You're welcome. Okay. Can I get the front? Yeah. You guys good? All right. Um, we are going to call the uh community relations commission meeting to order and start with a roll call. Present present. Present. Present. Thank you. The next thing we're going to move to, do we have any members of the public who wish to speak to the commission? With that in mind, then we will move to our panel discussion. Uh, first I want to thank the panel for joining us tonight. Um, you all receive some questions in advance uh from myself and our commissioners out here will also ask some additional questions just to give you an understanding of the community relations commission and what we're focused on. We are tasked by the mayor to really be the group that listens to the community and gives uh feedback to council on things that are happening in our community. um things that we see that need to be improved or things that we're doing really well. Um so you all have an opportunity tonight representing all of the different communities that you represent to speak on their behalf and share with us what you're seeing happen in your communities and what you would like to see as far as support from the city or again uplifting some of the things that the city is doing really well. So if you all are ready, we'll start with the panel conversation. Okay. So, I'm going to have you each kind of go through and take a few minutes to introduce yourself and the work that you're doing in the community. If you're representing an organization, that's great. Share with us about that organization and the work that they're doing. If you are here representing your own lived experience, please share that as well. Take Good afternoon. My name is Diego Baldivia. I am the director of immigrant services for the YWCA. Um, I have been there seven years and in those seven years we have grown the programs that we have that assist immigrant individuals in the community. We have also expanded our reach from serving mostly individuals in Rockford and Belvadier. So Winnebago and Bloom County to now covering eight counties in the northwestern area of the state. Uh prior to that I worked for the Rockford Housing Rockford Housing Authority for five years. I'm not from Rockford, but um I've been here a long time, so this is my home now. I'm Kelsey Rainey. I currently am at the agency on aging. Um I am in direct services for seniors and people with disabilities. Uh I've also been at RAMP in disability advocacy and direct service and then prior to that at remedies um working in shelter with survivors of family violence. Um I do want to point out that uh advocacy is kind of um a passion of mine personally as well. So uh rather than thinking of me as a representative of NIA um I would like to be a representative of the different populations that I have worked with and also you good evening everyone. Danielle Potter. I'm with the Rockford Park District. I've been with the park district for 36 years this year. Um I get to oversee pretty much um most of the recreational programs like all the facilities, all the camps, youth development, um youth programs, after school programs, arts and entertainment and all the things are in the area in which I get to serve and help help oversee. Um I'm here representing the park district, but also someone who's been a citizen of this community for 52 years. So excited to do that and happy to be here. So thank you. Hi. Hello everyone. Uh my name is Demetrius Champion. I am the CEO and founder of Champions Benchmark. Um we're a nonprofit organization helping um youth and their families. We offer programs that help with housing, employment, mentoring um youth who are in the juvenile justice system who have IEPs, things like that. We advocate for that. I am also with the Wnebago County. Um, I am the navigator for the focus deterrent program, which we help the young men reaclimate back into the community, offering some of the same services as my organization. Hi guys, my name is Olivia Ferguson. Um, I currently work for Rockford Public Schools. Um, I'm a building sub. Um, I am as well um in the LEAP program becoming a special special ed teacher in January. and I'm also the head coach of the track and field team at Auburn as well. Um, and I represent the youth. Um, I work with them day in and day out. Um, that is something that's kind of been a passion of mine even when I was in college. Um, I coach longer than I've been in um, the school district. Um, so just all around the youth is what I'm here for. Thank you all for joining us. Um, I'm going to ask a few questions. We'll just kind of go down the line. If you don't have an answer for it or if there is something that you know you're working with a specific population that does not not heard of those issues, that's okay to pass the question. So, we'll start with when you think of the city of Rockford and local government, uh this is a two-part question. What are some things that come to mind that the city is doing very well? And from your lens, what are some things that need more attention? Whoever would like to start that conversation back. Um, some of the things that I do believe the city is doing well is this actually uh bringing a more inclusive, a more diverse uh group of voices to um efforts like this. I would say um I often talk about when I first moved to Rockford in 2002 and how things have changed um I mean I was a teenager so my view was very different um and I moved away but coming back especially the last 10 years or so I've seen more changes like that where um I personally um as a Mexican person of color I would say that I feel more represented uh sometimes. Um but I think that's important. I also think that the uh the city has been um to some degree firm when it comes to speaking up about basic rights. Um has been a champion for survivors of domestic violence and put a lot of effort into those initiatives. So those are some highlights. Um I'll leave the improvement part to somebody else. Uh yeah, I I'll I'll piggyback off of that. I do really appreciate that we are um holding events like this and and the different things that I see um you know on the local news or events around the community sort of spotlighting some of the the challenges that we have um as a community. Um I also appreciate that in my day-to-day work I can I can kind of push at you all a little bit. Um, and everybody's still completely willing to talk to me the next day. Um, that is lovely. Uh, I mean, as far as what needs more attention, uh, it's a really broad question, right? There are always things that we can do better in in really every area. Um, so I I think that as long as we're keeping those things in mind and willing to continuously improve, we're on the right track. Well, what I'll say is one of our strengths of this community is our ability to collaborate. I don't think I've seen it the 50some years I've been in this community, I think we're really pressing that forward and understanding that we all bring something different to the table. Whether that's the county working with the city, the city working with the park district, the parks working with the city, school district, all the things. We can go on and on. And I also am excited to see the ability for nonprofits to have an opportunity and a seat at the table with the city park districts and all the things as well. That's been something that's been new um for those opportunities, not just for for support and infrastructure, not just for support and finances, but support across the board and being able to say, "Hey, I can get you connected with this and I can get you connected with that." But in that same breath, I will say one thing that needs improvement is to continue to do that. Let's not forget how important collaboration is, us working together because we're all serving the same people. We might do things a little differently, but I think that's part of collaboration. What I do well and what you do well is so different. So, I would just say if the city and thank you for this um commission, please continue to push that forward on how necessary collaboration is and working together in particular to to serve our community in such a vast way. There's so many different varying needs in our community and one organization and or government can't do all the things, but us working together, I think those things can be accomplished. I totally agree and would like to also piggyback a little bit. Um, this commission, this this whole panel, um, I think this is a great idea and what we're doing here. Um, I do wish that it was promoted a little bit more so that the public could be here to actually uh from that perspective. Um but I do believe that we are in the right moving in the right direction with some of our grassroots organizations. Um although I do believe a lot of these organizations are all um volunteer work like we don't have a lot of funding. We are paying out of pocket to do everything that we can. We're transporting. We're doing everything. Um and so a little bit more support in that area I think would be great. But as far as getting us all together, what we're doing at the W sports factories and bringing in employers and collaborating in that way, I think that is tremendous and I hope that it continues. Um, just for my end, I feel like I might be the youngest, I don't know, panel here. Um but just um not knowing the resources. Um I feel like that's probably one of the you know biggest things that like if I'm a teacher and I have a student going through this different things in their lives, how am I able to know those resources or give those resources to them if I don't even know it myself? Um so I would say that's probably one of the big things is just kind of um elaborating on okay we host this, we host this, we host this and that's really it. So yeah, thank you. Um, so we as a commission spent the last year talking about affordable, accessible housing and homelessness. We want to hear from you all um what you know to be true around affordable, accessible housing and homelessness for the folks that you serve. Uh that's a kind of a big question, but um I used to work for the uh Rockford Housing Authority as well as a one of the uh property managers. Um it is it is a double-edged sword. There are some resources, but once you have gotten into whatever kind of trouble, rather your teenager has had police contact or the the father of the home is now banned and that person can't come, but they are still wanting to be in the kid's life, so they're sneaking. And it's just a lot of um a lot of different things. But I know that we have MEL and Reest and things for our younger um groups who may get pregnant and not have anywhere to go, but that same thing is not really available for the male youth. Um we do have a carpenters's place and stuff, but it's very very limited and it's aggressive. Um just having to line up and and stand there all day just to be told, "No, I'm sorry. You're out of space is just I think I think we need more. We need something And um that's a big a big room for improvement for Rockford to offer some more stable housing. Even the lowincome housing is not easy. We have a small list of uh landlords that would even rent to someone who would who would qualify for that. And then if you do make this much money, then it's like, oh no, you don't qualify anymore. And they're like, wait, what? I you know what I mean? So it's it can be very very difficult for the housing situation here. I I probably also have a few things on this one. Um one thing that I do agree um on what was just said is that with the criminal background it does make it very difficult and it's one of the things that um it doesn't sometimes it doesn't matter if it If it's something that happened 10, 15 plus years ago, it really sometimes, especially in private housing, it's going to be up to the uh landlord's discretion. So, it makes it very difficult sometimes, even somebody that has had a good clean record for years, sometimes that can impact them for life. Um, so I do agree with that. through my job obviously I work with uh majority of immigrant individuals from all backgrounds. Um so the other points that I would mention would be um language access. Um there's a lot of folks in the community that would qualify for um public housing and despite despite the long wait list and everything, it's something that those groups don't know about. They don't know the that those uh services the those options exist. So it would be nice um I feel like Rockford has become even more diverse in the last few years. So beyond Spanish I would say there are quite a good amount of resources um available