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Access to the largest online entertainment library with SelectTV for $33 - 9to5Toys

Local libraries in La Salle, Bureau, Putnam and Livingston counties received more than $175,000 in grant money.

In total, the Secretary of State's Office awarded $15.4 million to 638 public libraries statewide for the Fiscal Year 2020 Illinois Public LIbrary Per Capita and Equalization Aid Grants.

Ottawa's Reddick Library received $30,377.50; Streator $17,137; La Salle $12,011.25; Peru $12,868.75; Spring Valley $6,947; Marseilles $6,367.50; Princeton $9,575; Oglesby $5,113.75 and Utica $3,737.50.

Due to resource disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, our public libraries have never been more important and these funds will help them continue to serve the public with valuable resources, said Secretary of State Jess White, who also is the state's librarian, in a press statement. Libraries have remained committed by providing drive-up WiFi access, significantly increasing the use of eBook collections and implementing curbside services.

Some of the services public libraries provide with the grant money include the following:

Expand WiFi access to include drive-up accessibility

Access to curbside services

Large print material for patrons

Books, magazines, newspapers, CDs and DVDs

Audiobooks and eBooks

Home visit book delivery service

New computers, iPads and printers

Spanish and dual language materials

Expanded access to online resources

Adult programming

Newsletters, postcards and other promotional materials

Per Capita Grant funding is authorized under Illinois library law for public libraries, which allows resources for expenses, such as materials, personnel, equipment, electronic access, telecommunications and technology. Equalization Aid Grants help qualifying public libraries with a low library tax base ensuring a minimum level of funding for library services.

Ottawa: $30,377.50

Streator: $17,137

Peru: $12,868.75

La Salle: $12,011.25

Somonauk: $11,733.75

Sandwich: $10,200

Princeton: $9,575

Mendota: $9,215

Hennepin: $7,507.50

Spring Valley: $6,947

Marseilles: $6,367.50

Sheridan: $5,963.75

Oglesby: $5,113.75

Newark: $3,935

Utica: $3,737.50

Earlville: $3,476.25

Minonk: $2,597.50

LaMoille: $2,290

Flanagan: $2,042.50

Ladd: $1,985

Tiskilwa: $1,858.75

Toluca: $1,767.50

Wyanet: $1,705

Wenona: $1,320

Ohio: $1,181.25

Sheffield: $1,157.50

Lostant: $1,140

Buda: $672.50

See original here:
More than $175000 awarded to local libraries through annual grant program - MyWebTimes.com

Alamance County Public Libraries are offering internet access to neighborhoods in Burlington with limited or no access in partnership with the Alamance-Burlington School System, Morrow Town Task Force and Burlington Housing Authority.

North Carolina public schools were online for the remainder of the year and Alamance County libraries were also closed as a result of Gov. Roy Coopers Stay-at-Home order leaving many residents without internet access or a way to obtain it. The service is still running over the summer.

Alamance County Public Libraries Outreach Services Programs goal was to provide internet access to the community, something they deem crucial.

The mobile cafe van was created in August of 2018 to provide Pop-Up Internet Service to residents in isolated parts of Alamance County with mobile library stops.

With the Outreach program, we work with community groups, go to events and promote the library in general, Outreach Coordinator Mary Beth Adams said. We learned that many people in the community did not have access to the internet.

According to Adams, the mobile cafe van provides access with an antenna that offers a 300-foot radius of Wi-Fi connectivity.

Elon alumna Donna Vanhook 07 is a community organizer with the Morrow Town Task Force. She works closely with a number of different organizations and helps connect people like Adams to others to better serve members of the community.

The service was not in operation because of the pandemic, and I heard of students who did not have internet access to do their schoolwork, Vanhook said.

Vanhooks previous involvement with other community organizations aimed at bettering local residents prompted her to pursue communication with the libraries. She said that her role involved discussing a plan for how to get students internet access to complete their studies.

Monday: Crump Village, 1-3pm and 3:30-5:30pm Tuesday: Maplebrook Apartments, 1-3pm and 3:30-5:30pm Wednesday: Pate Homes, 1-3pm and Beaumont Apartments, 3:30-5:30pm Thursday: Woodrail Apartments, 1-3pm and Tucker Street Apartments, 3:30-5:30pm Friday: Earl Gerow Homes, 1-3pm and Misty Springs Mobile Home Park, 3:30-5:30pm

The service was already available; it was just about coordinating times and places, Vanhook said. The coordination was all completed virtually in just a few days.

Vanhook said a test run was done the Friday before Easter Monday to ensure people would be able to use this service from inside their homes.

I was very pleased with how quickly things came together and how people benefited from the service, Vanhook said. I think that this service has relieved some anxiety in both parents and students.

