I'm good right here.

I thought you were leaving, Jimmy.

Um good afternoon.

We I would like to call the order, the um budget hearing for the mayor's office to reduce gun violence, which falls under public safety.

I have with me today counselors Helen Hudson, uh Councilor Joan Rousser Jones, Counselor Nave, Counselor Caldwell, Counselor Monto, um, and President Pontiagua.

Along with um Yeah, Matif Johnson Kenzie.

Latif Johnson.

Yeah, who runs the uh mayor's office to reduce gun violence.

Um yeah, so go ahead.

You can you can have the floor first.

Thank you.

So I did um give you guys a map of kind of the positions along with the numbers.

Um so as we start off, um when we talk about the credible messengers, the first line uh that is for three part-time individuals, and if you look on the um uh the breakdown uh the outreach staff, uh we would be looking to receive uh money from the city for those uh positions, those three part-time uh staff.

Those positions previously were funded um through DCJS, um, and we're looking to continue to do that work.

Uh that outreach work is working with um many individuals throughout the community today.

Uh we will be doing an outreach um down on Sterling and Palmer.

So those the type of things that those outreach workers would be doing.

Um any questions so far?

Good so far.

Okay.

So as we go down to um line um where it says less uh the reimbursement from other funds.

Um and when we go down to contractual other expenses, those are all those um the grants that we had.

So we did have some grants um that funded um a lot of the positions.

Um over the last I would say I've been in this position for four years, so most of the funding for the directors for the mayor's office of juice gun violence uh was through grants um besides myself um as director.

So I was the only one that was paid through the city.

So what we're looking to do is continue to pay our um project manager or project coordinator and also our data analysts uh who provide services to to our office.

Um I think office supplies um are are at at a minimum in operating supplies, the same uniform supplies um as I have on today.

We we do wear mostly uniforms when we go out.

They're uh quite a bit.

Say that again.

The operating supplies 2300 is to 25,000.

That's a big joke.

Maybe it's not a mistake.

No, not 25,000.

No.

That's not operation.

Yeah, that's probably a m typo.

So is it 2500?

Oh yeah.

Oh yeah, so that's just supply more than office supply.

So when we do outreach, when we do our uh programming, like today we go out, uh, we're gonna feed some some kids after school.

Um different programming we do that.

That's what that supply line is.

That's my apology.

I'm looking at office supplies, but those are overall for things that we do throughout the community, different outreach that we do.

Most of that was funded through the grants also.

And then I'm looking at professional services, that took a big drop.

Professor, so the trauma response last year.

Um they received in 2024 25 250,000.

Um that was cut down to 50,000 as of um 2025.

What that 50.

I'm not on the same line as you, Helen.

Of the 50,000 that was adopted in 26, you only spent 12 of that 50?

Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah, and that was the program nobody invoi invoiced.

You know, we we wouldn't spend it.

We would professional services are um like trauma response team or um any other organization that we partner with if we did if we responded, and what happened was we did most of the respondent in office.

We didn't have other organizations or anyone responding, but we did last summer, we did most of the responding to uh different uh traumatic incidents.

So homicides in office did most of that.

So do you expect to spend 38,000 more than that 12 this year?

Yeah, we we we put we're gonna partner with um the trauma response team and get them back going this year.

That's our goal.

Um I did talk to uh uh Noble Jennings uh last week about coming back on him and invoicing and getting doing he has some activities and things he wants to do.

Um and that yes, that's like again that starts today um when we go down to Price Right over on South South Ave.

We'll be down there for like a couple hours.

And what I told him was, you know, if you're working with a group of individuals, you need to invoice.

So a lot of times organizations do work like the trauma response team, and they they forget that you have to invoice for that.

You actually did take kids after shooting and you took them and had dinner with them or whatever it may be, you have to make sure you invoice for that.

So a lot of times our organizations in the community, they do the work and forget that they can actually invoice for professional services.

Would that be the related parties or the professional services?

That so professional services can be uh the trauma response team.

We also have uh therapist that can so we have a mobile unit that we use.

Um therapists are will be provided on that mobile unit.

So when we go out today, we won't have the mobile unit because it was short notice.

So this is uh in response to the the shooting that happened on Palmer last week.

