- All right, good morning, everyone. It is 8.30. Welcome, and thank you so much for being here at the
- 10th Annual Monroe County Childhood Conditions Summit, or MC3. Thank you. Yeah. I think that's a call for...
- Round of applause. My name is Melanie Vestledge, and if you haven't met me, I'm the prevention coordinator
- at the Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County, a member of the Building a Thriving Compassionate Community,
- BTCC, and a member of the MC3 planning team. So being here today was made possible by many individuals
- and organizations.
- Thank you to Judge Galvin, who saw the need to address the rise in children in need of services or CHINS
- cases. He called for change and a convening of stakeholders like yourselves who could make a difference.
- Thank you to the first YSB prevention coordinator, who was tasked by Judge Galvin in 2016 to bring this
- convening to life with a team of dedicated community members looking to make an impact on the upstream
- factors that were impacting young people and families in Monroe County.
- Thank you to the Youth Services Bureau. I know there's a number of you here today for your continued
- investment in MC3 over the past 10 years. Thank you to our friends at Marquis for creating this audio
- visual experience. Thank you to Katz for recording our sessions in the great room. And thank you to
- the Convention Center for being a great partner for MC3 over the past 10 years. And thank all of you
- for showing up today and supporting the summit year after year.
- Thank you to our many co-hosts. I know it's a long list of thank yous, but thank you to our co-hosts,
- Youth Services Bureau of Monroe County and Building a Thriving Compassionate Community, or YSB and BTCC,
- as you might know them. For the past 10 years, YSB and BTCC have funded and partnered on MC3, co-building
- a space for youth workers, for parents, educators, social workers, teens, and everyone with a shared
- stakeholder or shared stake in childhood conditions to come together.
- Thank you to the MC3 planning team. Everything that you see here today, every thoughtful detail is here
- because of the work of many people putting many months into planning. They're the ones that are making
- those meaningful connections. They're mulling over the details. They're making it all happen. And many
- of our planning team members are from partner organizations who contribute staff time to support MC3.
- And some of them are volunteering their hours as a part of the BTCC network.
- One of those incredible volunteers that I would like to highlight is Tara Green, maybe wave. Tara is
- going to join me up on stage here in a second. Yeah. A huge thank you to Tara. She has been part of
- the MC3 planning team for the entire 10 years that MC3 has been a part of our community. So that's no
- easy feat. She's a community volunteer who has put in countless hours over the past decade. So thank
- you so much, Tara.
- I also want to thank our financial sponsors and supporters for MC3. Like I said, Youth Services Bureau
- has been a primary funder of MC3 for the past 10 years alongside several community sponsors every year.
- In addition to YSB funding, we are really grateful for the support of Juvenile Detention Alternatives
- Initiative, or JDAI, who specifically provide funding for accessibility.
- Thank you also to Bloomington Health Foundation, Anthem, Family Solutions, the City of Bloomington Office
- of the Mayor, Firefly Family and Children Alliance, O'Connell Case, LCSW, LLC, Sylvan Learning, Hopscotch
- Coffee, that's what you're all drinking today, and several of you who provided donations through the
- registration event at Eventbrite. And some of our sponsors are also in the Duke West Room, if you'd
- like to touch base with them.
- Their combined support made it possible to host this event free of charge for participants to offer
- you meals and snacks throughout the day, to ensure accessibility services like these microphones, magnifiers,
- and to help pay for the continuing education credits for select sessions throughout the day through
- the National Association of Social Workers. So if you didn't pick up one of those CE forms when you
- came in, you can also do that throughout the day. Finally, thank you to you.
- There are so many agencies that are represented in this room today. And the summit simply doesn't exist
- without you here in this room. We hope that you're able to spend today engaging and learning and connecting
- throughout today. Know that we really appreciate you being here and contributing to MC3. So at this
- point, I would like to introduce a special guest who is deeply invested in childhood conditions throughout
- the county, the Honorable Judge Holly Harvey. Judge Harvey.
- It is an old picture up there. It's so great to see you all today. And I've already noticed this is
- going to be a great conference because nobody's sitting in the front row. Again, my name is Holly Harvey.
- I'm currently serving as a juvenile court judge in Monroe Circuit Court 7. I preside over the chins,
- juvenile delinquency, adoptions, and occasional paternity and guardianship. So thank you.
