Madam Clerk, we have called uh quorum.

I'm gonna call this meeting to order if you can read the emergency evacuation plan announcement and public speaker guidelines.

Thank you.

I find activation of the emergency alarm.

Signal all person 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.

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After exiting the building, security will direct everyone down 9th Street to the fence area located between clanly streets.

Able persons should assist visually and hearing impaired visitors with exiting the building.

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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.

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Failure to adhere to the guidelines may result in speakers forfeiting any remaining time and further disciplinary action as necessary, which can include barring from attendance and future meetings of the committee for a period of six months.

And madam chair, all members of the committee are in attendance today, and you do have a quorum.

Thank you, madam 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, singing nine and no one signed up before the 10 a.m.

deadline.

The public comment period is now closed and back to the committee.

I gave her a clerk of the you're now madam chair, I guess.

Madam Clerk.

Um we'll move on to uh we're we're joined by the illustrious Greg Hoppins.

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 really, 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 Brampton, members of the Education Human Service Committee colleagues, members of the public.

Today I'm gonna go over a brief overview of gun violence prevention efforts here in the city of Richmond, just picking up where we left off in November and giving you all the overview of where we are now.

Um, like again, I want to say thank you for the opportunity to provide update of the work that we're doing, and I appreciate the continued leadership and commitment through you all to strengthen families, support neighborhoods, and advancing public safety through the city of Richmond.

Um, today we're gonna discuss a lot, but I'm gonna try to be as brief as possible because a lot of information.

Um, I will provide overview of the Department of Justice Service updates, um, review key gun violence data trends, um, highlight the impact of safer community investments, discuss our Virginia Crime Control Act, and provide update on trauma healing response network and include the 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 positive advisor for gun violence prevention, and now blah, who am I?

I'm the Department of Justice Service Director, right?

Um, 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.

Jones will be running this department uh the superintendent super uh superintendent detention center.

Mr.

Matthews is a senior deputy director of adult programs for the department of justice services.

So we'd like to welcome them to the city of Richmond.

I think they've been here almost over 30 days, and they have done the Richmond way.

They're learning real fast, trial by error.

So let's get into this real quick.

Um, one of the most significant developments over the past year has been the alignment of gun violence prevention and justice services.

The alignment strength is our ability to plant comprehensive and evidence-based and public health approach to violence reduction.

Our work is organized with three levels of prevention.

Primary prevention focused on addressing root cause, strengthening communities before violence occurs.

This includes youth development, mentoring, employment opportunities, family support, and neighborhood stabilization.

Secondary prevention focused on individuals and group elevated at risk.

That's our priority population here in the city of Richmond.

This includes target outreach, credible message engagement, and violence interruption and connecting high-risk individuals to services that's going to reduce violence before it occurs.

Lastly, the tertiary prevention in the gun violence world, we call that community transformation.

This focus on supporting survivors, community impacted by violence.

This includes trauma recovery, victim services, hospital violence intervention, and re-entry supports.

So let's talk about what we've seen over the last, I'll say since I've been here, just as observation of 2025 shootings.

Black residents, as we all know, accounted for the majority of shooting victims represented in this data set.

Males continue to represent the majority of the victims as young adults and adolescents remain among the highest risks of the population.

When I say young adults and adolescents, meaning they may not be engaged in the shooting, but they have actually been a witness or been in some sort of activity that put them on a trajectory of violent crime.

And so our interventions have to target their population to continue this effort of reducing violence in the city of Richmond.

This data reinforces our ability to sort of sort of put ourselves in the position where we need target prevention strategies to stain these investments in communities and the greatest risk of violence here in the city of Richmond.

One of the things that we also know is that geographically the highest concentrated shootings occurred in the East End and in our north side areas here in the city of Richmond.

Key takeaways that gun violence remain highly concentrated among specific populations and localities.

Understanding who is most impacted, why they're impacted, and where the incident occurred, allow us to deploy resources more effectively and strategically.

So moving ahead, we look at what are strategic opportunities here.

Based on these findings, we have identified several strategic opportunities moving forward.

First, we'll continue to expand community violence and adventure efforts through our credible message and basset outreach.

I'll talk about that later on.

Second is a strengthening trauma-informed services and support for victims and survivors.

Third, we'll increase youth engagement opportunities and focus on prevention, positive youth development, out of school time programming, and community connection.

And fourth and lastly, we'll continue using data to guide resource deployment and decision making.

How we do it is depending on how we use this thing right here called Safer Communities.

As I mentioned, and back in the fall, we are one of four localities that get this funding.

Hopefully, we'll continue once that budget is signed by the governor.

Is it included in our budget for 2027?

But Safer Communities, the grant program remains one of the city's largest investment in violent prevention and community safety.

Funded through the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services, initiative growing broad network of community-based organizations delivering prevention, intervention, healing, workforce development, victim services, and community engagement.

The work line remains aligned with Richmond Public Health approach and our framework and prevention, intervention, enforcement, and healing.

These partnerships allow us to reach residents where they are and provide services that address both immediate and needs and long-term community stability.

As you can see, our partners are our city agencies, RPD, OCWP, Office of Immigrant and Refugee Engagement, Justice Services, SARA, which provides peer support specialists for our specialty dockets, RPD, YWCA, next up, among them, and there's a couple other more that's not mentioned on this slide.

The impact of safer communities.

When we talk about this funding and how we're using it, for the first three quarters, FY26, which is first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, we did demonstrated significant impact, over 16,000 residents impacted, conducted over 395 program activities that represent over 3.2 million in violence prevention investments throughout the city.

These numbers reflect thousands of touch points with youth families, survivors, returning citizens, residents living in neighborhoods and most impacted by violence.

