What are the origins of the Scots and how did they connect to Spain, Egypt and Scythia? Scotland, which is known as Alipar and Scottish Gallic, formed into its embryonic kingdom in 843 AD, when Kenneth McAlpine unified the Picts and the Gales, also known as the Scots, into the Kingdom of Alipar. The Cumbric-speaking Kingdom of Strathclyde was incorporated in the following centuries, along with the Anglo-influenced Lothian area and the Norse-influenced Isles and the northern islands themselves of Shetland and Orkney. But what are some of the deeper origins of the Scots? Firstly though, the term Scot is actually a little more complicated than initially meets the eye. And the Gales in the Scots are used interchangeably in certain contexts, depending on the time period described. This is because the Romans refer to Ireland as Scotia, for centuries, meaning the land of the Scots. The terms Scotia and Scots gradually began to be used more to refer to Scotland, however, from the 9th century onwards, and largely exclusively in the centuries after, to refer to the people of the Kingdom of Scotland. This video will focus on the origin stories of the Scots in the context of Scotland for the most part, but I will touch on aspects of Ireland as well. One of the most popular origin stories of the Scots is that we are descended from the daughter of an Egyptian pharaoh called Scotta. After leaving Egypt, the story goes that Scotta and her people lived in Spain for a period, then on to Ireland and eventually settled in Scotland. Certain sources argue that Scotta was married to a city in Prince, who himself was the son-in-law of an Egyptian pharaoh. A curious and interesting origin story of the Scots refers to the Scythians, a people who lived in modern-day Ukraine, parts of Russia, and the Eurasian steppe in general. In the 1320 declaration of our growth, which was a letter signed by the Scottish nobility and sent to the pope, asking him to recognise Scotland's independence and Robert the Bruce as king, there is a curious reference to Greater Scythia, as the declaration states, the Scots journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Terranian Sea and the pillars of Hercules and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain. Since it came, 1200 years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea to his home in the west where it still lives today. This origin story of the Scots, the declaration of our growth's origin story of the Scots, references a region that is also brought up in the story of Scotta, namely Spain. Spain comes up time and time again in the origin stories of the Scots, but why is this? And is there any truth to this? Well, it does seem that there was a sizable migration from the Iberian Peninsula into parts of modern-day Scotland and other parts of Britain and Ireland, incidentally. Brian Sykes, who was a late professor of human genetics at the University of Oxford, said in a newspaper interview that, About 6000 years ago, Iberians developed ocean-going boats that enabled them to push up the channel. Before they arrived, there were some human inhabitants of Britain, but only a few thousand in number. These people were later subsumed into a larger Celtic tribe. Very quickly, if you would like to support this work and pick up this t-shirt and many more, all the links will be in the description below. Thank you and now on with the video. If we turn their attention back to the stories about the Scythians, it is important to note that the Picts also have a story, an origin story that links them to the Scythians. It comes from Venerable Bede, an English monk who wrote in his book Historia, published in 731 AD. The story goes that the Picts initially sailed from Scythia to Ireland, but after the Irish refused to allow them to settle on their land, they were told of another land close by, namely Scotland. Lacking wives, the Picts then took Irish women with them, under the condition that they would promote their kings from the female royal line, as opposed to the male. It is interesting that the Picts seem to have had a tradition of promoting through the female royal line, as opposed to the male. Another interesting aspect of this connection between the Picts and the Scythians is the timelines of the two peoples. Basically, just when the Scythians disappear from history, the Picts appear in history. The Picts appear in history from around the 3rd century AD to around the 10th century AD, although these are approximate timelines. The Scythians, on the other hand, appear in the historical record about the 9th century BC, and they disappear around the 3rd century AD, partly subsumed by the Goths and other people that took over their territory. So just as the Picts appear in history, the Scythians disappear. Is this just coincidental, or could it be the case that some Scythians, knowing that their kingdom and their people was all but over in that region, sailed from the Black Sea through the Mediterranean and then eventually settled in the land we call Scotland today? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments below, because it is extremely curious how many times the Scythians are referenced from numerous different sources, including quite good sources like Venerable Beat, almost a prime source of that time period, and also the Declaration of Arboroth, which is one of the most important documents in Scottish history, but please let me know your thoughts in the comments below. This is a connection I've discussed on numerous occasions, but it's an interesting one to explore. There are also various other interesting influences on Scotland, on the genetic side, for instance. A 2012 study of Scotland's DNA found that more than 1% of all Scots men are direct descendants of the Berber and Tureg Triseman of the Sahara, a lineage which is around 5,600 years old. Some have argued that the introduction of this genetic line into Scotland relates to the medieval Caliphate of Cordoba, which ruled parts of the Iberian Peninsula until the 10th century AD. Speaking of Scotland, what is the genetic history of Scotland? A 2019 study managed to group Scotland into six genetic clusters, the northeast, the southwest, the borders, the Hebrides, Shetland and Orkney. More broadly, Scotland is defined by a northeast-southwest division close to the River Forth, a division that reflects the territories of the Gaels and the Picts historically. This 2019 study also managed to group the Aile of Man with southwestern individuals, and it also found that the Hebrides is genetically distinct from the rest of mainland Scotland, a genetic island, so to speak. A 2012 study led by the University of Edinburgh found that around 1% of Scots are direct descendants of the Berber or Tureg Triseman of the Sahara, a lineage which goes back around 5,600 years ago. This study also found that 50% of participants, who had the surname Stuart, were direct descendants of the royal line of kings, and in fact had royal DNA. A study from April 2013 found that 73% of Scots had the iron brew gene, which meant that you burned easier in the sun. In Orkney, there is a remarkable genetic legacy left by the Vikings. Orkney in general was the most genetically distinct across the British Isles. The people of the British Isles study found that 25% of the people of Orkney's DNA comes from Norwegian sources, a clear marker of the Viking presence and the later Norwegian presence. This shows that the Vikings did not completely replace the indigenous population of Orkney, however, a Pictish population or thought to have been a Pictish population and intermarried with the native population. More broadly, there is a clear Norse presence across all Scottish samples, a clear legacy of the Vikings. Unsurprisingly, Orkney's cousin, Shetland, also has a high degree of Norse ancestry, at around 20-25% coming from Norwegian ancestry. In both Orkney and Shetland, the degree of Norse influence is higher from people that traditionally their ancestors were from the north of Orkney and Shetland. Norwegian ancestry is lower in the Hebrides, the southwest and the northeast of Scotland, in addition to the Isle of Man, averaging around 4%. Studies have also found links between people in the north of Ireland and Scotland, hardly surprising given the history of the Gaels and the Kingdom of Dalriada, which I did actually make a video on, which I'll link above. Another reason for the links between the north of Ireland and Scotland is the Ulster plantation. The people of the British Isles study also found that there was a large movement of people from northern France into Scotland between 6,000 and 3,000 years ago. What's your thoughts and what other articles or studies have you came across on the genetic history of Scotland? Please let me know in the comments below. Thanks for watching. Like say if you liked support this work, all the ways will be in the description below, including to my merch store where you can pick up this T-shirt and many more in paper to your own PayPal buy me a coffee dot com or other ways to support. Please subscribe and hit the bell to tell your friends and family about this channel as well. Thanks for watching and I'll see you next time.


