WEBVTT 00:00:00.386 --> 00:00:08.280 - Yes, welcome. Come on in. In fact, you are the first agency up. So we are ready to get started if you 00:00:08.280 --> 00:00:16.330 - are. Yeah. All right. We'll come on and have a seat. So I'm Courtney. I am the chairperson for the Jack 00:00:16.330 --> 00:00:24.224 - Hopkins Social Services Grant Funding Committee this year. Everybody want to do a quick introduction? 00:00:24.224 --> 00:00:28.094 - Hi, I'm Cameron. Also on the panel for this year. 00:00:29.698 --> 00:00:37.751 - I'm Andy. I'm a council representative. And I'm Dave. Council. Eddie Riu, a committee representative. 00:00:37.751 --> 00:00:45.883 - And joining us via Zoom is our other committee member. Hello, my name is Patrick, PM1. Well, thank you 00:00:45.883 --> 00:00:54.252 - so much for being here. So we looked over the application, and we did just have a couple quick questions. 00:00:54.252 --> 00:00:58.910 - Were you emailed those questions? OK, so you are prepared. 00:00:59.010 --> 00:01:04.100 - Did you want us to run through those questions for you? Or did you have something prepared that you 00:01:04.100 --> 00:01:09.190 - wanted to just start right off with? I had something prepared that included those questions. But if 00:01:09.190 --> 00:01:14.484 - we want to start with those questions and then move on to other things, we can as well. Yeah. OK. Well, 00:01:14.484 --> 00:01:19.574 - why don't we? You prepared something. So we'll go ahead and we'll let you get started with what you 00:01:19.574 --> 00:01:24.816 - prepared. And then if we have any follow-up questions, we've got 15 minutes. OK. Sounds great. We know 00:01:24.816 --> 00:01:28.990 - it's all yours. Go right ahead. And then can you hear me all right over Zoom? OK. 00:01:29.154 --> 00:01:35.116 - Sounds great. Well to introduce myself, my name is Andrew Hodges. I am a member of Bloomington Cooperative 00:01:35.116 --> 00:01:39.518 - Living. I've lived there since June and I'm the secretary of the organization. 00:01:39.586 --> 00:01:45.238 - I moved to Bloomington about four years ago and graduated in December. I just now live in town, but 00:01:45.238 --> 00:01:50.946 - I also work at Pantry 279. And so yeah, it's been a really amazing part of my life. It's part of the 00:01:50.946 --> 00:01:56.768 - reason why I'm staying in Bloomington. My rent is affordable and there's a social community I can take 00:01:56.768 --> 00:02:00.894 - part in because BCL exists. To introduce Bloomington Cooperative Living, 00:02:00.962 --> 00:02:07.617 - We are a housing co-op. If you don't know what that is, that means that we are a nonprofit fair housing 00:02:07.617 --> 00:02:14.079 - provider that is governed and operated by the tenants or members who live there. So we keep our rent 00:02:14.079 --> 00:02:20.798 - cheap by managing our own properties. And we live communally, which means that we have social community. 00:02:20.798 --> 00:02:21.566 - We make our 00:02:21.762 --> 00:02:27.993 - cook together, we spend time together, it's a nice way to live. We have five houses in total, three 00:02:27.993 --> 00:02:34.224 - of those are owned, two of those are rented. That makes up 75 units across those five houses. We're 00:02:34.224 --> 00:02:40.580 - looking at acquiring another property over the summer, which we're hoping to renovate within the next 00:02:40.580 --> 00:02:45.502 - year. That'll add 10 units on for the 2027 to 2028 lease year. BCL was founded 00:02:45.634 --> 00:02:52.372 - two decades ago in 2007 by some college students. They wanted to live communally with one another. They 00:02:52.372 --> 00:02:58.915 - figured that out. They figured out how to expand, get another house, how to buy some properties, how 00:02:58.915 --> 00:03:05.717 - to get insurance, and keep on moving. So yeah, today I am going to propose or request $8,500 for digital 00:03:05.717 --> 00:03:12.325 - outreach for BCL. This would be for the 2027 to 2028 membershipping season or lease year. And so this 00:03:12.325 --> 00:03:14.398 - would be us spending this money 00:03:14.562 --> 00:03:22.450 - March to May of 2027 to recruit members for the 2027 to 2028 lease year. Currently how outreach has 00:03:22.450 --> 00:03:30.574 - worked at BCL is mainly through word of mouth, tabling, flyers, which has worked well for us thus far. 00:03:30.574 --> 00:03:38.935 - You know BCL slowly expanded, slowly grew, slowly and also recruited new members to replace older members 00:03:38.935 --> 00:03:44.062 - and so this has worked well for us thus far but we would like to 00:03:44.162 --> 00:03:49.972 - improve our outreach and get to best practices. We are a fair housing provider and we want not only 00:03:49.972 --> 00:03:56.363 - the low-income people that I know or the low-income people that other B-Sale members know, but all low-income 00:03:56.363 --> 00:04:02.231 - people in Monroe County and Bloomington to know that cooperative housing is an option for them, that 00:04:02.231 --> 00:04:08.157 - it is affordable, that they can live with other people socially, and that it can be dignified. Living 00:04:08.157 --> 00:04:11.294 - in a cooperative housing, it provides people who rent 00:04:11.394 --> 00:04:17.992 - the ability to control their housing just as people who own. So it really gives people an opportunity 00:04:17.992 --> 00:04:23.102 - to live in a way with autonomy that they wouldn't be able to otherwise. And so 00:04:23.650 --> 00:04:29.739 - As part of that request, we're requesting $2,000 for a website redesign. We currently have a website. 00:04:29.739 --> 00:04:35.887 - It's functional, but we believe it could be a lot better. We would like it to be more accessible, more 00:04:35.887 --> 00:04:42.334 - visually pleasing, and more functional so that if we did have digital ads, the place that people land is... 00:04:42.466 --> 00:04:51.405 - works for them. We are then requesting $3,500 for social media ads during the 2027 membershipping season. 00:04:51.405 --> 00:05:00.260 - So again, from March to May of 2027. This would be Meta and Google ads, and they would run for residents 00:05:00.260 --> 00:05:07.006 - of Monroe County. We are then requesting $3,000 for social media ad management. 00:05:07.138 --> 00:05:12.897 - These estimates came from a worker cooperative called comp.coop. comp.coop would do the website design, 00:05:12.897 --> 00:05:18.490 - and then they referred us to another co-op called Cody that would do the social media ad management, 00:05:18.490 --> 00:05:24.028 - and that would do the ad spend. Worker co-ops are just businesses that are owned by the workers who 00:05:24.028 --> 00:05:29.566 - work there, so it's software developers who own their own company. We chose them because they align 00:05:29.566 --> 00:05:35.103 - with our values, and because we are a housing cooperative, they are a worker cooperative, they give 00:05:35.103 --> 00:05:35.934 - us a discount. 00:05:36.130 --> 00:05:41.374 - We believe that having the social media ad management as part of the grant is really important. 00:05:41.474 --> 00:05:48.905 - We do have a team, which I'll get into later, who does outreach for BCL. And they would be able to manage 00:05:48.905 --> 00:05:56.055 - the social media ads if we did not get the funding for the social media ad management. But a big part 00:05:56.055 --> 00:06:03.065 - of this proposal is increasing BCL's internal capacity. How BCL works is that our members own labor 00:06:03.065 --> 00:06:09.374 - creates our capacity to do outreach, to develop, to expand, to maintain the organization. 00:06:09.538 --> 00:06:16.947 - We are requesting funding for ad management so as not to sequester our current outreach labor, essentially. 00:06:16.947 --> 00:06:22.846 - We would like to still be able to do flyering and tabling and all of that good stuff. 00:06:23.330 --> 00:06:29.914 - To highlight the need in our community, as I'm sure you're aware, affordable housing is the most important 00:06:29.914 --> 00:06:36.191 - issue in our community. According to the 2025 to 2029 consolidated plan, Bloomington needs 7,000 more 00:06:36.191 --> 00:06:42.652 - affordable housing units for those between zero to 50% AMI. And Bloomington Cooperative Living and Co-op 00:06:42.652 --> 00:06:48.805 - Housing is a small but growing solution to this issue. We are really one of the only people in town 00:06:48.805 --> 00:06:50.590 - who are creating permanently 00:06:51.074 --> 00:06:58.101 - deeply affordable housing in our community. BCL never plans to sell our properties. We are not exposed 00:06:58.101 --> 00:07:05.129 - to market pressure. I don't have to worry about the housing market. If I continue to live in BCL, it's 00:07:05.129 --> 00:07:12.293 - really an innovative solution to our issues. And we want more people to be aware that this is a solution 00:07:12.293 --> 00:07:19.934 - and to take part in it. To discuss who would be implementing this project, it would be our membershipping team. 00:07:20.034 --> 00:07:25.727 - One BCL member who is our membership coordinator, they lead the team. And then every house 00:07:25.727 --> 00:07:31.982 - has a membershipper who handles outreach, who reviews applications, leads interviews for members to 00:07:31.982 --> 00:07:38.363 - join, and then signs the leases. And so that membershipping team would either manage the social media 00:07:38.363 --> 00:07:45.182 - ad management or would manage the ads themselves if we did not get the funding. This is a one-time ad spend. 00:07:45.346 --> 00:07:52.429 - This does have many lasting impacts in our community and for BCL itself. As this is our first time doing 00:07:52.429 --> 00:07:59.444 - digital ads, this would be a great help to help us just learn how to do this, how to make it effective. 00:07:59.444 --> 00:08:06.256 - And this would decrease our vacancy rates, which thus increases our rental revenue, which could lead 00:08:06.256 --> 00:08:09.022 - us to not have to rely on grant funding. 00:08:09.186 --> 00:08:16.081 - in the future. And then if we receive the social media ad management, this could free up internal labor 00:08:16.081 --> 00:08:22.977 - to develop further, to acquire new properties, and to expand affordable housing in Bloomington. Another 00:08:22.977 --> 00:08:29.673 - big part of this is that we are trying to inform the public more about just what cooperative housing 00:08:29.673 --> 00:08:32.126 - is in general. We are collaborative. 00:08:32.482 --> 00:08:38.251 - collaborate with Avalon Community Land Trust, and we are supporting other independent co-op projects 00:08:38.251 --> 00:08:44.078 - that are trying to start up. So this is not about BCL, this is about expanding the affordable housing 00:08:44.078 --> 00:08:49.847 - stock more generally. And if we inform low income residents that co-op housing is an option and they 00:08:49.847 --> 00:08:55.102 - choose to go with another organization, that's amazing. So that's another big part of this. 00:08:55.202 --> 00:09:00.991 - The main ways that we are hoping to make our impact is through a few things. It is through reducing 00:09:00.991 --> 00:09:06.954 - vacancy rates, though I would like to highlight, I think after discussing with some of the other board 00:09:06.954 --> 00:09:12.744 - members, I don't want us to present ourselves as having an issue with vacancy. It's more just that, 00:09:12.744 --> 00:09:18.707 - as I'm sure you are all aware, Bloomington is a revolving door. People move in and out. So it's always 00:09:18.707 --> 00:09:22.238 - a battle every spring in order to recruit new members and to 00:09:22.370 --> 00:09:25.790 - keep our rooms filled. We do keep our rooms filled. 00:09:25.858 --> 00:09:31.320 - It is an issue. And then there's also the issue of when people break leases, rooms remain vacant, and 00:09:31.320 --> 00:09:37.157 - this isn't the best use of our space. And so we would like to keep the vacancy rate to the minimum connected 00:09:37.157 --> 00:09:42.673 - to that. We would like to establish a wait list. We know that there's enough demand in Bloomington for 00:09:42.673 --> 00:09:48.135 - affordable housing that we should absolutely have a wait list. So that would help us minimize vacancy 00:09:48.135 --> 00:09:53.918 - rates. And then for how to measure the impact of the digital ads themselves, we would measure these through 00:09:54.050 --> 00:10:00.827 - three main statistics, the first being reach, so we could just report how many unique individuals saw 00:10:00.827 --> 00:10:07.604 - our ads, and then add clicks, so how many of those individuals then got to our website, and then from 00:10:07.604 --> 00:10:14.314 - there, how many people applied from our ads. That's all I have. Yeah, thank you. That was wonderful. 00:10:14.314 --> 00:10:21.158 - That was very informative. Thank you. Does anybody have any questions for? Oh, go ahead. You go first. 00:10:21.158 --> 00:10:22.686 - I just had a question. 00:10:23.266 --> 00:10:31.265 - You said you'd like to see a wait list, or you'd like to see, and part of the idea of your grant is 00:10:31.265 --> 00:10:39.424 - to bring more people to you. Just say you had a list. Is it just chronological? How would you decide? 00:10:39.424 --> 00:10:47.502 - How would you determine the selection of candidates if you had more applicants than space? I think I 00:10:47.502 --> 00:10:50.462 - would have to discuss with the other 00:10:50.754 --> 00:10:56.582 - board members, as we are a collaborative organization. But I would imagine it would be chronological. 00:10:56.582 --> 00:11:02.353 - That's how most other co-ops that I've seen do it. I don't think that it's a good idea for us to get 00:11:02.353 --> 00:11:08.524 - into weighing different aspects of people's lives against each other. Again, we're a fair housing provider. 00:11:08.524 --> 00:11:14.296 - And so I don't think that there's any specific piece of information about someone that would make us 00:11:14.296 --> 00:11:20.638 - prioritize them. Yeah. So I was going to ask a similar question. So you don't have a tenant selection process. 00:11:20.738 --> 00:11:27.333 - You're eligible, and then it goes chronological, is what you're saying. I would say, yes, we do. I don't 00:11:27.333 --> 00:11:33.614 - know if this was understood, but we do have a selection process for people who can live in BCL. You 00:11:33.614 --> 00:11:39.957 - have to apply and then do an interview to make sure that you would be a good fit for the people that 00:11:39.957 --> 00:11:44.542 - you live with. But people could be on the wait list before interviewing. 00:11:47.170 --> 00:11:53.662 - That might just be more logistic because I know that you mentioned reimbursement happening in 2027 for 00:11:53.662 --> 00:11:59.965 - a portion of what you're budgeting for. Do we have to have everything, all reimbursements submitted 00:11:59.965 --> 00:12:06.583 - by the end of the year? But is that something we have flexibility on? That's a good question. I'm pretty 00:12:06.583 --> 00:12:13.138 - sure I got an extension until the end of March for the year, but not past March. Okay. I was gonna say, 00:12:13.138 --> 00:12:16.478 - I do think it is supposed to be the end of the year. 00:12:16.706 --> 00:12:22.907 - But an extension, that's good to know that that was a, happened once. Yeah, I've got an extension this 00:12:22.907 --> 00:12:29.168 - past year, because contracting for the site took longer than what we wanted. Plus, government shut down 00:12:29.168 --> 00:12:35.248 - some things like that. And so it's as simple as just needing to reach back out and take the request? 00:12:35.248 --> 00:12:41.389 - There's a process. There's a process, but someone else did it for me, so I'm not sure. The only other 00:12:41.389 --> 00:12:44.158 - question I had was I just had curiosity about 00:12:44.322 --> 00:12:50.723 - some of the outreach that you've done on the ground that isn't digital and kind of like, it feels like 00:12:50.723 --> 00:12:57.186 - the shift to digital is kind of a big one. So kind of understanding that more too. I would say flyering 00:12:57.186 --> 00:13:03.462 - is one of the major things. It's just on campus and coffee shops, all that. And I do think that word 00:13:03.462 --> 00:13:09.801 - of mouth is very strong amongst BCL. I mean, we're all very civically involved people because we live 00:13:09.801 --> 00:13:11.230 - in a little democracy. 00:13:11.362 --> 00:13:17.332 - send it out in all the group chats. And normally, that gets us a good amount of members. And then I 00:13:17.332 --> 00:13:23.482 - think beyond that, there has been tabling in the past. But I think that that's been weaker in the past 00:13:23.482 --> 00:13:29.512 - couple of years. But I know that the board members who are leading membership right now would really 00:13:29.512 --> 00:13:35.482 - like to reinvigorate that. Yeah. My question is about the website. I wanted to know how much of the 00:13:35.482 --> 00:13:41.214 - funding that you're looking towards revamping your website. And then my other question is about 00:13:41.506 --> 00:13:49.822 - Once you have the website revamped, how will you maintain it after if you're given the funding? 00:13:49.822 --> 00:13:58.745 - It was $2,000 for a website redesign. And we do have BCL members who I think are familiar with website 00:13:58.745 --> 00:14:07.495 - maintenance. And so we've been able to maintain our website up to this point. And I don't believe we 00:14:07.495 --> 00:14:09.054 - plan on having it 00:14:09.858 --> 00:14:18.759 - having as many functions as to have pretty intensive maintenance. To be honest, we already are able 00:14:18.759 --> 00:14:27.928 - to take applications, contact with people. And so there's not much beyond that, yeah. So pretty basic. 00:14:27.928 --> 00:14:37.008 - It's really looking for that big overhaul. And then you can keep it going once you get that done. Any 00:14:37.008 --> 00:14:39.678 - other questions? Yes. So when 00:14:40.450 --> 00:14:51.543 - When the city gives, say, a tax abatement or some kind of economic development incentive to a firm, 00:14:51.543 --> 00:15:03.190 - to a business, it matters to some folks in the community and some in city government, some policymakers, 00:15:03.190 --> 00:15:08.958 - that those hired, or at least there'll be an effort 00:15:10.050 --> 00:15:21.496 - demonstrated that those hired would be from Bloomington rather than brought in from other places. That 00:15:21.496 --> 00:15:33.052 - makes a big difference to some of us. And so I'm kind of wondering the same thing. Is it an effort that 00:15:33.052 --> 00:15:38.942 - is not focused at an existing local area population? 00:15:40.034 --> 00:15:48.906 - Is there any, I mean you told Eddie a minute ago that there's really no criteria, right, once you apply. 00:15:48.906 --> 00:15:57.356 - And that also goes for your history of residency. I'm sorry, what is the question? The question is, 00:15:57.356 --> 00:16:05.975 - is there any effort to serve the locals first? Existing, existing local residents rather than someone 00:16:05.975 --> 00:16:08.510 - who might read about this in, 00:16:08.642 --> 00:16:14.290 - Because you're talking about the internet, right? And read about this in a remote location somewhere 00:16:14.290 --> 00:16:19.938 - else that says, well, I'm going to come to Bloomington and take advantage of this and do this. Yeah. 00:16:19.938 --> 00:16:25.530 - That's what I'm asking. Say no. We are very, I think a big part of why BCL is helpful is because we 00:16:25.530 --> 00:16:31.401 - help retain young people. And so IU brings young people here, but we retain them. Because we have people 00:16:31.401 --> 00:16:33.470 - have community, and it's affordable. 