in Spanish but um myself for example I do a lot of translation of resources in the community in other languages um using tools. So like Swahili, French um are becoming much much more common in the community. Um so things like that. Um there is the other thing that I feel has happened that has impacted the population that I work with um is that salaries have remained mostly steady while the cost of housing has gone up um disproportionately. I feel so It makes it very difficult with the immigrant community. You will, it's super common to see um a household of a lot of individuals sharing a home. Um not always by choice, more out of need. So, I feel like although that sometimes contributes to not seeing that homelessness that maybe we see in bigger cities, um I'm sure that that also brings about domestic violence and other situations. So um probably hopefully more initiatives when it comes to housing in general. Okay. So we don't have enough affordable accessible housing, right? Um the affordable accessible housing that we do have is not not always perceived to be safe by the individuals that are living there. Um accessibility is more than things, right? So, like it's great that we've got a wheelchair ramp out front and it's great that we have an elevator, but like can somebody who's deaf understand the posting that you have given them that says you're going to come and inspect their apartment because uh English, written English is not their first language. Um, do people understand that they have the right to appeal denials of housing? Do they have somebody that they can go to to safely ask questions, policy questions? Um, all of these things are incredibly important. Uh I have seen a lot of cases just personally where somebody would have lost their housing. Them and their children would have been homeless if they hadn't known me and I hadn't known the right person to ask. Um that's not acceptable. It's it's not um we could also get into accessible resources for people who are unhoused. Um, can can somebody go to one of the shelters that we have and find it to be accessible to them? Um, can a member of the LGBTQ population, I A+, not forgetting all of our friends, um, go to one of the shelters or homeless resources that we have and be safe and be served. Um, what are we doing about things like this? I have been in that position personally. Um, and not everybody is as well prepared to handle things like that. Um, not everybody is prepared to understand the the legal language behind the paperwork and behind their personal rights. Um, and not everybody is going to be feel safe advocating for themselves. So, what do we do about things like that? um I guess is uh the big question from my perspective. I don't really have a lot of background and I know there's a need for additional housing, but I was I would challenge us to consider the housing and the apartments and the complexes and the places and spaces that we do have, the safety of the walkability and what they look like and how and the perception of of how people feel about how my neighborhood is treated, you know, and I know the city has done a a better job last seven, eight years or so of identifying neighborhoods that needed additional TLC, some love and attention. ion when it comes to landscaping because you know there's this expectation that our young people should act a certain way be a certain way care about their environment sustainability be beautifification but if I'm walking through a neighborhood and my neighborhood looks like this but you expect me to have a this kind of behavior that doesn't match so just the conversations that I have with young people and what I see you know we have a community center as far west as you can go at park community center and it's a beautiful community center it's a light in the neighborhood but some of the area around the neighborhood could could see some improvement. Now, we've had some improvement. Don't don't I'm not saying that, but the continued need of partnership and understanding the improvement and walking I mean that when you're coming from Auburn going to uh I'm getting a little sidetracked, but if you're coming from Auburn and Kennedy and you have to walk the Concord, there's not sidewalks to get you all the way there. So when you talk about accessibility and so yeah a need affordable housing will continue to be a need in our community and continue um just based on where people are financially but also considering what our neighborhoods and what our houses what our apartment what our complexes look like now for the people who are living in them now and what can we do to ensure that they are safe and people are feeling good about where they walk where they come from and the park is a part of that too. you're walking down the street, you have a park, our park needs to be safe. All the things need to connect the dots. The 1 plus one equals two for people to feel safe in the communities and the areas in which they're at. So, that's just my little take on the little stuff that I know. If if if I could add something to that, too, because um you bring up a really good point as far as walkability. So, like we can give somebody a beautiful, affordable, accessible apartment out in the middle of nowhere and if they can't get to the grocery store because there's no transportation and they don't drive, it's not going to do them any good, right? So, we really do have to kind of think about all of those pieces put together. I'll pass. Can I just add one just really quick just so because um Daniel are totally right about sidewalk to but I believe it's coming this summer. We have one more um piece of property to get through eminent domain and we will be um that's a major project for the summer but um yes they uh we've taken down 3600 West State which was a big property in front um and we're cleaning that all up making green space a lot of great sight lines so kids can feel safe and then we're putting in the sidewalk here this summer appreciate that. Yeah I heard the work was coming because for the last like four or five years I'm like I know there was a grant or some money attached and we hadn't gotten it but I'm like what are we going to do? what we're going to do only because I'm in the area. I live not too far from Auburn High School and you literally if after school you'll see Auburn and Kney students, a hundred of them walking in the street and they're not trying to be destructive or disruptive but the perception is it looks that way. It's just because there's no sidewalks and the walkability is horrible. So, thank you. Whenever our panelists have other thoughts, I'm going to turn the questions over to our commission because we spent so much time working on housing in the last year that I I'm sure some of us have some questions. Um, and I guess Kelsey, I have a followup for you. So, I know you posed this as a question, right? In your experience, what are the folks that you're serving going through if they are unhoused and are a part of a marginalized community where it's not accessible for them to access those services? What when you say that they're not, what does that look like for them? Uh, do you mean um like homeless resources? Yeah. So, if someone's unhoused and they're trying to access one of the homeless resources that exist in our community, what's that look like? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, it's different for everybody, right? Like we could start off by talking about mental illness. Uh, somebody who is, you know, somebody who has a mental illness, right, might experience completely different communication barriers um than somebody with a different sort of disability or somebody with a language barrier. Um it it so there have been lots of times when I have said to somebody you know like you can go and utilize this specific resource and they will come back to me and say actually no I can't um because they don't trust me to be able to to walk around and take care of myself because I'm visually impaired. It's a liability for them. So what's that person supposed to do now? Um or if if someone is deaf and they are seeking shelter and they show up um they can't just show up and like hope that there's somebody else there who uses ASL, right? Um so that they can communicate their situation. They can't sit in classes being taught by hearing people all day and be expected to absorb any sort of information. Um, I have had people who have told me, "Nope, I would rather sleep outside than go through some of these really demeaning things I've had to go through in the past." Um, and like that hurts me, right? Like if if I went to seek some of those same services and resources, I wouldn't experience anywhere near those sorts of barriers. And I think that we would do well as a community to think more about the fact that just because you can't see somebody's disability doesn't mean there and accessibility is a lot more than physical barriers. Did I answer your question? Yes. Thank you. Commission, I know we've spent a lot of time on housing. I want to pause here. Do you all have questions related to housing that you wanted to pose to the panelist? I I have one. Um because um we spent a year talking to representatives of lots of different groups and the one I don't think we really addressed much was aging. So we have a representative that works with aging here. um uh what is the housing situation for for aging populace? So, so we do have quite a few um like buildings or housing resources aimed at folks who are 55 plus disabled. Um they're not particularly easy to apply for. Um they do not come open uh super often. Uh but they are there. Um, I think that there are a lot of housing resources that we really could utilize a lot more as a community. Lots of things that I have, you know, found out just in years of of kind of doing some of this work that um I had no idea existed, right? Uh, I think also that it can really help some people because, okay, so you're working with somebody who is 85 um, and they didn't grow up with smartphones and the internet and things like that and you're telling them, "Okay, uh, go online and fill out this application." Well, like what if they don't know how though? Like what if what if things like that are intimidating? What if they're afraid to push the wrong button and get their identity stolen? Because we hear so many different horror stories about social security scams and and and fraud against seniors. Um so they're there, but they're hard to get to. Um once people get to them, you know, they they tend to be content in in most cases. Um but then you've got redetermination processes and you know add documents that people have to get. Um, you know, you've got to report your new income every single year and you can't get through to anybody on the phone with social security to get your benefit letter and you can't just walk into the office anymore. And so, you've got to do all of these things online and and all of a sudden it becomes uh sort of a really high mountain to climb. So, um I don't know what we can can do to make these things easier for the people that they are intended for to get to. Sort of a follow up that aimed at all of the panelists. I know uh we've seen a lot of changes in Washington over the last uh few months and um a lot of federal grant programs are disappearing or being locked up or um canled, postponed indefinitely. Uh how is that impacting your programs and your communities? Um and give us a little of what you see in the future because a lot of the impacts haven't hit yet I can share park district we're we haven't been impacted up until this point we have we have quite a few state grants so just you guys know we get ICA which helps us do quite a bit of programming we do get a youth employment grant which helps us hire 60 to 70 um young people between ages 16 and 24 and we get teen reach but how those have not impacted been impacting the work that we continue to get to do. But again, you know, when federal dollars come into state and then how state distributes that that could that could all change, but as of today, we haven't been impacted in such a way where we're worried about services being taken away from the young people that the park district gets to serve. But great question. as as as far as the agency on aging goes. Um majority of our services are state funed. Um there's a lot of uncertainty, but we're going to do our absolute best and so are our grantees. We serve nine counties, by the way. Um to continue serving all of the folks that we have the same way that we always have. Um there is a lot of fear uh uncertainty over you know what's going to