Good morning.

I am Councilmember Zachary Parker, Chair of the Committee on Youth Affairs.

Today is May 12, 2026.

We are meeting in room 500 of the John A.

Wilson building and virtually via Zoom.

The time is now 12 14 p.m., and I am calling to order this budget oversight hearing.

I first want to apologize for starting about 15 minutes behind schedule.

The council is meeting deliberating the budget, and our deliberations are still yet ongoing, but I was in the middle of a conversation that I had to conclude before jumping over here to start today's hearing.

Today, the committee convenes its annual budget oversight hearing for two agencies central to child safety and well-being in the district, the Child and Family Services Agency and the Office of the Ombudsman for Children.

Over the past year as chair, my focus has been on improving outcomes for children and youth in the district, particularly those who come into contact with our child welfare and juvenile justice system.

The committee has invested significant time and energy in understanding the real experiences of systems involved youth and families holding performance oversight hearings, and most recently convening a youth center roundtable with dozens of youth witnesses.

Today's hearing is a continuation of that work and an effort to ensure that we maximize the impact of our limited resources to serve district youth and families.

The committee will first hear from the embudsman Petrina Jones Jez.

The Office of the Embudsperson for Children was established by the council in 2021 as an independent impartial agency charged with investigating complaints and improving outcomes for CFSA involved children and youth.

While the mayor's budget typically sweeps the office's funding, the fiscal year 27 proposal keeps it flat funded at 733,094, funding 4.8 FTEs.

Over the last year, the committee has worked closely with Umbudsperson Jones Jiz to navigate her office's mission area and scale its impact in the district's child welfare system.

We will seek to learn more about the office's progress this year, its next chapter of growth, and ways the committee can support its mission moving forward.

The committee will also hear from Director Torres Trice regarding the fiscal year 27 proposed budget for the Child and Family Services Agency.

CFSA is the district's lead agency responsible for ensuring the safety, permanency, and well-being of abused and neglected children.

The fiscal year 27 proposed budget includes 203,908,000 in operating expenses at a 5.6% reduction from fiscal year 26 levels.

Some of our witnesses today are familiar faces.

It represents years of work by young people who know firsthand what it means to navigate a system without a stable lifelong network of support behind you.

I'm proud of what these young leaders have accomplished, and I'm committed to working closely with my colleagues to identify the funding necessary to make Seoul a reality for the district's older foster youth.

That said, I expect this hearing will not be without tough conversations.

The mayor's proposed fiscal year 27 budget includes significant cuts.

I'm going to say that one more time.

It includes significant cuts, including the elimination of CFSA's 10 family success centers, representing 3.5 million dollars in cuts to primary prevention efforts, which are currently largely carried out by the district's neighborhood collaboratives.

These centers are often the first point of contact for families before a crisis developed, offering resources such as assistance navigation, food support, housing assistance, and clothing.

The committee will seek to understand clearly what the agency's plan is for filling that gap and what it will mean for families across the district if they lose access to these resources.

I'm gonna go off script here.

What we were actually talking about before I jumped over here, and the reason why I was a little bit behind, are the reductions to our social safety net that are also being proposed in this year's budget.

Cuts and reductions to TANF, with the imposition of a step-down policy after 60 months and a reduction or removal of the COLA, greater sanctions.

Why am I mentioning this?

Because at the same time, we're seeing a removal of these families' success centers.

Families are also filling the walls close in on them as their social benefits are also being reduced.

I am troubled by the emission of 1.35 million dollars in funding for Safe Shores, the district's child advocacy center, which plays a specialized and critical role in investigating cases of child sexual abuse.

This is not a function CFSA can simply absorb, and we will press the agency directly on the point today to understand how the agency plans to move forward.

We will also dig into staffing and capacity at CFSA.

Last year, this committee made a one-time investment in hiring bonuses to address several social worker shortages.

I am heartened to know CFSA leveraged those resources to successfully on board over two dozen new social workers over the last fiscal year.

Yet at the same time, CFSA continues to carry significant vacancies.

I will ask questions about what the agency is doing to close those gaps, reduce social worker caseloads, and improve retention over fiscal year 27.

With all of this in mind, my priorities for today's hearing are: one, ensuring adequate support for the district's foster youth and families, two, understanding CFSA's primary prevention model in the face of proposed cuts, and three, examining the agency's staffing and capacity needs.

I look forward to hearing directly from Director Tourist Trice today on each of these issues.

First, we will begin with public witness testimony.

Witnesses testifying on behalf of organizations will share five minutes collectively, and witnesses testifying individually will receive three minutes.

We have over 80 witnesses registered for today's hearing, with some participating online.

So we will do our best to abide by the clock to ensure everyone has an opportunity to share their testimony.

For those joining the committee via Zoom, the committee will promote you to panelists.

When your name is called, please remember to accept the promotion.

And you then will be able to proceed with your testimony.

And with that, we will jump right in.

Tracy Velesque, who's like a resident testifier at this committee.

We appreciate it.

With the council for court, excellent.

Joshua Miller, another resident testifier, open city advocates.

All right, we're gonna keep going.

We also have Fernanda Ruez from Mary Center, who should be joining us virtually.

Carlos Mershan, uh from Mary's Center, who should be joining us virtually.

Uh Tammy Werasinga Cote, uh, the Children's Law Center.

Leah Castellas.

All right, I'm gonna stop.

Uh Mr.

Miller, we called you.

So if you could join.

So I'm actually gonna go back.

So uh we'll just stop this panel at Carlos Mershan.

So Ralph Belk, Thomas Soloshev, Tracy Velasquez, Joshua Miller, Miller, Vernanda Ruiz, Carlos Mershan.

All right, and with that, Mr.

Belk, you can get begin your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker.

I am Ralph Belk, the executive Director of the National Center for Children and Families, NCCF.

By now, you are familiar with NCCF's 110-year history of fighting for impoverished children and families in this region.

Our accreditations and our 28 years of delivering dependable, high quality, and results-driven foster care for children of the District of Columbia.

We have support the district for decades through both policy and paradigm shifts, including leading the reduction of the model from seven private agencies worth of foster parents, youth, and staff down to one, and collaborating with CFSA to finally release the district from court oversight.

I myself have been doing this work for nearly my entire career.

I've worked with eight different CFSA directors, including our newest partner, Director Twice.

There has never in my 26 years in this business been a more important time to fight for the funding needed to support the district's children who are suffering from abuse and or neglect.

This is a mandated service.

The city must continue to invest in these young people and their families, or will surely pay a higher cost later.

Any reduction to CFSA's budget affects NCCF's ability as a long-term provider to reduce to produce the results this committee has come to expect.

Birth parent engagements, kin networking, tutoring, transportation, in-house mental health services, et cetera, all contribute to our exceptional outcome statistics as well as to our bottom line.

I understand the nature of this current fiscal crisis.

After all, I am a nonprofit executive.

I know better than most that we all must do more with less.

NCCF has chosen to lead CFSA's many transitions because we bring with us a whole continuum of services.

We have at our disposal much more than what CFSA gives us in any particular budget cycle.

Our agency includes institutional knowledge, professional experience, well documented infrastructure, as well as a portfolio of community supporters, in-kind donors, volunteers, and partnerships built throughout our 100 years of existence.

I brought with me today just a fraction of the staff members who have dedicated their careers to this work and actually asked them now to stand.

Please stand.

So you can see the faces of those who serve this very important mission.

These are the people who have increased DC's permacy rates.

These are the folk who've excelled in birth father engagement.

These are the people in response to CPS's recent uptick in removals, is responsible for taking on nearly 20 children in the past three weeks, including two large sibling groups of five children each.

These folk are the people that have found foster parents for these kids and allow those siblings to be together, which is rare, but NCCF has done it.

NCCF Now, maybe seated.

Thank you.

NCCF Now has the burden of maintaining educational continuity in the face of CFSA's current transportation freeze.

My staff are the ones transporting these children back and forth twice daily from homes in Merlin, in some cases, Southern Maryland, sometimes taking three hours round trip, so these kids can stay in their schools of origin so the education will not be disrupted.

We understand that the city finds itself needing to make cuts, but now is not the time for change.

Now is the time to hold firm, keep steady, and weather the storm.

Any cuts to CFSA will hope the incredible progress I've seen in DC over the past three decades.

It also may imperil the district's federal funding capacity and pit kids in harm.

So again, I urge the city to continue its investment in young people and supporting those that have been um surviving abuse and neglect.

And I thank the council for this time of to share testimony and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Next we'll have Thomas Saloshow.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker and members of the Committee on Youth Affairs.

My name is Thomas Salchev.

I serve as a managing director of the family place, and in my role, I help oversee our family support, early childhood and two generation programming, including our hippie program, which works directly with parents and their young across the district, specifically in a Spanish bilingual context.

We are one of the oldest and largest serving organizations that serve Latinos in the district.

Thanks to the CBCAP Network and CFSA, we receive funding through those pipelines to support families.

Since I last spoke before the council last spring, a lot has changed for our families.

The need is deeper, especially for our Latino families.

The barriers are more complex.

Families are facing rising food insecurity, housing instability, community violence, and daily challenges of navigating services in a language that isn't always their own.

For many families, the family place isn't a program.

It's not just an organization.

We're a first point of contact.

We're a place that is a real foil, a real sounding board for families when in need.

One of the clearest examples of our impact is Hippie, our home instruction for parents of preschool youngsters.

Hippie is a two-generation model, a home-based school readiness program that supports children with their parents to not just prepare a child for school, but the parent to support their child lifelong.

Through weekly home visits, role play, structured lessons, developmental screenings, and family engagement, parents gain tools and confidence to support learning at home.

But home visitors also flag living concerns, environmental concerns, neglect, abuse, insecurities that might not just be nutritional, might not just be housing.

It's all of the wraparound concerns that home visitors in our program catch.

Not only do we catch that, but we also begin as the first screener for children to check their developmental concerns and markers.

This year, Hippie program has served 125 families, excuse me.

In 2025, Hippie served 125 families with children ages two to four.

Families participate in the 30-week model focused on early literacy, math, social emotional development, and parent-child learning.

We also completed progress tracking, referrals to connected organizations, and additional supports when concerns arise.

But hippie doesn't work alone, it's a power that sits inside a larger wraparound model, the wraparound model.

When our staff enter their homes, they're not just bringing in lessons, they're bringing in real support.

They're addressing safety concerns, they're identifying developmental needs quickly, referring them and looping back around.

That's why 10 of our families are now in early stages.

That's why families are now in new living situations.

That's why now, thanks to CBCAP dollars and CFSA, we have had a hundred percent graduation rate the last three years through hippie.

These budget dollars go further.

For every dollar invested, we associate that the impact is three to one.

The public dollars can connect families to early childhood education, family support, and concrete-based needs.

Maintaining this budget is essential because needs have not gone away.

They've grown and they might change, but for now they've grown.

If funding is reduced, families will lose more than a program, more than just housing support, more than just referrals, they will lose trusted relationships.

At the heart of this, we need to discuss what it means to stabilize a family.

What does it mean to get into a home and really understand the needs?

I respectfully urge the committee to maintain this funding.

These dollars have real world impact.

They show up every week in living rooms in parent-child learning and food support and developmental screeners, and children becoming more ready for school.

As we know, when children are ready for school, they're ready for life.

They become independent, self-sufficient adults that don't just become a part of society, they are leaders in society.

When we invest in hippie in organizations like the family place, we invest in real solutions that pay back the city and its residents.

We lead to stability, it eases straight and already strains, it eases the strain on already used civic services, and it serves as a model that we can do anything together.

Thank you for your continued support to the young.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, we will have Tracy Velasquez.

Good afternoon, Chairman Parker and members of the committee.

And thank you for this opportunity to testify today on the budget for the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children, OFC.

My name is Tracy Velazquez, and I am the policy director for the Council for Court Excellence.

OFC was formed when the district's child welfare system was exiting three decades of federal court oversight.

Council members wisely realized that an independent oversight body that reported to them was the was needed to hold accountable those tasked with protecting the district's most vulnerable children.

The Office of the Ombudsperson for Children Establishment Amendment Act passed the council unanimously in December 2020.

For years, the mayor's proposed budgets failed to fund this office, and each year the council has restored that funding.

We appreciate that the proposed fiscal year 27 budget fully funds OFC at the FY26 level and even supports additional staffing.

And I would like to thank the mayor and her team for recognizing the office's critical role both as a necessary watchdog and as the one agency charged with reporting on outcomes for crossover youth.

That is youth who have been involved in both the child welfare and the juvenile justice systems.

I'm here today first to urge the council to retain this full funding.

OFC has shown its value to district children and families, even in its current bare bones budget.

For example, in addition to responding to a growing number of complaints, the office also investigated the deaths of three children who had been involved with CFSA.

This is especially important given the absence of recent public reporting from the Child Fatality Review Committee, which has not issued a public report since 2020.

OFC has also reviewed whether CFSA appropriately responded to the 77% of hotline calls screened out for abuse and neglect allegations and has played a critical role in current efforts to improve DC's response to crossover youth through the initiative led by Georgetown University's Center for Youth Justice.

I am also here to ask the committee to consider a modest additional investment in FY27 to study whether OFC's mandate could be expanded to provide independent oversight of the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services, DYRS.

Like CFSA, DYRS spent decades under federal court oversight because of unsafe conditions and inadequate care of youth in its custody.

And as with CFSA, DC Council created a body that would report to them, the Office for Independent Juvenile Justice Facilities Oversight, OIJJ FO, to make sure that there was no backsliding and our kids were kept safe in healthy environments focused on positive youth development.

While council has continued to maintain OFC, OIJJFO was allowed to sunset.

And the provisions of the Road Act passed recently that would have backfilled this role were not funded.

And in part, we know this was due to a lack of an appropriate independent agency to take it on.

The need for independent oversight of DYRS is clear.

Rising populations, delays in placement, unsatisfactory outcomes, violence in injuries and facilities, and safety concerns with the buildings our kids are locked inside of.

For kids in their custody, DYRS acts in loco parentis, that is, as a parent.

But if the agency were held to the same standards as a child's parent, CFSA likely would be demanding that their custody be terminated.

We cannot simply hope that these longstanding systemic problems will resolve themselves.

We need an independent body that can consistently monitor conditions, investigate concerns, and hold the agency accountable for the treatment of youth in its custody.

And this independent body needs to be properly funded so that it can do its job.

Councilmember Parker and members of the Council, you have the body, the framework you need to restore independent oversight right in front of you today in the Office for the Ombudsperson for Children.

If properly resourced, since it reports to you, it can be a natural extension of your oversight of DYRS.

And given that many youth are duly involved with both CFSA and DYRS, it could be a natural extension of their current work.

Yes, making OFC the oversight body for both CFSA and DYRS require additional expertise, funding and legislation, but the cost of failing to act, both for young people and for the district, would be far greater.

Funding a study to evaluate and recommend key components of such an expansion of OFC's mandate would be a wise investment and an important step towards restoring independent DYRS oversight.

Thank you very much.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, Joshua Miller.

Good afternoon, Chairman Parker.

My name is Joshua Miller, and I am the research and advocacy director at Open City Advocates, which provides legal representation, holistic advocacy, and mentoring to youth who have been committed to the DC Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

We are grateful that the proposed budget preserves the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children, and we appreciate the Council's defense of OFC last year.

But preservation alone is not enough.

Our request is straightforward.

Preserve OFC, but do not stop there.

Extend OFC's jurisdiction to all youth committed to DYRS, not only those who have a CFSA case.

Give the office statutory authority to enter facilities and placements, interview committed youth directly, review relevant records, and protect youth and families from retaliation when they engage with the office.

We are submitting with this testimony a comprehensive red line of the OFC statute that would accomplish that would accomplish substantially all of this.

We commend it to the committee's consideration.

The broader oversight picture for children in the care of DYRS has progressively gotten worse.

The I'm just gonna say OIJFO is gone.

The successor function lodged at the office of the DC auditor is also gone.

And I just want to note something that you know well that it's no longer the Road Act because we got rid of both the O and the A, which was oversight and accountability for DYRS.

While the revenue forecast remains difficult, we must not continue responding to difficult times by withdrawing oversight and protection for young people.

Without expanding OFC, the district will have preserved an office while leaving the central oversight gap intact.

DYRS has 308 youth committed to its care in the most recent JSTAT reporting year, and DRS has worked with a little under the uh 310 um committed youth annually.

OFC can reach a DORS committed child only when that child is also actively involved with CFSA.

For most of those committed youth, that means no umbuds at all.

The child who is dual jacketed is covered, the child in a DYS placement whose CFSA case was perhaps closed specifically because they were committed to DORS, is often unable to access the office, even if they are in a placement that is far from home, clinically inadequate, or unsafe.

This is the wrong line to draw.

DORS acts in loco parentis when a child is committed.

It decides where that child lives, what treatment they receive, what school they attend, when they come home, and what happens when a placement breaks down.

Those powers require independent oversight.

When OIJFO was with OIJFO defunded, OFC is now the only standing body that is positioned to collect and evaluate data from DYRS, identify gaps in service provision, and recommend improvements to daily practices.

It should also be able to examine the experience of DYRS committed youth in inpatient behavioral health settings and contracted placements.

OFC needs affirmative access to do that work.

Our colleagues at DRDC, Anya Kreider, who you know well, have shown the difference such access can make.

Without it, oversight runs on grievances and incidence reports that are internally monitored by DYRS, and those systemic and those systemically exclude what D staff would not want to surface.

The office must be independent of CFSA and DYRS, and it must have authority to enter facilities, interview, review records, and protect those who engage with it from retaliation.

Authority without funding is a paper mandate.

We estimate that giving OFC the capacity to do this work would require at most a million dollars and as little as 500,000 above what OFC's current budget includes, depending on how aggressively the office is expected to monitor out-of-state placements and produce regular public reporting.

That is a small fraction of DYRS's 104 million FY27 proposed budget, one of the few that grew this year.

The fiscal impact statement for the Road Act estimated approximately 1.46 million per year to place that same work with the auditor, which would have built that function from scratch.

OFC can do it for less because the office already has the infrastructure to absorb much of the overhead.

You passed the Road Act without funding accountability.

We are asking the council to not repeat that choice.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, we'll go online and hear from Fernanda Ruiz.

Good morning.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker and members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

My name is Fernandez Reese, and I'm the home visiting director at Mary Center and a district president from War 5.

In my role, I oversee the Father Child Attachment Program, or FCA, funded through the Child and Family Services Agency.

I am here today to respectfully urge the committee to restore the 200,000 in CivCAP funding in the fiscal year 2027 budget and to make those dollars recurring.

The FCA program is a prevention-focused home visiting program that supports fathers and families from pregnancy through early childhood.

Our work strengthens parental relationships, increases family stability, connects families to critical resources, and helps prevent child welfare involvement before crises occur.

Unfortunately, in fiscal year 2025, due to decreases in funding, we had to eliminate one staffing position within the program.

In fiscal year 2026, our FCA program then experienced an additional 15% reduction in funding compared to fiscal year 2025.

As a result, Mayor Center had to absorb approximately 25% of our home visitor salaries in order to maintain staffing and continuity of care for families.

We also absorb costs associated with our 24-7 DAT group programming because we know these services are too important to eliminate.

With regards to the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, we are grateful for no cuts to home visiting.

However, a loss of one-time funding of 200,000 will have a deep impact on the Civic CAP and home visiting programs in CFSA.

We therefore ask the committee to not only restore a minimum of 200,000 but to make it recurring dollars.

If this money is not included in the fiscal year 2027 budget, funding levels for all programs will return to fiscal year 2022.

And for Mary Center's father-child program will return to fiscal year 2009 funding levels.

Let me repeat this.

FCA will return to fiscal year 2009 funding levels.

This means programs will shrink, both in number of staff and families served.

Our program is a critical piece of the prevention work of the agency, and we as a city cannot further choose to disinvest from prevention.

We are submitting written testimonies from enrolled fathers and their partners who could not attend today due to work obligations.

Across their stories, families describe how the program helped fathers become more emotionally present, stable, and engage fathers.

These stories are a reminder that prevention works and that early support changes outcomes for children and families.

Chairperson Parker, we would like to warmly invite you to our Father's Day celebration on June 6 in the afternoon.

So you can meet fathers directly and hear firsthand how this program has impacted their families and communities.

Thank you again for your leadership and your continued support of children and families across the district.

I respectfully urge the committee to restore and sustain the 200,000 in recurring Civic Cap funding to ensure programs like FCA can continue serving district families.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your testimony.

And it's Reese.

Sorry for mispronouncing your last name.

Next, we'll hear from Carlos Marchand.

Can you hear me?

Well, yes.

Yes.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker and members of the council.

My name is Carol Marchan, and I serve as the program manager of the Father Child Attachment Program or FCA here at Mary Center.

I'm here to respectfully ask the council to continue protecting and investing in this program by restoring a minimum of 200,000 in funding to Civic Cap and to make it recurring dollars.

Fire absence is a reality in our country.

Approximately 18 million children live without a father present in their home.

That is one in every four children in the district.

63 children, 60, 63,000 children under the age of 18, leaving a single private household.

Research has shown that children raised in fire absent homes are at increased risk for poverty, school disengagement, substance use, involvement in the justice system, and other adverse outcomes.

These outcomes are preventable with supports like the FCA program.

Currently has 30 active fathers enrolled in home visiting services.

And this fiscal year, our small team has conducted 317 home visits already during our visits.

We use evidence-based curricula focused on child development and fatherhood, where fathers can strengthen their parenting skills, reflect on communication, and learn how nurturing relationships support their children's healthy development.

They also receive individualized support to work towards their personal and family goals.

Children in the program are also screened for developmental needs to identify early delays and connect families to appropriate services.

We distribute uh concrete supports such as diapers, baby items, and food assistance.

We also connect fires to services that support employment, education, housing, legal needs, and public benefits.

These supports reduce the stress, strengthen protective factors, and have fathers remain connected to their children.

Our home visitors become anchors for fires and our program in our program, offering stability during difficult times.

In our current climate, many fathers feel persecuted and are afraid to work, seek medical care, or take their children to school.

Home visitors are a crucial part of their support system, navigating services and advocating on their behalf when needed.

Finally, I want to thank you and the committee of on youth affairs for your continued support and investment in home visiting and CV Cup programming.

With regards to the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget, we're grateful for no cuts in home visiting.

However, a loss of funding of 200,000 will have a deep impact on our CBCAP on visiting programs in CFSA.

We therefore ask the committee not only to restore a minimum of 200,000, but to make it recurring dollars.

If this money is not included in the fiscal year 2027 budget, funding levels for all programs will return to fiscal year 2022.

For Mary Center Fire Attachment Program will return to a fiscal year's fiscal year 2009 funding levels.

This means programs will shrink, both in the number of staff and families served, and our program is a critical piece of the prevention work of the agency.

And we as ACT cannot further choose to disinvest from prevention.

Thank you for your time and your attention.

Thank you.

Mr.

Marchan, if you could submit your testimony as well as Mr.

Miller, as well.

All right, I have a few questions.

Mr.

Bill, uh NCCF had contract modifications last fiscal year, if I recall, were those based on growth or demand.

Demand.

Okay.

Can you just say a little bit more about that?

We got one modification that increased our census from 200 to 220.

So that was one modification.

We've recently received modifications to extend our contract through September 30th.

Our TSH uh contract we've been working under for the last part eight years are termed March the 16th.

And so now we're operating on modifications to take us through uh to September 30th and awaiting the response from CFSA around the award for the TSH RFP.

And can you say a little bit more about staffing needs and how they've evolved over this last year?

I think because we have not been able to give, I think appropriate uh staff increases uh due to the constraints of the budget party for the last two um budget cycles.

Um we have been challenged, um, I think with maintaining, I think we've done a great job because of our benefits and the supervision supports and training we offer, the benefits we offer to our our social workers and family support workers and other team members, but to talent, since ongoing talent.

And so it's gonna come to a head, I think this year, if we if we aren't able in this new budget, uh, receive enough funding uh to provide a minimum increase for our colour, uh, will continue to be challenged, and it's unfortunate because we have assembled an awesome team, dedicated team of workers at all levels, and we see it in the outcomes that we've uh been able to um produce for the city with increased permanent.

Um we've done a great job with uh dads.

Uh, think unprecedented uh rates of serving fathers and uh having permanently with with dads.

I work with Ken and our Ken Network team has been stellar and and finding after kids have been referred to as finding relatives for kids to be in because it's important for kids to be with families.

I think that's that gets challenged when we continue to have uh flat budgets, and I do you know we do understand that there is a fiscal crisis um uh but I would I would hope that the city is able to look at other other resources and other areas for for cuts because this is important work, and um these are young people, and like as I said, my testimony, if we aren't investing now, there's a higher cost.

Uh, if you aren't servicing kids and providing the supports that they need because of trauma, uh you'll see that the results that trauma played out as they get older.

And I think and actually I think you see that in our city.

When you see such valence now city, you see young people that have not gotten what the services they need with mental health and other supports.

I think that's I think the results of much of the balance you see with young people and they're getting they're getting younger.

You're getting now you're getting 12 and 13 year olds that are that are involved in serious crime uh because of I think lack of supports to them and their families.

Yeah.

Uh I wanna come back to that uh as it relates to something playing out in the city.

But uh I wanna move on for the second time.

Um Mr.

Solo Chef.

Uh you talked about the hippie model.

How are how is that currently funded?

Thank you, Chair uh Chair Personberger.

Um we are funded in three different streams: grants, fundraising, and a large chunk is through the CB CAP CFSA grant um through the Center for Collaborative Community Solutions.

Um, sorry, collaborative solutions for communities.

And what's the size of that grant?

It's I I please don't misquote me.

It's around, we receive around 160,000.

It's somewhere in that ballpark, but please don't quote me.

I'll get you a uh accurate number as soon as I can.

Okay, so it's increased a little, yes.

Um, but it the cost of doing this program is much larger than that.

We are the cost of doing this program, all in all with food, wraparound services, case management, visiting, is closer to four hundred thousand dollars.

And so it's just a part of all the work that we do to bring this service to the community.

Um, however, you know, yeah.

Okay.

Um what level of funding would be necessary if if you're saying that's insufficient.

I I want to be very clear.

We this takes it takes a collaged effort to do this work.

I'll be very frank with you.

We are thankful, we use every single dollar that this grant gives us, and we're thankful for 175.

I got it, but you're not answering the question.

No, what thank you.

I don't need an increase, I need to maintain the funding.

Okay, I can do my part.

I can go and collect the other dollars.

It's the decrease that concerns me.

I'm not asking for an increase, I'm asking for maintenance or maintaining what we have.

We need to do our part.

We as an organization must pull our weight.

Uh but the the decrease in funding really concerns me.

Got it.

Got it.

Okay.

Uh I am clear there.

Um, Miss Velasquez, um you spoke about OFC and DRS as well as oversight.

That is something we're looking at.

Uh, I will say transparently, we have questions about OFC's capacity to uh take on DRS, which is a behemoth of a agency, in addition to CFSA, and so we're exploring like how could we expand oversight even if it's not necessarily within OFC.

Uh but should we be able to expand that oversight?

Where do you and I'll ask Mr.

Miller the same thing, where where are there areas that you think would be most advantageous for a person or a team to focus in on?

Right.

Well, it's it's they have their choice almost right now because there are so many issues.

I would first look at reducing the YSC population and have them look at the issue of why kids aren't getting placed quickly.

I also would want them to look at conditions and services that kids are getting.

OIJJFO's last report, uh, which was um frankly shocking to me was the um was the um lack of mental health care that kids are getting in those facilities.

Uh I think looking at um issues around uh violence between uh youth and between staff and youth is another issue that uh the um other agencies, independent oversight agencies have looked at um the disability services uh group, for example.

Um I think looking at how youth uh who are charged as adults are being treated because they are still kids, even if legally criminally their adults is another issue that um you know have some serious concerns we've raised in the past.

So I think those would be some places to start.

Um, and also you know, just looking at um getting more feedback from staff, I think, on you know what are the challenges that they're facing every day, and so we can retain and keep good staff.

Okay, and Mr.

Miller, same same question.

I mean, uh so Tracy, uh Ms.

Velasquez has been um pretty pretty complete.

One of the things I want to point out is that the last OIJFO report that we all talk about a lot, still haven't seen any action on about the behavioral health treatment uh options at new beginnings, was the first report that was done by the auditor under her own auspices and not by um OIJFO under its narrow sort of GREM extension role, and it was significantly more hard hitting because it had that freedom.

And so if the auditor was willing to accept this um sort of ability to engage in ongoing systemic research into the juvenile justice system, sometimes allowing itself to be pulled into conversations about the role of the federal government, of the court social services, um, of the USA of Title 16, all you know, sort of pulled across the panoply, that would be very exciting.

Um, but what we've seen is that I mean, she's been pretty forthright about this, that she's not willing to take the role and she's opposed to it.

Um, in that in that sense, having an organization, having an agency that has facility access that has um sort of responsibility for out of state facilities and not just the two facilities here in the district, um, and that uh has some expertise and knowledge about what treatments can look like and should look like and doesn't just sort of accept as a given that the agency story is correct, I think would all be really really welcome.

Okay.

Um and then our friends from Mary's Center.

Um, I hear you loud and clear in terms of funding levels and the need to maintain uh your programmatic outreach.

Uh Ms.

Reese, you spoke about the need to restore the committee's 200,000 enhancement uh for the CBCAP home visitation funding and to make it reoccurring.

What impact do you anticipate the loss of such funding having?

And if you could speak about it in terms of numbers, like how many families or individuals will be impacted should that funding not be there?

Uh thank you, Council Member Parker.

Um, we're hoping to not have to eliminate any of the positions that we have currently and see if Mary Center could have served furthermore this cut.

It would mean reduced absorbing about five to 10% additional um costs related to salaries from our staff.

So if that is possible, that would be our choice.

We would also be eliminating Carlos' time uh under this grant, which he provides a lot of support.

Uh, running the numbers about the cost to actually implement the program, we're a hundred thousand dollars short.

So restoring the funding and making sure that the funding is sustained at the level that we are, like allows us to continue to provide the program and supports and continue with our current staffing.

It doesn't necessarily mean that it covers the entire cost of the program.

Got it.

Okay.

I'm gonna leave it there for the sake of time.

I want to say thank you all for your testimony, Mr.

Marchan and Mr.

Miller.

If you could submit your written testimony as we go back, uh that would be really helpful.

Um with that, our next panel, we will have Tammy Rarcinga Kote with the Children's Law Center, Leah Castellas with the Children's Law Center, Chris Gamble, Children's Law Center, Susan Punnett with the Family and Youth Initiative.

Is Susan Punnett here?

Going once, going twice.

All right.

Uh Princess Sims.

Okay.

So we want to keep it.

Understood.

And Susan, if you wanted to go.

Do you want to go with the youth?

On the next panel.

All right.

Feel free to stay there, but I'll just have you give your testimony on the next panel.

All right.

Uh, with that, uh, you may begin.

Tam.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chairman Parker.

Um, my name is Tammy Warasinga Kote, and I'm the policy director for Children's Law Center.

I'm also a Ward 4 resident and the parent of three children here in the district.

In this most challenging budget year in recent memory, we are largely relieved to see the mayor's proposed operating budget for CFSA include only a modest cut of 5.6% and practically no FTE cuts.

The mayor's proposed budget leaves mostly intact the budget for critical program areas, including out-of-home placement and services and the grandparent and close relative caregiver subsidies, and we are grateful for this.

The mayor's proposed budget does include several concerning cuts to community prevention services, including home visiting and the family success centers.

My written testimony will address our concerns about those changes, but for today, I would like to focus the committee's attention on the need to find funding for Seoul.

As you know, Seoul passed its first full council vote unanimously last week, and we expect it will pass its second vote shortly and become law in the district by the summer.

We are so grateful for Lex leadership and the committee's partnership in getting Seoul this far.

Councilmember Parker, you and your staff have done so much to turn our Lex leaders' vision into a reality.

From introducing this bill to quickly holding a hearing to getting it through not one but two markups, and now through passage before the full council.

Children's Law Center now urges you to take the final step and make sure Seoul is fully funded in this year's budget.

We know that it is an extremely tough budget year, and the conventional wisdom is to focus on saving what can be saved and mitigating cuts where possible and not trying to find money for new things.

Although generally true, Seoul must be the exception.

As you will hear from our Lex leaders, Seoul fills a critical gap in our foster care system by providing older youth and care an alternative to aging out.

By enabling youth and care to build families that work for their individual circumstances that can be dynamic and flexible in structure and that don't have to fit within preconceived notions of what a family should look like.

Seoul offers youth who would otherwise languish in care before aging out a way to take ownership and agency and building their own futures.

For this reason, we strongly urge the committee and the council to ensure that Seoul is fully funded.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today, and I welcome any questions.

Thank you for your testimony.

I'm a big fan of Seoul as well.

Ms.

Castellus, you may uh provide your testimony, and I don't have you all's written testimony, so if you could make sure you submit that.

Thank you, Chair Person Parker, and good afternoon.

My name is Leah Castlez, and I'm a senior policy attorney at Children's Law Center.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify regarding the proposed fiscal year 2027 budget for the Office of the Ombudsperson for Children.

We are glad to see the funding remains level for OFC.

This is the first time since fiscal year 2024 that the mayor has chosen not to defund this office.

Children's Law Center, like this committee, knows well the need for OFC as an independent, impartial legislative office.

The office's core functions, effective oversight, systemic trend analysis, interagency coordination, and investigation in day-to-day problem solving are critical to directly helping district children and families as well as building the capacity of the DC council.

We are hopeful that with funding stability, OFC will continue to work on implementation, expand their reach, and ultimately we'll see the impact of the office grow.

We therefore ask the committee to maintain funding for OFC.

Our work also tells us that the current funding level is not sufficient for OFC to realize its full potential to support district children and families.

Therefore, we ask the committee to consider specifically establishing and funding a DYRS deputy ombudsperson with OFC and more generally leveraging OFC to overcome challenges of interagency coordination and ensure accountability in the executive branch beyond child welfare involved children and families, as discussed in our in our recent testimony on streamlining services for children act of 2025.

My written testimony provides more detail on these opportunities.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and we welcome any questions you may have.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, uh Chris Gamble.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker.

My name is Chris Gamble, and I'm the behavioral health policy analyst at Children's Law Center.

CLC represents over half the children in foster care, some of whom have experienced physical or sexual abuse.

Across the district, there are thousands more, youth and families navigating the traumatic effects of abuse.

They deserve to seek justice and healing in a supportive environment.

Children's advocacy centers fulfill this purpose by coordinating entities involved in abuse of investigations, conducting expert forensic interviews, and providing mental health services.

Without intervention, abused children are at higher risk of PTSD, disrupted relationships in later life, and further revictimization.

We testified last fall in support of the child abuse investigation multi-disciplinary team certification act of 2025 with some key recommendations for how to strengthen the intent of the legislation.

We encourage the committee to continue working with Safe Shores to ensure the bill supports the essential role of CACs.

Support for CACs also includes providing adequate funding.

For years, Safe Shores has had to depend on unreliable funding structures when it comes to government funding sources.

For one, they apply annually for varying levels of grants from OVSJG and through CFSA, there have been a series of one-time enhancements in the budget that have created a pattern of uncertainty that ultimately harms the youth in need of services provided by CACs.

Instead, we need a long-term solution that creates sustainability.

DC law requires child abuse to be investigated using the MDT model for the sake of efficiency and stable teaming dynamics.

There is only one CAC per MDT.

So funding Safe Shores is not an act of favoring a particular business.

Rather, it ensures MDT investigations operate effectively in accordance with the law.

We urge this committee to minimally restore the one-time enhancement of 1.35 million to fund safe shores through FY27 while seeking a long-term reliable funding solution.

Youth and families in DC dealing with abuse need certainty that help will always be available.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I welcome any questions you have.

Awesome.

Thank you.

And I do have your full testimony.

So I'm gonna stop there because we're gonna take you on the next panel with the youth.

And I would just say with the SOL Act, we have every intention to try to fund it the matter.

As you can imagine, finding um money in this budget is tough.

So, but it is on our radar and I agree with you.

But um, let me ask this.

What aspects of the Seoul legislation do you think could help reduce um do you think could be reduced to help us get the legislation funded through the budget cycle?

Have you all thought about it in a piecemeal fashion?

Like, like take this part, leave this part.

Um, I think that the agency that does the implementation which does the implementation can speak the most authoritatively, but I will say, like, I think without funding, there are parts of Seoul that will be accessible to some youth, right?

So for youth who may already, by happenstance, have the right adults in their life, and this creates a legal pathway.

The legal pathway will be available to those youth.

But for most of the youth who are gonna need support and services to build up those relationships, to get those adults prepared to take on a lifelong commitment of supporting that youth, those resources are necessary to have to help those youth get to the place where they can form a sole family.

So for this to really be available to make the difference we want it to make, it needs to be funded.

Understood.

I would just say, Ms.

Kesseless, uh, as I mentioned on the previous panel, we are looking at the OIJ FFO, and trying to find a place we are not convinced OFC is the right place.

Uh, in an ideal world, yes, but um uh I don't want to say too much, but right now, as I say too much, uh, we are looking at the feasibility of making the office independent.

Should we be able to fund it under the council?

Um, the auditor, for instance, is an independent office under the council.

Uh, so uh more to come on that.

It may not be feasible, but uh it's something we're exploring.

And I'll just add OFC is also independent under the council too.

So I'm I think um, and they're the only legislatively mandated office to that overseas crossover youth, and dual jacketed youth.

So I think there's a good opportunity there.

Yes.

Yes.

Um I'll leave it there.

Uh, but I want to say thank you all for your testimony, Mr.

Gamble.

I have your uh testimony.

Uh I take to heart your testimony on safe shores.

I agree we need long-term solutions, and that could start with the executive not cutting the funding every year.

So uh with that, we're gonna move on to the next panel.

Um, and Susan, why don't you stay there?

Next, I'll have Princess Sims join you.

Uh Zanaya Torres, Sierra Bailey.

Okay.

If someone can flag them.

Are they in the hall because it's not space in here?

Okay.

We have an overflow section today.

I don't know.

Two overflow sections.

Someone else there, for instance, you're here.

Okay.

You see that guy in the very nice brown suit, he regulates it, so he is he's in charge.

Welcome back.

We're thrilled to have you all.

Allie, um, I'm not sure if uh folks in the waiting area have the witness list.

It may be helpful for them to have it just so that they can transition as we get closer.

Um, but I am thrilled to have you all here.

You all familiar faces.

I'm gonna start uh with and Kanaya Parks.

Okay, Kanaya and Olivia.

Why don't we just pull up a chair?

And you could just kind of park it on the side here.

Thank you all for being flexible.

These are some of our lex leaders, our young people with lived experience, and I'm glad to have you all.

All right, and so here's our order.

We're gonna hear from Susan, then Princess, then Zanaya, then Sierra, then Kanaya, and then Olivia.

Sorry about that, Ellie.

Okay.

Uh, and with that, you may begin your testimony.

Thank you, Chairman Parker and members of the youth affairs committee.

My name is Susan Pennett.

I'm a district of Columbia resident and executive director of Family and Youth Initiative, a DC nonprofit that has worked for over 15 years to connect teens who are in foster care with adults who commit to staying in their lives.

We're proud of having helped some teens find adoptive families and of connecting others with adults with whom youth are still connected long after they've aged out of care.

We believe all young people deserve to have adults they can trust and who will be there for them no matter what happens.

We hope many more youth in foster care get the opportunity to develop supportive relationships, especially the ones that lead to legal permanency.

For the last two and a half years, DCFYI has worked with this group of lived experts and others, Child and Family Services Agency, Children's Law Center, and the Office of the Attorney General to design Seoul, a new permanency option for teens in foster care, and what we see as an important extension of our core work.

You have heard multiple times now from Lex leaders about why soul is needed and how it will allow more youth to leave foster care to permanency.

Thank you for listening and becoming such a champion of Seoul.

In addition, you and Councilmember Pinto have been both consistently highlighted the work of the Lex leaders as a model not often seen in policy development.

So thank you for doing that and for ensuring the Seoul legislation has continued to move forward, both at the committee level and now with the full council.

It is unfortunate the mayor was not able to fund Seoul in the FY27 budget.

In addition to being a very small amount in the first year, soul will save the district money in the long term.

Over time, CFSA will spend less for each youth who leaves foster care to a soul family rather than remaining in care until they age out.

A fiscal analysis conducted as part of the Seoul design process documented that costs will be more than offset by the cost savings from those who did from those youth not remaining in care.

In addition, by implementing Seoul, the District of Columbia has the opportunity to be the second jurisdiction in the nation to implement this new permanent seat option and to be at the forefront of what we expect will become a national innovative movement.

Already, as other organizations and jurisdictions are learning about Seoul, they are asking how they can bring it to their states.

We also believe that implementing Seoul has the potential to change child welfare practice for all youth in DC foster care.

Adopting Seoul's youth-led focus and prioritizing youth's family and community connections should result in youth having better understanding of their options, deeper connections with the people who are already in their lives, and the opportunity to build more of those connections and therefore better outcomes all around.

Thank you for helping move the Seoul legislation so more youth can leave foster care to real permanency, meaning they will have the family all of us need and deserve.

Youth should not have to choose between services and lasting relationships or have to choose between maintaining birth family connections and building connections with a new family.

Seoul will give youth the ability to exit care to a family they have chosen and which meets their own unique circumstances.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you.

And then next we'll have Princess.

Hi, good afternoon, Chairman Parker and members of the committee.

My name is Princess Sims.

I'm one of the proud Lex leaders that has been a part of the creation of the new permanency option Seoul.

Today I am testifying for the funding of Seoul.

I will start off by saying thank you again, Chairman Parker and members of the committee for your collaborative efforts with moving the Seoul bill forward thus far, especially partnering with the Lex leaders, hearing our testimonies, and recognizing just how important and impactful this legislation is for us as current and former foster youth.

Today we ask that you walk alongside us as we take the next big step towards making Seoul a reality for these youth.

Once enacted, Seoul could be a viable option for youth in care within a matter of months.

During my time in care, I had over 15 different placements, and the longer I stayed in care, it became less about trying to help me foster connections and achieve permanency, and more about just trying to find me an empty bed or some type of holding place until I aged out.

With the delay of funding soul, my nightmare could be the reality for a lot of youth in care that get brushed off into aging out.

When you and when you age out, it's very easy to assume that you as an adult can choose who you connect with, where you live, and how you navigate.

But when I aged out and all the responsibilities fell on me, I began to prioritize survival over stability.

I struggled, I struggled to ask for help because I already felt like a burden, as if no one wanted me.

I isolated myself and did whatever it took just to get by.

Instead of asking how to renew my health insurance or how to apply for housing or food stamps, I just stayed up late at night working to keep a boob over my head, even if that meant I lived with pain or no food in my fridge.

No youth should ever have to feel like a burden or unwanted, as if they were.

No youth should ever have to feel like a burden or unwanted because they were thrown into a system that was never designed to sustain them long term.

It's called child and family services agency for a reason, not teens and young adult services.

The agency's efforts towards change and growth without the funding for soul will only reach so far.

So, in closing, I ask that you fund the soul legislation and the FY27 budget.

The future of the youth of tomorrow begins with our efforts of today.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your testimony.

Good afternoon, um, chair and members of the council.

My name is Zanaya Torres, and I'm a lived experience leader.

I'm 18 years old and I'm a DC resident who is currently in foster care.

I've been involved in the soul family work for the last year and a half.

I'm currently a co-chair of the regulations work group and serve on the communications work group.

I've been an avid supporter of the Soul Family in the process to get the legislation passed across the finish line.

I would like to start by thanking uh Councilmember Parker and all the members of the council for voting Soul Family out of the markup.

This is a this is a significant milestone, and seeing the progress gives us hope.

It shows that the system is listening to the needs of the youth in care.

Soul family is important because it stops the system from choosing from choosing our futures for us.

It gives young people the freedom to choose who we call family and it ensures that we have the proper foundation for success in adulthood.

For too long, the system has forced young people to choose between financial support and a legal family.

Soul family is revolutionary because it acknowledges that we need both to succeed.

It provides the stability of family without stripping away the resources that is required to be successful.

Soul focuses on a forever family, and although I'm aging out of care soon, and the journey with the system ends, my need for a family doesn't.

Soul creates enduring familial connections that do not expire at 21.

Because of this, it is with full confidence that I know Soul Family will pass.

The legislation built the legislation is built by us and for us and reflects the real world gaps that we have lived through and offers an effective solution that fits the reality of modern foster care.

However, the promise of this legislation of this legislation can only be realized if it is supported by the necessary resources.

In closing, I ask you to please ensure that the soul family is funded, is fully funded in the FY27 budget.