00:16:33.826 --> 00:16:39.993 - we don't have anything that specifically prioritizes current Bloomington residents. Um, but I think 00:16:39.993 --> 00:16:46.530 - that that's one of our strong points is that I think that this community has a really hard time retaining 00:16:46.530 --> 00:16:52.512 - young people and this will keep them here. Okay. Did that answer your question? Yeah. All right. 00:16:52.512 --> 00:16:58.925 - Thank you. Was there something about the people that we hire? Well, that was 15 minutes. I want to make 00:16:58.925 --> 00:17:01.022 - sure that we're giving everybody, 00:17:01.890 --> 00:17:09.521 - 15 minutes and not going over out of fairness. So I think we got everything answered. Thank you very 00:17:09.521 --> 00:17:17.228 - much for coming in. Thank you. We really appreciate it. I thought you were grabbing his water bottle. 00:17:17.228 --> 00:17:24.859 - It's going to cost you a water bottle. All right. Next up, we have Tandem Community Birth Center and 00:17:24.859 --> 00:17:30.526 - Postpartum House. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you for being here. All right. 00:17:30.978 --> 00:17:37.043 - Did you just want us to jump right in with the questions? How are you feeling? I have a prepared thing. 00:17:37.043 --> 00:17:42.875 - Cool. All right. And so if it's OK, I'll read that. And I apologize. I'm going to stare at my phone 00:17:42.875 --> 00:17:48.941 - to read it. But that's just how I'm going to process it. And then I'll be happy to answer any questions 00:17:48.941 --> 00:17:54.831 - you have. So my name is Julie Duhon, and I'm the executive director of Tandem. And I want to share a 00:17:54.831 --> 00:17:58.622 - quote from one of our recent postpartum house clients. She said, 00:17:59.042 --> 00:18:05.133 - This place is a lifesaver. In past postpartum periods, the first few days were so difficult. 00:18:05.133 --> 00:18:11.681 - Having a good, restful foundation has helped me have a chance at longer term, better mental health. 00:18:11.681 --> 00:18:18.296 - Knowing I have a quiet and peaceful place I can go is worth more than gold. Tandem helps me bond and 00:18:18.296 --> 00:18:24.910 - actually enjoy my baby. So Tandem is a thriving resource hub for families in our community. With our 00:18:24.910 --> 00:18:27.006 - diaper program alone, we served 00:18:27.106 --> 00:18:32.903 - over 900 unique children for more than 600 unique families last year. In our six years of existence, 00:18:32.903 --> 00:18:38.758 - we have diligently been working to create a sustainable framework for our programs. This has included 00:18:38.758 --> 00:18:42.718 - contracting with area employers, including Monroe County government. 00:18:42.946 --> 00:18:48.967 - SCAP and Wonderlab to provide doula services to their employees and leveraging sliding skills for services 00:18:48.967 --> 00:18:54.650 - for our self-pay clients so that when clients can't afford to pay, we're able to use that revenue to 00:18:54.650 --> 00:19:00.446 - help cover the costs of providing services to those who can't. We are fortunate to receive substantial 00:19:00.446 --> 00:19:05.342 - grant funding and to run several successful fundraisers each year. Unfortunately, most 00:19:05.538 --> 00:19:11.282 - quote-unquote overhead costs are not covered by these grants and we use every dollar raised to run services 00:19:11.282 --> 00:19:16.601 - that do not generate revenue. Some of the essential things we do at TANF that generate zero dollars 00:19:16.601 --> 00:19:22.132 - in revenue include providing free community space for families to drop by Monday through Saturday. This 00:19:22.132 --> 00:19:27.557 - space is heavily used by the community with hundreds of drop-in visits per month. We provide free car 00:19:27.557 --> 00:19:30.270 - seat safety checks and when needed free car seats. 00:19:30.434 --> 00:19:36.387 - access to free clothes and supplies, free transportation for families, deliveries of free cribs and 00:19:36.387 --> 00:19:42.519 - high chairs, strollers, and more. Again and again, the families we serve tell us that our services and 00:19:42.519 --> 00:19:48.472 - our work is lifesaving. Our doula services generate enough revenue to almost cover the costs of our 00:19:48.472 --> 00:19:49.246 - doula staff. 00:19:49.538 --> 00:19:55.270 - Our perinatal educational programs are self-sustaining through course fees, but do not contribute to 00:19:55.270 --> 00:20:01.173 - the cost of our building rent or utilities. Our postpartum house launched in August 2025 and is serving 00:20:01.173 --> 00:20:07.246 - clients in desperate need, but it needs time to build its client population before it can generate revenue 00:20:07.246 --> 00:20:12.978 - at a scale that is able to offset rent and administrative costs. We do believe that it will build to 00:20:12.978 --> 00:20:18.654 - that eventually, but it takes time. We nearly ran out of money in 2025 and contemplated bankruptcy. 00:20:18.754 --> 00:20:24.301 - but through aggressive fundraising alongside reducing open hours and trimming every conceivable cost. 00:20:24.301 --> 00:20:29.956 - We didn't buy print toner for months. We made it through. Money to pay rent and admin salaries is still 00:20:29.956 --> 00:20:35.666 - often determined day by day and week by week. We know we're making a substantial impact in our community 00:20:35.666 --> 00:20:41.104 - and in the lives of families whose children will benefit from Tandem's work for their entire lives. 00:20:41.104 --> 00:20:46.542 - Sometimes service providers from other agencies come to visit us and tell us that they know a child 00:20:46.542 --> 00:20:47.358 - they work with 00:20:47.618 --> 00:20:52.953 - has been fully clothed by Tandem their entire lives. We've watched families grow through the births 00:20:52.953 --> 00:20:58.394 - of multiple children and are so grateful to be a part of the fabric of the village that cares for and 00:20:58.394 --> 00:21:03.836 - nurtures them. We've also supported families through unthinkable crises. We're incredibly humbled and 00:21:03.836 --> 00:21:09.224 - honored to be a safe place for them to come and ask for help. We've helped families navigate through 00:21:09.224 --> 00:21:12.638 - unsafe homes, abuse, legal concerns, food insecurity, and more. 00:21:13.250 --> 00:21:18.755 - connecting them to partner agencies as needed and able to do this effectively because we have built 00:21:18.755 --> 00:21:24.755 - a relationship of trust and safety with these families first. Our mental health support groups are sometimes 00:21:24.755 --> 00:21:30.259 - the things that keep struggling new moms holding on. They are currently fully grant funded, but the 00:21:30.259 --> 00:21:35.764 - grant does not cover rent, utilities, having a website or email system or payroll system. This week 00:21:35.764 --> 00:21:41.269 - I learned of a high income and well-resourced client who factored tandem into her family's decision 00:21:41.269 --> 00:21:42.590 - to move to Bloomington. 00:21:43.010 --> 00:21:52.617 - All families need support. Because of Jack Hopkins, we're here serving the community. With your ongoing 00:21:52.617 --> 00:22:02.131 - support, we will continue to be here. So thank you for believing in this work. Thank you. Anybody have 00:22:02.131 --> 00:22:11.646 - any follow-up questions to that? I'll start, I guess. So it sounds like without this funding, there is 00:22:12.290 --> 00:22:19.653 - a very strong chance that this is not sustainable. I just want to put that in tandem. Last year, every 00:22:19.653 --> 00:22:27.302 - dollar we received is the reason we're here today. And I mean, I have budgeted for the full amount because 00:22:27.302 --> 00:22:34.594 - I know it was an absurd ask, but I also don't know where the rest is coming for. And I know I will be 00:22:34.594 --> 00:22:40.670 - fundraising throughout the year to make it happen. And tandem exists because we just 00:22:40.962 --> 00:22:46.538 - We just keep believing that it will. And I will say that there's a lot of hope on the horizon 00:22:46.538 --> 00:22:52.470 - for sustainability. And an interesting thing about Tandem is that we're not a structure that really 00:22:52.470 --> 00:22:58.402 - exists anywhere else. There are pregnancy resource centers. There are diaper banks. There are doula 00:22:58.402 --> 00:23:04.393 - groups. There is no postpartum house like ours that operates like ours does for anyone regardless of 00:23:04.393 --> 00:23:10.206 - ability to pay. And there's very, very few centers like ours that are this wraparound third space 00:23:10.818 --> 00:23:17.068 - sense community building and accessible to everyone. I think people, I think one of the most powerful 00:23:17.068 --> 00:23:23.257 - things we do is make our services feel accessible to everyone of all income levels. So like a little 00:23:23.257 --> 00:23:29.507 - anecdotal story I can tell you is that so we have a bunch of support groups and moms get to know each 00:23:29.507 --> 00:23:34.654 - other and they start texting each other outside a group and they become friends and 00:23:35.554 --> 00:23:42.410 - you know, when you have a support group or everybody in that group is low income, they're all limited 00:23:42.410 --> 00:23:49.333 - resource. They all have limited resources and their ability to help each other is limited by that. But 00:23:49.333 --> 00:23:56.055 - because our groups have these cross-social economic background, you know, individuals and families, 00:23:56.055 --> 00:24:00.894 - we see things like, you know, one mom might help another mom with time. 00:24:01.058 --> 00:24:06.960 - Right? Or with advice. I figured out how to get my kid to sleep and I'm going to teach you my newfound 00:24:06.960 --> 00:24:12.862 - trick. Right? And then another mom might do what one of our moms in a support group did a couple weeks 00:24:12.862 --> 00:24:18.650 - ago. She knew this mom needed a bunk bed for her older child. She ordered it and it showed up on her 00:24:18.650 --> 00:24:24.781 - doorstep. And that mom's got a new bunk bed now. And we didn't have to provide that. And it was something, 00:24:24.781 --> 00:24:30.110 - for that mom it was, sure, I can buy that bunk bed, that's fine. And so we're creating these 00:24:30.306 --> 00:24:36.243 - incredibly powerful protective support networks. And when we see families come in and not only tell 00:24:36.243 --> 00:24:42.179 - us like, I need help because of all these challenges in my life, but they come in and then three or 00:24:42.179 --> 00:24:48.116 - four other Tandem clients come in behind them because they've texted them and said, I need help and 00:24:48.116 --> 00:24:54.052 - I'm going to Tandem. And then they all come in and they all help each other and provide support and 00:24:54.052 --> 00:24:59.870 - they use our space to provide support. They bring meals. That feels like we're building something 00:25:00.418 --> 00:25:06.091 - Because parents outgrow tandem. Our clothing sizes only go to 5T. But I really feel like we're building 00:25:06.091 --> 00:25:11.545 - a community for people that they're going to take for the rest of their lives and have for the rest 00:25:11.545 --> 00:25:17.218 - of their lives. But I was trying to say what the hope is. So we've been working for the whole last year 00:25:17.218 --> 00:25:22.727 - with the Ursa Institute. We have funding for our mental health groups that I talked about. And we're 00:25:22.727 --> 00:25:28.237 - doing research. And I included some of the early stats that we've been getting from that research in 00:25:28.237 --> 00:25:29.982 - our original grant application. 00:25:30.082 --> 00:25:40.163 - And we just got accepted with our extended abstract to present at ASA, the American Sociologic, Sociologists. 00:25:40.163 --> 00:25:49.511 - It's the sociologist people. They're all gonna be meeting in New York City in August. And our paper's 00:25:49.511 --> 00:25:55.102 - been selected to be presented nationally at this conference. 00:25:55.234 --> 00:26:01.605 - And then, and our research scientists who are working at the Earth State Institute are so excited. We've 00:26:01.605 --> 00:26:07.733 - applied for Robert Wood Johnson Foundation funding for years and never gotten it, because we're just 00:26:07.733 --> 00:26:13.983 - not, we're not a big enough organization. But this year, IU's Earth State Institute is gonna apply for 00:26:13.983 --> 00:26:20.050 - Robert Wood Johnson for us, with us as their community collaborator. So like, maybe we won't get it 00:26:20.050 --> 00:26:25.086 - this year, but now I feel like we have a chance. And now they're also watching for 00:26:25.186 --> 00:26:31.993 - NIH grants to see if we can get it because we feel that we are fundamentally reinventing what it means 00:26:31.993 --> 00:26:38.007 - to provide support to families and, or what I like to say, to reinvent the village because 00:26:38.007 --> 00:26:45.078 - our, we fundamentally deconstructed it in our modern society and it's not sustainable and it's not healthy 00:26:45.078 --> 00:26:51.422 - and it doesn't make sense for the long term for the adults in the families or for the children. 00:26:52.706 --> 00:26:59.555 - Can I ask about your fundraising efforts? I'd like to hear just like what fundraising looks like, what 00:26:59.555 --> 00:27:06.403 - you like it to look like in the future. Yeah, so this year we're working to develop a more robust sort 00:27:06.403 --> 00:27:11.390 - of annual schedule of different fundraisers that pop up, but we've had our 00:27:11.618 --> 00:27:17.977 - Previous board president had a lot of connections in the tattoo community, so we did a bunch of pop-up 00:27:17.977 --> 00:27:24.151 - tattoo fundraisers throughout the last couple years. Last year when we were running out of money, I 00:27:24.151 --> 00:27:30.510 - was coming up on my 40th birthday, and I went, gee, we're out of money. And I have to pay payroll, and 00:27:30.510 --> 00:27:36.808 - I have to, we can't fail. And so I said, well, we're gonna launch the 404040 project, and it's raised 00:27:36.808 --> 00:27:40.574 - $40,000 in 40 days for Julie's 40th birthday, and of course, 00:27:40.674 --> 00:27:47.638 - Pregnancy is 40 weeks, so it all melded into the 40s. And so in 40 days, we raised $50,000 with a social 00:27:47.638 --> 00:27:54.337 - media post every day, which was just me posting and posting and sending out letters and cold calling 00:27:54.337 --> 00:28:01.169 - and cold emailing. And we did it. So we did that. But this year, we're going to be launching our first 00:28:01.169 --> 00:28:07.006 - annual gala process. We've never done the gala scene, but it's going to be a tea party. 00:28:07.522 --> 00:28:15.915 - And we're trying to make it family friendly. But yeah, so we do, we've done small scale fundraisers, 00:28:15.915 --> 00:28:24.141 - some larger scale ones, but this gala will be our first really significant centralized fundraiser, 00:28:24.141 --> 00:28:32.450 - I guess. But we also do trivia nights and dine and donates and you know, any way that we can scrape 00:28:32.450 --> 00:28:35.774 - funds, I do. Yeah, in fact, we're just, 00:28:35.874 --> 00:28:43.109 - So the donor database has been a combination of our QuickBooks database and our Mailchimp's database 00:28:43.109 --> 00:28:50.630 - and Excel spreadsheets, but we're actually just launching with little green light to be more effectively 00:28:50.630 --> 00:28:57.936 - centered with our donors. Any other questions for Tando? All good? I mean, mine's just a comment that 00:28:57.936 --> 00:29:01.374 - I feel like are our biggest questions with any. 00:29:01.570 --> 00:29:06.582 - unrestricted funding or operational funds are super hard to come by and that's always a really hard 00:29:06.582 --> 00:29:08.286 - like case to make and I feel like 00:29:09.186 --> 00:29:15.395 - my mind is eased by kind of like the story of hope you told. So I just wanted to say props to you. Thanks. 00:29:15.395 --> 00:29:21.198 - I mean, I consider running a nonprofit to be like cliff jumping. I don't know if, Eddie, you relate 00:29:21.198 --> 00:29:27.176 - to this. But you get a grant, and you commit to it, and you run with it, and you just have to believe. 00:29:27.176 --> 00:29:33.269 - You jump off that cliff with that grant, and you're like, I'm going to do this, and I'm going to believe 00:29:33.269 --> 00:29:38.782 - there's going to be funding on the other side. And it's worked so far. Sometimes just by hair. 00:29:39.010 --> 00:29:46.060 - Thank you very much. We really appreciate it. And thank you for all you do. First, I thought she was 00:29:46.060 --> 00:29:53.109 - implying, Eddie, that you were a cliff jumper. Then I realized you talked about running a nonprofit. 00:29:53.109 --> 00:30:00.298 - Fortunately, I don't have to fundraise like Julie does. But high respect for the work that you do. You 00:30:00.298 --> 00:30:03.230 - know that already from me, so. I like to. 00:30:03.746 --> 00:30:11.250 - I'm HR, IT, finance, grant writing, and I clean the sewage bills. I don't have any staff I pay enough 00:30:11.250 --> 00:30:19.196 - for that. Thank you. All right. Are you with Sober Mesa Foundation? No. OK. I think they're in the hallway. 00:30:19.196 --> 00:30:26.995 - Oh, hi. Here we are. You are. Come on in. Hi. We're about four minutes early, but are you guys OK getting 00:30:26.995 --> 00:30:31.998 - started four minutes early? Sure. Awesome. Should we sit here? Yes. 00:30:33.122 --> 00:30:38.989 - Thank you for joining us today. Thank you for the opportunity. Well, we did have just some follow-up 00:30:38.989 --> 00:30:44.915 - questions. I'm sure that you received them in an email. We've been a little bit relaxed with this. Do 00:30:44.915 --> 00:30:51.131 - you want us to just kind of go through the questions with you? I don't know if you planned a presentation, 00:30:51.131 --> 00:30:57.173 - if you had something you wanted to start, or if you just want us to dive into the questions. We weren't 00:30:57.173 --> 00:31:00.542 - expecting a presentation. I don't want to stress you out. 00:31:00.994 --> 00:31:06.739 - we haven't spoken with before to come so we can have face time with you as well. So a lot of that is 00:31:06.739 --> 00:31:12.655 - like... So why don't we say something? Since our organization is new, I don't know if you have a chance 00:31:12.655 --> 00:31:18.400 - to search and learn about us. If not, we probably will be better to explain what it's all about. And 00:31:18.400 --> 00:31:24.088 - then we go to the questions. Oh, do you want the questions first? Well, yeah. Why don't you tell us 00:31:24.088 --> 00:31:30.174 - a little bit about your organization since you've not applied to Jack Hopkins before. So we'd love to hear 00:31:30.306 --> 00:31:38.438 - a little bit from your end. Can you hear me okay from this distance from the mic? Catherine, can you 00:31:38.438 --> 00:31:46.972 - hear them okay? Yes, I can hear you well. Okay. Thank you. So my name is Robert Frew. This is Juan Carlos 00:31:46.972 --> 00:31:55.185 - Arango. And we started Sobre Mesa Farm in 2013. And through that journey of getting the farm started, 00:31:55.185 --> 00:31:59.774 - we realized that number one, we needed additional labor. 00:32:00.642 --> 00:32:08.166 - And number two, that there was a real need for fresh organically grown produce in Bloomington and not 00:32:08.166 --> 00:32:15.910 - specifically at the farmer's market. So we made a cognitive decision to never participate in that market 00:32:15.910 --> 00:32:23.508 - downtown simply because there were already so many people that are providing similar products. Why did 00:32:23.508 --> 00:32:29.630 - we need to compete with others? So our model has really been one that's engaged in 00:32:29.986 --> 00:32:38.922 - bringing the community to our farm, opening it up, having people come there, do workshops, and learn 00:32:38.922 --> 00:32:47.858 - about growing food, about growing community, inviting schools to come and do tours, hosting meetings 00:32:47.858 --> 00:32:55.998 - for other entities, and having workshops, professional workshops for growers and producers. 