Hey.

Morning, everybody.

At 1001 a.m., we will officially call the community health committee meeting to order.

Madam Clerkly, please call the roll.

Councilmember Castillo.

Councilmember Marina Aldarete Garito.

Here.

Councilmember Iva Lice Mesa Gonzalez.

Councilmember White.

Chair Galvan.

Here.

Sir, we have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

The first thing on our agenda is to approve the minutes.

Are there any corrections to the minutes from last meeting?

Can I get a motion to approve?

Second.

All right, all those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Any opposed?

Abstentions?

Great.

Second thing is to move into public comments.

We have two folks that have public comment for item number four.

We have Forest Maine.

All right.

And you'll have three minutes for the public comment.

Good morning.

I'm gonna be quick.

I just wanna say hi.

I'm here on behalf of Meals and Wheels San Antonio.

I'm so grateful for the ongoing partnership we've had with the City of San Antonio Senior Centers and with DHS.

We've been out in the centers a lot recently, getting good feedback from uh from our seniors on the food they'd like to see.

We're looking at lots of uh menu changes and new opportunities, and we appreciate all of you and those of you who have come out and delivered meals with us recently and who are going to soon.

Um, thanks so much.

Thank you.

Next we have Carol Zernil.

She's not here yet.

Okay, great.

Um we can try to get her when she goes in, but uh we'll move forward into item number two.

Oh no, I'm sorry, item number five, we'll start first actually with Metro Health, starting with the overview and update of opioid settlement funds.

Um take it away.

Morning.

Uh I'm Jesse Higgins, the Chief Mental Health Officer, and I'm happy to be here this morning to give you an update on the city's opioid settlement funds.

This morning we'll look at national and overdose and local overdose data, the city's opioid settlement funds, an update on our opioid settlement fund spending, and next steps.

Beginning with an overview of national fatal overdose data, I'd like to look at this data from the CDC.

Beginning in the year 2023, there was a decrease in fatal overdoses nationally.

This data shows that through 2024 and 2025, that decrease continues.

This slide takes a closer look into Bear County and Texas to show the local landscape.

On these two graphs, the gray line is the US as a whole, the red line is Texas, and the TO line is Bear County.

These graphs show data from 2018 to 2024 and show a mortality rate for stimulants and opioids.

By stimulants, we mostly mean methamphetamine.

The first chart on the left shows that our stimulant overdose death in Bear County, which is teal, outpaced the national level, which is gray, and the state level, which is red.

The second chart on the right shows the national opioid overdose death rate in gray, which is far higher than our state and local levels, but also that Bear County remains slightly higher than the state of Texas as a whole.

Here we see a continued decrease in fatal overdoses, which is good news.

I do want to stress that even though we see improvement, we don't take our foot off the gas, we keep going with strategies and practices that have worked here and in other communities.

On this slide, we have one more data point for you to consider.

This data is from the Bear County Medical Examiner 2024 report and shows the breakdown of overdose deaths by drug.

We see here that polysubstance use is common, meaning that people are not only using one drug and that stimulants and opioids both pose a pose a threat to our community.

We ask that as you are making policy and budgetary decisions with these funds, you support the substance use continuum as a whole to include alcohol use and not just think of one particular substance over another.

And the state of Texas has secured more than 1.6 billion dollars in opioid settlement funds.

These settlement funds do have spending restrictions on them, but in the field of substance use abatement, the funds can be used pretty broadly.

As of right now, from the lawsuit suits the city joined directly, we anticipate receiving about 6.1 million dollars.

So far, we have received 2.9 million dollars, and the balance will be paid in payments through 2021.

We are using the previously approved framework of prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery to create policy and budget recommendations.

Also, you may remember that in November of 2024, City Council passed a resolution declaring overdoses of public health crisis.

This resolution highlights an overview of national, state, and local data, risk factors, including untreated mental health conditions, adverse childhood experiences, trauma, and barriers to accessing health services and treatment, our framework of prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery, the harm to the individual and the stress to the system, and the value of a coordinated response.

The commitments were to expand harm reduction strategies to expand the availability training and use of naloxone in our community, to develop a COSA sponsored program offering targeted provider education addressing stigma around pregnant people experiencing addiction, to implement a multi-year plan that demonstrates how COSA will use opioid settlement funds to support harm reduction strategies and linkages to prevention, treatment, and recovery, to develop a public education campaign that focuses on overdose awareness, reducing mental health stigma, and youth education.

I'd like to now show you the projects we're working on.

The next series of slides will walk you through the projects as they're mapped to the framework and then we'll look at the budget.

We are currently engaging in systems change work, specifically the development and implementation of a practice shift and substance use outreach services.

For this project that spans prevention and harm reduction, we take a public health sandemic approach with HIV and substance use combined where outreach efforts are complementary.

We also have several contracts that will go to A session next week.

These contracts came from an RFP for outreach, engagement, training in Narcan kits.

In the area of harm reduction through an ILA with Bear County, we are able to provide supplies into the community.

Widespread knowledge of and access to Narcan is key to reducing fatal overdoses.

The contracts that will go to council that will go for council to approval next week will bring more Narcan into the community.

For FY26, we are also recommending funds to assist substance use counseling services for individuals at the SAM Ministry Low Barrier Shelter.

To encourage providers to help engage their patients into treatment, Metro Health's Access to Care team is working with people in recovery, Bear County, and UT Health on an animated storytelling campaign directed at local health care providers.

To address recovery efforts, we have increased funding for an initiative that was under DHS but now is moved under the homeless services and strategy department to be able to pay for medication assisted treatment, also known as MAT for individuals experiencing both homelessness and opioid addiction who are identified by street outreach workers.

This program provides a lifeline to those who are in desperate need for recovery and only need the financial barrier of MAT addressed in order to maintain their recovery.

And across the entire continuum is a substance use resource portal that's being developed through the San Antonio Community Resource Directory or SACRED.org.

This portal will provide the information that people need to access these resources all in one centralized website that is updated regularly.

This portal is in the testing stages with users in the field.

It's very close to completion.

You can see that we are dedicated to a comprehensive approach on our opioid settlement spending.

This is an updated spend plan through the end of fiscal year 2026.

Next week on March 5th, City Council will consider seven contracts for outreach capacity and Narcan kits, which will augment prevention and harm reduction efforts in our community.

Thank you, and I am available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you so much, Jessica, and thank you for uh all the work you're doing every single day in Metro Health, in particular on this work I know is something that uh Council Castillo did a great really great lead on uh a couple years ago uh to kind of help stab that framework, and I'm really excited to see the work that's been done so far.

Uh we'll start off with any uh council member um conversation.

Anyone want to start the conversation?

Council Mr.

Covito.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, thank you for this presentation.

Yeah, I mean, it is it is uh it is uh important information, and I'm glad that we're we're our efforts are um making a difference.

I'm really curious about the 2025 numbers.

When do we expect to see that information released?

Data that we were able to get from the CDC.

Yes.

Yeah, so they just approved um 2024.

Okay.

Um, it was provisional.

The last time I showed you it, it just became official.

I think halfway through the year or maybe later in the spring, we'll get 2025.

Okay, yeah, really, and I just want to make sure that's that's one of the issues with those national data sources is that they take a long time to be approved as official.

Yeah, and and chair, just to request that whenever that those numbers do come out, maybe we can see them right away just so that way we're um seeing on top of it.

That's all thank you.

Thanks again.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you.

Yeah, we can get either in memo form or we can bring it back up to the committee.

Um just let us know uh when we get the metro help, and then we'll make sure to bring it up.

Thank you so much.

Council Rick Castillo.

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Jesse, for the presentation.

Uh, likewise, uh, when the 2025 data uh becomes available, I'd like to see if we continue to see a downward trend of mortality rates.

Um, and if we do see a downward trend, I I am hopeful that we'll still continue to invest in these strategies that are being proposed, particularly with youth in the classroom.

Uh I did want to highlight that this past weekend, my team and I had a health panel uh and the MIH team was tabling, and uh once the event was over, they shared that they had handed out all their Narcan kits uh and that community saying we really needed this, right?

Um so just grateful that you all are making strategic investments and getting the kids out into the community uh because that's where they belong.

Um I I did want to highlight also the work that uh you all and the San Antonio Housing Trust are doing with in partnership with Corazon Ministries, um, particularly connecting folks to resources beds and any uh resource that they may need.

Um but I highlight that because that's a need all throughout the city of San Antonio.

For example, when we have folks in need coming to our field office off of Nogalitos, we'll share where how to access Corazon, and like that's too far, I don't want to take a bus.

Uh and my concern is how can we create multiple hubs rather than one central location?

Because there is a need all throughout the city, uh, and how can we meet people where they are?

Um, especially when it comes to access to any day center or whatever the case may be, uh, because access continues to be a barrier that we hear from constituents when we try to send them to whether it's Sam's ministry, school, or even a senior center, oftentimes it's that transportation piece that's a barrier.

Um, but I just wanted to thank you and your team for being strategic with these investments.

I look forward to seeing uh the updated data when that becomes available.

Uh and then of course I look forward to seeing how the youth um the the partnership with Texas AM uh and their youth curriculum, what that looks like, uh, and then also which school districts they'll be uh in providing that information to that a little bit, Council.

Thank you.

So one of the things that's really interesting about these funds is that um not only did obviously us, the city of San Antonio get funds, the county got funds, but then the state got funds.

And so we've it's been exciting, but in the three years that we've been working on this project, the state has funded things that we thought we wanted to fund.

One thing was that we when these funds first came out, Narcan was only available by prescription.

So it was expensive, and we would have needed a provider to have that um uh on hand.

Uh then it became available over the counter.

Well, now it's actually available for free if you access it through the state's resources.

So this money that we had budgeted for Narcan, we don't need to pay for Narcan, we can put that somewhere else.

The same thing happened with these youth prevention services that we had this idea that we could put some money into schools or school districts for curriculum building, and then the state created something called TOPS, which is Texas opioid prevention for students, and our region is at Texas and San Antonio, and we're now working with them to get them into the school districts.

So it's been sort of a moving, a great way, lots of progress, but a moving target of what we need to do and what the state is doing.

