So I'll go ahead and start the meeting and let my colleague and my very good friend introduce himself, and I'll introduce myself, and then we'll see where we go from there. Thank you, Council Member Carlucci. Ken Amaro, City Council District 1. Thank you, Ken. I appreciate you being here. This is a legislation that has to be passed by the end of the, by the 22nd. Is that correct, somebody? Yeah, because otherwise the dollars we have set for it, which will have no effect on this year's budget, so the chairman of finance won't have to worry about this is not going to interfere with his budget, his plans. These dollars were found, I think, in a, I better repeat that now that the finance chair's ECA is here, so the message gets delivered. This is a program, though, that I've been working on with the Exchange Club for a couple of years, and I'm just now getting to it like I should have last year. And just to give you a little background, I met with the mayor's office with Charles Griggs and Tracy and Sue and some of her folks from the Exchange Club were here, David Williams, Daryl Patterson. They're very involved in it, and they're wonderful community leaders in their own right. So we had a good meeting, and so I decided to have this meeting today. Next week I'm going to be on vacation in serious search of 60-degree weather somewhere up in Hendersonville, North Carolina, and we scheduled that a good while back, and then I found out, well, that's only committee week, and I might have known it at the time, but just didn't know this would be coming up at the same time. So that's why I was hoping to have this meeting, and so thank you, Ken. And the ask that I'm making to, is not going to interfere with the Finance Committee chairman's budget. It will not disturb that at all. It's money that will just roll over next year. I think the dollars we're coming up from this is from, I think there were some dollars that were $100,000 that were set aside for the mayor and $100,000 that were set aside for city council, and this is just one fund that never got touched. And so I think that's where this, is that where this money is coming from? Yeah. Oh, debt service savings. Okay. All right. That's the other one I'm looking at. So thank you. Why don't you come up here just in case we might need to call on you to help us poor council members make sure we're in the guardrails that we should be in. Mr. Carlucci, how much are we talking about? We're talking about, what, $150,000? How much? $204,000? Okay. And so what I'd like to do for the council member who's here is if Tracy and Charles and Sue and any of your board members, if y'all would like to speak to, you can come up here and sit down, doesn't matter, and just explain your program. It fills a particular niche, council member Romero, that works real well with the journey. Is that correct? And it's a direct contract. This program has wonderful funding privately and has wonderful funding from the state of Florida. But the dollars that we would be appropriating would greatly enhance our outreach. So Tracy and you and Sue, and Sue, you can speak first if you'd like to. Well, I guess you better speak at the mic because I'm not sure how many. We've got a few mics around here. While she's getting there, council member, through Trish, what's historically has the city done for the exchange program? Okay. I think this is the first time that we've delved into it. Go ahead. We've applied for the public service grants every year. Our niche does not fit sort of those categories that they really try and go for with, you know, food security, housing, jobs, that type of thing, career-oriented. So we always end up just below the line. Sometimes we've ended up just too below the line. They're not getting funded. But we do apply every year for those funding. But other than that, we've not received funding from the city at all. So, yeah, Sue Watson, I'm the executive director at the Exchange Club Family Center. Your address, but I guess we'll need your address. Oh, our office address is 4161 Carmichael Avenue here in Jacksonville. All right, thank you. No problem. We've been providing services here in Duval County for just over 30 years. And we fit a specific niche that is sometimes difficult to get into other areas because we provide services to the family, to the parents, primarily in the caregivers versus the children. So we don't have an identified child like many others. One of the populations that we do serve here in Duval County is with the state attorney's office for prosecution agreements. So those who have been arrested for child abuse and neglect, however, the state attorney's office does not feel that it needs to be prosecuted, but there needs to be consequences for that decision. So it's a deferment, you know, a diversion program for that population. Three years ago when we got involved, it was all primarily supervision and, you know, paying fines and maybe doing some community service, but nothing to work with the family so that it didn't happen again. You know, we want to stop whatever occurred in the first place to get them arrested. And families weren't given the opportunity to learn or to figure out why what happened happened. Um, so since, um, 2023, we've served 90 of those referrals, 75 have completed our program and 100% of those families are not involved with DCF after a year of, or have had a hotline call or been, um, had an open case of DCF since, um, they graduated our program. Um, and along with 98% of families that are in our program have no involvement with DCF after, um, or open dependency case after closing our program within a year. Um, so prevention works. We save the state a lot of money. Costs our program about $1,800 per child per year, where if they go into foster care, it can cost anywhere from $40,000 