Latest news with #Enrichment
Yahoo
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Do Sacramento city leaders care about kids? We're about to find out
I have spoken to many people in Sacramento who lead youth service programs, and they all say the same thing: When elected leaders in the city of Sacramento face tough budget cycles, as they are now, the first cuts are often to programs for kids who badly need job training, after-school programs and other resources. It took the city three tries in six years for the city to create a funding stream for kids. In 2020, Measure G failed because too many influencers, including former Mayor Darrell Steinberg, didn't want to lock up 2.5 percent of the city's general fund for kids. In 2022, Measure L passed by a wide margin, in part, because instead of a specific general fund carve-out for youth funding, it requires the city to spend the equivalent of 40 percent of the city's cannabis tax money on kids. This was a pivotal moment in the city's history. Creating a fund to help our communities should never go understated. Measure L based on its own wording was not to replace 'baseline' funding for ongoing city services. Yet funding for parks and youth services in the city's regular 'general fund' budget is undeniably on the increase, that baseline steadily eroding. As one example, Sacramento voters approved a full cent sales tax in 2018, Measure U, on a sales pitch that this new money would expand economic development and youth services going forward. In last year's budget for Youth, Parks and Community Enrichment, the city dedicated more than $46.1 million in Measure U sales tax dollars for various purposes. This year's staff proposal is to plummet Measure U support for these needs by $20 million. Funds for the Community Enrichment Division would decrease by a third, from $1.8 million to $1.2 million. The examples go on. But with a $44 million budget deficit facing the city right now, advocates remain fearful that youth services will be cut to balance city books. Leaders in youth services are worried that the budget cuts will take away funding from programs catered to young adults across all city departments. On Tuesday, the council and mayor had their first debate over the proposed budget and the cuts to follow. Everything from skate parks to police was discussed as an avenue for cuts. As the council looks for ways to create a new budget. youth services leaders find themselves in a position where they again advocating for these vital programs. Councilmember Mai Vang emphasized the stakes involved by invoking a simple phrase: 'It's all about our priorities. We don't have a budget deficit, we have a values deficit,' Vang said. She's right. The city's leaders are going to demonstrate their values in the budget process. Do they value kids or not? By way of the Sacramento Children's Fund, the city will give out $46 million in grants over the next five years for youth services. The city uses general fund money to cover Measure L services and the total must come out to 40% of the annual estimated cannabis business tax revenue. Vang champions supporting the city's youth, particularly with programs. It's a fairly simple idea for her. 'If we really care about moving upstream and taking care of our families, we have to invest. It also means looking at our budget and imagining what that could look like and the majority of that funding goes to police right now.' Vang's point to cut police funding could be a way to ensure that Measure L funds are not changed. It's not like the police are hurting for funds. Over four years, the Sacramento Police budget has increased by more than $50 million, coming to a total of $247 million and it's proposed to increase by $8 million in the next budget. The police department is a good start to look at where cuts could be made so measure L and other vital city resources can stay. The city wholeheartedly supported Measure L to be funded, not reduced. The Sacramento Bee's opinion team is hard at work sifting through the chaos so you don't have to. Get our weekly Bee Opinionated newsletter straight to your inbox and we'll help you cut through the drone of the news cycle. Youth programs are a direct investment in the future. Lowering funding or taking away positions that ensure these programs exist prevent our young adults from achieving their highest potential. Budget cuts are never easy, but the city council has a moment to change the way these tough decisions are made. Back in 2022, voters made a huge statement by passing Measure L, which said our youth matter and should be prioritized. During this budget-cut season, the council has the opportunity to do the same. The baseline for the measure L is 23.2 million, which could easily be reached by staff salary. There is more money in the budget that can go towards helping our young people. Our city depends on their success. 'Our youth is 1/3 of our city but they are 100 percent of our future,' Vang said. Let's hope the rest of the council feels that way come June 10 when the budget is voted on.
