- Good afternoon. Is it on, Tyler? Sorry, I forgot to check with you. Good afternoon, everyone. Hey, Wilson.
- Sorry. Good afternoon, everyone, and welcome to our weekly celebration of service here at Rotary. My
- name is Tracy Ivanovich, and I'm honored to serve as your president. Please silence your electronic
- devices if you would. And Tyler, if you would bring up the slides real quick. No worries.
- And by the way, you may have noticed we have our new theme. We got the flag, the create lasting impact.
- If you do not get your free pen, as we know, nothing's in the world's free. But if you did not get one,
- please pick one up on your way out. That is the theme for this year. And so as I told you guys on the
- first day, oops, a little slow here. As I told you all on the first day, I was going to start
- highlighting some of the clubs around the world. And so the one that I picked today is in Helgoland,
- Germany. And every time I look at that, I think it's a Lego land. It is an island in Germany. I did
- not realize there were islands in Germany, so that was good for me to learn. It is two and a half hours
- by ship. It is inhabited by 1,300 people, and the Rotary Club has 25 people.
- So that's pretty amazing. They said that they have a very strong bond and they're very focused on helping
- the kids in the high schools learn about plastics and taking care of the plastic problems that we have.
- They also want to end those plastic problems and they deliver food services to elders by handcart. I
- guess that's Island Uber, the hand carts. And then I thought it was quite interesting also that they
- partnered with
- another another club down in Lower Saxony to send aid to Ukraine. So it just brings about how we all
- how we impact the world in different ways from different clubs. And I find it quite interesting.
- On that note, I would like to ask Connie Shekalis to come up and share the reflection.
- Thank you, President Tracy. Speaking of having an impact on others, I would like to give you some quotes
- from our founder, Paul Harris. Success is not measured by wealth, but by the positive impact you have
- on others. So today, I am going to ask for volunteers to do this week,
- something that's unhumiliating, brief, and easy, and then report back to me. Here's my contact information
- if you want to take a screenshot. Report back to me how it went. So may I have some volunteers? Oh,
- good. Steve, thank you. Okay. All right. Give an extra big tip on a purchase or tip when tipping isn't
- expected. Another volunteer. They're very easy.
- Yes, thank you. Give someone a LinkedIn recommendation. Oh, here's one of my favorites. This is super.
- You don't have to talk to anybody on this one. Volunteer. Oh, thank you, Tim. Push the mulch away from
- a tree's trunk in a public space. Don't go into somebody's yard, because the mulch isn't supposed to
- be touching the trunk. Volunteer. Oh, thank you, Elan.
- Let me pick a good one for you. Well, you'll be good at this. Compliment a stranger. Tracy, would you
- like to volunteer? I'd really like to volunteer. Introduce two people you know who might enjoy meeting
- each other. Another volunteer. This one is really fun. I tried this, and it turned out that it was another Rotarian.
- Rex, would you like to volunteer? Oh, Judy, this one's really fun. Pay for a stranger's coffee or something
- else. And I have one more. Any volunteers for this last one? Super easy. Thank you. Make eye contact
- with five people and smile. So, Eddie, I have, I have others. Oh, Steve.
- Steve, take some old towels to the Bloomington Animal Shelter. Do you want one? Oh, you'll do the shelter?
- Okay, so Steve, pick up some trash. Yeah, probably a lot of you do these anyway. And I think that's
- it. Oh, I have one more, if anybody is dying to,
- Yes, yes, thank you. I don't think I said this yet. Talk my conversation with a cashier. So, yeah, so
- I try and tell you, oh my gosh, okay, I think that's all. I can't think of any other nice things to
- do. Oh, wait, no, I forgot to turn the page. Put something nice.
- something good in a bag to take to goodwill another day. Oh, and here's why these are so good. Somebody
- volunteer. You'll do a second one. Snail mail a handwritten note to a fellow rotarian about something
- you admire in them, giving them an example. And yeah. Okay. Anybody else? I've got two more. Martha,
- are you volunteering?
- Okay, remember something any person did that impressed you. Send them an email telling them something
- you learned from them. And here's my last one. This is super easy. And you probably, Amy, text a quick
- compliment to a colleague, friend, or family member. And don't forget to let me know how it goes.
- All right. And with that, Peggy, if you would come up and introduce our guests.
- Well, Peggy's coming up. I will just say that having worked in New York City, it freaks people out when
- you look them in the eye and smile. So I'd love to do that. So good afternoon, everyone. And I'm here
- to introduce our guests today. When I say your name, guest, would you please stand so we can recognize you?
- First of all, is Stacey Govenay. Okay. Stacey is a guest of Steve Wicks and is at Beltrace Senior Living.
- Next, somebody we know and know a lot, but I'm looking, looking, looking, Ann Bright.
- Oh, hiding. Yes. Good to see you, Anne. And one more, Kelsey Haislip, also a guest of Steve. And Stacey
- is also with Beltrace. Thank you. And our guests, if you want to know more about Rotary, please ask,
- particularly Steve,
- And we hope you will come back again. All right. And now, uh-oh. There we go. So we have some birthdays
- to celebrate. Fred Dunn on the 20th, Dick McCaig on the 25th, Charlie Osborne and Ashley Wesley today.