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Now you're probably saying to yourself, huh? Well, I still want that count and that's you know, it's a deal-breaker all of a sudden Not necessarily, you know a granted we can't put it inside of my lambda expression, but that doesn't mean it's the end of the world So I'm gonna actually come above here. I'm actually gonna create Sort of now that I'm working sort of on the fly. I don't have a met I don't have a class Sorry to kind of make class variables for you know, this Lambda expression, but I can make them outside of it inside of my kind of bigger main class And I can come in here and maybe do something like private int Okay count equals zero All right Well, then I can come in here and again notice those curly braces the curly braces just dictate that I Can put blocks of code in here and so before I do my system dot out that print L in I'm just gonna add in an okay count plus plus Notice there are no error messages popping up all of a sudden again. This is a private variable It's only available inside of my class and well guess what this is inside of my class my lambda expression is inside here, so Guess what I can do Okay, count Well, if I wrote it correctly Okay count plus times times I Run this I Take a look at it. I hit okay Okay, it's pressed one time two time three time four time five time And as you can guess we can probably do the exact same thing with cancel I'll come in here and I'll copy this okay count And I'll make it happen up here. Well make it appear a second time with cancel count And then as you can guess I want to take this code And I want to reduce all of this stuff down until All I have left is this guy and then instead of okay count I say cancel count and instead of okay pressed. I say cancel pressed and I probably want to keep track with Cancel count instead of okay count I run it pull it up Okay hit one time two time three time cancel has hit one time two time three time


What's going on guys welcome back to another video modern-day muscle. We're gonna do another model of the car guys. Stay tuned Believe I'm rubbing very slightly and I was talking with garage-driven by the way shouts out to him and he suggested a five mil spacer, but um As you guys know, I have three 15s in the back on a 10 and a half inch wheel Um It seems to rub very slightly when the car flexes so anytime I'm doing, you know turns or anything like that It'll rub, but it's very light But uh, we're gonna find out how much rubbing is happening because I'm gonna take this off and we're gonna put on this This spacer right here Five mil. Hey guys, so I got the wheel off Big three 15 huge um I was inspecting the wheel a little bit. I don't know if the rubbing is this in tension or It's somewhere on the inside here, but you know, I definitely heard it when the the tire was turning, but um I'm not really Sure if I really will see a an impact on the tire I wonder if it's inside the wheel well though, so I'm about to go check that out. Oh, there's the culprit right there See it. I don't know if you guys can see it, but The rubbing Focus let's see here. Can we focus? Are we good? Are we in the game? I'm seeing me hold it right here. But anyways, um, yeah, the rubbing is actually happening right here guys I'll take my finger away so you guys can see it. It's like really dark right there That's where the rubbing is it's really happening Yeah, so Um, like I said, it's very minimal. Um, it's not anything crazy, but definitely um Gonna put that space around the hub. So, you know, let's get to it Yo, so if you're watching this and you're novice like me, I just learned that this side See how the lip Looks like it has like a bevel to it and then On this side, there's no bevel.  Um, there's different spacers out there. I'm gonna have to um Fit them on the hub and then I'll probably use like a marker or something to mark side I don't get confused all right guys, so um update bad news This is the wrong spacer so Without the contact the seller It's supposed to be five one one four, I mean it's supposed to be five one one five and this one's five one one four And I'm guessing they're assuming that this is supposed to fit but it doesn't I'm not gonna try and put it on there because it's kind of annoying to to fit it and then take it back off But uh, also too since I had more time to look This is where the rubbing is happening It's happening. Um Here Could you see the plastic it's starting to wear away right there and then this isn't good neither Which I didn't notice this before when I was showing you guys, but yeah, this isn't Normal, this is a factory that should be like that. So Definitely when the car is turning it eats away, but like I said, it's not on Terrible but not good. I definitely got to get this on before I go to Dallas for um, you know, the youtuber called out the showdown But uh, yeah, man sucks Yeah, man, but uh, that was uh unfortunate But I learned a lot just because I've never put on a spacer So I was you know, I was having the problem and then I called garage driven just a double check. I wasn't crazy and Yeah, I got to return the spacer back to the seller and get the right one So I'm definitely gonna have it on before Dallas. Um, you know, like I said, the rubbing isn't horrible But it is something that needs to be addressed So to the next video, we'll put it on man. Anyways, my name is Jordan. This is my name also Thank you for stopping by and I'll see you in the next video man


siha Omusani omusani canea k knew. Onze he is a content Island K Teresa We are friends together and welcome Letting Kenya to Bounflation. That's what I'm talking about. Mini kofiti mazejo. Long time no see. It's been a long mazejo. But every single time na kujawaii 2-5-4 I always feel at home mazejo. Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity. Any time Karim Musaana. You're so welcome. And of course the last time I saw you to right now there's been a few transitions that have happened in your personal life and your career.  Yes, of two. Tell us about that.  How is it for you? How are you finding it? Because you make it look so easy. You were like having a time of your life. Yes, I mean some of the things that we always wished for when we were growing up is this freedom and liberty to just express ourselves as children. And this is such a noble opportunity for me as a person now to impact the same on my children. Give them the liberty to express themselves and just to be themselves basically. So it's a beautiful thing and I can't. I have no complain about it. You have no complain about it. Yes.  Who is amazing? I love her. The reason I love her other than just being amazing and super talented is the fact that she comes to my house yokuja kariokizangu. What did they actually do? And that is so amazing. Yes. But she is also your muse in a lot of your projects.  