happen to folks Medicaid and SNAP and their social security benefits and things like that but um we're just kind of trying to do our best to be reassuring like we're all in this together um and we're not going anywhere. So it's a similar situation for our programs. So the YWCA does have a lot of programs and then the funding sources vary. I would say the majority are state funds as well. Uh the main change or the main thing for us is uh we didn't see any increases. Um mostly it's steady which all things considered is a good thing but the cost of living keeps going up and things like that. So it makes it a little bit tighter, more challenging to manage those budgets and deliver the same amount of services. Uh same thing there is a lot of uncertainty. So sometimes it makes it tough to keep a whole team going and reassuring that things are going to be fine. I mean I don't know that myself but uh will be and then same for RPS. Um I don't know of any job cuts or anything like that happening. Um, I think we're still getting the same type of funding and all that stuff. Um, we are up for a new contract um, in the summertime. So, I think we're all kind of waiting on that to see if we get a pay increase or what the case may be. So, yeah. And on the county side, we haven't saw we haven't seen any cuts um that has affected the programming that I am uh, in involved in. Um, but I do know that there was some, um, but I'm not entirely sure which organizations may be affected by that. Um, I haven't heard anything back. It's kind of like just a wait and see type thing right now. Um but you know we've been looking for more funding for the economic barrier here for the um just for jobs and child care and like like uh the other panelist said just having access to the internet and understanding how to use it because you can be an elder who has never grown up with it or you can be someone who has been incarcerated for the past 10 years and haven't had the the knowledge of what's the new app and how to do this and that. So, that is something that we've been looking at pretty closely. Um, but what what what I was most worried about is the mass transit system. Um, you know, I know that there are a lot of things going on with housing. I know they're um they have like LifeCape that comes in that helps the elderly. Um, I was working at the North Main and Olsen Plaza where there's mostly uh elders, but with the displacement of like Janet Waldles and things, there's a lot of mental health and young people in these buildings now who are kind of thrown off these elders and um and it's a it's a huge problem. But I do know that Rockford Housing Authority does have a lot of resources and programs in place to try to help that and offset that. rather it's helping with the paperwork and things like that. Um but with the youth like I partnered a couple years ago with YMCA and um they have a teen program there where they were offering the teenagers all summer you can come here for free you just got to take this class and da da da and it was great but there's no bus so they can get there but they can't get home and it's like if the parents are not there to pick them up then it it was just a huge problem Yes, this program can be hugely successful, but every time we get people to come in, 10, 20 kids at a time, half of them have dropped out of the program because they can't get home. And it's just little things like that. And not only the YMCA, the the bus not going there after 6:00 p.m. It's other things like all these jobs and stuff. We do have uh like Rockford, it looks like Rockford. I was born and raised here, but I left a little bit to raise my uh boys in a safer area. But anyway, I've come back to to get to attempt to try to help Rockford resemble what it was when I was younger. So, um a lot of the jobs and things that have come here, there's no transport there. So, if you have someone who doesn't have a car and yes, I can help you get a 30-day pass, but you still can't get to work. So, it's it we we got a little ways to go. I know we are all working hard to try to get there. And uh like one of the other panelists said, and just keeping the information flowing, knowing what's out here, what programs are available, I think that would be really helpful. Can I just a followup comment? Absolutely. I I raised the question because uh one of our panelists from last year, Sarah Parker, sent out an email uh earlier this week to the shelter care board and the supportive communities that the FEMA grants that fund uh lunches at the Jubilee Center uh are on uh potentially permanent hold uh and asking for uh donations to cover that shortfall. uh and shelter care is also very concerned about the HUD funding for emergency supportive housing and uh permanent supportive housing continue even through this year and beyond. Yeah, I think that's the I just want to echo like that's part of and I and a couple of you said it in different ways too where that's it's the unevenness of this, right? like where the state is holding some gaps for some of us, but you mentioned like SNAP or um some of the other benefit programs, they're starting to see some of these where they're impounding funds or they're doing weird stuff with it. And you know, it wasn't a budget, it was a continuing resolution. So they the federal government left themselves this weird power in this in between. So the state's keeping some things alive, but we don't know how long the state can do that if beyond the CR like things get cut. So I think that's one of the and I just wanted to call out because a number of you said that like this part's fine, but we're noticing for all of the people we're serving, they're starting to lose lunch, they're starting to lose their groceries, they're starting to lose some of these other these other things. And that's that's a it's like this seeping in that's happening right now. We haven't had the the broadstroke freeze yet, but like it just makes you feel like something's coming all of the time. So, I saw heard on NPR on the way over here that the administration announced today the cancellation of all of the uh school district grant money even for projects that have been completed and not reimbursed yet, which is going to drop a big deal. huge. I I wanted to follow up. Um a couple of you a couple of the panels mentioned the issue of being, you know, grateful that you have an audience that we provided an audience for you, but that there needs to be greater promotion of the community relations commission as a place where people could be heard. And then that also tied in with um with what I think you said Olivia which is which is awareness of resources. So these are all you know kind of point to issues with communication with your clients with the populations you serve and I wondered if you could give us an insight into how again your clients your population are accessing information and what are good ways to reach them. Um, I guess for us in the school district, um, principles, counselors, um, because they kind of they they're the ones that if a student does go through things, they're the ones that are trying to figure out what what we're doing next for these kids. Um, the MTSS groups, um, they deal with the kids' behaviors. Um, we had a a freshman, she came up pregnant, and they were that kind of group to help her get donations for clothes, diapers, um, her seats. They were those people that were like, "Okay, we're going to have a plan." Cuz she had nothing at all. So, I would say those kind of groups for school districts. As far as my uh the community that we serve here in uh Rockford and Wnebago County, um there's I I am the point person. So, anything that I see that could be helpful, I will attend. I will grab flyers. I will take them to other places where I know um some of our population will be. I will everything is almost word of mouth only because a lot of it is not like like you said is just we don't know. But once I find something out and then of course I'm using the the normal uh United Way like the 211 and all of those resources and then I just try to keep a bank of it and and reach out. Hey, if you got events going on, let me know. let me send me this, send me that. But I if I wasn't doing that, no, no one would know about anything. So, it's just that one. You need somebody. Every organization, everybody just needs at least one point person that's trying to keep up that's getting on these committees and panels and doing the collaborating and coming together when they're having the big events and networking. So, that's that's basically the only way that I am really getting this kind of information and getting it out. collaboration is super important in what so many of us do. Um, and if you don't know the right people, you don't always get the information right. Um, so I mean, I've gotten into a lot of stuff and uh I try to always send it out to everyone. Um, you know, all of my professional contacts, please pass this on. Please post this in your building. Um, I've hoofed it. I live in Belvadier. I'm from Rockford, but I live in Belvadier now. Um, and I've hoofed it around Belvadier just like posting flyers in grocery stores and in the library. Um, a lot of the times if we're wanting to get information to clients, people that I've served in the past, um, it's going to be word of mouth, and it's mostly going to be word of mouth from somebody that that people trust. Um, so anytime I've got something coming up and I'm like, "Hey, I think this would be really good for a lot of people." Um, pretty much just kind of screaming it from the rooftops. People don't read mass emails. They don't read text messages. Um, so I think that's really the best way. We have a few avenues I would say. Uh one that we started using a lot would be social media, more specifically Facebook just because um it seemed to be the one platform where there was a wider uh age bracket that were using it and so it was also one of the easiest where the mouth was the other one but to the point where like I personally became a little bit obsessive telling people to follow us on Facebook, promoting it at every event, any workshop, any we had I was say well if you want to get updates and through our Facebook page we share a lot of the resources whether they come um from the city from the county you name it any agencies we try to follow them to share as many resources as possible um we do some translation for that so that we can post with some captions um translated in Spanish typically uh we also do outreach outreach events uh networking. We post about our services, but to be able to share the most amount of information even coming from other agencies, I would say social media specifically. That's that's a really good point. Like having things available in other languages for people. We have someone at NIA who is um she speaks like four or five languages. She's amazing. Um and she regularly outreach events for for different groups within the community and people come and they bring their friends and they bring their neighbors and they bring people from their church. Um, and that's really amazing and important. Any other questions from the commissioners? U just an observation to put it in before I forget because I hear from you all and I've heard this from a lot of other panelists uh even though maybe they work in the same field and they know each other but word of mouth seems to be you know who you know gets what gets done and I don't have a solution to this but I I have voiced it uh more on more than one occasion that if there were a way to have some sort of central repository of information. Who does what? An online help desk as it were. So, if someone comes to you and has an issue that you don't service, how do you find out who to send them to to service? Is that something that would be beneficial? Do do y'all know about Rackme? Pardon? The the the Rockford area case management initiative. There you go. Yeah. So, we do a lot of that there. Um, I help facilitate some of their events and do some of their case management training and things like that. And a huge part of what we do is we're sharing resources, we're troubleshooting, we're networking. All of the events are free. Um, anybody who, you know, is a professional or a member of the public who wants to come can come on over. Um, we're holding another May 20th, I think, but this has been going on for years and years. Um and and I think that obviously not all of us have time to get out to events like this, right? But um if if we had more opportunity to kind of connect with each other um and and share information and resources at some of these larger events, um a a lot of those things could be really valuable learning opportunities. Do do you do like a PSA press release? Yeah. Yeah, we have right links. Uh we we put out press, there's a mailing list. Uh I promote personally on my LinkedIn and and and things of that nature. So very complex issue. I'm going to insist a little bit on social media. Um I'm going to say sometimes there's very very information or programs on the agency's websites, but not many people know about them. I'm a professional that works finding resources. We've created our own resource lists uh in different categories and yet I I will go to the health department website and find something and I'm like I didn't know they had this service. So maybe taking the time to promote those underutilized programs or services and put them on social media just did you know type of message and advertise those things that maybe are sitting there and are being underutilized. But would this also help like putting it on Rockford's like main page? Like let's start instead of having a Facebook for this one, a Facebook page for that one, a Facebook page for this one. Let's put it all on Rockford. Um like you know if you type in Rockford, Illinois, and then you guys have a main page and it's like programs for mental health, programs for homeless, programs for drug use. I feel like that could probably be something really beneficial. You you guys or whoever kind of talk to these programs and say, "Let's get information from you guys so we can start advocating for these and and getting it out to the community." I think that would probably help just as I'm sitting here talking to you guys. I think just to have a main resource because I kind of get what you were saying. Just to have a main spot for everything instead of different things I think would be a lot easier. I think the city of Rockford has that. It does. Their their website is not very user friendly. Just put that out there. But it is it is a agreed. You can say that a little louder. We'll get that out of the court. We need a little update. Yes. I've been utilizing um the workforce connection and Goodwill and Rock Valley for a lot of the programs that I may not be able to service directly. Um and then we just try to collab with them and stay on their mailing list. they have compounded a lot of organizations where they do a monthly um thing where if you're having events or if something's going on. So that's the that's one of the major ways that I've been staying in touch with uh things and I do utilize the city like I said the city of Rockford's page and I just you know I just grit my teeth and figure try to figure out what I can but so if the page was a little bit more user friendly I think that would be a great idea to just like start compounding some of this stuff right there in in that. So sort of on the back end too and I'm sure a lot of people have heard a lot about this. It's kind of like people are sick of hearing about it. But um a really what I think could be a really powerful and valuable tool that we've been working on is Iris. Um it it if you don't want to accept referrals through it, if you don't want to make referrals through it, there's still the ability to go there to look at the organizations and the resources and the programs, get information, filter by what you're looking for specifically age groups, whether somebody has insurance. Um, it it's all there. Um, no, it shouldn't. Even Yes, absolutely. Because I I totally have submitted. I've been waiting, waiting. It's been weeks and weeks. I'm like, okay, well, I would like to receive referrals and things. Many of us would, but makes it very not it's not easy. I'm really glad that you said that. I would love if you would email me about that if I can help you get that moving quicker. I promise. Yes. Yeah. And um I think that this Well, we did our job tonight. I think I think that this conversation also kind of spotlights like it's who you know, right? Yes. So, are we still on housing or we have we moved to we can wherever you'd like to go? No, I have I have something on housing, but it's kind of a gear shift. Um, so I'll have to clutch out slowly, but how about uh how does discrimination fit into affordable housing? Does everyone understand what's considered discrimination in affordable housing? Like is everyone familiar with the Fair Housing Act? Uh, is everybody familiar with um accessibility standards when it comes to affordable housing? If we don't understand these things, um, we don't understand what our rights are as a person utilizing these services and we don't understand when we are discriminating against someone if we don't understand. So I ran into this recently with my own child. Um I had to to to fight her apartment manager on some things. Um and if if you're in the business of affordable housing, um you should be in the business of fair housing. Um, and I think until we're regularly making a practice of training all of our staff and making sure that they understand these things or know who they can ask about them, um, it's not going to stop. I've seen a lot of discrimination in housing just just by having a voucher and having several landlords just turn you away because, oh, no, you have a voucher. So, the stigma that comes with that, you have a lot of kids, you might tear up my place or something like that. It's um and it's it's even beyond color. It doesn't matter uh the color. Just the fact that you are low income and you have this voucher. It's it's uh it's atrocious. But this is not just a Rockford issue. This I've seen this from all through Wisconsin, all through Illinois. So, I um I don't know. I don't have answers. You just keep going. until you find someone who trusts you enough to rent to you and you're just couch to couch until then. It's a conversation that is definitely worth bringing to those areas, to those places. Uh it happens. It's there. Um things that I heard in my time with housing, for example, was like, "Well, this person is approved. they're just probably not a good fit for this property because you know uh they wouldn't fit in well there. So that means that there's notions there biases and ideas that people have already and with if they continue practices like that then you're always going to have this one place that is problematic because you keep using or yeah using this criteria unofficially you know to put people in certain places just because you have those ideas to to Kelsey's question comments Um I me me personally um I I could know the rules better, but um this commission, the community relations commission that we're at tonight is the body charged with enforcement of the fair housing ordinances in the city of Rockford. So if there are particular issues you think we need to hear about now or going forward, this is the place. I think it would be good to like really emphasize more if there was a way to do that that new source of income law. Somebody can't be turned down. Well, and it's not even new anymore, right? But we're still um somebody can't be turned down because of the source of their income, whether it be social security, whether it be a section 8 voucher, um you know, VASH, whatever the case may be. I think if more people understood that, number one, that landlords aren't allowed to tell them no for that reason, right? Um and number two, that you're not allowed to tell a potential tenant no for that reason. um things would be a lot smoother. Uh I I I hear from a lot of people like, "Well, what if people won't rent to me because I've got this voucher?" Well, they have to. Like, they cannot rent to you for another legitimate reason, but they can't say, "No, I don't take a voucher." Um outside of like low-inccome tax properties and things like that. But, um even if that happens, who do they tell about it, right? Who holds the people with the housing accountable for these things? I don't know. How would we make a complaint? Because I'm sure I have at least 50 people who would like to make a complaint. We actually just um updated the website for the community relations commission and we have an email address now for our CRC. Um, so if you have complaints, questions, concerns, anything like that, you can email um the CRC and that email does go out to all of our commissioners and also city staff that staff the commission. So that's going to be myself and attorney um John Witch will also receive those emails as well. So, those are things that we would love to hear about so that the commission can address those concerns and make recommendations to city staff on what needs to be done to resolve those issues for you guys or for for our community. And just to kind of echo um a few of the comments that I'm hearing when it comes to housing, I was in housing for a long time um before I came to the city. I think it goes a lot farther too. There's I there needs to be complete reform. When I was in housing, you you're right. You can't turn down for the source of income, but you can turn down for credit score. If that source of income isn't three times the monthly rent, so if their rent's $1,000, in order to qualify for the unit, you have to make $3,000 a month. So, there's things like that. And I mean, that's a good rule of thumb, right? Even in public housing, you can't be charged more than 30% of your income because that the math, that's what you can afford, right? you shouldn't be paying more than 30% of your income for housing. Um it seems like a good rule on paper to have, but it also I think unfortunately results in discrimination um when we have credit scores and um that three times the amount of income and things like that in place. I can't tell you the amount of people that I had to turn away because they didn't meet one of those two requirements. It's a really sad and hard conversation to have. Um, but it happens I think a lot more than any of us realize and unfortunately like I said it's it does result in discrimination sometimes. Any other thoughts from the commission before we move on to the next question? Not a thought but it it is the question I was leading sure and uh I want to first of all thank you panelists for raising the topic of collaboration. Um, we understand that it's a very complex environment out there with public sector, private sector, multiple jurisdictions, city, county, park district, school district, RMTD, there all these different governing bodies. Um, but we're sitting here in city council chambers and talking the place we can most influence is the city of Rockford government. So, I'd like to your thoughts on the interaction of your communities with the city of Rockford staff, with police, with fire, with building codes, water, those departments that directly report to the city of Rockford. Does your community feel safe? Um, does your community feel served by the city of Rford staff? Y'all got to do something about your phone lines. like your community action phone lines. I can't even get through most of the time. Uh so somebody's in a crisis situation and they go, "Ah, oh my god, my furnace doesn't work. I'm completely homeless. I'm about to be evicted. I'm this thing or that thing. My electric's going to get cut off. Oh, we'll call this crisis number." And then nobody ever answers or it's busy or call can't be completed. Uh so something needs to happen with with that because it's not it's not sustainable. People can't get through. They're If somebody at the same time is trying to maintain employment while all of these crisis situations are happening, how do they have time to sit there for hours and call repeatedly and then they show up down at the office and get turned away? No, you have to call. You have to make an appointment. Sorry. Or the person they happen to get on the phone doesn't know exactly what programs Community Action is running and people are told that that doesn't exist. So, something needs to happen with that. I am working directly with uh Rockford Police Department as well as probation, parole, um all of these different entities. We I'm recently on the panel for a task and they're doing a well they're they're attempting to start a program here that's going to um help with the CCRT with getting the the right response for the right issue. So, someone whose mental health instead of just having the police come out, call CCRT and they'll come out as well. But it's not it's not a smooth uh process. I' I've actually had to call them before and it's um number one, they don't answer the phone after 5:00 p.m. And I don't know if you know, but a lot of stuff happens in Rockford after 5:00 p.m. Um and then it was kind of like the buck. Well, let's talk to Rose Crays. Let's talk to this. Let's But at the time, there is a situation actively happening, a crisis where we need help because maybe this teenager could become violent, but it's not because they're a criminal. It's because of a mental issue. And so, it's it's being spoke about. There's a lot of uh entities and different organizations here in Rockford looking at this. I don't see they're try they're attempting to implement it. It's just not it's just not smooth yet. So, they have to iron out some things and um I believe they're going in the right direction to get that done. I just hope it's sooner rather than later. for the communities that I serve. Uh, one of the main things to mention is there's probably going to be very significant cultural differences. So, a piece that we have made or a priority is education especially for new arrivals, newcomers, whether it's to the country or just to the community. So, there's a lot of uh education that we push that we have tried to make a make a priority. Uh, we created uh workshops for new arrivals. We have created workshops in general to educate the population that we serve on things that maybe we just assume that they know or that they should know. Uh something as simple as calling 911, knowing what to say. So things like that. Um again, we try to focus on the cultural differences first. Um, for the immigrant community, and I'm going to only focus on the Hispanic community, um, because I am Hispanic. Um, culturally, there is this idea of not having expectations that if something happens to you, if I'm in a crisis, an agency or somebody's going to solve for me. They rely more on whatever support system, as limited as it may be, um, they h that they have. So they rely on things like that. If they feel comfortable enough to reach out to an agency um then they might um we have tried to figure out ways that we can um stabilize individuals and families in immediate crisis but always with the idea that they need to they or we need to look for a more permanent solution um so that they don't rely on that one system or agency. Um so for us we do that and in general the opinion I I've heard mixed. Um I suppose it depends on who they talk to and what kind of date they're having but I've heard uh very positive feedback from them going to some agencies and I've also heard uh some not as positive but generally I would say at least for the communities that we serve again um I've received some positive feedback. So, this was alluded to a little bit. I want to kind of dive a little bit deeper. Um, what are your experiences and the experiences of those that you're serving in accessing mental health in our community? Just me, I don't know of anything. No, don't see, don't know. I feel like there's nothing available whatsoever. That's just my personal opinion. Um, if I'm a teacher and I and I and I have had kids come to me saying they want to kill themselves. So, if I am that teacher and they're telling me this, how am I supposed to give them the resources for this? Like, that's a big thing. Like, when the student told me this, I almost broke down and cried. like it was devastating for a freshman in high school to say this and and and it it happened before but it stopped it he didn't do it. So it's just like that type of thing. How if this student's coming to me telling crying out for help how where do I put him to? And I feel like that is something in the district that is not talked about a lot and there's not no just nothing available. Yeah. Yeah. I have uh I have uh worked in healthc care prior to everything for over 20 years. But coming back here, I was um an employee with the National Youth Advocate Program. Being in that program, um I we had started to well, first I want to say they're all about the mental health and serving the community. they have a mobilized effort for uh crisis intervention and prevention. Um and I have learned about the grow community that helps um black men, black and brown, but it's uh predominantly male marshmallows hope and things like this. Now, I have had to use all of them. I have referred many of them. But that's the thing. Once you when you're in and when you're in Rockford and you find out about these programs and you're like, "Yeah, I got 12 people on the list that is waiting. They've been waiting at Stepping Stones and this and that, Rose Crants, all this." Um, and then we put them on their list. They become overwhelmed. There's only like two therapists and not, you know, and then the weight list is just right back to the same thing. So, yes, I do know of mental health um professionals and organizations that are in the community and willing to help the community. It's just not enough. If I could chime in just for a second just to Mr. to go back to your question about like park district relationship with the city of Rockford not so much I'm speaking from the community but if our relationship as team members at the park district is solid with community partners such as the city of Rockford then it impacts the work that we do. So I do want to share for example that we work really um closely with Jen Kachapali and her and her team and we have two of her na two of her navigators that come through to our community center at Park Community Center that are connecting our f because that's not what the park does. We do health wellness, we do recreation, and we do it well. And so we're partnering with them and they're bringing in resources to the families and connecting them to resources that are out there for the things that they need. And I just want to give a shout out. Ivy's amazing. And so we're doing that. You know, we have when it comes to our facilities, you know, we do our emergency plans and we work really closely with the fire and the police and that goes well. We do a lot of outreach. Our seizure grant part of that grant is to connect, make sure our young people are connected, safe and solid with our public servant um folks to include our police. And so when we do events, we also we invite our park police, but we also invite our city police. And so you'll see many of videos that are out there with our city police officers that are out there throwing footballs with our kids and playing basketball because those relationships are important. So I just want to double back to say those relationships that the staff have impact what we get to do in this community. And then when it comes to mental health, you know, historically when you talk about marginalized groups, it's just a hard thing. It's just like trust isn't there. One, there's not enough to your point. I don't think um um there's enough information. Well, there's enough information out there. It's just so hard. To your point, we're a very complex community. There's a lot of people and a lot of organizations and non forprofits who are doing amazing stuff, but how do you get there? And how do you let this person over here know that, let that person over here know that to be able to do that? So, I think that's to Mr. McDow, to your point, who how can we do that? We have 211, we have all these things, but clearly it's not working or it's not enough because people will continue to say they don't know, they didn't have access, they didn't know who to call and to talk to. And so I go back to how important it is that our collaborations are important and how important it is for us, the people who are doing the work, to know what the city is doing, to know what the county is doing, to know what you are doing, to know what what people are doing so we can connect the community too. We have this expectation that the community is supposed to be connected to what we have, but we need people to connect the community because trust is a thing in this community and we all know that. And so we have people who probably have trust with the community that's being served. And so we need more people like yourselves and like ourselves who are out there connecting, but the resources are tight. And how we look at mental health needs to be looked at very complex. It can't be just, you know, it's at this heightened level where somebody's schizophrenic or they don't know this. We have we're serving young people and they're experiencing a lot of different things. And I'm not going to tie trauma to everything. I mean, I know that's the word that we're using about everything. I won't tie it to that, but understanding that we have from this to this. So, we need that clinical aspect of it, but we also need people guiding that health and wellness and understanding. We want to prevent it getting to this. And so, we have to start working at a young age with our young people and helping them sort through conflict resolution, self-actualization, you know, how I feel about myself. And then community. If there's no sense of community, you don't have pride in it and you don't have pride in yourself. So, we just have to we can't just look at it as this bowl, these adults over here who are having significant. We've got our young people. I'm I'm seeing it ages five and six who are having complex things going on that need help and support and they can get that in many different ways. Whether that's recreation, whether that's clinical, whether that's, you know, with a therapist, it's all the things work and one size doesn't fit all. And I wish we could I hope that we wrap ourselves around that one size doesn't fit all for our community. Thank you. I agree with that uh 100% and also with the fact that um almost all of our resources are overwhelmed. Um so this kind of goes back to like what I was saying about the phone lines, right? like once somebody gets through to a community action staff member, it can be wonderful and and so many of their, you know, problems can be solved. I can send an email to Tiara or Chris or anybody that I work with on a regular basis and, you know, I will get help um and resources, but it's it's about getting to them. Um, and and I think that is tenfold with our mental health resources. um we're all overwhelmed. There's waiting lists everywhere. On top of that, you've got a a socioeconomic lens. On top of that, who's going to take your Medicaid? Who is going to offer you a financial assistance program? Um who is going to charge you on a sliding scale? And do you even have that money? Like I can barely afford my copay sometimes. um and and if not, who is going to direct you to the place, the person, the agency, the organization that can help with some of those things. Um I think that maybe some of our intake processes are a little bit flawed and I understand that that is because we're all very overwhelmed. Um but I don't think that everybody has the capacity to go for a walk in and wait hours and maybe not even get seen. Um, I don't think it's fair that somebody who is clearly in crisis can be told you're not in crisis enough to live here. Um, that shouldn't be the case anywhere. Um, it it you shouldn't have your mental health something that is is a such an important piece of your overall well-being. um uh threatened by a clerical error at an organization. Okay. So, um um there's a lot of things that we could do to improve in those situations. And I think that um it starts with the people who are working within the communities. It starts with cutting down on burnout and compassion fatigue and workloads. Um, and you know, making sure that the people who are out there helping um are helping in in the greatest but also healthiest for them capacity that they can. I'll just add a couple things. One, based on what um everybody has already said and just based on previous experience, I do agree. I have often thought that if you work with the public, if you're a public agency like that, you should almost require all of your staff to be trained on the basics of mental health. I myself have ended up in multiple situations uh when I was with housing where I didn't know what I was dealing with. I didn't know what I had in front of me and I ended up in very quite risky situations a few times. Um knowing that and with that experience, I have made it a priority for our team at least to be trained on that. So mental health first a day some people call it that just understanding the basic recognizing signs and things to know that you know something is maybe not right. So to at least be more mindful of your own safety that person's safety things like that and knowing what actions to what steps to take in in situations like that. Uh that is one. The second one based on again uh what we have said about the limited resources um it can be very even when agencies do have the service they might not have the staff and it's very hard to hire and find somebody so maybe