Commission on Human Trafficking - 05.28.26

In today's episode, we're taken to the skies with Hillsborough County Mosquito Control to find out how they combat the spread of disease and the rising mosquito population. So when it comes to mosquitoes, how exactly are we combating them in the sky? Nobody complains about larvae. They complain about mosquitoes, and specifically adult mosquitoes, female mosquitoes, the ones that bite you, right? But it's a lot easier to control adult mosquitoes by controlling the larvae. What we do is we use a larvicide product that attacks the larval in the swamps, the mangrove areas along the coast here. We stop their growth so they never grow up and become adult mosquitoes. Commission on Human Trafficking, May 28, 2026, to our board meeting. Today I'd like to call the meeting to order. And we do have presentations by Commissioner Cameron Cepeda. Commissioner, would you like to go ahead and do the presentations now? Or, Lisa, would you like for them to be later on after we do our quorum? Okay, perfect. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you all so much. So I have a letter here. I'm going to give some presentations, well-deserved presentation, letters of appreciation. And also I have a letter from the chair of the board, Hagan, Commissioner Hagan. And I'd like to read the letter first. And it reads, one of the greatest gifts a person can give is of his or her time. You have demonstrated your concern for our community by having faithfully served on the Commission on Human Trafficking. The experience and wisdom you brought to the commission were invaluable to your fellow commission members and improved the quality of their decision-making. Please accept my sincere thanks and appreciation for your many hours of service. Enclosed is the certificate expressing the board of county commissioners' appreciation for your unique contributions to our community. And so we have three of them today, and they are, if you could please join me, Captain Jacob Carlisle. And Jacob Carlisle for service to the Hillsborough County Commission on Human Trafficking, November 2023 through May 2026, presented this 28th day of May 2026 by the board of county commissioners of Hillsborough County, Florida. Congratulations. And next we have Chief Jessica Corbettier. Congratulations. Congratulations. It says, in appreciation, presented to Chief Jessica Corbettier. Cooper-Tier. Cooper-Tier. For service to the Hillsborough County Commission on Human Trafficking, November 2023 through May 2026, presented this 28th day of May 2026, by the board of county commissioners of Hillsborough County, Florida. And then also we have the same, uh, letter of appreciation, uh, also for, uh, Ms. Christine. Thank you so much. And thank you all for all that you've done on our, um, commission on human trafficking, such a blessing, and thank you all so much. God bless you. Thank you so much, commissioner Cepeda. That was really wonderful. Thank you. And thank you everyone for the incredible work and dedication that you have given to the commission on human trafficking. Lisa, if we'd like to determine a quorum at this time, please. Thank you. Judge Ward. I'm sorry. Judge Costello is here for judge Ward. Commissioner Cepeda. Present. Misty Halsey. Vice Chair Groover Skipper. Member Gonzalez. I have a note from school board member Lynn Gray. She and, uh, school board member Perez are attending graduations today, so they won't be joining us. Sergeant Wood. Captain Cave. Here. Member Aguilera. Here. Chair Rose. Detective English. Here. Member First. Chief, Bureau Chief Mobley. Here. Member Petulak. Here. Thank you. And for the state attorney's office, Stephanie Simon is joining us today for her first meeting. Thank you. I have notes from both, uh, uh, Sergeant Shriver and Detective Aguilar that they will not be joining us today. Captain Carlisle was here but had to leave after he accepted his certificate. Member Williams. And Member Loki. Madam Chair, you have a quorum. Thank you. At this time for public comment, Lisa, do we have anyone in the queue for public comment? We had one person sign in. Would you like to make a statement? Thank you. You have three minutes. I need to first read our public comment statement. Oh, yes, you do. Yes. Thank you. I just wanted to know first if we had anyone. I'm so sorry. So just stay right there for one second. Thank you so much. So the Commission on Human Trafficking has established a period at each of its regular meetings to allow citizens to speak. Anyone who wishes to speak virtually or in person during the meeting may do so by contacting the Commission's administrator whose contact information is on the Commission's webpage on the county's website, hillsboroughcounty.org. The deadline for the speakers to sign in is 30 minutes prior to the start of the meeting. All speakers who wish to speak are required to provide their name, email address, and telephone number. This information is being requested to facilitate the public comment process. The chair will call in speakers by name and the order in which the request to speak has been received. Priorization is on a first-come, first-served basis. All virtual speakers will be muted upon joining the meeting and will be unmuted after being recognized by the chair by name. The Commission respects the rights of citizens to express their opinions and concerns. However, the Commission requests that citizens present their concerns in a respectful manner to maintain a polite atmosphere where all individuals are respected. Up to three minutes are allowed for each speaker. Comments should be directed to the whole Commission and not individual members. Public comment time is limited to a total of 15 minutes. You may now start your three minutes. Thank you, Connie. You're welcome. Hi, everyone. My name is Jazlyn Vasquez. I'm the anti-trafficking team coordinator for One More Child for here in Hillsborough County. And I'm more so here today to be of a support. I received the meeting minutes and notated that there is a proposal to increase the contract held for the operations for One More Child's LOFT 181 program. I'm more so here, again, to be of a support if there are any questions about LOFT 181 or how they relate to our anti-trafficking services. I'm happy to answer those questions. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. HTV, do we have anyone signed in online? Adam, is there anyone signed in on WebEx? I do not have anyone signed in right now. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. So at this time, I would like to go ahead and review and approve our minutes from January of January 22nd of, sorry, yeah, January 2022, sorry, of 26. It's one of those days. A lot of numbers going through my head today. So let's go ahead, please, have you reviewed the minutes prior to coming? And in reviewing the minutes, is there any corrections to the minutes? I'll go ahead and make a motion to pass the minutes from January, whatever the date is, January 22nd. 22nd, 2026. 2026. I'll approve. I'll oppose. Motion passed. Minutes passed. Thank you very much. Thank you. And I'd like to note that the minutes from the March meeting, as noted on the agenda, will be submitted when the update to the strategic plan is completed. At this time, excuse me, at this time we have our agency partner guest, right? Each of our guests, we have two for today's meeting. You do have seven minutes each, and our first guest is Kristen Bracey. She's the director of the Safe Alliance of Tampa Bay. Thank you so much. I was so nervous about not being able to do that. Good afternoon. I was going to say good morning. My name is Kristen. Hi, good to see you. I'm the director of the Safe Alliance in Tampa Bay, which is the strategic alliance to fight exploitation in Tampa Bay. We cover about five or six counties among our partnership members, but that spans across 16 counties, and some of our organizations are statewide. The Safe Alliance is not an organization. We're actually just an alliance of many organizations. So we were founded in 2020 through the National Christian Foundation, and we have the amazing Dottie Gruber Skipper on our executive committee. She was the former chair. We also have amazing organizations like Victim to Survivors, Sailor Freedom, One More Child, so many. Hi, how are you? Good to see you. Heart Dance, and so forth. So we have faith-based and non-faith-based organizations. We have local county, like the Pasco County Commission on Human Trafficking is a part of our alliance. We have some law enforcement entities that are a part of our alliance. We have businesses and individuals who are also on the Safe Alliance, and the idea is that we have so many. Actually, in Tampa Bay, we're very lucky to have such a robust anti-trafficking community, but we all do very important things, and oftentimes those can happen in silos. So the idea of the Safe Alliance is essentially we represent the movement, the anti-trafficking movement. So the Safe Alliance is essentially a convener. It's a mechanism by which we can all come together and collaborate, foster partnerships, build trust and rapport, and start to identify strategic plans as a movement. So we can start to move as one to affect large-scale, macro-level systemic change in the fight against human trafficking across the Tampa Bay metro region. So the more the merrier. It is not a club or anything like that. We want as many people involved in the Safe Alliance as possible. It's essentially just a place for us all to come together and to speak the same language and to determine what are some things that we can do together that we couldn't do apart. So I have just a couple of slides for you. Again, we are an alliance of leaders, so there actually is no leadership hierarchy. It's just essentially all of us coming together. We are a collective of experts. We all have our different lanes that we fill, so we have housing, we have crisis mental health support, we have legal advocacy. I'm sure you all are very aware of Brent Woody, Justice Restoration Center, Advocates Against Human Trafficking. We have all of the different entities you can think of. Plus, we have individuals who are not strictly anti-trafficking, but the services that they provide kind of cross over with anti-trafficking efforts. So we are essentially a collective of experts that bring different giftings, different skills, different experience, and different services to the table. And the idea, again, is just to have a space where we know one another, where we can build trust and rapport so that we can work together. So the things that a Safe Alliance prioritizes is learning. So we do three things every quarter. We convene as a body. So our Safe Alliance partners come together and meet in person. And this is where we have an opportunity to, of course, network, but also to work on some of our working group projects. We also talk about strategizing. We have a strategic plan, and we work very closely with the University of South Florida Trafficking in Persons Lab. So we utilize research to infuse knowledge into the movement to understand who everyone is, what are the areas of overlap and collaboration. How can we, if we have multiple people doing similar things, how can we combine forces to broaden our effectiveness? But then also, where are the gaping holes in the movement, and how can we come together and work together to fill those needs? But we also learn together. So once a quarter, we have virtual luncheon learns where we come together. We invite experts from outside the community to come in and just essentially teach us something new or give us ideas for innovation. We're also, this year, we're kind of focusing on elevating nonprofit leadership and helping each one of our individual nonprofits to streamline and to have that additional support so they can do what they do well, so that all boats rise together. And then we also do mixers, which are, they have absolutely no purpose other than just so that we can