you kind of don’t get stuck just answering phones all day or whatever the case may be.

Lauren Palmer  10:06

So you’ve got a lot going on. And we’re talking today about mental health and coping with the stress that’s inherent in the work of responding to 911 calls, what are some of the key stressors in your role?

Kristin Boyes  10:20

So in 911, we kind of like to think of ourselves as the first first responders, right? Like, we’re the first people who have contact with a citizen who’s calling in, oftentimes on their very worst day, they call us. And we’re the first ones that talk to them in their moment of panic, oftentimes, they’re, you know, screaming and yelling. And so our job is to get them to calm down in order to get them the help that they need. And so obviously, that’s, that’s a big stress is just having a to listen to those things and visualize what may be happening, and trying to get them the help that they need. And on the flip side of that, on the radio, we also are in communication with our officers, and I know my officers well enough to know, a change in their voice, if something you know is going wrong, I can tell just by the sound of their voice, if they need help, or a call is not going the way that it should be. So it’s trying to be there for them and be calm for them at all times. I think some of the other stressors. I knew going into this, everybody says going into 911 or dispatching, you’re asked why you do that, and you say I want to help people, right. That’s why people go into public safety, they want to help people. And I didn’t realize how hard it would be to not be there physically, I can’t help you physically, all I can do is send you help. And I never knew how much that would affect me, not being able to actually, you know, go there and do something about it. And I have to keep reminding myself, and I think we all do that, you know, our job, our way of helping people is to send them the best, you know, send them the best people and the best help. And I think finally, and this one was big, early in my career, and it’s kind of resolved itself a little bit, is that at the end of a call, as a dispatcher as a call taker, most of the time, we have no idea what the outcome was. And so you invest yourself emotionally and mentally into this caller that you’re speaking to, and you’re trying to get them help. And you don’t know what the outcome was, you don’t know if it was good or bad. And I’m lucky enough in my agency that we have a very good relationship with our officers. So I’ve oftentimes expressed that to them that like I want to know what happened. And so they’ll come in and tell us now and kind of give us a recap of the call so that we have that closure. But I know a lot of agencies don’t have that and aren’t lucky enough to have that closure. And so they leave work and they go home, and they try to go to bed and you know, they, they’re constantly replaying that call in their mind and not knowing even how it turned out.

Lauren Palmer  13:13

Yeah, thank you for sharing that I think you’ve really articulated the range and complexity of emotions that you might experience in any given day in any given shift. And, of course, today, we want to talk about the 911 Peer Support Program, which is a resource to help 911 dispatchers deal with that complexity of emotion. So tell us about that program.

Kristin Boyes  13:41

So our 911 Peer Support Program is designed to kind of be an ear to listen or a shoulder to cry for those 911 professionals who are struggling with whatever it may be, whether it be home life, or work life or anything in between. Our goal is to keep the good people that choose this profession in this profession. It’s a very difficult job, not everyone can do it. And we don’t want to lose our good people due to mental health or not being able to handle a call.

Lauren Palmer  14:18

We have talked a lot on the podcast in other episodes about the the local government talent, pipeline and recruitment. And we haven’t talked as much about retention. And I’ve never really thought about peer support as a retention program to help keep good talent and keep them happy and successful in their role. So I’m glad that you mentioned that. So how does it work? What are the mechanics of someone seeking support and assigning a peer responder?

