Recommendation to request City Manager and City Attorney to review the drafted Neighborhood Transformation Partnership Agreement and report back within 45 days on the feasibility of participating in the program.
Motion carries. Please note item 18 1:00, please. Regarding communication from Councilmember Durango. Councilwoman Gonzales Recommendation to request city manager and city attorney to review the drafted Neighborhood Transformation Partnership Agreement and report back within 45 days on the feasibility of participating in the program. Is there a is there a second point? No. Okay. First of all, I want to thank my colleague, Lila Gonzales for staying out of the salon with me and for her leadership in bridging the digital gap, the digital divide here in Long Beach. I'm pleased to bring the title forward tonight. As the city of Long Beach prides itself on leadership for our residents, including the Long Beach College Promise Everyone Home Initiative, the Clean Air Action Plan, and our city's ongoing ability to lead in technical innovation and much more. There is still, however, room for improvement as certain sectors within our community continue to remain affected by the digital and social economic divide, most notably our residents in West Long Beach who lack access to basic internet and technology on a greater scale than the rest of the city. We have taken a large step in not only acknowledging these divides within our city, but passing on a number of initiatives which we hope will help bridge these divides. As a result, we believe now is the time to continue to invest in our neighborhoods through a Neighborhood Transformation Partnership Agreement in conjunction with the California Emergent Technology Fund , a nonprofit group that has partnered with the YMCA of Greater Long Beach to work collaboratively, collaboratively, collaboratively to define the greater impact to our community as it relates to digital inclusion. I have issues with multi syllabic words. Tonight, the city of Long Beach must continue to lead in the fight to promote and produce equitable opportunities for our youth, especially those who reside in our most economically disadvantaged communities. This partnership would act as a pilot program centered around the Stephens Middle School community, allowing for a multiagency, collaborative effort to provide services to the local families, which will ensure that we provide the technology to communities such as West Palm Beach. Do have the best opportunity to attain academic, social and economic success. Therefore, I ask my colleagues to support this item and to allow the city manager and city attorney to analyze the Neighborhood Transformation Partnership Agreement and report back to us within 45 days on the feasibility of participating in this partnership. An agreement I ask for you as well. Thank you, Councilwoman. Mrs. Linda Gonzalez. Thank you so much, Councilmember Ranga, for bringing this forward, and I thank you very much for being a part of this initiative. We are in the midst of our discussions about digital inclusion and have yet to include even more partnerships. And I think this only creates an even more robust discussion. So just a few points of clarity on what the findings were from the Tech and Innovation Commission. They conducted a survey this past summer with Long Beach residents, and it was said that 51% of respondents could only afford a maximum of $20 for Wi-Fi service each month , and another 26% couldn't afford paying for Wi-Fi at all. Unfortunately, a lot of times we we need the YMCA as the libraries, the nonprofits that are doing the work every day to not only provide Wi-Fi, to provide technological services. And so we thank you again. And I think Councilmember Wodonga especially pointing out the West Side neighborhood as we know that that's a desert for technology. We thank you. Thank you. Councilwoman Margo. I want to thank you guys for bringing this forward. I think it's important to look at the digital divide, but also recognize that a big component of that is seniors. And the more and more we are out in the community and talking with our senior community, it's really, really important that we also include them in the program . So thank you for bringing this forward and I hope we don't forget them. Thank you. Councilman Pearce. I yes, I also wanted to thank my council colleagues for bringing this forward, but also the nonprofits and all the organizations that really assist in trying to bridge that divide. And I know that at the city level, we are doing what we can and we're also advocating at the state level. But it really does take a village. And so I just wanted to thank you all for being here and great job on doing community outreach on this item. Thank you. By the way, I'd public comment on this. By Stafford, please. Good evening, council members. I just want to embarrass myself. My name is Jonathan Gray. Grew up in the seventh District. I was born and raised in Long Beach. I want to talk about the struggles of my life growing up and why I think the neighborhood transformation is going to make a big difference to the teens and the families around the Stephens Middle School neighborhood. My dad was on disability and he became on disability when I was in the third grade. During that time, my mother was unemployed and it was a very hard time for my family. We were on welfare. I remember going to the check cashing places and getting the food stamps, then going to buy groceries or ripping them out of the book with the cashiers. I thought that's what all kids did. I went to Longfellow, I went to Hughes. I went to the prep academy. I went to Long Beach Poly, and I went to us through that. I had to get loaner uniforms because my family couldn't afford it. I was on free lunches. I couldn't fit in with my peers and my education. And my attendance dropped. Soon after. However, I'm glad to say that I graduated from Lombard City College with my associates, and I graduated from Cal State Long Beach with my bachelor's in political science. And now I work for the YMCA development branch to help teens there in similar situations. I support the Neighborhood Transformation Agreement because I believe that creating this integrated service team between the state, county, city and school levels can really help a student. That was like in my shoes who is struggling, especially in the areas of West Long Beach. I can relate to the five outcomes of the Neighborhood Transformation Agreement. Education. I