Recommendation to receive and file a report from Khmer Girls in Action's Invest in Youth Campaign.
Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you all to the youth. We appreciate you. Next up is item 23. Communication from Councilwoman Gonzalez. Recommendation to receive and file a report from my girls in action. All right. So I want to thank you for your patience. I know it's been quite a long meeting. I'm glad we're having you present here at 8:00. So thank you so much for being here to the use of my girls in action. The Executive Director, Liane Omar know so many of you. Thank you for collectively coming in front of us and talking about a very important issue. Of course, equity. We're talking about city funding allocations, but more importantly, we're talking about youth and our investment back into youth. So, Noah, do you want to come up here and talk about this presentation and what can my girls and action has been working on? I know there's a survey that you've done and so come up and we can talk a little bit more about that. Give her a round of applause. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to break the microphone. Good evening. My name is Joe Santiago. My gender pronouns are him, his and them theirs. And with the California Conference for Equality and Justice and a youth ambassador with the Youth Committee, I was born and raised in Long Beach and live in the eighth District. Last summer, the B.C. Youth Committee, Russia Youth Led Invest in Youth Long Beach campaign in response to inequitable spending on positive youth development programs and services in this budget. We wanted to educate people about where their money was going in to find out what their budget priorities were. To do this, we partnered with Cal State Long Beach professor Dr. Gary Heidrich to launch a youth said survey. In a few seconds, you will see a video that summarizes our work and story original for youth to have a seat at the table and take part in decision making. We want to give a special thanks to Councilwoman Lena Gonzalez and her team for giving us the opportunity to present our research today and to other councilmembers and mayor who have taken time to meet with us to discuss this important topic. We have a video, so please cue video. I got this. Please enjoy the video. Which. Are the tech folks in the back working on a video? You. No. Of the. 757 Long Beach residents that took our survey, seven out of ten said that they. Support greater public financing for positive youth development programs and services. 80% believe that investing. In community based youth development programs is the best way to make our community safer. Now is the time to prevent harm from happening to students to neighborhoods and our larger community by investing in youth development. Research also shows that vulnerable viewers. Can become successful. In spite of the odds that they face if they have access to supports and opportunities to overcome the obstacles in their lives. Being a part of this program has kept me out of trouble and reminds me every single day that I am bright and I am important. We have the centerpiece of Love Day so that our young. People can grow and live to their full potential. We are the leaders we've been waiting for. We call on our city to invest in me by establishing a Long Beach Children and Youth Fund, supported by the following sources. And by protecting existing funds that support positive youth development and supportive resources from budget cuts. Show you the love and invest in you today. Let's skip Noah and pick. To my girls in action. A big round of applause. Thank you again so very much. And I just want to say this infographic is really great. It shows a really great narrative of what youth care about. It shows a really great narrative about what the City of Long Beach cares about in that that sample size. And I just really appreciate all of your work. And in conjunction with Building Healthy Communities, Filipino Migrant Center, the GSA Network, Children's Fund, Advancement Project, CCJ, and so many more. I want to thank you on behalf of my office for doing this work, and I look forward to connecting with you to see how we can actually implement these things. You know, the city of Baltimore has a youth fund and there are so many other cities that are looking into a youth fund to be able to promote activities to ensure that kids and youth actually have something to do after school, before school, and that they're cared for and that they don't go into a different direction. And we know that we can make it happen here in Long Beach, too. So thanks again for all of your work. Let's give them another big. Round of applause. We love the process. To great work. All right. Thank you. We have Councilmember Pearce. Michael Otis. I want to thank all of the youth, K.J., Gary High Turk, one of my mentors for doing this great work, this important work, and for bringing this key conversation up. And it's a reminder for us on council that the best work that we do as a city comes from the grassroots. It comes from you. It comes from your leadership to present to us some opportunities to have difficult conversations and to lead on critical issues. And so I know that it's been challenging sometimes to get meetings. And I don't know why we have. I know we've tried, but I feel like I've tried like ten times. So we're going to make sure it's a priority to sit down and meet with you guys, particularly before the budget conversation comes up. And so I fully support the efforts and echo the comments that my colleague has