You're tuned in to the COVID-19 community report here on KDRT 95.7 FM in Davis, California. I'm Autumn Lab-A-Reno and today is Tuesday, June 2nd. We're sharing local news and resources focusing on what's impacting Davis and nearby cities in Yolo County during the COVID-19 pandemic. The show airs live Tuesdays at noon and repeats at 5 p.m. this evening and also on Sundays. And you can listen online to catered anytime at kdrt.org. My guests today are Dr. Cindy Pickett, the outgoing president of the Davis Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees, and Anush Jajorian, coordinator of the Apoyolo Project. And we will get to our first interview in just a few minutes. It is hard to know what to say this week. For the past few months, I've been hyper-focused on bringing you information perspectives and insight into how our local communities are doing during the COVID-19 pandemic. And while the pandemic is still very much in play and all the cautions about mask-wearing and physical distancing still apply, even as things are reopening, pretty much all has been eclipsed since the senseless and brutal murder of George Floyd last week, which acted as the catalyst to express grief and outrage about the many murders of African-Americans before that, and the systemic racism that plagues every aspect of our country and our culture. I just want to say to my Black family, friends, and colleagues, I love you. I fear for you, and I am committed to standing beside you. You don't need my words, but I will give you my actions and my solidarity to the best of my ability, and I will look to you to lead the way. For those of us not directly harmed by institutionalized racism, there is a tendency to breathe a sigh of relief when the news cycle shifts and something else claims our focus. But folks, our Black and Indigenous brothers and sisters don't have that luxury, and really I believe none of us do anymore. Both my guests today happen to be powerful women of color, and both are actively engaged in the struggle for change. I set these interviews up some time ago because a huge part of the mission here at Davis Media Access as well as my own personal mission with this show is elevating voices that we just don't hear in the mainstream media because they're local, because they're underrepresented for a variety of reasons. It's really fitting today that Cindy and Anush are here to share their work. I will move on with a couple of announcements before we start the interviews. Yolo County issued a new health order last week on May 28th that discontinues shelter in place but maintains the face covering health order, emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility, and continues personal health and safety guidance such as social distancing and hygiene. We're currently in stage two with in-restaurant dining, widespread retail and services such as hair salons and barber shops and some places of worship once again open. As the pandemic continues and activities reopen, the public is responsible for adhering to the rules or guidelines that are set by the state and county, and still businesses are also responsible for enforcing and specifying policies at their establishments for the public and staff to follow. If you are an older adult or if you have conditions that dictate that you should stay at home as much as possible through stage four, please do so. And again, you can find all the information about current health orders at YoloCounty.org. And later this week, the Davis Media Access Board of Directors will consider what our reopening looks like here. Staff and I have been working on a proposal that will phase in how we go about this. And my hope is that we can provide a way to accommodate those who are most vulnerable on site while keeping those who have adapted to remote production out of the facility for the near term. Finally, listener Jim wrote in to share an IRS alert regarding some recently delivered stimulus payments. While most receiving stimulus payments are getting them via check or direct deposit, some are being mailed as visa debit cards. Pay attention if you get a plain envelope in the mail that's marked Money Network Card Holder Services. This is not a scam, it's real stimulus cash. The envelope contains a prepaid debit card that is loaded with your stimulus payment. Do not throw this out. It can contain up to $1,200 for single taxpayers. The cards are marked Visa Debit Card and the back of the card has the logo for Meta Bank. If you need more info, visit IRS.gov and we'll be back in just a minute. For the past three years, Dr. Cindy Pickett has served as the Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Equity and Inclusion at UC Davis. And she's also been a faculty member in the Department of Psychology. She also serves as the President of the Davis Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees. And she recently accepted an appointment as inaugural Associate Provost for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at DePaul University in Chicago, a role she starts on July 1. Hi Cindy, thanks so much for joining us today. Hi, thanks for having me. You bet. First, congratulations on your new position. Your work is direly needed. Yes, yes, yes, especially, you know, it's always been direly needed. Yes. The facts and the consequences of, you know, these issues of racial climate injustice going ignored. Right, right. Well, we're sorry that you're leaving us here in Davis, but I understand what a fabulous opportunity that must be for you. Thank you. So I wanted to touch base with you today before you do leave your role as President of the Board of Trustees. At the top of, when I started this series, as you know, I interviewed John Bose, the superintendent, and we talked about some of the things that the district would be facing in the weeks and months to come. Now I'm circling back to say, how has that been going? How has the district been weathering the storm and what's next? And I think the big question is, will school be in person in fall or not? And if you know the answer to that. Yeah, I know it's been, you know, it's been a roller coaster. It's been a ride for the teachers, the staff, the parents, and the students.  