All right, good afternoon, everyone.

I'd like to call this city council work session on January 20th, 2026 to order.

Madam Clerk, please call the role.

Mayor Sarter.

Present.

Thanks, Mayor Hastings.

He has an excused absence.

Thank you.

Councilmember Haney.

Here.

Councilmember Greenberg.

Here.

Councilmember Duffy.

Here.

Councilmember Melton.

Present.

Councilmember Pashad.

Here.

Thank you, Mayor.

Yeah, quorum.

Thank you.

Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Madam Clerk, please read item one.

Presentation and discussion pertaining to the fiscal year 2025 Surprise Community Outreach Program and Neighborhood Grant Awards.

Oh, nice.

Good evening, Mr.

Dyson.

Or afternoon.

Good evening, Mayor, members of the council.

It's an honor to be here this afternoon.

The item before you is a summary from last year's Surprise Community Outreach Grant nonprofit program as well as our neighborhood grant, small uh neighborhood grant program.

So which is good timing because our coming uh SCOP grant application period is going to be opening this spring.

For those that um uh don't know about SCOPSCOP is our surprise community outreach grant program.

It's got 150,000 of city funding to go towards uh nonprofit organizations that serve uh the community of surprise and our residents.

Um so the applicants must be a 501c3, and they must follow all the reporting guidelines that the city council um approves.

So this is a city council initiated and uh selected program.

So city council uh awards all the the grants um to all the nonprofits.

Maximum award is ten thousand dollars.

So this year we're gonna go through some of the outcomes.

Um not only to share with the residents kind of where the money went, but all the good work that really has happened throughout the community thanks to these nonprofit partners that have many of them have come into surprise to serve.

So uh the first uh the first organization is the Arizona Burn Foundation.

They received 10,000 to purchase and install deaf and hard of hearing smoke alarms uh to for surprise residents.

They partnered closely with Surprise Fire Medical Department, um, led by Jamie Mitchler, and together they brought uh 68 uh volunteers together to install 34 deaf and hard of hearing smoke alarms.

Very successful program.

Second group was Autism Life and Living.

They received 10,000 to expand social circle events and surprise to decrease isolation among neurodiverse young adults combined with all their social activities and events.

They had over 350 people in attendance, which is a duplicated number.

And um were one of the key partners of the sensitive Santa program with Holly and her great parks and rec team.

They've served 186 people through the gym, 50 uh from surprise.

Best Buddies Arizona received $10,000 from the council subcommittee to support young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities, specifically through the clubs at Shadow Ridge and Willow Canyon High Schools.

Over 160 young adults, teens were served through 37 different group activities.

Chant Shelter received $6,000 to support their organization capacity.

This year they partnered with Surprise Stadium and held a pup night to raise awareness about Chant Shelter and the many resources that they offer.

The DICE Art Education Foundation received $5,000 award to combine with some of their other foundation money to support teacher mini grants for teachers throughout the school district.

Scott funding provided went in to provide help with 12 mini grants to teachers, impacting over 1,700 students.

We heard loud and clear that some of the teachers want to bring in some new technology and things.

They just need a little bit of extra support, and this grant did that.

The DICE Art Special Education PTSA received $5,000 this past year to support their organization specifically to support their annual walk and roll for inclusion event.

You see Mayor Sarter in the picture here.

Over 250 people attended the event, which is connected to our Dreamcatcher Park again in partnership with our City of Surprise and our Parks and Recreation Team.

Employed and Overjoyed is the business name, but it's Spencer's Place.

For those of us who know and love Spencer's Place.

They received $10,000 to support their workforce development program, internship program for adults with disabilities.

Hope Community Services was a first-time recipient.

They received $5,000 for behavioral health therapy for youth, which they uh include these uh these the equestrian uh well, the horses that are on the screen.

That's all I'll say.

But they bring in, they weave in equestrian programs uh to uh uh help the students who are maybe struggling with a variety of different things.

79 children were served, 90 percent reported a rise in resiliency uh in from the youth.

One step beyond received $2,500 to support their showcase festival that was held here in Surprise on March 29th.

They had over 350 um attendees at their festival.

Radiant Church here in Surprise hosts their an annual Night to Shine.

This is uh tied to the Tim Tebow Foundation, the first year that foundation funds it, but uh every year ongoing, they have to come up with their own funds to keep keep it going.

So they received $10,000 from the city council to support the event, which is a prom night, a very special prom night for individuals with special needs and their families.

Over $1,200 people were served through the event with 325 kings and queens and 500 parents, caregivers, and 450 volunteers.

Um which matches their every every penny that the city funds.

They received $7,000 this past year.

Um, so their total investment into the surprise nonprofits that they supported here was $14,000.

