The University of West Florida is asking all students in university housing to leave campus by 5 p.m. Sunday, as all dorms will close and instruction will be online until March 30.

Here is the statement from UWF:

Instruction

All courses will be offered remotely from March 16 until March 30, 2020.

Housing and Residence Life Closure All students living in university housing must return to permanent home residences or a non-campus alternative housing arrangement,effective immediately, today March 14until March 30, 2020.

If you need to visit campus to gather personal belongings, you may do so until5 p.m. on March 15, 2020.

We understand that there will be extenuating circumstances. Housing and Residence Life will work with students who are not able to return home during this time period on an individual basis. Please contact Housing and Residence Life athousing@uwf.edu by 5 p.m. on Sunday, March 15, 2020.

Campus Services Limited campus services will be available to those students who are authorized to stay in campus housing, including dining services and residence assistance. Counseling, Psychological Services and Health Services will move all appointments to telephone.

All other campus facilities, including but not limited to Health, Leisure, and Sports Facility, Aquatic Center, University Libraries, the Education Research Center for Child Development and athletic facilities will be closed.

Employees Reporting to Work Changes Only essential personnel are expected toreport to workfrom 12 a.m. Sunday, March 15, 2020 through 11:59 p.m. Sunday, March 29, 2020. Employees who are unsure of their status must seek guidance from their supervisor.

Non-essential personnel, including OPS and student employees, are expected towork remotelyduring this time period. Supervisors are expected to provide assignments to employees. Employees working remotely are expected to:

If employees are in roles that do not traditionally accommodate remote work, supervisors must assign other work, projects or professional development that can be performed remotely.

Faculty who need to visit campus in order to utilize university tools to continue to fulfill the academic mission must notify their dean and department chair before visiting campus. Faculty that need in-person services from Global Online may visit campus. Virtual training bootcamps are also available to faculty through theGlobal Online website.

During emergency and adverse situations, supervisors are encouraged to allow employees to fulfill family care responsibilities due to illness or closing of schools, daycares, assisted living facilities, etc. during telecommuting if the employee can effectively balance family care and work.

An employee who is unable to work due to a family care emergency may use one of the following types of time off to account for time away from work, with supervisory approval:

All employees are still required to submit leave reports and time sheets by the appropriate deadlines. Please contact Human Resources with any questionshr@uwf.edu.

Social Distancing Social distancing is the best way to mitigate the spread of COVID-19. Social distancing refers to measures that are taken to increase the physical space between people to slow the spread of the virus. By maintaining a distance of six feet from others when possible, people may limit the spread of the virus. Social distancing also minimizes the number of interactions that provide the opportunity for the disease to spread.

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UWF Moves To Remote Operations; All Students To Leave Dorms By Sunday; Most Employees Work Remotely - NorthEscambia.com

Don't bottle up your emotions only to have them hit during a busy week

LAUREN PETTIT

Your brain deals with a lot. Just because you're having a bad time doesn't mean you should bottle it up. Talk to your friends and loved ones to live a happier life.

HALEY BRICKWEDEL, Evergreen Columnist March 13, 2020

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Fear, anger, sadness, joy, disgust, surprise and trust are all emotions felt, sometimes daily. Expressing these emotions is easier than pushing them away or down. At the end of the day, the emotions are still there when they are not dealt with.

Emotions are fabulous teachers, said Isabel Gaila Barbuto, a counselor at Moscow-based Mental Wellness Coaching & Consulting.

No one likes to be friends with the person who emotionally vomits on them, with quick fits of rage or random tantrums of tears.

These emotions are visitors, arriving to show how an individual feels in a moment. Talking about each emotion and accepting the emotions as they come up can be the only way to understand them.

As you get more comfortable with these guests and visitors (the emotions) there is a new sense of safety, an internal dialogue with the family (the individual and their emotions), Barbuto said.

It can be emotionally draining for others when emotions are not accepted on the individual level. Going to a party while sad never ends well. Lashing out and saying hurtful words are not forgiven lightly.

Befriend and establish new relationships, welcome them (the emotions) to create a new relationship with yourself and these thoughts, Barbuto said.

Studying an emotion wont teach an individual anything until the emotion is experienced and put into practice. For example, dealing with one emotion at a time can be easier than dealing with all seven at once. With school, work and life, students should not let their emotions stress them out or become overwhelming.

Rather than reactions, practice a responsive mode that stays calm and at ease that is able to maintain an anchoring and grounding to know the next best action to take, Barbuto said.

Living in your 20s and being in college are some of the most stressful years of life. This is a time of development, as well as experiencing emotions about your future life and career. With so many things to do a day, let alone in a week, there is no denying that students feel every emotion.

You can develop self-efficacy, that is calming on the biophysiological level and emotional cognitive level. The judgment, resistance and pushing away begins to fade away when you welcome emotions, Barbuto said.

Many times students have to push off emotions until after an exam or paper (even I am guilty of this). Pushing these emotions down and not addressing them is where they can really grow and fester.

With so much strain on students, the university provides events and activities to reduce the strain on students. The university recognizes that college and students in their 20s are feeling stressed and overwhelmed.

When I am overwhelmed I either hangout with friends or exercise, if I have the time. Sometimes I take a nap, said Alondra Romero, a freshman studying mechanical engineering.

The gyms around campus provide Sweat the Stress Away. This is a program that give students a chance to work out and meet other students. The program includes climbing, esports, swimming, CrossFit, yoga, boxing and so much more.

There are even times where there are puppies on campus, trivia, wellness seminars and more. These can be more frequent during midterms and finals. However, these events that run for a single hour during a busy week cannot fix everything.

Express every emotion. Lean into them hard and get to know them. My mother used to always say there is more than just anger there. Many times emotions can come in pairs. Sometimes sadness can be expressed as anger, or vice versa. This all becomes clearer when knowing emotions on an individual and personal level.

Continue reading here:
OPINION: Feel comfortable to share your emotions - The Daily Evergreen

It was weird that no one had heard from Jake Millison in a few days.

Maybe someone who didnt know him, an outsider to Gunnison, a small Colorado town on the western slope of the Rockies, might assume he was flaky or unreliable. At 29, Jake still lived with his mom and spent most nights at the local dive bar, the Alamo. But Jakes friends knew he was deliberate, a creature of routine. If you had plans to go to the movies on Saturday, hed text you on Wednesday: What time should I pick you up? And then again on Thursday and Friday just to confirm. On a motorcycle trip to California, Jake was the one who brought tarps and first-aid kits. He definitely wasnt the fall-off-the-face-of-the-Earth type.

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Jake had spent most of his life on the 7-11 Ranch, his familys property just outside Gunnison. Hed drive into town most evenings, work out at the gym, then stop by the Alamo. He always sat at the same table and always ordered the same drink: a Coke, because anything stronger made him nervous. His friends, a close-knit group of half a dozen guys, would show up after their shifts at the mechanic shop or the lumberyard. Theyd shoot pool for a couple of hours, then Jake would head home to the ranch. Everything was like clockwork with him, his friend Antranik Ajarian told me.

On Wednesday, May 20, 2015five days since anyone had heard from Jakehis friends Nate Lopez and Randy Martinez drove out to the 7-11 Ranch. They turned into the driveway, then drove past the barn decorated with the antlers of deer, elk, and moose, testaments to the propertys glory days as a hunting camp. They didnt see Jake, although they did spy his truck, his motorcycles, and his dog, Elmo.