to $105,000. So why are we here asking for, um, support from the city, um, is that it takes a whole community and it takes diverse funding for nonprofits. Um, we do have a lot like, um, Councilman Carlucci said, we have a lot of community support. We go after a lot of, um, grants. We have been blessed this year to be funded through the state of Florida, through a local funding request, um, with our legislative sponsors. And we were last year, the year prior to that, we were not. Um, so it's a rollercoaster every single year, um, to, you know, are we going to be able to keep fully staffed and, and meet those numbers? Um, or are we going to be laying off a bunch of well-trained staff to make an impact in our community? So we are looking to, and it's, that's no way to run a business, right? It's, it's difficult to gauge and to keep our, keep our staff on. Um, so we're here today to ask for that $204,000 to help us. Our largest, um, amount of referrals that we get come from Duval County. Um, just last year, 53% of our referrals that we got from DCF, um, came from Duval County versus, um, Clay County, um, and whatnot. We're only about 20%. Um, so it's a huge need here. Um, it's a difficult, um, niche to fill because we do support the parents, not necessarily the children, um, directly. But we make those impacts so that when children do go home from all the great programs that they get, KHA, the afterschool programs, the camps, that type of thing, they know that they have a safe and stable home to go to. Excellent. Okay. Um, yes, Mayor, you have any questions? Yeah. Uh, through, uh, the chair to Ms. Watson, you said you work with the parents and yet you identified the need as 1,800, uh, per child per year. Can you clarify that for me, please? Yeah. So that's the way DCF, um, does their ROI or their return on investment. It's based on, um, per child that we serve. Even though, um, we primarily work with the parents and not the children. So theoretically through the chair, if, um, one parent with three children in the household, um, are, is the funding equivalent to the three kids? Yes. One more question, um, through the chair, 53% of your, um, participants, you say come from Duval County. Yes. Um, these $204,000, if, if they're approved. Uh, who benefits the most from it? Duval, Clay, St. John's? Duval. Do, it would be all Duval. These funds, if these funds came through, it would all be Duval, which would allow me to, um, use the other funding to, some of the other funding that we get to support Clay, Nassau, and St. John's County. Okay. Um, because, I mean, that's, in the political space, that's a legitimate question. Why am I giving you money to support kids from somewhere else? Yeah, you are not. Um, um, two other questions through, uh, Mr. Carlucci, chair. Two hundred and four thousand does what? How, how many do you reach? What, what do you think is the, um, potential of that? Yeah, so the, the minimum would be 50 families. We'd hope to serve more than that. Um, but we would be hiring two parent-aids or have two parent-aids, um, full-time parent-aids for Duval County. And, um, it's an evidence-based model. So, the maximum amount of families they can, um, carry at one time are 12 to 14 families. That's all I have for now. And, and one more, uh, is there the money there in the, um, debt savings? I, I know they've been going after that, like, like piranhas. So, I'm just curious if the dollars are still there. You know, okay. The moment they discovered it was open, it was like open season. Everyone's, uh. Guilty as, guilty as charged. I'm not saying, everyone's grabbing at it. Um, so, uh, we have our, uh, Council Member Monet Holder, our newest member here. And, uh, Sue, if you could just, uh, maybe share a little bit of that again for Council Member Holder in the name of your organization, how long y'all been doing it. And are you familiar with their organization? Okay. So, Sue Watson, Executive Director at the Exchange Club Family Center. We've been providing services here in Duval County for about 31 years. Um, and we have an evidence-based program called the Exchange Parent Aid Program, which is a home visiting program where we go into families' homes for a minimum of six weeks, uh, six months, excuse me. Six months, but up to a year. Um, where we provide parenting education, household management, anger management, stress management, um, connecting resource, connecting families to resources, how to discipline in a positive manner. Um, those type of things based on, um, our family assessments that we complete. Um, we work with families for a minimum of six months. Um, science shows that to change any behavior, whether we want to quit smoking, walk more, eat less sugar, you know, all of that, it takes a minimum of six months for our behaviors to change. Um, so that's why we stay in for at least six months minimum. Um, we have great outcomes. Ninety-eight percent of our families that graduate from our program within a year after graduation. Um, they do not have, um, an open DCF case, um, dependency case, but 90 percent of them do not have any contact, which means there was no call even to the hotline. Um, as I say before, we work with the state attorney's office for families that, um, have been arrested or parents who have been arrested for child abuse and neglect, but they do not feel that those need to be prosecuted. And so they go through a diversion program. Um, and we've had 90 families, um, or 90 adults, um, in the last three years participate in the program and 75 who've completed. We have, um, 15 enrolled right now, um, have never had an open case of DCF a year after they have completed our services. Um, and most of the clients say, I wish you were with us before our incident happened because it never would have happened if I had known A, B, C, and