Tell us about that. Zako kama zote yuko. And sometimes people often pull back on it to me. Ataka bibi atakwa location. But when it's models and stuff. But in spite of that she will be among the models to feature in your videos. So I think one of the main reasons probably she is always in most of my projects because we work together and she is the most accessible person to me. But other than that which is very much more important is that she is my strongest support system and it's not something that I'm taking for granted and you're going to be seeing her in so many of my projects. Ya. Because you cannot have any vibe. I know. I know. Ladies okabalo. Go and win. No to worry. Let me tell you something. So he's all amazing and Geva is just the song. He performs fires. So I'm thinking we have a listen and then come back and talk some more. Alright let's go. Geva is a college in translation of the Swahili word to Wende or English in English let's go. Ah let's go. It's a song that basically underscores the prudence of living life and enjoying just as well as you just work. Ya. I love that. It's equally important. So you have to have a ball line. Kabisa. Ya. Speaking of your musical journey in the first time I interviewed you I met you as a band. Halisi. So tell me about the transition from you being in Halisi to now you releasing your own solo projects. You know when kuna kwa kwa kwa na yo story ya the group dynamics. Ina kwa kwa very strong in groups na you never like it in any kind of a group setting. So such was the case with the Halisi the band. Three different personalities from totally different backgrounds who met up and decided to do music together. But no that does not cure the differences that we have especially given the fact that we come from totally different backgrounds with totally different upbringings. End of period. So ya so that kinda slows your journey kinda slows your journey it doesn't mean that Halisi is not Halisi is there as a strong brand only that it is slow because we also in the process of trying to strike that balance between our different personalities. Ya so that's why in the meantime as we are trying to fix that each and everyone decided to delve into music from a solo perspective and this is basically what you are doing and it's fun and I'm enjoying it because it's also according to me an opportunity to grow at a personal level. So we can say Halisi was like a stepping stone it shaped your career now to what it is. Ya and it's still my home. Ya I see your home of course. So the music you are doing right now is a reflection of who you are as an artist. Totally. It's a total reflection of who I am as an artist. I'm at a fair so I'm extremely experimental which is very characteristic even in my trades when I'm handling other aspects in other spheres of life. I like experimenting stuff with my children with my wife, with everybody that I love and this is a perfect opportunity also for me to express myself with a lot of freedom and experimentality Ya I love the experience of art. Now you get to do anything and everything you have ever wanted to try and see what works for you. Now that you are solo, do you have any other artists that you are being inspired by? I mean most of the Kenyan artists Wakitambo.  Talk about our pioneers for instance in the band industry Sauti Solo Ya those are my biggest inspirations among so many other artists. Ume Mokchunbea Kikale is that the way to go? Am I still one of your experimental phases right now and you're going to do more we're going to see you try other genres or other stuff. I'm usually very deliberate in calculating college and into my music so that I bring people very close to my roots which is currently government but I don't like saying you want to bring that up but she doesn't need to be employed. That was on a serious note. Ya ini Ume Sema Surkal it was on a light note. I'm very passionate about my roots I love my roots. I believe I come from a very beautiful culture which is collegein and people have not had an opportunity to listen to collegein the manner in which it has always been packaged music wise in the traditional benga style So this time around I'm trying something new trying to urbanize it so that at least it can resonate well with the current generation. Ya and we see a lot of people do that and it's working for them for Kelo Max and he's doing it in the luo and people love it still as mwa welewe as long as you just vibe and they love that part. Another thing I wanted to talk about is the fact that we talked about you being part of Haleesi and now you're on this musical journey that you're doing it on your own all the fans all the locations, scouting everything that is on you now So is that challenging in any way it has been smooth so far? It has stopped being a challenge because I started doing this thing in 2014 so it's been 10 years down the line if I'm to count all those years so I've been trying and I've learned a lot and at this particular time I can say for sure that resources are not an issue to me I can pull my videos I know we just pull up resources are not an issue Bro we played for days like these Can you imagine being in a position right now where you can comfortably say you can do what you want I can pull very good videos I can do very good audios I was able to set up a home studio It is expensive It is expensive It's a high time I just now work because things are now possible And I love the fact that you're also doubling up as a content creator as an entrepreneur as well you're not just like 100% relying on music just so you can say you have to have something else you're doing other than being a DJ you have to buy You have to buy a busiang umpia Acha And your plug Right I didn't know you as a content creator but for those who are wondering who the wife is Shiro from Antibos Super funny She's amazing, she's hilarious Is she the one who got you to start now producing content Tabisa, she was the one you know Nelim Pata She was the one who got me into Antibos and she was in another very local program and she was trying to learn the ways online also So in the process of her learning I ended up learning too Now of course underscoring the importance of social media is a very important tool to propel you in whichever career that you are and be you a dentist kuna influencing ina happen somewhere too So it's something that I just had to learn by induction from my wife She's a great influencer She's a creator other than just being an artist an entrepreneur as well I love that side And of course now I know you have fans who've been part of your journey from when you started and now you have new fans who are watching you on Bounce Nation what should they expect from you now moving forward now that you have you're now doing this thing alone you said Halisi Badoiko but at the moment you're doing this as Letin Kenya What are you doing in Changa? We're just in February still First of all Kwanzaa I want to ask God to give me very good health because that is very paramount They say health is wealth But if I get that health and then God now gives me a bonus of wisdom Now these fans these fans are supposed to now be ready now to see me in their faces as much as they see their politicians and their usual pastors now I'm gonna be part of those that they see because there's a lot of work that is in store I've been cooking a lot of stuff I'm doing a college in AP I'm doing an urban AP I'm doing an afrobeat AP There are a lot of collaborations A lot of amazing artists that I'm also working with So this is going to be that year Yaku Foss We are claiming it we are manifesting it It has to be over here I love that Now I know there's some people who are probably in the same situation you are in in a band they want to get out they want to try to do their own stuff but they don't know how to go about it What would you tell someone like that? I would tell them that we were living in during very interesting times where our pioneers have shown us the way people like Saudisol as much as they are a unit they have also given themselves freedom to pursue music solo so I would like to encourage it and every artist who is in any kind of a group setup and it doesn't have to be a slow one even if it