And then we're always in collaboration with the county and trying to use our local resources the right way and in in concert.

So I appreciate you bringing that up.

Um we're trying as best we can to keep on top of it and to use our limited resources the it to fill in gaps that other places and other agencies and state and county are not filling.

So we definitely appreciate that.

Great.

And I uh thank you for highlighting uh how you all collaborate with both the state or uh I understand where they're spending their dollars so that way we're also intentional with uh our resources as well.

Those are my comments.

Thank you, Jesse.

Thank you, Chair.

Yeah.

On that note, really quick about um access to uh not only Narcan, but I think generally uh this kind of uh this treatment.

Um do we have a kind of a heat map um of where the kind of there's physical locations for people to access this particular, not only Narcan, but other kinds of uh substance abuse uh resources.

Um we can definitely work on that, and I think that's one of the things that we would see through SACRIDS portal.

Uh I would encourage everyone to access sacred SACRD uh.org.

And because one of the best things about it is that you can search by zip code and you can see it location-based, not just resources uh and like needs, it's that too.

But uh as we all know, getting to the resources is half the battle, um or even more sometimes.

So we can look at that.

Like uh, you're talking about a heat map of resources.

Uh yes, and particularly with substance abuse, but also within their opioid uh partnership that we're making.

You know, are there ones that we're partnering with that we know we can say, okay, folks can go here, here, and there.

Um and just so we can kind of see also where their gaps are.

Uh I mean, not only for you all to look at, but our partners that we talk to as well to say, are there ways that we can expand this to your next center that's further down the road or something of the sort?

Um I was also thinking the sobering center.

I don't know if that's already included in this, uh, but I wanted to just ask about that.

Is this yeah?

So the sobering center is at 601 North Frio.

Um it's for law enforcement that can drop people off for a place where they can um spend the spend some time until they feel better.

The best thing, I mean, I've all of it's great.

It saves law enforcement time, but the best thing for the person is that it's also co-related, co-located where CHCS has detox.

And so every time, like when someone's not when they immediately walk in the door, right?

They're not ready at that moment, but after they've had some rest, um their um their engagement staff, their LCDCs or peer support staff will go and talk to them and try and get them to convert immediately into detox right then if that's what they need.

And so that's a huge uh resource.

And of course, CHCS will detox um any person on any substance.

It doesn't just have to be alcohol or opioids, it can be any substance.

So that's a huge resource.

Like it's a it's a big front door into services that I mean you you get taken there.

Um, but yeah, it's a it's really great to help people in the moment that they might be most likely to say yes.

Good.

Thank you for that.

Any other comments from the Council Ru?

Yeah, just a quick question.

Um thank you for the presentation.

Um I guess on the public education campaign, you mentioned, you know, obviously the coordination with the city and the county.

So when you think you have to spend money on X, but then the state's now you know providing those services for free.

I I feel that's the same way when it comes to the public um education campaigns, right?

There's so many state and national campaigns on this already.

So I understand filling in the gaps, but I'm just is there a better use of of those campaigns, those public campaign dollars?

Yeah, that's a great point.

And so we what we were trying to do is more pay attention to what's out there and what's working and and what we can access and what everyone might agree on.

And so instead of doing a more broad campaign, right now we're focusing on um a need-identified um working really with um when we say providers, we mean like medical providers, right?

Who are seeing women who are using um some sort of substance and um how do we how do we basically the the most important thing would be to help women and their their children be healthy?

And so, how do we get a provider's office where they understand how they could treat someone like medically, how they understand when they need to engage CPS or or when it's not necessary, how they keep and retain that patient so that she's not dropping off and hiding because she's afraid of CPS called or something like that.

And so that's really a it's a it says a public education campaign.

It is because it's going out broadly outside of our hands, but that's a that's a goal and an aim of how we're trying to be more strategic instead of like this big yeah um you know, sort of just say no to drugs sort of public education campaign that we don't know the reach.

This is very specific, and so we're looking for opportunities where we fill in local needed gaps.

Okay.

Um the way we know that's a gap is because we know about the increase in congenital syphilis, and we know about that happened after COVID, and we know that more people are struggling with that, which means they're not getting care, and there's a big overlap in people who might get syphilis and people who are using drugs.

And so we also are closely connected.

There is one clinic at UH that serves women who are using and pregnant.

And how do we get people in that door, or if they don't want to be in that door, how do we get their providers to better understand the nuances of the issues?

Okay, that's helpful.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Um, and we had a really great conversation last week about the diversion center, and so um, I guess do these do they do these two connect at some point or not?

I mean, I think they can.

So this is um all the spaces that uh we in the health department, we in this arena are swimming and running and walking around in, right?

And so um, yeah, I mean, this is definitely connected with that.

Those are same similar partners doing this work, similar partners there, um, connective tissue with the with our department with me with Mark Carmona and Patrick Stecken, the homeless services and strategies department with DHS, we're yeah, we're all around it.

Okay, um, and then just to echo your comments on sacred, I just really value that whole program and everything.

So if we can do some push-out rollout of that, I think um anywhere and everywhere.

I mean, I heard that about that when I was campaigning.

Yeah, like um, it was random neighborhoods and folks would bring that up as a service, or then I'd share it with them.

And it's just a it's it's very beneficial.

So um just high really support that.

So that's all.

Thank you.

We'll be sure that you know when the substance use resource portal is live.

Um we can access it now, and I have looked at it.

We've got users kind of testing it and giving feedback on it now, so it's soon.

Okay, but we'll we'll follow up with that as well.

Thank you.

That's great.

Thank you so much.

Any other last comments?

Councillor White?

Yeah, briefly.

Um, thank you for the presentation.

Are we coordinating with Bear County and the state to make sure we avoid duplication of services?

Yes.

So I meet monthly with Bear County on substance use uh issues specifically, just so that we know what's going on.

Um they funded heavily in the realm of treatment, um, more beds directly, um, opening up more capacity, um, even doing some like renovation on existing facilities so that they could have beds there or put them back online.

So, yeah, we're we're pretty regularly involved with them.

Okay.

The state's harder to nail down, but we're paying attention.

Yeah.

Thanks.

All right, thank you so much.

Um do we need an action on this one?

No, it's just a briefing, right?

For next week.

Got it.

Okay.

Well, thank you so much again, Jessica, for presenting today.

Uh, excited to have this come to A session uh very soon.

Um, but we'll move on to the next uh couple items.

Um before we get into that, uh I wanted to see for public comment if Carol Zernil is here, speaking on item four.

Great.

You'll have three minutes to speak.

Thank you so much.

Yes.

Thank you very much.

Sorry for the parking situation that delayed me getting here.

Um, now I can see you.

Uh Carol Zernio with the Wellmade Charitable Foundation.

I wanted to thank first the city of San Antonio for the investment that you have made in the past in services for older adults.

I have the opportunity to work all over Texas and Florida, and everyone is jealous of the commitment that the city has made uh and the difference that you have made in the lives of older adults when others forget that we stand on the shoulders of those who built our community, you have never forgotten.

I also want to congratulate the Department of Human Services for the quality of the work that they do and their collaborative spirit.

We do more in San Antonio because the staff here believe in collaboration, want to have public-private partnerships, and we've been fortunate to work for years with the city and partner on the on the different senior centers with our uh the Gridoris Griffin Center as well as little Alicia Trevino Lopez Center in District Six and Seven.

And so, what I would like to say to you is you know, I've been in this business for 30 years, and at this time that we've been planning for 30 years for the baby boon uh the baby boomers to get older for the services that are needed is the same time that COVID uh changed the landscape, that the federal landscape changed, uh, and that we have to be imaginative, creative, collaborative, and dedicated to ensuring that our older adults don't get left behind.

Our surveys show that 30% of our older adults get their meal of the day, their one meal of the day at the site that the city of San Antonio provides.

And so I encourage you to continue that support.

I thank you for the work that you have done, the hard work that you have done to make the services possible for our older adults, uh, and to know that San Antonio has a bright future.

It is a city where people can live and thrive into old age, but it's because of the investment and the passion that you all bring for the citizens who built our community.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

We're gonna move into items two, three, and four, and we're gonna try to take them together given the kind of overlap they have.

What I want to just uh highlight before we get into them really quickly was um what I really enjoyed in the education opportunities committee is that we've been having conversations where we have a lot of overlap with different programs.

We wanted to kind of have them together and talk about how they all kind of connect so that we can have a broader conversation about uh not only how it affects our own districts, because I think we all have our own specific senior centers and community centers and parks that we have thoughts on, uh, but also looking at the broader view, right?

How do we make sure that the city um is having as much access as possible to public space um or whatever the conversation we're gonna have?

But today is a really big focus on public space where you have libraries here today, community uh parts of the community centers and community programming, and of course DHS with senior centers.

Um I'm very excited to have the conversation, but I wanted to kind of lay that out for my colleagues.

Let me know what y'all think, after it.

Give me a Yelp review afterwards.

Um we'll go ahead and get started with item two.

We'll start with libraries.

Good morning, Chair and Council members, and our assistant city manager.

I'm Sukhrid Goswami, Library Director of San Antonio Public Library, and I'm here with my team, uh, our uh assistant director David uh Dale McNeil and our uh adult services uh uh coordinators, program coordinator Morgan Yoshimura.

Uh today I'm pleased to share a presentation titled How San Antonio Public Library Sparks Collaboration and Catalyzes Community.

For this presentation, we are focusing on one central idea: the power of place.

San Antonio Public Library offers expansive services, programs, and digital resources.

But today I want to center our conversation on something foundational, the library as a place.

A place where people come to, a place where connections happen, a place that feels welcoming, trusted, and accessible.

In a growing city like ours, physical space matters.

Where people gather matters.

And how that space functions within a neighborhood matters.

This presentation highlights how our branches across all 30 locations serve not only as service points, but as catalysts for collaboration, civic engagement, health, culture, and community life.

When we look at this map, we don't just see these 30 locations.

We see intentional access.

Libraries in every council district, libraries embedded in neighborhoods across our metropolitan areas, libraries within reach of most San Antonians.

Now, this most is of course within Asterix.