exploring other options uh so some of the people that we work with which a lot of them have undergone extreme trauma and circumstances. So given the limited resources what we've done sometimes is suggest for them um like a virtual option so that sometimes they can explore on their own. So for individuals for the folks that especially um might not speak English it they would rather do virtual in their own language than having to do use a device because when you're having to tell a story of trauma or something to a device that then is going to repeat it. So that what I've seen at least is they will be much more comfortable just doing virtual as long as they can speak to somebody that um speaks their language. And then just for myself personal experience I've used virtual and that's where that idea for me came from. Um that's why I bring it forward. I just want to say real quick I think I think he's absolutely right um when it comes to the education piece of it because Champions Benchmark. We do offer that mentoring piece because not everyone is a counselor or a therapist, but if you can at least understand the signs of suicide or some kind of other trauma where you can get a professional or understand, okay, this kid might need a little bit more. But outside of that with the children who are just uh have anger issues and things. So we help we facilitate the anger management classes. But if the city could help with um just making sure that that that kind of training is there for these organizations to understand like even though like I have a ton of guys who are like I love to speak to the kids and things but you need to be able to do it appropriately where you understand okay I can go this far but I can't cross this line or whatever. You know what I mean? And I just think there is a lot of people out here who want to be able to advocate for these kids and mentor them, but the training is not there to get them ready to do that. And I think that would be tremendous, especially because a lot of our resources are exhausted and their weight lists are so long. Well, okay, if you're on the wait list for counseling for Rose Cray, but until then, go through this mentoring program that when you're feeling whatever, just like we have a 988 where they can talk sometimes, but it's good to have somebody that they can see and understand that they've been through that. So, I think that would be tremendous if that was something the city could back as well. Yeah, that's a great great point because mostly all these kids just wanted somebody to talk to and love on them. That's it. Because they not getting that at home. Like some of these parents, you just look at these kids and you look like that's I see why you are the way you are is because of who's in that house. And it's just simply just talking to them, listening to them, figuring out what is going on. And that's it takes it a long way. It takes it a long way. So the mentoring part, I think that's a big thing. Even just going into the schools, like having a little group of African-American males from the school, have a little group, let's talk, like I think that will really help a lot because there's RPS staff are already short as it is and we're already spread thin as it is. And so just to have that extra support, like she said, um yeah, I think that'll go really far for these the youth. And we used to have let's talk it out here. We used to have a lot of this stuff, but it's no longer. I was going to raise this during my commissioner report at the end of the meeting, but this seems an opportunity moment. Thank you for bringing up that issue of training. Uh I had the privilege uh three weeks ago of attending the mental health first aid training put on by the Tommy Corell Memorial Foundation. It was an excellent course. There were about 20 students in it. Uh and I would encourage uh everyone from the commission city staff to take a look at that and see if you can put that in agreed. Um city leadership all went through the mental we took a full day including the mayor um and all of a floor um like it was it was um I can't even think of the right adjective to give but it was foundational. It was it was Yeah. But but in the way that like you needed, right? Like it really prepped for a lot of what you guys are talking about. Recognizing the signs, knowing where to what how to keep yourself safe, but how to think of their safety, like the different there's just like all these beginning conversation moments that help lead and just set your brain in the right way to think it through. So absolutely agree. I think that's great training. It would be a great thing for the city to help amplify. Just to echo that, um I work with Mary and the mayor's office to help facilitate that training for um city leadership. Eventually, our goal um is to have all city staff eventually um trained in mental health first aid. I know that it's going to take a long time um to do that, but there's a plan that's being put in place for that. But speaking to that training, the Tommy Tommy Tommy Carell Tommy Carell, a lot of that training is free if you reach it's funded by the mental health board. So if your agency or if you know of an agency that you think could benefit from this training, um reach out to them. They will they have to complete so many trainings annually in order to maintain their um certificate as well. Um, I know there's city staff as well that's going to be getting trained to be trainers for this program as well. So, I think that there's going to be some really great opportunities and resources there to connect um agencies in our community with that training. Any other thoughts from the commission? Okay. I want to be respectful of your time, so we just have one more question for you. Um, we know that a lot of the folks in our community that you may be serving may be feeling less than safe right now. There's a lot going on. What are some things that you would like the city to be aware of to really push forward to make sure that we're keeping all of our residents safe and secure while they're here? Um, I would probably say for me and probably everybody else accessing of guns and all those different things going on. I feel like with the youth, the fact that they can get all types of guns and it's even they have it on Snapchat and all this, the fact that they're able to access this stuff so easily and things happen, people end up passing away, dying, and stuff like that. I think there needs to be different protocol on accessing firearms and letting them into the cities, different things. Um because it's it gets to a point where you're walking and you're looking around like what's what's going to happen? Is it going to happen in school? Is it going to happen while I'm in the grocery store? Um different things like that. So I would say that's probably one thing on my end. Um, I think for a safer Rockford, we really need to invest in prevention, uh, in education, the public health, and in community-led solutions. That's not just about policing, but about listening and just understanding exactly what's going on. Um, I have an office outside of the adult probation office and the loitering alone like if there was just and these are not none of these are youth at all but just if you're seeing this you're seeing this colle every day there's this you know do something move along keep I don't know I don't have the answers I just think that we could just a lot lot of this stuff. We see it. We We see it when we're driving. We see address that. Address what we're seeing. You know, I'm not saying go arrest everybody, but figure out what's going on. Why are they collecting here at this corner or whatever. Ask questions. At Rockford Housing, they all collect in front of the building. And I always have to go out and go, "No, you can't do that. Move." People are coming in. They're trying to go home. And if they see nine guys out here smoking and cussing, they're nervous. She's 80. She just wants to go in our apartment. So, yeah. I just think just say something. You see something, say something. And you really think like, are they really home? Yeah. Or are they trying to get extra books? Like it's like you just Yeah. No, I uh I think um going back to like if you see something, say something. Um we community could do a lot better as far as um you know making sure that the people that live here trust the people who are keeping them safe. Um if somebody sees something, they may not say something if they don't trust that they'll be safe doing that. Um if if if somebody doesn't know what's going to happen if they go to their apartment manager and and and talk to them about, you know, a neighbor that they feel is dangerous or um you know, doesn't feel that they can go to the police department and make a report because of whatever kind of retaliation, then nobody's going to say something and and and things are going to keep happening. Um, I wish that there was a solution to that that was really straightforward, but everybody is different and nobody is a cookie cutter case and nobody should be handled that way. And I think that if everybody thought more about how, you know, the people that live around us are human, um, then we could get a lot farther as far as as building some of that trust and improving things. Um, well, this is definitely not the solution to everything, but it's just a statement that I would like to make. I've said this a few times, but uh it would be nice for the city of Rockford to continue to use their platform, their social media. They have a very large reach, I would say. And oftentimes I've seen posts that I do appreciate. They make a stand. They reassure to the community that these resources are here. That's great to see. uh whether is uh people might feel more identified with certain things. Um the LGBTQ I'm going to miss some letters. So the LGBTQ community um people of color in general. So things like that, continuing to promote those services, continuing to promote um just the ideas that you are welcome here. Um I think is very important. And the second thing would be bringing resources. I know we talked a lot about that, but bringing resources to those that have the most difficult time either moving around or accessing them. Um, public housing is one of them. When we talk about mental health, just activities to do. These are individuals that sometimes it's difficult for them to move around or they have they're older, whichever the the barriers are, um, they're going to get bored or they're going to wonder, they're going to do things. So, it's just natural that they're going to try to occupy themselves in one way or another. So, hopefully the more um opportunities for them, even if that means bringing bringing some of those to them, um those are just the last the last two things. And I do think that there's a lot of initiatives and a lot of conversation conversations happening, moving in the right direction. The last thing with social media, because I do sometimes read the comments and things like that and sometimes the negative comments are from people that don't even live here anymore. I get curious and I click on their profiles and they live in a whole different state and sometimes the positive feedback is from people that are here. So those of us that are here that this is our community um and we care. Um I would just say continue to do things like this and then promote it too. If I could just add people look at safety differently. What people view as safe or unsafe is just so differently. And I would just say, you know, I'm encouraged by where we're going and what we're doing. And we need to continue to work. And I will just keep doubling down on how collaboration is so important and pouring into our young people. If you pour in young people and you teach them how to do something, no different than what we're doing with the group who's doing all the cementing in neighborhoods and areas that need it. One, they're getting mentorship. they're being taught to trade what you're doing with the with the culinary and all the things. The more we can do that that our young people are less likely to tear up things. When I find ownership in something and you teach me something, I value it. And I just I know we have a capac I know we can probably do that, but it's going to take collaboration to do it. The city can do it, the county can do it, nonforprofits, grassroots organizations, the park district, us pulling together. Um because how we view it is so differently. I mean, there's people who say the the south side of Rockford or the northwest side or the west side is so violent, but me who lives on the west