I can read a big deal, man." I can read a big deal, man. I can read a big deal, man. I can read a big deal, man. I can read a big deal, man. I can read a big deal, man. I can read a big deal, man. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for being here today. I will now call to order the Social Services and Public Safety Committee meeting of October 8th, 2024. Our first item is our approval of the September 17th, 2024 Committee Summary. Motion approved. Second. Are there any opposed? All those in favor? Sorry. All those in favor first. All those in favor? Aye. All those in favor? Aye. Anybody opposed? All right. That motion passes. Next, we are going to go on to a presentation about the Villages Model Initiatives for Lexington. And this item was referred to committee by Councilmember Lynch, so I will turn this over to her for opening remarks and introductions. Thank you, Chair, for recognition. Even though I do not serve on this committee, and that's going to run for the whole meeting because I've got a lot to say today, but thank you. It was my honor and pleasure to put this item in committee because our seniors have a really special place in my heart. I have truly enjoyed my work on the Senior Services Commission, and this item is the culmination of a lot of work done by some amazing folks that I'm going to acknowledge right now. Councilmember Sheehan, who has been my partner in crime, so to speak, to get this committee item up, running, and moving forward. The Senior Services Commission, all of my colleagues on the Senior Services Commission are dynamic, motivated, and have been a great support for this item. The Reimagined Home Group has been an amazing group, and they specifically work on housing issues related to our senior population, and they are amazing. A Caring Place has been a great support, and you're going to hear from Roxanne Chaney in just a minute. The Community Organization Build, they had several meetings with Councilmember Sheehan and I about the Village's model, so I'm glad to see some of you all here today. And of course, the dynamic, innovative Chrissy Stanbaugh, who's the Director of Aging and Disability Services, her team has done this work for a while, so this isn't a new issue, but we're glad that it's ... I was glad to put it in the committee to bring it forward today. I would like to introduce to you Ms. Roxanne Chaney. She is the Board Chair for a Caring Place, and Roxanne and I first met as classmates in the Citizens Police Academy. And so, I had no idea after our CPA class together that our paths would cross again so soon in such a dynamic way to do some great work for our community, and specifically for our seniors and our individuals with disabilities in our community. So Roxanne, so glad you're here, and I'm going to hand the mic over to you. Okay, well, thank you, and thank you all for this opportunity that I have today to talk to all of you. And thank you to a Caring Place, Bill, Reimagined Homes, and the Senior Advisory Commission for being here today to support us. So my name is Roxanne Chaney, and I am a retired nurse, and I was certified in gerontology. We've been incorporated since 2019 as a 5013C. I got to figure out how to do the next slide. You just say next slide. So, who are we? Our mission statement is that we're recognizing that loneliness is an epidemic with adverse effects on physical and mental health. A Caring Place, a faith-based volunteer organization, takes an intergenerational approach to building friendships with people over 60 years old or disabled and live in the Bluegrass region. We value compassion to others and ourselves, friendships and relationships which meet our need to belong, hospitality which opens the door to trusting relationships and connectedness with others, respect and dignity for all people as their God-given right, inclusion and equity in our culture so that all can feel a sense of fulfillment. Our vision is we imagine a world where everyone feels loved. What we currently offer, and you've had these packets for about a week, and I know you've probably read through it, so I'll just highlight the ones that I would really like to specifically emphasize today, and the first one is that we partner with UK undergrad students to provide that intergenerational approach that you heard about in our mission statement. We've been doing this since our inception and really could not have this program without the UK students. They have been just marvelous, and I'm telling you, there's nothing that energizes an 85-year-old disabled lady like a young 19-year-old student who now wants to have a friendship with them. So it's been just a really wonderful, wonderful approach. Next slide, please. Who we serve. We serve seniors over 60, people with disabilities, caregivers, people who are economically disadvantaged, and individuals who are socially isolated or lonely. And going back to that slide, those pictures that you see, those are all of these pictures in here are our volunteers or our participants, so you're seeing some real-life action there. Next slide, please. Okay, so how did we get to where we are today? Reimagine Homes, through the Senior Advisory Commission, has been looking at this issue of where do people go from their home when they can no longer live in their home? And as you can see on this slide, you know, a lot of them go from their home to a nursing home. Certainly, there has to be better approaches. So that's what they've worked on for about seven years now, I think. They threw a huge community-oriented education last February, I believe, just talking about the one that they had selected to be and put their focus on, which is number four, or villages. At the same time that they were doing this, without even talking to each other, to show you the need for villages, BUILD was working and studying this issue, too, for about the last two years or so. And they came to the same type of conclusion that elder care and villages went together, that this was a place, an effective and efficient way to service our seniors so that they could stay in their home. That's what it's all about. Well, lo and behold—next slide, please—a caring place is a village, voila. A caring place is a community-based, non-profit, grassroots organization formed through a cadre of caring people who want to change the paradigm of aging. Currently, we have about 150 volunteers and over 100 participants that we serve. The participants we serve come from a wide variety of different social services agencies that refer, some churches with their homebound participants refer. The Lexington Senior Center has referred people to us, so our participants come from all over. Some call us up and say, we want to be with you, so self-selected. Currently, we have no paid staff and receive our funds through grants, individual donations, and events. So how do we measure what we've accomplished? Well, there's four ways, four major ways that we selected back in 2020 and decided that as we moved along, these were the four measures that we would like to measure ourselves back, are we successful or not? And the first one is the number of participants, and as you can see, in 2020, we had 48, 2023, we have 82. So it's showing a need. We don't have 2024 yet, of course, for obvious reasons. We will soon. The percentage of participants who felt more cared for, using a Likert scale, really, were 2020, there was 100%, all the way to 2023, 99%, so this is exceptional. As a support group, services offered went from a little over 3,000 to last year's 6,128, an enormous number. And total revenue earned to support our programs went from 17,000 originally up to around 47,000 last year. Next slide, please. So we don't just go by the Likert scale of rate us from one to five, because so many of our participants don't even know what that means. We really have valued testimonials. What do our people say about us? And so I've selected five of the most, what I thought exemplified the spirit of our participants and how they viewed us for you today. And the first one is, and actually it was our first testimonial, back in December 25th, 2019, an 88-year-old lady at Christmas, living alone, socially isolated. Her meals were crackers and peanut butter, even at Christmas. She had no family left, had assumed it would be another lonely Christmas, when a caring place showed up at her door with a turkey dinner and friendship. Oh my gosh, I was just getting ready to eat my crackers, when all of a sudden, here comes Christmas. I can't believe it. And with turkey, she said as she was crying. June 21st, 2020, 72-year-old retired nurse. Family lives in other states. She lives independently, but has mobility problems. I do not know what I could do without a caring place. You have become my family. Next slide. February 14th, 22nd, on Valentine's Day, Felta, a 78-year-old Native American, living on the edge of homelessness. My very first Valentine card. I can't believe it, she said while laughing. I had to wait 78 years to receive my first Valentine card. I love you too. March 1st, 23, Paulette B., 75 years old, radical surgery for oral cancer. Walter, Walter is one of our UK students that I talked about. Walter doesn't mind if I no longer have half my chin or lower teeth. He loves me anyways, and I love him. July 13th, 2024. My mother appreciated you so much. You made her feel she was still making meaningful contributions. I don't know how she would have managed without a caring place in her life. This was said by Judy B.'s daughter after Judy passed away. We also took, from Reimagined Home, when they were looking at villages, a survey of Stonewall neighborhood was done, and as you can see, and again I'm not going to read this word for word, you've read it yourself, but to note that most of these things that the participants responded to and wanted, if they were a part of a neighborhood, are all socialization type of activities, which goes along with what we've been doing in a caring place. Socializing, engaging, connecting. So although this was a very small study, what's really interesting is to note that these participants were willing to pay for this service. So location of villages, where are they? This was done, this slide, about three months ago, and things have changed a little bit, because today there are 280 villages in the United States, with 40 more pending. So it shows you how they're expanding all over. Kentucky has three villages, Berea, Paducah, and Lexington. Louisville is currently starting a village, they are using us as their consultant for how to do it. Next slide, please. So outcome of other villages, a 2010 survey by AARP found that nearly 90% of older adults in America want to stay in their homes and communities as they age. The village model helps older adults to age in a place of their choosing, connected to their communities, with the practical supports