Ableton on Air, major sponsorship was given by Green Mountain Support Services, empowering neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community. Also sponsorship was given by Washington County Mental Health Services where hope and support come together and Champlain Community Services of Vermont. Hello and welcome to Ableton on Air, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns and achievements of the different label. I've always been your host, Lauren Seiler. Thank you to our sponsors, Green Mountain Support Services, Champlain Community Services and Washington County Mental Health. Arlene couldn't be here today, but on this informative episode, we will focus on the Montpelio Regional Planning Commission. Thank you for joining me on this edition of Ableton on Air again for the second time. With us to discuss transportation and people with special needs is Dan Courier and Peter Junkie and Peter Junkie from Vermont's VCIL organization, welcome to Ableton on Air. Thank you for having us back. Thank you. You are welcome. What are the missions and goals of the Montpelio Regional Planning? Is it commission or council? Sure. Sure. It's the Central Vermont Regional Planning Commission and so our goal is really to work with our municipalities to provide local and regional planning and one of those missions is to work through public transit. When you say municipalities, that means federal, state and local organizations, right? Yeah, we bring together a series of partners, whether it's federal partners like Agency of Transportation, Federal Highway and then our local partners just at the town level say the City of Montpelio or the City of Barrie could come in and work with us as well. Okay. Can you talk a little bit about the transportation, the board, the transportation board that you have with your organization, which I'm also a part of? Sure. Can you explain that please? Yes. As part of the Inclusive Planning Grant that we were awarded, we formed a paratransit planning committee and so that committee helped to work through the goals of our grant and which was basically to engage directly with the transit users along the, with inside of the Green Mountain Transit Service area, which is in Washington County and to engage with them on a way to understand what their needs are as new routes are being proposed by Green Mountain Transit. So one of the options that Green Mountain Transit has put forward is to start a new paratransit service where you'd have vehicles traveling directly to the door of passengers and they would get that ride directly from their door to the door of their destination. Can you define paratransit? What exactly is that? Well, paratransit is really, it's a federal requirement that transit services have to provide trips for older adults and persons with disabilities to go to medical appointments primarily, but it can do social trips as well and so it's a requirement from the American with Disabilities Act on the transit agencies. Peter, through your organization VCIL, how does VCIL work? How has your organization worked with the Regional Planning Commission? We were one of a partner agencies on the grant along with the Council on Aging and we were sort of specifically focusing on some of the needs of people with disabilities. I myself don't drive and so therefore I'm a user of public transit and so we partnered on this particular project, but one of my functions at the Vermont Center for Independent Living is as a transportation advocate. So I'm always working with either Dan or other partners or the VTrans, the state agency for transportation to make sure that people with disabilities have the same opportunities for transit that other people have and as Dan said under the Americans with Disabilities Act, transit providers are required to provide what's called complementary paratransit services and just to clarify, that currently doesn't exist in the central Vermont area. Right now with a few exceptions, it really only exists in Chittenden County. The way the transit provider accomplishes the same end is they have what are called deviated fixed routes. So basically it's a fixed route, a bus starts at one point and goes to another point, but it can deviate off of that route up to three quarters of a mile which is essentially the same requirement under true complementary paratransit. Under true complementary paratransit, every route that a transit provider has would have to have a complementary route that would mimic that same route but would be able to go off the route up to three quarters of a mile. So for like medical appointments and everything? For anything, that's under true complementary paratransit, it doesn't have to be just medical appointments, it can be for anything. Just in the same way you could, if you didn't need, if you didn't have a disability and didn't could get to the bus stop, you got on a bus, you go wherever you want to go as long as the bus goes there and in the same way with paratransit services the only difference being is that the bus would, you would call up the day, you have to call up a day ahead of time and the bus would come to your house, they're going to come to your curb just to clarify a point, it's curb to curb service. There are other services that some transit providers provide that is literally door to door where drivers or other people can assist people actually getting into their home but I don't want to get people confused if the paratransit service that is required under the law is a curb to curb service. So it just means that a driver would bring you to your home and then get out of the car or van and bring you to your door? Well bring you so, for example we have staff people at VCIL and so they get picked up at their house so the van pulls up to their driveway they walk from their door out to the out to the bus it's a van and they get on and then that van brings them to VCIL and they drop them off at the front door and they come in and walk into the into the office and so that's that's the way that would typically work in a situation. When does that or when will that start with paratransit services? Well it's proposed we don't have an exact date yet it's still going through an evolutionary process unless Dan you have any updates I haven't heard any further. So there was a presentation last night at our transportation advisory committee meeting which is a different committee than the paratransit planning committee that we formed but at that meeting Green Mountain Transit presented on the the next gen study that includes this option of paratransit. What is the next gen study? The next gen was a comprehensive transit analysis of all of Green Mountain Transit's services to figure out ways to streamline services improve services relate to either have a cost neutral adjustment or even a cost savings to a service by doing you know whether it's you know running at the bus at different times or off changing the time yeah it could change the time that could offer a slightly different route for the bus Speaking about different routes I noticed also that sometimes GMTA runs a bus and it says special on the bus what exactly does that go any particular place or is that a special route? Typically special means it's a Medicaid trip so all the transit providers across the state have a contract with Medicaid to provide trips specifically for Medicaid but it could be some other just non regular transit route trip it doesn't have to be a Medicaid trip but typically they are sometimes you'll see some of those that and they'll actually say like Twin Valley Senior Center so that's where that bus is going or project independence and so that's where that bus is going but a method old clinic for example well it probably wouldn't say that just for privacy purposes it would say special it would say special exactly yeah that's that's basically why they do that Lawrence can I just finish my point