Skills Development Fund (SDF) in Ontario, Canada
Overview
SDF offers funding to organizations for innovative projects that address challenges of hiring or training workers to drive the economic growth of Ontario, Canada.
SDF supports:
●projects that address the labor shortage and stimulate growth in key sectors of Ontario's economy;
●projects helping people with prior involvement in those with disabilities, newcomers, and others facing barriers to employment;
●projects that will increase Ontario's long-term economic competitive advantage by creating a sustainable and adaptable workforce.
Qualified Organizations
The following organizations are qualified to apply for SDF as primary applicants:
●local trade unions;
●local training delivery agencies;
●non-profit organizations in Ontario;
●employers with a presence in Ontario;
●native professional, industry or employer associations;
●District Social Services Administration Boards and hospitals.
The following organizations are qualified to apply for SDF as a co-applicant with one or more of the organizations above:
●publicly assisted colleges, universities or institutes in Ontario;
●private career colleges registered under the Private Career Colleges Act, 2005.
Attention
Projects will be prioritized based on the strengths of their applications. Please be aware that funds are limited and therefore the applicants are encouraged to apply and submit their completed application forms as soon as possible.
Dreamers change the world. Donnel Baird, a person who inspires, protects and restores dreams and closes equity gaps, was named the "Dreamer of the Year" for the first time. And no one dreams bigger than Donnel Baird, the CEO and founder of BlocPower.
As a child, Baird grew up in Brooklyn without having a working heating system, so on cold days in winter, people would use their ovens to heat up their apartments. They often opened up the window to release poisonous chemicals, so they wouldn't breathe them in all night. So early on, he was exposed to neglected energy systems and the kind of health and environmental impact that they could have. Baird's early life undeniably fueled his drive for innovation.
"I started BlocPower several years ago with the vision of bringing clean energy to the low income communities where I'd grown up and where I'd been a community organizer," Baird said. America's home-energy industry is dire. Around one-third of the American households struggle to pay their energy bills, and nearly 30% of the US greenhouse gasses come from heating and cooling. BlocPower renovates buildings with solar panels, electric heat pumps, and other green tech to lower energy bills and reduce planet-warming emissions.
And the results are apparent. Since its founding in 2014, BlocPower has worked with over 5,000 American families to green their homes, saving them about 30% on their energy bills each year. BlocPower holds the belief that the solution to the global climate crisis will come from the people who have been most ignored and most devalued. They go into those communities and build up a human and green infrastructure(基础设施) that shows the rest of American society how to resolve the climate crisis.
"My name is Donnel Baird. I am the CEO of BlocPower and I dream fearlessly every day. And we're going to do that in time to resolve the climate crisis so that our children and grand-children can have a shot at enjoying their life," said Baird in the press.
California's Stanford University has launched its first class taught fully with virtual reality (VR) technology. VR involves the creation of digital environments that can be entered and controlled by humans. People use a headset that permits them to see virtual settings and objects, along with electronic controllers, to experience VR environments.
The new class, or course, is called "Virtual People". It is taught by Jeremy Bailenson, a professor of USA. Bailenson came up with the idea after teaching students about VR for nearly 20 years. During that time, he saw the technology continue to develop and thought the best way to show its abilities was to create a full course experience with VR.
The class covers the expanding influence of VR in many different fields, including popular culture, engineering, behavioral science and communication. Each week the course centers on different areas where VR can be used in the real world. The course includes times when students have individual VR experiences, as well as times when the whole class enters a VR environment at the same time. Each student received a headset to use throughout the course. A company created the device. The company says such headsets will play a big part in a future virtual world it plans to build with other companies. The university said that three years ago, the course permitted 263 students to spend approximately 3,333 shared hours together in VR environments. The course description shows students can virtually take field trips, hold group discussions and even take part in live music events and other performances.
In addition to the headsets, the course also needed software to connect teachers and students. For this, Bailenson said the university decided to use the ENGAGE virtual interaction system, ENGAGE is used by major companies and educational organizations to hold virtual meetings and events. With the support of relevant hardware and software, the course will give teachers and students a fantastic sense of participation.
Despite mental health being everywhere and its cost on overall well-being and social development, we have been guilty of dragging our feet, both in the sense of acknowledging the causes and facing the consequences of mental health problems, as well as a societal commitment to addressing them. For instance, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that worldwide governments spend less than 2% of their total health budget on mental health.
But there is hope that the tide may be turning in how we deal with mental health. And that hope resides in Generation Z (born during the mid-to-late 1990s and early 2010s). Generation Z have a different way of approaching well-being and mental health than other previous generations.
Unlike the previous generations, Generation Z are more confident and willing to acknowledge and activate the connection between well-being and mental health. Seeing mental health issues as a natural part of life, something to be faced head-on, like a physical illness, and in the face of them, balance is more likely to be restored: a fruitful solution that results from open and frank discussions with family and friends, sharing or accessing advice on social media. They are also more likely to be health-aware, engage in health-promoting activities and adopt a healthy lifestyle. And while Generation Z are also active healthy eaters, they seek solutions to the environmental impact of food production and more information on how food choice is linked to mental health.
On the work front, they are not shy to press employers for workloads and work-life balance that reduces stress, or to take mental health days to nurture(培养) well-being and prevent the oncoming of more serious mental health problems. Perhaps, because youths suffer disproportionately from mental health issues, they are more likely to be open and talk about them, as well as to seek help.