know one another, build trust and rapport, be friends in this work together, so that that naturally, organically builds partnerships. We convene, we collaborate, we learn together, and then we use tools like our strategic plan, and also our asset map, which is the project I was telling you about, that we work in partnership with the University of South Florida Trafficking in Persons Lab, to understand the immediate needs. Our strategic plan is that kind of upstream view of the mechanisms that create an environment for trafficking to exist. And so, how are we being proactive and kind of stemming the flow of trafficking, and then also, how are we meeting the immediate needs? And from that, we form working groups that enable us to actually put those things into action. So, recently, we had 15 different anti-trafficking organizations and partner agencies come together to put on the 2026 Elevating Leadership Conference, which was a two-day event for survivor leaders from not just locally and statewide, but from around the nation. It was the first one in the state of Florida that we know of, and then also, we invited Rebecca Bender in. She's a national survivor leader, and she said it was one of the first ones since COVID, so there was a huge need for it, and that's the power of collaboration. We were able to make that happen together as a body. We're also working on building capacity for behavioral health and medical providers that are trauma-informed work specifically with human trafficking victims. We have, like, the amazing Misty is in that working group, and Dottie, and so forth. So, we find ways to collaborate, we create projects, and then we seek funding to see those projects through. This is just an upcoming calendar of events. Anyone who would like, we would love for the Hillsborough County Commission on Human Trafficking to be represented at the SAFE Alliance, because we know how amazing you are and how effective you are in your community. So, we would love to partner with the Hillsborough County Commission on Human Trafficking, and that is it for me. Thank you so much for your time, and I would welcome any questions. You did brilliant. You have 52 seconds left before questions. Bravo. Thank you. Bravo. Awesome. Any questions? I just have, you know, comments in full transparency. I am on the Executive Board for SAFE volunteer. Never have received a dime of payment being serving on the board and also helping it, you know, initially to get up off the ground. And the work that SAFE is doing is absolutely phenomenal, and I would love to see this body partner with SAFE in an official way, not necessarily financially, but just to be a partner and support the work, the great work that they're doing. I mean, they truly are collaborative and bringing the county, several counties together to work on the same issue, and it would be wonderful to have Hillsborough Commission represented in some of the work that SAFE is doing. And Kristen leads it brilliantly. So thank you. Thank you so much. Awesome. Thank you all. Thank you. Well, I do want to make, come back here for a second. I was going to make a quick comment. I want to comment about the Survivors Retreat, the Leadership Retreat. It was phenomenal. I mean, we can always do things, you know, differently and whatever, but it was phenomenal to bring together a group of survivors from all over the country. And it was a very, I've been to a lot of different Survivor Retreats, and what made this so different and so unique is that it was very much geared towards leadership in the capacity of your voice, how to use your voice in such a way. Do you want to use your voice to be a speaker? Do you want to use your voice so that you can participate in meetings like this? Do you really want to create an LLC or an S-Corp? Or maybe you really can't do that because you're still working through the process of expungement. So then this is the way that you can go out and you can speak, you can receive funds this particular way. So it was really great because it was one of, really one of the first retreats that I had been to that really addressed some of the barriers that there are survivors out there that are still coming up against. That are moving forward with their voice, but they're still experiencing those barriers, and there were some ways and tools for them to be able to overcome them. So thank you, bravo. It was excellent. Thank you. Thank you so much, Carney. That's a high honor coming from you. And I think the best thing was that it's just a great jumping off point. It's just a great start, and we're hoping that things spring from that, that someone can take the ball and run with it, and we can then support that effort. So thank you very, very much. You're welcome. You're welcome. Thank you. And that concludes. So our next speaker, please, Nancy Hernandez, would you mind, please, coming up? And I do believe that you are a guest of Commissioner Cepeda's. Yes, Commissioner? Yes. Okay. Yes, no, and thank you. Thank you for inviting them and bringing them to our attention. Yes. And just so you know, I do have a timer, all right, so that you know. So seven minutes, and then I'll let you know again. Now you have three minutes for Q&A. All right, fair enough? Okay. Okay, my name is Nancy Hernandez. I'm nervous. Nancy Hernandez, and I had the ministry. She's a survivor of human trafficking for many years. I'm sorry. Can you introduce yourself to Pastor? I'm Pastor Gedira Garcia. Thank you. I'm trying to translate for Nancy. So we're speaking in Spanish in Frankfurt. Okay. So he's been a survivor since 2007. Many years, and once I was out of that situation where I was at. Prostitution. Prostitution. Introducing drugs inside my body. Para ir a muchos lugares. To go to many places. Pero aquí estoy. But I'm here. Tuve muchos años. I was many years. No tengo todo el tiempo para contarlo. I don't have a lot of time to explain. Pero en el 2007. But in 2007. Fui liberada. I was delivered. Y en el 2007. Y en el 2007. Y en el 2007. Decidí. I decided. Que voy a trabajar a la comunidad para poder apoyar a otras mujeres que estuvieran en la misma situación que yo. That I was going to work with the community to be able to help women that were in the same situation. Mucha gente no conoce. Many people don't know. El trabajo que hago. The work I do. Pero estoy en la comunidad hace 15 años. But I've been in the community for the past 15 years. He trabajado con muchas mujeres. I've worked with many women. Mujeres que han estado atrapadas. Women that have been trapped. Mujeres que han sido liberadas. Women that have been delivered. Que ahora. That now. Trabajan junto conmigo en nuestra organización. That work besides me in my organization. Mujeres que se han preparado. Women that have been prepared. Mujeres que han podido lograr. Regresar a la comunidad. That have been able to go back to the community. Mujeres que han podido tener sus hijos de nuevo. Women that have been able to get their children's backs. Y ese ha sido mi trabajo. And that has been my work. Yo sé que muchas personas del gobierno si saben el trabajo que hago. Muchas personas no. I know that many people from the government know the work that I do. Some don't. Porque siempre he trabajado en privado. Because I overworked in private. Siempre dije que quería hacer la diferencia. I always wanted to be the difference. Que verdaderamente se viera en un momento dado. That people who were willing to see in a particular person. El trabajo que he hecho en la comunidad. The work that I've done in the community. Y yo creo que este es el momento. And I think this is the moment. Le doy gracias a todos. I thank everyone. Verdad? Para poder, poder, poder me invitar. Para yo poder estar aquí. La comisionada. A todos. Pero me encantaría que es muy poco tiempo para que conocieran el trabajo que se hace. Todos los días. Pero es un tiempo corto para entender y conocer todo el trabajo que hacemos. Cuando llegan madres. Cuando recibimos madres. Preocupadas. Lo que está pasando con sus hijos. Porque de lo que está pasando con nuestros hijos. Cuando llegan vecinos. Cuando los vecinos vienen. Que a lo mejor yo no soy policía. Pero con la experiencia que tengo. Me uno con la familia. Y comenzamos la travesía. Así se llama. Confidenciar. Porque la familia tiene miedo también de ser afectado. Y ahí estamos nosotros para darle support. And that's where we are stepping to give them support. Damos support espiritual que es lo más importante. Spiritually support we give as well. Damos support para que las personas charlas. Para que tanto la familia. Necesitamos preparar la familia. We prepare the families. We're constantly. Necesitamos preparar los jóvenes. We need to prepare the youth. Para que no caigan. So that they won't fall. En lo que yo caí. In the situation. Ahora es mucho más fácil por las redes sociales. And now it's much easier through social media. Anteriormente porque tengo 65 años ya. I'm 65. So before it wasn't that way. So yo creo que es el momento de yo llegar aquí. I think it was a precise moment. Y poner la voz. And put my voice. Lo único que necesitamos es unirnos. The only thing we need is to unite ourselves. Si estamos unidos es una manera más fuerte. If we're united it's more effective. Porque sin recursos. Yo lo he logrado. Con ustedes. Yo creo que va a ser mucho más poderoso. Necesitamos programas para preparar. Necesitamos lugares donde los jóvenes. Con sus padres puedan llegar. Y ellos puedan entender. Lo que está pasando en la comunidad. Nosotros somos una organización pequeña. We are a small organization. Pero hacemos demasiado. Pero we do a lot. Tenemos un pantry de comida. Un banco de comida. Damos 5 mil millones de libras de comida en un año. We give 5 million pounds of food every year. A la comunidad. Ahora estamos abriendo una clínica. Now we're trying to open a clinic. Necesitamos que todas esas mujeres que están afuera. We need all those women that are outside. Que han sido rescatadas. That have been captured. Como yo que perdimos los dientes. Perdimos todos. Vamos a tener un dentista. Vamos a tener dentista. Que vamos a estar trabajando con eso bien fuerte en la comunidad. Para poder levantar esas mujeres. We're going to be working with the women of the community. Y hombres también. And men as well. Damos, ayudamos con comida. Ayudamos con seguros médicos. We help with health, insurances with food. Ayudamos con el pago de renta. Con todo lo que podamos. Or whatever we can. Ya lo hemos hecho por todos estos años. We have done this for many years. Pero yo necesito la colaboración de esta ciudad más fuerte. But I will need the cooperation of this city stronger. And I'm sorry your time is up. Okay. I'm so sorry. Thank you. So you have three minutes for questions, Q&A. So maybe we can address some of it in the three minutes. So, um, yes, yes. Um, thank you so much, Ms. Nancy. And I'll tell you all, she's been, even though all the things she's listed, she's actually being very humble for all the things she's actually done. Um, she has gone out and helped rescue many children. Um, she does so many things, uh, behind the scenes that most people have no idea what she's done to rescue, like I said, many children and adults, things you've probably seen on TV, but you didn't know like where, how it all came about and started. But, uh, she's absolutely amazing what she's doing. And then the services, uh, that she provides. Thank you so much, uh, Ms. Nancy, because everything you're doing is life changing. Not only one life, but that one life, then it turns around and affects many other lives. Like you said, families are restored, lives are changed forever, generations and generations to come because of, you know, the rescue efforts and the lives being changed. And I thank you so much for that. And, um, just you all really don't know how much she really said. And I don't know how much she wants to say, so I will just leave it at that there right now about those other things. So, but thank you so much, Ms. Nancy for