Kristin Boyes  14:48

So there’s kind of two ways that we go about it depending on what the situation is. A lot of times it will be an individual who is seeking peer support and in that situation, we’ve got a phone number that they’re able to call 24 hours a day. And that will get you to our leader who will then find a peer supporter to fit you to give you a call or meet with you. And so those phone numbers we’ve sent out in an email multiple times, we’ve got flyers that hopefully are posted within comm centers throughout our region. I know and in our dispatch center, specifically, we have it posted two different places. So if I needed something, I could go right to that flyer and be like, okay, there’s the phone number. And so a person would call that number and and get hooked up with our leader who would talk to them about what the problem is, and then try to assign a peer supporter to them, that specifically helps with that problem, or that they can relate to whether that be, you know, someone going through a divorce. So we try to find a peer supporter who’s been through a divorce. Or if it’s somebody at something at work, you know, we can try to just match them up with somebody that makes sense, in that specific situation. And the other situation where we might need activation, or they might need to contact us in order to get peer responders would be for like a critical incident at an agency. And agencies are getting much better about doing what we call critical incident stress debriefs, and that’s where we try to get everyone who is involved in a critical call into the same room to talk about what happened, talked about your role, talk about how you’re feeling afterwards, talk about, you know, whether you’re having trouble sleeping, or what you feel like you did great or could have done better. And so when we have those, we will send one of our peer supporters to go be in that room with them. They sometimes we will be the ones leading the debrief will be the ones asking the questions and kind of initiating the conversation. And sometimes it will just be in the room to be there if they need to talk if they need to talk afterwards or need to leave the room. We’re lucky that so many agencies now are understanding their role that 911 dispatchers and call takers take the role that they play in your everyday everyday calls, but especially in critical calls, and they’re actually including them in debriefs. That wasn’t the way it was several years ago. And I know that from experience, and now, so many agencies are realizing, you know, these people are affected too. And we need to get them in the room for that debrief. And so we’re lucky enough to be able to send peer supporters out to be there specifically for the dispatchers not just for the officers or the fire personnel or the EMTs.

Lauren Palmer  17:53

What do you attribute that change in thinking of now, agencies are more understanding and willing to include dispatchers in that debrief process?

Kristin Boyes  18:05

I think that hopefully, we are seeing the unfortunate rise in self harm suicide and things like that upon first responders, including dispatchers, and we’re kind of getting out of that old belief that, you know, this is our job, and we just move on to the next call, you got to be okay, and move on to the next call, is we’re realizing that that stuff sticks with you. And it’s not just the people who responded on that call. It also sticks with the dispatchers, you know, I hear the sounds of some of those calls in my head for days after. And I know everyone’s the same. Just because I didn’t see it firsthand doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel it and experience it. And I think finally, admin is realizing, you know, everybody’s involved, whether you were there on site or not, you’re involved in this call in and you need help too. You need to be able to talk about it. And and oftentimes in the debriefs as dispatchers, we’re talking about the helpless feeling that we have, that we can’t do more, which is what I’ve seen in most of the debriefs I’ve attended as a peer supporter is the dispatcher always wants to do more.

Lauren Palmer  19:27

So I’m going to ask you, obviously, without sharing specifics that would violate program confidentiality. Can you give us an example of someone who has assisted through peer support?

Kristin Boyes  19:39

Yeah, I’ve got a couple examples. I think one of the hardest types of calls that that we experience are calls involving children. And it’s just always hard for us, you know, to see an innocent child affected whether it be death or injury, or just a bad living situation or whatever the case may be. And there was a specific one that I can think of that involved a juvenile and the person who took the call, was a mother, and had a child the same age as the juvenile involved. And so there’s a very hard call for her to take. And she was struggling with it, and she contacted, you know, our peer support group, and we were able to get her a peer supporter, in the same that had a child in the same age range, that could speak to her and kind of help her, you know, get through that situation. And I, I will say that one of the nice things about it is it doesn’t have to end there, you know, we can help generate seeking professional help, if that’s something that, you know, you deem is appropriate. And also, I know, anytime I’ve talked to someone, I’ll give them my phone number, you know, call me day or night, it doesn’t matter, I work at 911. So I never sleep, you know, I’m here anytime you need me, whether that be to meet for coffee, or just to talk or whatever the case may be. And then another example I can give is, unfortunately, throughout the mark region, in the last few years, we’ve had officers that have been involved in shootings in which you know, they’ve been shot in the line of duty. And with that, their agency has contacted us. And we have responded to their police department, to their agency to their comm center, sometimes within the hour, just to be there for those people who are in that room, listening to their officer get shot or listening to whatever the case might be. We’ve had, you know, firefighters killed in the line of duty. And we’ve been able to go and and just be there for support whether they need to talk or not. It’s just having someone in that room. And we’re lucky with our region and our peer support group that we have people all over in both Kansas and Missouri. So no matter what happens, or where it happens, we’ve got somebody that can probably respond within, you know, a 30 minute time frame that can drop what they’re doing, and go be there for those people.

