Call to order the community and culture meeting for Thursday, February 19th, 2026.

Let us stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Liberty Justice.

Welcome everyone to today's meeting.

We do have a hard stop at 355.

So hard stop at 35 for those who are gathered this afternoon here in the boardroom and also for those who are watching through our virtual means.

Today our conversations are the Frederick future Frederick Youth Center.

This item we presented by Chief of Staff to the Mayor Guy and Sampson and manager of Office of Opportunity and Transformation, Erica Robaugh Roarball.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Good afternoon, Mr.

Chair, members of the committee.

My name is Guy and Sam, the Chief of Staff to the Mayor.

And I'm Eric Karorba, the manager of Opportunity Transformation.

And we're here to do a presentation on the future of um our youth center here in Frederick.

So before we get started, uh I want to acknowledge the community partners and also people don't know this, Derek, or uh Councilmember Shackleford was a director of the youth center when I went there a long time ago when I was a little kid.

So uh the same building, uh right across the street, he was a director of our youth center.

I don't know what years those was, but it was a long time.

But anyways, I want to start by thanking uh members of our community and also uh the Australian Family Foundation and um Australia properties.

Uh they're sitting behind us.

They've been with us through this from the beginning.

So thank you all for being here.

We appreciate the invitation today to share updates about the future of the Frederick Youth Center.

This project is not only important to me as someone who is in the future of uh Frederick's youth, but also it's no secret, as I just mentioned.

I grew up here in Frederick and benefited from the types of services that we are looking to expand here today.

To orient us to this, this is the future of the youth center in yellow.

Um, which is directly across the street from McCurdy Field, which is in green.

Um I'll be remiss if I also did not thank Frederick County government.

Um, at this time in their partnership, they gifted us with the 18,000 square foot facility that we are working out of.

And so true partnership between governments and philanthropic communities um coming together to help the youth.

This journey started a long time ago in 2018 with the human needs assessment, the highlighted gaps in youth services from their little livable Frederick Master Plan in the city's community 2030 plan, set goals for social well-being and civic engagement.

Frederick needed a safe, accessible and space for young people.

That led to strong support for and collaboration in the idea of a youth center, built on collective impact model to serve our most valuable youth.

We started the community assessments in 2021 and 2022, followed by visioning and mobilizing efforts through 2024.

Right now, we're in the planning phase.

Site plans were just approved were approved just two weeks ago, and construction is on track to begin in September.

Is that right, Andrew?

This facility is expected to open in early 2028.

And I am thrilled to share some exciting news.

The city in partnership with the Alschman Family Foundation has secured $3 million through Federal Transportation Housing and Urban THUD Economic Development Initiative Program.

We'll talk a little bit more about that next week when um Alan and I give you all update about our federal um and state uh lobbying efforts and what we've done.

But we just want to make sure you all knew that we were very successful in that and we're happy with the partnership of getting that done into our members of the Maryland delegation, the U.S.

Congress, we thank them for this.

This work has been guided by community and youth voices from day one.

Three key recommendations came out of the process.

First, formalize a network, now launched as a 1224 collaborative, and Amy is here with us, and thank you for coming.

Second, create a youth council now it's in second year.

And third, opening a hub facility to act as home for this work, which is why we are here today.

So just to bring us back to the physical space of the building.

This is the um on the left, you'll see the um current boys and girls club of Frederick County.

On the right, that's the future home of the youth center, and then in the middle, that little sliver of land with like the pavilion, that's South End Park.

So all three of those facilities are city-owned property, and it's a bonus that McCurdy Field is directly across the street.

So you can really start to see this amazing youth campus that will be developed to help support our youngest citizens to our opportunity youth, which we'll talk a little bit more about in a second.

Um, this is an awesome.

Oh, first it's now the orientation is switched.

So this picture, the youth center is now on the left, and the boys and girls club is on the right.

But this is a concept plan that we worked with the Oshman Family Foundation to put together with our youth council, members of the community, to really get a great idea of what this campus could look like.

And a fun added bonus is there in the parking lot area.

You'll see some specific food truck parking.

This is a recommendation from our Frederick Youth to really pay homage to Scotty's bus, who is a local culinary legend, and what Scotty's bus lane was named after.