The coronavirus has forced people to work and study from home and the Alamance-Burlington School System wanted to help their students adapt by providing devices and hotspots.

There are not enough devices for everyone, Adams said. We are so happy to be able to step in and have the mobile cafe [be] the library in the community.

Adams said their service is important because of its purpose to provide internet access to community members without it. Some people lack access because of location, while for others it's a result of their personal circumstances.

Adams said some families may share one computer; therefore, they are serving an even greater number of people.

We are connecting around 30 to 40 people each day at two different spots, Adams said. Sometimes in the same apartment complex and other times, in two separate ones.

The mobile cafe van has benefited many community members but has also shed light on the number of residents who have limited or no access to the internet.

The mobile cafe did address the digital divide, Vanhook said. There is a presumption that most young people have access to the internet, but that is not the case.

Prior to the outbreak of the coronavirus, the mobile cafe van offered users the opportunity to pick out books, but that service is currently suspended to keep residents safe.

Kids want to look at every book, but we are then worrying about germs, Adams said.

On their Facebook page, the Alamance County Public Libraries encouraged people in the neighborhoods utilizing their internet service to stay indoors or sit outside, following rules of social distancing from others.

The difference in what we have done before and what we do now is that now we just provide internet access, parking it and turning on our router, Adams said. We dont have the table out. We feel it's safer.

Adams said that only offering internet access has kept residents from congregating in small areas and has limited the spread of germs altogether.

When we decided to do this, and just offer internet access, the most important thing was to provide for the students, Adams said.

The mobile cafe runs Monday through Friday, alternating stops each week.

One week we will do the four northern stops and the next we will do the four southern stops, Adams said. We are seeing people every other week.

Alamance libraries felt residents in East Burlington had somewhere to go when schools and libraries were open, but they now plan to include those apartment complexes in future routes.

We know were not hitting every place, Adams said. We are trying to keep in contact with the Morrow Town Task Force and Burlington Housing Authority to see what we can do and how we can [reach] those who need it.

Read more:
Local libraries offer free Internet access in Burlington - Elon News Network

Contact: Sid Salter

Frances Coleman (Submitted photo)

STARKVILLE, Miss.After a career that spanned over a half-century and witnessed the services and offerings of Mississippi State University Libraries evolve from traditional to digital to virtual, MSU Dean of Libraries Frances N. Coleman is retiring from the university on June 30, MSU Executive Vice President and Provost David R. Shaw announced today [June 15].

Shaw said MSU College of Arts and Sciences Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Thomas P. Anderson will serve as interim MSU Dean of Libraries while a national search for a permanent dean is conducted.

Coleman, responsible for the university library system that includes Mitchell Memorial Library and branch libraries at MSUs College of Veterinary Medicine, School of Architecture (Starkville and Jackson campuses) and MSU-Meridian, led unprecedented expansions of facilities, technologies and programming throughout the system.

Dean Coleman provided visionary leadership for our MSU Libraries that not only improved library services on our campuses, but in libraries across Mississippi. My mother was a small-town librarian, and she and all her colleagues knew and respected Frances Coleman, said MSU President Mark E. Keenum. On her watch, our libraries became larger, stronger, more technologically accessible, and more sophisticated in terms of our museums and special collections. In short, Frances has left indelible fingerprints on our library system, and I am profoundly grateful for the outstanding work she has done for our university.

Shaw echoed Keenums praise for Colemans five decades of leadership.

Over the course of her life and work here at Mississippi State, Dean Coleman has paved the way for women moving into positions of substantial leadership. The personal and professional esteem in which she is held by colleagues across the country, and particularly in our state, is indicative of her many accomplishments, Shaw said. It is an honor to have served with her to advance Mississippi State.

Coleman joined the MSU faculty in 1969. She earned an MSU Bachelor of Science degree in education and a Master of Library Science from George Peabody College for Teachers at Vanderbilt University. She completed additional graduate studies at MSU and at the University of Mississippi.

Prior to her career in higher education, Coleman was a classroom teacher and school librarian in the Dyer County, Tennessee School System. She also worked in the banking field in Dyersburg and Memphis, Tennessee, and in Starkville.

She is a past president or chair of the Mississippi Business and Professional Women, the Southeastern Library Association, and the Mississippi Library Association. Coleman was active throughout her career in numerous research library organizations.

In the Starkville community, Coleman has served in key leadership roles in Aldersgate United Methodist Church, Starkville Chamber of Commerce, Starkville Arts Council, Starkville Rotary Club, and the United Way. In 2003, she was honored for lifetime achievement serving Mississippi libraries by the Mississippi Legislature, received the G.V. Sonny Montgomery Excellence in Leadership Award in 2009 from the Montgomery Foundation Board of Directors, and in 2010 received the John Y. Simon Award of Merit from the Ulysses S. Grant Association.