00:32:57.186 --> 00:33:05.026 - During that journey, as I mentioned, we realized that we needed to have additional labor because we 00:33:05.026 --> 00:33:13.179 - could see that we were aging and so we had to have younger people help us. And both of us are linguists 00:33:13.179 --> 00:33:21.019 - and work as interpreters. That's our off farm jobs. And so through that community, we decided, hey, 00:33:21.019 --> 00:33:23.998 - why isn't it that we have people here 00:33:24.130 --> 00:33:31.582 - who are from other cultures, speak different languages, and have an opportunity to engage in the farming, 00:33:31.582 --> 00:33:38.683 - small-scale farming system in the United States. So that was the launching board for us reaching out 00:33:38.683 --> 00:33:46.065 - to Exodus. And Exodus has partnered with us for the last, really, what, three or four years? Four years. 00:33:46.065 --> 00:33:50.494 - Four years. We've trained a total of six refugees at our farm. 00:33:51.074 --> 00:34:00.217 - Some of them have moved on to other projects, which we assisted them with. And we still have two refugees 00:34:00.217 --> 00:34:09.101 - now that work with us. And so we came up with this idea that, hey, how can we help more people, people 00:34:09.101 --> 00:34:17.812 - who don't have access to small-scale farming, or who perhaps don't feel comfortable to get into that 00:34:17.812 --> 00:34:19.710 - or to learn about it, 00:34:19.810 --> 00:34:26.717 - How do we create an atmosphere where they feel comfortable and want to come? So we were looking for 00:34:26.717 --> 00:34:33.623 - a site in Bloomington for a while, which needed to be an urban location because many people who are 00:34:33.623 --> 00:34:40.599 - more marginalized do not have vehicles. They didn't have the means to get back and forth to our farm 00:34:40.599 --> 00:34:47.575 - to learn there. So we waited for the opportunity, which presented itself when IU Campus Farm gave up 00:34:47.575 --> 00:34:48.542 - its location. 00:34:49.890 --> 00:34:58.379 - And so we leased the farm and we started the project really this year. And we are now in the throes 00:34:58.379 --> 00:35:07.292 - of it. We have everything tilled. We're doing partial cover crops. We already have things in the ground. 00:35:07.292 --> 00:35:17.054 - We have our potato seed potato cutting this coming week. And we have other lots of other crops and seeds that were 00:35:17.410 --> 00:35:26.400 - looking to get and to be able to plant there. So it's sort of a multi-pronged approach. We wanted to 00:35:26.400 --> 00:35:36.012 - first be able to share this idea about how do you start up a micro business in growing food in Bloomington. 00:35:36.012 --> 00:35:44.913 - And we have a lot of background and experience now, I think, in doing that. We host a market at our 00:35:44.913 --> 00:35:46.782 - farm, and we've also 00:35:47.234 --> 00:35:55.358 - been helping some of the pantries locally with excess produce. So we decided that we would create a 00:35:55.358 --> 00:36:03.482 - foundation to be able to have access to grants, which we formally did not as a for-profit farm. And 00:36:03.482 --> 00:36:11.281 - through those grants and through sponsorships and collaboration with other like-minded entities 00:36:11.281 --> 00:36:16.318 - in Bloomington, such as Soil and Water Conservation District, 00:36:16.482 --> 00:36:25.072 - Purdue Extension through urban soil and water and through National Resource Conservation Service, NRCS, 00:36:25.072 --> 00:36:33.663 - that we would sort of gather all of these entities behind us and collaborate with them and how we could 00:36:33.663 --> 00:36:40.766 - use a mutual space for educating the community in Bloomington in many different ways. 00:36:40.994 --> 00:36:47.707 - So that was the idea behind it. It's now just sort of taking off. We're having meetings with Soil and 00:36:47.707 --> 00:36:54.750 - Water. We're having meetings with IU because they also want to be able to do research projects and provide 00:36:54.750 --> 00:37:01.858 - support for us at the farm with marketing and other things that perhaps people could do, either internships 00:37:01.858 --> 00:37:07.518 - or some sort of research. So we really wanted to spread our fingers out a little bit. 00:37:08.066 --> 00:37:16.002 - and see if we can get as many people as possible to support us. We also have Duke Energy, which jumped 00:37:16.002 --> 00:37:23.707 - on very quickly. That was really a great accomplishment, I think. Normally you have to work so hard 00:37:23.707 --> 00:37:31.489 - to get someone to support your project, and it wasn't like that with Duke. And then we came into the 00:37:31.489 --> 00:37:34.494 - project with seed money from Farm Aid. 00:37:35.682 --> 00:37:44.433 - We were one of the featured farms in 2023 when it was in Indianapolis. And through those relationships 00:37:44.433 --> 00:37:52.928 - ongoing, we have been able to really get the organization, the foundation up and going with initial 00:37:52.928 --> 00:38:01.934 - funding. And am I forgetting any other partners or sponsors that have helped us? No, Marble Seeds. Marble 00:38:01.934 --> 00:38:05.502 - Seed also, which used to be called Moses. 00:38:05.986 --> 00:38:13.871 - I don't know if Dave, you're familiar with it? Okay. So Moses, formerly called Moses, it's the largest 00:38:13.871 --> 00:38:21.526 - organization in the Midwest that supports organic farmers. And so they've changed their name now to 00:38:21.526 --> 00:38:29.718 - Marvel Seed. And they are partnering with us this summer in June to present a workshop here in Bloomington 00:38:29.718 --> 00:38:33.086 - at the new Daisy Garten Community Farm. And 00:38:33.218 --> 00:38:41.678 - I think it will sort of be a regional attraction. There's not often that they're here in Indiana, so 00:38:41.678 --> 00:38:50.053 - it'll be a chance for a lot of small-scale farmers to be able to come and attend the training. It's 00:38:50.053 --> 00:38:58.597 - an all-day training. And then we have workshops on soil and water conservation. We're doing workshops 00:38:58.597 --> 00:39:02.366 - on seeding, transplanting, caring for crops, 00:39:02.882 --> 00:39:10.429 - We have approximately 10 participants now who went through vetting and through an application process. 00:39:10.429 --> 00:39:18.122 - So we made sure that they were serious about getting involved. And anything else on that? I think that's 00:39:18.122 --> 00:39:25.888 - pretty good, the general idea of what we are doing or trying to do here. Yeah. So we have been volunteers 00:39:25.888 --> 00:39:32.702 - in Bloomington. We came to Bloomington as volunteers, and through that is why we moved here. 00:39:33.794 --> 00:39:40.043 - So we came to work with the Center for Sustainable Living. We were living in Brown County and driving 00:39:40.043 --> 00:39:46.169 - back and forth several times a week. And we were volunteering through a program that the Center for 00:39:46.169 --> 00:39:52.418 - Sustainable Living had supported, which was called Backyard Habitat. And so through Lucille Bertuccio 00:39:52.418 --> 00:39:58.545 - and through others there at the Center for Sustainable Living, we got very much involved in helping 00:39:58.545 --> 00:40:03.262 - churches and businesses and schools put in backyard habitats in Bloomington. 00:40:03.746 --> 00:40:11.662 - We did that for 12 years. And so after that, and we got Bloomington certified as one of the 26 backyard 00:40:11.662 --> 00:40:19.274 - habitat cities in the United States. We got a proclamation from the mayor and all that. So we said, 00:40:19.274 --> 00:40:26.961 - hey, we need to do something else now. And so that was the farm, and now we're on to the foundation. 00:40:26.961 --> 00:40:32.670 - Wonderful. So that's our story. Thank you for that. That's really helpful. 00:40:32.802 --> 00:40:40.520 - really inspiring to hear and exciting. Does anybody have any questions? No? I'm curious about, do you 00:40:40.520 --> 00:40:48.163 - have the entire farm to work? Yes. Or really? I think it's almost eight acres, I think. Yeah, eight. 00:40:48.163 --> 00:40:55.882 - With book houses and kids. Two. Two that are laying here. Fantastic. And the woods, which is going to 00:40:55.882 --> 00:41:02.238 - be, I'm very excited about that because there are so many issues you probably know. 00:41:02.722 --> 00:41:12.328 - And RCA now is covering that in one of the practices to restore woods with problems. So it's a three-year 00:41:12.328 --> 00:41:21.481 - project. So we want to have those woods back and thriving. That's what we hope. It's terrific. Yeah. 00:41:21.481 --> 00:41:31.177 - So what are you growing? Right now, so the project, because we want to have people from different cultures 00:41:31.177 --> 00:41:32.446 - and cultures. 00:41:33.474 --> 00:41:41.721 - We want to provide what mostly everybody wants here. But we hope they will bring their own seeds. And 00:41:41.721 --> 00:41:50.130 - that will be a good and exciting thing for Bloomington, because we have seen similar organizations with 00:41:50.130 --> 00:41:58.539 - similar programs in other part of the country. We visited Louisville, and we were amazed of the variety 00:41:58.539 --> 00:42:00.318 - of food they provide. 00:42:00.514 --> 00:42:08.684 - So it would be good for women to experience all the taste and experience. Yeah, we visited other projects 00:42:08.684 --> 00:42:16.623 - in Louisville, three projects that were similar. And then also when we went to Marble Seed Conference, 00:42:16.623 --> 00:42:22.558 - Juan Carlos is one of the mentors for part of a project through Marble Seed. 00:42:23.522 --> 00:42:31.467 - And we talked with other projects there that were from various parts of the Midwest, Iowa, Wisconsin, 00:42:31.467 --> 00:42:39.645 - Minnesota. And we kind of extracted from them different components so that we weren't trying to reinvent 00:42:39.645 --> 00:42:47.667 - the wheel here. And we had the farming part solid. We knew how to do that. But we needed to understand 00:42:47.667 --> 00:42:52.574 - why is it that people who are immigrants, refugees, and others 00:42:52.866 --> 00:43:00.302 - Why would they want to come to this piece of land to grow food and be a part of a learning process, 00:43:00.302 --> 00:43:08.034 - an educational experience? And what we really came to was that people want to have a sense of community 00:43:08.034 --> 00:43:16.734 - and family. And so many of them were bringing their families to the projects. It wasn't just one individual farming. 00:43:17.890 --> 00:43:25.592 - And that once they started there, they really connected with that land and they wanted to return every 00:43:25.592 --> 00:43:33.144 - year. So, and that is our goal. We want this to be an ongoing project. And I like the idea of having 00:43:33.144 --> 00:43:40.621 - families there on site and it's such a walkable place. It's really just ideal. There's thousands of 00:43:40.621 --> 00:43:45.182 - people that can walk there from the apartments around there. 00:43:45.986 --> 00:43:53.229 - And I think once we get started and they see people out there working, that more people will want to 00:43:53.229 --> 00:44:00.615 - come. And so the basic model is that, I mentioned micro business earlier, so part of our goal was that 00:44:00.615 --> 00:44:07.786 - we would help many of them to be able to develop a CSA model. This is basically the thing that most 00:44:07.786 --> 00:44:08.862 - of the farmers 00:44:09.058 --> 00:44:15.784 - and small-scale do in Bloomington, particularly those that are at farmers markets. They have a side 00:44:15.784 --> 00:44:22.578 - hustle that's called the CSA and some of them are even probably picking up at the farmers market. So 00:44:22.578 --> 00:44:29.573 - we want to teach them how to do that and many of them already have a ready-made clientele through their 00:44:29.573 --> 00:44:35.358 - churches who have already supported a lot of the immigrants and the refugees and then 00:44:35.906 --> 00:44:43.445 - typical means like what we have had to do reaching out. And then we want to teach them about how to 00:44:43.445 --> 00:44:50.456 - manage a market stand on site at the new farm and how to learn to grow food in this climate, 00:44:50.456 --> 00:44:58.070 - which is really, I think, a challenge. They may have some skills already from their previous country 00:44:58.070 --> 00:45:04.478 - that they're from, but they need to sort of adapt those skills to this climate here. 00:45:05.410 --> 00:45:14.987 - And we want to give them more opportunities how to take care of bees. We have three hives there now 00:45:14.987 --> 00:45:24.181 - at the farm. And to really sort of incorporate into their personal belief system the importance 00:45:24.181 --> 00:45:33.950 - of environmental stewardship. That's just core to who we are at our farm and to Sobermesa Foundation. 00:45:34.562 --> 00:45:41.359 - That's one of our main goals is to be very good stewards of the land and to help people understand the 00:45:41.359 --> 00:45:48.289 - importance of sustainability and resilience. Wonderful. Well, thank you very much for coming in. I mean, 00:45:48.289 --> 00:45:55.020 - that's 15 minutes. Any last quick questions or everybody good? All right. Thank you very much. It was 00:45:55.020 --> 00:45:58.782 - very nice to meet you and thank you for all that you do. 00:46:05.378 --> 00:46:13.074 - Next we have the Hendricks County Child Advocacy Center doing business at Suzy's place. Is that you? 00:46:13.074 --> 00:46:20.847 - Come on in. Hi. Nice to see you. Either will do. You're good. Okay. Hi. Thanks for joining us. Thanks 00:46:20.847 --> 00:46:28.467 - for having me. I'm Kathy Stoll. I may not be who you were expecting today. The person who was going 00:46:28.467 --> 00:46:32.734 - to be here today has a fever and didn't think she would 00:46:32.962 --> 00:46:40.503 - want to share that with all of you. So I'm here in Hurstead. I'm actually new to Suzy's Place. This 00:46:40.503 --> 00:46:48.194 - is my third week. But I actually served on the board for several years. So I have a lot of background 00:46:48.194 --> 00:46:55.735 - information about Suzy's Place and what we do and what we mean to the communities that we serve. So 00:46:55.735 --> 00:47:01.918 - I'm happy to be here. Wonderful. Well, let's see. So we just invited a handful of 00:47:02.018 --> 00:47:09.301 - organizations who we had some follow-up questions to that we thought were probably easier to do face-to-face 00:47:09.301 --> 00:47:16.517 - rather than over email where the back and forths can get confusing. So we had, I believe in the invitation, 00:47:16.517 --> 00:47:23.265 - we had sent you, oh, we just had one question that it looks like. So really the question was, why do 00:47:23.265 --> 00:47:30.080 - you need this operational funding now? So can you just kind of expand on that for us a little bit and 00:47:30.080 --> 00:47:31.550 - walk us through that? 00:47:32.354 --> 00:47:40.188 - So it really is, and the way it was described in the application, it's a bridge. It's not a way we're 00:47:40.188 --> 00:47:47.946 - looking for, we're looking for Jack Hopkins to fund people for an extended period of time. It really 00:47:47.946 --> 00:47:55.626 - is sort of a one time bridge. We have a number of pots of money that fund our people in operations. 00:47:55.626 --> 00:48:00.158 - One of the primary funds that supports this direct service 00:48:00.322 --> 00:48:09.564 - providers, so the forensic interviewers and the advocates, is a federal pot of money called, it's referred 00:48:09.564 --> 00:48:18.374 - to as VOCA, it's Victims of Crime Act. So that's where a big portion of that funding source for those 00:48:18.374 --> 00:48:22.174 - positions come. That federal pot of dollars 00:48:22.338 --> 00:48:31.312 - is getting smaller and smaller and smaller as there continues to be a lot of pull and draw down from 00:48:31.312 --> 00:48:40.820 - that funding. So we've been advised to confidently expect across the board that next round of VOCA funding 00:48:40.820 --> 00:48:50.061 - is going to be about a 40% cut. Right? That's the face we all made. So the organization has been really 00:48:50.061 --> 00:48:51.038 - ramping up 00:48:51.298 --> 00:48:59.265 - the other side of our fundraising capabilities to really do the work to try to rebalance that dependence 00:48:59.265 --> 00:49:07.384 - right on those government sources of funding. That's why I'm here. That's why I'm new to the organization. 00:49:07.384 --> 00:49:15.047 - I'm grant funded from other sources for the most part for now, but I need to get busy and be good at 00:49:15.047 --> 00:49:20.510 - this job to make myself self-sustaining and really grow our capacity to 00:49:20.706 --> 00:49:28.399 - cultivate donors and just become more independent. But we're just in this really funky period of time 00:49:28.399 --> 00:49:36.091 - right now where we know this cut is coming. We know that we've got the building blocks in place to do 00:49:36.091 --> 00:49:44.010 - good things, probably 27 and beyond, right? But we don't want to put ourselves in a position where we're 00:49:44.010 --> 00:49:49.214 - going to think about how do we cut services to kids in the meantime. 00:49:49.634 --> 00:49:56.436 - And so that's the background for this ask for this point in time. So you kind of dipped your toe into 00:49:56.436 --> 00:50:03.172 - like my follow-up question there, which I hate this follow-up question, but it's an important one to 00:50:03.172 --> 00:50:09.974 - know, so don't read anything into it. But you know, what does happen if you don't get this money? You 00:50:09.974 --> 00:50:16.709 - mentioned cut services. Yeah, we'll have to make some hard decisions. I think the, and they all feel 00:50:16.709 --> 00:50:18.910 - like worst case scenario, right? 00:50:19.330 --> 00:50:26.180 - Anytime we take people out of this, we're really in that sort of first responder package of people that 00:50:26.180 --> 00:50:33.358 - are talking to kids who have been victimized by crime. Our partners in that work are DCS and law enforcement 00:50:33.358 --> 00:50:40.010 - and prosecutors. It's a critical piece of that investigatory process to get kids justice and then on 00:50:40.010 --> 00:50:46.991 - the path to healing. We're critical. That work is critical and the services that we provide are critical. 00:50:46.991 --> 00:50:48.638 - We would have to look at 00:50:48.802 --> 00:50:55.546 - there are some positions that will be opened by some natural attrition. We've got some stay-at-home 00:50:55.546 --> 00:51:02.290 - moms who want to be stay-at-home moms. So the first thing you need to look at is do we not backfill 00:51:02.290 --> 00:51:09.168 - that, right, for now? That's hard, right? It's not letting someone go, which is probably worst, worst 00:51:09.168 --> 00:51:16.182 - case scenario, right? But it stretches the existing team. We have three locations. We have the location 00:51:16.182 --> 00:51:17.598 - here in Bloomington. 