- and Ellen Stroman on the 19th. And then I know Tyler's is coming up Sunday, but we'll see that next
- week. And then from anniversaries, this is the second week we've had no anniversaries. So there you
- go. And from an announcement standpoint, okay, it's a little slow. There we go.
- Surprise, surprise. We still need some sign up members for the Hoosier Hills Food Bank on the 31st.
- And I know we had some people after I sent the push email out, but we still need some more. So please,
- please, please help us with that. And then if you could, we sent a note to Aaron Davis. He is on his
- way. He's at home.
- He was able to get out of rehab. Every time I say he's out of rehab, that's therapy, just to be clear.
- And he is home. And then lastly, Barcelona, baby. This year, this coming year's international conference
- will be held in Barcelona, which is so fitting after the World Cup. So we are very thankful for that.
- Now we have a very special celebration. Don't put that food in your mouth, Lynn Schwartzberg. Don't
- put that food in your mouth. You're coming up.
- And we'd like to also bring up a special guest. Do you want Bob Salzberg? Where is he? There he is,
- over here, for our Paul Harris Award. Well, as you know, Mike is resting and recovering. So I am going
- to do a very, very simple Paul Harris presentation. You don't get all the...
- fun and games and insults. You just get me the regular stuff. The presentation of Paul Harris fellow
- recognition is the Rotary Foundation's way of expressing its appreciation for a substantial contribution
- to the Rotary Foundation. The Paul Harris fellow is named after the founder of Rotary, Paul Harris,
- the investment of
- to the Rotary Foundation and service to our community are the dividends Paul Harris Fellows provide
- through their giving and service. Today, I am so happy to present the Paul Harris Fellow designation
- and pin to current member Bob Salzberg. His support of the Rotary Foundation will continue all the good
- work Rotary does all over the world and in our community. Bob has been a member of our club for 38
- Years, I believe. Oh my gosh. And I'm happy to present Bob with a Paul Harris pin plus one. You are
- quite welcome.
- You sure can. Thanks. Congratulations, Bob. Thank you. And I was like that, you know, as you think about
- our theme for this year, create lasting impact, Paul Harris, the contributions to International Rotary
- Foundation, as well as the Bloomington Rotary Foundation, really help us drive that impact everywhere.
- So thank you again, Bob, for all that you do. And with that, Jimmy,
- we'll come forward and introduce our guest speaker today. Good afternoon. Thank you. Eddie Riel Jr.
- is the executive director of
- South Central Community Action Program and has been since October of 2021. Prior to that, or prior to
- taking leadership, Eddie worked with SCAP, focusing mainly on community and client services and building
- strong community relationships. In his spare time, Eddie likes to spend time with his wife, Misty Shaw,
- and their puppies or dogs, Peaches and Pepper. So without further ado,
- Eddie Rio Jr. Okay. Okay. You guys can hear me. Okay. Um, so this is could do this, right? Or, okay.
- Okay. Cool. Okay. Gotcha. Okay.
- So I'm Eddie. I'm with South Central Community Action Program. Show of hands. Are you familiar with
- who we are and what we do? That's great. So my job's done. I can go ahead and eat. But in all seriousness,
- You know, thanks for inviting me. I'm honored to be here. I'll do my best to, uh, explain what we do.
- Some of our programs do a deep dot, not a deep dive, but, um, go into some of those things. And if there's,
- I'll, there's room for questions. Um, and I can see afterwards to chat. So cool. Okay. Hold on.
- So in 19, 1964 in the sixties, uh, Lyndon Johnson, um, went and visited.
- rural Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. And he got to see poverty firsthand. He actually grew
- up in poverty. His father was a tenant farmer. And so he understood poverty, but poverty changes from
- year to year. And it was especially bad in the rural parts of Appalachia. He wanted to show what the
- war on poverty would look like.
- So in 1964, he signed the Equal Opportunities Act. And that included programs like Head Start, included
- Community Service Block Grant, which funds community action, very exclusively community action. And
- the war's been going on for 60 years. So SCAP's a part of a national group of agencies known as the
- American Poverty Fighting Network. In Indiana, there are 21 community actions.
- serving all 92 counties and we're all over the country. Every county is represented by a community action.
- We're primarily funded through federal and state grants, but it's kind of crazy the last couple of years,
- right? Not going too deep into what's going on federally or statewide. There are other priorities for
- funding that this administration wants.
- And we have to remind them that the war against poverty is still going on. And that's why we're here.
- Let's see. So our core counties are Morgan, Monroe, Brown, and Owen. Our mission is to provide opportunities
- for all people to achieve personal and economic independence to strengthen our community. We serve more
- than 4,000 families annually, more than 9,000 individuals. I mentioned our core counties, we've actually expanded
- housing-wise into Clay Sullivan, Jasonville, Indiana. We're in Indianapolis, Indiana. We're in Plainfield.
- We're providing vouchers for people to have affordable housing. So every year, not every year, I'm sorry,
- every three years, right, Jesse? Every three years, we work with the Indiana Community Action Poverty
- Institute to figure out what are the top needs for our community.
