Latest news with #Projects
Fox News
3 days ago
- Business
- Fox News
PASTOR COREY BROOKS: I'm building hope on Chicago's notorious South Side
After the Civil Rights victories, many folks on the South Side of Chicago expected things to get better. It was already a solid working class community with a grocery store, a delicatessen, and other small businesses. Instead the liberal policies that came out of the post-60s era nuked us into a devastating culture of one thing that always strikes me is that not one new building since the 1960s has been built in my neighborhood. McDonalds left years ago and so did Walgreens. Both structures sit empty. The Projects which takes up most of my neighborhood has declined precipitously since its days of providing apartments to working class families. Nobody owns anything. So the gangsters claimed ownership and renamed the projects after their friend who was gunned down: is why I consider it a miracle that I along with my staff at Project H.O.O.D. have been fortunate to start the building of a nearly 100,000 square foot Leadership and Economic Opportunity Center. To see the construction, the cranes, the daily arrival of construction materials, the cement poured and on has been nothing short of amazing. We are not just building a center but a symbol of hope. I know this might sound cliched for the more cynical folks, but there is nothing cliched about hope in my neighborhood. As I mentioned earlier, we have had generations of children born into a world where they know the government as one of their parents. So, by building this center we are teaching these children that anything is possible and attainable. The blight they were born into does not have to be permanent. They can be the change just like I decided one day to beauty of this center, once built, is that it will help them develop into intelligent and developed individuals with ambitions for a good career and life. Inside those beams and boars, there will be job training, financial literacy, trauma counseling, trade school, music and arts center, a STEM lab, entrepreneurship accelerators, and a private Christian school for boys who have been written off by the system. By giving the youths in our neighborhood this opportunity, we are creating the possibility that they will one day be able to follow the path of opportunity of their own we still have a ways to go when it comes to finishing the building. We have completed 40% of the progress so far. The steel is up, the cables being wired, the elevator shafts being built, the walls forming, and the floors have been installed. The vision is becoming visible. What started as a rooftop dream is now a street-level revolution. I have already noticed changes in the neighborhood culture. Moms and Dads bring their young ones to watch the building being constructed. Kids tell me they can't wait to visit and that they're going to bring their friends. The older residents tell me they never thought they would see such a sight in their lifetimes. All of them keep asking me when the center will finally open.I tell them soon, as soon as possible. We have received no government handouts for this work and we have been pushing forward to stretch every dollar with faith, grit, and sacrifice. We still have to raise more funds to build this center as a debt-free enterprise so that every dollar we have goes to our kids, the future of a day goes by when I don't thank the people of America for their donations. Their generosity made this miracle possible. I also want to thank the team at Fox News Media for giving me this platform to speak to America — I can never repay them for their generosity. For those of you who are reading this and are wondering if change is still possible in my neighborhood as well as the greater America — I say look at this building. It's not just steel and concrete. It is proof. It is proof that when people gather around a purpose, poverty can be pushed back, violence can be replaced with a purpose, and despair can give way to you are in America, you can be the change for a better future.
Business Recorder
3 days ago
- Business
- Business Recorder
KE highlights future outlook
KARACHI: K-Electric (KE), Pakistan's only vertically integrated power utility, held its Corporate Briefing Session at the Pakistan Stock Exchange (PSX) on Monday, reaffirming its commitment to reliable, affordable, and sustainable power supply to Karachi and its adjoining areas. The session provided stakeholders, analysts, investors and members of the media with a comprehensive update on KE's operational progress, recently announced tariff decisions by the regulator, and strategic direction. During the briefing, KE presented its recently approved Multi-Year Tariff (MYT) for FY24–FY30, which enables its proposed execution of the USD 2 billion investment plan to modernise and expand Karachi's power infrastructure. The utility also discussed its progress in renewable energy development, having successfully completed competitive bidding for 640 MW of renewable projects. These include landmark bids such as the 220 MW hybrid solar-wind project at Dhabeji, awarded at a record-low tariff of PKR 8.92/kWh, which stands approved along with the 150 MW Winder-Bela solar Projects. In line with its ambition to diversify the energy mix and reduce reliance on expensive fuels, KE aims to integrate 30% renewable energy share into its generation mix by 2030. 'NEPRA's approval of our MYT enables us to unlock critical investments in infrastructure for safe and reliable supply of power. The approved tariff will allow us to build on our commitment to operational efficiency, sustainability, and community outreach,' said Muhammad Aamir Ghaziani, Chief Financial Officer at K-Electric. 'With a lot of misgivings around the approved tariff, I want to stress that this approval will not impact consumer-end tariff which is governed under the Government of Pakistan's uniform tariff policy.' Since privatization in 2005, KE has invested over USD 4.6 billion in its infrastructure – reinvesting all profits. These investments have led to major improvements across the power value chain, including a 104% increase in transmission capacity, a 2.3x growth in distribution capacity, 18.2 percentage points reduction in T&D losses, and a 16 percentage point improvement in generation efficiency. KE's grid infrastructure has expanded from 52 to 74 grid stations, and load-shed exempt network has increased from 6.6% in 2005 to 70% today. Most notably, KE's AT&C losses have dropped from 43% in 2009 to 23.1% in 2024. Copyright Business Recorder, 2025
CTV News
3 days ago
- General
- CTV News
CTV National News: Signs of a successful First Ministers' meeting
Watch Vassy Kapelos says a list outlining the projects to be fast tracked with the support of provinces will need to be produced by the federal government quickly.