And so what, I would say the last couple months, we're simply trying to roll out distance learning and to end the year in a way where students are still, you know, they're having the social interaction with their classmates, getting some instruction, working on assignments. So keeping the educational mission going while at the same time realizing that this is not a typical circumstance, right? And so it's not like homeschooling where there is, you know, where someone is dedicated to being able to teach a child or to help get them into their instructional classes. A lot of times parents are also trying to work, dealing with their own jobs and their own stressors. And so that's something to keep in mind in terms of just how this is really a very unusual situation. So what is the discussion on what the fall will look like for families in the district? Yeah, so, you know, we're hearing, you know, we're hearing from county health officials, from the governor, from the state superintendent and the California Department of Education. We're in contact with all of these sources and resources trying to get just input about guidelines, health and safety requirements, and then trying to look at what are the options for education and learning given all of that. And what's happening is we're getting a trickle down of information. And what we're struggling with the most is the fact that at the same time we're trying to ensure the safety and health of the students and the staff, we're also being pulled to cut $6.4 million from our budget. Right. And, you know, LA Unified and San Diego Unified recently issued a statement over the weekend where they called it out pretty clearly that, you know, taking money from the districts on the one hand and yet expecting them to be able to do more is just not going to be feasible. It doesn't match up. A few weeks ago I interviewed Senator Bill Dodd and he said, this is a direct quote, I think the hardest job over the next five years is going to be that of a school board member. And it's specifically, we were talking about the state budget and all the cuts to education.  And so what we're trying to do is be strategic and invent in resources that will put us in the best position to be able to react quickly if circumstances change. So, for example, if we start the year with some sort of hybrid plan where there are some days of the week where students are physically present at the school site, can we change that in a matter of days if we get a health order that requires us to close down the school? Right. So ideally, you know, if we hear on a Friday that, you know, we have to close down the schools, it would be great on that Monday. We could just be up and running again remotely. And so one of the things that the district has been discussing is use of a learning management system. And so one of the problems that existed prior to the shutdown in March is that not all teachers were operating on an electronic platform. And not all teachers knew how to use them. And so there was this delay in terms of professional development, uploading materials, creating online materials. But if we start from that so that everything is going to be online accessible just as a baseline, then instruction could be in person or it could be a lesson over WebEx. But we're assuming that because there may have to be this back and forth, we have to be prepared and ready for both. You know, the CDC has issued its guidelines for what classrooms should look like moving forward. And a friend who's a teacher in another district commented to me, have they ever been in a classroom? Because the way they're talking about spacing the desk isn't the reality of our classrooms and how students and teachers interact together in learning communities. So that's a challenge right off the bat. You know, I was at Target just the past weekend and there were two young children and a parent yelling, don't touch things, don't touch things. And the child was happily running around, of course touching things, because that's what children do, right? Of course. So I think you pointed out a really important reality, which is administrators and people in the district office can think through these things, but teachers are the ones that see the kids every day and really know what's feasible and not feasible. So it's really going to have to be a partnership. And parents know their child. How many hours can a child keep a mask on without it being so adverse of that learning just isn't happening? That it actually interrupts with the learning process, I hear you? Yeah. Is it one hour? Is it two hours? So this is why we've been issuing surveys and trying to get input. And, you know, because all of this is going to have to be informed from multiple sources. Yeah. So I'm glad you mentioned the survey, because I saw there's a big one up on the website, the school district website. So let's talk about that for a minute. What kind of information are you trying to get from family there? You know, that survey is designed to just get a sense of where parents are at in terms of their perceptions of risk, to what extent they would feel comfortable, even if schools were open to sending their child in person. And it's important to keep the temperature of the community before implementing something, because you don't want whatever is implemented to be misaligned with the community. And then there's also part of the survey that looked at growth in specific areas related to the graduate profile. And I know some parents thought those questions were strange. But one of the things that the district is trying to do is benchmark success. So how do we know if distance learning is effective? Is it having the intended educational outcomes? And so those questions weren't designed to imply that we expected the last two or three months to be this explosion of growth. But we have to know where we are in order to know whether the return on investment is leading to the outcomes that everyone is seeking. Sure. So there's a school board meeting this Thursday.  