Recommendation to receive a report and confirm the proposed citywide Strategic Plan for Youth and Emerging Adults.  (Citywide)
Thank you. Next, we have item 11 and then we'll have general public comment and then the rest of the agenda. So let's do item 11 is next. Report from Parks, Recreation and Marine and Health and Human Services recommendation to receive a report and confirm the proposed citywide strategic plan for youth and Emerging Adults citywide. Thank you. I'll turn this over to staff for their report. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you members of the city council. We're excited to be here tonight, the culmination of a lot of engagement and planning. And we've got a presentation from Brant Dennis, our director of Parks Rec and Marine, and Kelly Colby, our director of Health and Human Services. Good evening, honorable mayor and council members. Thank symbolic of the close working relationship between the Parks, Recreation and Marine Department and our Health and Human Services Partners. I'm honored to present the Long Beach Strategic Plan for youth and emerging adults. This plan was completed in the midst of two significant health crises the global COVID 19 pandemic and the country's reckoning with racial injustice. Shelter in place and stay at home. Orders, combined with social distancing measures introduced nearly a year ago in March 2020, sparked a definite shift in community conversations uplifting the social, emotional and economic impact on youth of color in Long Beach. Kelly will start our presentation by recalling how the plan before you this evening began. The plan began through a community effort led by Career Girls in Action and the Advancement Project to develop the Invest in Youth Campaign Report. Kelly. So. Good evening, Honorable Mayor and Council Members. Thank you for this opportunity to share the city's new strategic plan. This plan comes from the youth of our community and reflects voices from all of our communities in the city. The groundwork was led by the Invest in Youth campaign. This was a partnership of the coming Girls in Action, building healthy communities and other community apartment partners. The Advancement Project in Cal State, Long Beach. The partnership surveyed more than 700 people and engaged many others in the community. What it found was that Long Beach residents were willing to support greater investment in youth in the community, and that at this time the city spends more of its resources on youth suppression than it does on youth development. Utilizing these findings. The Youth from Invest in Youth Campaign presented their report to the City Council in June 2018. Youth leaders spoke to the multiple challenges they face and their vision for youth in the city to live their best lives now. In 2019, the City Council authorized $200,000 to develop a plan that would serve as the guiding vision and a framework for responding to the needs of the city's youth and their families over a three year, 3 to 5 year period. Parks and Parks. Recreation and Marine and the Health Department a partner to develop this plan with youth and consultants. Our youth ambassadors were really an important element in the development of the plan. We had nearly. 20 ambassadors in the fall of 2019 an application and. The Youth ambassadors were really an integral part in the development of this plan. We had nearly 20 youth ambassadors, ages 16 to 24, that were selected in the fall of 2019 through an application and interview process. Two ambassadors representing each of the nine council districts were joined by several other youth ambassadors that were nominated at large by the greater community. Ambassadors participated in several strategic planning trainings, facilitated all seven community forums, co-designed the online and key and format, survey instruments and outreach, and engaged to ensure the survey data was collected from throughout the city. I think very much reflective of the motivation and the energy shared by all of our youth ambassadors. The quote that's included by Alexa King is most appropriate. And she she said, quote, I believe that young people deserve to be involved in the institutions that govern them. The best way to represent the youth of our community is to hear from them directly. This is why I was so eager to get involved with the youth strategic plan, unquote. Just a quick glance at our planned development timeline. The project began back in early portions of 2018, and as the timeline indicates, several important steps led us to this evening. We will be presenting to you this plan for review and release to our city council leadership. The beginning of the planning process, we engaged the youth in conversations about their possibility, the possibility at home, in community, in school and their future. They described what it would look like when all was going well and when Long Beach was supporting them to be their authentic selves. They began the process of establishing the vision and their statement of possibility, and then refined it based on information they received from the community engagement process and then refined it even further through their experience of the COVID pandemic and the uprisings of last summer. The vision for youth is that all youth and emerging adults between the ages of 8 to 24 are healthy and empowered through the necessary resources to develop into their true, authentic selves. Their statement of possibility is that youth are valued and empowered as decision makers in the city of Long Beach to lead long term change and solutions for the betterment of youth now and future generations. When we look at youth in our city, we realize that we have approximately 130,000 youth between the ages of 5 to 24 across the city. The data show that our younger generation is much more diverse than our older generation, where 55% of those over the age of 65 are white. More than half of our youth, 56% are Latino. 16% are white, 14% are black, and 11% are Asian. The data also show that a majority of our youth are ages 5 to 17 in the city live in central, north and west Long Beach areas that also have the highest percentage of low income households. Nearly one quarter of our youth under the age of 18 lives below the poverty line. This impacts access to health, mental health and wellness, educational outcomes, future income housing, and opportunities for successful futures. Community engagement was significant and extensive. Led primarily by our 19 youth ambassadors. There were 71 key stakeholder interviews. Forums were attended by over 200 people. Residents completed surveys that totaled nearly 790, and there were three. My brother's keepers, Long Beach town halls that had nearly 14,900 viewers. Thematically, there were five challenges identified that faced our youth. The challenges included access to mental health, economic and educational opportunities, stable and affordable housing, safe spaces to belong and connect and stable and affordable transportation. From these challenges faced by our youth, six specific goals were established. The plan, as Brenda said, has six primary goals that are aligned with the themes. The first goal is around youth development and to ensure that youth ages 18 to 24 have robust, sustainable and accessible services within the city. Throughout Long Beach, there are services for youth in our schools. Our neighborhoods are employers and are community based organizations. Yet the services are not coordinated, can be difficult to find