In the horse corral, they spotted Jakes mother, Deb, a wiry woman whose frail frame belied her stubborn strength. Deb told Lopez and Martinez that Jake had gone to Reno, Nevada, to train at a mixed-martial-arts gym; he wasnt responding to their texts because hed dropped his phone in an irrigation ditch and left it behind to dry out in a bag of rice. Her explanation was logical enough. But the more they thought about it, the more it didnt sit right with them.

Another few days passed, and still no word from Jake. His friends called and stopped by the ranch. They werent sure what else to do. Ill let you know when hes back, Deb would say. Were they paranoid, or did she seem annoyed to see them? The situation felt weird, they kept saying to one another. It just felt weird.

After about a week, a Gunnison County patrol sergeant named Mark Mykol, alerted to Jakes sudden disappearance, called the ranch. Deb said her son had taken off with a friend whose name she didnt know. She thought they were headed to Reno to go camping. He did this sometimes, just up and vanished, and she seemed less worried than irritated. Mykol marked the case status as unfoundednothing to see here. But Jakes friends kept insisting that something was wrong. A week later, Mykol called the ranch again. This time, Deb admitted that she and her son had been arguing; he was almost 30 and still living at home, after all. Hed grabbed some camping equipment, a gun, and a wad of cash, then gotten into a car with someone she didnt recognize. She figured he was in Nevada looking for work, or in California with friends, or in New Mexico with his father; shed stopped trying to keep tabs on him.

But Debs story only left Jakes friends more confused. It was as if she were talking about an entirely different person from the Jake they knew.

In the ski mecca of Crested Butte, the median price for a house is $750,000; Gunnison is its more rugged, affordable neighbor 30 miles south, a windswept town of hunting outfitters and craft breweries, and the home of Western Colorado University (motto: Learning, elevated). Gunnisons 6,500 inhabitants are an eclectic mix of hippies, hunters, college kids, ranchers, and professional mountain bikers. At the Traders Rendezvous, you can pick up an antique rifle or a taxidermied wildebeest; a few blocks down the street is Shamans Corner, a combination massage parlor, tattooist, and metaphysical gift shop.

When I visited Gunnison in November 2018, the big news was a local ranchs cattle relocation: Cows will be walking down HWY 135 between 9-noonish, the Gunnison Regional 911 Centers Facebook page warned. With the snow please be safe and budget a few extra minutes as the girls make fast retreat down valley. Thanks for the patience.

Jakes parents split up when he was 6 and his sister, Stephaine, was 7. His father, Ray, whom Ajarian described as an old crazy gun guy (he meant this as a compliment), eventually moved to rural New Mexico. Deb got remarried, to Rudy Rudibaugh, a widowed rancher two decades her senior. When I stopped by Traders Rendezvous, everyone had a story about Rudy. He was a tough little turd, as one man put it, who had served as a frogman in World War II, lurking in rice paddies and breathing through a straw as he stalked the enemy. After the war, Rudy bought the 7-11 Ranch and based a successful hunting business there.

Rudy was known for doing things his own way. In the pre-cellphone era, he used carrier pigeons to send messages between hunting camps. When Jake and Steph were little, Rudy and Deb bought an African lion cub; they kept it chained in the horse corral and fed it a diet of roadkill. Neighbors complained that it frightened the livestock; eventually somebody shot and killed it from the highwaythe Gunnison County equivalent of a drive-by shooting.

From September 2013: Hanna Rosin on murder by Craigslist

Jake and Stephaine were homeschooled by Deb, in part so they could help out on the ranch. There was always plenty of work on the 700 acres: branding calves, baling hay, repairing tractors, leading hunting trips, caring for the horses. As Rudy got older, he had a harder time keeping upand Jake was expected to pick up the slack. The family was often the last to finish putting up their hay for the season, because Rudy and Jake handled all the work themselves, Jakes friend and former neighbor Adam Katheiser told me. And when Rudy was no longer able, it was just Jake.

As a teenager, Jake began attending public school for the first time. Early on, he got in trouble for the rifle in the back of his truck; he hadnt realized you werent supposed to bring firearms to school. After spending much of his youth isolated on the ranch, Jake began to amass a group of friends. He and Ajarian, both introverts, found it easy to be quiet around each other. Their crew grew to include other guys with similarly low-key temperaments. They went camping, fiddled with their motorcycles, and made fun of one another for all the project vehicles that never quite got all the way fixed.

After high school, Jake stayed at the ranch while most of the crew rented apartments in town. Jake could be standoffish with strangers, but he was inseparable from his friends. He seemed to have a boundlessoccasionally exhaustingappetite for hanging out. He could be a know-it-all, and if he thought you were doing something stupid, he wouldnt hesitate to tell you so. His friends sometimes rolled their eyes, but they appreciated that they always knew where they stood with him. We used to say, Yeah hes an asshole, but hes our asshole, Ajarian said.

Jake was 23 when Rudy died, in 2009. Stephaine had already received an inheritance of $30,000. Jake didnt get any money; the assumption was that he and his stepbrother, ShaneRudys son from his first marriage, who lived in Texaswould eventually inherit the ranch. Now the full burden of maintaining the property fell on Jakes shoulders. If he thought about shirking his obligations, he never did. Gunnison ranchers dont move away, Jakes friend Tom Page told me. Jake was tied to the land, to his familyand to a dying way of life.

Though the mythology of the American rancher looms large in our national imagination, economic pressures and climate change have made small-scale ranching ever more precarious. Since 2000, the Colorado River Basin has suffered an unprecedented period of drought, and low commodity prices and the rising cost of living havent helped matters. The suicide rate in Gunnison and other rural Colorado counties is more than twice the national average.

Faced with a deficit of water, Colorados booming cities have turned to a buy and dry policy, in which farmers agree to let their land lie fallow and lease their water rights to thirsty urban areas hundreds of miles away. By the time Jake took charge of the family ranch, the gulf between rural and urban Colorado was vast: the agricultural land of the Rockies western slope lying uncultivated and slowly drying up, while in Denver so many new buildings were being erected that there was a waiting list to rent a crane.

Ranch life was becoming the purview of wealthy hobbyists who could afford to indulge in cowboy fantasies. In Gunnison County, not far from the 7-11 Ranch, the billionaire businessman Bill Koch built his own private replica of an Old West town, complete with a saloon, church, jail, and train station; the propertys 21,000-square-foot mansion is stocked with memorabilia, including firearms that belonged to Jesse James and Sitting Bull.

News accounts would later refer to 7-11 as a $3 million ranch, but when Jake disappeared, it was kind of a junkyard, Lopez told me. Jake lived in the lodge, a building that had been intended for big gatherings and camp suppers; now it was so cluttered with Deb and Rudys collectionsstuffed rattlesnakes, old bits and bridles, ancient guns, antique machines with unclear usesthat it barely had enough room for his bed.