Passing the bill is the first step, and funding it is what makes pregnancy a reality for youth like me.

Thank you for your time today.

Thank you.

Sierra.

Good morning, Chairperson Parker, members of the committee, and everyone here today.

My name is Sierra Bailey, and I am a live expert from Washington, D.C., testifying today in support of the Seoul Amendment Act of 2025.

Firstly, I would like to thank each and every one of the council members who voted Soul out of the markup.

I know all too well the benefit of having a family and support around you.

I entered care when I was eight years old and I aged out at 21.

When I aged out, I honestly always wanted a family or at least to feel like I was welcoming one.

I decided that since services were cut and dry and more guaranteed that I will focus on my eligibility for programs and family wouldn't be as important to me once I got my housing, my health insurance, and just those basic living necessities.

But I was wrong.

I still felt the emptiness and loneliness, even though I knew I had all those services set in place for the future.

With all the services, I was still unprepared.

I had a voucher but didn't know how to apply for an apartment.

I applied for food stamps and got them and didn't know how to cook.

And then I met my mentor when I was 19, and he has been my forever family that I was always looking for.

No matter how different we look, how different we eat, he's vegan.

He has been the one constant thing in my life.

And I'm 28, and my mentor has been there for the highest of highs.

I have a two-year-old.

He was there with me the entire five days I was in the hospital to my lowest of lows, sitting down in college, doing math, or even worse, budgeting.

He taught me how to sign up for benefits and helped me to figure out housing, how to be an adult.

He gave me the tools to be a light in my community.

And it is important to have real reliability and structure to have a family.

It's an extra voice in your heart and your mind and is a resource to you.

He has shown me what consistency, love, support, and family are.

And without him, I would have been going through life missing something essential.

My fear is that that is the case with more youth than I can count each and every year.

And every day somebody else ages out without the correct support.

I am confident that Seoul will pass the cap the council because I believe it is a support to the youth of DC, as well as the child welfare system as a whole.

This would be the first permanency plan embracing that social norms and a family dynamic look different for each and every person.

It is a permanency that encompasses more than just your traditional family structures and allows for non-conventional relationships and families to shine, letting every youth caregiver and professional know that we understand that families and the idea of family has evolved and everyone deserves one and the chance to create one for themselves if they don't have one.

My hope is that with the implementation of Seoul legislation each day, we have more success with connecting the youth, and every year the number goes down until the statistic of youth aging out with community is completely destroyed.

I ask this committee to please make sure that Seoul is funded in the FY27 budget, and I thank you for your time.

Thank you.

Next, Zanaya.

No, I lied.

Hey everyone, and greetings to the Committee of Youth Affairs.

I'm here today to voice my strong support for Seoul being fully recognized and fully funded in the FY 2027 budget.

Seoul is a new permanent option through CFSA that gives older youth the ability to choose their family members, caregivers, and supportive adults who will play a vital role in their lives.

It creates a different pathway within the child welfare system, one that places one that places youth in Washington, DC, in an important and responsible role when it comes to decisions about their own cases and futures.

Seoul stands out as a transformative initiative because it was designed and led by lived experts, us.

Um people like me who have directly experienced the child welfare system firsthand, alongside other and current former foster youth in partnership with CFSA and OAG.

I help shape shape the concept and draft the legislation creating Seoul.

This approach has been a game changer because it ensures that the solutions being created are informed by the real needs, experiences, and voices of young people, not just theoretical ideas.

By prioritizing, prioritizing lived expertise, Seoul creates an authentic opportunity to improve outcomes for youth and young adults in a meaningful and lasting way.

However, in order for Seoul to be successful, successfully implemented, it must receive the proper funding and support.

It must receive the property, y'all.

That is why I'm here today to respectfully ask that you fully fund Seoul as a as you finalize the youth affairs budget for Fixual Year, physical, fixed fixed year for 2027.

I genuinely believe that this initiative can be transformative for youth currently in exiting and entering the child welfare system in Washington DC.

We have an opportunity to be one of the first cities to fully implement Seoul and create a meaningful change for youth and families across the across our community.

Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your commitment to supporting the well-being and futures of young people in the district.

And also thank you for supporting Seoul for the this time.

Awesome.

Thank you for your testimony.

And then last but not least, Olivia.

Good morning, Chairperson, Chairperson, and members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity for me to testify today.

My name is Olivia Thomas, and I am a lex leader.

I want to sincerely thank the council members for voting Seoul out of the markup.

That's that meant a lot to me personally, as well as it as well as it did to many others who have been pushing for the change.

It will it showed that you are listening and you understand how important this is for young people and families in DC.

Because of that, I am confident that Seoul will receive a second, a second vote and pass the full council.

Soul family is personal to me because I I know what it feels like as a young person in foster care to not have consistent lifelong support and aging out isn't about leaving the system.

It's about being expected to figure everything out on your own without the guidance and stability all young people need and deserve.

Right now in DC and DC too many young people face the harsh reality of aging out of foster care.

They are leaving care without permanent connections without someone they truly depend on long term and that's why soul is needed now.

While Soul Family isn't a permanent while family isn't a permanent option for young people in DC yet we have been doing doing work to prepare we've been building the structure having a conversations and putting the right supports in place so that when Soul Family does pass it can be successful from day one.

We're not starting from scratch we're ready and that readiness matters because young people can't afford to wait for systems to figure things out after the fact they need something that works the moment it's available.

So is more than legislation.

It's about making sure every young person has a chance to at least have one committed legally recognize carrying a dog in their life someone they can call someone who shows up someone who stays as you continue moving this legislation forward I ask you to make sure Soul Family is fully funded in the FY27 budget.

Passing this is crucial but funding it is is will make will make it real for young people across the district thank you for your time and for continue to take steps towards supporting young people in DC.

Well I want to say thank you all I think you did a great job testifying and this is a full circle moment I'm looking over there director trice I know you all have been at the table for a long time brainstorming writing giving feedback you were there as we introduced the bill you testified and advocated for it and now you're here to fund it and this is one of my key priorities this year to make sure we can get this funded and when we do get it funded uh I want you all to like feel very proud of the work that you contributed to not just for yourselves for generations of future young people go coming through our system that will now have now have this benefit I do have like two or three quick questions I would just ask you to be as concise and err on the side of brevity there are some people that still don't understand why we need soul.

What would you say?

I kind of was looking at Sierra but like what what would you say is the reason why this type of permanency option is needed.

Um I will be brief but um as far as permanency with soul I feel like every youth should be able to have the autonomy to say where they want to go nine times out of 10 that's where you're gonna end when you age out anyway and a lot of times it's hard for us to be in a system where we were for a long period of time and be forward about what we need and what we want and there isn't a space where you can come out and say this is what I want to do and now we have soul where we have youth that are over the age of 16 who are saying this is where I want to go these are my ideas about permanency this is what I want to do and I'm willing to take the steps that's needed for me to create let's go a step further because I still think that lives up here.

So in our current system we have adoption and what I've heard from you all is adoption isn't the best answer for every young person.

There are some people that will say I don't want to be adopted why give me just one example why someone may not want to pursue adoption because you have them choosing between resources and community.

That's the reason why you need soul okay say more, but make that plainer.

I'm talking, I'm talking to the people out there that I wouldn't compare, I wouldn't compare it to adoption.

I would compare it to Appla, which is aging out.

Let's talk about the adoption, older youth, nine times out of 10, that permanency plan is you know, they're not gonna do that.

They're not gonna go in into a place with people who they don't know most of the time.

Understood princess, you wanted to jump in.

Yeah.

So for me, um, I had the option of being adopted on several occasions, and you know, I entered care as 16 years old.

Um, adoption was not suitable for me because I'm left with just that one person.

So if anything happens, anything goes wrong with just that one person, then everything falls right back onto me, and that's similar to being the equivalent of aging out.

You just got that one person.

That's what CR means by a sense of community.

You don't just have to rely on one person.

And of course, you could say outside of an agency, you can, you know, call up whoever, you can reach out to whoever, but if they have not seen you, if they have not heard from you, if they have not been a part of what it took for you to get to school, for you to get that job, for you to potentially either have or not have whatever resources that you already needed and should have had before you aged out, now you're an adult, now you're scrambling, and then you still have to face whatever ups and downs you are facing on the day to day.

Zanaya, you seem like you wanted to jump in.

I feel like a lot of people think that um adoption secures stability, but honestly, I don't think it does.

I do think that um at some point adoption doesn't really become an option because when for me, I think as the older the older that you get, you don't really think of adoption as an option because unfortunately, a lot of people that are looking for adoption are looking for younger kids.

Not only that, we have so much trauma on us already, we can't change who we are.

And unfortunately, I feel like people think that when you adopt somebody, you're about to get this picture perfect child, and that's not what you're doing.

When you adopt somebody, you're having like a lifelong contract with that person, you can't just adopt somebody and then just throw them away when you know they're already aged out.

I think you all made it very clear.

I see you want to jump in.

Adoption is a beautiful thing.

If you're watching adoption is a beautiful thing, we want more families to adopt.

The point I'm trying to make is adoption just isn't the perfect solution for every young person.

And so, what soul was seeking to do was to provide yet another option.

Okay, now sell soul.

Why, what is it to you?

I know that's probably not what you're about to say, but what is it to you and why is it a another good option?

Um honestly, I was gonna just kind of go with this because we was on an adoption subject.

I am adopted, and honestly, now that I've had my experience with it, I honestly wish I didn't do it, if I'm being completely honest.

If I would have had something like so, I feel like a lot of things would have been prevented with my experience.

I'm now 18.

It's honestly too late for me to go back.

So I've honestly just been gone through with things, you know.

Like how almost everybody has said, you know, some people think you're gonna get this perfect picture child, things are going to be different.

And me being adopted, I just rushed into it because I'll see I didn't want to be in care no more.

I was tired of dealing with the social workers, this, that, and et cetera, and I just want to be out.

And now that I'm here, it's just so many things that are going on that I wish that like I've known from like dealing with soul and things like that, that I would have known before I made the decision that I was going to make.

Like so could have saved me from a lot.

So I feel like just having the other option where it's not like you know, you're aging out, or you don't just you know, you have multiple people in your corner.

You don't just have one person, you have multiple.

Thank you for sharing and being vulnerable.

If you don't mind, can I just do one quick because I just wanted to get the night and then I'll come to you if you don't mind.

Go for it.

Um, I think that um like you try to please everybody in their case, and I feel like that's the worst part about it because you I know like the first thing they go for is you reunification, but sometimes that's not the best thing to do.

And unfortunately, um some people want to be able to have multiple people in their family.

They don't want to have to go back to that parent that they had because it might not be the best option.

They might not want to go to anybody else, but I feel like with soul, you can have multiple people inside your family, so you don't feel like you're letting somebody down or you're choosing somebody else's side, or that you're um just going against your family or whatever the case may be.

Okay, I got it.

You wanted to jump in, but I you all still need to sell soul.

I am a proponent of adoption, which is a whole other conversation, and I think there's a whole piece about how young people are introduced to adoption, introduced to families.

That's separate.

I think the other piece that's interesting is like families have changed over the decades.

What used to be a quote-unquote traditional family is not how families look, and yet foster care still treats families as a parent or a couple that are that's it, where other people have extended families and um step families and blended families and all those things, and that soul in effect is creating that sort of option for young people who are in foster care, where you can have all of those people.

You don't have to, none of them is mentioned.

The other piece about adoption is termination of parental rights.

Yes, which especially appropriates.

I'm surprised I didn't hear that.

Is something that many young people don't want to do.

They don't have to sever the legal relationship with their birth family.

So there's a lot of things that are positive about soul that give them more options in terms of what feels comfortable to them and what the people that they want, not to have to choose just like this person or this couple and ignore all these other people who are important to them.

And with this legal structure that soul provides, it allows those chosen family members, which could be a mentor, could be a cousin, it could be a neighbor, a teacher.

Right, to be part of, to be recognized as part of the to be legally recognized, which is incredibly important when we're talking about decision making, when we're talking about uh legal standing, and you know, I was I was talking to foster parents a couple of weeks ago, and decisions even around where do they enroll in school, where do they go to the doctor?

When you can't make those choices, you don't understand how important those things are.

Um, and soul provides a legal framework to provide a support network around these young people as they age out and enter adulthood.

I'm off my soapbox, but I'm gonna give you all the last word.

Any last words?

It seems like you want okay.

I'll give you the last word.

Um I'll just close it, keep it short and sweet.

Soul was literally like we have been doing this for three years, like we really put out all of our thoughts, all of our experiences, all of our past experiences, all the things that we might think might happen.

Like we've really put our all into this, and it is different for DC.

And I say DC because I was born and raised here.

The youth is different, I know them, I know what they want, I know what they're looking for, I know what I was looking for.

So I really feel as though this will be a great thing for our city.

I wish I could have chose the people to be in my life that I had around me.

I wish the system would have pushed me more to cultivate those relationships and really keep those people around because now I'm 26.

I aged out of foster care at 22, all because of COVID.

I would have been gone at 21 if it was COVID.

Um, and I was lost, like I really was lost.

I didn't have nobody, I still don't have nobody.

I mean, I do now because of what we created, but um I didn't have nothing.

I didn't know nothing about financial stability, I didn't know nothing about bills, I didn't know nothing about budgeting, like I'm still drowning to this day, y'all.

Like, seriously.

I wish I had somebody to teach me the things that become an adult, like becoming an adult.

I wish I had that.

I wish I had somebody to guide me into this world, and I didn't soul is what that is what we're trying to create.

We want the youth to be able to pick their people, their right people to support them all throughout their life, not just for the moment.

The right people, yes.

Um, I am so incredibly inspired by you all.

And so uh I'm gonna try not to get sappy up here, but thank you.

And when we get it funded, I want you all to come back.

Deal, thank you for your own.

Thank you, Parker.

You're great.

All right, and thank you for moving the chairs back.

Thank you, thank you.

Uh, next we'll have Kari Wood, Time for Change, who is virtual, I believe.

Christy Matthews Jones, DC Girls Coalition, who is virtual.

Uh Natalia Otero, DC Safe.

Mary Ellen Ryan with DC King Care Alliance.

Dante Massey with DC King Care Alliance.

Okay, we're gonna keep going.

No, Kari Wood is here.

Tara Martin, Families for Justice.

Kari Wood is was.

Yes, uh Kari, we have you.

Uh we're just still calling witnesses, and we'll turn to you in one second.

Uh Tara Martin, uh Melody Webb, Angel Brand.

Blair Green.

Aqua Donqua.

All of these are with the Mothers Outreach Network.

I see Angel Online.

Sharon Harris.

Hi there.

We'll get started in one second.

Sharon Harris with the Mothers Outreach Network.

Amy Allen with the Mothers Outreach Network.

Shirley Smith.

Max Tapp with Collaborative Solutions for Communities.

I see Cheryl Lee Smith online.

I see Sharon Harris online.

We will turn to you momentarily.

I'm trying to fill this empty seat.

Dr.

Don Sherman with the community of hope.

I'm here.

Sharing here.

Yes, we'll turn to you momentarily.

Okay.

Thank you.

Dion Reader with the Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative.

Penny Griffith with the Collaborative Solutions for Communities.

Lucy.

So uh pop my apologies for likely mispronouncing your name with the collaborative solutions for communities.

What's your name?

Max Tapp, got it.

Melanie is online.

But she's not here.

Just said she's online.

I think she's out of mind.

Okay.

All right, we'll stop there.

Is that again?

All right.

We're gonna uh Max Tapp is here.

Is Don Sherman here?

If you could have a seat, we'll get you on the next round.

So if you're following along on the witness list, we are at number 30.

I don't believe Dion Reader is here.

It's 31.

People are saying she's downstairs.

So she'll be on the next round.

Dion Reader, Penny Griffith, will be on the next panel.

For this panel, we will start with Kari Wood, time for change.

Good evening and good evening.

Thank you for having me.

Um, my name is Kari Wood.

I am the program manager with Time for Change, and we currently have a grant with CFSA.

Um, I'm speaking on behalf of the full CFSA to be able to retain their full budget.

Um, and also go over the benefits of them retaining their budget and us being able to have a grant with them due to them retaining their budget.

Um, time for changes in the second year with CFSA.

Um, and we've had the privilege of providing financial literacy and building financial independence for students age 15 through 21 that are in care.

Um, this is extensive education covers credit savings and starting a business and many other topics that support both basic financial fundamentals and advanced financial practices like investing, buying a car or home, and interest rates.

For those 18 and over, we take a deep dive into credit reports, defining good and bad credit, and checking credit reports for accuracy.

We have served 58 students who have participated in our financial literacy program.

Of those 58 students, 28 of them have active accounts for match savings portion, which we have partnered with Chase Bank to facilitate.

Each student who has a max savings account has an interest-bearing escrow account with Chase Bank.

The match savings accounts allow students to save money and their funds are matched at a one-to-one or a two to one ratio depending on the student's age for an approved purchase.

An approved purchase can cover housing, education, health or dental expenses, a car purchase, or even starting a small business.

Time for Change has also been able to host monthly money talk Tuesday with students where we go over various topics that lay the foundation for healthy money habits and future planning.

It is an interactive setting where we discuss, we have discussions about money, savings, spending, um budget creation, and many other topics.

Students can be themselves, and there isn't a such thing as a stupid question during our money talk Tuesdays.

In addition to Money Talk Tuesday, MAX savings and the financial literacy portion, we also contribute to the youth transition meetings.

There, we help youth preparing to age out of um that are preparing to age out by informing them of how they can benefit from the MMG program and how to maximize the benefits for housing costs, education, and etc.

In closing, I am here to ask the committee to retain the full budget for CFSA because the impact will have immediate um impact on the youth and the families that we do serve, and also it sets the foundation for them to be able to have financial independence and for a bright financial future for not just only themselves and for their families.

It is important that we invest and continue to invest in the CFSA agency and the partners that support CFSA's mission.

Thank you.

Thank you.

If you could submit your written testimony, that would be helpful.

Um, we will have Christy Matthews Jones with the DC Girls Coalition.

Good afternoon, everyone.

My name is Christy Matthew Jones, and I'm the director of the DC Girls Coalition.

DC Girls Coalition works to elevate and amplify the voices of young women, girls, and gender non-conforming people, and young girls with transit experience of color in DC.

Um DC composed of youth study organizations and advocacy organizations while being managed by uh youth advisory board made up of young girls of color will adopt and fight for the implementation and policy recommendations that censors the youth that we serve leadership and address the needs as defined by them.

Um my testimony today will focus a little bit on the mandatory reporting, but mostly focus on the impact to budget cuts that we're seeing across the board to families and how that will negatively affect the young people's experiences with CFSA.

In Washington, D.C., we've had a history of overreporting to CFSA for black and brown communities, like many other jurisdictions in the country for issues that aren't related to abuse and neglect.

Well, at the same time, we've seen severe cases of abuse and neglect, oftentimes underreported.

CFSA data from the first quarter states that of the 8,170 phone calls that have been made through the hotline, 53% of these cases did not lead to an investigation, and 64% of those cases did not lead to an investigation last year.

25% of these calls have come from school this year, or 42% coming from the schools last year.

I think we all can agree that children and young people who are experiencing abuse and neglect and trauma need to have a safe space to go to receive resources.

However, there is concern that the inherently biased racism that comes with mandatory reporting and seeing black and brown people in certain ways have led to unnecessary interventions and experiences for children to receive trauma as well as their families.

This makes it harder for families to reach out to resources within CFSA and CFSA as a preventative agency or supportive agency for families to keep families together more so as a punitive agency and a punishment to tear families apart.

We often have seen young people who are adults aging out of foster care or adults within foster care have struggled to have agency over where they will be placed.

And we also see, as we work with a lot of young people who have exited out of foster care who still have maintained a relationship with their family, but their family relationship is straying because of the experience that they've had with CFSA.

We want to see more resources being put into prevention and family-based interventions.

Cutting programs that support families with their families are receiving report will only lead to more trauma for children and family.

We think it is critical that we focus our funding on prevention.

We think it is critical that we support families and navigating systems that will help ensure that they don't have an open CFSA case.

Cutting programs like childcare, family-based programs, youth resources and supports only lead to more trauma, and sends a clear message to the community that families and children are not the priority, and experiencing trauma within families and communities are not necessarily what we want to resolve.

We must support families in ensuring that they have access to basic needs in order to ensure that families do not experience mental health breakdowns, traumas, and abuse.

This budget is not equipping families, children, or young people with resources which will which will help, which will help them.

It is only leading to more incidences of trauma, abuse, and neglect.

It is critical that funding be restored.

We understand that actions of city leaders are sending a clear message.

Children to children and youth and families.

These messages are that they don't matter, that they're disposable and their needs are irrelevant.

We have seen an increase in costs of basic needs.

We're expecting families to continue, but we're expecting families to continue to basic support without increasing their income.

We have to support families.

We have to support young people.

We have to show them that they matter, and that's when we should be making our investments in our budget.

Even when we have to make cuts, it shouldn't come on the backs of those who are in the biggest need.

Thanks for your testimony.

Next, we'll have Natalia Otero with DC Safe.

Thank you, Chairperson Parker and members of the committee.

My name is Natalia Otero.

I am the executive director and co-founder of DC Safe.

We serve a critical role in the city's public safety infrastructure as the only 24-7 crisis intervention organization for survivors of domestic violence.

We serve over 12,000 clients annually.

This includes 2,279 who are considered to be high-risk individuals, which include 476 families and 549 children that we housed in our emergency shelter last year in FY25.

As a critical intervention organization, we have clients for a very short time, an average of 14 days.

We see the most intimate part of our clients' lives, and it is extremely important that people are treated holistically, free of judgment, and with dignity and transparency.

It is not uncommon for CFSA to discount or simply not communicate with community advocates that are working actively with families in the community.

This may seem to be more of a performance versus a budget feedback, but we want to emphasize that DC has invested in building a critical infrastructure for DV specific advocacy services as the city recognizes the unique and critical value add of these services.

We understand that the district's budget constraints has constraints, but our concerned that cuts, even if minimal, decrease the agency's capacity to both cooperate but also work towards creative and workable solutions for families and children.

We have had recent progress, but with changes to the DC code and potential new legislative changes around the penalties for abuse in front of children.

We are more concerned than ever about training and technical assistance in domestic violence for CFSA.

Our efforts hit a wall, especially when domestic violence remains pervasive, especially in active cases where an abusive party fragrantly ignores a survivor's attempt to maintain separation and safety.

In CFSA's own PIP goals and strategies from 2025, it listed exploring financial mechanisms to provide support to DV offenders in the district.