So really trying to tie in that Frederick culture and make this feel like a strong place of belonging for all of our youth.

Okay.

So this is the interior concept plan designed with youth input literally at every step.

Through listening sessions, dot exercises, and guidance from the youth council, the Oshman properties and our architect captured what matters most to our young people.

We're proud to include Frederick Youth's top five asks, a gym, a lounge, a game room, a wellness room, and a cafe area.

Plus, we added flexible classroom, comp classrooms, conference rooms, and office space for events and operations, which was requested by our community partners.

And I want to also point out in the top right corner where the it's kind of yellowish, that's going to be the future home of our re-engagement center.

Uh, and the orientation is important for another slide.

These are the gorgeous renderings that we put together with Osherman and our architects to really give an idea of what life will look like when it's breathed into this building.

Um the exterior, that's I'm sorry, this is when you first drive up kind of where that loop was facing towards the youth center.

McCurdy Field would be like on the other side of the street.

This would be when you first walk into the entrance.

Right directly to your left would be our security, straight ahead would be the gym area, the game room, you can kind of see through the open class, and then the cafeteria would be the where the blue overhang pieces.

So you can really see this feels some like somewhere that a young person age 14 to 24 would go.

The goal was that somebody who was early in their young adulthood, 23, 24, maybe had a family, was just looking to find a fresh place to start over or build connections or find resources, they would feel just as comfortable here as a high school freshman.

It's a hard age demographic to kind of make it fit for everybody, but keep in mind this is that cool young adult kind of place to come and hang out, get connected to a case manager, find resources with DSS or any of the other partners we've identified to um help fill activate this space.

And finally, this image is of one of our classroom spaces, it'd be a makers space.

So the idea, or really the activities and the partnerships and just the fun that will happen in this location are kind of limitless.

And it's going to be very cool thanks to our federal funding.

The FFNE to outfit this space is going to make this not only dignified, but an exciting place for youth to come and get connected.

Okay.

As we look ahead to activating this space, I want to introduce two key leaders who are here with us.

First, Jason Francis, our new re-engagement program manager.

Jason will oversee the physical building and lead our re-engagement efforts in partnership with the City Department like Parks and Recreation and Housing and Human Services.

And Sean is here with us from Parks and Recreation.

Since coming on board in October, Jason has already received over 200 referrals for re-engagement services, showing just how critical this work is for our community.

If you have any questions about those services, I'm sure he'll be he'll answer them for you.

Second, we have Amy Wilkinson, the new backbone director for the 12 to 24 Collaborative, Frederick's formal network of youth servicing providers.

Jason and Amy will work hand in hand to connect providers, youth, and resources, making this campus not just a building, but a hub for opportunity.

So after that, I want to take some time to introduce the term opportunity youth.

Young people who are ages twenty twelve to twelve, I'm sorry, fourteen to twenty-four that are disconnected or at risk of disconnection from school, work, and community supports.

The re-engagement approach is about eliminating barriers and building connections to help these young people find their version of success.

This population has been at the center of our planning because reconnecting them to education and career pathways is critical for their future and for Frederick's future.

Our approach has been shaped by a two-year technical assistance partnership with the National League of Cities through their re-engaging Opportunity Youth in the South program, which gave us tools, data, and best practices to build a strong foundation in Frederick for this work.

And now we're excited to share that the Frederick Youth Center will become Frederick County's first formal re-engagement center, creating a central hub for programs and support.

Our re-engagement work is organized under the RISE framework.

Reach, invest, stabilize, and empower.

RISE isn't a single program.

It's a coordinated pathway that includes prevention and intervention.

On the prevention side, initiatives like Thrive and Next Steps build protective experiences and family engagement before young people become fully disconnected.

On the intervention side, RISE provides case management and individualized planning for youth who are already disconnected.

And the pathways to possibility fund removes financial barriers and provides stabilizing opportunities.

This programming is the foundation that will eventually translate into the fully functional reengagement center when the youth center opens in 2028.

But we're not waiting until then.

Our programs are already operating at the local library and we're building critical community partnerships, many who are represented in this room that will strengthen this work.

And then to wrap up, I wanted to share a quick highlight of one of these programs.

Jason is doing really incredible work already in the few months he's been here.

For Valentine's Day, he launched our first Thrive initiative, which was called Daddy Does.