about Green Mountain Transit they said that they're looking to start the new routes and make all the changes in our county in September of this year and so anything that would go into effect would start in September which would time with the opening of the Transit Center here in Montpelier explain a little bit about that since you said the Transit Center sure so the Transit Center will be a new base of operations for for the buses here in Montpelier for the serve the Washington County area but also for buses that come out of Burlington or even stagecoach which comes out of Randolph and so they would go there and that would be the primary transit stop and those red buses also the rule because I'm gonna be asking questions about the you know what's the difference between the local transit that we have here and those red buses where do they end up yeah so those are buses out of RCT and so those that's a the the rural county transportation I believe is what their acronym is rural rural community really thank you yep and so and they operate out of St. John's Barrier and they serve the Northeast Kingdom with their buses and so that particular bus that comes in that's a bus that's running along Route 2 so that's part of the Route 2 commuter route so if in terms of rural transportation because I know if you live in the mountains it's really hard to get places it let's say by the year 2020 it's transportation for people with disabilities going to change even more or are there any more situations they're going to change there or well that depends the state v trans is doing a lot of work to figure out different options to increase options for transportation meaning that we want to give people more choices and I mean I'll use myself as an example I live in East Calis there is no bus in East Calis and I don't think there's ever going to be a bus in East Calis so when you look at transportation options you really have to broaden the way you think about it v trans has a really good website called Govermont and if you go to that site you can look at many of the options that you have and people don't always think about it but ride-sharing sharing a ride with a neighbor is one transportation option and that's I do that all the time that's how I primarily get to work and get back home sometimes I do take the RCT bus the red bus back toward Marshfield and my wife picked me up from there but so there's there's lots of things and the state is also looking at some technology to improve so that somebody can go online or if they have a smart phone they can look and it will tell them all the different options that are there and it might it might be one of these it's not in place yet but the proposed there might be one of these quote special buses that happens to be out in that neighborhood and there would hopefully be a way that then they can connect with that bus and oh yeah I can pop on and go there so these are sort of the things that are being working so that it's not so much that they're gonna increase this number of vehicles actually on the road but we're gonna be taking more advantage so everybody knows where all the vehicles are and maybe they can jump right on one of them when the Commission did when your organization did that survey okay obviously this person cons to everything not everybody is going to be satisfied with everything that is that the state of Vermont or a state offers what are some of the pros and cons or what work what were some of the things discussed in that survey how has the survey improved the situation and so on so the the survey was meant to inform us as Green Mountain Transit moved forward in their planning for the paratransit to really make sure that one the service was offered in a way that people would take the most advantage of and so some of the you know some of the input that we got you know was that you know they were people really do what people would like to have the door-to-door right they having it at the curb isn't necessarily the best option especially during the winter when people have to walk from their doorstep out to the edge of the curb or maybe having it seven days a week because other big cities like New York Boston and so on have services seven days a week it's just a matter of employing drivers and the budget because you know budget is a big factor yeah yeah and people people did reports that you know that it would help them to have more service on weekends and later in different months used to have weekend service or did they cut back no I don't think we've ever operated on Sunday for instance I know Saturday service what has cut has always existed but sometimes they have to limit it to the number of hours they can operate but right now what we have is pretty much as as expansion of a service as we've ever had so with excluding Sundays which we've never really operated on the paratransit you know the other input that we got was that there's a qualification process that you'd go through and on that qualification side it would be nice to have a seasonal qualification to make sure that people that are older adults or people with disabilities that aren't as mobile during the winter time could qualify for that service so they could get the trip that they would want or need that they can easily get in the summer because they can walk to the bus stop but in the winter they can't walk that far and a trip to a ski resort is not even though the buses run there seasonally that wouldn't be considered an important trip or well so again paratransit would be for any trip to get a trip all the way up to the ski resorts would be something that they would have to schedule in advance if they want to take advantage of you know recreating others have to say on that same you know token a lot of people reported you know about 40% of the people that answer our survey said that they would want social trips to make sure they were included that they were as important as medical trips to them and so it's meaning what oh going to having fun you know going to the movies being able to go out to dinner with friends going to church you know anything that's a social activity not related to a medical appointment or visiting a doctor or even you know going to like you know shopping shopping exactly so GMTA offers volunteer drivers I know that sometimes too is this is this part of the paratransit or is this going to be included volunteer drivers would be a separate is still a separate program they use volunteer drivers to help provide some of those medical trips it's the G gremont transit is has to when it when it has a trip schedule that has to ask itself what's the lowest cost way to move this person and typically it's through a volunteer driver and so and then the volunteer driver isn't available they can do a deviation on the bus there's other options too you can have a driver through gremont transit take one of their cars out to pick up the person as well what is some of the Peter what are some of the pros and cons that you see wrong with the system and how GMTA or how the commission you could improve service because you're using service yourself sure and I mean a lot of this is what we what we found through this whole process of the surveys is there's a lot of need to both improve education both for drivers in terms of understanding better how to interact with people with disabilities especially people who don't have seen that a problem in the past sometimes in especially in terms of people who may not have visible disabilities that sometimes is a problem somebody who may have learning disability or something a cognitive disability and they may look perfectly healthy and don't have a mobility issue but they may have difficulty understanding directions or those kinds of things or somebody who just has a hearing loss and so you know somebody has to either speak up a little bit or make it a little clearer what what instructions are being