00:51:18.082 --> 00:51:26.284 - We have a center in Avon and we have a center in Terre Haute. So we would be able to continue to provide 00:51:26.284 --> 00:51:34.174 - services running those team members between the three locations. We do a bit of that now, but people 00:51:34.174 --> 00:51:42.142 - have a home base. And the demand for the care these forensic interviewers and advocates provide isn't 00:51:42.142 --> 00:51:47.454 - going away. But our supply of people to do that work would be less. 00:51:48.066 --> 00:51:54.994 - And that's hard on everybody. It's hard on the team, it's hard on kids. Our team is available 24-7 when 00:51:54.994 --> 00:52:01.656 - something acute is going on with a kid and police or DCS thinks they need to be talked to right now 00:52:01.656 --> 00:52:08.318 - and it's two o'clock in the morning. Our team that's on call comes in at two o'clock in the morning 00:52:08.318 --> 00:52:14.980 - and handles that interview. If you start reducing the number of people who are able to do that work 00:52:14.980 --> 00:52:16.446 - when the phone rings, 00:52:16.834 --> 00:52:24.508 - Right? The timeline extends. So that's the terrible answer. That's the terrible answer to the question. 00:52:24.508 --> 00:52:32.108 - To the terrible question. To the terrible question. Yeah. Absolutely. Anybody else have any questions? 00:52:32.108 --> 00:52:39.561 - I have one, maybe two. So worst-case scenario, you don't receive these funds or partial funding. Are 00:52:39.561 --> 00:52:44.062 - you saying that you would lose the home base in Bloomington? 00:52:44.738 --> 00:52:52.536 - No, that's not what I'm saying. What I'm saying is we would have to make people noble, right? Of the 00:52:52.536 --> 00:53:00.488 - three centers, and I love them all equally, Bloomington is my favorite. The team here is invested with 00:53:00.488 --> 00:53:08.285 - some furnishings in that center. We've had great partnerships, so we actually offer medical services 00:53:08.285 --> 00:53:10.910 - to kids in that building as well. 00:53:11.010 --> 00:53:19.532 - It's really the best example of the full wraparound service that a child advocacy center can and should 00:53:19.532 --> 00:53:28.218 - provide to kids under one roof. We would just, the math just divides the people, right, to have to spread 00:53:28.218 --> 00:53:36.659 - out. Okay, thank you. Yeah. Well, forgive me if this isn't somewhere in the materials, the application 00:53:36.659 --> 00:53:40.510 - materials, and you've already brought this up, 00:53:40.930 --> 00:53:49.599 - in a form that I missed. But do you have any structural form, any formal relationship with Monroe County 00:53:49.599 --> 00:53:58.269 - CASA at all, or is there just no room for overlap? So it's a great question. And I don't know the answer 00:53:58.269 --> 00:54:07.104 - definitively other than the CASA support comes further down the journey for the child through the criminal 00:54:07.104 --> 00:54:10.654 - justice system. We're really at the front. 00:54:11.170 --> 00:54:18.204 - Perhaps before there's been an arrest or a charge or any of that stuff, we're in those early moments 00:54:18.204 --> 00:54:25.377 - when we're having that initial conversation with the child victim. A safe place for them to tell their 00:54:25.377 --> 00:54:32.689 - story and be heard doesn't always result in a criminal case that comes from that, where that child would 00:54:32.689 --> 00:54:40.350 - then at some point along the way intersect with CASA. It's confusing because the words are the same, but it's 00:54:40.770 --> 00:54:48.342 - It's two separate pieces of the journey. Yeah. Thank you. Did anybody else have any follow-up questions? 00:54:48.342 --> 00:54:55.914 - No? All right. Well, I think you gave us a very great explanation, helped us understand a little better. 00:54:55.914 --> 00:55:03.486 - So thank you very much for coming in. My pleasure. I appreciate it. Thank you so much. I hope you didn't 00:55:03.486 --> 00:55:08.606 - have to come from one of the farther flung. Did you have an autograph? 00:55:09.026 --> 00:55:15.347 - I am mobile. I am a nomad across all three all the time. So you're always traveling. Yeah. So I could 00:55:15.347 --> 00:55:21.668 - always throw somebody in my car and bring them down here at 2 o'clock in the morning. Well, thank you 00:55:21.668 --> 00:55:27.803 - for all that you do. And thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. 00:55:27.803 --> 00:55:34.558 - Next up, we have Kesem at Indiana University. Did I say it right? You yelled at me last time. I didn't yell. 00:55:35.394 --> 00:55:42.815 - But I was closer this time, I said it. It was not Casey Kasem. Kasem. Kasem. Kasem. I was right. 00:55:42.815 --> 00:55:50.619 - All right. I'm just messing with you. Do we have anybody here from Kasem? We are a few minutes early, 00:55:50.619 --> 00:55:58.346 - actually, with them. We have eight more minutes. Since we know that Silver Linings isn't going to be 00:55:58.346 --> 00:56:04.926 - here at 730, maybe we can invite some Hill Development Corporation to present at 730. 00:56:05.218 --> 00:56:10.806 - That'd be great. So that way they can get out of here. That's the one I have to leave the room for. 00:56:10.806 --> 00:56:16.674 - OK, got it. It works out great. No, that works out really well. I'm done here early because I'm nervous, 00:56:16.674 --> 00:56:22.431 - and I've never done this. So I said to everybody, are you ready? Great. We'll be very nice, I promise. 00:56:22.431 --> 00:56:28.075 - Hi. Hi, I'm Pesham. I know we're a little bit earlier. No, perfect. We are ready for you. We've been 00:56:28.075 --> 00:56:34.334 - running a few minutes early, so that's great that you guys are here. Thank you. Come on in. Right here is good. 00:56:36.578 --> 00:56:44.279 - We'll try to be nice. It's a very cute logo. I like it. This is Carl. He's our caterpillar. Carl. Yes. 00:56:44.279 --> 00:56:51.980 - Very cute. All right, so we'll just go ahead and get started. Before we get started, tell us your camp 00:56:51.980 --> 00:56:57.662 - nicknames. I'm Atlas. I'm Awesomeness. I came up with that when I was nine. 00:56:58.050 --> 00:57:05.737 - OK, I'm going to have to hear back stories to those after you guys do the hard work. Of course. OK, 00:57:05.737 --> 00:57:13.732 - so I'm Mary or Atlas. And I'm Jonathan or Awesomeness. And we're the development coordinators for KESEM 00:57:13.732 --> 00:57:21.650 - at Indiana University. So we kind of handle all things fundraising. We apply for grants throughout the 00:57:21.650 --> 00:57:28.030 - year. We facilitate individual fundraising with our members. Anything else to add? 00:57:28.322 --> 00:57:35.971 - Yeah, we organize like very regular fundraisers. We usually have one or two smaller fundraisers a month. 00:57:35.971 --> 00:57:43.693 - And then we'll have usually larger fundraisers quarterly. Uh, one example is giving Tuesday. We typically 00:57:43.693 --> 00:57:51.196 - do a 24 hour fundraiser. We'll have a room and it's all mostly peer to peer. So most of our volunteers 00:57:51.196 --> 00:57:54.110 - will reach out to their local networks. 00:57:54.466 --> 00:58:01.777 - This also includes things like professors, friends at the university. And then pretty regularly we'll 00:58:01.777 --> 00:58:09.304 - also engage in like canning, which is just going around locally and getting donations at just university 00:58:09.304 --> 00:58:16.615 - events, things like that. And then we also have Make the Magic, which is our spring fundraising gala. 00:58:16.615 --> 00:58:23.998 - We'll typically invite a lot of community members and we'll auction off items that were donated to us. 00:58:24.834 --> 00:58:32.213 - So yeah. So then a little bit about what KESEM is. It's a national organization with chapters at colleges 00:58:32.213 --> 00:58:39.314 - across the country. I believe there's about over 100 chapters. And we are one of three in Indiana. We 00:58:39.314 --> 00:58:46.624 - serve 130 kids across the state and 10 who live in Monroe County. And what we do is we put on year-round 00:58:46.624 --> 00:58:54.142 - support. We have year-round support for kids affected by a parent's cancer. And our flagship program is two 00:58:54.530 --> 00:59:01.804 - We have two one-week sessions of summer camp. All of that's completely free of cost to our camper families. 00:59:01.804 --> 00:59:08.809 - So the summer camp, and then we have spring and fall friends and family days where people can come out, 00:59:08.809 --> 00:59:15.679 - see their camp friends, catch up. We'll usually do a day at camp with field day games. And then we'll 00:59:15.679 --> 00:59:22.078 - send out birthday cards and care packages throughout the year to just help foster a community. 00:59:22.594 --> 00:59:30.543 - Do you want to add? Yeah, we also provide bereavement support included in that. If a camper has a parent 00:59:30.543 --> 00:59:38.114 - who passes away, then we'll usually provide them with a little bit more year-round care. That might 00:59:38.114 --> 00:59:45.912 - involve sending them an extra care package. Or in the past, we've had some counselors attend a funeral 00:59:45.912 --> 00:59:52.574 - to be there for the student or the camper. So that's all included free of charge. Yeah. 00:59:52.738 --> 01:00:01.546 - And then a little bit about our finances next. So we, all of the money that we raise goes completely 01:00:01.546 --> 01:00:10.702 - towards the camp. All of the money is raised either by our volunteers, our counselors, or through grants 01:00:10.702 --> 01:00:20.382 - and other similar funding sources. Right now, our break even point is just over $100,000 a year, like 105,000. 01:00:20.578 --> 01:00:30.091 - Our biggest expense is programming. About 62,000 of that goes to securing our campsite, paying for meals 01:00:30.091 --> 01:00:39.786 - at camp, snacks, travel, that kind of thing associated with camp. And then 2,000 goes to program supplies. 01:00:39.786 --> 01:00:49.662 - So first aid supplies, our camp t-shirts that all the campers get every summer, other events we do, and then 01:00:49.794 --> 01:00:55.362 - Our next biggest expense of about $6,000 is the stipend that we have for nurses and mental 01:00:55.362 --> 01:01:01.726 - health professionals at camp. We are required to have at least one mental health professional per week. 01:01:01.726 --> 01:01:07.906 - And we usually try and have at least two. And then we're required to have two nurses. And the mental 01:01:07.906 --> 01:01:14.270 - health professionals are really there just to, as college students, we can't handle every conversation. 01:01:15.586 --> 01:01:22.570 - capable of doing that. So they're there to be an extra ear. And then also if things need to be escalated 01:01:22.570 --> 01:01:29.288 - to our nationals or dealt with by a professional, they'll take over with that. And then nurses to do 01:01:29.288 --> 01:01:36.472 - meds, make sure everyone's safe. We have some crazy activities, so they're definitely passing out band-aids 01:01:36.472 --> 01:01:43.190 - quite a bit. And with that professional staff, all of our camp counselors, all of our camp directors 01:01:43.190 --> 01:01:44.254 - are volunteers. 01:01:44.706 --> 01:01:53.716 - The only paid staff are our nurses and our health and wellness team. We also have camp advisors who 01:01:53.716 --> 01:02:02.995 - are counselors from another chapter who serve as a liaison between our chapter nationals. They're also 01:02:02.995 --> 01:02:12.005 - volunteer position. So the vast majority of our funds do go directly towards supporting campers. We 01:02:12.005 --> 01:02:13.086 - spend about 01:02:14.082 --> 01:02:22.127 - $13,000 a year directly applied towards our technology, our chapter fees. That goes towards supporting 01:02:22.127 --> 01:02:29.937 - Nationals as well, since Nationals provides a lot of support to our chapter. So KESEM is also rated 01:02:29.937 --> 01:02:38.217 - a four-star 99% charity by Charity Navigator. That's the highest grade available to a charity, and that's 01:02:38.217 --> 01:02:40.638 - for KESEM National as a whole. 01:02:41.090 --> 01:02:48.828 - And that grid typically reflects a very high transparency, very efficient fundraising as well, and low 01:02:48.828 --> 01:02:56.416 - administrative costs. So with all of this, I think the number that's really important is $500, which 01:02:56.416 --> 01:03:04.229 - is what it costs to send one child to camp and then also offer year-on-support to them. So we're asking 01:03:04.229 --> 01:03:10.014 - for $5,000 to fully cover the yearly costs for the 10 Monroe County campers. 01:03:10.146 --> 01:03:17.848 - and kind of just breaking down that $500 a little bit more. And this is, it's not a perfect science, 01:03:17.848 --> 01:03:25.551 - because not everything is broken down per camper in our master budget. But lodging and meals at camp 01:03:25.551 --> 01:03:33.558 - cost about $275 per camper, about $50 for our mental health professionals and nurses. Year-round support 01:03:33.558 --> 01:03:36.990 - in our friends and family days is about $25. 01:03:37.186 --> 01:03:43.327 - Camp shirts and tie-dye, $15. Snacks and alternative meals. We have peanut butter and jelly for kids 01:03:43.327 --> 01:03:49.651 - who might not like what the cafeteria's selling. We also have alternate things for campers with dietary 01:03:49.651 --> 01:03:55.975 - concerns. That's about $10. And then the rest we had as miscellaneous expenses, which is $125. But that 01:03:55.975 --> 01:04:02.055 - includes camper family recruitment, so going out to events to try and recruit more camper families. 01:04:02.055 --> 01:04:07.102 - Art supplies, we do a lot of crafts. Friendship bracelets is a staple of our camp. 01:04:07.458 --> 01:04:12.635 - You can, like during any activity, you can see at least like 10 kids sitting down in a circle making 01:04:12.635 --> 01:04:17.812 - friendship races. It's the cutest thing ever. Need-based assistance. So when we say that our camp is 01:04:17.812 --> 01:04:23.092 - completely free of cost to the campers and their families, we mean completely free of cost. So if they 01:04:23.092 --> 01:04:28.577 - need reimbursement for transportation to get out to the camp, if they need clothing, if they need bedding, 01:04:28.577 --> 01:04:33.856 - if they need toiletries, literally anything that they need, if they reach out to us, we will reimburse 01:04:33.856 --> 01:04:37.342 - them for that. We want to make sure that everybody who needs Kessam 01:04:37.730 --> 01:04:43.129 - is able to get to custom. Miscellaneous expenses also covers like first aid supplies, transportation 01:04:43.129 --> 01:04:48.689 - reimbursement, we do like gas cards, that type of things. We have warm welcomes, which is like a little 01:04:48.689 --> 01:04:54.195 - care package we send leading up to camp where we announce the dress update themes and like the packing 01:04:54.195 --> 01:04:59.755 - list and it has little activities corresponding with all of that. We have fidget toys, which are really 01:04:59.755 --> 01:05:03.230 - important during our empowerment ceremony that we'll talk about. 01:05:03.586 --> 01:05:10.367 - a little bit later and then supplies for a messy Olympics and like our graduation stalls for the campers 01:05:10.367 --> 01:05:16.890 - who are graduating that kind of thing. So a typical day at camp in the morning they'll wake up right 01:05:16.890 --> 01:05:23.348 - around seven and then they'll go to breakfast and then right after every breakfast and every dinner 01:05:23.348 --> 01:05:29.935 - they participate in song circle. This is just your typical like regular summer camp songs but it also 01:05:29.935 --> 01:05:31.550 - provides like a time for 01:05:32.130 --> 01:05:39.463 - one physical activity because it's very helpful, especially in the afternoon, to have them do their 01:05:39.463 --> 01:05:47.163 - song circle before nap time, as well as it's a good time for them to get to know each other and to bond. 01:05:47.163 --> 01:05:54.569 - And then after that, we'll transition to a morning activity. This might be something like going down 01:05:54.569 --> 01:05:59.262 - to the lake to go swimming, or it might be a high ropes course. 01:05:59.554 --> 01:06:06.790 - Or it might be some team building activities or a craft. And then they'll transition to lunch. We follow 01:06:06.790 --> 01:06:13.957 - this pretty closely with rest hour. So this rest hour is incredibly important for them, especially with 01:06:13.957 --> 01:06:20.917 - the heavy nature of the camp and how that can be sometimes stressful. It really helps for them to be 01:06:20.917 --> 01:06:25.534 - able to decompress. I can speak to that as a former camper myself. 01:06:26.370 --> 01:06:34.162 - It's more or less just a decompression time and a time. And it's also a bonding point. But they'll transition 01:06:34.162 --> 01:06:41.387 - to an afternoon activity. One of the big afternoon activities that we'll do about, I think, the third 01:06:41.387 --> 01:06:48.754 - day of camp usually, it's called empowerment. So our empowerment ceremony is kind of the focus of camp. 01:06:48.754 --> 01:06:54.846 - This provides each camper a time to share their stories with cancer since each camper 01:06:55.202 --> 01:07:02.098 - has been directly impacted or has a parent who has been directly impacted by cancer. And this also includes 01:07:02.098 --> 01:07:08.610 - like we'll have a parent remembrance ceremony for campers who have lost a parent. They can do a small 01:07:08.610 --> 01:07:15.442 - craft and they can share their story with cancer. However, that may be some campers know more than others, 01:07:15.442 --> 01:07:21.827 - especially like older campers may know a lot more about their parents treatment and younger campers 01:07:21.827 --> 01:07:24.126 - might have a very naive view of it. 01:07:24.578 --> 01:07:30.214 - And it's really helpful for all of them to be able to share how they feel. And we also, when 01:07:30.214 --> 01:07:36.455 - we do empowerment, we do, well, for the whole camp, it's kind of split into what we call the TLP, Teen 01:07:36.455 --> 01:07:42.697 - Leadership Program, and then the littles. So ages six through 13, they have their own empowerment. And 01:07:42.697 --> 01:07:48.878 - then 14 through 18 has their own so that they can kind of be catered towards just the maturity levels 01:07:48.878 --> 01:07:53.726 - of the kids and keep it in a smaller group, so to keep just things appropriate. 01:07:54.050 --> 01:08:01.254 - Yeah. Um, and with that we provide warm and fuzzies, which is essentially like oftentimes they'll have, 01:08:01.254 --> 01:08:08.389 - maybe we'll provide a small stuffed animal and those like, um, we mentioned fidget toys earlier. Those 01:08:08.389 --> 01:08:15.317 - help a lot of the kids. Um, a lot of the kids like focus and like kind of decompress and de-stress. 01:08:15.317 --> 01:08:23.006 - And, um, oftentimes that's kind of the focus of the week. Kids share as much or as little as they want to. Um, 01:08:23.362 --> 01:08:30.462 - Another important activity that we do at the end of the week, it's our yearly messy Olympics. It's mostly 01:08:30.462 --> 01:08:37.495 - just a paint war, but it's a very great way to decompress. We usually do that the day after empowerment. 01:08:37.495 --> 01:08:44.394 - So we follow a pretty heavy day by a very light, very messy day. And after empowerment, we follow that 01:08:44.394 --> 01:08:51.092 - with our empower hour. It's more or less a free hour, but we also, we work with a local service dog 01:08:51.092 --> 01:08:52.030 - organization. 01:08:52.514 --> 01:09:00.867 - they'll bring in therapy dogs and that definitely helps our campers. And then at the end of the night, 01:09:00.867 --> 01:09:09.139 - we always do a cabin chat. So we do this at the end of every night, but it's, you've got your typical 01:09:09.139 --> 01:09:17.249 - camp questions. It might be if you could, if you had to eat your way out of a room, what food would 01:09:17.249 --> 01:09:19.358 - you choose? Or, but then, 01:09:19.874 --> 01:09:26.572 - typically closer towards empowerment, we can delve deeper into like the heavier questions. They might 01:09:26.572 --> 01:09:33.729 - want to do a small pre-empowerment where they can share their story in a smaller group or just ask questions 01:09:33.729 --> 01:09:40.296 - to each other. So that's all a really important part of processing appearance cancers to be able to 01:09:40.296 --> 01:09:46.206 - share your experience, but also hear from others and to bond over that shared experience. 