So we'll have that mobile unit out hopefully the next couple weeks.

Uh we we've partnered with McMahon Ryan.

Um and on that mobile unit, we would have therapists on the mobile unit.

Um and we would have to pay them those professionals.

The agencies that we're invoicing would be the contracted services related party.

That's the agency.

Okay.

Um question, what is the travel that you expect to do this year?

Because it went from zero nine ninety-one to six thousand fifty.

So that's for training and development.

Um so I go to different along with my staff, we go to different CVI trainings to stay up to date with what's going on nationally um and to continue to be trained by you know, most most experts.

We have them actually come into Syracuse next week.

But I also travel to Chicago or Baltimore on different locations and different conferences.

We have a couple, and I can give you a um a list of the conferences that we attend uh yearly uh for training.

Um one other question that's sort of not totally budget related.

Um are you tracking this year exactly how many kids you're touching?

So that we we have an idea of the impact that this program is having in the community?

Yeah, so that's the important part of having a data analyst on staff.

So anything we do, we track.

So anytime, even if it's an organization that's contracting with us or ourselves, we we we document everything.

Um a form is filled out.

So uh this week alone we had a couple of things going on, and we even we even track our meetings.

So when people come to our meetings, we know who attended meetings, uh, which is important when we talk about contracts and working with organizations to make sure they're attending the meetings.

But to answer your question, yes.

Anytime we're out doing anything with you today, we will track that.

So today we're out.

Um if it's 30 youth out today, we will we will make sure we kind make sure we are recording every child that we're that we are uh involved with today.

Okay.

So how much of your total budget is grant supported?

Zero.

Um I'm gonna ask some anissa to wouldn't that be the 279.

How much is grant grant supported out of the budget?

None.

Oh, okay.

No, yeah.

Okay.

Yeah.

I assume we're looking at grant opportunities for the program.

Yeah, we'll continue to do that.

Um we've been working on a putting together a proposal along with uh Stephanie, we've been working on for the last about two months, just really trying to focus on put getting us out there with the program where we done um, you know, we talked about the DOJ contract.

Uh, we came to you with um a couple, maybe a couple weeks ago.

So we kind of put that together that what we've been doing and want to kind of really put that out there to try to get more funding.

Now, how is this program different from the new program that's coming from New York City?

Is it Evolve?

Is that what it's called?

Exalt.

So exaltism is really focused on education and activities.

Our office is kind of like what I say, we manage overall the CBI work, the ecosystem that's being done in the community.

So if you go to the first page, I've kind of put together a diagram so you can see what all our office covers.

Um so we don't just do one particular thing, but we do several things.

So we don't just do one particular thing, but we do several things.

Um starting with uh partnering with law enforcement um with the school district um with the community.

We have meetings monthly, um several meetings throughout the month.

Um so if you look through this, you see we do a lot of things, um, a lot of outreach.

Um, and everything is if you look, we are collecting data.

We are receiving data from either SPD or our own uh Patrice uh Williams, our data analyst.

So um we have a a lot that we do um besides just you know having a credible messenger, which I think has been the focus focal point, but we do more than that.

Um we kind of coordinate this ecosystem.

So um are you going to elementary schools?

No.

Can I suggest maybe we think about that?

Um so I think that when we talk about this this work, and we are having a training this week.

I think it's important to understand that sometimes organizations have to learn to stay in their lane.

So the mayor's office reduced gun violence can't do everything.

We got to do make sure we do something and do it right.

Now, what I will say, out of coordinating it, we have different organizations that we work with that do go into elementary schools.

So I feel that we have a footprint in going into the schools.

It might not be us, but it is organizations that we are working with.

That's the important part of the ecosystem.

So when we have these meetings on Thursdays, it's not just us in the room.

We have the YMCA.

Um we give over uh already over 50 free YMCA um memberships to children and family throughout the community.

These are the things that the mayor's office has done in the last two years.

So it's a lot of things we do besides just a credible messenger piece.

And again, when you talk about the ecosystem, that's the important part.

So I would say we are currently in elementary schools.

It might not be me specifically, but we are partnering with different organizations that are and have that footprint.

Now, when we meet once a month, we talk about what they're doing.

We have the school district at the table with us to talk about what's going on in the school.

We partner with um the retired chief of police uh Frank Fowler, who also works uh with the school district.

So we meet, we just had a meeting last Thursday where we are able to talk about kids and what's going on in the schools.

So when we talk about an ecosystem, instead of our office trying to spread ourselves in, we partner with different organizations to get the work done.

And that doesn't necessarily mean we have to be contracted with every organization.

The ecosystem is either you're paid or not, you're a part of this partnership.

Excuse me.

I I'm thinking about the credible messengers, okay?

Yeah.

Um, we're having a big issue in my district right now over by Roberts School with the young children smoking pot before they go to class.

And I'm talking 10, 11-year-olds.

Right.

And the neighbors are very upset about it.

Obviously, those parents that have their children in that school are very upset about it.

There's a lot of bullying going on in the school.

It's not the same school it was years ago.

I think that if you have people that are doing outreach, they maybe should be hanging.

Now I'm not saying just that school, but maybe they should be out in front of the schools during the day in the mornings before these kids are going into school because there's a big issue going on.

And I have no problem with that, but I think what we need to look at when we talk about neighborhood safety, when you talk about the budget I have is the capacity I have to do with what I have.

I've three outreach workers at what we have, that's not gonna cover that kind of you're talking about something I would love to do because we're really talking about an overall neighborhood safety.

That costs that's a capacity building thing, because number one, I have to train those individuals.

I would have to send them to a city that already does that so they could be trained.

Because what I don't want to do is send somebody that's not trained outside Robert School and get into a fight with a parent because they're not trained on de-escalation.

I'm confused.

Can you just maybe just for my own so and Stephanie?

I might need you for this.

So the money that we just moved a couple meetings ago.

That's the DCJS money.

Is this neighborhood ambassador program in this organizational chart?

I'm confused.

So that ambassador program is under a program coordinator, but are those outside agencies that are supervising the ambassadors or are those city employees?

So just to clarify, the funds that you all discussed on the agenda were federal department of justice, not DCJS.

Okay.

Um, and the ambassador program is a separate part of state funds that Latif and the team have secured and we have, and that um we are going to part hire part-time ambassadors.

So we don't have those ambassadors, yeah.

This is new.

Correct.

Okay, okay, okay.

Yeah, but it's coming them.

They only have a three that's going to last a couple of months, and then you need money from the budget to continue.

I we would definitely need to seek additional funds to keep it going.

But I think I think we have a year, if if I'm not mistaken, a year's worth of funding because these are part-time positions.

Yeah.

They would get it would be they would be on staff for at least a year.

We're looking at ambassadors program, will be seasonal.

So they'll be covered until November.

Our goal is to have them start working in May and go work from May to November.

It would be seasonal.

Because it's no, I wouldn't want to have a neighborhood ambassador in this in this in this context.

We're talking about gun violence and dealing with neighborhoods where like on Palmer, it would be great to have an ambassador on it, right?

Um, but we know those activities happen between um possibly May, some now at this point sooner April to November.

So it's looking, we're looking at those positions to be able to do that.

We don't need funding to 2028 and not 2027.

Yeah, we have enough to cover us through to 2027.

Okay, so you don't need funding right now for that.

Right.

So let me ask you a question.

Um Pastor Latif, uh, my friend.

Um, you know, we talk all the time.

I think we probably speak daily about the way the gun violence programs you and um, and I sit on the gun violence task force with you, and we do a lot.

So I have to be very transparent, and you know what I'm gonna say part of what I'm on offense, right?

With this whole gun violence outreach, um what you do is great and phenomenal, the relationships that you have with the other entities from the federal government to all those pieces, right?

Um make it happen.

But what with people in the community looking, and even myself, what would make them feel that this is really important?

Like why, and this is why I say this, and it's not any to your against you.

But when I look at your budget and I look at parks budget and I look at the money that we use for the gun vibe, the outreach, but then we look at parks and they're they don't even have that even money to even do those same things for kids, they're just in the parks, right?

Or kids and families.

What would make us like what what stands out or what is going on now that you would say, hey Rashida, like listen, this is what's moving forward.

This is what we need, and this is why this is should be should go on.

Yeah.