- for being here today. As I prepared this statement today, I typically look back to the website and see
- what is the theme for the summit. And today's summit is a decade of growth, empowering youth, strengthening
- our village over the past decade, strengthening our village. And over the past decade,
- The summit has been guided by the concept of what surrounds us, shapes us. So right now, ask yourself,
- who are we surrounded by today? I see a room full of dedicated community members and service providers
- who want to make positive change and build a community where youth and families thrive. How have you
- all shaped the community in which our Monroe County youth live and grow?
- And so you can ask yourself that as we go throughout our day. I come to you in my small role as a juvenile
- court judge so I can give you only just a snapshot of what I see and have seen over the past few years.
- And I thought it would be helpful to kind of go back in time to see where we were and where we are now
- just in terms of our numbers. So I did a little research in preparing this.
- So Judge Galvin has lived through this, but in 2017, in the height of the opioid epidemic, he was at
- the helm of the juvenile cases when Shin's case has reached a high in April of 2017 of 486 children
- in his caseload of a total of 623 total children in care. That would include Shin's case's collaborative
- care and informal adjustments. At the end of September of 2025,
- The total children in care was 280, with only 205 CHINZ cases pending in Monroe County. So that is a
- tremendous improvement, and I think it reflects the work that you all do. In that same year of 2017,
- there were 692 total referrals pending before juvenile probation. In 2024, there were 320. So again,
- really a vast improvement.
- In 2013, the Monroe Circuit Court implemented the juvenile detention alternatives initiative, and the
- fidelity to the evidence-based practices within that program keeps our detention rates stable and relatively
- low. So shout out to juvenile probation today, and they are really represented here today. In 2015,
- again, the Youth Service Bureau received 451 referrals for service.
- In 2024, YSB received, the Minkley House received 544 referrals for service. And I think Vicki would
- probably tell you it's really hard right now. So that's one of those factors that maybe hasn't gone
- down, but it does reflect all the work that's still necessary and still very much at the forefront of
- what you all do. And YSB doesn't blow its horn nearly enough, but it provides emergency shelter services,
- short-term counseling services to residents,
- Also, intervention and prevention services such as the Truancy Termination Project, Empowering Parenting
- Workshop, and Seeking Safety. And those are from the 2024 report. I know that there are new programs
- being implemented all the time. But they're doing a fantastic job. And it is invaluable to this community, yes.
- So these figures, while not completely representative of all of the childhood conditions in Monroe County
- that we seek to improve, they give a measurable snapshot of how we are doing as a community in keeping
- our young people and our community safe. The goal of today's summit is not only to look back at what
- has shaped childhood conditions in Monroe County over the last 10 years, but also to look ahead to how
- we continue to develop a community in which children thrive.
- According to the Essentials for Childhood Framework, which I did look up, it's on the website for today's
- summit, I did a little homework, we do this by raising awareness of the importance of promoting safe,
- stable, and nurturing relationships, which you'll talk about today, using data to inform our actions,
- creating space for changing norms and programs to promote healthy children and families, and developing
- policies to carry out those goals.
- My role as juvenile court judge, I am honored to have just one small role in the protection of children
- in this community and contributing positively to the essentials of childhood. I took over that role
- from one key individual responsible for shaping childhood conditions in this community and
- who was instrumental in creating this summit. Prior to his election to the Monroe Circuit Court,
- Senior Judge Steve Galvin served as counsel for the Office of Family and Children, prosecuting cases
- of abuse and neglect for 14 years. And from 2004 to 2022, he served as judge of the Monroe Circle Court
- 7, and most of those years presided over the juvenile cases. I don't think he would blow this horn,
- but he has served on a number of committees focused on juvenile justice and child welfare.
- and since his retirement has been serving as senior judge on cases throughout the state as well as special
- projects intended to improve court performance. The Monroe County child welfare and juvenile justice
- climate has been indelibly influenced by the leadership of our next speaker, Judge Stephen Galvin.
- Good morning. All right. This is like old home week. Gary waving in the front row. Yeah, that was a
- wonderful buildup. I'm not sure I can live up to that. What I can say is that I came prepared to do
- my own introduction and I'm gonna throw some of that out there for you and I'll try to explain why as
- I go along.
