2026.

Or we get too far.

Can I get a motion on the minutes?

Don't move.

Second.

Alright, we have a motion and a proper second.

The minutes will stand without objection.

All right.

We have two of our community partners here in the room with us today, council, both that have important updates for us.

The first is United Way, and the second will be from La Paz.

So Abby Garrison is here to fill us in on the status, I believe, of 211.

And Abby, take it away.

Awesome.

Well, thank you.

Appreciate y'all inviting us in today.

Really just kind of have been been trying to get in here for a while just to kind of give y'all a mid-year update.

There are a couple different things we wanted to kind of run through.

Always want to just refresh everybody of what you know, like all the various things that United Way does while I have you.

And then really get into the 211 and stormwater fee program that we run on y'all's behalf.

And then wanted to give y'all just an update on what we saw through the SNAP benefits crisis component.

It was a wild month or so at 211, as you can imagine.

And so really just wanted to update y'all on that.

And then just make sure that y'all understand what we do and what we what we need from the city to keep doing what we do.

So sound good?

Yes.

Okay.

So overall, I'm not gonna read this to you, but you guys know United Way of Greater Chad Nigga.

We've been around for over a hundred years doing all sorts of things.

211 and the emergency assistance funds that we put out through 211 is a huge component of our work.

But also keep in mind that we do our community investment process, the fundraising that we do through corporate partners, we help support the nonprofit ecosystem at large, you know, whether we fund them or not, just nonprofit support.

We run our region's volunteer center.

So anytime there's a big volunteer mobilization that needs to be coordinated, that's the volunteer center at United Way.

We also have an initiative that I think many of y'all have joined us in, which is the United for Working Families Summit, and all of the partnerships that have grown from that with our business community.

So really helping working to help our companies support working families as well.

And then lastly, increasingly we are doing some public policy work kind of coordinated through our network around supporting Alice households and working families at the state and federal level.

So that's United Way as a whole.

I wanna I want to just reiterate to y'all that 211 in many ways, we do not think of this.

Yes, we're a nonprofit, but we do not think of our work at 211 as your traditional kind of cherry work, right?

We think of this as civic infrastructure.

So everyone's familiar with 911.

Y'all are familiar with 311, I know that.

Um increasingly 988.

I'm sure y'all have heard of all of these three-digit codes.

Um, you know, if you really want to know what 211 does, it's it's sure it's up there on the screen.

But think of it as all of the things other than life-threatening emergencies.

So 911 is car wrecks and medical emergencies.

988 is a mental health crises.

211 is all of the other needs and calls that people have around social services and helping, you know, it's certainly oftentimes in a crisis, but not like a life-threatening crisis, if that makes sense to y'all.

So, you know, last year, just through the Chattanooga Call Center, we uh responded to over 57,000 calls coming in to 211.

And we do have a 15 county footprint, but the bulk of our calls come from Hamilton County and City of Chattanooga.

Um, and then through our direct emergency assistance program that I mentioned before, and that's all bless you, privately fundraised through either corporate partners or individual donors.

We were able to put out over $800,000 of just direct assistance to individuals who might need help paying a bill or getting behind them and getting caught up on their rent.

And I've actually learned that's a pretty unique, we're unique united way in the network that we have the ability to do that.

Most do not have that ability.

Okay, um, just I always love to share faces of our team.

Uh these are the these are the actual human beings that you get called you get connected to if you call 211 or if you text text with our 211 team or email.

These are the Chattanoogans who are here responding every day, and they are a fantastic crew.

Lucky to get to work with them.

So there are you know a little bit more as I just kind of click through some data around 211.

Are you guys all getting the quarterly reports that we're sending y'all?

Yeah, okay, good.

If you're not, let me know.

But I think they're going through your clerk.

This was just the last quarter report that we gave y'all in terms of who's calling and what we're what we're seeing.

It's interesting.

But what is stable is that the top three needs that we see time and time again people calling about housing, food, and utility assistance.

So that is uh that is the constant in terms of what we're seeing come through.

Uh you know, this is kind of you know operational stuff in the weeds, but I do want you guys to know that with y'all's support with uh the continued investment in 211, we have been able to make some really important technological advancements in how we're doing the work that we do.

Um we've we're starting to integrate some AI really carefully, but some of those low-hanging fruits that are common calls that people come in or um are chatting us about.

We're starting to test some AI integration.

We also have been able to launch what's called a closed loop referral system with some of our partners.

So in our world, um, information referral, INR is the business that we're in that we're in in 211.

And historically, you made you you shared the information and you gave them the referral and it was left up to someone to make the phone call or you know, go get the service.

And we had very little intel as to whether that service was actually provided, um, if it was helpful, what came of it, what came of the referral, right?

And so just this past year we've been able to get about 20 of our kind of most high use partners, high referral partners, testing out this closed loop referral system, which isn't essentially them saying, Yes, I got the referral for John Doe, and he showed up and he got the services, closing the loop so that we actually know the referral went somewhere and resulted in some sort of impact.

So, again, that's that's these are just new kind of additional things that we're trying to level up the 211 um infrastructure that we have here in Chattanooga.

You're probably wondering, okay, so what resources are we talking about, right?

Um, and I think sometimes this is this kind of blows people's minds, but just in our Chattanooga footprint, what we're talking about is 982 agencies.

So those are those could be some churches, but it's mostly nonprofits.

It is not public support programs.

I want to be really clear about that.

We're not referring people to like a government program that the state is running, right?

This is this is all very like outside of that network.

Um so 982 agencies with about 5,700 different services or programs, and that resource directory is kind of the holy grail, right, of information that we are constantly trying to keep updated.

It's a hard job to keep that updated, as you can imagine.

Um, as our agency partners, which I know La Paz is in the room, or it's coming, yeah.

You guys can probably speak to this too.

You know, it is it's a it's a wild world right now for nonprofits.

Like so much is changing in terms of funding and programs and support.

So just keeping tabs on what do they still have to offer and what uh resources do the nonprofits have to serve our our friends and neighbors.

Um I have one person who that's their entire full-time job is keeping the resource directory up to date and doing that outreach.

And then, okay, shifting gears a little bit to the stormwater fee assistance.

This is a service that we provide for you guys, kind of administer on y'all's behalf.

I truly actually don't know how many years we've done this.

We were trying to figure that out.

Uh, and it's been around long enough that I think most of us are new, maybe someone in the room knows, but we've all I've been with the United Way for six years, and we've done it for as long as I've been at United Way.

And it's um, you know, it's it's dollars that y'all give us to administer on your behalf to help pay the stormwater fees for elderly fixed income veterans, um, you know, folks here in Chattanooga.

And so last year, those um with those dollars, over 2100 households served.

Um, and again, that's just it's about 185 dollars or so that we um you know pay that on their behalf.

And we're happy to do it.

Um, you guys, you guys do, you know, we we take a small admin fee for it, but we are happy to do that with for you guys and think it's it's working pretty well from our standpoint, certainly.

Um would love to hear y'all's feedback on that too.

Okay, then lastly, the SNAP crisis.

Uh, you know, what were I think we know what we're talking about here, but just for a reminder, this was when the federal government shut down back in the fall, and there was so much uncertainty swirling around SNAP benefits here in here in Tennessee and in Chattanooga.

What um what we ended up doing at United Way and 211 was really become the information hub for what was going on.

So we were keeping chat we were keeping tabs on from a policy standpoint what was actually happening at you know at the state of Tennessee with the dollars.

Um but we really quickly saw a 50% increase in calls to 211.

So this kind of illustrates that in a moment of crisis, whether it's a you know public policy crisis or a tornado or you know, we also have been involved in the Nashville, helping Nashville think through the storm ice storm response, right?

That has just happened.

211 becomes that front door that anybody again with a non-life threatening emergency calls to figure out where can I go for help?

Um, and so for the SNAP SNAP response in particular had a huge surge.

Um we were the you know, through all of the communications from most local leaders, we were in you know it was call 211 if you need help navigating this, right?

And we were happy to do that.

Um let's see, the then from the United Way standpoint, we were able to just through private donations and through our network, we're able to make a direct investment to food pantries and food banks in our footprint of 150,000.

So, really strategically worked with the Chattanooga Area Food Bank to identify neighborhood-based pantries that were in their network, uh, but we helped relieve some of the pressure financially that was going to the Chattanooga Area Food Bank by giving to these 14 pantries around, really importantly, all over Hamilton County, as well as Mary and Sequatchi in Northwest Georgia, because that's actually also in our footprint.

So that was the SNAP response.

Um, you know, just generally speaking, there's just a couple of things that I want to I want to make sure that I leave you guys with, and that's really that again, we think of 211 as civic infrastructure.

That's the argument that we're making as we're trying to fundraise from the state of Tennessee, from the federal government.

Both of those are um are in our crosshairs as a network, as a 211 network.

We are actively soliciting dollars from the state of Tennessee through the governor's budget and the legislature.

We also have through World United Way Worldwide some federal dollars that we're advocating for through a thing called the HELP Act.

Um, but I want you guys to know that y'all have been the tip of the spear in the best possible way by giving local public dollars to 211.

And the support that we've gotten from the city of Chattanooga for the past three years and the count Hamilton County the last two years has really been crucial when we're in those meetings with government officials from the state and federal level.

They want to know what's the local buy-in.

Um so I don't see that that need going away.

We're basically trying to supplement the two-thirds of our budget that we fund privately through private donations.

Um we're trying to bring that amount down, uh, but really see don't see a future where we where we don't have local public support.

And so really appreciate y'all's investment in that.

Um we also do, I think you probably saw this in the data, but city residents are some of our heaviest users of 211.

Um they are you know sometimes calling us when they might be calling y'all or calling City Hall, asking for help.

Think of us as your um, you know, in some ways in the business of constituent services, right there along with you.

And then we also think that 211 is a really great way to essentially invest in those families that are struggling, trying to prevent downstream bigger problems from happening, right?

So we are available in a moment of crisis like Snap Crisis or Easter tornadoes back in 2020, but on a day in and day out basis, we're there helping families stay stable, stay in their homes, get the services they need and access that safety net that's out there for them.

And then lastly, I think some of y'all have taken us up on this, but we're always willing to be a data source for y'all, a thought partner.

Um, you know, help if if you have questions about more specific information that you want about who's calling and what do they need in my district, please let me know.

We're happy to pull that data for you specifically.

It's very much like a you know, real-time barometer of what's going on in your district, and we're happy to be that partner with you.

So, all that said, that's 211.

Um, really appreciate y'all's investment.

Really um it we we could not grow this without the city of Chattanooga being there at the table with us.

And um, I'm happy to take any questions that you have about it.

Um I'll open the floor in just a second.

I want to clarify one question City of Chattanooga residents.

You said are we you get the most calls for 211 from the city of Chattanooga?

Um would we agree that the city of Chattanooga is the largest municipality in Hamilton County?

Yeah, yeah.

And would we agree that it is that all of the people that live in the city of Chattanooga live in Hamilton County?

Yes.

Okay, let's just wanna because if we harve out and we only say people who live in Hamilton County use it X amount versus we all live in Hamilton County, right?

Right?

Absolutely.

Okay, just yeah, as we craft a narrative about civic infrastructure.