The Age
5 days ago
- General
- The Age
‘You're too young to be on the streets': How Annie juggled school and homelessness
'I went through so many refuges until I found a stable refuge that would actually keep me for six months,' she said. 'I didn't really have that parent role to guide me to which steps I'll be taking.' There is no national data set that records how many unaccounted-for school-aged children are detached from education. In a 2019 study, Those Who Disappear, University of Melbourne researcher Jim Watterson made a conservative estimate that there may be more than 50,000, based on two state education departments' internal data. Homelessness, family violence and transience were listed as among the reasons. Watterson said more study was required. Youth Projects chair Melanie Raymond said she believed more young people are homeless and trying to finish school than official data shows. Loading 'It is a hidden and misunderstood problem,' she said. 'We see young people who never had a fair chance within a competitive education system. It is not a case of being absent from school for no reason: there's always a reason, and it's almost always related to poverty. 'We need to identify who is at risk and fund a host of interventions at all ages.' Melbourne City Mission head of social innovation Sam Barrett has been working with young homeless people for 25 years and said education was crucial when they were coming out of crisis. 'If you miss that window … and they're just wandering into doing nothing, things can go sideways,' Barrett said. Melbourne City Mission runs five youth refuges (there are 22 across Victoria and 13 youth foyers) and Hester Hornbrook Academy – a flexible school aimed at supporting students who can't attend mainstream education. They have five campuses, about 600 students and a waitlist. The school offers showers, food and laundry services. At any given time across those schools, there would be more than 50 students who didn't have somewhere to go at night, Hester Hornbrook principal Sally Lasslett said. Some would be sleeping rough, others were couch surfing, in a refuge or emergency accommodation. 'It's safer for them to sleep on a train than to go home. Or it's safer to walk the streets in Sunshine until school opens the next morning and they could come back into a community that will look after them.' Loading She said while there aren't figures on detached school students, conversations with local government areas made it clear this was an issue and that growing outer metro areas were in need. 'If we were somehow able to act as a collaborative education system to track those young people, imagine what we could do,' she said. 'Education is the key to getting out of poverty. It's the key to understanding your legal rights. It's the key to employment. We have young people who go on to get a job, and they're the first in three generations to have a full-time or part-time job. That's life-changing.' A Victorian government spokesperson said they invested $80 million to tackle youth homelessness to deliver more youth entry points and refuges across metro and regional Victoria, which included State Schools Relief for meals, uniforms and glasses and $113 million over two years for TAFE students with wrap-around services. For international students, finding support can be even more challenging. Elvis Martin was 17 when he experienced family violence, which led to him sleeping rough for almost three months. He was studying at Federation University and was unable to access support for crisis accommodation because he was an international student. He finally got support at a youth residential rehab run by CoHealth Community Health, after a six-month involuntary stay in hospital following a major depressive episode. Now 29, Martin said many university students fell through the gaps, especially international students who had precarious living situations, even though their education was a condition of their visa. Loading 'They don't even want to go and talk to a GP about it because they are really worried about immigration coming to know about some of their experience and what impact it will have on their visa,' he said. Martin said universities needed to implement early intervention, identification and wrap-around support, especially around family violence and mental health. 'Those who say, why don't they go and get a job – I want to ask: 'Will you give a job to someone who just came off the street?'' he said. Clara, 21, who asked to remain anonymous, became homeless at 19. She was attending a private all-girls school during her first experience of sleeping rough, when she was kicked out of home and spent a night on the street. 'I was still maintaining study whilst homeless. I would use public libraries for Wi-Fi and sometimes would have to seek extensions for submission dates,' she said. Thanks to support from Melbourne City Mission, which provided her with housing and work as a lived experience advisor, she's studying psychology with honours full-time at Victoria University. Loading 'The hardest thing you can do is start – once you have done that, who cares how long it takes, you're already halfway there.' After starting at Hester Hornbrook in 2021, Leutenmayr agrees. It linked her with the Salvation Army, which helped her with emergency accommodation and then a refuge. Through their support, she completed her Victorian Pathways Certificate; in April, she started a Certificate 3 healthcare course at Victoria University.