This level of distribution reflects years of thoughtful planning, stewardship, and advocacy.

Much of it's shaped by our community, our library board, and stakeholders, including our city council.

Because of that leadership, access to a public library in San Antonio is not limited by geography.

As our city grows, that foundation becomes even more important.

Access is where everything begins.

One of the clearest ways we see the impact of that access is in how our branches bring people together.

Programs like Poetry Slams, virtual travel programs for older adults, crochet clubs that continue meeting in our temporary location at Denver Heights, even during renovation of our Carver Branch Library.

Chess, gaming, and role playing groups that draw multiple generations to these programs at the library.

These aren't just programs on a calendar, they are connection points.

They reflect a system that is responsive, creative, and grounded in neighborhood needs.

A system our city council, library board, and city leadership have consistently supported through policy, investment, and vision.

When people gather around shared interests, community strengthens quietly and steadily.

This year, Holocaust Learn and Remember series included eight programs across six locations, inviting 500 plus attendees.

And this was our 14th years, the 14th year of collaboration with the Holocaust Memorial Museum of San Antonio.

Last year, Hispanic Heritage Month featured 28 programs across our 13 branches, which had and with attendance of almost 600 community members.

In 2025, Juneteenth programming, attended by more than 700 community members, where we did 19 programs at nine different locations.

We also hosted large-scale events like Pokefest at Las Palmas and Pop Madness, drawing thousands of residents.

The range of programs is remarkable, from solemn remembrance to joyful celebrations.

And that range exists because our library staff understands that libraries reflect the full story of our city.

Our staff consistently affirm that our role is not only to circulate materials, but to convene conversations, preserve memory, and celebrate culture.

These photos are from some of our programs, and the first photo on your left you see is from Las Palmas Library, where we had about 200 people in and around our newly renovated beautiful community room.

And of course, this picture does not do justice to how many people were there.

And here we have the on the stage you see is uh Joy Harjo, who is a US poet laureate.

And the other person sitting in pink is Adriana, who is her illustrator of her new book.

And the most important part of this program was these little kids you are seeing, they were standing up and they were asking questions to this author and saying, How can we write a book?

These little little kids were asking those questions and how inspiring how much inspired they were by listening to her and her stories.

Our partnership with Metro Health and other city departments continue to expand access to health and wellness resources from yoga and tai chi to diabetes prevention workshops and cancer support groups.

Our branches offer practical entry points into health education.

We are not a healthcare provider, and of course we don't want to be, and we are not going to be, but we are accessible, trusted, and neighborhood-based.

And that makes us a meaningful partner in the city's broader health priorities.

Our staff's understanding and support for community-centered programming has allowed this work to grow thoughtfully and sustainably.

Our buildings continue to serve as civic anchors.

We host neighborhood associations, HOAs, veteran groups, and community meetings.

19 of our locations are currently holding early voting for current primary elections.

When residents use a library to vote, are together in dialogue, they are participating in democracy in a space that belongs to them.

Through partnerships with parks, we now also have eight children's playgrounds, nine adult exercise locations, four walking paths on library grounds.

It's always a pleasure to partner with Homer and his team, which is here today.

And you know, the libraries are evolving, not away from our core mission, but deeper into it.

And none of this happens without people.

This happens due to the support from our community, dedicated staff, passionate library board, city leadership, and the unwavering support from the council.

San Antonio Public Library is one of the most trusted and well-used institutions in this city.

That trust is built daily by our staff across 30 locations who design, adapt, respond, and serve with professionalism and care.

Thank you for your continued dedication to this system and to residents we serve.

Together, we are ensuring that as San Antonio grows, its public library remains strong, relevant, and deeply connected with the community.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

Do you have any questions now on library?

All right.

We'll move on to item three.

Thank you so much.

Item three, we'll go into uh parks recreation, up to our community programs and events.

Hi, good morning.

I'm Nikki Ramos on the assistant parks and recreation director.

Um thank you for having us.

Um so let me give you a little bit of an overview.

Um we have for those of you on the education committee, there will be um some new information from what you just received a couple of weeks ago.

Um we are an organization with 271 parks, almost 300 miles of trails, almost 200 playgrounds.

You can see the numbers, 30 community centers, over 30 pools and splash pads, 18 dog parks.

We are a Capra certified park agency.

Um, large um there are other large Texas cities that are also accredited, um, but we just achieved that in the last uh few years, and we're very proud of that.

Um, in addition to all of these amenities, um, the rest of the presentation is actually gonna highlight the things that we do that bring people together.

So just community offerings, whether it be programs or events, um, there's a lot, so I'm gonna try to move through them without listing everything and uh here for any questions after.

So, as I mentioned, we have 30 community centers citywide.

They are in different categories, so we have 20 that are considered full service.

What that means is we offer programs all year round, um, including athletic leagues, out of school camps, um, just programs throughout the year.

70% of those programs are um our youth participants.

Our centers are open six days a week.

They're Monday through Saturday.

We did expand hours to 50 hours this fiscal year that went into effect in October.

Just to give you a sense of um participation, and in the last fiscal year, we had over 350 youth and teen participants and a hundred, almost 150 adult participants.

We do have four adult and senior centers in the city that serve ages 18 plus.

So they're not senior centers, we do um adults, uh all adult programs.

Those are open five days a week.

The hours do vary.

Uh they you know, they end a little bit earlier for the population that we're serving.

Um, in fiscal year 25, we served over 140,000 participants in those centers.

Then we also have six open play centers, and that is exactly what it sounds like.

They're available for people just to come in, use the facilities, use them to play.

We do offer summer youth at four of those centers.

And we partner actually, so Sukrit had mentioned Denver Heights.

That's one of our centers.

That's one that we've partnered with them on as they have a library closure, they're co-locating a library there.

So we use those opportunities where there's not as much programming for where we can partner with our other departments.

In those, uh you'll see a little bit less participation, but they are used throughout the year.

This is a map just to give you a general sense of where they are located.

So you'll see the triangles are our regular centers, the um squares are open plays, and then the four adult and senior centers, and then they are listed off to the side.

So when we talk about programming throughout the year, what we've done is we've created these club hubs, right?

So we offer hundreds of programs every year, which can be a bit much, right?

If you're a parent looking for something to do, or just an individual looking for something to do.

So what we've done is we've created these hubs.

And so they're called the Discovery Lab.

That's our science, our technology, our engineering, um, just to make it fun, engaging.

We have the studio, which is more of your creative space.

It's your art, um, fine arts, crafts, your fit zone, um, which is exactly what it sounds like our fitness.

So it's uh a place to stay active.

Um, and then the sports club is really your more organized um type of activities, um, competition, teamwork, that would be that focus.

And then what we have learned over time is teens are just a unique demographic that sometimes they just don't fit in the box of just regular programming, right?

So we have teen clubs.

So what we've done is we've created these hubs so that people can look at our offering and recognize them by those hubs and find their area of interest.

So what we've highlighted up here, the gallery is a fine arts program that we've done over time.

It's a fantastic program.

Um the kids, what what will happen is the centers, and actually I say kids, but our senior centers have begun participating in these as well.

Um, they will do a program over a number of weeks.

It could be art.

Um, our upcoming gallery will be photography.

And so they learn it over time.

They go out and they um, like with photography, it may be nature um photos.

They go out and they do that, and then we set up a gallery setting for them for their families to come.

We do, you know, food, we do music, we've brought poets out.

And so it's just a really good place for them to share, um, share what they've done.

Um, CPurch uh is also really cool.

That's that top picture.

It's an underwater robot.

So what they do is they learn, this is in the summer program, and they learn how to to build the robot, and then they are able to bring it out to one of our pools and they do obstacle courses.

I've seen them do races against each other and do teams.

So it's teaching them robotics in a really fun way, um, bringing them out to our pools.

Um, but it's a really it's a really cool program.

Aim to float is something we've done for the last two years that you'll see in that um bottom left picture, and frankly, in the picture on the right.

That was a grant that we received through um our state agency.

And basically, the kids through our summer program got to learn kayaking, they got to learn archery, and then they also learned some conservation nature education throughout the summer.

So we brought them out to the river to kayak.

I got to go down the chute.

Um, frankly, they've all enjoyed it so much.

I'll probably talk about this later, but we've brought this now to our seniors because why limit this fund to the kids?

Um, but that was a really cool program that we are continuing after the grant.

Um, and then Ozobots, again, robotic programming that we bring to the centers, um, specifically the teens throughout the year and in the summer.

We have started also expanding um our reach to youth and toddlers five and under.

A lot of our organized programs have been usually around the age of six and up.

And what we're finding is, you know, um, for those of you with kids, around kids, you always have siblings, and you, you know, and you start somewhere.

So we were seeing families coming to the centers with younger ones, and we we thought, well, why not why not start that outreach at the younger age?

And so these are just some really cool programs that we've done.

Um, just anywhere from free play, the creative expression is free play.

Come, we'll put blocks out, story time.

Um, Viva Los Tots, I do want to highlight that's um the top um picture.

It's actually um during Fiesta time, and it's little relay races and activities, and it's just for tots.

It's the cutest.

We had baby races and a trophy with a little baby for the one who won, just little things specifically for that toddler age group.

That one is actually coming up right around the corner with Fiesta.

Leagues, our leagues traditionally start at age six.

And what we've done is we've started them earlier, and then those leagues are free.

It's really about the fun, let them learn organized play, get out the sport, learn the sport, and then frankly, once they're ready for maybe a little bit um higher level in recreation, then they're they already know about us and they're familiar with us and our staff and our facilities.

So we've started doing that as well.

Out of school camps.

So we all know that the value for us to parents is a place for their kids to go that's safe, that they can learn, they can have fun, that they want to be, right?

So we have camps during Thanksgiving, during the winter holiday, during spring break at all of our regular centers.

We do align our schedules with the school calendars, which in probably the last five plus years uh used to go from where they all used to be aligned to now they're all a little bit different.

But so what we do is wherever the center is located, whatever district they're in, that's how we align the calendar.

So they're Monday through Friday, 7 30 to 5 30.

It's $3 a day, um, and those are ages six to 14.

Summer Youth Program is our largest program serving over 4,000 um kids.