Lauren Palmer  22:12

So this is a peer program. It’s not professional mental health support. But there is extensive training regimen, what kind of training does involve to be a peer responder,

Kristin Boyes  22:27

We all attend a week long 40 hour training class it’s put on by Dr. Jenny Prohaska and Dr. Pat Hinkle who are both amazing therapists who have dedicated their careers to being available for first responders. And that’s specifically what their practices handle. And they put on an amazing 40 hour training. In order to be a part of our peer support team, you must go through it. And it’s one of those things you sit there for that week. And at some point or another everybody cries, everybody laughs everybody understands how this job affects them. And I think it’s something that you haven’t, most of us haven’t opened our mind up to, to how we are affected daily by this job, and how we can help others that are having a hard time or not able to handle that stress, how we can help them get through it. And so we attend to the 40 hour class and then our specific team, also we do quarterly meetings and trainings. We just kind of brush up on our skills and do like practice scenarios with each other as far as how to talk to someone who’s seeking advice or how to participate in one of the debriefs. So we try to do that on a quarterly basis.

Lauren Palmer  23:54

That’s a pretty significant commitment of time. Is it strictly voluntary or different departments, identifying individuals within their staff to be their designated peer responder and get the training? 

Kristin Boyes  24:09

I know for my agency, it was completely voluntary. I can’t speak for everyone. I think that there are some agencies who do kind of go that path and and recognize people who would be good at peer support and encourage them to attend and to be a part of the program. But I think for the most part, it is a voluntary.

Lauren Palmer  24:35

You are the co-chair of a regional Advisory Committee talk to us about what role that group plays.

Kristin Boyes  24:44

So we kind of oversee the program, myself and Dawn Deterding are our co-chairs currently, and we kind of just oversee our our 911 peer support group for the mark region. There are different subcommittees under us that participate in organizing events. And we’ve, we’ve had a couple of happy hours pre COVID, of course, where we can just try to get together and everybody be able to talk and bounce ideas off of each other and, and really get to know, the other people on our team, kind of the unique situation with our team is that so I was a part of the very first training class. So the very first week long 40 hour training, I was a part of that group. And since then, there have been multiple other groups that have gone through. But I don’t know all of those people, I haven’t met them. Because it’s very rare that we can get everybody in a room together. And so just getting to know the other people on our team, from different agencies and being able to talk to them. So we try to do different get togethers. In order to do that. Our committee also has like an education portion built in. And so that people on that committee are responsible for finding good trainings for us to attend. If somebody attends a good training, they’ll report back to them and say, Hey, this was really good information, I recommend it. And so they’ll put that information out there for the rest of us to be able to hopefully, attend a good training. We all seek those out, you know, we’ve been to enough trainings that when you leave like, it wasn’t that great. And so we try to find the good ones and send that information out. And then we’re also involved in interviewing candidates for the peer support team and the peer support class.

Lauren Palmer  26:38

How large is that committee? 

Kristin Boyes  26:41

That’s a good question. Either, We have, I believe, seven subcommittees and each one of those has two co-chairs.

Lauren Palmer  26:53

So you mentioned the networking that you’re doing in an a peer program like this, I presume that people know each other well as colleagues, even from neighboring police departments. So how do you ensure confidentiality, and build trust so that dispatchers feel comfortable accessing peer support when it’s needed.

Kristin Boyes  27:14

So I kind of mentioned the interview process. And that’s something that anyone who wants to be a part of our 911 peer support team has to go through, they fill out an application, and then they’re interviewed by myself and my co-chair, and then our panel leader, Pam Opoka. And so we’ll go through and try to pick the best candidate so we can look, you know, for their background, and if they’ve had any issues or anything like that. And so we’re able to pick and choose people who we know can handle mentally, the role that they’re going to play as a peer supporter, but also that aren’t the gossip queens of their agency, they’re not the people who are going to share information, because it is important. And I think that that’s probably the hardest thing for people who are seeking help, is knowing that it’s 100% confidential. And so we talk about that at the beginning of any contact, we have, you know, that this is purely confidential, your agency won’t know you’re talking to me, unless, you know, you make any mentions of harming yourself or anyone else. I’m not going to talk to anyone about this. And so I hope that people realize they can talk to us, and it’s not going anywhere. We do document our contacts that we have, just to keep track numbers wise of if our group is doing good, I guess. But those responses are simply, yes, I had a contact, here’s when it took place. Here’s a brief description of what it was about whether it was family related or work related, or whatever the case may be. And did I recommend any further whether it be seeking professional advice, or or what it may be. And one of the other things I think that is so great about our team, and how broad our team is, is that I know for me, I would have a really hard time asking for help or talking about my problems with someone that I know. And I work in Johnson County, Kansas and all of our agencies are close. We work very closely together. And so yeah, I would have a hard time. You know, calling somebody in Shawnee up and being like, Oh, hey, it’s Kristin, here’s what I’m going through. But if you give me somebody in Lee’s Summit, Missouri who I’ve never met, and I’ll probably never meet, sure, I can talk about my problems much easier in that environment. And so I think that’s what’s so great about our program is if you want to talk to somebody, you’re never going to see we can we can do that for you. And we’ll keep all of that confidential.