- Thing about CSBG, Community Service Block Grant and Community Action, we get to cater that money that
- we get from the feds through the state to serve our community the way that we see fit. And the top needs
- right now are quality and affordable housing, good jobs with adequate wages, benefits and opportunities,
- utility affordability and assistance, food assistance. Food assistance is something that
- the last few years has kind of jumped up into the top five in affordable, accessible childcare. A lot
- of our programs do things directly for these things and some of them more adjacently. So I'm gonna kind
- of go over through each program. I'm not gonna describe each program in great detail, but our biggest
- program is Head Start. It's about half our funding. By the way, we're about a $15 million agency.
- So Head Start, we serve ages birth to five with the Early Head Start program and a Head Start program.
- And because it's in Health and Human Services, we are able to serve a family holistically, the entire
- family, not just the children. If we were in the Department of Ed, we would only be able to serve the
- children. So this gives us an opportunity to do family development, to teach life skills and job skills,
- to help folks
- manage their way through poverty. Our next biggest program is energy assistance. We provide energy assistance
- to over 4,000 families. Let's see. I snuck my dog into one of these pictures, the one on the left there.
- That's Peaches. And we don't do it alone. Federal and state funding happen, but I know that Liz Irwin
- is part of Rotary.
- And Duke Energy has been a big partner in a lot of our energy assistance efforts. It's gotten harder.
- Electricity rates have gone up, and the benefits have stayed static. So we're hoping we are going to
- see a small increase, but it's not enough to cover inflation and the cost of electricity.
- One of our smaller programs, which kind of go hand in hand with energy assistance is weatherization.
- It's a real interesting program. We go in and audit homes, and we figure out what their energy needs
- are. And it can be something as simple as getting some new insulation in there. We replace furnaces
- for free. Families have been able to reach out to us, and we've been able to keep their houses
- safe and affordable for them. A lot of times when it comes to heating and cooling needs, if these things
- fail, then typically, you know, it's a road to housing instability. So I haven't been executive director
- for very long, but I've been with the agency for over 27 years. I was a lot less grayer and a little
- skinnier too, but
- I started off in Head Start, worked with families directly there, cut my teeth doing client services.
- Then I moved into our housing choice opportunities department where we provide vouchers for folks. You
- probably think that Bloomington Housing Authority manages the vouchers in town. They do, the majority.
- We have a small number here in Bloomington, but we specialize in the more rural communities that don't
- have housing authorities. A lot of times the rural communities have way less resources, and you know
- this, than a city like Bloomington.
- Um, I, uh, when we started, when I started this program, it was in total disarray and we were actually
- in danger of losing the program back to the state. Uh, but we turned it around and, you know, we've
- expanded our territory. Uh, I really enjoy this work. Uh, I miss it. Um, I told someone here that I'm
- helping out with some inspections for Bloomington housing authority, but it's being allowed to be in
- someone's home.
- and getting them to trust you and talk to you about what their needs are, it is something that doesn't
- like come right away. You have to build a relationship. So this was a good opportunity for me to kind
- of hone my skills into what leadership means to me, which is building relationships. The last several
- years, we've been handling the point in time count to help with counting homeless folks. So that way
- we can bring funding to
- to the city of Bloomington. You guys recognize Mayor Kerry there. I asked when we did the pit count
- to send me into the camps, send me someplace that is a little harder. And my staff threw us a softball
- and paired me up with Kerry. So, and I believe that day it was raining and it was miserable, but we
- had a nice overhang and it was, we got to talk to a lot of interesting folks, but,
- I do like going into the weeds to help folks. So I will keep pushing to say, hey, you know, don't baby
- me, just send me out there. Let's see. Okay, sorry. Okay, Covering Kids and Families is our health navigation
- program. As you guys know that there's been drastic cuts to Medicaid. Over 100,000 individuals, including
- children and senior citizens and other folks,
- are going to be losing their Medicaid coverage. The cool thing about Covering Kids and Families, it's
- a different source of funding, so we're able to help all kinds of individuals, not just low-income
- individuals. So we've been, we had the program several years ago,
- And then we lost it. And then when I became executive director, I wanted to bring it back. And I believe
- that health insurance and medical debt is something that encumbers a lot of Hoosiers. And I wanted to
- see if we can turn the page on that. So it's a fantastic program. And Kaylee Smith, who is the person
- on the left of the younger, the dark haired lady, she is our manager.
- I'm amazed on how much empathy and caring that she has for her community. It's just fantastic. So a
- lot of our programs I just mentioned are funded through different funding streams that is in Community
- Service Block Grant. And I mentioned that we get CSBG money and we decide what to do with that. And
- it rests in our Growing Opportunities Family Development Program.
