Cats are usually gentle towards their owners. They are incredibly patient, and it takes a lot to get them off balance. Contrary to stereotypes, they are also not false. So why does a cat attack its owner? It is impossible to give one answer to this question. The reasons may be of both health and behavioral nature. Often we, the cat guardians, are also to blame for our pet's behavior. An aggressive cat is a big problem for the caretakers and the other animals around it. To combat inappropriate behavior, it is advisable to enlist the help of a professional. The best solution is the service of a behaviorist, who will recognize the basis of bad behavior and will give ways to remove it. Why does the cat attack the owner? First of all, we should know that aggressive behavior may have nothing to do with aggression, although the cat attacks the owner, it does not show rage. This is what happens, for example, when the pet bites and scratches during play. The cat does not have negative feelings toward the human but simply does not know that it is not allowed to do so. It's a result of taking the kitten away from its mother too early, upbringing mistakes made by the owner, or both. As we would say colloquially, some situations bring the furry one out of balance, significant changes in the environment, the appearance of a new pet in the house, inappropriate behavior of people, etc. It's also not uncommon that the cat's aggression is a stress reaction. The cat gets nervous or afraid, fear is also the reason for aggressive behavior. A cat can also be aggressive when it is in physical pain due to an injury or a chronic illness, in the latter case, the aggressive behavior can be repeated or even increased. In addition, some diseases directly affect the functioning of the brain, changing the behavior of the animal. How does an aggressive cat behave? An aggressive cat exhibits passive and active behaviors. The former takes the form of persistent staring, lurching to jump, sneaking up behind the prey, or, on the contrary, approaching it sideways. Although sometimes a cat's attack seems unexpected, you can usually recognize impending aggression by watching closely. At first, it may be faster, stronger, and more sweeping movements of the tail and burping like sounds. Your pet may also start meowing louder. If we don't withdraw at this point, the aggressive cat will begin to show even more apparent signs, it lays its ears down on itself, bends its tail into a pony tail or straightens it and pulls it up, and eats its fur and hisses, sometimes even spitting. In the case of a frightened mutt, the eyes are wide open, while pupils can be either very narrow or extremely wide. When it comes to active aggression, there are claw attacks and scratching. In case of extreme emotions, the cat bites, eats, hisses, snorts, growls, puffs, and makes threatening grunts.  While dynamic behavior can be spotted straight away, passive behavior can go unnoticed by carers for a long time. Hello. This video is sponsored by Beemix Pets. Are you looking for high quality cat collars at an affordable cost? Check out, BeemixPets.com. Use coupon code KittenLife, to get 20% off. What could be the causes of aggression in a cat? Aggressive cat often causes anxiety among household members. There may be at least several reasons for such undesirable behavior of our pet. To know them, first of all, it's worth answering whether the problem is constant or happens only in specific situations. Aggression in cats, or rather, aggressive behavior, is usually triggered by external factors that lead to personal attacks. Among the stimuli that cause this behavior are primarily. Fear, a frightened purr may attack even if it is exceptionally gentle daily. Remember that the source of anxiety doesn't have to be rational at all. Much depends on the sensitivity of the animal and its past traumas. Redirected aggression occurs when the cat feels fear of a stimulus that it has no chance to reach an attack directly. This happens, for example, after seeing another animal behind a glass window. Then the pet may behave aggressively towards a living being that is closest to it, including even towards the caregiver. Touch, you are undoubtedly familiar with the situation when the pet comes to be petted but, after some time, begins to bite the hand that strokes him. It is difficult to determine the source of such behavior. You can usually avoid the attack by watching your cat. When he is clearly impatient and begins to wag his tail, it is probably best to leave him alone. Unmet behavioral needs include the need for physical activity, optimal nutrition, and rest, following the hunting, eating, sleeping chain. The cause of aggression in a cat may also be inappropriate living space for it, too little space, lack of hiding places, etc. Sometimes a cat's aggression can be a constant problem, the cause of which is hard to see. Sometimes it manifests itself in uncastrated male cats. This is due in part to the need to protect territory. If your cat remains aggressive after neutering, the cause may lie in improper socialization. This problem often arises when kittens are separated from their mother too early. If your cat's aggressive behavior comes on suddenly, it may be due to illnesses accompanied by pain. The animal may react nervously to perceived physical discomfort. Sometimes aggression in a cat is caused by a neurological disorder. How to deal with aggressive cat behavior. Territorial aggression is best mitigated by adequately introducing the cat to the newcomer. Socialization with isolation is recommended. A slow process is a guarantee of proper functioning with each other daily. The aggressiveness of the cat, resulting from fear for itself, is best to wait, withdraw and give the animal time to calm down and get acquainted with the situation. Never punish a cat for aggressive behavior. Punishments will increase stress and only make bad behavior worse. It is definitely better to reward for desired reactions. You can use products that mimic the cat's natural cheek pheromone so that the cat perceives the environment as friendly and safe. If we cannot cope with the pet's aggression on our own, we should use the help of a behaviorist. The undesirable behavior of the pet will reflect on the household members and other animals that live with it. Stressed cats often have urinary tract problems, including kidney stones or cystitis. The cat terrorist wounds them, makes them nervous and stressed, and extreme emotions can lead to self-mutilation, licking and biting the fur. Cat aggression during play. It is perfectly natural for kittens to use their claws and teeth during play. However, the cat mom should teach redirecting such behaviors to toys over time. The problem with aggression in a cat during play is usually caused by the fact that the kitten was separated from its mother too early, so it didn't have the opportunity to learn the limits of play and aggression in a natural, primal way. Remember that the minimum age when you can take a kitten away from its mother is 12 weeks. But it's better to wait a bit longer. In secondary socialization, it is essential to teach the kitten not to play with our hands or throw itself on our feet. This behavior may seem cute when the animal is small. However, when it grows up, it can become troublesome and dangerous. How do I learn cat aggression? What to do with an aggressive cat to make it stop attacking people or other animals? First of all, make sure his behavioral needs are met. Perhaps your pet is just too stressed and insecure. If this is the case, make sure you make him comfortable. It is essential not to disturb your pet and even set aside at least a small corner in the house where he can hide and where no one will bother him. If it turns out that the cat is aggressive because of improper socialization, it is best to use the help of a behaviorist. Such cases are tough, so the decision to work with a professional may be necessary. But if it turns out that the nervous behavior of the animal is not behavioral, it is worth checking his health. The problem may be caused by a disease, for example, by a neuter procedure that has not been carried out. In case of such suspicion, you should immediately ask for help from a veterinarian. If you enjoyed this video, kindly press the like button. Also don't forget to subscribe with notifications on, so that you don't miss out on videos like this. Thank you for watching.