One of the things that we wanted to make sure that when we come into this space with safer communities in the fall is that we reset our performance measures for those individuals receiving funding.

We have over 13 sub recipients.

And with those 13 sub-recipients, we want to ensure that the funding goes towards spaces, places, and people within the communities that have been impacted by violence.

That is situation situating 10 area focus areas and their performance measures that they have to report to D to us monthly that we extract and send to DCGS quarterly.

So service activities take place in where?

Our communities that we reach.

Our funding partners continue to provide service across many Richmond priority neighborhoods.

As you can see, Gilpin, Mosby, Wilkes, Southwood, East Howland Park.

These geographic reach is important because it ensures that resources are being directed to communities that have historically been impacted, higher levels of violence and victimization.

Looking specifically at the third quarter, 10 sub-recipients reported service across 26 communities and eight focus areas.

More than 3800 residents were engaged during this reporting period.

One example is the YWCA.

The YWCA in Richmond, which continue to provide critical support services for survivors, domestic violence, sexual violence, including counseling, emergency shelter, crisis response, and advocacy.

These investments help address trauma, improve stability, and create pathways towards healing.

And as you can see, YWCA is what you call a uh, I say a critical part in this safe for communities funding because it goes towards what we see one of the most, I say leading causes of homicides, and that's domestic violence related issues here in the city of Richmond.

Let's talk about crime control.

Um, I think back in the fall, there was a discussion about how do we use our state funding.

The Virginia Community Crime Control Act, which plays a significant role in what we see when we program services for those kids that are court involved that come before the juvenile court.

The Virginia Community Crime Control Act, commonly referred to as VJCCA, remains one of the most important juvenile justice funding streams available to all localities here in the state of Virginia.

The programs establish a committee community-based sanctions and services that hold accountable while told youth accountable while keeping them connected to their families and school.

More importantly, it plays a role in keeping kids as out of the out of security tension, but as an alternative for incarceration.

So let's look at a snapshot of where we were pre-pandemic and post-pandemic.

And what you will see is some striking information here.

This slide represents and highlights significant challenges facing local juvenile justice systems across Virginia, specifically here in Richmond.

Youth needs have become increasingly complex and service costs have risen dramatically.

Our VJ triple CA dollar estate allocation has remained the same since 1995.

It hasn't changed.

As a result, though, in Richmond, we experience a reduction in available resources for youth served compared to pre-pandemic levels.

This highlights the importance of maximizing available funding while continuing to advocate for sustainable investments that reflect the current service demand.

Our kids that come into our system have what we call more complex needs than we had before, exiting out the pandemic.

We may not see a lot of kids on supervision, but those kids that are on there are high risk and high needs individuals.

We touched on that previously during the fall when I came up here to talk about the dynamics and the overview of adult and juvenile offenders.

But as we move forward, our goal is going to be intentional of how we develop programming specifically using VJCCA dollars.

Right now, as we look at 2026, we service over 251 youth across the public safety, countability, and competency spectrum.

These services include electronic monitoring, community monitoring, Virginia Rules, decision making program, and initiatives delivered through our community partners.

To provide content context, the 13 CSU, which is a state organization situated at 1700 Oliver Hillway, our juvenile core, provide probation, intake, and parole supervision.

They process 865 cases during this period, with over 500 youth identified for diversion opportunity.

Meaning those kids are identified as that they can receive services to keep them out of trajectory juvenile system.

That's 500.

These numbers have reinforced the importance of providing robust prevention, intervention, and options before deeper court involvement becomes necessary.

So moving forward for 2027, what we're going to see is our shift from reacting to offenses towards preventing behaviors.

We're proposing a new specialized service category in our crime control plan that address unique and family needs.

We're going to have a more increased emphasis on competency development, but strengthen family engagement and collaboration with the courts.

These conversations and partnerships and agreements have already occurred with the court service unit and our judiciary, and you'll be see in a paper before us for our crime control plan soon.

So let's talk about the trauma healing response network and the work that they've done.

This is a silent partner in the city, but they do a lot of work here in the city of Richmond, specifically around violence reduction and what happens after an incident happened in the community.

The trauma heal response network is one of the most tertiary community transformation strategies we have.

They perform immediate support after incident involving violence and connecting families and communities to trusted resources.

Their partners mean wealth wellness checks.

They conduct uh relief, emergency relief services, facilitate grief support, and reallocation needs when issues like arise where people have to get out of their home.

As FYI, Trauma Healing Response Network posts their weekly events every week on their social media site.

And you'll see this week they have three events happening from Hickory Hill to Mosby Street, as well as another event at Hickory Hill as well.

So here's a summary of what they've done in the past year.

This is what we call the results reporting period.

They log 70 violence-related alert responses and conducted more than 900 wellness checks on individuals that's been affected by violence.

The network can coordinate more than 120 emergency relief requests, supporting numerous families following incidents of violence.

These outcomes demonstrate an immediate support of community-based healing that interrupts the cycle of violence to help families move to stability.

As emergency relief response, as you can see, our partners in trauma healing response network has created a partnership with the Hive Family Community, Faith Community Baptist Church on Cool Lane, and our heart of the city, allocating more than 35,000 in emergency assistance with distributed families experiencing crisis.

Let's talk about the Office of Gun Violence Prevention real quick and what with some updates since last time we've been here.

Our focus is not only on implementing programs but also evaluating the effectiveness of these programs through the steering committee, which we have established as our oversight committee and ongoing program evaluations.

We are ensuring that our investments are data-driven, community-centered, and producing measurable outcomes.

Our key highlights is that when we were here last time, I talked about two strategic evaluations.

One is the whole gun violence prevention framework, and the other is the programs that were uh situated with our community violence intervention programs.

We matter RVA, youth justice, and lift messenger.

Um the strategic evaluation was completed, and we found out is the key recommendations were prioritizing evaluations, um, strengthen our outcome and tracking performance measures, restructuring our current six-point framework to improve alignment and effectiveness.

And I'll talk a little bit about that as we start talking about our community, our national engagement with the National Institute for Communal Justice Reform.

Our programs will have findings for We Matter, Youth Justice, and Lyft Messenger are all making meaningful progress and engaging our youth, building a protective factor, strengthening community connections, while also identifying areas of operational improvement and long-term sustainability.

The thing is that we didn't want to stand up new programs if we already had things working on the ground.

One thing we can do is we'll get in a situation where we use taxpayers' dollars to stand up new initiatives because they sound good, but we throw away what we already been working, why not evaluate it?

If it needs some resources, that's what's safer communities here for to stand that up if we know it's promising and is rooted in the evidence-based practice.

Next steps again, we have our operation ceasefire grant.

We got that grant back in December that was designed, one is to employ our community ambassadors, as well as um standing up a CEPTED Crime Prevention Through Environmental Initiative, Financial Design Initiative, and also looking at setting up what you call the SEPTED Community Academies.

Our ongoing initiative is this.

We started a partnership back in March with the National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform.

Their goal is to help build out the Office of Gun Violence Prevention, but also help with the strategies.

Starting in March, we met with 44 partners around the city at the main library and committed started convening on developing our what we call a five-year strategy plan for the city of Richmond, which is a sustainable plan that can live through our administration, setting up five pillars.

And this past couple of days, we were out in the community with five listening sessions with our partners.

Um, and that will help inform how we develop our strategies, how we move forward in ICJA work with 110 cities and localities across the nation.

And so they're a trusted partner in this work in 2027.

We're still waiting on our budget that I mentioned, but hopefully we'll get it and we'll move forward with setting up additional resources.

I do want to say that also we're in partnership with Real Life, the Project Safe program.

They'll be working with our keys in our local juvenile detention center on re-entry and life coach counseling.

And justice services, we got a new uh grant through our detention center that's creating a trauma informed environment enhancements as well as a staff wellness and initiative training.

Um I mentioned earlier our kids come in with different types of symptoms and dynamics.

We make sure our troops are there to actually help these young men and women as they come into the facility.

And lastly, with the key highlights with DJS, we're employing this new program called Personal Accountability Through Healthy Relationships called The Path, is a DV initiative for adult day reporting center for those individuals charged or have been charged or found guilty for domestic related offenses.

We're also going to be conducting, we started this back in spring, conducting a foundational assessment of our community criminal justice board to start aligning that work with their biannual plan as we move forward.

We also started an initiative called Family Rise Against Violence for individual families throughout the city that has been exposed, have been as victims already received services directed to family healing and developing healthy relationship with their children.

We also have a program called Youth Justice and Lift Messenger, which was a part of the evaluation that we're gonna continue to put resources together to build those two programs.

In closing, Richmond continues to build comprehensive violence reduction ecosystem grounding data, collaboration, accountability, and community healing.

The alignment of the Department of Justice Service and OGVP has strengthened our ability to coordinate prevention, intervention, and recovery efforts across the city.

While challenging remains, we've seen meaningful progress through strategic partnership, target investments, community engagement, public health approach that address violence at every stage.

I want to thank Councilwoman Lynch, Councilman Jones, Councilman Britton, and the entire education human service committee for your continued support work and commitment for Richmond families and youth in the neighborhoods.

I'm happy to answer any questions.

Sorry a little bit too fast.

No, but yeah, we're like, you know, when you're on a YouTube video and you're you did it super speed.

Um Vice Chair Jones.

Questions.

Thank you, Mr.

Hopkins.

I don't have any questions, but I well, maybe one or two, but first I want to start with um welcome, Mr.

Matthews and Ms.

Jones.

Um, we know that you have hit the ground running because that's like he said, the way we do the Richmond Way.

So welcome, and we look forward to learning more about you as you continue in acclimated.

I call it the process of discovery.

Um, so we look forward to connecting more with you.

But um I want to say kudos to establishing a true ecosystem, um, of trying to really understand what justice looks like before in the middle and after.

And I think we have really established um a true foundation on what we want to see happening as it relates to gun violence and justice services.

So kudos to you for that and kudos for all of the events and initiatives that's been going on during the month of um gun violence prevention awareness and for all of the information that you just provided.

I think it really helps us to better understand when things come before us how we can continue to support, but then also I think the biggest thing that everyone is always looking at is the funding, right?

And so now it helps us kind of get a clear sense of where the money is going.

And you named something that was so um key.

You said when we are already working with partners, if it's not working, um, why don't we not a look at, you know, look at them and see what else that we need.

So I was looking at the trauma informed network, healing response network, and I think that they have really set the tone for a lot of the work that we want to see.

I will say in my colleague, we'll say in the beginning, I was looking with a little cat eye, but they have proven themselves to really really be a community-based led organization that is connected.

And I want to know how do we, or are we in the process of maybe giving them a little bit more bandwidth?

Because I feel like if you only responding, but we're trying to actually get into preventative mode.

Is there any collaboration with schools?

You know, how are we looking at use utilizing this process that we're saying is so great with the schools and maybe like the community centers and areas where we know that uh violence is subject to happen, but it's outside of neighborhoods.

So that's my my question.

Well, I think this is an opportunity now that we engage with Nick Jr., National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform, because one of the recommendations from the evaluation from VCU was to restructure that six-point framework.

And one of those frame pillars was trauma response.

Um Nick Jr.

will be working with the trauma healing response network, looking at the specific deliverables.

One of the things that we wanted to make sure if we before we give out additional funding, that we stand up what we know is going to be effective, specifically if it's a deliverable from the trauma healing response network.

Um, there's a lot of folks in that, I would say the environment that say they're responding to crime, and when things happen, you know, we we tend to have this bumper cob effect.

We all over each other.

Um, but we need to clear the weeds a little bit, and that's what National Institute for Criminal Justice Reform is gonna do by plan uh by matching us up with say, for instance, St.

Louis or Lanson, Michigan, cities and towns that are already have done it and have done it well, um, but also giving some TA as to with the trauma healing response network to put them in the right trajectory to really do the good work in the city of Richmond and continue to do the good work.

Okay, and then just follow up, madam chair.

And that does that also, um, will that also be looked at in the same manner with the safer communities when you are looking at the funding that is going to the going to those programs?

Are you actually looking at what is the focus per se for you had mentioned if you get more funding?

Is there a different focus now to because I know when we got it, the gun balance and all the different pieces were kind of piecemealed, but now that you have a focus and a vision, how do you see this Safer Communities grant being as transformational as it actually should be?

Um, and maybe even an increase in numbers.

Okay.

I know the state is looking at localities.

I think Richmond's ahead of everybody else because we are engaging in a problem crime analysis, gun problem analysis.

That gives us an opportunity to look at our transgeographic people, places or where it's happening and align that information and data with your gun balance prevention grant.

This is an earmark, and it's not gonna change based on population.

But we have an opportunity today, starting once that budget is signed to really develop a strategic plan to execute that fund in the right way.

Not saying what we're doing is not working, uh, because it is.

I mean, the investment in our school time has paid off by WCA, but our survivor services with um individuals and families with the hotline, even with the middle school engagement, it pays off.

But where can we be a little bit more intentional with service, especially with the victim services and the Commonwealth Attorney's Office?

You know, they have a lot of work that they do.

Um, but our young folk, um, they need all the support they can get.

And um, how do we do it intentionally and making sure that we use the right dollars that make it make sense?

Thank you, Mr.

Hopkins.

I also wanted to um uh celebrate and applaud the effort and attention we're spending on the going upstream to the key drivers um that to prevent violence in the first place.

Um, I was able to attend the um We Matter RVA graduation ceremony.

It was a beautiful program, great positivity there investing in those youth.

Um, and I'm looking at your goals about um metrics and measurements, and I saw one that was I also want to celebrate about a measurable prevention of retaliations that's remarkable.

And I was wondering like like other than families reefs is often a measure.

Like, like how else do we measure outcomes?

Like, what are the sorts of metrics that you can use in these things and what should we be expecting you to measure?

Well, the first thing a lot of business when we started is start looking at it in the fall.

Was that right in the beginning, we had like, you know, we gave 13 people funding, and they pretty much will say, hey, go forth and do your job.

Um but if we really want to look intentionally at addressing gun violence, we looked at 10 focus areas.

Don't have them all in front of me, but one of them was engagement, positive development, where you situated your work at, which is in Holland Park, and those individuals that you reach, are you pre-allowing if depending on what resources you're uh uh resources that you're given out?

Either it's a program or just an engagement opportunity.

If it's a program, are we pre-post testing these individuals to see where they come from?

Um, and then like with Next Up, do they do those social emotional learning skill set and they give us the information back and we take those widgets and report it to DCJS.

Our goal is once we do first quarter, second quarter, third quarter, and as we enter in June 30th, fourth quarter, sometime between July and August, we can overlay those resources delivered in those areas over the hotspot to see if we have significant reduction.

Now, if we don't, there may be some tune-up that need to be done.

Is the program delivering the right program in that specific area?

Or if we see the reduction, hey, we need to duplicate this and bring this over into the ninth district.

So that's what we're doing.

And I can give you a little bit more information.

I have my uh what I call Safer Communities Guru.

Where's she at?

She must have left right there.

Ms.

Carrie uh Richbury Wilson, she's our safer community program coordinator and policy advisor, but she's the guru of those performance metrics.

Well, thank you so much.

I I just have three, I'm gonna spit fire them off to you in the same fashion you gave it, gave her gave your presentation.

Um, three quick quick points.

Um, and again, thank you for all of your work and welcome, welcome, welcome.

I cannot wait to work with you and see see what you do.

You guys are already on fire.

We're so excited to have you.

Um three points.

One, um, and I think we talked about this the last time that you might have been before us.

Um historically, one of the challenges that trauma healing response network and others, any any one of us that has worked with a um victim or survivor of um a family that's been touched by gun violence, I'll say, has had a hard time getting the VAWA transfers and you know VAWA transfers.

So when someone, so in HUD, someone's in a project-based unit and or in a public housing unit, um, they can apply for the VAWA transfer that's violence against women act, but it expands to um any it's a f a little bit used fairly flexible, flexibly, I should say, um, to um help prevent families from experiencing more violence if they've been in you know directly involved, right?

And historically, it's been really challenging for us, anyone of us who are working with those families to actually get the VAWA transfer to go through.

Um, and I know that that is one of the only means that we have to relocate um some of our residents and sometimes we have to do that.

Um, uh any update on that or how how is the collaboration with RHHA when someone needs to relocate um for safety reasons?

How's that going?

Well, we had I can recall just my experience since I've been in this position for the individuals that had to relocate.

And from that opportunity, I didn't see any obstacles.

And on the severity of it, I don't know if there was some depending on you know how engaged in the proximity of that act of violence that it, you know, that individual family were, you know, exposed to, but the ones that I witnessed and participate, like on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday when they have public safety meetings at RHA, they process those cases based on severity levels.