said or information people who are blind you know I mean I personally haven't experienced it but there are many of stories out there where a person gets on a bus with a has the white cane that identifies them as a person who's blind and the person says to the driver I need to get off at you know Elm Street and State Street and the driver said well just ring the bell and I'll stop well that obviously doesn't help because the person is blind they can't see where the bus is going so you know the driver should recognize oh this is a person with a white cane I need to pay attention to where they need to get off because they they can't so so there's that education you think it's more like it's not being ignorant they just don't know enough about people with disabilities correct it's just an educational piece but on the same on the same side there also needs to be a be a part in terms of educating riders so they know what their responsibilities are as well and so under mean by educating riders well for example if they need a ride under the current system of elderly and disabled transportation they have to call two business days ahead of time to schedule a ride so you know if they're calling the day before then that they need to be educated that they their expectation of getting that ride is going to be pretty low because the transit provider isn't that nimble they don't have enough volunteers to maneuver that quickly and just understanding different ways that you know that they have to have the correct change the drivers don't give out change and those kinds of things so you know there's there's educational benefits on on either side I think the biggest part as with this GMT wants to do this next gen and put in a formal pair of trains it as we talked before one of things that that I will be looking at very carefully and in terms of working with people with disabilities is as Dan said there's an application process for that part of the trip and it's not just you know oh I have a disability and you send it in you have to have a doctor's note you have to have and you actually have to go and be interviewed because what the transit provider is looking for and I'm not necessarily faulting the transit provider because this is true across the country this isn't just unique to Vermont this type of trip is more expensive obviously than just getting on a regular bus so they try to limit the cost and so they want to know what this person's functional limitations are getting from where they are either at home or work or where they to the bus stop and so they have to go through this interview process they might meet with a physical therapist or an occupational therapist and so that process is a barrier to some people and so that's that's something we'll be looking at very carefully talk outside of interrupt talk about some of the other barriers because when we talk about customer service right especially with drivers and people driving people places you know how important is the customer service aspect when you're dealing with people with disabilities like the real meat of it in well in my mind it's it's no different than dealing with anybody else I mean if a non-disabled person gets on a bus they want to be treated as they're the customer there this the bus service is providing a service to them so they need to be treated with respect and so it's the same thing for a person with disability it doesn't change it's it's it's the same thing but as you as you pointed out drivers don't always have experience in terms of dealing with interacting with people with disabilities so that's why we would want to do you want to talk do you want to piggyback on that about customer service and people with special needs well sure I mean some of the barriers that you know during our engagement you know we listed off number of barriers you know we came up with nine barriers in total you know some of the other ones that were included you know was just beyond the education which came up was was really intertwined in all the barriers you know just like you know making it easier for people to you know make that call in and make that trip right understanding how you you know you schedule the appointment you know what the driver when it comes to pick you up what their expectation is of you and so really working through the barriers of not just scheduling it but then you know having the ride additionally you know they talked about bus stops and the need for improvements to the bus stops and so there's a lot of bus stops what type of improvement sure I mean there's a lot of bus stops that don't have a shelter or don't have benches to sit at or the shelter for example by Walmart or you know that parking lot area the bus shelter the benches are broken yeah you know certain things exactly and so you know and there's a lot of people that have limited mobility and so they might be able to walk to the bus stop but not having a place to sit to stay out of the weather to rest you know there may be a metal condition that prevents them from standing for a long period of time but also you don't want the shelters you know people congregating there meaning sleeping at the shelter or you know because that that's also the case people might okay it's a nice day I'm going to cop a nap and your shelter is not meant for that it's just meant for waiting for the bus I'm I have no direct knowledge of that happening but I'm sure it does so you know a lot of the shelters besides just improved shelters also improving the way the the way the buses have when a bus pulls up to a shelter or a bus stop making sure they can get off the travel lane get out of the travel lane so cars can pass by and so offer that slip lane or even a driveway that it can access what about having has this suggestion come up where a bus pulls up and the stop you know you know we're here at the does is there like going to be a computerized voice well right now the drivers are expected to say the stop name and announce the stop for the riders as well before they get there but any passengers getting on should also be notified and so that is a requirement for their drivers right now and so hopefully they're doing that we've heard that they don't always but I was on the bus the other day and he did he did announce the stops and that was encouraging to hear so it's feedback that we've provided degree mountain transit as already and so you know so we'll continue to provide that feedback if we hear from other people that they're not getting the announcements what is some of the other as far as the commission what are some of the other goals of the commission that you guys are bringing forth because I know that that you guys that you guys helped produce some public service announcement yeah but what are some of the other things that the commission is doing yeah I mean we're really out to enhance safety for our transportation network so you know think bicycle and pedestrian as well you know where you've got pedestrians that are at crosswalks and they need to cross safely you know making sure that you've got you know visibility as well as you know correct markings on the roadways for pedestrians in charge of that new bike path that's being put in our office was involved in the planning phase which was about 10 years ago and so that project is was developed by the after we helped them do the planning it now is a project the construction portion is being managed by the city of Montpelier and so and they've kind of taken that over what is some of the other Peter what are some of the other in european things that could be done by the commission or more improvements that you think that might well i want to just piggyback one thing dan said because it it is a big problem we talked about bicycle and pedestrian stuff and that's also another transit option we don't think of it as walking as an option to get from point A to point B but it absolutely is and i mean another example if if i had my drivers it wouldn't work very well in the winter time but from where i live if i had an e-bike an electric bike i could go from my house to the bus stop in marshfield catch the route to commuter into town and then go back this the same way and of course coming to work wouldn't be too bad because it's all downhill but getting home is where i really need the electric bike apart because that's uphill so but that's another transportation option and what and to make this really clear it's what we call the first and last mile that those are those are the big hurdles that we all try to get over and so in this case a bike would accomplish that closing that gap of that first and last mile but the other part of bike and pedestrian stuff is if we look not only in vermont because i get weekly statistics on traffic fatalities and so far this year we've been doing much better than in past years but pedestrian fatalities are going up nationwide both in vermont and across the country and so that's a real concern and it's a it's a much broader issue we really need to do a paradigm shift right now car manufacturers have up till now they've really been focusing on passenger and driver safety and seat belts and airbags and all of those things but we need to really look at possibilities for vehicle design road design all those kinds of things to make to make pedestrian much more safe because if we want to make cities more walkable if we want to get people out of their cars for you know greenhouse gas emission reduction then we've really got to look at that as well it um what are some of the um i asked this to phone my guests what are some of the misconceptions especially around customers people with disabilities what are some of the misconceptions around people with special needs when people first meet them that maybe a driver might not know how to treat a person with disability um well i i think um again uh it varies um depending on the disability um well i mean probably one of the um you know if if somebody's deaf um you know they're going to be have to use notes to write back and forth if you know the person may not know exactly maybe this is the first time they've been on the bus and so or that were it's a different route and so they're going to have to ask the driver you know where do i get off to go to and they're going to have to write a note because um they may not speak or or hear and driver's going to have to you know write a note back or indicate through some hand signals that you know he'll stop and let them know that here's where they have to get off um but those are part of the issue i think is just because drivers being in a small rural area drivers don't have as much interaction with people with a variety and a wide spectrum of disabilities so there's not that interaction some drivers are great some drivers you know i've had personal experience um you know i would say 99.9% of the drivers i've worked with are wonderful and they make an effort they may not get it perfect but we're all human um and they make an effort and um you know i'll point out to drivers if if i see something that's not appropriate you know i'll either say something to them if it seems appropriate to do that or report them to the transit agency because it's just it's really a matter of educating them and you know making them aware of of what the what the needs are Dan your take on that some of the misconceptions around people with personal needs especially when drivers are general people with disabilities well i think the education piece is going to be really important you know i think we i think there's a lot of um additional um when people see someone with a special need i think they take you know and try to make that extra effort which may or may not be necessary and so um you know having a real um understanding of what kind of special needs uh people you'll experience you know and and and provide services for is going to be important um but also just you know don't set limitations right you know treat them like any human being you know and so yeah i think it's important not to make judgments i'll use an example um people with multiple sclerosis uh can have a wide range of good days bad days some days where they're moving around and fairly mobile and you wouldn't know that they have a disabilities and the next day they can barely walk um and so um you know one of the things as dan pointed out on the surveys um was a need for um conditional what's what's called conditional um eligibility for paratransit services and that actually does exist under the law um so if it's you know in the winter time then somebody can get the services that they don't necessarily need in the summertime but somebody who makes the effort to go through this application process that has multiple sclerosis would probably have the capacity to one day be able to call up and say i need a paratransit ride today and then you know the next three days they may be fine and so they're not calling and then all of a sudden they're calling again and so you you know drivers may you know say what what's going on with this person you know well it's just the nature of their disability what are some of future goals of the committee and of your um you know work with GMT yeah so um you know um we did apply for a second grant which we did not receive and so um we don't have any um real money to help um to do the the outreach and development of some um educational material like we thought but really the next steps for the committee um are to come together around um the outreach and engagement that Green Mountain Transit is doing on their their next gen um enhancements and just stay engaged when if they decide to operate the paratransit we've been asked as a committee to help them at Green Mountain Transit during the the initial two weeks as well as the following two weeks afterwards just to stay in touch with the folks that we know um that would be able to use the service to make sure that they understand the changes coming understand how it operates and really help them in the beginning of the service change um I also want to make sure that you know just like Peter mentioned uh with the um the form you know to get the the service and go through the um the evaluation process explain the evaluation process and how that would work real quick I'm actually not well versed in it that's why I want to stay engaged on it so I can learn about it um so really what it comes down to is that I don't it's only operating paratransits only operating in Chittin County right now so when power transit becomes in full force there's a person need to get uh just so we know um there's a person need to get a doctor's signature on those forms in order to yes they would need a doctor's signature on the forms most definitely a healthcare provider um but as I said it's it's not that that isn't the only thing I mean there's uh some I it's been a while since I've looked at the form from Chittin County but there's a lot of explanation of you know what it is that prevents you from getting to the bus stop it's my understanding I haven't followed up on it that at least in Chittin County they've done a lot of mapping even of sidewalks so they know uh from if somebody lives in a certain place getting to a particular mess up maybe the sidewalks aren't very good and aren't very passable so somebody may be able to get a paratransit eligibility under those circumstances where somebody who lives maybe the same distance elsewhere but the sidewalks are in really good shape wouldn't be able to so it it really is very specific to the individual but the other thing I want to also mention as as we move forward to the paratransit it's our hope from this last planning grant that once this is also implemented completely in the Washington County area that right now in Chittin County there is a what's called an ADA advisory committee for Green Mountain Transit and we're hoping that we will be able to get some people also from Washington County area once the paratransit is in place that could also be part of that same ADA advisory committee since we would be both having paratransit services all right so other and before we end do you have anything else you want to add about your committee or in the paratransit and we're also going to show a piece of that public service announcement does there anything else you want to no I mean um you know the you know overall the engagement from the from our phase one study was was was above and beyond what I thought we would get and so I was really excited you know we engage really our numbers tell us that we engage with about 600 people you know on the on paratransit on the planning for it as well as engaging through the survey and getting feedback and so I just thought that was great and so really it's going to come down to making sure that we stay engaged and we let people that did say that they want more information know about the changes that are coming and so make sure that they stay engaged as well if um if you can improve one particular thing with the transit system as far as this is opinion for people with disabilities besides what's happening now what would it be as far as your improvement if I had to pick one improvement I'd have to say I'd go down to the fundamentals and make sure that the bus stops right you know that we would focus on improving the bus stops to make sure that the people with disabilities that came there could at least you know have a safe you know dry place to to wait uh your take on that question um I would agree we have to really go back to fundamentals make sure drivers are educated about you know how to interact with people with disabilities and I think it's also really important even though this planning grant has ended we don't have any formal engagement processes you know we really hope people if you're riding the bus or if you have questions about riding the bus and you're not sure reach out either to myself at the Vermont Center for Independent Living or Dan or the transit provider ask questions if you're confused about something we definitely want feedback if you have good experiences in riding bad experiences in riding so we want to definitely keep the conversation going for people that want to contact the commission where can they so you can call us at<PHONE_NUMBER> 0389 and ask for Dan do you have a do you have a website we do it's centralvtplanning.org is our website and they can also send me an email which is courier at cvregion.com okay for those that want to contact VCIL in terms of this where can they go sure so they can contact the Vermont Center for Independent Living at<PHONE_NUMBER> or you can email me at peter at VCIL.org that's the easiest way okay well since we have a couple minutes let's take a look at those public service announcements that I have the pleasure of working on with the with the Regional Planning Commission of Montpelier and also VCIL let's take a look at that. Hi my name is Dale Hackett I'm from Barry Vermont and I used GMTA because I don't see well and I don't hear well so for me there are some real communication challenges in my life. I like using the bus one because I don't have a driver's license so I don't really have a choice I would be tied down to Barry Vermont only if I didn't use the bus so what does the bus allow me to do it allows me to leave Barry Vermont it can also do things like even allow me to get into town if we get a northeaster with three feet of snow which nobody really likes but we especially don't like it when the sidewalks can't get plowed thankfully we can hop on the bus right there where I live and it will take us to a bus stop in downtown Barry we bypass the unplowed sidewalks we can get off go to the drugstore get what we need in terms of pharmaceutical needs medicines and get back home otherwise that would not be possible otherwise in which I use the bus I often during the winter will go up to the state house I like doing advocacy work without the bus I could not do that same thing during this summer there's recreational activities I can put a bike on the bus I can ride a bike even though I don't see well just you probably want to get out of my way and I can go to Montpelier and use their bike path so the bus is very empowering what about if you have a walker they are very nice in this sense that we're a small rural city or town and most of the bus drivers if you use the bus will get to know who you are I'm not saying they'll know you by name but still they'll get to know who you are and they will come to understand your needs so I have seen the bus pull up see who's there at the bus stop get out and immediately take the walker of the person that needs to get on the bus the person uses the rails to get on to the bus and sits down and the bus driver carries the walker onto the bus and puts it in the seat right beside them or puts them in the seat in front that puts it in to this edition of Abledon Air I would like to thank the Montpelier Regional Planning Commission and Peter Junkie from VCIL for joining us Arlene is off today but thank you to our sponsors Green Mountain Support Services, Champlain Community Services and Washington County Mental Health this puts it in to this edition of Abledon Air I'm Warren Seiler see you next time. Abledon Air's major sponsorship was given by Green Mountain Support Services empowering neighbors with disabilities to be home in the community also sponsorship was given by Washington County Mental Health Services where hope and support come together and Champlain Community Services of Vermont


ng because that is very very essential for them in order to you know get the technology they have to see it from their eyes so that's why we are creating this thing over there and and we have all already started the preliminary work for that okay so is it really like a demonstration site for people yes yes okay thank you so much that's all from you thank you for your time thank you our next team is team plate share zero foot away stage and we have Rajmi from this team would you if you could stop sharing your screen please Rajmi you are an audible if you are speaking anything yes your screen is visible I'm so sorry this is my first time I'm a bit nervous uh is my pitch visible I'm asking can yes yes please go ahead no need to be nervous all right yeah good evening jury organizers and my fellow participants I'm Rajmi from plate share uh plate share is actually a zero food waste is idle ideology go ahead yeah so we at plate share believe that every kitchen has the capacity to eliminate hunger all it takes is a proper mindset and the right platform to do so so we wish to provide a app-based interface and mutual platform where organizers and restaurants individual kitchen or anybody with access or plus amount of edibles which wish to cater at a minimum price or wish to donate food for the underprivileged so we mainly stand and provide for the starving section of the society with food that would otherwise hit the dump so food wastage actually contributes hugely to world population as well because food waste is builds up a lot in landfills and water bodies affecting the climatic change so the reason behind the cause is that uh at a steady increase the world hunger is at a rise and Indians uh India is also facing the same problem as despite phenomenal industrial growth and also that India produces sufficient food grains it is still unable to provide excess food or proper access to food grains or food to the largest section of society especially women and children uh food waste is also is a strong impact for social change as it builds up at the landfills as I have mentioned before so our in our region in Assam the state government has actually announced to have to take initiative to end hunger and poverty they have actually