clearly struggled. And clearly the school district wasn't there to support me as well as they could have. Employment. I had a hard time finding a job, writing resumes and applying for them. I was a victim of a crime in my own neighborhood and I had the scars to show for it. I know what it is like to grow up low income and to grow up in poverty here in Long Beach. And let me tell you, it was a struggle. And the last member sorry, the last issue that the last five outcomes of health I've been to the Long Beach Comprehensive Health Clinic multiple times and I can relate to being on medical and the supports that it can provide in the help that it can provide. I think by creating a plan, having a family navigator with the neighborhood transformation would really make a difference and will help create the next generation of leaders of Long Beach. There are many fabulous families here in Long Beach who share a similar story of mine, their struggle struggling to navigate, navigate the in the systems in order to get the help they need. The Neighborhood Transformation Initiative will help those families get a pathway out of poverty. So please join Assemblymember Patrick O'Donnell. The Long Beach Unified School District, the California Emerging Technology Fund, the YMCA grid in Long Beach, and myself in supporting the Neighborhood Transformation Agreement. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity. My name is Augustin Jealous. I am here on behalf of the California Emerging Technology Fund, where statewide foundations are established by the California Public Utilities Commission with a mission to close the digital divide. This means that we are ensuring that all households have access to a high speed Internet service in order to fully participate in the digital economy. Unfortunately, we know that the most economically disadvantaged members of our communities are the ones that are on the wrong side of the divide. Bless you. I also want to say that we have admired the leadership role that the city of Lombard Lombard has taken in this area of digital inclusion. We're very proud of our partnership with with the Lombard YMCA. For nearly a decade, we have invested nearly $1,000,000 because we believe in the leadership of the of the Y and and their approach of integrating digital literacy, digital inclusion into their work of youth development and leadership development. I am in charge of a program called School to Home that supports underserved middle schools with the integration of technology, making sure that they are successful at supporting their teachers so that they can use the technology effectively training parents so that they can communicate with schools. And by doing that, we make sure that they can transformed a learning environment into something that's more engaging. Parents have access to student information so they can track progress, and that really helps us address a lot of the academic needs. However, we know that a lot of the really underserved intelligence communities, the academics is just part of the problem. A lot of the kids, as you've just heard, have a lot of the families actually have a lot of other challenges, whether it's not knowing where their next meal is coming from, where they're going to sleep at night . Substance abuse issues. So that's the other piece where, you know, the the support that is going to be brought together, brought to the table through this neighborhood transformation initiative. And what it is really is looking at the resources and services that are already there through the county, the city, the school district, and putting together a comprehensive, coordinated plan that has a navigator that helps family families navigate through the different services so we can have a more accountable system. So we're saying that families are able to get themselves service and address their various issues. So we're happy to be the organization that's convening this, using our resources to bring everyone to the table. And we're very pleased about the response that we've gotten from all the stakeholders at the government level and also organizations like the YMCA. So thank you very much. And we're excited. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good evening. City Council Members Mayor Robert Garcia, Vice Mayor. De Andrews. My name is Bob Cabezas. I'm the vice president of YMCA of Greater Long Beach. And I need to start out. By commending you and thanking you and showing my tremendous respect to you for the work that you do for our city every day. And I think. Not enough of that has been said tonight. So I wanted to thank you. Secondly, I wanted to really advocate for the Neighborhood. Transformation Initiative from the standpoint of. Of a citizen in Long Beach. I've lived in the city for 26 years, between third and fourth on Temple Avenue. And Jenny. You're my you're my representative. I have known you throughout the city as just big advocates. For our city. But also be an advocate for our city's underserved. Our youth, our families, our seniors are homeless. And I believe that the Neighborhood Transformation Initiative really would raise up. Services for those families and more importantly, coordinate those services so our families. Really have a chance to. Get access and equity in our city. And I really want to commend you. Because I believe what Lena Gonzalez is doing with the Digital Divide. Initiative and all of you signing on to that. Really talks to the progressive answers to some of these difficult questions we have. In our city and some of the issues. I really want to commend Roberto or. His office for just collaborating with us in. Making sure that this works and that and that. We can move. Forward. I want to commend Linda Chico and. County Supervisor. Janice Hahn's office for helping. Us move this forward, as well as Christina, which was obviously with the school district and Megan Care. On the Columbia Unified School Board. But I also want to thank Rex Richardson for his dire commitment, just tireless commitment to under-served children and youth of this city and his leadership on my My Brother's Keeper initiative and working to bring that to Long Beach. You know, you folks are doing phenomenal work and you make me proud to be a citizen of this city. So I just wanted to commend you and also speak to this initiative. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Any more comments on this item? If not, please cast your vote. Now we'll go back to 21.