01:09:47.042 --> 01:09:53.364 - And we also have just a few pictures and I can turn it around. I'll show you guys next. So we have like, 01:09:53.364 --> 01:09:59.384 - this is our graduation, just a little dance party. And that's our big camp photo. We have two weeks 01:09:59.384 --> 01:10:05.465 - of camp. And then here's some more activities. These are our nurses. We couldn't do it without them. 01:10:05.465 --> 01:10:11.606 - And just, we have like the lake, some music. We have lots of musically gifted campers. It's our messy 01:10:11.606 --> 01:10:14.014 - Olympics up here and some therapy dogs. 01:10:14.114 --> 01:10:22.776 - It's just a small bag that has a small candle in it. And then this is pictures. These are the service 01:10:22.776 --> 01:10:31.354 - dogs from our empowerment ceremony. This is our messy Olympics. And these are our professional staff 01:10:31.354 --> 01:10:40.271 - right there. I wish you guys had a camp for adults, too. I think it would be beneficial for many adults, 01:10:40.271 --> 01:10:43.838 - too. So any questions? Any questions? No? 01:10:44.258 --> 01:10:52.173 - Oh, yes. You said something about earlier a thought about some money being required to secure securing 01:10:52.173 --> 01:11:00.012 - a camp or a camp break. But isn't the camp in a permanent location in Bartholomew County? Isn't that? 01:11:00.012 --> 01:11:08.542 - No. So I believe I've been with Kesma at IU for the last three years. He did speak to where the camp has been. 01:11:08.770 --> 01:11:17.237 - more long-term since we've been a camper. But the last couple of years we've been at Happy Hollows Children 01:11:17.237 --> 01:11:25.391 - Camp in Nashville. And then this year we're going to have one week there and one week at Camp Indicoso, 01:11:25.391 --> 01:11:33.310 - which is, I don't know what county, but it's like 30 minutes, not even south from here. But we just, 01:11:34.114 --> 01:11:41.018 - Typically, it'll be a camp that they have their own summer camp programs. And then either when they're 01:11:41.018 --> 01:11:47.855 - done running their own summer camps, we'll rent it out for a week. And then their staff will still be 01:11:47.855 --> 01:11:54.826 - on to be working in the kitchen, help provide activities, and facilitate all of that. But we don't have 01:11:54.826 --> 01:11:58.110 - our own permanent campsite. Any other questions? 01:12:03.682 --> 01:12:13.622 - So we have an application that they fill out online, but I Can you speak? Yeah, so these are these campers 01:12:13.622 --> 01:12:22.076 - like we Will usually do kind of public like recruitment events. Most campers are recruited 01:12:22.076 --> 01:12:31.552 - through word-of-mouth that's how I was essentially recruited through a mutual friend at my elementary 01:12:31.552 --> 01:12:32.574 - school and 01:12:33.314 --> 01:12:41.460 - So I can't fully speak as to the selection process, but we typically have very few, if any, waitlisted 01:12:41.460 --> 01:12:49.369 - campers. And it's open to any child who has a parent or caregiver who's been affected by cancer. So 01:12:49.369 --> 01:12:57.436 - if they have a grandparent who's their primary caretaker. Or if they're in foster care. Or if they're 01:12:57.436 --> 01:13:02.814 - in foster care due to having lost a parent to cancer, they're open. 01:13:03.106 --> 01:13:10.474 - to or they're like able to be accepted. I believe the only reason a child would be waitlisted is purely 01:13:10.474 --> 01:13:17.700 - just for financial reasons if we didn't have the funding to cover them. But as far as I know, I can't 01:13:17.700 --> 01:13:23.934 - speak to if any camper has been waitlisted. I don't remember. We could. We have another 01:13:24.130 --> 01:13:32.546 - group of coordinators or outreach coordinators who deal with the camper families more directly. So we 01:13:32.546 --> 01:13:40.880 - could also reach out to them and then get an answer to you like in the next day or two. Thank you. I 01:13:40.880 --> 01:13:46.078 - don't have any other questions. Anybody else? Well, we had not 01:13:46.914 --> 01:13:53.019 - had application from you before, so we wanted to have you guys come in and tell us a little bit about 01:13:53.019 --> 01:13:59.183 - your organization. So you guys were really informative. Thank you. Every time I thought of a question, 01:13:59.183 --> 01:14:05.347 - you answered it. So awesome. Thank you very much for being here. And thank you for everything that you 01:14:05.347 --> 01:14:11.571 - guys do. We really appreciate it. All right. Super. We are moving right along. It's awesome. Thank you. 01:14:11.571 --> 01:14:13.726 - You too. Do you want to come up in? 01:14:13.858 --> 01:14:21.804 - You're next. And you can recuse yourself. Thank you. Well, thanks for being here and for all your patience 01:14:21.804 --> 01:14:29.230 - and hearing everybody out. I hope it helped. It did, actually. Oh, good. And honestly, I have a lot 01:14:29.230 --> 01:14:36.656 - of respect for you guys. There are a lot of great things that you've had to hear about. And this is 01:14:36.656 --> 01:14:41.854 - just a small slice of all the applications. I had thought about that. 01:14:43.202 --> 01:14:52.041 - Yeah, I thought I was nervous. Well, welcome. Thank you. My name is Ruckus Harris. I work for the Bloomington 01:14:52.041 --> 01:15:00.318 - Housing Authority. I've worked there for the past couple years now. I started as a receptionist at the 01:15:00.318 --> 01:15:08.755 - front desk and I had worked there like back in 05 as a Section 8 caseworker. So I've come back to social 01:15:08.755 --> 01:15:11.166 - work post-pandemically and so 01:15:11.906 --> 01:15:18.448 - The program that I'm really proud of that kind of got me started and one of the reasons I took on the 01:15:18.448 --> 01:15:25.119 - position as Ross coordinator was the grocery shuttle. Especially at the time, I know Chales Market just 01:15:25.119 --> 01:15:31.532 - opened up on 11th Street, but prior to that gas station opening back up, the low income housing was 01:15:31.532 --> 01:15:38.331 - a food desert. There was no place. And then at the same time that market was closed, there was the Kroger 01:15:38.331 --> 01:15:39.678 - downtown had all the 01:15:39.810 --> 01:15:46.432 - construction going around it. So a lot of our residents, that was their grocery store they went to, 01:15:46.432 --> 01:15:53.252 - and that added like a whole block of walking. So for our elderly, our physically challenged residents, 01:15:53.252 --> 01:16:00.006 - that was a big problem. And luckily we had the grocery shuttle to kind of help people get food. I was 01:16:00.006 --> 01:16:07.422 - through a grant with the Bloomington Health Foundation at first. When I had got the program, it actually hadn't 01:16:07.618 --> 01:16:13.000 - had much traction yet. It was a great idea. Someone was like, we need a way for people to get food. 01:16:13.000 --> 01:16:18.598 - But no one had actually ever, I think, taken anybody to the grocery store. And realized how many people 01:16:18.598 --> 01:16:24.088 - can you take? Where are you going to put your groceries when you pick them up? How many people at one 01:16:24.088 --> 01:16:29.686 - time? How long are you going to give them a shop? What are you going to do when someone takes two hours 01:16:29.686 --> 01:16:35.230 - when they said they'd only take one hour? Things like that. So I had a lot of logistics to figure out. 01:16:35.554 --> 01:16:42.351 - And by working with a lot of the residents, um, and just being a single mom of four for 20 years, I 01:16:42.351 --> 01:16:49.080 - kind of already had a lot of like, wait, I know how to do this. Um, and it's been going great. Uh, 01:16:49.080 --> 01:16:56.081 - the lease, however, for the shuttle is up in September. And so I've been tasked with figuring out what 01:16:56.081 --> 01:17:02.334 - we're going to do. Uh, I've talked to Curry auto and they're willing, they are willing, uh, 01:17:03.106 --> 01:17:12.376 - The 24,000 is to secure buying the vehicle that we had been previously leasing because that changes 01:17:12.376 --> 01:17:21.645 - a like, um, expense into an asset. And this is a, this is the, I've done a lot with as the resident 01:17:21.645 --> 01:17:29.246 - coordinator, um, for the housing authority now, and this is the program I am most 01:17:29.346 --> 01:17:36.736 - proud of that I see actually make a difference in low-income housing. Not being able to get groceries, 01:17:36.736 --> 01:17:44.198 - or only being able to get what you can carry changes your diet. It changes your entire schedule. I know 01:17:44.198 --> 01:17:51.445 - lots of elderly who haven't eaten potatoes, because they didn't want to just buy one, but they can't 01:17:51.445 --> 01:17:58.046 - carry a 10-pound bag for four blocks. So occasionally they would buy one, but it's just not 01:17:59.650 --> 01:18:09.374 - the best fiscally responsible way to buy potatoes. And that's just one example. Yeah, exactly. A gallon 01:18:09.374 --> 01:18:18.910 - of milk is not doable. There's a lot of ways. And just the weather, too. So I have a lot of residents 01:18:18.910 --> 01:18:24.894 - now. I've been able to build this program, and they rely on it. 01:18:25.826 --> 01:18:31.693 - They can plan their meals by it. A lot of folks have met each other because they go grocery shopping 01:18:31.693 --> 01:18:37.618 - together now. So it's actually created community in a place where there's a lot of poverty trauma and 01:18:37.618 --> 01:18:43.486 - keeps people from getting to know one another, getting to know their neighbors. They want to stay to 01:18:43.486 --> 01:18:48.830 - themselves. That way they're under the radar, the less attention brought to them means less 01:18:48.994 --> 01:18:55.737 - danger of losing housing. It's one of the problems I have run across when trying to create community. 01:18:55.737 --> 01:19:02.677 - And so I love this program because it's one of the easy, like I don't have to try very hard. When people 01:19:02.677 --> 01:19:09.817 - shop together, they talk together, they get to know each other. I brought, we're actually gonna be featured 01:19:09.817 --> 01:19:17.022 - in the Bloomington Health Foundation newsletter. So I brought an article that was written about the program. 01:19:17.186 --> 01:19:24.049 - I didn't know if I should bring anything. I know you guys had questions, and I asked my boss, do I answer 01:19:24.049 --> 01:19:30.913 - those questions in an email? And he said yes, so I answered those questions in an email, but I can answer 01:19:30.913 --> 01:19:37.647 - them again here in person. And I also have some pictures of our shuttle in the residence shop. A couple 01:19:37.647 --> 01:19:44.510 - of them, anyway. That's me and my assistant, Lowell, who helps with the program. That's the inquiry? Yep. 01:19:44.866 --> 01:19:52.138 - uh, was hired on the van that was used was, uh, I don't know, like the old, um, church buses. And I 01:19:52.138 --> 01:19:59.556 - can see why someone thought that was a good idea because you can feel it. A lot of people in a church 01:19:59.556 --> 01:20:06.974 - bus, but the bench seats are this wide. And so you and your groceries and a bunch of like, it wasn't, 01:20:07.202 --> 01:20:14.011 - working really well. So I went to Curry and I told him I was like, I need, and it's hard to get up into 01:20:14.011 --> 01:20:20.690 - one of those vans. So there was a couple of my residents who I had bought a step stool and some extra 01:20:20.690 --> 01:20:27.434 - handles and it still made me nervous. So I told Curry I needed something where an elderly person could 01:20:27.434 --> 01:20:34.047 - sit down into and me not being nervous the whole time. And these old Pacificas have the, or not old, 01:20:34.047 --> 01:20:36.862 - these Pacificas have the scoop in the back 01:20:37.442 --> 01:20:44.402 - where you can like, it dips down so you can fit groceries down in there. So they don't roll all over 01:20:44.402 --> 01:20:51.499 - the van on everybody. So then, yeah, one of the questions that we had was, is this price that you have 01:20:51.499 --> 01:20:58.941 - listed? Like, is this like contracted with Curry already? Are they like locked into that price? Apparently. 01:20:58.941 --> 01:21:04.798 - Okay. I have asked, you know, as like, so would you guys be willing to like, wiggle? 01:21:05.282 --> 01:21:12.922 - And we haven't got a response yet. We don't know if that's a kind no or if behind the scenes they're 01:21:12.922 --> 01:21:20.561 - trying to figure out if they could do anything for us. But we have asked very nicely. But my concern 01:21:20.561 --> 01:21:28.277 - is when you are ready to purchase it, they're not going to go. Oh, but now it went up $5,000. I think 01:21:28.277 --> 01:21:34.782 - that's more the concern. What, a car dealer do that? No, we actually have a really... 01:21:34.946 --> 01:21:41.657 - Worked with us really well, and I really doubt that they would do that to us. They're just as proud 01:21:41.657 --> 01:21:48.435 - of their name on this van, because I know their name's on it too. And they really seem to understand 01:21:48.435 --> 01:21:55.281 - what it meant for the community. So I don't think they would do that. Hell yes. Yeah. They sent me an 01:21:55.281 --> 01:22:02.059 - email. I do have an email in writing where it says that price. I don't know how that's. I have it in 01:22:02.059 --> 01:22:04.542 - writing. Yeah, I have it in writing. 01:22:04.770 --> 01:22:11.192 - It's down to the penny, too. Yeah, exactly, yeah. Can I have a look at that? Oh, yeah. Did anybody have 01:22:11.192 --> 01:22:17.552 - any questions? No, I loved your sentiment of when people shop together, they talk together, like those 01:22:17.552 --> 01:22:23.912 - little pieces of community building we all think about. Yeah. Cool. Yeah. Anybody else? It's like that 01:22:23.912 --> 01:22:30.334 - new trend of, you know, instead of going to get a drink or coffee with your friends, go do errands with 01:22:30.334 --> 01:22:31.198 - your friends. 01:22:31.682 --> 01:22:37.058 - Yeah. I do have residents who's, cause we run it three days a week now, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. 01:22:37.058 --> 01:22:42.179 - I had to like figure out scheduling. Cause at first I was taking a group of people and then waiting 01:22:42.179 --> 01:22:47.402 - for them and then coming, dropping them off and picking up more people. But I got tired of waiting in 01:22:47.402 --> 01:22:52.522 - parking lots. So I was like, wait a minute while they're in there, I could go pick someone else up. 01:22:52.522 --> 01:22:57.745 - That took a little bit more coordination, but it worked out because if someone actually does need two 01:22:57.745 --> 01:23:00.510 - hours, I will take you with the first trip of people. 01:23:01.538 --> 01:23:06.640 - And then I'll come back, pick someone else. You don't have to come back on the trip where I come back. 01:23:06.640 --> 01:23:11.840 - You can wait, because then I'll pick those people up from the first trip, take them home, and then bring 01:23:11.840 --> 01:23:16.843 - more people to the store. And they usually come home on the trip where those people would come home. 01:23:16.843 --> 01:23:21.895 - So that way, I can maximize. It doesn't always work. And there have been, like, we have so, you know, 01:23:21.895 --> 01:23:26.947 - most people have cell phones. There have been a couple of times I've been like, I will be there in 10 01:23:26.947 --> 01:23:31.454 - minutes. But most of the time, I've never had anyone. They're like, no, the bus would take 01:23:31.554 --> 01:23:38.903 - an hour. Sounds like a big game of Tetris. Yeah. Getting everything. And you have to figure out what, 01:23:38.903 --> 01:23:46.613 - because closer to the day that people receive their food stamps, they are going to get way more groceries. 01:23:46.613 --> 01:23:54.035 - So there's a couple of times I've had to be like, maybe just you by yourself, because I know that it's 01:23:54.035 --> 01:23:58.430 - stock up day. Yeah. And we've also tried to, we've had some, 01:24:00.130 --> 01:24:07.108 - once we've taken people to the farmers market. I've really tried to get more interest in that too. 01:24:07.108 --> 01:24:14.226 - But again, we've been doing this for a couple years. So it's honestly just getting people to take it 01:24:14.226 --> 01:24:21.274 - and trust it as a service was a lot of my challenge at first. And so how do you find riders? How do 01:24:21.274 --> 01:24:24.798 - you connect with the people who need these rides? 01:24:24.994 --> 01:24:32.685 - I'm in a great position because I work for the Bloomington Housing Authority, resident service coordinator. 01:24:32.685 --> 01:24:39.949 - So I know who needs the services. And if someone's having a hard time, I'm who they would come to. So 01:24:39.949 --> 01:24:47.213 - it's like, oh, I know what to do for that. That makes sense. Yeah. Even so, though, it still took the 01:24:47.213 --> 01:24:53.694 - poverty trauma means that people don't trust things. They don't want to get used to taking 01:24:53.954 --> 01:25:01.096 - a ride to the store that is gonna stop in a few weeks or someone's not gonna, you know, they're gonna 01:25:01.096 --> 01:25:08.309 - lose interest or the program will end if that's how. And they also need to hear from other people that 01:25:08.309 --> 01:25:15.451 - it works well, that it's not very intrusive, that you're able to get your groceries, stuff like that. 01:25:15.451 --> 01:25:23.294 - So once I got word out that I was doing a good job and I changed the signage on the van to say grocery shuttle, 01:25:23.458 --> 01:25:30.513 - in big letters because on the church bus man, it said like opportunity in motion, which is a great sentiment, 01:25:30.513 --> 01:25:37.120 - but nobody know what that knew what that man was for. So by putting grocery shuttle on there like, oh, 01:25:37.120 --> 01:25:43.662 - we have a grocery shuttle service. Yes, we do. Give us a call. So we've got a few people just because 01:25:43.662 --> 01:25:50.846 - they saw us going through the neighborhood and dropping off neighbors. A few people when their car breaks down. 01:25:51.714 --> 01:25:58.706 - they'll get ahold of us because like, Hey, my car broke down and be out of the shop, but can you take 01:25:58.706 --> 01:26:05.630 - me to the store next week? And we've done that too. So that's kind of, it's really nice. It keeps an 01:26:05.630 --> 01:26:12.622 - inconvenience from turning into like something that's devastating. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. All right. 01:26:12.622 --> 01:26:18.654 - Any other questions? Okay. Well, thank you so much for coming in. We really appreciate. 01:26:19.362 --> 01:26:25.012 - hearing from you in person, and thank you for all that you do. Thank you. All right. I appreciate your 01:26:25.012 --> 01:26:30.661 - time. Of course. Thank you. Hopefully that was much more painless than you were envisioning. Yeah, I'm 01:26:30.661 --> 01:26:36.256 - going to shake out the nerves. That was painless. Oh. There you go. All right, thanks. Eddie, you can 01:26:36.256 --> 01:26:41.741 - come on back in whenever you're ready. I know we're a little bit early for you, but do you want to? 01:26:41.741 --> 01:26:47.445 - I'd love to. You feeling good about going early? All right. We're cruising through. Home. Yes, exactly. 01:26:47.445 --> 01:26:49.310 - Well, come on up and have a seat. 01:26:49.954 --> 01:26:59.977 - and join us. So let's see. Well, my book is connected to my keys. There we go. Little tangle there. 