But of the $7,000, they used $3,000 to invest in the annual Beanbag Day in the spring, and um they partnered with us with our um Surprise Martin Luther King event with lots of volunteers.

All of the um money went to buy food that volunteers package, and it all went to the Valley View Food Bank.

Over 426 volunteers supported that initial that that initiative.

2000 uh was invested in Project Connect, which helps Spencer's place and some of their technology needs.

And then 2,000 was invested in the VISTA sponsorship project, which this year uh supported the West Valley Symphony.

Sounds of Autism is a strong West Valley nonprofit.

They received 9,000 this past year in support of their unified responder community initiative program.

Over 950 community members, public safety members, and others served, were served through trainings and awareness.

They partnered with the Surprise Police Department and the Region Library to host a responding to autism event on April 19th with over 122 people in attendance.

Stepping up for seniors is one of our close partners at the resource center.

They received $6,500 to support some of our seniors in need in surprise.

116 residents were served through financial assistance.

So a lot of times when folks are needing help with maybe co-pays or some other things that they can't come up with.

Maybe their friends and family are tapped out.

This group sweeps in and tries to help them out as needs present themselves.

The Surprise Original Townsite Stakeholders Committee received $5,000 last year to support their annual OTS Founders Day.

They collaborated closely with us here in the City of Surprise and many of our departments to hold a neighborhood parade and festival celebrating the founding of Surprise at Bicentennial Park.

Just under a thousand people attended uh last year.

And uh special note the 2026 OTS Founders Day is coming up March 28th, Saturday.

Did you say March 20th?

March 28th.

Yeah.

The next group is the Surprise Young Life.

Uh the city council funded 8,000 to support this weekly youth club, which does a lot of programs and activities to really promote a positive youth development and social connection.

Young Life is a Christian-based uh organization based in uh surprise here.

Surprise Youth Foundation received $7,500 to support tuition for the Surprise Kids Club after school program that's hosted at the Surprise Resource Center, operated by Dysark Community Center.

These funds went to help uh with the cost of operating um, as you know, that program can uh fit up to about 50 youth per uh at a time.

The foster youth alliance was another first-time funded organization.

They received 2,500 this year to support a back to school program.

213 residents were served through their back to school pop-up event.

Valley View Community Food Bank uh received 2,500 to support food pantry needs.

They purchased uh bulk food with that, and then they partnered with us in the city uh through our Martin Luther King event last year, and we packaged a bunch of pasta, which went directly to the food bank and to families.

Um they think that through all of that, they'll serve 27,000 individuals facing food insecurity.

Women for women um received $5,000 last year to cover costs for feminine or excuse me, feminine hygiene kits, 17 packing events locally with over 400 volunteers uh contributed to putting those packets those bags together.

3,000 bags were distributed to numerous surprise organizations, like our surprise resource center, our family and youth shelters here and beyond.

Valley of the Sun uh YMCA based in El Mirage, they received $5,000 to support surprise families with financial assistance for child care and early learning programs.

25 uh surprise youth were served by their programs.

So that summarizes the SCOP programs.

Now we're moving into the neighborhood grant, which has up to $10,000.

Um so you do not have to uh you actually are not allowed to be a nonprofit anymore to apply for this fund.

$10,000 set aside, and the idea was for uh neighborhoods to get together to do something for their neighbors for themselves, either through uh a park amenity and their in their um HOA or non-HOA, or just to build community.

That was kind of the goal from the council subcommittee.

So we had three applicants and two uh were funded last year.

The first one was Homestead at Marley Park.

Um they received $5,000 to support their neighborhood building events, and um their average attendance was about 150 to 200 people from from the neighborhood.

The second recipient was Royal Ranch.

They received $5,000 to support their neighborhood building events specifically, um their holiday, uh their annual holiday party, um which 550 people were involved this past year.

And so with that, we had um 160,000 from the city made available to nonprofits uh and then the 10,000 to um any resident, any resident that wants to get five other signatures to apply for a neighborhood grant.

Um 160,000 was invested, 23 local nonprofit neighborhood groups.

They served over 35,000 people throughout the community this past year.

And uh huge thanks to Jody, Donna, Victoria, and Dev for their great work.

I just get to be here presenting.

They're they're the ones that do all the the bulk of it.

So with that, I'm happy to answer any questions.

All right, thank you for the presentation.

Councilman Melton.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Seth.

When I was listening to the names that were funded, DEF, Benevia, Chance, Spencer's OT stakeholders, DCS.

These these are amazing entities.

These guys do a lot of heavy lifting for our community.

And I was really pleased that you know it's it's not a lot of money, but it's targeted very well.

And so uh thank you for this update.

Um, these are these are smart investments.

I agree.

Councilman Judd.

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman Melton.