No. So we stacked a bunch of meetings in June so that we could have a full board, because we have, as you mentioned, very tough issues ahead, a lot of them having to do with the budget. And a board member really has to know the ins and outs of the budget in order to make decisions. So we have a series of meetings. We may even call emergency meetings at the end of June just to make sure that we have a plan in place. Because at the end of June, there's July and then August, and we're back in school again. So there's not a lot of time actually over the summer. I want to remind listeners that the school board meetings do happen on Thursday evenings and they're held in the council chambers. They're broadcast live on Comcast Channel 17. They also stream live on DJUSD.TV, which is the website that DMA manages for that purpose. So we're down to our last couple of minutes, Cindy. So I wonder if you have any parting thoughts you'd like to share? No. I think when things become difficult, and when I was talking about budget cuts, things are going to be difficult, but I think you see the areas where, you know, as a board, as a district, we have a gender trust and areas where we may not have done as good of a job. And so, you know, and as a school board, we recognize that. And again, transparency, communication are really important, and those are values that the board describes to. But at the same time, we sometimes don't know what the community is seeking. So it can feel like we're being transparent on our end, and then the community feels like it's not transparent, and we need to know that. And specifically, hey, we want to know, kind of, specifically, you know, what's on the table, specifically when will a decision be made? And we can share that information, because I know everyone is anxious. There's nothing, you know, like uncertainty and uncontrollable future to set off anxiety. And so we want to be helpful in that regard. And so, you know, again, even though the board meetings are televised, they are held via Zoom, which means that if people have public comments, they need to be emailed in. And so we're asking people to email boe.com. If they have any public comments that they would want shared with the school board. I'm going to repeat that just so we make sure people got it. Email boe stands for Board of Education at djuust.net. And that's if you want to make sure that your comments get entered into the record for the Zoom meeting. Yeah, thank you. All right, well, thank you so much for taking time. And thank you for your service while you've been here and Davis, I know you ran for office. You've taken it seriously, and you've been dealing with some really, really tough issues during your tenure. So we wish you all the best and please come back and visit us. Yes, thank you. It's been an honor. All right, thank you so much. Take care. That was once again, Cindy Pickett, the outgoing president of the Davis Joint Unified School District Board of Trustees. We're going to listen to just a little bit more of Insqueraldi while we wait for our next call. Thanks. The Yellow Interfaith Immigration Network, is a group of people serving and advocating for immigrants in Yolo County. Back in April on the show, I interviewed then President David Lichtenhan about their Apoyolo project here to update us on how that's going is the project's coordinator, Anush Chajorian. Welcome. Thank you, Autumn. Thanks for having me. You bet. My pleasure. Let's start by reminding everyone what the project is and what it's set out to do. Sure. The Apoyolo project began, it actually began before COVID-19. We were aware of some immigrant families in Davis specifically who were undergoing some hardships. And we were making a, there was a group of immigration advocates who were making a plan to work with the school district in order to support these families. And then once COVID-19 happened, children stopped going to school, and then the chance of reaching out to these families through the school district basically evaporated. So, but with COVID-19, of course, we knew that these families were, a lot of the families either lost their jobs or had their hours drastically cut back. And a lot of those families didn't have access to a lot of the support that American citizens do. And so we knew that they would need extra support and services during this time. And we also knew that because of the language barriers, a lot of people were not getting good information about COVID-19. They didn't understand the county health orders that were coming out. They didn't know how to protect themselves. So we wanted to be sure that these families were getting good, accurate information in their own language. So that's how Apoyolo began. Great. And you said, I just want to clarify that the reason that immigrants have been more at risk, you went over some of the reasons why. But they're not, because of their status, basically they're not eligible for unemployment or stimulus benefits. So things that other people can take advantage of during this time have simply not been available to them. Exactly. So it depends on which families some have more access to services than others. But it's very uneven, and it's certainly less than what American citizens have access to. Right. So over the last couple of months, how's the project gone about meeting those aims? So basically since March, when the county ordered to shelter in place began, we've distributed about $20,000 in financial aid to 15 families, primarily in Davis. We've also provided non-monetary aid, such as helping navigate health care, help with accessing food assistance, and as I said, accurate information about COVID-19. Unfortunately, I mean, since that time, the project has grown, and we're at about 25 families, possibly 26, because I think another referral came in today. So the need is growing, and so we're trying to figure out how to cover all these families for June. Part of the, one of the most integral parts of our project, actually, is that each family gets assigned a bilingual volunteer who is that family's personal contact. And so the bilingual volunteer becomes a really trusted person that that family can turn to with questions or with needs, and then the volunteer can come to the group and say, this is what my family is going through. How can we help them? And then that volunteer has the benefit of the collective wisdom of everyone involved in order to help that family just get their needs met. So you touched on something. We're here on June 2nd. I know a lot of people have rent due on June 5th. I know that both the city and the county have eviction protection measures in process, but I've heard that people are still getting notices. They can't maybe actually be kicked out, but they're still getting notices. Are you finding that with the families you serve? That is absolutely correct. So this is also part of the problem for our families with the language barrier, is that they don't know or understand what the process is to invoke those eviction protections. And so we had one family where one of the family members was undergoing cancer treatment and already struggling with bills because their income had been drastically reduced. And on top of that, they received an eviction notice. And of course, they were terrified