My dad was a farmer all his life, so I used to go out and work with him and my brothers and sisters. And it was what he did, go track this plan. He just accepted that us girls would do it. It's not, oh they're all women, they can't do it. You know, only my brother could do it. It was always that thing. So I never had that, you're a woman, you can't do it. I've always thought, oh I'll never do that. I might only do it once, I might enjoy it. But I can say I've done it. A lot of it's history based, so it's breaking down those barriers of, but it's always been a man's role. And I think that is improving, but it's going to take a lot of time to do that. Dad was really proud and he was very excited and I think it scared mum, but she's been very supportive. My grandfather couldn't get his head around it, he thought it was very dangerous and it was all, you know. But then once you explain, you know, the training provided prepares you for that to an extent and it doesn't matter if you're male or female in that regard, the training is the training and you know the benchmark that you need to meet for that. We went to a structure fire and we were in like the latest stages of the fire and I'd come out of BA and I was changing over cylinder, so taking my helmet off, taking my jacket off and they realised that I was female and some of the female family members approached me and took me over to a woman who'd been inside the fire and was actually pregnant but they hadn't felt that they could come forward and speak to the firefighters. So I was able to get her some first aid, get an ambulance coming for her and be able to provide care and so it just goes to show that sometimes in those communities that they still have the fear of maybe approaching men in that situation, so I think that was really good. I think the biggest areas we can make a difference personally is when we go to school groups and groups and we teach people and we say firefighter, not fireman, I mean it's really important to teach girls that they can be a firefighter too. It's about empowering women to believe that they can do whatever they put their mind to. You don't stand in the background because you know that that's a tricky thing for you to do. You just sort of got to put yourself out there but also in doing that know your limitations and have the people around you to work through those limitations. If you want it, you need to work hard for it and make it happen. You can make anything happen if you're passionate about it.


Yankees get back on the winning track and it's that simple formula which is never that simple to achieve right guys get some good pitching take advantage of some opportunities and the Yankees did that and the Yankees can exhale Bob when they lost yesterday you heard Aaron Boone say I'm not worried you heard Clint Frazier said we're not going to panic and the Yankees went out there and made them look prophetic with their performance today everyone is going to be talking about John Carlos John Carlos Danton's grand slam as we all should be 471 foot shot but there were a lot of other good things that happen in this game judge Homer as well to get the Yankees going and then Montgomery with a very crisp outing six shutout inning seven strikeouts getting strikeouts on the curve the change up the fastball I think the Yankees fellas if they asserted themselves today you know we talked in the pregame show to get back to being the Bronx bombers again and you thought that that probably would happen tonight against Baltimore the domination that they've had over them the last four years they just seem to hit long home runs against Baltimore with a mediocre pitching staff so Jack you're right judge goes deep Stan his that hits that grand slam 471 feet blew the game wide open and to Jack's point they can kind of relax in that clubhouse tonight took the first game of the series


e third year we will face a much higher savings target than a well over the next two we can keep things moderate and deliverable for a period of two years right but in the third year we'll start to look at a cliff face in terms of an efficiency savings target and most authorities are going to be in the same position so that there is a picture painted of local authority reserves right most of it will be bolstering the financial position in the short to medium term other things within local authority reserves will be for things like housing revenue accounts insurance funds they've got specific purposes for most councils and I include my own there is a very small amount of money comparatively in comparison to the council's budget is one and a half percent right which is our uncommitted reserve now that's our in case of emergency smashed glass money right but but that is small and if I was to use that to deal with budget pressures in the immediate term I would be having a conversation with the auditor general pretty quickly after that about what my approach is going to be in order to replenish those reserves so looking to reserves is really short term and it's not something that councils are in a position to do thank you thank you thank you thanks very much and probably had asked to speak just when Paul started speaking and I'll probably just reiterate some of the points that Paul made I think quite a lot of authorities are probably going to have to use reserves in the current financial year 22 23 and some of that is probably the years they've had left over from Covid to support their inflation rises but for a lot of councils they're seeing the reserves being depleted for next year and therefore the cost of inflation is very much an additional cost next year also there's probably quite a lot of people's reserves that have been set aside to support capital investment and that'll be crucial to support economic regeneration and recovery from Covid and that's you know our capital grant has remained static for a number of years now and or it has reduced actually but it's going to remain static over the next few years and therefore some of the reserves that are set aside are really crucial to support that capital investment in council areas thanks much that's all from me convener yeah I should point out the Scottish government's capital allocations cut by 9.8% in the current financial year so I understand the position you're in it's position the whole parliament's in okay John to be far by Douglas thanks very much convener one of the issues you raise is about preventative spend and that's something this committee's done quite a lot work on and I think we're all sympathetic but struggle with the idea of how we put it into practice because if we don't have any extra money at the moment and I take the point that it's paragraph I think seven in your report you know education housing employment are key things which can prevent then reduced demand on say the NHS or or other more reactive services but I mean do you have any suggestions as to how we balance that because you know that we get continually shown what what are the waiting times for A&E at hospitals and that's a big figure and we all get excited about it but in a sense if we put more money into that there's less money for housing or whatever have you got any suggestions how we get that balance right so so again I would say that it's maybe not for cosla to say what's government should be doing I'm putting that funding in however one of the points that I did want to raise is and it was in the public health Scotland submission to this committee and it's a quote if I can read out that the NHS was never designed to work alone in protecting our health and wellbeing and all public services have a role to play in creating the building blocks of health so the fact that that's come from public health Scotland and not from cosla actually just reinforces this holistic whole system approach of actually you know of course we want to increase the the more positive outcomes of health but it's not just as simple as looking at that end point we need to look at the whole system and it is you know it's I feel like I'll be repeating this often but it is challenging and it is going to be difficult and that's where we need to have these open discussions of how we work in partnership together to get to that good point of where we can deliver and increase those health outcomes for everybody for all our communities no I don't think you'll find Emdy here I'm not myself who's going to argue with that yeah the point's been made and I think it's made in this paper that you know we've tended to give the NHS more than inflation or at least a bigger increase than we've given to local government and the two of them are the main two parts of our budget and I've asked your predecessor this summer as well ask you as well you know have we been too generous to the NHS should we be trying to kind of give the same increase to both the NHS and local government I think that the standard answer to that is I would never look to take away or I'd never say that you or NHS shouldn't have funding absolutely not we want to have those outcomes you know we we need to invest across but what we need to ensure that is local government that when we're delivering on some of these key priorities and will be you know in effect mopping up some of the maybe the unseen consequences that we need to be properly and financially resourced so that we can actually do that job properly but it's not to say that you know local government should get money over the NHS you know but again it's difficult choices for government to make I mean another choice we have to make is this question of ring fencing and do we should we just give more money to local government or any other sector for that matter and then we get accused immediately of oh there's a postcode lottery because Aberdeen spending more on education whereas South Lanarkshire spending more on social care or refuse or something have you any suggestions how we get round that