If you are one of the thousands of men and women who have worked in, or are nearing retirement from Connecticut's manufacturing workforce, we'll tell you how to help inspire and mentor the state's next generations of manufacturing professionals through a brand new program from AARP.

Then as we wrap up the 46th annual celebration of National EMS week we'll be speaking with a seasoned EMT and trainer as well as an emergency dept doc about how EMS pros have stepped up more than you know during this COVID-19 pandemic while continuing to answer the call 24/7 and 365 days a year.

Finally, we're going to get you growing naturally and native-ly around your home and garden with a special guest from the National Wildlife Federation inviting you to peruse it's new Garden for Wildlife virtual shop to discover and acquire a selection of the best native plants for you here in Connecticut.

We'll engage the new Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion and Chief Diversity Officer at the University of New Haven - Lorenzo Boyd - who also heads up the UNH Center for Advanced Policing, for the first of a couple of conversations we're planning around police practices, movements to de-fund police agencies, and the crossover points where racial diversity intersects with community policing.

Then we'll talk arts and humanities with the director of CT Humanities - and find out how this decades old agency is reinventing itself as a digital and community resource, while supporting and funding intriguing programs and projects across the state.

And we'll close with our partners at the CT Coalition Against Domestic Violence. If anything, the COVID pandemic has made things harder for the thousands of intimate partner and domestic abuse victims across Connecticut, so we'll touch base and get a snapshot of what's been happening in terms of prevention and response over the past few months.

This Labor Day weekend, as folks whose jobs were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic take on the extra burden of finding new work, we'll open replaying a June segment with a representative from the Workforce Alliance of South Central CT to review new and enhanced online training and resources.

Then we'll learn how the COVID-19 pandemic is taking a toll on folks trying to work through recovery - or who continue to experience mental health challenges. September is National Recovery Month, and there's nobody better to discuss the current state of recovery practices than with the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner and principle at Aware Recovery Care.

September is also Preparedness Month, and with our local communities already experiencing tropical storms, tornadoes, extended power outages, and even some flooding, we're going to close chatting with the Ready campaign director at FEMA - the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency.