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?