Observer
04-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Observer
Muscat Book Fair 2025 receives record 650,000 visitors
Muscat: The Muscat International Book Fair 2025, which concluded on Saturday, received 649,589 visitors from across the Sultanate of Oman and abroad. The concluding ceremony of the 29th edition saw the honoring of a number of prominent cultural figures and institutions for their contributions to enriching the cultural scene in the Sultanate of Oman. This ceremony took place under the patronage of Mohammed bin Saeed al Balushi, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Information, at the Al Farahidi Hall at the Oman Convention and Exhibition Centre, which saw the participation of 674 publishing houses from 35 countries, including 640 direct participants and 34 through agencies. The exhibition showcased 681,041 Omani, Arab, and foreign titles, including 52,000 recent publications. PHOTO-2025-04-28-18-17-30 The 28th edition of the Muscat International Book Fair, which received 394,172 visitors, saw the participation of 34 countries and 847 publishing houses, offering over 20,000 titles, including a remarkable collection of more than 19,000 Omani books. The exhibition's cultural program included 211 cultural events under the theme "Cultural Diversity: The Enrichment of Civilizations." In a speech, Ahmed al Rawahi, Director of the Muscat International Book Fair, said: "The contributions of the Muscat International Book Fair, since its inception, have demonstrated its impact in promoting cultural activity, promoting the values of reading, and making books available and disseminated throughout this beloved country." This year's fair had North Al Sharqiyah Governorate as the guest of honor as part of the efforts to highlight the cultural diversity and civilizational depth of the Sultanate of Oman. The governorate implemented a rich program of diverse activities that reflected the governorate's rich cultural, intellectual, and artistic heritage, which played a prominent role in enriching the exhibition's activities. To strengthen cultural exchange efforts between the Sultanate of Oman and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the exhibition hosted Saudi Cultural Days, which represented an important addition to the exhibition's activities through their unique cultural program. Al-Rawahy congratulated the cultural figures and institutions for their constructive contributions and recognized role in advancing the cultural movement in the country. These honorees included author Abdullah Habib, Al-Dhamri Publishing and Distribution House and Library, and Dar Al-Kitab Al-Ahlia Public Library. The Al Wusta Governorate will be the guest of honor at the 30th edition of the Muscat International Book Fair. The closing ceremony of the Muscat International Book Fair included a visual presentation of the daily coverage of the fair, a poetry segment, a visual presentation of the activities of North Al Sharqiyah Governorate's participation as the exhibition's guest of honor, and a poem recited by poet Hamoud Al-Aisri entitled "A Chant in the Name of North Al Sharqiyah Governorate." During the ceremony, the winners of the first season of the National Reading Championship were announced. Targeting school students in the Sultanate of Oman, the championship was held in three competitive stages over a full academic year. A total of 500 books were read, making it a national cultural project implemented by the Ministry of Education and supervised by the exhibition's Community Initiatives Committee.
Yomiuri Shimbun
28-04-2025
- Science
- Yomiuri Shimbun
These Autistic People Struggled to Make Sense of Others. Then They Found AI.
Dean Sewell/For The Washington Post An example of a question and response from Autistic Translator SAN FRANCISCO – Theron Pierce has never held a job long enough to get promoted and struggles to connect with people at work. Ten months into a gig teaching cello lessons at an after-school program in Canada, Pierce felt like they were thriving in the job. Then a layoff notice came. Embarrassed and hurt, 34-year-old Pierce, who has autism, said they struggled to understand why they'd been let go. So they turned to the Autistic Translator, an AI tool where you type in a situation you're trying to understand, and it gives the unspoken nuances of social situations. After describing their situation, the translator generated a response: In bullet points, the AI told Pierce how their persistent questions and search for feedback was interpreted by their supervisors as incompetence. 'It was kind of eye opening for me,' Pierce said. Reading feedback from an AI devoid of any human expression or emotion made the information easier to process, Pierce said. More than 2% of adults, or over 5 million people, have been diagnosed with autism in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and medical and research experts say they typically struggle to grasp unspoken rules and guidelines, resulting in confusing or awkward social interactions. AI tools like the Autistic Translator or Goblin Tools claim to help people like Pierce better understand social situations. Some autism researchers have found reasons to be optimistic about AI's value, saying it can be a great companion to other therapeutic tools. But many experts and users agree that these AI tools – helpful as they are – still need a lot of work. Autistic Translator and similar tools are especially helpful for people with autism because those people generally think in terms of rules, said Elizabeth Laugeson, clinical professor and director of UCLA's Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills, who works with autistic individuals to develop social skills and maintain relationships. The tools can help users confirm their comprehension of an interaction or event. But Laugeson remains cautious about AI's use beyond general yes or no prompts. That's because AI doesn't understand the social nuances, context or conversational patterns needed to provide accurate and helpful responses. 