- Some of you who are familiar with SCAP may remember that we used to have a greenhouse and we grew lettuce,
- hydroponically, basil. It was a fun project, but it was very hard to manage and it's not something that
- can make money for the agency unless we upscaled it. And we looked at that, but we were like, hey, this
- can't happen. We need to pivot from that. There were two things that I really liked about Growing
- Opportunities was the name, the branding. We kept the branding and their manager, Erin Logsdon, a fantastic
- person. She's helped a lot of folks. And I'll talk about some of these things. We have a building economic
- empowerment program where we teach people about energy saving needs,
- climate resilience, and when you finish the program, we give them a $500 micro-grant. So that way they
- can reinvest in themselves. A housing stability income supplement program, which is through the Community
- Foundation, it was a Lilly Gift Aid Grant. We are providing a housing supplement for people who qualify
- because Bloomington is so expensive. And we're adjacent to working with people struggling with homelessness and
- I'd like to believe that we provide resources to prevent folks from falling into homelessness. So that's
- an exciting program. It's brand new. It's $2 million over the next five years, around 2 million, I think.
- I can't remember the specifics. I'll take the money when they offer it. So, our Thriving Connections
- program, which some of you may have heard about, is a program that connects people in the community to
- Provide resources and give them life skills to navigate the hidden language when it comes to success
- and opportunity. Things when you're growing up in generational poverty, you may not know how to apply
- for a bank loan. You may not know how to
- get funding to go to college. And there are a lot of middle-class folks, a lot of folks who have the
- time and are willing to spend that time with the Thriving Connections family, and they build a real
- relationship. They end up becoming friends, and it's a natural bond as opposed to a caseworker coming
- in trying to teach folks stuff. Duke Energy, the last several years,
- sponsored us to replace medically necessary food and medication for people during inclement weather.
- I don't want to say how much it was because I don't quite remember, but it was tens of thousands of dollars.
- But what was really cool was that not only were we able to help out individuals who lost their own personal
- medication, which is a little bit easier to replace if you have insurance, but if you need the medication
- right away, can't really wait for insurance to provide it for you. We were able to provide medicines
- and things like insulin for pets, for folks who lost their medicines for their loved ones.
- Those aren't really easy to replace. My wife and I have had a diabetic cat, a couple of blind dogs,
- all kinds of health stuff, like anxiety and whatever. And luckily we can afford that for our pets. And
- if we lost our power, we would do whatever we could to replace that medicine, but that's not the reality
- for a lot of folks. So thank you Duke Energy for helping us with that.
- We also have individual development accounts and basically what that is is that you do some
- family development and we will match your deposit up to a certain amount and you're able to use that
- money to pay for transportation, transportation costs, to better your education, for jobs, for housing,
- to buy a house, to do rental deposits and things like that.
- We are constantly trying to figure out how to help people in new ways. And luckily I'm surrounded by
- really smart folks who help us figure out what those programs are going to look like. So one of the
- craziest things that happened when I first became executive director is the city of Bloomington approached
- me and was just like, what can you do with $500,000? And I was like, I want to forgive medical debt.
- That $500,000 turned into a million in our first year. And we expanded medical debt to cover all this
- other stuff like childcare rears, rental deposits. I wanted to work on menstrual equity. I felt that
- there was an attack on women's health and I wanted to do whatever part that I could to make that happen.
- So we identified menstrual equity as being a
- Cause contributor to poverty and I'm very I'm very happy to do that my wife She like, you know, I asked
- her about all this stuff and she's she gave me one really good piece of advice and I've shared this
- with other folks It's like don't cheap out and buy the cheap tampons like buy the good stuff, right?
- and Whenever I talk to anybody about menstrual equity as it's like buy the good stuff. Do not do not cheap out
- But no, it's been exciting. So that million dollars turned into one point nine million dollars. This
- came out of a local income tax increase and it's it's going away.
- We'll find funding. We grabbed some funding from Duke. They gave us a little bit, but it's much smaller
- than the 1.9 that we got. I know that we are working with the city of Bloomington to receive the last
- of the ARPA funds, and we're gonna focus some of that ARPA funds on some of these things here, but it's
- been a great partnership. This was under John Hamilton at first, and I worked very closely with Beverly.
- Jimmy's mom and Then when the new administration came in, you know, they found it worthwhile and and
- gave us some more money So but money's tough and there's a lot of priorities that the city needs And
- you know, we're happy to help who we did So Child care is one of the major needs we have a head start
- program that serves low-income families and
- We can't serve all of our low-income families. There's still a need out there. So we are opening up
- a child care center. This is in conjunction with Sun Hill Development Corporation, the nonprofit arm
- of the Bloomington Housing Authority. And we built this really cool child care center that has some
- apartments up top. And this has been several years under several different directors from BHA and from SCAP.
- But I got to be there at the finish line. So I'll take the credit, right? So I'm there. I'm there in
- the picture. But it's a need. And a lot of folks will tell you that you're a fool for trying to start
- a child care center, especially in this climate.
- there's a need out there and we're gonna try it and we're gonna succeed and we're going to expand when
- we get there. Because of our success with Head Start and the Summit Hill Development Corporation, we're
- in talks of opening up a micro center, a childcare micro center in Spencer, Indiana. We're still waiting
- on some grand funding there. But if you don't have childcare, you can't go to work, you can't go to school.
- We need to make this happen, and we did. And the driving force behind this, the constant through line
- was Stacey Edwards, our Head Start Director. She's going to have a newish title to encompass all the
- childhood programs, but I really appreciate her work on this project. Expanding childcare was a passion
- of hers, and I'm glad to share that with her. So, I'm sorry.