is things are working right it's also very important for you to experiment with your own talent and try and flex who want to do it because it's also very important because it is not necessarily true that you're going to be together forever So you cannot just rely on other people but let it be working so 29 years old before you go I have a very deliberate question I want to ask you there's a video you put out na kuna some scenes I was like tell me why you felt the importance of doing that because it features I think it's the one that features your wife in hospital when she went to put to bed you put that part tell me the reason you decided to do that no there's nothing abnormal about the process of giving birth you know first of all when me and my wife decided to have a child it was not something that caught us by accident it was something that was very deliberate it was well talked about and we decided that we were going to have it but before you have a baby because of the conditions you give each other as a couple and see for my wife I understand her as this person who adores fathers who are present because at her own personal level at her own personal level kwa na fada figa sana so she has always wished that watu yu wa kwa kuna msimonyako present and there would never have been any perfect opportunity for me to be present in a location where now this child was being born and I thought that it was a very beautiful experience that nili kwa na filtu na kama inani chokkana and you are hard to share with one and I love what you said ladies need their diet because if they don't and now they grow up finding their diet wherever they are going to be involved and it's something is this a cycle it's never ending it's crazy so I love that you brought that up any thing we haven't talked about that you live to tell your fans no I let tell my fans to check me out across all the social media platforms I go by the name Letting Kenya my full names are Galvin, Kipkeboy, Arap, Letting but you can find me across all the social platforms as Letting Kenya and also on YouTube Letting Kenya Letting is L, E, T, I, N, G Letting Kenya I love that any shout out kuna mbogi kuna taka kupanya na kikale kifanya na kikale kabusa kifanya na kikale kabusa only know one word in kale jamge? misil kale because mimi am cross tribal my mother is Luya so first of all I'll say my greetings first of all to all my people in Rift Valley ocha mege tu gule misalini ke sana I'm your son then now I go back now to the general people and the general population Letting Kenya including my mom and sis when ya ko LD ma dea ko Western and then every single person who went to school ma ze yu people are very important to me and every single person who's actively supporting my music big shout out to you ma zena na wapenda sana and go shout out to your wife she's in studio by the way she can have big support system big shout out to you big shout out to you and your video will be the first one shout out to everybody that you first pulled up and you as well for being here thank you so much for making time it was raining and you still made time to come I appreciate that of course and shout out to every bouncer watching at home for keeping us company we are still here tumisema tunato kasa moja and we have one and a half hours to go so keep it right here and we play one song letting Kenya and then we call it keep it right here tumisema tunato kasa moja if you send a few shout out I'm going to sample them in a few so keep it white if I for this day


On Sunday, January 24th, 2021, the Ministry of Health and Wellness received confirmation from the Caribbean Public Health Agency, Carrefour, of five cases of SARS-CoV-2, British variant, diagnosed in country. Two of the cases are British nationals who were diagnosed on December 17th and December 23rd, 2020. The other three cases are St. Lucia Nationals from Denry-Miku and Barbano districts, and they were also diagnosed in December 2020. All five cases have since made a full recovery from the COVID-19 virus. On December 14th, 2020, the United Kingdom Public Health Agency reported a variant of SARS-CoV-2. The identified strain had been in circulation from September 20th, 2020, within the United Kingdom. The virus has since been detected in Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and Australia, but the risk of importation into the Caribbean and the rest of the world was rated as high due to incoming travel from the United Kingdom and Europe. Cases of this new strain have since been confirmed in several Caribbean islands, including Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica. It is known unexpected that all viruses constantly change over time. As such, it had been anticipated that this would also obtain if the COVID-19 virus. Studies conducted in the United Kingdom on this new variant of the virus suggest that it increases the rate of which the virus spread. This is estimated as increasing as much as up to 70%. The United Kingdom has noted increased levels of transmission and spread in the areas where the variant SARS-CoV-2 strain has been found. However, there is no evidence at this point of more severe cases associated with the new variant or reducing the effectiveness of the COVID-19 vaccine. The European Centers of Disease Control and Prevention has confirmed the following. There are no reports of worse clinical outcomes. The level of mortality remains the same. The effect on the population groups affected remains the same. On Monday, December 21, 2020, the Caribbean Public Health Agency hosted an emergency meeting with PAHO, WHO, OECS, and the chief medical officers of the region to discuss the new risk by this new variant. It was further confirmed that the COVID-19 PCR testing being done in countries remains the gold standard to ensure accurate diagnosis within the mutations and the vaccine approved by the Food and Drug Administration remains as relevant. The recommendations made are in relation to the strict adherence to the current regional and national guidelines on COVID-19 prevention and control. These include the limitations on social gatherings, the maintenance of physical distancing measures, hand hygiene and infection prevention and control measures, the mandatory use of face masks in public and strict adherence to protocols within the tourism sector, and the quarantine for all returning nationals. CAFSA has also requested that positive cases with high viral loads be sent to their labs for gene sequencing for surveillance of this new strain of the virus in our region. St. Lucia has complied with these recommendations. CAFSA is the regional reference lab with the capacity to perform gene sequencing for the region, so it has allowed countries to set an allocation of 10 samples per week which meet the requirements for gene sequencing. This new situation further emphasizes the need for strict adherence to all protocols recommended thus far and to ensure increased vigilance at all levels where risk has been identified. The Ministry of Health and Wellness will continue monitoring the situation and recommendations will be made as needed, guided by the science to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on our population. We continue to monitor both the global and regional situation as we assess our risks and make recommendations. We also continue to monitor closely and use best practices implemented as we strengthen the existing national protocols. The Ministry of Health and Wellness will continue providing updates as new information becomes available.


