Latest news with #Pringle
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Kent State to close LGBTQ+, women's, multicultural centers
Editor's Note: The video above is about a peace mural unveiled at Kent State. KENT, Ohio (WJW) — Kent State University will close several identity-based student centers on its Kent and Stark campuses this summer to comply with new state law, the university announced Monday. Effective June 27, the Kent Campus will no longer operate its LGBTQ+ Center, Women's Center and Student Multicultural Center. The Stark Campus also will cease operations at its LGBTQ Resource Center, the University announced in a press release. Motorcycle pulling a camper trailer overturns in fatal crash Although the centers themselves will close, university officials said their physical spaces—including the E. Timothy Moore Center and Williamson House, home to the Center for Sexual and Relationship Violence Support Services (SRVSS) — will remain open as general-use spaces accessible to all students. Guidelines for using these spaces are still being developed. In addition to the closures, Kent State's LGBTQ+ Living-Learning Community will be discontinued. Other academically based Living-Learning Communities will remain in operation. 'We understand these centers and the Living-Learning Community have been powerful sources of connection, support and growth, and we acknowledge the emotional and personal impact this change may have on many members of our community,' said Eboni Pringle, Ph.D., Senior Vice President for Student Life. The move is in response to new state directives affecting diversity, equity and inclusion programs at public universities. Read more about Ohio Senate Bill 1 here. 'Once-in-a-lifetime:' When you can see all three Goodyear Blimps together over NE Ohio Students will still have access to resources that support mental health, wellness and basic needs, the university said. 'Our mission remains the same: to foster a campus where every student feels a sense of belonging,' Pringle said. The university also expressed appreciation for the staff and student employees affected by the changes, stating, 'The university places a high value on their contributions.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Otago Daily Times
29-05-2025
- General
- Otago Daily Times
Trees may be replaced in reserve
Wilding trees infesting a reserve on Queenstown Hill could be felled and replaced with native and exotic species. A draft forestry management plan for the 109ha reserve, which overlooks central Queenstown and Frankton Rd, was unanimously approved for public consultation at a full council meeting in Arrowtown yesterday. A report for councillors by parks planning manager Briana Pringle said that without intervention, the mostly Douglas fir trees would continue to spread and cause a loss of biodiversity. The plan, which would be carried out in stages, would involve eradicating all wilding trees and replacing them with a mixture of native and exotic trees and tussock grassland. The harvesting of some "merchantable timber" on the site might offset some of the operation's costs, but the area's steepness, rock outcrops and access challenges meant it was unlikely to generate an economic return, Ms Pringle said. Cr Melissa White said the visibility of the site and the public's enjoyment of forest walking meant the plan could be "completely polarising" for the community, so it was vital the consultation process was done well. Cr Matt Wong said Project Tohu — to reforest the former Coronet Forest site near Arrowtown — had "raised the bar" for council involvement in ecological restoration projects. He found the draft plan "bloody exciting", and was pleased to see it progress to consultation after three years of discussion. Cr Niki Gladding also backed the plan, saying it was needed if the council was going to meet its emissions trading scheme obligations. "We have to do something big, and we have to do it fast." A panel of councillors was appointed to hear submissions on the plan in July.
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘People don't want to wipe bottoms': Why Britain has a social care crisis
At a time when the latest figures show a 4.5 per cent UK unemployment rate in the three months to March, with 1.61 million out of work (the highest levels in nearly four years), it may seem rather curious that care homes are struggling to fill their vacancies locally. It's even more curious when you consider that, between 2021 and 2024, the proportion of social-care workers recruited from outside the EU rose from nine per cent to 19 per cent, according to a recent report in the publication Community Care. It brings an awkward truth into sharp relief: care homes are desperately trying to recruit from far and wide to fill their vacancies, because not even Britain's ballooning numbers of unemployed want to fill them. More unfortunately still, the issue has been compounded by Keir Starmer's announcement last week of plans to end the recruitment of care workers from overseas as part of Labour's controversial immigration reforms. Care providers say it's a further hammer blow and warn that, if the Government doesn't fix the problems that make it so difficult for them to recruit UK staff first, then some services will struggle to survive. Even with the lifeline of overseas workers, there were around 131,000 vacancies in social care in England last year. But why are Britons so reluctant to work in care? Some care bosses say they do not receive a single application from their local workforces when they advertise vacancies. 'We want good quality staff, dedicated staff, it's not a job you can just do for the money,' says Victoria Pringle, the registered manager of Welcombe Care, a small, independent GP-led service which, since 2015, has provided carers to support people in their own homes in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, and surrounding villages. 'But we cannot recruit from Britain, we just don't get any applications – it's horrendous.' Yet Birmingham, which is also part of her beat, has the highest unemployment level in the country. 'We are constantly running adverts here and in Birmingham and Coventry for jobs and the only people who apply are from overseas, mainly Africa and India,' Pringle says. 