Recommendation to request City Manager to receive and file a report from the Long Beach Health and Human Services Department on the Father-Friendly Initiative; Formally endorse the nine Father-Friendly Principles outlined in the Father-Friendly Initiative; and Create a plan to retrofit all existing public-facing city government buildings to be equipped with at least one safe, sanitary, and convenient, baby changing station, available to both men and women.
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. Communication from Vice Mayor Richardson, Councilmember Supernormal Councilman Andrews, Councilmember Arango recommendation to receive and file a report from the Health and Human Services Department on the Father Friendly Initiative. Thank you, Madam Clerk. So this past Sunday was Father's Day, and I hope everyone had a good time celebrating Father's Day with the important folks in your life. So I do want to recognize that we know that fatherhood is important and the city of Long Beach has some incredible programs related to fatherhood. We know that when fathers are present involved in their child's life, children have improved health outcomes, higher measured measures of cognitive functioning, and are twice as likely to enter college and find find stable employment after high school and are 75% less likely to have a teen birth. We have a number of we have a number of our advisory group members. Just just stand up. If you're one of the father friendly advisory group members, we can just recognize you say thank you to the fathers involved involved in this program. You know, there's a particular set of challenges that many fathers face. Single fathers, gay fathers, stay at home fathers. I mean, you name it. Right. And we want to make sure that we are fam father friendly city. So that said, I want to hand it off. So there are a number of recommendations here, but I'll hand it off to city staff for a quick presentation on the Father Friendly Initiative in Long Beach. Mayor Councilmembers Kelly Collopy, our. Director of Health and Human Services. Good evening. The Life Coach 2015. The Federal Office of Family Assistance awarded funding to the Health Department to provide the Life Coaching and Fundamentals of Fatherhood program with a core purpose. To increase father engagement. To promote safe, secure, and economic stability in the lives of their children. To complement this in 2016, first five LA funded US for the Father Engagement Initiative. This is to inform and impact system changes within Los Angeles County by advocating for policies that are inclusive for fathers, affirming a father's identity, their familiar role, value and contribution to their children, family and community. And I'm going to turn this over to Rosie Velasquez Gutierrez. She's the director of the Center for Families and Youth and has been overseeing this program. Good evening, Honorable Mayor Garcia, Vice Mayor Richardson, members of city council and our honored guest. I am Rosie Velasquez Gutierrez, director of Center for Families and Youth, located at Hampton Park, the north side of the Department of Health. And Human Services. I am honored to have been invited this evening to share with you an overview of the Long Beach weather friendly initiative and some of the exciting things we've achieved so far, and also share the many ways that our city and community partners can join us in making Long Beach a truly father friendly city for all fathers. And their families. As Kelly already mentioned, in 2015, when the Department of Health was awarded federal funding through the Office of Family Assistance, we launched our Life Coaching and Fundamentals of Fatherhood Program. This program is data driven best practice model that has served over 280 fathers across our city. The Father Friendly Long Beach Initiative began in 2016 when first five Ella generously granted us additional funding to launch an effort to create father friendly places and spaces in our city. Thanks to that funding in August 2017, the city's first ever father friendly advisory committee. Was established. With a goal to create a citywide father friendly campaign to promote and engage agencies, organizations and businesses. In conversations about the importance of specifically supporting fathers and acknowledging the important role. That fathers play in the lives in their. Children. The campaign Father Friendly Long Beach was launched in 20th February 2018. The Advisor, The Father Friendly Advisory Committee, includes a diverse group of community, stakeholders and members. Many of the committee members either serve fathers in our community or are fathers themselves. This collective body provided our campaign with invaluable direction and knowledge. We were particularly grateful to have the voice of a number of fathers in our programs as members. Of the advisory. Committee. These voices were critical to ensure ensuring that the policies and changes the committees the committee proposed were inclusive and supportive of all fathers in our city. The goals of the Advisory Committee were to guide the creation and launch a citywide father friendly initiative that