I've been here how many meetings and I couldn't remember the entire thing.

But McCannna is an independent 501c3 nonpartisan alliance of neighborhood organizations and primarily concerned with broad-based neighborhood issues that do or could impact residential communities of Marion County.

Founded in 1990, McCannna supports neighborhood empowerment at the grassroots level by providing information, advice, and materials to neighborhood-based organizations, assisting them with their local issues and working to lend the collective voice of the neighborhoods to those issues that may have countywide implications.

All neighborhood-based organizations in Marion County and other organizations with similar missions are invited to join McCana and participate in the many issues and processes affecting neighborhoods.

Membership dues per organization are only $20 per year paid on an annual basis.

So that time of year is kind of been now for a while.

McCannis general membership meeting is the third Sunday of every month except December from 9 to 11 a.m.

at North United Methodist Church at 38th and Meridian Street.

We'd also like to thank Channel 16 for recording our meetings and making them available to the public on Channel 16 and 28 to permit McCannna's efforts to reach even broader audience.

We know that many neighborhoods who have contacted McCannna first learned about the organization from Channel 16 and 28 and know that Channel 16 serves as a critical research resource for people to remain engaged in and knowledgeable about what is happening in Marion County, even when they're unable to attend meetings and hearings in person, especially at 3 a.m.

in the morning.

If you would like to contact McCannna, you can reach us on Facebook, or you can reach McCannna's president Kathy Burton by phone at 317-847-9959 or email her at CB 7801 at AOL.com.

So with that is are there any community announcements?

No, I have a couple couple of broad.

So at this point, the MDC will vote on the draft at on June 3rd, Wednesday, 1 p.m.

There is public comment still available on the website, and that's going to close still Monday, May 18th, this Monday at 8 a.m.

But you can still contact DMD with any comments that you have.

Given all that, once the MDC approve, once they approve the draft, it would get submitted to the City County Council as a proposal.

And the given that June 3rd, I got the council calendar, there, the first meeting where they could introduce it would be on July 6th.

And then it would get assigned to the Metropolitan and Development and Economic Development Committee of the Council.

And that's that meeting would be July 13th.

So first domino is the MDC.

So if that date holds, those would be the subsequent dates.

So, but uh everyone who's interested in uh data centers really needs to look that draft over and submit your comments.

I know Monday's coming up fast, but even if you can't submit them on that official website, contact DMD, because uh we need a vigorous um ordinance to protect neighborhoods and to start protecting neighborhoods.

So, and the cannabis still has a moratorium for moratorium of all data centers.

Yes, the um the uh any moratorium has to be initiated at DMD and the MDC.

So the city council has passed a request of the MDC that they initiate a moratorium.

But that's where we stand at this moment.

Anything else with going on?

Um, well, there are a lot of things going on that you want to talk about.

But one of the hot buttons right now is this general assembly matching funds initiative that we can get into after our presentation.

Okay, sounds good.

Well, given that, we welcome heartily we welcome Dr.

Virginia Kane from the um, she's the director of Marion County Health Department, and um she's a gem.

So we we're lucky to have her as Kathy always says.

Um so Dr.

Kane, if you would come and tell us what's going on and the latest and greatest from our health department.

Thank you.

Where would you like them for me to stand?

Anywhere you're comfortable.

You don't need that.

Oh, I don't need this.

No, you don't need it at all.

Okay, so then I'll have to come around.

Oh, to move my slides.

Okay, okay.

Well, thank you so much.

It's always an honor and a pleasure to uh uh come and talk to McKenna and talk to what I think is going to be a very critical issue for our community by way of every five years, the Marion County Health Department does what it's called the board-based community assessment related to what's happening in their communities and what those issues are.

Let me see here.

I'm sure I'm going the right way.

And then by doing that, uh, what we do is we try to, whatever this information that we're able to obtain, we try to increase the community awareness of the health issues.

Try to identify if there's any health disparities that's related to the information that we're receiving.

But more important than that, when we know we're having limited resources in our communities now, how did we really target those areas where there's a tremendous need, as well as prior to rise, which ones we need to reach first, second, third, fourth, and fifth, and so we have a community health improvement process where we gather all the data, and once we've identified what those top five priority areas are, then we set up a process where we ask volunteers, people from the community, different agencies to look at a community improvement plan.

What is it now that we've identified the problem that we need to do?

And in order to do that, and once we do that, then it's much easier to say, okay, now I need to identify the resources to make sure we can carry out these initiatives that we can see uh great greater improved health outcomes as a result of our effort.

Now, you may not realize this, but we looked at the different perspectives related to this.

And um, this you have a handout also those in the audience that highlights the the bigger monograph book highlights um that we looked at race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, uh disability.

Uh we even address your religion or faith, uh, your occupation, insurance status, you know, um, housing, uh, you know, safe and affordable housing is becoming more and more a major issue.

Forty percent of the two one-one calls was related to safe and affordable housing.

We don't normally see that, but also your socioeconomic bracket, your education, and even identifying your immigration status.

Now, drumbeat, the top five issues that have been identified, and this is in order of what the community felt was important.

The number one issue is mental health and well-being.

That's what this community says is the number one issue here in Marion County.

The number two issue is access to health care.

I don't think that surprises a lot of people, especially as we're seeing a significant number of folks or uh unfortunately because of the economic landscape or losing their insurance.

So it makes it difficult to access services.

Number three, is a safe and affordable housing.

Number four, it's trauma injury prevention.

That's considers violence, domestic violence, and as a part of that, uh substance use disorder, is commonly associated with that.

And lastly, probably the one issue that really tells you the pulse of how healthy a community is the infant mortality.

Now, this survey, uh, we sent it out to oh, nearly 25,000 residents.

It's a 90-question survey, okay.

And we did general information, your health behaviors, like you know, have you been to a doctor in the past 12 months?

Have you got a physical, do you drink, uh, any alcoholic beverages, smoke.

Uh, we also talk about uh do you feel you've ever been discriminated and made to feel uncomfortable accessing services, and what's it like in your neighborhood and your environment?

You know, what do you like about your neighborhood, but what are those challenges that you don't like and you want something to be done about it?

And so we actually got 4,518 responses, and folks had the option of doing it by phone, or they could do it online, and we did English, Spanish, hot, hot, uh long, Haitian Creole, and Kenya Wanda, as the different languages that were provided for people to fill out uh the survey.

Now the report highlighted that at least 16.5% of our households speak another language that's not English, and 11.6% of Marion County residents are foreign-born.

We can run it off the 12%.

15% of our residents in Marion County live in poverty.

Uh that lives in poverty are blacks or African Americans at 22.3%, followed by the Latinos or Hispanics at 20%.

Uh Asians, 11, 13.6%, and if you're white, 10.6 of whites are living in poverty.

Overall, uh people need to know what's causing deaths in our community.