said. And I'm going to ask you guys just to to raise your signs up so I can take a picture, you guys. Yeah. I love taking pictures. Behind the dias is my favorite thing. All right, guys, keep it up. And let's look forward to lots of great conversations in the future. Thank you guys so very much. Thank you. And council managers. Yes. Also, I like to think this presentation with you guys engaging in my office with your efforts, because the combined Asian community is very important to me because I think back when we named Cambodia Town in the fourth and sixth District, we have come a long way as you guys, but I commend you for working with your young women to empower them. And you have we have we still have a long ways to go, but keep working at it. Don't give up. Thank you guys again for being here tonight. And thank you, Councilwoman Gonzalez, for bringing this forward. Thank you, Councilman. Vice Mayor Richardson. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I just wanted to say what a fantastic job you guys did on this survey, I think is presented very well. You guys have you guys have gone citywide. I've seen you in uptown on our up lab. I've seen you in uptown at our pop up town. Anybody know what I'm talking about? You guys went to North Norfolk. You know what I'm talking about. So? So I just want to say congratulation. Councilwoman Gonzalez, thanks for bringing this up. I think it's really important that people see the incredible work, the community outreach that the community is doing. Thank you all for for doing this incredible work. And I look forward to actually engaging in the substantive conversation about what comes out of that. So thanks a lot. Thank you. We got we have a motion our second to to approve the presentation. I know we had some comment, the other public comment on this item. Yes. Okay. Then please come forward. Go ahead. Good evening. Council members and Mary Garcia. My name is Mac Harris. I'm 90 years old and a resident of the first District and a youth ambassador with a Gender and Sexuality Alliance network and the youth committee. I'm ready to speak in support of the Invest in Youth Long Beach campaign. We just hope is that all young people, especially young people of color and those living in poverty, be treated with respect, love and dignity. I met a man with a place where young people are equitably invested in and have access to programs and services that help them thrive and reach their full potential. The fact is, my peers are struggling to access critical services like mental health and positive youth development programing, and a growing number of them are also dealing with homelessness. Homeless youth are more vulnerable to arrest and contact with the juvenile justice system, according to the Department of Education. There are 6987 homeless students. There was 6987 homeless students attending Long Beach Unified in 2016. Furthermore, from our survey, we found that 78% of respondents believe mental health services should be the top budget priority. I have struggled to access these services myself for mental health challenges and have been homeless during my junior year of high school. My family was homeless. My single mother did her best to find a shelter while caring for four children. We cannot serve for a while with with with family and friends, but not having somewhere to live hit me like a rock. And in turn, my mental health plummeted. I fell into depression and I started skipping my classes. And then I slipped on grades. Eventually, I had to transfer to different schools to catch up back with my class. During this time, I was outed by a family member to my mother, but with my bisexuality, which in turn made our relationship very rocky, I began to experience thoughts of self-harm. Leading up to my senior year. I tried accessing therapy, but I didn't know where to go or who to trust. At this time. I didn't have accurate, like a full adult that I knew I could trust that was there for me. But at the start of my senior year, I was so happy to have met Chris Covington, who is now my mentor and an organizer with Jason GSA Ninja's Sexuality Network. Meeting Chris changed my life and how he affirmed me and how I did have a purpose. And then I want to help other people find their voice and their purpose. I joined the Beard Seed Network or Community Committee when I engaged and then where I gained an Invest in Youth Campaign, a campaign that is run solely by youth and focuses on putting youth first without second guessing them. These organizations and the safe spaces they create was exactly what I so desperately needed when I was younger. By creating a child and youth fund and establishing meaningful partnerships with community based organizations, we can ensure that young people have access to holistic programs and services that help them heal and reach their full potential. I am black, queer, low income, a friend, partner, mentor, family, and a lot of other things. And I deserve to be happy, safe, supported, because I learned I learned that I matter. We need the support of this council, Mayor Garcia, to establish some Language Children and Youth Fund before the end of this budget cycle. And together we can work towards finding strategy strategy to dedicate funding to bring our visions to life. Our city budget is a reflection of our values and priorities. So let's get this right and invest in youth today. Thank you. Thank you. Let's figure this. What I may do is we have we have we have a very long meeting and some closing the speakers list. So the speakers are here. I'm on the list. You