aimed to encourage the creation of the Father friendly places and spaces for all fathers and families. We embrace and value the unique role of fathers in their child's life and acknowledge fathers as leaders, role models, nurturers, educators, employees, entrepreneurs and consumers. Thanks to the hard work of our entire committee, our father friendly Long Beach social media campaign launched in February 2018. And I'm excited. To share with you our father friendly Long Beach campaign. Video. I just. You don't have to do it. There you go. It's I me. Is this a video again? It's not working. It's a video. Okay, let's keep going. Okay. Very well. Well, the video shares are father father friendly guidelines, which are portraying positive and diverse father friendly images. We train staff on father friendly practices and changing stations and men's and family gender neutral restrooms. This campaign aimed at identifying those in the importance of those things. That can be very simple ways for agencies and organizations and businesses to become father friendly. The organizations and businesses that show that they have implemented R three guidelines will receive a father friendly decal. By displaying the decals in your business or organization, you declare your support for making Long Beach a father friendly city. The father friendly social media campaign was a huge success. The campaign reached over 209,000 Long Beach residents via Facebook, Instagram and our website in just a few months of the campaign. Businesses throughout the city have already begun reaching out to learn more about how to become recognized as father friendly. Our campaign also includes a brand new website and all the details about our father friendly initiative. Everyone can visit this site to learn more about obtaining a father friendly initiative daycare and becoming more active in this initiative. Our work is dedicated to changing the perception of fathers in Long Beach by creating a city that is inclusive of all fathers and acknowledging and valuing the role of fathers in the lives of their children. With that in mind, the Father Friendly Advisory Committee established a set of father principles for all Long Beach residents. We value our fathers here in Long Beach. We know that the policies that make spaces and places better for fathers make places and spaces better for the entire family. If you'd like to get involved in our initiative, visit our website and learn more about this movement. If you work with an entity that is interested in becoming father friendly, please reach us at our website. Anyone interested in obtaining support for fathers through our free programs and services? Please contact us at Life Coaching and Fundamentals of Fatherhood Program. And finally, we invite our entire community to our free event park with Dad this Saturday from 11 to 2 p.m. at Highland Park. There's going to be free food and lots of fun events for fathers and their families. Thank you for taking the time to learn about our Long Beach Father Friendly initiative and join us in creating a truly father friendly city for all. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Yeah, let's hear it for our health department, our father friendly initiative. Okay, so a couple of things. So we've received this presentation, this motion, as the city council endorsed the nine father friendly principles that are outlined in the motion and were covered in the presentation. And then secondly, we're going to ask that our city takes this. So recently, the state of California took steps to acknowledge the barriers that fathers face when caring for small children in public. I've learned this over the last three years and have taken action to help balance the scale so fathers are accommodated in the same way that mothers are. So effective January of this year, Assembly Bill 1127 requires at least one diaper changing station to be available, just one to both men and women at all newly constructed or newly renovated state and local government buildings, entertainment arenas, large retail buildings and restaurants with occupancy of 60 people. So that's a new state law. It's a step in the right direction. So Long Beach, we want to support this and we want to fully embrace this. And so that's why I'm proposing that we create a plan we want. We've discussed with city staff coming up with a plan to think about our public facing government buildings. So, for example, if is a beach, all our beach restrooms are all one sex. Now they're all gender neutral. So you wouldn't have to retrofit every one of your restrooms. Just one. Just one. The you know, so we would need to look at some calls, come up with a plan, and then it's the right time. Because as we go into the budget conversation this year, next year, we can think about what it takes to make sure our new civic center, when it opens, our new main library when it opens, are our facilities. As we move forward, we think about we want to encourage fathers not to just simply hand the baby to mom because and use the excuse that, hey, you've got to change this station. We should carry on weight, too, right? Father