The Education and Human Services Committee of the Richmond City Council met on June 11, 2026, at 2:00 PM. The meeting featured a comprehensive presentation on gun violence prevention and justice services, updates from the Deputy Chief Administrative Officer for Human Services, and action on several ordinances related to opioid settlement funds, shelter operations, and afterschool programming. All items on the agenda were approved unanimously. The meeting adjourned after a brief approval of minutes from the May 14, 2026 meeting.
Madam Clerk, we have call uh quorum. I'm gonna call this meeting to order if you can read the emergency evacuation plan announcement in public speaker guidelines. Thank you. I find activation of the emergency alarm signal, all persons should immediately exit the building. Please use the exits to the left or right front of the council chamber or the north or south stairwells outside of your doors at the chamber. Do not use elevators or escalators. After exiting the building, security will direct everyone down ninth street to the fenced area located between claims streets. Able persons should assist visually and hearing impaired visitors with exiting the building. Public speaker guidelines. Individuals wishing to speak during public hearings and the public comment period are generally allowed three minutes to speak. Persons appearing before the committee are not allowed to campaign for public office, promote private business ventures, use language of a personal nature which insults or demeans any person, including comments directed at public officials or staff members that are not related to their official duties or address a question staff members directly. All questions are to be directed to the committee chair. And uh we'll take public comment. Public comment is now open. Is there anyone present who wishes to address this committee regarding items not on today's agenda? Madam Chair, Singh, and no one signed up before the 10 a.m. deadline. I gave our clerk of the pressure. You're now madam chair, I guess, madam clerk. I see him in the audience with us. I'm so excited you're here with us today. We'll roll right into your uh presentation. And um, just a little housekeeping for the audience and those out there in TV land today. We're gonna roll it. This is gonna be a rocket docket, is what they call it across the street. So we're gonna roll through this agenda. We got committee members that have a hard stop at 3 15. So we're gonna really try to roll through this, uh, roll through this agenda. Okay. All right. Thank you, Mr. Hopkins. Good afternoon. I'm gonna try to be as brief as possible. Um, so good afternoon, Chairwoman Lynch, Councilwoman Jones, Councilman Brimpton, members of the education Human Service committee colleagues, members of the public. Today, I'm going to go over a brief and overview of gun violence prevention efforts here in the city of Richmond. Um, just picking up where we left off in November and giving you all the overview of where we are now. Today we're going to discuss a lot, but I'm going to try to be as brief as possible because a lot of information. I will provide overview of the Department of Justice Service updates, review key gun violence data trends. Highlight the impact of safer community investments, discuss our Virginia Crime Control Act, and provide update on trauma healing response network and include Departmental Office of Gun Violence Prevention updates. So here's some updates for you guys. Last time I was here, I think I was a senior position advisor for gun violence prevention, and now voila, who am I? I'm the Department of Justice Service Director, right? So a lot has changed. So at the end of the day, we're gonna talk about that alignment and what it means. But we do have some new folks. Um, Mr. Tracy Matthews and Miss Leda Jones. They come by way of the state and local government. Ms.