Coleman played a pivotal role in the successful 2008 transfer of the Ulysses S. Grant Collection from the Morris Library at Southern Illinois University, where it had been housed since 1964. With the relocation to MSUs Mitchell Memorial Library, she became a member of the USGA board of directors.

The relocation of the Grant Collection ultimately led to the establishment at MSU of one of only six presidential libraries on U.S. university campuses. On Nov. 30, 2017, state and national leaders heralded the opening of the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library and the prestigious Frank and Virginia Williams Collection of Lincolnianaa recent donation that is considered the largest privately owned Abraham Lincoln collection in America.

Leaders in education, history, libraries and governmentincluding the Librarian of Congress and the Archivist of the United Statespraised the 21,000-square-foot addition. The facility contains a state-of-the-art museum chronicling Grants life and his significance in American history. With hundreds of thousands of historical documents and items housed on-site, the new addition positioned MSU as a leading destination for research on the Civil War and two presidents who shaped the course of American history.

Dean Colemans legacy will be that of a dedicated administrator who gave her all to advance Mississippi State University and to exhibit grace, charm, and sincere hospitality in using the librarys formidable assets to bring new friends to the university, said Keenum.

For more on MSU Libraries, visit http://lib.msstate.edu.

MSU is Mississippis leading university, available online at http://www.msstate.edu.

Excerpt from:
Legendary MSU Dean Frances Coleman retires after a 51-year career that transformed the university's libraries and collections - Mississippi State...

Culture Perth and Kinross has launched a survey for local residents to share their views on what they its public places to look like after lockdown.

The organisation is working on plans for the operation of museums, libraries and archives when Scotland moves into phase three of the Scottish Governments lockdown easing plans.

Andrew Wallace of Culture Perth and Kinross said: As an organisation, we recognise that when we are able to reopen our doors once again, it will be in a very changed environment with some restrictions in place for all our visitors and users.

To help us understand more about how local residents might feel about returning to our venues as the lockdown is eased, we have released a short survey.

The gradual restoring of venue-based library services will involve the refocusing and repositioning of the service to meet the new challenges and opportunities of the post-COVID-19 world.

We need to be able to ensure adherence to social distancing and public health guidance whilst also offering a welcoming and familiar environment which people want to visit.

Extended delivery services, more online content, and providing a phone helpline for resource requests, deliveries and support in accessing the digital library service and collection materials are being considered

The survey will run until the end of this month, at which time Culture Perth and Kinross hopes to have further Scottish Government guidance on the reopening of public spaces.

The survey can be accessed and completed on Survey Monkey.

Visit link:
Culture Perth and Kinross begins public consultation ahead of reopening museums and libraries - The Courier

Participants wont be able to stop and smell the roses or tiptoe through the tulips at this years garden tour the 24th annual event June 27 but if they connect online they will still see five beautifully maintained and manicured gardens in Beaver and Brighton Township.

BEAVER A few weeks ago, officials at Beaver Area Memorial Library canceled its popular garden tour because of novel coronavirus concerns.

And then one of the Friends of the Library, volunteers who support the library, came up with a novel idea: a virtual garden tour.

No, participants wont be able to stop and smell the roses or tiptoe through the tulips this year the 24th annual event but if they connect online they will still see five beautifully maintained and manicured gardens in Beaver and Brighton Township.

Photographs shot by Bob Jackson from Brighton Township, and 90-second, narrated videos filmed by library staff or homeowners make up the virtual garden tour, which will be available for viewing June 27.

Not only did we need the idea, we needed somebody with the technology to be able to do it, said Diane Wakefield, library director.

That person is Jen Cribbs, childrens librarian.

She worked on it for a week or two and said it looks like its possible. I think we can go with it, Wakefield said.

Participants who register will receive an exclusive, online link at 10 a.m. that day that directs them to the tour website. The tour includes a message from Wakefield; information from a Master Gardener; and first look at participating gardens.

Tickets are $6 and available for purchase online at http://www.beaverlibrary.com since the library remains closed.

The exclusive invitation will be available for a week. Beginning July 6, the virtual garden tour will be available for public viewing at no charge.

Wakefield said she mailed postcards to people who supported the librarys garden tours in the past and invited them to participate online.

Among those receiving postcards were members of her book club.

I got four replies right away, she said. One of them said Oh, we wont have to worry about rain this year. I thought that was kind of cute.

The virtual tour also will be a plus for anyone who hasnt been able to go on the tour in the past because of illness, physical disability or age, Wakefield said.

Some older arent able to go on the tour anymore so they seemed like they were excited, she said about the online prospect.

Normally, the garden tour raises about $2,500, Wakefield said.