Jake once asked Katheiser to help brand calves. Katheiser had helped friends out before, and knew that typically a calf was herded into a mechanical chute, where a clamp closed around the animals neck, immobilizing it and then flipping it on its side. Katheiser was surprised to see that the 7-11 Ranch had no such equipment. It was a day of rough, physical worksnagging the calves with a rope, wrestling them to the ground, then holding them down to be branded. The corral itself needed maintenance. But Jake could never get to it, because the fences need fixing, the truck needs fixing, and weve got to brand all these cows now, Katheiser said.

Faced with more than they could handle, the family sold off much of their livestock and stopped hosting hunting trips. Money became a source of tension between Deb and her son. Jake didnt receive a paycheck for the hours he put in at the ranch; his eventual inheritance of the property was supposed to be payment enough. In the meantime, if he wanted to go to the movies or the Alamo, hed have to ask Deb for cash.

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Frustrated, Jake found other ways to scrounge up money. He cut and sold firewood. He worked part-time for a landscaping company. He came up with a scheme to grow marijuana to sell to college students, which his friends found hilarious: Dude, you dont smoke weedhow are you going to test your product? He cultivated psychedelic mushrooms and looked into starting a chimney-sweeping business.

One summer, Jake made good money working on a commercial fishing boat in Alaskabut when he returned home, he ended up giving Deb $15,000 to help keep the ranch afloat. He was always pissed off about that, Ajarian told me. He always said he shouldve just said Fuck the ranch and kept it. But while Jake may have talked about the property as if it were an anchor dragging him down, he was unwilling to walk away. What if the ranch was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity? What if he could restore it to greatness?

However much Jake worked, it wasnt enough for his mother. If the ranch wasnt thriving the way it had under Rudy, it wasnt due to the drought or the economy or any of the other forces that plagued ranchers across the western states. The problem was that her son wasnt trying hard enough. She complained that he slept too late and left jobs unfinished. Whenever you were out there, Ajarian said, theyd be at each others throats.

When Jake vanished, some of his friends hoped that hed finally reached his limit and taken off: Fine, you guys deal with this place. It was nice to imagine him somewhere sunny, California maybe, free to do as he pleased. But that daydream never quite felt plausible. Maybe he wouldve abandoned his family, Jakes friends thought, but he never wouldve abandoned them.

In June, Jakes friend Max Matheny and his sister, Molly, met with Mykol at the sheriffs-department headquarters. Molly had called Ray, Jakes dad; he said he hadnt heard from his son in weeks, and suggested that she file a missing-person report.

Mykol didnt think that was necessary. Everything Deb had said had checked out so far: It seemed that Jake had just taken off. But the sheriffs office did reopen the case, and alerted law enforcement in Reno to be on the lookout for Jake.

Ajarian, too, says he tried to file a missing-person report. The sheriffs department, Ajarian told me, kept saying the family doesnt want it. Several of Jakes friends said they were told that only family members could file such reports, although according to Colorado law any person with relevant, credible information suggesting that a person is missing may make a missing person report to a law enforcement agency.

Nate Lopez spent a lot of time talking with local law enforcement. They just told me that the only people they can really believe is the family. If they say that Jake went on a trip, and theyre the last people to see him, thats what you have to go by until theres evidence that shows otherwise, Lopez told me.

Jakes friends refused to let the matter go. Steph messaged one of her brothers friendsdo you have any idea who keeps reporting jake missing? I would really like [if they] could just call mom instead, she wrote. But Jakes friends called the ranch so often that the sheriff told them to knock it off.

It was dismaying, if not surprising, that law enforcement seemed slow to wonder whether Jake Millison had been the victim of a crime. Most murder victims in the U.S. are maletypically young men of colorbut you wouldnt know that from watching TV, where the victims who get the most airtime tend to be young, attractive white women. As a culture, were not as attuned to young mens vulnerability to violence.

While law enforcement seemed to accept Jakes familys story, his friends found themselves bumping up against an uncomfortable possibility: that one of his family members was complicit in his disappearance.

Three years before Jake went missing, Steph, who had been living in Denver, moved back to Gunnison with her husband and son. She earned money taking tourists on horseback rides, and dreamed of giving her son a country upbringingcrisp mountain mornings; lying in the tall grass, aiming a rifle at soda cans. Though Steph described herself as not good with backhoe things, she was a skilled horsewoman who identified as a country girl.

Despite their shared upbringing, Steph and Jake never got along. Yes hes mellow with his friends but with family he is a complete dick most of the time, Steph texted a friend around the time she moved back to Gunnison. Jake made it clear he was unhappy that his sister was back in town. Steph had already used her inheritance to put a down payment on her house in Denver; now he worried she was trying to stake a claim on the ranch, too.

Steph and Jake had worked out a kind of sibling dtente, which is to say that they mostly avoided each other. But things were different with Stephs husband, Dave. Where Jake was reserved, Dave was cocky. Everything about him seemed to grate on Jake, including Daves cara white Ford station wagon with flames painted on it. Jakes friends say his annoyance was undergirded with fear; he saw Dave as unpredictable, potentially violent. He made awkward half-jokes about keeping a gun nearby in case Dave attacked him.

Jake began training at a jiu-jitsu gym in Gunnison. He took to it right away; the tactics and technicalities and focus on self-mastery suited his temperament. Jiu-jitsu translates as gentle art, Page, who trained at the same gym, told me. Theres no strikingits all about distance management, leverage, control. Its like playing chess with the human body. Jake had always been chubby and withdrawn; jiu-jitsu helped him grow more comfortable in his body, more used to asserting himself.

Jiu-jitsu emphasizes personal development in all areas of life, and Jake became preoccupied with bettering himself. He adopted a strict diet and chided his friends when they ate at Taco Bell. He chugged a gallon of water a day for a few weeks, briefly convinced that hydration was the secret to health. His mania for improvement extended to the ranch, which he periodically tried to clean up, whether his mother liked it or not. He told Ajarian he was bringing junk into town on the sly and tossing it into Dumpsters.

With Dave and Steph back on the ranch, things could get heated. One day, Jake plowed snow into huge banks that blocked Daves car; in the argument that ensued, Dave took off his jacket, revealing a gun. (Dave later claimed that he was planning to set the gun aside so they could fight with their fists.) That afternoon, Jake filed for an order of protection against his brother-in-law. Had it gone into effect, it would have essentially banned Dave from the ranch. Jake withdrew his complaint a few days later, but the animosity between the two men remained so strong that Deb declared they couldnt be on the property at the same time.

Steph was furious when she and Dave had to move to an apartment in town. My younger brother is trying to ruin my life, she wrote on the website Moms.com in 2014. How can I make [my mom] see that it is unhealthy for him to be there controlling her and her property like he owns it?

By the following year, Deb seemed to have taken her daughters advice. My mom might be kicking my brother out soon, Steph messaged a friend on Wednesday, May 13. That Friday night was the last time anyone saw Jake. A few days after that, Steph posted on Facebook: Have you ever been woken up with such awesome news you wanted to run outside screaming?

No more jake???? a friend replied.

Apparently Reno, Steph wrote. Long story tell you soon.

As the weeks ticked by, Jakes friends grew more and more frustrated. No one seemed to be treating Jakes absence as the emergency they felt it was. Steph and Dave moved back to the 7-11 Ranch and were acting like nothing was wrong. If the sheriffs own son had vanished, Ajarian couldnt help thinking, the deputies would certainly be doing more than they were. Finally, the friends decided they couldnt rely on official channels for help.

