Good morning and welcome to the Health and Human Services Committee work session.

Councilmember Laurie Ann Sales, Chair of the HHS Committee, joined by members, Council Members Friedson and Ludke.

Today we are considering FY27 supplemental appropriation 27-1 for $390,000 to address youth vaping and nicotine addiction.

According to the data in our staff report, nearly one in five surveyed Montgomery County High School students has used an electronic vapor product.

And 10.2% currently use a tobacco or vaping product.

While use has declined from its earlier peak, too many young people still need effective prevention and support to quit.

These restricted Joule Altria settlement funds would support $250,000 for rec modes beyond the GLOVES Youth Program, $100,000 for the Street Outreach Network, and $40,000 for grant administration.

Most of this funding was previously approved but went unspent.

Today we need to understand how the Department of Health and Human Services will ensure the funds are used to reach at-risk youth and measure whether the programs actually help prevent vaping among youth.

This work session is televised live on County Cable and streamed on the council website.

Now I will turn things over to Ms.

Nicole Rodriguez Hernandez to walk us through the packet before I invite my colleagues to share any comments or questions.

Thank you.

All right, good morning.

Thank you, Chair Sales.

I want to thank our colleagues from the Department of Health and Human Services and the Office of Management and Budget for participating in today's work session and responding to council staff's questions.

As you mentioned, Chair Sales, today the committee will be reviewing and making a recommendation for the council's consideration on this fiscal year 27 supplemental appropriation for the Department of Health and Human Services operating budget, totaling $390,000 for youth vaping and nicotine addiction response as mentioned in a from a restricted revenue source from the Jewel and Altria settlements.

The county executive transmitted this request on June 22nd, 2026, and the council introduced it on July 14th and held a public hearing on July 28th.

The council did not receive any testimony for this supplemental appropriation request.

Due to lawsuits that the county and the state have filed or joined for the settlements against Joule and Altria, the county has received about $3.9 million to date to allocate towards compensatory restitution or remediation to address the epidemic of youth vaping and nicotine addiction.

DHS states they do not expect to receive additional settlement funds.

On page two, we do have that Montgomery County youth data that the chair did state earlier in her introduction.

So I'll move to the discussion of the prior settlement fund appropriations.

On February 4th, 2025, the council approved the first $1.6 million supplemental appropriation request via resolution 20-718 for DHHS to utilize a portion of the awarded $3.9 million for the purposes stated in the restricted revenue source.

The first was for competitive community grants program, which totaled about $1.3 million.

The proposal stated that up to three community organizations would be awarded grants to implement innovative community-based strategies that promote vaping cessation and address the root causes and long-term impacts of e-cigarettes and other harmful substances.

The funding was to target youth who are aged 11 through 21 in the county, and they were intended to prioritize serving Black and Latino youth in highly impacted communities.

In July 2025, the county announced the recipients of what is the Youth Mental Health and Substance Use Grants Program.

And these the grants program focused on funding new and innovative programs that required funding to build the programming or set up operations versus existing established programs.

The three awardees were one, the Elite Soccer Youth Development Academy for $500,000, which was awarded to expand their Kicking Life into Gear 2.0 Thriving Edition Initiative, which was a peer-led program that combined soccer mentorship and community service to promote leadership and encourage healthy life choices.

The second was with Identity Inc.

for 450,000.

That award let them launch their substance misuse prevention and education peer ambassador initiative, which led which featured youth-led outreach, culturally informed workshops, and community-based events that support families and promote awareness in the high need areas.

And the third was with the Tree of Hope Association, totaling $372,000.

And that award let them create a peer-led smoking cessation and intervention program.

The table on page three summarizes the key performance indicators per the reporting periods over the grant award time frame.

You can see the columns start with the key performance indicators, including the peer educator ambassador recruitment and engagement, outreach and community engagement, training and curriculum delivery, parent and caregiver engagement and referral cessation and behavioral health outcomes for each of the three awardees.

In addition, the original 1.6 million dollar appropriation included funding for what we are also reviewing today, which was the REC Mode Fitness and Boxing LLC Beyond the Gloves 12 Month Project for 250,000.

Originally in fiscal year 25, that proposal was focused on creating a safe haven for students, provide opportunities to learn from their mentors from similar backgrounds, foster physical and mental health leadership skills, and engage the individuals in the community.

As stated, that funding was not utilized in fiscal year 25 or re-requested in fiscal year 26 due to a period of staffing vacancies, which limited DG Just's capacity to expend the funds within the fiscal year.

As noted, the current request reappropriates funding for this project.

The third item was with the Street Outreach Network, which is part of the department's community and youth violence prevention and intervention program, or previously informally known as positive youth development.

That was for 100,000 where the proposal funded positive youth development activities in high risk communities by promoting substance use prevention and harm reduction for e-cigarettes vaping cannabis opioids and connecting youth to physical and mental health resources.

That was also not utilized due to the staffing vacancies, and this current appropriation also reappropriates that funding.

So moving on to the request for fiscal year 27, the executive states the 390,000, as the chair sales also stated would be for the 250,000 for the REC Mode and Fitness Boxing LLC Beyond the Gloves 12 Month Project, 100,000 for the Street Outreach Network, and 40,000 for that contracted administrative specialist to help with the youth mental health and substance use grants program.

DHS stated they reselected the REC Mode and Street Outreach Network as high impact focused interventions to continue prevention and intervention in this area.

And DHGJ states they are confident the fiscal year 27 appropriation will be fully utilized, in part due to the early request timeline.

We received this in June 2022.

Also the additional technical assistance that the Street Outreach Network and the Community and Youth Violence Prevention Intervention Program will provide to the REC Mode Fitness Inboxing LLC, as well as heightened expenditure monitoring by the department's finance team.

Council staff recommends requesting additional details on the staffing shortages that were mentioned as part of the reason for the inability to utilize the funds in fiscal year 25.

And just to expand on the uses for the fiscal year 27 appropriation, the REC Mode Fitness and Boxing LLC will continue to focus on the Beyond the Gloves project.

They will target eligible youth who are 10 to 18 years old, have a GPA between 1.0 to 1.9, and are critic and/or considered chronically absent from school.

The project will target youth from the East County and Mid-County, and they have a goal of engaging 120 on duplicated youth to support increased academic performance, improved social emotional learning skills, increased awareness and practice of protective health behavior behaviors, and increased knowledge of the dangers associated with vaping and tobacco use.

For the street outreach network, the 100,000 for fiscal year 27 will purchase two passenger vans to address the transportation gap that they say currently prevents the community's highest risk youth from participating in that structured pro-social mid-afternoon enrichment that acts as a protective factor against the youth substance use and mental health challenges, as the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention stated that the peak hours for youth vaping and substance experimentation occur immediately after school dismissal or 3 to 6 p.m.

So allowing the purchase of the two vans will help with that transportation gap and also serve as an informal area for the providers to engage with the students and youth and develop those relationships further.

The fiscal year 25 appropriation stated that originally the work would focus in the East County region.

So council staff just recommends confirming the targeted neighborhoods for fiscal year 27 with the with the vans that they'll purchase.

And finally, the it contracted administrative specialists for the youth mental health and substance use grants program will help them advance their administrative programmatic and operational support, as well as support the full grants lifecycle, ensure operational efficiency, and maintain compliance with report and fiscal accountability requirements.

DEGES expects to collect the following programmatic and outcome data.

It starts at the bottom of page five and goes to page six.