If there was ever an unfortunate event where our firefighters can't escape an oncoming fire then we have a number of protective systems so that the firefighters can take refuge within the vehicle. This water deluge system uses the principle that water has the highest specific heat capacity of any substance. So what that means is water can absorb more heat, more energy than any other substance before it raises its temperature. From our collaboration with CSRO who has identified that the water deluge system has to remain operational for five minutes if the vehicle was ever engulfed in a bird over situation. So the engineering challenge was to ensure that we had enough water for firefighting but enough water and reserve from the vehicle's water tank to feed this water deluge system. Over the years of testing we've had to optimize the flow rate of these nozzles, the angle of these nozzles, the different nozzle types to ensure that we're not wasting any water but we're getting the full five minutes of coverage. Learnings from this has been shared with other agencies throughout Australia and around the world.


Green Mountain Support Services to empower neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Major support also includes Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Ala Israel. All people know limits. Hello and welcome to this edition of Abledon On Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the definitely able. I've always been your host, Lauren Siler. Our name is off today. Before we begin our interesting program, we would like to thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health and Green Mountain Support Services for funding and sponsoring Abledon On Air. With us to discuss homelessness, the problems of homelessness in Vermont, and also we profile Judy Joy and her accomplishments. We would like to welcome Judy Joy, resident manager of Good Samaritan Haven of Berry, Vermont. And your name, please? Heather Tolman. Program manager of Good Samaritan Haven of Berry, Vermont. Welcome to Abledon On Air. Thank you. And Judy, before we begin, since we're kind of profiling you, how did you get started in homelessness services? Well, way back in the 80s. I was recently married in December of 1985. And my husband and I were working in a school for a multiply handicapped and emotionally disturbed children. And we both loved our jobs, but I saw a sign in my church about Lutheran Volunteer Corps. Lutheran Volunteer Corps. And you make a one-year commitment to social justice, simplified lifestyle, and Christian community. And then you have a lifetime to live it out. So we went, we got accepted and we went to Washington, D.C. in August of 1986. And I worked in a transitional shelter for homeless women who needed extra support, had moved beyond the shelter but needed extra support. And I was there a year. And when our service year ended, we didn't really want to stop doing that work. So I got the job as the shelter manager of Luther Place's Night Shelter, which was in Washington, D.C., at Thomas Circle, which was a shelter for homeless women. And we had 37 beds. And I did that until 1990 when we decided to hike the Appalachian Trail. So we did that and then went back to the shelter and in 1992 moved to Maine to run a shelter for men, women, and families. Is it, since we're talking about homelessness and then we'll get to program stuff, is it being that it's a loving career and you don't get compensated for a lot of things that people do? Is it hard to run a shelter as far as, you know, because people are sometimes stubborn or they don't want to go into a shelter and get help? Is it really hard to run a shelter? Well, it's not hard for me because I absolutely love doing it. It has its hard parts. And for me, the hardest part is seeing how difficult life is for homeless people and how they have to struggle. Even in the shelter, it's hard. When I was an LVC member, Christian community was the hardest part. Social justice we did to our work, simplified lifestyle we did because we didn't have any money. But the Christian community part was really hard. And that was only seven other people. The shelters were all big. The one in D.C. an urban shelter had 37 beds. The one in Maine was a very rural shelter. The number of beds changed a lot depending on what was needed for families. We had a set number of women's beds and a set number of men's beds. But the families were constantly in flux. And we could add beds or bunks or cribs or whatever. Babies too? Oh wait, there were babies. I almost always did my work with a baby on my lap. I kind of missed that. That was really cool. I had a little play area in my office and kids would come in. That was really fun. It was really sad seeing how they got there. But it was really gratifying to help the families move through and become housed. Is it more difficult for children than adults? The children were always happy. Especially the little ones were always happy. The teenagers not so happy. It was hard for them because people knew they lived at the shelter and stuff like that. Or say their school, which is right up the hill, did some kind of big drive for food. And people would bring the food but they would know it was their class. That was difficult for them. But the shelter in Berry, Good Samaritan Haven, has 30 beds. So everybody's living with 29 other people. That's got to be really hard. Don't you think that's got to be really, really difficult? Since you say difficulty, there's a difference. You could both answer this. There's a difference between homeless, chronic homelessness and displacement. There is a difference. What is the difference defined if you can? So the difference, chronic homelessness is having at least four episodes of homelessness within a three-year period.  And you may just need the homeless option, the Good Samaritan Haven. You may need that just briefly. But chronic homelessness is a series of periods of actual homelessness over a duration of time. But displaced is losing your apartment, having a fight with your ex or having a divorce and needing somewhere to stay before you do find stable housing. That's displaced. But chronic homelessness is several periods over a certain duration of time. With homelessness, are people like stubborn or I don't want help? Are they too prideful? What have you been finding being the fact that you've worked in this field for so many years? I don't think that it's a negative thing for people to be homeless. But I think people sometimes feel that there's negativity surrounding them when they're homeless and it affects their mental health, it affects their physical health. So at Good Samaritan Haven we try to help with any of those things that have caused the homelessness that are the results of being homeless. We have a counselor connected with Washington County Mental Health who will see people, set them up with case management services, things like that. We have a housing counselor who helps people look for housing, which is really difficult because there's not enough affordable housing, which is really exacerbating the homeless issue. Okay, since you say Vermont and we might go a little bit over, which is fine because it's an extremely important issue. This past week, or this past, the State House in Vermont had an advocacy day for homelessness. Explain about why that was and what's the main problem in Vermont as far as homelessness population. I