being such a blessing and your organization. Thank you. Thank you. So I just have a question. Thank you for all that you've done. I've heard about your organization and it's just wonderful to meet you in person. I think you do quite a bit of work with, uh, Chief Burkaw Tampa Police Department. I thought so, yeah, thank you for that. I wanted to know if you're, um, affiliated with the USF Bright Network Project getting on their platform. It could be. You are. Okay, perfect. Because I thought you need to be if you're not. So I'm glad that you are. So thank you so much for all the work that you do. Thank you. Uh, Madam. Thank you very, very much for the work that you do. I'm afraid this probably is not magnifying my voice. Um, thank you very, very much. I'm wondering how you fund yourself. Where do you get your support for your services? My fundos son, um, personas que llegan, compañias y personas que llegan. Companies and people that come. And they give donations. They give donations. We don't, we don't usually do grants or have the ability of lots of grants. So we've also given a commendation to her organization from the, uh, Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. And also, um, she's working towards getting some things from that area as well, right? So, okay. Um, Primero que todo, muchísimas gracias por compartir tu historia con nosotros porque eso sí fue muy impactante para mí. So de eso sí, muchísimas gracias. Um, quería preguntar a usted si están ubicado en la ciudad de Tampa, Solamento, si están también dando servicios a otras personas que están todavía en el condado o afuera del condado. Sí. Hold on. For the record, can you say what you said just now in English, please? Um, I was thanking her for her story and then, um, also to just asking, um, if she is located primarily in Tampa or if her services kind of extend outside of Tampa, um, throughout like the county, even outside the county. Thank you. En Tampa y fuera. Mm-hmm. En Tampa y fuera. In Tampa and out of Tampa. And if I can note that, uh, both Safe Alliance and Mujares has, uh, submitted PowerPoint presentations and, uh, I can distribute those to members. It has a contact information for both organizations in the PowerPoint and some more maybe detail on what it is they do. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good answer. Thank you. Yes, absolutely. Thank you. And at this time, vice chair, uh, Skipper will give the steering committee report. Yeah, I'm going to keep it kind of brief for a time sake, but we, the steering committee did meet, um, uh, 4-14-2026 and you have the meeting minutes in your packet, but just, uh, a recap, pretty much, um, we, we did, um, decide to form a strategic plan review committee. As y'all know, we went through the strategic planning process and looking through it with the outcome that we had, we, some of us felt like there needed to be a few changes, um, or edits to, um, that strategic plan. So you see the members that gathered together for is a virtual meeting, uh, to go over some of the edits and recommendations and we didn't get very far. We only had an hour and it was more work. I think then we, uh, anticipated that it would be. So, um, we are still in process. I know we need to have another meeting. Um, yes, Lisa, you want to comment on that? Uh, yes, I'm waiting to schedule the next meeting of the, uh, review committee. Right. Uh, so anyone here who has not attended or is not on the, uh, review committee for the strategic plan, and you have thoughts, you have comments, you have edits or things that you're concerned about, please send them to me. And then I can consolidate those and present them when the committee meets next. And I also wanted to make note that Rosa Webster is also in attendance. She is the vice chair's alternate member from the commission on the status of women. And, uh, she is on the committee. So if anyone has anything, uh, that they'd like to ask Rosa, Rosa would, um, be happy, wouldn't you, Rosa, to answer any questions that you might have about the work they've done so far. Yeah. Rosa, do you want to give a quick kind of recap? Because you were, I know, kind of putting you on the spot, but you were, um, you, you did. I'll, I'll give you the, the blame, Lisa, but Rosa was an integral part of what we discussed so far. I would just say that, um, the biggest thing is there's a lot of good information that was, that we gleaned from the workshop, but consolidating that and figuring out the difference between what is the goal, um, what is vision, what are those things strategically that we can do, and then looking at formulating those into the five year plan, um, was the work that we've taken on. And so we, I think we are at a good start of being able to consolidate and then make those differences. So again, any input that anyone has at this point would very well be welcomed. Because what we're trying to do is to make sure that, um, when we bring this forward in front, back in front of the commission, that it will be something that we can clearly look at and succinctly say, this is what the commission on human trafficking stands for. This is what we'll be working towards for the immediate future, as well as long-term. Great. Thank you, Rosa. Any questions for Rosa or for myself at this point? We, we hope to, well, whoever wants to submit their edits and comments to Lisa, uh, as she said, she'll compile those and then take it, I guess, the next committee meeting. Correct. Yes. And, um, as soon as I get a date set for the meeting, I do also want to say for the record that although we have two members here from the Commission on the Status of Women, only Vice Chair Skipper will be voting. Uh, Rosa Webster will not be voting, uh, just so that is cleared up for the record. And, um, yes, the, the comments should come to me to avoid any sunshine, uh, violations where members are speaking to one another off the record. Uh, they're, the meetings of the the review committee are all virtual. So there is no voting at any of those meetings. It is purely discussion. It is purely workshop. At workshops, there is no voting on issues. So they're just compiling the different, uh, ideas and then that will be presented to the full steering committee. And then once the full steering committee endorses the update to the strategic plan, it'll be presented to this body for approval and acceptance. Okay. All right. Just kind of going over the highlights. That was probably one of the, well, I know there's a lot, there's a lot, but I don't want to go over all of it because you have it right before you. Um, we did talk about the allocation and planning of residual funds, uh, at the steering committee. And as you can see in your notes, um, we did agree to give, um, I just lost my place. Um, oh, I'm going back up to procurement updates right before the allocation that survivor ventures was announced as the awardee of the emergent, uh, emergency housing voucher program. So that was, um, a big thing that came out of the steering committee meeting. Um, and then allocation. I don't know how much we need to go into all of this because it's right here in front of everyone. So Lisa, yes. Um, yes, I would want, um, you to discuss or review the two proposals that the steering committee heard, um, at their last meeting for allocation of some of the budget funding. And that is the loft 181, one more child project that we heard about during public comments. We have both, uh, Geraldine Jean Charles and Deb McGinty here from management and budget. Uh, Geraldine is the project manager for the 181, the loft 181 project that is already receiving funding. Uh, Rob Parkinson could not be here today. So Deb McGinty, uh, is here for, uh, for Rob in case you have any questions. It will require a vote of this body to approve the $25,000 contract expansion that Hillsborough County already has with one more child for that project. If anyone has any questions, I'm sure they would be, Geraldine will be happy to answer them. Um, as well as Jaslyn from one more child is here. Okay. Well, let's go on and let's start with one more child. Then it's on, the pages aren't numbered, but it's after the, the budget. I'll number the pages next time. That'd be helpful. I think. Um, so you can see the one more child's, uh, loft 181 program provides an exclusive clothing boutique like experience for teenage girls ages 13 to 18 with a special focus on supporting human trafficking survivors and those at risk of human trafficking in the foster care system. It is an amazing, I saw loft 181 several years ago when it was first starting and, and I know it has expanded so much since then. And, um, apparently the shopping experience is so elevated now. Um, so Jas, do you, do we have time for her to give a little background of what the experience might look like? Well, uh, I would, um, prefer that you hear from staff. Uh, that is generally the protocol that staff gives a report and then support from the funder comes after. Okay. Geraldine. Hi everyone. My name is Geraldine. Um, like you read, um, it is a clothing boutique, but from my understanding, it's more than just a clothing boutique. Um, the youth walks into the boutique and they're given a mindset that they're not supposed to wear their struggles and they're, you know, exploring a journey of being able to identify clothing, um, experience their first bra, you know, and graduating to a different set of clothing that they're not familiar with. So the whole point of the program is to provide a clothing boutique clothing to the youth so they could have some type of normalcy compared to other youth that aren't experiencing what they're experiencing in the foster care, um, system. And I also wanted to highlight some statistics. Um, so as you can see in 2025, LAF 181 served 462 girls and they're on track to serve approximately 600 girls in 2026. And as of March, 2026, they have served 304 girls and they distributed 613 bags of items, provided 10,966 items of clothing, hygiene products and household items. And they've also, seven youth were also confirmed to being trafficked as of March. Um, in conclusion, the additional funding will allow them to replicate similar outputs and outcomes when, when their current funding is expanded. Does, does it also serve boys, foster boys? No, just girls. Okay. Not just girls, but girls. Okay. Yeah. No, unfortunately they do not serve boys. Um, they just serve, they help. Yep. It's on, sorry. Um, unfortunately they do not serve boys, but they do help out another organization that does serve boys. So whenever they get donated clothing, um, they sort the clothes for their boutique and then whatever clothing that doesn't fit the boutique, they will get provided to garage 17, which is a organization that serves boys. Yes. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. Does anybody have any questions for Geraldine or yes, go ahead. I do. Celeste. Um, move the microphone please. So we're very familiar with loft 181 as a provider. Um, I know even prior to me working there when we had the safe home, we utilize loft 181. Um, I absolutely adore the organization. Um, as I said, we utilize them frequently. Um, it is a boutique shopping experience. I mean, they're very communicative. Um, and anytime I have to take any of my girls there, um, we, I mean, they absolutely hook, they hook them up. I mean, the girls are leaving with many, like multiple bags and it's, they're not rushing them through this trip. I mean, it's important for a lot of these girls that have anxiety. Um, but again, it's just a personalized experience and there's, they're helping them shop around. Um, I guess my question would be, is, are they anticipating maybe to, I guess with additional funding or maybe another location or maybe a paid staff or I guess, um, I also saw that there was, it's noted identified, they serve identified, well, they'll assist in identification and intervention of youth suspected of being trafficked, I guess. What does that mean? I mean, aside from like a normal, you know, man, just us as citizens, what is there some, I guess that's my question is, is there plans to expand or are we doing like another location or? Um, with the additional funding, it's supposed to support their service levels and meet the needs of increasing the numbers of youth requesting services and needing new items as in shoes and undergarments as well. Um, that are undersourced. If I can, if I could add just a minute, um, they are only receiving $10,000 right now from our criminal justice trust fund. So it's a very, you can't stretch that very far. When you look at the numbers of outputs and I do know there were some questions that came about the items that were being purchased and we did include on here that in particular the ones that they do have to go choose and maybe paid disproportionately for would be underwear, personal items that that you would not, of course, pass on to someone else and choose which are our key items. So in essence, one of the things that they do want to do, which they have been trying to engage the community in, is what they call pop-up events. Because basically, we have awareness on there, but awareness is in everything that they do. You know, whether it's that youth that comes from foster care who may have been exploited or comes with that history and doesn't identify themselves as a victim or survivor, any opportunity, just like the mentoring of the normalcy, where a child, and I think Geraldine said, hey brah, well, we may go, well, of course, right? And this child would not necessarily say, of course, I don't need one, or whatever the case is. So it's kind of hard to define. It's basically bumping up their funding a little bit to defray more costs. But as far as new, they are trying to engage other community partners to do what they call pop-up events, to take it from that one location where they're at right now, out into like partner sites, which becomes logistically a little bit challenging and more expensive, because they operate out of one base. Does that help a little bit? If I may, I'd like to add, too. I think to clarify Member Williams' question was on the identification piece of the identification. And maybe Jaslyn from One More Child could address the identification, because there are various forums and interview questions and tools to identify. And I think with Jaslyn's experience and background that she can devise a plan to identify those in foster care who come to LOFT 181 to be identified. Jaslyn? Yeah, 100%. So with our services, not only do we have LOFT 181, but our team is also accessible. So if anyone is at LOFT 81 and possibly identifies or there are indicators, our team is able to go out and respond and basically communicate with that youth and also engage them in services and teach them maybe about what exploitation is or healthy boundaries or safe relationships. So we're able to do that, but not only that, with the pop-up locations, it makes LOFT 181 more accessible to the community. Not only is it just foster care, if there is a youth that might be a community child and is a survivor of human trafficking or is actively a victim of human trafficking, they can also receive services from LOFT 181 and get connected to services with our anti-trafficking team as well. Thank you. Does that answer your question? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to skip over the fact that obviously we have to ensure that this is being reported right away. Like if we're suspecting anybody, that's the first call is to the hotline because they come out and then we do the tool and then that facilitates the staffing for services. But obviously if there's criminal charges, everything, but we need the first step is the hotline. Of course, for support, they're there. That's fantastic, but I just didn't want to skip over that. And as staff, we're greatly aware of the need for data collection. So one of the things that this board has discussed and that the steering committee has discussed is the numbers and the metrics surrounding human trafficking and there hasn't been enough on the data side. I shouldn't say there hasn't been enough. There hasn't been as robust a data collection as maybe there could be. So the numbers seem to not justify the means sometimes, but we're working towards that. And that's part of what USF and Bright and the TIP program are doing is trying to put data sets together so that when we ask or go for funding or talk about the issue, that we have the numbers to back up what we're asking for. I have to comment. Yes, please. So when I first heard about One More Child's Loft 181 a few years ago, actually, and when I heard about all the amazing things they're doing, I actually went out there and I gave them a commendation from the Hillsborough County commissioners. It was awesome, signed by all seven commissioners. And they were just amazing. And it's so beautiful. Everything's so elegant. It's so awesome to see how they make every child, just like it says, One More Child, but each child to feel so special when they go in there. I mean, they have all these different rooms in there. If you've never been out there, it's just really is a special place. And I hope you can all visit there. And beautiful. I love how they make the children feel so special. And you've heard all the things that they offer there. But it's amazing. And they've been able to reach so many more people over the years. And I'm just so thankful that we have places like that in our community to help our children. Thank you. So I have a concern. I love it. I absolutely love it. I love everything about it. My concern is that we're talking very heavily about foster care, about our foster care youth, which we know they're very highly at risk. We know a lot of our kids are being trafficked. Of course, that's where it's at. However, my concern is, are we gonna be funding foster care? Are we the Commission on Human Trafficking? So is there a way that we can do this? Because we want the data collection, right? And that's what we're talking about with Bright. And also we can do it with One More Child and anyone else that comes through and we fund or work with or whatever, or partner with. Is there a way that we can focus it more on our youth that are really at risk or are being identified and then really have that data collection? I'm not sure I understand the question. So my, my, my. Can I, I can address the foster care piece. So it had been discussed at the steering committee that part of what the mission was is to keep individuals from becoming adults who are then trafficked. And the foster care system, bless all the people out there who are foster parents and who work in the foster system because it is some of the most difficult work you can ever do as a parent. But those children are more at risk. The reasons why they ended up in foster care to start with might have been because of trafficking. There are a multitude of reasons. Neglect, abuse, you name it, abandonment. And those are, those are all concerns. So we're not funding separately. We have a, the Commission on Human Trafficking is separately funding a program for foster children. And Heather Cozzola is here. She's the project manager for the Children's Network Hillsborough County. She is staff from the Children's Services Division of Hillsborough County. So this is in support of the children who are in the system and are at risk. So it's, we're not funding the foster care system per se. The other is that I believe, and Jaslyn and maybe Geraldine can speak to this, or maybe it was already mentioned, is that the program is open to community kids as well. So, and, and Ms. Williams works with community kids who are not necessarily in the foster program. So it is, it is serving all of the children who are at risk, not just foster children, if that addresses your question, in anticipation of it, of your question. I'm just concerned that it's leaning a little bit more heavily on foster kids, and I understand about the risk, and I understand that our, why our kids end up in foster care and all of that. As a matter of fact, I'm waiting for a call from the judge because one of my survivors, that I'm her mom, is in the process of adopting two foster kids at the moment, okay? So I get all of that. I'm just sharing what my concern is. You know, and yes, we have provided funding for a foster care program, but remember that was training, that was stipends, and these were kids that were identified. Okay, so I'm just expressing my concern that there aren't other programs out there that are very heavily on the foster care side that are thinking, oh, one more child, we know exactly what you do, and your programs are absolutely phenomenal. And this is a phenomenal program. It's just that as we are talking about, also data collection, identifying our kids that are at risk, and our human trafficking kids, just making sure that we are leaning a little bit more on that side. That's all that my concern is, and that I'm asking, how can we do that, have some extra data collection, and just really look at that. Madam Chair, to address your concerns about that, Deb, since this is a contract extension, will this, an actual amendment to the contract has to be executed, correct? Yes, so if there's any goals, if I'm kind of feeling the vibe here, if there's any goals regarding where you want attention and awareness to be focused, that can be done. I think we're just talking about, you know, this is a known source that infuses trauma-informed, I mean, these are trauma-informed people, and I think our emphasis was trying to say, what we know is many of these youths come from the foster care system, and they happen to be a specialized source, filling a niche to work with them. So if there's anything that you would like us to add as a goal or something like that, that we can put in there, I'm sure they would be happy to do that. And I actually do think that is part of that initiative to do the pop-up as well as to go out more into the community is not having it as identified with one type of child or one type of scenario where they're coming from. So we'd be happy to, you know, put what you need in there regarding if you're seeing that data, you know, if they're saying 90% of our youths are coming from the foster care system, well, what could we do to increase our attention over in these other areas? We could do that kind of. Okay. Yeah, that would be great. Again, just as we're also looking at data collection, you know, et cetera, that would be great. Thank you. Thank you. Is loft 181, is it focused primarily only in Hillsboro? Because that would be part of the data. Yes, please. Geraldine. That'd be part of if collecting the data if there's more than one county involved, how would we hone it down to Hillsborough County for our purposes? It's in Hillsborough County. It's located in Del Mabry, am I? Yeah, North Del Mabry. North Del Mabry, yes. Okay, okay. Just because I know y'all are amazing, Jazz. Y'all are all over the state, all over the nation. So honing it down to Hillsborough, did that help? And I think that would be one aspect that we'd want in the goals. Okay. Any other questions for either Geraldine or I guess starting there? And I guess we have, we had talked about in your- Before you move on, Madam Chair? Yeah. Vice Chair, you need to take a vote to support the $25,000 contract extension. I was just getting there. Okay, I was afraid you were going to the next proposal. No, no, no, no. I wanted to turn to the budget page so everybody could see the amount, the $25,000 that we had determined would possibly go to Loft 181. So if you turn to that budget sheet, you can see highlighted in yellow the Loft 181 pending approval by our vote, $25,000 for the expansion of Loft 181 through One More Child. So I guess with that, I guess we're, if anybody would like to make a motion to approve the $25,000 expansion to One More Child, please make a motion. I motion, I second the motion. Okay, we have a first