Now, I don't want to speak for RHA, but the ones that rose to that level, they were able to get those individuals out.

Okay, that's good.

Then it could be a part of the you know some of the federal cuts, not sure, but um, that may be something I'll follow up with them on.

All right.

Yeah, that that is helpful.

Um, the other is accessing um the um I'm gonna botch this this fund, um, not not victims protection fund, but it's the fund that um families can access when they are involved.

Um, it's not witness protection.

Victim fund, victim Fund.

The victims fund.

There you go.

Thank you.

Goodness.

Um, what have you seen any barriers to families accessing the that fund?

And could we be doing a better job?

It's the state has put in some significant requirements over the couple of years to really sort of, because it's not a lot of money, I'll be honest with you.

Um, and it has been a sort of a challenge for individuals to access that funding.

That's a legislative quest and react.

I mean, ask for your legislators.

But from our point of view, it has been some challenges on the local level for folks.

Specifically, with burial assistance or just sort of you know put a down payment on an apartment just to get out because they're not in public housing, you know.

Right.

Yeah.

And just to just to put a fine point on that, I mean, that is something that we've known for a number of of years, and um it is not a small thing because when you're going through a situation, a crisis like that, um, we people rely on those resources.

At the end of the day, we can do the best case management.

We can have the best darn system in the world.

But if you have zero dollars to work with to get out of your situation to protect yourself, and or um to uh to bury, god forbid, bury a family member.

Um I mean, it breaks my heart, and I think that it's a it's criminal on this country that people have to pose to go fund me to bury a loved one.

That is that is shameful in a country of abundance like we have.

Knowing that we have access to those by those funds are actually um growing every year, because as you know, they are um derived in part from uh fees that um the clerical court generates from uh taking criminal cases, violent criminal cases.

So I I don't know what we can do to work on that, but there's resources out there.

People hopefully find, but I uh the stipulations have been put in place for you sort of uh hard for individuals and reaching but and that's it, but you're saying that's a state a state code thing.

Well let it be noted.

Maybe we need to work on that.

Yeah, people do.

Um thank you, council vice chair Jones.

I won't repeat that.

Um, but but that's a great one for a great call out and a great one for us to potentially work out at the state level.

Um, uh lastly um just want to say um thank you to um you for tying together all of these systems as council member chair chair vice chair Jones mentioned.

Um we had some we had a lot of pockets of greatness, I'll call them.

And and you're really weaving the quilt together.

So I just wanna say thank you for for doing that.

And um, we look forward to continuing to get these reports and seeing that.

I'll tell you, we're gonna be done without the support and help from you all.

Um, so you know, and uh you know we're on the great leadership of Miss Amy Popovich.

So um she's always been supportive of this work and uh we're gonna continue to make this thing happen.

Well, thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right, we're gonna roll right into speaking of speaking of Amy Popovich.

Uh this committee may or may not be aware, but it is a special lady's birthday.

And she, yeah, at the tender at the tender young age of 24, okay.

She's gotten rapidly promoted into this position.

Really excelled in her career, such a young age.

Um, but we just want to say the earth, the earth is a little brighter with you in it.

And happy birthday to you.

Happy birthday.

And we might do something.

We might happy birthday.

Yeah, all right.

Yeah, we had to bust out.

We had to just to do whatever you want to make.

Yeah.

It's about people.

Yeah.

And so we're really really glad on your birthday.

You really should be somewhere on an island.

Um celebrating yourself and and and time well deserved, but we appreciate you being here with us today.

Well, thank you.

Uh Amy Popovich, DCAO for human services.

Uh, it is my birthday.

Uh so thanks for celebrating with me.

Woohoo!

Yes, 24.

That's it.

How did you guess?

Um, so I'm here today for updates.

Um, you know, as I come each time for updates with you, I'm hoping to uh give you information to share um with your constituents to partner with you all on initiatives we're doing and to make sure you all are caught up in the human services world.

So uh our celebrations that are coming up this month, as we know, there's a lot to focus in on June.

Um, we don't do events just for the sake of events, but we really do them to honor and uplift our community, particularly our priority populations community.

So next week we've got our Juneteenth flag raising, which will be here at City Hall at 1:30.

Um, the jubilation in June festival, which will be at Midtown Green for our parks and Rec on the 20th of June, um, and our regional multicultural festival, which is coming up uh on June 27th.

We'll send you all flyers so you all can share with your constituents.

Um, two updates um and parks and recreation.

Um we have a website, rva.gov backslash summer, RVA.gov backslash, there we go, summer, that has all of our parks and rec summer opportunities.

So it talks about our festivals, our camps, and our meal program.

So there's actually a link to an interactive web or an interactive map that residents can find where meal programs are.

There's several of them.

There's between 18 and 20 throughout the city.

So encourage residents to find those meal programs for our kids this summer.

Also, parks and recreation is now fully on 311.

So that's parks, that's cemeteries, that's trails.

That's been really hard work this year.

Of course, our parks team have responded to things in the past, but now we can actually track them.

We've had about 200 requests in the last month as we put this online.

So the team is hard at work, but we're excited to bring that.

And then I wanted to make sure you all know, of course, we're aware of the great work of the Richmond Free Press that ended their time, and they have gifted all of their material to Richmond Public Libraries.

So their legacy, their history is not lost.

All of that will be through Richmond Public Libraries.

And they're working already to think about what are exhibitions, what are ways that they can really demonstrate that information and keep our culture and our important history alive.

Last, just as we're trading encouragements, just want to make sure you all were aware that last Friday in DC, the gun violence prevention spotlight hosted by the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, had our one and only DJS director Greg Hopkins testify.

So Greg was up in DC last week sharing our information nationally about the work our team is doing.