Lauren Palmer  29:55

That’s really helpful. Thanks for explaining that. You touched on it, but I wanted to ask a follow up of does the training incorporate guidance about, I guess when to tap out, I can’t think of a better way to describe it that when a peer responder kind of assesses the situation and says, you know, this is really beyond my capacity to help you address as a peer responder, I think we need to refer you for professional assistance.  Explain more how that works. And if that’s covered?

Kristin Boyes  30:29

Sure, absolutely. We go through a lot of scenarios, and we, and we talk about everything from like the body’s response to stress to watching your co workers and their behaviors, and kind of being able to notice a change in them. A lot of times, people don’t want to seek out help. So we’re trained to watch the people around us and to watch and see those small changes, whether it’s, you know, they just all of a sudden aren’t showing up to work on time, they’re five minutes late every day. Well, why is that they’ve never been that kind of person before, or they’re normally talkative at work. And now they’re kind of shut off and not talking to people. And so we’re trained to look for those things, and to be able to address them and try to kind of bring it up with them in a supportive and non confrontational way, I think. And then yes, we go through the practice of what a scenario would look like talking to those people. And once they start, once it starts looking like just talking about it probably isn’t going to fix the problem, then we’ll recommend, you know, hey, I’m doing all that I can, as your peer supporter, and I want to be here, and I’m going to be here with you every step of the way. But I really think that, you know, talking to somebody who’s more highly trained might benefit you, and recommending a therapist or something at that, at that point, most of us are lucky enough to have EAP programs to where like I know, for me, I can go visit a therapist free of charge, my agency will never know that I went. And so it’s just, we can encourage them to take those next steps. Like I said, we don’t want to lose anyone in this profession. And so getting them any any sort of help, that might be beneficial to keep them in it. And to keep them focused on their job. Absolutely.

Lauren Palmer  32:28

Yeah, thanks for elaborating on that. You know, sometimes there is a stigma around accessing mental health services accessing your EAP program. And so I love the way that you describe that, that maybe peer support can be that bridge that people need to just help them feel comfortable taking that next step. They need to do that. My final question for you, Christian, I’d love if you could just give advice to our listening audience, if there are others out there who might be interested in starting a peer support program. 

Kristin Boyes  33:00

My advice is do it. No, really, though, contact your administration. I know for a lot of admins, it’s, you know, always a money thing. And so part of it is helping them realize that, you know, you’re you’re ending up paying more, and people taking time off to address their mental health, taking sick days, and things like that, then you would be to put together this program who that doesn’t cost a lot of money. It’s typically if you’re doing it within an agency, it’s just getting people in your agency to come together, meet, get trained up on how to help your people, and to be there to support them. And so I think every agency needs a peer support program. I think it’s so important. Obviously, it’s something that I’ve dedicated a large amount of my time to, and it’s just because I believe in it so much. It’s just trying to get people in this profession to understand it’s, it’s okay to not be okay. And you don’t have to just move on to the next call. And you can take time to address whatever problems may have come from from this job.

Lauren Palmer  34:13

Absolutely, thank you. So our closer is always if you could be the Gov Love DJ, what song would you pick is our exit music for this episode.

Kristin Boyes  34:25

This was tough. I’m going with one call away, by Charlie Puth.

Lauren Palmer  34:34

Such a perfect song for this episode, and just a good song in general. Kristen, thank you so much for visiting with us today about the peer support program and giving us an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the great public service that our 911 dispatchers are providing and thanks to you for your service and your leadership in the Peer Support Program. 

Kristin Boyes  34:58

Absolutely. Thank you for having me. 

Lauren Palmer  35:00

Of course, as we wrap up don’t forget the all virtual  ELGL annual conference coming up on September 23 and 24th. Visit elgl.org/events to learn more and register. Gov Love is produced by ElGL, Engaging Local Government Leaders network. You can reach us at elgl.org/GovLove or on Twitter @GovLovePodcast. Thanks for listening. This has been Gov Love, a podcast about local government.