Good evening and welcome to the mayor and board of Alderman public hearing for the 20th of April.

We begin with the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag.

Liberty to Justice for all.

We have minutes to approve from the March 16th, 2023 meeting.

So moved out of the President.

I'll second.

I watched you all on.

I think that counts.

Motion by Alderman Shackleford, second and by Alderwoman Kazemchak.

All those in favor.

That is five zero.

Thank you very much.

Mayor's comments.

Aldermanic comments.

Alderwoman Nash.

Thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to uh give a shout out to Marie from Tierra Day.

She announced a reopening date, and I see Richard here from our city economic development.

Um I just want to, I guess, publicly thank her.

I brought my Tierra.

She has been um persisting through a really challenging time, and I know she's not the only uh business owner downtown that's faced such challenges, but she's just near and dear to our family, and I just wanted to say thank you to her publicly for persisting and continuing to operate a business downtown.

Thank you very much.

Alderman Russell.

Thank you.

That the recreational plan that we put in place some years ago to put some gates up and do some reorganization of roads and such have really benefited the the actual city's property in the watershed, in that the I think the amount of stuff that was cleaned up was about a third what we've seen uh pre-pandemic.

So it really is having a good effect, and I just want to thank all the volunteers who helped with that.

It was uh more of a hike than I thought it was going to be, but it's so beautiful up there.

Thank you, Alderman Shackleford.

No comments, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

We have two opportunities for public comments at our meeting.

They are opportunities for the public to address the mayor and board about any item, whether it is on this evening's agenda or not.

We ask speakers to come to the podium, make sure the microphone is turned on.

There's a little light at the bottom that'll turn red.

That's how you'll know, to give their name and a general address for the record, and a reminder that our proceedings are being telecasted and recorded.

I think we're at working.

Well, good evening, Mayor and Board.

We are Frederick's LGBTQ Resource Education and Community Support Center.

Our address is 322 West Patrick Street in Frederick.

And I just want to say, let me just start by saying thank you.

Thank you for the support that you have given us in the past and that you're giving us now.

Um we're extremely grateful that the proposed fiscal year 24 budget has included $10,000 in community partnership grant funds for the Frederick Center.

This is an amount that has remained the same for the last few years.

And because of an expansion of demand in our programming over the last few years, I'm coming to you this evening to advocate for an increase in this amount of $15,000.

Responding to community requests.

The Frederick Center has expanded its program.

Since our founding in 2012, we have been holding an LGBTQ plus peer support group every week that brings together up to 30 13 to 18-year-old youth in a safe space for facilitated discussions on a range of topics as well as social activities and speaker presentations.

Since then, we have added a youth group junior program for youth ages 9 to 12, a young adult group for youth ages 19 to 25, a trans teen group for just trans and non-binary teenagers, a trans family group for parents and caregivers of trans and non-binary children, and Dungeons and Dragons groups for both youth and adults, which are really loved.

We've also expanded our adult programs.

In addition to offering a transgender, gender non-conforming peer support groups for adults.

In total, the Frederick Center provides over 30 regularly scheduled support programs per month that provide support and services to close to 600 people.

And that doesn't count special events like opioid overdose trainings and vaccine clinics in conjunction with the Frederick County Health Department, an LGBTQ plus legal clinic that's actually meeting tonight in coordination with the Frederick Barr Association, creating safe space for the Frederick Community Fridge, which is located on the side of our building, and hosting meetings of groups such as the recently re-energized PFLAG Frederick chapter.

These programs are unique in terms of the services that they're providing to Frederick's LGBTQ and ally communities.

All of these programs are offered without cost to attendees.

Importantly, attendees report that these groups have helped them with their social emotional well-being and have enabled them to connect with others to gain information and resilience to address hostilities and barriers at home, school, and work.

In service to the over 7,000 peer support group contacts that we provide annually, the Frederick Center's budget this year alone calls for spending 180,000 in allied expenses for support programs.

And the bulk of those funds are spent on expenses for trained licensed mental health professionals.

We need the assistance of the community partnership grant dollars because of the uncertainties that we're confronting in terms of donations, grants, and other revenue services.