So I would say when you look at the mayor's office to reduce gun violence, and some people come to me and say, What program do you have?

The city of Syracuse, the mayor's office, we don't have a program.

We oversee an ecosystem.

This ecosystem is very important because what we found out over the last four years, Syracuse had tons of programs, but the gun violence continued to go up.

Because programs weren't being held responsible or accountable for what they were doing.

So you get individuals or organizations that comes to the table, and they're not receiving any money from the city of Syracuse at the time, but they're receiving money from other entities, and they say they're doing work in the community, but we see the violence continue to rise.

During the last four years, and it'd be about four years, uh, a couple weeks ago, been four years in this position.

We've seen gun violence go down because now we are holding organizations accountable to do the work that they say they're gonna that they say they're gonna do.

I'm out all day, even like today, like I said, when when there is a shooting or um when we do what's called a shooting response, and I'm able to see what the organizations are really doing.

So I think that is the number one thing.

The next thing I would say is the partnering with law enforcement.

Um I think has been historical what we've seen over the last four years with outreach organizations and law enforcement working together, um, not just to deal with high-risk individual with individuals, but also talk about the preventative work.

Um the preventative work is very important, and that's what we do here, not just responding to violence or responding to shootings, but also talking about prevention.

As we see those numbers come down, it's because we've been focused on that.

Lastly, I would say when you talk to individuals in the community that I've been in touch with, um, they see the importance of it because we are serving the community.

We've had um several retreats where we've took victims, families victims of gun violence.

At least we've done two two already, where we have mothers that have been impacted by gun violence.

Where the city has never done that before, where we've taken time and invested into these mothers and these families who are victims of gun violence.

Um these are important.

Um I think the city sees that.

Um there are others here.

We have the police department here who we've been partnering with.

And I mean, if you on a uh deputy uh chief Mets has come, and I know you comfortable being put on the spot and just kind of give us a perspective while you're here.

Okay, yeah, please do, because I'd like to hear what you have to say too.

I think it's important.

Yeah, so is Latif had spoken before about um obviously the collaborative effort that we have.

It's integral part of our enforcement strategy.

And I think that collaboration we have between Latif's office and ours allows us to not only focus our efforts directly on what it is the we'll call it the root cause of problem, the 15 to 20 individuals, but that that directed focus in the collaboration between two of us and that increased enforcement effort, which is you know, is a I wouldn't say a primary contributor is one of the contributing factors to the drop in in violent crime that we've seen allows all the other programs that are in the city to flourish.

So I know Councillor Caldwell's big on like, hey, what are you gonna do for the good kids?

Our collaborative focus allows those programs and parks or whatever to take place because we're our efforts on these kids and containing them and reducing them and the outreach, you know, getting them before they do that.

That's what makes those other programs grow and flourish and allows the neighbors to enjoy those those events at the parks on Saturdays, or is we in regards to Palmer Ave, like hey, you should have the ability to sit out on your front porch and enjoy the the day with your family.

So that collaboration, if we don't have that, it we as a police department, we can't do it by ourselves.

So we need Latif's group to do that, and it allows for the big picture on the macro side of the house for us to be able to concentrate our efforts collaboratively, both prevention-wise, and then on the reactive side, but also it allows everything else to to grow, to flourish, to prosper um when we focus our efforts on on the problems.

We we know the issues are, we know who the people are doing that, but we can't do it alone and in with Latifs group, it's a huge asset to us.

Is that counselor Monto, is that answer your question or provide a little bit more perspective, or they start talking and go off in a different direction.

No, no, you you did.

I think it Rashida and I were sitting here talking a little bit before about it.

Sorry, but when we look at like the parks, when we look at the parks budget, you look at what what what where we're throwing money for the positive approach versus where we're throwing money to try to combat the problems.

I think we're pretty bad at every time a gun is fired in this city.

I can guarantee you the news is going to report that.

We're not very good at reporting where we have successes.

So we kind of get into a spot where we're saying, like, okay, is this actually succeeding?

Because we're not seeing our own praises, and I think we have to just be better at that.

Because there are kids getting saved.

It's just that the public is hearing there's a murder or there's a gunshot instead of hearing like look where we are having success.