D. Um, so that's what we do. We, we cover all of Duval County. It's home visiting, so we remove the barriers of transportation, child care, um, so that parents don't have to worry about getting out. Where they need to be, we'll, we'll meet them. If they don't want us meeting in their home, that's okay, too. We just had a visit that happened. We use the libraries. We use public parks, um, Dunkin' Donuts, McDonald's, wherever the family feels comfortable. And, uh, and they, they're, uh, explain how y'all don't fit quite into the KHA or the public grants. Yeah, so, so I, the reason why we're here and the reason why we're going, um, coming to the city to get a direct contract is, um, KHA, we've worked with them very closely. They're great. Um, but I found out this year they can't work with, they cannot fund anyone who has, the clients are over the age of 21. And we work with the parents. Um, we have, um, also applied for the public service grant every year. Um, we don't usually get it. Sometimes we're a couple of those below the line, um, because we don't completely fit into housing or food or, um, you know, getting jobs or career, um, related fields. And I know those are the top three categories. Um, so that makes it a little more difficult for us as well. Um, we are a unique niche because we do work with the family. Um, you know, when KHA and other programs, child care centers are fabulous. They do great work. We need their afterschool programs. We need their camps. Um, but we also keep sending those children home to a home that may not be as welcoming or as nurturing as some of those afterschool programs are. So we want to help support the parents to provide that nurturing home. It's just, uh, you're just talking about, um, on my board, Daryl Patterson. And he constantly talks about it as a, uh, a house fire. He's a former firefighter, right? That the house is burning. Um, and we can keep putting water on it. But until we go into the house and find out that source of what's burning and why it's burning to put that out, it's not going to change. The house is still going to burn down. Um, so that's our goal is to go in there and find out what the issue is and provide the support that families need, not just case management, but education on ways that they can change to provide that nurturing home for their children. I've got two more. Um, what is the size of your budget? Number one, how many did you serve last year? So, yeah, we, we served, um, 231 children last year, um, about 150 families, um, but our budget was much smaller last year, um, because we rely on that local funding request, um, so it was smaller last year. This year we were fortunate to get fully funded, um, so this year we hope to serve over, um, 500 children, about 251 families this year. And your budget, dollars and cents? My complete budget, just over a million this year. Pretty small sum. It's very small. Some of what folks come here and ask for. It's very small, and I will say that one thing I'm, I'm proud of, of our agency is, um, we run a very small, very tight administratively. It's myself, I have a program supervisor, and I have an administrative assistant, and a very part-time contracted accountant. Um, we try to spend every single dollar that we get on the families and children that we serve, not on having somebody sitting in an office. And this would be, I'm sorry, this would be a direct contract through a journey, correct? Yes. Is it a direct contract through journey, or is it through, um... So, there you go. Ask that. PSG. Okay. Um, Council Member Holder, you have a question or comment? Yes, through the chair to Ms. Watson. So, for that team, is that the team of people who actually go into the homes, or you're just the administrative structure, and then there's additional staffing that, that goes to those, what'd you say, 150 or so families? Yeah, so last, last fiscal year, so we run on the state fiscal year. Um, we had five parent-aids. I just hired five more, so we will have ten. And they're the ones that do the actual work. Gotcha. Thank you. Um, Ms. Polson, would you or Mr. Griggs like to, um, oh, okay, super. Yeah, thank you. I'll just go first. Um, and, uh, Dr. Polson and Mr. Griggs can answer, you know, more specific questions. But, uh, Bill Delaney with the Mayor's Office, uh, through the chair to the body, uh, just want to express, uh, the Mayor's support for this. You, you heard the description of what the dollars will do if they're appropriated. Um, they're consistent with, uh, the Mayor's, uh, the Mayor's objectives for, uh, for child care, family care out in the world, uh, including things, uh, such as going through, the projects going through, uh, Jacksonville Journey, uh, but others as well. Um, you know, you heard that, you know, they hadn't been funded before. Sure, it wasn't because there was, you know, any, you know, objection to this program. It's, it's, uh, more a matter of the, uh, other applications that came through and the funding that we had that, you know, those, those, uh, came in ahead. Uh, but, uh, being supported by Mr. Carlucci and if it's the will of the rest of the Council, it's definitely something that the Mayor will support. And we'll speak to that next week as well. Super. Thank you very much. Bill, uh, Mr. Delaney. Okay. Ms. Polson. Good afternoon, Dr. Tracy Polson. I just wanted to come at this from my, um, experience as a clinical social worker, having worked in early childhood intervention for the first 12 years of my career with children birthed to age five and their parents. Um, and one thing I would like the Council members to keep in mind is that there's no such thing as a child in and of itself. A child is always in the context of their caregivers. And so the, the impact of this program working directly with the parents, I think