A proclamation recognizing April as “HELP KIDS THRIVE - CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH”. A proclamation recognizing April as “HELP KIDS THRIVE - CHILD ABUSE PREVENTION MONTH”.
Very much for being a great. Partner in city community building. We appreciate it. Thank you. We have a second proclamation this evening, proclamation number 277. And I will call on Councilman Lopez to read the proclamation. Thank you. Madam President, I wanted to read well, will re council proclamation 277 series of 2014, which is a proclamation recognizing April as Help Kids Thrive Child Abuse Prevention Month. Whereas the city and county of Denver joins businesses, government agencies, nonprofits and dozens of other organizations across the state are observing April as Help Kids Thrive Child Abuse Prevention Month. And. Whereas, Blue ribbons and pinwheel gardens, which you'll see like these are on display throughout the city, signify the importance of keeping families stable, helping kids thrive, and upholding a strong community. And. Whereas, we think child care providers, doctors, nurses, parents, police officers, social workers, teachers along with all organizations and people who dedicate their lives to caring for and protecting children. And. Whereas, as we prepare our children for the future, by keeping them active and engaged, giving them access to the programs and resources they need no matter what their family station in life is. And. Whereas, children have the right to thrive, live and grow to their full potential. And. Whereas, we encourage families to surround themselves with a strong supportive system comprised of friends, loved ones and neighbors, and remember to learn on them. Sorry, and remember to lean on them when times get tough. And whereas we must come together as we must come together to keep children safe, ensuring that children's voices are heard by all, and extending a helping hand to children and families in need. And. Whereas, a Denver department of. Human Services extends a helping hand to the children and families in need by offering free parenting workshops during the month of April. And. Whereas, we ask all Denver residents to observe this month with programs and activities to help kids thrive, keep families stable, and support a healthy community in a world class city where everyone matters. Now, therefore, be a proclaim, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver. Section one of the Denver City Council proclaimed proclaims April 2014 as Help Kids Thrive. Child Abuse Prevention Month in the City and County of Denver. Section two that the clerk and that the clerk of the city and county of Denver shall attest and affixed the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation and that a copy be transmitted to the Denver Department of Human Services. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Your motion to adopt. Thank you, Madam President. I move that council proclamation to 77 series of 2014 be adopted. It has been moved and seconded. Comments. Councilman Lopez. Thank you, Madam President. It's it's a great honor to be able to read this. And also because we are seeing these pop up all over the place. And when it's a windy day like today, you see these all over and you know, they're just a symbol. It's a symbol of the dedication and it's a symbol of the responsibility that we have as a community to help prevent child abuse. Right. It's not just up to social workers in schools. It's not just up to human care, human services caseworkers. It's up to every single one of us to help prevent this. You know, our children our children have a real beautiful future. Every single one of them in our city. And they have the potential to do anything they want to do, no matter where they come from, what the status of their families is. They just need the environment to allow them to grow, to allow them to be great human beings, to not live in cruelty, to not live with abuse, not be taken advantage of, but to have that innocence. We all know that childhood innocence that needs to be protected, it must be protected. And the only way it's going to be protected is when all of us, all of us take that responsibility. I know sometimes, you know, people in communities, you see kids running around, you know, without clothes or just a diaper running around in the front yard. He oh, man, that's not my kid. Thank God that's not my kid. Well, you as a community member have a responsibility. If something if there's abuse going on, if there's some kids getting yelled at, or if there's all kinds of different abuses going on and you know of it, you need to ask yourself, would you let your own kids go through that? Would you have been where you are today if somebody well, if somebody didn't support you or if somebody didn't do the right thing. And I think our kids and our kids have that right to self-determination, have that right to their future, and we have to protect that. And so that's why, you know, I did you know, I'm honored to read this proclamation. I've read this proclamation in the past because I know that the Denver Department of Human Services