'It's impossible to recruit UK nationals, even though we pay a couple of pounds an hour over minimum wage. People just don't want to do it, or they only want to work limited hours. But being a carer means working unsociable hours, all year round.' The average hourly rate for care workers is the same as minimum wage – £12.08 outside of London. 'I've had a lot of people tell me they are better off on benefits than doing this,' says Pringle. 'Unfortunately, we've had people come to us and then decide they're better off on benefits and leave, or they only want to work certain hours because it affects their benefits, and they leave. My impression is that people in this country just don't want to do it.' She stresses that it's a responsible job, 'where you are, for example, administering medication. People just see it as washing bottoms and think, I don't want to do that. They just don't want to get out of bed. It's hard work. They don't see how it can be an honour and a joy to be helping someone.' Pringle, 53, says her company employs about 40 carers. A quarter of them are from overseas, in their mid-20s and early-30s. The rest are aged 50-plus, and the oldest 74. 'It's hopeless trying to get anyone under-40 from Britain. When people like me, who were born in the 1970s, retire, the system will be knackered – there's nobody young coming through from this country,' she says. Her sentiments have been echoed by Amy Clark, commercial director of Jammac Care Group, a group of five care homes in Cornwall that are very reliant on overseas workers. 'We try all the time to recruit locally and we just don't get any applicants,' she recently told Radio 4's Today programme. 'We put our wages up, we still don't get any applicants.' She says the crisis faced by care providers has been worsened by the recent rise in National Insurance contributions for employers and the 'pitiful uplift' from the local authorities in relation to the social care funding. Clark wants reforms to the benefits system to make not working a less attractive prospect, and believes, since lockdown, 'people have become accustomed to not working.' She also says that high childcare costs are putting off workers, as the majority of people who work in care are women ('they are generally the people called on to cover child care'), and stresses that the overseas workforce is not 'cheap, imported labour' as they pay them the same as UK staff and their training costs the same. 'We actually pay more for the foreign staff because we have to pay for the sponsorship, roughly £2,000 per foreign member of staff,' Clark tells The Telegraph. So how do unemployed people really feel about working in care? In the workless hotspot of Birmingham, their responses are depressing. 'I'm not interested in it,' says one female jobseeker enjoying the sun in the city's Victoria Square. 'I'm more interested in beauty.' And a 29-year-old man who has been looking for work since January (his last job having been 'in a call centre for a couple of months') says, as he leaves a city centre job centre: 'I don't think it's for me – washing people and all that, I don't think I could do it. I could maybe help them walk, but I'm not really a touchy person.' Melanie Reid, 48, who is about to start a new job in admin, says: 'I've done it before, it's badly paid. I worked for about six months in a residential care home some years ago. If they paid higher wages, I think they'd attract more people. It can be rewarding, it's helping people, but I wouldn't go back into it.' Some hope, at least, is offered by Hannah Lowe and Harshpreet Kaur, both 20-year-old psychology students at Aston University. 'We'd consider it, we like helping people,' says Lowe. 'We wouldn't worry about any parts of the job some might think of as unpleasant.' The preponderous of negative views does not surprise Nadra Ahmed, co-chairman of the National Care Association. 'The image of social care is very poor,' she says, 'and many people now prefer to do delivery jobs. Care work can be stressful, hard work but it is very fulfilling for the right people and those prepared to be trained to deliver a high standard of care.' Those coming from overseas may have a different attitude to caring because of cultural reasons, such as living in intergenerational homes. Between 2022 and 2024, visas for foreign care work were mostly issued to individuals coming from India, Pakistan, the Philippines, Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Ghana. 'They may be used to seeing their grandparents in the house, or it may not be uncommon to have three generations in the house,' says Ahmed. 'If the Government closes the overseas route down, they need to establish a career pathway, to recognise carers as a skilled workforce. If nothing changes and they think there's going to be a miracle of UK recruitment, they are deluded. 'You can't teach somebody to be compassionate, to care,' she continues. 'You can't just say there are X many unemployed, why can't they fill the care vacancies? Those compassionate people may be out there but they're not coming forward because it doesn't pay what they need. They have to make the sector more attractive, and fund pay initiatives which will be critical for us to attract people who see a sustainable career pathway for themselves. 'The Government seems to be making it up as they go along, they don't seem to have a plan. Yes, ok, we should be hiring more UK workers. But why not set a target for domestic recruiting then phase out the overseas workers?' In Acocks Green, a suburb south-east of Birmingham city centre, Sue Howard, a former detective in West Midlands Police, has owned the 24-resident capacity Victoria Lodge care home for over 30 years. It has earned a string of 'outstanding' ratings from the Care Quality Commission. Thanks to building up a dedicated and loyal staff of 35, including 24 carers, she is in the fortunate position of not having to rely on overseas recruits. And if someone is off sick, the home's registered manager, Ann Coombes, frequently steps in, meaning they do not have to use agency staff, who are often recruited from overseas. Howard, 66, is, however, acutely aware of the need to attract younger people into care work, and Coombes, 63, has given talks at a local school to that end. Coombes says: 'I've had people say to me that they don't want to have to go in there and wipe [bottoms]... I say you know what, you could make it a career. Look at me, I started off making tea at a care home many years ago and now I'm a registered manager, I'm on a good wage, you can make it a career.' 'Youngsters might not fancy the idea of working in care,' Howard adds, 'but we'd say to them – come and do the tea trolley, come and do some activities with the residents, hand out the tea and cake in the afternoon. See what it's like and how rewarding it can be knowing you've helped someone. 'After all, this could be your grandad, this could be your grandma.' Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