guys are all good, and then we're closing the speaker's list. Okay. Please continue. Hello, my name is Coach and here I am, 17 year old, 17 years old, a recent graduate of McBride High School and a resident of the ninth District. I'm also youth leader with Conference for Justice, a youth committee and an organizer with March for Our Lives Long Beach. I'm here and supported them. Best in Youth Long Beach campaign. I was inspired by the March for Life Movement because it was the first time my generation was given a platform to talk about systematic issues that impact them as emcee for the March 24th rally. It was validating to see you out there, Mayor Garcia and Mrs. and Councilwoman Price. My hope is that our city leaders can continue to show up and listen to young people when we speak on issues impacting us. My vision for my city is for youth voice to be, youth voice to matter and for to be a space for young people to be seen. And as leaders and decision makers. We can organize, mobilize and transform the community we will inherit. Like Mack, who spoke before me, I, too, believe that there's a lot of work, lots of work that can be done before we can realize our vision for our city. Many adults will say that young people just don't care. But I believe that too many you just don't have the resources, the support and the empowerment around us that challenge us in creative ways. At the same time, young people are negatively impacted by our environment, which, whether it be neglect, abuse, or direct and indirect violence that impacts our social, emotional and mental health. Like, on average, seven children die every day from gun violence in our country. More than half of those gun related deaths in the US are children of color, and the majority of gun deaths in the US are suicides. And the LGBTQ community is overrepresented among those suicide victims. And in the first six months of 2018, there have been 20 related school related shootings. The L.A. Times reported that Long Beach has already recorded nine gun related homicides, seven in which people of color two of those were young men of color, only two years old. I ask myself, did they have access to prevention programs and services with safe spaces that they have access to where they felt seen and empowered? I believe as a community, we can prevent these tragedies from happening. So let's connect young people with caring adults and community based programs by increasing job training, youth employment and afterschool empowerment opportunities . These are smart investments. In fact, we found that 80% of our survey respondents believe that youth employment should be a top budget priority, and 78 believe that parks and afterschool empowerment programs should be a top top budget priority as well. Caltrans for Justice has helped me hone in on public speaking skills and social networking skills, and we need more young people standing at this podium sharing their stories to you guys. By providing young people in the city budget, we can show this happens. Many of you have children and you want the best for your children. We want the best for our communities. And we believe that establishing a Long Beach Children and Youth Fund will ensure the best for years to come. So invest in youth today. Thank you. Thank you. It's good to be. All right. Good evening. My name is Troy Peters. My pronouns are he. Him is. And I'm. What did you say? Network NBC Youth Committee. I recently graduated from Cabrillo High School and will be attending college in the fall. I'm going to speak on. What it means to give youth better resources. And opportunities to succeed specifically pertaining to trans and queer youth of color. When I was in the second grade, I started school at Helen Keller Elementary and it was hard to make friends. I didn't know fitting the gender binary was such a big deal until I didn't do it. And I found myself being harassed. Attacked and even beaten as though I. Had done something wrong. Of course, this did a number on my self-esteem at a young age because I did not feel safe at school and I didn't know how to express my pain or get help. This feeling of having nowhere to go continued. Through my 10th grade year. When it was decided that I'd be evaluated. For mental illnesses, I transferred to a particular area in hopes that things would get better. Still struggling with mental illnesses. I had bumped into a friend from middle. School who was also a queer youth of color for trying to. Brought me to rap. And here I had acquired. A support group. A place to hide, talk, or just a place to know that I was protected. And I had never had that before. I joined GSA, which gave me another safe space. This one being specifically. For queer youth. We provide safe spaces. Support groups and resources such as sex ed, as. Well as giving. Youth a place to figure themselves out free of judgment and full of support. I also wonder about. Young people who have been caught up in the system for low level, nonviolent drug offenses and are placed on probation or parole. Communities of color have been negatively impacted by the war on drugs. My older cousin is just one of these examples. Did you know that in 2016 the U.S. locked up 1.2 million people for drug convictions? Nearly 700,000 of. Those were for marijuana, and close to 60% of those arrested on drug charges were black. Or Latino. With the move in our city to legalize marijuana, we have the opportunity to. Correct this wrong. And invest back in the communities. Hurt most by the war on drugs. Social equity is a must invest in uses. Investing in youth