should be able to change those diapers and not use that as an excuse. So we want to make sure that we do that as a city. So that's. Emotion. I want to close this just by inviting people to park it with dads. That's Saturday, that Saturday, June 23rd at Highland Park in North Long Beach. And you can expect basketball, barbecue, boxing workshops, face painting, giveaways. So dads join us out in Park. We're going to have a good time with our kids. Thanks a lot. And so next, we thank you. So next we have council member. Thank you, Vice Mayor Richardson. And I want to thank you for inviting me to join you on this very important initiative here. You know, you let our grandfathers and my grandfathers stay active. And, you know, all I could do with we've been a grandfather in grandparenting with my new my grandson, who's now about 13 months old. So he still he's still in a diaper change. He hasn't been potty trained yet. So he hangs out with us a lot. And when we go out to places, I go to a lot of meetings and he joins us with the meeting to getting already active in the community. But sometimes you need to change. And she will look at me and I look at her and all I can do is raise an eyebrow like, well, where do I go to change the baby? So a lot of that practice I get at home, but I'm not able to exercise it in the public because there's no change stations that I can go to. So I think this initiative is great. I think I'm glad that this is moving forward. And also, I hope that this program also includes how to parent, you know, parenting skills. I mean, that's one of the most important things that we all have to encounter. I have three kids of my own, and one of them was really challenging with me and basically told me, how did you learn how to parent or where did you learn how to parent? Well, you know, I learned from my parents and my dad and my mom how to parent. And there's not at my time anyway, there wasn't that opportunity to go to a class or or to get mentored in how to be a father and how to be a parent and how to be just a good human being. And I think that this program will go a long ways in doing that. And I hope that in future iterations of your program, that you would also include some some parenting classes and fathering classes, and not only to those that are already there, but perhaps for our future as well. And especially with the the the growth and the the more that we have with young, young fathers and unmarried parents, I think that's very important that we reach out to them as well and provide them with that opportunity to grow, to learn to be good parents, because we need to break the cycle of bad parenting that we that we experience every year when we see that the great majority of our incarcerated people in prisons are the are the victims, if you will, of single parents. And because of the break ups that that happened when there were they were young or the abuse that they experienced when they were young, so that we could catch people early in terms of how to be good parents, good fathers, I think we would make a significant impact in the future. So thank you. That makes me a regular, including me on this. Thank you. Accounts membership. What's it? Thank you. I'd like to thank Vice Mayor Richardson for bringing this item forward and also for inviting me to sign on. And I enthusiastically support the measure. And to commemorate this momentous occasion, our office produced a custom to you new dads. This is called a onesie, and you talked about an educational piece. So this has Snap's on the bottom for diaper changing. And on the on the business end, on the back, we put our motto go forth. Okay. So what I'd like to do is present this to Councilwoman Stacey Mongo Flanigan to her husband, actually, who can put this to good use in a few months. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Andrus. Yes, thank you very much. That was okay. I don't know. I have daughters and they're a little older than that. Mr. Super Nice. So I think active fathers are not only healthy in the family setting, but they set an example for the future generation. You know, the item of baby changing stations, I think, is very it's a given now in this day and time because both men and women change babies. I really think that starting this is starting point and these changing and changing tables in our park facility is something that is very needed. So, man, get ready. If you haven't done that, get ready for it. Stacey, I know we're going to get these things taken care of. So I want to thank you for. Councilwoman, you know, Vice Mayor, thank you for allowing me to be on inside. But you could continue again because you were doing it. So I guess not. Councilmember Pearce. I just want to thank you guys for for recognizing all the fathers out there and making sure that us women don't have to listen to the excuses anymore, that there's not a changing table because we get that a lot. But really, I mean, having changing station seems like something that we should already have. I can't tell you how many floors and weird spaces and countertops that we've had to change babies at. So we really appreciate you