side or live by Auburn, I would tell contrary to that. So, it's perception when it comes to safety. So, you know, it's just like who you're talking to and who you're listening to. I would just say we all need to keep up the good work. I'm grateful for this commission and the things that we're doing, but I will continue to say that we need to do a better job or continue to collaborate because we cannot do it alone, but with those resources and shared structures and shared ideas, um that we can we can make this community a lot better. It's rocking and rolling now. I'm happy to be here, but we can make it a lot better. So, I just want to say thank you to you all for what you do and then giving us the opportunity to come share in our little world of what's going on. So, thank you. I wanted to make a comment quickly. Um, we do have a better uh system now. I see the police are have um new technology and things and they are catching people with guns more because of the new technology they have. And um I'm not sure if one body collaborative is still in the same vein, but they had a lot they what they did was get a big database of everything that that uh that's all the organizations, churches and all that for uh resources to call and tell them, you know, I have a person that needs this. Okay, let me let me look at my database. And then they recommend people. And uh so sometimes like you said we if we don't know these things and I love the Rockford community page I look on it even it tells you if a street's closed or snows this and that you know that's that's a really good resource if you look at it and it always promotes a lot of things that they're doing and I I think it's because of lack of knowledge we perish you know and so a lot of people think that there's nothing there but if they don't know and we have to be the educators you know for our community but thank Thank you all for what you do. I want to say also thank you all for what you do, but I also want to add that you've given us some homework. Um, you've given us some homework that we've heard over the last few months that I think we need to probably come together and really think about what our answers are going to be. We've heard this repetitively in different areas. And I think they have really kind of given us more than what we probably have heard in a while because they're in actually in action every day. So I just want to thank you guys for what you do, but I thank you also for allowing us the opportunity to hear what you have to say because you are definitely some dynamic community leaders. Thank you as well. But I'd also ask you to consider something. Many of us came from seats like you're in today. Uh we need commissioners. So consider applying or if you know somebody that would be good sitting at this these tables, please consider joining us. And feel free to get that name to Eric Brown. Um because we are looking for commissioners. That is correct or anyone at this table, but especially want to make sure Eric gets it. I'll just say before we um close out, this space is always open to you all. It is always open to the folks that you are serving. We have a direct link to council and the mayor. They're listening to what's happening in this space. They're hearing what you all are bringing forward. So, encourage the folks that you're serving to come visit us. We are here once a month and wide open to the community. We're happy to have those conversations. You will see some marketing soon from the city where we are encouraging community members to come and talk to us and tell us what is happening in their world. Um, when I met with the mayor a few months ago, he said, "I'm not going to really give you a task this year for the commission. We're going to listen to the community and let the community tell you what we're working on. So that's what you're seeing with these meetings. We're meeting with you all and we had a panel last month. We are going to be responsive to the needs of the community. So send folks to come talk to us. Yes. Thank you very much. [Applause] And will you guys be sending out an email? There was information given here that I would absolutely like to look into some people that they said, "Hey, you can talk to these people." Will any of this information be sent out to us so that we can follow up? Yes. No. We do um some pretty robust minutes. So, if you'd like, we can go ahead and send those um minutes out to the group and then um we'll make sure that we tag those resources that were referenced in the discussion as well. Thank you so much. And then vice versa, if you have if you're thinking about it and think about what the information you brought or interactions that you'd like to for the commission to know about and give them opportunity to interact with your work a little bit more. Um, we're also sending emails to them of things that we know about going in the community so they can be engaged where they want to, too. Thank you, Commission. We have one more thing left on our agenda. Couple more things, but let's take a minute and we don't have to have this entire conversation tonight, but we've heard from some great panels. What are the things that are sticking out to you that we need to prioritize? I can I go first? Absolutely. I feel like we need to invite um Wnebago County Housing um by by theirselves and then Rockford Housing by theirelves. I think that's something that we really need to discuss um moving forward probably before we do anything else. I really feel like that's something that we need to What agencies again? Wnebago County Housing the housing authorities. Yes. Yeah. But on separate separate or either that one has this amount of time and the other one if we did it on the same days. I really feel like that's something that we need to talk about. Are you thinking of like a panel discussion with them or Q&A? Yes. I feel like question question answers of just because we've heard a lot. We've heard how their applications are. We've heard a lot of different things that I feel like we need to ask. Yeah. Discrimination. Yeah. I feel like there's a lot of questions that we probably should maybe ask just so we can know as the CRC of how to go and move forward. Um, I was able to even speak with somebody in regards to HUD this on Monday and satn um how we're moving forward with the diff with the with the both of them because we have those panel discussions scheduled for future in the year or later on in the year. We could utilize one of those. Maybe we do 30 minutes have one group and then 30 minutes for the next group. Um because I have a couple of ideas for that. Like I know at RHA Dwayne or not Dwayne um uh Justin Francis, he's their landlord liaison and he's been working really hard with all of the landlords in the community, educating them on um section 8 vouchers, all of those types of things. So, if you'd like, I can work on um scheduling that or even could we go to a higher level and see if either one of the like Alan or Laura would come in and just talk to because there's some questions that I'm sure we all would like to know that maybe he can't answer. I think we could get both of them in here. Okay. If we give them enough notice. I I know Laura's been here before. I know Allan's been here before. Yeah. So, I think we could get them both. and and only because if we listen if we go back over the months that we've talked about housing that is one of the big things that we've heard is our housing and just some of the criterias or some of the things that they have to go through or and there's things that I didn't know that I heard in the last few months and I think those are some of the things that maybe we all as a commission need to ask a little bit more questions. Do you think it would make sense um to have it in one night like 30 minutes and 30 minutes or do you or whatever they have available? Whatever they have available. Yeah. Their availability. I And don't let me just be the one to speak. I mean, do you I really feel like that's something because we don't Yeah. Every that was Yeah. That's that's majority of the conversations that have been had. It goes back to housing and low income and in different areas. So I think those are just I think that's a good place for us to start. I I Yes. Yeah. I absolutely agree with that. I I do though go back to this issue of awareness of this commission as a resource. I mean Eric you talked about how we are the direct connection to the council and uh you know and city staff. Speaking for myself, I don't know that I feel like that a lot. I mean, because I don't really real I don't really think that the community understands that we are the open forum that apparently the mayor wants us to be. Um, I may have missed it, but I have not seen on the city of Rockford government web page that we're planning this open forum next meeting and I I did have somebody in an organization I'm involved with um apply to be a speaker and I think she finally did, you know, but but it's just, you know, it's it's like anything else. If the process could be easier and and and publicized more uh you know, more uh widely, that would be that would be great. We haven't published yet. I didn't want to create confusion with like because people can come and speak at the regular meetings, but this is special. So, now that this meeting is over, we will definitely make sure that we have a series of social media posts going out um to advertise. Plus, I want to get notice out about the page that's been updated. Um, we had a question, too, to ask if you guys wanted your pictures and bios on the website. Um, you know, I think just kind of creating more awareness about what the commission is doing in our community and that's really the purpose of this year, right? And how we've scheduled it out is to really let the community know you guys exist and what your purpose is. Um, so if you are open to that, if you're not, um, let us know either way. But that was just an idea that we had to help you guys start connecting with the community a bit more, get your faces out there. Anything else that housing obviously yes I agreed we've heard that every time we have these conversations there other things that I feel like in addition to housing we've also heard about mental health each time yes and I think we all know that there are a ton of resources and programs but if the community doesn't know that. So, how do we address that? Should we have conversations with the Wnebago County Mental Health Board and R1, you know, are there ways to leverage relationships at the city and the county to Go ahead. The question is what what I've you know, I keep coming back to it is there's a lot of stuff out there. Yeah. And how does it ever become centralized to a hub of some kind? You know, my concept is that we foster a um a I call it a city help desk independent of our existing web page. It's just there strictly as a resource, a phone book as it were for anyone in the city who can access the internet to go click on it and have I'm got a mental health issue being mental health. Here's a list of things. What is there a specific need under your specific need who can I call you know that that type of thing is just um it's a resource and like I said I don't have the solution but it sure seems like getting to that point is is getting to a solution I I do think that there's really um there's been different efforts along along the way for that sort of thing right but it it always atrophies whatever starts it can start with a lot of support and it atrophies away. So, I really feel that that's an important thing that you're bringing up there and and to that point, I do feel like there could be a lot of value in hosting um membership of the mental health ward and R1 and others um because they're trying we we had this conversation after last meeting when the the other panel also said I'm not really sure what how I would connect people to mental health resources and we're like we have this half percent tax that's creating all these opportunities in the community but it's it's still not getting to what even they want to do, right? So, um I do really feel like you've connected some really good information and having them come here and say, "This is how we choose. This is how the grants are decided. This is what we're choosing to fund and and questioning that a little bit and maybe helping process that move move forward because for this to stop atrophying, somebody has to own it and maintain it and really and that's the perfect board. That board should be doing it right. they should be regularly funding. So I think it'd be a great discussion for you guys to have. They