Ajarian was in the hardware-store parking lot when he spotted the first significant clue: Jakes beloved 1976 Harley Sportster, albeit with a new, slapdash paint job and a modified gas tank. Dave was riding it. If Jake ever saw Dave Jackson breathing on his motorcycle, it wouldve been the end of the world, Ajarian told me. And this guy is riding around on it. And why is it spray-painted all these shitty different colors?

Two other friends were shopping for used bikes when they discovered a couple more of Jakes motorcycles for sale in a local shop. They obtained a copy of the title to one, a Honda, which had both Jakes and Debs signatures on it. To Ajarians eye, Jakes looked like a blatant forgery. You could see Debs signature and you could see Jakes signature underneath it, and its the same fricking handwriting, he said. To Jakes friends, these motorcycle clues were a blatant sign that Debs story didnt make sense. If Jakes family expected him to return, why were they selling his stuff?

One day, Ajarian ran into Deb at the grocery store. He barraged her with questions: Where was Jake? And if she didnt know, why hadnt she filed a missing-person report? She muttered something about not wanting to get in trouble for filing a false report if Jake turned up.

Finally, three months after Jake was last seen, Deb Rudibaugh officially reported her son missing, claiming that his interest in martial arts had brought him into contact with a bad crowd. I figure he got in over his head with something and is either in witness protection or in hiding or dead, she later told investigators.

Ajarian created a Facebook page called Where is Jake Millison. He posted photos from their motorcycle trip out WestJake posing next to a giant redwood; Jake wearing a helmet, making goofy facesand asked people to share any information that might be useful. Someone reported seeing Deb, Steph, and Dave burning Jakes mattress days after he vanished. Someone else pointed out that shortly after Jake disappeared, Dave had changed his Facebook profile picture; in the new photo, he was posed on one of Jakes motorcyclesanother thing Jake never would have tolerated. The tips that came in to the Facebook group were shared with law enforcement. The accumulation of facts, plus Jakes friends persistence, began to convince the department that this was a serious matter here, Mykol said.

Winter brought bad times out at the 7-11 Ranch, Dave texted a friend. With Jake gone, much of the work fell to him. Im sick of being a slave for [Steph] and her mother on this ranch while she is in the lodge warm cozy f****** around on her phone, he wrote. When he threatened to leave, Steph brandished a gun and fired a bullet at the floor. Around the same time, Debs health began to deteriorate. Within a year, she was admitted to the hospital for a collapsed lung; a biopsy revealed that she had Stage 4 breast cancer.

Despite Jakes friends attempts to keep the investigation energized, months passed without much development. A year went by, and then another. Ajarian was alarmed to realize that hed gotten used to Jake being gone. He and his friends sometimes joked about a gray-haired Jake popping up in 50 years, cackling about the epic prank hed played on them, but the unspoken truth was that they all assumed he was dead. Not knowing why or how, or where his body was, was maddening. There had been no funeral where they could make speeches about how much hed mattered to them and cry together for his loss. His family continued to live as if hed never existed. With no official action, it was hard not to feel as though Jakes disappearanceand his lifedidnt matter. The friend group slowly began to disperse: Lopez moved to Texas; Katheiser was in Colorado Springs. Sometimes Ajarian thought of Jake almost as a ghostthere and not there at the same time.

Although the investigation stalled for years, the Gunnison County sheriffs department disputes the idea that it didnt take Jakes friends concerns seriously. We were working pretty hard, Mykol told me. It just takes a really long time. You cant just show up somewhere and searchtheres a thing called the Fourth Amendment, you know what I mean? Mykol also pointed out that the department had only one investigator for the entire county.

Finally, the sheriffs department asked the Colorado Bureau of Investigation for help on the case. Two years after Jakes disappearance, Ajarian met with a CBI agent who told him they were making progress. She said, I cant tell you anythingbut things are in the works for you guys.

On July 17, 2017, official vehicles crowded the county highway by the 7-11 Ranch. As ambulances and fire trucks waited, search teams and dogs spread out over the 700 acres. Later on that day there are reports that theyve found a body, and you just know, Katheiser recalled. Theres not another reason for a body to be out there.

The news spread fast across the small town. While Jakes friends had been calling the sheriff, visiting the ranch, posting on Facebookfor nearly all of that time, his body had been wrapped in a tarp and buried in a manure pile in the corral.

The fact that Jakes body was found on the 7-11 Ranch seemed to confirm that at least one member of his family had played a role in his death. But which one? There were almost too many potential motives: Stephs lifetime of animosity toward her brother, plus the tension over who would inherit the ranch; the constant clashes between Deb and her son. And then, of course, there was Dave. In the weeks before he vanished, Jake had told friends that if anything ever happened to him, Dave would be responsible.

From October 2018: A shocking number of killers murder their co-workers

Investigators questioned Deb, Steph, and Dave separately many times. Their stories were contradictory, confusing, and self-serving. Everyone agreed that Jake had once been his mothers favorite, but that in the years before his death, the dynamics in the family had shifted; Deb began complaining to Steph about Jake, and Steph was happy to egg her on. As Deb told investigators, Steph was insistent that her mother evict Jake. He was a freeloader, she argued. Without tough love, hed never become independent. Sometimes she hinted that more drastic measures might be necessary. The only way that hes going to leave here voluntarily, Deb claimed Steph had said, is if hes in a body bag.

Stephs efforts at persuasion seemed to work. Investigators found an amended version of Debs will, dated three weeks before Jake vanished. Instead of leaving the ranch to Jake and Shane, the propertyand everything else she ownedwould now go to Steph. Jake would get nothing.

Deb told investigators that the week Jake went missing, she had been exhausted from working the night shift at a nursing home. Shed asked Jake to take care of an errand; hed left the job half finished, then gone into town. This, she said, was the last straw. She waited until he fell asleep that night and shot him in the head. She claimed that she disposed of his body on her own. The investigators pressed her on this point. How was this possible, considering how small and frail she was? Yankee ingenuity, Deb said. She had rolled his body in a plastic sheet, then used tow straps and a winch to maneuver it out of the lodge and onto an ATV. She insisted that Steph and Dave had known nothing.

When investigators told Steph that her mother had confessed to murdering Jake, she broke down. Oh my God, she said, sobbing. Are you fucking serious? I cant breathe.

But the officers suspected that she knew more than she was letting on. There was that Facebook post about awesome news once Jake was gone, and her apparent lack of concern for her brother. They kept pressing her.

Okay, Steph said eventually. Honestly I didnt know anything until a couple months ago. Dave had been digging in the manure pile when hed uncovered the body of what looked at first like a large animal, she said. It was partially mummified, and wrapped in plastic. Dave had encountered plenty of carcasses while living on the ranch, but this one unnerved him. He could see parts of a rib cage poking out. Hed called Steph over. Is that what you think it is? he asked.

Maybe, Steph replied. Im going to call Mom.

Deb told her daughter to stay away from the body, Steph said, claiming that it was a mountain lion or a bear Jake had shot. Its illegal game; thats all Im going to say, Deb said. She told her daughter to cover it back up with manure and leave it alone.