- I started out as an attorney here in Monroe County 45 years ago, 45 long years ago. I started out as
- a public defender. I was a public defender for five years. I was a prosecutor for three years. And as
- Judge Harvey has said, I was a DCS attorney. I was a county attorney. And then for the last 21 years,
- I've been a judge. Now, the reason I tell you all of this and reinforce this on you is
- so that you will truly understand that I cannot hold a job. Okay. And also so that you'll understand
- that I've been around here a long time and I've been able to see what you all do. And I've seen the
- impact you have on children and families. So that's the framework we're starting with here. I want you to then
- know that I was asked to sort of give a synopsis of how and where the inspiration for MC3 came from.
- And when you ask an old person to give a synopsis of anything, what you get is a story. So what you're
- going to get this morning at 8.30 in the morning is a story from me about this. So the first part of
- the story is somewhat boring. It deals with me.
- but I think it helps explain how we got here today. Um, going back to 1989, I was a lawyer in the prosecuting
- attorney's office. I was a trial attorney and, um, I was really reaching the point where I wasn't enjoying
- what I was doing. Um, it seemed that I wasn't accomplishing anything.
- And I was really considering changing professions. I quit my job in the prosecutor's office, and I took
- my bike. I went around the world. And when I got back, I took a job for what I thought was a temporary
- job for Monroe County, for county government. And so I was representing the county council and commissioners.
- Early on in my employment, there was a meeting where there was a judge who appeared. And that judge
- was Viola Taliaferro. Does anybody remember Judge Taliaferro? I know we got some. Those of you who have
- not heard about Judge Taliaferro, please talk to those who knew her and saw her. She was an extraordinary
- individual. I was sitting in a council meeting with her one night
- And one of the council members, we were talking about the juvenile court budget. And one of the council
- members looked up and said, now just explain to me why we're spending money on those children. And before
- they could get those children out of their mouths, Judge Talia Farrow said, no, you mean our children,
- don't you? Our children. And she kept saying it.
- She would never let them say anything other than our children. If you go to a council meeting today,
- if you hear if Marty Hawk was here sitting next to me, Marty would say, we say our children because
- just what she did. I got to tell you that had a profound impact on me. It really did. All at once things
- started to change. But I also say that as I went along, I got to know Judge Talia Farrow so well.
- I realized something, she's one of you. She was a social worker. She was a teacher. She went to law
- school after she raised a family. And after all of that, she was an advocate. She had built this up.
- And I guess what I'm going to be saying at some point here is that you remind me a lot of Judge Taliaferro.
- Because of her, I took the job.
- as the attorney for the Office of Family and Children at the time. And that was still probably the welfare
- department. I was a trial lawyer doing this job. And that's where I really started to get to know you
- all, started to encounter you on a day-to-day basis. One of the things I did as the DCS attorney was
- that I prepped you
- prepped all, well, I shouldn't say all of you, but it seems like I've at one time or another,
- your predecessors, I prepped each, each and every one of them to testify. So it was routine that I'd
- be preparing caseworkers and causes and teachers and social workers, psychologists, nurses, doctors,
- child service providers of all kinds to give testimony in court. And
- From those interviews, I came to a conclusion. I came to a conclusion that I found you all to be amazing.
- You had something in common. A fierce commitment to children and families. You had empathy. You had
- resilience. I could see that your jobs were often exhausting, thankless. But you all persevered. That's
- something I never forgot.
- that perseverance. And I can't tell you how much, well, I saw that you had the passion for your work,
- and I can't tell you how much I admired that passion. I continue to admire that passion. I'll give you
- some examples of the interviews that I had, just very briefly. My first CASA interview, if you're a
- CASA, we got CASAs here, I see CASAs, raise your hands. My first CASA that, well, you can, I'm all right
- with that.
- The first CASA that I interviewed, I was just doing the routine questions. How long have you been a
- CASA? Well, OK. What's your training? And the next question was, and how many hours have you devoted
- to this case? And they looked at me and said, 250. 250 hours. These are volunteers.
- struck me. I've never been able to get over that. I've seen cases that have twice that many hours now.
- That was amazing to me. I remember trying to get a probation officer to concentrate on their testimony
- and preparing them, but they didn't want to talk about their testimony. They wanted to, they were so
- enthusiastic about the fact that they had one of their people on their caseload, one of their
- juveniles was going to graduate high school. And that's all they could talk about. We have probation
- officers. We've already given you all a round of applause. So I'm not going to give you two, but, but
- I want you to know that that also had a profound impact. I remember a teacher when we were getting ready
- to get her to testify. And she said, you know, I woke up thinking about this child at three o'clock
- this morning.