01:26:59.977 --> 01:27:10.201 - Yeah. I do everything on pen and paper. I just think it's always going to be that way. You know what? 01:27:10.201 --> 01:27:19.422 - I carry a notebook around too and I often go back to it. Okay. Well, welcome. Thank you for 01:27:19.714 --> 01:27:25.670 - me in. So I'm kind of explaining off and on throughout the night that we just invited a handful to come 01:27:25.670 --> 01:27:31.568 - back rather than doing the typical like long night of presentations. There were just some applications 01:27:31.568 --> 01:27:37.294 - that we had follow up questions to that some we sent out with a quick email because we're like it's 01:27:37.294 --> 01:27:43.536 - a quick answer. They don't need to come in. But then others we were like we want to give you the opportunity 01:27:43.536 --> 01:27:47.774 - to maybe explain it a little bit better than maybe an email could. Right. 01:27:47.938 --> 01:27:53.909 - For sure. I think this is really good, especially for the second question. Wonderful. Awesome. Well, 01:27:53.909 --> 01:27:59.939 - thank you for being here. So I don't know if you just want to go ahead and dive right in, if you want 01:27:59.939 --> 01:28:06.028 - us to ask you the questions. Well, in my first paragraph, it says that, so. Beautiful. All right. Take 01:28:06.028 --> 01:28:12.176 - it away. Hello. My name is Katie Norris. I'm the founder and executive director of Hotels for Homeless, 01:28:12.176 --> 01:28:14.718 - also known as Hotels for Hope and H for H. 01:28:14.850 --> 01:28:20.053 - First of all, I want to thank everybody in the room. I kind of thought it would be like before, so I 01:28:20.053 --> 01:28:25.256 - wanted to thank all the other people, too. So thank you, all people who are not here. You guys rock. 01:28:25.256 --> 01:28:30.459 - Doing great, thanks. We'll put that out into the universe, see if they feel that wherever they're at 01:28:30.459 --> 01:28:35.920 - on their way home. So I want to make sure that I answer all the questions that the Jack Hopkins committee 01:28:35.920 --> 01:28:41.071 - has about this project and our program. So please feel free to stop me at any time for questions or 01:28:41.071 --> 01:28:44.574 - clarification. I'm not going to be offended if someone's like, hey, 01:28:44.930 --> 01:28:52.251 - Hold on. Okay. So we were asked what amount of the residents served by this project will be Bloomington 01:28:52.251 --> 01:28:59.430 - residents. The answer is all of them. A hundred percent. We do provide services to people who are not 01:28:59.430 --> 01:29:06.821 - in Bloomington or not Bloomington residents, but all of those served by this project will be Bloomington 01:29:06.821 --> 01:29:11.678 - residents. We were asked if we are abiding by the heading home plan. 01:29:12.034 --> 01:29:18.872 - The answer is absolutely yes. And I will elaborate on that here a little bit. We were asked if we are 01:29:18.872 --> 01:29:24.638 - collaborating with agencies who are abiding by the Heading Home Plan, and if so, who? 01:29:25.410 --> 01:29:31.824 - Yes, we are collaborating with agencies who are abiding by the Heading Home Plan. I am not personally 01:29:31.824 --> 01:29:38.489 - aware of all of the other agencies abiding by this plan, but I will elaborate on who we are collaborating 01:29:38.489 --> 01:29:44.777 - with currently. And we are always open to making new connections with other agencies. I believe the 01:29:44.777 --> 01:29:50.750 - more that we work together, the more we can help. So I have personally collaborated with eight 01:29:50.850 --> 01:29:56.958 - individual heading home employees on a variety of things. We've taken multiple referrals and provided 01:29:56.958 --> 01:30:03.065 - shelter from heading home outreach workers. We have referred almost all, if not all of our clients to 01:30:03.065 --> 01:30:08.813 - heading home caseworkers, depending on which one is the best fit for the family or individuals. 01:30:08.813 --> 01:30:14.801 - For example, some of our clients we provide casework for, but we do not provide hotel services for. 01:30:14.801 --> 01:30:20.190 - So they just need referred to like Sarah, who does the prevention to get their rent paid. 01:30:20.578 --> 01:30:26.335 - Some of our clients need referred to Rebecca at New Hope for help with application fees and bus tickets, 01:30:26.335 --> 01:30:31.819 - but same thing. We've already referred them to New Hope. They don't, you know, or they are still at 01:30:31.819 --> 01:30:37.357 - their house just waiting to get like evicted or something like that. So they just go to her. Um, and 01:30:37.357 --> 01:30:42.949 - then others need street outreach through like Mandy and then the other ones, I've not really referred 01:30:42.949 --> 01:30:48.926 - anybody to them, but they refer a lot of people to me. Um, mostly I think it's cause they're doing outreach. 01:30:49.314 --> 01:30:54.788 - So it might just be because they're with the people. So they refer them to me, but I'm not really sure 01:30:54.788 --> 01:31:00.369 - why I would refer them to them. But if there's a reason that I should, then I'm happy to. Other agencies 01:31:00.369 --> 01:31:05.843 - that we collaborate with are Department of Child Services, Bloomington Police Department. I just wrote 01:31:05.843 --> 01:31:11.317 - down ones we took referrals from for like the last couple of months. So if I miss somebody, I'm sorry. 01:31:11.317 --> 01:31:16.632 - Bloomington Police Department, Department of Child Services, the Strides Center, probation, parole, 01:31:16.632 --> 01:31:18.014 - public defender's office. 01:31:18.210 --> 01:31:24.534 - Friends Place, Wheeler Mission, Indiana Coalition for Women Against Domestic Violence, Middleway House, 01:31:24.534 --> 01:31:30.798 - the Shalom Center, Community Kitchen, Pantry 279, Bloomington Fire Department, Fanneker Center, Monroe 01:31:30.798 --> 01:31:37.062 - County School Corporation, Boys and Girls Club, My Sister's Closet, Indiana Recovery Alliance, Tandem, 01:31:37.062 --> 01:31:43.751 - Healing Hands, Ireland Home Base Services, Bloomington Severe Emergency Winter Shelter, clearly, CenterStone, 01:31:43.751 --> 01:31:48.190 - New Leaf New Life, Hannah House, South Central Community Action Program, 01:31:48.290 --> 01:31:54.605 - Perry Township, Trustee Bloomington, Township Trustee, Health Net, Humane Association, Oxford House, 01:31:54.605 --> 01:32:00.983 - Malibu House, Amethyst House, Bloomington Hospital, Areoton Aging, St. Vincent de Paul, and a variety 01:32:00.983 --> 01:32:07.298 - of other churches and patient substance use treatments facilities. I assume most of them are also on 01:32:07.298 --> 01:32:13.863 - that plan, but I don't know because I don't ask them. We were asked, this is the one that was important, 01:32:13.863 --> 01:32:15.614 - I think, for me to come in. 01:32:16.002 --> 01:32:23.876 - Why are you requesting funding per person over funding per hotel room? The answer to this question is, 01:32:23.876 --> 01:32:31.750 - we are not. I believe that there was a misunderstanding when our application was read. Our application 01:32:31.750 --> 01:32:39.395 - reads, verbatim, 18,000 will be used for 225 emergency shelter stays for up to 75 people. The price 01:32:39.395 --> 01:32:43.294 - we pay for a hotel room with one bed in it is $80. 01:32:43.650 --> 01:32:50.473 - 18,000 divided by 80 is 225. That's how I came up with that number. 225 divided by 75 is three. So this 01:32:50.473 --> 01:32:57.099 - means that if we had $18,000, we would be able to provide an absolute bare minimum of 75 people with 01:32:57.099 --> 01:33:03.660 - three nights of shelter. The reason I use those numbers is because I know for a fact that with that 01:33:03.660 --> 01:33:09.630 - amount of money, I can provide that amount of people with that amount of shelter. However, 01:33:09.922 --> 01:33:15.787 - as in past years, I plan to do my very best to blow your minds with just how many more people we can 01:33:15.787 --> 01:33:21.826 - provide shelter with more, can provide with more shelter with those funds provided to us. I don't wanna 01:33:21.826 --> 01:33:27.690 - give numbers because I wanna be able to say, hey, I'm gonna do this with this amount. I'm gonna come 01:33:27.690 --> 01:33:33.613 - back and no matter what happens, end of the world, we never help one family. We only help individuals 01:33:33.613 --> 01:33:39.710 - and we only use one type of room. We've helped that many people. Does that make sense? We're gonna help. 01:33:39.906 --> 01:33:45.738 - a lot more people than that. And we're gonna provide more shelters, but I can't give you numbers because 01:33:45.738 --> 01:33:51.293 - then what if I can't, you know what I'm saying? Everything changes every day. It's one day you have 01:33:51.293 --> 01:33:56.959 - a family of eight, the next day you have a family of six, the next day you have a family of three. So 01:33:56.959 --> 01:34:02.513 - I can predict that amount for that many people for that night. Go ahead. So just to clarify, sorry. 01:34:02.513 --> 01:34:08.068 - So those 75 people, maybe they come with a family of four, you're saying, right? Absolutely. That's 01:34:08.068 --> 01:34:09.790 - what you mean by the 75 people 01:34:10.370 --> 01:34:17.877 - Absolutely. And then in parentheses, possibly in their families. So, I mean, 75 individual human beings. 01:34:17.877 --> 01:34:25.026 - Right. Okay. Yeah. And then, okay, not plus their families, but 75. 75. Their families are included 01:34:25.026 --> 01:34:32.318 - in that 75. Yeah, so if we have a mom, a dad, a daughter, and a son, that's four. Right, that's four. 01:34:33.506 --> 01:34:41.736 - 75 minus four equals then you're left with 69 left. Yep. Got it. Okay. Yep. Okay. 70. Oh my gosh, my 01:34:41.736 --> 01:34:49.966 - math is so bad. 71. For example, we can put two people in a room for $80 if they share a bed. We can 01:34:49.966 --> 01:34:55.262 - put up to four people in a room with two beds for only $15 more. 01:34:55.842 --> 01:35:04.320 - We also are currently working with six Airbnb locations. We have two three-bedroom houses, two two-bedroom 01:35:04.320 --> 01:35:12.322 - houses, and two one-bedroom apartment condo things. Both of those have a pull-out couch. Some accept 01:35:12.322 --> 01:35:20.404 - pets and some are handicap accessible. All of them are significantly less expensive than a hotel room 01:35:20.404 --> 01:35:22.622 - with one bed. We also own a 01:35:22.882 --> 01:35:28.344 - Do you guys want to know prices for these? Does that matter? I almost wrote that out, but I was like, 01:35:28.344 --> 01:35:33.859 - I don't want to waste their time. I didn't think so either. Okay. Thank you. We also own a camper that 01:35:33.859 --> 01:35:37.822 - sleeps up to five with electricity, heat, AC, microwave, and mini fridge. 01:35:37.954 --> 01:35:43.040 - We are able to park it at state parks for also less than the hotel room where those using it for shelter 01:35:43.040 --> 01:35:48.368 - have access to showers, indoor bathrooms, a camp store with necessities. We're able to provide transportation 01:35:48.368 --> 01:35:53.261 - to and from town for medical, legal, and housing appointments. We are also able to drop off food and 01:35:53.261 --> 01:35:58.153 - material support and pick up and drop off laundry. This is a great resource for those in recovery to 01:35:58.153 --> 01:36:03.336 - have everything they need while avoiding people, places, and things that trigger substance abuse disorders 01:36:03.336 --> 01:36:03.966 - and relapse. 01:36:05.570 --> 01:36:11.549 - As for the heading home plan, I don't know if you guys can have this up and looking at it, but I just 01:36:11.549 --> 01:36:17.645 - went one by one goal strategy objective all the way through. So, um, as for the heading home plan goes, 01:36:17.645 --> 01:36:23.390 - we always have and always will follow the housing first strategy. That is the core of what we do. 01:36:24.546 --> 01:36:30.753 - Goal one strategy number one, we relentlessly advocate for those in need in our community and for objectives 01:36:30.753 --> 01:36:36.846 - two and three we clearly use hotel rooms, build long lasting partnerships with hotel owners Airbnb owners, 01:36:36.846 --> 01:36:42.142 - campers and RVs are a step towards tiny homes and our Tommy's trailers program is just that. 01:36:42.530 --> 01:36:48.336 - as described, affordable alternative housing solutions. We have worked hard to build relationships with 01:36:48.336 --> 01:36:54.030 - multiple mobile home community managers to negotiate deals for those we help to own their own trailer 01:36:54.030 --> 01:36:59.445 - homes, bypass and negotiate barriers, including previous evictions, criminal records, and income 01:36:59.445 --> 01:37:05.195 - requirements. Once our clients own their mobile homes, that their lot rent and utilities are long-term 01:37:05.195 --> 01:37:09.438 - affordable housing solutions. That's what that is. For strategy number two, 01:37:09.762 --> 01:37:15.789 - We have already and will continue to convince landlords and property managers to take our clients housing 01:37:15.789 --> 01:37:21.475 - vouchers and make our own landlord risk mitigation agreements. We have been successful with both of 01:37:21.475 --> 01:37:27.501 - these multiple times with landlords, managements and clients. We even have a landlord that started taking 01:37:27.501 --> 01:37:33.358 - section eight because of us. She then bought a house just to use for section eight for us. And we plan 01:37:33.358 --> 01:37:36.030 - to continue to do this on a much larger scale. 01:37:36.738 --> 01:37:42.606 - For strategy three, we provide intensive individualized casework, including unlimited aftercare for 01:37:42.606 --> 01:37:48.768 - our clients where we often use early intervention and connect those we serve with a variety of community 01:37:48.768 --> 01:37:54.930 - resources and even do our own fundraising to prevent evictions for those we have previously successfully 01:37:54.930 --> 01:37:58.686 - housed and those who seek our services just for that situation. 01:38:00.290 --> 01:38:05.800 - We also personally provide free court advocacy services and have helped with multiple mediation in court 01:38:05.800 --> 01:38:11.258 - cases to prevent or overturn evictions. We also offer that, that's my favorite thing to do in the whole 01:38:11.258 --> 01:38:16.663 - world, just throwing that out there. We do that for everybody for criminal stuff too. This is the only 01:38:16.663 --> 01:38:21.911 - civil thing I do is the stuff, but we do all criminal stuff. Literally my favorite thing to do. For 01:38:21.911 --> 01:38:27.211 - strategy number four, we help enroll everyone we serve in Medicaid and if they don't already have it 01:38:27.211 --> 01:38:27.998 - and help those 01:38:28.386 --> 01:38:34.447 - who do have it navigate keeping it. We provide coordination and transportation for any and all health 01:38:34.447 --> 01:38:40.983 - services needed and work closely with IU Health and Centerstone. We also provide 24-7-365 crisis intervention 01:38:40.983 --> 01:38:47.044 - for our clients with mental and physical health conditions. For goal number two, strategy number one, 01:38:47.044 --> 01:38:52.986 - we use case management to support rapid rehousing to keep homelessness as brief as possible. We use 01:38:52.986 --> 01:38:57.086 - outreach to prioritize individuals experiencing street homelessness. 01:38:57.602 --> 01:39:03.900 - Strategy three, we use warm handoffs to and from other agencies. We are literally here today seeking 01:39:03.900 --> 01:39:10.135 - funding for full-time case management services. I'm gonna check that one right off. Strategy number 01:39:10.135 --> 01:39:15.809 - four, we always have and always will prioritize children, those aging out of foster homes, 01:39:15.809 --> 01:39:22.356 - domestic violence, and those suffering from and overcoming substance use disorder. Strategy number five, 01:39:22.356 --> 01:39:25.598 - we send all of our clients to agencies like Salome, 01:39:25.794 --> 01:39:31.547 - coordinated entry and assessment, although they do another one with heading home on their own now, which 01:39:31.547 --> 01:39:37.190 - is really cool. I don't know if you guys know that or not. I didn't know that. It was a surprise. Goal 01:39:37.190 --> 01:39:42.559 - number three. Strategy number one. We connect our clients with Work One and Search for employment 01:39:42.559 --> 01:39:48.421 - opportunities. We make our own connections with employers in the community to hire our clients. We provide 01:39:48.421 --> 01:39:50.174 - transportation to employment as 01:39:50.370 --> 01:39:56.120 - possible, connect our clients with resources for bus tickets and are working on Kirk's Cars program 01:39:56.120 --> 01:40:01.927 - to provide stable, reliable transportation of their own. Works great. I've done it personally. We're 01:40:01.927 --> 01:40:08.137 - working it into H4H. Helps a lot when people have their own cars and they can get to their own appointments 01:40:08.137 --> 01:40:14.060 - and do their own things. We connect our clients with Bill Ferry and Amy Kelso to apply for disability. 01:40:14.060 --> 01:40:18.430 - We work with certificate and training programs. We help with job placement. 01:40:18.594 --> 01:40:24.188 - We help find and attain suitable child care or child care vouchers, and we use my sister's closet, 01:40:24.188 --> 01:40:30.176 - new length, new life, and healing hands for work appropriate clothing. For strategy number two, we always 01:40:30.176 --> 01:40:36.052 - have and always will support recently homeless individuals with substance use disorder. We help connect 01:40:36.052 --> 01:40:41.815 - and transport those to detox centers, 28-day programs, PHP aftercare, sober transitional housing, and 01:40:41.815 --> 01:40:47.070 - we use the Stride Center as needed. We provide casework before, during, and after treatment. 01:40:48.162 --> 01:40:55.001 - I think that's from top to bottom how we follow the Heading Home Plan. Sorry about that. I just want 01:40:55.001 --> 01:41:01.976 - to make sure we covered it all. Got it all there. Awesome. Thank you. Yeah. That's very comprehensive. 01:41:01.976 --> 01:41:09.019 - Did I clear up that second question, which I'm not sure how that one got in there? Any other questions? 01:41:09.019 --> 01:41:15.858 - I think we're very thorough. Yes. Thank you. I tried to go like step by step. Yeah, I appreciate the 01:41:15.858 --> 01:41:17.822 - detail. That's very helpful. 01:41:17.954 --> 01:41:24.590 - don't remember the conversation around that other question, so. It was just why did we, because in the 01:41:24.590 --> 01:41:31.162 - past years when we've got it, which it helps us so much, so even if we don't get any pennies from you 01:41:31.162 --> 01:41:37.992 - guys, just know you guys have helped our program more than any other single thing. The Trailblazer Award. 01:41:37.992 --> 01:41:44.629 - You guys are touching them. But you guys, because you did it more than one year, have helped. You guys 01:41:44.629 --> 01:41:46.046 - are our favorite one. 01:41:46.338 --> 01:41:52.716 - So thank you for what you've done in the past and hopefully what you'll be doing in the future. But 01:41:52.716 --> 01:41:59.158 - in the past, yeah. In the past, it was always by hotel room. And then the question was, why is it by 01:41:59.158 --> 01:42:05.537 - person? And the answer was, it's not. I don't know if I just wrote it weird or it just came up. But 01:42:05.537 --> 01:42:11.979 - the answer was, we're not. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you for clearing that up. And thank you very 01:42:11.979 --> 01:42:15.806 - much for being here. We're good? No other questions, right? 01:42:16.578 --> 01:42:23.914 - Okay, well thank you for all that you do. Really appreciate you coming on in. Have a great evening. 