So we are out and about here serving our residents in partnership with you all.

It's fun to see some of you all and your liaisons out and about in the last week.

So thank you for your partnership.

Any questions?

What do you do for your birthday?

I'll tell you later.

That's a good birthday.

I'm playing some volleyball, which is one of my favorite things to do.

Yay.

All right, awesome.

Well, thank you so much.

And for all the work that you do, we we are so appreciative.

Moving on to uh legislation, um, we are going to take up uh if the if it's the committee's pleasure, we'll do well, we're gonna skip number one, we're gonna do number two and three in block, and we are going to do number five and six in block.

Madam Clerk, we didn't the role.

Item two, ordinance 2026-140.

So authorized the CAO on behalf of the city to accept funds in the amount of 1,164,547.84 cents from the National Opioid Settlement Fund, resulting from settlement agreements with Sandoz Group, Kroger, CVS, Algernon, Tiva, Walgreens, and Distributor.

And to amend ordinance number 2025-057, adopted May 12, 2025 with the special fund budget for the fiscal year 2025-2026 and made appropriations by increasing the revenues in the amount appropriated to the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services, National Opioid Settlement Special Fund by 1,164,547.84 cents for the purpose of funding opioid abatement and remediation strategies to combat combat the opioid crisis.

Item three, ordinance 2026-141 to amend ordinance number 2025-057 adopted May 12, 2025 with the fiscal year 2025-2026 special fund budget and made appropriations by transferring funds, the amount of 300,000 from the national opioid settlement special fund for the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services and appropriating such transfer funds in the amount of 300,000 to the medication assisted treatment pilot program.

Special fund for the city sheriff for the purpose of funding the medication assisted treatment pilot program.

Those papers are before the committee.

Do we have any members?

I'm sorry, we'll do uh public hearing first and then come on up, members of the administration.

You want to present this bill, public hearing first.

That's okay.

Sorry.

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak in opposition to these papers?

Is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of these papers?

Madam Chair, seeing none of the public hearing is now closed and back to committee.

Alright, member members of the administration, welcome.

Good afternoon, Council.

I'm Anna Jones.

I'm the opioid response strategist for the city.

In regards to ordinance 2026 140, this proposed ordinance allows the city to accept roughly 1.16 million dollars in national opioid settlement funds.

This is the same mechanism that we go through to accept all funds from national opioid settlements.

Again, this doesn't approve any um uses of this funds, and we would be back before council to uh introduce any proposed uses.

This simply allows us to move it to our special fund in the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services.

Um in 2026 141 is related to an ordinance that was previously adopted to extend the contract between the sheriff's office and the city to continue the MAT pilot program.

This ordinance formally authorized the appropriation of funds to support this work.

Since the inception of this program, Richmond City Sheriff's Office has served, and that was about January 2025, has served 178 unique individuals in the MAT pilot program.

As you all may know, individuals who are released from incarceration are roughly 40 times more likely to experience a fatal overdose than the general population.

So this is a really critical point where we want to continue folks' access to medications for opioid use disorder while they're incarcerated.

Also, as part of this program, they provide substance use-specific counseling and discharge planning to improve the continuation of care.

So this is the second year of this program, and this is an area where we'll likely continue to focus.

I'm here to answer any questions.

Can I get a motion?

I'm I move that we recommend approval for both.

Second.

Madam Clerk, call the roll.

The committee is voting on the motion to for item two, ordinance 2026-140 and item three ordinance 2026-141 to council with the recommendation to approve.

Mr.

Brexton.

Chair Lynch.

Aye.

That motion has been approved.

All right, Madam Clerk, let's move to items five and six.

Item five, ordinance 2026-143 to authorize the CAO on behalf of the city to execute a second amendment to grant contract between the city and the Salvation Army for the purpose of extended the term of the contract through June 30, 2027, with the option to exercise three additional one-year term extensions for the continued operations of an inclement weather shelter and year-round emergency shelter located at 1900 Chamberlain Avenue.

Item 6 ordinance 2026-144.

So authorize the CAO on behalf of the city to execute a first amendment to lease agreement between the city as tenant and the salvation army as landlord for the purpose of leasing a portion of the property located at 1900 Chamberlain Avenue for the operation of a resource and training center.

That paper is before the committee.

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak in opposition to this paper?

Is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of this paper?

Madam Chair, seeing none, the public hearing is now closed and back to the committee.

Mr.

Harms.

Madam Chair, members of the committee.

Steve Harm is a policy advisor with the city of Richmond.

Time flies when you're having fun.

It's been almost three years now since the city embarked on expanding the homeless shelter system, both through a contract with the Salvation Army or an inclement weather shelter, and uh for 50 more beds for year-round for men, and not before you today, but we'll be soon.

Um similar contracts for home again and uh the Richmond Hostel to expand or to extend the shelter services for families.

So, what's before you today are uh an extension of those original contracts?

The uh the first is the extension of the operating grant, um, and we're paying Salvation Army to operate a 50 bed men's shelter year round.

We're also paying them for inclement weather shelter both in the winter time um for five months as well as summer hot uh months as um as a cooling center as well.

Um, the companion um ordinance is for the resource center lease.

Uh that the resource center is actually physically located in the Salvation Army's 1900 Chamberlain Avenue building, and uh this would continue that in tandem with the operations lease.

Um, I just want to say, I remember, yeah, we're now we're going down memory lane.

Um, it was in this very committee three, four years ago.

We were tussling over our uh shelter beds and um and how to really you know better serve our individuals who are experiencing homelessness.

And I just I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the wrong the long tough road that took us to get here, and I know that all the work that you put in, Steve, to try to find us and and Tiffany, you know, this and Dom everybody's been with us for through the through the uh through the rain.