- She wasn't worried about her testimony. She was worried about the child. She wanted to talk about the
- child, what was going to happen to the child. That was her focus. That, by the way, 3 o'clock wake up
- in the morning seems to be common for you all. It's common. Judge Harvey and I were talking about doing
- the same thing. It's common for all of us. And finally, I remember when I was at the Office of Family
- and Children trying to prep
- caseworkers one morning after they'd had a particularly bad time. And they were crying. Do
- we have caseworkers here today? Do we have any caseworkers? We do not. Do we? All right. Okay. They
- weren't crying because they were upset or giving up. They were crying because they were frustrated.
- They were really mad and they wanted to make certain
- that what happened to the children that were in their care and on their caseload was going to turn out
- right. These are all instances that I found incredibly inspiring and they stayed with me and they stuck
- with me. It struck me at the time as I interviewed all these different individuals who had different
- backgrounds, they had a common outlook.
- but they operated in silos. Each person had their own silos. Each group had their own silos. But they
- couldn't see what I was seeing. They couldn't see each other and the common interests, the common goals
- for children and family that they had. And that also had a profound impact on me. When Judge Taliaferro
- retired in 2004,
- She basically told me you're gonna run for judge and I did what she told me. And I became a judge. This
- notion of getting us all together to share our common experiences and to learn from each other was always
- kind of in the back of my mind. Now, I wanna tell you something that you might not know. When judges
- get together, we often talk about you. I imagine you don't think that,
- Judge Harvey, I think would confirm that. We talk about something extraordinary you may have done in
- court or helping a child, the challenges that you face and the common problems that you all share. So
- this is a common thing we do. And in the early teens, I was having a conversation with a judge named
- Charlie Pratt from Allen County. Charlie was a wonderful juvenile
- court judge. And Charlie had started an annual conference in Allen County that dealt with those who
- dealt with children and families. And he put this together, he said, to celebrate what they do.
- And I thought, well, now it seems like now or never, if he's doing it, we can do it. But as
- Judge Harvey said, this was the height of the opioid epidemic. And my caseload had gone through the
- roof. And I didn't have time to organize this. And I met with Vicki Tavenaugh. Vicki's here. And Vicki
- and I talked about, where is she? She's back there. Okay. Vicki and I talked about this. And we talked
- about creating a forum
- where people who serve the children and families of Monroe County could gather as a group outside their
- silos to share their stories and to learn from each other and to support each other and to celebrate
- their common goals. Now, notice that we talked about, I talked, did I have time to do this? I did not.
- But Allison Zinfer-Hair was the prevention coordinator for YSB.
- at the time. And she, along with BTCC, picked this up and ran with it. They were amazing. They worked
- together and they and you all created MC3. That's who created this. Because here's the truth when we
- talk about the creation of starting this program and starting doing this. This wasn't the work of a judge.
- This was the work of you all. You all did it. You and your predecessors, you inspired this and MCC,
- excuse me, MC3 is a reflection of you and your commitment to our children and families. So this is yours.
- So my long winded story is really only about you. All right. Well, in closing, I'd like to say that
- when I look around this room,
- I think of how much you all remind me of Judge Taliaferro. You understand what it means to serve and
- to fight for children. And like Judge Taliaferro, you've always been an inspiration to me and for that
- and from all the children that you serve, I thank you.
- Thank you Judge Galvin and Judge Harvey for sharing that perspective and for caring so deeply for our
- community. Hello everyone. My name is Tara Green. I'm a member of BTCC. My background is in education
- and I'm on the planning team for MC3. I've got a scratchy voice today, so I'm sorry.
- to give you my husky voice side. But I'm so excited for us to be together again. Many of you have been
- here before. Some, it's your first time. And I'm so glad that we get to share space together. Because
- I really believe that it's when we get together, when we make the connections that we do in places like
- this, it fuels us. It fuels our collective power to create more possibilities in our community for youth.
- Each year, we gather to talk about conditions. So what do we mean by conditions? We're looking at the
- Monroe County youth and how they're living, playing, growing, learning, and how the adults in their
- lives are able to support that. As Judge Harvey mentioned, we use the phrase, what surrounds us shapes us.