In the ensuing weeks, Steph and Dave made awkward jokes about what theyd found. They said they talked about calling the police but never did. Then the investigation ramped up again. With officers sniffing around the ranch, Steph insisted that the remains be reburied somewhere more secure. The family avoided articulating what they were really discussing. Sometimes they called the body it; sometimes they referred to it as the bear. But Steph eventually admitted that was a ruse. I knew in my heart it was Jake, she said. One afternoon, Dave used the backhoe to dig a hole inside the corral. A couple of days later, the bear was gone from the manure pile, and the hole was packed with fresh dirt.

There were reasons to doubt each of these accounts. According to Debs medical records, she weighed 97 pounds at the time of Jakes murder, and was still weak from the gallbladder surgery shed had nine days before. At work, shed been assigned to light duty; at the ranch, she wasnt able to lift a bale of hay. When her doctor examined her a few days after the murder, none of her stitches had torn. Jake had weighed at least 170 pounds. Would it have been physically possible for her to drag his body from the second story of the lodge all the way to the manure pile, even with a winch and straps?

Many of Jakes friends assumed that Deb, dying of cancer, was covering for her daughter, and perhaps also her son-in-law. Ray, Jake and Stephs dad, also resisted the idea that Deb had murdered Jake. No matter how bad it was, I just cant see her shooting her own boy, he told investigators. Cellphone records showed that Steph had been awake in the early-morning hours when Jake was killed. Deborah didnt gain anything by killing Jacob, a CBI agent later testified in a court hearing. But Steph, who would gain sole ownership of the ranch after Deborah passes, did have a motive.

One thing was clear. Whoever pulled the trigger, whoever helped bury the body, they were banking on the idea that everyone else would see Jake the way they didas insignificant, even disposable. That no one would raise a fuss over the disappearance of a quiet, working-class guy who lived with his mother off a rural county highway.

Our families are supposed to be the people who know us best, but that often isnt the case. Sometimes the hardest people to see clearly are the ones were closest to.

After the discovery of Jakes body, and the multiple and confusing confessions from his family members, what seemed to upset his friends most was how they mischaracterized Jake. According to Deb, her son was a drug addict and a drunk, a violent MMA fighter, someone who physically assaulted her and threatened to kill his sister and her family. According to Steph, Jake was a worthless waste of space, lazy and useless. No wonder Jake clung so strongly to his friends. His chosen family was perfectly aware of his flawshis stubbornness, his arrogancebut equally attuned to his loyalty, generosity, and dedication.

On May 13, 2019, almost four years after her sons death, Deb pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received a 40-year sentence. Dave Jackson had already been sentenced to a decade in prison for his role in moving Jakes body. When I visited Gunnison last fall, the question on everyones mind was what would happen to Stephaine. She was scheduled to go on trial for first-degree murder the next fall, but Ajarian worried that she, like her mother, would end up getting a plea deal. The official version of Jakes death, codified in plea agreements and court filings, didnt strike him as the full story; without a trial, he feared hed never know what had really happened to his friend, or why. Sure enough, several months after my visit, Steph pleaded guilty to tampering with a dead body. In November, Deb Rudibaugh died in jail; two days later, Steph was sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Ultimately the system had worked: Law enforcement had located the body, elicited a confession, and secured convictions. But even after the case was legally closed, it still felt unsettled, incomplete.

One evening, I met Ajarian at a pizza place. Under his mechanics uniform, he wore a T-shirt that said punker than you, and his dark hair was styled in messy spikes. His grief over his friends death expressed itself as a kind of grasping for purpose. When Jake had first disappeared, when his friends were searching for clues and urging the sheriffs department to act, theyd been of use. Now there was nothing left to doexcept maybe hold a memorial service for Jake. Perhaps that would help him feel as though his friend had finally been put to rest. But where would he host such an event? Gunnison was too full of bitter memoriesbut it was also Jakes only home.

The next day, I met Katheiser in his tidy basement apartment in Colorado Springs. He, too, was plagued with thoughts of what might have been. A lot of mornings when I wake up, I think about Jake, what his life would have been, he told me. I like to think that he couldve sold the ranch for quite a bit of money and maybe just gone and worked a regular job somewhere. Bought a house. Maybe he wouldve met a girl and whatever. And he doesnt get that opportunity. Thats what I would have hoped for him. Just that he couldve gotten into a life that he wasnt frustrated at every day.

This article appears in the April 2020 print edition with the headline What Happened to Jake Millison?

Continued here:
The Killing of a Colorado Rancher - The Atlantic

Staff, parents and children from Busy Bees nursery in Corby are celebrating after receiving an outstanding rating from Ofsted.

Inspectors visited the nursery on the Oakley Vale estate last month and rated it as outstanding in all areas, improving on its previous rating of good from January 2016.

It received top marks for the quality of education, behaviour and attitudes, personal development and leadership and management.

Youngsters from Busy Bees nursery in Corby celebrating the outstanding Ofsted report

The inspection report said: "Children love being in this setting and are very eager to get involved in all the exciting activities."

It noted that staff make children's language development a real priority, the children's behaviour is excellent and the safeguarding arrangements are effective.

Inspectors also found that children with special educational needs or disabilities receive highly skilful and sensitive support.

The report said children experience lots of exciting opportunities to learn about other people and the community around them.

And added: "Leaders and managers are inspiring and always encourage staff to do well and improve their practice.

"Managers and staff constantly reflect on their practice and identify things they can do better."

Centre director Rhonda Rowlatt said: We are proud of our outstanding grading and delighted that Ofsted recognise the high quality we provide every child in our care, giving all children the best start in life.

The nursery caters for children up to the age of five and has 90 youngsters on its roll.

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Corby nursery rated outstanding in all areas - Northamptonshire Telegraph

A new study by Gallup and TrueSpace looks at the conditions post-startup companies need in order to make the transition from the treacherous "adolescent" phase of rapid but sporadic and unpredictable growth to a more stable developmental phase. The results from 2,494 business owners on the Five Conditions Assessment (5CA) show how their companies' growth performance relates to systems that help them understand the drivers of growth, monitor factors most likely to influence it and make continual adjustments to how it allocates time, talent and capital to improve predictability and reduce risk.

The first article on the Gallup/TrueSpace study provides an overview of the broad concepts addressed by the Five Conditions framework. Here we look at three specific factors that are among the most strongly related to recent growth performance among companies in the study:

A clear, compelling point of view directed toward the target market. Companies with high Point of View scores are 2.5 times more likely than others to have had revenue growth of at least 10% in each of the past two years.

Intentional strategies for acquiring and developing talent. Companies with high Talent scores are 2.7 times more likely than others to have grown at least 10% in each of the past two years.

High levels of trust among employees and other stakeholders in the credibility of the organization's leaders. Companies with high Credibility scores are also 2.7 times more likely than others to have grown at least 10% in each of the past two years.

The 5CA is designed to measure the growth potential of post-startup businesses -- those that have survived their first three years and have at least $2 million in annual revenue but have not yet reached the lower mid-market threshold of $10 million. The more than 2 million companies in this fledgling group have the potential to create millions of new jobs if they can achieve consistent, long-term growth -- but they are less likely than startups or larger businesses to capture the attention of investors, policymakers and the media.