made a very ambitious target to go to zero percent from 27.3 percent of poverty where food wastage of food is a bit big contributor so to fulfill a target as such by the government actually requires a channeling and system interface which would actually sustainably planned wastage management framework for the society to work with here is a glimpse where we see that in southern Asia food wastage builds up a lot so considering few facts Indian in India waste actually comes up food waste actually comes up to a total of 58,000 crore and the country is estimated to become more populist but poverty and hunger is also at a rise in the nation so how can this cause be supported now there is a few things that I have not involved in this slide because I really wanted to convey directly to the jury first module that we could work in plate share is that we can directly collaborate or member with the catering services or individual kitchens which are always ending up with surplus leftovers but rarely has the time or the means to actually make the donations so whenever they are having surplus amount of food they can actually schedule food pickups which we can pick up and deliver to the underprivileged secondly we can secondly we can do one more thing that unsold and untouched food eatables at the commercial outlets like restaurants they actually can sell it out to customers who are looking for discounted price so just before an hour of the kitchen shutting down they can actually come online through our platform and sell their unsold food at a very discounted price that way the food leftover or food surplus will not hit the dump but the commercial kitchen will also make money for the surplus food last 40 seconds and the last final thing we wish to do at plate share is that stimulate demand for discounted price which are nearing best before date so there are many convenience stores departmental stores and many more where they have a large variety of food which might actually hit the dump because they are very much nearing best before dates and don't have the customer as much as the quantity they actually have available in their store so we can gather customers which are in need of immediate use of those products and get them get this products to them at a very discounted price that way it will also help reduce wastage of food be it grains can products dairy products which are nearing dates we can discount it provide them to consumers at a very discounted price so these three are the main models which we are trying to work with plate share the main beneficiaries through this program will be the underprivileged then we will also cater employment for the people who are actually in need for employment opportunities and this will also help a global cost we also wish we also wish to help the society by catering in a form of a out kitchen will be solely sorry Rajmi I have to stop you you have been ahead of your team thank you sir please go ahead right okay thank you ma'am thanks Rajmi for the pitch a couple of simple questions for you first one is that from a caterer or imagine like from an event where food is possibly getting wasted if you have to send that food to the underprivileged ordinary people who otherwise can't afford the food as per if ever understood your philosophy what is your control over the quality because you know food is a constantly biodegradable substance product the moment it is cooked without refrigeration without storage preservation cooked food out in the open or you know at a party at an event it is constantly reducing in its quality of nutrition and everything else and you are trying to address global hunger issues which also incorporate so much of nutritional value yes to that how do you balance these two thank you so we can actually have food tanks where large storage can be provided for food which are given out in bulk and if we can immediately address to the issue and we can actually locate hunger spots we can where we can deliver the food for the underprivileged or else if we are not in immediate need to distribute the food as in there so we can actually store it in food tanks so we'll have prescribed locations where food can be stored or hygienically without actually reducing the quality of it okay thank you over to ma'am yeah yeah thank you sir so Ramya I have a very specific question it's very sorry but I am not hearing your voice can you hear me properly hello yes ma'am yes so I have a very specific question that it's very good for the society it's very good for the to resolve the hunger it's good for the people who donate but how you will manage the your revenue because if you want to go for a food storage or if you want to go for collection and delivery systems those employees how do you pay them who and there are competitors also in this field so how do you mitigate this issue ma'am firstly talking about the competition right now in our region mostly there is no big organization which are actually taking initiative there are many which are doing it solvenously they have started actually I started this on first of this month okay I am completely new to this that's why I'm so nervous about it but about the revenue generation I actually need guidance regarding that but I am also planning to collaborate with commercial kitchen so there will be a minimal charge that we will take from them no that food is okay that is okay you can get the food maybe without spending money you can get the food but how do you manage the store house or how do you pay your employee because her reliability issue is there in any business or any startup how do you manage this do you have any plan for this no ma'am actually the thing is that I have just started and to do something on a big scale I need guidance so for this guidance I had actually applied to misfit I started just 11 days back literally okay great great great okay thank you that's all from my side thank you thank you ma'am thank you so much sir thank you thank you Rajmi and we will move on to our final team of the day we have outfit from scheme pads hello am I audible yes you are okay okay so actually I have a problem with my laptop so I'm sharing for my phone okay sure okay yes it's visible yeah can you can you see this screen yes your screen is visible okay okay uh good good evening everybody this is Alfred Rosa from presently I'm a research scholar in Manipur University so today unlike nine of our members who already have started the business so I'm on the idea ideation stage of my startup where I have just created the ideas of you know starting a company so my topic of presentation is making of reusable and biodegradable sanitary pads using banana fibers and medicinal plants and herbs available in Manipur so our team have come up with the idea of naming as Ijima pads that's not schema okay this is Ijima which is a Manipuri term wisdom and sister a sister is always like young mother to any girl coming of any age so logo stands for eco-friendly and a sustainable product a ping for universal feminity and a free woman who doesn't have to slow things down due to body biological natural process okay so uh so the company M at four men promises that will be uh delivering to people uh that is the biodegradability the material comfort the order free and antibacterial and affordability is the men problem that are going to deliver so in today's world we are having lots of problem of solid waste and the reason behind being is 90 percent of the menstrual pads are plastics and it's time to switch into reusable organic pads okay so this will leave a low carbon footprint so how this came in my mind the idea of converting using natural resource available in Manipur so I'm working on a value chain study of a one district one crop uh with a foundation where I engage with lots of farmer in the noni and tameng long districts of Manipur where there's lots of you know cultivations of banana and uh but the problem