This year we set $1,000 as our goal and any money we do receive well use for capital projects such as painting, landscaping or upgrading bathrooms.

Three gardens are in Beaver and two are in Brighton Township.

Homeowners provided the following descriptions of their gardens:

Erzen family in Beaver: Many years of growing vegetables and now only flowers surround our home. We mostly enjoy our back patio on nice evenings burning in our patio fireplace and relaxing watching the hummingbirds and rabbits buzzing around for our entertainment.

OLeary family in Beaver: Our backyard garden includes five raised beds, two feed troughs, and a variety of pots where we grow our favorite fruits, vegetables, and flowers (which are great for cutting and attract lots of pollinators). This year, we started a majority of our plants under lights indoors, and sourced the rest from local organic nurseries. We love working on growing and maintaining our little ecosystem -- where we can channel our creativity while reaping the benefits of time spent outside and access to garden-fresh produce.

Grivna family of Brighton Township: The shaded front garden has a charming water fountain as its centerpiece with shrubbery, perennials, and a variety of colorful annuals. The serene backyard features a flowing waterfall and a deck filled with an array of potted plants, herbs, and a vegetable garden table.

Beaver County Master Gardeners Vegetable and Herb Demonstration Garden in Brighton Township: This garden is located within the Brighton First Senior Gardens located on Western Avenue in Brighton Township. The Master Gardeners educate the community on how to plan and maintain a vegetable garden, inclusive of companion herbs, edible flowers and water features.

Carol Fryday and husband David Ross of Beaver: See accompanying feature story on highlights of this garden.

Read more from the original source:
Beaver library's garden tour goes virtual because of coronavirus pandemic - The Times

Now doesn't feel like the right time to worry about personal productivity, and yet we all have things we need to get done. But with the world in a state of pandemic; unemployment skyrocketing; and mass protests against police violence and systemic racism deserving our attention, time, energy, and emotions, we're all experiencing more stress than ever. When we're overstressed, we can't get things donewhich leads to more stress. We all have the capacity to handle some stress, of course, but like a muscle, it gets exhausted when it works to hard for too long, we need to help it recover. That's easier said than done, and, for many of us, it may require prioritizing self-care in a way we never have before.

Imagine that we keep resiliency to stress, as a resource, in a bucket. When things are going well, our bucket is full. As we encounter stress, whether in the form of problems in our personal lives or projects at work, we use our resources to combat the stress. The more stress, the more resources we use. Over time, the supply in our bucket dips.

Thankfully, we get breaks from some of our stressors, often in the form of free time and weekends. Those breaks allow the bucket to refill. We go on vacation, our bucket refills. We ask someone to watch the kids for a night, the bucket gets topped up. Even routine breaks during a workday help. As long as we have sufficient breaks from stressors, the bucket occasionally refills, which allows us to remain reasonably well equipped to function in the world and take on new problems as they arise.

Even in the best of times, when the resiliency bucket runs low and we start to run out of resources, we can't handle new problems, and more importantly, we don't handle existing problems very well either. As everyone knows from experience, when we get hit with too much stress at once, everything becomes more difficult to manage.

Right now, we're all working from buckets that are much lower than what we're used to. Some sources of stress, like COVID-19 and all its health and economic complications, are new and (mostly) unexpected. Other stressors, like the protests against police violence are not only new forms of stress in themselves, but also remind white people that that black people face persistent long-term stressors that white people don't. Repeatedly watching the shocking footage of people being murdered or other images of police violence causes a further escalation of stress.

With all these compounded stressors, even regular daily troubles can seem unbearable. Some of us who have never experienced an empty bucket are struggling, and those whose resilience was depleted to start with feel helpless and adrift. We all have to think about our strategies for dealing with stress much more purposefully than ever before.

If you're hoping to be highly productive right now, I invite you to take an inventory of your resources and stressors to decide whether it's worth your while. If you don't have enough resiliency to combat all the stressors coming your way, adding a stressful new productivity goal isn't going to help. You might decide that you're simply going to be getting less done for a little while and cut yourself a break. Look instead at where you might be able to get away with doing less, and talk to the people who will be affected, whether it's your job, your friends, or your family.

Keep in mind that if our bucket runs empty, we are not effective people in the world. We don't do a good job of helping our families or one another and we don't do much good for ourselves. So we have to find a way to refill our resiliency bucket. One research paper that analyzed how people recover from work-related stress points to three options: relaxation, control, and mastery.

Relaxation is pretty straightforward. Do something that relaxes you. Make sure you do it in such a way that you actually take a break from stressors. You've probably heard people talk about self-care in terms of treating yourself to something you enjoy. Have a glass of wine. Soak your feet in the tub. However, the trick is to do it in a way that gives you a break from stress. If you pour a glass of wine while looking at police violence on TV or social media, that's not getting you away from any of your stressors. It's similar to the idea that taking a proper lunch break at work means not eating in front of your email inbox.

