WEBVTT 00:00:00.706 --> 00:00:08.523 - Good afternoon, everyone. Is this on? Can you hear me okay? All right, perfect. Welcome to, good afternoon. 00:00:08.523 --> 00:00:16.051 - Welcome to our weekly service celebration. My name is Tracy Yovanovich and I'm honored to serve as your 00:00:16.051 --> 00:00:23.506 - president. Please silence your electronic devices. And today, I've got to get my little clicker. Today 00:00:23.506 --> 00:00:28.862 - for Where in the World. There we go. Oh, I must've skipped right over it. 00:00:29.538 --> 00:00:36.747 - There we go. Today for Where in the World, we're honoring Shane Gibson. I know he was just here. So 00:00:36.747 --> 00:00:43.957 - Shane and Taji went on a trip this summer into Jamaica as well as Mexico, and he found rotary signs 00:00:43.957 --> 00:00:51.166 - in Ocho Rios. So I thought for the Where in the World segment today, we would talk about Ocho Rios. 00:00:51.426 --> 00:00:59.095 - And they have between 1915 and 1930 during the American administration of Haiti, some Rotarian Marines 00:00:59.095 --> 00:01:06.243 - used to meet every week in Jeremy, Jamaica. About 1930, a Rotary Club was projected and started 00:01:06.243 --> 00:01:13.987 - in Port-au-Prince, but never chartered. The records of Rotary International indicate that Rotary within 00:01:13.987 --> 00:01:19.646 - the islands of the Caribbean began with what was called non-district clubs. 00:01:20.034 --> 00:01:26.337 - The first non-district club to receive a charter was the Rotary Club of St. Thomas in 1957, followed 00:01:26.337 --> 00:01:32.952 - by the Rotary Club of St. Croix in 1958, and by the Rotary Club of Kingston in 1959. Rotary International 00:01:32.952 --> 00:01:39.006 - continued to charter non-district clubs until 1973, and there were about 41 clubs at that point. 00:01:39.266 --> 00:01:45.459 - In June of 1973, the first Caribbean convention of non-district clubs was held in St. Kitts, and one 00:01:45.459 --> 00:01:51.653 - of the outcomes of that convention was a petition to Rotary International for the establishment of a 00:01:51.653 --> 00:01:57.662 - district for the clubs of the Caribbean. It was approved and established in 1974 as District 404. 00:01:58.274 --> 00:02:04.025 - All the French, Dutch, and English-speaking islands in the Caribbean diaspora were included, and Dr. 00:02:04.025 --> 00:02:09.833 - John Watts of Grenada became the first district governor of that district. So I thought that was very 00:02:09.833 --> 00:02:15.926 - interesting for us to learn about some of the 200-plus countries that participate in Rotary International. 00:02:15.926 --> 00:02:20.254 - And with that, I would like to invite Emily Herman up to do our reflection. 00:02:30.338 --> 00:02:37.898 - Hi, everyone. So my name is Emily Herman. I work at the Community Foundation of Bloomington Monroe County. 00:02:37.898 --> 00:02:45.104 - And I would just invite you to reflect on a moment where you had a wonderful, genuine, and thoughtful 00:02:45.104 --> 00:02:52.805 - conversation with somebody brand new. Maybe it was at Rotary or at a different event, over coffee, anywhere, 00:02:52.805 --> 00:02:56.126 - and truly with anyone. What made it memorable? 00:02:56.674 --> 00:03:02.911 - Most likely, it wasn't because you had every single thing in common or you had all the right answers 00:03:02.911 --> 00:03:09.085 - when chatting with them. At my work with fundraising, it's really important to build meaningful and 00:03:09.085 --> 00:03:15.260 - genuine relationships. And a fundraising term or concept sometimes we discuss is becoming a curious 00:03:15.260 --> 00:03:21.497 - chameleon. So curious chameleon, that doesn't mean adapt and change completely who you are depending 00:03:21.497 --> 00:03:23.102 - on who you're talking to. 00:03:23.266 --> 00:03:29.802 - If somebody came up to me and said oh my gosh I love golf and I said me too but I don't know the difference 00:03:29.802 --> 00:03:35.853 - between a birdie and a par I think that would probably not go far. All I would say is that I really 00:03:35.853 --> 00:03:42.208 - enjoy driving the golf cart so with that the way to really do it is to adapt the conversation and really 00:03:42.208 --> 00:03:43.902 - leaning in asking you know. 00:03:44.066 --> 00:03:51.065 - What made you enjoy golf? I myself am not really familiar. Could you tell me more? So that's where curiosity 00:03:51.065 --> 00:03:57.807 - and adapting comes into play. And that's where it can really open the door to making somebody feel heard 00:03:57.807 --> 00:04:04.356 - and listened to and valued. So as a reflection, I just invite you to just lean into curiosity, become 00:04:04.356 --> 00:04:10.648 - your best chameleon, and have wonderful and meaningful new connections to have these longstanding 00:04:10.648 --> 00:04:12.382 - relationships. Thanks all. 00:04:17.442 --> 00:04:23.920 - And I don't think Heidi is able to make it, so I will introduce our guests. First of all, we welcome 00:04:23.920 --> 00:04:30.911 - Steve Bishop, who is a guest of Liz Irwin. It's good to see you again, Steve. Brian Hayne from a Bloomington 00:04:30.911 --> 00:04:37.838 - North Rotary Club. And our next guest didn't want to be introduced, but I'm going to pull the plus daughter 00:04:37.838 --> 00:04:45.278 - card. And we have Sue Schindel here as a guest of Winston. And then lastly, Carter Herman, Emily's husband is here. 00:04:45.442 --> 00:04:54.354 - So nice to have all these guests. Anyone online, Joy? Joy's in the breakout room. I hope she's able 00:04:54.354 --> 00:05:03.355 - to come back. No, no worries. All right. And with that, if you could put the slides up, Tyler, we're 00:05:03.355 --> 00:05:11.198 - double working you here. We'll go through the birthdays and anniversaries. There we go. 00:05:11.426 --> 00:05:18.334 - So we have, for our birthdays, we have quite a few this week. Dakir Abdullah's 28th, Claudia Abey-Nada, 00:05:18.334 --> 00:05:24.644 - the 27th, it's her big 60, and she is home in Columbia celebrating. Diana Hoffman on the 24th, 00:05:24.644 --> 00:05:31.486 - Matt Molina, the 23rd, Bill Oates on the 24th, Leanne Ratliff, the 25th, Suze Gamblieri, the 27th, and 00:05:31.486 --> 00:05:38.128 - Winston Schindel on the 29th. So it was a very productive week, I would say. And for anniversaries, 00:05:38.128 --> 00:05:40.254 - we have Byron Banger, 41 years. 00:05:40.546 --> 00:05:47.433 - unbelievable. Len Tiemann at nine years and Tyler has been with us for four years. It can't believe 00:05:47.433 --> 00:05:54.596 - four years have already flown by. All right. And so for announcements, there we go. Um, I wanted, since 00:05:54.596 --> 00:06:01.690 - we're in the Franjapani room, I wanted to share with everyone, I actually saw Franjapani trees for the 00:06:01.690 --> 00:06:05.822 - first time in my life in Bali. So that was pretty exciting. 00:06:05.954 --> 00:06:11.728 - Also, we have no one who signed up yet for reflections in September, other than the first. Thank you, 00:06:11.728 --> 00:06:17.559 - Carol Anne for signing up. So we do have some open slots. There will be a link on the roundabout where 00:06:17.559 --> 00:06:18.974 - you go in and signed up. 00:06:19.106 --> 00:06:25.216 - to do reflections. And then last and late, but coming in on your tables, you've got flyers for the rotary 00:06:25.216 --> 00:06:31.038 - toast. And it would be great if we all worked together to buy tables together rather than calling in 00:06:31.038 --> 00:06:36.860 - and saying, hey, can you seat me with so-and-so? Because Lynn's going to be doing the seating. And I 00:06:36.860 --> 00:06:42.624 - can tell you from experience from last year, it's very challenging to accommodate all the requests. 00:06:42.624 --> 00:06:47.870 - So if you buy tables, get together and buy a table in advance, it not only helps the toast 00:06:47.970 --> 00:06:54.491 - Foundation itself, but it also makes it easier for Lynn. And Lynn, just wave, you want to be easier. 00:06:54.491 --> 00:07:01.077 - It makes it easier for her in the seating. So I encourage everyone, it's going to be a great program. 00:07:01.077 --> 00:07:07.082 - We're honoring Lori Burns McRobbie and look forward to everyone being a participant in that. 00:07:07.082 --> 00:07:13.022 - And then lastly, it's not going, let's try it again. We got a note from our global scholar, 00:07:13.250 --> 00:07:19.729 - Christian Gray, he is off to Amsterdam. I thought I would share with everyone so that you could see 00:07:19.729 --> 00:07:26.532 - how excited he is. He said he was skipping, literally skipping, going to the airport. So you can imagine 00:07:26.532 --> 00:07:33.076 - the enthusiasm that he has for going to start his program as a Rotary Scholar. All right, with that, 00:07:33.076 --> 00:07:36.510 - I think we have time for Happy Dollars, Mr. Michael. 