would say that the vigil and the awareness was to bring attention to the fact that there is a lack of affordable housing for Romaners. And they brought it to the State House to bring political attention to the fact that this is an actual crisis for a lot of folks, not just our under house or not housed individuals. But it brought attention to the fact that there has to be something that has to be done and it's not just hearsay, it's not just round table conversations anymore. It needs to be addressed and it needs to be addressed at the political level. Longer the community partners, the housing developers, the landlords, it needs to actually, we need to come up with a concrete solution. Yeah, the new housing development on Taylor Street, for example, that's only one small smidgen. You have 30 apartments there, right? And then down the street and certain and pioneer apartments, for example, there's 60 apartments. So you're only covering a small smidgen of helping people. So what's the big problem in homelessness? Well, I think part of it is just not being able to afford to get into an apartment. The security deposits in the first month's rent and the last month's rent and things like that, most of our folks are earning minimum wage. There's many people who live paycheck to paycheck because most of their money goes to their housing. So if their car breaks down, they're stuck, they can't get to work, they'll lose their housing. If, say, someone has a mental breakdown and has to be hospitalized, their social security stops for a period of time. They lose their place. Your social security will stop if you're hospitalized? It can. If it's a longer period of time, it can stop. Or if you're incarcerated, it will stop. Because landlords won't really deal with incarcerated people, correct? But you could have your own place. But then, through something that might not even be your own fault, you become incarcerated. The court system moves very slowly. So you might be in there for a month or two or three. Your social security will stop.  So you'll lose it and trying to find another apartment at these market rates or even with a voucher is really difficult. I mean, we have people who have vouchers that are having trouble finding apartments. And we're trying to utilize things like social media, our Facebook posts to try to drum up some attention with local landlords. I actually sat with the gentleman yesterday to try to look for apartments because he has the money to find an apartment. There were four apartments in his price range. Out of the four, two have already been spoken for, so they were no longer available. And we were able to obtain an application for the second one, but the third one wouldn't call us back. And I think that's because I verbalized that I was calling from the Good Samaritan Haven. So there's a bit of stigma out there also with some property managers and some landlords wanting to rent to our unhoused individuals. Since you said that, why is there and what is the stigma that people see out there for, especially landlords, that see out there in terms of being housed? I would say I would think that in the past for some landlords they may have rented to some folks that may have not been good tenants. But going forward, we actually are implementing a Good Samaritan Haven in all of our homeless shelters life skills that will teach them how to budget, teach them how to communicate effectively with individuals. So we're trying to resolve those issues, but I think in the past individuals that have rented that may have been transitioning from Good Samaritan Haven into stable housing might have made bad choices. Or maybe they might not have landlord references. Or they might not have the skills to live independently. And we're working on all those things. And as you know, Elizabeth at the shelter, our peer support person, her job is to help people learn how to take care of their space. And we can give people a reference based on how they've maintained their area, how helpful they've been in the house, things like that. We can give those references and we'll support people once they move on in staying connected with them and making sure that they are able to function in their own place. As much as we can, time among the time's constraints. How long is the time constraints that they have? Because I know it's changed over the years. Well, it's a 90 day program now. And we're hoping it to be. When I was in D.C., the shelter was in a church. And my minister started saying that we were a continuum from homelessness to independence. And then Henry Cisneros, who was head of housing and urban development, came to visit the shelter frequently. And he sort of adopted that, a continuum of care from homelessness to independence. And that's really what we're focusing on. Still, even though HUD adopted our little buzz sentence, that's what we're trying to work on, to get people from not being housed to being housed. It's not a fast process. Some people, if they come in and they already have a voucher, might be quick. If someone comes in needing it from the ground up, needing their ID, needing their social security, needing whatever it is they need, help with finding a job, any of those things, it's not a quick process. So if someone comes off the ground running and goes to appointments and does things, they'll get out quicker? They will get out much more quickly. If they are doing what they need to do to move on, then they will get out much more quickly. Maybe not within 90 days, though, because of the housing market. It's just so hard to find a place. Since you said program director, what exactly do you do? Oh, program director. So currently I am trying to do a lot of outreach. I work collaboratively with the Department of Labor, Vogue Rehab, Capstone to try to bring in folks and individuals that will educate our current population. Either that be last week we had Margaret Ferguson from Capstone come in and she instructed our folks on how to build financial muscle and what that would look like. How do you budget on a budget? How do you prepare meals under a certain amount of money? So we're trying to educate. I'm trying to bring in programmatic stuff in the form of education for folks. They may not have gotten these skills prior to entering the Good Samaritan Haven, but we really want to ensure that when they're getting part of the transition is giving them information that they potentially don't have. So programmatically I'm focusing on that. I want to focus on repairing our relationships or building relationships with property managers, with landlords, trying to dissolve some of the bias out there of the population that we serve. So that would be my focus. I do some grant stuff. I do reporting numbers and stuff like that. But mine is to meet with our guests to make sure that when they enter they are they go through a individual service plan process. I'm trying to implement that at 60 days we touch base with them to see what have what sort of strategies have been successful. What are some of their accomplishments and talk about what can we do in the next 30 days before they transition to make them more successful. So that's currently what I'm doing. There is a lot of other odds and ends, but that's what my focus is right now is really building relationships. What happens is there a small smidgen of is two questions. Number one, is there a small smidgen of people