and we have a second, so motion passes and great. We will dedicate, oh, okay, okay. And oh, we need to take the vote from everyone. So everyone in agreement, state aye, any nays? All right, so motion passes. Fantastic, so congratulations, One More Child, Jazz. We look forward to hearing all the great reports back, so thank you. All right, the next item would be the, let me find my page here. On the page after the One More Child, Loft 181 project, would be Sailor Freedom, the SOAP Project, Hillsborough County Outreach and Engagement Initiative. Would it be appropriate, since Misty is sitting on this board, that she kind of give an overview of what was discussed in the steering committee? Yes, and by her, by virtue of her doing that, by virtue of her being employed by Sailor Freedom, she has filed a form 8B in accordance with the Hillsborough County ethics rules regulating boards, councils, and commissions, and is following the state statute of ethics by filing that form. She will need to recuse herself from the vote, as she is employed with Sailor Freedom, and therefore, you can make a statement, Misty. She's over there, I was looking over here. She's over there. Misty can talk about the project. She did submit the synopsis that is in your packets, along with the breakdown of funding and how that funding would be utilized. I know the spreadsheet is really small. Yes, it is. I need my readers. That's how I got it to fit on the page. All right, so Misty, you want to give an overview? The attorney is advising me that prior to taking the vote, you need to state on the record yourself why you are recusing yourself and not voting, even though I already said that, you have to say it. Hi, Lisa, thank you. So yes, I will be recusing myself from voting on this topic, as I am employed by Sailor Freedom, and we are the one that put together the project details and have kind of been heading it up with another survivor-led organization. So for those reasons and to avoid any conflict, I will be recusing myself from voting. Thank you. Want to give a little synopsis of what the program is? Yeah, so we started in Pinellas County doing some direct hotel outreach. We completed that last month. We were able to reach 23 hotels and motels known for having complaints around human trafficking. During those events, we passed out tote bags to survivors or potential guests at the hotel that were willing to engage with us. In addition, part of the SOAP project is when we go out, we give the hotel front desk staff a missing children's poster and ask them if they identify any of the missing children, explain their vulnerabilities, and also which agency has requested any tips or info on that potential missing juvenile. We also give them indicator cards for the front hotel staff and for housekeeping. They're in English and in Spanish. The hotels are offered training that would be delivered by the SOAP project. In addition to that, there's a nice letter for the hotel owner about our purpose for being out there. In addition to that, depending on the hotel brands and what they will accept, we do give them free SOAP that has the National Human Trafficking Hotline number on it. So it is a way of doing some really direct outreach that isn't just reliant on human trafficking operations. I can share one of the successes that we had from doing the one in Pinellas is that one of the hotels that we had had a previous complaint and an arrest that had happened by Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, we are out there and a young woman came up and approached us. She looked very fearful. She was crying, looking around, stated she did want help. We did share resources or available for immediate instant, you know, housing that was available to her to help her get out of the situation. That tip was then elevated and turned into Tampa Police Department as well for what we had seen out in the field, as well as giving her the materials and things that she needed. This project, so there is a little bit of confusion, I apologize, between what you guys have in print and what we've also grown into. So in print, when we were talking about this, we planned four outreach dates for Hillsborough County to happen in the month of June. After speaking with Teresa Flores, who is the director of the SOAP project, she owns that nonprofit about how could we utilize the funds to make the biggest impact for Hillsborough County. And she stated that she would like to see, she went and did some mapping and calculations and Hillsborough County has over 115 hotels and motels. So Teresa's idea was to do a larger impact and gather 150 volunteers to come together from our community, from our various agencies. Teresa would come into town herself to do the training for the volunteers. Selah would look for donations for the breakfast for the volunteers. And then Teresa and another staff member would actually direct all those outreach efforts and coordinate it in a very coordinated, trauma-informed way. So our goal is we are still gonna do the smaller outreach in Hillsborough County for the month of June, but for the larger outreach to have the largest impact, that would be scheduled sometime in August when Teresa and her staff member could come. But we could purchase the materials ahead of time and start already having those worked on. So that was the budget that was come up with from Teresa and from our staff based on the previous outreach that we've done. That was a lot, sorry. Yeah, because that has changed a little bit since we talked to the steering committee, but I like it, you know, I like it a lot. So anybody have any questions for Misty regarding this outreach? And I don't wanna put our new member on the spot, but since he represents the Hotel Motel Lodging Association, just kind of be interested to hear your thoughts on such an outreach, your perspective. I wholeheartedly agree with it, and I think it's needed. You know, what tends to happen, especially in our industry, right, we have our team members are constantly coming and going, right, you know, they'll last a year, two years, and then they're off to another industry or maybe another hotel. So a constant education needs to constantly happen. I will be, I was gonna get with you later, but I'll be more than happy to host the breakfast. So if you wanna get with me later, we can coordinate the logistics on it. That is wonderful, thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, that was a lot more than I anticipated. Good work, Madam Vice Chair. Wonderful, and I guess there's no sunshine issues with the two of them working together, I guess. So where the breakfast is held and all the logistics for the breakfast that they would have to discuss is not up for a vote. So there would be no sunshine in just the coordinating. I always double check. The time, an attorney here can correct me if I'm wrong, but the only time a sunshine faux pas, I don't wanna call it anything else, would happen is if you talked together outside of a publicly noticed meeting about something that was going to be voted on down the line. Doesn't matter if it's next week or next month or next year, but if something is going to eventually be voted on, that would preclude two members from talking to each other. But as far as just logistics and what day and what time, you don't vote on those things, so that would not. But thank you for checking and asking, I appreciate that. I'm always double checking that, always. As soon as the attorney, we're very happy that you checked it out. And Connie has a couple of questions, but I just wanna say many of us in this room experience participating in a SOAP project. The last one I participated in was when Super Bowl was here, and I believe from that outreach in between both sides of the bay, I think about 12 children were uncovered, I think, or maybe more. I can't remember, but all because they took pictures of the children to the hotels and the hotel staff said, oh, that kid was just here. So anyway, it's very effective, very effective outreach. So Connie, I will turn it over to you with your question. No, I love the idea, but I have a couple questions, Misty. So one of them is, are you looking to do, is this gonna be like two separate fundings? Because one, if I'm hearing this correctly, one would be separate because Teresa's gonna come in and do how she typically does SOAP, where she comes in and does the training with the volunteers and everybody goes out in their little groups, et cetera, and does the typical SOAP. And then you're gonna do the four different outreaches. So that's two completely separate. So are you looking to do two separate kind of funding sources? Because they're two completely separate budgets. One, Teresa's coming in, and one, it's more of a kind of a sale of freedom. Could you speak to that and just help for us to understand a little bit better? Yeah, and I apologize again for the confusion on it because originally we were just looking at small scale. But when I talked to Teresa and really was like, hey, how can we get the most bang for our buck to support Hillsborough County? And being able to do this outreach to as many places as possible, get as many volunteers in, et cetera. That's why we talked about doing the bigger outreach. I can share from Pinellas County, I do have some materials left, but I don't know that I would be able to cover all four days based on that. So I guess my proposal would be if we could even ask for maybe $1,000 more, I think it would push us to be able to do the whole four days of outreach plus a bigger event. But I don't know if that's even possible. Well, so looking at the budget, if all of the funds that have been allocated are spent, which I'm looking at Heather, because we have the $100,500 contract with Children's Network of Hillsborough County, I, last contract that I don't believe they spent all of the allocated funding. I'm not sure if they're going to spend all of the allocated funding. So if they don't, that would mean you have even more than the $20,092 that is remaining in your budget that is uncommitted, unspent, unpaid. So you, and again, we didn't talk about this prior to, but at the steering committee, and I'm sorry he's not here today, but Detective Aguilar had discussed doing this one project and then, you know, looking at the successes that came out of the one project and then replicating it and doing it again. So I think, not speaking for Tampa Police Department, but it was my understanding that what he was looking to do was the $14,000 now for the first four dates in June and then replicating that with another 14 for a bigger project later on. So I don't know if he was expecting August to be so soon, but that was during the steering committee meeting and Shayla's shaking her head, I think. I think I remember you. Is, that's kind of where the discussion went, that we do the first one, see how successful it is, and then we do it again. So to me, it wouldn't be just another $1,000 for additional materials. It would be another 14, which, 14 and change, which is in your packet as part of the project description for the second wave. So, may I? I understood Detective Aguilar sharing 10,000 to be shared. It was a range from 10 to 15. Right, and then he was offered the opportunity to come out on any of the Pinellas County outreach dates that we did. We have run three other separate dates successfully and have the tracking to go along with that and what had happened in the reports. So it's just kind of my position there. So my other, sorry, Lisa, my one other concern would be Teresa's schedule is very hard to get booked and to actually bring her here and organize an event of this size, not to mention all the materials. I can share with you, on the last outreach, we received some of the soap late. My evenings have been spent labeling 2,000 bars of soap myself because they did not get here by the time we had all of our volunteers. So I would rather start it a little bit earlier, especially when we're talking