balance so what I would say is it's about and I'll go back to the term used previously that deliberative engagement let's have that discussion let's work in partnership together and I appreciate that there is that level of direct spending that has significantly increased it's sitting approximately at 65% of the council budgets at present which is a huge portion which leaves less money for us to deliver the core the other core aspects that we are delivering as local authorities but again I'll maybe bring Kirstie in as as chair of SIPFA who's maybe got more technical detail on that but you know 65% of direct spending is a is a large proportion and you know what I would say and you know speaking from my my own local authority where we do work in a very collaborative way is we all agree on you know 95% of the priorities nobody's sitting here saying that we shouldn't be delivering you know for the very best outcomes and it it does come down to that level of trust and you know giving that that power back into the local communities and delivering through local government I mean I'll come to Ms Faddie again just in a minute but if I can press it I mean there's a kind of political angle as well as the technical angle isn't there because if you're sitting in South Lanarkshire and across the road is North Lanarkshire and they're doing something differently you and your colleagues come under pressure sorry you're not like your Dumfries and Galloway's but whichever one it is your council comes under pressure oh well the next council is doing so much more they're collecting the bins more often and all that kind of thing so do you feel under pressure to be consistent with other councils I think each local authority is so unique and different that each local authority is delivering for the best way for their communities I mean you mentioned yourself from a political point of view if the local authority isn't delivering for the community as the best see fit then we will have a new election and you know a new a new council will be elected so you know we have got that dem that democratic mandate and it's up to individual councillors to take that forward and you know ultimately the power lies within our communities within our people who are electing the councils but as I say it is it is very challenging you know as you pointed out as I've said Dumfries and Galloway local authority is very different from say one of the you know say let's say Sterling your council or Edinburgh and what works for one local authority may not necessarily work for a second so you know it has to be done on almost that individual basis and with the expertise that local authorities have that as I say it it does come down to that trust and knowledge that your local government is best placed to deliver for the local priorities okay thanks miss Flanagan does you want to come in yeah I guess I would add that you know some local authorities they're already delivering different services so sometimes when we get the ring fencing of some monies you know some authorities might be all already delivering on that outcome that the ring fence monies are for so we're all at different stages of what we actually delivering dependent on what the needs are for our own communities so you know I think there's an element of trust trusting local authorities that the money that is passed over will be delivered on the key outcomes and remove that and remove that ring fencing you know communities are very different needs and I you know if looking at your example you know between South Lanarkshire and North Lanarkshire if they're delivered differently there is probably services that are delivered differently but they're probably delivering on the same outcomes for that community okay thanks well while you're speaking maybe I could come back to an issue you mentioned already which was like planning and building control full cost recovery can you explain to us in a bit more detail you know are councils not recovering their full costs or are some recovering and some aren't or quite how does that whole system work I'm not sure across Scotland what the position is but the fees are set nationally and if we had the ability to set our own fees locally we could structure them so that we ensure that we do get full cost recovery right so not entirely sure I mean if it was possible to give us to get some of that information because I would be concerned if none of the councils say we're recovering their costs I mean I certainly get developers who say they'd be happy to pay more if it meant speedier planning decisions I think we should get that information for you and provide that to the committee if that would be helpful well I think it would be to me so thanks very much I mean another point that's one of these balances that we've been discussing so much is towards the end of the COSLA submission there's the mention of transparency and the submission brings in the question of flexibility as well and I just wonder again how we get the balance right between these two Mr Manning sorry I haven't asked you any questions so maybe I should try asking you this one because if we just give money in one sense ring fencing is easy I'm not saying I totally agree with ring fencing but then we can follow where it's gone because we get questions asked in here about how much is spent in education and so on whereas if we give south larcha an extra amount of money and then it gets split up in different ways does that actually although that's flexible does that reduce the transparency in some ways again I'm making reference to COSLA submission right but you know that there were certain aspects that were picked up in our own I would go back to the point that COSLA had been made and Kirsty made as well there is a degree of this which is about respecting local governments position in the democratic process and trusting the decisions that are made locally I think that's an important thing picking up on your point Mr Mason around flexibility and transparency so flexibility and you know and how local government uses the money given to it would help right and it would help particularly in dealing with the type of problems that we've discussed this afternoon and that I've discussed this afternoon so if local authorities were trusted to come up with a solution that suits their local needs right in a way that's democratically approved by their local members that might lead to a different spend in some areas than in others right so it's about getting those bonds loosened right at a local level to get trust made that are trust in the process that the right decision is going to be taken for a particular area right which would hopefully be positive in terms of the outcomes in that area so we've talked at length about the proportion which is directed and which isn't directed and councillor Hadman's made the point that it actually boils down to to maybe you know two-thirds close on being directed so that's the extent of the change that could be made through this the point around transparency is really one that that's probably a level of you know local government as a whole and even the Scottish Parliament looking at what is actually the local government spend right because it comes from different departmental budgets within the overall Scottish budget it's not necessarily easy to follow what follows through the local government so that impedes transparency and what it makes it particularly difficult to get to is what's our core funding and that's the point that that gets made by local government at every year right and it's is the core of what we do if we put to the side the specific government initiatives that we're getting funded for and money that comes in from other departmental budgets it is you know to what extent is that core funding suffering also if you know that doesn't guide us towards a strategic approach to looking at the local government budget right you know to have in that clear picture of what it is and how we see it moving across the across the short to medium term so that's the issue that I think we were picking out in the point around transparency okay well we could probably spend longer on that but I think I'll be running out of time soon so if I could just ask one more question I'll try yourself on that as well it in the cause law submission under capital projects and expenditure it talks about 30 percent increase on anticipated costs which I have to say jumped out at me is that the kind of inflation we're talking about for what capital projects and so on it wouldn't surprise me right so I could pick an example of a bridge right which we've been trying to construct right within our own authorities area the purpose of the bridge is really to connect a community who at the moment have to go on a terrible dog leg journey right because the existing bridge isn't safe anymore so this was you know costed properly right and thoroughly a couple of years ago right around four million pounds we could be looking at a cost increase not too different to the one that we're talking about there in terms of a percentage increase and there's a whole number of reasons for that right the inflation that we've talked about particularly in the case of capital projects and it's a statement of the obvious right construction industry inflation is running at a higher level inflation on commodities that are commonly used on capital projects if for example steel and this is an issue that hasn't been helped right by the war in ukraine which was a steel supplier right to to the uk that has forced the cost of these things up and we are seeing a longer leading times to capital projects that makes it makes it harder to deliver and we're also seeing fewer companies being prepared to bid for public sector contracts at the moment because they know you know by the nature of what we do we are going to try and price these keenly right and they're not as attractive a proposition