00:07:43.586 --> 00:07:54.408 - And by the way, Happy Dollars are going to Teacher's Warehouse. Today is my big sister's 70th birthday, 00:07:54.408 --> 00:08:05.022 - so I'm celebrating Jan Schwartzberg in Ithaca, New York. Do we have any other happy people out there? 00:08:13.794 --> 00:08:22.361 - Okay, here's 20, and it's my 59th wedding anniversary was last week, and both of my children's birthday 00:08:22.361 --> 00:08:30.682 - were last week. Wow, that's awesome. And Joy, do we have any happy dollars online? Well, I don't see 00:08:30.682 --> 00:08:38.920 - any happy dollars. I think we're happy people, but I don't see any happy dollars. All right, anyone 00:08:38.920 --> 00:08:42.462 - else out in the audience? Oh, I see Brian. 00:08:43.682 --> 00:08:50.939 - Um, my eldest daughter actually was going to be earning her life rank, um, tonight. So very happy with 00:08:50.939 --> 00:08:58.055 - that. She'll work on her Eagle next. That's awesome. All right. And I see here's Tony happy dollars. 00:08:58.055 --> 00:09:05.593 - I, my wife and I have been very fortunate this year. We live in a very low lying area. It's in the Griffey 00:09:05.593 --> 00:09:11.934 - Valley and a property joins Griffey nature preserve Griffey. Griffey Creek is closer than 00:09:12.482 --> 00:09:18.761 - For me, well, for me, the door behind me. We did not get flooded. With all this going on around Indiana, 00:09:18.761 --> 00:09:24.800 - I had friends that had trees on their house and friends lost their house, but we were spared. So I'm 00:09:24.800 --> 00:09:31.079 - just very, very fortunate because we haven't been flooded before. Last time we were flooded, I was here, 00:09:31.079 --> 00:09:37.358 - my wife wanted screen doors on the house. And when Martin's Hill got flooded, we got flooded. So anyway, 00:09:37.358 --> 00:09:38.494 - I'm very grateful. 00:09:39.842 --> 00:09:45.133 - And then I'm going to do a $20 Happy Dollars. I took our youngest son, Luca, who's 20, to see Garth 00:09:45.133 --> 00:09:50.265 - Brooks, because I'm the only one in my family that loves country and Western. And he, of course, 00:09:50.265 --> 00:09:55.662 - had no idea. He knows who Garth is, but he's never heard his music. And when we left, he said that it 00:09:55.662 --> 00:10:01.058 - was the best performance he's ever seen. He couldn't believe he'd never been to a concert where every 00:10:01.058 --> 00:10:06.667 - single person in the audience sang along and knew all the songs. I was like, expose him to do a different 00:10:06.667 --> 00:10:08.254 - thing so kids can be trained. 00:10:08.802 --> 00:10:32.449 - Anyone else, happy dollars. All right, with that, I will invite Forrest Givmore to come up and introduce 00:10:32.449 --> 00:10:37.854 - our guest. Good people. 00:10:39.074 --> 00:10:47.184 - Get ready for something special. Emily Pike is our guest speaker today. And I've been a close friend 00:10:47.184 --> 00:10:55.213 - of Emily's for over 15 years. So this is a particularly special opportunity to introduce her. Emily 00:10:55.213 --> 00:11:03.243 - is a native Hoosier born and raised here in our beloved state of Indiana. She is a graduate of both 00:11:03.243 --> 00:11:04.126 - Notre Dame 00:11:04.610 --> 00:11:10.903 - and the O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University right here. She also 00:11:10.903 --> 00:11:17.073 - is a veteran of the Peace Corps, serving her time in Togo in West Africa. It's hard to believe, but 00:11:17.073 --> 00:11:23.490 - there was a time in our community, when in our community here in Bloomington, we did not have a shelter 00:11:23.490 --> 00:11:29.598 - for homeless families. That there was a time when this didn't exist. It was a service that wasn't, 00:11:29.698 --> 00:11:37.596 - wasn't part of our community. And while many people, many people are responsible for its founding and 00:11:37.596 --> 00:11:45.416 - its success, I think I can safely say that Emily is perhaps most responsible for making new hope for 00:11:45.416 --> 00:11:52.926 - families into the thriving epicenter of community resources for homeless families it has become. 00:11:53.602 --> 00:12:01.867 - really remarkable work that she's done. She began work there in 2012 and founded New Hope's children's 00:12:01.867 --> 00:12:10.052 - program in 2013. And I remember back then when many voices struggled to understand Emily's vision for 00:12:10.052 --> 00:12:18.398 - the children's program at New Hope. But it has become very clear that Emily was just ahead of her time. 00:12:19.074 --> 00:12:26.692 - as the shelter and the childcare program now work together so seamlessly that we could not imagine them 00:12:26.692 --> 00:12:34.529 - apart. Becoming New Hope's executive director in 2017, she has built an essential institution for fighting 00:12:34.529 --> 00:12:38.558 - family homelessness that is both strong and effective. 00:12:39.234 --> 00:12:47.149 - She also gives so freely of her knowledge and time as the chair of our regional council, ushering Monroe 00:12:47.149 --> 00:12:55.064 - and the five other counties in our area into a collaborative approach to ending homelessness far greater 00:12:55.064 --> 00:13:02.904 - than we've ever seen before. I also can't fail to mention that she is the adoring mom of two wonderful, 00:13:02.904 --> 00:13:08.030 - beautiful children, Lainey Inbert, who I've come to love very much. 00:13:08.226 --> 00:13:17.780 - Buckle your seatbelts for a great ride. I give to you Emily Pike. Well, I got to say, I don't know if 00:13:17.780 --> 00:13:27.147 - I can live up to that hype, y'all. That is not the introduction I sent over. Thank you, Forrest. It 00:13:27.147 --> 00:13:34.078 - is such a delight to be here. It is such a delight to be with all of you. 00:13:34.370 --> 00:13:40.280 - I have spoken with this group before. And I think the last time I spoke with y'all, we were building 00:13:40.280 --> 00:13:46.132 - a new building. So spoiler alert, we built it. And a lot of y'all were part of that. So I'm here to 00:13:46.132 --> 00:13:52.101 - tell you a little bit about what we're up to now. Did you know that in the United States, you're more 00:13:52.101 --> 00:13:57.953 - likely to be homeless in the first year of your life than at any other time? That's surprising to a 00:13:57.953 --> 00:14:03.454 - lot of people. That comes straight from HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development. 00:14:04.578 --> 00:14:10.699 - I promised Michael that I wouldn't be reading these slides out loud to you, but I just want to draw 00:14:10.699 --> 00:14:17.187 - your attention to these captions down here. None of the photos in this slide deck today are stock photos. 00:14:17.187 --> 00:14:23.308 - These are all families that were actually served by New Hope in the past few years. And if you want 00:14:23.308 --> 00:14:29.674 - to read along, you can hear some of the stories or read some of the stories of the people that we serve 00:14:29.674 --> 00:14:32.734 - at New Hope. The added financial stress of a baby 00:14:32.898 --> 00:14:38.668 - The physical and mental health challenges that can come from giving birth, that can come from caring 00:14:38.668 --> 00:14:44.381 - for a newborn, that can come from those of you with children may recall many sleepless nights, many 00:14:44.381 --> 00:14:50.093 - ear infections, those sorts of things, not only can lead to physical and mental health problems for 00:14:50.093 --> 00:14:55.978 - parents, but also can cause families to miss work. Many women miss work in the last trimester of their 00:14:55.978 --> 00:14:56.606 - pregnancy. 00:14:56.706 --> 00:15:05.486 - And of course, finding childcare after a child is born is very difficult. And all of those things together 00:15:05.486 --> 00:15:13.773 - can lead to housing instability. We also know that, unfortunately, the birth of a child is a primary 00:15:13.773 --> 00:15:22.552 - driver of domestic violence. And domestic violence is a primary driver of family homelessness. Oftentimes, 00:15:22.552 --> 00:15:25.342 - when we think about homelessness, 00:15:25.474 --> 00:15:32.014 - what we tend to think about are people that we see in the park. They are people that we see maybe with 00:15:32.014 --> 00:15:38.491 - a shopping cart, people with perhaps an obvious mental health problem. And those people are out there 00:15:38.491 --> 00:15:45.158 - for sure. And they need our help and they're deserving of our help. And they actually make up a minority 00:15:45.158 --> 00:15:51.761 - of people experiencing homelessness, those chronic folks. Families we don't tend to think about, right? 