Creating mechanisms of accountability is essential, but CFSA must have something to offer in terms of support intervention and services for offenders as well.

Current interventions and treatment programs are available exclusively through court intervention.

This is very specifically a budget ask as program implementation and sustainability requires appropriate funding.

However, there must also be budgetary considerations into in order to provide CFSA with the capacity to explore and identify resources and best practices in offender services.

DC Safe called CFSA approximate approximately 77 times last year.

Our advocates are trained to assess risk and support survivors.

That means they have made an expert assessment, they have historical data on the situation, and they have witnessed things that have prompted them to connect with CFSA in the first place.

Their partnership with CFSA could be crucial in the success of an intervention with a family.

Yet we continue to have challenges in creating a clear partnership with them.

The existing framework places the entire burden of child safety on the survivors' shoulders to meet agency requirements.

This strategy is fundamentally lopsided and cannot be maintained.

I need your help creating a dignified and transparent response from CFSA to the children in our shelter experiencing domestic violence and neglect, ensuring training and technical assistance on DV, as well as trauma-informed and clear internal DV protocols for the agency.

We welcome your support as a thought partner on this.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker, and to your team.

I'm proud to live in DC and to work in partnership with relative caregivers who step in to raise district children when their parents cannot due to crisis illness, incarceration, substance use, or other challenges.

I would like to thank Councilmember Parker for his leadership in passage of the increasing support for grandparent and close relative caregiver act into law.

We are now asking for full funding for grandparent and close relative caregiver program subsidies.

These subsidies are essential supports that help children remain safely with family members they know and trust.

Approximately 22,000 black and brown children in the district are living in kinship care arrangements.

Over the last nine years, DC Kincare Alliance has supported more than 1,100 caregivers, raising over 2,500 DC children.

Many caregivers are older women of color living in wards 5, 7, and 8 who already had tight budgets before unexpectedly taking in children.

The grandparent and close relative caregiver program subsidies often determine whether kinship families can afford rent, groceries, transportation, and other basic necessities.

Children whose parents cannot care for them have the same needs, whether they are placed in foster care or live with relative caregivers outside of the foster care system.

Without the increase passed by the council last fall, foster care maintenance payments have a much higher daily rate than the grandparent and close relative caregiver program subsidies, $38 per day in foster care versus a range of 1579 to 2792 per day for kinship care.

Foster children also receive supports that are not available to children in kinship care outside the foster care system.

For example, up to a thousand dollars to attend summer camp, SAT preparation classes, and dental and mental health screenings.

I've attached to my written testimony a chart illustrating the services available to foster children that children in relative caregiver homes cannot access.

We know that poverty and instability have serious long-term consequences for children.

CFSA increasingly relies on relatives to care for children outside of foster care.

It is critically important that the council fully fund the grandparent and close relative caregiver program subsidies at the rate envisioned by the increasing support for grandparent and close relative caregiver act.

Finally, we ask CFSA to ensure that all public-facing information about these programs is accurate and up to date so that caregivers are not discouraged from applying or confused about eligibility requirements.

We also urge CFSA to publish the 2025 annual report on the Kinship Care Navigator website as access to this information is necessary to verify how subsidy funds were distributed last year and to inform future funding decisions.

In closing, we urge the council to fully fund these subsidy programs and continue investing in kinship families across the city.

Relative caregivers are providing stability, safety, and connection for thousands of DC children, and they deserve meaningful support from the district.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you.

Next, Dante Massey.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker and members of the committee.

My name is Dante Massey.

I live in Ward 7.

I am also the co-head of the DC Can Care Alliance Community Board.

I want to first begin by thanking the council for changing the law to increase the grandparent caregiver program and the close relative caregiver subsidy rate.

Thank you so much.

The change reflects the original intent of the law, which was to provide funding to kinship caregivers that is similar to foster care maintenance program.

If the council fully funds the caregiver subsidy in the physical year 2027, that change will make a real difference for my family and other kinship families like mine, because raising a family in DC keeps getting more expensive.

Without funding behind them, without funding behind them, the grandparent and close relative caregiver program are just words on paper.

In 2018, I suddenly became responsible for my younger brothers and sisters after my mother experienced mental health challenges and could no longer care for them overnight.

I went from having zero children to caring for four kids who depended on me for everything.

Before the close relative program existed, things were extremely hard.

We lived in a shelter and I did not know what we were going to live long time.

I was constantly worried about food transportation and how I will get my siblings safe at school every day.

So I needed a reliable transportation which meant and for car gas while all trying to hold our family together.

It helps me provide stability and consistency for my younger brother so he can focus on school and building a future.

My brother has been playing tennis since he was nine years old.

Now he's doing a tennis pro at 17.

Tennis equipment, tournaments, shoes, clothing are all expensive.

But this is a healthy positive opportunity for that keeps him engaged and focused.

The close relative caregiver program made it possible.

Participating in tennis and the speech therapy needed.

The council created the caregiver program because kinship families do the same work that foster parents do to care for traumatized children who parents can't take care of them anymore.

More importantly, children being cared for by kinship caregivers outside of the foster care system can have system have faced the same kinds of problems that children in foster care have.

They need and deserve the same kind of financial support and services that children in foster care do.

The grandparent caregiver and close relative caregiver program stabilizes families and keep children connected to families and community.

If the district does not support the kinship uh families now, it will pay for more later through the foster care and juvenile justice system.

I urge the council to fully fund the count the caregiver subsidy program and to continue its commitment to supporting kinship families across the district.

Thank you for your opportunity to testify, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Umb who is online.

Good afternoon.

Um, we ask your indulgence as an organizational panel.

Um, and we will do our best to stay within the five minutes.

Um good afternoon, Chairperson Parker.

My name is Melody Webb, executive director of Mothers Outreach Network, a legal and advocacy nonprofit.

Um, thank you for this platform.

It is a testament to their faith in you that mothers feel so comfortable showing up here to share their perspectives.

Um Mothers Outreach Network's mother up pilot, independently evaluated by Harvard Law School's Access to Justice Lab shows what happens when you give black mothers cash without conditions, families stabilize.

Thank you for championing the child tax credit to do that as well.

I'm here because CFSA's Flex funds were designed to do the same, and they have not.

In fiscal year 2026, CFSA spent just 4.8% of its flex fund budget through quarter one, zero dollars on food, zero dollars on clothing, zero dollars on emergency funds.

A foyer request I filed in October of last year found no written eligibility criteria.

Social workers decide case by case with no standards.

That is not a system, it is a gap.

The recommendations I have are these the council must one, transfer flex fund administration out of CFSA to agencies whose mandate is support, not investigation.

Two fully distribute the 1.79 million dollars approved for fiscal year 2026.

Um three, publish written eligibility criteria so families know what exists and whether they qualify, four require public reporting of what was allocated, what was spent, and what was left on the table.

The only other substantial fund for parents, um chairman, chairperson is TANF.

And that's facing drastic reductions as you can see.

So making funds like this are very critical to be spent, and I'll now yield to my colleagues, and um I believe Angel Brand, you are up next.

Or Sharon Harris.

Hello, yes.

Good morning.

My name is Angie Bryant.

I'm a mother of nine children, born and raised in Northeast DC rule seven.

I'm a member of Mothers Outreach Network, and I'm aware of what families in this city experience with CS say.

I'm here today because I have seen how this agency's money is and is not being spent.

And I want this committee to hear what that looks like on the ground.

The goal should be keeping children with their families, and that means making sure families have what they actually need.

Housing voucher, food, furniture, clothing, the basics.

CFSA had the flex fund that exists for exactly this purpose, but families are not sending that money.

I know people, I know who I know people who ask CFSA for furniture and were told no.

Why?

Because they have received help once before.

One time only, that is that is the rule.

No matter what their situation looks like now, I just move.

I know what it costs to start over.

If CSS has unspent flex fund dollars, and a family cannot get a bed or extra clothing for their child, the agency is selling the very people it is funded to serve.

Honestly, if they are not going to spend it on families, they could give it to me.

I could furnish a whole house with what uh they are sitting on.

Me and basic needs is what keeps the family from reaching a crisis in the first place.

I'm not even sure CFSA is the right agency to be doing that, but someone has to make sure the money follows the family.

Maybe I know who you care, but the council funds CFSA, so the council is responsible too.

This is not just about investigations open and cases closed, real outcome family stabilized, children staying home, parents supported.

That is what this funding is for.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you for your testimony.

Now I see Blair Green, Aqua Donqua, and Sharon Harris.

I do not see Sharon Harris, but I see Shirley Smith who is not here.

I'm sorry, okay.

I do see Sharon Harris.

All right.

Uh, you have three people, one minute.

Um I'm first.

Uh we we have Blair Green next.

Uh what I would have what I would recommend instead of reading your scripts, um, is just kind of paraphrase it for us for the sake of time.

Okay, um, sure.

So, hello, um, Chairman Parker.

Um, my name is Blair.

I'll be quick.

So basically what we're advocating for, is for the um child protection services to not be receiving the funding that they are someone else to receive it, maybe a different branch that could receive it that way.

Um, all the families that are in need can feel comfortable to actually go to this other um entity and ask for the help without being at risk for their children to be taken.

Understood.

Why don't we let Aqua jump in?

And to add on to that, um, I would say that it would be important to establish a family stabilization division um in DC government that solely focuses on preventing removals by um assistant families within 45 days before the crisis escalate, um, and then families have to be separated, but it should be by someone other than CSS that manages this division.

Understood.

And then Sharon Harris.

And you're muted.

I look at the many facing frustrated, feeling hopeless, feeling um, like their lives are of them having their children.

And I understand that CFS has said to get us funding to show us the documents.

I don't do my call.

I had everything they gave me to do, but my issue I had was it wasn't giving the funding.

It looked at me as a young mother.

Uh uh, mother that was hurt.

Mother that got into a case later.

And I'm sorry to jump in, Miss Harris.

If you could just give your last thought.

So I want to honor the clock because we have a lot of witnesses.

Okay.

I didn't see uh, I think they get people with the money that needed because we are all or involved in certain aspects of our life.

We need to find that bug, and if we do have you have a back, some kind of backing just falls because it's so long, you have to basically get off with that.

Understood.

Okay, thank you.

I let the record show I gave you all an extra minute.

Uh, but no, thank you for your testimony.

Uh, we have notes, and I I do have some questions.

Uh, so if you can stay on uh until we get to the questions.

Next, we have Shirley Smith.

Shirley Smith, I see you online.

You have to come off mute to give your testimony.

All right.

Maybe Shirley stepped away from the computer.

Can you hear me now?

No, I can hear you.

You can hear me.

Yes.

Councilman Parker for having me today.

My name is Shirley Smith, and I am with the grandparents' caregivers program.

I know you said you have to make it quick and short.

I've been in this program for seven years.

I mean several years, I'm sorry.

And I am Washingtonia.

I live in Ward 8, and I have three grandkids that I have in the program.

I have a 17-year-old who's graduating this year and had the opportunity to go to Livingston Stone College in North Carolina.

Under director and Mr.

Dion Jackson and the rest of the staff there.

An opportunity with a four-year college degree.

A free ride, woman board for four years under this leadership.

It couldn't get no better than that.

When he graduates after his four years, he did not have to pay one red cent back.

And that's awesome.

And I, you know, that's a blessing.

I have never heard of any organization out here in DC that has that program.

And that's pretty much what I need to say.

Because without the program, we as grandparents would not be able to have stability for our grandkids, especially living in Washington, DC.

I live in a three-bedroom apartment in a decent neighborhood.

My grandkids go to child school.

My grandson goes to an all-boys friend.

Without the program, I wouldn't be able to do none of this for my grandkids.

Uniforms, after school activities, tutoring.

All that takes funds.

Without the funds, it wouldn't be possible.

Well, thank you for your testimony.

And we love our grandparents, and I appreciate you just making clear how this program is helping you and so many others like you.

And I just need to shout out Mr.

Jackson, Dion Jackson, Director Tanya, Teresa, Benita, Yvonne, Mr.

Obi.

If I forgot anybody, please.

I love you all.

You didn't shout me out.

Oh yeah, I shout you all beginners.

Um, Councilmere Parker.

Come on now.

I shouted you out first.

Oh, you're right.

I'm totally joking.

But no, it's in all seriousness.

Thank you for your testimony.

You're welcome.

And one more thing.

I know my time is up, but you know, as a grandparent who's bound in stage three kidney disease, these people call me.

They check in on me, they go beyond what their job titles is required.

And that is a gift in itself.

Yes.

To think about somebody else, him, and take that in consideration.

They just call and just check up and say, I just want to make sure you're okay.

Do you need anything?

How are your health going today?

Understood.

Well, I gave you a little extra time, but thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh, we're gonna we're gonna move to Max Tapp.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker.

My name is Max Tapp, and I'm the program manager for the Family Support Services Program at Collaborative Solutions for Communities.

For the past 30 years, our organization has been providing direct intervention and supports to families across the district, and thank you for the opportunity to testify today.

As a program manager, I work closely every day with staff who are directly in families' homes in schools and throughout the community supporting parents and children who are navigating significant challenges.

Our staff are helping families address food insecurity, access benefits, connected mental health services, stabilize housing situations, and advocate for educational support for their children.

These are families who are often facing overwhelming personal and systematic barriers, not families who do not care about their children, but families trying to maintain stability with limited resources and support.

And without support, many of these families could find themselves becoming more deeply involved in the CFSA system.

Our role is prevention to help prevent crises from escalating and to increase support so families can build stronger foundations for long-term stability.

Through our program, we provide case management, parents and education, family group conference, access to workforce development, and ongoing community-based support that helps families remain connected, organized, and stabilized during difficult periods in their lives.

I have seen firsthand how community-based support can help families stabilize and prevent deeper system involvement.

Our family engaged with CSC while navigating significant medical, one family engaged with CSC while navigating significant medical and mental health concerns within the household.

Our staff supported the parent with reinstating medical insurance for the children after coverage had lapsed and connected the family's daughter to ongoing therapy services following concerns related to severe trauma and self-harming behaviors.

In another case, a mother caring for seven children engaged in services to address health care, educational support, and benefits-related needs.

Through consistent case management and support, all children became connected to medical care.

Educational evaluations were initiated for additional school supports, and the parent built confidence in navigating systems and advocating for a family.

We also worked with the mother returning home from incarceration who sought support around reunification, employment, and mental health stability through connections to behavioral health treatment, workforce development services, and ongoing support.

She secured employment, strength and mental health stability, and develop a healthy co-parenting relationship with her children's father.

These families are examples of what can happen when parents are provided with support, guidance, and access to resources before challenges escalate further.

Programs like ours rely on funding through the Office of Thriving Families, which is currently facing a proposed reduction of approximately $4 million in the upcoming budget.

When we invest in prevention programs, we are investing in keeping children safely with their families, reducing the need for foster care involvement, and strengthening the long-term health of our communities.

I urge the council to continue investing in prevention and community-based family support services to recognize that this work is essential to strengthening families across the district.

Thank you for your time and your commitment to the residents of the district.

Thank you.

I'm gonna just quick follow up.

So uh your all your organization is funded through the Office of Thriving Families.

Is that through a routine grant?

CFSA, yes.

CFSA grant.

But it's a grant.

Yes.

Yeah, understood.

Okay.

If you did not submit your testimony, if you could, that would be helpful, uh, Miss Otero.

I don't think we have your testimony, but I definitely want to make sure uh because you raised some concerns.

Um you made a note that you've referred 77, you've called CFSA 77 times over this last year.

And can you just elaborate on what the interaction was like?

Did you get a timely response?

Did someone come out?

What was the follow-through?

Yeah, well, usually when the calls I'm talking about are coming from our crisis shelter.

So those are clients who are at higher risk.

If we're calling, that means that they are staying with us, we've seen something happening, we have some concerns.

Most of our calls are I would classify as neglect.

Many times it's due to the incidents of domestic violence and the caregiving parent struggling.

When we're reaching out, we are getting responses.

We're getting uh people coming out from CFSA and speaking to families.

So I do want to be clear, they're very accessible.

I think where we run into problems or disconnectivity, especially in communication, is after that initial call to the hotline.

Um we're told many times to continue to call the hotline while the family's with us.

But really, what we're looking for is more of a collaborative conversation around what an intervention looks like.

And I think I heard other people.

Hypothetically speaking, sorry to jump in.

So let's say there you witness something in your shelter, you call CFSA to say we are concerned about the well-being of the young person with mom.

Um CFSA comes out, and it sounds like after that you kind of lose contact and you are not aware if they're doing anything or what the status of that young person is.

Exactly.

Okay.

Um recently I visited CFSA and was able to shadow uh their social work team.

And this came up actually, not your specific reference, but these type of cases came up.

Um and that is something I will follow up on in terms of what is the communication protocol back to those making the reference.

Now I would imagine I'm gonna hear CFA CFSA say uh there are protective reasons why they are not reporting back to uh those making the referral because the investigation is ongoing or there may be necessary steps, but I can also understand from your point of view, especially if mom and the child are still in your shelter, you don't know what to do, and or you don't know what the outcome is.

Right.

So I could see that misalignment there.

Yes, I I think there has to be an answer to that.

I mean, we as a DC safe, we work collaboratively with all kinds of federal and local agencies and have gotten into a good cadence with others around what information can be shared and how do we move and prevent uh further harm with families without um because obviously we protect we protect survivors, so we certainly don't want to do anything that wouldn't be protective, but really what we're talking about is if if there's an agency coming into a facility that is not a government facility, and that agency is providing additional support to the family that we are not always equipped to provide, then what is the responsibility that the agency has to the facility and the advocates there to ensure that we are part of the intervention rather than just kind of letting us question and struggle with the family that we're trying to support?

Understood, understood.

Um again, if you could submit your testimony uh so we could follow up with CFSA about that, that would be great.

Um from our friends from DC King Care Alliance, very proud to push on the grandparent subsidy program.

Now we just have to find money for it.

And so the challenge is to fund it.

I will say transparently that will be tough in this year's budget, just because there are so many reductions elsewhere, but it is something we're still prioritizing and pushing on, and appreciate your push for just greater transparency.

This is something we've also worked with the agency on, worked with maybe too generous of a term.

It's something we flagged for the agency that we've heard across the board.

How do we make things more transparent so that there is a one-stop shop?

If there's a website or a pamphlet to just say here's the program, this is how you qualify, this is how you apply.

Just so that there's little ambiguity, and that's something I heard from foster parents.

I've also heard from you all.

Um our friends and mothers outreach network.

I hear you loud and clear about the flex funds.

We will follow up and ask CFSA about this.

Ums Harris, I think you were the one that said you applied but were denied access to the flex funds if you're still there.

Yes, sorry.

What reason or rationale was given from CFSA why you couldn't utilize the flex funds?

Honestly, it's a popular because I had money loss and other things, they didn't even get any change.

I'm sorry, if you could uh it's hard to make out what you're saying.

If you could say it again.

Because I have because I'm diagnosed with memory loss and have um a traumatic brain injury, they didn't even take an experience that we need my Facebook, it took me 13 million years to even get back my funds and not fit.

I don't know what happened, but they didn't get the individual.

I think that ever had my funds came out of my topic.

Oh, part of it.

Um, Melody, you want to jump in?

Yeah, I mean, as I will detail in our testimony, there really are no standards.

It's not transparent, the manner in which they go about um making decisions to provide flex funds.

It's a somewhat complex uh setup whereby the uh collaboratives are provided with flex funds, the agency, presumably social workers have a part of the funds that have been created, but it is not transparent, though there's no published documentation as to how people qualify or request those funds, and I'm happy to share in our uh detailed written testimony what the conundrum is.

And you know, we re we hear this from moms all the time.

The moms here, some of them can speak to this that they have had needs for furniture uh for other items, and we're told in one case you've received.

I think Angel said this that you received funds already, um, so we can't provide you with additional funds for this child uh for this child's furniture.

And you are recommending or you all are recommending that we move the flex funds.

Where are you recommending we move the fund to?

We don't have an answer, but we are happy to study this with you.

Um we believe that agencies that are in the primary business of providing uh these kinds of supports would be better suited, um, given the core mission of this agency, which is more to um address uh removals um and placing children into uh foster care.

We we it's just not their core business.

That's an interesting framing.

Um with all due respect.

That's interesting framing that you see the mission as removing kids and putting them in foster care.

I think our friends at CFSA would say their mission is about youth well-being and fostering the well-being of young people and ensuring their safety.

Yeah, and then with all due respect, this is a multi-year problem that we testify about every season, um, and we think that it's just not within their capabilities.

We also find that there are parents who um do not want to accept funds because of the strings that come with this, the surveillance, the reporting, um, and so it makes sense to us.

Can you say more about that?

So once someone gets the flex funds, what reporting requirements are there, or as you put it, the strings attached?

We don't really know how it's done.

Um, we know that it's within the agency's purview to provide these funds.

Um, and we know that um when a parent is receiving those funds, it's typically under situations where they're being um monitored by um a social worker.

Um and we would prefer that um if a family identifies a need that that need is met through um agencies that are in the business of providing emergency funds.

Um, you know, it could be Department of Human Services uh programs.

It could be continued uh as delivered through uh nonprofit partners, nonprofit partners receiving grants through again um other agencies.

Um we think that's the best way to meet the needs of parents without content continued subject being sub continuously being subjected to um uh surveillance.

Understood.

Uh one more follow-up.

Has any of the uh witnesses or the parents on have received flex funds, or am I to understand you've all been denied access?

I mean, I I don't want to speak for them, but you know, to some extent, people feel somewhat like you know it's confidential information because it might mean the testifying relationship.

Well, they were they have prepared a way to talk about it that they were comfortable with.

Um, so I don't want to put anybody.

I hear you.

Well, if you could follow up offline, I you raise an interesting point about the strings attached and the reporting requirements.

And so if that is happening, I just will like a better understanding.

But I understand people would rather share their experiences offline.

So, can I briefly add on here?

Yes, please do please do.

There was a time that I had a need.

Um, and I did not accept help because I would have had to have an open CFSA case to receive the help.

Got it.

Okay.

Not something that you know you want to do.

Is that the flex funds, or when you say help?

I'll be specific.

So there's I'm a homeowner, and there's some water that started seeping from the bathroom upstairs down into the kitchen, and it made an ugly water stain on the ceiling.

And in order to receive help, because I did not have a founded case, the only way to receive the help was to agree to have an open case.

Um for employment reasons and the stigma, the constant visits from CSSA.

Would that do to my children, my family?