The framework for the 5CA borrows from System Dynamics, a field brought to the mainstream by the late Professor Jay Forrester of MIT. This involves evaluating businesses by seeing them as a series of feedback systems. Each of the Five Conditions represents a broad requirement for predictable performance and consistent growth. Within each Condition is a set of feedback loops, and each loop includes specific elements that can increase or diminish a business' growth potential. Once a business is modeled in this manner, limits to its growth become visible, and entrepreneurs can act and make decisions with more precision.

For example, one of the feedback loops in the Alignment condition is Focus -- the extent to which the company's resources are focused on a clearly defined target market and broadly understood objectives. Within that loop, the 5CA addresses four elements -- labeled Market, Point of View, Customers and Talent -- that can change the organization's level of Focus.

Point of View and Talent are among the three elements (out of 30 overall in the framework) most strongly related to businesses' growth performance over the past two years. A closer look at these elements gives one a better idea of how the 5CA measures the concepts associated with the Five Conditions. See Appendix A in the Five Conditions Assessment report to find out where each of these elements fits into the overall framework.

In order to align a company's resources for high performance, leaders must first develop, promote and sustain a point of view that distinguishes the company from others in the industry. Critically, that point of view isn't just a sales tactic -- it's a system that governs how customers, employees and partners perceive the business, helping them focus on the needs of high-value customers while removing nontarget customers from consideration.

A distinctive point of view also purposely alters risk perception by enabling companies to demonstrate credibility, position themselves as trusted providers and become recognized as the best -- the lowest-risk, highest-value option -- in their niche. For businesses that are not market leaders, a point of view serves as the only effective and sustainable mechanism for providing high-value customers the assurance they need to feel confident in changing from the status quo. Specific 5CA questions addressing Point of View include:

Companies that are building the capacity for consistent growth clearly recognize the central role of talent in achieving it. Role definitions and expectations are clarified and formalized, which makes it easier to identify specific talent needs. Finding and selecting employees with the skills and experience valued by the target market becomes a full-time effort.

Once they have effective processes for finding and hiring new talent, high-performing companies shift their focus to development and retention. Leaders recognize that talent development -- rather than just talent acquisition -- is a critical driver of growth, and opportunities for personal growth and development become part of the value proposition it presents to prospective employees. Specific 5CA questions addressing talent include:

The Credibility element measures employees' confidence in the future of the company and the entrepreneur's or CEO's ability to lead it there. This relationship demonstrates one accumulating advantage of businesses that achieve repeated growth periods: The resulting credibility bolsters confidence among employees and shareholders for the longer-term growth journey. High-performing companies recognize the importance of leadership credibility and use employee feedback systems to track it.

Importantly, leadership credibility is bolstered not just by the entrepreneurs' own experience and abilities, but also by their willingness to seek advice and to hire outside leadership talent when needed. Ultimately, credibility is determined by whether the leadership has found a way to consistently meet performance expectations. Specific 5CA questions addressing credibility include:

For more information about the Five Conditions Assessment, please download the full report from TrueSpace and Gallup.

Steve Crabtree is a senior editor and research analyst for Gallup. He is the lead editor of Gallup's State of the Global Workplace reports.

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What Information Do Business Leaders Need to Bolster Growth? - Gallup

As a human resources expert or manager, it is very important to identify the employees and identify the factors that help them shine. Of course, the most important factor in this glare is motivation. According to Hay Group Research, 50 percent of successful employees are among the most motivated. Motivation expert James Sale shares 9 prominent types of employees at work and tips on how to motivate them.

Managers know how important motivation is to their employees success. Hay Group Research proves this by putting it into statistics. According to the research, almost half of the employees who shine in the office emphasizes that the most effective factor in this is that they are well motivated. Motivation specialist James Sale states that there are 9 main types of employees in the study he conducted on the subject. Having an idea of these types of employees and ways of motivation can be intimidating for managers and HR professionals.

Here are 9 types of employees and what can be done to motivate them:

Advocate

According to Sale, this type of employee seeks security, predictability and stability. The manager expects a certain job definition, a well-functioning organization and a predictable career path. Regular communication is the most obvious way to get motivated. Managers should regularly communicate with them, share good news, and explain how things are going to motivate such employees. Regular information and mails can also be effective in this regard. Given that this type of employee is loyal, rewarding the service is an extremely important step in the motivation process.

Friend

For this type of employee, it is very important to establish a sense of belonging, good friendships and meaningful relationships. He loves organizations with strong team perception, social events and helping others. The biggest way to get motivated is to get involved, supported and get their opinions. Its social organization will ensure a strong corporate culture and people-oriented activities shine.

Star

This type of employee often demands respect, social value and approval. He expects career paths to be clear, hierarchical order specific and clear titles. Yldz employee type can be motivated with awards and titles. It will nourish them to show them the career path they are thinking about, to include them in projects for their approval needs, to set regular goals. In this way, the star in it emerges easily.

Director

This employee type likes to have power, influence, control over resources and people. It is important to have a critical role at the core of the business and is generally suitable for leadership roles. For the leadership role, this employee needs to take serious responsibilities and be rewarded according to the results. For this ambitious, hardworking and careful type of employee, power and responsibility are highly motivating. Apart from that, it is extremely important for him to participate in coaching and training programs.

Architect

The only source of motivation for this type of employee is money and financial satisfaction. It can set aside all other expectations and perform very successfully in the name of a promotion or any award. This type of employee designs his life with this perception. If he is an employee at critical points in the company, he has a high financial expectation and will easily give you what you want as long as you motivate him.

Expert

This type of employee wants to have knowledge, expertise and title. Therefore, working environments where personal development is important are very valuable and motivating for them. He wants to work as a coach and mentor, and to participate in various trainings. As long as this motivation is achieved, this type of employee with a leadership spirit will make serious contributions to the company.

Creative

The driving forces for this employee are creativity, innovation and change. It follows new trends in the sector and tries to apply it to the business atmosphere. He is enthusiastic about approaching events and solving problems with new perspectives. Supporting this employee can be provided by providing him with an atmosphere where he can show his creativity. Working in an atmosphere where there is no routine, change and development opportunity will cause this employee to be restricted.

Free spirit

The key words for this employee are freedom, independence and autonomy. However, it is successful in environments where there is no pressure and it can work freely. In general, it operates efficiently in another working environment instead of the office. It is possible for this employee to be motivated with an atmosphere where he can show his talents freely instead of the rules.

Researcher

This type of employee seeks meaning and purpose in his work and wants to make a difference. In general, he wants to work in places with specific goals and a time management accordingly. If his individual goals coincide with the company goals, he does his job even more. How can I do this better? It is important to work in an environment that is suitable for the researchers structure and supports development and innovation. Especially by giving responsibility in the point of improvement and development, the motivation of this employee can be increased.

More:
9 employees' types and motivation ways - Thrive Global

There is no doubt that we are experiencing a paradigm shift in society. Individuals are now desecrating sacred things and hurting those who serve us.

There is an increase in the number of thefts at schools and religious institutions. Physical and verbal abuse of teachers are on the rise, as well as the killing of teachers and pastors. And I must hasten to add that women and children are no longer pardoned by those who seek to unleash terror. The environment has become so toxic, yet we must survive.

Our workplaces and school environments are reflections of our society, so they too have become toxic for stakeholders. Schools ought to be nurturing environments, where teachers use requisite skills and love to guide the next generation. However, they are now facing harsh times with disrespectful students and their parents who will come into schools and attack them.