00:15:51.761 --> 00:15:54.174 - Because we don't see them. And so we, 00:15:54.562 --> 00:16:01.156 - either consciously or subconsciously, just sort of assume that there must not be that many of them. 00:16:01.156 --> 00:16:07.815 - But the truth is that 30 to 40% of people experiencing homelessness in our community every night are 00:16:07.815 --> 00:16:14.607 - families with children. I wasn't sure whether to include this slide. I don't know if you guys can read 00:16:14.607 --> 00:16:21.596 - it or not. But what it tells us is that 1.2 million children in the United States experience homelessness 00:16:21.596 --> 00:16:23.838 - each year. That is more children. 00:16:24.354 --> 00:16:30.645 - than live in many U.S. states, right? So actually, childhood homelessness is remarkably prevalent. And 00:16:30.645 --> 00:16:36.937 - this number is likely an undercount, right? In Indiana, we know for sure that more than 4,000 children 00:16:36.937 --> 00:16:43.350 - each year experience literal homelessness, which is to say they slept outdoors, they slept in a shelter, 00:16:43.350 --> 00:16:49.886 - they slept in a car, somewhere else that wasn't intended for human habitation. And in Monroe County alone, 00:16:50.210 --> 00:16:57.242 - We see more than 200 children each year experiencing homelessness, and oftentimes more like 250. New 00:16:57.242 --> 00:17:04.484 - hope is here. So in most of the country, when a family becomes homeless, they have to separate. There's 00:17:04.484 --> 00:17:11.516 - a shelter for men, and there's a shelter for women and children. 15 years ago, some local leaders in 00:17:11.516 --> 00:17:18.479 - this community, one of whom is sitting in front of me, decided that Bloomington shouldn't be one of 00:17:18.479 --> 00:17:19.454 - those places. 00:17:20.098 --> 00:17:26.108 - They decided that a family who became homeless in Bloomington in Monroe County should be able to stay 00:17:26.108 --> 00:17:32.531 - together. And they decided that they wanted that to be the case regardless of family composition, regardless 00:17:32.531 --> 00:17:38.894 - of marital status, and regardless of their faith, which is to say that new hope is founded on the principle 00:17:38.894 --> 00:17:45.140 - that families stay together. And that means single moms, single dads, married couples, unmarried couples, 00:17:45.140 --> 00:17:48.734 - same-sex couples, custodial grandparents, transgender folks, 00:17:48.834 --> 00:17:57.833 - Anyone you can think of who has custody of a child and becomes homeless is welcome at New Hope for Families. 00:17:57.833 --> 00:18:06.420 - And that's been true for 15 years. In 2015, as Forrest mentioned, we opened our early learning program. 00:18:06.420 --> 00:18:13.438 - And we added that because we wanted to make sure that parents could get back to work 00:18:13.538 --> 00:18:19.359 - and so that children could have the good start that they need and the good start that they deserve. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:25.645 - A lot of times people don't necessarily understand how these two things go together. New Hope is remarkably 00:18:25.645 --> 00:18:31.524 - successful at housing families experiencing homelessness. And we do that with an individualized plan 00:18:31.524 --> 00:18:37.403 - for every family. But each of those individualized plans follows one basic template and it goes like 00:18:37.403 --> 00:18:43.166 - this. Find childcare, find income, find a lease, right? Those are the three things you have to do. 00:18:43.490 --> 00:18:50.395 - Everyone in our shelter has children. And everyone who has children, if you're going to work, is going 00:18:50.395 --> 00:18:57.299 - to need child care, right? Anyone sent a kid to daycare recently? There you go. We got one back there. 00:18:57.299 --> 00:19:04.204 - How much does daycare cost? Over $1,000 a month is accurate. Yes. And that's for a preschooler. If you 00:19:04.204 --> 00:19:11.041 - wanted to send an infant to daycare, to a high quality daycare in this community, you'd be looking at 00:19:11.041 --> 00:19:12.382 - something closer to 00:19:12.514 --> 00:19:19.497 - not quite $20,000 a year, which is to say it's cheaper to send your kid to college at IU than to daycare 00:19:19.497 --> 00:19:26.480 - at IU, right? And so it isn't surprising that that is a stumbling block for families when they're trying 00:19:26.480 --> 00:19:33.130 - to achieve stability. We see it as a leading cause of family homelessness, a lack of childcare, and 00:19:33.130 --> 00:19:40.446 - we see it as the number one thing that families need. More than half of the families in our shelter each year 00:19:40.770 --> 00:19:46.147 - have a child who's too young for kindergarten, right? And that goes right along with that idea that 00:19:46.147 --> 00:19:51.632 - you're more likely to be homeless in the first year of your life than at any other time. And so child 00:19:51.632 --> 00:19:57.010 - care does two things for us, right? It gets parents back to work where they need to be, and it gets 00:19:57.010 --> 00:20:02.602 - kids ready for kindergarten. Too often we see kids starting off behind in kindergarten. They're staying 00:20:02.602 --> 00:20:08.249 - behind. Parents who are working two or three jobs simply don't have as much time to invest in enrichment 00:20:08.249 --> 00:20:08.894 - activities. 00:20:09.154 --> 00:20:15.553 - And so we opened an early learning program that we decided we wanted it to be excellent. We wanted it 00:20:15.553 --> 00:20:21.952 - to be more than what I sometimes call child storage, right? So our early learning program is designed 00:20:21.952 --> 00:20:28.288 - to meet these families where they are and to help them grow and learn and be ready for school on the 00:20:28.288 --> 00:20:33.118 - very first day along with their peers. And I'll just say on a personal note, 00:20:33.698 --> 00:20:39.797 - Another thing that this program does for us is it helps us maintain contact with these families for 00:20:39.797 --> 00:20:46.261 - a longer period of time, which is something that New Hope has begun to do better at over the past several 00:20:46.261 --> 00:20:52.482 - years. And a sort of even tertiary goal that we set for this when we began it was that maybe it could 00:20:52.482 --> 00:20:58.703 - help to break down some of the stigma around homelessness, right? There is nothing more leveling than 00:20:58.703 --> 00:21:01.630 - watching your kid play with another kid, right? 00:21:02.018 --> 00:21:08.184 - Last summer, I had a birthday party for my kids at Bryant Park. We invited everyone in the class. My 00:21:08.184 --> 00:21:14.350 - kids go to our school. We invited everyone in the class. And I will say, it is tremendously leveling 00:21:14.350 --> 00:21:20.576 - to watch every single two-year-old there have the exact same meltdown because you gave them the wrong 00:21:20.576 --> 00:21:26.864 - cupcake. Turns out it doesn't matter what your income level is. You wanted the bluey one, OK? Everyone 00:21:26.864 --> 00:21:27.902 - wanted that one. 00:21:28.674 --> 00:21:35.568 - And that's one of the things that helps us meet the needs of the community. So for 15 years, we've been 00:21:35.568 --> 00:21:42.395 - doing that. Over here, you will see the very first house. It's not there anymore. It will soon be part 00:21:42.395 --> 00:21:49.091 - of the wealth. It is now in the great house farm in the sky. But it is on the Hopewell property. But 00:21:49.091 --> 00:21:51.742 - that is where Sushindel and her friends 00:21:51.842 --> 00:21:59.828 - started a shelter in 2011. A lot of you guys have been knowing about New Hope that whole time. But for 00:21:59.828 --> 00:22:07.581 - some of you, it's newer. In 2011, we were serving just three families at a time in our shelter. And 00:22:07.581 --> 00:22:15.800 - I will say this is today the 25th. Yeah. So three days ago, we celebrated 15 years since the first family 00:22:15.800 --> 00:22:19.134 - at New Hope moved out into stable housing. 