That's at all of our regular centers, at our open play centers, and uh we partner with local school districts and we ask them to give us as many sites as as they can for us to serve.

This one has a much more um defined curriculum.

We do hire um recreation instructors that are typically teachers that aren't working in the summer at the schools, and so we do math instruction, we do um uh science instruction, we also participate uh in the library's reading program, so we keep the kids reading through the summer.

Uh we uh that one is a sliding scale um fee.

So you'll see the full fee for one child is 260, but if you qualify for the reduced fee, it's 25 for the whole summer.

So the vast majority of our kids qualify for that reduced fee.

Um it does um increase incrementally for each child, um, but I think the most we you would pay is 50 or 60 dollars for a family with four or more children if you're on that reduced rate.

So um we're very proud of this program.

Um, while it can be very reasonably um uh priced, it is also a very high quality program.

So um we have summer teen club camps, so some of our centers we will designate as teen sites.

Again, as I talked about the focus with the teens.

Um we used to just develop the curriculum and just make it age appropriate, and we're just finding, you know, we don't allow cell phones in our camps.

Teens don't want that, they just don't.

So they're able to bring them there.

The curriculum is different.

We try to do um college visits, just other things that we're teaching them that is helpful for them, um, that they want to do, um, talk about civic engagement.

Um, just it's very it's very specialized for that demographic.

We've also done dance camp at Bertha Almaguerra at Woodlawn Lake at our dance studio.

So those are done in two-week sessions, not quite a full day, um, but it's all dance instruction.

I've been there, they're cute, they're learning, they love it.

Um, it is free, and it's for youth and teens.

And then the one thing I wanted to highlight on all of these is the San Antonio Food Bank has been a tremendous partner for us.

And so they provide the um the meal and the snack.

Um, it's all free of charge to our participants, and we do that through the San Antonio Food Bank.

Um, so just other partners to mention um external partners.

We, you know, junior achievement comes through our summer program, teaching financial literacy.

I already mentioned uh CPERC American Diabetes Association.

We do that actually in conjunction with the health department project power.

It's teaching um fitness, it's teaching nutrition.

Um we actually get a benefit from that program in um an actual payment when we are doing the education and surveys of the kids, we receive money back that we can put back into nutrition and education and our programming.

So that's been a really nice partnership.

Um Gonzaba, WellMed, Seniors in Play, those are all organizations that help at our adult and senior centers.

Seniors in Play is really cool.

It's um it's a group, uh, it was formed by an actor director, Tony Plana.

He comes, um, the group comes out and they just are really encouraging socialization and expression.

Sometimes they do plays, sometimes they're just learning different different things, and they they typically will end in a performance of some kind at the center.

Their families can come.

Um it's a really cool partnership.

Internally, we've already kind of talked about here.

Um, I think the joke is we're, you know, the Power Three, Power Four departments with uh human services health, library, and us um all doing the same type of work.

So we like to really partner with each other.

We are co-located in a few locations with human services, but in addition to just being at the same place, we've done some multi-generational programming.

So we might have our kids reading with the seniors, letting the seniors tell their story.

Um it's it's it's it's nice.

It was really nice to see that engagement.

Heel Meals is actually the program that we partner with DHS with to provide food to our seniors at the adult and senior centers.

Um Health, we have Project Worth come out.

They do also nutrition education in our healthy eating program.

Library, I mentioned the Summer Reading Program.

They've come out to our sites and done let's play activities with our younger groups.

And then economic development, this one's been really cool over time.

Um they'll bring programs to us.

Um, so Suzu China, um, they we had our kids doing art projects or photography projects with another country, and their work is actually um it is displayed in the other country.

They receive an award, a certificate.

Um, and San Pedro Parques in Mexico, we did something similar as well.

We did a little photo contest with them.

So we really try to expand our reach, teach the kids, and really um let them let their work shine.

So community events, um, so we have a lot of divisions.

We have a lot of folks that we work with.

Um flamenco Lay is definitely it's a flamenco show.

I went this year, we did it at Carver.

It's beautiful.

Our dancers, you can see them on the top right.

They're fantastic.

Um, restored by Light was just a couple of weeks ago at Mission San Jose.

We had dancers performing there.

Adult and senior, um, you can see we have Turkey Bingo who doesn't love bingo, right?

So they win turkeys during Thanksgiving time.

Goldenhearts Gala and Snowball, those are dances that we do.

Um we open them to the public.

We bring people from our centers, DHS will bring people from their centers.

We've brought them out kayaking.

I was out there when we brought them and they had a fantastic time.

We do movies in the park, um, a Dia de los Muertos event, we do a Pride Tennis Social, um, free family swims in our nadatorium.

Um, then our youth and teens, we've done a derby dash at our Wheatley Heights complex All-Star Challenge was just this past weekend that was basketball.

Skateboard competition at Lou Hamilton in District 10, brought out a lot of community members.

And then for the toddlers, I know I mentioned Viva Los Tots, but we will have an Easter egg hunt at Normoil that they have 12,000 eggs they're preparing.

So it is large.

It gets larger every year.

Our supervisor Vicky there, she does a fantastic job.

Um, so we we really try to bring what we offer to the community and and just bring everyone out together to have a good time.

So athletic facilities.

So I talked a little bit about our community centers, our athletic facilities.

We have McFarlane Tennis Center and Fairchild Park.

Those are our tennis.

Fairchild has pickleball, um, Wheatley Heights sports sports complex, if you recall, that was run by another entity.

Um we um we used bond funds to renovate the actual track in the football stadium, and we built an event center.

When that reopened, parks took over the management and programming of that facility.

While it is available for reservations, we also run programs.

We do flag football there, we do community play there, we do clinics there.

Um, if you haven't been there, it's it's really nice.

It's located in MLK Park.

Um programming highlights in athletics.

We do community clinics at McFarland.

We do fitness in the park for beginner tennis.

Um, paddle and play was a camp that we did last summer that we will do again.

That's um both pickleball and tennis.

So they learn a little bit of both.

And then um, as I mentioned, doing community open play.

I know um someone made the comment earlier about access.

Um, so while Wheatley Heights is a reservation facility, it's a really nice facility that we want to make sure people know is there and they're using it.

McFarland, the same way.

You reserve those courts.

So what we've done is we've designated days as community open open play days.

So people can just come play tennis on Tuesdays right now.

It's it's Tuesdays, tennis Tuesdays.

And then um Wheatley Heights, it's Wednesday.

I was there last night and there were easy 200 people there on the field and the track using it.

So we want to make sure the public is using it in addition to just the reservations.

Um, we do this.

Um, we have a list of community partners there.

On the tennis side, everything we do is through a partner.

So we have the San Antonio Tennis Association, Tennis Club of San Antonio, we have tennis pros that are there, um, the McFarland Tennis Foundation.

So what they'll do is they will provide the instruction.

Um, and we will, you know, we will promote it, we will um help provide goodies if it's an event.

Um, but most of these are ongoing clinics because we want people to come and learn to play, um, see if it's something that they enjoy, and then it can be something they can continue to use.

Spurs, Spurs Give, of course, has redone a lot of our courts, but also through SAFC, they've done some soccer clinics for us.

They have been a good partner.

You know, the Spurs will come out and do clinics when they do courts, so that's always fun.

On par golf, you know, we're really trying to branch out into some new sports.

We've done cricket, we've done lacrosse.

Um, so um a lot of really cool stuff that we um partners find us and we are always seeking partners.

So it's it's a really cool opportunity, we think for the community.

So in athletics, um, we total participation was about 11,000 last year, primarily youth, but we do, of course, serve our adults.

Notable programs, we do participate with police in the police athletic league.

Spurs Youth Basketball League is going on right now, and that's of course our most popular by far.

Um we have done the it's the Texas uh Amateur Athletic Um Federation.

We've done track and field through them.

We've hosted it here.

We've also participated in swim with them.

We've done pickleball socials.

Um we also offer in that bottom right corner picture the San Fernando Boxing Club.

This used to be run out of Lehigh Gym, which was formerly San Fernando Gym.

Um, and then we moved it um when we moved the facility, we moved it over to Lincoln in District 2.

So we do operate this boxing club.

You really the the cost is to be to join USA Boxing as a member.

Um we had five to eight um just actually advanced to Golden Gloves here in the last couple of weeks.

So some of it is for fun, some of it's for fitness, but we have some pretty competitive and some pretty successful boxers that come through our program as well.

Fitness, I'm sure most of you are familiar with our fitness programming.

Fitness in the park is by far our largest.

It is free fitness classes everywhere across the city.

We offer 6,500 classes a year serving almost 73,000 people.

Um again, we partner with people.

We do have staff that offer these classes, but we do partner with people to branch out.

Um, you know, there's pictures of them.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention goat yoga through goat shenanigans if you like yoga and you want to try something different.

Um I literally just held the baby goat for probably the whole hour, but um, but it brought a lot of people out, and it's it's a it's just a really good, again, fun way to introduce people to our parks and our partners and fitness.

Mobile fit is in that top left corner.

That's a vehicle that we have that we bring out to parks.

We also have it offered out um through other vendors, and it has a gaming system, it has um the ability to test your BMI, um, your blood pressure.

We'll just we don't we don't keep any data by individual, we'll give you your information.

Um, and uh and we do fitness classes from it.

So it's something that we bring out um to events.

You've probably seen it or you may have requested it, but it's just it's really it's a really cool um fitness tool for us to bring out.

The Barrera Fitness Center is in our headquarters at Ron Darner off of Old Highway 90.

Um we have classes, we have a weight room, um, we do offer fitness in the park classes there.

So we've had over 15,000 participate um there as well.

Aquatics.

So this is a large one, right?

So we have um one indoor nadatorium, the Atanasio Garcia Natatorium.

Um, it's located just outside of downtown near Lanier High School.

Um, we also have 24 outdoor pools.

Uh at the Natatorium, it is open year-round.

It's a partnership that we have with SAISD.

So they have some dedicated time that they use for all of their schools to have practices.

They have meets other than that, we use it for open swim, um, fitness classes, family time.

We have designated days each month for free family swim.

Um, we also do um spring break camp.