You know, messaging, like I didn't go to school for PR, so I'm not I'm not your messaging guy, but I think at least when we go to those weekly meetings, and for obviously we can talk about stats and data-driven, but yeah, we probably do have to do a better job of you know, kind of showcasing what the work has been done, what we're doing, and then providing so it almost an educational point to yours, like, hey, all this stuff is going on, we're offering these services and tie the data into it so you can see it.

But I and I'll let Latif talk to him, but the phone calls that he receives, and this is the part that we don't get like, hey, something's going to happen.

There is some type of incident taking place.

All those side conversations like you guys are talking about, like we never we don't see it on the police department side, but he sees that and he's able to filter that information to us, and that's invaluable, like on the preventative side.

Because people reach out to him, they don't reach out to to Dave Metz in the uniform or any other.

Like those are the people that that help us and are huge assets to us on the prevention side of the house.

And you are right, we we probably don't broadcast or publicize that enough.

But I just the ability to collaborate and do that, we we would lose that if you know Latif's group wasn't involved, counselor.

I want to ask you about uh the neighborhood ambassadors.

You haven't appointed them, but it would be good if they would meet with the district counselors, like one on the north side, where we could point out pinpoint where the issues are, like on Butternut Street, the old shopping center, certain blocks though, there's a lot of drug activity, Catherine Street, just to get an example.

But I think the ambassadors would like us as district counselors would like to work with the ambassadors and talk with them and maybe take them to a meeting, a neighborhood meeting, like my group, is Captain Metz knows my group.

And I think that would be very important though.

We know who they are and uh we could walk them through, and we want to work closely with you as well.

Yeah, because I've done what Captain what Chief Metz.

So thank you.

What is the role of the ambassadors really we do?

Like far, it's like um in a community with this gun violence.

So um when this was kind of when we thought about this, it's getting away from the hood.

We have neighborhoods, we don't have hoods.

Um, but what kids see, shooters, if you want to call them that, um, when they come outside, they see nobody outside.

So they call it the hood.

But when you think about it, these are neighborhoods because the gentleman that was shot on last week, um, used to come to my church all the time, and that he was actually visiting his family down there on Palmer.

And that he was actually visiting his family down there on Palmer.

He lived up another place.

He used to walk every day, right?

He's a neighbor.

So our goal is to empower neighbors.

So the ambassadors is to get people to talk again to come to come out their house again.

That when I go on Palmer last week, I was on Palmer three or four times is to see the kids who was out there, like kids seeing outside because these kids are affected.

These are the good kids we talk about that we have to still service in another capacity.

That neighborhood ambassador is important over there.

Because they're going to be the one to be able to tell me what we need to do in that area, partnering with pastors or faith leaders and having bi-weekly meetings or weekly meetings where they talk about and they get to get together in some meetings that they might never have been able to have a voice in to talk about some of the issues that's been going on.

Being able to say, hey, um last week I saw the kids um down the street with a gun or whatever may be in a safe space.

So that ambassador is really going to coordinate that meeting so that they can all talk in a safe space about what's going on.

And it might not be about a shooter, it might be about overgrown uh uh somebody got overgrown grass or whatever it may be.

Um so we can get our SEPTEP team down there to do what they need to do, but it's giving them a safe place to talk about situations in the neighborhood.

Um, and it doesn't always just have to be gun violence, it could be anything, but it's giving them empowering them that they can speak again because for too long, people in neighborhoods don't come out, they don't speak.

They say they don't want to snitch, right?

So we're trying to change that narrative where they can get together to that ambassador is gonna be somebody that's embedded in the community, embedded, not somebody that hangs outside, but embedded.

I mean, they've been working and living that community for a long time.

We want that type of person to be in that area to connect with faith leaders to have meetings at least weekly or bi-weekly.

So that's the goal of the ambassador.

Let me uh finish.

So um I like, I mean, we and you talked about this, so I I sort of I sort of like it, but the only question, well, there's several questions.

We have several ambassadors in the community, right?

We got the snub, which is supposed to be the ambassadors in neighborhoods.

That's why they're located based on the neighborhood they were doing whatever.

We got the ambassadors that the city has.

We have the other group that their ambassadors that we contract out to do very similar about those things.