is a must as well. I say all this to say it's important to give clear use of color. And system impacted. Youth, a place to go, and resources to meet their basic needs. Giving youth more funding protects programs such as Jason and Rapp, increasing access to prevention, intervention and diversion programs by investing in at least investing at least 50% of marijuana sales taxes in the Long Beach Children and Youth Fund. You're putting young people in a position to succeed in life and give back to their communities that supported them. Thank you very much. Next speaker. Hello. Council members my and Mayor Garcia. My name is closing say. I'm a member of my girls and actions young men's program. Yes. I go to Poly High School and I'll be entering the 11th grade. And I'm a resident of the fourth district. I'm here today to talk to you about how investing in youth can impact me and my peers. I know, as. You probably as you probably already know, about how the majority of the Cambodian community came to the U.S. to escape the killing fields during the Khmer Rouge. And how many of them settled here in Long Beach? When my parents came to America as refugees, they didn't know basic things like English or even how to get food. Just like many other refugee families at the time, they struggled to find work or even how to get income. So they worked in low paying industries like garment factories or donut shops. Many people in their generation also had a hard time making ends meet, so they turned to selling drugs. Robbery and gangs. Had there been a youth fund or other resources for the generate for this generation like mental health services, job training and English learning programs? My parents generation would have had an easier time adjusting to life in America and would have other options besides gangs. These issues that are still in my community impact me as a youth by causing me to move to multiple schools and gang violence that still occurs in my generation like the past. Growing up in Long Beach is hard for me because I experienced a lot of hardship with gangs, shootings, drugs and racial profiling. 56% of Cambodian students lack a high school diploma, but CG and other youth programs help me with my education by helping me understand my grades, study hard and make sure I'm on track to graduate. They also help me with leadership skills such as public speaking advocacy and how to help other youth members. We are asking the Honorable City Council and Mayor to work with us to establish a Long Beach Children and Youth Fund this year and create meaningful opportunities for young people to come to the table as decision makers. Thank you. Thank you. Next week opens. Good evening. Members Garcia and kim in the new case. I'm executive director of CCG, the California Conference for Equality and Justice. I'm here. Our organization is part of the Invest in Youth Coalition, and I'm also here as an adult ally to support our young folks who have put so much work into a survey collection and also the campaign. So in the past five years, CAGE has expanded our work into the area of restorative justice, which has allowed us to establish a model of juvenile diversion that has kept hundreds of youth out of the juvenile justice system. It's been exciting to lead the field and work that shifts the ways that we perceive youth move us away from criminalizing normal adolescent behavior and recognizing the need for holistic strengths based approaches to youth development. Currently, I sit on the L.A. County's Office of Youth Development and Diversion Steering Committee supporting the implementation of county wide roll out of juvenile diversion program and where we're seeing a great changes in the ways that we're approaching juvenile crime by offering at the earliest point of contact with law enforcement alternatives for youth to address their mistakes in lieu of citation and arrest. This effort aims to eventually divert about 11,000 youth who are arrested in L.A. County each year that are legally eligible for diversion being one of the larger jurisdictions in L.A. County. Long Beach undoubtedly will be touched by these county wide diversion efforts. And while CCJ is working currently with Long Beach PD to offer a diversion to some of our young folks here locally, there is still potential to reach hundreds of more youth through this county diversion program. And I bring this up because while this type of investment in diversion is a start to changing the ways that we offer support and services to youth, it's just one intervention at one specific point when a youth has come in contact with the criminal justice system and we would like for us to consider is what our investment is on the preventative side. So the academy investment in juvenile diversion is about 26 million over about four years. And as investment in diversion increases, I would encourage us as a community to prioritize investment locally in programs and services that summer youth development principles and trauma informed approaches as a means of prevention, investment in things like leadership, development, arts, sports, recreation, community organizing, work for workforce training, mental health services and other things that our young folks have mentioned tonight in terms of what their what they see as needs and especially that our investment is not predicated on citation and arrest, that we establish something that is preventative. So the organizations who are part of the investing youth work, including CCG and our young people, are experts in what we're seeking here around youth development. And