01:42:23.914 --> 01:42:31.324 - Welcome, thank you for joining us. All right. So we were just inviting in applicants that either had 01:42:31.324 --> 01:42:38.660 - not applied to us before, just so we could get a little face-to-face, learn a little bit more about 01:42:38.660 --> 01:42:44.382 - what you guys are doing, or if we had questions that were just maybe a little 01:42:45.346 --> 01:42:51.434 - Too much for over email, right? Needed some better face-to-face explanation rather than a lot of back 01:42:51.434 --> 01:42:57.581 - and forth over email. So yeah, welcome. Basically, we just really ideally wanted you to try to explain 01:42:57.581 --> 01:43:03.729 - the setup to us a little bit. It's a little bit of a unique application and a unique setup. So we were 01:43:03.729 --> 01:43:09.757 - hoping to understand it a bit better. So I'm Eric Coyne. I'm the chancellor out at Ivy Tech. Thanks. 01:43:09.757 --> 01:43:14.174 - Appreciate it. You guys are here like 8 o'clock. I was on the BZA before. 01:43:14.946 --> 01:43:23.715 - I very much appreciate what you guys are doing, so thank you. Sam Udeck may be running in here shortly. 01:43:23.715 --> 01:43:31.978 - We had like the 815, 830 slot, so he may be coming in here in a few minutes to help out, too. Oh, 01:43:31.978 --> 01:43:40.662 - there he is. All right, perfect. Sam Udeck. So we have a food pantry at Ivy Tech, and that essentially 01:43:40.662 --> 01:43:42.686 - is what the request is. 01:43:42.914 --> 01:43:50.972 - is to help us further that. We have a partnership now with the Hoosier Hills Food Bank, and we're trying 01:43:50.972 --> 01:43:58.645 - to grow. We're seeing much greater need for and use of our food pantry. And so we're trying to grow 01:43:58.645 --> 01:44:06.626 - it and add some refrigeration, add some freezer space, and really just more longer lasting. And that'll 01:44:06.626 --> 01:44:11.998 - allow us to offer some more longer lasting products for our students. 01:44:12.514 --> 01:44:19.864 - About 40% of our students are Bloomington residents. And then the rest come from around the region. 01:44:19.864 --> 01:44:27.434 - The ones that aren't Bloomington residents are going to tend to be online students. So we tend to draw 01:44:27.434 --> 01:44:35.005 - the majority of our in-person students, as you can imagine, would be from pretty close to Bloomington, 01:44:35.005 --> 01:44:40.958 - Monroe County. Pretty close. Thank you for explaining that a little more, Chris. 01:44:42.146 --> 01:44:50.397 - Did anybody have any other questions? Oh, sorry. You go ahead. I was just interested in just knowing 01:44:50.397 --> 01:44:58.975 - where you procure your items. And when you get your refrigeration, where will you get those refrigerated 01:44:58.975 --> 01:45:07.308 - items from? And who currently funds your operation? So we currently have a couple refrigeration units 01:45:07.308 --> 01:45:10.494 - already. We just purchased a brand new 01:45:10.594 --> 01:45:16.914 - commercial freezer in February, I believe it was. So the food pantry started out two years ago, two 01:45:16.914 --> 01:45:23.360 - or three years ago, as like a shelf in the student living center. And it's now occupied about a 10 by 01:45:23.360 --> 01:45:29.743 - 30 room. So there's a couple of refrigeration units that, they're similar to like a cooler you'd see 01:45:29.743 --> 01:45:36.379 - in a grocery store or a convenience store, larger commercial ones. And then there's one large commercial 01:45:36.379 --> 01:45:38.654 - freezer. So we're actually able to, 01:45:38.754 --> 01:45:46.381 - offer frozen products now, the rest is shelving for dry goods, non-perishables. Last year it absorbed 01:45:46.381 --> 01:45:54.231 - something like 85 to 100 students with most of them having dependents. The first semester we had I think 01:45:54.231 --> 01:46:02.082 - 85 parents and a total of like 350 people served because they had children in the home and at this point 01:46:02.082 --> 01:46:06.718 - we're at a thousand people served with over three hundred and 01:46:06.850 --> 01:46:12.604 - I think 335 students. So the use has exploded as the capacity has exploded. And what has been made clear 01:46:12.604 --> 01:46:17.810 - to us is anytime we add capacity, anytime we add more refrigeration, more shelving, and expand 01:46:17.810 --> 01:46:23.618 - the partnership, it gets used. The need is larger than the supply right now. It's presently being funded, 01:46:23.618 --> 01:46:29.262 - I think, almost exclusively by the Ivy Tech Foundation. I think one of the questions the committee had 01:46:29.262 --> 01:46:31.838 - was, why didn't you use the foundation? We do. 01:46:32.002 --> 01:46:37.685 - The foundation committed something like $12,000 to supporting the food pantry this year. A lot of that 01:46:37.685 --> 01:46:43.423 - went to purchasing that refrigeration and that commercial freezer that was paid for by something called 01:46:43.423 --> 01:46:49.107 - the Circle of Ivy Grant. It's an internal grant funded by a committee of women donors who put together 01:46:49.107 --> 01:46:54.238 - a pool of about $20,000 to $22,000 a year to fund different projects on individual campuses. 01:46:54.498 --> 01:46:59.798 - And then through separate employee and donor funds, the foundation also committed something like $6,500 01:46:59.798 --> 01:47:04.894 - over the course of the year. So that's all gone toward expanding that. Our partnership with Hoosier 01:47:04.894 --> 01:47:10.347 - Hills is through the Feeding America program that operates through Hoosier Hills. So a lot of the sourcing 01:47:10.347 --> 01:47:15.545 - is now happening through Hoosier Hills Food Bank for produce, dry goods, that kind of thing that they 01:47:15.545 --> 01:47:20.642 - readily have available. We are now registered as a food bank with Hoosier Hills as a community food 01:47:20.642 --> 01:47:24.158 - bank. We're on the Feeding America website as a community food bank. 01:47:24.354 --> 01:47:31.012 - We're supposed to be, I don't know if we're there yet, so don't quit that portion. The rest of the sourcing 01:47:31.012 --> 01:47:37.238 - is coming from the same place anybody else commercially buys food. We're trying to work out a way to 01:47:37.238 --> 01:47:43.649 - purchase through like Gordon Food Services, like wholesalers or grocery supply. Otherwise, it's largely 01:47:43.649 --> 01:47:49.936 - coming from Aldi right now, but that's tax. There's no sales tax on that, and there's a bulk discount 01:47:49.936 --> 01:47:52.094 - on a bunch of the different items. 01:47:52.194 --> 01:47:58.211 - We're trying to make the sourcing more affordable. Hoosier Hills partnership has been a huge deal for 01:47:58.211 --> 01:48:04.111 - that. And over the next two years, there is hopefully a move to increasingly affordable sourcing so 01:48:04.111 --> 01:48:10.010 - we can expand the offering for students. And I think that covers all of your questions. Did I catch 01:48:10.010 --> 01:48:15.910 - everything? Good. Great. Awesome. Anybody else have any other follow-up questions? Yes. So it seems 01:48:15.910 --> 01:48:21.278 - like there's a potential. And forgive me if this was in the application that I didn't see. 01:48:21.826 --> 01:48:28.807 - It seems like there's a great potential to combine this service with service learning and with high-tech 01:48:28.807 --> 01:48:35.522 - students working in the program. That is happening. That is happening. That is happening. Right now, 01:48:35.522 --> 01:48:42.171 - the food pantry is open three days a week for eight hours. There's a plan by next year to expand it 01:48:42.171 --> 01:48:48.886 - to at least five days a week. And that is going to be staffed not exclusively, but pretty heavily by 01:48:48.886 --> 01:48:51.678 - student learners who are already in those 01:48:52.162 --> 01:48:56.604 - Public service education programs are where it's relevant to their field. They're connected through 01:48:56.604 --> 01:49:01.180 - the student life office. So they staff the desk. They help people with whatever intake forms they need 01:49:01.180 --> 01:49:05.756 - to handle. They help folks go through the pantry. There are nutrition plans that come with the Feeding 01:49:05.756 --> 01:49:10.420 - America partnership. So it kind of helps you balance out what you're taking to make sure you have enough 01:49:10.420 --> 01:49:14.996 - of one thing or the other. And students are pretty heavily involved in that as folks come through. And 01:49:14.996 --> 01:49:19.439 - the plan through student success and student life is to expand their involvement in the food pantry 01:49:19.439 --> 01:49:20.638 - for the next couple years. 01:49:21.986 --> 01:49:29.765 - Thank you. Yeah. I had a question just related to, and you referenced SB1, the 12% campus reduction 01:49:29.765 --> 01:49:38.011 - that we're all struggling with press award. I didn't know. How is that impacting your roles functionality 01:49:38.011 --> 01:49:45.868 - specifically? Or are you seeing the impacts of that within the food bank? What is that looking like? 01:49:45.868 --> 01:49:49.758 - So overall, the college took about a 10%-ish cut. 01:49:50.082 --> 01:49:57.212 - By the time it got to us, it was probably 7%, 8% overall. We had a reduction in forest last spring to 01:49:57.212 --> 01:50:04.411 - make sure we had a balanced budget. So pretty much everything is operating relatively bare bones. This 01:50:04.411 --> 01:50:11.611 - will be the second. This will be the first. I've been there. Friday will be my three year anniversary. 01:50:11.611 --> 01:50:19.230 - My first spring, the second spring, this will be my first spring where we don't have a riff, which is great. 01:50:19.458 --> 01:50:24.593 - And so, you know, the budget is balanced, but the cut last spring was really tough. It's like laying 01:50:24.593 --> 01:50:29.981 - down to all the things. Correct, yeah. It's one of the things that sort of pushed the pantry into turning 01:50:29.981 --> 01:50:35.167 - towards student volunteers in the first place, but now that's sort of converted into getting students 01:50:35.167 --> 01:50:40.251 - like practical learning experiences, they volunteer in the pantry. So it's a hard thing that's been 01:50:40.251 --> 01:50:45.182 - converted into an opportunity and the functionality for the pantry itself is actually expanding. 01:50:46.146 --> 01:50:52.299 - Yeah. And then we were just, you know, the foundation and relying on grants. Yeah. Yeah. We're just 01:50:52.299 --> 01:50:58.452 - kind of grinding it out as we go. Any possibility of sourcing from local farms? We'd love to. Yeah. 01:50:58.452 --> 01:51:04.605 - We have to figure out a way to make that practicable for them and practicable for us. Because right 01:51:04.605 --> 01:51:10.819 - now we don't have refrigerated transportation. We have coolers and smaller refrigeration that fit in 01:51:10.819 --> 01:51:14.942 - the service fans we already have. But part of the requirement with 01:51:15.330 --> 01:51:20.797 - Hoosier Hills and Feeding America is anything perishable, especially meats. Proteins that you take out 01:51:20.797 --> 01:51:26.317 - of the food bank have to be loaded into refrigeration. So mobile refrigeration is part of the long-term 01:51:26.317 --> 01:51:31.784 - funding concern. Folks that are either selling through farmers markets or their local growers, if they 01:51:31.784 --> 01:51:37.517 - can make produce more affordable for us, and it's something that they would like to do, we would absolutely 01:51:37.517 --> 01:51:40.542 - love to have that conversation with them. Yeah, I think. 01:51:41.026 --> 01:51:46.752 - It could work. I mean, I realize there's a logistic. It's easier to just go to one source. But maybe 01:51:46.752 --> 01:51:52.536 - if they were to make a delivery and give you the same, match the price with California. With delivery 01:51:52.536 --> 01:51:58.205 - and a price match, honestly, it would probably be more practical for us. And we're really trying to 01:51:58.205 --> 01:52:04.385 - diversify the food sourcing. Because if you have a price increase and you only have one source, it increases 01:52:04.385 --> 01:52:10.622 - your costs across the board. So if you can start to make that more dynamic source thing, it makes more sense. 01:52:11.010 --> 01:52:16.855 - for keeping the pantry going. You see the team come out with the ginormous Aldi bags. When they make 01:52:16.855 --> 01:52:22.931 - their run, they've got all these carts set up, and they've got all these big Aldi bags. Yeah, especially 01:52:22.931 --> 01:52:29.008 - for baby formula and all these really, really option right now. We're providing a lot of postnatal early 01:52:29.008 --> 01:52:35.026 - supplies for folks in the same sort of space. And they've got to remember to bring their big Aldi bags, 01:52:35.026 --> 01:52:36.126 - because otherwise, 01:52:36.578 --> 01:52:42.899 - Yeah, the team. They don't get the bags. When we go out, yeah, we get it. Yeah, we've been on the reusable 01:52:42.899 --> 01:52:48.924 - game for a while. Did anybody else have any other follow-up questions, anything? Clarifications? More 01:52:48.924 --> 01:52:54.832 - just thoughts related to the partnership piece, but we just heard from Tandem earlier that does all 01:52:54.832 --> 01:53:01.035 - of the postnatal services related to those things. So they might be a cool partner for an offer already. 01:53:01.035 --> 01:53:06.174 - And then we heard from Sober Mesa Farm earlier as well, and they're very interested in 01:53:06.402 --> 01:53:13.083 - They farm specifically to give away food to the fisheries. So definitely recommend reaching out. Absolutely. 01:53:13.083 --> 01:53:19.458 - Thank you. Sober Mesa. Oh, Sober Mesa. Yeah. Cool. Thank you. All right. Thank you guys so much. Really 01:53:19.458 --> 01:53:25.771 - appreciate you coming in and sharing more about the project and answering our questions. Thank you for 01:53:25.771 --> 01:53:28.958 - all you guys are doing. Yeah, great. Appreciate it. 01:53:29.122 --> 01:53:42.154 - Hi, come on in. Are you with my sister's classmates? Come on in. We actually are ready early for you 01:53:42.154 --> 01:53:52.606 - if you're ready to go. Of course we are. We just didn't want to disturb anybody. 01:53:52.770 --> 01:54:00.410 - I appreciate that thoughtfulness. The other room that we usually meet in is all dark, and I was panicked 01:54:00.410 --> 01:54:07.905 - a little bit thinking I'm in the wrong building completely. Oh, I'm sorry. So I want to just make sure 01:54:07.905 --> 01:54:12.926 - that I'm turning off my phone for you guys. Let's see. There you go. 01:54:20.450 --> 01:54:26.666 - Well welcome, yeah, have a seat, make yourself comfortable. So really we just reached out to a handful 01:54:26.666 --> 01:54:32.701 - of applications that we thought, we had a lot of follow-up questions for several applications. Some 01:54:32.701 --> 01:54:38.796 - of them were like super simple, just a real quick email like yes or no. Some of them we felt we owed 01:54:38.796 --> 01:54:45.012 - you guys the opportunity to maybe give us a little more in-depth answer that might be easier in person 01:54:45.012 --> 01:54:47.486 - rather than over email. So that's why we 01:54:47.842 --> 01:54:54.881 - Invited you today. All right. Well, thank you so much. Am I close enough to your microphone for you? 01:54:54.881 --> 01:55:01.920 - All right. Okay. Well My name is Sandy Keller. I'm the founder and executive director of my sister's 01:55:01.920 --> 01:55:06.590 - closet I've been doing this work as of March 15th for 28 years and 01:55:06.754 --> 01:55:14.788 - And we have had the honor of serving all kinds of vulnerable populations in our community, many of whom 01:55:14.788 --> 01:55:22.589 - are extremely low income, most of them zero to 30% AMI. The majority of them are women single headed 01:55:22.589 --> 01:55:30.314 - households who are raising kids or who would like to be able to be in a situation to get their kids 01:55:30.314 --> 01:55:36.030 - back because in their current circumstances they cannot do that. So other 01:55:36.162 --> 01:55:43.265 - family members might be raising their children or they might be in foster care. The majority of women 01:55:43.265 --> 01:55:50.367 - that we are working with are trying to find work to be able to sustain their families. They generally 01:55:50.367 --> 01:55:55.102 - have a history of holding down jobs, but they have a commonality of 01:55:55.202 --> 01:56:03.019 - often working seasonal low-end jobs. Many times they are juggling more than one job at the same time 01:56:03.019 --> 01:56:10.913 - and often working 60 plus hours a week to be able to get the same wages that they might be getting if 01:56:10.913 --> 01:56:18.884 - they were getting a higher paid job with benefits. And so our thought is that we try to be able to put 01:56:18.884 --> 01:56:24.766 - these women into better paying jobs with benefits so that they can not only 01:56:24.866 --> 01:56:32.939 - be better mothers in the way that they are patterning success for their children and allowing them to 01:56:32.939 --> 01:56:41.566 - be in programming that helps them, you know, become better adults and better citizens but also to be able to 01:56:41.762 --> 01:56:47.984 - have them spend more time with their kids so that they are leading more rewarding lives themselves, 01:56:47.984 --> 01:56:54.268 - so that their story isn't always one that they are struggling with. And before I answer many of your 01:56:54.268 --> 01:56:57.566 - other questions, I just want to say that I have been 01:56:57.730 --> 01:57:06.323 - before this committee many times. And this is the very first time we have been able to say we are asking 01:57:06.323 --> 01:57:14.506 - for money for capital funding for a building of our own. And I am so excited that we get to be able 01:57:14.506 --> 01:57:22.935 - to be here and say this right now. It's really very exciting for us to finally be able to do this. The 01:57:22.935 --> 01:57:27.518 - number of the residents that we serve with this project 01:57:27.810 --> 01:57:36.121 - We gave the amount of 900 individuals who come in no matter what for services for my sister's closet 01:57:36.121 --> 01:57:44.597 - even if they do not have a voucher. Ones who are coming in with vouchers. Last year we had 252 clients 01:57:44.597 --> 01:57:53.401 - come in. We do believe at this new location we will be getting more requests just because of our proximity 01:57:53.401 --> 01:57:54.718 - and you know to 01:57:55.074 --> 01:58:02.248 - shared services, partner agencies, because we are on a bus line and we're just in cross traffic where 01:58:02.248 --> 01:58:05.694 - you'd be more visible and it'll be more obvious. 01:58:05.794 --> 01:58:12.254 - because of our conspicuousness that we will be there for people. We are going to be setting up the boutique 01:58:12.254 --> 01:58:18.654 - at the current location, which is a self-funding arm of the mission, which pays about 80% of our services. 