And um, you know, I didn't I knew that we would get here.

I knew that we would we would eventually find success um and and there's more work to do, but I knew that we would get here.

But by God, um, without the partnership of of you all and us really pushing and and fighting and being in the trenches together to make this happen, um, we wouldn't be here today.

Um, and um, with that, I motion to move these forward.

I'll go ahead and second.

Madam Clerk.

The committee is voting on the motion for item five ordinance 2026-143, and item six, ordinance 2026-144 to cancel with the recommendation to approve.

Mr.

Bretson, aye, Vice Chair Jones, Chair Lynch, aye.

That motion has been approved.

All right, madam clerk.

We're gonna move on to uh item number one, uh, ordinance 2026-139.

Item one ordinance 2026-1393 to amend ordinance number 2025-057 adopted May 12, 2025 and fiscal year 2025-2026 general fund budget and made appropriations by transferring funds in the amount of 80,000 dollars from outside agencies and venture Richmond Inc.

line item in the organizational subsidy category for the administration and finance portfolio, and to appropriate such transfer funds in the amount of 80,000 to the Department of Neighborhood and Community Services for the purpose of funding carotides surge shelter operations.

That paper is before the committee.

Is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak in opposition to this paper?

Is there anyone who wishes to speak in support to this paper?

Madam Chair, seeing none to public hearing is now closed and back to the committee.

Members of the admin, I'm up.

Good afternoon, Chair Lynch, Vice Chair Jones, Councilmember Retton, uh Dominic Barrett, Senior Policy Advisor, Office of the DCO for human services.

This paper also I think speaks to the continued expansion and growth of our um efforts to serve our unsheltered populations.

Um, as you all may remember, in July of 2025, council adopted an ordinance authorizing our CARITAS Surge Shelter arrangement, and uh for a variety of reasons, including more extreme weather uh and winter storm fern being key among them, uh a number of additional nights were needed beyond what was included in that initial contract.

And so the administration was able to use um authorization under the state of emergency to expand the number of nights that we were going to provide through that surge shelter uh operation, and this uh ordinance is helping us cover the cost uh to do that, and it's reappropriating funds that were determined to not be needed um in this case a line from venture richmond and appropriating them to DNCS to cover those costs as part of that contract expansion any members any questions only question is since we're transferring out of the venture Richmond line item what what's the impact there and there's no one from venture rim to speak to that but I mean what what would what's the uh yeah very very good question so there was a variety I think it was a total of three different lines in the FY26 budget um for bench but this was a single separate line for $80,000 separate from their uh two larger um lines I believe this was uh initially for operational expenses um and in conversations with venturishment over the last six months or so they determined that they would not need um that specific dedicated line but it does not impact their other uh key services they've been providing I think it I think this is sort of the legacy of a previous arrangement agreement um uh made in the last administration to cover some operational costs motion to approve second Adam Blair call the role the committee is voting on the motion for item one ordinance 2026-139 to council with the recommendation to approve Mr.

Bredson aye vice chair jones aye chair lynch aye that motion has been approved all right madam clerk we'll move on to the last item number four ordinance 2026 142 okay item four ordinance 2026-142 to authorize the CAO for and on behalf of the city to execute a YMCA of greater rim grant contract between the city and the young man's Christian association of Greater Richmond for the purpose of operating low cost after school programming at six elementary schools that paper is before the committee we'll have a public hearing is there anyone in the chamber who wishes to speak in opposition to this paper.

Is there anyone who wishes to speak in support of this paper.

Madam Chair seeing the public hearing is now closed and back to the committee.

All right members of the administration come on up Miss Eva.

Hello friends I'm Eva Collin, senior policy advisor and I lead our Office of Children and families within the Department of Neighborhood and community services.

So the contract in front of you is to um fund the six sites that were operated by the YMCA it's actually for the school year that just concluded in full transparency we had we had a misunderstanding of the budget.

We thought we would be able to make the contract administratively but it does require council approval so that's why it's at the end of the year that it's in front of you.

However, you know this is the continuation of the after school programming that we've been operating in the city um Parks Center operates at 20 sites YMCA operates at the additional six and so the scope of service is in there essentially we ask them to do the recruitment the management of the data there and then work with us to ensure that they have fee parity with a parks and rec so that we have the same cost of programs across all sites as well as participation in the free meal program um and other services as well any members questions.

So um on the subject of I guess next year's aftercare I know that there were probably cases in schools that filled up to capacity what do we know about the number of people we're serving the possible size of the wait list and anyone who's on the wait list what type of hope they might have about expanding the capacity.

A bunch of great questions I'm unfortunately not going to be able to offer a lot of information right now we're still doing a lot of evaluation of our options.

So I'll start off by just sharing that the way space is allocated and capacity is really done at a school to school level and so the principals work with the providers whether Parks Center or the YMCA to identify space in their building that's suitable for the program.

The YMCA is um required by Virginia Department of Education to be licensed all their programs have to be licensed parks and recreation departments across the commonwealth are exempt from that licensing process.

So what that means is that the inspector from the VDOE comes in, looks at the sites and says, okay, this is licensable, this is not, and then the space goes from there.

So I'm just naming that because the process is there is like additional people involved in the approving the the license space.

So on the one hand, we're working with principals at schools where there's high demand to identify additional spaces if there is any.

Notably, certain types of spaces just aren't licensable.

Even if kids spend time in hallways, we can't license the space that way.

And an additional detail there is that the space has to be dedicated to the program.

It can't be like, you know, they're in this room this day and this room that day for them to count to that capacity.

So on the one hand, we're working with central office and RPS, working with Sharena Shang, chief of staff to talk through any options to identify additional space in the buildings where there are significant constraints or where we see significant demand.