00:22:19.906 --> 00:22:26.727 - Since that time, so that was one family 15 years ago, since that time, we have sheltered more than 500 00:22:26.727 --> 00:22:33.482 - families at New Hope. Yeah, right. Which is kind of remarkable when you think about where we started. 00:22:33.482 --> 00:22:40.436 - I used to love to show people this house because it had like, it was all renovated with volunteer labor, 00:22:40.436 --> 00:22:47.323 - right? And so there was one spot where if you like stepped on a floorboard, you could sort of feel your 00:22:47.323 --> 00:22:49.310 - body headed for the basement. 00:22:49.730 --> 00:22:58.253 - There were, it was, but it was this tremendous labor of love from this community that decided that our 00:22:58.253 --> 00:23:06.528 - values say, this isn't a place where families have to sleep outside. We now have a property that we 00:23:06.528 --> 00:23:15.299 - opened in 2022. That's an early learning center for up to 60 young children and a shelter for 12 families 00:23:15.299 --> 00:23:18.526 - each night. And that is something that 00:23:20.802 --> 00:23:27.236 - I have to say feels remarkable. One of the things that I've heard my friend Forest Gilmore say a lot 00:23:27.236 --> 00:23:33.797 - of times is that we as leaders often overestimate what we can get done in a year. But we underestimate 00:23:33.797 --> 00:23:40.230 - what we might be able to get done in five years or 10 years. And I think 10 years ago, this wouldn't 00:23:40.230 --> 00:23:46.664 - have seemed possible for this community. And it's just here now. So we don't have to wonder anymore, 00:23:46.664 --> 00:23:48.830 - which is pretty remarkable to me. 00:23:49.378 --> 00:23:56.480 - So by the numbers, each year New Hope shelters more than 50 families. And we serve more than 80 young 00:23:56.480 --> 00:24:03.790 - children in early learning. One of the things I wanna say about this is that when we say that we shelter 00:24:03.790 --> 00:24:11.170 - those families, what we mean is that either in hotels or in our shelter itself, we welcome those families 00:24:11.170 --> 00:24:18.272 - in and then we offer them the supportive services they need to move through homelessness into lasting 00:24:18.272 --> 00:24:19.038 - stability. 00:24:19.810 --> 00:24:27.421 - We understand that homelessness is time limited for most people, right? Homelessness isn't an adjective 00:24:27.421 --> 00:24:34.885 - that describes a person. Homelessness is an adjective that describes, or homeless, homelessness isn't 00:24:34.885 --> 00:24:42.277 - an adjective at all. Homeless is an adjective that describes something that happened. And so when we 00:24:42.277 --> 00:24:46.814 - welcome families in at New Hope, what we're trying to say is, 00:24:47.266 --> 00:24:53.400 - Here, let's make a plan to help you move from point A to point B, and let's make sure that you are the 00:24:53.400 --> 00:24:59.475 - architect of that plan. And in doing that, in moving to a housing first model over the past 15 years, 00:24:59.475 --> 00:25:05.669 - what we've seen is that we are consistently able to house in a lease in their name that they can afford 00:25:05.669 --> 00:25:08.766 - more than 80% of the families who stay at New Hope. 00:25:09.250 --> 00:25:17.039 - So in the state of Indiana, about 32% of people who stay at homeless shelters move on into stable housing. 00:25:17.039 --> 00:25:24.537 - Last year at New Hope, that number was 86%, which is an all-time honey for us. We're very proud of it. 00:25:24.537 --> 00:25:29.342 - And that is a work in progress, right? But at the end of the day, 00:25:29.442 --> 00:25:35.825 - You know, one of the things that our homeless response system in our community is committed to, and 00:25:35.825 --> 00:25:42.400 - that's all of the sheltering providers together, is that we're not trying to fill up beds around here, 00:25:42.400 --> 00:25:48.974 - right? We're trying to empty beds. And I think that's something that sets our homeless response system 00:25:48.974 --> 00:25:55.102 - apart. We also, in recent years, have developed a very robust prevention and diversion program. 00:25:56.002 --> 00:26:02.259 - that is in partnership with Heading Home of South Central Indiana with the Community Foundation. But 00:26:02.259 --> 00:26:09.074 - essentially what that does is it tries to help us catch families before they experience literal homelessness. 00:26:09.074 --> 00:26:15.331 - So we shelter 50 families each year, but more than 125 unique families, those are families who don't 00:26:15.331 --> 00:26:21.775 - go into shelter, are served in prevention and diversion. For those families, 80 to 90% never experience 00:26:21.775 --> 00:26:25.182 - homelessness, right? For those families, we're able to 00:26:25.442 --> 00:26:31.686 - In particular, if they reach out to us more than two weeks before they're going to be evicted or before 00:26:31.686 --> 00:26:38.051 - they're going to need to move, we're able to prevent that homelessness. And that's important for a couple 00:26:38.051 --> 00:26:44.115 - of reasons, right? The number one indicator of the long-term impact of an episode of homelessness on 00:26:44.115 --> 00:26:50.419 - a child is simply the duration of homelessness, right? So anytime we can, we wanna prevent homelessness. 00:26:50.419 --> 00:26:54.622 - If we can't prevent it though, we wanna make it as brief as possible. 00:26:54.946 --> 00:27:00.413 - And so in cases where we're not able to prevent homelessness, those families who've been working with 00:27:00.413 --> 00:27:05.772 - us in prevention and diversion are in our shelter for a much shorter period of time. So even though 00:27:05.772 --> 00:27:11.185 - they're not technically success stories from that perspective, they're dramatic success stories when 00:27:11.185 --> 00:27:16.706 - you look at the length of time they're homeless. We had a family a couple of summers ago, a single mom 00:27:16.706 --> 00:27:22.119 - and two little kids. She had to leave her home because of a domestic violence situation, brought her 00:27:22.119 --> 00:27:24.638 - children with her. She works at a local hotel. 00:27:24.866 --> 00:27:30.492 - They were able to stay there for a little bit, and then they ran out of money. New hope was full. So 00:27:30.492 --> 00:27:36.173 - what we were able to do is take over her bill at that hotel, work with her boss to make sure that she 00:27:36.173 --> 00:27:41.855 - could stay there. And within 11 days, that family was stably housed, right? Because we'd been working 00:27:41.855 --> 00:27:47.703 - with her before that, and she had two little boys who were four and five. And I always like to say those 00:27:47.703 --> 00:27:53.886 - little boys didn't know they were homeless, right? Those little boys are very sure that they were on vacation. 00:27:54.274 --> 00:27:59.900 - Okay, what they said to me was we have a pool and we had donuts every morning, which is a pretty good 00:27:59.900 --> 00:28:05.471 - life if you're four years old, you know, I gotta say I'm 42 and that sounds like pretty good life to 00:28:05.471 --> 00:28:10.986 - me. So when we're able to prevent homelessness, that's fantastic. But when we're not, if we're able 00:28:10.986 --> 00:28:16.612 - to make it more brief, that is something we're also looking for. And then the last thing that we have 00:28:16.612 --> 00:28:22.183 - begun at New Hope in recent years, and this is almost three years now that we've begun to do ongoing 00:28:22.183 --> 00:28:23.838 - case management for families, 00:28:24.034 --> 00:28:29.567 - which is to say following an episode of homelessness, we have voluntary case management for a period 00:28:29.567 --> 00:28:35.154 - of up to three years. And that was designed to help reduce recidivism. The number one risk factor for 00:28:35.154 --> 00:28:41.016 - an episode of homelessness is any previous episode of homelessness, right? So sometimes I say homelessness 00:28:41.016 --> 00:28:46.658 - is a little bit like a heart attack. If you've had one, it doesn't mean you're gonna have another, but 00:28:46.658 --> 00:28:52.574 - it means you should be checking in with your cardiologist, right? And in this case, we're the cardiologist. 00:28:52.738 --> 00:28:58.871 - Because what we're doing there is just checking. We're just going to see, how's it going? How's everyone's 00:28:58.871 --> 00:29:04.602 - job going? What's going on? We also have a survey that we use to understand child well-being during 00:29:04.602 --> 00:29:10.506 - that time to make sure that kids are thriving in the way that we think that they should. We think that 00:29:10.506 --> 00:29:16.294 - they will. But those things together are the way that we are contributing to our community's mission 00:29:16.294 --> 00:29:21.854 - to make homelessness rare, brief, and non-repeating, and in particular, to do that for families. 