Sydney Morning Herald
5 days ago
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘You're too young to be on the streets': How Annie juggled school and homelessness
'I went through so many refuges until I found a stable refuge that would actually keep me for six months,' she said. 'I didn't really have that parent role to guide me to which steps I'll be taking.' There is no national data set that records how many unaccounted-for school-aged children are detached from education. In a 2019 study, Those Who Disappear, University of Melbourne researcher Jim Watterson made a conservative estimate that there may be more than 50,000, based on two state education departments' internal data. Homelessness, family violence and transience were listed as among the reasons. Watterson said more study was required. Youth Projects chair Melanie Raymond said she believed more young people are homeless and trying to finish school than official data shows. Loading 'It is a hidden and misunderstood problem,' she said. 'We see young people who never had a fair chance within a competitive education system. It is not a case of being absent from school for no reason: there's always a reason, and it's almost always related to poverty. 'We need to identify who is at risk and fund a host of interventions at all ages.' Melbourne City Mission head of social innovation Sam Barrett has been working with young homeless people for 25 years and said education was crucial when they were coming out of crisis. 'If you miss that window … and they're just wandering into doing nothing, things can go sideways,' Barrett said. Melbourne City Mission runs five youth refuges (there are 22 across Victoria and 13 youth foyers) and Hester Hornbrook Academy – a flexible school aimed at supporting students who can't attend mainstream education. They have five campuses, about 600 students and a waitlist. The school offers showers, food and laundry services. At any given time across those schools, there would be more than 50 students who didn't have somewhere to go at night, Hester Hornbrook principal Sally Lasslett said. Some would be sleeping rough, others were couch surfing, in a refuge or emergency accommodation. 'It's safer for them to sleep on a train than to go home. Or it's safer to walk the streets in Sunshine until school opens the next morning and they could come back into a community that will look after them.' Loading She said while there aren't figures on detached school students, conversations with local government areas made it clear this was an issue and that growing outer metro areas were in need. 'If we were somehow able to act as a collaborative education system to track those young people, imagine what we could do,' she said. 'Education is the key to getting out of poverty. It's the key to understanding your legal rights. It's the key to employment. We have young people who go on to get a job, and they're the first in three generations to have a full-time or part-time job. That's life-changing.' A Victorian government spokesperson said they invested $80 million to tackle youth homelessness to deliver more youth entry points and refuges across metro and regional Victoria, which included State Schools Relief for meals, uniforms and glasses and $113 million over two years for TAFE students with wrap-around services. For international students, finding support can be even more challenging. Elvis Martin was 17 when he experienced family violence, which led to him sleeping rough for almost three months. He was studying at Federation University and was unable to access support for crisis accommodation because he was an international student. He finally got support at a youth residential rehab run by CoHealth Community Health, after a six-month involuntary stay in hospital following a major depressive episode. Now 29, Martin said many university students fell through the gaps, especially international students who had precarious living situations, even though their education was a condition of their visa. Loading 'They don't even want to go and talk to a GP about it because they are really worried about immigration coming to know about some of their experience and what impact it will have on their visa,' he said. Martin said universities needed to implement early intervention, identification and wrap-around support, especially around family violence and mental health. 'Those who say, why don't they go and get a job – I want to ask: 'Will you give a job to someone who just came off the street?'' he said. Clara, 21, who asked to remain anonymous, became homeless at 19. She was attending a private all-girls school during her first experience of sleeping rough, when she was kicked out of home and spent a night on the street. 'I was still maintaining study whilst homeless. I would use public libraries for Wi-Fi and sometimes would have to seek extensions for submission dates,' she said. Thanks to support from Melbourne City Mission, which provided her with housing and work as a lived experience advisor, she's studying psychology with honours full-time at Victoria University. Loading 'The hardest thing you can do is start – once you have done that, who cares how long it takes, you're already halfway there.' After starting at Hester Hornbrook in 2021, Leutenmayr agrees. It linked her with the Salvation Army, which helped her with emergency accommodation and then a refuge. Through their support, she completed her Victorian Pathways Certificate; in April, she started a Certificate 3 healthcare course at Victoria University.