- Children's lives and ours are shaped by big structural conditions like housing, healthcare, policies
- at all the levels. And that's just a few. We can dig into some more of the details of that. Let's piece
- out a few more. I think we can move on to the next slide. It has a whole list of different things. And
- these are just some. You'll think of your own as well. But conditions of how the children are born.
- their family life, how they're treated in the organization's programs, even their access to sidewalks
- that support social inclusion and connection to others in the community, their family's workplace conditions,
- the ability of their parents and caregivers to spend time with them, their perception of their potential,
- the access they're given for opportunities for growth and connection to others, and so much more than
- what's even listed here.
- A big condition we have highlighted in the data walk that's in Duke East is the living wage, a parent's
- ability to earn a living wage. And I want to give a big appreciation to Katie Hopkins for introducing
- me to that so long ago. If you haven't connected with Monroe County's living wage, I really encourage
- you to check out the data walk. We have a panel there that tells you
- in reality what type of income is needed to be able to support yourself and your family. And we know
- that many of the conditions that we're talking about are shaped by distributions of resources, money,
- power, social capital, and children across our community do not have equal access to all of those. So
- today we're asking what can we do to provide the support of conditions to meet the needs so that all
- children can thrive.
- And as we're talking about children, I want to bring some pictures of children up. These are some children
- in our community, some that I know, some that you may know. People shared photos of kids in their lives.
- So we're going to be thinking about these kids in our own lives and the organizations that we touch
- in the community in general. And it's going to remind us of who we're gathering for today. What childhood
- do we want them to have?
- Sometimes I like to fast forward and think of these children as adults. And I imagine the types of community
- conditions that influenced how they grew, how they became the adults that they did. And sometimes I
- do the reverse. Sometimes I look at the adults in our community, those who look like they're thriving,
- getting by, those who might seem like they're struggling. And I wonder, what were the conditions of
- their childhood? What influenced them?
- We know that supportive conditions are not equally distributed. Some kids are being enriched from the
- moment they're born and some are not. Some have their needs met within their families, their schools
- and some of our organizations and some get missed. Some face many bumps along the way and others not
- so much. I feel a sense of urgency because these children are developing as we speak. Right now they're
- having moments in the community that are shaping who they are.
- And they are developing in these current conditions. And they're going to grow to be the adults in our
- community. So today we're talking about what can we do to support optimal conditions for the children,
- like the ones here and the ones that we're thinking about throughout today. Those were some of the youth
- that helped plan one of the summits many years ago.
- Judge Harvey mentioned a phrase that we use a lot, and that's SSNREs. If you've been to an MC3 before,
- you've heard us say this phrase. It's on the inside of your program if you want some more information
- about it. This phrasing comes from a framework from the CDC, from their Essentials for Childhood. And
- they boil down to the most simplistic form what children need to thrive. They need safe, stable, and
- nurturing relationships and environments.
- Each of those words might have their own meaning to us as individuals and to the different children
- and families that we serve. But we can think about that for a minute as we start our day. What does
- safety mean to you or to the children you're thinking about? Physical safety, emotional safety, intellectual
- safety, social safety? What does it mean in the different environments that they move about and then
- the different relationships they have across their lives?
- What does stability look like? What does it mean to nurture children in relationships and environments?
- We know that SSNREs promote positive childhood experiences. Here at MC3 and other spaces in our community,
- we've talked a lot about ACEs, adverse childhood experiences. What we want to ask is, how can we create
- community conditions that prevent ACEs from happening in the first place?
- For me personally, I spent many years teaching middle and high school. And I became really interested
- in early brain development and how much that affects the lifespan of a child. So I'm often thinking
- about the youngest, the babies. You might be thinking about kids across the span of what we call youth
- or childhood or into young adults. I'm thinking about what are the supportive conditions that I can
- do that I can influence the organizations that I'm in that are literally influencing how they grow.
- For babies, for me, I'm thinking about how our interactions are building their brains. It's literally
- shaping their brain architecture. So I'm thinking about how can we as a community provide conditions
- that continue to support that? How can we provide conditions so that their caregivers can provide the
- supportive environments they need for SSNREs? One way we can think about what we can do is by looking
- at a model called the social ecological model.
- And this is also in your program, just on the inside. It's a way we can look at all the levels of where
- we have influence. Where can we support conditions that can help children thrive at the individual level,
- the interpersonal, institutional, the community level, and at the policy level? Each of us is going
- to have our own version of that. Some of us will work very individually, interpersonally.