when that happened. And so luckily because they were already enrolled in the Apoyolo Project, our volunteers were able to help them make a good-faith payment, help them with the letter that they need to write to the landlord in order to invoke those eviction protections, and we were able to keep them housed. Excellent. So obviously you're an organization that's working to collect funds for the people you serve, and we're going to make sure we give a website where people can get more information about that. I'm wondering if other kinds of help are needed. Sounds like you may have people in place, but you may need more people who can help with legal issues, people who can help with feeding. So tell us what other kinds of help are needed. Sure. We have roles for volunteers who are bilingual and we have roles for folks who do not speak Spanish. So as I said, we're at about 25, possibly 26 families. We are at 16 bilingual volunteers, so we could absolutely use more Spanish-speaking volunteers who would be willing to be a point of contact for our family. In addition, as with any project like this, there's a whole bunch of other things that happen behind the scenes, such as trying to find if there are business partnerships who want to help sponsor this project, to do our social media in order to raise our profile and help people become aware of the kind of work that we're doing, simply administration work. This is an incredibly complex project and it actually takes a lot of behind the scenes organization. So we could always use help with that as well. So if anyone's interested in volunteering, there is a link you can go to, which is bitbit.ly and then it's slash up... sorry, A-P-O, capital Y-O-L-O, sign up. And that's the link in order to sign up as a volunteer. Okay, and we will make sure we share that out on the social media post we do after the show. I know it's hard to share links, but also let's share the main link for the YIN website too, so people have that. Right, so for more information, you can certainly go to yinyolo.org.


Okay, we're back. We're live. I'm Jay Fidel. This is Think Tech Hawaii. We're talking about Community Matters this morning with Tracy Wilkin. And she is the Executive Director of the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Thank you for joining us, Tracy Wilkin. Really appreciate it. Happy to be here, Jay. Thanks for having me. The title of our show is about the Access to Justice Program, which we just discussed with C.J. Mark Rectonwald just a few minutes ago. It's one of his most important and favorite programs, yeah. And you're having a ceremony coming soon, or we're going to give awards to people who've been involved in the program. So let's get a handle on what the program does, what the awards are like, what the ceremony's like. Let's start with what is access to judgment in Hawaii? Access to Justice is providing the legal resources for people in the low-income population who can't afford it. Everybody is entitled to have representation and to be able to navigate a very confusing legal system, particularly for people who aren't accustomed to being in the legal system. And so many, many people have a challenging time accessing justice. And for that reason, the Access to Justice Commission, the Hawaii Access to Justice Commission was created a little more than 10 years ago. It's going on 11 years and it's thanks to the dedication of many people who volunteered thousands of hours and the leadership of Chief Justice Mark Rectonwald that it's grown and made a huge difference. And so each year we have a pro bono celebration that you referred to. And the purpose of the celebration is to recognize all of the people and the many lawyers who've dedicated hours donating their time to assist people in the low-income population so that they do have access to justice. So how do you provide, first, how do you determine who an appropriate beneficiary is? I mean, who is somebody that this program Access to Justice wants to target as a beneficiary? Where is he or she? What's the demographic? So the demographic is there's many, many people. It's people who are indigent or in the very low income population. And in Hawaii, that's a large number of people, probably even more so now, since many people are without jobs or have been furloughed. And the key areas, Jay, where Access to Justice is needed most is in the domestic arena. So couples getting divorced who don't understand the law and how a judge might divide property or what they need to do. Unmarried couples with children who they're not going to be a couple, but they still need to work out time sharing arrangements and focus on the needs of their kids. Landlord tenant is a big, big area. Tenants oftentimes have no idea what their rights are under the law. And this is a really big issue in particular right now. So these are areas, and even in small claims, consumer merchant cases. So these are the areas of greatest need where people in the low income population, people who, English is not their primary language, immigrants who've come over, they're trying to work hard to earn a living and they don't understand our laws. These are the people who are served by legal aid, volunteer legal services, and the many civil legal service providers who are involved in this work. You know, I know it wouldn't apply in every case, but at least it seems to me that in some cases, the judge can handle this. The people come before him, he can see that they're, you know, not experienced, they don't have a lot of contact with the law, they don't know what to do. So he can talk to them. Why doesn't that happen? And the family court judges do that, don't they?  