00:29:23.906 --> 00:29:30.579 - In 2019, New Hope began making this commitment to our community, just to say that in our community, 00:29:30.579 --> 00:29:37.519 - no child will sleep outside. Before that, we had a wait list, like everybody else, and if we were full, 00:29:37.519 --> 00:29:44.459 - we had to say, I'm very sorry, here's a list of places you can try. But for seven and a half years now, 00:29:44.459 --> 00:29:51.198 - we have been able, in partnership with this community, to uphold this promise. To my knowledge, this 00:29:51.198 --> 00:29:53.534 - is unique in the state of Indiana. 00:29:53.730 --> 00:30:00.787 - And I want to say, as I wrap up, that that's not because of New Hope. Well, it is because of New Hope, 00:30:00.787 --> 00:30:07.845 - but it's because of the values of this community, right? It's because of the people of this community. 00:30:07.845 --> 00:30:14.765 - It was local leaders of this community who decided we needed a New Hope, right? And most communities 00:30:14.765 --> 00:30:21.891 - don't have one. We have one because some local people said we should, and then everybody said we should 00:30:21.891 --> 00:30:22.782 - continue to. 00:30:22.914 --> 00:30:29.021 - Everybody said we should continue to grow it. Everyone said together, yes, we will uphold this promise. 00:30:29.021 --> 00:30:35.128 - And for that reason, we're pretty sure that we don't have any kids sleeping outside tonight. And that's 00:30:35.128 --> 00:30:41.118 - not just New Hope. That's a partnership with the police department. It's a partnership with DCS. It's 00:30:41.118 --> 00:30:47.577 - a partnership with every single agency in this community that has street outreach workers. It's a partnership 00:30:47.577 --> 00:30:52.510 - with hundreds of people who share their time and their resources and their talents. 00:30:52.962 --> 00:31:03.666 - because we can't uphold that promise on our own. It's something that we have to do as a community. And 00:31:03.666 --> 00:31:14.474 - you guys have all been a part of that. And thank you so much for inviting me to share a little bit more 00:31:14.474 --> 00:31:19.358 - about it today. Thank you. What you got, Zodi? 00:31:20.610 --> 00:31:27.566 - about sort of the situation. This is kind of a lot of questions. So it's important to talk about how 00:31:27.566 --> 00:31:34.798 - you get least and what the sort of network is in the community and some of the challenges that are still 00:31:34.798 --> 00:31:42.718 - present, but also some of the overcome with getting people housed quickly. Yeah, absolutely. Great question, John. 00:31:43.458 --> 00:31:50.441 - Many of us who own homes don't actually realize how tight the rental market is in this community, especially 00:31:50.441 --> 00:31:57.040 - if we've been in our house for a little while. Bloomington and Forrest, you can correct me if I've got 00:31:57.040 --> 00:32:03.511 - this wrong. Last time I checked, Bloomington had the lowest vacancy rate in the state. Is that still 00:32:03.511 --> 00:32:09.918 - true, do you think? Yeah. It's always between us and Marion County. So it's either first or second. 00:32:10.594 --> 00:32:18.991 - But yeah, so it's tremendously difficult. I will tell you this, at New Hope, families stay for an average 00:32:18.991 --> 00:32:27.151 - of a little over 90 days. By 30 days, 80% of families are ready to move out. That is, they have a job, 00:32:27.151 --> 00:32:35.390 - they have childcare, they have income, they have what they need. What they do not have is a lease. They 00:32:35.390 --> 00:32:37.054 - cannot find a lease. 00:32:37.186 --> 00:32:45.398 - more than two thirds of the resources that we are putting into shelter are just housing search and placement. 00:32:45.398 --> 00:32:53.162 - So if we had more landlords, if we had more leases, what that tells me is that we could save tremendous 00:32:53.162 --> 00:33:00.777 - resources and more importantly, reduce the impact of homelessness on children by about two thirds. So 00:33:00.777 --> 00:33:01.598 - leasing up 00:33:01.730 --> 00:33:07.858 - is far and away the most difficult part of this process. It's hard if you're in a market-based lease 00:33:07.858 --> 00:33:14.107 - through our partnership with Beacon Rapid Re-Housing. It's hard if you are in a Section 8 lease, which 00:33:14.107 --> 00:33:20.478 - is called a Housing Choice Voucher. It is hard to get into public housing. All of those things are hard. 00:33:20.478 --> 00:33:26.788 - There are no easy ways to rent unless you are a student, in which case it's not easy, but it's a little 00:33:26.788 --> 00:33:29.822 - bit easier. Does that answer your question, John? 00:33:33.954 --> 00:33:39.861 - And I will say this, we also know that people living in poverty, more than two thirds of them are spending 00:33:39.861 --> 00:33:45.768 - at least half of their income on their housing, which isn't a lot of income to begin with. Sorry, Michael, 00:33:45.768 --> 00:33:51.454 - go ahead. Thank you so much. So this is maybe my background is in education. So I'm very curious about 00:33:51.454 --> 00:33:57.360 - the early learning center and the population it serves. It sounds like you have a large number of children 00:33:57.360 --> 00:33:58.078 - there. Is it 00:33:58.402 --> 00:34:05.185 - children, the families who are served by New Hope, as well as children, other families who are interested. 00:34:05.185 --> 00:34:11.588 - What ages do you serve? You know, just I'd love to hear more about it. Yeah, absolutely. So we serve 00:34:11.588 --> 00:34:17.927 - families birth to five and up to 60 young children. At least 50 percent of the children enrolled in 00:34:17.927 --> 00:34:22.238 - our school at any given time are children impacted by homelessness. 00:34:22.338 --> 00:34:28.808 - At least 30% of the children in our school are children who are not impacted by homelessness. And that's 00:34:28.808 --> 00:34:35.155 - for a few reasons. It helps to stabilize the economic model. It helps to stabilize the classrooms. And 00:34:35.155 --> 00:34:41.378 - as I mentioned earlier, it does help create some exposure. We know that learning outcomes are better 00:34:41.378 --> 00:34:47.787 - for all children in a mixed income classroom. So that's why we're looking at it in that way. The middle 00:34:47.787 --> 00:34:51.422 - 20% is flexible based on needs and siblings and et cetera. 00:34:51.618 --> 00:34:58.138 - We have a play-based curriculum, so we're really focused on whole child, child-led work. We know that 00:34:58.138 --> 00:35:04.658 - no one's able to work if they haven't had enough to eat, which means we should all be very productive 00:35:04.658 --> 00:35:11.306 - after this lunch, which I mean, I'm gonna need a nap. And we are focused on meeting families where they 00:35:11.306 --> 00:35:17.826 - are as well. So we don't have any enrollment fees, we don't have any activity fees. Once children are 00:35:17.826 --> 00:35:21.342 - enrolled, they may stay until they go to kindergarten. 00:35:21.826 --> 00:35:27.994 - Some children do and some children don't. If you end up moving to Bedford or Ellisville or even just 00:35:27.994 --> 00:35:34.344 - the far west side or the far south side, it may be more convenient, may make more sense to go somewhere 00:35:34.344 --> 00:35:40.573 - closer, especially if you do not have a car, which many of our families don't. But we know that about 00:35:40.573 --> 00:35:46.862 - half of the kids end up staying for at least one full academic year, which is fantastic because that's 00:35:46.862 --> 00:35:51.198 - really what we're looking for for them to help improve those outcomes. 00:35:56.130 --> 00:36:03.278 - Thank you so very much for this information. I didn't hear you really talk about dollar signs. And we 00:36:03.278 --> 00:36:10.637 - know that everything has a cost to it. And I would like for you to talk a little bit and inform us about 00:36:10.637 --> 00:36:18.206 - what you really need in the way of money. Yeah. So what we really need in the way of money is a few things. 