to the market as they might once have been so that that's that's not fantasy that's the reality of what councils are having to live with at the moment okay well leave it at that just now thanks thank you very much douglas so far by daniel thank you convener um ben i was a counselor and went along to the um you know the cosla leaders meetings you know when the tourist tax was discussed it was always spoken about as optional for each local authorities and also additionality was another key thing but have we now moved to a place where councils are looking at things like the tourist tax or the parking tax is not as additional income but to plug the gaps that they have i can come in on that one i mean i as i said before each local authority is different and you know local authorities are positioned that they have to look in and make these hard decisions as well so while you know some local authorities may not be wishing to put those taxes in place that there are options available for them and it comes back down to those choices those flexibilities and for what works for one may not but there should never be that a portion of blame that oh look this local authority is doing is making this tax and it's not as good as this you know and and that's where we need to get to to be able to actually have that understanding that we have to have that individual level for each local authority but have you got members that are looking at the tourist tax as a way to you know increase spend on tourism for example or or marketing or are they looking at now to plug the gaps that they've got what i would say is in terms of of local government finance i think all local authorities are looking at ways of increasing revenue in order to provide some of that those core provisions that local government provides so is that to provide additionality or is it to just basically to keep the lights on it to provide the statutory services that the councils have to provide so where we are is you know we are looking at a seven percent real terms cut to local authority budgets so yes you know local authorities are having to find ways to to fill those gaps. I was just going to say that you know with the with the cuts that the local government is faced with just now we're obviously going to have to make some difficult decisions on services that that you know are important to tourism you know waste services roads and infrastructure so you know it will probably fill a gap for services that we would no longer be able to afford and we would afford them in the past and that tourism tax it will help to plug that gap. Thank you. Next thing I was going to go on to because I know we're short of time in your submission you talk about the you know the gap going forward over the next five years and the equivalent of 20,000 fewer local government jobs so do you think that's a reality that we're looking at in five years time that there will be 20,000 fewer local government jobs? Good so ultimately local government is probably going to have to adapt and evolve and certainly one of the discussions that we have when we were looking at the pay increase is in order to put a larger pay settlement forward if local government if we hadn't had that reoccurring funding from Scottish government in order to meet that pay gap then we were faced with the reality that yes local government would be looking at cuts to jobs that is the reality that is faced by local government right now. So is local government still looking at 20,000 fewer jobs in the next five years? So that would be dependent on the budgets coming forward but yes with the predicted decreasing in budget allocation then local government will have to make those difficult decisions. Paul, did you want to come in or? It's fair to say you've got within the cause of submission a picture of budget gaps moving forward so I've quoted today in the case of my own council £37 million. I suppose we just need to remember the majority of what councils spend is employee costs so if budget gaps have to be closed that is absolutely something that councils are going to be having to consider right are the levels of staffing moving forward and the things that for example we quoted in our submission around you know the capacity within things like digital transformation right you know that will take a cost right out of processes and sometimes that means taking jobs out of processes and that section of our response was meant to be constructive in terms of what are the areas that you're going to look to in trying to bridge that budget gap moving forward but you know I don't think we should be under any illusion right these are very real gaps that are faced by local government and unless there are solutions put in place right and you know we've talked about the ideal solution being more funding or funding that addresses the inflationary pressures that we're facing then there are going to be losses and jobs in local government and I guess from that unless there's digitisation quick to replace people then there's going to be an impact on services that local government provide and I was in earlier on when the auditor general was here and I think it was a point that's been made a number of times change takes time right and you know an ability to innovate to digitise processes to change structures right to implement any changes structure you know it's not going to be done for year 2023-24 right and you know councils will will be taking that into account in their approach moving forward but in order to make change I do think you need two things one's time right and one's investment right some degree of money put in there to facilitate change and I gave the example earlier on of digitisation of processes and you know the examples that I think a government gave about you know how you could reform as digitisation maximise and revenue through public sector innovation reform a public sector estate reform a public you know public body landscape improving public human is this not things you've already been doing for the last five years again right you know councils have a if we were coming at this from a position where councils hadn't spent the past decade making efficiencies and you were looking at a clean slate and looking at what they do and thinking okay there's things that can be done here in order to make this a better position you know I'd feel better about that but it's not right so we're going back to councils and we're you know we're saying we're going back to councils through the position that we're in in terms of a funding settlement that's there is flat cash right and the inflationary climate that we're in doing things through becoming more efficient it's going to be that bit more difficult because you know the low hanging fruit has been taken long ago so the the ideas that are referenced in there are absolutely ones that are worth looking at and you mentioned there at the end that the in terms of the public sector estate and there are considerations there that's a prime example of one where investments needed right and trying to meet net zero commitments right so there will be a massive cost in that moving forward right so the these are areas that have been looked at there is merit in looking at them further and I think we reflected that in our own response but somewhere along the line right as well as structural change right and as well as becoming more efficient councils are going to be in a position where they have to look at the services that are provided right with a view to trying to cut back in them in order to bridge budget gaps cursed I was going to ask you next you spoke earlier about early intervention and prevention I completely agree that you know more money spent at a local level probably means less money eventually spent on health health spent on justice and yeah and but how do you make the case better then to Scottish Government how do you quantify what you can save later on to to the health budget the justice budget that's a really difficult question and I'm not sure if I could quantify that but I guess if we look at the the outcomes just now we're not delivering in all the outcomes that Scottish Government want to deliver on so there needs to be a change in what we're currently doing I just wanted to also I'd ask in a speaker I wanted just to pick up that your question on your question on jobs cuts I think that's a real a real likely scenario because 60 to 70 percent of our budget is on the workforce and councillor Hadman noted the additional money that we'd got for the pay the pay settlement and that's that that's very much welcome but I have to point out that councils also are short for the pay settlement most councils are the budgeted 2 percent for pay and the additional money that the deputy first minister has awarded is is takes that up to 15.5 percent and the pay the pay award offer is currently 5 percent so councils have a one and a half percent gap that they need to bridge and pay and to do that will probably see significant job losses so it's so even just to meet the pace element that was agreed this year there's got to be savings made elsewhere is that what you're you're saying in the current year most councils have budgeted for a 2 percent pay award in the current year you know the 5 percent pay award that's on the table leads councils in the current year with a budget gap that they're going to have to look at and the deputy first minister has confirmed that he's willing to look at some flexibilities on the sum of the funding the ring fence funding that has been looked at but we're just in the early stages of discussion on that just now so yes moving on to next year there's going to be significant budget gaps but most councils are going to have a budget gap in the current year because of the pay award offer because it wasn't fully funded by the Scottish Government I guess most councils are 2 percent in their budget for that and deputy first