Recommendation to authorize City Manager, or designee, to execute an agreement, and all necessary documents and any subsequent amendments, with the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to accept and expend grant funding in the amount of $306,666 for the My Sister’s Keeper - New Victim Intervention and Empowerment for Women’s Program, for the period of January 1, 2018 through December 31, 2019; and Increase appropriations in the Health Fund (SR 130) in the Health and Human Services Department (HE) by $306,666, offset by reimbursement revenue. (Citywide)
So thank you. We have a great professor there. She was the smartest of our entire group, just so you know. It's true. So we with that, let me go ahead and go back and we had item nine was pulled from consensus. Let's hear number nine. Report from Health and Human Services recommendation to execute an agreement with California Governor's Office of Emergency Services to accept and expend grant funding in the amount of 306,000. Thousand 666 for the My Sister's Keeper program. Great. Thank you. And we did have a comment. Customer Pierce wanted to comment on this. I just I have our director of the health department, Kelly Colby. I wanted to hear a report from her. I think that this is an amazing grant and that we need to really recognize the work that we do and take it outside of our department so that our community can be engaged and understanding what our city's working towards. Go ahead. Kelly. Thank you and good evening, honorable mayor and City Council members and I thank you for the opportunity to share about My Sister's Keeper. This new funding of 306,666 from the Governor's Office of Emergency Services, otherwise known as Cal OAS, continues a highly successful program that was previously funded to the Board of State and Community Corrections. So we've been operating this program for the last three years with with the from be from the. Their program is ending. That funding has ended. So we applied to colonias for additional funding to continue the program. The goal of the program is really to reduce victimization and commercial sex sexual exploitation through serving at risk females within the city of Long Beach. My Sister's Keeper program is an anti-human trafficking program that revolved around the city prosecutor's office and the Long Beach Police Department's directed services program. So it's a court diversion model, which is designed to assist women who are engaged in prostitution related offenses and are likely being human, sexual, you know, victims of sexual trafficking . And so what they really done is start to identify those who are being who are being trafficked. And instead of being identified as criminalizing it, they're moving it to a victim, moving to a victim focus. So the model is really an incredible partnership between the police department, the city prosecutor's office, our service providers and the health department . It's changed the system from viewing trafficked individuals as victims instead of criminals to us. And they've also streamline the process. The police provide citations to women. They give them an order to appear in court on the Monday. So it used to be a month, month and a half out before a person could show up. Now it's if they're seen on Thursday, they come in on Monday, they get a phone call on Monday morning reminding them to show up. And then while they're in court, they're actually provided opportunity to divert from any sort of criminal justice opportunity, instead, two services. So they're provided trauma related services, case management and tattoo removal. In the past year, we've seen over 100 tattoos removed. So the service providers learn about you know, they explain the program. And at that point, they can connect and be diverted from additional opportunities. And with the criminal justice system through the previous My Sister's Keeper, we are able to assess more than 200 women through this project. And in this one, we're going to be looking at, we're seeking to assist 40 more, but also to really look at additional data collection, to understand the long term impacts of this program. So we're excited to continue this great partnership and this important work. And that concludes my report and open for questions. Thank you very much. Customer Pearce, anything else to add to that? I just want to say in Bixby Park is one of the areas in my district where we've had a lot of issues and a lot of constituents concerns. And I've witnessed our police officers and our heart team out there really working directly with some of these women. And it really has made a difference. So I'm proud of this work. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. A mix up as we have Vice Mayor Richardson. Just wanted to chime in and say this is really important funding and it does really important work. And I've seen the work that Theresa and the Health Department has really led, particularly in North Long Beach. So thank you for this and I'm happy to support this. Thank you. And Councilman Mungo. Great program. I know that members of the Junior League had a presentation from information that was put out by your office. It was a very informative presentation, and I think that the more people that are aware of it, the better we are, because it can happen right in front of you. And people don't always know that the signs and indicators are so great work and thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. There's a motion or a second for this item. I've seen no public comment on this item. Please cast your votes. This is for the consent item that was pulled. Motion carries. Great. Thank you. We're going to go to we have a short public comment just for people. I mean, the first two items up on the agenda will be the item around homeownership and the Olympics. And so for those that are here, for those and then the rest of the agenda.