Mastery means developing a skill, and it can be completely unrelated to your professional work. It's easiest to picture mastery as a hobby, such as making art, practicing a musical instrument, or playing a sport. The main idea is that you're engaging in a skill you enjoy and working to get better at it, which is how it's different from relaxation. The hobby or skill doesn't have to be clear cut, either. It can be something like telling jokes or redecorating your home, as long as you're actively trying to get better at it. If you feel like you don't have a skill to master, sites such as MasterClass and Skillshare can help you explore new areas and ideas.

Control has to do with having agency over your time. If you spend most of your free time taking care of others, no matter whether they're children, adults, or seniors, you may not have really chosen to do that. Even with care responsibilities, though, you might be able to exercise some control. For example, choosing to read a book to or listen to music with the people you give care to is a small way to have some decision-making power.

Regardless of our stress levels, many of us still need to do some kind of work or chore that requires focus. It might be to keep our income. It might be to organize social or political movements. There's still important work to be done. So what can you do when you're too stressed to focus?

Let's look at a few possible strategies. Keep in mind, though, that if your resource bucket runs empty, you won't be able to focus. Try to refill your bucket, even if it's just a little bit, before you try to tackle something difficult.

Time Blocking is exactly what it sounds like: blocking off time in your calendar and dedicating it to certain tasks. People use this technique to dedicate long, unbroken stretches of time to a task or activity. It's useful for tasks that require a state of flow, such as writing at length, reading long reports, or creating a presentation.

To use this technique, write a daily agenda using 15-minute increments (or more). Focus on scheduling your most important tasks in a few uninterrupted blocks. For example, from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., I will work on Project X. From 11:30 a.m. to 12:00 p.m., I'll take a break and make sure my kids have what they need. Then from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., I'll finish Project X. Don't schedule your entire day down the minute.

Because life is more hectic than usual, I recommend leaving fairly big gaps between your blocks so you can take care of problems that arise. The goal is to protect the time you need to focus, and you can't do that if you don't leave some wiggle room.

The Pomodoro Technique comes from a book of the same name. The idea is to work intently for a fixed number of minutes, usually 20 to 25, and then take a short break. The name of the technique comes from the tomato-shaped kitchen timer (pomodoro is Italian for tomato) that author Francesco Cirillo used to time his work period and breaks when he invented the method.

The Pomodoro Technique is useful for work that can be done in spurts. It's not good if you need to get into a deep flow state to accomplish your task. You'll need a timer and notepad, which can be physical or digital.

Start by setting your timer for 20 to 25 minutes. Work intently on your task. If a thought interrupts you, jot it down in your notepad quickly and forget about it for now. Do not stop working until the timer rings. When it does, reset it for three to five minutes, and take a break. In the traditional method, you would repeat this process three or four more times, and then take a longer break. There are plenty of browser plug-ins that help you use the Pomodoro Technique. I happen to like StrictWorkflow. It puts a timer in your window that counts down the minutes in red when you're in a focus session and green when you're on a break.

In the current climate, when stress is high and resilience is low, it might be effective enough to simply set a timer for 20 minutes and try to focus on only one thing for that time. Don't worry as much much about timing your breaks or jumping back into the repetition.

Keep Unusual Hours. If there's something you desperately need to get done and you're having difficulty making time for it, try working during unusual hours. It might be very early in the morning, late at night, or while your family eats dinner. I don't recommend using this method long term; if you did, those hours would no longer be "unusual," right? That said, if you need to get something done and you have the opportunity to wake up at 5:00 a.m. two days in a row to bang it out, it's worth trying.

In normal times, there's a similar technique of working in unusual locations. Some people find it easy to concentrate when they're in a public place, such as a cafe or even on airplanes and trains. You don't have to book a flight to finish your big project, however, as you can replicate the same experience by going somewhere with similar elements, like background chatter and no access to Wi-Fi. With COVID-19, being in alternate locations is tough or impossible. So use time instead of location to shake up your routine.

Without a doubt, we're living in a time of deep suffering. Acknowledging and honoring your unique hardships, as well as those of people around you, may help you process and understand just how low you're running on resiliency as a resource.

The first step needs to be taking care of yourself. To do that, do anything you can to reduce or at least get a break from some of your stressors. Even small actions, like ordering groceries or meal kits instead of going to the store, can alleviate a little bit of stress. And when the stress load starts to lighten, we have a chance to refill that resource bucket.

Secondly, when you do need to focus and get work done, try using a technique to help you set aside time and make progress. And keep in mind that it's OK if you aren't as productive now as you were a year ago. We're in conditions that make it nearly impossible. Be patient with yourself and try to take everything one moment at a time.