It's a hands-on hair care and parenting workshop for fathers and daughters.

It's about connection, confidence, and creating protective experiences for our families families.

Our next event is planned for June around Father's Day, and we're excited to keep building on this momentum.

The future of Frederick Youth Center represents a bold step towards creating opportunity, connection, and support for our young people.

We want to thank the council members who have been supportive of this project from the beginning.

Together, we're building a campus that will transform how youth and families across our cities obtain resources.

We are happy to answer any questions you all may have.

Any questions for Chief of Staff Guy Samson?

Erica Warball.

Sure.

This sounds amazing, and thank you so much for all of your work.

How do they access services or join in?

Or how do people in education who are identifying young people send them your way?

So from the macro level, the 12 to 24 has been really integral in creating referral network to connect not only the providers to services, the youth to providers, really just having an open line of communication.

Thanks, Guyan.

I don't want to steal us under, he's doing an incredible job.

Introduce yourself first.

Hi, I'm Jason Francis.

I'm the re-engagement program manager.

Pick it up.

Right here?

No, this is transportable.

Oh, literally just pick it up.

All right, that works.

You can set it down.

Okay, put it right here.

Um so yes, essentially right now it's just referrals that we're gaining from we have some of the city schools that we're working with, and we have nonprofits that we're already connected to, such as the housing authority that has been one of our um, you know, really strong referral pathways right now.

And we also have um like the police department can send over young people and it's possible to self-refer as well.

So that is a really important part of this work is making sure that young people are aware of the services that are already available.

And that's why Amy and myself are just so dedicated to making such just a clear road for them to get what they need access to.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Um so what services are available and um Erica, you had mentioned disconnection.

So youth that are disconnected.

What does that mean?

Okay.

So the current services that we at least have managed to stand up in the handful of months that I've been here is one, the next steps re-engagement, just drop-in space that's right over at the downtown library.

I'm there on every Tuesday to Thursday from 2 to 4 30 for any disconnected youth who are currently being referred or who I'm currently meeting with in the schools.

So that's one of the spaces that are there, and we just kind of handle some case management and again just referrals, referrals, like we're not trying to duplicate any services.

We want to make sure that we're connecting young people with services that are already existing.

And when we talk about disconnected youth, again, that's that opportunity youth term that we're kind of describing.

That is youth who are not currently connected to schools, not currently connected to employment, and also if they are not currently connected to mental health services and are in need of those services.

Yeah.

So uh one of my other jobs is at FCC.

Are are you connecting with uh folks there?

I mean, there's a lot of resources available at Frederick Community College as well, and I'm just wondering if you have a partnership there, because our students are definitely going in um you know 18 to 24 and up.

100%.

Yeah, go ahead.

FCC is actually here today.

Dr.

Molly is here to join us.

Um, FCC is a part of the 12 to 24 collaborative.

And you might have heard about good jobs, great cities and kind of the the in the very beginning of the youth center conversations around workforce development and city initiatives.

FCC has been an integral partner, and like thank you so much for coming.

We couldn't do it without them.

So yes, we're very plugged in.

Um I'm always interested in how success is measured.

So do you have goals like that and measurements?

And I know it's difficult since it is at the very beginning and the youth center hasn't been open yet, but um what kind of specific goals do you have and then how are you going to measure them and how do you see it changing from year to year?

So um so for the re-engagement side, uh I everything is just about data collection right now as much as possible.

And we're just trying to, again, we're kind of I the goals right now that I have established are really more so based on like specific age ranges.

Um from a lot of the data collection that 12 to 24 was able to do, we found that youth ages like around 16 to around like 1920.

There's a there's a huge disconnective opportunity for them, right?

We do a great job in Frederick at um providing really strong, valuable youth programming from like the 13 to about 17-year-old range, but after they leave that, there's not a lot of supports.

So some of the goals right now is how do we bridge that gap?

How do we make sure that these young people are now connecting to um employment opportunities and they have clear paths and plans for their future?

So right now it's a lot of data collection, making sure I'm keeping track of who is attending, what are they plugging into, and then follow up afterwards to make sure that several years from now they are in some type of family sustaining wage pathway.

I hope that answers your question.

Yeah.

I'm always going to ask a transportation question.