are in the process of doing that by the way. We are work we have sent them like the resources like in gathering that to have essentially a resource bank on their website. Um so I do know I don't know how far along it is. I just know that we recently responded to a request from the mental health board because we have a few grants from them. Um, I know that that's in the works, but I think to Sarah's point, it would be a great opportunity to ask them to come and speak to the commission about what they're doing and their efforts in that. Um, but I do know something is in the works for that. Or even, um, something else to put out there for us to think about is some of the regrow dollars if there was a community center that was a one-stop shop that would be willing to take something like that on. Um because just like everybody said, everybody doesn't use the internet or they don't know how to get access to resource resources. I know some people that don't go past the river, so they wouldn't know, you know, so how can we get to the communities that are not even knowing how to even access some of the resources? So is that some of something that we maybe need to think about going into this next year of implementing just a small one-stop shop? I love your idea of if there's just one, you know, one place they can call cuz I went through the we went through the 211 um list trying to get some more resources and we failed. You you have to start somewhere. Maintenance of something like that is the enormous issue because the more agencies we solicit their information from to be able to give that to the community, the more have to be maintained. If a phone number changes, if an email changes, if a person changes, um, whatever information they give us has to stay maintained. Creating the database is not all that difficult. It's simply telling everybody, we want to make your information public. Give us your information. Yeah, it it exists. Norma, you mentioned One Body Collaborative. That's its whole purpose for existing. Um, the problem becomes resources. um because it's certainly beyond the scope of this commission to maintain such a thing. You need a full-time staff to maintain that. One idea would be in the ward meetings that they have in the community to have um you know one specified mental health because I I know that that worked well at the church that I was at on life at life church on south campus. April would have meetings there with topics and I think that would be a good place for people that don't get on the internet or You know, I think I I think I might be a good example of somebody who for 25 years was a journalist in this community for 10 years. I worked for the school district, one of our largest employers. When you mention things like One Body Collaborative, 211, um someone mentioned the um the the resource group that they all collaborate with. I can't fit all these pieces together. I don't know if I were in crisis or one of my family members or friends were in crisis, I would not know how to access these resources. So, I think again, you have to start somewhere. You're absolutely right. I but I think that starting with just basic information. You know, so often we get bogged down in the details of it and it is indeed very complex. But I think we have to realize that you start with the simple, right? You have to start with the simple and to in and to the uh point of the mental health. I need to just learn about the mental health board. I did not realize that they had funds available that every year they have to slot a certain amount of people or struggle to slot the first a certain amount of people in this mental health first aid training. First I'd heard of it, you know. So well and our our our charge like we say there are lots of organizations doing this. We don't all with the housing and the the homelessness and the feeding uh the whole business. There are lots of organizations. There are lots of resources. Our charge as a city is how do we make this available to our community? How do we make all of these things available to them? Because as you said, you don't know. I don't know half of the things that exist. Probably a small percentage of the things. I'm learning stuff all the time just by coming here every second Thursday. So, how do we make that a group? Well, and I think I think there are groups out there that that are that are doing exactly that. NAMI does excellent work in connecting people in crisis to providers and care. um other well the Northern Illinois homeless coalition. We've got some fantastic so if people come to the city and say I need help, we just need to be able to point them to these people. Yeah, that's my my point is as a city we need to be able to say go here. We we can't provide it all, but we can certainly tell people where to go. Well, and it seems to me based on what I heard today about phones, um that uh there are people in the city staff that are extremely qualified to do that and are doing that every day. Um there's not enough of them. If the phones aren't getting answered, then we need more staff. Well, and that crisis response team doesn't work after five o'clock. Wow. They um I'm gonna follow We're gonna follow up on that because they have longer hours than that. So, we can't figure out why they would answer our phone after 5. They just presented at a neighborhood group and I know it's I know it's till 11:00 p.m. active and then between 11 and 6. Like, so we're gonna we wrote that down. Good. We're going to figure that out. For my own information, um, uh, several years ago, we started, um, recruiting, incorporating more counseling on police calls. How's that working out? That is the program, the co-responder. That's the program. Yeah. How's it working out? When you say counseling, so there's two different ways, right? there's crisis co-response team and that's like if a call comes in through um a police system type type intervention right so and the crisis co-response team is multi-jurisdictional it's funded through the mental health tax um so it's there are Rockford officers love park spark officers there's a it's I think five or six officers and then nine different um mental health providers that are there's some mix of them um on call at all different times and So like depending on where you call from or whatever um and and it helps right because then it's not just Rockford a LoveSpark officer can go with a practitioner to a Rockford call depending on who's in this um circuit right so they they mix they turn that around um they you know getting people understand or getting you know they're still working through and I think they're doing a good job but like people usually call 911 right so there's protocols that have to happen then and so how we're getting that diverted to write the CCRT. So I think it's developing and that's growing. We also have MIH right mobile integrated health unit that comes through fire. So that's different interventions that can and that's that's physical health and sometimes mental health but um that uh fire is the first responder anytime right at different things and that can be all kinds of stuff. So that's another unit, but it comes it's not a police unit, it's a fire team coming for those different responses. I think we're continuously working on it. Um, but it's to their point like what the person knows to first call and then if they don't call 911 988 or our CCRT team first, that's where things get kind of lost and ends up back in a maybe a justice system type situation instead. So, I think we're better. I think we've created a lot of pathways. I just heard the CCR team present and um I think they're feeling really good about their work. It's just again everything's a scale once you start doing something well. Um you realize more of the issue and the problems, right? Like you start to address the topic and then you realize the need and what you really need to address the need. Um it kind of answers your question and kind of doesn't. like we could have that's another thing too. Someone from there could come and present some of how how it goes. I I they're proud of how they've gotten it started, but there's just more always more that could be. I I actually meet with both teams regularly. Um and I work with Mary pretty closely in the mayor's office for CCRT and NIH. Um, so yeah, for CCRT there's seven officers, one Loves Park, two county, four um from Rockford Police and there's four clinicians right now. They have a opening for a team lead. Um, and then they they pair up and they go out. Uh, neither MIH or CCRT though is dispatchable at this point. It's um kind of a union negotiation thing. Uh, eventually we would like them to be dispatchable, but that's not the case right now. Um, I know I saw the numbers actually yesterday. We had the mental health board walkthrough at fire headquarters for NIH. They served 2,200 people last year. 2,200. So, and they will take you to get food if you need food. They will take you to your doctor's appointment. If you need to talk with a housing counselor, they will take you to those appointments and do all of those things. They meet you where you're at in the um in the moment. And CCRT does the same thing. A lot of they have regular clients that they will see for months. They create follow-up plans and things like that. We just recently connect them to housing resources. They needed some emergency housing uh funds to be able to remove somebody from the home and take them to a hotel and connected them to a resource where they can be able to do those types of things. So, they're really active. They're doing a lot of things. I think a big barrier at this point is that they are not dispatchable. So, if you don't have the number or you're not getting referred or connected in that capacity, that that's the issue. It's something that they're looking to fix. We're getting a nurse in the 911 center um that can help with those types of calls um transferring to 988, different things like that. Like, there's all of these protocols that are in place and that we're working through. Uh, but I think that that's a big barrier for both of those programs is they're just not dispatchable. Okay, they're not dispatchable. That was really where I was at. How are they working out? But so to date, positive results going forward. Absolutely. And if you want, I can get you the outcome reports and so you guys can actually see the data. I think it'd be great to have those teams come and present maybe with the mental health board so you can kind of learn about what's going on there. Um, but they're doing a lot of really great work in our community. And if you just saw the numbers, I think CCRT might be at 1,800. I'm not 100% sure, but it's hundreds and hundreds of people that they're serving. Thank you. Anything else that we want to cover on that topic? Otherwise, be thinking about the the things that you're hearing. Um because really, the mayor did say it's it's open the doors this year and respond to the needs of the community. So, as we continue to hear things, um I think that will help us guide the work that we're doing. So, does anyone have any commissioners reports? I'm going to be going to a um mental health training with the chaplain of the police. So, I'll be doing that on Saturday. And I'm also going to the Youth for Christ banquet on next on next week, next Thursday. I do appreciate sending out here's what's coming up this month. Um although I haven't been able to attend any of it with my crazy schedule, but I certainly intend to keep my eye on those that I can. two upcoming events uh for uh on uh May 3rd at Memorial Hall at 100 p.m. will be a event uh honoring Vietnam War veterans and the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. They'll be opening a uh permanent exhibit within Memorial Hall of the Museum on the Vietnam War and the folks from Wnebago County who served during the war. And then on May 10th, uh, starting at 9:00 a.m. and running till 300 pm at the Rockford Casino, there will be a veteran employment and resource event uh that uh the county Veterans Assistance Commission is that May 10th and I can send uh now that we have email addresses, I'll I'll push that information to the uh city staff. Did you guys have anything additional? Just the pictures and the bios. If you want those on the website or not, please let us know. I'm I'm good for that. I mean, these are public positions, right? You should be good with that. Good. Okay. Great. Thank you. We don't have anything else in front of us. I will entertain a motion to adjourn. All right. A motion and a second. All in favor? I. All right. See you all next month.