A proclamation celebrating Denver afterschool programs and the 2019 Annual National Lights on Afterschool Day.
Thank you, Councilwoman. All right. Seeing no other announcements, we're going to move on. There are no presentations this evening and there are no communications. But we do have one proclamation, councilwoman, towards will you please read proclamation 1154? Thank you, Mr. President. Proclamation 19 1154 Celebrating Denver after school programs and the 2019 National Annual National Lights Out Lecture on after school. Excuse me. Whereas, the Denver City Council recognizes that afterschool programs make a lifelong difference for children and their parents. And. WHEREAS, students who regularly attend high quality after school programs benefit in terms of academic performance, social and emotional learning and health and wellness. And. Whereas, a strong focus on social, emotional and academic learning impacts students positive social behaviors and attitudes, skills such as empathy and self-confidence and academic achievement, providing youth with lifelong skills and setting them up for success in school, work and beyond. And. Whereas, more than 256,000 children in Colorado are waiting for an after for an available program. 146,856 are alone. And unsupervised after school, and many afterschool programs in Colorado and across the country are facing funding shortfalls so severe that they're being forced to close their doors and turn off their lights. And. WHEREAS, Lights on after school, the national celebration of afterschool programs promotes the importance of quality afterschool programs in the lives of children, families and communities . And. WHEREAS, The Denver Afterschool Alliance connects and unites providers, school and city officials, families, funders and youth to create long term collaborative plan for high quality afterschool programs citywide. And. Whereas, the Denver City Council pledges to support afterschool programs so that Denver's children and families have access to programs that support their success and strength in our city . Now, therefore, be it proclaimed by the Council of the City and County of Denver that the city and county recognizes the outstanding leadership of Denver Afterschool Alliance in bringing together all stakeholders to create a collaborative, long term plan for our city's after school program and recognizes the 2019 National Lights on Afterschool Day. Thursday, October 24th, 2019, that the clerk in the City of County of Denver shall attest and affix the seal of the city and county of Denver to this proclamation and transmit it to the Office of Children's Affairs. Thank you, Councilwoman Torres. Or motion to adopt some of. It has been moved and seconded comments by members of Council. Councilwoman Joyce. Thank you so much. It's a real honor to welcome these students here from Stripe Prep and as representative, I think of the thousands of kids that are served through Denver's after school programing and really just want to welcome the programs also that serve them, including El Sistema, which we'll hear from. But I want to welcome Deon Williams to accept the proclamation. Before we get to accepting the proclamation, we have a few more steps. Oh, hold on just a second on that one. Were that all your comments at this time? I'll just add, I think that the programing, even when it was in place, I think in my generation resonated because our parents worked at multiple jobs at odd hours, and that hasn't changed. In fact, it's probably escalated. And so these programs, I believe, provide such an instrumental source of sustainability for our communities. And so I just thank you all for being here. Thank you very much. And before we vote, I'll just add my thanks to the After-School Alliance and to all the providers of afterschool programs. I got to be on the board for a little while and see firsthand the awesome work that is done in this city by so many different providers that serve such a great need for our kids and and so much value during their day. So I'm excited to support this this evening. So, Madam Secretary, roll call. Torres I black. I see the Barca, I. Flynn. Hi. Gilmore. I heard it. Hi. Hi. Hi. Cashman. All. Kenny Ortega. Sandoval, I. Sawyer. I. Mr. President. I. We've got a technical issue over there, Councilwoman Black. Something is going on over there that everybody else get their vote logged in. I still only see 12 if we count Councilwoman Black. There we go. Madam Secretary, if you please close the voting, announce the results. 13 Eyes. 13 Eyes. Proclamation 1154 has been adopted. Now, time for the proclamation. Acceptance. You want to go ahead, Councilman Torres? Thank you. I'd like to invite Dianne, and I think she's bringing up someone from El Sistema to join her. Yes. Thank you. Good evening. Counsel. Thank you so much for supporting this proclamation. My name is Dion Williams. I'm the executive director of the Office of Children's Affairs and a champion of the Denver Afterschool Alliance. The Denver Afterschool Alliance, which is housed within the Office of Children's Affairs, works to increase access to and participation in quality afterschool programs across Denver. As you just heard in the proclamation, we know that afterschool programs make a real and lasting difference. For our city's youth. And their families. The trouble is, we're not nearly meeting the need for every one student enrolled in a quality afterschool program. There are two students waiting to get in. That's what National Lights On Afterschool Day is about. And we're here today in celebration of it. We will also be lighting up the city and county building blue the rest of the week and have a photo display in the atrium of the web building where you can find more information about some of our kids in our programs. We're thankful to the city for its support of our afterschool programs through dedicated funding from Measure two A and through marijuana tax revenue funds. Though we know it's not enough to meet all of our needs. With me today, we've brought some students who can show you some of the work that goes on in our afterschool programs from two of the many organizations that support youth in our afterschool hours. To share a little bit about their afterschool experience, first we have Noa Mena, a sixth grader from Colorado. I have a Dream Foundation. And then we're going to hear. From Johan and Zaira Avila's from El Sistema. I want to play a song of the violin, and thank you again for all of your support for the Denver Afterschool Alliance and for afterschool programs across the city. So. Good evening, counsel. It's like such an honor to be in front of your guys like eyesight right now. It's like circle. But I'm no winner. And I'm here representing Denver after the Denver after school program. And basically, Denver after school has helped me in many ways, both mentally and physically, because I used to be very kind of sad because I have many things that would happen at home after school helped me because there's teachers and people that are dedicated to kind of getting you to a place where you can be happy and like, it's helped me because like, I've come all this way ever since, like I first got into it and it's very like unique and very different than all the other programs because there's so many different things that you can do , like so many clubs and like so many things I can help you just in general. And this like it teaches you how to basically become a better person in general. And I like how it shows you like how to basically be either like say here like kind of like professional OC because I keep going like, like, you know, so like teaches you how to be professional and like it shows you basically so many things that like you can learn in life that just support you and like help you go all the way up to like the top where like you can like do so many things and like help like the high schoolers we're supporting when there's like global warming and like, you can help like so many things because of just after school. Because they teach you so many things. How great. Great job. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Christian Galderma, and I'm the program manager for El. Sistema, Colorado. And before you, I'm presenting. Joanne and Sara Avila's with their teaching artist, Ms.. Beth Remy. Stands for the Star Spangled Banner. Well, thank you very much. And I will say you said it's cool for you to be here in front of us. It is really cool for us to be up here and have you in front of us and have so many talented young people in our council chambers. I hope that you will continue to come back and be active in your community. Feels great to have you with us tonight. So thank you very much. All right. That is our only proclamation this evening, which brings us to the bills for introduction.