'If we have an overreliance on an AI to navigate the social situation then we might also be discouraging things like self-advocacy or personalized support … which we know are really critical for their growth and for independence,' Laugeson said. Autistic Translator was built using advice from therapists, and the bot generates answers based on published scientific research and responses in online forums about autism. Its founder, Michael Daniel, who is autistic and has attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), says its instant responses make the AI chatbot helpful and popular among users. 'I found it really took the emotional sting out of the situation and helped process through those things much faster than I normally would've,' Daniel said in an interview. The 34-year-old created Autistic Translator from his home in Newcastle, Australia, after losing his job in August. Daniel, who also has a daughter with autism and a son with ADHD, said living in a home with different neurotypes made communicating hard. If he could use AI to communicate at work, he could use it to do the same at home, he thought. Daniel released the AI tool to the public via a Reddit post, garnering thousands of positive interactions overnight. Using his background as a data analyst, Daniel built the translator using OpenAI's ChatGPT models. Today, he says it has more than 3,000 downloads, and it costs $4 to $12 a month depending on the tier. Since then, Daniel made the service into an app called NeuroTranslator and expanded its translation capabilities to users with ADHD. There are other tools that claim to help neurodiverse people. Bram De Buyser created Goblin Tools, a website that offers eight different AI chatbot tools geared for all neurotypes. Users can ask questions or put down their scrambled thoughts into different AI tools to mitigate tasks such as creating to-do lists, mapping out tasks, and weighing pros and cons. While Goblin Tools doesn't translate social situations, tools like 'The Formalizer' help users convey their thoughts in the way they want it to come across to avoid miscommunication. AI tools are particularly popular among people on the autism spectrum because unlike humans, AI never gets tired of answering questions, De Buyser said in an interview. 'They don't tire, they don't get frustrated, and they don't judge the user for asking anything that a neurotypical might consider weird or out of place,' he said. Lawrence Fung, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University, said the Autistic Translator can be a great tool to improve communication and articulate what is going on in their social settings. 'I think that they can definitely learn from it,' Fung said. However, autistic people don't always get the whole picture and because the AI is reliant on the user's understanding of the situation, it can result in inaccurate outputs, Fung said. For 22-year-old Eva Dale, understanding the entire picture of certain social situations can be a challenge. The bakery worker from Connecticut often finds that people say one thing when they really mean another. Deciphering what people mean isn't intuitive for Dale, who has autism and relies on direct translations from her mom. During one instance, Dale's grandmother mentioned multiple times that her dog needed to go out, meaning it needed to be walked, but Dale interpreted it literally to take the dog outside. Later, Dale's mom explained that her grandmother was really asking her to walk the dog. 'A lot of times, people say something like the dog has to go out, and it means a secret message like 'Will you take the dog out?' They won't tell you the secret message and expect you to know it,' Dale said. Skeptical, Dale entered the interaction into the Autistic Translator. To her surprise, she got the same response her mom had given her. 'I feel like the program understands at least somewhat the autistic brain in general. It's actually very impressive that it can understand such a wide range of people,' she said. However, not all users get direct answers. After coming across the Autistic Translator on Reddit, Phillip Lee, a 28-year-old from California, tested out the AI tool on multiple occasions but ultimately decided that he'd prefer to get feedback from the people around him. Understanding tone, social cues and other nonverbal language has always been a challenge for Lee, who has autism and ADHD. He was reprimanded last year by his graduate program committee for delivering jokes at inappropriate times. He also heard from his peers and colleagues that his blunt tone and lack of eye contact came off as dismissive. Frustrated, Lee sought to better understand his cognitive difference. Asking the translator how people perceive his mannerisms helped Lee clarify some things, like when he asked the AI: 'Why do people get mad when I don't smile?' The translator responded, 'Neurotypicals often rely on smiles as a nonverbal cue for friendliness, while this might not be a natural expression for autistics.' This made sense to Lee. As he entered more specific scenarios from his personal life such as 'Why do I get so angry?' the responses grew more vague and general, sometimes not even getting a response at all because of the complicated nature of the questions. Daniel says that users are given a disclaimer about the translator's capabilities, and that people don't have to agree with everything the AI tool says. The Autistic Translator is programmed to acknowledge and redirect any questions about complex topics like violence, drugs and medical advice and divert back to communication. Wary of the AI's ability to factor in the context and dynamics of his life, Lee prefers to hear feedback directly from his colleagues and family now. 'It's informational but not holistic enough to suffice as a solution for everything,' Lee said of the AI tool. 'There is no road map nor a flowchart because the autistic experience is an individualized experience that requires so much time and patience.' As for Pierce, the translator recently helped them navigate a tricky relationship question. Reading the feedback reassured Pierce they were reading the situation correctly and gave them confidence to start a conversation with their friend. 'That rarely happens to me – feeling prepared for a conversation,' Pierce said. 'The response from the AI made me feel validated and relieved.'