So our number one issue of why people die in Marion County, Indiana, or even the United States is heart disease.

It still remains the number one cause of death.

Cancer, no surprise, is number two.

Number three, believe it or not, accidents.

Something definitely very preventable.

Number four, chronic lower respiratory diseases.

That could be pneumonia or uh chronic uh pulmonary lung disorders from smoking.

And then last is stroke, cibrovascular disease stroke.

That's overall.

But now if you were white, um, those are the same causes of death, but now it changes whether you're black, what's their top five causes?

So if I was black, number one disease cause of death is heart disease, cancer, and accidents number three, but then homicides becomes the fourth cause of death if you're a black um or African American, and then the stroke.

Now, if you're Hispanic or Latino, what is the number one cause of death?

Accidents.

The number one cause of death for Latinos and Hispanics here are accidents.

And then it goes to the heart disease, cancer, but the fourth cause of death is homicides, and then the fifth cause is related to conditions while I'm doing my pregnancy.

So that highlights based on your racial and ethnic population, what are some things you may need to more closely concentrate on.

And let's talk about mental well-being.

Well, you believe that 26.6%, rounded out to 27%, have been told that they've been diagnosed with depression in their lifetime in Marion County.

27%.

Okay.

That's a fourth of Marion County have been diagnosed with depression.

14.7% at the time of the survey had symptoms of depression.

And if you look at, if you can tell at a distance from this map, the state of Indiana has a higher percentage of individuals with symptoms of depression in Marion County.

And we are, but we are higher than the national average for the United States.

That from 2018 to 2023, 2018, remember now, the COVID pandemic started around about the end of 2019.

And so if we went from 2018 to 2023, when the COVID pandemic ended, our suicide rate actually had declined.

But in this last year, the suicide rate in 2024 was 10% higher than 2018.

10% higher for the suicide rate.

White residents and male residents died more in suicides in Marion County from 2018 to 2024.

Almost five times higher in a male compared to a female committing suicide.

So males that tells you it must be a tremendous amount of stress, anxiety to have a level of suicides in them compared to their female counterparts.

But it may also mean that females may have a stronger, better social network support than maybe males do in terms of making that decision.

I'm going to put a suicide plan together.

The most important thing though is that our youth were looking at all this cyber bullying that's taking place.

You know, whether it's uh sometimes related to tension uh between uh parents uh that can contribute to the depression or anxiety with a young child.

And so in Indiana in 2023, Indiana had higher rates of poor mental health than the average rates in the United States.

So our youth from ninth grade to 12th grade, and that's an issue that we really have to address and provide them resources early.

And a lot of times, what happens, we think it's the kid that's acting out, that's uh causing so much problems, and we ignore what's happening to the quiet ones, okay, that can possibly come into a school and shoot somebody, other kids and other staff and whatever.

So, and because of the stigma sometimes related to mental health, uh parents may not get the help to their children that they need.

Health care access, 23% reported being unable to see a health care professional in the past 12 months due to costs, 23 percent, and the group who is expressing this the greatest is our Hispanic and Latino community, where they said 42.6 percent of the Hispanics and Latinos in our community felt they couldn't seek professional health care based on the cost, followed by blacks and our African Americans at 23%.

Okay, and if we look at it based on who's the highest and who has the lowest uh federal poverty level categories, um, the greatest percentage between 100% to 180 percent of those in federal poverty are the ones most likely, not surprisingly, if you're in the highest poverty level, you're the ones that most likely have bills that you can't pay.

Now, the other issue in terms of providing good health care is the level of our health literacy, their ability to read information that is provided to them.

So they're maybe Hispanic or Latino, but they may not know how to read in Spanish.

We make assumptions, you know, that they can read this in their native language, but that's not always the case, and so uh also in terms of health literacy, uh their perception of their health care provider understanding what they do, 48% reported that their health care providers always make sure they understood their health conditions, okay.

85% reported never needing help with understanding the materials provided to them, all right.

But if only 50% of their providers are making sure they understood everything, that implies that maybe 50% also are not doing that, and 15% um needed help to understand the materials that they were provided.

Housing, this just highlights that almost 50% of renters, and nearly 20% of homeowners are spending over 30% of their income coming into their uh residence, um, utilizing it for um housing, and 55% of housing units are owner per occupied, so that means that the housing that we have here, not quite 60%, but almost 60% on their own homes.

But since 2010, oh my goodness, 2014, since 2014, we've more than doubled our value of our homes.

More than doubled.

Now let's quickly go forward to our forearm homicides.

We are 25 times the homicide rates than any other country that's industrialized.

25.5 times.

And 79% of the homicides that we have here in Mary County are gun related, okay.

Um in Mary County, it's 87%.

So nationally, most of the homicides, almost 80%, are across the country, but in Mary County, it's a little bit higher at about 87%, okay.

But we find that our farm-related homicide rate is about three times higher than if it's the state of Indiana, okay, and the United States from 2018 to 2023.

And if you can see this graph over here, you can see where it went up, like in 2020, it's highest in 2021.

But we have seen in from 2023 to 24, you see, it's declining now, our firearm homicides, and it's actually decreased by 16%.

So we're going in the right direction for our homicides, but still, every week you will hear of someone being shot uh with a gun.

So that we have to figure out a way from a conflict resolution standpoint, that you know, answering any conflict or trauma, um, that there are better ways to do it as opposed to uh taking out a gun and solving the problems, and especially we want to reach the younger generation, uh, prevent this from happening uh as a result.

Now the other thing is no surprise, homicide rates are higher, six times higher than in females in Marion County, but guess who's the age group that has the highest foreign homicides are 15 to 24 year olds?

So it's at 15 to 24 year olds, nearly 50 percent contribute to our homicide rates.

So that tells you if we just targeted that group alone, 50% of our farm homicides, 50 to 24.

What a tremendous difference it would make in our homicide uh rates.

Now the other thing is, so folks, I just want you to know, anybody that's listening to me that uh you may be thinking about breaking into somebody's home or robbing them, okay?

35 percent of our Marion County residents own a gun.

So I'm just giving you fair warning, and you know, and I know that they're probably that percentage is probably higher, people don't always want to admit that they own a gun, okay.

Um, 41% of U.S.

residents own a gun, but here's the other part that's a little uh disconcerting to me.

79% reported that they have some type of storage, some form of gun storage, 79%.

But 20% do not.

So you may say, Well, I live in the house by myself.

Well, wow, are you a grandparent?

Do you have your grandkids ever come over to your house?

And let me tell you, I just I hate to tell this older generation.

I'm sorry about this, okay?

Don't talk about me.

I'm including myself.

Okay.

Okay.

These grandkids were way smarter.

So when we came along, oh my goodness.

You can have a two-year-old figure out how to find a gun in a mattress.

A two-year-old can find a gun in a mattress.

Okay.

We think we're hiding it in a drawer.