minister's funding equates to around about one and a half percent so there's a one and a half percent gap okay thank you and sorry back to the point about early intervention you know how do we get the message across better to the government that more and money spent the local government will give that savings later is there a way of quantifying it at all you think not quite sure actually how to how to get that message across better it's it's a message that we have been that we've been reiterating for a number of years but yeah i'd need to think about that further okay thank you thank you community okay thank you very much and I would say the issue of the the transient visitor lever tourist tax is it's called is it might be good news for our gyle and but I can't see north Lanarkshire making much of it so I think there's a real issue about the fact that it's going to be very uneven in terms of which local authorities benefit from and which don't and that would also have to I think be taken into consideration with funding deliberations. Daniel to be followed by Michelle. I'll keep this to one question but I'll just I'll put two strands to it and because of submission it states that in real time since 2013 that the local government budget has been cut by seven percent indeed Mr Manning was pointing at that within that that the two thirds has gone to ring fenced areas but further on in the submission it says that that that that those ring thing in stairs have to be cross subsidised from your discretionary budget that that is that implying that that 15 percent real terms cut to it there's an additional sum to come out of it in that if you've got if you've got ring fenced that that's impacting on on core and then you're having to cross subsidise and if so is there is a a quantum that you can attach to that cross subsidisation? Can I start off with this one right sir? A part I think of the point that's being made in causeless submission is there are areas of directed spend right so there are additional monies coming in for specific purposes right and a causeless submission goes into a fair amount of detail in terms of monies that have come for health and social care children and young people and I think another example was it was around the 10 pound 50 per hour right those are all quoted right in in causeless submission in terms of monies for specific uplift one of the points that I think is made in causeless submission is those initial amounts go in right but in an inflationary climate right councils are going to be faced with pressure on that spend right so what you what you had to spend on a unit of those services last year I understand the point right I'm just wondering if if you've actually quantified that so I understand the point that your budgets are under pressure because of ring fencing that that's where you get from 7 percent to 15 percent what you're implying in the submission is that on top of that you're having to subsidise those ring fencing shares from your discretionary budget I'm just asking do you actually have a quantification of either what proportion of your budget or how does that what what what is the addition to the 15 percent effective reduction I think individual councils could do that for individual priorities and for initiatives that have been put in place and between myself and councillor I remember happy to have a conversation with the causala team to see if that figure is out within the background papers of the causala submission and that would be helpful and likewise you mean you've specifically quoted the the early years funding I mean has that specific policy been funded in terms of how much that is having to be subsidised from core discretionary funding I think if I can come in I think in order to get clarity around that I can get my local government finance team to submit some further written evidence direct to you in that specific issue but what what I would say is in terms of the the key areas of of policy so child poverty climate change looking at you know a fair greener economy local government are key partners within that delivery and this is you know this very question of is it properly funded how do we ensure that we're not having to take so by having that early intervention that early discussion during the the creation of those policies is is the point that causala has been has been making that we need to be around the table and having those early discussions so that therefore when the funding is delivered and it is given to local authorities that it is a true reflection on the actual cost that it takes to deliver I mean I understand that this is I think a slightly different point in that you are saying that the ring-fenced areas of policy delivery are not being sufficiently funded I was just really asking you to clarify by how much so if you can provide that in writing that would be really helpful we'll do thank you I finished there thank you very much daniel and michelle to perform my list again I'll try and be brief I've just got a couple of questions in your submission you mentioned a wider adoption of shared services and you correctly know that it needs increased resources and time to take effect but the other area that it needs is appetite so can you help me understand what of the standard functions that are normally part of shared services i.e finance, HR and IT is there any genuine shared services across all 32 local councils I think on the specifics of this one I'll maybe pass over to Kirsty to answer that as as chair of SIPFA thank you thank you and Paul might be able to help me out as well I think the question of shared services is quite challenging across all the authorities certainly in our Gail and Bute council where I work there's not a great desire not from our council perspective but for people to share services with our Gail and Bute council it is really quite difficult to share services across what would be such a wide a wide geography our own council is a huge geography as it is never mind feeding sharing across so it makes it really hard to while suppose we would like to do share services it's not always practical to do that and there may and you know I think coming from our Gail and Bute council you know I'm not I'm not kind of aware on all the services that our councils are sharing so whether whether Paul can give any examples from a central belt area that could help okay everybody's looking at you Paul I can't readily give an example right again through cosla right we'll hopefully try and properly document the instances that are there as one of the points that I was making earlier is just the changes that are likely to come right if and when we go to a national care service are going to bring this to the fore again and I've seen the recent document that was published in May so going back to your point Kirsty I'm not talking I mean sometimes you could see facilities management for example being part of a shared services function I accept what you're saying about the disparate geography of our Gail and Bute but you're also pointing out to me that there is a lack of appetite across councils where you have replicated functions ffds for example it for example hr the specialisms in any other commercial walk of life where I spent some time in a previous life there's no way that you would have duplicated functions across the board so that hence my comment about appetite you know because in the one hand councils are complaining about not having any money on the other hand this to me is an area that clearly should be looked at because there are duplicated functions across 32 councils so I suppose that's the point I'm trying to make whilst accepting there's a time thing and there's a cost just one other question yourself Kirsty I wanted to ask it's a wee bit of a technical one so hopefully we can deal with it quite quickly you make the point about capital accounting in the submission and I know this has been rumbling about for for some time but the review that is planned to be under way I mean there's obviously some concerns about that but I wondered what what was the driver for a concern because this has been raised a number of times now something's been done about it and it's been looked and surely actually a potential outcome is that it could be positive so it's just to understand where your concerns are coming from and the assumption that actually could end up less favourable for councils. Yeah we have a great deal of concern about the capital accounting review so local authorities are not comparable to profit generating businesses where assets are purchased to support profit making activities and then they get depreciated to reduce the taxation payable by that business over the life of that of the asset we hold assets to deliver services to communities for the public good so you know we put a notional charge through our accounting and if we had to and we've got statutory mitigation in place that allows us to do that if we didn't have that statutory mitigation in place the chances are that the charge that would be put to our to our council tax payers or our rent payers in case of the HRA would be significantly higher. I understand that but I'm trying to sorry to interrupt but I'm just trying to understand what is the basis for your concern that this might change surely there could be a potential for a positive outcome as well because this has been triggered by by the lack of flexibilities fiscal flexibilities you have the overarching review I just wasn't clear from your submission why you're concerned and what evidence you're offering to back up that concern I mean has there been anything in the like indicated by the government that that is an intended way to go I'm just not clear about that we're actually not sure what the positives are and you know we have heard we have heard comments that there would be positives on that but from a director of finance point of view we're not sure what