00:36:18.498 --> 00:36:24.782 - When we look at that prevention and diversion work that I was talking about that we have begun to do 00:36:24.782 --> 00:36:31.191 - in a much more robust way in the past several years, a lot of that was funded by ARPA. So the American 00:36:31.191 --> 00:36:37.911 - Rescue Plan Act during the pandemic provided extra funds for a lot of different activities in our community 00:36:37.911 --> 00:36:44.195 - and others. And so that's an area where we're going to be looking to the community. Another place is 00:36:44.195 --> 00:36:47.742 - with early learning. So for a while in our state, we had 00:36:48.162 --> 00:36:54.745 - open enrollment for our CCDF vouchers. A CCDF voucher works a little bit like a housing choice voucher, 00:36:54.745 --> 00:37:01.644 - but essentially families apply for it, and then they can use it at qualified providers to pay for childcare. 00:37:01.644 --> 00:37:08.101 - Unfortunately, in our state, we now have a wait list that's a few tens of thousands of families long. 00:37:08.101 --> 00:37:14.620 - So our governor did recently release some funds to help alleviate that, but only enough to serve about 00:37:14.620 --> 00:37:17.342 - one third of the families who are waiting. 00:37:17.826 --> 00:37:23.761 - Obviously, and that wait list right now is between 18 and 24 months long for most families. Obviously, 00:37:23.761 --> 00:37:29.580 - if you're experiencing homelessness, you can't wait that long. There is a way for families to get an 00:37:29.580 --> 00:37:35.745 - expedited voucher, but it's complicated. And so we serve families in our early learning program regardless 00:37:35.745 --> 00:37:41.795 - of whether they have a voucher today, because today is when they need childcare so they can get housing. 00:37:41.795 --> 00:37:45.310 - And we will continue to do that for as long as they need it. 00:37:45.922 --> 00:37:52.108 - So that's another area that comes to mind. Right now, New Hope has done tremendous growing over the 00:37:52.108 --> 00:37:58.480 - past 15 years. And right now we're really focused on not necessarily adding new programs. We're really 00:37:58.480 --> 00:38:04.728 - focused on this promise of no child sleeps outside and making sure that we have the resources in our 00:38:04.728 --> 00:38:10.976 - community to sustain all the new things that we have been adding in the past several years. So those 00:38:10.976 --> 00:38:15.678 - are the things that right now have vulnerable funding sources, I would say. 00:38:15.970 --> 00:38:22.884 - Did that answer your question? Okay. Hi, thanks for being here. And I was delighted to see that your 00:38:22.884 --> 00:38:29.797 - facility was on the garden walk tour this year. Thank you. And two things. First, I was surprised at 00:38:29.797 --> 00:38:37.053 - how much space was all plants or gardens or something all over the place there. And then second, I wanted 00:38:37.053 --> 00:38:44.446 - to know if the families or children are involved in any of those garden growing things or things like that. 00:38:46.914 --> 00:38:53.498 - Thank you for asking. It was a delight to be on the Garden Walk this year. And it's a little, I don't 00:38:53.498 --> 00:39:00.018 - know if hypocritical is quite the right word for me to come up here and say it was wonderful because 00:39:00.018 --> 00:39:06.796 - I did none of that work. I will tell you, we have a remarkable team of volunteers. I have a particularly 00:39:06.796 --> 00:39:13.445 - black thumb and cannot seem to keep anything alive other than my two children so far. But yes, we have 00:39:13.445 --> 00:39:16.414 - a remarkable team of volunteers who have just 00:39:16.674 --> 00:39:22.695 - poured their love into these gardens. One of the foundational beliefs that we have at New Hope is that 00:39:22.695 --> 00:39:28.715 - we want to treat families with dignity. And the way that we present our spaces is one of the ways that 00:39:28.715 --> 00:39:34.911 - we express that to families. So sometimes I tell people about the reason we have beautiful early learning 00:39:34.911 --> 00:39:40.990 - classrooms, you guys saw some photos of those, is because when we give that to children, we are telling 00:39:40.990 --> 00:39:45.374 - them something about what they are and about what we believe they deserve. 00:39:45.858 --> 00:39:52.044 - And so our words and our actions serve as mirrors for children so that they understand that. And that's 00:39:52.044 --> 00:39:57.991 - true for grownups too, when we forget that sometimes. But having a space that's beautiful is one of 00:39:57.991 --> 00:40:04.177 - the ways that we say you are valuable. We believe that everyone deserves access to beauty and that when 00:40:04.177 --> 00:40:10.125 - you are in crisis, you need it a little bit more than other people. That you may especially need to 00:40:10.125 --> 00:40:14.526 - be able to sit in a gazebo with some wild flowers and take a deep breath. 00:40:14.754 --> 00:40:21.447 - So I didn't plant a single one of those flowers, but I sure enjoy them every day. And our families love 00:40:21.447 --> 00:40:28.140 - to work in our garden. The kids have garden time at least once a week in each of their classrooms. Even 00:40:28.140 --> 00:40:34.769 - the infants get to go outside and play in the garden. But the big kids get to help harvest. Everything 00:40:34.769 --> 00:40:41.720 - in our ladybug garden is tasteable. So the kids get to taste anything that they want to in there. Sometimes 00:40:41.720 --> 00:40:42.878 - they even eat it. 00:40:43.362 --> 00:40:49.293 - which is remarkable if you've tried to give a three-year-old a green bean lately. But that is one of 00:40:49.293 --> 00:40:55.223 - the real joys for me, is watching our kids out there experiencing things. We know that children from 00:40:55.223 --> 00:41:01.447 - low-income families are often food insecure, and we know that food insecure families are the least likely 00:41:01.447 --> 00:41:07.319 - to have access to fresh fruits and vegetables because of the cost. And so early childhood is a time 00:41:07.319 --> 00:41:09.374 - that we really have to be exposing 00:41:09.666 --> 00:41:17.005 - our children to those foods. And that's especially hard if you're low income because exposing your child 00:41:17.005 --> 00:41:23.995 - to asparagus often means putting that asparagus into the trash afterwards because they don't always 00:41:23.995 --> 00:41:30.776 - eat it. And so this is one of the ways that we can help with that exposure for families as well. 00:41:30.776 --> 00:41:36.158 - Thank you. Thank you. Outstanding presentation. I want to ask you to kind of 00:41:36.258 --> 00:41:43.846 - go up like the 30,000 foot level. Obviously you've done an outstanding job where you are now. And I 00:41:43.846 --> 00:41:51.661 - wonder if you could share your observations about how we're doing as a city and a county in addressing 00:41:51.661 --> 00:41:59.401 - the homeless issue and what from your leadership and experience and broad knowledge of this area, not 00:41:59.401 --> 00:42:06.078 - just what are your observations, but do you have some recommendations or thoughts about 00:42:06.178 --> 00:42:13.596 - where we might go. I'm not asking you to critique every single agency, but I really feel like you're 00:42:13.596 --> 00:42:21.529 - kind of a thought leader in this area, and I'd love your thoughts. Thank you. Thank you. Wow. I'm flattered 00:42:21.529 --> 00:42:29.094 - to be asked, Jeff. I think it's, in addition to working at New Hope for Families, I've been privileged 00:42:29.094 --> 00:42:35.998 - to be a part of Heading Home of South Central Indiana, as has Forrest and some other leaders. 00:42:37.634 --> 00:42:45.762 - I will say this. My experience is that this work is harder this year than it was last year. And it was 00:42:45.762 --> 00:42:54.049 - harder last year than it was the year before. Right now, there are some choices happening at the federal 00:42:54.049 --> 00:43:02.098 - and state level that make it even harder than usual. But even without those things, it would still be 00:43:02.098 --> 00:43:05.886 - harder because our housing market is too tight. 00:43:06.434 --> 00:43:13.570 - We do not live in a community where affordable housing happens accidentally or happens naturally. It 00:43:13.570 --> 00:43:20.706 - has to happen on purpose. And I don't think we have leaders who don't want affordable housing, but I 00:43:20.706 --> 00:43:27.913 - do think we sometimes struggle to land the plane on some of those things. So from my perspective, our 00:43:27.913 --> 00:43:35.614 - service providers are working together more closely than we have in the past. At least that's my experience. 