The fact is the physical environment in many schools need improvement. There is often the non-existence of perimeter walls providing unhindered entrance to the property. For some institutions, the only security present are the vendors or a watchman.

Despite the challenges, our teachers still show up daily to ensure students success, but it is imperative that their safety is assured. The call of Jamaica Teachers' Association President Owen Speid for urgency to be placed on better security mechanism at schools is quite in order.

Signs of toxicity

In many workplaces, it is difficult for one to excel and function due to infighting, undermining, or blatant disregard for fair treatment, which is promoted by leadership. Several sources read revealed that toxicity can be identified if several people are experiencing depression, headaches, nervousness, or fear.

It is also evident when the job demands affect individuals living a balanced life or if workers feel underappreciated. Other signs cited, were that serious physical illnesses may start presenting, personal relationships begin to decay all around, and misery abounds with a deliberate effort share it.

According to Jennifer L M Gunn (2019), There are few more divisive practices than alienating staff members through poor communication. No one likes to feel uninformed, undervalued, or unheard. Top-down leadership can throw a nasty wrench into school culture and effectively dismiss the concerns, ideas, and contributions of a school's staff. In such environments, living things struggle to strive.

Survival is key

When water becomes toxic it becomes challenging for animals to survive, whether it is their natural habitat, or they depend on it to live. So it is in society. As we live amongst each other, the environment becomes toxic through words, inappropriate actions, and the ways things in which situations are dealt with improperly or with injustice. Surviving is not just staying afloat, but prospering and blooming. This does not necessarily mean getting a promotion, because in that environment promotions are not given to the qualified or hard-working, but to those who will play the game.

Breathing in toxic water is about you not losing your sense of self, guarding your joy and peace of mind. It is not easy, because toxic waters are set to destroy; but it is imperative that you are in a state of catch and release. This means to be in a state in which you are prepared to quickly release those who offend you or perpetuate the cycle of toxicity.

One way in which people may function is to be careful of your associations. If you associate with negative people it's inevitable that your mindset will begin to change from having hope to becoming a pessimist. It can tamper with your joy as you ingest the negative juices being spewed out.

Psychologist Nicole Martinez recommends the maintenance of a positive mindset. Another strategy is to find outside sources of motivations. Get involved in environments that will validate you, keep you grounded, remind you of who you are and what you are about. It's a place where you find encouragement, strength and refreshment.

Sometimes it's within a group, like the church. Many have found that the Word of God and the people of God have provided that atmosphere. Taking your vacation days and department leave, as well as learning a new skill for personal development or to facilitate job change can be helpful. Institutional leaders can facilitate staff growth and development through much professional development workshops focusing on building staff morale, staff recognition functions, and managing how promotions are attained. Additionally, organisations can design or adapt staff incentive programmes to inspire staff, which will have a positive impact on production. It is important to know that survival is of utmost importance and it is in your hands to live. Breathe!

Andrea Palmer-Richards is a senior lecturer at Sam Sharpe Teachers' College. Send comments to the Jamaica Observer or andrea.richards@samsharpe.edu.jm.

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Breathing above the toxic environment - Jamaica Observer

Published 21 February 2020

Martin Mackay extolls the benefits of working in the Highlands.

Theres a common misconception that having a thriving career in law means you have to work in a large city such as London or Edinburgh.

Having left a firm in Edinburgh to practise law in the Highlands over 20 years ago, I can confirm that simply isnt the case.

In fact, Ive listed five reasons why its a great place to develop your career as a lawyer.

The scope of work

Being involved in client work that is exciting, challenging and innovative is what every ambitious lawyer enjoys. Whats currently happening in the Highlands presents potential opportunities for lawyers to apply their skills and develop their careers.

5G roll-out for Inverness, development of the UKs first spaceport, the duelling of the A9 and A96, housing developments, investment in tourist attractions and accommodation, renewables contracts, decommissioning work, the buying and selling of land farms and estates as well as multimillion projects to transform the regions ports and harbours.and thats just for starters.

Theres a huge volume and variety of interesting activities underway - all of which require legal advice, whether that extends to private client, corporate matters, real estate or a specific industry/ area of expertise.

Connectivity

Living and working in the Highlands doesnt mean youre cut off from the rest of the country far from it. Youre only a video call, phone call or email away and if youre attending a client meeting or team session in another part of Scotland or further afield, strong transport links nearby give you the option of travelling in person by air, train or road.

Being part of Scotlands largest firm also means you have colleagues to provide support whenever required, so if youre working on a project that requires strength in numbers, cross-team collaboration, or specific expertise, you can rely on people across the firm, regardless of location, to become involved.

A great way of life

Being in a big city where the pace of life can be frantic often lends itself to higher stress levels and studies have shown that living in a rural area is associated with higher levels of wellbeing and life satisfaction.

On a day-to-day basis, the commute to work is a far cry from the noise and bustle of a crowded city who wants to see grey buildings and roadworks when you can enjoy views of mountain tops and the open countryside?

The countryside surrounding the office provides a great escape for lunchtime walks, which a few of my colleagues do regularly, and I personally enjoy being out and about meeting clients at their place of work - another opportunity to enjoy the beautiful area we live in.

Activity-filled weekends and evenings

At the end of a busy week, or during the long summer evenings you wont be short of things to do.

Inverness is a thriving hub of shops, and together with the wider local area has a multitude of cafes, restaurants and bars and there are high profile events including festivals and concerts frequently hosted in the area.

If youre an outdoors person, youre in the best place. The Highlands and North Coast 500 are consistently ranked among the top ten places to visit or experience, so theres plenty to explore whether youre a Munro bagger, camper or water sports/ski/snowboarding enthusiast.

For sports, the region is full of community organisations and clubs, plus two professional football teams, rugby clubs and world-class golf courses, so you wont be short of activities to fill your spare time.

Career and personal development

In addition to the technical side of the job, working in the Highlands offers the chance build strong links directly with clients, their businesses and advisers. There are lots of networking opportunities, supported by the likes of Inverness Chamber of Commerce, Highlands & Islands Enterprise and various local organisations. Theres also a strong focus on sharing knowledge and recognising achievements, through seminars, workshops and award programmes.

Martin Mackay is a consultant at Brodies LLP

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Martin Mackay: Five reasons to work in law in the Highlands - Scottish Legal News

Apparently there is a television show on Netflix called Sex Education. According to the BBC, it was reportedly watched by 40 million households in the first few weeks. I havent seen it and do not intend to, but the hype surrounding it is indicative of where popular culture is right now.

Anything with the word sex in it is going to get a disproportionate amount of attention. Nothing new there. People often accuse the Church of being obsessed with sex, as if that were all her moral teaching was about.

The Churchs vision for authentic human sexuality (not just the sexual act) is an important foundation upon which questions about life and love rest. As St John Paul taught, the male-female relationship is the deepest substratum of human ethics and culture. Thus, he proclaimed, Human life is by its nature co-educational and its dignity as well as its balance depends, at every moment of history and in every place of geographical longitude and latitude, on who she will be for him and he for her.

I am always struck by this co-educational aspect of moral formation, because it means that whatever our state in life married (with or without children), single, ordained or consecrated religious we are all called to human flourishing through life-enriching relationships.