the positives are we only see that there'd be direct charges and increasing charges to council revenue which would limit the amount of capital investment we could make in the future yeah okay I'm not going to labour the point because I know time I'm just not clear why you think that is automatically going to happen and that's all I was querying because because because my understanding is that the review is to look at the removal of the statutory mitigation that's in place and if that statutory mitigations are removed then there'll be a bigger charge to to the council revenue in the eight body why is the case so has there been a terms of reference for the review that there has been a terms of reference that we've seen and I think the review is about to kick off in October so we'll get more information and obviously we'll be we'll be involved in the review which is welcome that we'll have a we'll have a seat on with the group okay thank you thank you lice thank you just have one question miss lannigan it's just on the back of Michelle Thompson's first question to you I know what you're saying about the fact that some councils are not terribly keen about sharing services because they feel that dilutes their own you know best interests in terms of delivering local services but off the areas and the councils which have delivered shared services has an audit been done of how much money has actually been saved by joint services because I think it'd be quite helpful to know where there is good practice and just as a saving Michelle Thompson asking for some information about that and I think that would be very helpful to this committee yeah and I wouldn't have I wouldn't have any of that figures to hand just now but that's something we could we could look to get to get for you I think there might be as a an opportunity now that councils may be able to look at sharing of some services on the back of on the back of Covid because certainly prior to Covid when when everybody was working in offices you know there's certainly you know if I take my council for example if we had if we had shared services with somebody with another authority and it took a number of jobs out area you know that would have been a concern for our local economy but now that more and more people are working remotely and online there possibly will be an opportunity to look at some of the back office functions for sharing and that's something we'll certainly be exploring as a council and others may well be doing that as well. Thank you we're very helpful if we did have that information. Much and just to follow on to that I mean one way to kind of look at the potential costs is to look at this in reverse so I was a council in 1995 when the Bollie Strathclyde region so you went from one social work department in Strathclyde to 12 because each local authority suddenly had 12 directors a social work and 12 direct deputy directors and all the rest to it so I mean if you look at the kind of costs of setting that up it would be interesting to to see what potential savings it would be in terms of sharing some of those services. For me come in I mean one of the points and we are talking obviously in terms of finance but certainly looking at collaborative working we do have education collaborative going on and certainly within again my own local authority it's not just about having that saving it's about the sustainability of services that we do sometimes need to look at and certainly I know for some young people the only opportunity for them to take specific subjects in terms of education to make because of the sustainability because of reality and you know we do need to be very mindful of you know rural areas that we need to look at doing things in sometimes a different way it might you know not always be possible to do things in the same way and again it's about having that discussion but you know I do know that there are some local authorities that are sharing services for example in planning even now so you know local authorities are open to that because we are looking at ways to best deliver services for our communities. Okay well thank you very much that's exhausted questions from the committee so I shall wind up the session and just remind colleagues that we'll be back in our usual Tuesday morning slot next week we will continue to take further evidence on Scotland's public finances in 23 to 24 so thank you all for your participation this afternoon thank you to all three of our witnesses


Felly, fel Llanpard, oherwydd mae'n ddim yn ei dweud y llydd, mae'n ddim yn ei dweud y llydd, mae'n ganwch yn ystod, mae'r ddogfod yn meddwl os y gallwn hefyd yn unigol. Ond mae'n ddu ymwys i ddim yn dweud, hefyd? Felly, mae'n ddu i'n ddysgu fel Llanpard a ddim wedi bod i'n gwneud eich ddweud. Dwi'n dweud ei ddweud eich ddweud i'n ddweud ymwys i'r ddweud. was Rubish like the Pusharra outlamp didnt thing. The candidates were Rubish, and they have been for every 12 months or whatever. We've lost our manager every six months. I said at the time that this will be sat here again another 80 months. I said it when Benita sign and it happened to turn out to be six months or whatever. And I just think. I think all these managers we've had in the past few months, past few years Benitez wasnt y bottom three manager. Lampard wasnt y bottom two manager. Silver wasnt y bottom three manager. The same goes for players as well. How many players have brought in managers that have all underperformed? Plenty of people have said it in the media or whatever. It's time to start looking at the top and we have done. A bad culture in an organisation leads to bad performers or underperformers and it's hard to do your job. Certainly when there's a culture of people not being able to do the job. We had the same with Marcel Brands or the managers. Marcel Brands was a director of football. He was bringing in managers he didn't want in Benitez, Angelotti, and players he didn't want with Alan and Rodriguez or whatever. So if people can't do the job and to be honest I don't see the points of a director of football and I think so far a manager and a director of football at Everson hasnt worse because we haven't allowed the director of football to choose the managers and do his job. So going forward wherever we pick I think the doom to fail anyway. So for me I just want to go back to an old fashioned get someone in like Moisew who's not just a coach but he's a proper manager who manage upwards as well and manage everything to put the team and have a proper structure in our football club because I know which I just know in six months time or 12 months time or 18 months time at most we're going to be sat here again. There's the problem though isn't it that's not what you do now mate that's where the problem at the top of the club is and the top completely because I know you're saying get rid of a director of football but they are very very vital these days because coaches coach and direct football. If you're going to have a director of football you've got to let him do the job and that's where the problem is we've got a culture of people not being able to do the job. It's a case of you're right obviously a director of football is necessary in today's football there's no choice about it but it's got to be a director of football putting a structure where he's able to do his job and then he can be judged upon that job. You know at the moment Marcel Branding we couldn't hand on out if he'd done a good or a bad job because we don't know what he did what he was allowed to do what was forced upon him and it feels the same the same happening with Thelwell you know you're talking okay the guy coming what a week or so after Lampard so he's been here just short of 12 months as well transfer strategy is still all over the shop managerial strategy is all over the shop style of football we don't have one the academy from people I've heard from albeit the club saying it's improving it may well be like it's in a bit of chaos so you know he doesn't look like he's being given the tools to do the job now this is a guy that again is same as Marcel Branding has come with a good record you know he's come with a bit of pedigree behind him and if you're not allowing those people to do the job so flourishing it he won't be able to perform and exactly what Ned said but that then goes to the manager because if he's not being in the position or the coach this is what I want and I would change forever and I'd stop calling him a manager because that's what you need to be doing but you know your 13 coach needs to be in an environment where he can do the job that he needs to do the problem now is as well okay if you allow the director of football control in every other department but the manager then you bring in a manager against the director of football it ruins everything the director of football is doing and at the moment I still think that Shari is going to pick the manager and why would you do the same thing again expect a different result and Alan Myers today he was a very reputable source by the way but anyway he's a very good source Marcel O Bielser and Sean Dysher the front runners for the job apparently now a director of football implements your philosophy and I want to use Brighton as an example so you can bring in a certain type of player there's a very good structure and there's a simple basic clear idea of what the club's doing and if your manager goes like you did you're bringing in the next one to replace him and he's a fit for that team and for that direction and now we've got a director of football who I'm clear he's not picking the manager because we've got Sean Dysher as a front runner and Bielser as a front runner for the job they're two completely different managers that's like deciding if you want to go we're going to change league we're going to go play in Spain we might go and play in Germany what are you doing? what club do you want to be?