that I have seen is uh you know the farmer after the harvest station of food you know the banana trunk is cut and wasted in the field itself okay so uh so it strikes my mind that we can do something out of it we can create the fibers out of the banana fiber not only just from fruit day the farmer will be benefited uh it will benefit it from uh from the fiber itself in addition to that you know the waste material that have been created after the extraction of fiber can be used for feeding big re okay so this showing a presentation I'm sorry I'm interrupting okay okay sorry sorry so I came up with the idea of you know extracting fiber in addition to that integrating with you know the that is the livestock like big re which can be benefited after the extraction of fibers so this will create a job seekers you know job opportunity to you know smalls and marginal farmers in the hill area of Manipur so especially the women farmers and women worker which are seeking for jobs so the business to improve the individual qualities of life okay so what does the market says who is my competitor and what the customer needs and what are the promises okay this is the Indian centering napkin's market so this is predicted predicted predicted that US dollar of 992 point millions by 2024 this will grow so this is the market global market figures as of now so what are the competitive landscape in India we have a big market multinational who imports which we are importing from other countries and and having a manufacturing unit in India and we have our own you know competitors like Nimol Kudol which are non-biodegradable and we have coropettes so how it is different from this market so we are going to deliver we can deliver two products out of it first that is reusable biodegradable by by making you know with clothes and banana fiber and another is disposable biodegradable pads by using banana fiber as an absorbent and top sheets and barrier sheets as you know plant-based biodegradable products so these are the proposed model and prototype data we we're going to deliver the additional things that we're going to put is the hook loop with the bell crow which will provide an extra comfort and attachment especially for the long day woman okay so I'm summing up this is the work plan I'll be engaging with farmers right now I'm having a baseline survey of the farmers in the known district where I'm estimating about you know the collection process of you know an extraction process of banana fiber so the the prototype development is still in the process and and still need to be done and still in the idea states and the key activity that will be done in future will be delivering the promised product there will be you know installation of bending machines in universities public toilets hospitals door-to-door marketing and hospitals etc etc so this is the core structure you know in order to install a semi-automatic machines will be requiring around 12,000,000 to 23,000,000 from automatic to sorry Alfred I have to stop you here okay Alfred can you change your mobile phone to landscape and ma'am can ask a question if you would like to take to the core structure maybe so this is my first time so I'm looking at how to do it no worries ma'am don't worry don't worry Alfred just I want to know as you told that it is in just ideation stage when you have got this idea to do this and when you have ma'am I'm doing my research in Manipura University and like it's been like only three four months after I have you know joined for the value chain study with the foundations so this is it's like only four five months okay so there are other companies who are doing this biodegradable sanitary napkins and also from government sides also there are many trainings and you may know there are many grassroot innovators who has having the patent also on this even from North East so just maybe the five I mean that material is different so how your material is I mean superior or why I mean what is this is there any quality superior or maybe cost sensitive or what is the things first thing that is affordability is the main issues and second thing that is the market local market they'll be created and local industry which is a much needed for you know a state like Manipura so this this will help to reach out more and women more and more people you know from I mean this will reach to more people that's and in addition to that I will be using you know incorporations of medicinal herbs and which is antibacterial and antifungal in property so which I hardly find in any other sanitary patch available in India okay that's all from my side okay so Alfred thank you for presenting the idea and since you are about to start off with it what's your is there a timeline have you are you looking for a target month your time so I'm already on a baseline survey where I have initiated the you know procurement process and fiber extraction process of fiber by visiting the farmer in the Nonay district in Tamil Nadu district as of now I think I'm planning for the fundraising thing as of now so if that happens then it will surely happen very quickly and how do you want to go about the fundraising so I'm applying for biotechnology nation grant and you know I'm looking for opportunity like misfit and these are the opportunities I have as of now right and do you also intend to like look forward to tie-ups within CSR or private organization yes yes for developing a prototype I'm you know I'm targeting for CSR and IIT right okay Alfred thank you so much all the best thank you so much so Alfred I have just one question as you told that you were planning to apply for bi g grant do you have any mentor with whom you are going to apply uh yes ma'am I have a mentor which is the current supervisor for my phd will mentor my father is a doctor and he will help me and another my colleague from national university of Singapore sees my team member and these three people will really help me in developing this okay and that application process is there any incubation center or anyone is helping you hello Alfred can you hear me hello yeah Sanali you're audible I guess he lost maybe okay no problem thank you sir hello yeah okay no problem I that's all from my side thank you thank you Alfred then we'll that ends our pitch sorry sir I have lost it I think sorry that ends our pitching session for today we had an amazing pitching from everyone everyone who presented was super and also the very valuable insights we got from jury today so we are really thankful for that and I'll take your leave now we'll get back to our main post for today okay thank you so much so hum uh let me quickly share my screen as well yeah so with this uh again I'm not able to share my screen for some reason is it visible now uh is my screen visible it was visible last time but not okay not an issue not an issue so uh not an issue guys so thanks a lot to all the participants for sharing their exceptional ideas thanks to jury members for sharing their insights and suggestions on these ideas and you know we are grateful we are very grateful to both of our jury members uh Sarveshwar and Sanali thank you so much for being there thank you so much for joining in it would be great if we can you know share quick closing thoughts uh on the pitch takes that you just saw or anything like a quick thing because we are running out of time right uh ma'am first quickly yeah so uh thank you thank you sir and uh thank you miss fit team I just uh I was just thinking that uh there is there are presenters and maybe one will be selected for the final round then what is your plan to uh I mean just to mentor them the other people so that they can come up with a better idea next time and can uh go ahead so do you have any other plan for this especially for miss fit team definitely so uh you know uh whoever uh basically we you know 10 startups get a chance to pitch in their particular region and we