So we're gonna we're getting ready to have actually I think it's already full, um, spring break camp there.

Um we will do um some free time during spring break as well.

So um that is our indoor offering.

Again, you can see we do swim lessons there, both individual and group, and we do them by age group, as you see there.

24 outdoor pools.

Um, we had over 265,000 attend last year.

We hire almost 300 lifeguards a year.

We are hiring now, so I'll make my pitch now.

If you know of anybody, 16 or older that wants to make $18 an hour, send them our way.

We will train them, we will certify them because we need to get those pools going, right?

So we do um the let's swim is our uh outdoor uh swim lessons.

Um we've done them in a variety of ways.

Last year we did them um a little bit uh more spread out where we did um each session had pools this year.

We're we're our goal is to have every pool and every session, so that would get us closer to maybe 2,000 participants, but it's just it's very um important to us while the pools are a fun um activity.

Water safety is just very critical, and we want to make sure people of all ages are learning to swim and um learning those skills.

So that will be this summer.

We do aqua fitness.

Our aqua hit boards are crazy.

If you imagine a paddle board and you're standing on top of it and doing exercises while the water's moving, it um it is intense.

Um so we have a lot of that, a lot of aqua Zumba.

We have senior swim that we uh piloted this year in District Three.

Um again, we have partnerships.

So our pools aren't, while we have a lot of them, um, there are areas where there's like pockets where we don't have any.

And so what we do is we use our partners.

So SAISD, of course, is the partner at the NAT, but Northeast ISD and Southwest ISD, we have partnerships with them, and we use their facilities to do free community swim days.

We also have the YMCA, that's the Thousand Oaks YMCA, and they do some free community swim days.

We have um agreements with them.

Um, pre-K4SA, another city department, we partner with them, they bring their kids to the nadatorium for swim lessons.

There they have a session going on actually right now.

Um, the American Cross Red Cross is who we partner with on trainings, and again, the food bank brings um they provide the meals at any of our camps that we offer.

Actually, and let me back up because we also participate in the summer food service program throughout the summer that feeds anybody 18 and under.

And so our community centers are locations, but our pools are also locations.

So even if you weren't coming to swim, if you're just a you know a youth that is looking for a meal in the summer, you can come to our pools as a location as well.

This is the map of those locations.

So, how do people find out about us?

Um, and what else do we have to offer?

So, we have a community engagement stewardship division.

Um, so they serve multiple functions.

So, Earth Day is one of the things that they put on, which is right around the corner at Woodlawn Lake.

It'll be April 18th.

Um, we do a West Side Resource Fair and Tree Adoption, which is this weekend at Elmondorf Lake Park.

Um, tree giveaways, just connecting people to resources, um, activities while they're there.

The silent book club is actually really cool if any of you are readers.

Um, this is actually a it's an organization that was created in the United States, but it actually is um, it has members in multiple countries.

I think it's like 60 countries or something.

And it's essentially people just get together and read.

So it's not like your traditional reading club or book club where everyone's reading the same book.

You literally come and just everyone's reading whatever they want to read.

They socialize if they care to socialize.

Um, we are one of their larger um members.

We had um a few hundred that participated.

Um, I think it's almost 500 last year.

Um, we've done events, so we'll do book swaps, something at the holidays.

And so um, while they are located throughout San Antonio, they do come to parks locations.

Sometimes it's inside.

We've done it at Granados and Lions Field, and sometimes it's out in a park when the weather um supports that.

Unplugged Texas Day was something that we did um through our state agency traps, and that was really um an effort to get people off their phones, off their iPads, and just coming out to parks and engaging nature, but also engaging with their families and friends.

Um, and so uh we had an event we actually hosted at Lockwood Dignity to do that, but then we also um put word out to folks hey, come and join us.

So then um our social media uh is is a lot of what we use um for this, and of course, we use Facebook and you know, Instagram X, um, our website has all of our information, over a million visitors, so people are definitely looking for what we have to offer.

Uh we also have our natural areas.

They provided over 600 opportunities for people, and that's anywhere from hikes, field trips, art classes, um, presentations.

Um almost 26,000 people attended our natural areas.

It's really cool opportunity, just very different programming, nature programming.

Um, encourage you all to go to one of the natural areas.

And then our urban forestry, that's our trees.

Um, so they do a Dia del Arbal um event in November.

We this year we did it at Mission Marquee.

All of our tree adoption events are just places for people to come, receive trees, learn about trees, but just again, places for people to come together.

And finally, I've already made my pitch for employment on aquatics.

We also hire for our summer program.

Um, so it's something for our youth anywhere into our adults and seniors.

So that was a lot, and I'll be available for questions when we uh get through.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.

All right, last presentation uh is about our senior centers.

Take it away.

Not as not quite as tall as Nikki here.

Uh good morning, Chair and members of the committee.

My name is Jessica Devolina, Deputy Human Services Director.

Today I will be providing just a very brief presentation on older adult programming that is provided by our department.

I do want to acknowledge that I'm joined today by Melody Woosley, Human Services Director, Victor Obavone, our senior services administrator who oversees all of our programming, as well as Maria Rivera and Victor Ayala from our senior leadership team.

We also have members of the City County Joint Commission on Elderly Affairs joining us, and that includes Celia Berryman, our mayorial appointee, Terry Kilmer, our district five appointee, and Jerry Peters and Betty Eckert, who represent the county commissioners court.

We also, as you'd heard earlier from some of our partners, have them joining us as well.

We're a WellMED Charitable Foundation.

They serve as both the funder and a service provider, as well as Meals on Wheels and Ride Connect, Texas.

So specifically during today's presentation, I'm gonna provide a very brief snapshot on older adult challenges that we see in San Antonio, review our site locations and just overall programming in general, provide some highlights from fiscal year 25, discuss our fiscal year 26 work plan, talk a little bit about the critical partnerships and collaborations that we have, as well as review some upcoming capital projects that will actually help us to expand access and services.

So in terms of the snapshot, and this is just for context, some of the challenges that older adults face in San Antonio.

So this is based on the 2024 American Community Survey, which is a five-year estimate.

But according to the data, 14.6% of older adults in San Antonio live below the federal poverty level, and that's actually higher than Bear County and higher than many other communities in Texas.

But what's even more concerning is 24.2% are actually identified as cost burden.

So that means that they're spending more than 30% of their gross income on housing, utilities, and related fees, reducing the amount of funding that they have available for other resources like medication, food, and health services.

Additionally, nearly 44% live alone, and 8% live with grandchildren.

And those that are living with grandchildren include those that are actually serving as caregivers for those grandchildren.

Roughly, in addition, roughly 42% of older adults also live with a disability, and that creates, as we know, not only mobility challenges but also transportation challenges among others.

And lastly, 48.3% speak a language other than English at home.

And our point in kind of identifying this is these are things that we regularly look at so that we make sure that as we're looking at programming, as we're looking at tweaking services that we're providing, we're taking all of this into account to make sure we're really addressing the needs of older adults in our community.

In terms of programming, there are 44 comprehensive senior centers and part-time nutrition sites that are providing center-based programming across our community.

And that's both DHS operated and partner operated sites.

The City of San Antonio through DHS manages 12 comprehensive senior centers.

Two of those were actually operating in partnership with WellMed, and two are operated in partnership with Parks and Recreation, as mentioned by Nikki earlier, that provide multi-generational programming.

Eleven of those sites are nationally accredited by the National Council on Aging.

And then the city also directly operates eight additional part-time nutrition sites.

Four of those are operated by human services, and four are operated by parks and recreation.

The remaining partner sites are actually operated by churches, senior housing living spaces, as well as other community members.

And the city supports those operations as well.

So the primary support is the daily meals that Meals on Wheels provides that's funded through City of San Antonio General Fund and grant funding from ACOG, but we're also providing technology support, training, technical assistance, monitoring, and administrative support to help ensure smooth operations.

Through DHS and our partners, we're serving a roughly 22,103 active participants daily.

Overall for the year, rather.

Of those, nearly 3,000 are participating daily.

And in total, roughly 88% of those active participants are actually participating at one of the 12 DHS comprehensive senior centers.

As I mentioned earlier, we don't do any of the work that we do alone.

And so to that end, we collaborate with local, state, and national organizations.

And the purpose of that is really to ensure that we're using best practices and we're really delivering high-quality services, not only to those older adults that we're serving in our centers, but also the older adults that our partners are serving in the larger community.

The goal of our programming is to ensure that we're supporting and equipping older adults with tools and resources they need to be healthy, engaged, and independent.

In addition to that, we are also closely focused on making sure that we're providing resources and education, not only for older adults, but also for caregivers.

And one of the things ways that we do this is we actually partner with WellMed to provide the Caregiver SOS program in our centers.

And the goal of that is as they age and as they get to a point where they transition beyond attending our senior centers.

We want to make sure that they have the resources they need to have that plan in place and try to maintain that independence as long as possible, but also to be able to age with dignity.

To achieve this, we really focus our services around five primary areas.

That includes fitness, recreation, education, health, and socialization.

In fiscal year 25, we provided a little over 10,000 art, music, theater, fitness, and education classes.

And that was not only provided by our staff, but it included our partners, WellMed, OASIS, Oates, Billhouse, YMCA, YWCA, and Seniors in Play, among others.

We also have a robust volunteer program, and that really helps us to ensure that we're maintaining efficient site operations and gives older adults that are in our senior centers ownership of the center itself and what's happening in the community.

This includes a volunteer incentive program that Councilwoman Castillo actually spearheaded that was implemented in fiscal year 24 called the SAVES program.

And what that program does, it actually provides a credit towards someone's city property taxes in exchange for volunteer hours that they donate to help services at the center.

And it was about 48,000 hours that were provided in volunteer hours at senior centers in fiscal year 25.

We also have a robust nutrition and education program.

That included nearly 500,000 meals that were provided by Meals on Wheels for daily services at the centers, along with routine produce markets, monthly food commodity distributions through the San Antonio Food Bank's Project HOPE program, as well as nutrition education sessions that are provided by our DHS nutrition specialist and our registered dietitian.

Our financial security services are really focused on asset protection and building assets.