I had started in high school playing French horn and was first person from my high school to make all state so I thought it was really good French horn. And when I got to the university I thought I was going to major in music. Then I went into mineral engineering and in mineral engineering I had an opportunity later in that course to go out on a drilling rig. And when I got to the drilling rig they were pulling the equipment out. It was so amazing and so exciting that that's what shaped my view of what I wanted to be. I knew I wanted to go into the oil industry and be a petroleum engineer. I remember taking books over to the basketball games and trying to study while the basketball game was in progress and that never worked well. I remember going to tennis matches and watching with my books. But the one thing I never took books to is I never took books to the football games because those were too intense. Graduating from the University of Alabama did another thing for me is that it instilled in me a passion to win. And I think a lot of Alabama graduates have that and I look for that now in employees. It's that passion to be successful, that passion to help your team succeed, the passion to just win. And it took that with me throughout my whole career and it still works for me today.


All right, all functional components are is just a different way of developing things and of writing your objects. And I think that one of the things that the reason why we have react hooks is that prior to prior to being able to have react hooks, we had a hard way of doing react to be able to hook into things like in the page life or in the component life cycle. So things like component did mount or component will mount or stuff or did unmount or something like stuff like that and properties change. Those were all class based methods that we would override from the class that we were based on from the abstract class. We had no way of really we didn't have a there wasn't no way but it really made doing functional development with react very hard without having without having access to those page life cycle methods and being able to create like side effects and stuff like that.


Major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services, empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community, Washington County Mental Health, where hope and support come together. Media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Park Chester Times, Muslim Community Report, WWW, this is the Bronx.info, Associated Press Media Editors, New York Power Online Newspaper, U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International, Anchor FM and Spotify. Partners for Ableton on Air include the HOD of New York and New England, where everyone belongs, the Orthodox Union, the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont, the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity, and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition, Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx, Roosevelt Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx, Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications, Park Chester Times, WWW, this is the Bronx.com, New York Power Online Newspaper, Muslim Community Report, WWW.H.com, and the Montpelier Bridge. Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations, the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Boston, New England Chapter, and the Society of Professional Journalists. Welcome to this edition of Ableton on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the differently-abled. I've always been your host, Lauren Syler. I'm just not here today. Before we get started and talk about something that's extremely important, near and dear to me, especially for those that are blind and visually impaired, let's thank our sponsors, Washington County Mental Health, Green Mountain Support Services, and many others, including the support of the Division for the Blind of Vermont and the Association for the Blind of Vermont, and many others, also including sponsorships. One of our new sponsorships is Enough Ministries of Buried Vermont. So let's get started. Thanks to... Well, before we begin our show, let me just talk about a little bit of a commentary. I don't know if everyone knows out there, but in Vermont, I am slowly losing my vision. I am visually impaired, and I am getting services from the Division for the Blind of Vermont. So recently, I was at a grocery store. Now, many people who are visually impaired can't see those little stickers that are on the shelves. Yes, people can probably see large posters that are talking about specials, either by the deli counter or the fish counter. If it's a large enough poster, saying a price, then a person can probably see that. But I'm talking about the small stickers that are by products. So, for example, if something is $2.99, and then a supermarket puts a price on top of a price, then on top of another price, you can't see that. It's a little disconcerting. So I say this as a small part of my commentary. Stop doing that. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act, stores are supposed to have large enough print for people to see. Now, since this is the 32nd anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act, stop and think and come out of yourself for a minute and become us. In other words, go into our shoes. What if you were blind and visually impaired and you needed help? So if corporations would stop basically and smell the coffee pretty much, if that is the same these days, stop and smell the coffee, which means help us and then we can help others. So basically, according to the Americans with Disabilities Act, all stores are supposed to have large enough print. So stop putting those stickers on top of one another so people can't see. I myself have peripheral vision issues. So let's get started with this. And if I haven't today, if this doesn't educate you, please get yourself more help through your community blind or blind and visually impaired organization so you can get the assistance that you need. So according to the Vermont Center for Independent Living, who basically recommended this app, so Be My Eyes is a Danish and I've tried this and it's a wonderful thing. So if you have a smartphone, Be My Eyes is a Danish mobile app that aims to help blind and visually impaired people recognize objects and cope with everyday situations. An online community of sighted volunteers receive photos or videos from randomly assigned effective individuals in a system via live chat. In other words, if you're in a store and looking at a product, let's say this was a can of soup and you needed to find the price of the soup, you take a picture of it, then take a picture of the price and the person can help you on the other end. This is how this works. A visually impaired person starts a live stream showing their view from a cell phone camera. They are assigned through a phone, call or chat or random volunteer who speaks the same language in the same time zone. This allows the volunteer to describe the object and assist visually impaired people with that object such as guiding the person to move the camera and read instructions or clean up a spill if they are mopping or that kind of thing. Through speech synthesis, content can be read out loud and the process encourages a more independent life for the blind and visually impaired person. Now, this was released. The app was marketed by Hans Jurgen Wilberg. He had demonstrated this through video chat such as software of Skype and FaceTime, which people don't use Skype too much anymore. None of these apps FaceTime or Skype is tailored for the visually impaired. For development, he joined forces with the Danish Association for the Blind and other organizations. The app was first presented at an event and started up companies in 2012 and was released in 2015. In February of 2020, they raised more funding to help people who need visual support services and this is free for people who are visually impaired. There are actually more apps for the blind. Let me talk about those. There is a website here for those who want to find more apps for the blind. The apps come from www.railworks.com www.railworks.com Here are the top five apps that I'm going to actually go through and next time we come on the show we'll bring a couple of examples. The top five apps, if you have problems with money, example, if you have problems identifying a bill, there are money identifying apps. It's a clip that goes on your money and it will actually tell you what it is. That's one. It's called Looktel which is a money identifying app. Then there is one called TapTapSea which is almost the same thing but it helps you identify photos and other ones like