I went without the help.

No, thank you for that.

That's insightful.

I just want to make sure I'm tracking this.

Are you when you say you requested help?

You're talking about the flex funds or another fund, like another.

To receive flex funds.

Um I would have had to be willing to have because it I wasn't like found um guilty of neglect abuse, anything like that.

But in order to receive flex funds or any type of financial assistance, I would have had to agree to have an open case.

Understood.

I hear you loud and clear.

And you opted not to do that for obvious reasons, absolutely.

Understood.

What we recommended is that there is some publication that it be publicized, how one would request funds.

I think that's very fair, and that's in line with what we're hearing from the KingCare Alliance about the grandparent subsidy.

That's what we're hearing from foster families about supports that they're entitled to, that there just needs to be a one-stop shop or web side something where people are just clear on what's available and how to apply.

So that I take to heart.

Um all of this I take to heart.

I'm just trying to parse out uh some of what you're sharing in terms of your testimony.

Right.

And so we again, I'll submit written testimony.

It was a little bit challenging to provide all the details.

Councilmember Park, and I hope we can talk about this given that we had to split our time between so many participants.

So, but thank you for the opportunity.

Understood.

Thank you all.

Uh, your testimony is always impactful.

Um, and then last, uh Max Tapp, thank you.

You spoke about the need for more consistent case management and support as well as the grant funding that is at jeopardy given just the reductions across CFSA's budget.

Um, again, we're gonna do everything we can uh just to put it in perspective.

When I said I was late coming here, the council were having meetings about all of the many cuts, all of the many service program cuts across government.

And so normally, if our committee was cut, we can reach over here and say, can you share money or send money in?

Uh but literally every committee is kind of reeling.

Um, that doesn't mean we won't do what we can, but I just want to kind of paint the picture while also families are feeling the burden of high higher costs and social uh programs being reduced as well.

I'm gonna stop there for the sake of time for this panel.

I want to say thank you all for your uh testimony, and we're gonna keep moving for the sake of time.

I it is my understanding Amy Allen is here in the chamber.

Okay, Amy, you could join.

Uh then Dr.

Dawn Sherman from the Community of Hope.

Uh Dion Reader from the First Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative.

Uh Penny Griffin for the Collaborative Solutions for Communities.

I'm gonna try this name one more time.

Lucy.

Lucy G from uh collaborative Solutions for Communities.

I'm sorry, you're gonna have to tell me how to pronounce your last name.

I don't want to butcher it.

For the sake of time, I'm gonna call.

I know there are others here, but you have to testify in person.

So I'm gonna take a couple more virtual people, Karen Austin from the Edgewood Brooklyn Family Support Collaborative, who should be online.

Is she available?

She's not.

Okay, maybe I'll try two more.

Tita Jane Sang from the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborator should be online.

No.

Pamela Long from the Georgia Avenue.

Nope.

Okay.

Maybe I'm being too ambitious, and we'll just stop with Lucy.

And Amy, you can begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon.

Greetings, Chair, member of the DC Council, constituents, colleagues, and citizens.

My name is Amy Allen, a mother, a grandmother, a frontline health care worker, and an advocate.

Although I'm an act, an active advocate for advocates for justice and education, fair budget coalition, spaces in action, Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless.

Today I'm representing Mother's Outreach Network.

I've testified previously about my experience with CFSA and offered my support to Councilmember Parker's bill, B 26-0409, empowering parents and CFSA Investigations Amendment Act of 2025.

I'm very passionate about today's topic at hand because it hits close to home.

I would like to provide my testimony and suggestions on how I would hope the funds for family resources, which are all controlled by CFSA, should be allocated, directed, and tracked.

Mines along with everyone else's tax dollars, pays this agency's salary, which also makes these benefits possible for others when in need.

For one, I personally felt that CFSA had a tendency to bait parents, guardians in with services and funds, which in which they have control of distributing, you know, like using a dangling carrot over a hungry rabbit's head.

Because it almost happened to me.

Let me explain.

My ballot with CFSA was initiated last year, all due to my daughter's mental instability.

Not because I couldn't afford to care for her, because I've been employed consecutively in the laboratory world alone for well over 25 years.

Backstory.

A year ago, the school, IEP team, principal parents, therapists, lawyers were all in agreement to allow my daughter to temporarily resume virtual learning, awaiting to reconnect with a permanent psychiatrist.

A temporary psychiatrist who was assigned to her denied the request to temporarily allow virtual learning.

Virtual learning also included any assignments or homework packets distributed in paper form, completed at home.

Her permanent mental health care was interrupted because she was removed off of the network's case load with no warning or notice.

The issue was investigated by her former health care plan at the time.

The reason given to them was still unclear as to why the child, why my child would be on psychiatric medications prescribed by a psychiatrist yet dropped from care.

For a moment, no one was monitoring her medications.

I had to do a brand new intake and wait another eight months to be assigned a new provider.

The whole time my daughter was having a heavily documented mental health crisis with her primary health providers.

This denial from the temporary psychiatrist forced the school to comply, meaning all in-person physical absence were now unexcused.

This triggered FF CFSA.

CFSA turned the school situation from mental health crises to educational neglect and Munchauser's by proxy on me.

So to wrap all of this into today, during my voluntary three-hour interview with CFSA, the individual slid me a piece of paper full of services.

I felt this individual was baiting me in to admit I was in need.

I asked CFSA why would I get this?

I was told, oh, just in case you may need help.

The problem was I didn't ask for help financially.

I was trying to get help for my daughter mentally.

Now, I feel that if I would have looked over the paper and asked for help financially, CFSA would have had probable calls to say I was negligent or unable to care for my child.

Case was closed shortly after, with no findings, of course.

However, CFSA never offered me help for my daughter's mental health.

CFSA should be funded from a third party to remove the stigma of entrapment slash baiting.

The focus should be on three main priorities: keeping children safe, supporting families, creating stable and long-term outcomes, not criminalizing families because they are low middle income families who don't know their rights or law.

Furthermore, I really hope this is not a tactic for CFSA to create caseloads just to have justification to tap into resources.

Because again, I didn't even ask for help, and the resources literally fell in my lap.

Keep in mind, these are the same resources that many needy families weigh hours in line at Department of Human Services for, but this is another topic for another day.

In closing, strong oversight from a third-party committee with accountability parameters, clear, transparent results with tracking of benefits and funds, ensure funds are used effectively and timely.

Every dollar should directly improve the safety, stability, and well-being of all children and families.

Thank you for this opportunity to testify, and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

And I know that was personal, so thank you for being vulnerable in your testimony.

Next, we'll have Dr.

Dawn Sherman.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker and members and staff of the Committee on Youth Affairs.

I am Dr.

Dawn Sherman, Vice President of Community Impact and Evaluation at Community of Hope and a Ward 7 resident.

Community of Hope is a fairly qualified health center, offers services for families and individuals experiencing homelessness, and operates the Bellevue Family Success Center at our Conway Health and Resource Center in Ward 8.

The Bellevue FSC is one of nine family success centers funded by the Office of Thriving Families under Families First DC.

I am here today to urge you to restore funding for the Family Success Centers.

Elimination of funding is disastrous at a time when DC residents are facing higher needs and more barriers to accessing services.

When the Families First DC initiative was launched in 2019, I worked at CFSA as part of the team that helped the agency exit over 30 years of receivership.

The intent of the initiative was to keep families from entering CFSA's front door by supporting families in the front yard with CFSA's, excuse me, with family success centers serving as a tool for primary prevention embedded in our communities with the highest risk for CFSA involvement.

Prevention works, and the elimination of funding for the family success centers weakens our city's commitments to preventing child welfare involvement and keeping DC families together.

The family success centers are a vital component to provide upstream services that prevent crises before they escalate.

We see the impact of this every day in the Bellevue Family Success Center.

As part of a community health needs assessment completed in April 2026, we received survey responses from over 1,400 DC residents, including 300 residents who live in the Bellevue community.

The survey data told us that over 22% of survey residents experienced housing instability within the last 12 months, with nearly half of those residents in immediate danger of losing their homes.

Nearly 44% of surveyed residents worried about having access to food for themselves and their families, with 40% skipping meals due to cost.

This reflects what we see in the Family Success center every day for food, housing, and employee assistance, employment assistance.

Community of Hope sees families by appointment and via walk-in, and our family success specialists regularly connect families with food resources, housing resources, and employment supports.

Staff often provide referrals to residents for our medical, dental, emotional wellness, work, and homelessness prevention plans.

Through our service navigation assistance, on site supports, specialized programs, and community safety events, the Bellevue Family Success Center serves over 550 households in 2025, and we expect to surpass this number in 2026.

The Bellevue FSC's community advisory council is a vital part of the program's design.

The 14 members of the CAC, all Bellevue residents, provide feedback on the types of services that would benefit Bellevue residents and help design programs to meet the community's needs.

Family success centers allow community members to lead, leveraging their lived experience to promote healthier families and a more resilient community.

We urge the council to restore the proposed cuts to the family success centers in the amount of $2,925,000.

When we invest in families early, we prevent deeper system involvement, reduce long-term costs, and create stronger, safer communities.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I am available to answer any questions you may have.

Thank you.

Next, we'll hear from Dion Reeder.

Thank you again.

Can we switch and Penelope go first and then I go after her?

Thank you.

That's totally fine.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker and members of the committee.

I'm Penelope Griffith, executive director of collaborative solutions for communities.

CSC is one of the original eight Healthy Families Thriving Communities Collaboratives funded in the early 1990s.

As of today, the remaining five collaboratives are Collaborative Solutions for Communities, Its River Family Strengthened Collaborative, Edgewood Brooklyn Family Strengthened Collaborative, Far Southeast Family Strengthened Collaborative, Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative.

My testimony is intended to remind you of the critical and intentional role the collaborative plays in the district child welfare system.

This year's marks 30 years of providing a citywide network of community-based prevention and supportive services, working in tandem with CFSA as part of its efforts to restructure the child welfare services in the early 90s.

The District of Columbia initiated steps to create a neighborhood-based system of services and supports to help families better care for their children.

This model was part of a broader shift toward a popular-based, I'm sorry, population-based approach to child welfare, aiming to strengthen all families rather than focusing solely on those in crisis.

In 1993, Congress enacted the Family Preservation and Family Support Act, which provided funds for states to plan and develop community-based services for families.

The legislation encouraged states to include a wide range of stakeholders, especially families and neighborhood-based organizations in both planning and delivering a wide range of family prevention and family support services.

In response to this legislation, the district formed a citywide steering committee to develop an application to the federal government to fund to foot for funds available to serve families.

The work of this committee led to the development of neighborhood collaboratives that would have a substantial role in the design and delivery of child welfare and family support services.

LaShawn A versus Barry, a class action lawsuit that was brought against the district on behalf of the children in 1989 resulted in a court order requiring the city to improve its services to abused and neglected children and their families.

The order includes a requirement to develop a neighborhood based services to be specific, the order states, in developing decentralized community-based services, the department shall move towards ensuring the availability of needed resources in each ward of the district to assure that the needs of children and families are met within their own neighborhoods.

To the extent possible, new resources should be located in agencies and organizations which are accessible to parents.

A general receiver appointed by the U.S.

District Court in 1995 to run the child, sorry, a general receiver was appointed by the district court in 1995 to run the child and family service agency, spur the movement towards neighborhood-based services.

The receivers' plan for the new community-based child welfare system also called for social workers to be detailed or co-located within the collaboratives.

In other words, social workers were intended to be physically embedded in the neighborhoods where the families, where the families on their caseloads lived, working side by side with the collaborative staff to deliver coordinated family centered services.

Together, this integrated team would partner with families to develop a comprehensive safety plans for children, as well as a robust network of formal and informal support.

It is critical to underscore that the creation of the collaboratives was delivered deliberate and mandated by the U.S.

district court to the legislation in 1995.

Collaboratives were specially established to provide co-located services, essential parent support, and vital neighborhood-based services.

Although the proposed budget does not formally reduce the collaborative baseline funding, the elimination of these core services functionally represents a budget reduction.

The impact is compounded by the fact that the collaborative budget has remained flat for the past nine years, effectively eroding our capacity to fulfill the very purpose for which we were created.

I am asking that you continue to honor the LaShawn A.

vs.

Barry class action lawsuit by maintaining these services, co-location of CFSA staff, and critical prevention services such as parent education and family support.

Thank you for hearing my testimony.

Thank you.

And then next we'll have Deion Reader.

Yes.

Again, good to see you, Councilmember Parker.

Thank you so very much for the opportunity to testify.

I won't repeat a lot of what Penny has said, but I am Dion Bussey Reader, the Chief Executive Officer of the Far Southeast Family Strengthening Collaborative, and I'm here today to join Pendy to testify on behalf of all of the remaining five Healthy Family Thriving Communities collaboratives.

Our commitment to families and communities remain unwaving as we continue to ensure that families living in the shadows of the city, struggling to provide for themselves, waiting and wishing for change, receive the support they need to become more self-sufficient and healthier.

As Penny stated, this marks 30 years of providing a citywide network, and I have to say we're the only organizations that have a collective citywide network that we all provide the same work to families throughout the city the same way.

That's important.

As a system-wide network, we use clinical strength-based approach and the same practice standards in every quadrant of the city.

We are uniform, tested, and we have shown that despite constant changes and constant budget reductions with fewer resources, we have consistently exceeded our benchmarks and provided the prevention and intervention supports CFSA needs in the communities for the families who are often difficult to reach.

In an effort to demonstrate the impact of the Healthy Family Thriving Community Network, the following data is provided, and you have this in my testimony.

In the last fiscal year, October 1 through 2024 through September 30, 2025, the collaboratives provided vital support to communities facing complex challenges across Washington, D.C., making meaningful differences by serving 10% of the households that fall below the poverty line.

This includes children reaching all eight wards, families predominantly inwards for the wards 8, providing family supportive services to at least 2% of those families six to nine months.

Let's be clear, there's approximately 121,000 people in the District of Columbia that live below the poverty line.

We know that.

Collectively, we touch 10% of their population through one or more of the collaboratives' programmings.

Significantly, the collaboratives outpace anticipated goals by 25%, a clear indication of both the capacity to serve, despite challenges to multiple funding sources over the course of the year, as well as an increasing demand for preventive services in the district.

This achievement is not only showcased operational success, but also signals stronger community trust and an urgent need for early intervention.

As families seek assistance to overcome barriers from CFSA involvement becomes necessary, the collaborative's effectiveness is higher, is further highlighted by 42% increase over projected service targets for community prevention cases, underlining our essential role in safeguarding families before barriers become insurmountable at communities level.

Throughout the year, collaboratives report that most families engaged in case management sought health providing with pressing housing challenges, including struggles to save, to find safe, affordable housing, and to keep up with the rising rent and utility costs, extremely high utility costs.

Citywide, the collaboratives provided emergency assistance through our flex funds to assist with the rising cost of housing, utilities, and other daily expenses.

Families also discussed and achieved case management goals related to our other impactful areas.

The scope of our services provided by the collaboratives are often extends beyond initial requests to address more pressing needs not initially presented.

By working with the collaborators, families benefit from job readiness programs connected to advanced network, a vast network, excuse me, of other resources, providers, and support and navigating the often complex systems needed to provide for their children.

This comprehension approach, comprehensive approach recognizes that family stability relies on the network of support to overcome interconnected barriers for stronger, thriving families in DC.

The impact of our cases is clear.

90% of our children served by the collaborative remain the safe, I'm sorry, safely at home by case closure, surpassing outcomes for the service team.

Furthermore, no collaboratives reported that children were removed into kinship or foster care by CFSA during the FY F by 25 service year.

Just want to highlight a couple of our data points.

40% of the families receive housing supports, 34% of our families receive utility supports, 19% receive rent assistance.

In addition to the concrete housing supports, families also receives household management, including furniture, homemaking services, financial management, budget, and assistance.

32% of our families receive services related to employment.

17% of our families receive support to obtain and maintain eligible benefits.

23% of our families received mental health services for adults in the households, and the collaborators provided across to accept provided access to family success centers across the city.

That's parent cafes, employment and job readiness workshops, daily meals, nutrition services, access to hygiene items, diapers, baby supplies, and more.

All families had access to wraparound case management services, as well as including but not limited to parental support, caregiver education, emergency assistance, and address immediate needs.

Again, you see in our in my testimony, you actually see the data points, council member, and it's important that you see the impact that we're making.

Again, I thank you for the opportunity to testify before you and look forward to more conversations.

And I'm gonna jump into questions.

Um I want to start with the family success centers.

Like I get it.

To restore that cut, it's something like 3.5 million dollars or something to in that neighborhood.

And so having the data is helpful.

There was a question of which which of the family success centers are most successful.

Well, all of us are gonna say our own.

Of course, of course.

I think that we all have specialties throughout the entire city, and it is really meant it's really focused on the community that you're serving.

So depending on where you are, we meet that immediate need.

And I can speak for those that I know of, at least seven of them I work with closely.

Five of us are in Ward 8.

So we see the need growing.

In our report, you'll see over 600 families per week we feed in separate quadrants of the city.

So it will be hard for me to say to you, Councilmember Parker, which ones have the greatest impact because our impact is based on the needs of the communities and the quadrants that we serve.

Okay, people hail back from giving a round of applause.

If there was only, and I and I hate to ask it this way, but if there was only a fraction of the 3.5 million dollars, how do we go about that?

I knew you were gonna ask that.

Um, and I think we it will be fair for us all to look at the impact and the data points, and we all collect data, and I think that decision should be made based on the impact in the data.

And then I have to also add this, and I'm gonna get my colleagues on the street.

You all collect the same data.

Well, no, this all different data based on it's so it's the same data that we have to submit to CFSA.

However, how we collect it is based on your own organization.

The collaboratives have a tendency to use efforts to outcome, and we also use the impact data that CFSA has asked us to use.

Let me ask another thing that has come up.

How do we I know the need is there?

I totally get it.

In fact, I uh worry that we are um underestimating the impact of so many cuts to services and programs.

We talk about public safety, we talk about truancy, we talk about mental health, and yet all of the preventative services and programs that are keeping people uh upright in many ways uh we're cutting back.

Yes.

That said, when I look at services and programs where it's rental assistance and utility assistance and food assistance, how are we thinking more uh towards sustainability?

That yes, I'm gonna pay your rent or I'm gonna help you with food, but then in three months, we shouldn't keep having you come back every month because you should be that's exactly right getting on your feet.

Like, how are the family success centers tracking that metric?

So I'll I'll yield too.

I'm gonna thank you.

So, as part of our work, all of the family success centers implement an evidence-based program.

Uh, for example, at the Bellevue Family Success Center, we have a program called Let's Get It, where we provide residence assistance with employment or housing.

When a resident comes to us and they express a need in employment or housing, we take that opportunity to get a better sense of that family's needs and what barriers they may be experiencing that is are causing them to not have stable employment or stable housing.

Our goals are really to build resiliency in our families.

We understand that crises happen, and we do have some funds and resources available to meet those emergency needs.

However, we want to be able to build within them the capacity to meet the need as it is right now, but thinking ahead, getting them out of the sustained talk and putting them in a mindset of change.

What can we do to put ourselves in a better position to provide for ourselves and our families?

And so it's more than just that one-time one-off emergency support, but also building strength and capacity within our families to fight to be more resilient, link with other resources and community-based organizations to build their network of of care and those that can support them, and hopefully set them on a path for being more resilient so that they don't need to get those emergency services anymore.

If I may, I wanted to also um add that the other piece is really really important is making sure that we get them in employment opportunities that they can sustain themselves.

So, in doing that, we're looking at what's out here.

What are the jobs that are out here and how do we get our families prepared for that?

We were excited in Ward 8 when we saw the hospital come because we thought that that would be a track for many of our families to get sustainable employments to stay in the city.

Well, quite frankly, the hospital is failing us.

So then what do we do, Councilmember Parker, when we prepare families for the jobs that are available and then the jobs that are available actually, fail the residents?

So we have to.

What we're doing, I know we're doing this all across the board.

We're not just looking at the typical traditional employment opportunities anymore.

We're looking at jobs that can sustain our families, upward 50 to 60,000 that are on career tracks.

So we are also partnering with our, or far southeastern's on specifically, is partnering with our adult public charter schools.

What are the job tracks that are there that we can put our families into those job tracks and ensure at the end of that training that they have jobs?

We've now formed the MOU with the community college, preparatory academy and ward eight, and we're filtering our families through that track once they come with us so we can get them, like my sister said to my right, get them on that train so that they can just sustain themselves.

And that's but again, you can't do that if you cut us out.

And if you can enumerate the impact to the loss, let's say there's no funding for family success centers.

That's a problem.

Like just draw out the impact as you see it.

Well, I'll let Penny talk about the balance that you're gonna see.

Because it's it's the micro.

So I've been in DC for over 40 years, and I've seen the ebbs and ties of what we do when we cut funds, people get frustrated naturally.

We will we will, right?

Um, youth decide to make money for their families, decide to earn money for their families the best way they know how, whether it's brown or black or white, they're gonna try and fend for their families.

So you're gonna see an increase in youth activities, behavioral activities that we don't want to see.

We've seen some of that right now in an in a different way.

So we're trying to curtail that by not having the young people become the breadwinner of the family in the way that they shouldn't.

Um, you're gonna see an increase in educational issues um coming to the forefront because families are stressed out, and when they're stressed out, I can think about taking my child to school.

I can think about doing those things.

So the mental health issue is gonna exacerbate to some degree.

Um, so there's gonna be a family crisis, and we know that.

As social workers as therapists, we know that's coming.

It's coming up.

Yeah, I asked that question, and you know, well, while our mayor is on TV, uh standing next to the U.S.

attorney lecturing, um, and talking away about black kids in the city, the programs and services, feeding them, supporting their families are being cut back, and a budget where we're seeing programs slashed, where poverty is on the rise in a district, homelessness is on the rise.

Uh, we see investments in more beds at DRS.

That's right.

And so it just, to me, you know, we have to get serious about where our values really are as a city, and I just worry that we are a bit askew.

Now, that's no shade to the leadership of CFSA.

There's no secret, I'm a fan of Director Torres Trice.

Uh, ascribe these words and feelings to me, but I just feel as though this budget is a damning indictment on the vision for the future of the district.

Exactly.

And that may sound pretty strong, but uh I think uh say what you want to say about the family success centers, but the the people need their rent paid, people need food, people are desperate, and I agree with you completely.

There's only so much people are going to do when they're desperate, and that's not excusing violence and delinquency and other things, but it's human nature.