We do that through one-on-one financial counseling, benefits navigation, and more recently, we've increased our focus on really coordinating to help address cases of abuse, neglect, and exploitation.

As that's something that we're seeing being lifted up as an issue not only at our centers, but also amongst partners.

And lastly, our transportation program is critical to allowing us to ensure that those that face transportation barriers are actually able to fully engage and participate in our programming.

In fiscal year 26, we are focused on implementing actions from our work plan.

And the point of the work plan is really to ensure that we're enhancing the reach, scope, and impact of our services.

Specific strategies include enhancing membership engagement and targeted retention.

So there are a few sites in particular that we're really focused on where we have a lower average daily attendance, but we still have capacity at the center to increase how many members we're serving daily.

And that includes the Cortes Senior Center in District 4, the District 5 Senior Center, and the Robinette Multi-Generational Center, which most recently opened in District 4.

We are also expanding our financial counseling and our benefits navigation reach through collaboration, greater integration with the cities for financial empowerment, and that's actually an organization that we participate in through our family assistance division, so leveraging in-house resources as well to better support seniors and partnerships with other local organizations, including financial institutions, adult protective services, and many other organizations.

We are also further implementing evidence-based health and nutrition programs, and we're using partners like UTSA, Texas AM, and ACOG, amongst others, to not only pilot new initiatives, but also continue successful initiatives in the senior centers.

We're expanding our social connectedness.

We're doing this by not only focusing on how do we increase our online virtual presence to provide programming resources, but also how do we integrate more adaptive technology in our senior centers to serve those that might have challenges that prohibit them from fully participating in programming.

And lastly, we're also working with the City County Joint Commission on Elderly Affairs.

In particular, we're looking at their bylaws as well as their name.

And what we want to ensure is that those two things actually accurately reflect how important their role is as an advocacy board to both the city and the county.

As I mentioned earlier, none of the work we do is in isolation.

So, of course, we work closely with the City County Joint Commission on Elderly Affairs, but we also partner with more than 43 local, state, and national organizations.

That includes sister city departments like the library department, the health department, and the parks and recreation department, colleges and universities, nonprofit partners, both those that we fund through the delegate agency process to provide services at our senior centers as well as those that are providing services in the community, intergovernmental organizations like ACOG, and backbone organizations like the Successfully Aging and Living in San Antonio Coalition and AARP.

We are also very excited that in addition to our current programming, we have two capital projects that we're working on with the capital delivery department.

Once those are completed, it's actually going to help us to expand access programming and services, particularly in Council District One.

So because right now we're working on construction and expansion of the West End Senior Center.

When it's completed, it's actually gonna double our current space, and so we'll be able to serve a lot more members at that site.

And that'll actually start construction in June of 2026, and we're anticipating it'll be completed in November of 2027.

And then we're also working on construction of the Kenwood Senior Center.

That site had previously been demolished in fiscal year 24 due to structural issues with the facility.

And so that construction is actually anticipated to start in August with completion by February of 2028.

And that concludes the presentation.

Happy to answer uh any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you so much to everyone who presented.

Uh Noah's a lot of information, but I think you know it speaks to the breadth of our programming that we have here, and that again that investment we heard earlier during public comment that we've committed ourselves over uh decades and of course till now uh to not just this maybe idea of a nice to have, but a necessity that thousands of our residents utilize every single day for their physical and uh emotional and once uh mental health.

Um I think it's just always interesting to hear this, and I I also think you know, we're gonna talk probably I will about some of the things that we would like to see, right?

Some of the maybe uh hopes and futures and visions for all these things.

Um, but it's becoming from a place because of uh at least for myself, residents are always asking for this is an extremely great service that I went to this one time further down, but I wish it was closer to me for this X, Y, and Z reason.

Um to be said, thank you again for the presentations and for all the work that y'all do every single day, and all the staff uh who are not here today who make this all happen.

So, with that, want to start the council conversation?

Counselor White or all right, thanks, Chair.

Um, thank everybody for the presentations.

I'll go reverse order um starting with the um adult programming.

First of all, our seniors love our senior center.

It is it is so well run and and provides so many opportunities for our seniors to gather and interact with each other.

It's it's um uh I love going there, and our seniors certainly appreciate it.

My only question here is sort of a five-year vision for senior centers, any new goals, uh innovative approaches, programs, things like that that we're looking at to enhance the senior centers and the programming for those that attend.

Sure, absolutely.

Um so we had talked a little bit uh briefly about um our 26 work plan, and that includes um uh the fact that we're working on enhancing abuse prevention and intervention.

Um, as part of that work, we're working with the city council subcommittee, public safety subcommittee and the elder abuse subcommittee.

One of the recommendations they had made that was that we actually work with a local researcher to conduct a study on what's the status of older adults in San Antonio.

The goal of that is not only to focus on what are the abuse prevention and intervention strategies we can look at, but what are the other needs in the community for seniors?

That study is anticipated to be completed in September of 2026, and we're really anticipating that recommendations from that study will help us drive other recommendations for older adult programming.

The intention of the public safety committee is to take that report and parse out recommendations by content area to the different city council committees for their review and discussion and feedback on recommendations.

Got it.

Great, thank you.

Um moving to parks.

Um I can't let this go, so I gotta I'm gonna I'm gonna talk about our budget session last year.

And I I just I pulled the K SET article on this, and and I'll just um I only bring this up to say that these budget reviews and my push for a new budgeting model here in uh with our city government is is already I think starting to to pay off.

And one of the areas we saw it here is with some of these um classes, I guess, that that um the city was offering.

So a review of 79,000 classes offered in in 2024 fiscal year found that 32 percent of the classes had no one participating in them.

Uh, and the department said that because we're closing these down, um, we are going to save close to 624,000.

And I bring that up to one, I want to thank, I want to thank the department for going through the budget review process identifying these areas where we had no turnout or or small turnout at these classes because that money, $624,000, is to me a significant amount of money that then we can reallocate to some of the other areas, either within the department or elsewhere that need the funding.

So I I definitely want to thank you and Homer and the whole team and just say that we need to continue to look within ourselves in every department to find where we can better spend our money so that we can better put it to use for the citizens of our city.

So my first question with that said is are we do we have new processes in place to determine and monitor you know these classes or anything else in the department to make sure we're actually getting our bang for our buck?

Yes.

So to answer your question, thank you for that.

So yes, that in that review is very intense.

And you know, uh what we were doing prior to the review was um our approach was for every space in a center, we were going to have something offered every hour that we were open.

That was our approach.

Right.

And I think what that review did for us was realize okay, um, perhaps people aren't looking for that structure every minute that they're there.

You know, they may want to just come in and play basketball or read or use our Wi-Fi.

And so we did step back and and offer less, but I don't view it as less for the community, it's just what made more sense for what they were looking for.

So that's how we were achieving that.

Um what we did put in place were processes for how we review, and we're in a constant state of review.

So you put a program out and you want to make sure people are aware of it.

We also do, you know, we we ask people what they want to see, but sometimes you just put it out there, see how it goes.

We will go um, you know, in our fitness classes, we're trying to align our fitness going through the same review as the community centers, but you got to give it a little bit of time to take.

Um it might also be maybe it's the right class on the wrong day or the wrong time.

Um, and so we try to, you know, tweak it a little bit, and then we we do have a period of time where we say, okay, we've done what we can do.

This isn't the maybe the right place or the right offering, and then we switch to something else.

But then you start that cycle again.

But we do have that process in place, and we did adjust um our approach to offerings.

Great.

And again, this is not a criticism of the programs being offered, or I think it's important.

The community loves them, um, just making sure we have we have metrics and and data to uh to show that that they're being utilized, and again, that the citizens are getting um what they're paying for.

So thank you for that.

Um the only other thing for that I'll say here with respect to parks is my office is is um and I think we've reached out to y'all is considering a CCR uh related to tree planting in in floodplain areas, and uh we're we're gonna assess the flood mitigation benefits of this, and so we look forward to working with parks, urban forestry, and relevant departments on uh the feasibility, the environmental impact, uh long-term maintenance to see if this is something that that could benefit um the city.

So thank you for that.

And finally, libraries.

Um again, my folks in District 10 love the libraries.

I was pleased to join with the uh with your department for the Sims Library um anniversary the other was a month or two ago now, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I I enjoyed that.

That was a great event.

Um here's my question for y'all.

Um you've heard of this libraries of things program that that's being done in um in in some other Texas cities.

No, it it basically basically what it is, it allows residents to borrow tools, cookware, hobby kits, musical instruments, things like that.

And I was wondering if that's something, you know, it helps people that maybe can't afford to go buy things for just a one-time use.

They can come to the library, borrow them, um, and then bring them back.

Is that anything that we've looked at here for our libraries, potentially something we could do on a pilot program or something like that?

Uh so yes, but I'm going to call our assistant uh director Dale to give a little more detailed answers on that.

Sure.

So good good morning.

I'll I'll just say we're very, of course, very aware of these library of things.

There's there's uh complications to them that aren't immediately obvious.

We'll definitely continue to look at them, see what might be right.

One of the things that that we do is we allow um our individual locations to make some you know make some decisions like that.

I will say one tiny example at the central library, we do participate with the Texas.

I'm gonna say the wrong agency, so I'm not gonna say the agency, um, to lend um equipment for fishing, and that's something we do from the library that we could do somewhere else, and we're very familiar with others, and we'll keep looking at them.

Yeah, and and and to be clear, uh I'm not sitting here pretending I'm an expert on the program because I'm sure there are some uh potential issues with the program, but I was just wondering if it's something that we've looked at.

Yeah, it definitely is something we've looked at.

Absolutely.

All right, thanks, Chair.

Thank you so much.

Council Marial Dabito.

Thank you, Chair.

I mean, this is definitely the best meeting of the day discussing parks library and our senior center.

So thank you all for for y'all's time um and input today.

I'll start off with the library.

Thank you to Secrete.

Um we actually just uh celebrated with David and others the 20th anniversary of Maverick Library.

So thank you for all y'all's work with that.

Um and you know, you honing about the the sense of the place that the libraries really are for so many in our community.

Uh thank you for leading the team to to make that um a truly powerful place uh all throughout all throughout the city.