that. That's www.railworks.com Let us go through this here. www.railworks.com is a company that transcribes If you need help learning how to transcribe it you can go to www.railworks.com They do provide rail transcription services and things like that. The most interesting thing about this website is that if you are having problems and you are visually impaired and need a bit of counseling per se there is a blog that people here that people viewing our show can look at www.railworks.com They have a braille that talks about going through braille and transcribing it and then also they have articles about the Americans with Disabilities Act which brings me to this. According to the Americans with Disabilities Act in terms of braille it is imperative the Americans with Disabilities Act formed in 1990 is a wide-ranging civil rights law that prohibits under certain circumstances discrimination based on disability. Now, in terms of braille according to the ADA standards braille is only required in signs that identify a room, space or area known as a men's room, a women's room so on and so forth. Now, there are five things that a person should know that a business should know if you are going to add ADA signage or adding braille to ADA signage. First, find out if the signs require braille. You might, according to this you might be surprised that not all ADA signs require braille. According to the ADA standards braille is only required on signs that identify a room. It is required to put braille on the following signs rest rooms, meeting and conference room signs utility room signs meeting for janitors and other people who work classroom signs, common room signs it is not required but people do anyway it is not required to put braille on directional signs, elevated signs check in now at a reception desk informational signs open hour signs in other words when a business is open and closed and if there is a security guard assigned pointing to that also exit signs not required refuge another is where garbage is stairs and floor but again you are required now if your sign requires braille please make sure the text is raised raised text has a purpose at least 10% of the 1.3 million people who are legally blind in the US actually know how to read braille which I am going to be learning a sign with braille makes it a tactical sign a tactile sign with a purpose of serving the visually impaired which means text has to be raised as well okay now use the right version of braille there is not one, not two but three levels of complexity in English braille ADA standards require grade 2 grade 2 braille which was introduced as a space saving alternative to grade 1 braille grade 2 braille abandons 1 to 1 transcription and adds hundreds of abbreviations and contractions to fit easier on signage now again for more information on this you can go to www.tinkeringmonkey.com that's T-I-N-K-E-R-I-N-G monkey.com forward slash guides on ADA signage and basically it would go into that now number four keep braille transcriptions together to make easier for visually impaired it is required that all braille is grouped together in one section and always located at the bottom of the sign number five ADA standards specifically dimensional requirements in order to ensure that the braille is easily and comfortable to read there are no sharp edges no sharp edges please therefore it's important to choose a sign vendor with experience with ADA signage to ensure that it is correct and the material is processed correctly and is used correctly now for more information again on this you can go to www.tinkeringmonkey.com forward slash ADA signage and if you need help please contact your community disability organization who will be gladly to help now let's talk about for a brief couple of minutes which is very important here in Vermont there is an organization called Vermont Center for Independent Living Vermont Center for Independent Living can turn around and help you learn how to be more independent in your home as well as in the community they can give you classes on how to they can teach you how to be more independent they can give you workshops on how to manage your money and other things like that so if you need help from the Vermont Center for Independent Living on how to advocate for yourself and be more independent it's extremely important for people who especially need to be more independent and yes relatives can help but if you're not independent then don't in my vast opinion doing this show for many years here in Vermont as well as for the 30 plus years don't let relatives kind of take over or be on top of a person yes if you need further assistance yes ask for relatives help but you must be independent till you cannot be independent which means there are situations where relatives do become people's guardians if they so need it then it becomes who can I trust to help me become more independent so the Vermont Center for Independent Living does help people who especially need to become more independent for more information on that and we will have them on the show at some point again you can go to www.vcil.org that website once again is www.vcil.org and for more information on services for the blind and visually impaired our partners organizational website we have division for the blind of Vermont as a partner in the show you can go to www.dvbi.org that's www.dvbidivisionfortheblindofvermind.org and also the partnering organization to that is the association for the blind of Vermont which is www.associationfortheblindofvermind.org associationfortheblindofvermind.org and they can help you with anything that you need help with when it comes to equipment they can help you with computers they can help you with tablets they can help you with money clips or anything helping the blind and visually impaired become more independent and the last thing I want to mention on this show it has not been easy doing what we do on this television program however we have had the association for the blind of Vermont on this show before and for more information on that and last time they came and they brought many pieces of equipment from kitchen equipment to helping someone who cannot read a medication bottle if it's a little bit too small example again money so if it's too small for someone to read they can help you so for more information on Ableton On Air and the programs that we've done on this show including helping people become more independent through our journalism you can go to Orca Media's website at www.OrcaMedia.com we will have more shows within the coming weeks on how to navigate blindness how to read Braille and how to navigate becoming more independent again we would like to thank our sponsors for sponsoring our program and partnering with us we would like to thank Washington County Mental Health Green Mountain Support Services and many others including the Association for the Blind of Vermont the Division for the Blind of Vermont and also if you need any extra assistance being blind and visually impaired you can go to www.AFB.org that's the Association for the Blind they're in New York but they have a national organization so that's www.AFB.org and if you would like to read any information on Lewis Braille and Helen Keller you can go to AFB.org www.AFB.org they have a library on Helen Keller's books and pictures as well and you know different things of that nature about her life don't be afraid to ask for help when you're blind and visually impaired I'm Lawrence Seiler see you next time Major sponsors for Ableton on Air include Green Mountain Support Services empowering people with disabilities to live home in the community Washington County Metal Health where hope and support come together media sponsors for Ableton on Air include Park Chester Times Muslim Community Report www this is the Bronx.info Associated Press Media Editors New York Parrot Online Newspaper U.S. Press Corps Domestic and International Anchor FM and Spotify Partners for Ableton on Air include Yachad of New York and New England where everyone belongs the Orthodox Union the Division for the Blind and Visually Impaired of Vermont the Vermont Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired Central Vermont Habitat for Humanity and Montpelier Sustainable Coalition Montefiore Medical Center of the Bronx Rose of Kennedy Center of Bronx, New York Albert Einstein College of Medicine of the Bronx Ableton on Air has been seen in the following publications Park Chester Times www this is the Bronx.com New York Parrot Online Newspaper Muslim Community Report www.h.com and the Montpelier Bridge Ableton on Air is part of the following organizations the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences Boston New England Chapter and the Society of Professional Journalists