- one-on-one with kids. Others of us are going to be setting policies that trickle down and affect the
- families which affect the children. So today I hope as we move about our sessions and we share in community
- with other people who are thinking about childhood conditions, we can share each of our own version
- of ways that we're influencing conditions to support youth. So I hope to see you in some sessions and
- now I invite Melanie back up to tell us more about our time together.
- Thank you so much. Oh, you're much taller than me. Thank you so much, Tara. So like we've said, this
- year we're taking a look back on a decade of growth, empowering youth and strengthening our village.
- What have we been able to accomplish coming together as a village at MC3 for the past 10 years? And
- where do we go next? So in 2016, we took a look at the concept of what surrounds us shapes us.
- because we know that the conditions that surround young people shape the people that they grow into,
- and that young people who are surrounded by those SSNREs, safety, stability, nurturance, they're more
- likely to thrive, to grow into thriving adults, and build thriving communities. And over the years,
- we've covered a range of topic areas that are listed up here. We've talked about youth health, building
- connection, equity and inclusion,
- mattering and belonging, power and possibility. We even braved turning this into a virtual and a hybrid
- event over the COVID pandemic. But if you've been to at least one other MC3, I do invite you to think
- about what it is that brought you back. Why are you here today?
- Have you seen any changes in the community conditions, stronger partnerships, other collaborations,
- or things that have affected the well-being of our community over the past 10 years? I'm going to run
- through these slides quickly, but as Tara mentioned, we do have these data walk slides in the Duke East
- Room. But you can check out these infographics there. In this display, you see an assortment of data
- that's assembled from both MC3, or I guess in that room,
- data from the past, as well as this intentional set of posters reflecting on some specific changes in
- the past 10 years. And like Judge Harvey mentioned, we've got some census data, DCS data, that shows
- some positive trends. We've got the children in poverty, we've got chins cases that seem to be down
- since 2014. But meanwhile, unsurprising to any of us in this room, things like housing. It remains a
- significant burden for families that are in our community.
- Our team also found that graduation rates, those were up in Monroe County in 2024 compared to 2014.
- But the number of students that were receiving free and reduced meals, that was up. And the third graders
- that were passing the iREAD went down. And to also talk about what Tara mentioned, the MIT living wage
- calculator. This is a tool that estimates living wage as what one full-time worker must earn on an hourly
- basis to help cover the cost of their family's
- minimum basic needs where they live while still being self-sufficient. In the year 2025, a person making
- minimum wage is making less than a poverty wage here in this county. And Tara also noted the community
- conditions that influence well-being are shaped by the distribution of power, money, and resources.
- And we know here in this room that the conditions are changing.
- We've got people that are more isolated than ever before. There's a disconnect between wages and the
- housing market that's intensifying. We have mental health crises, suicidal ideation. These are all on
- the rise, and it's hitting our young people really hard. And all the while, like we saw in that last
- slide, those wages, they just don't add up.
- Right, families are left without guaranteed paid family leave policies, affordable childcare. We have
- things like Medicaid, SNAP, our WIC, and Head Start funding, it's being paused if not slashed. And we
- have legislation like SB1 that's cutting income to local counties who are maintaining these public goods
- like schools, roads, and our other infrastructure. And this, I mean, it has an impact on the, or it
- affects the impact that we're able to have with MC3.
- whether that's the exact funding for this event itself or the energy and the time that our community
- partners have to contribute because we're all being asked to do more with less. So I think that we are
- at an inflection point for the summit because what surrounds us shapes us.
- This is an event that's primarily funded through the county government. And as we at YSB, we've been
- impacted by alongside other programs at the local level. And you might have seen in my communications
- about this year's event that due to the need to focus on staffing and running the very essential service
- of the Binkley House Emergency Youth Shelter, MC3 was taken out of the YSB budget for 2026. But this
- doesn't necessarily mean the end of MC3.
- There's a lot of work to do. But regardless of what the future holds, it is more important now than
- ever, I think, to lean into our values of connection, of building collective impact, while we organize
- to impact the structural determinants of our physical, our psychological, and our economic wellness
- as a community. And I want this community to be better for children now and in the future. I think that
- all of you might also want that. So what does this look like for MC3 itself?