They know how to find it in the drawer.

So these younger generation children, you just say, Oh, I don't have to worry about this.

Or mom may keep her gun in her purse on a kitchen table and not think about it and go to the restroom or someplace like that, and the child has already got that gun out of her pocketbook and is using it.

They're very inquisitive.

Their uh brain development, to me, is so much greater because of all the social media and everything that they're exposed to these days.

These kids are just smarter.

And we cannot, we cannot underestimate them.

So you 20% of you non-owners out there that don't have a gun lock or a storage box.

You know, make sure you uh make that your next priority.

Yes.

And the health department provides gun locks and some forms of storage and uh IMPD and some others provide that.

So you can't afford even hospital systems are providing it.

I think Raleigh Hospital, some others are providing uh gun locks.

So please do that.

Now, one of the problems about having some levels of our mental health being impacted adversely, is that people will self-medicate themselves.

And by self-medicating themselves, I say they develop sometimes an addiction to utilizing these drugs that uh that are not are that are not obtained uh legally, and so with their overdose, we're seeing the highest number of overdoses in this country, believe it or not, uh just for the first time in 2024 was among black or African American residents.

Up until 2024, was in our white residence, but blacks have surpassed the overdose death rates at about 40, 46, 47 percent, compared to whites at 37%, and then if we look at Marion County for the accidental overdoses, you can see that we are almost double at 52%, almost double compared to the overdose death rates in the whole state of Indiana at 30% in the United States.

But let me just show you this, and if you can see this at a distance, this red graph going up, we saw that in 2021 was our highest overdose rates in 2021.

This is when we were really at the heart and thick of the COVID-19 pandemic.

We had a lot of quarantine, isolation for folks, uh people not uh losing, they're losing their jobs, you know, in the hospitality arena.

So so many things were going on during that time, and see that high, um, this is where the uh i.e.

the ambulance, our fire departments were picking up people and administering Narcan.

You know, that's every person, the lock son, every resident of this community should have the lots on and know how to administer to someone that may be having an overdose.

It will save their lives.

And if you can see this blue line, turquoise bullish green, is the African American rate.

They were having almost about half the overdose um deaths back in 2021.

But look at 2025.

They have now surpassed the white residents with overdoses in 2025.

And then you can see where the Hispanic Latino has sort of been kind of plateaued, but they're declining.

But the beauty of it is almost all of them have declined since 2021.

We've just done a remarkable job with so many programs out there, overdose, online programs that are going out there.

And also more important than that, are getting them into treatment.

Our safe syringe program gets in five times greater the number of people getting them into a safe syringe program.

We also have a program with the uh prosecutor, Ryan Mears, that if you are a first-time drug offender, and you have a felony, if you agree to undergo and be placed in a drug treatment program, and you complete that program, they will expunge your record if you complete that program.

Our program has been in place for about two years now, and we have a 80% success rate.

80%.

That means that 80% of the folks that utilize this program are getting into treatment but they are staying into treatment.

The other 20% either didn't take us on our offer or they start the treatment, but they didn't continue the treatment.

This is critical to get people the services and the resources that they need when they have a health condition that you know a lot of people say, well, morally you should be able to take care of this yourself.

This is a heart condition, just like heart disease.

You may have high blood pressure, you may have diabetes that you have insulin, so it's substance use disorder based on these chemical neurotransmitters that's related to that addiction, you need medication or behavioral therapy to help really get them on the right track where they can overcome their addiction.

Now, infant mortality, this is my last subject, and I'm just about to end here.

Um we saw the highest infant mortality rates in black or African American women and those living primarily in and around downtown Indiana.

So if you're in zip code 46202, 4625, or 46208, um, those are the zip codes that have the highest infant mortality rates, with blacks overall in 24 at 12.7 baby deaths per 1,000 births at the highest infantality, followed by our white pregnant mothers at 7.9 uh baby deaths per 1,000 births, with the lowest being our Hispanic or Latino pregnant mothers.

And then of course those other colors that you see on here, uh, if you can see you saw the dark blue, but the next one, the lighter blues, contribute to the greater uh cases of infant mortality, and no surprise that in a lot of our zip codes that are in the surrounding areas outside center township have the lower infant mortality rates.

So when we look at our children and youth, let me see this next one.

When we look at our children and youth, you will see that when we just average it from over four years, we saw that the non-Hispanic black had the highest infant mortality rates, followed by the white pregnant mother, and then followed by the Hispanic individual.

And what are our biggest problems related to why we're having the continue to have high infantality rates?

Mothers are not getting in their care in the first trimester.

You have to have at least seven prenatal visits, adequate prenatal visits in order to get your care, and now we always a lot of times we will blame the mother, the pregnant mother, for not getting in in the first trimester.

But guess what?

It can be related to hospital health care systems issues because they're so overwhelmed.

I may call and I want to get an appointment.

Well, they'll say, ma'am, it may take two months before I can give you an appointment.

And by that time, you may be in the second trimester.

And so we are looking in the whole healthcare systems are looking at ways to offer alternative plans in order to get people in in their first trimester because of that adequacy.

You need to start the prenatal vitamins in the first trimester.

You wait in the second and third trimester, the baby doesn't benefit as much.

You need to screen them, making sure mom doesn't have high blood pressure, she doesn't have diabetes, because that needs to be controlled in that first trimester, and we're seeing an increase in congenital syphilis now in our communities that we never had back in 2015.

We had controlled that, but we're seeing across the country an increase in national syphilis, and as a result, we're seeing congenital syphilis in multiple states in Indiana and Marin County is no different.

So I need to screen you in your first trimester and treat you with penicillin in order to make sure your baby's not born with congenital syphilis.

We checked you for other things like HIV and those disorders.

So the other thing that's uh that's important, uh, when we look at that first trimester, only 56% of pregnant mothers get into care in Marion County in the first trimester.

Now, the other thing we have to look at is our smoking rates, because if you smoke while you're pregnant, you will have a low birth weight baby, and you will could be born prematurely too, where you're born and your baby may be in the neonatal intensive care unit, and it'll make them high risk for respiratory conditions and things of that nature, and so we see that our highest rate of smoking is in our white pregnant mothers at 4%.3 smoke, followed by black mothers at 1.8 percent, with the Latino mother, the lowest level smoking at not even 1%, 0.8 percent.

But this is the information that I think you need to know.

Uh we have, in order for people to be healthy in this community, we have to have those strong social support systems.

We have to improve our food, we have to improve our shelter for our homeless, and we gotta assure that and guarantee them that they can get the health care they need.

Now, listen, I don't get my mammogram, okay?

I can't detect my breast cancer in its first stage.

I can do that.

They can remove that.

This, oh my goodness, these surgeons, they can remove a breast mask from your breasts, and you can't even tell that someone cut you with a knife.

They are just so good how they remove these breast masks and your breast looks intact.

But they got to get you in that first stage.