- The Chandler Center, the Reverend Dr. Marvin Chandler Center is named after a local black leader. And
- he was a musician. He was a pilot. He was a reverend. And he contributed a lot to this community. I
- remember just this past summer, there was a lot of hoopla surrounding changing murals in town and whatever.
- And I was just like, you know what? I'm going to paint my own mural.
- So, I didn't paint this personally. This mural was painted by Quasar Martin, an artist in Indianapolis.
- He is famous for the Caitlin Clark mural, Tyrus Halliburton. He's done stuff all over Indianapolis.
- He was at the NBA All-Star game, the tip-off in New York, the WNBA All-Star. I told him, I shared the
- story of Reverend Dr. Marvin Chandler, and he was like, we'll do it.
- You know, we paid him, but compared to what he gets paid for his other stuff, he did it for a song,
- basically. So we're very happy to honor the Reverend Dr. Marvin Chandler and his family. He lived not
- too far away from here. You know, he was at Second Baptist. That's where he served his community. So
- we're happy to have his name right next to the Crestmont neighborhood, and his name is
- escapes me and I feel really bad. But the good Reverend there and yes, Ernest Butler. So yeah, so Reverend
- Butler and Reverend Dr. Marvin Chandler, our neighbors post in heaven and in Bloomington, I guess. So
- it's something that we don't get to because of the nonprofit stuff that we do and working with folks
- in poverty, we don't get to celebrate
- with art very often. So this was something that we're very happy to add to what's beautiful here in
- Bloomington. Finance through the First Financial Bank Foundation. Some testimonials. I'll read them
- real fast. But these are real families, people that we helped.
- Um, thank you so much for all your help. My family and I are eternally grateful. You guys have been
- an answer to my prayers. You've really made our Christmas because you guys, my kids won't be celebrating
- Christmas in the shelter, right? We helped them find housing. We have a new home to go to. I'm about
- to cry. You have no idea how much you're saving me from years of pain. Uh, this is someone who applied
- for some help with dental stuff. And then they went in for a visit and found out that they needed emergency dental.
- Procedure or or they would lose all their teeth and They told me on the phone that they were in so much
- pain that you know, they they contemplated ending their life But we were able to help them please let
- me know when the checks ready I will stop I'd pick it up I will also submit the other bill on this coming
- Monday. You're truly a lifesaver It's a season for giving thanks and
- And that is the purpose of this email. I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you and the rest of
- the staff for everything you all have done for me and my wife. I stopped by the office today and picked
- up the Kroger gift cards you gave us. They are greatly appreciated. I also appreciate what SCAP did
- to relieve my family of all their medical debt. During the snap freeze, we were able to help out a subset
- of some of our families. One was Hoosier Action stepped up and
- gave us $28,000 to feed families right when the government shut down. And the Community Foundation out
- in Owen County gave us 60 grand to help out everyone who were served energy assistance in that area.
- The cool thing about the Owen County one was that we partnered with the local grocery store. So we weren't,
- not only were we able to help families, we were able to help a local business
- Um, that also, uh, did a 10% match for, so that way we can serve more families. Uh, Oh, it's amazing.
- I continue how much you helped me and my family by speaking up yesterday. Thank you. When my husband
- got sick, I didn't know how we were going to pay for everything. Thanks to you guys, we finally have
- breathing room and water. So, um, you've caught me. You've asked me to speak and probably the
- most uninteresting part of my life.
- I miss the case work, I miss working with families, but I know that my role now is to help my employees
- fall in love with the mission and help families in the future. I still sneak out and do some stuff for
- folks when I can, but I know that my role now is to look at spreadsheets, to talk to you guys, to eat
- free lunches. So I'm very happy to take questions at this point. Does anyone have, go ahead. Okay, okay.
- Oh, that's for later. OK. Thank you very much. And I'm sure glad you opened by talking about your experience
- in the beginning of the war on poverty. My first job was in Eastern Kentucky. I've actually visited
- the home where Lyndon Johnson made the war on poverty famous. We still, of course,
- have not conquered poverty. But this is a friendly question. Not a bad one at all, because I've worked
- with the poor. Do you think the poor take advantage of us in these programs? The same is said about
- refugees right now. Oh, well, they're taking all our money. What is your opinion on that question? Well,
- they are definitely not taking advantage of resources.
- They are accessing resources just like the rest of us do. Corporate America takes resources. You get
- a break on being a homeowner in some respect, right? I mean, we all take advantage of tax breaks and
- resources that we can to help our families. It's just for families who are in poverty, they just, especially
- generational poverty,
- they don't have a lot of resources, and for people to criticize about them trying to better their lives,
- it's not a fair comparison. The money that we spend on corporations, on the military, and I'm speaking
- as myself, not as the director of SCAP, so don't go telling our congressman or governor or whatever.
- We should be spending more money on people who need our help.
- Thank you for coming today and for all that the agency does on behalf of the children and the families.
- My question to you, I have two questions. First one of the counties you mentioned, which one has the
- greatest need for service and which one are you able to provide the greatest need for? And secondly,
- I'd like to know more about your public relations and how you're getting the word out to the people
- in need. Yes. So our biggest county, two biggest counties are Monroe and Morgan. There's a lot of,
- you know, Monroe is obviously city Bloomington. It's very expensive to live here.