Read more:
It's Time to Put Self-Care Before Productivity - PCMag

Timothy K Mtonga (61) and family: Timothy K Mtonga (61) and his wife Christine (54) with grandchildren Memory (10), Agnes (6), Diless (8) and Issac, nine months, in southern Zambia.

The initiative between QUB and Self Help Africa is designed to provide a low-cost response to the heightened resistance of goats in Malawi to de-worming anti-microbial treatments.

The work by Professor Eric Morgan and his research team at QUB, in collaboration with Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Malawi has developed a five-point test that Community Animal Health workers can use to estimate the level of worm infestation in goats.

Regular deworming of animals in Malawi has led to a resistance in herds to the treatments. However, rural poor farmers often cannot access or afford the testing that is recommended to determine levels of resistance.

The team at QUB is testing for signs of scouring, nasal discharge, bottle jaw, body condition and anaemia, with their results determining whether it is cost effective to treat the animal with de-wormer, or with plants that are known to possess anthelmintic properties.

The project is cataloguing and testing plants that farmers already use as natural de-wormers and testing other plants that may be de-wormers. As well as reducing the risks of resistance to de-wormers and costs, if successful the research will help build natural immunity to worms within flocks. A related project is using remote sensing and rainfall data to determine when the risks of goats picking up worms from pastures is at its highest.

Denny Elliott, Head of Northern Ireland Self Help Africa, said: This collaboration for Self Help Africa with Queens University Belfast is helping the poorest of farmers to protect their livestock and secure their livelihoods for the short term by providing them with this test that they would otherwise not be able to afford.

We are also working with Queens and a number of other institutions in the UK and Africa to field test an app with our farmers which is being created to analyse rainfall and determine high risk periods of worm infestation so farmers will therefore only need to treat their animals during this time.

Although we have been faced with an unimaginable challenge during the pandemic, collaborations are invaluable as we look beyond 2020 and Self Help Africa is also facilitating a Phd project blending traditional and new animal health solutions funded by the Northern Ireland Department for the Economy which supports agro-pastoral livelihoods under climate change.

Eric Morgan, Professor in Veterinary Parasitology at QUB, said: Smallholder farmers in Africa face high losses from worm infections in goats, which impact productivity and animal welfare. Chemical treatments are often unaffordable, and are not needed by all animals, while plants available locally can also support animal health and nutrition for free. By working with Self-Help Africa and farmers in Malawi, we can identify problems in individual animals and focus limited resources on those, to support health, production and livelihoods. Healthy livestock have never been more important for people to fall back on in these uncertain times.

If you would like to make a donation or find out more about Self Help Africa and how you can help, visit http://www.selfhelpafrica.org

Read more:
Queens University Belfast and Self Help Africa in Malawi collaboration project - Farming Life

When the novel coronavirus pandemic hit, the Inland Empire Community Foundation jumped into action doing what it does best: helping organizations and people throughout the IE in need of assistance.

The IECF expects to present about $450,000 in grants to local nonprofits assisting those most seriously affected by the pandemic as well as aid groups that need to continue operating.

One of the foundations first efforts was the COVID-19 Resilience Fund, with recent grants ranging from $5,000 to $20,000 for such nonprofits. Among them, that top amount was awarded to Angel View, which assists disabled children and adults in Riverside County through a variety of programs including group homes and support for families caring for disabled kids at home.

Based in the Coachella Valley, Angel Views award has been a blessing, said Executive Director Patti Park. The grant was especially well-timed because the nonprofits 21 Inland Empire retail stores, through which it receives funding, were forced to close on March 20. The stores reopened May 23.

It got crazy busy for the case managers trying to help families in a new way, Park said.

Grant funds are helping case managers assist disabled children through the Angel View Outreach program, which provides essential support and services at no cost to families; and with mileage reimbursement when families need to take their kids for treatment at Loma Linda University Childrens Hospital.

The San Bernardino-based Child Care Resources Center also received $20,000. Director James Moses said that since the pandemic began, requests for assistance from his organization have more than tripled. Grant funds are being used to buy, box and distribute fresh food and personal care items weekly to low-income families from CCRC facilities in San Bernardino and Victorville.

This has a great impact on our families, he said. One, it provides them with healthy and nutritious foods they might not normally be able to purchase on their own if money is tight fresh food and vegetables, beans and rice, and dry goods. Also soap and laundry detergent.

We are seeing more and more requests for these items, especially self-care items, Moses continued, adding that childcare providers need more cleaning supplies to keep their facilities safe.

Most local childcare providers, especially family based providers, remained open to serve the children of essential workers, and while the revenues are down, costs remain high, Moses said.