And if you don't have no health care, and I can't afford to pay for going to emergency rooms, I'm going to wait until my cancer may have spread throughout my body.

I'm stage four, I'm just so sick, I have to go, or someone has put me uh to the ambulance.

Now, I have to do chemotherapy, the most expensive form of treatment, plus I may have radiation therapy.

So what I'm trying to emphasize here is that prevention.

We've got to stress and guarantee prevention if they don't have any insurance, making sure that the preventative stuff is available to them because we're all going to pay in the end, but why should we pay the most highest costly stage of medical care than catching it in the beginning and nipping it in the butt?

And the most important thing is you're going to live longer.

Okay.

You're going to have a longer health expectancy related to that.

Men who may need to be screened for prostate cancer, you know, and can detect that early.

It can make a difference.

And listen, um, I don't care who you are, I don't care how rich you are, you can be susceptible to acquiring cancer.

President Biden has prostate cancer.

Famous people, uh Angelina Jolie had breast cancer.

So no matter how rich you are, it's so important to do that preventative care.

And what does that mean?

Every single one of you as a resident should have a physical examination at least once a year.

Once a year in order to take care of yourselves.

And don't forget, you got eyes, you got teeth.

So I'm going to stop talking about a medical doctor.

Get your eyes checked out, get your teeth checked out.

That's so critical, both of them, in terms of your overall well-being, all right.

So hunger, 51% experience food insecurity 2025.

If they were black, 51% if they were Hispanic, experienced food insecurity in 2025.

And if you were white, 22.4%.

But the other thing I just want to uh emphasize in going back to the cancer, that lung cancer is our number one killer of death in Marion County.

Primarily related to smoking, lung cancers are number one cause of death in Marion County.

Okay.

And primarily who's getting it, white adults.

Who's dying most from it?

Lung cancer, white adults.

Now, breast cancer, white women is diagnosed the most often.

But it's black women who's dying mostly from breast cancer.

Colorectal cancer, it is black adults and white adults.

Both are getting colorectal cancer.

But black adults are the ones most likely dying from it.

Prostate cancer, we're seeing the highest rate of diagnosis in black men and the highest rate of dying with black men from prostate cancer.

But this is a surprise.

Would you know for cervical cancer?

It's associated with human papillomavirus.

The Hispanic woman is diagnosed the highest with cervical cancer.

But it is the black woman who's dying the most from cervical cancer.

So I will end with two slides with our environmental concerns.

When Mary County residents are asked about the environmental issues that most concern them, what came to be the number one topic?

Traffic and congestion.

49% is their top concern.

Followed number two by safe drinking water at 47%.

Thirdly, outdoor air pollution at 41%.

And then 39%, climate change.

And they're talking about extreme heat or severe weather, tornadoes and no storms was their fourth concern.

And the fifth concern was pollution of river lakes and other bodies of water.

But the sixth concern was litter, trash, people dumping where they don't need to dump, okay.

And we need to address that.

What do you like most about the community you live in?

No surprise.

People said I like my neighbors and friends who look out for one another.

That's the number one thing they like about their neighborhood.

Number two, they like the diversity in their community.

That was the number two.

Three, they like safe, peaceful, quiet, walkable neighborhoods.

Fourth, they love the general affordability of living in Marion County.

Okay.

And five, they're impressed with the built environment, sidewalks, and back lanes, trails, such as the Monon Trail, proximity to grocery stores, faith-based institutions.

So these were the things that they liked.

But I'm going to end by telling you what are the things they least liked about their community.

And this is the other thing now.

What do you least like about the community you live in?

So they said, believe it or not, general housing affordability, the satisfaction with rental housing, the affordability of that, and the condition of the rental units available to them.

So the condition of maintenance and safety.

And in some communities, poor home upkeep.

You know, I may be doing a great job taking care of my home, cutting my grass bushes and everything.

A home next door may have a lot of trash in front of it.

The appearance just really is very distracting, okay.

And may sometimes, based on your appearance of your houses, may impact the crime rate in your area.

So a lot may be associated with that.

Neighborhoods that don't like the crime and violence, particularly gun violence.

They feel that there's a lack of grocery stores in some of their communities, and lots of litter and trash, lack of walkability, but they don't always have sidewalks in their areas or even street lights sufficient that they can walk after dark.

And they want to have more parts and green spaces, and lack of community events and festivals.

And wow, they have done such an amazing economic positive impact in this community.

But even more important at that announcement was that they are they have some land nearby their company here.

And they're going to convert it into a beautiful park.

So how wonderful is that?

But I also think they're also partnering with Caitlin Clark and her foundation, and they're gonna build this gorgeous, beautiful basketball court there.

You know, I'm gonna be one of the first ones trying to get over there, you know, shoot my shops, okay.

But uh I think those kind of things are more exciting happening into this uh community.

Now, I do have a pet peeve with the mayor and the folks who are opening this animal shelter.

Okay, it's a gorgeous thing, just gorgeous, amazing.

And they're going to even have a dog park, part of this new shelter.

Well, I'm a cat lover, okay.

Where's my cat?

I want my little cat park too.

Okay, fairs fair now, all right.

Uh, but this is so tremendous, all the wonderful events and things are happening in our community.

We have to continue to do those things.

And lastly, it's the social issues.

We have to help and address our homelessness.

I think we're well on the way.

I know the mayor has a great program and um uh chip, the working in regard to this, um, and even the businesses are supporting it, like our local chamber of commerce really pushing and stuff like that.

But uh, and some of our programs are like HealthNet, I know has a wonderful um uh program helping the homeless from a medical standpoint, so we have to continue to do that.

Uh we have to continue to address substance use, um, and we've got great programs for mental health.

Uh, the healthy brain program that's going on at Ask and Nazi is just amazing.

And so um I we know community uh health network has a wonderful mental health program too, and whatever, and there are this every hospital system has a great mental health program.

So, but please, it's a matter of us making sure they know where those resources are and how to navigate them.

So we do have a website on our uh health department uh where you can identify where all of the um mental health websites there are.

I'm gonna just take this, there's something called credible minds, okay, where on our website it lists almost all the behavior providers.

They'll tell you whether you can see a teenager or not, they can tell you whether it's low cost, or do you need insurance and so what that is, and so we have um credible minds, near and health dot credible mind.com.

But look at our website uh related to that.

We have a similar website that you can look for if you need substance use disorder services, you know, where to go, uh, who's providing the services, you know, whether I can afford it if I knew free services, do I have a provider that culturally recognizes my culture and has a better understanding of me?

Uh, we try to provide that information as well.

But I do want to say what they least liked about their community, uh, they felt that um lack of diversity, and they didn't want folks to address the racism, and they were concerned about traffic, busy streets, and we do have some folks who do reckless driving.