01:58:18.654 --> 01:58:24.874 - We're hoping at the new location, it will be able to do more than that. But we will be building another 01:58:24.874 --> 01:58:30.975 - building right beside this, which will be our client services building. It will have its own entrance 01:58:30.975 --> 01:58:35.760 - for clients, which we do not have right now, which will be very, very important 01:58:35.760 --> 01:58:42.061 - for them to be able to come in with ensuring a certain amount of dignity, that they are being treated 01:58:42.061 --> 01:58:48.238 - with incredible respect. Not that they are not getting that respect now and being treated well when 01:58:48.238 --> 01:58:54.415 - they come in, but they might be coming in when they may have been sleeping outside or they just had 01:58:54.415 --> 01:59:00.592 - something traumatic happen like they were assaulted and to walk into a room where women are smiling 01:59:00.592 --> 01:59:02.878 - and chatting and shopping just isn't 01:59:03.074 --> 01:59:10.089 - the right vibe for that. And so we don't want to discourage women for coming in. This is a way for us 01:59:10.089 --> 01:59:17.310 - to mitigate our current circumstances to be able to provide for that. And we're very excited about that. 01:59:17.410 --> 01:59:27.507 - So yes, we will be able to expand and reach more residents with our services and we feel that the money 01:59:27.507 --> 01:59:37.022 - that we are asking for to pay for our HVAC for this new building will just do nothing but provide 01:59:37.122 --> 01:59:45.503 - 20 to 30 years of comfort for the people inside and that will allow us to serve people in a way again 01:59:45.503 --> 01:59:53.472 - that is going to help them succeed in the best way possible. Not just the clients we're serving, 01:59:53.472 --> 02:00:01.771 - our staff, our volunteers and all the residents coming in. We have had traffic estimates given to us 02:00:01.771 --> 02:00:04.318 - and while our current location 02:00:04.418 --> 02:00:11.314 - not with the one lane right now because of the construction, but we believe that 11,000 people come 02:00:11.314 --> 02:00:14.142 - through our doors at my sister's closet. 02:00:14.210 --> 02:00:20.439 - far more than that drive by at this new location, which is at a cross street of West Second and Patterson, 02:00:20.439 --> 02:00:26.435 - we believe that we will possibly see 38,000 come through our doors. And those will be people that will 02:00:26.435 --> 02:00:32.373 - be able to hear about our services. They will be able to hear about all the wonderful things going on 02:00:32.373 --> 02:00:38.194 - in Bloomington and support us with their donations and shopping dollars. And so because of that, we 02:00:38.194 --> 02:00:44.190 - feel that we will be able to expand the number of workshops that we provide for the community and just 02:00:44.226 --> 02:00:51.899 - overall higher level of quality of service and a continuum of service. Women come in, they do not come 02:00:51.899 --> 02:00:59.498 - in just for one appointment generally. Usually they come in for a number of appointments beyond their 02:00:59.498 --> 02:01:07.097 - intake and any clothes they might need immediately for an interview that they may possibly have lined 02:01:07.097 --> 02:01:09.630 - up by themselves or a caseworker. 02:01:09.890 --> 02:01:16.136 - They have very limited education. Maybe they don't even have a GED. They left high school because of 02:01:16.136 --> 02:01:22.506 - a pregnancy, because, you know, they were very transit as a family. Possibly, you know, for one reason 02:01:22.506 --> 02:01:24.670 - or another, they did not complete. 02:01:24.738 --> 02:01:31.441 - high school, we try to move them into other services that can help them with a Core 40, a GED, but we 02:01:31.441 --> 02:01:38.012 - try to concentrate on that Core 40. We want to be able to get them in some type of certification or 02:01:38.012 --> 02:01:44.781 - technical training. College, as we know, isn't for everybody, but we do want them to be more hireable. 02:01:44.781 --> 02:01:51.353 - That is not just presenting yourself in an interview. That is building your resume with job skills, 02:01:51.353 --> 02:01:54.704 - with trainings, and things that make you look like 02:01:54.704 --> 02:02:03.015 - you are more of a candidate for someone to hire. We try very hard to remarket a woman with not just 02:02:03.015 --> 02:02:11.491 - her self-esteem and how she feels about herself and how she feels other people might think of her and 02:02:11.491 --> 02:02:16.062 - whether or not they are judging her. We want to change 02:02:16.162 --> 02:02:22.298 - what that looks like so that we build that up so that she feels extremely good about who she is as a 02:02:22.298 --> 02:02:28.434 - human being. Then we work on the self-confidence so that she feels like she actually is looking at a 02:02:28.434 --> 02:02:32.990 - job and her skill sets and her education are going to be the better match. 02:02:33.058 --> 02:02:40.278 - for it, so if given the fact that we might have 20 women or men combined looking for the same job, given 02:02:40.278 --> 02:02:47.291 - their education and experience, the way that we are working with a woman to prepare her to talk about 02:02:47.291 --> 02:02:54.373 - herself professionally, the way that we are sending her out into the world dressed professionally, the 02:02:54.373 --> 02:02:58.430 - way we are teaching her how to look professional on paper, 02:02:59.106 --> 02:03:06.527 - Our candidate generally gets hired every single time. There just really isn't competition when one of 02:03:06.527 --> 02:03:13.948 - our clients is going in with competition for somebody else that just simply isn't as prepared. And we 02:03:13.948 --> 02:03:21.296 - feel that that's why after six weeks, when they have come to us, they are able to say that they have 02:03:21.296 --> 02:03:28.862 - found a better paying job. And we have had over 4,000 women come through my sister's closet to date and 02:03:28.962 --> 02:03:35.374 - We're just very, very grateful that they've, you know, trusted us enough to help them through, but they 02:03:35.374 --> 02:03:41.601 - don't need to have continuous service again and again and again. They need some resources. They need 02:03:41.601 --> 02:03:42.526 - some advocacy. 02:03:42.594 --> 02:03:49.031 - to see a mentoring, they need a little bit of help with tools and training. And after that, they're 02:03:49.031 --> 02:03:55.725 - able to be self-sufficient and continue to do better on their own. And so that is our biggest goal with 02:03:55.725 --> 02:04:02.162 - what we see our role in the community and how we are helping over 50 other organizations with their 02:04:02.162 --> 02:04:08.986 - clients. So we have several shared clients, and they are coming from all different types of circumstances 02:04:08.986 --> 02:04:09.758 - imaginable. 02:04:09.858 --> 02:04:16.446 - So many of them, about 50% are coming from some type of addiction where they are trying to move past. 02:04:16.578 --> 02:04:23.419 - Possibly been incarcerated at one time where they have felonies Many of them are in as I said before 02:04:23.419 --> 02:04:30.666 - either at a homeless or near homeless situation Because they may have left a situation that was dangerous. 02:04:30.666 --> 02:04:37.507 - Maybe domestic violence. Maybe they've been displaced this year Especially it seems and last year we 02:04:37.507 --> 02:04:44.958 - are seeing more women come just because they just can't work hard enough to put food on the table there it is 02:04:45.378 --> 02:04:51.921 - they're trying, they're working hard, and they are just finding it more and more difficult just to do 02:04:51.921 --> 02:04:58.656 - what they are doing and put food on the table. We had an experience that we talked about through a video 02:04:58.656 --> 02:05:05.263 - at our recent gala in February, which is an example of one of the clients that we helped. She had been 02:05:05.263 --> 02:05:11.806 - working three jobs. She had two children married, but her husband was not able to work because he was 02:05:11.874 --> 02:05:18.790 - has some type of a disability and she just decided that enough is enough. She's been doing this too 02:05:18.790 --> 02:05:26.398 - long, too hard, and she can't do it anymore. She asked for a voucher to my sister's closet and went from five 02:05:26.626 --> 02:05:34.620 - $15.85 an hour to $26 an hour. She has recently reported her second raise to us, and she was supposed 02:05:34.620 --> 02:05:42.692 - to be at our dinner theater event talking about her experience, but they had asked her to go take over 02:05:42.692 --> 02:05:49.118 - an office in Indianapolis, so she spent that weekend moving and gave her regrets. 02:05:49.282 --> 02:05:55.656 - But we're just, you know, very proud of her and she is an example that we hear, you know, a lot. We 02:05:55.656 --> 02:06:02.094 - have a wonderful job because we see people at their worst, but we also get to see them at their best 02:06:02.094 --> 02:06:06.174 - when they are celebrating their success and they're sharing it. 02:06:07.170 --> 02:06:14.729 - So I would love to answer any questions about why we need an HVAC system, but I think that might be 02:06:14.729 --> 02:06:22.514 - obvious. It's an old, well it's a building that's 22 years old and the HVAC is actually for commercial 02:06:22.514 --> 02:06:30.526 - purposes and so we have a small office in the center and then on each side there are two very large, very 02:06:30.658 --> 02:06:37.661 - whole drafty garage base. And it does have forced heat coming in, but it's not set up for comfort. It's 02:06:37.661 --> 02:06:44.530 - set for the garage doors to be up quite a bit. And that doesn't work out really well for what we want 02:06:44.530 --> 02:06:51.870 - to have in mind. Yeah, do you have any questions at all? We'd be so grateful for anything that you could do. 02:06:51.938 --> 02:06:59.113 - We have told you we were doing certain fundraisers, and we have been doing them. We just finished our 02:06:59.113 --> 02:07:06.640 - dinner theater event, which was celebrating the works of Maya Angelou. It was just a wonderful, successful 02:07:06.640 --> 02:07:13.955 - event. Our three VIP women were Valerie Houghton Motley, we had Sylvia McNair, and we had Liz Mitchell. 02:07:13.955 --> 02:07:21.904 - They're just slouches. All of them were just horrible up there. They were just really funny, and everybody loved 02:07:21.904 --> 02:07:30.244 - be around them and we just had several that was one of our community collaborations between the Bloomington 02:07:30.244 --> 02:07:38.352 - Symphony Orchestra and My Sister's Closet. We've got another collaboration May 22nd and 23rd at Sycamore 02:07:38.352 --> 02:07:46.846 - Farms and that is with Garnish Catering in town who is helping us do a fine jewelry event and we will be just 02:07:47.106 --> 02:07:54.400 - showing off all their wonderful drink mixes and their fabulous hors d'oeuvres. And of course, we will 02:07:54.400 --> 02:08:01.622 - be trying to sell jewelry at my sister's closet and make that a lot of fun. And we've got other ones 02:08:01.622 --> 02:08:08.773 - that we're trying to get through the door. But we are not giving up. We're going to wear people out 02:08:08.773 --> 02:08:13.278 - with fundraising and try to get them to help us. It is. It is. 02:08:13.762 --> 02:08:21.778 - It's good. You know, everybody asks what we're going to do if our lease ends July 7th. That is on everybody's 02:08:21.778 --> 02:08:29.284 - mind. We only have about three, four, five different media people ask for interviews a week. Everybody 02:08:29.284 --> 02:08:32.126 - seems to want to know what's going on. 02:08:32.258 --> 02:08:38.229 - as well as several community members that seem very concerned and partner agencies wondering if their 02:08:38.229 --> 02:08:44.434 - vouchers are gonna be good. I just wanna ensure you that we are working very hard with community partners 02:08:44.434 --> 02:08:50.346 - that have helped us in the past, like Norman Deckard, he reached out to us yesterday. We are talking 02:08:50.346 --> 02:08:56.258 - to Simon Moll about some of the spaces that they've got out there and they might possibly be able to 02:08:56.258 --> 02:09:00.414 - help us out in a bigger way than what we imagined. We have a GoFundMe, 02:09:00.514 --> 02:09:09.434 - page up that will be on our website and on the internet very soon asking people to help us with a pop-up 02:09:09.434 --> 02:09:13.342 - sale. The things to structure that at the new 02:09:13.442 --> 02:09:21.166 - building so we could raise up those garage doors during the summer. And we will just try to bring in 02:09:21.166 --> 02:09:28.966 - sales to pay for the mortgage and get people used to coming to that building. And that will also give 02:09:28.966 --> 02:09:36.689 - us an opportunity to give them tours and just show them plans of what the building's use is going to 02:09:36.689 --> 02:09:42.654 - look like. We're just very excited. We're just very, very excited. And it is. 02:09:42.818 --> 02:09:48.842 - It is for us. We've been waiting a long time to be able to say that we're doing this. Well, 02:09:48.842 --> 02:09:55.390 - congrats on that. Thank you. I hope it all goes well. Thank you. Thank you very much. Yeah, I mean, 02:09:55.390 --> 02:10:02.462 - that's a lot. You guys have a lot going on. Definitely. You definitely do. Any questions? I'm just curious, 02:10:02.462 --> 02:10:09.141 - do the nature of the building or timing or whatever, be able to apply for the solar energy efficiency 02:10:09.141 --> 02:10:12.350 - lighting grants through the city of Bloomington? 02:10:12.546 --> 02:10:19.773 - with the seal grants? I know those were put in front of me. I don't know that we did. When were they 02:10:19.773 --> 02:10:27.072 - due? We should have applied for those. I think the application for the energy audit was about a month 02:10:27.072 --> 02:10:34.657 - ago. I'm not sure where it's at. SCAP applied for seal grants. Right. No, that is. We should have applied 02:10:34.657 --> 02:10:41.598 - for those. It's a $10,000 match. So if it's still available, it's something to look at. Yes. OK. 02:10:41.858 --> 02:10:51.651 - Okay, we'll put, we'll definitely look into that. Thank you. Are you using a local contractor to do 02:10:51.651 --> 02:11:01.738 - the HVAC? Yes, yes. Yes, that will be our objective. And we want to be able to share any work possible 02:11:01.738 --> 02:11:10.846 - within the Bloomington community with Bloomington residents. Yeah. Great. Okay. Last chance. 02:11:15.426 --> 02:11:24.002 - The motivation, the primary motivation to get a building, get a space. Was it more the idea 02:11:24.002 --> 02:11:33.790 - of the independence of having your own space? Or did you like run crunch the numbers and find that you'd 02:11:33.790 --> 02:11:42.366 - be able to put more back in terms of what you bring in, in terms of funding, into services? 02:11:43.778 --> 02:11:51.806 - by having your own space as compared to paying a lease. So do you run the numbers and come up with something? 02:11:51.806 --> 02:11:59.468 - Or is it just an idea? Absolutely. All those things, actually. Because rental prices are getting higher. 02:11:59.468 --> 02:12:03.774 - They are not getting lower. I mean, I'm a landlord myself. 02:12:03.906 --> 02:12:10.404 - I own my building and I do not have a mortgage, then I am going to be able to control that part of our 02:12:10.404 --> 02:12:16.839 - sustainability as an organization. And we have all these people who are contractors that already step 02:12:16.839 --> 02:12:23.274 - up and maintain our current leased building for us that is not in our lease. So with our pest control 02:12:23.274 --> 02:12:29.394 - and our lawn care and our, you know, we're finding a trash control person if anyone's listening. 02:12:29.394 --> 02:12:32.990 - You know, but we, you know, we have different people who 02:12:33.218 --> 02:12:40.185 - routinely help us out with different things and we're able to levy that along with the fact that we 02:12:40.185 --> 02:12:45.758 - would no longer have to pay a lease. Right now the current lease that we've got 02:12:45.826 --> 02:12:53.467 - is $52,000 a year. The mortgage is higher than that, but if we're able to get that mortgage paid off, 02:12:53.467 --> 02:13:00.959 - then we're able to pay for someone to replace me or have a store manager or someone who does client 02:13:00.959 --> 02:13:08.675 - services, you know, full time that we are able to keep them going, almost like you would expect to pay 02:13:08.675 --> 02:13:15.792 - that have the interest of an endowment, take care of something without having to pay for that. 02:13:15.792 --> 02:13:22.217 - Absolutely. It is a huge win for us. It's a very good question. But we know that because of the way 02:13:22.217 --> 02:13:28.771 - this is located, we're just going to be able to be seen more, especially as you go west of town, west 02:13:28.771 --> 02:13:35.454 - of downtown, we're going to be able to be around populations with our demographics that are more likely 02:13:35.454 --> 02:13:41.879 - going to be able to use us, that are going to have a need for us. And I believe we're just going to 02:13:41.879 --> 02:13:43.678 - be able to help more women. 02:13:44.482 --> 02:13:57.694 - and not necessarily just women. Men come in too sometimes, but we really want to be able to serve as many 02:13:57.762 --> 02:14:05.198 - you know, people as we can. If we are able to design the space the way that we envision, then we can 02:14:05.198 --> 02:14:12.929 - certainly have more training on site, you know, and not just for the women, but we do a lot of mentoring 02:14:12.929 --> 02:14:20.513 - with kids and we, you know, and kids are a big part of the programming at my sister's closet for women 02:14:20.513 --> 02:14:27.728 - who are clients and women who are wanting to create some type of an opportunity for their kids to 02:14:27.728 --> 02:14:33.870 - build a resume we have a mother daughter mentoring program where you come in for like two daughters 02:14:33.870 --> 02:14:40.442 - with your daughter at a time and you're working together and you're both earning you know that credibility 02:14:40.442 --> 02:14:46.707 - and that reliability and that you know professionalness that you're wanting to have you know that you 02:14:46.707 --> 02:14:53.094 - understand but you are also earning buying points at my sister's closet so the kids and the moms really 02:14:53.094 --> 02:14:54.814 - like that we we know how to 02:14:55.586 --> 02:15:02.695 - you know, pull people in a little bit. But you had actually three questions. You know, you asked about 02:15:02.695 --> 02:15:09.873 - whether or not this would help us serve more people, whether or not this would make us more sustainable 02:15:09.873 --> 02:15:16.912 - as an organization. But there was something else that you had mentioned, correct? Well, I wondered if 02:15:16.912 --> 02:15:23.262 - it was more just the idea that a person might have for having their own space they control. 02:15:23.650 --> 02:15:32.378 - regardless of whether in the long run the economics are significantly different. I was wondering if 02:15:32.378 --> 02:15:37.790 - basically... I really do believe they will be because we have 02:15:38.370 --> 02:15:44.086 - We just have wonderful people in this community who offer the mow lawns or pick up trash or just, 02:15:44.086 --> 02:15:49.977 - you know, be there for us because they think that we possibly need it. And they're doing that for us 02:15:49.977 --> 02:15:56.510 - at our current location they've already made overtures saying they're going to do a force at our next location. 02:15:56.866 --> 02:16:03.393 - They only take care of HVAC. We are already taking care of electrical needs and landscaping and stuff 02:16:03.393 --> 02:16:10.240 - like that. So I don't feel like we don't have the capacity to do this on our own. I think we're surrounded 02:16:10.240 --> 02:16:16.702 - by people that know how to do this, and they believe in what we're doing, and they're there to help. 02:16:16.702 --> 02:16:18.494 - Thank you. Yeah, of course. 02:16:19.298 --> 02:16:27.501 - Well, thank you so much for coming in. We really appreciate it. Thanks for answering our questions and 02:16:27.501 --> 02:16:35.942 - for everything that you do. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Okay, guys. All right. Have a good evening. 02:16:35.942 --> 02:16:44.702 - All right. And that was our last group to hear from for tonight. So I officially call this meeting to an end.