Um, and and um there is a misalignment with our stated values, this budget, and the goals that we say we're striving towards.

And so I just want to level set that because anytime you get on TV demonizing black kids, I have a problem with that.

And when you are investing, when you are investing in the very catalytic forces that are gonna send more of those young people either into our child welfare system or into our DRS system, um I think we should name that clearly.

I'm gonna give you the last word.

Okay.

No, I I just wanted to echo what you stated, and I think we have to look at what that's gonna what's gonna happen, the rippling effect once we cut these resources, what's gonna happen, and the pressure is gonna be on your nonprofit community-based providers.

And we cannot do any more.

We have sustained cuts since 2017 to this budget each and every year, and we're still doing more with less.

And it's unfair to assume that we can do it again.

So we have to do something if we're serious about keeping our families safe and giving them hope to be able to thrive, we have to make sure that we're not cutting what they see as their sustainable foundations to keep them going.

And I can already hear people say, Well, it's a tough budget year.

We have to cut.

We have to cut.

I just will remind people the cuts and choices that have been made over multiple years to our social safety net, go further than what the Trump administration has proposed.

That's right.

What we are watching are tens of thousands of residents.

And it's no surprise where they live in the city, wards five, seven, and eight predominantly walking towards a cliff.

And so we can rave about a commander stadium.

Now I don't even know where.

See, this is where I get in trouble.

I'm now on my sofa.

But I just sometimes it's like we're screaming into the boys.

It feels like we're screaming into the boy, and it's like, is nobody paying attention to this.

And so that's why the Seoul Act is important.

That's why the child tax credit is important.

That's why these investments in early education and workforce are important.

And then you hear the talking heads on Twitter that say, Oh, well, DC gives so much money away, and oh, you do so much, and uh we have to work about growing our economy.

Well, I'll just end with this.

Um, again, it's about the vision for the district.

That's right.

We can grow our economy and take care of our people, and this budget uh doesn't do that.

I'm pretty clear out about that.

So uh I can't make promises on the family success centers.

What I can say is I know there is a need, we will do our very best.

I do want guidance from you all if there's only a fraction, if we can only scrape up two million dollars.

What does that mean?

Do we divide that?

Or do you just fund some of the family success centers?

Now I know you all aren't gonna say that, but that that's where we're at.

Uh if we can fund all of it, that is what we will intend to do.

We sent you a letter especially too from all of the success centers.

We all joined the ladder and sent it to you directly with some suggestions and recommendations.

You will or did we have sent it, we've already sent it over.

You should have it.

I even sent it with my testimony.

I did it twice.

Okay.

I will make, I have not read it in full transparency, but I will make sure I read it if you all can just note that.

So I will go back and get that.

We're also available to think this thing through.

Yes.

I know you have to, I know the city council have to make the decisions.

Yes, but allow us to be in that space to probably be give some suggestions.

So here's the tension.

The options we have because we could make ourselves.

Here's the tension.

I'm gonna let you in on some inside baseball.

So there's uh limited wiggle room in my committee in terms of moving money around.

So if you're talking about $3.5 million for family success centers, safe shores is how much more 1.5 million, let's say.

They investigate child sexual abuse, by the way.

That was cut too.

If you talk about now, you see how it quickly adds up.

We don't have 10 million dollars to move money around, which means now we have to talk to my colleagues.

Uh, and at the same time, they're saying, Well, I need vouchers, I need uh support for uh justice grants, and the list goes on.

Um so what I will take you all up on that, let's strategize, but I also think we need to tell the story to the broader council so that they're clear on the value add of our family success centers.

Uh I will be there going to bat for you, but I think if as much as we can um tell the story, I think that will be helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you, thank you.

Thank you.

All right, Ramon Raman Branch from the East River Family Strengthening Collaborative.

And I think I saw him, yep.

Uh Isaiah Williams from the Edgewood Brooklyn Family Support Collaborative, Gabriela Pointer from the Edgewood Brooklyn Family Support Collaborative, uh Christine Dupree from the Edgewood Brooklyn Family Support Collaborative.

And I'm gonna call up the next two just because you all are here on the same group.

Uh Crystal Ferguson, I'm gonna just ask if you could pull up a chair on the side from the Edgewood Brooklyn Family Support Collaborative and Tamitha Davis Rama from the Edgewood Brooklyn Support Collaborative.

I called earlier, but I'll do it again.

Um Karen Austin from the Edgewood Brooklyn Family Collaborative who may be virtual.

Okay.

Mr.

Branch, it's good to see you, and you may begin your testimony.

You're kind of surrounded by the uh Edward Brooklyn folks, but.

So you'll soon find out that the collaborative network is a family in its entirety.

So I'm with my people right now.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker, members of the committee.

My name is Rachman Branch, and I'm the CEO of East River Family Strengthening Collaborative and a proud Ward 8 resident.

I appreciate the opportunity to testify today on behalf of the Healthy Families Thriving Communities Collaborative Network.

While the mayor's proposed FY27 budget doesn't explicitly cut the collaboratives' core contracts, it calls for a $4.06 million reduction to CFSA's Office of Thriving Families.

This line item funds the collaboratives' community-based and primary prevention programs.

So a multi-million dollar reduction there directly and immediately impacts our budgets and service capacity.

The truth is collaborative funding has been flat or declining since 2017, even as even as costs have risen and needs have grown.

Removing critical prevention dollars now is effectively another significant cut that our organization cannot absorb without reducing service.

Today, the district's most effective prevention outcomes are a result of sustained investment from the Healthy Families Thriving Communities Collaborative Network.

We're the system that makes those sites work.

The network is not a collection of independent programs, it's a coordinated community-led prevention infrastructure that has functioned for nearly three decades to keep families stable and children safe with their families.

Its strength lies in the collective accountability, shared data, aligned practice standards, trusted community relationships, and seamless coordination with district agencies.

None of that exists if the funding is reduced to individual centers operating in isolation.

When funding is redirected to single locations by reinforcing the network itself, the district weakens the very structure that prevents deeper system involvement.

Fragmented funding forces collaboratives to operate in silos, increase duplicative work, and ultimately drive families back towards crisis-driven and far more expensive interventions.

What appears flexible in the short term becomes costly in the long term.

The Office of Thriving Families was built on the principle of being community-led and government supported.

That principle only works when government invests in the collective backbone that allows community organizations to function as a system rather than competitors.

The network provides that backbone, coordinating services across neighborhoods, ensuring quality and accountability, and allowing district to scale rather than react to emergencies.

Supporting the network is not an enhancement, it's the foundation.

Put simply, when prevention programs are cut, families don't vanish, they reappear in deeper crises.

They still need help, but end up seeking it in emergency rooms, shelters, or through formal child, child welfare investigations.

The collaboratives will keep doing everything we can to assist these families, but without adequate funding, we cannot meet the demand effectively or proactively.

That means higher costs for the districts down the line and more important worse outcomes for children.

To avoid that outcome, I respectfully ask the committee to take the following actions.

Restore the full 4.06 million reduction to the Office of Thriving Families, thereby reinstating support for not just uh family success centers, but the merit of programs they house within it, maintain the co-located CFSA staff within collaborative offices, preserving a proven model of coordinated service delivery between government and community partners, continue investing in community-driven prevention-focused approaches that strengthen families and keep children out of crisis and foster care, and sustain and reinvigorate the partnership between district agencies and the collaboratives using CFSA as a model, as an exemplar.

Ensuring trusted neighborhood organizations can continue to deliver cost-effective service, cultural responsive services at scale as well.

Prevention is not ancillary to child welfare.

It's foundational.

Prevention works when we fund systems, not silos.

And right now, the system that prevents harm is being asked to do more with less.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you for your testimony.

Um, you all are all with the Edgewood Brooklyn family support collaborative.

I'm gonna let you all just go one after the other, but who I have first is Isaiah Williams.

And so then you all can just go instead of me having to jump in.

Good afternoon, Chairperson, uh Chairperson Parker.

Um, my name is Isaiah Williams, and I serve as a service navigator at the Carver Langston Family Success Center.

I'm here today speaking from the heart because what we do at the Family Success Center uh is just not work, it's people's real lives.

I've sat across from mothers who came into our centers holding it together by thread, asking for diapers because they didn't know what they were, because they didn't know how they were going to make it through the week.

And you can see it in their eyes.

They're tired, they're stressed, but they're still showing up for their children.

I've talked to fathers who feel like they're fault, they're failing, not because they don't care, because they don't have the resources or opportunities they need.

And sometimes all it takes is one conversation, one connection, one moment of someone saying, I got you, to change their direction.

I've work with families facing evictions, struggling with bills, dealing with mental health challenges, and they come to us just uh just not for services, but for stability, for reassurance, for hope.

And what I've seen will happens when they leave.

They walk out a little lighter, a little more hopeful with the plan.

Um, there's a quote by my angelie that says, try to be a rainbow in someone else's cloud.

That's what uh that's what family successors are.

We are the rainbow and someone, we are the rainbow in some of the hardest moments in people's lives.

Uh we are often the first place people go when everything else feels like it's falling apart.

A place where they are treated with dignity, where they are heard, and where they are reminded that they are not alone.

So when we talk about closing these centers, we're not talking about uh talking about buildings.

We're talking about removing a safe space, we're talking about cutting off access, we're talking about running away families who already feel like the system doesn't see them.

And the truth is without family success centers, some of these families don't have anywhere else to go.

Our residents deserve better than that.

Our family deserves support before they reach crisis, not after.

Please uh please don't take away something that is actively uh holding communities together.

Because I've I've seen firsthand when you invest in people, when you support families, when you give them a place to turn, they rise.

And family success centers help make that possible every single day.

So today I'm asking you not just to hear our stories, but to act, protect these centers, continue investing in our communities, stand with the families who depend on services every single day.

Because when we support families, we strengthen our entire city.

Thank you for allowing the opportunity to testify today, and I look forward to answering any questions you may have.

And keep in mind the clock.

So you all are sharing time.

So I would just be mindful.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker and members of the committee on youth affairs.

My name is Gabriela Pointer, and I serve as the partner and development manager of the Edge of Brooklyn Family Sport Collaborative.

Today I'm providing testimony to address the reduction of 2,925,000 per center and success center funding.

I chose to serve within a community-based organization in the district because community-based organizations like mine are uniquely positioned to serve residents effectively as we are embedded within the communities we serve.

We are not distant providers, we are neighbors.

We understand the live realities of the families we serve, and we respond to them in real time.

Our commitment to residents is demonstrated through our work.

Our programs provide families and residents with access to food, hygiene products, technology, skills, and assistance navigating complex systems such as housing, employment, education, government benefits.

In addition, we provide safe, welcoming spaces for families to gather in items that directly reduce families' financial burdens.

For example, our diaper bank program and our partnership with DC Department of Health and efforts to reduce sudden infant debt syndrome in our community, which is higher in Ward 5 than our neighboring wards two and three.

Our agencies were created on a foundational belief that by increasing positive change within residents and families and being a resource in their environment, meaningful sustainable change can occur in both.

Good afternoon.

My name is Christine Dupree, and I'm here representing the Carver Langston Family Success Center.

In the coming weeks, in the coming weeks, I know you and your fellow council members will be tasked with making very difficult decisions on next year's budget.

As you give thoughtful consideration on where to allocate resources, I'd like you to consider our center's impact and the numbers that meaningfully drive our programs.

5,260.

This represents the number of diapers that have been distributed from our success center since we launched in March of 2025.

7,950 represents the number of packaged meals we've distributed to the community in partnership with DC Central Kitchen.

$4,252.93 represents the value of fresh produce we are brought to the Carver Langston community in partnership with Fresh Farm.

300 represents the number of hygiene bags we've issued from our center since the start of FY26.

Behind these numbers are numerous families and community members who have placed their trust in us to fill the gap and provide much needed essential resources that if the center is not funded in FY27 will disappear.

Let me provide you with another number: 10.

This represents a number of our core partnerships that support our programs.

These partnerships represent workforce development, on-site mental health, financial literacy, food access, youth enrichment, medical services, and essential infant and toddler resources.

It's our family success center that is the anchor, leveraging these partnerships and meaningfully integrating them into the community.

In the absence of the success center, this critical service network will be dismantled.

Before I close, I'd like to provide you with one final set of numbers.

Our performance indicators across the key component areas of the Family Success Center.

Since our inception, 133 residents have been connected to city resources through service navigation.

466 residents received tangible concrete support and workshops through on-site services, and 32 have been enrolled in our workforce development program.

We have strived to create our at our center the needs that our families have to improve family and resident well-being, and I urge you to protect the funding for the family success centers.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you.

You all are at time, but I'm gonna feel free to jump in.

Okay.

Good afternoon, Chairperson, Councilman Member Parker and the committee.

Since our inception, our center was intentionally created for programs based on what residents say they needed the most.

Through one-on-one service navigation, community outreach, and relationship building.

We took the time to get to the root of the problems of what families are facing, whether it's unemployment, housing, instability, food insecurities, and mental health challenges, or lack of access to work opportunities.

In response, we developed and facilitated four workforce readiness cohorts that focus on transformational thinking, job readiness, and career preparations.

Now we're connected to career pathways and security, construction, and environmental service, and customer service industries.

We also fully covered the cost of pre-employment clearances for seven participants so they could move through the process with ease.

Overall, 32 have completed our class to date with additional classes scheduled monthly for the remainder of the physical year.

These cohorts help residents strengthen communication skills and rebuild their confidence, prepare resumes and participated in interviews that led to employment opportunities and certifications.

Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify today, and I look forward to answering any questions.

Good afternoon, Chair Person Parker.

My name is Tiamatha Davis Vermont.

I am one of the co-CEOs at Edgewood Brooklyn Family Support Collaborative.

I won't repeat what my colleagues have stated: the need for the family success centers to stay.

We're here to prepare and present the work, the direct work that is happening by those who are doing it on the ground.

We also have residents here to testify on the impact from their perspective.

But I will say what our ask is.

Our ask is to recognize that the Family Success Center should be a continuum of a permanent part of child welfare's continuum in reference to services.

District of Columbia has become a national example of what prevention, preventive-centered child welfare looks like.

So let's not go back.

We also are asking to recognize that the family success centers are a core prevention strategy within the District of Columbia's child welfare continuum, continue investing in community-driven approaches that keep children safe and families together, and last but not least, sustain the partnerships between government agencies and trusted neighborhood organizations that are producing measurable impact.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you all.

Um ask the same two questions.

How are you measuring impact?

And the other is if only there's a fraction of the $3.5 million that is needed, how would you recommend we divvy that up?

It sounds like the collaboratives are going to team up on the letter.

So we can table that last question, but if you can speak to like how are you defining impact or speak a little bit more to your impact that you're having.

And Mr.

Branch, I'll let you go first since you testify first, then I'll let the Edward Brooklyn Collaborative jump in.

So part of uh East Rivers uh mission is to help families move towards self-sufficiency.

So we measure that in a growth model on how folks get closer to that through the various programs that we provide, uh, whether it's youth programming, child and family service-based programming, case management, or senior programming.

Um, it's to move people towards a space, something you brought up a little earlier around you know, not needing us again in three or four months.

So we measure that by the the growth that we see in our residents after we give them you know intense case management.

I'll respond by saying that for the family success center, what is built into our KPIs through service navigation, which is connecting residents to those city resources, is that we are tracking whether or not that connection is successful.

We're having conversations with those families who we're working with as well as with those providers who they're being connected to to ensure that that service linkage and connection is successful to meet their needs that they're coming to us and presenting to us.

In addition to that, some of our internal programs, such as our workforce development program, which is our evidence-based model, we are tracking our families who come to us for that class, their post-um, their career uh connection once they leave our class, and whether or not they stay enrolled, or I'm sorry.

And how many families?

So to date, we've had 32 families who have gone through our workforce development class, and for service navigation, the number that I reported out on, and this is since our inception in FY25, we've worked with 133, 133 residents.

And we have to track that in the quick.

Well, how many of them have gone on to say they now have a staple job or staple housing or because it gets back to what I was asking before?

How do we ensure the family success centers don't become like a hamster wheel of sorts that you're just coming every month for the same resources, but that you're actually moving people to sustainability?

Well, I will say there's so there's two parts to that.

I do think that given the climate of what we're dealing with in the city, there will be families who will come back to us for food needs, for food insecurity, for hygiene.

Um, but on the other side of that, as we're working with families and we're doing a deeper dive into what is the root cause, we have the family strengthening program within the collaborative, which is a longer term case management program, where we can then refer them to in-house our case management program outside of our success center.

So we're the immediate short term, but then as we're assessing and digging deeper, we can then refer to our family strengthening team for a longer term uh case management.

Um, more to come on this.

I would just uh my advice is as tight as the evidence can be.

Um, I think that's gonna make a more compelling case because everything is cut.

And so if we're at arguing for three million dollars, we're gonna have to justify why three million dollars should go here versus vouchers or versus schools or what have you, and my colleagues rightly so are going to say where are the numbers?

Where's the evidence?

How many people are being impacted?

Um, as I mentioned before, I'm gonna be advocating for this, but any help you all can provide us.

Can I just add one thing?

Yes.

That one hit, and that's in is it doesn't it's not real.

You know, some families require a little more handholding and building up their capacity to get to the point where they can launch and no longer need a resource.

So I just want to level set that.

Gotcha.

Okay.

Thank you all for your testimony.

Um, in fact, I am going to do that.

Uh, when you don't have colleagues up here and you need to run out, it's hard to do that uh when you're up here by yourself.

So the time is now three thirty p.m.

I'm going to recess for five minutes and then resume the hearing.

Next up, we'll start the panel with Yolanda Facy.

Um, and then we'll move forward there.

And Director, we'll be with you in no time.

So we'll return it three thirty-five.

Okay, we're just waiting for uh one or two people to return, so we can resume.

And thank you for your flexibility.

We will resume with public witnesses.

Next, we will hear from Yolanda Facy, uh, Crystal Daniels from the East River Family Strengthening Collaborative, Juana Ducket from the East River Family Strengthening Collaborative, and Takessa Allen from the East River Family Strengthening Collaborative.

I'm sorry, what is your name?

Your Yolanda.

And then what's your name?

Your Crystal Daniels.

Is Wanda Duckett here?

Um is to Kessa Allen here.

Deborah Giddens from the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative.

Okay.

And what is your name?

Katrina.

Okay.

Tita Jang Sain from the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative.

She's online.

She's virtual.

And then Pamela Long is virtual.

I understand they may be sharing a screen, although I don't see either one of them.

But they will hopefully join us shortly.

Then we have Sakyla Amad from the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative who is virtual.

Megan Clayton from Horton's Kids, who is virtual, Lauren Wallace from Horton's Kids who is virtual, Lakia Mabel from Horton's Kids, who is virtual.

And with that, uh Ms.

Facy, you can begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon, chairperson and members of the counselor.

My name is Yolanda Facy.

I am Ward Five resident from the Longston community.

I am also the proud grandmother of Sakaria, who is here with me today.

I am testifying in support of continual and following resource funding for the family success center.

My family has been visiting the family success center since 2025, and it has truly become a trusted support system for us.

And receive great support and naive immigration release assistance through the Jamaican Embassy.

Their staff took time to guide and support me through a difficult process, and that means a lot to my family and me.

Being connected to the center has helped me feel supported, encouraged, and connect to my community instead of feeling alone.

The program being bring family together and create opportunities for both adults and children to grow.

Go ahead.

Come on.

Hello, my name is Aria.

Thank you.

And I am I have five years old reading.

I went to the African American Museum and Buckless.

And the ocean, I made success center.

I went to come on.

And learn about African American culture.

I have a friend.

Okay.

I respectfully ask the counselor to fully restore funding for the family success centers.

So family like me and can it continue having a safe trust, trusted and supportive place in our community.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you for your testimony.

And if you can stick around, I'll have a question for you.

Um Crystal Daniels.

Hi, good afternoon.

Um, council member, everyone.

My name is Crystal Daniels.

I am speaking on how these services are needed by people in our community who are facing a life crisis and challenges and how these services have helped me and my children.

I was staying in an unsafe and bad neighborhood, also dealing with my own crisis at home.

That was affecting me and my children's well-being and safety.

When I was referred to the East of the River Collaborative Center, which has been helpful and resourceful organization that really helped me in maintaining the basic necessities and goals and needs I needed.

They have not only been helpful to me, but my children.

At the collaborative, I had may maintain mental health services and/or referrals.

I've attended financial literacy classes that was able to get me to help me get my credit better.

Uh job readiness such as resume and cover letter.

I have also found out about job training programs that would help me to be more qualified and have gained more experience to gain deployment.

I have been able to get out at on a safe environment and obtain housing that is in a better environment and neighborhood and larger space for me and my children.

My children are very happy and safe in our new neighborhood and environment.

I've also gotten food assistance with referrals and resources.

So I finished calling school.

I'm still gonna advance it and apply for college and just see where it's gonna take me all.

Oh, if it wasn't for the assistance of at least the uh the riller, um, I would probably be um still in that bad situation.

Um, and living in an unstable environment and neighborhood that would not be good for me and my children.

I was able to accomplish my goals and look forward to accomplishing my goals more and keep pushing.

So I recommend fully funded for the collaboratives and success centers, and um I thank you for your time.

Thank you for your testimony and congratulations.

Um, next we have Katrina Coates on behalf of Deborah Giddens.

Good afternoon, Chairman Parker and members of the committee.

Uh, again, my name is Katrina Coates.

I am the Chief Program Officer at the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative as well as the project director for our Brightwood Family Success Center, and I'm testifying on behalf of our chief executive officer, Deborah Gittons.

Today I appear before you representing the nine community-based organizations operating the district's family success centers funded through the Child and Family Services Agency.

On behalf of the executive leadership of the nine nonprofit organizations operating family success centers throughout the district, we would like to thank you for your continued leadership and commitment to strengthening supports for children and families across Washington DC.

On May 7, 2026, a joint letter was sent to your office signed by all executive leaders of family success centers, expressing our collective concern regarding the proposed fiscal year 27 funding reductions impacting family success centers.

This letter has been attached for your immediate reference to the submitted testimony.

The organizations include Community of Hope, East River Family Strengthening Collaborative, Edgewood Brooklyn Family Support Collaborative, Far Southeast, Family Strengthening Collaborative, Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative, Martha's Table, and the North Capital Collaborative.

Today we are here with a unified message.

Prevention works, community-based investments work, cuts to prevention, create crises, protect prevention, protect DC families.

