Assistant Professor Victoria Ayres and students from Tennessee Tech near Nashville, USA
The work of Dumfries and Galloway Citizens Advice Service has come under scrutiny from visiting American university staff.
A group of agricultural education students and professors from Tennessee Tech University came to see for themselves how the Dumfries office of DAGCAS worked.
They were in the region from the Great Smoky Mountains to take part in a Galloway Glens community service project.
Members of the group made a stop at DAGCAS, where chief executive Phil Stewart outlined how the service is available to help all residents of the region with a wide range of issues, including benefits, debt and money, employment, health, housing, family matters and many more.
University Professor Dennis Duncan said: “I was impressed by their true passion to serve those in need in any capacity possible while keeping specific details private and confidential. Another important factor is that there is no fee for the service.”
Third-year student Jessica Delong added, “It doesn’t matter where you come from, when you walk through the doors, help is there for you.”
Tennesse Tech has around 10,000 students and offers degrees from eight academic schools and colleges – Agriculture and Human Ecology, Arts and Sciences, Business, Education, Engineering, Fine Arts, Interdisciplinary Studies, and Nursing.
Mr Stewart said: “It was great to meet Dennis, his colleague Victoria Ayres and some of the students to give them an overview of all the great work we undertake across the region.
“It was interesting to hear from them how our work correlated to similar work in their home cities and to hear about their studies and career ambitions.”