choose two out of them so that's how we get uh 30 miss fits from 15 regions this is the second region that we are covering so with these top 30 and for these top 30 we have a few in-kind offerings from our partners such as uh few are providing grant support there is incubation support mentoring support few are providing co-working spaces for them so this is how it will work and the mentoring support is for everyone like for all the participants yeah that's great because uh just the thing is that all the ideas I mean almost all they're really good and some of them they need a little bit uh mentoring so that they can go ahead and can make a change so great miss fit team you have find out the good participants for this and also uh thanks to uh sir uh Mr. Sain so I my party congratulations to that miss fit team and also all the best to all the participants thank you thank you so much ma'am for uh your your warm words as as well as very valuable insights for all of us uh today um as ma'am correctly mentioned that I was also wondering throughout the presentation that uh we have been given the responsibility to mark you on you know on certain grounds and certain parameters but you're all uh in your own ways uh very strong uh you know contenders to go and make an impact because by impact again for me coming from the development sector I look forward to the meaning of impact as increasing those human development parameters right whether it is the SDGs or otherwise in a in a positive way in some way or the other so whether it is your talking of safety and adding more value to protect lives of uh people who are working in hazardous condition or you are looking at electric vehicles to sanitary napkins so resolving hunger issues all of these have been such strong ideas and as ma'am mentioned that it requires more like a sustained um understanding collaboration to take this forward so I would I would actually welcome any and everyone if you want any level of support from from our end at Catalyst do do uh feel free to definitely write to us or even like connect with Misfit so that they might route you to us uh I am just kind of sharing our email ID for all the participants uh in case anyone requires any input I wish everyone the best again it's not about just winning but also so much about the learning that you are taking forward because each day is always you remember as as budding entrepreneurs we fail every day we fail every day but we also look forward to what we gained and we want to build on it we want to scale what we gained from each of the days right so thank you so much for our time out here Misfits thanks for getting all of us together I must I must say ma'am glad to connect with you and knowing your insights and views and participants just be at it keep believing the belief leads to the creation of the market that you're looking for thank you so much everyone yeah and I request Anupam if anyone wants they can connect me or sir at any moment I'll share your email ID and LinkedIn profile with all the participants thank you so much everyone thank you so much to the jury members and yes I would also like to thank the IIT Guhati team Ayush Soham and Pranav for being the amazing co-host and yes dear startups you all were phenomenal today and you know we all like we will announce the winners by tomorrow most probably by tomorrow on our social media platforms so please stay tuned and follow us on our social media we are covering Sri Lanka Nepal and Pakistan and Central India the coming week 18th and 19th please join us and listen to more ideas and get connected with other startups as well thank you so much and with this I would like to end the event here thank you so much thank you bye thank you so much


Welcome to data doctor's video, suggestions 574, find a grave, imprecise birth, and 577, imprecise death dates. This index lists beginning times of each segment, so you can fast forward to any of particular interest. Suggestions 574 and 577 are caused when there is a partial date of birth or of death in the wiki tree profile, but the find a grave memorial has the full day, month, and year. This is caused if the link is incorrect, which either needs to be corrected or removed. The wiki tree data is incomplete, which is discussed in segment 1. Or, the find a grave data is unsourced or an error. If it's an error, contact the memorial manager with your correction and documentation. Segment 2 discusses an unsourced memorial. Here is the suggestion report for Martin Miller, showing only one suggestion, 574. The info column shows the date in question, 1841, April 11. Here is Martin Miller's public profile. As you can see, it only has a birth year of 1841. On his suggestion report, click on the find a grave link. Find a grave has a headstone photo, which shows both the engraved birth and death dates for Martin. The birth date is April 11, 1841. Return to his profile and look at the biography section. It gives a probate record for his date of death, as well as the find a grave memorial as a source for his birth and death, so there is no need to revise the biography. Click Edit. In the data section, add his birth day and month. Go to the middle of the profile page and explain your changes. This is strongly recommended for all Wikitree users and is required for data doctors. For me, I identify myself as a data doctor. Copy the suggestion number and name and explain what I changed. Save your work. Return to the suggestions report and on the far right, click on status. On the suggestion status page, make sure your Wikitree ID is showing. Of the five status options, choose one. In this case, correct it. Leave a comment from the comment tense or make one of your own. Click the update status button. The last screen shows the status history has recorded your changes. And you're done. Here is the suggestion report for Catherine Libby showing one suggestion, 574. The info column gives the date in question, 1743, November 25. In the links column, click on the find a grave memorial number. Catherine Libby's memorial has several headstone photos. Click on the one of the close up. You can see the death date engraved as October 12, 1822. But there is no birth date, nor does the memorial offer a source. Here is the public view of Catherine's profile with some sources. We need to look for one concerning her birth. On the right, click on root search. Root search offers several sites to choose from. Let's start with family search. Note, you have to be logged into that site first. Family search has no birth records for Catherine Libby, other than find a grave. I contacted the memorial manager and asked for their birth source. He referenced an ancestry family tree. Upon researching that, I found no source cited for that birth date. However, we will use that date in hopes of finding better sources at some point. On Catherine's wiki tree profile, click edit. In the data section, add the day and month to the birth year. Check uncertain. In the editing section, add a subheading, research notes. Explain how the birth date on find a grave is based on an ancestry family tree and is being used until a better source can be found. Click on preview to check your work. As we did on Martin Miller's profile, explain your changes and save your work. Return to the suggestions report and on the far right click on status. On the suggestions status page, once again choose a status. In this case, it is corrected. Leave a comment from the comment hence or make one of your own. Click the update status button. The last screen shows the status history has recorded your changes. And you're done. Please note that suggestion 577 is handled the same way except it concerns the death date. You are invited to like this video and even leave a comment if you wish. Also, keep up to date with new videos by subscribing to our wiki tree YouTube channel. On behalf of the data doctors project, thank you for watching.