about thousands and thousands of soaps that we have to label and having some time to build up to that event. So I also want to mention in the budget document that you have in your packets that you have $20,000 for training, $5,000 for a community event, and $5,000 for a town hall. I could remind you that this is the end of May. Hillsborough County funds, with some exception, need to be spent by August. I don't have a date from management and budget. Maybe Deb could. It's usually the second week of August where management and budget is asking for all of the invoices to be submitted to them in order to get paid in the current fiscal year. And like I said, there are some exceptions to that. So I'm not sure that this $10,000 for the two community events is going to happen. Just my gut feeling. Lisa, if I could interject for just a minute. But I have a proposal. The actual funding is available until September 30, 2026. But I think what you're talking about is there's an administrative action that happens where we have to say what can be spent within 2026 and what has to be spent within 2027 that pertains to enacting. Without it getting to, it's still that money is available. Like the respective departments safeguard that money. Correct. But this commission has had experience with making payments for 2027. And it was very difficult to have that funding carried over for us to spend the money in 2027. And that's what happened with the housing vouchers, which is why it has taken so long to get that project done. However, couldn't they, if they're planning an August event, if the invoices came in, because the invoices getting the things that she needs, are going to have to be purchased in June and July to be prepared for the August event. As long as it was paid for in advance, this money could be earmarked for it. And it still would be in the confines of both the budget, as well as what we've already agreed upon. Correct. I was talking about the community event in the town hall, the $10,000 allocated for those two events, because we haven't even began identifying locations, the target audience, doing any kind of coordination. And that takes time. So if a community event in a town hall were to take place, right, you're looking at a month, June, July. Would we be able to encumber that money without actually holding the event before the end of August or? That is extremely difficult for me to do. September 30. May I share my proposal and maybe we might be able to figure something out? Love it. Okay. So I hear what you're saying, Misty. So here's my thought. What if we do the four events, Sale of Freedom, the June events, right? Bring the SOAP project in in August. I think, I think Therese is available somewhere like the third week, weekend of August or something like that, because I know she's got some other things going on. I only know that because I'm going to see her this weekend for the World Cup, okay? And then we do the SOAP project in August. Make it a really big community event, and that covers our community event. This way you have the money that you need to do for Sale of Freedom and the awesome, everything that you guys are doing is great, right? And then we can do this community event along with Sale of Freedom, along with the SOAP project. We do our community event. You also get to do the SOAP project. Theresa comes in and does it the way that SOAP really does it. And we are able to do both. And then maybe, because we have to spend money to buy soap, wipes, materials. She has to get her flights. We have to secure a room, et cetera. Is there then a way that we could start procuring those funds? Correct me if I'm wrong, Misty. But I think that is what she said, is that they would do the June project and those four dates, and then do the exact same thing again in August. And what I'm saying is that since it's $14,000 for four dates in June, then I'm thinking it's $14,000 for the addition, no? No, because August is very different than June. August is the SOAP project where Theresa comes in. I thought the June was also the SOAP project. Can I? Please. Give me the floor for one second, please. So the project that we're doing in June is to cover 40 hotels. 40 hotels, yes. In total, over four days. So you imagine 10 hotels a day that we're going to be outreaching to and delivering SOAP to. For the June or the August event, we are covering 115 hotels, plus any 24-hour restaurants that are in the area as well, handing off missing children's posters, plus we are engaging 150 volunteers, having Theresa come here, do the actual training for it, for the volunteers. And then, you know, and additionally with a staff member that she will have. So there's a lot more going on during when Theresa's here. Okay. So the proposal was for $14,874.95, from what I can see here. And there are other things that we could talk about after this vote happens, because it says cost and tax, and nonprofits and governments don't pay tax. So whatever the tax amount is there would come out. So it might be less than the $14,800 and change. My question, and there are a variety of ways that the board can do this. So the board can approve the $14,874.95. Or you can approve an up to not to exceed number, right? So you can approve $18,000, not to exceed, so that Misty can go back. Hillsborough County, whoever is going to, you know, be the representative on this project, I have a feeling it's going to be me if I can't get somebody else to help. And they've been so generous with their time, both management and budget, and children's services, to negotiate the exact dollars, the budget, where it's going to be spent, how it's going to be spent, when it's going to be allocated. So that way, we have a number, say not to exceed $18,000, and we can work within that constraint. And I think that would, you know, be good towards working through all of the funding you have allocated, or I'm sorry, not allocated already, that $20,000 that's remaining, was still under that number. And you would still have the funding to do the training and the community town hall, all of that left intact. That's for both, for June and August, not to exceed $18,000. Would that be sufficient, Misty? Yes, because what we are asking for the June event was right under that $14,000 or $15,000. And then for June, we had only asked for, I think it was like $1,400 or something. And I think with any leftover funds, either being able to blend it into, if you wanted to add additional speakers, to come the week that Teresa's here, add a training component to it, or even assigned to do additional hotel outreach, motel days to keep that continuum of care going and building longer-term relationships with the hotels and motels, could certainly be a way that it could be, yeah, and the restaurants could certainly be utilized that way. Or we could do two days instead of one day when Teresa's here, because she will do one or two days when she's here. So is $18,000 up to $18,000 enough for both initiatives? Yes. And just to be clear, that would still leave funding for any kind of community event or town hall? Yes, the $20,000 for government employee training, $5,000 for town hall and $5,000 community event, would remain untouched and intact. And that does not carry over, though. We would have to have that encumbered before September 30. Correct. And you also have empowered the steering committee to allocate funding and make recommendations to the Board of County Commissioners and Management and Budget to spend those funds. So, you know, this project is up for a vote today by the full board, but you don't meet again until June, July. I'm sorry, July. Thank you, Detective English. So that's why I would like to get this funding approved today. And then at the steering committee meeting, you can talk about the other funding. Which would basically, it would be $30,000, right? Correct. Okay. Okay. Is everybody clear? Thank you for the discussion. I think it did clarify some things in my mind as well. So, Connie, do you have any other thoughts? Anybody else have any questions or comments or thoughts before we move to a vote? Okay. Would anyone like to entertain a motion? Thank you. Second. Thank you. Okay. That was for- First and second. I want to clarify before we take a final vote. Yeah. Yeah. I've got the first and second. I want to clarify the motion. Okay. The actual motion. So the motion would be then to approve the sale of freedom slash soap project for a not to exceed $18,000 in funding. Thank you. Just needed to put that on the record. That's where I was going with that. Yes. So we have a first and a second. Any other comment or anything before we take a vote? Okay. All in favor, state aye. Aye. Any opposed? No opposition. So the motion carries and fantastic. We'll move on with the soap project. Okay. Yay. Um, I think that's kind of going to wrap up the steering committee report. And, um, Madam Chair, I think we can move on to the next item of business. Yes. And that is just strategic planning update by the subcommittee and that is in process. So the strategic plan, we have been working on it, as you have heard, um, earlier, there is a committee and, um, and until that has been finalized and ready for approval, then we will bring it back for the board at large, uh, to review and to approve. So at this time, it is the staff report. Thank you. Um, Madam Chair and my Vice Chair appreciate it. And I appreciate all the members bearing with us as we, um, have the budget challenges and discussions that we did. So that's greatly appreciated. Staff really, um, likes when all of the members, uh, have really looked into and, and make the sausage as they say. Um, so thank you for that. I do want to add that the anti-human trafficking campaign is moving forward. The, uh, FKQ folks have stood up the social media page on Facebook. It's don't buy it Tampa Bay. So, um, if you're on Facebook, please go in and follow that page. You cannot, as I understand it, tag, don't buy Tampa, Tampa Bay. And so it won't show up. We're working through some things. You, you actually have to be an administrator to post to the page. Um, in transparency, I am an administrator as is the chair and the vice chair. Um, and if the, um, leadership changes, the administration changes, then the administration of the page will, you know, migrate to those individuals. The page is hosted by FKQ. So it's not a Hillsborough County page. It is FKQ's page. So when you look at the address of where it is located, it says Clearwater, Florida, because that is where FKQ is located. But I'm talking to them about, you know, can we take off the address? Because we might not want to have an address of a human trafficking campaign on the page. So that, that is, uh, an update for, uh, FKQ. They, um, are working on the, um, page for Instagram as well. So that, uh, covers their piece of it. Um, I would like to, uh, announce that just this morning, hot off the presses, I received the resolution signed by, uh, Mayor Jane Castor and the chair of Tampa City Council, Allen Clendenin, for the maintenance agreement for the public awareness installation. So the mural will be moving forward and we thank the city of Tampa for taking on any expense that is not anticipated, but may be in the future. So the city has stepped up to do that. Thank you to, um, Mayor, Mayor Jane and to the Tampa City Council. And the mural, Lisa, the muralist, Aaliyah Tinsley said that she most likely can start on the mural in September. Is that correct? That, that is the plan. Um, of course, the weather always has a say in that. Right. Yeah. Um, so we're waiting, uh, to have confirmed that this is going to be a very light hurricane season, knock wood, um, that we are, have the all clear to move forward in September. There will be a press conference, um, the Florida Department of Transportation has been stellar in getting this done. Roger Roscoe in particular, um, and secretary of district seven, uh, Justin Hall. They've been just phenomenal in moving this forward and