Cutting family success centers is costly, is a costly mistake.

Family success centers must be sustained.

The proposed reduction to CFSA's Family Success Center threaten funding threatens one of the district's most effective prevention-based strategies for keeping children safely with their families and out of foster care.

This is not simply a budget discussion.

This is a discussion about whether the district will continue investing upstream in prevention or be forced to pay significantly more downstream in crisis response, foster care placement, homelessness intervention, behavioral health emergencies, and family destabilization.

Over the last several years, the district has intentionally shifted toward a prevention-centered child welfare approach through the Families First DC initiative and CFSA's broader keeping DC Families Together framework.

This shift matters.

For decades, child welfare systems across the nation have been structured to intervene after families reach crisis.

The District of Columbia has begun changing that narrative by investing in trusted neighborhood institutions that can identify challenges early, stabilize families quickly, and reduce unnecessary system involvement.

Family success centers represent what modern prevention looks like.

Launched initially in Ward 7 and 8 in October 2020, family success centers were intentionally placed in communities experiencing long-standing inequities and disproportionately high rates of child welfare involvement.

Their expansion into wards four and five in fiscal year 25 reflects the district's recognition that prevention infrastructure is a central citywide.

Currently, Brightwood Family Success Center is the only success center located in Northwest.

Today, family success centers serve as neighborhood-based hubs where families can receive support before challenges escalate into crises through service navigation or insight support, family and youth focused events and workshops.

According to CFSA's publicly stated prevention priorities, the agency continues to emphasize strengthening protective factors, reducing trauma, supporting kinship networks, and decreasing unnecessary family separation.

Family success centers operationalize those goals every single day.

One of the most important realities we ask the council to consider is this.

Trust is infrastructure.

Family success centers are successful because they are operated by deeply rooted community organizations that have spent years, sometimes decades, building authentic relationships with residents.

That trust cannot be replicated quickly.

And once lost, it's extraordinarily difficult to rebuild.

At a time when families are navigating rising housing costs, economic uncertainty, mental health challenges, food insecurity, and community violence.

This is precisely the wrong moment to produce reduce.

I'm sorry, primary prevention community-based support.

Now is the time to strengthen it, not scale it back.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, we will hear from uh Tita Jang Sain.

My apologies if I'm mispronouncing your name.

You got it right.

Good afternoon, Chairman Parker.

My name is Steve Jagny Sane.

I'm the family service program manager for Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative.

I am here today in support of continued funding for our family service program.

For many services for many families in a community, the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative is more than an organization.

It's a lifeline.

Every day, the collaborative provides critical support to children, families, and caregivers facing housing instability, food insecurity, unemployment, mental health challenges, family crisis, and barriers to increasing basic resources.

These services strengthen families before problems escalate into deeper crises that are far more costly to individuals, communities, and the district.

The collaborative's family-centered approach has consistently helped families remain stable, connected, and empowered.

Through case management, crisis intervention, parenting support, employment referrals, and community partnerships, families are able to access the tools and support they need to try.

This work directly contributes to safer neighborhood, improved education outcome, and stronger family stability across the community.

Continue FY27 funding is essential to sustain these services at a time when many families continue to experience economic hardship and increased social needs.

Reduction in funding would significantly impact vulnerable families who rely on these programs for prevention, early intervention, and ongoing support.

The cost of losing these services would be felt not only by families, but also by the schools, our healthcare systems, and other public agencies that would ultimately face this strain.

Continued support to the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative is an investment in prevention, equity, and community well-being.

The collaborative has demonstrated a long-standing commitment to servicing families with dignity, compassion, and ability.

Its program creates opportunity for families to build resilience, long-term stability while helping children grow in safe and supportive environment.

I respectfully urge the council to continue.

Sorry, and strengthen FY27 funding for Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative Services Program so that these vital services remain available to families in communities and that depend on them.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify today and for your continued commitment to serving district residents.

Now I'm going to hand it over to Ms.

Long.

She's um she's right here with me.

My name is Pam Malone.

I have been a part of Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaboration since 2020.

Through this experience, I had agained deeper understanding of mental health and impact on our community and loved ones.

As a member of Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative, the support they're offered for not just for the client and other who need assistance like myself who care for children with several disabilities and mental health disorders and so depend on Georgia Avenue Family Support Collateral.

They give us the support that we all need, depend on one another, like the community.

Our children, our children.

I learned to lean on for help and support.

I am able to reconsider the same understanding that mental health matters.

By closing, you are not only letting the employees down, but it will also have impact on our community, the client and the parents who depend on the organization as a whole.

With Pern Cafe, I learned how to understand what other people are going through.

With people with special needs.

The Prime Cafe is a big support to the community.

I live in South Bea War 8, but I travel every month to Prime Cafe.

Thank you, Georgia Avenue, and the opportunity to let me testify.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Thank you.

I believe we have Zachyla Ahmad.

Zachia Amad.

You may provide your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairman Parker and the members of the committee on youth affairs.

Thank you for the opportunity to address the council today.

My name is Zakia Thurman Ahmad.

I'm a resident of Ward 4, and I'm testifying about the Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative.

The Georgia Avenue Family Support Collaborative mission is to support children, youth, family, to become empowered and connected.

My son passed when he was two, so it's just me and my daughter.

I'm from Washington, DC, and have been a resident of Warfall for going on three years.

I love my neighborhood.

Growing up for me was being loved and sheltered by my family, but also watching them go through things I didn't understand until I got older.

Some rely on DC benefits, some do both.

When their income doesn't meet the cost of living, and they have to lean on community resources to keep the lights on.

Georgia Avenue has helped me, has helped with putting together activities for kids in the community, like Family Game Night, where they give out pizza and let the children play games for free.

But those type of things need funding.

Or to be able to ensure kids don't go to school day in and day out, worrying about their situations at home, utility and rental assistance, does matter and is essential for families going through hard times.

I had hard times and I needed utility assistance.

Georgia Avenue has been there for me.

Everyone's situation is different, and cutting Georgia Avenue programs do harm to the community.

Not because people are lazy, but because it's the only time we can rely on each other and share what's going on with someone in hopes that they care.

They care enough to try to help you with what's weighing you down.

Georgia Avenue has helped me and my daughter in a state of crisis that I didn't really think I would be in.

They have given parental guidance and offered resources for the summer to keep her out of trouble.

They are a big staple in our community, and they deserve to continue to be funded to help our community.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next is Megan Clayton from Horton's Kids.

Good day, Chairperson Parker and members of the Committee on Youth Affairs.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

My name is Megan Clayton, and I serve as the Senior Director of Community and Family Programs at Horton's Kids.

I am here today in support of continued investment in family-based prevention programming through CFSA's community-based child abuse prevention or CBCAP funding.

Since 1989, Horton's Kids has been a trusted, supported presence for children and families in Anacostia.

Alongside our youth programming, we provide family-centered supports designed to strengthen protective factors, reduce risk, and promote long-term stability.

One example is our community caregiver collective, or CCC, a relationship-based program that builds leadership, resilience, and community connection among caregivers.

Funded by CFSA, CCC equips caregivers through evidence-based programming to become advocates and leaders who promote safe, nurturing environments for children.

Over the past year, CCC has continued to grow in both reach and impact.

In the past two years, since the program's onset, we have graduated 88 caregivers, significantly exceeding our initial targets.

Participants engage in topics such as trauma-informed care, restorative parenting, communication, and positive discipline, gaining practical tools to navigate real-time challenges at home.

Caregivers consistently report stronger relationships with their children, increased confidence in managing behavior, and a greater ability to respond with empathy and consistency.

Importantly, the impact of CCC extends beyond the individual families.

Graduates are stepping into leadership roles across the community, recruiting peers, supporting new participants, and strengthening networks of trust.

Five CCC graduates now serve as program team members on Horton's Kids, demonstrating a powerful cycle of leadership and lived experience shaping program delivery.

On May 8th, last week, we hosted a CCC graduation at the National Children's Museum, bringing together current and past cohorts to honor their accomplishments and reinforce a strong sense of community, belonging, and shared leadership among caregivers.

As we look ahead, we plan to continue expanding CCC by graduating additional cohorts, launching a formal alumni network, and continuing the effective black parenting program to further strengthen culturally responsive supports for families.

Continued CBCAP investment is essential to sustaining and scaling this work.

These resources allow us to support families beyond crisis, reduce the risk of child abuse and neglect, and build lasting caregiver leadership that strengthens the broader community.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

And I have Lauren Wallace and Lakia Mabel here with me, and I'm gonna pass it over to Lauren.

Good day, Chairperson, Parker, and members of the committee.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

My name is Lauren Wallace, and I'm a parent in the community caregiver collective.

CCC and Horton Keys.

This program is made possible by funding from the CFSA.

CCC has made a huge impact on me, not just as a parent, but as a person.

It helped me through one of the hardest times in my life when I was raising my kids alone without much support.

Instead of giving up, this program taught me how to slow down, how to really talk to my children, and how to take things one day at a time.

Honestly, if I never came to CCC, I don't know where I be today.

Before this, I feel stuck, stuck in my environment, making choices that wasn't leading me anyway, and that really seeing a future for myself.

Walking into Horton Kids one day change everything.

I met staff who believed in me before I believed in myself.

They helped me build my resume, think about going back to the school, explore careers where I could give back that lead me to an opportunity with DC Central Kitchen.

And now I'm just weeks away from completing the program and starting work in a school kitchen.

Horton Kids has support me and my family in every way, helping me with jobs, food, holidays, and making sure my kids have tutoring and support in school.

They help me.

They helped me advocate for my daughter to get an IEP, support my son through behavior challenges, and stood by me as a as I work through abuse and addiction.

They helped me become someone I'm proud of.

Through CCC, I learned how to listen to my children instead of just reacting.

I realized my son wasn't just acting out.

He needed connection.

I had to face hard truth about myself.

But I also learned how to rebuild trust, ask for forgiveness, and show up differently.

As a parent, this program didn't just teach me skills.

It gave me up, it gave me community.

It gave me a space where I felt her supportive and careful.

During one of the darkest times in my life, it gave me the push I needed to believe that something better was possible.

Programs like CCC don't just change the individuals.

They change families and entire communities.

They reduce isolation, build confidence, and give people a second chance.

They help parents become stronger so children can grow up in a safer, more stable home.

Without continuing support from the CFSA, families like mine could lose access to the worry programs that help us turn our lives around.

This is what it looked like to invest in families before things reach a crisis point.

CCC gave hope.

It gives us two training and a voice.

It helped people who feel low, find a way again.

I'm proof of what this program can live.

I urge you to continue and expand CFSA funding so more families can have this opportunity so more parents can rebuild, reconnect, and create a better future for their children.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Did I hear right that Lakia Maple is also with you?

Yes.

Okay, awesome.

Good day, Chairman Parker and members of the committee on youth affairs.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

My name is Lakia Mabel, and I'm a parent in the community caregivers collective at Horton Kids, a program made possible by CFSA funding.

When I first started this program at Horton Kids, I didn't feel courageous.

I was hesitant to speak up and unsure about trying something new.

But I took a chance and shared a vulnerable part of myself.

And in doing that, I found something powerful.

I found a community where I was understood, supported, and not alone.

That meant everything to me.

Through the nurturing parenting program and effective black parenting classes, I learned how to communicate differently with my children, how to shift my mindset, how to better understand their development.

I was also connected to resources in my community that I didn't know ever existed before.

This program came into my life at a very vulnerable time and it truly changed my path.

After completing it, I took a step I have been afraid to take for years.

I started therapy.

I began family therapy.

I started healing.

I learned that mistakes I once thought were irreversible were not.

And that was life changing for me.

Today I'm different.

I found my voice.

I advocate for my children and my community.

I went back to school and I brought my family into this experience because it was that much impact.

We have real conversations about trauma, parenting, and how to support each other in ways we never did.

Programs like the community caregivers collective don't just support individuals, they strengthen entire families and communities.

They reduce isolation, improve mental health, and help parents show up stronger for their children.

But programs like this only exist because of fundance.

In my community, many families are struggling, and opportunities can feel limited.

Without continued support from CFSA, programs like this could disappear.

And families like mine could lose access to the tools, support, and hope.

They may change possibly.

If more parents have access to programs like this, I truly believe we would see stronger families, healthier children, more connected communities.

This is prevention.

This is what it looks like to invest in families before crisis happens.

My community has so much potential, and programs like this help unlock it.

I urge you to continue and expand.

CFSA funded so more families can experience this transformation.

So more parents can find their voice, build confidence and create a better future for their children.

That's it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

I think that is it for this panel.

I want to say thank you again.

I know we're hearing a lot for uh of testimony for our family success centers.

Uh I'm not gonna keep repeating the same question, just know that we are gonna do everything we can to secure funding.

Uh I do in fact have the letter that the collaborative sent um late last week, um, and my team has it as well.

So I'm not gonna ask questions of this panel, but I want to again say thank you, and we're gonna move on to our next panel.

Uh next we'll have Latanya Ames, Brian Haskins, Latoya Matthews, who should be virtual.

Kelly Sweeney McShane.

If you could just what's your name?

What's your name?

Latanya, okay.

And then she's but I'm doing what I'm putting on the actual.

Your name is Charmaine.

Okay.

And then what's your name?

Charmaine, what's your last name?

Bloomfield.

Got it.

Is LaToya Matthews here?

Oh, LaToyas online.

I got you.

Uh Deborah McCall, Brightwood Family Success Center.

Angela Drawn, Martha's Table.

All right, we'll stop there.

And Latanya, you may begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon.

Um, to the honorable congressional member.

And honorable.

I appreciate the promotion, but I'm not.

I'm a merely a council member.

And uh, honorable DC council member.

I got you.

My name is Latanya Ames.

I actually didn't want to read from my statement here.

I actually just wanted to talk from my heart.

I.

Sure.

Sure.

I am a mother and a member of uh boy eight.

I have been there for quite some time now.

I've raised 11 children.

They're um in being on the east on the southeast side.

I have been fortunate to be a recipient of a smart from the start program.

I have been able to obtain employment, um, help with food.

I've been able to do so many things that a normal mom wouldn't be able to do on a regular base.

Okay.

Um my kids have graduated from high school and gone off to various parts of the country, outside of the country.

The afternoon programs have kept them engaged.

The afternoon programs have kept them fed, you know.

In a time of loss from a job, the program has really been.

Because even though I lost the employment, I was able to go back and be helped properly and guided properly.

You know, because sometimes as mothers we lose our way, you know.

So if this funding stops, and me being of the age that I am right now, it's hard to start over.

But I'm thinking about the younger people that's coming behind me.

They need these programs.

If they do not exist, where do they turn to the streets?

You know, it's it's important that these programs stay in place and that we have the funding for.

You know.

Absolutely.

And that's that's basically what I wanted to say.

I could read off this paper, but that is truly from my heart.

And and we really appreciate your testimony.

If you can hang out, I may have some questions for you, but thank you.

Yes, thank you.

Uh next we'll hear from Charmaine Bloomfield, who's testifying on behalf of Brian Haskins.

If I or you just testifying earlier, uh, um, we're on to you.

Gotcha.

No, you can give your testimony.

It's fine.

I'm like, I'm testifying for on behalf of myself, but also on behalf of Brian.

Okay, and if you could just talk a little closer to the microphone, or you could pull it closer to you.

There you go.

Uh, my name is Charmaine Bloomfield.

I'm here to testify from my heart also.

Um, I lost my job a couple of years ago, um, and wasn't able to, um, as I'm looking for a job, I'm not able to find one, but I also found the center, uh, Knox Hill Family Success Center.

And I love to help my people out.

They help me out, I help them out.

Um, I basically volunteered there.

So as I'm going through my mental state of mind of losing my job and trying to get back into working, I can't find that, but I find success in helping others out in my community, and I love doing that.

And I'm not even getting, and I of course I'm not getting paid because I'm volunteering, but I feel like I feel I feel so much, I don't know.

It feels so good to help others out, and it feels good that they're here to help us out, and like it's just all comes together of a community of helping each other and doing for each other, you know.

Uh, we have all these big old corporates and all this and that that we gotta go through to find a job and do all this and that, but in reality, we need a mental state, a place to go, which is success center.

We need somewhere that we can help and support each other as moms, dads, and kids, and me volunteering there, um, it's a success center for the whole family.

And sometimes there is a lot of parents that work, single parents that works, and how we can help out with them is having the kids, you know, help out with the kids and stuff like that.

Um, it's just been a very helpful cycle for our neighborhood, for our people, for our mental minds, for our state of minds and so forth.

Um, that's what basically I have to say like it's just been a mental state of circle cycle of mind to help our families out.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sometimes the best testimony is heartfelt testimony.

So I appreciate that.

Um, and next we'll have Latoya Matthews, who is virtual.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parker and members of the committee on youth affairs.

My name is Latilia Matthews, and I serve as the director of the Bellevue Family Success Center.

I am here to talk about how family success centers are deeply rooted in the community, which creates a safe, welcoming place for people to seek help.

This trust is essential in effective prevention work.

I speak from experience.

I've been a resident of the Bellevue community in Ward 8 for 14 years.

I know firsthand how hard it is to find resources for my family and how many barriers there are.

I bring that understanding to our work, ensuring that we are responsive and low barrier.

We hire from the community with all of our specialists currently being Ward 8 residents from Washington Highlands and Congress Heights currently.

We all have lived experiences so we can relate and empathize with those we support.

Families trust us because they know we understand what they are going through.

Every day, community residents walk in looking for help, and we're able to provide same-day support, whether that's connecting them to emergency food, helping preventing helping to prevent eviction or addressing immediate safety concerns.

For example, we work with a single mother who came to us at risk of losing her housing through on-site support, emergency resources, and employment support, she was able to stabilize her situation and keep her children safely in our care.

We have served over 500 people in a year a year in similar situations.

We also provide workshops and family engagement activities that build connections and reduce isolation.

Events like family game night and family movie night may seem simple, but they create safe spaces for families to bond, access resources, and build supportive relationships with staff and other families.

We also partner with many community organizations, including the Bellevue Library for a back of school badge, complete with hundreds of backpacks that we give to often, um, that we give too often about 1,000 attendees.

We also address community safety with groups like Cure the Streets, Busy Bipolar, Wake the Eight, and so many different other organizations.

But we need funding to ensure our ability to continue providing these services.

The current budget proposal to eliminate funding for the family success centers will be catastrophic at a time when DC residents are facing higher need, facing a higher need for services and increased barriers to accessing them.

I urge you to prize her, prioritize restoring the two million nine hundred and twenty-five thousand.

I'm sorry, restoring the funding to the Office of Thriving Families to continue funding trusted family success centers like the one at Community of Hope.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration in this matter.

Thank you for your testimony.

Um, Kelly Sweeney McShane.

Yes, good afternoon.

My name is Kelly Sweeney McShane.

I'm CEO of Community of Hope, and we operate the Bellevue Family Success Center.

So I'm here to talk again about the Family Success Center.

When CFN CFSA first announced the Family Success Center funding in 2019, I was excited about the vision to provide a neighborhood-based neighborhood-driven neighborhood-led approach aimed at reducing disparities and creating stronger and more resilient families through meaningful access to district services and support for eligible families living in DC.

Community of Hope was pleased to be chosen as the home of the Bellevue Family Success Center in Ward 8, where our headquarters and largest health center are also located.

We were just starting a community health center when the COVID pandemic hit.

Despite COVID, we launched the Family Success Center, and the services were incredibly important to help the community gain community navigate finding resources and addressing basic needs in a time of great uncertainty and confusion.

We have served almost 2500 people from 2020 to 2025 in this program.

We are in another moment of crisis in our community where costs are rising, resources are shrinking, and there is once again uncertainty and confusion and confusion.

This is not the moment to eliminate funding for family success centers.

The Family Success Center plays a key and unique role in helping community of hope achieve our mission.

For many of our health care and homeless programs, and we serve about 20,000 people a year.

You must be enrolled as a patient or referred for the Department of Human Services.

However, with this funding, any community resident can access the Family Success Center and receive short-term support from a family success specialist.

The specialist can refer people to community of hope's on-site health care services, and healthcare staff can refer patients for services that address the social drivers of health.

The CFSA grant of $325,000 represents only about 60% of the cost to operate the health center, the family success center.

And this is true for many of the other family success centers.

We leverage leverage another 40% in private fundraising and support from community of hope's infrastructure.

We've also offset costs as they increase every year, as has been flat funded for several years.

Without CFSA funding, Community of Hope will be forced to significantly reduce or close the family success center, which will leave residents in our community with a significant gap.

I do want to uh address quickly your question on data.

We do track numbers, but the data is also in the stories you're hearing today, the impact of people who are in need today who need support today, and to prevent further challenges in people's life.

So, once again, urge you to uh uh complete the funding.

Uh, something is better than nothing, and uh, we as a collaboratives together are working to be uh involved in the conversation, would be open to having conversations with you and CFSA about how to use that funding as best as possible.

Thank you.

Awesome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Angela Drawn.

Good afternoon.

Um, Chairperson Parker and members of the committee and my wonderful esteemed colleagues and the great people from FFDC CFSA.

My name is Angela Drawn, and I serve as the Family Success Center Manager for the Historic Anacostia area.

I am honored to speak about the impact of the grant that has on the community we serve.

The family success centers are an important part of the community because it gives participants a glimmer of hope during challenging times.

Beyond offering essential supports and resources to families navigating moments of crisis, we are deeply inspired by the profound transformation we witness in those who engage in our prevention and family strengthening programs.

For example, these vital programs include our Baby Me program serving 100 participants annually, our district dads program, serving 50 participants annually, and our powerful evidence-based program, strong African American families program, can serve up to 50 individuals and caretakers and their children between the ages of 10 to 14.

We know what's happening with our children, and we know that they need some sort of guidance.

Um, in the first cohort of our SAF program, a preteen came in with his mom, closed off, shy and disengaged.

And by the end of the program, he was outspoken.

His mother expressed a significant change in their relationship as well as his overall performance at school.

She also invited us to be a part of his honor rolls ceremony because she was very proud of his progress.

And of course, we went.

The strong African American Families program does create leaders, and this young man has become a leader on and off the basketball court, and we're super proud of him.

Another example is that we recently hosted 123 participants for our first ever women's help summit.

It was her seasons from menstruation to postmenopause.

Using a panel format, the participant learns about physical health, mental health, nutrition, and the importance of health care advocacy.

Afterwards, the five women were connected to endometrios, five women were connected to endometriosis support groups, and participants were also connected to health screenings and emotional wellness resources.