Let me tell you, they will drive and cut right in front of you, and with uh poor uh road maintenance sometimes that can create a problem and it can create uh accidents, and then someone mentioned high taxes as a concern, and you know, uh and I was wondering about that, but we sometimes have seniors who have retired and they're on a fixed income, so depending on who may move into your area with you, let's just say uh some apartments, expensive apartment buildings, and whatever, that might raise your taxes in your area for those folks on a fixed income.

And so, how do we help them?

What can be done to maybe provide some resources for them that you otherwise would not have thought about?

And so let me just say we're ready for all of you to get to work now on helping us address those five priority areas.

And uh you can work on more than one priority with us.

You know, we don't discriminate.

You know, come right out and help us, but you need to help us identify what needs to be done.

We need to do it together, and the Marion County Public Health Department's job is to find the resources in order to help get the work done.

We want to work hand in hand with our neighborhood associations, McKenna, because you're so critical.

You're on that front line.

You know, you're the ones that know your neighborhoods of the best, you know what's happening, you know who your trusted messengers are, and you know the folks that's gonna get the work done.

So come and join us.

We're gonna be announcing soon um these improvement, community improvement meetings, and we love to have your involvement helping us out in regard to this.

So I'll stop.

I don't know if anyone has any questions for me at all.

Yes.

What are these urban gardens, neighborhood, vegetable gardens sprouting up now?

Is somebody out testing that soil?

Well, let me just say I'm glad that's an excellent question.

The health department is available to come and test that soil for you.

So we might make sure they know pesticides that in that soil, you don't realize that might have happened a couple of years ago, and you're not aware of it.

You know, could be arsenic, it could be lead, a number of things in there, and we have the ability to come out and test the soil for you if you're setting up a uh a community garden.

So that's done by a healthy homes program.

Call our Healthy Homes 317, 221 2000, ask for healthy homes.

317, 2212,000, that's our general number for Marion County Public Health Department.

Uh, ask for the Healthy Homes Program, and they will arrange that for you.

Can you address the Indianapolis Public Schools meals program for kids under 18?

For the meals program, is that what you say?

The summer meals program for kids under 18.

So I know that they have their program every year in terms of from a food insecurity standpoint.

People, parents just don't have the resources to food feed their kids.

And I know IPS and I know we've partnered sometimes with them in the past, and I believe the city of Indianapolis has partnered with them sometimes in the past, but they make meals available for the children uh that have participated or uh in their school systems to provide them for free meals based on their poverty guidelines and their ability uh not to be able to afford the food.

Is the parks department still doing?

So I knew that they do it yes uh last year.

I don't know uh honestly uh about uh this year, so they'll have to answer that one.

Can you address the summer curfew program?

Well, actually, now I will, it's hard for me to address that because that is really more of a city of Indianapolis function or whatever, but I will say that I um the city of Indianapolis, because of the balance that we have had with our our um teenagers, and remember now, what group did I tell you had the highest firearm homicides?

50 percent is the 15 to 24-year-olds, and so we have to get some kind of measure, some kind of handle on this, so that particular audience ordinance was put in place uh so that we don't need a 12-year-old, 14-year-old out there after the curfew hours, and they don't have an adult accompanying them at these young age groups.

They need some adult to be able to provide that guidance to them.

So that's the purpose of that.

The Greensburg Y closing.

The what?

Closing of the Randsburg Y.

Randsburg YMCA closing.

Oh my goodness.

Um this whole community needs to be uh getting together to figure out how to provide those resources so it does not close.

It's only right, but I'm just saying uh we should not uh this whole community should have been able to get together to prevent uh that particular YMCA from closing.

Physical activity, fitness is so critical, and a lot of these whys, it's just not physical activity in gyms that are long in those gyms.

They usually have other programs that go on, whether they do food and security, they have a lot of youth and adolescent programs to get kids who from after school to keep them uh out of trouble.

So, guys, we need to get our act together.

So we closed it.

We need to figure out a way how to open a new one in that same area.

Do you have any opinion on the uh general assembly's matching funds program for road improvements?

Where if Indiana raises a hundred million, the general assembly will match it with fifty million.

Um actually that's over time.

In the first year, it's a 50 million raise to get 50 million from the General Assembly in later years it's 60, 70, 80, 90, 100 million.

And if we do what now, explain that.

Each year that you raise okay, the first year if you raise 50 million dollars.

Related to the city government, relating to city government related to road improvements, road improvements.

Okay, the general assembly said they will match Marion County 50 million dollars.

I don't see a problem with getting more money for road improvement.

How do you call how do this is all new dollars?

How do you have an opinion on how to collect those funds?

Wrestling tax, registration fees, I do, but you know, election is coming up, and so I want to keep uh my secret weapon because I do know how I think we can get more money, but I need my candidate to win, so I have to keep my secret secret.

This is our first attack, and then they'll turn around and if they get in, they will first thing they'll do is raise taxes and build the old game.

So I just can't answer that uh particular question, okay.

Do you um do you um track how long it takes to get to a primary care physician?

Um, so the average amount of time, optimally, it should take if you call and get a doctor's appointment, should be about two weeks.

That's the optimal time.

Now, please, um I'll put in a call to my doctor.

I'm still waiting now, okay.

Um, but he's too popular, that's his problem.

If he wasn't so popular, I wouldn't have a problem.

Uh and I tell him that, you know, just stop taking the patients, okay?

I'm your favorite and your oldest uh patient, I deserve priority, and you know, they can find another doctor, but he's just too good.

Uh but it's up to me, it's two weeks.

But our problem is we're going to see a shortage in health care providers.

We are showing a shortage in healthcare providers, it's going to be over 100,000 providers, healthcare professionals.

2030 by 2030.

We're going to see about 90,000 nurses are shortage across this country.

And so we have not built enough medical schools, nursing schools across this country to meet the demand of the residents that are in our communities now.

We just we haven't met it.

And now it's even more difficult now.

They pass something that people may not realize.

I'm not talking about the harvest of the year.

Over the lifetime is about a little over 300,000.

And so we used to be able to get government loans, and you can get a government loan, usually with the average interest of 8%.

So you get the loan of 8%.

But the administration last year passed, or this past this year, the administration passed that you can now no longer get a government loan greater than 200,000.

So you have to find the other financing for the other 100,000.

Now let me tell you this.

If you're a first-generation person going to medical school for the first time, and you're in your 20s, early 20s, do you have the collateral to get that other 100,000?

So you have to have parents that have enough collateral, and hopefully they have a home that's valued over $100,000 to be able to get that other $100,000.

So we are now, and this is the same issue, they put a limit for nursing loans too.

So we're now have created a market that if you're rich, you can be a doctor.

You don't have the money, you can't be a doctor.

So already we're facing 100,000 um shortage, and now we have this limitation.

So it's not like we are getting these loans as a health care provider and not paying it back at 8%.

Please.

That's all excuse me.

Yes.

Yes.