getting this done. And as is true fashion for the Hillsborough County Commission on Human Trafficking, this is the first project in the state to carry a mural, um, that is, uh, that is on, that is in coordination with the Florida Department of Transportation. Fantastic. Fantastic. And for our new members, this has been, um, something we've been working on for at least two years and just jumping through all of the hoops, um, to get everybody on board and, um, the maintenance agreement, who's going to upkeep the mural. That was a big sticking point for quite a while. And, uh, as you heard, we just got word from the mayor, the city of Tampa. Yeah. So that's huge. Florida Department of Transportation. Um, I will never say another bad word about them again. And the mural will be at the Marion County bus, uh, station. And it's, um, I don't even know how to describe it. 12 different, uh, how do you describe that? 12 different. Now that we have a going forward, I could put something on the, um, on the new Facebook page. And as Detective English just notified me, we are on Instagram. Say that again. Instagram is already up. Oh, awesome. I didn't know that. I didn't know either until Detective English told me that. Thank you, Detective. Keeping us in the loop. Yeah, there are pillars. There are 12 different names. There are concrete pillars that will be stood up along the right of way at Marion Street right before you get on 275. So it is a very heavily trafficked area. And it being Marion Street where the bus terminal is, it is a very, um, very heavily trafficked area. But the nice thing too, is that it's on the edge of the parking lot. So it's in between the parking lot and the right of way. So there's a lot of space there. So, you know, having, um, I know that survivors had liked to go to the previous mural. Yes, they did take their pictures with it and, and use it maybe as a memorial or a gathering spot, um, on occasion with that huge parking lot there, it is a perfect location. So again, thank you to the Florida Department of Transportation for getting us that site and for, um, and for all of the work that they've done and helping move this along. Um, so I would also like to say, as you saw this morning or this morning, it seems like this morning, as you saw with Commissioner Cameron Cepeda giving the commendations, we have a change in membership. So, uh, as I mentioned during roll call, we have a new member of the State Attorney's Office, um, and she is stepping into the primary role. Uh, Stephanie, thank you so much for being here, um, and, and participating. State Attorney's Office is hugely important to stopping human trafficking, as those attorneys and judges and public defenders here know. Um, we also will have a Captain Malave coming in from Temple Terrace, uh, since Captain Carlisle is cycling off. I'm waiting for, uh, uh, alternates to be named, or an alternate to be named from the State Attorney's Office. We already have one from Temple Terrace Police Department. She has, uh, Lauren Kelly, Detective Kelly has attended meetings in the past. Um, there is an upcoming event that I will be participating, well, participate, I will attend. Um, it is the Truckers Against Youth, Truckers Against Human Trafficking. Um, they are having a Youth on Transportation Coalition build. The registration, um, as far as I know, is closed now. They have reached capacity, but I can report back on, um, what was discussed at that meeting. So, I'm excited about that. Um, I'd ask Heather Cozzola if she has any updates on the, uh, contract with Children's Network. Absolutely. Thank you. Uh, good afternoon, everybody. So, we, just as a reminder, we, um, in February is when the agreement started. So, it's about eight months that they have to spend the $100,500, um, for focusing on training. So, this is for, um, our foster parents, uh, staff that are in group homes and then community at large. So, they're doing additional training, um, similar to some of the training that they did last year, but expanding on that. Um, the Youth Stipend, uh, which is for community and for, um, Youth in Foster Care who have been identified as victims. Um, and then also they are expanding their advertising and their marketing, um, to also target recruitment of new foster parents, um, for youth who have been identified as victims of human trafficking. Uh, so, we are in the process. They have, um, we had our first, um, invoice from them for the first, uh, three months. So, we're at about a little bit over about $13,000 that they have spent so far. Um, so, they do have quite a large amount left right now, but it's encumbered. So, for the training, it's two lump sums that have not been billed yet. So, that I do expect that they're going to spend, they have $40,000 set aside for the training. So, I do expect that that will be spent, um, in the contracts year. We do also have the advertising marketing that is going to be three separate payments of $7,600. They've spent one of those. So, I think that they'll go ahead and they will meet that amount too. Um, our Youth Stipend, they are in, that's the one area that can be, do we get all 20, I think they have, uh, they have $21,600 for Youth Stipends. So, but we've made it very accessible and, um, more flexible than we had it last year so that they can meet those needs of those youth that they're serving. So, for that, for the Youth Stipend so far, they've served 17 youth. So, that's 17 individual youth and nine of those youth are community youth. So, they're doing pretty good at that balance, um, between community youth and youth that are in our foster care system, um, when using those. So, and I want to thank, of course, um, their partners and working with Redefining Refuge, who's helping make sure that those stipends are getting out to the kids that are being served. Um, and I think we've talked about it before. Those stipends are things that can't be funded in other funding sources. So, that really does give these youth a chance to identify something that they see as a goal or they see as a need and then work towards that with some of their behavior and support plans that they're putting in place to be able to keep that youth feeling like they have some normality and some support from the different service providers that they're working with. Thank you, Heather. Yep. Um, does anybody have any questions about the Children's Network? Nope. Okay. Um, I also want to, um, share that, uh, Rob Parkinson had extended the invitation to me to attend the Florida Department of Law Enforcement statewide meeting on human trafficking. Vice Chair Skipper, Groover Skipper was also there in attendance. We kind of tag-teamed. She was there in the morning session and I was there in the afternoon session. Um, so, I don't know if you want to share any thoughts from the morning session? Yeah. I mean, it was, it was incredible. Um, I don't, I have to dig deep to. Operation Dragonfly was, was talked about again. Yes. Um, I only saw, you know, the opening session really before I had to leave and it was just a great event to bring a lot of law enforcement there, obviously, um, to talk about some of their operations and then what I really wanted to hear was the afternoon session but I had another engagement so I'll let Lisa talk about that because that was apparently phenomenal. Thank you. The afternoon session was, um, I want to say disturbing but all of you who work in this field know how disturbing some of this, some of what happens can be. Um, it was very graphic and I left shaken and I discussed that with Chair Rose and I'm going to tear up as I'm talking about this. Um, what I came away with was something that, uh, is, is relevant to some of the budget items so when we talked about and I, I'm not sure if I talked about this with the Chair or the Vice Chair but I talked to one of them about this. Um, the government training portion, the $20,000 that you have, it came to my mind while I was sitting there listening to the investigators, the state attorney, the, the, um, the state attorney, the state attorney's office. There was two, uh, investigators that talked about a, and it's CSAN, I'm still learning all of these acronyms. The CSAM, um, discovery that they made and was a, this became an international case. So the two detectives talked about how they used the property appraisers maps to identify the layout of the property because this piece of property where these, this operation was happening was several acres. I want to say 10, 15 acres surrounded by absolutely nothing in the middle of, uh, our County Hillsborough County, um, pretty much in the middle of nowhere. And they couldn't do any observations because there was, it was such a heavily wooded property and there wasn't a lot of people coming and going, you know, entering and leaving. So they turned to the property appraisers maps, they turned to HCSO, they asked HCSO if they could, because there's child predators known to be on the property, could they do a, a check and check in on those predators. They would do for, they would, they, they checked in on annually or something, or periodically. So HCSO said yes. HCSO went in, they checked in with the predator that was registered. Actually, there were several that they were registered. They walked the property, they confirmed what they saw on the property appraisers maps. They gave it the layout of the property, um, to the investigators. So long story short, um, it came to my mind that educating property appraisers on human trafficking would be beneficial. While a lot of the property appraisers work I know is done electronically and through drones and through mass data and valuations, there are still people who go out on foot and inspect properties and inspect properties. And it's not as many as there used to be for sure because of technology. But I thought it would be a, a good first move to educate the property appraisers staff on what to look for, um, when it comes to human trafficking. What are the signs? What would, when you're inspecting a property or you're looking at a property, what might you notice that seems a little off. And if you see something, how to report it. So, I mean, that's good in everyday life, you know, anyway. Um, but I thought that was a good place to start. And when I started doing the research, I could not find one property appraiser's office anywhere in the country that has human trafficking training. Not one. So if, again, in Hillsborough County Commission on Human Trafficking style, if we could start with the Hillsborough County property appraiser's office, um, you'd be doing it, you'd be the first anywhere to be doing that. So I have not yet reached out to the property appraiser. So if you're watching or hearing this secondhand, um, be on notice. I'll be calling. Uh, so I wanted to find out from you all if that is the direction you wanted to go with the training, because there's a lot involved. We'd have to find someone who is able to both speak to human trafficking and property appraising, or maybe find two people who can speak to each subject and put them together and let them figure out how to do this in order to have the training. Would it be a webinar? Would it be in person? Would it, you know, where would it be? When would it be? All of that needs to be worked out. So I didn't want to wait another month to get this started after the steering committee in June, but if you all endorse this idea, then, um, we could move forward now and perhaps bring a report to the steering committee in June and get this done in July because we'd be on a, or August. We'd, we'd still be able to do it in August. So we'd be on a quick timeline. I put some feelers out after our conversation when you were in tears. Oh, that was fast. Yeah. Well, I told you, you asked and I said I would put some feelers out and Teresa Flores actually was one of the folks that I put the feeler out because I remembered that she did some real estate training for some folks. Um, she's putting out some