And we're also evaluating options to expand partnerships.

So in at least one case, we've had conversations with school board member and folks from the PTA and said, you know, if you identify community-based partners who want to host a program, we can set up a meet and greet with the YMCA or other partners who might be willing to run a program there.

What I will offer as caveat there is that that would not be governed by the scope of our contract.

So we wouldn't be able to ensure fee parity, there would probably be a market rate cost there.

So we're continuing to explore these options.

But I think ultimately the bigger zoom out all the way picture is that this is still part of the larger child care crisis that we have in the United States and in Virginia.

Um we have far more kids than we have slots for them, A, and even less public funding for it.

The state of Virginia changed subsidy laws so that now if you are a school age child age five to 12, you can only use child care subsidy to access after school programs if you have a sibling under five.

So that puts even greater strain on our programs because that used to fund children going to community providers, so they wouldn't be going to their school-based program.

So there's greater demand than there ever has been for these slots.

Um, and so we are hopeful that we'll be able to identify additional spaces, but I also just want to name that we're not going to solve this problem for everyone.

Um, we're continuing to work to identify partners, galvanize philanthropy and additional and identify additional opportunities, but we do want to make sure that we are honest about the constraints here.

Thanks.

Um, I just have one quick question.

And since we specifically talk about middle school though, we we know that the elementary.

Oh, elementary, okay.

Since we're talking about the specific, when you say partners, is this are the only two partners?

Um, WIC and the YMCA for the school-based programs.

What we're also doing, Jackie Hale here has been in touch with Child Care Ware of Virginia to identify, um, we're working what one of the pieces of work that we're doing is to review all licensed child care providers or not even licensed, just registered child care providers in the city of Richmond who are licensed to serve school agers and are within a school zone.

So if in that scenario, theoretically, we could hand families a map of sites that might be able to admit their child and offer transportation.

So in the East End, we don't see as much of a strain on the school-based slots because we have two or three community-based organizations that pick kids up from school and take them to the program.

Um Peter Paul Development Center, Friends Association, and others.

There's not as many in the first district, and so we see that piece, but we are working.

Oh, there she obviously, where'd she go?

She's moving.

Um, we are working to identify that as as potential options, just in full transparency, where we are right now is verifying that they actually do serve school agers.

Because in Virginia, a childcare license goes up to age 12, even if they're not serving that age group.

And we don't want to send people to an infant and toddler care provider.

We'll quick follow up.

And what six um elementary schools are the is this for?

Um, the YMCA grant contract is Francis, Red, Cardinal, Munford, Holton, and Fox.

All right, only only one um quick question because I don't want this question to die.

You know, I ask it almost every time when we're talking about um child care, and that is what is the darn penetration rate for our DSS subsidy population or eligible population, um, versus how many people are enrolled in the the um actual child care voucher.

So I think you all last time we're gonna try to work with DSS to get at that number.

Um, I think we're still working on that data request.

I think on the school age population, what I will speak on is that the the change in the state law where it capped at age five is adding some challenges in terms of us determining eligibility.

It's really hard to nail down how many kids age five to twelve have a younger sibling that's under age five which would make them then eligible for that so that is a that is a wrench in data analysis um in terms of do you have the yep Jackie Hale will has been working with DSS on the penetration rate data.

Hi hello um Jackie Hale early childhood paternal health strategist um we are uh currently processing some of that subsidy thank you um data and information we did we're able to pull closer to those head start penetration rates last time but we'll go back and revisit subsidy as Eva said this is really good point we've got more than 50 community based child care programs these are primarily small businesses these are uh small uh women minority owned businesses that are located all throughout the city so when we're mapping and confirming that they can provide elementary school aftercare the plan is to then just deliver these flyers to the schools so they can promote these additional child care programs which are essentially small businesses supporting families throughout our community so that's going to be the plus side we can work with DSS to get back to that data question you asked Stephanie so we have better numbers to look at next time yeah we we've been asking that for I don't know at least four years now and I think our penetration rate is pretty low and we can do a lot a lot better by people by a removing barriers um well just a doing a better job marketing um the the program generally because a lot of individuals don't do not know a lot of families do not know that they're eligible for that subsidy um and then B removing barriers um we still have DSS workers that we have to arm wrestle with to get on to get the uh families on that program because they're under the assumption that you like literally have to be employed um in order to get that subsidy and that's not true you can actually be seeking employment absolutely have a lot of people that have either lost their that benefit andor um are having a hard time getting into that program because of that miss uh misinformation so I do want to um again try to get to that uh number I think that's really really really important um with that motion to forward the full committee second madam clerk roll the committee is voting on the motion to forward item four ordinance 2026-142 to counsel with a recommendation to approve Mr.

Bretson aye vice chair jones chair lynch aye that motion has been approved all right for our lustrous will work our staff report turn it over to you thank you chair lynch um we heard the presentation and uh you recommended all the papers for adoption and so I'll follow up with Ms.

Hale as to the um follow-up related to DSS uh your next meeting is on Thursday July 9th at 2 p.m.

There are currently no presentations scheduled um however we will plan to discuss plans for your fall and early 2027 presentations at that meeting thank you.

Okay all right thank you and committee members with that this meeting stands adjourned thank you so much for joining too much if I would you like for me to be the minutes you know what would you like for me to reapprove it would actually thank you so much all right the minutes to be approved are for May 14 2026 for the education and human services standing committee meeting oh day 2 p.m.

If there are no amendments or corrections then the minute meeting minutes will stand approved as presented.

Those minutes have been approved thank you thank you madam clerk for always keeping us in line all right with that this meeting stands adjourned thank you all for joining us