that what happens is after 90 days 90 day mark comes and they haven't found a place. So if they are actively really working hard they're engaged with our housing navigator. They're actively involved Washington County they attend events they're being good community partners they're being good roommates. And they're really showing engagement and they're working hard we provide extensions for those individuals that are close to securing housing. The last thing we want to do is ruin an opportunity for someone to secure stable housing by making them without a shelter without a home. So we try to provide with that criteria an extension for those individuals and we do the best we can with that extension. And since now what is the percentage of people with special needs that are homeless or not having housing? And is it a double-edged sword if a person is homeless and disabled? It makes life more difficult for sure. Makes life more difficult for them. And we try to add the extra supports. To give them say if they need a little more education or a little more support. We'll try to help them work on that. We advocate very strongly for our guests. And if we see that they can use a little extra help we'll try to say somebody is maybe has a language barrier. We'll hook them up with some English as a second language classes. Or if someone is lacking education we'll hook them up with the ability to gain maybe their GED or whatever they need from the adult education programs. We try to hook people up with the services. We can't reinvent the wheel and do all of that. But we try to hook them up with the services that are available in the community. And there's lots of services for people available. And we also try to keep our relationship active with Washington County. So we meet with them at least weekly. We have our staff that actually comes in and he's a therapist. So he'll assist people with regulation and just an open ear to have a conversation with. But we also have regular meetings with Washington County to talk about what are their services that they offer. We talk about individuals around the table to say how can we as a group best serve this person that's struggling with mental health issues. Can they be because of their mental health issues. Can they get case management. Can they be screened for one of our CSP vouchers where that would provide a case manager in the household for those individuals. So we collaborate a lot with Washington County and our partners to figure out how we can best serve a wrap around program for the individuals.  As far as services and programming, I understand that Good Samaritan, you guys provide meals to people within the house, within the shelters. How does that work? Is it completely donation or how does it work? We are extremely blessed, I feel, to have the support of so many wonderful people. We get almost every night of the week, we get a meal donated. And when you're cooking for 30 people, that's a lot of mouths to feed. So we have a couple of families who do it. We have a good number of churches who collaborate on bringing meals.  And we have a lot of meals that come in. I also have, through Vermont Associates Senior Employment Training Program, a wonderful man who's my food services coordinator. And right now, he's in the shelter cooking up a storm. It smells very good in there right now. He's making food for Saturday night for the men who live at the Heading Shelter. Saturday and Sunday night for the people who live at the Bethany Shelter. And Sunday night for the people who live at Good Samaritan Haven. That poor man has his work cut out for him today. But without him doing that, it would be more difficult. We get lots of food donated. People just will drop off what they think we might need, or they'll call in the past. Yeah, bags of coffee, you know, whatever people think we might be able to use, they drop off. And that's just amazing. It's all the paper, detergent, all the bags, all of the above. And I don't want to forget, I don't want to cut you off, but Judy also had set up this year. Heading has extended hours this year. And in the past, we've struggled with how do we feed these individuals because there's no meal provided in the community for those folks. So Judy advocated for a couple of years to get the shelter open. So now our folks do not have to open. We've extended the hours from seven to seven. In the past, it was nine to seven. And there was a two-hour gap from when the library... Nine a.m. It's seven. It's seven p.m. Seven p.m. to seven a.m. is when the shelter, Heading Shelters, open at Heading Church. In the past, it used to be open only from nine p.m. to seven a.m. And that gave... That was kind of a struggle because the library would shut closed down at seven. And that's where the majority of our overflow folks will stay to be warm. So that left a two-hour window for folks being out in the elements before they were able to seek warmth. So Judy fought for many years to get that open. So now we have that... And the Montpelier Shelter as well. The shelter's open from eight... It's from eight to eight-third... Or it's from eight-thirty to eight. Eight to eight-thirty. Eight to eight-thirty, yes. Yeah, because City Council, when I understand, City Council Montpelier fought with the... Well, not fought, but like, helped with the help of you guys. Gave support to open the shelter, I think, a week early or two weeks early. It was actually two weeks early. Yeah. And they donated the money to make that possible. But we now have seventy-seven beds of shelter. And they're all full. And we keep getting calls. Every day we get more calls. The need is so huge. The need is huge. More and more people are looking for shelter. It's really difficult. And also that Montpelier, within the City Council, that they have a homeless task... Homeless task force, from what I understand. How does that work within the... I have no idea. I don't go to that. Do you go to that? I don't go to that, no. But I do know that they did work really hard on collaborating and making sure that the word got out with us and with just... Because we don't serve all of the under-unhoused folks in Montpelier. There are still folks that are couch-surfing. We're still staying outside and sleeping back. So we can't reach all of those folks. So there's been a really strong... And it's a shame, actually. It is a shame. But the homeless task force did a really great job at getting out the word to those folks of the meals that would be provided around the holidays. So they did a really great job on collaborating, creating a couple fliers that they could pass out to individuals that we provided our guests that information but they got out there, they went out, they went out and went and did outreach and provided the information to ensure that everyone was aware of where they could get a warm meal around the holidays. So I think they've done a great job at working together with us. I think they're really doing an amazing job trying to support homeless people. Yeah, and it's just... Exibility. Do you guys know the numbers or do you know a little bit about the numbers of how many homeless people there are in Vermont per se? Because I know those numbers change. They change and it's hard to capture because we're not... There are, again, there's a huge... You can't be everywhere. Some of the folks refuse to provide us with information for us to capture. So we do a lot