feelers for property appraisers. And, and let me just do a caveat with that because I, the only reason I spoke to Teresa Flores is because we are traveling and we will be in New Jersey this weekend. Okay. That's only our conversation. And may I explain that you're not attending the world cup. No, we are doing outreach. You are there to do outreach and a press conference on the record. Yes. And, and yes, and a press conference. Um, and so she said from her expertise and her experience, it might be something that we have to create or that we would want to go to our realist, our realist, our realtors association and have a conversation with them or go to our property appraiser, sit down with them, ask them what it is, what would they like? And we just build it out ourselves. That was her suggestion. I, I know I was involved in training the clerk of court and that's exactly what we did. We worked with at that time, Cindy Stewart and met with her heads of departments, found out, you know, a lot of information and then they helped us with a training and did that similarly with code enforcement, um, on both sides of the bay. So, um, working with those departments, what they see, and then those who are trained in, uh, human trafficking then can help them build out a program. So, I think that probably is the best way to do it. The only problem would be, is if the Commission on Human Trafficking does the training, we won't be spending any money. So, we have to find someone we can spend money and we can hire. No, you don't, you don't have to. Well, we don't have to, however, it would be great if we could find someone that we could hire that's on a contract or an organization. So, does anyone know anyone out there? Misty, do we know anyone, any other organization that does real estate training or anything close that? The only person I can think of is maybe United Abolitionists because they're going out and doing a lot with the hotel. So, maybe Tomas and his group. Maybe, that's right. We might have some good connections. We can, um, work that out. So, and that's the kind of conversation I want to have between now and the steering committee meeting at the end of next month. Um, so we can work that all out. But I wanted, before I put a lot of resources into the effort, I wanted to make sure that is the direction you wanted to go. Um, I'll just say quickly just that, um, thank you so much, Ms. Monteleon. I think that's amazing, really great idea. And also, um, I can't speak for the current property appraiser, but knowing his heart for people, I think he'll be very happy to, to do this. Yes. I, I also think it's extremely innovative and in a side conversation or parallel conversation, we have talked about eventually being able to host some kind of national conference here. To do so, I think that we'd have to merit that kind of attention and something that's innovative like this, amongst other programs, I think would allow us to be able to, pardon me, provide that platform. So, I think it's a really good, sharp idea. I, I don't need a vote. I just, I just wanted to check in and make sure that I was, um, moving that direction. You won't have to vote on it until we have specifics and we're gonna spend some money. We, we, we have to identify a training, uh, protocol first. But okay, thank you. I will take that direction and, uh, run with it. So some of you will be getting phone calls from me. Um, so we, uh, I believe that is all I have to share. Again, if, um, you want to participate in the steering committee meeting, all members are welcome to attend. Uh, let me know, um, in advance so I can make sure you're on the distribution list. If you want to participate in the, those meetings are in person, but there is a virtual component if you just want to sit in on one. Um, if you want to participate in the, uh, um, strategic plan update review, that's all virtual. It's very easy. Let me know if you want to attend one of those. Uh, as soon as I have a date, I will send that out. Um, and I was asked for, uh, Survivor Ventures to come and do a presentation, uh, to talk about the, the contract that they have. I have to get in touch with them to schedule that. So I'm looking at hopefully cross fingers that they will be able to attend, uh, the steering committee meeting in June. All right. I think that concludes, uh, the staff report. I do just have one quick question. I know that our biannual, uh, report is coming up in June. Do you have the date for me please or for us? That I do not have because what would happen is I would, uh, check with the administrator and see, uh, well, first I check with my boss. And check and see if they want, uh, this to be an in-person or just a written report. And then I schedule it to be on a Board of County Commissioner's meeting and, um, I can get the dates to you. It won't be, it won't be June 3rd because that's the next meeting and that deadline has already passed for the agenda review. Um, so it'll be end of June, early July. Uh, I have to check the, the deadline dates for submission for reports, uh, for the Board. All right. Thank you. And chair would give that report or would it be? If it's an in-person report, either of you could give it. If the chair is unavailable, then you certainly can give it, vice chair. You can designate anybody on this committee to give it. No, if it was staff. Cause we still don't have a secretary position. So, um, that, that there's that we haven't attended to, but, uh, yeah, it, it could be the chair, the vice chair, or anyone that you designate. If it's a written report, I just put it on the consent agenda as a written report. Thank you. You're welcome. Where are we at? New business? Yes, we're at new business. Okay. I do. Um, and tell me, Lisa, I'm sure you will if it's not appropriate. Um, um, you heard from Kristen Bracey with the SAFE Alliance and the possibility of this body becoming an official partner with SAFE. That doesn't mean any kind of financial anything. It just means that maybe our logo goes on the SAFE Alliance website. And I think there's a process where you have to fill out a form, you know, to become an official member. So I just would like to know if that is something that this body would like to do. That would require a vote. I was just counting heads because we had a few people leave. You still have a quorum and if you would like to move forward to that. And I would need to be recused or not. Would I need to be recused to when you vote? No. Deborah's shaking her head. Okay. I'm looking at the county attorney. If there's no funding involved, there's no money being exchanged, then no, you can, you can vote. I think it would just add credibility to both bodies. Yeah. I don't know if they do official memberships. Okay. You have to talk on the record. You can't. She was asking about the free network, if that might be the same, but I think their process is different. I don't think they have official members. I'm not quite sure how that works. Well, why don't you make the motion for both and we can follow whatever procedure each of them have. Okay. I make a motion that the Commission on Human Trafficking seek to become a non-binding financial partner to the Safe Alliance and to the free network. I guess it's first and a second. So... All in favor? Well, is anyone opposed? Awesome. Motion passes. Great. And I have one more thing. My boss, the fearless chief, Brandon Wagner, passed on to me that Governor Ron DeSantis has appointed two additional members to the statewide Council on Human Trafficking, Carrie James and Emily Oglesby. I don't know if any of you know them, but you can offer your congratulations to those two individuals. The Human Trafficking Summit is coming up 2026, so put that on your calendar. It's generally a virtual event. And last but not least, at the FDLE conference, these were passed out. They are field guides for human trafficking and it has some lingo, it has some photographs, tattoos, that kind of thing. How did you score so many? I only got one. Because I went around afterwards and pulled all of the people who left them behind off the table before FDLE staff came and grabbed them. But so if anybody wants one of these or wants to look at it, I have three of them, but I can get more. They told me all I have to do is put in a request and FDLE will send them to me. So let me know whoever wants one and how many and I'll put in that request. Now I'm done with new business. I've got a couple on the business. I don't know if we should talk about the Jacksonville project, the dandelion project or not, or should we save that for another day? Well, go ahead. You brought it up. A dear survivor leader who lives in Jacksonville was working with the Jacksonville Jaguars. And I'm not sure the extent of all that they're doing, but I know that there was signage and all education for the football team. And I don't even know how to explain it correctly, but they're just engaging in the individuals who come to the football games. And over nine games, they had like a 28% increase in engagement after they put all the signage up in the stadiums. So and expanded, I guess their signage expanded to the restroom stall doors, kind of similar to what the post-it notes did, but these are, you know, signs. So they would like to bring that model to Hillsborough County working with the Bucks. And I think conversations have already started. I know you were on that phone call too. Do you want to address? Because I've just get a very broad overview, but I know the crisis center is very much involved. And I think moving forward with that. So Shayla, do you want to say anything about what, explain it a little better than I did? Well, before she speaks. Yes. Um, Shayla is with the crisis center. I have, um, uh, it was Clara Reynolds, the CEO, the president, the crisis center who brought this to our attention and, and tasked us for being on that call, um, to learn about this project. Uh, it is very possible that in the future, the crisis center may be the recipient of funding for this project. So I would caution for the sake of ethics rules that Ms. Gonzalez can make a statement. She will also have to fill out that form 8B disclosing that that it may possibly in the future lead to a contract before she advocates for this project. Okay. So you may or may not want to say anything about the project at this time, but I just wanted this body to know that that's a conversation and that's a great idea, uh, to educate the Bucks and have signage at the stadium. Um, it's been very successful in Jacksonville. So, um, I am working on reaching out to not only, um, our sports authority who, uh, has the contract to manage Raymond James Stadium, not just for football games, but for all of the events at Raymond James Stadium. So this would be an expansion of really what they're doing in Jacksonville with the Jaguars because they're very concentrated on football. But, um, we have one of the busiest venues in the country for, and Jolene can speak to this from Visit Tampa Bay. Um, we have one of the busiest concerts and, and, and other active, other events in the country. So we would not be just talking about football, but reaching out to the Buccaneers will happen. Uh, again, the sports authority. I also mentioned about talking to, uh, the Lightning and the folks who manage Amelie Arena. Uh, so all of those venues, even the, the, um, amphitheater over at the casino with the Florida, whatever, whatever name they're going by now, um, because names change of, of arenas from time to time. So all of that would be taking what they're doing in Jacksonville, which is some of what you've been already doing, might I add, um, and expanding that project. Um, so those discussions are already happening. I just wanted to bring it to everyone's attention. So I think that's all the new business that I have. If there is no more new business or old business, then we may adjourn. Have a great weekend, everyone. Thank you so much. Thank you all for being here. I really appreciate it.