Oh, well, I mean, we make the same exact ass to the Hamilton County.

Terrific.

Okay.

Yes.

All right, what questions are council members?

Yeah, um, would you go back to the slide where you had the three months worth of data?

Sure.

I just that one, yeah.

So all calls from October to December, you had 15,000 calls and 900 and nine 9800 were from the city of Chattanooga.

Um and then the fiscal year to date, just for that period, October to December, is that for that's for um so fiscal year for us starts July 1.

Okay, so year to date for the city of Chattanooga for 9,800 calls or for something else?

What tell me the first two columns are just your past quarter?

And this 24,000 is your cumulative, okay.

27,000 calls for the year.

Yeah, which is three quarters.

It's basically three quarters of this.

Gotcha, gotcha.

Okay, and then um can we get a copy of this PowerPoint just so we can get the data?

That would be awesome.

Um then actually it's two, it's two quarters, right?

Is that right?

Yes, it's two quarters.

Because it's July one is Q1, is Q one.

Yeah, this is Q2.

Okay, yeah, I'd love to like I'd love to have this slide, and there were a couple others just that are informational.

I know most of them didn't have as much data on them.

I think that was my um and we give this exact same report and chart to the county on a quarterly basis as well.

The numbers are just county as opposed to city.

So what um, so what's your how much money do you get from the county?

Do you know?

Do you recall?

Yeah, so the most recent year it was a hundred thousand.

The years before it was a hundred and seventy, they were matching you guys at 168.

And we are gonna get them back to 170 this year to match you guys.

Okay, yeah, that's the that's the goal.

Okay, thank you.

Yes.

Um, Vice Chairwoman Noel.

Okay, so um you said 800,000.

Um, those that come to you off with it's is it a one-time or are they coming back as often as needed?

If so, are you keeping data on those type of data?

Yes, and so I want to be really clear that's private dollars, so that's not y'all's money that we're investing there.

Right.

Um, but yes, we have some pretty strict parameters around when and how often we have a basically a lifetime three thousand dollar cap for any individual.

Um we have limits for rent.

Uh the the max we would do for rent is 1,200 for if it's a if they're making a rent request.

Like lifetime or for that individual month they're calling saying I'm behind by a month.

So is there a cap on for rent if they do it for 1200 for well and then we're only gonna do it for one time a year?

So it's basically a 1200 for a year for a year.

Okay.

If they come back next year, right?

Oh you're getting close to that lifetime limit.

So we're and rent's by far the most expensive.

So more about the question, where do they go if that one time is not sufficient?

That's a great question.

Um we and and I mean, I think we all know it's oftentimes not sufficient, right?

Rent has gone up so much.

Right.

Um, sometimes people come to us and they're multiple months behind.

So uh we we generally try to be as far as United Ways emergency assistance, we try to be the funder of last resort.

So the that's why they come through 211.

We'll send them to other places first and see if they can qualify for other programs, and then if for whatever reason it's just a no, it didn't work, or you know, and then there's there's so many different reasons why they might not qualify, then they can come back to us, and we would we would consider helping them out through the emergency assistance funds.

Okay, uh Councilman Henderson and then uh councilman.

So um out of the 27,000 calls received, do we know what that breaks down to per person?

I mean, like I'm assuming maybe one person makes more than one call.

So, how many how many total people are we talking about?

Do we know?

I do not know that off the top of my head, but I can certainly get you that data.

Okay, yeah.

And there are some repeat callers.

You know, sometimes you have someone who calls one month trying to find you know an elder care program for their senior citizen parent, and they find it, and then a few months later they call back for something else, right?

For food assistance.

So there certainly are people who call to call us back.

And in some ways, we think that could be a good thing, right?

That means they got what they needed and found it useful.

Uh there are there's a small group.

I'm I'm not feeling like I probably know what you're getting at this, but there's a small group who call, I don't know what just happened.

Um who call back on like a really frequent basis, and those are the ones that we try to dig deeper of what's going on, and really identify that they need some sort of bigger help, like case management, some deeper navigation and try to find them the right programmatic partner in the community.

Well, and I guess that's kind of what I was getting to is there a way to identify the whether the people that are calling in or underemployed?

In other words, they could with with proper training perhaps get a better job and increase their pay, not be so reliant on a 211 call.

I I sort of look at this as you described earlier as moments of crisis, and any family could certainly go through a moment of crisis where they call in, they need some help kind of on a one-time basis.

But if we're seeing some kind of chronic problem that may be a larger indicator of maybe they're unemployed, maybe they need you know some training that would help them move up a little bit.

Are there ways to identify those individuals?

There are absolutely so um I'll kind of there's kind of two answers to that.

So first of all, when anyone calls 211, our folks are trained to try to first of all, they they ask all sorts of questions around demographics, employment, household income, all sorts of things.

People may or may not answer them.

We don't force that.

The only thing we force is you have to tell us your zip code so that we know like which body of resources we're even looking at should be recommending for you.

Beyond that, it's all pretty optional in terms of what they tell us.

But most people tell us a pretty good amount about themselves and their their family.

Um yeah, so we can we can kind of get a sense for income or what's going on in the family, and then the team is really trained to uh to kind of dig deeper, right?

Like to kind of understand, like you're calling for a food box.

Is there anything else going on?

Do you need help with anything else?

They do that on the actual calls.

Then we also have the second part of that because that that answer is just from a data standpoint.

We absolutely look at reports around what we we call them our frequent flyers, the ones who do call back, like kind of repetitively, and those we flag and identify of for like a deeper conversation and deeper outreach around are there jobs training programs, are there case managers?

It's just is there more intervention that we can help steer them to.