guys, not only for the changing stations, but just recognizing the important role that fathers have. And and my dad watches every Tuesday. I've only he's only been in my life for two years. So I just want to give him a shout out since he's watching right now and saying that having a father figure is really important no matter when they come into your life. So thank you, guys. Q Councilwoman Drake. Well, I want to thank you for this item, too. And what do you know? The third district also. Has a onesie. It says Future Long Beach Leader has my logo on the back. So Councilwoman Mango, here you go. I think this is a great item. I will say I thank them. The men who signed on to the item might be the only men in the entire city who really want a changing room in the men's bathroom. Because it's very convenient that your wife's the only one who can change the diaper. But I think this is a really great item, and I agree with Councilwoman Pierce. I did not grow up with a father figure in my life. So I think it's important that we can do whatever we can to encourage it. And I think, you know, I love Councilman Super not talking about the snaps on the onesie because when we had our baby, I would dress them every day and take them to the Isabel Patterson Child Development Center, where he went to school, our oldest son. And the one day I was in a rush, I was in trial or something. I asked my husband to do it. I said, Can you just go put them in a onesie? And my son came out with a floaty pajama, which is not a onesie, with his tennis shoes crammed on over the foot, part of the footie pajamas, walking out ready for daycare. And I had to explain to my husband that that was not a onesie, that was pajamas. So I think doing everything we can to encourage co-parenting and equal parenting is fantastic. So thank you. Councilman Gonzalez thinks, Vice Mayor Richardson, for bringing this forward again. And I'll just say, you know, I'm tired of the excuses as well from my partner not being able to change our child. But now we have the light is at the end of the tunnel, which is so great. And Councilmember Mungo, I don't have a onesie. I do have a piece of chocolate for you, for your cravings. So I'd be happy to help help you on that end. Thank you. Thank you. Is there any public comment on this? Stephanie Cicero, second district. So last Tuesday or Monday, mass, get out the vote for the seventh District because I was up in Sacramento lobbying for some of the new cannabis laws up in Sacramento and brought my daughter, who I had a wonderful time meeting her representative. But unfortunately, in the middle, the meeting had to be changed. I would. At what point? At which point? I encountered the bathroom, men's bathroom at the office building in Sacramento, which lacks the changing table. Having this is incredibly important as a first step towards kind of towards the eventual goal of equal co-parenting in the city. However, I really strongly urge, as of as a continuation of this particular item, to continue exploring universal pre-K within the city and the creation of such as a municipal right. That would go a long way towards creating gender equity within parenting and improving the lives of children in the city. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. And then a closing of speakers. Less after the lady. After you. Good evening, mayor garcia and members of city council ama oswaldo ac. Cruz with the national comparison network as well as partner of the Engaging Fathers Advisory Network and board member for the Center for Family Policy and Practice. And first and foremost, a father and grandfather and want to just acknowledge all of all of the women who have had to pay double duty as mom and dad. And so I want to acknowledge you and thank you for having to do that. But it is our role now and our responsibility as men and fathers to step up and not only change the diapers, but be actively involved in the lives of our children. And so I'm here in support of this initiative. I believe that when men, fathers are involved in the lives of their children, in their family, that their children, our children can really thrive. And so I ask you and urge you to support this initiative. And thank you for acknowledging fathers. There's a lot of work that needs to be done to change the perception of fathers. It's not that we don't want to be involved. It's not that we don't want to be included. Oftentimes, we're not given the opportunity. And so this will help to create a culture that will cultivate fatherhood friendliness. Thank you. Thank you. And our last speaker. Good evening, mayor, vice mayor and council members. My name is Letizia Sanchez. I'm a senior program officer at First Fire Valley. And thank you for your consideration to endorse the nine father friendly principles in capital investment for baby changing stations. Evidence indicates that father engagement positively affects the social, behavioral, psychological and cognitive outcomes for children. Thank you once again. Q With that many members, please cast your votes. Nelson Karis. Thank you very much. Thank you for that. We're moving on to the item on cannabis.