and tools they need to create successful aging of their own design. Villagers are well positioned to improve the population health of the communities they serve. In Britain and the United States, roughly one in three people older than 65 live alone. In the United States, half of those older than 85 live alone. Studies in both countries show the prevalence of loneliness amongst people older than 60, ranging from 10% to 46%. That's a whopping number. The village model works. Village members consistently report a positive impact on their well-being and quality of life as a direct result of their participation in their village. And it's to be noted that AARP is one of the primary sponsors of neighborhoods nationwide. So structure of the village model, what does it look like? Barbara Sullivan, who's the executive director of the Village to Village Network, said that the most common structure for a village model is a hub and spoke. And that's what we're proposing. So if you can see in the middle of that little diagram there, that hub is a caring place. That's where the main business of fund development, optimization of resources, all those other things happen, in the hub. Those spokes around it are neighborhood groups. Those neighborhood groups could be virtual or they could be real brick-and-mortar type of neighborhoods. So a wide variety. We have the opportunity right now to spread our values throughout Lexington. Can you begin to reimagine our town to be a more friendly, less lonely place for our elderly and disabled who would like to age in place? So we still have a lot of questions. What do we need to know? Which neighborhoods to involve? What services, other than our core services, should we provide? What should the cost be per member? Should it be a sliding scale? Should it be nothing? What staff do we need to manage the spokes? And should it be a paid position? How are volunteers used and how are they recruited? What outcomes are other villages using for their metrics? And what were their stumbling blocks? So a lot of questions, and you all might have a question or two. So what is needed? We need to have a feasibility study to answer those questions, plus others that you might have. An important indicator of the urgency of this process is that in 2030, just six years from now, those over 65 in Lexington will number 86% more than they did in 2010. That is significant, and that shows that there is an urgency. So we can't defer this decision to wait for a year or two, because it's going to take all of this time to really get up and going so that we can meet the needs of those seniors who need our services. According to Market Feasibility Network, the cost of a feasibility study in Kentucky for our organization is approximately $150,000. Therefore we are asking for a minimum of $150,000 to contract with a skilled individual or group to conduct a feasibility study. A feasibility study will help us minimize risk, optimize resources, and increase the likelihood of our success. Next slide, please. So in summary, a Caring Place Village would serve as a hub and will be a membership-based organization that brings villages together to share best practices. Thank you so much for this opportunity to talk to you today. Thank you so much for coming and sharing with us. Colleagues, I will entertain questions. Council Member Gray. Thank you, Chair, and thank you for your presentation. First question, which might be a silly question, where exactly is the Blue Grass region? Where is the what? I couldn't hear. Blue Grass region. Blue Grass is the counties that the BGADD services. Which counties are there, is what I'm asking. Okay, what do they service? Which counties? Name the counties. Right, and I've only been here since 2016, so the only one I really know by heart would be where Versailles is, Nicholasville, and Paris. That's where we have a lot of our volunteers and participants from, too. But there are 17 in all, and I can get you the answer for that if you give me just a couple of seconds. Sure. Of course, you can send me the counties for sure. So of the college students, how many college students do you typically have that volunteer? How many hours or? How many? Number. How many people do we have that are volunteers? Yes, that are college students at UK. That are college students, right now I think we have, they just came on board again, so I think it's around 40. We started off, when we first started off, we had about 60 because it was during COVID, and they were looking for a place that they could do virtual things. Did I talk too loud or long? No, no, that's not you. It's not you at all, at all, at all. So do those college students currently receive like college credits, and that's how they're able to give of their time? You know, some of them do, like the College of Information, they will give credits if their student is doing a specific task for us. Like they helped us do a SWOT analysis last year. And so they did receive credit. Otherwise, these people are doing it because they're altruistic. I mean, it's just really wonderful. I wish that they were here today. I wish you could meet them. It touches your heart to see 18, 19-year-olds really trying to do good in the world and who really care for another person. And caring for our elders. And caring for our elders, yes, can you imagine? Yes. I love to see it, is what I'm loving, because we are better as a community when we all come together and we have different generations that are coming together, being friends and helping one another out. It's just a beautiful thing. So your feasibility study, where did you get the quote for $150,000? It was a Kentucky network to look at market fees studies, and we got it from their site. And that should be in your package, the specific site that we used. If not, again, I can get it. And we looked at other places. We looked at the network for villages, which we belong to. And most of those people started off with, like a caring place did. We started off with two participants. And so that's kind of what happened with them. And then they grew from there. California and Washington, D.C. probably grew the fastest. California now even has the state supporting them, unbelievably. Washington area, of course, they cover Virginia, Maryland, all those places around them. So I think that there's about 10 villages just in that Washington, D.C. thing. So, well, I appreciate you informing us of this, because as our population continues to grow, we're going to have more and more, as we see the numbers are increasing. So yes, and they're going to keep increasing. So villages seem like a great idea for our community. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councilwoman. And now Councilmember Baxter. Thank you, Chair. And thank you so much for this presentation. I'm just sitting here staring at Christy, and we're both trying not to cry. I so appreciate the work that you do. As someone who has cared for several individuals at end of life and just aging individuals in my own family, I know the work that you do is, here I go, I know that the work you do is so very important. So thank you. Can you talk a little bit about how you support caregivers with your program? We care for them in the same way we care for participants, and that's by engaging them, talking to them, usually on the phone, but sometimes it's a face-to-face visit. And it's just really surprising. We've learned with these people feel just as alone as the participant does. They're looking for somebody that understands what they're going through, that's nonjudgmental, that cares for them. Yeah. Yeah, speaking from experience, I know exactly how they feel, and it is a terrible place to be. So I would have really resounded with your help. So I would be happy to share that information with others. The other thing that I wanted to say is that the survey of the Stonewall neighborhood is particularly special to me, because that's my neighborhood, and the Thriving in Place community, we've been working for several years trying to get their nonprofit status. So I know that you all setting up the hub and spoke kind of model is going to be huge for them. It'll cut down a lot of barriers and provide them a lot more opportunities that they have been searching for. So I'm so glad to hear that that is. And I agree with that. I think that there's a lot of neighborhoods out there. We're talking with one veterans group right now who has been just waiting, is there a nonprofit, because that's what you're going to need, that aligns with us, our mission. And so there we're going to have somebody, and I know that there's a lot of, I don't know exactly how many neighborhoods there are in Lexington, 28? No, there's way more than that, hundreds, yeah. So a lot of them, and the virtual things, as I just mentioned with the veterans group. Well, you know, I think that anything that we can do to provide care for those who wish to age in place is so very important, just because assisted living facilities and nursing homes are so expensive. Not everybody can afford to do that, and not everybody wants to. People deserve the dignity to age where they choose to age. Yes. In their own community. In their own community. Where they feel safe and they know stuff, yeah. And the house they've lived in for 50 years or whatever. So I think, like I said, I think the work that you all do is wonderful. I think there is a need for it. I think bringing attention to it is probably going to put a little more spotlight on you, so get ready. But I think that with the city's support, I think that we can really grow something that will be very beneficial for our community. So thank you again, and thank you, Councilmember Lynch, for putting that together. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Councilmember Ellinger. Thank you, Chair, and thank you for coming forward with this. I'm trying to understand just how it works, because you have, when you, with the $150,000 in the feasibility study, will you have like an office then that you can then coordinate out of that office to bring in the spokes? How do you go about marketing to get, like my mom, she's 91 years old, she's at home most of the time, unless it's the family, that's about the only interaction she gets now. This would be perfect for her. I'm just trying to, how does she find out about that? How do we go about getting this all working? I kind of understand it, but it's, people are going to be living at home still, is that the key? And then we're just trying to bring people into their house to help. Right. You would be neighbors helping neighbors, kind of thing. So it's not just going to be like one person who's going out there and resolving everything in Lexington. But that wasn't your question. I'm trying to figure out, so when we do the feasibility study, what will we get back from that that's going to tell us that we have, this is going to work for us, that we have the support, or do we have a central office then, I mean, do we work it out at the senior citizen center, or, Kristi, shake her head, no, no, no, no, no. We do have an office right now. We do have an office right now in one of the local churches here, Beaumont Presbyterian Church. So getting an office would not be an issue. Marketing is a huge issue. We've been trying for six years now to get the word out about us, that we exist. And it's tough. I think that a lot of the things that go into the feasibility study, although most of it might be for this group that's going to do it, a lot of it's for marketing, too. I think I would like to work with the Neighborhood Association in getting the word out there and looking at which neighborhoods we should look at first. I mean, I can see a close alliance between us. I don't know how you feel, but I do. Because that will help to spread the word. I think all of you have constituents. You all write your newsletters. That's another great way of getting the word out there and marketing us. And lastly, maybe, is BUILD. BUILD has, I think, 27, 28 churches in your consortium. That's a wonderful way to market, is through those churches, to tell them that, especially for their homebound people, especially for even volunteer recruitment. So would you, so the hub would be, you would be the one that would be recruiting volunteers, and then you would also be marketing to bring people in. And I'm thinking of my mom here, because, once again, she's 91, and she's not the most welcome to new visitors or strangers in her house, because I've had people come in there and not many survive. She's really nice, don't get me wrong, but she is 91, she's setting her ways. And I'm trying to understand, are they going to be bonded, or how do we do a vetting process for the volunteers when they come in? How does that work out? Yeah. Well, we think that the hub, it might be able to be supported by one, maybe 1.5 volunteers to just do that work. They're also going to need assistance. Because I can just see them spending a whole day on the phone, when they actually should be out there in the neighborhoods, constantly assessing, constantly monitoring, constantly recruiting, constantly seeing who needs the help. Because you're right, just because we come around the first time, these people are not going to say, oh, come on in, let's have a chat. They're not going to do it. As a matter of fact, that's one of the reasons why, when we looked at a feasibility study, we chose not to do a mass mail-out, which has maybe about 10% return. It's cheap, maybe, maybe the cheapest way. But you don't get, and those 10% that come in, are they from your mom? I mean, how many surveys does she fill out and send back? You know, so we really thought that, no, that's the cheapest, it's the quickest, but it's not the most quality way of looking at this, because it does take a little bit of time. You need to build up trust. Sure. No, I love the concept, because I can see how it could work for my mom. I can't be there all the time, my sisters can't be there all the time, and unfortunately, she doesn't always allow other people in the house. So this, if she can get, and she has some friends, but not a lot. At 91, she doesn't have a lot of friends left, unfortunately. So trying to, and she still has her mind, she's still active, so trying to keep her productive is the big thing. So I think this is a great concept, I'm just trying to figure out how we're going to go about allowing 91-year-old people to know about the program, and then how do we go about getting the volunteers. But in concept, I really think it's a great idea, and we'll, and very supportive. And for your mom, she can join us right now. Well, and I'll tell her tonight when I go see her. All right, thank you. I'll give you my business card. Will do, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. Council Member Clement. Thank you, Chair. And thank you, Council Member Lynch, for bringing this forward. I never heard of this. And when I was reading through it, I'm like, wow, what a great idea, what a great concept. And I, too, we all have mothers. Mine beats yours in age, though, Chuck. She's now 96, and will go anyplace. I mean, she won't stay in her home. Fortunately, we've got a lot of family members, but she has a lot of, not very many friends left either. So I think it's a great idea. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. But they are pretty isolated. So she's northern Kentucky, but I just applied the whole intent and mission. And you mentioned this has been operating for seven years, past seven years. Are you set up with current hubs at all right now, or that's part of what this is? Are we set up with what? Hubs and spokes right now? The closest we would come to a hub right now, because what we are is a village without a hub. But the closest we would come to doing what they're doing is we have an executive committee. Okay, that was another question. Who does the bookkeeping, who does the grant writing, who does all of this stuff? So there is an overriding executive committee? Right, right. So we would use that as our model too, so we wouldn't start from scratch. And did you, I can't remember in the presentation, who sits at that table? Who is the what? Who sits at that steering committee or executive committee, at different entities? Who is on the executive committee? I mean, not by name, but what types of groups sit on that? Pardon me, could you say that just one more? I'm 80 years old and I'm hard of hearing. I'm one of those people that would probably- No, I just meant who's it? I was just inquiring about, right now you said you've got an executive committee, and I just wanted to see who was at that table. Is it like church member or churches, senior citizen center? Okay, in our executive committee are the officers of the board or anybody that's dealing with money on the board. We have an advisory council, though, and that includes the students we talked about. They have representation on that. We have representation from Reimagined Homes on that advisory group. All the people who we're dealing with right now, we invite to be a part of that advisory council. Okay, great. I wanted to see what the current structure, but moving forward after the sustainable, after the study, each hub will kind of have its own little look. Oh, absolutely. I mean, as we move into this, every neighborhood should have representation on this. Even right now, I wonder about the Neighborhood Association. I've never asked them, but I really feel that they need to be, right now, a part of this. Yeah, we're good. Yeah, we've got a list of neighborhood associations, and there's the Fayette County Neighborhood Association where all the neighborhood representatives attend, so this would be a good presentation to take to them as well. Thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you very much. Thank you. Council Member Fogle. Thank you, Chair. When I was walking in the door, I heard that voice, and I was like, wait a minute, I know that voice. I know, we've been friends for a long time. For a long time, and thank you for your work on this, and thank you always for showing up, Roxanne. We work together with Building Cultural Bridges, so I already know your heart, and I know how you bring your soul into a room, and so Building Cultural Bridges was a wonderful, wonderful segue into communities and helping to build that culture piece, so as I'm looking at this presentation and I'm looking, and Council Member, you have my full support. I know this lady, and I know how hard she works, and I know how hard she works in different communities and bringing things together, and so you know I'm going to pass this on to Matthew and let him know what wonderful work you're doing. We're all aging, and I would love to see this in communities of color, and so we have, and I'm looking over here because we have our senior program over at Dunbar, which is in my district. I'm so excited about that, and I can see this expanding, so I'm here just to make a comment. Certainly not having too many questions, and I'm looking at this feasibility study and what you're asking, and so not to say you kind of took a low road because you know we're giving and asking for like $200,000 with the feasibility study for permanent housing for the unsheltered, and you're just asking for $150,000. I'm looking at council members saying bump it up, and so we can get a good study. I'm going to applause you, Tana, thank you. You know you have my support, but you know we're aging, and we're going to need this, and so we have in the first district also a group called Gleaning. You know I'm going to go to their ribbon cutting, and so as we tie all of these aging programs, I heard you mention build, and we're looking for people to stay at home. We're not trying to put people out of business, but people would love to stay at home and have people come and care for them, and we get to watch Chuck's mother, you know, a little feisty lady, but we get to watch her, and so we want places, and we want these programs in place. I want it in place as I'm 64, so I ain't trying to knock at the door, but can you hear me though? Because when we're on Zoom, I have to do this, and so, but I just want to say thank you. Thank you, council member. You have my full support. I can't wait for it to, for this hub and for this to expand, and that we come to the table because we have some beautiful aging black and brown bodies in our community, and we definitely want something like this in our community. So thank you, Roxanne. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Thank you. Keep up the good work, and 80 young is what I'm saying. You are 80 young. Thank you, chair. Thank you, council member. Council member James Brown. Thank you, chair, and thank you, Ms. Cheney, for the presentation, and Christy, and your work at the senior center with you and your staff, and council member Lynch for bringing this item forward. It sounds like, and a lot of council members ask the same questions that I have, it sounds like communication and marketing are going to be some of the biggest challenges for this program. Is that part of what we would get from the feasibility study is how to effectively communicate and get the word out? Oh, definitely. I'm sorry, I interrupted you. No, no, you're fine. Go ahead. Oh, I was going to say, you would definitely get this from us, because as they're out there, as they're conducting this feasibility study, and again, doing a quality one, not a mass mail out, they're going to be marketing at the same time. It's not going to be like, oh, it takes them, say, five years to complete it. It's not. Don't get excited. Say it took them five years, you know, to complete it. At the end of that time, you know, we wouldn't want to start all over again to market to these same people that we exist. So you're going to be out there, they're going to be out there marketing at the same time that they're studying, kind of using the PDCA model. And Christy, maybe you or the commissioner can speak to this. What role would the senior center and the senior centers and the satellite centers, what would they play? Would they be, potentially be the hub or be the spoke? No, it's kind of the beauty of the villages. And villages aren't a place. Instead, they're service-driven, local, grassroots. And so villages across the country are really run by non-profit grassroots organizations with boots on the ground. So they would be the hub. They're also the very first village in Lexington. And what they're proposing, and through the feasibility study, is how does the hub work in Lexington? So thriving in place Stonewall would be a spoke. The folks over in the Idle Hour neighborhood that are doing little bits of things, they would be a spoke. So we at the senior center would just continue to support all of the agencies that we already provide information and assistance to, but we really wouldn't be drivers at this seat. A carrying place would be the hub, and all the other neighborhoods and neighbors would be the spokes. Okay. Well, it seems like since you all have been doing a lot of work in these spaces and have the network in place, it seems like we would have the resources to actually cut down the price of the feasibility study. And maybe it's, maybe the senior center contracting with somebody locally to put all that information together so it can be used by the carrying place to do it as opposed, because I'd rather put the money towards resources as opposed to an assessment of information that I think we already have. Christy, you got something to add to that? One of the ways that villages have formed, and Bill brought this to us, I met with them a lot, but one of the things that most villages do is they do an assessment. And that's what thriving in place Stonewall did in 2020, and our office did help with that. And they did a survey, what do people feel like they need to stay in their homes, to live in the community the way they choose. And almost every single community village started with an assessment. I think we're looking at what is it going to take beyond the assessment to make a village hub and villages work. What we learned in Stonewall thriving in place is the infrastructure that a non-profit has, the freedom that a non-profit has versus what constraints my office kind of has, being a government entity, one of the number one services provided by most villages is like a list of vetted service providers. So if I live maybe in a neighborhood and I can't mow my grass anymore, but I really can't pay $50, if through the village they're coordinated service providers, they may find somebody who's going to cut eight lawns on the same street and only charge each person $20 instead of $50 because now as service providers they're not getting in their car, they're not driving around town, they're not losing time and money. And we really can't do that as government, you know, we have to go through the whole bid process and we have to have, we can't provide vetted list of providers. That's something that a non-profit and a village could do. So I think what we're looking at is we need the data to support what directions the villages want to go. I think that the hubs will then have the support, I mean the folks will have the support of the hub, which is a caring place, the non-profit, the infrastructure, the non-profit status, the ability to write for grants. It might be that those folks, and again the feasibility study would tell us, is it that the folks pay dues to the hub to provide that financial support or fiscal management. So there's still so many questions and I think as everybody was kind of trying to put this together, the blocking point for the past seven years has been a non-profit to step up and say we want to help form these throughout the community and what is it going to take. So I think that's what they're looking for. Yeah, and I appreciate that answer. I just think that, you know, and I know everybody's overworked, but I would like to see us being the senior center and the government be helpful to try to help this get started as opposed to just putting money towards an assessment. But I'm supportive of it going forward. So thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Chair, and thank you so much for this presentation. My question, it kind of, first of all, I'm very supportive of it. I do, I live in a condo community where I'm kind of on the young end of the condo and I meet the requirements that you have for an old person, so I appreciate that. But my question is, the villages have been around for a while. There are, I don't know what actually would be unique about Lexington that would require a huge study. My general feeling is there's multiple ways to go about it and you basically, other people have done studies. I don't think there's anything super unique about the people in, that population in Lexington that's different than anyone else in the nation. So I don't know exactly, I just don't know exactly what difference we're going to get out of it versus basically looking at City A, B, and C and looking at the models and just as a group of concerned citizens like you guys are and you have an organization say, hey, this model probably is the model that will work the best for Lexington. Because you could survey a whole bunch of people and my guess is we already kind of know what the needs are. So I'm trying to figure that out. I hear what you're saying. What we've been told by the national network is if you see one village, you see one village. So it doesn't always translate. I don't think that, I don't think we'll ever be able to do, for instance, what San Francisco and California is doing, they'll never be able to do what we're doing. And I do think that for us in looking at this, the one thing we would get out of it is are people willing, well, other than our core services which are all about engagement, connectivity, are there any other special needs? And when we look at the national thing for villages, there are other needs. Some neighborhoods are really into transportation. Based on where they are and based on where the bus lines are, transportation is a real need. We could do that as a neighbor, neighbor's helping neighbor, we could do that. Some neighborhoods are more concerned with, they're kind of like our village right now, we have participants that need to go for diagnostic treatments, but the only way they can do that is if somebody takes them to the hospital, sits with them for two, three hours, and then takes them home. And some villages have that specific need. So I think that there are things above our core services. And if we knew what they were, rather than find out by chance, because at some point you're going to have to assess them, whether it's been done a thousand times before, you're going to have to go and you're going to have to assess their needs. Just as we assess every single participant's needs right now, you'd have to do that anyways. So we could either do that up front and do it effectively, and do it systematically, I guess, or we could kind of do what we've been doing now with everybody that comes in, it's kind of we pivot again, because we didn't know what the whole needs were. It took us seven years to figure out that there was actually seven programs that most of them needed, which are the programs that I flashed up there on the screen. Seven years. I mean, certainly there has to be a more efficient way of finding that out than waiting. But you, I guess my pushback on that would be, you actually have all the data. Like you have done the work, and you know the seven needs. So my question is, is it better to invest in your program to basically say, hey, we need to kickstart what you're doing versus study what you're doing? Because you've already done the work. The data shows that you, like you were helping participants, you know, you're not reaching everybody that you want to reach, so that's kind of a different, that's a part of your business that you need help with. I just don't, I don't know how much study we need to do versus actually implementation work. Right. I'm a perennial student, so maybe I just. Yeah. I get it. I get it. I get it. Thank you so, so much. And thank you very much, Councilmember Lynch and Sheehan. I know you were big behind this, and our whole senior community really do appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember Sheehan. And of course, going back to what you said, just to add, you are the deciders. So if you don't want to do any study at all and we just get in there and kind of do whatever, you know, that's up to this group to decide, not me. Thank you so much, Councilmember Sheehan. Thank you, Chair, for recognizing me since I'm not on this committee, and thank you, Councilmember Lynch, for all of your work. You have been a great partner in this, and I appreciate you. And thank you, Ms. Cheney, for putting all of this presentation together, for coming and talking with us, and being willing to take that step to be a leader for our community in this model. As you presented, we have a fast-growing senior population. We have a lot of different strategies to address the housing needs, like we've worked on accessory dwelling units. We're building a new affordable housing complex on Wellington Way that's focused on seniors. We have this villages model. There's lots of different ways to work with folks, but this is one of the models that we can really use to allow people to age in place, people who want to stay in their homes, want to stay in the neighborhoods that they know, and not have to adjust in a way to move to other locations to get the services that they need. I think one of the things that we have not minimized in this conversation, but I really want to highlight, is that these villages within a neighborhood are not just made up of seniors. So when you establish a village in a neighborhood, it's all of the neighbors helping each other with all of the things that they might want. And that's where part of this study piece is so important, is that each village really truly is unique, because it's built in a grassroots way by that neighborhood. The neighborhood has discussions on what services they want, what services they can provide to each other already, or what services might need to be provided by an outside vendor. So like if you have someone already in your neighborhood that's a handyman, that person might be able to provide those services to neighbors in exchange for gardening or some other thing, or childcare, or things like that. But that is what this study can help do, is put those puzzle pieces together of