So, how many how many do you feel like wind up being able to get placed in some kind of job training cohort I don't again?

I don't have that data.

I wouldn't want to answer that without actually looking up, but I can follow up with you on that.

Okay, yeah, I'm happy to.

Do you want to speak to the reality of Alice families?

Just briefly.

I mean, I feel like that's kind of where we're headed with regard to being employed.

Yeah, I mean, so Alice is our acronym at United Way for asset limited income constrained employed, working but still struggling to pay the bills, right?

And um in our community here in Tennessee across the state, but also just here in Chattanooga, that's almost half of our families, and overwhelmingly, you know, families with children as well, who they're just they're working hard, sometimes they're working two jobs.

Um sometimes they are working two or three jobs, you know, depending on the household makeup, and still just struggling to to pay the bills and having to make hard decisions every every every month when it's time to pay the bills.

Um that has been really interesting through 211 just over the years I've been involved.

families and overwhelmingly you know families with children as well who they're just they're working hard sometimes they're working two jobs um sometimes they are working two or three jobs you know depending on the household makeup and still just struggling to to pay the bills and having to make hard decisions every every every month when it's time to pay the bills um that has been really interesting through 211 just over the years I've been involved I think in the past 21 was this is just anecdotal kind of where um a lot of our elderly members would call a lot of our probably more like below the poverty line would call 211 in the past five years that has changed wholesale it is families who are like mom and dad are both working it is um you know demographic demographics that you just wouldn't think would be calling needing help right because we are hearing more and more people saying I used to this is this is 211 kind of related but I've I have given to United Way through my workplace for decades and now I'm the one who is calling 211 and needs help like that that happens often and um I think that is that is new that is that is the kind of growth of awareness around 211 I think COVID opened up awareness about 211 to a whole new group of people and then of course just the economic reality of families struggling to make enough to pay the bills so you good councilman yeah okay we've got um councilman elliott and then councilman Harvey thank you madam chair this maybe a question for smart administration this is following up on councilman's question about rent did we not put money aside for rent assistance in a budget eviction prevention and one million dollars in rent assistance who did that go through you want to know I believe that the eviction prevention dollars would you like to speak well eviction prevention dollars went to the eviction prevention program and then we've got money set aside for our rapid rehousing am I correct?

I believe that is accurate out of trade but less than just oh shall is that the same as the rent assistance though because I thought it was particularly lined up just for rent assistance.

Through the Office of Supportive Housing I believe so they help with rent assistance they get calls all the time for rapid rehousing house thousands of people every year do we know if like similar while somebody would go to United Way for rent help but they're behind do they help with that as well or is it just for people experiencing homelessness?

Do you do you have an answer that we work with United Way a lot of our referrals come in from United Way that part I get from the money we set aside for rent assistance.

So that normally goes I don't think there's I don't know if that's your question or not but that's when someone is um homeless sometimes they've got a job already but they don't have money for that first month's rent that last month's rent and the movement expenses and so what a lot of times around rehousing fund will be used for is to defray those movement expenses that get into a stable place for which they're now able to pay the monthly rent but they just weren't able to climb that mountain of having the first and last let's follow up afterward and we can maybe talk to Quest and get further details um you said something that was interesting and I think this is newer to me you guys explain some of the logic around you know you all try to be the last stop for people who need assistance and it's just maybe my ignorance but when I oftentimes think of United Way I see them as this I think just kind of put first word to come to mind this behemoth of an organization that's been around for years and I remember even my first job was at Publix and we just had this competition every year.

Yeah raising money for United Way and I know a ton of other orgs do it I think the city I think you may used to work with or still do the city's portion of it and many other corporations do as well and so when I think about this organization is one that so many people seem to be leaned in on for support but what is the logic around being the last option as a instead of uh a first come base especially when people are coming to you through two on one yeah so it's that is it that's a great question um we at United Way try not to be the frontline like we don't have a caseworker on staff I have someone who can help pay her rent bill but she is not in it a full scale case manager caseworker right and so we really try to refer people to those partner agencies that do have the wraparound services before coming to us that what when all we have to do and all we can do is really is just pay a bill and so we also through the the different kind of historic fundraising that we have done and then we we grant to 55 different organizations in town or last year it was 55 and so we grant to them to do what they're so good at which is providing services providing frontline case management and programmatic interventions that we just don't we just don't do that at United Way we're kind of the the bank kind of on the back end but not the ones who have the who are equipped to do that frontline work through case management.

And so we grant to them to do what they're so good at, which is providing services, providing frontline case management and programmatic interventions that we just don't we just don't do that at United Way.

We're kind of the the bank kind of on the back end, but not the ones who have the who are equipped to do that frontline work through case management.

Well, just the average amount you guys are granting to orgs.

Um okay, so it depends on the fund.

We have three different funds, but across the board it's uh 90,000.

Total each year on average.

And that's for all of them or per.

Oh, 90,000 per 50,000.

So three so through that public's campaign or through the the city's workforce campaign, those dollars get all pulled together.

And last year it was about 3.5 million dollars that we then granted back out into the community.

Okay, perfect.

So yeah, what's that math?

3.5 divided by 55 organizations.

A little bit, yeah.

Great, you're good.

Um councilman Harvey.

Thank you for what you do.

I think appreciate everything you do to support the community.

Um back on case management.

So you don't have a case manager uh at United Way.

So who who do you refer to in times of crisis and somebody needs a case manager?

Yeah, I mean again, it depends on where they where they live.

Okay.

So that's the first kind of trying to figure out what's convenient to them, and it's really a conversation with them about you know what kind of transportation do you have, what do you have access to, where can you get conveniently?

Um so it depends on where they live.