This multi-generational event also had a breakout workshop for preteens and teen girls, where they covered topics like managing emotions during the critical stressful hormonal times.

Notable, our community advisory council is thriving as they now are leading and setting agendas for their meetings.

They have gone from community strangers to community advocates and champions that support each other through new and lost opportunities and happy occasions.

I want to encourage the district council to consider keeping the grant because during our peer to peer learning trips, our best practice exchanges and excuse me and best practice exchanges with family resource centers throughout the country.

We have learned that Washington, DC is truly leading the way in family strengthening, particularly in the area of prevention and concrete supports in times of need.

DC stands out.

And this approach is helping to keep families safe and keep them together.

See, finally, resilience isn't linear, there is still much work to be done.

We noticed this with the feedback from the women's health summit.

In that the participants were still are still requesting information on when we're going to do the next one.

What is the next topic we're going to cover?

Our community want solution-based answers, they want to be a part of the conversation.

So please support the family success centers initiative by fully funding these programs in the upcoming budget.

As a frontline service provider from experience, I can confidently say that the gap in service will be a tremendous strain on the collaboratives, nonprofit organizations such as Martha's Table and Community of Hope, and many of our other community programs.

They're already strained.

And most importantly, especially for our communities.

So I'm asking you, even if it has to be, you know, tweaked, still consider funding the program because our families need it.

And I don't think we understand the trickle-down effect of what's happening with the economy and how it's impacting MLK and all the other case.

Absolutely.

Thank you for your testimony.

I believe that is it for this panel.

Again, for the sake of time, I'm gonna keep it moving, but just know I'm gonna do everything possible to fight for our collaboratives.

And what I've heard pretty clearly today is that the approach it seems like the collaboratives are recommending is to uh divvy up what is available across the collaboratives.

I wasn't or not collaboratives, family success centers.

Um, and I wasn't clear whether or not we should identify one or two of them, or but it seems like there's consensus to try to support all of them as much as possible.

So thank you all for your testimony, um, and we will be in touch if necessary.

Uh next, Matt Matt Miller from Arthur's Table.

Tanika Chu.

Danella Jordan, Esther Hardesty, you know.

I just I said, Oh, I didn't see Miss Hardesty here.

And you are here.

You see how my face lit up when I saw you?

I just.

It's so good to see you.

Um.

All right.

So uh Shamira Vang should be virtual.

Jacqueline Cameron should be virtual.

And I'm just gonna call some more virtual folks for the second time.

Heather Holt, Claudia Sosa, Yvonne Hargrove, Patrice Lancaster, I saw here in person.

But maybe Patrice is online now.

Patricia, if you can hear us, just let us know.

Kelly Hood, Simone Hunter, I'm calling everybody.

Doreen Barnett, Tamika Liverpool, Talia Chestnut, Peggy Ann Brown, Courtney Hester Green, Kimberly Jackson, Diamond Gray.

Lancaster is in person.

Tell her, Patrice will take you on the next panel, but or you signed up virtually.

But it's good that you're here in person.

That's the time.

So I'm going to go through those virtual witnesses one more time just in case they're online.

Shamira Vang, Jacqueline Cameron, Heather Holt, Claudia Sosa, Yvonne Hargrove, Kelly Hood, Simone Hunter, Doreen Barnett, Tamika Liverpool, Talia Chestnut, Peggy Ann Brown, Courtney Hester Green, Kimberly Jackson, Diamond Gray.

Okay.

After this, we should have one more panel of in-person witnesses, and then we'll turn to our government witnesses.

Thank you for being patient with us, Director.

With that, Matt Miller.

Good afternoon, Chiperson Parker.

My name is Matt Miller.

And I serve as the program coordinator for the district dad's fatherhood program at Martha's Table, which is also a component of the Historic Anacastia Family Success Center.

I'm I'm honored to speak today about the impact that this grant has had on the community that we serve.

The District Dad's Fatherhood Program was founded and constructed as a result of our neighbors and community members in Ward 8 community communicating to us that it would be highly beneficial if it had access to a program or programs that centered around fatherhood supports.

Since starting up during the beginning of the pandemic, we have served over 170 fathers in total in the Greater Ward 8 community, with almost an 85% graduation weight, graduation rate, while attrition presented a challenge.

It was primarily due to the majority of the participants finding gainful employment during the 17-week cohort.

Although their new work schedules conflicted with program hours, we actually consider this a significant measure in our program success.

We've met fathers who have had to navigate life after incarceration, and rolled them into our program, and have heard and seen the great influence that it's had on these men and their entire families, including the children.

Our alumni are eligible and able to complete workshops and training and financial stability, individual and family counseling, workforce development, and career placement and job readiness, as well as certifications and automotive maintenance, ACE, flagger safety and forklift operation.

We've also certified five of our alumni fathers from the program to become facilitators within the program starting in the new fiscal year.

Our alumni delegation convenes regularly to co-design the next level tier of our program.

One great project that they have in the works is to create a teen fathers mentoring program, which will be visiting local high schools in Ward 8 to offer guidance and social support to any teen fathers who are enrolled in these schools.

Each year we've celebrated and highlighted fatherhood during our annual Father's Day celebration, which we will now host our second annual fatherhood submit coming in June of 2026.

And in September 2026, we'll host our second annual Men's Health Summit to increase awareness of men's health, men's health issues, risk factors, and on-site screenings for African American men.

And I'll throw a plug-in.

I got to shame my colleague here for not giving us any credit for us being the catalyst for the women doing theirs.

But we, it's a great thing.

We have this friendly competition we got going on here.

So in the previous years, we have actually uh traveled to other other locations for peer-to-peer learning, only to observe that our program uh under the hood of the Historic Anacasia Family Success Center and other programs throughout the other Family Success Centers are providing we are the example and we are becoming the models for what other programs nationwide are begging to obtain.

So this is just if you could give your last thought because you're a minute over.

Okay, I'm done.

Yes.

Okay, great.

I love it.

Efficiency.

Uh Tannica or is it Tanika?

I knew it was Tadika.

Okay, Tanika.

You may give your testimony.

Okay.

Uh, my name is Tanika.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Parking, uh, members of the council.

My name is Tanika Chu.

I'm a proud resident of Kingman Park, and I'm here today to um in support of the continued and fully restore funding of family success centers.

I learned about family success centers through the Calvin Langston Family Success Center and throughout the community outreach from other residents who spoke highly of its programs and support.

In a community where many people are looking for direction, resources, and encouragement, the center became a safe and welcoming place where I felt comfortable seeking support and growth.

Since becoming involved, I have participated in workforce development, entrepreneurship, community support programs that have truly changed my life.

One of my biggest accomplishments was successfully completing the entrepreneurship program.

Throughout that program, I learned how to properly structure and operate a business in Washington, DC.

I was able to obtain my basic business license and gain a better understanding of how to run a business correctly and professionally.

That experience gave me confidence, knowledge, and motivation to move forward with my goals.

Those support sessions helped me in ways that I did not expect.

The discussion support and safe environment helped me make peace with parts of my past and focus on healing and growth instead of remaining stuck in old situations and emotions.

It reminded me that growth is possible when people have access to support, encouragement, and community.

What makes the Family Success center special is that they meet residents where they are.

They take time to understand families' real needs and provide programs that help them create real opportunities for change, whether it's workforce development, entrepreneurship, wellness support, food distribution, or community programming.

These services are making a direct impact on neighborhoods like mine.

I respectfully ask the council to fully restore funding for the family success centers so they can continue to help residents strengthen families and create pathways to stability, healing, and success throughout our communities.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Thank you for your testimony.

Is Danella Jordan here?

Yes.

You may give your testimony.

Good afternoon, Chairpersons and members of the council.

My name is Donnella Jordan, and I am a warfower resident from the Carver community.

I am here today to testify in support of continued and fully restored funding to the family success centers.

I am also the parent of a 13-year-old son who currently attends Two Rivers Public Charter School.

I first learned about the Carver Langston Success Center through community flyers and word of mouth from other residents.

After attending, after attending for the first time, I quickly realized that this was more than just a resource center.

It was a place that truly cared about helping families grow and succeed.

I participated in the workforce development cohort and it helped me in many ways.

I was able to update my resume, apply for jobs that align with my interests and goals, and gain professional confidence.

The program also gave me the opportunity to connect and network with other community residents who are trying to better themselves.

Their support and encourage made a difference for me.

The center also has a positive impact on my son.

He has been able to connect socially with other children in the community, which helped him build friendships and strengthen his communication skills.

He also uses the computer lab, which has helped him strengthen his technological and academic skills in safe and supportive environments.

If this program was taken away, our community.

Okay.

If the program was taken away, our community would lose more than just programs.

We would lose support, resources, and opportunities.

Family would lose access to food assistance, hygiene, giveaways, the computer lab and one-on-one service navigation that helps residents connect to important resources and services.

Many families truly depend on these supports.

Thank you.

Next is Esther Hardesty.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Councilman Parker and members of the committee.

My name is Esther Hardesty, and I am a resident of Langston and a community advocate.

I am the former president of Langston Resident Council, and I currently serve on the Carver Langston Family Success Center Community Advisory Board.

I am here to advocate for continued funding for the Family Success Center.

The Success Center needs to remain in the community.

The Center has helped feed the community through their meal program, and they also provide for basic needs such as essential baby items and adult hygiene.

The center has been a great help to the community.

I've watched and heard from residents that they are grateful that the center is in our community.

The senator has helped our residents with their needs, such as job searches, job training classes.

While the center serves Carver and Langston, they are for Ward 5 community.

The center is here for all residents, seniors, young people, young babies, and families.

I can personally say the center has our service has helped me a lot because of a decrease of my income.

I rely on the help center to give with my basic needs.

Our community of Langston was a struggling community before the center came.

Without the funding for the center center, I am scared that residents who are in dire need will not receive the help they need.

In closing, I strongly urge the council to refund to fund the community family success center.

Without these centers, our residents will feel the absence of critical services.

Thank you for your opportunity to testify.

And just to note, the family success center is a success.

Awesome.

Now they brought in the heavyweights when they actually have.

They know what they're doing.

Exactly.

It is good to see you.

Um then we have a host of people that are online.

Is Shemira on?

I don't see her.

Jacqueline Cameron.

Jacqueline Cameron, you may uh provide your testimony.

Good afternoon.

Um, Council Member Zachary Parker and the committee.

My name is Jacqueline Cameron.

I'm a family support worker at Agewood Brooklyn Family Support Strengthening Collaborative, where I have been employed since September 6th, um 2016.

This year will mark my 10th year anniversary with Edgewood.

Prior to this role, I serve in similar capacities at Columbia High Show, which is now CSC, and LAYC, where I supported youth and families across the community.

I choose to remain in this field because I was raised in an underserved community where families and children often face significant barriers.

I live the experience, continue to guide and strengthen my community to do this work.

My experience at Edgewood has been a very positive experience.

It is meaningful to work in the organization that priorities prioritize both the well-being of families we serve as well as the staff that um that is the staff that works at age will.

In addition to this supportive culture, the organization provides a strong benefit package and retirement options for support long-term stability.

On December the 3rd, 2025, my mother passed away unexpectedly.

During a difficult time, HR management and staff were incredibly supportive.

They attended the services, consistently checked in on me and ensured that I had access to EAP services for my mental health and grief process.

That level of care reflects the value of this organization.

Continue and sustain funding for the collaborative and the success center is essential.

Adequate investment in these programs will not only support employees like myself, but also strengthen the critical services we provide.

Our work directly supports families across the cities as they move towards stability and self-sufficiency.

With continued funding, we can ensure that these essential services remain accessible, consistent, and effective.

Thank you for your time and your consideration.

Jacqueline.

Thank you for your testimony.

It's Heather Holt.

Yes, uh Heather Holt, you may provide your testimony.

Hello, good afternoon, and thank you so much for this opportunity.

My name is Heather Holt, and I'm a former research parent through CFSA.

My husband and I closed our foster home last month after four years and six placements.

I'm here because I believe the system can do better and because the children in it deserve nothing less.

CFSA cannot retain social workers and children pay the price.

One child in our care had five different social workers, not one transition included a meaningful handoff.

Each new worker came in, misread the case, fought the wrong battles, and moved on while the child slipped through their cracks.

And when the child comes into care or transitions to Ken, the same chaos follows.

The resources and therapeutic support to help children through that transition.

They do exist.

Life books, transition planning, trauma-informed therapy, but CFSA does not help families navigate any of it.

The burden falls entirely on resource parents to find and coordinate these supports, and too often we're denied even that.

Children are moved without preparation, without anyone at the agency taking ownership.

That's not a staffing inconvenience, it's a child's life.

The agency also fails biological families.

Children's ling children linger in care, not because families aren't trying or because there isn't kin or fictive kin available to step in, but because the agency creates barriers instead of pathways.

Children in DC remain in foster care longer than necessary, not because their situations require it, because the agency failed they fail to move cases forward with any urgency.

Imagine being a parent doing everything you can to get your child back, or a grandparent or aunt trying to bring their family member home.

Agency does not function as a support system, it function as an obstacle course.

The focus must be on children and reunification.

Right now, it's not what CPSA advertises and what it delivers are two different things.

For example, the summer camp stipend that was been mentioned, it exists on paper.

In practice, the agency can test it so consistently that most foster parents stop trying.

The respite program exists on paper in practice.

It's unreliable, riddled with self-imposed restrictions, and available only when convenient.

The agency knows this, they've chosen not to fix it.

Part of the solution is straightforward.

CFSA needs dedicated respite only homes.

Instead, the agency remains fixated on recruiting long-term resource homes operating under the assumption that families willing to do respite will naturally convert to long-term foster homes.

That's not how it works.

The result is that good potential respite families are never recruited or supported while longer-term foster families have no relief available, they burn out and close.

CFSA is losing on both ends.

With one medically fragile placement, approved reimbursable expenses accumulated to over $10,000 out of pocket before we've received a check, and only after escalating directly to the director.

That can't be the expectation of foster families.

Rather than investing in retaining resource experienced families, they pour resources into recruiting new ones, which costs far more and means more children are consistently placed in with families that are still learning.

The results of also then not being able to, it's functionally incompatible with working parents.

The fostering becomes sustainable only for those who don't rely on outside employment.

The result is the DC foster care is concentrated into only a few homes or outsourced Americans that outsource to Maryland, taking children away from their communities and families.

After my time with CFSA, I can tell you a certain day the children are not the hard part.

Working with and supporting families are not the hard part.

It's the agency that'll break your spirit.

We did not close our home because we stopped caring.

We closed it because CFSA made it impossible to continue.

The committee has oversight authority, and I really urge you to use it.

Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony.

Um good afternoon, Shefferson Parker and other members of the committee.

As a DC resident, born and raised.

Right now, I live in a Baleview community and ward eight.

I'm the code of arms for the Bail View CAC.

And I just want y'all to know how much of a how much of a lifeline may have been.

When it comes to supporting me and my family, helping me, helping me and teaching me how to advocate for myself, providing myself, providing training.

Um that that will help me be a better parent.

You know, better parents with my children.

Um I have no idea about a schools and so I took a training from the family success.

Motivational speaking.

I mean, they helped me get coach for my children.

Some people wouldn't even have a Christmas in Bill without the family's assessment.

They they do so much.

I can't even name it.

They are a lifeline in this community.

Ward eight is the poorest area in DC.

Most of the people here live well below the poverty line.

We need these service.

They provide a space for me to speak to my neighbors to get to know my neighbors.

These fine people, they used to walk by me now.

We like, hey, Miss Patrick.

Hey, Mr.

How's your baby going?

How your mama doing?

They provide a real sense of community.

We really need everybody to say that we need these family successors.

It's the needs.

This is the worst time to get rid of things that strengthen families, especially the families that need it the most.

We are hurting you.

And the family success center has provided vital first aid for a lot of families and a lot of communities in my area.

Please do not cut this one.

I beg y'all.

That's all I have to say.

Thank you for giving me the opportunity to testify.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, uh, we'll hear from Claudia Sosa.

Hello.

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay, thank you.

Good afternoon, uh, consul member uh Parker.

My name is Claudia Sosa and have been a resident of soon number one for over 20 years.

I want to tell you that I'm happy to be a part of the solution in the community.

I'm in start being involving when they have a commun uh community service table on the street, and through some members of the organization, such as social worker who come to my son's school at Columbia High Education Campus.

For the past two years, there was been a part group of the school where we all meet to receive information on how to help our children in the school.

That's where I'm being to learn more about the community support services.

I sign up, so they would go call me to let me know if I was available for one of the service they offer, such as parenting class, jobs compliment, fled job, sorry, job placement, financial laterance, housing assistance, and other services.

As a part of the group, parent group, I feel very proud to be a part of this group where we need more support for this organization, such as collaboration, solution for the community to provide greatest help to the communities that need it today and always, where they involve us as individuals and make is make us feel like part of the organization, like families where we learn to know our right and to be valuable, learn to have a better relationship with our children and a better parent, and to have or need in our families and in our community.

Thank you for the opportunity to hear me today.

Thank you for your testimony.

Next, we will have I don't see Kelly Hood.

I don't see Simone Hunter.

Next, we'll have uh Timika Galloway.

Good afternoon.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, it's Tamika Liverpool.

Sorry about that.

That's not it's Tamika Galloway Liverpool.

Okay.

Hey, good afternoon, everyone.

Uh, good afternoon, Sherman Parker and staff and members and um CS organization.

My name is Tamika Liverpool Galloway, and I'm on the I'm on I'm one of the CAC for Bell Real Family Success Center.

And thank you for having me.

Um, I just want to quickly just read my testimony really quickly.

Um thank you.

I think that it's extremely important to keep the family success centers um open and thriving because it serves as a safe supportive and parents empowering space for families, youth and community members.

The center provides valuable resources, guidance and opportunities that strengthen our neighborhood, neighborhoods and help families overcome everyday challenges for our youth.

It offenses mentorship, education, educational support, life skills and programs that help young people build confidence, leadership, and build brighter futures for us for families, just as well as myself and my family.

When our youth have access, um have ex have access to safe spaces and caring adults, they are more likely to see and make positive choices.

For the community, the center brings people together, it creates unity, it connects and support among among neighbors, it helps families access, it helps families access services, promotion, promotes awareness and gives residents a voice in improving the neighborhood.

Centers like the Bear Real Family Success Center and other organizations, not just it is not just a building.

They are lifelines that creates hope, opportunity, and stronger communities.

Also, I want to thank Family Success Center for for helping me and my family navigate when I'm daughter passed away and c um at the time that I didn't know where to go, who to turn to, um, how was I gonna navigate, what can I do.

But when I've met Mr.

Soya Matthews and Don and a couple of other uh fast-minute members, they guided me, they gave me the tools that I needed to navigate with me and my family just as well.

Also, I think that the family success center is a great opportunity for growth, um, just as well as this can provide educational um stability.

Also, the family success center is a it also do it also, excuse me, I'm I'm trying to get it all out in my minutes.

It's also extremely important to keep it open and thriving because it serves also as a safe supporter and empowering space for families.

Also, the community the family success center also give us guidance and opportunities to strengthen our neighborhoods and help families overcome everyday challenges, especially for our youth.

The center creates a positive environment where they can learn, they and engage in meaningful activity.

It offers mentorship and education support and and life skills.

I definitely I definitely like where they interact with the families and also have opportunities where we can interact as a community with the vents that they provide for us.

The program also it gives us the community, where it brings the community together and to create unity, connection, and support among us.

And I believe that the family success center also gives the residents a voice in improving the neighborhoods, um, neighborhood centers like they like this is not just a building, they are a lifeline to our family.

And I will it will be a great opportunity to keep the budget going for the family success centers.

Thank you for the time and thank you for having me.

Thank you for your testimony.

Uh next.

Doreen Burnett.

Hello, good afternoon to the council members.

I just want to uh really quick some of the success center is heard over and over.

Um it's a place where just to go.

Sometimes not just researchers, but my family.

She seems I've had a hard C and they support me through all of us.

Um, it's a grandfather was a place like real to go.

And socializing kids with even so um it's definitely for my family um, what they thought we my family um as we have.

Um, so I can't think they are super important for this community, and I thank you.

So keep it here.

So it's short.

That's it.

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your testimony.

Peggy Ann Brown.

Okay, here I am.

Good afternoon, uh, Councilman Parker and and the uh members of the council.

I am Reverend Peggy Ann Brown, a 50-year resident of ward 8 in the Bellevue community.

I have been a volunteer for X amount of years at the Bellevue Family Success Center, and I was I was on the um CAC, the community advisory council.

Thank you for this opportunity to submit this uh statement in support of refunding the family success center.

The family success center is a central resource in our community, providing families with the support, skills, and connection they need to thrive.

The work of the family success center is grounded in equality, dignity, and respect.

Staff build genuinely partnerships with families, working alongside them rather than directing them.

This relationship-based approach to helping adults, youth, and children grow stronger together.

The family success center plays a critical role in developing all family members by supporting the adults, youth and children, and building skills for long-term success, teaching families how to support one another and contributing positively to their community, advocating with and for families to assess needed services, both formal support such as government or private agencies, and informal support such as extended families, neighbors, and friends.

The family success of uh center program directly strengthens uh families by focusing on parental uh resilience, helping uh parents manage stress stress in healthy constructive ways, positive parenting practices, such parenting practices, such parents, some parents, some parents who may have experienced harsh discipline or negative childhood messages to developing nurturing effective approach, social connections, encouraging families to build support, relationship, and engage active actively in their community.

The family success center is not an optional program, it is critical.

I it is a critical infrastructure for family stability, child well-being, and community safety.

Without it, family lose access to trusted support, and and at moments when they need it most.

For these reasons, I respectfully request that the family success centers be restored to your budget.

Its services are deeply needed, and its absence would create gaps that no that no other program is currently positioned to fill.

Thank you for your consideration.

Thank you for your testimony.

Courtney Hester Green.

Good afternoon, uh, to all stakeholders involved.

My name is Courtney Hester Green.

I'm a district uh resident as well as a district native.

I am here to speak about the allocation of the budget, the portion of the budget that has gone towards CFSA.

CFSA is underspending its allocation while parents who need those resources are falling through the cracks.

And that has real consequences.

I want to share one mother's story.

She earned $600 a month in 2024, which was well below the poverty line.

Why?

Because she was spending uh the vast majority of her time caring for a very severely disabled child without the help of home nursing.

After CFSA removed her seriously disabled daughter, the agency incorrectly reported to uh DHHS that she earned too much to qualify for SNAP.

That was false.