00:43:36.514 --> 00:43:43.205 - And we're even begin to work more closely together regionally, which is one of the ways that we solve 00:43:43.205 --> 00:43:49.764 - this problem, right? I'm gonna say something that maybe I shouldn't say on a recording, but here we 00:43:49.764 --> 00:43:56.389 - go. Bloomington is such a beautiful and vibrant place. And I think we're all really proud to be from 00:43:56.389 --> 00:44:03.211 - here. And we're all really proud to live here. And we all really like living here and having the values 00:44:03.211 --> 00:44:03.998 - that we do. 00:44:07.554 --> 00:44:14.003 - The way that we do things right now is working for some of us, but it's not working for a lot of us. 00:44:14.003 --> 00:44:20.515 - And those aren't people in this room, and those aren't people who already own homes. And so it can be 00:44:20.515 --> 00:44:27.028 - difficult to understand that. But we have to be willing for some things to change about our community 00:44:27.028 --> 00:44:33.796 - in terms of where we put housing and how we do it, and in particular, where poor people can live. Because 00:44:33.796 --> 00:44:36.222 - we know that when we isolate poverty, 00:44:36.802 --> 00:44:43.214 - we're making sure that it can thrive. And when we spread it out, we're helping to break it down. And 00:44:43.214 --> 00:44:49.563 - that's a tricky thing to do. And it's a tricky thing to do with zoning ordinances. And this is true 00:44:49.563 --> 00:44:56.547 - everywhere. This isn't unique to Bloomington. But in my experience, one of the things that makes a difference 00:44:56.547 --> 00:45:02.769 - is when we're able to put families into a lot of different places and not just one or two housing 00:45:02.769 --> 00:45:05.182 - developments. So from my perspective, 00:45:05.506 --> 00:45:12.262 - You know, more housing is very much the answer. Lots of kinds of housing and all over town. And that's 00:45:12.262 --> 00:45:19.215 - hard. And I'm glad that I don't work at the planning department because I wouldn't presume to say exactly 00:45:19.215 --> 00:45:25.775 - how that should look. But I do think it does require all of us to do a little bit of thinking about 00:45:25.775 --> 00:45:32.662 - how we might be willing for our own neighborhoods to look a tiny bit different in order that more people 00:45:32.662 --> 00:45:34.302 - can have what they need. 00:45:37.058 --> 00:45:43.502 - So two things. We've had several speakers over the last month, I would say. We had Wendy Goodlett come 00:45:43.502 --> 00:45:50.070 - and speak from Habitat for Humanity. We had Denzel Ross speak from IU Health. And there were data points 00:45:50.070 --> 00:45:56.576 - that we all got to see from each of those presentations that tie in exactly to what you're saying right 00:45:56.576 --> 00:46:03.082 - now. And I just want to remind everyone, if you think about Denzel presenting IU Health, the population 00:46:03.082 --> 00:46:06.398 - of the 65 plus was, it grew by about 15% since 2016. 00:46:06.594 --> 00:46:13.832 - What does that mean? We have a lot more older people, which is great because we bring the experience. 00:46:13.832 --> 00:46:20.929 - But we're also taking a lot of the housing that's affordable. That's okay, but to your point, we as 00:46:20.929 --> 00:46:28.167 - older people set in our ways have to be open to new ideas. I include myself in this category. I'm 64, 00:46:28.167 --> 00:46:35.902 - I'm pretty dang close. We have to look at the properties that are out there that have the space to put ADUs. 00:46:36.354 --> 00:46:42.259 - You know, as long as they make them nice looking, we need to be open to that because the housing is 00:46:42.259 --> 00:46:48.164 - not going to. If we can't build it, they're going to Ellitsville. They're going to Martinsville. We 00:46:48.164 --> 00:46:54.305 - are losing that growth. Business gets stifled. We've got I think the stat that Wendy gave. We have 1000 00:46:54.305 --> 00:47:00.327 - Airbnbs out there and that's great. Somebody is making money off those. They're full maybe 40% of the 00:47:00.327 --> 00:47:04.638 - time. Probably that's 60% of the time that somebody is not living there. 00:47:04.962 --> 00:47:11.718 - So there are so many different pressure points that are on this that we have to be thought leaders with 00:47:11.718 --> 00:47:18.474 - our community to help people think differently and not be so close minded. So that was the first thing. 00:47:18.474 --> 00:47:25.165 - My real question for you was on the daycare, you have to balance the need to cover the expenses, which 00:47:25.165 --> 00:47:28.478 - means you have to look at making sure you're full. 00:47:28.802 --> 00:47:33.537 - How do you balance that with the flow of people coming in and you never know what age the child's going 00:47:33.537 --> 00:47:38.545 - to be and to make sure that you have availability? I mean, I, I remember daycare is the number one nightmare. 00:47:38.545 --> 00:47:43.144 - Anytime I moved, it was, that was the number one thing. And so how do you balance that and make sure 00:47:43.144 --> 00:47:47.879 - you have availability for those kids as they come in? Yeah, that's a great question. Uh, and the answer 00:47:47.879 --> 00:47:52.522 - is unfortunately it's expensive, right? What it means is that right now I've got an empty seat in our 00:47:52.522 --> 00:47:53.342 - infant classroom. 00:47:53.794 --> 00:47:59.822 - Our school year is like the MCCSE school year. So kids start in a classroom first day of school, August 00:47:59.822 --> 00:48:05.735 - 3rd this year, and they stay in that classroom all year. I know that the seats in my infant classroom 00:48:05.735 --> 00:48:11.937 - are gonna be in the highest demand all year. I also know that if I enroll a family into that seat, they're 00:48:11.937 --> 00:48:17.791 - going to expect to stay all year. And so, although we could be receiving income from a middle income 00:48:17.791 --> 00:48:22.718 - family, and quite a lot of it actually, because it's very expensive to have daycare, 00:48:23.138 --> 00:48:28.502 - what we choose to do instead is to forego that income because we know that in the next couple of weeks, 00:48:28.502 --> 00:48:33.659 - we haven't met them yet, but there's a family who's going to need it. And that's part of the reason 00:48:33.659 --> 00:48:38.816 - why, well, it's very difficult to make money at daycare if you're doing it well. But at our daycare 00:48:38.816 --> 00:48:44.232 - in particular, because we are saving those seats, that's part of the reason when you asked about funding 00:48:44.232 --> 00:48:47.326 - needs, that's one of them, is being able to save that spot. 00:48:47.682 --> 00:48:54.335 - So our infant classroom is equipped to hold up to nine children. We have eight in there right now, and 00:48:54.335 --> 00:49:00.923 - that's intentional. I think now we have identified the baby who's going to use it, who was born three 00:49:00.923 --> 00:49:07.446 - weeks ago, which means that we enrolled everybody else for those classes. That classroom was full in 00:49:07.446 --> 00:49:13.905 - January. We had already identified, we were saying to anyone else who called, I'm sorry, we can put 00:49:13.905 --> 00:49:15.326 - you on the wait list. 00:49:16.066 --> 00:49:21.976 - there is no chance that this family that is experiencing homelessness now and had a baby three weeks 00:49:21.976 --> 00:49:28.003 - ago knew they were going to be in this position in January. And so it's a big part of what we're doing 00:49:28.003 --> 00:49:33.971 - is thinking about that really intentionally, right? I started the place and I couldn't get my kids in 00:49:33.971 --> 00:49:39.940 - until they were eight months old. So it is, it's remarkably difficult to have childcare and it is, so 00:49:39.940 --> 00:49:42.046 - saving those spots is how we do it. 00:49:48.354 --> 00:49:58.106 - I've had a good bit of first-hand experience with homeless relatives, actually both my parents, though 00:49:58.106 --> 00:50:07.668 - I only speak to my mom. She's been highly resistant to services, and I suspect this applies to a lot 00:50:07.668 --> 00:50:16.094 - of homeless people because she has a dog. She won't go anywhere. She can't take the dog. 00:50:17.218 --> 00:50:26.118 - I think she likes the dog more than me, honestly. And I can't blame her. But I was wondering, serving 00:50:26.118 --> 00:50:35.017 - families, how are family pets addressed in this situation? Are people resistant to accepting services 00:50:35.017 --> 00:50:44.266 - if it means giving up the pet? How do you deal with that kind of situation? Because it seems like there's 00:50:44.266 --> 00:50:45.662 - no good answer. 