Like my biggest thing is we have so many ambassadors doing different, like almost very similar.

We have to come up with a plan where that it makes sense that whatever they're doing, that they're neutralized together, right?

Because there's so many, we have a lot of ambassadors throughout the city in different capacities in that.

And the other thought is um I called when I called you the other day.

Oh, yeah.

I just uh uh Chief.

No, no, you're okay.

You don't have to stay in there.

But it's a you can sit down from um the other thing is, you know, we talked the other day and there was families that called and um said, hey Rashida, we we focus so much on the kids that are doing stuff, and we focus on all this other piece, but we forgot that these kids that are left behind that aren't doing anything, but they're the victims of the family members who got murdered, right?

There's that piece that no one's even even thinking about.

And I don't want to interrupt you, that's the piece that we're working on right now.

Like today, we so uh something that Noble has taught me is that every time there's a homicide, I actually go sit in the neighborhood at 7.30 in the morning.

So on Palmer on Bear, where there was a shooting, I went and sat out there at 7:30 in the morning, and what I got to see is kids coming outside.

Those are the kids you're talking about.

So I don't just go out there and just sit there.

I'm trying to figure out how we can service them.

So what we're doing, which is important.

So this is out of our office, nobody else is gonna do it.

So they say they do it, but they don't.

I've four years now, people don't do what they say they're gonna do.

But now our office has taken on to do it.

So today we're going to service those same kids you're talking about, the good kids, but they're impacted because they live on Palmer.

I gotta still service those kids in that way, which takes a unique type of service because it's a therapeutic approach to these kids.

And what bothers me is on um last week, I'm on Palmer and I see kids is walking and going to school, and they're not affected.

That's scary.

Because they should feel they should some people in other neighborhoods, they wouldn't even come out their home.

But these kids still gotta go to school.

That's where our office comes in.

That's the important part when we talk about this type of work, is that we have to be able to service those kids and provide a service in a unique situation, which we are doing now.

So I think when we talk about the kids, because I believe all kids, they don't no kid comes out bad.

They make bad decisions, or we interviewed a gentleman.

Or we interviewed a gentleman.

Um, and just to throw a little plug in, we do interviews for anybody that works with us.

So we're not doing no gangbangers working on the clock no more.

And I want to say that publicly because we put everybody through an interview process.

And one of the young men said last week that interview, he said he didn't have no one.

He had no one to interrupt, he had no one to help him.

We're making those changes now.

Because today, when we meet at three o'clock over there at Price Right, those kids are gonna meet somebody that cares about them.

That's the importance of our program.

It's organic and is led by a pastor that that works in the community that after I leave here, I have to pastor in the same community.

The young the young man that was murdered last week, he used to come to our food pantry.

So it's more personal for me.

This ain't just like some game, you know.

I don't, I don't, I don't care about the money, I care about the people.

I I think that um I think that what you just said speaks to what Rashida has been saying about being proactive instead of reactive, as far as um, you know, exposure for kids, like you saying these kids, they they come out the same day, next day, unbothered, you know, because this is the norm for them, and and it's more or less about exposure.

They're exposed to this 24-7 per se.

And so they think that's normal, but we're not exposing them to uh campgrounds, we're not exposing them to you know, the city state parks, um, which when I was younger, you know, parks department they there was probably a little bit more funding and all of that, though all of those things happen.

So I don't know if there is a um opportunity for your program to shift a little bit to what Rashida has been saying as far as like not focusing solely on those who are already in trouble, but those who may be on the way because they're in those neighborhoods.

And that's the goal of the program, not to interrupt you, but when we go out today, the goal is not to sit there and talk to a kid about putting down guns.

These are kids that's going to school every day.

Yeah, so the organizations that we have out there, like the YMCA will be out there, different um trauma response team.

It's not to just sit there and talk about don't play with guns because these kids don't have no involvement with guns, but to do exactly that.

We talked about that last Thursday again.

That's the importance of the weekly meetings.

We just talked about follow-through.

So meeting with those kids again.

So if you meet with a kid, kid A, he lives on Palmer, he was impacted by gun violence, is to make sure we make sure he's healthy, making sure we give him mental health first aid, but then also what's the follow-through, right?

