£6m will help our youngsters find work
Young people in Renfrewshire looking for work can now benefit from a new £ 6million funding programme.
Organisations that work with young people are now able to apply for grants of between £10,000 and £80,000.
The funding is to help support those experiencing discrimination or disadvantages that create short- or longer-term barriers to employment, especially for anyone whose efforts to find employment have been further disrupted by the coronavirus crisis.
Eligible projects include those delivering positive activities like music, arts and sport that enable the development of work readiness skills .
It also involves projects providing a trusted, consistent advisor to help children and young people overcome barriers and achieve their personal goals.
Organisations that offer personalised vocational, academic or employability skills, enterprise training, job search, or work experience; address barriers to employment such as mental and physical health problems, and housing issues are included.
Groups which support young people into further education, training or employment that they may otherwise not have accessed, and also through the provision of volunteering, work experience, paid jobs and transitioning to permanent work can also apply.
The grants can be used to cover project and organisational costs, including planning and development for the future.
Applications will be accepted from until July 30. For more information please go to www. bbcchildreninneed.co.uk/gran…/ inspiring-futures/
CARING FOR YOUR PETS
Paisley vet Neil McIntosh, who has more than 36 years experience of tending sick and injured animals, shares his views with you every Thursday.
Last week, I told you about a giant, muscular Pointer dog, who, despite being amiable, was becoming a real danger to his owner.
Huge though he was, he behaved impeccably with children and other dogs.
He was delightful company most of the time, dependable and gentle, but his downfall was food.
He would do anything for it.
His big sad eyes were practised at begging for titbits. His expression said: “Feed me. Feed me, for I am starving. I have not eaten for, em, at least five minutes.”
He would place his massive head on your knee as you ate and drool saliva until the moist feeling soaking through the fabric of your trousers forced you to succumb and throw him a morsel.
He would sit patiently as a visitor supped tea, knowing his stature and poise would earn him a crust or a slice of cake.
Out on the street, things were much worse.
Since some people seem to no longer appreciate the contribution they make to society by using a bin, food is carelessly thrown everywhere.
Half eaten pizzas, chips and rolls are discarded disdainfully at other people’s feet, no matter the proximity of a bin.
Crows, magpies, seagulls, rats and our big dog are tasked with tidying it all up.
He knew the most lucrative areas to search.
The cycle path by the school, the doorway of the takeaway and the car park of the burger shop were his favourite haunts.
The trouble was, his fragile female owner didn’t take him to these places on purpose. He dragged her there. And this is how he became a positive danger.
When the smell of food hit his nostrils, there was no stopping him.
With an olfactory system far superior to his owner, she was unable to predict when he would catch a whiff and be off, in a direct line towards his goal.
Twice she had been dragged across a busy road so that he could gobble something down before another scavenger got to it.
And she realised both times could have been fatal.
She had tried a choker but his neck was too thick and her arms too thin.
Her shoulders had been pulled painfully out their sockets.
On friends’ advice she had purchased a harness, much favoured by Dogs Trust, but hopeless for this problem as it merely allowed him to use his body strength like a carthorse, despite it cutting into his side.
When food was to be had, he was oblivious to pain.
And so, concerned for her safety and worried about causing a major accident, she had sought veterinary help, thinking euthanasia was her only option.
It wasn’t. We fitted a Halti, a neat little head harness that allows you to point a dog’s nose in the direction you want to go and control it, no matter its strength.
It saved his life and greatly improved hers.
If your dog pulls, a Halti is a great idea. Get your vet to fit it and show you how to use it. It could be a life saver.