00:50:46.466 --> 00:50:52.876 - It's really hard. First of all, I'm really sorry about your parents and especially about your mom. We 00:50:52.876 --> 00:50:59.223 - see that a lot. It is really common. We're really fortunate in this community to have providers like 00:50:59.223 --> 00:51:05.884 - Beacon where you can bring your dog. At New Hope, you cannot, unfortunately. You can only bring a trained 00:51:05.884 --> 00:51:12.168 - service animal to New Hope for families. What we do, though, instead is that in that prevention and 00:51:12.168 --> 00:51:16.190 - diversion work, we help to identify a place for that dog to go. 00:51:16.322 --> 00:51:21.945 - And also because we feel pretty confident that we can get families through quickly, it is a little bit 00:51:21.945 --> 00:51:27.459 - easier perhaps to find a friend or a family member who might take care of that dog if we said, okay, 00:51:27.459 --> 00:51:33.027 - would you do it for six weeks and then we'll check back in. And then after six weeks, if we're pretty 00:51:33.027 --> 00:51:38.486 - close to identifying a lease, then it's, okay, well, do you think you could hold on for another six 00:51:38.486 --> 00:51:44.109 - weeks? Because at the end of 12 weeks, most people are housed. And so that's how we do it. It has long 00:51:44.109 --> 00:51:45.310 - been a dream of mine. 00:51:45.602 --> 00:51:53.691 - It's a sort of passion project that hasn't gotten off the ground yet, but will, to set up a community 00:51:53.691 --> 00:52:01.859 - fostering program for pets of homeless families. I have seen families where dad sleeps in the car with 00:52:01.859 --> 00:52:10.027 - the dog and mom comes inside with the kids. I have seen families where dad never comes to the shelter, 00:52:10.027 --> 00:52:13.278 - where he continues to camp with the dog. 00:52:13.762 --> 00:52:20.122 - while mom comes to the shelter with the kids and then they're reunited in housing. Thankfully, I haven't 00:52:20.122 --> 00:52:26.542 - seen a lot of that. I have seen more of working with the Humane Association. Again, because we're usually 00:52:26.542 --> 00:52:32.356 - looking at something time-limited, it is easier to say, okay, what about your brother who lives 00:52:32.356 --> 00:52:38.534 - in Martinsville? Could he stay there? What if we were able to identify someone who would help pay for 00:52:38.534 --> 00:52:43.198 - the dog food? Some of this work is sometimes called housing problem-solving. 00:52:43.650 --> 00:52:50.137 - And what's really interesting about it, and I'm so glad you asked because it doesn't apply just to the 00:52:50.137 --> 00:52:56.434 - people, right? Pets are a part of our families and we know that. And so when we're able to do that, 00:52:56.434 --> 00:53:02.984 - when I say that we meet families where they are, this is exactly the sort of thing that we mean, right? 00:53:02.984 --> 00:53:09.407 - Is that we say, okay, we know that you love this cat. And let's think about how we can make sure that 00:53:09.407 --> 00:53:13.438 - this cat gets to stay a part of your family at the end of this. 00:53:13.858 --> 00:53:21.027 - So one day I would love to have a better answer even than that, but I'll keep you. I'll I'll reach out 00:53:21.027 --> 00:53:28.057 - to Michael and ask if I can come back to tell you about it. Questions online. My quick question. The 00:53:28.057 --> 00:53:35.017 - cameraman has one quick question is is for the families that you stay connected to after you do it. 00:53:35.017 --> 00:53:41.977 - I imagine you run a sets of. Imagine you run a set of like all sorts of different kinds of opinions 00:53:41.977 --> 00:53:43.230 - about that as in, 00:53:43.362 --> 00:53:49.595 - Some of them want nothing to do with the connecting with you because I was homeless and now I'm not. 00:53:49.595 --> 00:53:56.012 - But some probably really enjoy the community you've helped create and the other people supporting them. 00:53:56.012 --> 00:54:02.554 - What do you do to actually try to ensure that that community and connection remains? What are your actual 00:54:02.554 --> 00:54:05.022 - strategies to be able to do that? Yeah. 00:54:05.122 --> 00:54:10.208 - So that's a great question. The first is that we are all about relationship-based care, and that's true 00:54:10.208 --> 00:54:15.293 - in our early learning, and it's true in our shelter. So they're going to have someone that they already 00:54:15.293 --> 00:54:20.232 - have known, someone that's already been invested in them, someone who's helped them to get housed is 00:54:20.232 --> 00:54:25.122 - going to be the person who reaches out. Secondly, through a generous grant, right now we're able to 00:54:25.122 --> 00:54:30.256 - offer some incentives. So we offer grocery store gift cards, so Kroger cards, for people who participate 00:54:30.256 --> 00:54:31.870 - in that survey that I mentioned. 00:54:31.970 --> 00:54:38.306 - But participation has been pretty robust. We've only had, I think, four families total over three years 00:54:38.306 --> 00:54:44.582 - who have completely declined to participate. And one of those families moved out of state. Another one 00:54:44.582 --> 00:54:50.674 - moved out of country. And then one of them opted back in after a little while. I will say this. The 00:54:50.674 --> 00:54:56.828 - other thing that's remarkable, and I should have mentioned in the presentation, is that New Hope has 00:54:56.828 --> 00:54:59.326 - always had a pretty low recidivism rate. 00:54:59.490 --> 00:55:05.124 - But in the three years that we've been doing this, our recidivism rate is zero. We have had not one 00:55:05.124 --> 00:55:11.097 - single successful family come back to us since we started this. We've had a couple who came. Yeah, right. 00:55:11.097 --> 00:55:16.900 - But you're right. Oftentimes, families say, look, I don't want to think about when I was homeless. Are 00:55:16.900 --> 00:55:22.590 - you kidding me? It's like how people have an aversion to hospitals after someone they know has died, 00:55:22.590 --> 00:55:27.774 - right? They don't want to come back to New Hope. Are you kidding? That was a terrible time. 00:55:28.066 --> 00:55:33.643 - And so being able to reach out to them, we also go to their homes to do these. So we don't ask them 00:55:33.643 --> 00:55:39.331 - to come to us. We send someone out to go to their home, talk with them, see how it's going, give them 00:55:39.331 --> 00:55:45.075 - a Kroger gift card and say, is everybody paying their Duke bill? Is anything happening? Because things 00:55:45.075 --> 00:55:50.652 - happen, right? If you were on the edge of homelessness before, you're gonna come to the edge again. 00:55:50.652 --> 00:55:55.838 - And so we wanna be there to help make sure that we can support that. Thank you guys so much. 00:55:58.242 --> 00:56:05.910 - Thank you. Well, Forest, you weren't kidding. That was a good ride. I want to thank everyone who helped 00:56:05.910 --> 00:56:13.430 - bring this meeting to fruition. Marilyn, wonderful job greeting. Myself for your guest introductions, 00:56:13.430 --> 00:56:16.158 - Forest for the speaker introduction. 00:56:16.290 --> 00:56:22.309 - Joy for Zoom hosts. Nice having you back from Alaska. Emily, great reflection. Thank you for that. Judy 00:56:22.309 --> 00:56:28.616 - Schroeder for doing the reporting. Michael Shermas, glad to have you back running the camera and microphone. 00:56:28.616 --> 00:56:33.246 - And then Jeff, I'm not sure if you got any pictures or not. Thank you so. Good. 00:56:33.538 --> 00:56:39.157 - And then Jill, thank you for all you do, keeping us organized. And Tyler, of course, with the audio 00:56:39.157 --> 00:56:45.113 - and equipment. Our next meeting will be in the Georgian room on the 1st. John Kiesler will be our special 00:56:45.113 --> 00:56:50.900 - guest discussing trauma-informed care, so please join us if you're able. And with that, if you're able 00:56:50.900 --> 00:56:56.856 - to, oh, Michelle has an announcement. Oh, there's a community service meeting right after this, so please 00:56:56.856 --> 00:57:01.182 - stick around. And Tyler, if you're able, please stand for the four-way test. 00:57:02.882 --> 00:57:09.817 - of the things we think, say or do. First, is it the truth? Second, is it fair to all concerned? Third, 00:57:09.817 --> 00:57:16.953 - will it build goodwill and better friendships? Fourth, will it be beneficial to all concerned? And fifth, 00:57:16.953 --> 00:57:17.694 - is it fun?