I invite you to join us as resources, as you consider the establishment of a city fund. We would like to engage as partners and continue as we continue to move away from models of deficit based and punitive practices and find ways to invest in empowering and healing programs that allow our young people to discover their best selves. Thank you. Yeah. Thank you. And the last speaker. Great, great. So my name is Jonathan Thompson. I'm with the Good C Church of God in Christ. We've been contracted with the Department of Mental Health for since 2012. We've been in the city of Long Beach in Leona Gonzalez's district at the former New City School site since 2014, 2015. We brought me out here tonight is that we submitted a conditional or minor conditional use permit to establish a youth center with the Department of Mental Health, to establish a youth shelter, to provide emergency supportive housing, to transition age youth who are experiencing mental health needs as well as other services. And I think part of the reason that I'm having a hard time to speak is that our application has been delayed. It has been processed. We had to hire an attorney to work with the city attorney. Our application continues to be delayed for petty things. They want us to do a lot. Merger. When there was not a lot merger required for new city schools. There's other requests. There's ambiguous requests for elevations. And there and it's just I was like, oh, this is amazing. You guys are addressing racial, racial equity and all of these other issues that are so important. But yet for three years, you were going on and let homeless youth sit on the street. And yet we've partnered with Leadership Long Beach. And I imagine that Leadership Long Beach is very well connected within the city of Long Beach. So I'm just kind of confused as to how does this happen? How do we get to this place where, you know, we have excellent relationships with the Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health. We have excellent relationships. We have the Los Angeles Department of Health Services. I sit on the Human Services Committee for the Empowerment Congress of the Second District for under MARC Supervisor. Both really? THOMAS I'm the chair of the Los Angeles Spa six Homeless Coalition. And this is just these are the this is what caused me to want to run for chair, was that these type of games are are the issue that that is why people run. Right. I didn't I didn't care about politics. I'm like, I'm a pastor's kid. I love helping people. I like making a difference. And that's why we were open seven days a week, 365 days a year. And we've been so for the last six years. But but this is the reason why I had to start just getting connected, because these are the type of issues and these type of processes, and this is what people are tired of. And so I had this whole like encourage, like Joel Osteen message that I was going to that I had written up. But it it just it was difficult. But nonetheless, I am thoroughly amazed that you guys are doing surveys. I think this is great. I think that it's amazing that you're recognizing the issues of and the importance of mental health, of respect, of love, of homelessness, that these students highlight it. And I look forward to seeing the great work that you guys are going to do. A lot of each have a blessed night. Thank you, sir. That matter? That concludes that concludes public comment. Just going to go to Councilman Gonzalez, who's made the motion. Two things. One, just to quickly wrap up on what the gentleman just spoke. So, you know, I'm not aware of you just brought up some issues that I sure you we will look into immediately. I think the idea of of a of a shelter for for youth, that a transitional shelter is something that we've tried to do in Long Beach for a long time. And so I'm not sure and I know do I know all the details of this? Maybe the council office does, but we will certainly look into that pretty quickly. And then the second thing I just wanted to thank, of course, T.J., for also inviting me to your office and to the roundtable that we all had together and discussing, are you all so amazing and all of your your passion and your ability to I'm always amazed at young people today and your ability just to have so much data and information and be so educated about. And I think what I was doing at your age and it was not this. So I just I was just just taken aback by all you guys and how smart and how passionate you are and how organized you are. So it just gives me a lot of hope for in a very hopeless time, it seems like sometimes. So very good work to all of you. Councilman Gonzalez. Yes, I just wanted to say, I know Rashawn in my office, Corey, my chief of staff, will connect with you. But Cory, Ty has also been working with our office in relation to the issues you're talking about city permit, so we'd be happy to continue that conversation. And again, thank you to my girls and action CG and all the partners. You all are just so fantastic again. Thank you so much. Congratulations on a really well-received presentation. Trump appears. We have a motion in a second. Please cast your votes. Like letters. We write, like, a lot. We ride. We run. Motion passes and keep. Motion in case. And we still have we still have we still have one more item that's scheduled between this and the mayor. One item. I know I said it wouldn't start earlier than eight and as close to eight as possible, but. So just so everyone's aware of this item as some of the same folks are here for this item. So if you can, please item 25.