Sure. They can talk to people and family court judges do, and the district court judges do as well. But it's important to remember that the judge can't provide legal advice and take sides and advocate for somebody, even though they recognize that this person may not have the information that they need. Judges refer these individuals out to the resources that they need to help them navigate the system. So certainly judges encourage people to go out and get the information. And that's why a lot of cases are actually referred to mediation as well. Let's talk about mediation. You're the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Mediation is a very kindly, altruistic word. It bespeaks of let us reason together, the most noble, the highest way of human engagement. We have a dispute, let us reason together. We'll put our dispute aside and find a solution that works for everybody. It's a wonderful notion. I don't know if it works all the time, but it's a wonderful aspiration anyway. Tell us about the Mediation Center of the Pacific. And I loved how you described it. And you're right, it doesn't always work. But let me tell you, the Mediation Center of the Pacific is a non-profit organization. So we're one of the civil legal service providers who provide affordable and accessible mediation and dispute resolution services. So mediation has really grown. And so people with financial resources can select a mediator and pay a per hour fee at the Mediation Center of the Pacific. Our services are affordable and accessible to everyone. So through mediation, we bring people together at a time that's mutually agreeable and working with an impartial mediator who helps them listen to each other in a way they haven't been able to and helps them negotiate agreements that work for them. Now, what's important in access to justice and mediation, Jay, is that, number one, we encourage people to go out and get the information they need. So we work closely with volunteer legal services, legal aid, domestic violence action center. We're encouraging people to access these resources so they're informed when they're negotiating, since we don't get legal advice. It's a much more relaxed setting. And what's really important is that the people in the mediation make their own decisions. The mediator doesn't decide for them. So if they're able to reach an agreement, we help them put it into writing. But if they don't reach an agreement, then they can go back next step and go back to court. And even if they don't reach an agreement, because you're right, it doesn't work in every situation. What we hear from people and also judges who hear the cases is that the people are more focused. They have a better understanding of what they need, how to present their case. So mediation is invaluable when people reach agreements, but it can also help people be more focused on how to move forward and be realistic about what it is they're trying to achieve. Permit me a digression. Sure. What makes a good mediator? Not everybody in the world is a good mediator. There are human qualities. What are they? Absolutely. So a good mediator, first and foremost, you have to be a great listener. Now that may seem silly that everybody listens, but most people don't listen carefully. Mediators are trained to listen very deeply to understand what's really driving people. And when you are in a conflict and you're upset, most of us don't know what's driving us. And mediators listen very carefully to hear what's really driving people to bring that out and to help people listen to each other. Mediators also are extremely patient to know when they can move people, when people are ready for negotiation or when they still need to be heard a little bit longer. Mediators need to be very flexible and they need to be effective in helping people negotiate their own solutions. And I think this is really key, Jay. So mediation is a process. I can teach you a process. I can teach you the skills, but the art is helping people come up with their own ideas and resolve it themselves. That's when people walk away feeling really satisfied. You've answered my second question, which was Tracy. How does a mediator resolve disputes? You've answered that. So it's part of being a mediator to resolve disputes. Yeah. So here we are. We have these various organizations that are interested in access to justice. They go out into the community. They have people. They have staffs. But you have certain pro bono volunteers who participate in that. Who are they? Are they all lawyers or are they someone else too? And exactly what do these volunteers do to breathe life into access to justice? That's a great question. And depending on what organization it is, they can be attorneys, but many of them so for the Mediation Center of the Pacific and the other community Mediation Centers across the state. We are volunteers from a broad background, not just lawyers, but let me go back. So legal aid and volunteer legal services have pro bono attorneys. So they're attorneys who are donating their time to help represent clients to provide workshops and training. So for example, volunteer legal services has regular workshops for divorcing couples to help them understand the paperwork to help them understand the laws that govern the divorce arena. These attorneys who are conducting these workshops are volunteering their time. They also have attorneys who represent clients at no cost to the client as does legal aid with the Mediation Center of the Pacific and other Mediation Centers. We have attorneys, but we also have non attorneys who are mediators and they volunteer thousands of hours throughout the year. And trust me, without the people who volunteer for all our organizations, we wouldn't be able to serve the thousands of people that we do each year, making a big difference in our community. Yeah, why did they do that? Why did they do that? You know, I'm going to speak from my experience, but later I know before the pro bono celebration, you're going to have some of these volunteers on your show. You can ask them yourself. But what I hear from them is they want to give back to the community. They believe in increasing access to justice and they believe that they have a responsibility with the knowledge and the skills that they have to be able to make this difference and give back. For those of us who are fortunate, we have full-time jobs. We've been fortunate to go to school and have academic degrees and have this knowledge. It's important to share that and volunteers also say that in addition to giving back, they learn a lot themselves. So there's a little bit of selfishness. Volunteers aren't selfish, but every time you help someone, there's definitely a reward for yourself to know that you've made a difference in someone's life. Yeah, that's great. That kind of gratification doesn't come easy and you have to put in to get that gratification. So I was going to ask you, what do they do? Do they go to court? Is anything and everything, or are they specialized in one function or another? For example, a legal age society lawyer seems to me, they're going to go to court. But what are these other organizations more along the lines of mediation or even just talking to people and they don't necessarily go to court? So how do you deploy the talent, so to speak? Okay, so there's a lot of different