From this September schools across England will have to teach what the Department for Education (DfE) now calls RSHE: Relationships, Sex and Health Education. Even though the DfE has been at pains to say there is no legal obligation upon primary schools to teach sex education, there has been a great deal of focus in the media on the impact this is going to have on young children.

Negatively speaking, there is no escaping the fact that many parents are nervous. There have already been some high-profile cases about the adverse and even emotionally damaging effect that some of the materials being aggressively promoted to schools are having. Social media is full of comments from parents who have been deeply distressed by some of the explicit images and language that their children have been exposed to, and how it has affected their child emotionally (to say nothing of the spiritual harm).

There is also the menacing influence of gender ideology creeping into schools and the power and influence that transgender activist groups have over public bodies. Pope Francis has been most emphatic about the dangers of this. In a speech to a gathering of the International Catholic Child Bureau in April 2014, he denounced such experimental education programmes, saying children are not guinea pigs.

One has only to consider how the new password-protected toolkit for teachers issued by the Crown Prosecution Service (under the Ministry of Justice) will guide teachers on how to police what goes on in the classroom for alleged hate crimes against transgender persons. Will this spell danger for pupils who openly declare their conviction, based on science as well as faith, that as far as gender is concerned, there is only the biological objective reality of the sex of male and female? Who knows?

The new statutory regulations from the DfE are supposed to allow schools with a religious character to teach and present issues around relationships and sexuality that conform with their doctrines and the moral, religious convictions of the families whom they serve. That being the case, what can be done from a positive perspective?

A Fertile Heart: Receiving and Giving Creative Love is a new resource for Catholic and other faith schools to assist them in the provision of RSHE. The vision is simple: to provide an inspiring and dynamic programme for the spiritual, moral, emotional and intellectual development of young people, enabling them to fully appreciate and understand whatmakes for life-enriching relationships.

The mission is creative: teaching young people that true freedom is so much more than just the mere freedom to choose; it is also the real and authentic freedom to choose well. The purpose is clear: to enable educators and parents to transmit the profound truths of the human person to children in a comprehensible, attractive and convincing way so that their desire to live by these truths grows daily. In this great endeavour we are all partners in a shared task.

A Fertile Heart is a faith-inspired programme of study that offers schools (especially those with a strong Christian identity), a new way of approaching RSHE that invites teachers and pupils to explore together the big questions of life. These include: what does it means to be human; why does sexual difference matter; and what lies at the heart of authentic personal dignity?

The content reinforces universal values of personal development, growth in character, mutual respect, love and patience.

It thus complements good Religious Education, as well as parochial catechesis of the young for the sacraments of initiation. A Fertile Heart aims to contribute to the challenge laid before us in Amoris Laetitia that there should be an education in hope within which a sound response to the need for wholesome sexuality education can take shape.

In our current climate of new demands being made on our schools, we hope that A Fertile Heart will be used alongside other recommended material. Soon online resources will range from training and orientation videos to lesson plans and PowerPoint presentations with carefully crafted guidance notes to help teachers, including those who are not specialists in RSHE or Religious Education, to share the vision with material that is more accessible. It has been developed over a three-year period with educators, schools and moral theologians.

Several bishops have given positive feedback and endorsements, including Archbishop George Stack of Cardiff, who says: A Fertile Heart is offered as an important aid to pupils, parents, teachers, governors and clergy to remind us all that We are Gods work of art, created in Christ Jesus to live the good life as from the beginning God had meant us to live it (Ephesians 2:10).

There is no denying that the whole area of RSHE is fraught with enormous challenges and tensions in the wake of relentless pressure of state imposition of progressively libertarian social policies.

Yes, times are tough and challenging for seriously minded Catholic parents and educators, but let us take courage from the words of St Thomas More, who wrote: You wouldnt abandon ship in a storm just because you couldnt control the winds.

Edmund Adamus is education consultant for fertileheart.org.uk, a new moral formation curriculum designed by Panda Press Publishing. Visit the website to become a supporter of the project, which hopes to invest profits back into continually improving resources and widening their availability. The project also hopes to establish a charitable trust to benefit credible causes connected with authentic Christian formation and evangelisation

Originally posted here:
Relationships education: there's a better way - Catholic Herald Online

1. Align your strategy with the national wellbeing agenda:Recently, the National Program for Happiness and Wellbeing announced the launch of 'Business for Wellbeing Council' - a public-private partnership that is designed to improve workplace wellbeing in the private sector. The council hosts eight top national and multinational enterprises serving across diverse sectors. These include Majid Al Futtaim Group, Landmark Group, Emirates NBD, Etihad Airways, Aldar Properties, Emirates Airlines, Unilever, and Cisco. The initiative is in line with the objectives of the National Strategy for Wellbeing, which was issued last year by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The National Program for Happiness and Wellbeing is aimed towards promoting wellness in the workspace. Creating awellness framework on the basis of the principles outlined by the UAE government can give you the right foundation to get started.

2. Create an effective recognition system: Rewards and benefits are necessary to keep employees feeling valued and appreciated. They go a long way in keeping your teams happy, which reduces the turnover rate and shows better bottom line results. With most of todays workforce today being comprising of millennials, especially in the startup ecosystem, its time to change the age-old thinking about rewards from being money, insurance and housing perks, to what is valued more. Very often, rewards arent enough to motivate and incentivize an employee. It is important to give your employees something beyond a tangible reward to show them that their efforts are being recognised. This is why you need to encourage managers and departments to recognize their employees. This could be in the form of a weekly announcement or even as simple as a company-wide e-mail.

3. Invest in training programmes: Training is an approach that yields long-term results, constantly upgrading employees to equip them with the skills they need. This technique has personal development and growth at the helm of it and will encourage employees to be more productive and happy.. Bob Moritz of PwC shares his thoughts in an article for UPS: Its also about much more than hard skills like learning new digital tools and competencies. The soft skills leadership, adaptability, how to translate feedback into measurable change are what make the short-term skills training more long lasting and transformative. People are looking to leaders to provide a trusted path forward. Leaders need to understand the needs of employees: where they want to go, what motivates them and what is going to enable them. They need to learn how to lead in fast-changing times, empower people and create a culture of lifelong learning where entrepreneurship will thrive.

Also read: The X factor of great corporate cultures

4. Emphasise on a healthy work-life balance: People today have many passions, hobbies, and extracurriculars that they care about. It may be taking music classes, learning to code in their spare time, or even just cooking. If your employees spend a lot of hours in the office office, they will either experience burnout or eventually see a drop in productivity. So ensuring that work-life balance is a priority is a must; encourage your team to explore their interests outside of work to live a more fulfilling life. It can make a world of difference to how much they value themselves and your business.

5. Promote a happier, friendlier work environment: Happy employees make a happy company. There is nothing worse than watching the hours go by until you can leave work nor see an employee who does that. Take steps to promote friendliness and fun at work and youll feel the difference in employee morale. As the boss, also try to let go of superiority and embibe humility. Itll go a long way in easing the relationship your employees have with you, and make them feel more comfortable as well as respected. A thank you and please go a long way in promoting happier emotions at work.

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Wellness in the workplace integrating initiatives that work - SME10X