You guys designing some trips.

That again, this is the ecosystem.

That's why I gave you this.

This is what we do here.

We're gonna hold organizations accountable to make sure they're doing the work that they said they're gonna do.

So if it's college tours, the organizations they've received funding for that.

We need to make sure the kids are going.

Because guess what?

Prior to four years ago, some of the kids what going and they were getting a check.

But guess what?

Now you have somebody in office that's gonna make sure that happens again.

I want to I'm giving pushback because I wanted you to get the importance of our office.

And if you don't have us here, we'll we'll see where things go.

Because after four years, we've been doing our job.

So before we go to push um uh a campaign for snitching for the last three years, um, and that silence never improved the community's health.

Okay.

So push that out.

Say that one more time, council.

Snitch.

Yeah, silence never improve the community's health.

Oh very good.

Yeah.

So I wanted to ask you, um, and going back to the neighborhood ambassadors and the points Rashida was bringing up.

So these ambassadors, they're almost debriefing traumatic experiences with these children and families, correct?

And so, like you just said, that is like even therapeutic therapeutical.

And uh, and so it's that requires specialized skills.

So these ambassadors will require to have these skills to be able to deal with this.

So remember that the ambassador is just the coordinator, they just get the meetings together, they're just bringing their own.

So then they're supported by those skilled services.

So we have therapists, we have family functional therapists.

We also kind again, that was professional service that's in the line.

We would use that to hire.

If we had an ambassador's meeting, just give me an example.

I know we gotta hurry up here.

But if we have a meeting on the South Side on Thursday, that ambassador is gonna coordinate that meeting, gonna meet with his coordinator, supervisor, and myself to say, hey, on this day, can we have a therapist come and talk to the group?

That was my question.

Yeah, okay.

They're gonna just be the person that just coordinates the meeting.

Because this that's very important.

Yeah, very well.

My last question, I know you gotta cut off.

My meeting is next, HR.

One second.

Listen, the other piece that um I didn't get it, maybe I didn't explain it right.

The victim.

So once someone is murdered, right?

Typically, there's some children in that family, whether it's uh son or daughter, a sibling, right?

Those people were affected, right?

But the after fact of those children are the ones that we don't even touch nowhere.

There's nowhere that says, you know, I have I had families call me, like I said the other day, say, hey Rashida, I have one child that got their mother died of gun violence and their father died of gun violence.

I said, What?

Yeah, right.

They're trying to play be uh in cheer.

They want to cheer, right?

Those are the kids that we all there's a whole another group of kids that we forgot about where no one's touching, no one's there they forgot that these are the kids of the people that are dead now, right?

That have been affected.

And there's studies that show that if we don't touch that piece of those kids, then the the cycle continues, right?

Because they don't have a father, they don't have a mother, and it was affected from gun violence.

So that's where I would love to see because I've called around to say, hey, who no one touches that, no one's provided supports, no one finds funding, nobody's provides anything behind that.

It's like so I'm gonna ask you all to help me with this funding as we continue forward, and I'm gonna continue starting the first week in May.

Exactly what you're talking about, the program where we start.

So mothers against gun violence will start back up.

We're funding it as of the first week of May.

So we met with Leepa Jones.

They will be partnering with Salvation Army to do the family functional therapy, and they'll be meeting weekly starting the first week of May.

Exactly what you're talking about.

So they're gonna start with the mothers, because that's important to start with the head of the household first, the ones that have been impacted by gun violence, and then the goal in the next two months is to add in the families and the children and to that again, and we can bring in again those ambassadors can be a part of that again ecosystem, bringing everybody together.

But what you just said.

I mean, is y'all, yeah.

You know, y'all can always up us a little bit here.

We we we yes, we can use that.

Now I'm a pastor at the day, y'all.

No, I can raise an offering.

Yes, we need that.

I want the kids who ain't do not.

That's all.

Yeah, we need that.

I mean, we we would like to do to do that, but again, we gotta have the funding to do that because we we have the we have things in in place, but again, that takes money.

And I'm I know we might can help one or two kids, but what what happens when you help one or two?

You got about 20 of them knocking down a door.

So that's a problem.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Appreciate your time.

Uh motion to adjourn.

So second.

Okay.