one, which areas or neighborhoods or community groups want to actually be a village or one of those spokes. So that is an important piece, because we're not going to assume that every neighborhood wants this or that it would be a good fit for everywhere. We have to identify those areas. So that is a big part of this study. And then, like you mentioned, part of the study is also the marketing and building the buy-in from the group. Because really, the village uses the hub as a resource, but the village is also supposed to kind of run itself and use the hub when they need access to service, when they need help getting set up, or when they need something. But really, the village works together. So providing a model for how those villages would get set up here, collecting that information about what each village uniquely wants. That is what this takes and that even if we think about, well, we already know all of this information about village models, yes, we do, but my experience has also been very similar in the people that I've talked to in other cities that are using village models says you have to do this from the ground up. You have to do all of that outreach and community building within your space. So we need the money to do this study to have the experts come in and help us build this from the ground up. So I understand that it might at first seem like we should already know all of this information, but we haven't connected with the individuals that we need to have the buy-in with until we need to get their actual lived experience and the assessment of their actual individual needs. So that's what this study does. So I'm obviously supportive. And we'll be looking for our funding requests once that comes later. And I want to thank everyone who has given input on this process so far and who is continuing to be engaged in this work, particularly you, Ms. Chaney, from A Caring Place. I really cannot thank you enough for stepping up because it's a huge, that was a huge gap that we were kind of missing is who was going to be that hub space and I know it's going to be a lot of work, but I really am grateful to have you and have very much enjoyed working with you as well. I know your heart is in this work, so thank you. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Chair. Is it only for people that are living at home or will you be going to assisted living and other areas to get people to participate or is it just going to be aging in place at home? Is that the main concept? What is the need? Well, I think anybody would like to have somebody come and have that communication in a senior living or just because you're living at home, I don't think that doesn't mean that you don't also want that interaction too at a senior living facility or others that you could come. It's interesting that you bring that up because we just had our retreat the other day and somebody brought up, is there any lonelier place than a nursing home? Maybe we should go into the nursing homes. And it's like after much discussion with that is we have kind of a two-pronged mission. One is to decrease the social isolation, if we can, decrease the loneliness, and the other one is to have them age in place. Now, if their aging in place happens to be a senior housing, low income, if that's their home, well, then that's fine. We can do that. Nursing homes, probably not because, you know, we might be helping with the loneliness and I have nothing against doing that. I go to nursing homes for the heck of it sometimes, you know, just for these isolated people. But as a group, as a non-profit, put all of our resources into that, becomes like we're missing the mission of aging in place. Steve, could you put on the one that says what we currently offer? I think it's page 3 on our ‑‑ I understand, Councilman Sheehan, where you're talking about, we do a lot of studies and they take a lot of time, we spend a lot of money, and it appears in this situation, I don't know if we want to reinvent the wheel, because it looks like the wheel is already rolling in a lot of communities. I think what we can do is add to it. But I would rather, as Councilman Brown and Savignee said, I'd like to go ahead and get it rolling to where we're already doing it. Because my mom's 91, I don't want to have to wait three years for this program to be working here. I'd like to get it started sooner than later and put the money towards that. And then when we do get our spokes, then we can just add to it. I like the idea about the cutting the grass or the handy person that helps out. But also, I think the primary goal is to get people into houses for the interaction and that. And I think we can do that right now and get neighborhoods involved. And the more that we do the marketing, I think the two key thing is going to be the marketing to get people to sign up for the program. And we've got a transportation expo coming up on the 19th, and we've got door hangers, and we're going around to neighborhoods and getting people to come to that. But the big key is going to get people to come to that. The big key here, I think, is we're going to get people to be a part of the program. I think that is going to be the, and get that education out there to them. So I'd rather spend the money doing that. I think we have a pretty good template of how this goes about, and we can always add to it as we bring in a different community that has special needs and special abilities, and we can add them, and they can do that as their separate spoke. But I think as our hub, we know that you're going to be doing that, and we bring in spokes, and then we kind of build upon that. But I think we have a pretty good template, like I said, right here. And I would prefer to go ahead and put that money and get this program going, firstly I know Christy doesn't want to have to do a lot of the work, because she, her hands are, she's juggling a lot of stuff right now. But we do have a lot of people that we probably could already get involved with the senior services center that go there, that could be also part of this, that we have a lot of constituents out there that need the need now, is how I see it. Well, I like the idea, if you want to give us additional staff right now to do this, I'm willing to do just that. Well, I would rather put the money towards that staff than to a feasibility study that tells us this is what we're going to do, and we've already put the money, let's get the program going now. I think it's a great idea, a great program, and I'd rather go ahead and get it working. I like the idea of getting it working right now. I like the idea of not having to do the feasibility study at all, because that's a lot of work and a lot of effort. However, I keep on thinking, and this might be just me, and correct me if I'm wrong, but it took us seven years to get this, to identify the needs, just for our people that we have right now. And right now, we cater to the indigent, so this is not a neighborhood, this is the indigent. So their needs are very much different than what you're going to find in, say, even Stonewall neighborhood. The chair's going to tell me I'm over time, so I have to make one little comment. You spent seven years getting this, I think you've done a great job getting here. Now let's take what you've gotten in seven years and move forward. I don't want to wait another seven years. Now I have two grandparents that live to be 100, so my mom, I think, is going to make it there. But still, I don't want to have to wait until 98 when this comes out for her. Thank you, Councilmember. Thank you. Councilmember Lynch. Thank you, Chair, and I just want to say thank you, Roxanne, for doing an excellent job on the presentation, and standing up there and answering all of our questions, because I know that is not the easiest thing to do. So thank you so much. And to my colleagues, just hear that a caring place, the non-profit, and they are asking for financial help to do this feasibility study. Their board has discussed this. They know where they stand as an organization of purely volunteers. And so they are excited about this village's model and want to see it further expand and reach our seniors in all four corners of our county, but they're asking, we need the help. I think a study will help us, kind of give us the structure, the guidebook of how we need to move forward in Lexington. Not just talking to other seniors and getting seniors connected to the program, but it could be fundraising. It could be, okay, there are these grants out there that will be specific to what you're doing that will help. It could be a lot of structural things. Maybe the study will let them know, okay, we need to hire a full-time executive director because it's just not enough just to have a staff of volunteers. So I think the study is still very important. And I will be making a fund balance request to support their ask for a feasibility study so that we can have a great structure to move this program forward effectively throughout our community. because I would hate for them to burn out, to continue doing what they're doing, which is a phenomenal work. But we want to make sure they have a structure in place to continue to support what they're doing, and so that it will continue to be sustainable throughout their community forever. And we want this service to always be available for our seniors and our individuals with disabilities who are living at home. So thank you, Roxanne, thank you, Chair, thank you, Council Member Sheehan. I do plan to make a fund balance request to support the feasibility study so that we can make sure that we are giving you all the tools to better serve all of our seniors in the community. And thank you for what you're already doing, and if there are seniors out there that want to connect with a caring place, you can today. Please reach out to a caring place if you want their services, if you want to join them. You can do that today, so please do that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, and I want to thank Council Member Lynch and Sheehan for working on this. We know already that it's been identified as a need in Lexington. I just had, Ms. Cheney, I just had one more quick question, I just had one more quick question. You mentioned earlier needing the support of BUILD, and BUILD made it one of their main asks this year to establish something like Villages. What type of work have you done with them on this? We've been meeting right along the line with BUILD to discuss this. We've even been asked to come on their work group that's meeting on November 4th with elder care, just to be a part of that so that we're not doing one thing, and then they're over here doing another thing, and never the twain shall meet. That's great, I'm glad to hear that. Thank you so much, and thanks again for coming and giving a presentation. I appreciate it. The next