And Seth, your team is is amazing getting this all together.

And a big thanks to Deb and Jody for all the work they do wrangling all these together.

I mean, we usually have 40 40 plus applicants running up on 50 applicants, you know, when you combine the neighborhood grants with that.

And and listening to us go through this, and we we did a really, I think we did a really good job.

You know, the city of Surprise did a really good job of of spreading the love out.

I mean, there's a there's a lot of help here for distressed families and women and children.

Um, there's good coverage of disabled adults and disabled children.

And then there's a nice balance of community events in there.

And as councilman Melton pointed out, I think we did a good job of of really targeting some of these great organizations that have these great leaders and these great volunteers, and and we're not giving them much, but they're turning it into more than we could that we could ever hope for and more than we could ever do ourselves.

If if if we handed you this money and said, hey, do all these things with 150,000.

I don't think you'd get very far down the list before the money was exhausted.

So higher one person, yeah.

Yeah, just I'm just I'm so excited and and I think we're really blessed to have this this many great people with this much love for our community that are putting in their sweat and their blood on the line to to really help take care of our community and make our and elevate our community and just make this a much better place.

So thank you.

Thank you, everyone involved in this.

Well said, Councilman Haney.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Uh my colleagues said it really good, but Seth, I we have to give a shout out, obviously, to you.

I know you're humble, but also your team is the binders itself are humongous um that you have to put together and you have to organize everything.

Um, and so there's a lot of behind the scenes work that goes into it to making sure that one people know how to apply, um, organizing a date, trying to get with our schedules.

And so, although we get to be the ones up here listening to your presentation, also the ones that get to be up at that table listening to everyone present.

Um, there's so much behind this behind the scenes that goes into it to make it successful.

And and it's only right that you guys give the credit that you deserve because you guys make it what it is.

Um, kind of what councilman Judd was saying is the fact that we are able to have a targeted approach where we're investing organizations that are going out and doing incredible things.

I always leave uh those committee meetings just hopeful and inspired.

It's really easy uh to kind of focus on the challenges that are facing our city, but then you realize there's so many great people and organizations out there that are doing some incredible things, not because they have to, but because they want to.

And uh, you know, just some that come to mind, and I know some have been mentioned, and and every single one that you have had in your presentation, even the ones that weren't are doing some great things.

But the AZ Burn Foundation comes to mind of um the fact that they're able to be supported by us and with our you know surprise fire charities and Jamie and and our group.

Um we lost a resident who was hearing impaired to fire and and turning a tragedy into something that can hopefully save a life in the future is is incredible.

Not want to happen without the work that they do.

Uh, I think of some of these organizations and getting to know the people that lead these organizations.

Life still happens, and they were dealing with their own set of circumstances and challenges within their personal life, and they still showed up for these folks in our city to try to make it a little bit better.

And so uh again, thank you for the work that you and your team do.

I am so happy to not only be able to be a part of it, but that we are continuing to take this money and invest it in these organizations to to multiply the the positive impact because there's a lot of folks from all different walks of life and spectrums that are being served because of this program.

And so uh great presentation.

It's probably one of the best presentations that I think we get to hear up here because at the end of the day, it's it's not politics, it's not policy, it's always about how can we help our people better.

And this is one of the ways we can do that.

So thanks, Seth.

Okay.

Well said.

Councilman Greenberg.

Thanks, Mayor.

All right, I don't have much of a voice today.

The way that these organizations are able to amplify the dollars that we give them is quite astounding.

And I think it behooves all of us to try to find more money for you to give to them so they can amplify it even more and serve the people that need to be served.

So thanks.

And I want to have you out at one of my district meetings to talk to my community and see how we can get them more involved because most of them have lots of free time.

All right.

I love that.

Thank you.

Fair point.

Um, you know, my colleagues have said a lot of great things, and they're absolutely right, every single one of them as far as the work that you and your team do.

But I just wanted to thank the committee, Councilman Judd, Haney, and uh Duffy for doing it.

I know it's you get all these groups in here that are doing amazing things for our city and to kind of filter through that and find what's the best use for our money.

It's not an easy task.

So I appreciate you doing that from the council's perspective.

But yeah, it's I was at the MLK event this weekend, and there's probably a hand two or three.

They're like, hey, thanks for your grant.

Thanks for this.

And it's just cool to see those people in the city.

And I was doing some research as I was going through my packet, just going, you know, Googling each one of these organizations that were in the presentation.

It's it's impressive what they do and the impact they have in surprise.

So thank you.

Thank you.

Thanks, Seth.

With no other items on the agenda, I will entertain a motion to adjourn.

All in favor?

Aye.

Oh, hold on.

We didn't get a second.

It's usually quick.

Okay.

First and a second.

All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed.

We are adjourned.