pro bono opportunities and pro bono work going on. So I've talked about mediation. We have a cadre of approximately 125 mediators who volunteer their services as mediators, legal aid and volunteer legal services, domestic violence action center, the disability rights center, the native Hawaiian legal corporation and others have attorneys who actually provide representation for clients at no cost. There's also an access to justice self help desk at district court, as well as at family court. And that those access to justice self help desk have volunteer attorneys who are there providing legal advice at no cost for individuals accessing those courts. So at the district court, there's individual attorneys, law firms also adopt the access to justice self help desk at district court for a month. Attorneys from their law firm will be available to answer questions to individuals who filed cases there and who don't know how to navigate the paperwork or have legal questions. Same thing at family court and most of those will all of the ones at family court are all family law attorneys who are volunteering their time to be able to answer questions for individuals. And this is a huge, huge benefit to the community because as I said, there's thousands of people that access the courts that are overwhelmed by it. They don't know where to go. And by having these attorneys available to answer their questions, it helps them navigate a difficult system. It helps them move forward. You also have volunteer settlement masters. This is at family court. These are family law attorneys who use some mediation skills and their subject matter expertise to help couples that it's who are really having a hard time reaching agreements. And they're just about to go to trial. So right before the motion to set and a volunteer settlement master will work with them if they volunteer their time to see if they can help them negotiate agreements and settle. There's also an appellate mediation program through the judiciary center for alternative dispute resolution. They volunteer their time as mediators. And those are at the appellate court level. So again, trying to help people resolve their issues so they don't have to fight in court. They can save money and it's not so overwhelming. So all of these programs they're investing hundreds of hours to make a difference. So there's a lot of different volunteer opportunities that are going on. And we continue to try and increase that. And that's why we have the pro bono celebration. So we recognize those who are volunteering their time. So they know that they're appreciated and to encourage others to volunteer their time as well. Well, let's talk about that. So how do I qualify for the celebration? How do I qualify to get an award at the celebration? So we are recognizing all of the volunteer attorneys who help at the access to justice self help desk both at district court and family court. We are acknowledging all the volunteers who help with the volunteer settlement master program and all the volunteers who assist with the appellate mediation program. In addition to that each of the legal service providers and that's domestic violence action center, the legal aid society of Hawaii, volunteer legal services, the elder law program at the University of Hawaii, native Hawaiian legal core and the mediation center of the Pacific. Each organization looks at their pool of volunteers. And as an organization decides who we're going to honor this year, so we each select somebody and then that person is honored. The other thing that the pro bono celebration does is several years ago, we started having an essay contest for students to encourage students to be thinking about the importance of volunteering and we receive a couple hundred entries and we select seven student winners who will also be recognized through the pro bono celebration. Yeah, let's talk about that. So this is an essay contest and it's in class. What kind of class would it be? And would it be in English? Would it be in social studies? Where would it be in high school? Truthfully, it can be in any class. We don't focus on the class. We get the word out to the schools. We get the word out to all the teachers. So sometimes it could be an English class. Sometimes it could be a political science class. It varies. Sometimes students take the initiative themselves. We do provide an award. We have very generous law firms who donate $600 awards so the students receive a $500 award and the teacher who assists that student receives a $100 award. That's a great idea. Yeah, it's wonderful and the the essays of the students are absolutely amazing. It's really difficult. Let's talk about them Tracy. I'd like to hear some of the subjects they pick and how well they do on it. Well, we have a theme. So each year we provide a theme and usually it's around, you know, what inspires you to volunteer? How do you encourage other people to volunteer? This year's theme focuses on volunteering while keeping social distancing, which is a bigger challenge. So their essays are going to be very interesting and the students will tell us stories, how they've encouraged other students to volunteer. They share their personal stories about how they volunteered. Everything from helping in nursing homes to beach cleanups to helping another student learn English and their stories vary broadly and they're very heartwarming and compelling and it helps you know, it reminds you that there's a lot of good things going on with our youth who are the next leaders. Well, let's talk about that too. The way you answer my questions shows how good a listener you are. Well, I hope so since I'm a mediator. I figured that. So these kids, this generation of kids, let's say the kids in high school right now, the kids who would write these essays right now and presumably some of them get awards and come down to your ceremony, your virtual ceremony as the case may be. It will be virtual this year. So do they tell you that, I mean, does this speak of a generation of volunteerism? I mean, I like to think, and I may be wrong, but I like to think that Hawaii has a certain special sauce about volunteering, that people are so empathetic and sympathetic, they care about the community, they care about their fellow human being and we have more caring than most places. Therefore, we have more volunteering. Am I right about that or am I just dreaming on that point? Yeah, fortunately, you're not dreaming. You're absolutely right and that's part of why