Welcome back to this weekly meeting of the Health and Safety Committee with Denver City Council.

Coverage of the Health and Safety Committee starts now.

Come to college.

So we have a brilliant.

We're not going to work on directly.

Okay.

Because of the cost of land.

Yes.

Good morning and welcome to the October 22nd Health and Safety Committee meeting.

My name is Darrell Watson.

I'm honored to serve as the chair of this committee and also as the city council member representing all of the fine district nine.

We have one briefing today from the Office of Social Equity and Innovation.

Before we roll into that presentation, why don't we have introductions around the table and then we'll go to folks that are virtual?

So we start on our right.

Thank you.

Kevin Flynn, Southwest Denver's District 2.

Good morning, Amanda Sawyer, district five.

Oh, I guess that's just me.

Um, good morning, everyone.

Sedana Gonzalez Gutierrez, uh, one of the at-large members.

We do have uh Council President Pro Tem on virtual.

Uh if you can hear us, uh, you should be promoted.

Great.

Good um good morning, everyone.

Diana Romero Campbell, Southeast Denver District 4.

Thank you.

Thank you for joining us.

Uh we have the privilege of a briefing from the Office of Social Equity and Innovation.

Um, we'll turn it over to Dr.

Sanders and his team and my echo.

You know, we just wait for a second, see if it's good.

Oh, it's good.

So, Dr.

Sanders and Steam, do you mind introducing yourself and the leaders at the table, and we'll turn the presentation over to you.

Wonderful.

We'll start with uh introducing the folks at the table and then we'll find our way into the presentation.

My name is Ben Sanders.

It's my pleasure to serve as the executive director of the Office of Social Equity and Innovation.

Hello, Deileen Mix.

I am one of the deputy executive directors for the Office of Social Equity Innovation and pleased to be here with you today.

Good morning.

I am Dr.

Nicole Monroe and serve as a director within the Office of Neighborhood Safety.

Within the Office of Social Equity and Innovation.

So thank you all so much for uh allowing us the opportunity to be here this morning.

Uh, I want to begin by thanking this committee, uh thanking you uh that the chair of this committee, Councilman Watson, for the opportunity to share some of the work we've been doing for the past 15-16 months around the Office of Neighborhood Safety.

Um, as you all may know, uh, our mission at OSEI is to cultivate an equitable and inclusive Denver by dismantling systemic barriers and creating targeted solutions for historically marginalized uh uh populations.

When I took this role a couple of years ago, um I brought some things with me that are really important to framing what you'll hear about the work we're doing today.

Um, I brought with me the lived experiences of being a child of a single mother who, along with community members, navigated local systems in the midst of poverty and racism, all in the hopes of creating opportunities for her babies.

I brought value shaped by a lifetime spent in black churches, courageous enough to believe that everyone belongs.

And I brought a perspective shaped by more than a decade spent researching, teaching, and striving to live within the methods, moments, and miracles that marginalized communities have used to transform repressive systems for generations.

These experiences drive my commitment to creating with the folks that are here today an OSEI that's innovative, that's transformative, and that runs an ecosystem of collaboration between the city of Denver and the experiences, realities, and wisdom of Denver's most underserved communities.

By the way, we'll use language like at risk today in very intentional ways.

We recognize that language like this has been used to reinforce certain pathological pathologizing perspectives, and we want to use at risk today to denote the very real possibility that without the type of effective intervention, prevention, and diversion programs that we'll talk about today.

Many of the folks that we work with actually do face the risk of living uh lives that are tragically uh short-circuited by systems that we're still working to improve.

Let's jump into the next slide.

I want to find our way into some of the content today, and we're really thrilled to share today that um uh it was it was in May of last year, as you are recalled that the mayor decided to shift programs from the Department of Safety to OSEI to make possible the creation of the Office of Neighborhood Safety.

OSEI now has two distinct divisions.

We have the Office of Neighborhood Safety, and we have our equity strategy and innovations uh division represented by our deputy Director Brian Farooz, who is here.

Inside of these two divisions, uh, we knew we had some work to do, and we spent the first four to six months listening to community.