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.