Um, for uh I live in Decatur Township, and we don't have a primary care physician in the township.

We don't have an OBGYN in the township.

We don't have, we have some rehab, a little rehab.

We have one or two docks in a box stuff for emergencies.

But that is all we have.

How do we attract?

Um, I think we're gonna have to look at our policies.

We're we are in the state of Indiana.

We're facing a huge shortage of OBGYNs.

They're deciding not to stay in the state.

But also, let me just say we're having more female uh OBGYNs.

50% of all the medical schools, osteopathic schools are uh females, and they they like anybody else, they want a family.

They got young children.

Uh, you know, in the day when we had uh tremendous amount of providers, you could work primarily Monday uh through Friday, eight to four, and you didn't have to be on call maybe one week in out of the month, but we're seeing so many people, uh, you know, males say, oh, I'm gonna get my MBA.

You know, take one year, two years.

I don't have to do all this four, eight years of schooling to be a doctor.

So it is really really challenging to really uh incentivize them now.

Now, I want to say that uh Marion's uh medical uh college, uh, they're opening up two new residencies, primarily in family practice.

Uh so I'm excited about that.

I hope I'm not announcing something I shouldn't announce too early, okay?

It may not have been officially announced, so I don't want to get in trouble, but they're doing some amazing things to try to increase and expand the expertise of primary care providers, uh, and so we need to open more schools across this country.

Yes, I'm sorry.

More schools, but also what I'm saying, what's happening in St.

Vincent's, I'm sure, and others, the doctor patient loans are going up to 100 patients per doctor, and we're talking about internists and the general practice areas, that does not match up.

Let's say, for example, Medicare.

When they say the doctor visit should be 20 minutes, there's no way you can get that number of visits in the time you're supposed to give proper care.

So, and I know in Washington, it's an absolute mess now, and they're trying to cut and they're not even looking at numbers, they really could care less.

They really don't care.

And um, something's got to change with that because we're just losing our professionals, like you said.

The other thing is I'm wondering just as simple as when appointments are held, because I know, like when I go for my annual Medicare screening and doctor's visit, wellness visit, I can get that appointment a year ahead of time.

Why are slots being tied up for well people a year ahead of time?

I know because there's rules with the funds, always have been rules to get people to take care of this.

But there's got to be some gift somewhere in that system.

I agree we need more medical schools.

We need more funding for medical schools, and what I don't understand is that are we getting, like when St.

Vincent, I'm not just picking on them and any of the hospitals that get all this funding, a lot of it may have been uh donated to get a new wing of the hospital to get the new building, huge building and everything else.

Are there hands being tied by the donors?

So that they can just say, say this to you.

So a lot of times when hospitals may expand uh wings or don't uh whatever, a lot of times donors do put in restrictions related to how their dollars are used.

So and also it depends on the ability of that hospital system to find those philanthropic donors to help out, and so that used to be uh, we used to see a higher level of philanthropic giving ten years ago.

It's not at the same level.

Uh I also think that um uh this is where I'm getting seasoned now.

I think the older generation from a philanthropic standpoint uh was more used to giving uh the younger generation may not uh see it quite the same as their parents, so I think there has been a drop, but also I think so many businesses have been impacted in the last five years, and so a lot of businesses also used to have to do community benefits and you know tax breaks and things of that nature, and uh uh I've just looked at uh who gives the United Way, and there's some companies every year used to give to United Way, and we now have some national companies uh that don't even donate to United Way.

So even uh that's uh impacted, but I do want to say um we have some of the best foundations, hands down, uh across this country.

And the city of Indianapolis, the collaboration that they do uh is amazing.

So it all depends on somebody's ability to communicate, articulate what the problem is, and I think folks will come out.

They'll be receptive, but we've got to make and be have the ability to make the case to understand this benefits everybody in this community if we work on this particular issue.

And may I say?

With I don't want to sound political, but it is.

Okay.

When the billionaires are paying almost no taxes, their corporations are paying almost no taxes.

There's no incentive for them to look for the tax deductions that they used to look for.

So we'll just say, hey, that's just money giving away.

Because you have a different generation of different people.

I'm not going to blame Generation Z because there's a lot of people in Generation Z who want to give.

Yes, exactly.

But they're not in the super wealthy, unfortunately.

Not that matters.

Yeah.

Do you have a position on what data centers will do to public health?

So that's a very complicated subject.

And let me just tell you what some of the issues are related to the data centers.

So the problem about data centers is we're going into the world of artificial intelligence.

So if we're going to be able to be efficient and retrieve the data that we need, do it in a way where we have to have massive integration of data, they're saying that we need these data centers.

Now the problem with data centers is the utilization of the water consumption.

So they may require, I think about five million gallons of water a day at a moderate size data center.

That's the equivalent.

So a data center every day consuming the amount of water that 50,000 people consume, that's that's tremendous.

That's huge.

Yes, madam.

There are some states that are force them, the data service to say you're a hundred percent on the recycle, which they can do.

But in the state of Indiana, they're not looking at it.

Well, we have a local ordinance that's shaping up.

So it's shaping up.

It's something that can be, it can be in uh Marion County's ordinance.

Have you talked to the MDC about this or at all?

That was my next order.

Or DMD.

No, I have not.

No, I have not.

Because MDC is the one pushing.

No, I have not.

So now, along with that, a lot of energy is also associated with data centers.

So that also may mean that your electricity bills may go up related to this.

And so you have to look at the cost over time, and you have to look at the consumption of water over time.

And so I do know that the data centers, like in the places where there's a lot of dry drop areas like Arizona and places like that, uh the consumption of the water, uh, which they can sometimes impact uh, you know, like lakes or streams or what are your aquifers, you know, once it's consumed, it's it's an issue.

So who bears the cost related to this?

Does the companies bear that total cost for this, or any residents that live in its particular area bear the cost?

And so uh companies sometimes are given incentives to come into a community, and so what is that incentive look like and how long does that incentive last, and who benefits from that incentive?

So do the residents surrounding the data center benefit, or does the city itself government benefit but not the residents?

So there's so many issues and they have so many different plans.

Uh I think those are the questions that people have to ask, and then there may be a noise component related to it too.

And diesel generation.

Diesel generator is a big one.

Yeah, I calculated for the decaturation.

They have to the consumption uh does involve fossil fuels and yes, related to the uh data center.

Yes.

But in the one that was proposed and passed for Decatur Township, I calculated something like uh in their half hour testing, okay.

They blow through 10,000 gallons of diesel.

Wow.

Right next to neighbors.

The other thing is that in these proposals they're talking about for any given site, for a lot of these sites, that they are gonna be on site storing one million gallons of diesel, which is a huge hazard because it's hard enough to even run 50,000, 75,000 bulk tanks, and the flat bottom tanks in the uh chemical industry, especially the ones that have been grandfathered in.