Historically, the private and public discussions around mental health have been limited, while Generation Z are more active in strengthening, protecting and restoring it. And this shift in the approach indicates well for how society faces mental health issues in the future, especially as Generation Z gain positions of economic and political power.
There are several ups and downs in everyone's life. No matter how strong an individual is, there is usually a time when he finds the need of someone encouraging him to meet the challenges. That may make him feel the power and the energy to deal with all sorts of negativity in life.
The power of motivation is beyond explanation. However, the person, who benefits from it, understands its importance instantly he hears it. The fact is that there exists the gap between the speech of an expert and that of the average. And probably the reason is the experience of a life coach in dealing with the life of countless people on the Earth in his entire career.
Or rather, whatever he says or advises is not only the output of the words on the page, but also what he has learned from the lives of people around. It is his real life experience that he uses to improve the lives of other people on the globe. Having met countless people throughout the career, the life coach becomes used to the problems. So, his every suggestion goes straight, touches the heart and increases the energy of a listener, and eventually helps them address different problems in life.
If you think such speeches are mere words and sentences, you are absolutely wrong. But actually they are the magical words that bring a great change in the life of disappointed and annoyed people on the globe. With such speeches, life coaches dig out the problems that the listener is facing in life.
A. Sometimes, it is not difficult to define an expert.
B. In particular, a speech from an expert is motivational.
C. The knowledge of an expert is not limited to the books.
D. Especially when stuck in dilemma, you really feel helpless.
E. Besides, he knows what kind of solutions will prove the best.
F. And they also find the root cause to come up with a final solution.
G. If you think anyone can deliver such a speech, you might be wrong.
Last Saturday, an elderly couple, Todd and Donna, hurried early to the beach to take pictures of the sunrise. Todd suddenly1over a stone while enjoying the2of it. And he was3injured. When she found Todd's heart stopped beating, she screamed for4right away.
Tyler Volpe, a health care worker at a local hospital, was surfing that morning. He came flying out of the5when he heard Donna's6. He rushed to the scene, and started chest compressions.
When Volpe breathed into Todd's mouth, the tide began to7. Other surfers used their boards to8a wall against some water. "Volpe tried to keep him9until the ambulance got there," Donna said.
The ambulance soon arrived, and then a doctor used a defibrillator(除颤器) to10his heart and restart his heartbeat. Through the efforts of the11staff, he came to life. And then he was taken to the hospital.
After Todd was discharged from the hospital, Donna posted a message on the Internet asking if anyone knew the surfers who helped Todd. She12with Volpe via online texts. Later, Todd and Donna met Volpe at last. They were extremely13to Volpe. They gave Volpe a big hug when they reunited with him. They said, "Thank you, Volpe. Without you, it could have had a really different ending on the beach that day." But Volpe said it was14because he was one of the seaside first-aid volunteers. They were impressed by his good qualities and15to help others in the future, too.
With the rapid growth of population and global warming, the food problem has aroused public concern. "All countries in the world should (strength) cooperation to contribute to a secure global food supply," said one of the Chinese (official). Facing the challenges of global food security, he called on more countries (maintain) the multination-al trading system with the World Trade Organization, enhance the teamwork of agricultural trade policies, and (far) expand partnerships through stronger mutual cooperation on agriculture.
China not only advocated (adopt) a joint security cooperation strategy, but also supported the establishment a forum on the agriculture and rural development of all countries. Despite the severe challenges (bring) by natural disasters, China has managed to ensure enough food for over 1.4 billion people through its own efforts, making positive contribution to global food security. The meeting with the theme of cooperation on agriculture, some emerging countries including Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa attended via video link last year, (highlight) the major problems such as global food security and availability. It is believed that there will be more such meetings on livelihood issues in the future.
Miss Lee was an English teacher in an international school. She had many years of over-seas teaching experience. She had a weekly English music broadcast where she played different English songs. She found it a very good way to benefit her students in English study. What's more, it did improve the relationship between her and her students.
In order to carry it forward, Miss Lee tried to get her students to recommend English songs to her for the broadcast. The students were very enthusiastic about it, and they were actively involved in it. They tried their best to find good English songs for her. The activity was becoming more and more popular among students and teachers. The time for English song recommendation became the moment everyone was looking forward to.
When broadcasting, she usually announced who recommended the song and then played it during lunch time. Of course, if a song was chosen to be played, the person who recommended it also felt very proud.
Miss Lee tried to give every student a chance to share themselves through their music, including one disagreeable student, Chris. He chose to sit in the back of the classroom alone and constantly couldn't concentrate on study. Most of the other teachers and students found it difficult to communicate with him. However, Miss Lee knew that he just needed a friend, or at least someone he could connect with.
One day, Miss Lee called him into her office and said, "Chris, please think of a song you like that has some beautiful English words, and I'll play it on the broadcast for you." Chris agreed happily because he felt being valued.
Chris eventually recommended a song. Miss Lee couldn't like the song too much. She put it in on the broadcast as scheduled and made sure to announce Chris's name, so everyone knew that he recommended such a great song. As the song rang, Chris cheered loudly, "It's my song." Then he sang along with it, and he sang amazingly well. From then on, Miss Lee would ask Chris to lead the other classmates to sing an English song before class. She exactly felt him warming up to her.
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Playing the song Chris recommended completely changed his life.
……
Miss Lee even recommended Chris to participate in the annual school song contest.