- There's a large population in Morgan. Brown and Owen are smaller, right? Because it's more spread out,
- it's more rural. But we, looking at our energy assistance, looking at our housing concerns, Monroe and
- Morgan top that list. Now we have someone who just recently retired from Brown County and she was very
- active in getting people housed in Brown County. And probably a disproportionate
- compared to the population. So we do serve a lot of folks for housing in Brown County, people who find
- it very expensive to live there. As far as our public relations go, Jesse Erie is here. She's
- our communication and advocacy person. We are working to get our name out there because it's not just
- our agency, but nationwide community action doesn't get the
- the top billing in a lot of places. People hear about United Way, they hear about all these other nonprofits,
- but we're just as big and we've been doing the work for a long time. But if you wanna connect with Jesse,
- I also have cards and I can stick around and talk afterwards if you wanna help us out with the public
- relations. So thank you. Thank you for the work you do. A couple of questions. First is, it's been two
- or three years now, but the Monroe County School Corporation had a referendum to try to improve
- daycare and child care. I guess first question is you can comment on how that's going from your vantage
- point and what needs still exist. And then the second question is, you know, lots of other people working
- in the same spaces that you are. Tell us some of the government and not for profit agencies with whom
- you work closest. Sure. So getting back to the first question, we need universal child care. I mean,
- this is something
- along with mental care, it needs to happen. And thank you MCCSE for doing their best to do that. So
- that's changed how we wanna serve folks. And like the new childcare center that we're opening up, we'll
- focus on early childhood, three and under. We still serve some four to five year olds, and we work closely
- with MCCSE to make that happen. We've had partnerships with them in the past, and we would be happy
- to explore partnerships in the future.
- but the more the merrier. And we are very happy that we can access funding to serve more families here
- in Monroe County. As far as organizations that we work closely with, they probably have spoken here
- before. We work closely with Forrest at Beacon, Emily at New Hope. I'm close with Katie Broadfoot at
- Pathways, formerly Monroe County United Ministries.
- We've worked closely with the city of Bloomington, obviously, the community foundation here in Bloomington
- and in Owen County. We recently got some money to help out some folks in Morgan through the Morgan County
- Foundation. We're on a bunch of committees. A lot of us are trying to think of in Bloomington. Jesse,
- can you, anyone that I missed in Bloomington? Yeah.
- Monroe County Smart Start, the Indiana Recovery Alliance. Basically, we can't do it all. And we will
- do whatever we can to form partnerships with the organizations. Right after COVID, we had access to
- CARES Fund that was very specific to Community Service Block Grant. And when I became director, I was
- left with a big sum of money. But I had to spend it in like,
- in like six months. And I figured out with our state grantors how to make that happen. What we did was
- we met with other organizations like Beacon, like New Hope, and we couldn't give them cash because cash
- would have been more paperwork and we just didn't have time to do that. But what we found out was like,
- hey, what are your needs are and we'll buy it for you. And this was, this is what we started with our
- financial equity. We did a lot of stuff with that. We, you know, we worked with,
- Path for You, which is an IU health program that helps people with contraceptive sexual health.
- But basically, I bought Beacon, like a new water fountain that they needed because the old one was beat
- up and was getting a lot of use. And we bought New Hope, an electric lawnmower.
- There's some B-roll, like photos and videos of them making me get on that thing. And I almost went off
- without me. So I'm glad that that's probably buried somewhere. Pathways, Mackham at the time, we did
- a lot for them. Hoosier Hills Food Bank, I think we spent $20,000 or $30,000 buying them food, asking
- them what they needed so that way they can distribute. Mother Hubbard's Cover was another organization
- that we did that with.
- Um, it's like I said, we can't do it all. And I like to say, um, I love writing the check and taking
- all the credit. So I'm happy that they're out there doing the work. And I just, I just did the easy
- left of, of, um, making sure that they had funding to do those things.
- Years ago, I was on the board for SCAP. I remember when the hydroponic project was in place.
- It's not now, is that right? No, it's not. We sold the hydroponic stuff to People's Market. That's where
- I wanted to know where it went. Thank you.
- Thanks, Mike. So it's fascinating to me. First of all, it's wonderful that the community supports as
- much as we can. I still, and I've been here seven years now, I still get entirely confused. And I've
- worked closely in CASA, with New Hope, with Beacon. And when you said, you know, you love to take credit
- for writing the checks, I'm still trying to figure out who is getting credit because who actually, you've
- got so many different housing programs, but I'm a homeless person. Do I go to Beacon? Do I go to New
- Hope? Do I go to you?
- I thought Heading Home was going to be part of the solution to bring that all together to try to create
- more clarity. Heading Home is a partner, too. We work with Heading Home. We helped finance their last
- conference. Everyone in poverty has a different story.
- someone who goes to Beacon who has been homeless for a while is something, someone different than someone
- who just lost their job and is, and can't figure out how to pay for rent, right? So all of our organizations,
- we work together, we do referrals both internally and externally. I'm on the South Central Housing Network
- Board and I work closely with Emily, I work closely with Forrest, Leon, and we try to problem solve,
- but to be honest, it's just, you know, there can't, there's not a one stop shop.