So once the youth center and the youth campus is in place, how are students or young people who may not have access to a vehicle?

Um, how are they getting there?

Yeah.

Uh well, one thing that I can say is that is something that I I really value as well.

I'm hoping that we can be able to provide some transportation for ourselves, like through um city transportation that we have, but also there's effort that is taking place, and maybe Eric can speak more to this to have a transit line that will be closer to that facility so we can just make easy access that way.

That was an excellent answer.

And the only thing I'll add is that we tried to be intentional when locating a space that it could be walkable to some of our communities.

So being there by the Boys and Girls Club, McCurdy Field, we know that it's walkable for a portion of our community that might have difficulty walking to other services.

It's not ideal, but for the size, the location, and the campus aspect, that is the perfect location for this building.

So yes.

How how can we better support you?

Today I think it's about advocacy and continuing to kind of talk about the work, the 12 to 24 collaborative, um, and our partners could really just it's a it's a new concept for Frederick, this collective impact model.

So continuing to ask good questions and help to plug in and connect nonprofits and youth back into the cycle would be is tremendously helpful.

And then just remember us in upcoming years as we get ready to launch a youth center that this is critical work.

We already have more referrals than one person can handle, and we'll need the city to support Frederick's youth in a in a meaningful way in the next couple of years.

We'll open in 2028.

So FYI, what year?

In the I think in the summer time.

The summer is still the summer.

Third quarter, first.

Spoke like a developer, first quarter.

Oh and this might be a question for Chief of Staff Guy and Samson or as well as you, Erica, and that is we had some conversation previously before in regards to where this will be quote unquote housed.

Has that been finalized?

Yes.

Currently it's in the Office of Opportunity Transformation, but the idea is for it to transfer over to Housing Human Services.

Is there a timeline with that?

I know we have some conversations around that.

We don't have a we don't have a distinct timeline right now.

I mean, the goal is that the building is built.

Once it's built, we'll be able to give everyone what they need and then transfer it over to HHS.

Okay.

Thank you.

Any any other questions for our illustrious presenters?

No, thank you all so much.

Oh, really quick.

Um, and I know I know there's a different kind of age um construct between 12 and 24, but also with the boys and girls club.

Basad, how's that partnership going to be formalized or work out together?

At this time, the Boys and Girls Club has been an very active member in the 12 to 24 collaborative.

It's kind of a ties all of this back together and will help us to activate the space.

And there's a lot of exciting potential for partnership.

They're actually also represented here today, Lauren's here.

Um so there's really it's limitless the uh connection between the youth that they serve and that natural pathway to the youth center next door.

So good.

Good to see so many partners in the room today and so supportive.

Um I know we have Department of Recreation in the room.

I know there's not only a CD department.

What's their role in this as well?

Yes.

Uh Sean, do you want to answer?

I can I can also if you want to come up at the end of the day.

Yeah, because obviously Chief of Staff Samson needs some assistance.

So for the council, there's um there's like a case management piece to this, which is why it makes sense being in HHS, because that re-engagement piece and like the wraparound holistic, like really intensive services, that's what's going to help the youth in Frederick to get to whatever success looks like for them.

So I that's something that's really important to me to make sure that they're supported in a way that's more than just coming to an event or being engaged in a f in a recreation way.

That being said, we have this amazing building that we never want to sit empty.

We want to be able to operationalize it.

So we have talked with Parks and Rec.

Uh Sean Fullen, Superintendent Recreation.

Yeah, I, you know, Jace and I, we actually met today.

We meet pretty frequently on how this would look and how we can support him in what he's doing now and in the future with this.

Um I've been involved in you know recreation parks, have been involved in the building and um some logistics with Erica in regards to that.

And uh, you know, we fully, and Jason and I just talked today, fully play it on, you know, any sort of recreation needs that we can provide that you know, whether it's supporting different 12 and 24 um nonprofits in their recreation kind of pursuits in the building, or just our own and what we can provide as far as activities or open gyms or staff, stuff like that.

We'll we're totally working that out.

Okay.

I thought it was important for Sean to come up because I just want the council to see that the entire city is working together on this project, and so all of us are invested into this.

So our students who don't necessarily fall into the category of opportunity or you know, who have stable families are and doing well in school.