I do want to give a special shout out to Jessica Zurida, who's also who's with the library, but is also uh District 7 resident and leads a neighborhood association.

So just wanted to quickly acknowledge her.

Moving on to parks, uh, thank you, Nikki, for for the presentation.

You know, often I talk about our parks um not only being beneficial for people's physical health, but for their mental health as well.

So uh there's definitely um impact there.

Um parks to to me are extremely important for us to continuously improving.

We're super excited about the eight million dollar investment coming into Woodlawn Lake.

Uh it's long overdue.

It's needed to happen.

It's probably one of the most utilized parks on a daily basis.

Um, but also too on other parks in District 7.

I know we're looking at a bike skills course at Obi-Shable Park, so we're looking forward to that.

Um to me, parks, all of these three are part of the core services that the city should be investing in.

So thanks for for y'all's help with that.

Finally, uh Jessica for the senior centers.

Umks for that presentation there.

You know, it you pointed out that 44% of our seniors live alone.

Um, so I am gonna make another plug for my CCR, and hopefully we can discuss it here in community health, uh, because it was not passing governance, not sure why, but really my uh CCR was um was really about expanding transportation to our senior centers.

Right now it's at a five-mile radius.

Um that was set a long time ago.

It doesn't make sense.

Um the city has grown, and so we do need to expand uh transportation to our senior centers.

So much goodness happens at our senior centers and uh lack of transportation shouldn't be a reason why our seniors can't take advantage of that.

So um I uh we're gonna keep pushing on that.

Um we'll find a way if if uh however it was blocked the first time, we'll find a way to still make it happen.

We're we're gonna we're gonna keep pushing on that.

Really quick too, for meals on wills.

Um, how many meals are I I know that there was um some funding scares a couple months back.

Can you just let us know how many meals hot meals are provided to seniors from Meals on Wills um on a daily basis?

Sure.

Um so between our our um both DHS operated and the partner operated sites, it's 500,000 over the year.

Okay.

Um but we're serving on average anywhere from 1700 to 2300.

It was 1700 in fiscal year 25, now it's about 2300 meal participants daily.

Wow.

Um, so that's across DHS sites and partner sites.

Yeah.

Um, and then if I could just comment earlier on your CCR uh councilman, although it has not yet moved forward, we are using some of the recommendations that you had proposed, including um working with via as well as making sure that seniors know about free rides that are offered through their insurance and trying to leverage those resources.

And as I mentioned, Ride Connect Texas is also here, and they're providing um quite a bit of free rides in the community as well.

Awesome.

I'm I'm so glad to hear that.

Um at least we could take away in um some of that.

And and again, we'll me and my team are still gonna continue pushing um to to try and uh make that happen, but but I'm glad that y'all's work was happening.

The reason I wanted y'all to um talk about the number of daily meals that uh Meals on Wills provides is because this is a a needed um and trusted partner in our community.

I mean seven 2300 meals a day for all of our residents is is important.

And um and so thank you for the work that y'all are doing to make sure people especially our our older adults are are fed um is uh it's just that this is where the rubber meets the road so thank you so much for that those are all my comments thank you chair thank you anyone else counselor white I just wanted to briefly say meals on wheels too we did it I think last week and uh once again just reminded me of of the great work it was it was it was a lot of fun and great to show up to folks' homes and and get them those warm meals.

So um thank you guys for all that you do.

Counselor Castille thank you chair thank you Sick Rit Nikki and Jessica for the presentations I think as I mentioned during the educational opportunities committee when uh you all briefed us uh is when I think of public safety and making a great impact it's primarily the work of uh y'all's departments right when I see the work being done with uh elder financial security and how to prepare our seniors to mitigate uh fraud uh I think there's a lot of value there seeing in the public safety committee those statistics in terms of how many seniors are being impacted by just so much fraudulent activity and then I think about parks and record and the San Antonio Express News had an article uh on the San Fernando Boxing gym and how it's producing a lot of golden glove athletes uh and within the article it mentioned Joe who was the original coach at the Jesse James Leha gym uh and I always highlight that uh Jim because uh any I've met so many firefighters police officers that grew up in my neighborhood that we all went there as kids and the one question to see if people really went there was like who is your coach right and and and if you said Joe we knew you actually went and you trained um but all that to say right when it comes to parks and rec and the programming uh for many of the youth in my district it provides an opportunity to be productive and get off the streets and uh let out some steam in a productive way and that's why as we continue to have the 2027 bond conversations I'm hopeful that we could continue to invest in Normoil Park because the goal and vision is to also include a gym similar to what is that San Fernando Lincoln Heights rather how can we replicate that the west side of District 5 has a wealth of neighborhood boxing gyms but the south side of District 5 uh there's only one top dog boxing gym off of Somerset Road which is coached by Franco world champion and then the brother of uh Bam Rodriguez right so it is a really good gym off of Somerset but we need more boxing gyms in the South side because we know it could keeps our kids out of trouble.

And then of course with our public libraries uh I'm grateful that our field offices are both housed in public libraries um but with that sometimes you see youth who are waiting outside during the middle of the school day to get into the library and I'm grateful that they're waiting to get into the library rather than a vacant structure or vacant building so just to highlight the intersection of public safety and access to these spaces and programs connect folks to resources and keep some specific some kids uh out of trouble.

I appreciate the briefing all the programming we will be sure to encourage folks to apply for the lifeguard opportunities what I share at neighborhood associations because the question once it gets hot I'm sure because of today's going to be the 90s we're gonna start to get that question of when are our polls going to be open I'll be sure to plug in that you know we need um folks to apply to staff the pools to keep them open but I would be remiss if I didn't think Terry Kilmer uh our appointee and all the work in her leadership with her neighborhood association within the commission uh and just all throughout district five um you're a force and we're grateful to have you serving on the committee and very active in district five um and of course your advocacy with that at the park uh ensuring that um the city uh invests in that park as well so thank you Terry um I don't have many questions but just wanted to highlight um that uh this is uh the programming whether it's within our senior centers libraries or parks in recording to the overall health and safety of district by residents so thank you all and y'all's uh respective departments thank you chair thank you council Messi Gonzalez thank you for the presentation uh or presentations excuse me um I just and maybe we can do this for a future meeting but um I appreciate every department all the work that all of these departments are doing uh they are crucial and needed for for district eight residents and residents all over the city um but the one thing I didn't see in the in the library presentation and I I'm sure we could have a an entire meeting on this was any sort of literacy programs that we're offering because as you know we're still one of the lowest literature have the one of the lowest literacy rates in the in the state um you know 25% of our adults um are considered illiterate and so I think that's just something that we need to um focus on because we can have all the programs in the world and offer all the parks and um rec activities but um this is a major issue right that um we just can't look away from so I would love to have a conversation about that um at a meeting um and any sort of literacy grants that the department is working on would be helpful I ran into one literally just Googling so I don't have the background on it at all but a tech

Um, you know, 25% of our adults um are considered illiterate, and so I think that's just something that we need to um focus on because we can have all the programs in the world and offer all the parks and um rec activities, but um this is a major issue, right?

That um we just can't look away from.

So I would love to have a conversation about that um at a meeting.

Um and any sort of literacy grants that the department is working on would be helpful.

I ran into one literally just Googling, so I don't have the background on it at all, but a Texas reads grant uh through the Texas State Library and Archives Commission.

But other grants that maybe um you guys are looking at so we can um tackle this issue would be helpful.

So thank you.

And again, I appreciate all the work you guys are doing.

But this is just something that I know other council members have brought up, and um, I think we should all just be championing um this issue.

So also um when I talk about libraries, uh you know, Cody Library is an important library for uh residents and also a voting location that is very active now as we speak.

Um and I I remember talking with the library director there, um, and this was around like 3 30, 4 o'clock, and we're having a conversation, and she has kids coming up to her, and she's giving them snacks, and I was like, Oh, how many kids come through a day?

She said, I got 90 kids a day that stop by here after school, so they're either getting picked up or using it as as really after school care.

Um, so just making sure that we're and accommodating them and in our thinking of the library space in that way as well, right?

Um, that it is really an after-school place for kids, and so if there's any programs that we can think about in those time frames, um that would be um I would love to look at that and and be helpful in any way that I can.

So senior centers, of course, are we have the oldest senior center in district eight, uh, the first one, Bob Ross Senior Center, because of a council member who just literally said, hey, I think we need senior centers in in the city and went in and researched this and toured senior centers and other communities, and so really is a true example of um what one council member can do.

Um so I'm going to a senior dance at Bob Ross.

Uh there, it's a late Valentine's Dance.

Uh, but that's today.

So it's very active.

It um and it's just such a well-needed uh resource for the community.

So thank you to the joint commission of Elder Lee Affairs for all the work that they do.

We just appointed a member last week to uh that board.

Um so just thank you to everyone here that's doing all the work um that that we really do need in the city.

Thank you.

Thank you so much uh for everybody on the conversation.

I had a couple quick things, but I wanted to also uh give a big thanks to um the folks that I appointed to the district six or for district six for the elderly affairs as well as for parks and recreation board, particularly because the individual that was there uh recently passed, Bert Pickle has been an incredible district six advocate, incredible parks recreation board and elderly affairs uh advocate.

He briefed me multiple times while he was still here with us.

Um but I'm very grateful that we have filled the position as well with Rosemary Gomez, uh, someone he was always talking to as well uh at the Elisa Treveno Center uh to help continue that work.

Um we're still working on the parks one.

Uh but also want to shout out Fernanda for the library uh board appointee as well because those those three individuals have been doing some great work in our community on listening into what the folks who use these services are really looking for, and so just wanted to make that statement here.

Um like we heard a little bit about whether it's about access or about the expanding service in some form.

Do we have any uh if we don't have it now, that's okay.

But do we have um a list of the or maybe not a list, sorry, some data on the lifetime of libraries of community centers, of senior centers?

Whether it's with capital needs or it's with um programming.

Do we see anything different with other cities of like how long they're typically around and or renovated or expanded upon?

So we work closely with um, of course, council offices related to any kind of bond improvements, but we're also working um with the capital delivery department, and they're actually looking at a facility inventory um at council recommendation across the city.