Daily Record
13-05-2025
- General
- Daily Record
Falkirk schools' have highest number of leavers going to 'positive destination'
Councillors praised a "wonderful report" that showed 96.25 per cent of pupils found jobs or stayed in education Falkirk schools reported the highest numbers of pupils leaving for a 'positive destination' in five years. Provost Robert Bissett praised the passion and commitment of teachers, as members of Falkirk Council 's Scrutiny Committee heard that 96.25 per cent of the 1,760 pupils who left school in 2024 went on to further or higher education or into work. The 2024 Leavers' Attainment Outcomes Report was presented to councillors by Jill Pringle, Falkirk Council's head of education, who told members that the report presented "a continuing strong picture for Falkirk 's young people". "We are very proud of our young people when they leave our schools and we are very proud of the hard work that everybody puts in to ensuring that these outcomes are incredibly strong and continue to be so," she said. The report comes from information that is published nationally and provides a wider picture of our education system than the annual exam results, published in September. Ms Pringle said schools are beginning to look beyond the traditional exams and find wider opportunities for pupils, such as HNCs or Foundation Apprenticeships, which can be just as valuable. The published data compares the local authority against Scotland as a whole as well as neighbouring authorities. But Ms Pringle told members that the most useful - and fairest - comparison tool was the Virtual Comparator which uses data to compare pupils from similar backgrounds across the country. While the results for each school are not made public, members heard that all of the data is increasingly used internally by headteachers and their staff to find areas in schools that can be targeted for improvement. "Schools can look at their own data and understand their own picture," said Ms Pringle. "Our schools are very good at that - they are data literate and becoming increasingly more so, so that's why you are starting to see that real improvement." Director of Education Jon Reid agreed that one of the reasons for Falkirk seeing improved attainment is a previous council decision to provide an iPad for every pupil from Primary 5 upwards. The results - along with several inspection reports that have praised digital learning in individual schools - showed "the investment is working", he said. Benefits for pupils include having access to high quality feedback and a broader curriculum, while it also makes it much easier for pupils who are absent through illness to catch up. "It provides equity, it's an essential tool for learning and teaching and I'm not sure what our classrooms would look like if that wasn't there," said Mr Reid. Councillor Iain Sinclair, education portfolio holder, said: "This is a result of the focus and hard work of everybody involved which has led to these positive statistics and a five-year high in positive destinations of 96.25 per cent." "I'd like to pay tribute to our phenomenal young people who continue to achieve in what can be very challenging circumstances, also to our central team for the support they provide and our dedicated secondary teams and in particular our headteachers for their relentless focus on achieving the best outcomes for our young people." The committee convener, Provost Robert Bissett said: "It's a wonderful report and all credit to everyone involved in education. "That continuous dedication to improve the lives of our pupils is phenomenal. "Every teacher you speak to, you can feel their dedication and passion because education does change lives. "Thank you from everybody here to everybody in education - well done and lets keep it going!"
Yahoo
07-05-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
LaNorris Sellers Has Short Message for Kam Pringle After Transfer Portal News
Offensive tackle Kam Pringle announced he's entering the NCAA transfer portal and leaving the South Carolina Gamecocks football team. When Pringle shared a heartfelt post about his decision on social media, Gamecocks quarterback LaNorris Sellers had one short message in response. Pringle posted a note on Instagram on April 21 explaining his decision and telling the Gamecocks goodbye. Advertisement Sellers quickly responded, revealing that he was sad to see Pringle go. He simply posted two crying emoji: "😢😢." He then reshared Pringle's announcement as an Instagram story on his own page. Pringle replied, "love brother!" Others shared similar sentiments. © Jeff Blake-Imagn Images Mazeo Bennett Jr., Gamecocks wide receiver, replied with five crying emoji: "😪😪😪😪😪." Pringle also replied to him, writing, "love brother!" Dante Reno replied with two heart emoji, and Jakai Moore wrote "love brotha always" in reply. Pringle's goodbye message read: "First off I would like to thank God for putting me in this position! I want to thank The University of South Carolina, the amazing coaching staff, my teammates, the fans, and everyone associated with the university who have had a hand in my success during my time spent here. To South Carolina, thank you for the lifelong friendships and memories. I am appreciative of the opportunities I've received here. After discussing with my family and thinking long and hard on my decision, I have decided to enter my name into the transfer portal with 4 years of eligibility remaining. I look forward to the opportunities God has in store for me!" Advertisement Pringle is a former four-star who was with the Gamecocks for one season. Pringle's announcement was made after the spring practice ended. Related: LaNorris Sellers vs D.J. Lagway Debate Reignited With New Top 10 Quarterback Rankings