They don't necessarily have to be in a dike, you know, and this grandfather is like the great evil, because uh I worked at a uh pharmaceutical company that have one of the old tanks.

One day they took the stick reading on top of benzene, a gnome carcinogen, 10,000 gallons.

Next day they want to take the stick reading, the tank is empty.

Oh, that was a huge environmental thing.

Just one of the many.

I just happen to be there, I happen to know it.

Think of all the thousands of ones we don't know about it, and it eventually works in the streams.

The other thing is about water consumption is my second one, is that we are heavily dependent on wells.

When you start sucking out too much the wells, you have round clips, like they have in California because they're so dry and other places where you have these big sink holes.

You know, nobody's accounting for that, especially not for Brighton, like Brightonville.

Where they insist on going through with it.

Why?

Because they're poor people who can't fight enough like the other ones.

I mean, that's horrible.

I do want to say that the data centers that have been proposed so far, you know, correct me, um, have been closed loop.

Uh, again, the one I'm most familiar with is decatur, but they they were uh estimating that they'd have to charge uh like with a million gallons, but then it can recirculate, it's not five million a day, and they they would they would get it from the municipality, not from uh the specification.

Well, we have to look at the ones that have already been proposed that had uh Brightwood Martin Deal uh in the meeting said that we're gonna be storing on a month and balance.

Oh, yeah, yeah, I get that.

I get that.

Yeah, we ours is more like a million and a half, and I don't the Google proposal in Franklin that passed the MDC.

They come in the door and they say we're gonna have 12 you know generators, and then the next week they're like, oh, we need to up that to 180.

That's what they did in Fort Wayne.

Yeah, right.

They sneak in and then explode.

Yeah, there was a hundred and twenty proposed in Decatur Township.

Yeah, so yeah, the um if you would take a peek at that because the diesel combustion is significant in Indiana they can um run the diesel generators for a hundred hours without it being an emergency, so um and even so what they say is an emergency might be that you know they just need more power.

Yeah, that's an emergency, yeah, yeah.

Um back on, I mean, AI.

AI, AI and social uh media.

I'm hearing um that there's a big in the young people, there's a big loneliness thing going on because they're more attached to their device and what, you know, maybe an AI, whatever you call them, bot, I'm not sure.

Well, I think the chat PT, so you know uh these are youth are they they're growing up with you know cellar phones, uh laptops, computers.

They do the social media.

Oh, how many hours a day?

And um, and so they've just grown up with it, and I don't know if I have a problem with my computer, whatever.

I just asked my niece and nephew, go fix it, and I'm amazed, even my little uh grandchild, she's three years old, just so computer savvy, but she's got a little uh little laptop and things that they do, so it's heart wrenching for them if they don't have access to it, and so a lot of these companies are generating software to get their attention to utilize their product, and so you know, we have to be very conscious of what they're exposed to and don't uh forget we've had, you know, so many um I don't know what you call them that are scamming our young children, trying to lure them uh and they're very dangerous, lowering them away, uh for um terrible activities, sometimes resulting in the deaths of our children that we just have to be very, very conscious, but with the algorithms that they do, you know.

If I'm if I'm concerned about committing suicide, what advice does this algorithm give a young child if they're considering suicide?

And it's clear, um, that sometimes the information that they're given uh is inappropriate and not responsible uh behavior, and so the the algorithm is only what someone codes into the program, and so we gotta be very careful and conscious with this algorithm.

What always needs a person in place to give advice?

We cannot think that this algorithm can do everything, and it is biased based on who is the programmer who's putting the algorithm in.

Will it increase efficiency for a lot of things that we do in the medical field?

Of course it will, but we've got to have a ethical, ethical, really well thought out process about what these algorithmic software programs can do and cannot do, and and should be fixed so it can't do anything or give advice that it does not have the expertise or the capability of doing it.

It's almost like practicing medicine without a license.

So we just have to be conscious of that, uh as a community, and who we're dealing with, and people need to hold them accountable.

But the um the the issue of loneliness, the suicide, yes, already, um, and then especially young men.

Um so let me just say, you know, in old days, what do we used to have?

We used to have all these social programs after school, you know, basketball programs, people to help with your uh your your homework, uh, exciting things.

Hey, I may want to be in photography, get a group of kids to do photography, or wow, I need to learn how to play music or get a band together.

We used to have a ton of those social programs.

We don't see it at the same level now, and I think folks, they don't have nothing to do, and so when they don't have anything constructive to do, I think it puts them at higher risk to do those activities that may be dangerous to them.

So, hey, we gotta get it together.

This is worse than the told or something, the baby's yes, which is bad enough, yes, yes, get them with a small laptop or whatever.

Yes, you know, but they may there's some exciting fields out there.

Uh, and so how do we uh we know we gotta continue to capture these kids young and have them do activities that may challenge them and get their interests, but it's hard.

If I'm a single parent, um, making nine dollars an hour, I can't survive on nine dollars an hour, so I gotta have two jobs.

So I gotta figure out how to put food on my table, and I really want to sit in my apartment with some electricity, some light.

I don't want to be there in the dark.

So we we have some amazing challenges in this next year, and health help, health is so critical.

Health, help, health.

Because if you're not feeling good, you're not healthy, okay.

Uh, that's a dangerous thing for you and everybody in the community.

The Near Eastside Community Organization, their community resource district council, is considering a program to provide convenience stores and the like with stop the bleed kits.

Oh, I love that idea.

That that's an initiative we're working on.

Could you comment on that?

You recommend places for we can go for possible funding or um possible, you know, training.

Well, we know where to go for the training.

So stop the bleed is so critical.

Yes, you know, you may be uh it may be a uh uh um gunshot room, but it also could be an accident that you may cross somebody's an accident, they're bleeding, and how do you stabilize them until the ambulance arrives, and everyone should know that, or you can have an accident on your job, and resumably, can you help your coworker or whatever during the time?

So stop the bleed is a wonderful program that all of us need to learn, and even teenagers can learn uh that problem and young kids, so uh that's an incredible program.

We really want to continue to push and promote that for sure.

And then you said, uh, oh, the convenience stores.

You know, it's tough when it's snowing, and I'm a single parent, and I gotta go to a grocery store, but I gotta get on the transit bus, and I may have to go a distance away to get fresh fruits and vegetables, and I can go to uh a gas station and they may have sandwiches, but I don't see the fresh fruits and vegetables, and so we really need convenience stores that can provide that and whatever, and so where they don't have to have large walking distances that they have to travel because if I have to get on the bus, I can only carry so much with me, and that might mean I have to do multiple trips to the store in heaven forbid I've got any little kids with me that has to go with me to do this, so that's really critical, and we need to look at those food insecurity areas uh where we need to provide those services.

I don't think they can do that.

Right.

They can buy the can of beans or whatever.

So there's a place that you can go up pay for a sandwich, but it has all the this fish and other things that would go in their sandwiches, but say it tells you it has a sign EBT acceptable.