- Uh, and, um, you know, I joke about taking the credit. I mean, We were just out here trying to, uh,
- spend money that was given to us the right way. And, um, I'm very happy to be working in the community
- where I have a lot of trusted leaders that I can rely on that I can trust because the cares money that
- we distributed.
- That would have been very difficult if I had to vet every single person that I was talking to. I already
- knew them for years, working with them in a different capacity. So New Hope and Beacon, they all kind
- of funnel through you? No, it's a collaborative affair. Heading home is a different way for us to all
- connect. For example, New Hope works with homeless families, so children. Beacon is mostly single adults.
- And we helped with the point in time count. We helped with funding to prevent homelessness. We don't
- necessarily help folks who have been homeless off the street though. We have done that too. So it's
- a lot of different organizations that have different specialties. And we just happen to have a lot of
- different programs because of being a community action program. So, yeah.
- Sure. So no, that's that's helpful because I think we hear so many of the different names and it's like,
- well, who's doing what? Yeah. And there are unique situations. And so thank you for that. And the other
- thing about our program, I don't have to fundraise. I don't have to sing for myself or typically I'm
- federally funded. Right. So I get to that's a different thing. It's a different it's a different singing. And
- And it's, yeah, it has its own challenges. But when you hear from Emily, when you hear from Forrest,
- I mean, they have specific asks, right? And down the road, especially when we do non-federal funded
- stuff like the Child Care Center, there might be asks in the future. But when you leave today, I'm not
- gonna ask you to break out your checkbooks. But at some point, we may ask the community to do more because
- it's tougher now than it's been.
- I've long been a fan of Head Start programs nationwide. I can't think of a better use of our tax dollars.
- Can you talk a little bit more about what your Head Start is? It's half of what you do with your $15
- million overall budget. How many children, how many centers, and how many of the four counties, et cetera?
- So it's just McRail, and we have our main centers, four classrooms, and we have some classrooms in North
- Smith Pike, and then we have
- Um, the, uh, at first United downtown, we have a Head Start program there. Jesse, do you know off the
- top of your head? I want to say it's over 220 kids, but I am not a hundred percent sure. It's hard.
- It's just like when we introduced, we need the microphone. Sorry, Michael. Sorry.
- It's hard to keep track because sometimes we do have program changes. And I did, sorry, if I can add
- when MCCSE did introduce free preschool, we did do a redesign in our program so that we could better
- serve that under three group that wasn't being served by MCCSE. So we did increase those spots just
- last year, right? So it has changed a little, but yeah, it's probably around 220, 240. Something around there.
- At one point it was around 300, but there are other child care programs, affordable child care programs,
- and we're happy to have them here. And our new center will serve 28. But it's not a head start, so yeah.
- Are we filling the need with all the programs? So post-COVID, at first it was very difficult to find
- families, to find teachers, right?
- And at some point it was just like, hey, we have a lot of kids, we have no teachers. Then we have a
- lot of folks who can apply for teaching and there's less kids. It's been interesting, but we're fulfilling
- our grant. I mean, that's what we've been asked to do. We're serving the exact number of kids that we're
- supposed to be serving. We end up serving a lot of special needs children.
- in collaboration with MCCSC and other service providers. We could do more. This is why we're opening
- up a childcare center, which is going to have some affordable slots, but it's also going to be market
- price for some families because how else can we pay our bills? We have to, for families who can afford
- the upper threshold, they'll be helping finance
- some of the families who couldn't afford child care. But we would like to mix in more Head Start, more
- of that programming into affordable child care, but we had to start somewhere and that's where we're
- at. I just wanted to relate a story about a person who is a direct recipient of your program. I met
- them about the family about 30 years ago. The mother was a peasant from El Salvador and she
- escaped the troubles there with their two children who were small. And I found out about the kids, their
- big brothers, and they were at Fairview. And I kind of helped entertain them on the weekends and that
- sort of thing, and helped get them help with these various Head Start and these other programs. If we
- hadn't had this here, I don't know what would have happened to them. But the daughter, the little girl
- who I knew since she was five, Nick Sennett is her name,
- She was a serious student, and because of this aid, she, of course, graduated from high school, and
- then she got a 21st century scholarship at IU, graduated from IU, got a job in LA and San Diego, and
- then now she's living in Boston, got a damn good job there, owns her own home in Boston, which ain't cheap.
- She's a real success story. And the stuff that they went through there, they're just amazing. They could
- not have done it. And she's a responsible tax paying citizen and somebody I'm very proud of. She would
- not be there in that position had it not been for programs like yours. Thank you. I actually was their
- family advocate. I remember the name, Xenette. And I'll relate the story.
- when I first started, and I'm trying to teach this to my employees now, you have to have boundaries
- with families. And I fell in love with these two kids. And then all of a sudden they would call me just
- randomly, like at night, I would worry about them because, you know, they had some issues and I missed
- a call and I like, I drove to their house and they're like, we just wanted to wish you a good night.
- And then one day,
- One day they showed up on my doorstep on a Saturday. I don't know how they found out where I lived.