But some of our big partners are um partnership for families, children and adult, North Set Neighborhood House, LaPaz, who's in the room, um Samaritan Center, kind of further out, um trying to think the case signal centers depending on depends on what they're doing, just some of the bigger organizations who you've probably heard of, um, are our biggest partners, and then from a food standpoint, which food is one of those just top needs all the time, those range the gamut.

I mean, everyone everyone thinks of the Chattanooga Area Food Bank, and they are the you know the premier food distributor, but when we're talking with an individual, what we're trying to find is what the place that's closest to them.

So that might be a church, it might be uh smaller nonprofit that I don't even know the name of off the top of my head, right?

But just whatever is most convenient for that individual for that family to get to.

Okay.

And then we actually for food, we we do have the ability to deliver.

There's a partnership through the Baptist Church group that they have a fleet of people who will deliver food.

To the BX?

No, it's Jacoba.

Oh, interesting.

Yeah, okay.

So that's cool.

That's a cool opportunity too that's out there for people who are homebound.

Okay.

Uh and then one last question.

So uh walk me through how uh you get a call for somebody from somebody who needs utility assistance.

Are there requirements that have to be met?

Like, for example, you know, I probably don't want like somebody who makes 200 grand just call and say, Oh, I don't feel like paying my power bill this month.

Will you do it for me?

You know, so how how are there parameters?

Like, how does that work?

There are, and there's about 11 different funding streams for that, so they each have a different specific set of parameters.

So I can't tell you off the top of my head like what the income limit is.

But um, I mean, I could certainly get that information.

We have so those the the hundreds of thousands of dollars of direct assistance that I've referenced, some of that is coming from corporate partners.

So EPB and TVA, one of our biggest partners through PowerShare.

You know, when you call to pay your bill and it gives you the opportunity to donate to pay a neighbor's bill, those dollars actually come to us and go out through this process.

Interesting.

So, you know, we work with EPB to dictate, you know, figure out what that income threshold is, and theirs might be a little bit different than we also work with Tennessee American Water to help pay water bills, genuine gas to pay to pay gas bills.

Um and they all have slightly different income thresholds, but okay, yes, they all do have them.

Okay, all right, very good.

Yeah, that that point is interesting to think about civic infrastructure and also the role of United Way as like a backbone organization and a convener when you think you have more than 10 funds for utility assistance, for example, and like if you were an individual calling and trying to figure out which one of those are searching online, you fit into that would be really it would be hard to figure out, right?

Very hard to figure out.

I mean they wouldn't have the spreadsheet that Britney has in front of her to figure out oh, you could qualify for this, not that.

And then if Shady Gap missionary Baptist in Sequatchy County ran out of money, you all would know it.

Right.

And okay.

So Publix, just since since that was brought up, Publix is also one of our big partners, and interestingly, they designate this is what I mean, they all have different rules.

They say that half of what is donated to the public's fund needs to support public's employees.

And then the other half that public's employees have given, like literally across the entire public's network, right?

Um is left up to our discretion to figure out just based on biggest needs that are coming in.

Um Publix is also really a great partner in this work.

Are you good, councilman?

Yes, ma'am, thank you.

Okay, councilman Clark.

Thank you, uh Madam Chair.

Uh Abby, first of all, thank you for coming.

Um I think you do amazing work.

Um that people don't understand the different buckets, how you guys serve as a hub.

I know in district five and six, when we experienced the flow on August 12th, we called the United Way in partnership with the mayor's office to help teachers relocate as far as people understand what direct assistance is and how that's funded.

But I want to ask you a question as it relates to the city and county match.

Because from my understanding is that those particular funds, and I can't speak for the county funds, but what the city contributes, that is not that is earmarked for the operational aspect of the 211 call center, which includes salaries, the operational functions, the software, but currently the city, and I'm not sure the county, we're not contributing to the direct the a fund that gives direct assistance when we're paying light bills.

Correct.

When we're doing rehousing, is it because we have our own going back?

So I'm gonna I'm I don't think your question was answered adequately.

No, I'm not but I want to understand the difference between what we contribute as far as that to the direct assistance versus the operational capacity of the 211 call center.

If you could yeah, absolutely.

So yes, y'all's 168, that goes directly toward paying the people salary of the people that I put up on the screen.

Um it's you know, all in our budget for two one, our operating budget for 211 is 900,000 and change.

Um, and it is largely the the individuals who are the ones on the other end of the phone or on the other end of the text message.

Um so yeah, that's what you guys actually support is the the program, if you will, the operating of 211 as a contact center.

And my last question is that we often this council, I know for myself, we use you all as a hub and a clearinghouse when we get calls from constituents.

Excuse me.

Uh I like how you refer to 211 as constituent services for social services, because we're operational and legislative.

And so when we get calls from people saying, I need help with water, I need help with paying my rent.

We send them to 211.

Um, and you all have become a clearinghouse, a hub for those social services for the city.

Would it be appropriate to assume that you all will be asking for some in addition to what we do to support the 211 call center?

Uh, should we be contributing to more and to the direct assistance?

Because I know there's you know, two-thirds of your funding comes from private uh donations, which you know, I think you guys have a phenomenal fundraising hour added.

Um but is there something more as a city that we can do to contribute to the direct assistance?

I know I need some more clarity about the rent assistance that we do here for the city, but what can we do more to not getting some matching competition with the county to support because it seems like more of the city residents, which city residents are county residents, seems like more of the city county residents are recipients of this.

So could we be doing more to contribute to direct assistance?

Well, I mean, certainly we we could we would be happy to use the infrastructure that we have already in place to help you guys deport deploy those dollars.

Like if that's ever useful, I think we would be more than willing to have that conversation.