So I know that that work is ongoing, um, and I think that'll be part of the the charge of that particular working group.

Got it.

I didn't know if we had anything about comparison to other places where if there's uh any certain lifetime for the building themselves uh that we see reoccurring in some form, any transit lifetimes of them.

We're happy to do any research um related to senior centers and um I'm sure parks and and library.

Well, I'll just speak briefly.

Good morning, Chair Homer Garcia Parks Director.

We're actually collaborating also with uh Mike Shannon and his team uh for that council committee around uh infrastructure and transportation, I believe.

So back to the life cycle, that is one of the things that we're building into it.

So that uh work effort is a collaboration, they're running point, but there are several departments contributing to that, concurrent to that.

You know, we're tracking and building in what is the life cycle of our systems, right?

Yeah, apart from the building, the actual mechanical engineering, plumbing, HVAC.

So that is part of a larger effort at the parks department level, we do not have that level of detail, but that is something that we're working to build into our system.

Okay, that's helpful.

I think it's just something that I was interested in, just because you know, I'm always eager to find ways to uh, especially given district six growth, and I think we talked about it as well with the CCR that Council Member El De Gavito authored, right?

Some of these places that we've uh identified as the key spots to put senior centers or community centers are still, of course, incredibly spots to have, but also our city's grown further past that.

And so, how do we make sure that we're keeping up with that?

And if we made a commitment and investment 30 years ago, is that could investment still not only still solid in that realm, but is it serving as much people as possible that was originally intended to serve, or is it is there a need to expand that one or needing a new one further out?

Nothing has answered today.

Um we're on it.

Yeah, thank you.

Thank you.

That's helpful.

Um we have uh well that's the same question, I guess.

But is there a shared goal um with the city uh between multiple departments here?

Um when it comes to the access public space, is there a kind of thought about the area limits or the people population served, the numbers there.

I know I'm asking all three, and you all have different maybe.

Well, what I can say is yes, in um in the background, and I think you saw a couple of examples today.

Um Library and Parks Department in District 2 at Denver Heights.

Uh that works there while the Carver Library is offline for the better part of almost two years.

Um, there are other examples where we are actively collaborating.

I'm gonna use a health example in district three.

Um, there is a community center that actually is was raised.

Father Roman needed to further the very thing you're talking about, life expectancy of our buildings, ultimately that was uh raised, and there's funding to rebuild that capital delivery is running point on it.

At that site, however, we also uh had an existing uh facility that was an old dental clinic, and then fell out of use.

So, what we worked is with Claude's team to open that back up, and so we're co-located there, but it's really their facility, and so what we've done is we step into that space to run camps, summer uh spring break, and so there is that collaboration, and those are just two examples where we are in fact using data and really trying to maximize the use of our facilities very much.

Um, I I feel we have a really good partnership, and I think you've heard um the big four, and and hopefully I've got that uh number right.

But we we really think thoughtfully of where it makes sense to cross-pollinate um service delivery just to really maximize use to meet the needs of the community, whether it's based on library data, our own youth data, or uh data from um DHS relative to senior services, so that is happening, uh, and that's the the group that meets on a fairly uh frequent basis, relatively speaking, so that again if we can partner, we will, but also avoid duplicity to the extent that we can.

Yeah, thank you for that.

Dale, do you have something?

I'm sorry, John.

Just to just to add to what um Homer just said, I think we all have our um building standards.

I know the library has um a facilities assessment of you know the condition of each of our buildings.

You know, we our intention, and I'm sure it is for all of us, when we build a building with taxpayer dollars, we really want it to last.

And I think you can see great examples of um buildings built in the 1920s for the library, the San Pedro Library, and of course the Roosevelt Library, which is no longer a city library, but the building, if you've been in it, is still a great strong, serviceable building.

I think all of us look at our buildings that way and continue to look at keeping them up to date and useful.

Of course, you know, services change, and again, I think you could use both of those libraries as an example of where they wouldn't they wouldn't be exactly what we would build now.

Also, two other things I want to add, and I'm I'm I know all three of us do this for the library.

What we've tried to do over the years is um have a philosophy about buildings, which is unlike some other large cities, not gonna name many names in Texas.

Our service has been the idea has been to have similar services, similar hours, similar-sized buildings in every neighborhood.

We have now some of our newer libraries, of course, are larger because the the uh grounds we were able to acquire at whatever time were larger, but we do have this plan of people being within five miles of a library.

But we do have this plan of people being within five miles of a library.

We're not entirely there.

It you know, it takes it'll take some a couple more buildings to get there within the city boundaries, but that is something that we definitely plan.

And I will say, after the last two, before not after, before the last two bond elections, we at least touch base all of our departments.

Like, is there anything we're thinking about doing where we should do it together instead of independently?

And I know we will continue to do that.

And then just lastly to add um, so beyond facilities, we're also looking at services from that um perspective and in that light, in addition to the work that we do with departments, we're also working with other providers.

We know that we're not the sole provider in our community, and so in instances where there's a partner with better expertise and a deeper understanding of issues, like in the case of WellMed, their caregiver SOS program, we actually bring them in because they are the recognized expert that has uh the leadership to kind of work through old with older adults and their caregivers those plans, but we do that specific to each area so that we're not duplicating services and we're being really efficient about who is doing what and who what resources we're leveraging.

Thank you for that.

That's really helpful.

And I think that was really the the linchpin of at least for me for this conversation was figuring out if those gaps exist in some form, understanding what they are, and not necessarily in the way of saying, oh, this is something the city's doing, but just a matter of we've just grown the last 20 years pretty significantly.

Um trying to figure out how can we make sure that we're adjusting and accommodating that is really crucial.

And it's something, of course, that I'm very keen about in District Six, just because I know further and further north we could continue to expand and further outward, even the little slivers that we have at Alma Ranch or Government Canyon, uh, you know, there's those gaps to access to facilities like this where our residents will come and say, hey, I portray the library is great and I love it, but it is still further away.

Same thing with your Northwest Library.

Folks who are further out will say the same thing about I love my library, I wish there's something a little bit closer, let alone beyond that, right?

Pool space, um community center, etc.

So, all that to be said, I think it's of course still good work that we're doing, but I would love to see ways that we can see some of that data that y'all are looking at and seeing how what ways we can be supportive as well to help try to fill those gaps.

Think about the kind of joint planning we can do as well as in some of the border areas of our districts and see what things that can be done.

They're just to double up on resources as much as possible.

Um this maybe for education a little bit more, but I know North Side ISD rolled out their gold cards where they have some access to they give access to seniors in the area uh to be able to go uh watch any kind of finance performances within North Side ISD, whether it's high school performances or middle school performances.

Is that something that uh senior centers are taking note of whether they're partnering with at all with the ISDs on that kind of collaboration?

I know seniors plays a different kind of role where they come into the facility itself, but also the idea of seeing the kind of community assets in the area and the finance programming that are around.

Is that something that's on yellow's mind or radar?

So we're not specifically working with the district at this point in time, but we're happy to reach out and coordinate.

We are leveraging um other programming that's happening around the city.

So, for example, we'll take them to parks events, we'll take them to library events, um, and even partner operated events to make sure that we're we're utilizing everything that's available for older adults.

That's great, thank you.

Um last quick thing I was gonna ask was uh on the reliable transportation, or just in general about uh again the translation to senior centers in particular.

Um, have we collected any data on the average tripling?

Um per center, I guess.

Yes, so um, in some cases, we depending on the need at each center, we may have one or two drivers.

Um, and so there's multiple routes that are happening.

The shortest route, which is not the the average, is um half an hour.

Okay, but the long the typical route is about an hour and a half to two hours.

Um, and we really two hours is the upper limit of what we want in terms of route times because we don't want older adults and vehicles for that long of a period.

Right.

And so um most of the routes are running about an hour and a half to two hours.

Okay.

And I know y'all are doing that work already in regards to Consortiz of the Covito CCR and the kind of what came out of that a little bit.

Um, but I think generally, and I'm not gonna speak for everybody on here, but I think generally this committee is really uh keen on seeing that move forward as much as possible.

And so whether it's looking at some of that data and even evaluating, at least for me, thinking about um not only access transportation to get to the place, but if there's access to centers as well, what's the the cost benefit of that, right?

Of bringing people all the way north from uh government canyon, I'll say for mine, although at least Treveno versus making something a bit closer to government canon, not seeing that we are.

Um, but that what would that cost benefit look like, and just to always if you can report back to us about those things, we can keep the conversation going.

I think the the greatest need that we're seeing right now are the um upper northwest side of the community where there's a transportation need um that's kind of beyond that five mile radius, and then very far south.

And so within the city, um we have pretty good coverage, and the five mile radiuses because of the proximity of the senior centers, they actually overlap.

So it's really on these outer areas that have seen growth that we're really exploring and trying to find additional resources.

Got it.

Thank you.

Council Red Cafito.

Thank you, Chair.

Um, yeah, to build off your question, I think that that is a great analysis, and also too.

I mean, I do think, and I've had some preliminary conversations.

Sorry, I don't uh to face you all, but I just wanted to address him.

Some preliminary conversations with Commissioner Justin Rodriguez on how we can partner with a county to do this too, especially like is as if you're saying um, you know, it's kind of like the maybe northern part, you know, where it could serve city and county residents, because I think tech the county really only has like one technical like senior center, and so I mean, I do feel like this is a this would be a worthwhile collaboration effort for you know all four uh county commissioners, um, because I know that they're they get those requests as well, and so but I I definitely um agree with you on the kind of the cost benefit analysis of you know if we do transport more people, I I think we all know our senior centers are pretty crowded too, and so there's I I mean I and I think like you touched on the sentiment, all of us want our seniors just to get taken care of somehow somehow.

If it's whether it's a new nice shiny center or expanding access to transportation, um so I I'm glad you're raising that because I I do think it is part of the equation too.

Sorry, thank you.

Thanks, Chair.

Thank you.

Any other last comments from this group on any of these topics?

All right.

Well, thank you all so much.

Uh then at 11 48 a.m., we will officially join the community health committee.

Thank you all so much.