presentation is our final one today, and it is a report out from the Gun Violence Task Force Work Group. This was my item, and before I take a moment to give a little intro, I really want to thank everybody that's here today who came out for this item. If you served on the task force and participated in any way in the past year, would you please raise your hand? Thank you for everyone who is here and who participated and those that didn't. It's hard for folks to get here on a work day, so I really appreciate everyone that's here. I also want to thank Council Member Fogle, who was instrumental at bringing people to the table. She really worked hard to bring a diverse group of people to the table to talk about this, and I really appreciate her support. I also want to thank Council Member Lynch, who worked also very hard on this item, and for your support. And then I also want to thank the administrative skills of Sarah Morales, Kendra Thompson, and more recently, Isabel Ballard, who all worked hard throughout the year. And I really appreciate your time and expertise. As I mentioned, this was a diverse group of people, and this subject is a very difficult subject to tackle. I'm grateful for everyone's contributions. The Gun Violence Task Force initially started as an item I placed in the Social Services and Public Safety Committee, and then formed a task force out of the item, which was formed in order to answer the question, in addition to everything the city is already doing, what else could it do that is in its power to address the issue of gun violence? The task force was made up of community members, which we called community pillars, and city leaders who were leaders in an official capacity in government, etc. They met separately for several months last year to work on recommendations, and then they all came together for several months to work on joint recommendations and the report out that we did in April to this committee. At that time, several members of this committee asked to specify the recommendations. They said they would prefer that the recommendations be more specific. So a smaller work group was formed after an open invitation to the whole group. This group continued to work on recommendations for a few more months, and met five times between June and September. A few of the recommendations on this list were put on hold until we have more information, and this is a revised list that we took seriously. Over the past few weeks, we witnessed an uptick of shootings in our neighborhoods, and we all want to work towards a safer future for everyone. In the packet for your reference, there are additional recommendations from a few members of the work group that have supporting community groups. And now, there will be a request at the end to adopt the recommendations to move to full council. Right now, I would like to ask Tana Lindsey to come to the podium and she will start our presentation. Thank you for allowing me to come to the podium today. My part in this presentation is to introduce, that came out, my part in the job today is to introduce families that say that there is a problem and who have been impacted by gun violence. So, as I call their name, they are going to stand, and you can, can you hear me? Speak as loudly as you can into the mic. Is this better? So, I'm going to ask the families to stand as I call their name, and if someone's name is not on this list, please stand, and I will make sure that there is an acknowledgment. And these are families that have been impacted, and we really want you to see faces of gun violence, and they are represented in this room today. Myself, Tanya Lindsey, my son was Xavier Lindsey. He was taken in 2013. This is what he looks like. I have Alicia Harrison. Her son was Berkley Parks. He was taken in 2021. I have Priscilla Sandiford. Her daughter, Amaya Sandiford, was taken in 2022. I have Cheryl Birch. Her son was Jermaine Birch. I have, I have Ricardo Franklin. His brother was Antonio Franklin. He was taken in 2004. I'm trying to stand on my toes. I'm sorry. We have Kathy, Kayla, and Pierre Swain, who are here representing their loved one, Pedro Swain. He was taken in 2021. We have, we have Dena Mullins. Her son was taken in 2017, Sean Howard. We have Paula Marshall. Her son was Domenico Cloyd. We have Janae Harris. Her son was John A. McCann. He was taken in 2021. We have Marita Cole. Her son was Joshua Cole. He was taken in 2017. If there's anyone else who is here representing a loved one that has been lost, please stand. We have, we have Denise Hamilton here representing Alice Carter. She was taken in 2020. We have Tiffany Clark. Her son was Zion Clark. He was taken in 2020. I think we've got them covered. And we also have a group that supports a lot of families, Moms Demand Action. Would you please stand? They are a support group for gun violence. That's my part of my presentation. And we would like for you guys to look at us because we are the face of gun violence and we know and we believe that we have a problem with gun violence in Lexington, Kentucky. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Ricardo Franklin. I'm the Community Outreach Coordinator at the Sheriff's Office. Today, I'll be sharing some facts from according to the KFF, firearm violence is prevalent with more than 50, with more than half, 54% to be exact, of U.S. adults or their family members having experienced a firearm-related incident in their lives. A quote from surgeon Dr. Vivit Shmurthy, firearm violence is an urgent public health crisis that has led to the loss of life, unimaginable pain, and profound grief for far too many Americans. We don't have to continue down this path and we don't have to subject our children to the ongoing horror of firearm violence in America. All Americans deserve to live a life, to live a life, their lives free from firearm violence as well as from fear and devastation that it brings. It will take the collective commitment of our nation to turn the tide on firearm violence. Good afternoon. From the CDC, firearm injuries affect people in all stages of life. In 2022, firearm injuries of all types were among the five leading causes of death for people the ages 1 to 44 in the United States. Firearm injuries were the leading cause of death among children and teens ages 1 to 19. Firearm injuries and deaths are preventable, not inevitable, and everyone has a role to play in prevention. A comprehensive approach and partners working with communities can reduce inequality and prevent firearm deaths and injuries. From the CNN, more children die from guns than anyone else in the United States. Good afternoon. My name is Andre Wilson and I appreciate this opportunity to talk in front of this committee on gun violence. I also want to say that gun violence on any level is bad. I might not have had anybody in my family get killed, but I had a son, two sons, that was affected by gun violence. One was playing with a gun with a friend. He got shot, lost his eye. He was just taking his brother home one day and some guys shot up his car. I had a great nephew that was going to cash a check and some guys wanted to rob him and they shot him. And then I've also, in 1997, that stands dear to my heart, a young man asked me for a job because he said, I want to get off the street. I want to get away from the idle thing. He was killed. He was killed by the police at rallies. That's one reason why I build my construction business as big as it was because I said I would never, ever have another person come to me that wants help and I'm not able to help them. But the real reason I'm here is to read this statistic from the American Public Health Association. In the United States, gun violence is a major public health problem and a leading cause of premature death. Preventing death, disability, and injury from gun violence requires a public health and approach that involves data collection and surveillance research to understand which policies and programs are affected in increasing gun violence. Initiative to implement those measures that are shown to work and continue surveillance and evaluation. And I appreciate y'all's time. Thank you, everyone, for your participation. And now we have Kendra Thompson to do the report on. Good afternoon, everyone. As Councilmember Reynolds mentioned, I'm going to review the recommendations from the work group that was formed under the gun violence task force. I'll begin with a look at the participants. These next two slides, you'll see the gun violence task force participants, which was the larger group that brought forward the initial list of recommendations earlier this year. And here are the participants from the smaller work group that has been meeting since the report out in April. As you can see from the two lists, the participants include Councilmembers, Council staff, community partners, community members, and public safety and government officials. I will begin with the list of recommendations that came out of the community pillars group. The first recommendation is for LFUCG to define gun violence as a public health crisis. This would include an emphasis on marketing, research, data collection, identifying risk factors, and using evaluation measures to frame policies. The intent is to model and elevate this to the status of domestic violence in the opioid crisis, collecting as much information as possible on gun violence. This would be overseen by different departments, looking at possibly having regular run time on television, featuring stories on residents who have been impacted by gun violence, and there could potentially be a partnership with the Lexington Health Department on this initiative. The second recommendation from this group is for LFUCG and the community to support a gun violence awareness campaign in June with events and services to provide support and acknowledge families affected by gun violence, as well as support the Antonio Franklin Jr. VIP Peace Walk in April. This would consist of using city resources to support community partners in events about gun violence, partnering with city divisions to have educational and community relationship building events and workshops, providing gun safety education, and featuring a calendar of gun violence awareness events on the city's website, highlighting community-led and district-specific events. The last recommendation from this group is for LFUCG to inform community partners of opportunities available to utilize and provide programs in community and neighborhood centers. Some of the community centers listed here have limited availability. Continuing with this recommendation, it will include parks and recreation staff meeting with council members to discuss the process of community use and access, meeting with neighborhood groups and anti-gun violence advocates, expanding partnerships, and improving access to all neighborhood