The Inland Empire Community Foundation administers the Brouse Scholarship Program, which was awarded to these women in 1965 and continues helping students to this day. (Photo courtesy Inland Empire Community Foundation)

In 1941, local civic leader and banker Charles Brouse established the Riverside Distribution Committee, the precursor to todays Inland Empire Community Foundation. (Photo courtesy Inland Empire Community Foundation)

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Michelle Decker, IECF president and CEO (Photo courtesy Inland Empire Community Foundation)

Molly Adams bequeathed more than $4 million in real estate to what is now the Inland Empire Community Foundation to establish the Molly Adams Endowed Scholarship Fund, which benefits disabled youth who are pursuing a college education. (Photo courtesy Inland Empire Community Foundation)

Founded in 1941, the IECF is the oldest and largest community foundation serving Riverside and San Bernardino counties. It helps individuals, families and businesses, partners with donors, and invests and administers more than $100 million in charitable assets, said Michelle Decker, the president and CEO.

Previously called The Community Foundation, that more generic name was changed this year to add Inland Empire.

This was a chance for people in the IE to see they had their own foundation, Decker said. When the pandemic hit, we saw it through the lens of a disaster. Opening the COVID-19 Resilience Fund was a chance for us to say, Here we are, we are going to have to take care of each other, right here and right now.

Fast facts: Inland Empire Community Foundation

Information: http://www.iegives.org

Editors note: A version of this story appeared in the summer 2020 issue of Riverside Magazine.

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Inland Empire Community Foundation has a history of helping in the region - Press-Enterprise

Sada Jones anxiously paces inside her apartment every time she catches a glimpse of her buildings maintenance workers through a damaged glass patio door half boarded up with scrap wood that she says her landlord refuses to repair.

Jones, 23, a hotel cook, has been unable to make rent payments on her New Orleans-area apartment since being furloughed on March 19 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, she alleges, her landlord began using aggressive tactics to force her out, including cutting off her utilities and sending maintenance workers to demand she leave.

Im scared because I dont want to move with the situation thats going on with COVID, but I also dont want to live in these conditions, she said. Im constantly anxious and paranoid about what theyll do next. I dont feel safe.

Despite efforts by many jurisdictions to halt evictions either through formal moratoriums or court closures, some landlords have taken matters into their own hands with illegal self-help evictions and have been harassing and intimidating tenants like Jones who are unable to pay rent many because of pandemic-related job loss in an effort to get them out.

These tenants, many who are waiting on unemployment or stimulus checks, are put in the precarious situation of having to endure hostility or leave their homes in the midst of a public health crisis.

Amanda Golob, managing attorney of the housing law unit at Southeast Louisiana Legal Services in New Orleans, said her office has seen several abusive tactics from landlords, including changing locks, cutting utilities, refusing to make essential repairs and constant harassment via phone calls and text messages: They are creating an environment that forces the tenant to leave on their own.

Similar incidences of self-help evictions, which are a violation of the law in most jurisdictions, have been reported by housing organizations across the country since the onset of the pandemic.

Nearly 30 percent of respondents to a survey by the National Fair Housing Alliance said they've experienced an increase in fair housing complaints, incidences or calls since mid-March, when most states went into COVID-19 lockdowns.

Complaints could become more prevalent as the backlog of evictions builds and landlords' frustrations mount, housing experts said.

We have seen both prior to pandemic and during pandemic some landlords will resort to intimidation or other tactics to push their tenants out. It is certainly possible that given the increasing economic pressure that both families and landlords are under that that could increase, said Alieza Durana, a writer and spokeswoman for the Eviction Lab at Princeton University.

Jones said her landlord's hostile tactics began a few weeks after she missed her April payment. Claiming she broke her lease and surrendered her key, her landlord sent maintenance workers into her apartment to demand she leave immediately, she said. Jones, who still had her key, refuted the claim and refused to go.

A few days later, he cut off various utilities, she said: disconnecting her air conditioning cables as temperatures began to soar and turning off power in parts of her apartment, including the kitchen. She no longer has a working stove.

Jones used her March rent money to stock up on two weeks of food and essentials at the start of the pandemic. Whatever was left from her savings was used for food in April and May, she said, leaving her nothing for housing costs.

I had to make a decision. Either I pay the rent or I buy food, so I chose what I immediately needed at the time, which was food, she said.

Meanwhile, a broken sliding glass door vandalized in February has been untouched despite her repeated requests to have it fixed.

Regardless of any lease violations, the landlord still has an obligation to make her unit livable, said Hannah Adams, a legal aid attorney with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services who is representing Jones.

When NBC News emailed Jones' landlord, Joshua Bruno, to ask about her allegations specifically that he refused to fix the broken door, cut off some utilities to the apartment and had staff intimidate Jones Bruno responded with more than a dozen points, calling the allegations "false," claiming Jones was "trespassing" and that there was an "open police investigation into her breaking back into her apartment."