I it's uh in it's funny, like in many ways, those different funding streams have come to us not because we've proactively gone out and been like you know, we're we need all the we need these dollars.

I think it's more because of the relationships that we've had with those partners and just the trust that we have, and the they understand that we I mean if you take EPB for instance, I think that they part of why they give us the money to deploy is that we have the ability to to understand and you know, vet them and understand income limits and put people through a process and collect the collect the proper paperwork, say no when it's when we have to say no, which no one likes saying no, by the way.

That's the hard conversation.

Um and I you know I would imagine many of those the public says in the EPBs of the world love to not have to be the ones saying no.

Um because it's like I said, it's not fun.

Uh but sometimes that's the appropriate response, right?

Um, but yeah, I mean we would I think we would be absolutely open to those conversations if that was ever something y'all needed our help with.

Um but in in the short term the the continued operating support of 211 is crucial for us.

Like we that I think we all had hoped COVID, the COVID bump would die down.

Uh that has just not happened.

211 has become more aware, people more people call us, um, and we need to continue.

We are figuring out some efficiencies of how to answer more calls with the same staff, but uh we need we do need the operating.

And the reason why I bring that point is because with inflation, I'm assuming that the more things are costing as far as rent and food, that the burden for you all to raise more money to keep up with the cost of what people are asking you for.

We can't keep depending on the same levels of matching funds from the city or county that we probably need to consider being more involved as far as helping our citizens have more direct access.

Yeah, I mean, if we did the per like the per capita cost of 211, I mean to be frank, yeah, y'all y'all are not paying the like 50 percent that it might be if we charged you per head of pro two calls, right?

That's okay.

That's okay.

We we are happy to do this service with you guys.

We also fundraise for it.

Um, and that's part of why we're making a huge push at the state and federal level to infuse additional capital into this.

But we we certainly need for you guys to maintain and um be along there alongside with us at the one one.

Thank you, madam chair.

Yeah, thank you, Abby, very much.

We appreciate it.

Thank you.

Um now we're happy to wrap them up.

Um, Stacey.

Um Johnson from La Paz to give us an update.

We have these cards.

Water.

I will send that presentation.

Yeah, that'd be great.

Just send it to the clerk.

Okay, she'll send it to everybody.

Perfect.

Thank you.

Thanks, y'all.

Thank you.

Our bag is not cool.

Wow, and Bill is guarding it.

Absolutely.

Thanks.

Thank you.

You got two.

Yeah, well, not true.

Yeah, here we go.

Oh, okay.

Oops, that's two, I think.

Okay, I think we're having a little technical difficulty with my slides, but hopefully this will work for you guys.

Um it's a PDF.

So I'll just and I don't know how to use a PC, but we'll see how this works.

Um I can just scroll down, yeah.

You should be able to.

Okay.

Okay, hello.

Um, good afternoon.

I'm Stacey Johnson.

I am the CEO at LaPaz Chattanooga.

Um, I want to thank the city for your continued partnership over um the last several years, and also thanks to Councilwoman Hill for um inviting me today.

Um, I would go, I want to go over a little bit about um La Paz's work today, the impact of the city's investment, um, what we're currently seeing within the Latino community and how we hope to continue our partnership with the city.

And here we go.

Sorry.

There we go.

Okay.

Um so for those of you that don't know about La Paz.

We are a nonprofit that started in 2004, so we've been here since um for 22 years, um, working to empower and engage Chattanooga's Latino population through advocacy, education, and inclusion.

Um, and our vision is of a thriving Latino community, but within an inclusive Chattanooga.

Um, thriving to us means a community that not only has financial stability and economic opportunity, but a community that can retain its values, um, its culture and identity as well.

Um, so La Paz serves as the city's primary access point for Chattanooga Spanish speaking and Latino communities.

So we wanted to talk a little bit about the Latino growth within Chattanooga and Hamilton County.

And we always like to look at the school numbers.

Hamilton County school numbers really reflect, we feel the whole population.

As you know, census numbers are very, very low, but the last census was during a global pandemic and all of that.

So the school numbers we feel are more reflective of our community.

So there are over 21.7% of the Hamilton County school system right now are Latino students.

We are also seeing a growing share of workforce and small business sector and an increasing number of first generation college students.

So this is not a niche population, it's part of our long-term workforce and tax base in the community.

So as I said, the city has funded La Paz over the last three and a half years now.

We have had a contract to provide social services.

So similar to what Abby was saying with the case management, the case management of all of the organizations in Chattanooga, that is what we have provided over the last three and a half years.

So with the city's investment, we have been able to serve 7,000 plus residents through our bilingual and multicultural case management.

We have received and assisted over 150 hotline calls and walk-ins to our center.

We have eliminated over $1 million in medical debt.

We have provided over 4,000 meals, and we have hosted, attended, participated in 100 plus outreach events, and worked with over 60 referral partners.

This investment has also helped us reduce strain on emergency systems, improve our communication with the police department, increased health care enrollment, and created safer, more stable pathways into city services.

So we work with a multitude of city agencies, not just the Chattanooga Police Department, but the Family Justice Center, the Parks and Rec, all of the city services, we are able to provide access to those services for the Latino population.

We have also over the last few years established a workforce and economic impact programming at La Paz.

So we have increased our English language learning.

Sorry, I can't even say my lot in the size.

I have notes, so I don't rumble and stumble, rumble, whatever the word is.

But I'm all over the place, sorry.

Okay, here we go.

So over the last few years, we have been able to expand our English language learning and our digital literacy, and we have been able to provide 4,000 hours of English classes.

130 participants have received digital literacy classes.

We've also implemented a college leadership program, worked with over 30 first-generation college students.

We started a business cohort and have graduated three classes so far.