we all sort of have this, um, awareness that we typically parent the way we were parented. And so by going into their homes and working with families to show them that there are less punitive ways of dealing with children, um, helping them understand sort of developmentally what's appropriate, brain science, brain development, attachment, all of that that will build the bonds between these families and help them to realize that there are other options available to them versus corporal punishment or shaming or things that we know. There's a tremendous research around this that is incredibly harmful to literally the developing brains of children. So I just wanted to sort of, um, give that perspective to this program. Um, and I would just really encourage you all to think about there is decades worth of research on home visiting programs where you work with the families to, um, support the development of the child and to interrupt that cycle of child abuse and neglect. Thank you. That's one of the things that I liked about this program is it works with the parents. So the child doesn't go home. The child is not an island unto himself. He gets home and, and his, uh, parenting, um, can, uh, you know, can be a great help. It has, it'll accept great help, which this organization does. Uh, Mr. Griggs. Yes. Uh, good afternoon, Charles Griggs, mayor's office. Uh, I just, uh, I just wanted to include, uh, with my colleagues, just a little rundown of how, uh, Journey Forward has been involved in this. Uh, Ms. Watson and her team presented at the last Journey Forward Board meeting, uh, in anticipation of this moment and, and a request for appropriation. Um, and, um, what we know is that the work, um, you, you know that Journey Forward works in the space of prevention, intervention, um, engagement and transparency. And under the intervention space, this works is similar to the work that's currently being done through our Centers of Hope that we're funding. Uh, that work is being, uh, executed by, um, Family Support Services, which is working in a targeted space where, where they are examining how, uh, families actually design the work that they're asking for, that they need. Um, right, and in this case, uh, with Ms. Watson and her team, they're looking to continue to do the type of, uh, community-wide work. So, uh, as far as the Centers of Hope, um, uh, are concerned, you typically won't see that work expanding outside of the Emmett Reed community or, uh, Robert F. Kennedy community. And in this space, this is, you know, in-home work that, uh, that they're looking to provide, uh, in the intervention space. Uh, the board has committed, whether it's, if it's funded, to, um, provide and monitor metrics alongside the, um, the program, uh, so it makes sure that it aligns with, uh, the goals for Journey Forward. Super. Okay. Through the chair, I'm, uh, so far, even though I haven't heard the numbers, I'm, I'm really impressed with what appears to be. A very, uh, very, uh, low recidivism rate, um, uh, where these, uh, parents don't get back in whatever they were before, which is, um, of tremendous benefit to the children. Um, um, um, sitting on the, um, uh, juvenile justice board, it's amazing, uh, the number of kids who end up in the system. Um, and, uh, one of the, uh, one of the first terms that I heard that really startled me was a term of abandonment, where, uh, these kids, after they've, they've gone through and they've satisfied, uh, the parents are reluctant to pick them up. And, and, and they're sitting there at the, the steps of whatever facility they may have been. And so, if, if this is circumventing all that, it seems like it's really, uh, an investment worthwhile that's, that's paying for itself. Yep. Sue, would you like to introduce your, um, your, some of your staff and your board member there? Sure. So, today with me is, um, Jim Hanson. He's our, um, board president. And Linwood Marshall is our vice president of the board. And they have, our board is, um, we have a very active board and very dedicated board to this program. I think Jim's been on the board seven years, seven years now. Um, and Linwood, two, three, three, um, three years now. And, um, you know, we, we have a very long standing board that really has the passion for the prevention of child abuse and, um, supporting families throughout this, throughout the community. And we're also connected to the, um, to exchange clubs that are here in Jacksonville, the downtown club and the beaches club, um, and who are also very supportive. And this is their national mission and their national program. And, um, they support us a lot, whether it be Christmas gifts for our children or backpacks or school supplies, or just attending events or holding, um, fundraisers for us, or just even emotional support or, uh, when, you know, bringing lunch to my staff members or recognizing them for the hard work they do. So, we are a community effort. Um, we have a lot of people behind us and we'd love to be able to expand and be able to support even more families here in Duval. Great. Um, the, um, I see any cards, I guess anybody else have anything they want to offer? So, I will be, as I said, out of town next week when it goes to committee. So, um, it'd be important for, so you to be there and if your board members were there, I think that'd be a great help. And, um, and the council members here, um, if you could help with that effort, if you're convinced it's a good effort, uh, while I'm out, uh, that would be super. And, um, and I'll be keeping my eye on it from afar, but can't, can't, can't do anything in proxy. I've got to be here. Um, and, uh, so, uh, I guess that's all we got then. So, meeting's adjourned. Thank y'all for coming. Councilman Amaro and Holder, please thank y'all for coming. Thank you. Thank you.