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Jones and attorneys with Southeast Louisiana Legal Services say Bruno's accusations are baseless and false. Adams said she has repeatedly requested police reports, video or any other documentation regarding a police investigation into an alleged break in and has received nothing from Bruno.

While self-help evictions are outlawed in Louisiana, Bruno is also barred from evicting tenants under the federal Cares Act, Adams said. The law, which was enacted to aid individuals and businesses harmed by the pandemic, prohibits landlords who receive federal loans or assistance including Bruno, who has a Fannie Mae loan on the property from initiating eviction proceedings until July 25.

Jones is not alone in her allegations against Bruno. Other renters living in Brunos units also claim they've been subjected to self-help tactics after losing jobs amid the pandemic (Bruno has maintained that his actions were appropriate and that his company follows state and federal laws).

When Arkansas resident Milton Light wasnt able to pay his rent, his landlord unleashed several aggressive tactics to get him to leave so she could get another tenant in as soon as possible, he said.

Light, 34, lost his full-time job as a coiled tubing operator because of the pandemic on April 3.

His hours had already been cut by the end of March when he let his landlord, Genai Walker-Macklin, know that he wouldn't be able to make rent the following month. It was then that she told him he had to be out by April 5, he said.

She began showing the home to other potential renters.

When Light pushed back saying she cannot bully him out of his lease which ends in the summer, she began using every trick in the book against him, he said.

According to court documents filed by Light, she changed the locks on the property, called his utility companies to have his gas and electric shut off and even tried to have his vehicle towed from his home.

When that didnt work, she filed a complaint with the Arkansas Department of Human Services alleging that his home was unsafe for his four young children, he said. She also began harassing Lights ex-wife with whom he shares custody of his children, Light claims.

According to a police report seen by NBC News, the landlord also had movers show up to forcibly remove his things from the home until authorities stopped her.

Shes taking these actions to try and force him out of his home without a court giving her an order to do so, said Frank Jenner, an attorney with the Center for Arkansas Legal Services who is representing Light. You cant take action until the court authorizes a particular action.

Walker-Macklin filed a civil eviction lawsuit on April 30, and Light responded with a counterclaim alleging an illegal eviction and asking for a preliminary injunction that would prohibit any further efforts to remove him from the property without a court order. The case is still pending.

Light's landlord did not return several calls from NBC News requesting comment, and her attorney declined to comment because of pending litigation.

Arkansas is one of the statesthat has not had any kind of mandated moratorium on evictions amid the COVID-19 pandemic and instead left it to individual courts to handle.

While data isn't yet available on renters facing self-help evictions during the pandemic, one can intuit who is more likely to be targeted, said Lisa Rice, president of the National Fair Housing Alliance. I think it is fair to guesstimate that it is those vulnerable populations who are disproportionately subject to these forms of abusive evictions when there isnt a pandemic," Rice said.

Evictions generally affect people with less income stability disproportionately people of color and single-women households, she said. They may be less empowered to push back.

The tactics can sadly be effective, she added, especially for those who feel intimidated and don't feel safe in their home.

Cobbling together first and last month's rent is a huge obstacle for many tenants, and if you're strapped for cash like so many are right now, the idea of engaging with your landlord or going to court can be overwhelming, said Durana of Eviction Lab.

In addition, when you do go to court there is an increased risk that it could go on your record," Durana said. "It could put you in a position in which you then have trouble finding future housing.

For many families, it's easier to avoid the court process entirely even though they may have a right to stay and the harassment is illegal and unfounded.

Everyone has a breaking point, Durana said.

To help counter self-help evictions, housing advocates are pushing to extend eviction moratoriums, expand relief to renters and raise the bar to filing evictions so there are more legitimate reasons to initiate the process.

Several jurisdictions, including Minnesota and Washington, D.C., have already started to aggressively prosecute cases of predatory landlord behavior.

Being pushed out of your home is problematic at any point, but especially during a pandemic, said Shamus Roller, executive director of the National Housing Law Project.

The last thing we want right now is people going around looking for an apartment to rent. That involves travel, interacting with strangers, enclosed spaces and all of the other activities associated with moving, he said. And those are the challenges for someone that can find and afford a new place. For other people that get evicted, it means doubling up with another family or homelessness, which come with huge health ramifications.

Jones plans on staying put for now.

While April rent will be covered by a rental assistance program for tenants affected by the pandemic, she said she is trying to work with her landlord to pay back March and May once she starts earning again.

I want to pay and Ill pay as soon as I can, but I cant give you something I don't have, she said.

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Some landlords are using harassment, threats to force out tenants during COVID-19 crisis - NBC News