is a stellar department. It is the best in the state. And our caseworkers and our employees and all our management staff and everybody who works with the Denver Department of Human Services is a public servant, a dedicated public servant on a daily basis. They help change people's lives, helps save lives. They help turn lives around. And it's a very hard job because, as you know, Madam President, we do not have the budget like we used to for the down for the Department of Human Services. It is a fraction of what it used to be, but the caseload is immense. It's big. It's it's grown leaps and bounds, especially during the recession when our budget took a nosedive. Reports of child abuse and reports of different cases skyrocketed. And I think, you know, it's up to us as a city and this is where our county duties come in. And you say city and county in Denver, it's up to us to be able to fight for these families and fight for the folks and make sure the folks that are taking care of these families are also taken care of. Imagine having to deal case and case after case after case and go home and try to live a somewhat happy life and not think about everything you've heard right and not feel that support. So I think it's really honorable that representatives from the department are here. And so thank you very much. I really loved being able to read this proclamation. Thank you, Councilman Lopez. Councilwoman Ortega. Thank you, Madam President. Councilman Lopez. Thank you for bringing this forward. I don't think there's much more that I can add. I think he was very eloquent in his comments. I would just ask that my name be added. And lastly, I just want to thank the social workers or caseworkers from Denver Human Services who deal with this issue day in and day out with the many families whose cases come through their doors. And as Councilman Lopez said, it is a tough job. But I think having worked there at the department, I know our staff at the Department of Human Services to be dedicated and to really work towards solving these situations where the safety of the children is number one. So thank you for the work that you all do. I see Penny May is in the audience and will probably be addressing this in a minute, but this is critically important work for our entire community. So thank you for what you do. Thank you, Councilwoman. I take it, Councilman Lopez. Madam President, I forgot to acknowledge that Councilman Albert Brooks co-sponsored the proclamation. I wanted to make sure that he was recognized for that as well, too. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Lopez. Madam Secretary Calderon. Lopez. All right. Montero. Nevett. I. Ortega. I. Rob i. Brown. I thought I heard him. Can I. Layman Hi, Madam President, I. Madam Secretary, closed the voting unaccountable and got it close to voting and announced results. 11 eyes. 11 eyes. The proclamation is adopted. Councilman Lopez, is there somebody you'd like to bring up to the podium? Yes. I'd like to bring up our manager of the Department of Human Services. Miss Penny, me and anybody else. Who would you like to bring up? Penny? Thank you so much, Madam President, Councilman Lopez and Councilmember Silver for supporting our proclamation for April. This year's campaign is help kids thrive, and we can all help kids thrive. We all play a part in that. So we're partnering with Pinwheels for Prevention Colorado, the Pepsi Center, Focus Points, Resource Center and many other community partners to heighten awareness, to help strengthen families and our community as we help kids thrive. This this year and this month, part of our campaign includes five love and logic parenting seminars that will be held at our east, building their free of charge. They'll be child care, and they'll provide simple. Solutions and techniques to. Help parents with kids of all ages. We also will have our signature pinwheels for prevention gardens that libraries, fire stations, various city buildings, the Pepsi Center, businesses and community organizations. This year we've included with the pinwheel, a postcard and a magnet with five ways to help kids thrive. Tomorrow will be kicking off this month at the Focus Point's Family Resource Center with the mayor and Councilwoman Monteiro. We invite any of you who would like to join us at 130 to be there. They'll be state representatives and the Denver district attorney's office and other community partners. And then we're going to close out the month with an event at Hamilton Elementary School where the children have created giant pinwheels. I'm not sure what giant means, but we'll find out. And that will help us close out our month. So if any of you are interested or if you need more pinwheels, please feel free to contact us. I'd also like to thank our communications director, Anna, Master Cheryl for accompany me tonight, as well as Joe Homer, our division director for Child Welfare. So thank you. Thank you very much, Ms.. May, and thank you for all you do for the children of Denver. That that's the end of our proclamations and we will move on to resolutions. Madam Secretary, will you please read the resolutions.