Okay, and that's the only one I've seen anywhere.

It's on West 38th Street.

I have not seen one other one, right?

And that is a great message to put out there that people can buy, they also save money, go buy a loaf of bread, put that in there.

But when you're starving, we have a program called Fresh Bucks, so that if you receive SNAP benefits, we provide you some of money.

I think it's a little over $225 a month or somewhere in that arena where you can buy and get uh fruits and vegetables.

We have about 10 of the major grocery stores that participated in it, but we have a number of farmer market programs, too, that they can go to in order to help enhance uh uh this program.

I think it's a great program.

A Harvard School of Public Health is evaluating it for its effectiveness, so we'll know maybe in another six months what they think about it, but it's a great program that we're trying to bring additional resources out there for folks who really have a need.

And I'm seeing a few new grocery stores.

Well, hey, I love the grocery stores, but listen, we got some great pantries too.

And we're getting sophisticated now, you know.

Uh our health department partners with gleaners and some other places, but a number of the hospital systems, um, I know community uh hospital network uh uh works with um folks who produce uh farming foods and whatever and things of that nature.

I know um Asganazi has a garden and a pantry, um, and so we we have a program called Prescription RX, where we get providers to write a prescription to their patient, and it says you can go to this pantry and get free products.

But if you are a diabetic, you just can't take anything off the shelf.

And so these pantries now we're getting they're becoming more sophisticated.

So if you have diabetes, I want you to go to these are the products in this pantry you can go to.

You have high blood pressure.

I need you to give more of the low salt products so you can go over here to get this, and we're trying to have more educators in the pantries to be able to tell them and articulate what's what.

So, folks, I don't want you to give bad products because you you don't want to use it, but if it's not healthy products, we're really don't I'm telling you, I'm sorry, the pantries may want it, but I don't want you to donate unhealthy products to our pantries.

And our health department actually has uh pantries too on our south side, you know, for folks who may not uh have the resources.

Yeah, but you might getting food from cleaners.

They're different programs and the dates are have already expired, and yeah, you say you can eat some foods after the data's expired, but when you're already insecure and don't know when you got this and you now weighing, do I give this food to my family, although the date and risk them getting sick, or do I just throw it away?

Well, technically, if if it's expired, um uh they sh they shouldn't give it.

Otherwise, they need to put a new stamp on there to tell you what the appropriate does how far you can use it past being expired.

But I'd be very concerned about something that says it's expired, and unless you got something really official in writing with that product, uh I just can't tell you that you can use a food product that's expired.

Jim, Jim was still right.

You have any suggestions as to funding sources where we can um get the equipment for the stop the bleed kids and where we can get that equipment.

So if you will I'm gonna have to ask you to call me at the health department uh 317, 221 2000, and if you call me uh at that number, um I can definitely tell you, identify the person where you can get these uh free kits, and um because actually I think our public health preparedness uh division is actually distributing um stop the bleed.

I think so.

Oh, okay.

And if not, I definitely know uh that there are stop the bleed kits out there that we were pushing, and I also know that the uh Dr.

Dan O'Donnell with IEMS uh was presenting that program for the for the ambulance folks too.

So we'll get them stop the bleed kits for you.

Okay, because NESCO, as we are known.

It is uh certified 5013 corporation where you can donate tax-free.

Okay.

I'm glad to hear that.

Thank you.

Did you hear this?

Other questions?

I'm scared of you, madam, but go on.

So uh what happens is that because I I've helped PAC at the Chicago food depository a long time ago, and they have uh used by dates and then there's uh cell by dates.

Well no, it's used by dates and best by dates.

Right.

The best by dates implies that it doesn't really have an expiration.

Maybe it's dry goods, maybe it's something else.

You know, but there were rules around soup.

But I thought that if it was within the expiration date, they were still packing them that they were good for six more months besides the I think you have to be very careful.

You have to know which particular years ago.

Right, right.

And they told us for this only for the soups that they had.

Right, right.

Which were I think like you know, the standard stuff.

Right.

That didn't, you're right, it doesn't apply to everything.

It's only changed so much now.

I just only for the those packings on what they had.

We had specific instructions.

But it doesn't help the people at home because they could have had another year, they don't know.

They don't know the rules.

Okay, well, thank you so much for having me.

Thank you.

I appreciate this.

But we have uh folks, we have a um uh we we're dispensing anybody wants it, just this one little thing gives you the key findings of our five priorities and statistics that go along with it, and also we have our community health assessment where it showed all the slides in more details, and I've actually got like a 250 page document.

You know, if you're one of those academicians or you really want to do a deeper dive in an area, it has a lot more rich data for you, and we actually did a number of uh focus groups with about 10 of them.

We focus group with veterans, uh different uh racial and ethnic populations, um, and so uh the Indiana University Fairbanks or School of Public Health helped to do a lot of those evaluations and focus groups, so all of that information is on our website.

But if someone has a special area of interest and they want us to do a deeper dive into the data related to that, I have a very robust epidemiology department under Dr.

Elizabeth Bowman, and I want to give credit to Dr.

Elizabeth Bowman, because she's the architect for doing all the survey, and one of her supervisors, um, uh Andrea Boshinek.

Uh, they were just incredible with the efforts related to this.

Thank you.

What's your um I what's your website?

So my website is I know it's not just um let me think it should be here in the back of the tier for this room.

One second.

I got this QRS code, but the website is Marian Health.org or G slash capital CHA that stands for Community Health Assessment, 2025.

PDF.

So let me repeat it.

So visit, you know how they put the HTTPS, colon, double slash, Marion Health one word.

Capital C H A.

Under uh twin space 2025 dot PDF.

And don't forget about, hey, we got wonderful podcasts, different tips, how to help.

If you're not feeling well mentally, uh tips about suicide, tips how to identify if someone you know, a loved one, uh maybe having um depression or anxiety, what to do about it.

And listen.

And so I know the Latino Domestic Violence Organization does an incredible job, but folks, we can be in a relationship, and we don't always know what really triggers the violence from a loved one that can result in someone being shot in a dual murder suicide.

So we got to learn what those triggers are, okay?

And but maybe it's a relationship.

You may feel your life is in danger and you need to get out, but you don't know how to do it.

So there's a lot of training and tips that may be related to that.

And we also have our own Marion County Mental Health Association that's working hard in our communities.

So please utilize these services.

Help us out.

988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.

Please.

And check out our credible minds.

Okay.

So I know Fisher's health department for Hamilton, that part of Hamilton County has a similar program, so check us out.

Thank you.

Very much.

Okay.

Any last thoughts about something coming up that you've just remembered?

Nothing?

Okay, then let's adjourn.

Everyone enjoy the wet weather.

But spring's here, so.

Well, I'm gonna give me some good breakfast.

And then I may sit on my porch.