Are there opportunities for them to to come and participate in activities and we work with nonprofits that serve every size shape type of life that um of youth in the in the community?

So this is somewhere that anybody would be able to connect in.

And I would say that many of the resources like FCC or workforce services.

I think that those are equal opportunity resources.

Everybody should have access, no matter where you kind of fall into the continuum of Frederick.

Um so the answer is yes.

That re-engagement piece though will be really specific to targeting that population that we know is just not being served um in an intentional way in Frederick right now.

So, thank you for this presentation.

As mentioned, um youth services is part of my starting point in my route.

So I'm very supportive of anything we can do with our young people.

I feel still rather young myself, considering that Guy and got hair on his face now.

Um but thank you, and I appreciate all the partners who are in the room working together.

I think that's what's so important for our young people to see.

And so we appreciate your efforts and look forward to hearing more information in their future.

Thank you, everyone.

Next on our agenda is the opportunity reentry program update.

This item will be presented by Erica Robo and Chief of Staff Guy and Samson.

Thank you, members of the Council.

Um thank you all for showing up today.

It's your support.

Uh we are now shifting gears to talk about another critical piece of our work and the priority of the mayor's, which is re-entry here in Frederick.

This is about creating pathways for residents returning from incarceration to successfully reintegrating into our community.

In July of 2024, the city completed the Good Jobs Great Cities Academy, which focused on strengthening pathways to quality employment.

That work highlighted four priorities in Frederick: fair wages, return to work pathways, engaging emergent adults, and expanding apprenticeships.

From that came an important realization, we couldn't talk about workforce without talking about re-entry.

Because of many because many of the residents, the biggest barrier to employment is the past incarceration with the justice system.

In October of 2024, the mayor appointed the Frederick Re-entry Advisory Coalition.

Over the next nine months, the coalition met regularly shared data and developed practical recommendations.

This past past October, Erica and the chair of our coalition and want to thank him, Jason Lee, presented their recommendations to the City Council.

And today we are here to share where this important work has been hitted.

Before we move on, though, I'd like to also thank the original members of our reentry advisory coalition and our re-entry network that have joined us here today to show their support.

To help us ground this conversation in data, these numbers come directly from the Frederick County's Office of Sheriff's Department 2024 Corrections Annual Report.

In 2024, the detention center recorded just over 1,800 total intakes across the programs, which is jails, weakenders, home detention, and work release.

The average daily population is around 300 people, which tells us how that the facilities, the which tells us the facility experiences a lot of movement in and out.

The average length of stay is only about 20 days, meaning many individuals are cycling through quickly and often too quickly to fully connect with support or planning before release.

The recidivism rate is 51.9 percent.

So roughly half of those returning to the community eventually go right back into the system.

And in terms of where people are coming from, about 70 percent are Frederick County residents, uh 20 percent are from other parts of Maryland, and nearly 10 percent are from out of state.

The Sheriff's office report doesn't break down uh by municipality, but the takeaway is clear.

Most people returning from this facility are part of our local community.

So during our time together, the re-entry advisory coalition followed a structured process that was guided by the U.S.

Department of Justice's building second chances toolkit.

The coalition met regularly, mapped local services, and identified gaps in housing, health, economic opportunity, and pro social supports.

In total, they were able to catalog 57 resources across Frederick County.

Most are provided by community organizations.

This gave us a clear picture of what exists and where the coordination was needed.

This slide dives a little bit deeper into that slide, please.

Yes.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, actually, yes.

That um brought up something for me.

So these are um resources, right?

So, what would a court resource be?

Is that a diversion program?

Yes.

Yes.

So it is a program or a service that somebody who is re-entering would be eligible for.

They either take Medicaid or they target this specific population, um, they take uninsured.

So when we were mapping out, it's like housing and human services would fall into housing.

Um, our health center, housing human services would also fall into health and behavioral health.

So these are just places they can plug in.

Okay.

Okay.

So after we identified 57 resources, the coalition gathered key details for each program, like who provides it, whether it's offered pre- or post-release, the eligibility requirements, and the costs.

This analysis helped us to pinpoint gaps and informed the recommendations.

The coalition's work was culminated in a set of practical recommendations, the full details of which you have in your backup.

There's a really awesome document that we produced.