We've started a business navigation program working with 70 plus small businesses, and this is just since the middle of last year.

So the city investment allowed us to stabilize families, but we've also been able to reduce long-term reliance on emergency services through this workforce development programming, increased tax participation, increase workforce stability and support small business growth.

As you can imagine with the national rhetoric, the things that we are watching on the news, the Latino population is increased fear.

There is increased emergency planning request.

And we're also getting calls from employers that you know with they're anxious about their employees.

What do we do?

How do we protect?

My employee didn't show up to work today, what do we do?

So we're also getting calls from the workforce as well.

So whether there are actual things happening here locally or not, the the fears are still are still happening.

We also have seen probably I think it's 25, 25 families that we've seen over the last few months.

We've started to track this.

The more that we've gotten calls and visits, we've started to track.

So we have about 25 families that have been affected locally by detainment or deportation.

We have also gotten calls from Hamilton County school teachers and social workers with over 20 families that have been affected by this as well.

So again, the national rhetoric is big and things are happening nationally, but we do also know that the communities are being affected here locally as well.

Stacy, will you explain what you mean by calls for emergency planning?

Yes.

So we provide power of attorney clinics, we provide passport clinics, we provide know your rights sessions, information sessions.

There are a lot of US citizen children that do not have US passports.

So we want to ensure that people have passports.

We want to ensure that families have a power of attorney, and in case something does happen to them, this is something that we all need, right?

If something happens to us, we want to make sure our children are protected.

So we're getting increased calls for those types of services, and we are providing providing those free of charge to the community at this moment.

Okay.

So I talked really fast, but um, and I hope to have um time for questions.

But um strategic alignment, we just want to make sure that during your strategic planning process that the Latino community is included in this plan.

The one Chattanooga plan um talks about two Chattanooga's talks about um the different communities, and we want to ensure that the Latino population, as I said, is included.

Um so we want to make sure that language access is part of the infrastructure, workforce participation is economic development, and public safety trust requires communication.

So all of these things we are working on, um, and we hope to continue to do so with the city of Chattanooga.

Um we hope to increase our city partnership so that we can also continue the other programming that I mentioned with the workforce and economic sustainability.

Um so we hope to sustain stabilization systems through city funding, but also to expand workforce pathways, protect our public safety collaboration, and strengthen access to city services.

And that's just a list of our people.

I didn't um there's no there's not a picture of all of us because there's a lot of us.

Um we have 16 people now at La Paz working with about 10,000 people a year directly, and we educate and engage probably around 20,000 through our outreach efforts.

Okay, thank you.

Council, do we have any questions?

Councilman Harvey, followed by Vice Chairwoman Null.

Yeah, thank you for being here.

Um I do get questions a lot on um ESL classes, so and I saw you do provide that, so is that open to anyone?

Is it does is there a cost?

How does it how does that work?

Um it is currently free of charge.

We have a grant with the state of Tennessee that is allowing us at least until the middle of this year to provide English language classes free.

Um so we work with Chattanooga Language School of Language, so we pay them to provide the classes at La Paz.

We also have other locations that we provide those as well, and we also keep a list similar to the United Way.

We're kind of like the hub for the Latino community, so we have a list of all ESL classes in Chattanooga, where people live.

Um so if they call in and want classes in Red Bank, for example, we are like, okay, this this church in Red Bank offers that this classes at this time, and we also provide them at La Paz.

So awesome.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you, Madam Chair.

Uh hi, how are you doing?

Fabulous.

So, what schools have the highest um concentration of the 21.7% of Latino students?

Um, that's a good question.

So Eastside Elementary has historically had the majority of or has had the highest population.

Um, that's kind of um expanded out to other schools as well.

Clifton Hills, East Lake, but we're also seeing Hickson, Udowa.

There are probably 25-ish schools that have called on us for differing differing things.

So the population is growing and is expanding into different parts of the community, but those would be the highest concentration.

Because I had noticed those are in the Great District 8.

So I had noticed that they are there.

I will show you.

Yeah.

This is our this is not very easy to see.

But in this I did give you a last needs assessment.

It's a community wide needs assessment survey that we did in 2023, and it will show you the highest population zip codes.

Now again, this is it was done community wide.

Um we tried our best to get as many different places, different people to participate in this.

Um, but it will kind of give you a snapshot of the zip codes that people are you know that participated in the survey.

Thank you.

Do you have any other questions, council?

Um I have I have one question for you, Stacy.

Um the economic development program, specifically the the small business program that you're doing.

Do you have any community partners helping you with your curriculum on that?

Yes.

So we have partnered with Prosperis Strategies to develop the curriculum.

So we got a placemaking grant from the Tennessee state of Tennessee to help us develop the curriculum.

Um we have worked across the state with differing organizations that work with Latino populations.

No one had a curriculum that worked to fit the needs that we were seeing.

Um so we are creating our own, um, but we are utilizing their services to help us create that.

We're doing it, we have done it as we've as we've done the classes.

Um so with participation from the participants in the classes, they've given us feedback, they've told us what they need.

Um we've expanded though that curriculum to now include like a financial um an add on.

So because that was such a need, they wanted more of the financial piece, so that's going to be an add-on to the curriculum.

So we have partnered with them to do it, we got state funding.

Um we're also partnering with like UTC, Chattanooga State to do some of the programming.

Um Chattanooga State is offering certification classes in Spanish, and we're helping or working with them to create some of that.

Um so yes, we are we have a lot of different partners for almost everything we do.

We've as a council, um, maybe not with this cohort, but our previous cohort of council members, we had a lot of learning around launch, um, which is which is a very effective program in the city.

Um can you give us a couple of examples of what the needs are with the Latino population for business training that are not served by a launch type program?