centers. The work group expressed concern that some of the regulations and paperwork, like a $2 million insurance policy for partners, can be barriers to accessing our community centers. From the city leaders group, the first recommendation is that one Lexington, when responding to a gun violence incident in a council member's district, provide notification of the incident, debrief, and follow-up with opportunities on how council can get involved. The notification would consist of informing on what's occurring, how they're planning to respond, and if the council member can be involved. This would occur on a consistent basis and only when appropriate. The second recommendation is that council provide continued support for co-response teams and mobile crisis teams to allow for rapid response to acute behavioral health emergencies in the city and continue support for additional behavioral health specialists. Recognizing the growth of the paramedicine team, the work group recommends and supports the expansion of the team with additional social workers in public safety and more outreach workers for the Office of Homelessness Prevention and Intervention. Third is the recommendation that LFUCG expand the scope to address gun violence for all ages, not just ages 13 to 29. All people who have in some way been affected by suicide also need to be considered for services, regardless of age. This would include expanding one Lexington or staff to address gun violence, having a multi-departmental approach to tackle the issue, and no age limit tied to gun violence because it affects everyone. Fourth, the work group recommends LFUCG communicate more fully with the community about its work surrounding gun violence. This would mean greater transparency regarding the services offered by the city to families impacted by gun violence, advertising resources in community centers, schools, churches, et cetera, being more specific about the services provided, having greater financial transparency, and hosting a resource fair twice a year. And finally, the work group recommends the creation of a new position in social services for a gun violence program coordinator who would work for all divisions on gun violence. This position would be similar to the social services positions focused on domestic violence and the opioid crisis. The person would help implement these recommendations and oversee programs. They would also work on implementing campaigns and PSAs. The work group recognizes that One Lexington and social services are at capacity for being able to add to their workload. The request is for $75,000 from the upcoming fiscal year 2026 budget for this position and $75,000 from fund balance for their first year's budget. And now I will turn this over to Councilmember Reynolds to field any questions you might have. Thank you so much, Kendra, and for all your work on this over the past year. I'll entertain questions. Or does someone need to? I'll give it to the vice chair because it's my item to call on folks if that's okay. That'll be fine. Thank you. Councilman Gray. Thank you, vice chair. So my question, I guess, to the chair is, so is this task force perpetual or does it cease after the presentation today? We had different conversations about that. Some of the folks did want to continue some sort of task force or board or commission. We haven't decided on that for right now. It will end after this and then we might look at a way to, you know, add it as an ongoing group in the future. Thank you. And thank you also to the other councilmembers that, Councilmember Lynch and Councilmember Fogel for working on this issue. As you all know, I've had members of my family who were murdered with guns. So, you know, so thank you all for all the work that you do. And the families who have lost loved ones. I know how difficult it is and how grieving doesn't end. It just gets different. So but you all are in my continuously in my prayers just as I continue to pray for my aunt as well and my cousins. So thank you. Councilmember Fogel. Thank you, Chair. First of all, my love goes out to you all. I want to acknowledge that my son also was shot and he survived six bullet wounds while he was recording music. But spiritually and mentally he died. You guys have come to the table and you showed up. And I'm asking my colleagues that we publicly say that this is a health crisis. I'm a little taken back at the $75,000 because your children's lives mean more than $75,000. There's a saying that until it comes to your back door, you really don't get involved. And every one of you are at our back doors because we represent you. Thank you, Moms Demand Action for always showing up and showing out to support. There is no racial line because we know that the bullet doesn't have an eyesight as to where it's going to go or the after effects that it leaves. When you're trying to put your family back together. We invest money in a lot of things. You can't get your babies back. This is the work that we must all do with public safety. And so I'm calling on my colleagues to publicly say this is a health crisis. I'm talking to the mayor of Lexington. That one Lex can't do it by itself. We've got to open these community centers. We've got to have a place to go. We have to increase mental health services. So I stand with you. I support. And I'm going to ask for an increase of that number and the value of that dollar in the fund balance. Anita was a friend of mine. She wasn't the first woman that lost her son. It's just that we started paying attention. So thank you. Cheryl. And the rest of you all this year. Tanya, you are beating the pavement every time I turn around. Stop calling me at 6 o'clock in the morning, but it's okay. I'm here whenever you need me. I love you guys. Hang in there. Hang in there. He will restore. Almighty God. That's my comment. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Chair. Our Vice Chair. And thank you everybody who participated. And I'm sorry we have to go through this and relive this nightmare. But without putting faces here, I don't know if we get the full impact of how much it really means to our community and what we, as your representatives, what we can do to try to help this health crisis. And I think it is a health crisis when you see the statistics. And we can make a change. And I think we need to do it now, not later. I would recommend, I appreciate the recommendations that came. But just like earlier, I don't think we need to wait until fiscal year 26. I think we need to do it now. We will have fund balance. Thank you for the applause, but we're not supposed to. But I think it's needed. Because I think we need to do something now. And when we come to fund balance, we usually try to not, we use that for one-time money. But I think this is a special situation that we can make a difference and make a difference now. Let's not wait until next year and have to be back here again and have other people holding up signs. I think we need to stop this now. So when it comes to the fund balance, I hope that we will go ahead and put the coordinator on. We'll put the money in the budget and put the coordinator on. And thank you all for being here. I know it's not easy to do, but thank you all. Council Member James Brown. Thank you, Vice Chair. And thank you folks in the community that have been involved with this work and members of the task force. And Council Member Reynolds and Fogle and Lynch for your work on this as well as others. I agree with Council Member Ellinger. I think my only pushback would be is the position in the budget. Since fund balance, we try to use that money for one-time expenses. I'm supportive of the 75K or more if needed to go towards initiatives and programming and resources to help the families. I see, I know there are experts that deal with this more on a regular basis and have the right terminology. But I think there's response, there's prevention, and there's recovery. My concern is, you know, we keep talking about adding capacity to One Lex, who is doing good work. And they may be at capacity as well as DSS. I wonder if we're talking about placing these efforts in the right department in government. Maybe public safety ought to be considered, especially when we talk about moving the age and addressing all ages and not putting a limit. Because I think when we're talking about young people that are involved in activities with firearms, I think the path may be different from folks in other ages. And I don't know. I just want to make sure that we're allocating resources and the attention where it needs to be put. But I do think, and I said this at the last presentation, that if it's going to be, if we're going to label a public health crisis and elevate this, I think that's appropriate. And I think putting resources to address it is appropriate as well. So let me ask the commissioner, Casey Allen Bryant, and I probably should have gave you a heads up that I was going to ask you this. Elevating, when you change the priorities or we enhance the priorities for ESR, some of it for mental health and I think trauma recovery, depending on the applications that we receive for this year's grant, did we have a response to actually meet that need? I think that area has been identified as an area that we need to focus on as a community. Did we have applications from organizations to provide these services in our community? Yes, I wish I had known you were going to ask me this ahead of time, so I would have had the information ready for you. If I can think back to six months ago, yes, we did have some applications related to gun violence. So one of our categories for ESR is community wellness and safety. And so we did have some that were gun violence. We also, in our mental health priority area, which was the fourth priority area that was added this year, indirectly related to gun violence in those categories. And I know ESR comes around, it's a two-year grant cycle. Maybe that's one of the things that we talk about and consider at Fund Balance, is putting some money towards getting some more money out to these agencies that can help these families and help this community in regards to addressing these issues. So I'm in support of that. I'm also in support of moving these recommendations forward. There may be some more conversation about what the final version looks out as far as what the council adopts in regards to these recommendations. But I think we should elevate this as a public health crisis, put more resources towards the initiative, and put more money out there to get more agencies the opportunity to help our families in this community. So thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair. Vice Mayor Wu. Thank you, Vice Chair, for recognizing me, even though I don't serve on this committee. Thank you all for coming out and for being vulnerable. Unfortunately, you all have