- Well, I'm gonna bring us back to these questions of what brought you to MC3 in the first place? And
- what is it that brought you back if you've been here more than once? What are the changes that you've
- seen in our community over the past 10 years? And what do you wanna see more of? What positive changes
- do you wanna be a part of? And what would it look like if in 10 years Monroe County really was the best
- place to be a child in the whole state, nation, or the world?
- So while MC3 is not budgeted for 2026, I really do believe that we can meet the moment by working together,
- by laser focusing on our common goal of a thriving community for young people, and really taking the
- next year to reconnect, to combat isolation, to relearn who our allies and our friends are, both familiar
- and unfamiliar might be, and to really use the skills, the knowledge, and the connections that we've
- built over the past 10 years at the Monroe County Childhood Conditions Summit to change our world for
- the better.
- As Octavia E. Butler once wrote, all that you touch, you change. And all that you change, changes you.
- And the only lasting truth is change. And whether it's through MC3 or other work together, I really
- want to be a part of that change, building a better world for young people, for families, and for our
- whole community with all of you.
- And I've got some housekeeping that I should plug. There is a question in your evaluation form. If you'd
- like to be part of that imagining of MC3, it's in your evaluation sheet. Because we are looking to schedule
- an exploratory meeting in January or February of next year. So just please do let us know. If you want
- to be on that short list, you've got my contact. And we can hop into some housekeeping. So we really
- do have an awesome lineup today. I wish we had recording in every single room.
- But we hope that you will be able to join us all the way also.
- through the closing session, because we're going to come back to here to the great room after our whole
- day of learning. And we're going to do some intentional reflecting and connecting with other folks at
- these tables. Don't worry. We're not going to ask you to commit or add anything to your workload. We
- know that everybody is stretched pretty thin. But this is purely another chance for some guided conversation
- and exploration with other folks that you might not normally get a chance to talk to before we leave
- for the day.
- Be sure to check out the Data Walk. We've mentioned this a couple times in Duke East. There's some other
- community resources there. If you also brought some brochures, feel free to put them on the table. Check
- that out on your way to a session or on your way to lunch. Like I said, we have some historical Data
- Walk materials as well as some updates, so those specific things from 2014 to now. And I really would
- encourage you to take a moment to reflect on what that data tells us. If you have a sticky note, you
- can even just jot a question
- Plop it on any of those boards if you'd like. The other housekeeping items for the day. We've got our
- full session details. They can be found in your program. If you didn't pick one up, they should be on
- the registration table. This has more information about all of our wonderful presenters, their bios,
- where everything is within the Convention Center. If you need to ask somebody a question, find somebody
- with an orange lanyard. This is a planning team member or somebody who's a staff at YSB.
- We have sessions up here in the Great Room, the Duke Room, also downstairs in the Cook and the Zabenden
- Hansen Room. We will be having a beverage station, so you should have seen that when you came in. But
- knowing that that's going to be open all day and that we do have sessions here in the Great Room as
- well as the Duke Room, please keep your chatter to a minimum or pop into the Duke East Room if you need
- to continue those conversations.
- If you're already dreaming about lunch, your lunch is also color-coded on your here. So just make sure
- that you check in with a planning team member if you forget. Let's see. I'm also very excited to say
- that we've got 3.75 continuing education credits that are available this year through the National
- Association of Social Workers. So if you would like to receive CEs, we've probably got some more forms
- that are down on the entry-level registration table.
- Those are all marked in your program as well. Restrooms are upstairs, downstairs we've got coat check.
- We've got Wi-Fi through the convention center on the network MCCC guest. We're going to have 15 minute
- breaks between sessions. And finally, we do hope that you will provide feedback on all of your sessions.
- You'll have session evaluation forms in each of your breakouts as well as these ones that are inside of your
- your program today. So if you do have to leave before the end of the day, you can scan the QR codes
- that are on your table tents. That also has a QR code to your resources, so all of the slides that I
- have in PDF form if you'd like to check those out before your sessions. But if you do need to leave
- before the end of the day, plop that evaluation sheet on the appropriate location on the table as you exit.
- And I think that's all the information. I'm sure that I've forgotten something. But thank you so much
- for being here. I really appreciate you all. For anybody that's sticking around here in the great room
- for that first session, please move to the front few rows. And for everybody else, we invite you to
- head to your first session of the day. That's going to begin at 9.30. So thank you so much.