Yeah, I mean, I think launch is a great example, um, and some of the curriculum definitely comes from the launch curriculum and and other um co lab and some of those local organizations.

We've definitely taken some of that into our curriculum.

Um the biggest thing is language access.

Um, so making sure that it is done in Spanish, but also making sure it's culturally relevant.

Um, a lot of the businesses here in Chattanooga, the last the last we've had three cohorts since we started, um, and a lot of those people have had businesses for many many years.

Um, some just are trying to get started, but some have had businesses but have never had the opportunity to go through some of these classes.

So it really differs in you know the needs that they're having.

Some need a little bit more financial help, um, some need more of the computer help because they've never used computers before.

So it's just um we've really just tried to take their feedback and and tailor it to fit to fit their needs.

Um but language access and cultural relative like real relevance is the is the biggest thing.

Yeah.

That's interesting that um so many uh that many of them have had businesses for many years and yes, and if I told you some of the businesses, you would be like, what they came and I was that they um many of them yeah, are just never had the opportunity to do a business plan to have a marketing plan, um, to really look at their financial um like their budgeting and all of that, they've just gone in and done it and it's worked, um, but they wanted to make sure it was it was done right.

So terrific.

Well, any are we good, counsel?

Oh, one more question from I think this is for uh chief staff left questions that came up.

There's a contract that just was awarded uh recently to the homeless coalition, and then there will be an update by Megan Miles from our housing team in March and our next homelessness working group.

So wanted to make sure that you had those information.

Okay, so it went to the homeless coach.

Okay, all right.

Well, thank you very much.

Thank you.

Sorry for the noise.

No, okay.

We're good.

Okay, council.

Um, just to remind you um some of the business that we have upcoming in two weeks, or if not two weeks, it'll be on the third, regardless of how many weeks that is from now, as our next uh session.

We will be welcoming the family justice center, the Carol B.

Burr's meeting.

That's your medal name B, right?

Carol B.

Dr.

Carol B.

Doctor, excuse me, Dr.

Carol Bieber, Family Justice Center.

She did that.

She worked hard for that.

We're gonna give it to her.

Um, they are gonna be sharing with us um some of their their work uh with strategic planning.

Also, um we will be discussing uh the potential of a council policy procession again, which is being brought to us by councilman Elliott.

Um, and then the 17th will be our next um count our council strategic planning session after that.

There are some board appointment slots.

Does anybody else have any other business you want to talk about?

Yes, councilman burns and then councilman Henderson.

Okay, um last week we talked about um looking at some sort of procedure to um invite people to either sign in or let us know that they're there and what they're gonna talk about.

Where are we with that?

Um we are going to discuss that.

I believe also on that strategic planning day.

Uh yes, sign in with topic is also on the 17th.

Is it okay?

Thank you.

Yep.

Uh uh Councilman Henderson, followed by Councilman Hardy.

Oh, I know it's a little ways out, uh, but I noticed we got an invitation to opening day for the new stadium at the lookouts.

Happens to be on Tuesday, so that at 6.

Do we want to it's on April 14th?

Do we want to go ahead and uh move that meeting date up and then go ahead and eliminate our break so that we can make that open day?

I think that makes sense.

I mean, since we've got a little bit invested in that, I have to think it would be good if we show up.

Okay, so that's the April 16th, you said it's 14th, April 14th.

Um and then reminder, council, we do have um a lunch and learn on the 23rd with a private tour of the stadium um this month.

So uh I believe that might be next Tuesday.

I guess that sounds like the numbers work it's the 23rd, whatever.

At the stadium, yeah, to earn our point on Monday, not Tuesday on Tuesday.

That's okay.

No, that'd be the 24th.

This month's the 24th, which is the 24th of the district.

What time is it?

Well, wait a sec.

Wait, wait, wait.

Let me just make sure.

Let's check our calendar and see that's what I have lunch and learn at the stadium.

The lunch and learn at the stadium is on 24th.

24th at 11 30.

Yeah, okay.

Yes, you should have a calendar in there.

Yeah, okay.

Uh you're good, Henderson.

I am uh councilman Elliott, and then we'll come back to you.

Yes.

Oh, it was it was.

I'm sorry, Cody.

That's okay.

Uh smile is good, brother.

It's 20.

Oh, all right.

So we for uh district four, five and seven.

We have an animal control uh vacancy on that board, and my understanding is the animal control board is not meeting.

Is that correct?

And that's actually four, five, comma, and seven.

Right, yeah, four by the seven.

But each of you get one.

Oh, we each get oh, oh, okay.

We each get one.

Is that meeting?

It is not currently meeting.

It's not final.

Should it be?

It should be okay.

Okay.

Um well, I'll I'll work on that.

Okay.

Um so that's me.

Okay, okay.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Council members.

Yes.

Um, also, what since we're talking about calendar uh in conjunction with the family justice center making their presentation to us during strategic planning on the third, they have a breakfast that morning.

And the speaker is Casey Gwynn, who started the International Family Justice Center programs.

He's coming to Chattanooga to lead the Family Justice Center and community partners in their strategic plan planning.

So it might be a worthwhile worthwhile breakfast to attend.

I think I know I think Jeff may be signed up.

I don't know if anybody else is.

Yeah, I'll be there.

Um but he'll he will be a phenomenal person to hear more than once.

So if you can make breakfast, I think it'd be worthwhile.

And if anybody's interested in sitting in on any of the strategic planning, that's going to be on Wednesday, and it's open to anyone to attend.

We just need to let Regina know.

So thank you for that time to announce that.

All right.

Anything else, Council?

All right, I'll see you.

We'll see each other at 3 30.

Yep.

Thank you.

Here you go again.