At a high level, these include establishing a full-time re-entry navigator to guide individuals transitioning out of incarceration, formalize the re-entry network to sustain collaboration and coordination, lead advocacy and public awareness efforts, and implement a shared data strategy.

These steps are designed to strengthen support for returning residents and create a more coordinated re-entry system here in Frederick.

On this slide, you'll see some of our highlights from our advocacy milestones in the past year.

Advocacy is something that is really important to the re-entry coalition previously and the current re-entry network, just really raising awareness of not only the barriers that individuals who are re-entering face, but also the resources that are available to help kind of like take the stigma out and use Frederick's community to navigate.

First, the expungement reform act of 2025 or House Bill 499 was a major win for us.

It expanded expungement eligibility and which directly improves access to jobs, housing, and education for returning residents.

This was a result of sustained advocacy from the City of Frederick and the network.

Mayor O'Connor testified in Annapolis in our chair, submitted written testimony on behalf of the committee, the coalition.

You'll see a picture of one of our social media posts on this the right of the slide.

And we hosted a mock interview day for individuals who are re-entering that just needed to get some experience or practice doing some interviews.

Both of which brought attention to re-entry issues and connected returning residents to practical supports.

Since we last presented, um the participation in our Frederick re-entry network has continued to increase, further confirming the coalition's recommendation for the city to convene a formal network.

February's meeting focused on advocacy opportunities with the opening of the General Assembly, including reviewing nine re-entry-related bills, one federal, and eight from the Maryland General Assembly.

We also established a partnership with the DOJ's National Training and Technical Assistance Center to strengthen planning across agencies and program implementation.

These steps are helping us to build a re-entry system that is sustainable and community-led.

The Office of Opportunity and Transformation is preparing to host our first re-entry simulation in partnership with the governor's office of crime prevention and policy this April.

This event will give community leaders and policymakers a hands-on look at the challenges individuals face when returning from incarceration.

Things like securing housing, employment, and transportation, but under real world constraints.

It's an important step towards building an understanding and strengthening of collaboration.

Once the dates are confirmed, we will absolutely send invitations out to the city councils.

This is your sneak peek, but it's gonna be a really cool event.

Our focus moving forward is simple.

Um continuing and advancing these priorities.

That means sustaining the re-entry network, deepening partnerships, and implementing the recommendations already shared with you.

Every step keeps us aligned with what the city wants to do, which is to engage all of our residents.

So again, thank you for your time, and we're happy to discuss any questions you may have for us.

Any questions regarding your presentation?

What are some uh crime prevention that that is in place right now in the city?

So for example.

So um specific crime prevention, I think I have partners we can invite to give more updates like FPD.

I can't talk about one of our awesome programs.

We have the lead program, the law enforcement assisted diversion program, and the health department and FPD have partnered.

Um that has been the health department has been a really strong partner in this work.

Um and I can get more details about the program.

I don't I just don't want to misspeak on the public record, but it helps individuals to uh I don't want to it helps divert them from spending time in jail.

Yes.

Yeah.

I imagine the new youth center may have a role in uh preventing crime.

I love the connection for Office of Opportunity and Transformation and how this all ties back in.

So we have been exploring like a juvenile piece of the re-entry work.

Um so looking at community partners, working with the courts and probation and parole.

Um, Jason and George and my team have been connecting on the re-entry side and um Jason's background working with the re-engagement and this opportunity youth population has a natural tie-in to the juvenile juvenile services.

So, yeah, we're definitely looking to uh work with Justed Impacted Youth so we can help with it not becoming a deadline to people being incarcerated for much longer than they need to be.

And we also have a uh I don't want to misspeak on our name.

We have a co-sponder, co-responder model in the city where we have police department teamed up with other health professionals to be able to respond to certain incidents, and we think that is obviously helping to be uh leading to people not being arrested for those sort of incidents.

That's the crisis car.

Yes, crisis car.

Yeah.

Um I have a couple questions, but maybe I'll start with um talking about recidivism, so I'm really glad that um this conversation is happening and that you are here, and you know, once someone enters the criminal justice system, it's really hard to get out.

And a recidivism rate of 50% is very normal.

Um I'm always pro diversion programs, so you know, stopping them before they really get in.

Um, so I would encourage you to seek out more.