- Uh, and they just wanted to say hi. And I'm like, I love this family, but I, I need, I can't, I can't
- develop these relationships over and this is how you burn out. Right. But, um, working with a lot of
- immigrant families, when I first started a lot of Afghan families, um, before nine 11 and it was, uh,
- It's been a fantastic experience. And like I said, it's something that I miss. Thank you for sharing
- that story. That name, it just was like, yeah, I remember that family. May I ask you, since most of
- your funding is federal, how burdensome is the reporting you have to do to the federal government? And
- under this administration, has that changed in any way? It costs time and money, right? But I've always been
- someone who's like, hey, tell me where the goal posts are and I'll meet you there, right? And it's to
- serve families and serve families responsibly, we need to have robust reporting. And it's not how I
- necessarily like how to spend my time. I'd rather dream. I'd rather dream big about new programs and
- share them with my staff, but it's just part of the job. And as long as they don't turn off the faucets,
- I'm happy to do any form of reporting that they need, because at the end of the day,
- It feeds back into the system where we get that data and we're better able to serve our families. So,
- but yeah, I, I would love it if I didn't have to do any reporting, but it's just part of the job. One
- last question. Yes. I'm following up a little bit about the financial side. So let's say going back
- to the pandemic, right? You had a big surge of money. Okay. Now.
- It's pulled back, perhaps. Can you just clarify? Sure. This happened. And then also, I'm not asking
- you to look real far out. There's a lot of uncertainty there, but maybe what you're budgeting yourself
- for, say, the next 12 months. Sure. So there were certain plots of money that were available to us,
- CARES, ARPA, and
- Yes, we were able to help people, but we had to help people in different ways. I mean, we weren't holding
- classrooms. We weren't visiting families in their homes as much. I mean, there were changes that we
- had to make. And then when things became better, health-wise and society-wise, different funding sources
- through the Biden administration happened. And luckily for us and flat funding,
- is basically to us, that's an increase, right? So flat funding has happened with small increases and
- we're always looking for additional funding. One thing that we've been good at recently was working
- with places like the Community Foundation with the city of Bloomington. This was money that we had never
- had before and we were able to create brand new programs with that. We have the trust of our state grantors
- and they've given us money to expand
- a lot of our programming. A lot of this is relationship building. I know that in my lifetime and in
- the future, I can't do this without both sides of the aisle. And in Indiana, we know that one side of
- the aisle has a lot more folks, right? Bloomington's fantastic, and people here are generous, and I'm
- able to do things that I can't do in other communities, probably.
- I know that if I want our agency to exist, we need to work with both sides of the aisle. And typically
- it's different language. It's not, it's not that they don't want to like, you know, your local
- representatives, state house. These are people who live next door to a lot of these folks and they're,
- they are interested in helping with.
- but they don't like to hear about poverty. So I use different words like, you know, we're providing
- people with opportunities. We're providing people with roads to prosperity. They love the story of someone
- pulling themselves up from the bootstraps and we're providing resources to allow that to happen. I hate
- cryptocurrency. Okay, I hate it. I made some money off of it and I'm happy with that, but I don't typically
- invest in that.
- For a lot of people, they see the crypto millionaires and billionaires, and they say, hey, this is a
- quick way to make money. And there's a lot more risk to it. And for someone who's low income, there's
- a lot of risk there. So when I talk to certain politicians, I won't name names, I talk about how I want
- to educate
- people on the pitfalls of cryptocurrency, I realized that you like it. I realized that you can make
- money off of it. I realized it's a road out of poverty for some folks that are, I don't say poverty,
- a road to prosperity. So we've created programming. We're working with the Luddy School to
- do some rudimentary phishing cryptocurrency stuff, along with AT&T's donation of $100,000 in laptops
- that we're giving out to folks.
- Um, you know, it's, uh, you got, you gotta bring everyone in. You gotta bring everyone to the table.
- Um, and not everyone's going to listen, but, you know, that's why I got hired. This is, this is my job
- now. So thank you. All right, Eddie, thank you so much for such an enlightening talk. Um, it's one more
- slide. And I, hold on.
- Can we get them by? If it's not on there, it's fine. It's just my dogs. So I felt my dog. It's okay.
- I'd like to thank everyone who helped pull the meeting together today. The volunteers, Bill Oates for
- the greeting, Peggy Frisbee for introductions, Jimmy for the introduction of our guest speaker, Leslie
- Kutzinkau for the Zoom team, Connie for a great reflection, Glenda for doing the reporting, and Michael
- for the camera and mic operation.
- Alon, as always, for a photographer. Lynn, for volunteering on the Paul Harris Award. And Jill is our
- executive assistant. And last but certainly not least, our upcoming birthday boy, Tyler, for all the
- audio work. Our next meeting will be here in the Georgian Room on July 28th. Wendy Goodlett will be
- here, and she'll be our special guest following in the theme discussing the housing crisis and a monumental
- bipartisan act.
- So it's going to be fantastic. Please join us. And with that, if you are able, please stand for the
- four-way test. Of the things we think, say, or do, first, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all
- concerned? Third, will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all
- concerned? And fifth, is it fun?