of outreach in tents and things of that nature but they don't always want to engage. So we can't capture the actual number unless they are willing to... We utilize a homeless HMIS system. Which is what? It is a homeless management information system and it's a database where we... All the homeless filters in Vermont that do an intake process they will actually upload their information. So we're able to have numbers and create numbers of actual homelessness through that database. But if we're not reaching those folks that do not want to engage, from what I hear, there's a large population of individuals who are still unhoused, homeless, that we can't even grasp the numbers. So we do the best we can with folks that engage and we can get an accurate number of those individuals. But I think it's a larger percentage of people than we can print out with a report. Yeah. So a report is done once a year and I believe it's nationwide and it's called a point in time count or the pit count. And they try to capture everyone who's homeless and then they can publish a report. Last year was not a freezing cold night. So there were less people counted. So it makes it look like homelessness is going down. When you said freezing cold night, did you explain what you mean? Some people were out. They didn't go and say the motel stays are counted in the point in time count. But if it's not really, really cold, people are not going to get a hotel stay. I wanted to bring that up. I know that there's a wonderful agency with a barrier for money. They don't have much services. And sometimes they don't consider you really homeless if you're in a hotel. Let's say you have to pay out of your own pocket. But sometimes economic services would give or in the past, they have given 28 day stays or a month of staying. And you're considered homeless. If you're staying in a motel paid for by economic services, which is statewide, if you're paying on your own you're not considered homeless. That's my point. But has that changed since all of these shelters have opened? Are motel stays more? I think motel stays are down. And that was the idea of the funding being given to emergency shelters. A number of emergency shelters got that funding so they could open up the winter warming shelters. And it's still there's still a lot of homeless people. It's still a lot of homeless people. Okay. A place where people can turn for help at Good Samaritan. Well, they can call us. Is that what you're asking? Yeah. They can either stop by or they can call us. We're at 105 North Seminary Street in Barrie. Or they can call<PHONE_NUMBER>. Someone there pretty much 24 hours a day. 24 hours a day. And what are the hours of the shelter in Barrie? The night shelter opens at three in the afternoon and the savings time it's dark by four. And we didn't want people walking in ice and snow in dangerous conditions in the dark. So we open earlier and we close at seven in the morning. But say today it was only like one or minus one. So we didn't send people out in the cold. So you make exceptions based on the weather. And one of our guests made breakfast for everybody, which is really nice. That's a good thing. Future goals of Good Samaritan going forward? Ending homelessness. I was going to say. We were supposed to end it in 2020. Is there an extension of that? Well, that was kind of the dream of a group called Vermont Interfaith Action. It was called the 2020 vision. And they wanted the vision was to end homelessness by 2020. It didn't really happen. But they're working on it. And there's good people really working hard to end homelessness. We'd like to all be out of work. It's probably not going to happen very soon. Okay. Homelessness is the last question. Homelessness is a global issue, not just local. Yes. What are some things that America should work on or the nation should work on in terms of homelessness? I know compassion is one. Compassion is huge. And understanding, being understanding of people's situations. I would love there to be more single room occupancies. And what's that? Single room occupancies are where like say a room in a rooming house where someone can have their own bed and maybe share a bathroom or have their own bathroom. Share a kitchen. Would that be the city? Well, I don't think it would be considered permanent housing. And lots of the big cities have taken over hotels and turned them into single room occupancy. And when I was at NDC some of the some of the bigger agencies were opening up single room occupancies. And I think they're good because they give people community and support in addition to a place to live. They're not out there in their very own apartment all by themselves. They still need to go into a shared kitchen and a shared dining room and maybe eat with other people and not feel so alone. That's hard sometimes when those things are hard but you have to be with other people. But it also can make it easier because there's other people that are to support you and you're not just all alone. There's so many layers in what can be done to end homelessness. And if people were committed to working on those layers I think it might happen. Your opinion on that? I would say a combination of empathy and unbiased. I feel like there's a lot of bias around homelessness and how people have gotten themselves unhoused. I think there's a real strong unaccurate bias of why people are homeless. And blame placing. I think if we could get past that and just remember that these individuals are actually human beings at the end of the day then that's just the humanity piece of it. But we have all kinds of options and affordable options to solving homelessness. I love that Washington County just released their first tiny home as a solution in the area for unhoused. Norwich University. They contributed this small house. So that's a cost-effective way to house folks. We have houses that are empty. We have spaces in downtown Barrie that are empty that can be used as places to keep folks warm. There are many, many solutions. I just feel like it needs to it needs to be addressed and kind of not brushed under the rug. So we have to pretend like it's not a crisis. And being homeless sometimes homeless people or people that are homeless would go into an I think I'm saying it right an unhabitable situation or a building that's been condemned to try to live there that's not good either. It's not safe. And the people on the building usually don't like it. But if they would fix their building up and rent it out so people could afford it that might be a partial solution. Well, I would like to thank you for joining me on this edition of Ableton on Air. For more information on Good Samaritan Haven you can go to www.goodsamaritanhaven.org or call 1802 479 2294 That's 479 2294 Again www.goodsamaritanhaven.org Again I'm Lauren Seiler and this puts an end to this edition of Ableton on Air We would like to thank our sponsors Washington County Mental Health and Green Mountain Support Services Again, Arlene couldn't be here today. See you next time on this edition of Ableton on Air and also we would like to also thank our sponsor Isbrill as well. Thank you and good day. Major support for Ableton on Air Green Mountain Support Services to empower neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Major support also includes Washington County Mental Health where hope and support come together. Ala Isbrill All people know limits.