Um there's even like one for veterans, too, that I don't see in Frederick County.

Um, and like I mentioned at the last presentation, I would love to see goals about reducing recidivism.

So if that could be included in there, that'd be really important.

And so my other questions are about the recommendations.

So where are you in those?

So I see for the 2027 budget, there's gonna be um a line item for a service navigator.

But then what about the data sharing?

Um I saw in the report that the um Frederick County Detention Center is gonna take lead on that, or it was recommended that they would take lead on that.

So, like what's the status of that?

Um so for the re-entry piece, I can share it was a priority of the Office of Opportunity and Transformation, but it's up to the mayor for the final budget presentation.

So we'll stay tuned.

Um the position would be in housing and human services, which is a a natural connector.

That's where all of the resources are that the city offers for individuals who are justice impacted when they're first getting out of incarceration.

So that's the best place for it to be.

Um as for the data collection.

So the recommendation was that the Frederick County Adult Detention Center kind of lead that effort.

They had they own most of the data that we're looking for.

I know that they last spring were um upgrading their data system and so really trying to figure out how to best utilize it.

They are still very involved in the ranchery network.

Um, their re-entry coordinator, she comes to all of our meetings.

So the partnership is strong.

We are just working with our community partners to encourage um good data sharing and best practices so that we can support them.

I think it's important to note that prior to this, we didn't do a lot of that as a city and the county.

We talked about it tangentially, people knew each other, but this is an idea of really making sure that it's coordinated and to Erica's point.

Um the Sheriff's Department has to own it because they oversee the jails.

So they have all the data.

And so our job is to make sure that it actually is being coordinated with the city and we know what the data is.

And then the third goal, just to uh round out is the advocacy piece.

So we've been tracking bills this year and working with the re-entry network to really teach our residents how to be engaged at the um like the with bills, how they work, how you can provide testimony.

So I think the advocacy is something that's been really exciting for a municipality to be engaged in just educating our residents in the process, and they have been like hand over foot excited to get involved and provide recommendations and kind of pick tra help track and pick what we're um supporting.

So it's it's cool.

That's really cool.

So policy um policy-wise on the city side, is there anything that you would like to see?

Like how can we help again outside of the budget?

I think what we want, and I appreciate that question because it's really important that you know we're you all are asking them, we provide an answer.

I think what we're trying to do right now is make sure that our network gets together and they're able to offer those recommendations to you.

Also, our whole idea is allowing the community to come up with some of these recommendations, and we as staff helping support that to bring before the council.

So this is not the last time you'll see us talk about re-entry.

We'll be back and probably with more recommendations from the the network.

Yes.

Yes.

Okay, thanks so much.

They meet um every other month for two hours on the second Wednesday of the month.

And we meet at FPD in their community room.

So they just met the second Wednesday of February.

Those meetings open to the public?

Yes.

Yeah.

It's more what's what time?

6 PM.

It was important to the coalition that this be more of like a community like grassroots led, so it's not like an official committee anymore.

We did dissolve the ad hoc committee.

Um it's this beautiful place where individuals can come and connect.

They either have been justice impacted, have lived experience, they are resource providers.

Uh, and I would love to have you guys come out.

It's really cool to see how this has grown since last October.

Any questions for our presenters.

Thank you for this work, this necessary work in our community and for our residents.

And so we certainly appreciate your efforts in this.

Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Any comments from council members.

No comments.

I just I really appreciate you bringing people together to um to share about this.

You know, uh during last year, prior to being elected, uh came to a lot of council meetings and and was able to see some of the youth center presentations over the year.

And it's exciting to see it um come forward, and I I love seeing how these two enterprises um intersect and and the city is seeing um the whole.

So thank you.

Thank you.

I think it's important as a chair of this committee um for us to give an overview about our perspective and what's already ongoing within our departments how we can support them in terms of from a budgetary standpoint because we may have to get all process all the information during the budget hearings, but also in terms of a policy mechanism, so we can um see what policies need to be instituted to enhance or change or make our programs as flexible as they can so that we can get the most value for our residents.

So this is the purpose of our committee hearings and and very soon after we hear from our respective um departments we will develop some work plans to address some of the things in which we heard and also some ideas we have of ourselves.

So no physics be no further business before this committee we stand in adjournment.

Thank you everyone