been forced to be vulnerable and to put your vulnerability on display. It's not an easy thing to do, and I really do appreciate it, and I appreciate all the work that you all do and your advocacy. I agree with my colleagues that elevating gun violence to a public health crisis is important. That move in and of itself is just words, but I think it's important when local government says something that we back it up with action and with money, and these recommendations move in that direction. I have a couple of questions more procedurally about how we're going to move forward. Council Member Reynolds, are you suggesting moving this entire package of recommendations out of committee and to full council? Yes. Some of them would require extra work for implementation, but I spoke with law and they suggested a motion to support the recommendations of the Gun Violence Task Force so we can keep the conversation moving forward. It's something then we would refer back to. Are you looking for us to do sort of the nitty gritty work of kind of taking it apart and putting it back together and maybe putting in more specificity or any sort of changes to these recommendations at the full council level then and not in this committee? I think that it would move on to full council. We would use this as a list, and then we would work with different divisions to implement them. Do you also see this list of recommendations and this working group as a parallel to the Racial Justice and Equity Commission in their work of putting together those recommendations and then they, through that, they funded a position that Tiffany Brown now holds as that implementation officer? Is that the intent for the $75,000 is to create a position like an implementation officer to take whatever recommendations we may approve and actually implement them? I think it is slightly different in its intent, but there are definitely comparisons. This person would be a coordinator that would work with all divisions to ensure that these recommendations and issues with gun violence are happening. It could be programming, it could be marketing, it could be PSA. So they would work with everyone. And so it's similar to the other two positions we mentioned in social services with the opioid crisis and domestic violence. I don't know that this group would continue in the same way that that group continued, but there is a possibility that it would continue. And then if it did, it could make recommendations and anyone could implement them. This person, this new person, could be that point person. We haven't defined how it would continue. Okay, so at this point, there's no decision that's been made whether or not this task force is permanent or- Correct, correct. Off at some point. Okay. Well, I look forward to continuing to have these conversations with my colleagues. And thank you all again for coming. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Chair. Council Member Savigny. Thank you, Vice Chair. And thank you so much for the presentation. And I appreciate the fact that you are sitting in the front row and that you are sharing your lived experiences. I don't thank you for being here because I wish you weren't here, you know, just like I know you wish you weren't here. So that being said, I had many of the same questions as Vice Mayor Wu just asked. What I want to tell the people out here in the audience today is that I am super supportive of this. This isn't a problem in my district, but it is a problem in our city. And I really do appreciate the diversity we have on this council because I lean on other people to bring issues up that I may not be totally- that they're not forefront. It's not what the people of my district are so intent on. But it's something that makes our city a problem. It's a problem for our city, and therefore it's a problem for everyone. So the diversity of our council really, I'm leaning on Council Member Lynch, Council Member Reynolds, and Council Member Fogel as the primary folks on this task force to take this out of the committee and gain consensus on what you think we really need to do and just keep pushing and keep pushing us. Don't let it sit and die. Let's do the things that we can do. There are things that we can't do, and one of the things I hate is the fact that it's gun violence. And we all know there's one word in there that's kind of problematic, and it's the gun word. And I hate that. I literally hate that. I travel a lot, and I travel all over the world, and people say, what is it with you people in the United States and your guns? And I'm like, I get it. It drives us insane. So thank you all. Thank you for your hard work. Bring us something that, you know, keep it coming, and let's pass some stuff. Thank you so much. Council Member Fogel. Thank you, Chair. One thing I would like to say is I would like for the government to do what we need to do, but they're the experts, and I think there should be some funding other than grants. Like, Juan Lex is doing this thing. The prevention is what he's. This is this group that we're looking at right here, our survivors, who's making it day by day. However we have to do this, we got Ms. Lindsey, we got Ms. Burge, we got all of these families right here. And yes, the pillars will continue to meet because gun violence continues to happen. And now it's like, you know how we do that mentorship? I don't even want to use that word, but survivors helping other survivors. And there's something missing in this formula that when we put it in public safety's hand, I'm not saying that they shouldn't be a part of it, but there's the experts. It's not the city government. They're the experts. And so however we have to do this, Council Member Reynolds, there is no end to the pillars because other mothers are continuing and other fathers are continuing to come into this circle of lost children and murders and survivors and siblings missing their brothers or their sisters or their dads or their moms. So whatever we have to do, and y'all know I'm still a freshman, so I'm looking for guidance because you've all done this, this disbursement of funds. And so we heard what they asked for, community centers to be open and places that they can meet and run programs. They know what's needed because lived experience, you cannot beat lived experience, and that's why I'm sitting in this seat. You all tell us what you need. Other than what we have here, this is a start. And thank you, Council Member Brown, because you said it exactly the way I wanted to say it, but I'm so emotional, I just... But thank you, thank you, and thank you all for the questions. Because now, you know what? I believe if I don't get another day on this council, I did exactly what God sent me here to do, and that was open the hearts of the council. I'm not saying you didn't have a heart, but like you said, until you see it and you hear it, I can feel it. The Holy Spirit's just working. I'm going to stop talking. But it's here. Here we go, y'all. This is what you've been waiting for. The time is now. Not two years from now. No feasibility studies. Nothing. Right now. Here and now. And we won't stop. We won't stop. I'm riding down with you. Let's roll. Hold them pitches up. Let us feel it. Hold them up. Hold them up. These are people. Thank you, Chair. Thank you, Council Member. Council Member Ellinger. Thank you, Vice Chair. I was remiss. I want to thank Divine Karama, Larry, and Kenny for all the hard work you all have done. I think we've made some inroads here with Wynne-Lexington. We just need to give you all some help. But I'm sorry I did not bring you up earlier, and thank you for all the hard work you all have done. But we have a lot of work to do. Thank you all once again for being here. I think we need to move it forward now, not later. I think that is something we all can talk about. But let's not talk this thing. Let's just do it because it needs to be done and needs to be done now. So thank you, Vice Chair, and thank you all for being here. Council Member Lynch. Thank you, Vice Chair. Thank you, Kendra, for giving the presentation. And I really want to thank the task force and the work group members. We've been meeting for several months to come up with the recommendations that will truly affect change in our community. And I'm very appreciative of everyone and their opinions. We didn't always agree on everything, and I think that's okay. That just means we're passionate about this issue and that we're going to find solutions for this issue. Because I love the diversity of opinion, diversity of thought. So I'm really appreciative of all the task force and work group members that came around the table and shared their experiences and was candid about what government needed to do and do better at. And so I really appreciate that. And thank you to the impacted families for coming. As my colleague said, it was not easy. And I am so glad that you're here because I know that for this body to move, we need to see support in this chamber. And your support here speaks volumes. And so I'm very, very glad that you all are here today. And, Vice Chair, I have a motion if you're ready for it. Since the implementation of these recommendations will require additional work from LFUCG and our community partners, I move that we support the recommendations of the gun violence task force so we can keep this conversation moving into implementation. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Lynch. And it's my mistake, totally, but you don't serve on the committee, so she can't make the motion. Is that correct? Is that right? Yes, she can if she's not on it. Because she's not on it, she can't make the motion. Okay. So I apologize. You want to? Here, wait. Why do I have to read it? I'm going to say ditto. Just what it says on the bottom so that the legal wording is right. Way too small. Okay, here we go. So I move. Thank you, Council Member Lynch, because you was on this team. Okay, so since the implementation of these recommendations will require additional work by LFUCG and our community partners, I make a motion to support the recommendations of the gun violence task force so that we can keep the conversation moving, so moved. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? The motion passes. I'll turn the chair back over to you. Thank you. Thank you again to everyone for being here today, for everyone's hard work, and I think it's obvious that we still have a lot more work to do and we're going to keep working on it. And now we come to the end. Does anyone have any changes that they would like to note for the items that are in committee? Let me get to the screen. Council Member Gray. So, Chair, is it just to remove items or to add? You can't add in committee. So it's just to remove. Thank you. Thank you. You can add at work session. All right. Seeing nothing further, we are adjourned. Thank you.