we're so fortunate to live in Hawaii and the students are amazing and a lot of it comes from the schools they attend. A lot of the schools have volunteer opportunities, encourage them to do volunteer services. A lot of the students have been inspired by their own family members who volunteer and so you're absolutely right. It's part of our culture. Even people when they don't have much, they're still willing to give and that is something that's very special about the people who live in Hawaii. We have to hold on to that. This program with the essays, that is a way to hold on to it, to nurture that thought and to encourage them not only to observe it, but be part of it. Absolutely. So let's talk about the program itself. There's a ceremony and in other times the ceremony would be physical, everybody be in the same ballroom, what have you, but not this year for obvious reasons. How are you going to organize this? I guess it's in October. How are you going to organize it? Correct. So we've been doing a lot of thinking about this. Generally it's held at the Supreme Court with the Supreme Court justices, Chief Justice Rectonwald and 150 people filling the room and unfortunately we won't be able to do that, but we really wanted to still hold this celebration because of the importance of volunteerism and to continue to encourage people and youth to volunteer. So as we thought through, how do we highlight this important program and the work that these volunteers are doing? We decided through media and so fortunately to wonderful people like you who will give us the opportunity to be on Think Tech to highlight some of our volunteers in October to have Chief Justice Rectonwald the head of the Hawaii State Bar Association be presenting via Think Tech so lots of people will be able to still enjoy that celebration. We're also looking at different articles to highlight the volunteers and the students. There'll be a bigger spread in the Hawaii State Bar Association Journal. We're reaching out to other print media and hopefully they'll be willing to give us a couple pages as well. Yeah, PS by the way we do have a website. We have various blogs on the website links to blogs and we would be delighted to post some of those essays as you see fit so people could find them there and take a look at them and understand more about what these kids are thinking and doing. So okay so now you've given awards to all the pro bono people. I mean it's organization by organization specialty by specialty. They come and get awards sometimes law firms give give money but you still have to have a staff don't you? You still have to have a commission right access to judgment commission foundation whatever it is. How are you funding these activities? So the access to justice commission is strictly a volunteer commission so everybody on it is volunteering their time and they're very dedicated and there is multiple subcommittees that meet when the commission isn't meeting doing hundreds of hours of work. I have to say Jay you know I've been I'm not part of the commission but I'm on some of the committees and over the years the level of work and the commitment and the progress that's been made has been impressive and so it's completely volunteer. How do we do the pro bono celebration? It's again people donating money so law firms donate the awards for the students and the Hawaii Justice Foundation, the Hawaii Bar Association and the Hawaii Bar Foundation have provided funding that has enabled us originally we would fly students over we won't be doing that now but it'll help us with some of the the media exposure that we want to get. So we've been very fortunate that it's strictly donations grants and a lot of volunteer time. You know this is something we talked about with the CJ just last hour and that is the need to have the public confident of the system and I mean more than just judicial things I mean the legislature I mean the courts in general I mean the executive branch and all the departments but you know it strikes me and we talked about this in the time of COVID it becomes all the more important to have the public confident of the system. You talked about people who are you know in the headlights when they when they go to court they don't know what to do and they're afraid they're afraid for what might happen they're afraid for you know somehow being injured in the process one way or the other and and if anybody doesn't if anybody questions that let them go one day I don't know if this is open right now I'll let them go to the district court and hang around and see all the people a lot of them are terrified well the family court for that matter a lot of them are terrified and and and so what you provide is is comfort and you you get you get them confident you build confidence in the system it's it's very important but in the time of COVID it's even more important because our whole society is being challenged our whole society is is potentially being undermined as we speak by the disease and by social impact of the disease and the economic impact of course so how how does that work do you do you see that already happening Tracy do you see the confidence has been questioned do you see that the system is being questioned and do you see that these programs particularly the pro bono programs are helping well they're absolutely are helping and I hesitate and I have to think about my response because this is a time where people are in complete overwhelm they're fearful more than ever it was already scary to go to court and be involved in a legal transaction but with COVID and people being stuck together and they're in their homes and being angry with each other and being fearful because nobody knows what the future holds it's created even more stress and fear for people so even for example when I have somebody come to the mediation center they're angrier they're more likely to disagree with things they're frustrated that they can't just go to court and have their case heard so I think it's a multitude of things going on right now and are all these volunteers services helping absolutely they all of our services are needed more than ever I know for the mediation center the pacific and the other community mediation centers across the state we have an increase in cases first and we're doing a lot remotely and that's not always accessible to everyone we've tried to do limited in person while still keeping people safe we've tried to help people navigate technology so it's a it's a difficult time and so everyone's services legal aid domestic violence action center all have seen an increase in need and everybody's working hard to to try and meet those needs so lawyer or non-lawyer if I feel that I want to contribute pro bono time or for that matter money where do I go what do I do who do I talk to so you can go to the access to justice commission's website and they list all the different legal service providers on there so it gives you the opportunity to look at which which organization seems to meet your interests maybe meet your skill set if you want to volunteer and all of them certainly would benefit from financial donation so I would encourage people to go to each organization's website to see the work that they're doing give the organization a call talk to their executive directors so that they can meet their priorities and where they'd like to fit their skills or financial resources with each organization's mission well tracy you know as you mentioned we we adhere to think tech we want to support the program and and we will do interviews of the winners the awardees and and the actual virtual ceremony too and I look forward to that we're out of time and I want to ask you one last question you know what would you leave as a message with our viewers what would you want them to think about what would you want them to take away from this discussion I think what I want people to know is the importance of volunteering the impact that all of these volunteers are making on our community and that they're they're committed and they want to see our community be stronger and if you have the capability of volunteering for one of these organizations or anywhere there's a lot of different organizations that need volunteers right now to pick up the phone or send an email and volunteer your time because it's working together that's going to help us all move through the difficult times that we're in and make a stronger hawaii in the future well put tracy welch and mediation to center center of the pacific and access to justice thank you so much for appearing on sync tech thank you j i appreciate it


Hey guys welcome back to my YouTube channel this is Daniel Rosal here I want to do a very very quick video hopefully on the Canon XA40 which is a professional camcorder and what I want to do in this video is quickly show how to check what firmware the camera is running just one of the rights of passage I go through whenever I pick up a new electronic of any sort is to check the firmware generally firmware updates are free and firmware updates sometimes bring new functionalities to a type product and sometimes they also patch security vulnerabilities and stuff like that so it's really in your interest to check the firmware because stock can sit in a warehouse for a couple of years as a consumer of retail or consumer technology we often don't know exactly what the supply chain is what where the product actually came from so sometimes you will pick up a hardware that's a couple of years old and you know in the intervening period new firmware has come up that hasn't been written onto the product because it was post after it left the manufacturer so that's why I recommend always checking even if you've no reason to suspect it's old firmware so on the XA40 here's what you're going to do I get to the open up the LCD now I configured menu as a one of my two shortcut buttons on the home screen otherwise just click on the menu button now I'm going to just move this slightly closer to my other camcorder what you want to do is as follows you want to go down and then go across in the tabs sorry go to the first layer of the tabs then you want to go across to the settings cogwheel then you want to descend into the second layer and over on level four we have firmware written here just under certification information so you can see I'm running at one decimal zero decimal one decimal zero which is actually I checked on their website the latest firmware there was a previous version of firmware for this camcorder called one zero zero zero so if you saw that then you can just follow the instructions on the Canon website in order to get yourself running on the latest firmware so that's all there is to say that's how you do it and if you do want to check into the menu you will find it there thank you guys for watching


Former President Ulussiagun Abbasangir has decried Nigeria's inability to leave up to expectation since it got independence 63 years ago. Chief Abbasangir stressed that the country had not only disappointed itself but also Africa and the world. He spoke in his keynote address at a public presentation of the book titled Reclaiming the Jewel of Africa, written by former Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment and Minister of Finance Ulussiagun Aganga. Chief Abbasangir maintained that the beginning of charting a new cause for the country east to admit the failure of not putting round pegs in the round holes. He urged leaders to drop their ego and emotion of self-selfishness and self-centeredness, ethnic and religious, jingoism plus gross misunderstanding of what development entails and how to move fast. Hello, hope you enjoyed the news. Please do subscribe to our YouTube channel and don't forget to hit the notification button so you get notified about fresh news updates.


Hi, my name is Hugh. I'm from Ireland and I recently completed the 120-hour TEFL course without a tutor. I decided to take this course because teaching English online is in huge demand at the moment, particularly for native speakers and with the state of the current global situation, a lot of work is going online, so having that option, I think, is a really great thing to have. Initially, I was a little bit intimidated at the start of the course and how in 120 hours can you teach everything you need for the basics of teaching English online, but it was really, really very clear throughout the course. The ESA method they use primarily, Engage, Study, Activate, it's very simple, very flexible, but very easy to learn and it gives you a great variety of how to teach classes and individual students as well. The course was also great in identifying the level, the English level of students you might potentially teach, how to teach grammar, how to teach vocabulary. I know, even as a native speaker, I learned a lot about the English language. I wasn't even aware of and how grammar works. But overall, if you're interested in a TEFL or TESL course, I would absolutely recommend this one. Thanks!