and are not sufficient to meet the needs of our youth. The first step is to establish an Office of Youth Development, to lead increasing access to services, coordination of available services, funding and support for youth in the city. The office will be focused on positive youth development, which recognizes, utilizes, enhances young people's strengths and promotes positive outcomes for young people by providing opportunities, fostering positive relationships, and furnishing the support needed to build on their leadership strengths. The office will be housed in the Health and Human Services Department with the funding appropriated to the Health Department and the FBI 21 budget. The focus will be on leveraging existing funding opportunities such as measure US and identifying new structural funding to support youth efforts. The Office will also focus on building coordination and collaboration with partners, tracking data to show impacts of the efforts across the city and building additional supports and services for our youth. The second goal is around physical health, mental health and emotional wellness for both physical health and mental health. It's not just the absence of disease, but includes emotional, psychological and social well-being, as well as the ability to navigate challenging life circumstances, adapt to change, and have fulfilling relationships to realize full potential. Parents and youth across the city identified mental health as a key concern based on the demands of schooling, employment, family and so much more . There are many efforts underway to increase physical and mental health, including school based efforts. Healthy, active Long Beach parks activities, healthy market place conversions and teen programs. However, many youth say accessing mental health services is either very hard or somewhat hard. This goal focuses on increasing access through partnerships, funding, coordination with the County Department of Mental Health and local providers, and then making that access easier. It's also important to continue to create safe and open spaces for physical activity, connection and families through connected through increased programing of park sites, drawing user agreement with Long Beach Unified and other organizations, and creating a virtual connection to build relationship. Bill number three focuses on planning for the future. You should have career pathways to ensure economic stability and mobility. This can be done through the establishment of partnerships to increase access to pathways that expand economic and social capital for our youth. Also to increase private sector engagement. And a commitment to support youth development. And then thirdly, to increase access to technology and resources to support innovation and ensure that all youth have an equal opportunity to succeed. And then moving on to go for the focus is upon community care and social connectedness. The youth should have inclusive spaces that foster a caring environment to grow and develop. The creation of open spaces that reflect the needs of young people is essential. Also, the creation and the sustainability of youth led platforms that promote inclusive spaces and equity was was pointed out. And then thirdly, to increase and sustain programing that promotes pro-social engagement for youth that are system impacted. The Community Care section also includes a prevention and intervention section. This goal focuses on eliminating justice, touchpoints with youth and expanding enhancing availability of community based alternatives to youth incarceration and supervision that are trauma informed and promote healing. Community members and youth ambassadors expressed concern during the My Brother's Keeper Long Beach town halls about youth, sense of safety and the effects that current policing and public safety strategies have on youth growth and development. Information from the town halls led to conversations around alternative interventions and violence prevention strategies that reduce youth interaction with law enforcement. Within the Health Department, efforts to reduce violence in the city as well as alternative interventions are aligned to support these efforts for youth. Existing efforts at the Long Beach Unified School District have begun to promote positive alternatives to school discipline trainings, training school for faculty and staff on the use of restorative justice approaches that reintegrate students into the classroom through mediated conversations. This approach to justice focuses on repairing harm done to individuals and the community. The goal also focuses on building a multidisciplinary response system that advocates for individual youth needs, responds to mental health crises and school related incidents, invest in community resources and services, and integrates alternative non-law enforcement intervention specialists. This will help minimize the criminalization of youth behaviors and will help youth live in their communities with the adequate trauma informed support they need to thrive in their transition to adulthood. Well, five is a housing youth, that youth have safe, affordable and accessible housing options. Safe housing is a core basic need and is the foundation of wellness to have safe and affordable and accessible housing options for youth as they live with their families and as they grow and then when they leave home, is essential for those exiting out of foster care. The justice system are experiencing homelessness. Accessing this housing can be a much more difficult. Many efforts are underway through the Health Department, Development Services and other providers. However, there remains a need to focus closely on ensuring our youth have homes in which they are safe. Our sixth and final goal focuses on transportation that youth have safe, affordable and accessible transportation options. In that area to see the creation and sustainability of reduced and or no fair for youth policy. And also to increase access to safe transportation from the six goals. Kelly will share with you where things will be headed in early implementation and governance. Our early implementation is focused on bringing resources to the Office of Youth Development through the Racial Equity and Reconciliation funding to hire two people to lead this work for the city. Additional funding of $170,000 in CARES ACT funding was distributed through RFP to ten community based organizations to support their work with youth. Also, the measure, US ballot measure passed last fall with youth as a focus area for future investment. All of these funding streams are important to expand opportunity and oversight for youth across the city. The overall governance structure for youth development in the city is three fold. The Office of Youth Development, the Youth and Family Commission and the coordination with existing city led youth advisory and leadership groups in the community. The plan's goals indicate a restructuring of the Youth and Family Commission to align with the Office of Youth Development. This would be a partnership with parks and a commune and community members. With this, I turn it back to Britain. Thank you, Kelly. In closing, I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge our 19 youth ambassadors. I'm sure they're all patched in listening tonight. But also, I'd like to acknowledge the work of Ana Lopez, who's our health department's community impact division officer, and also our CARES Act consultant, Eli Romero, who did a great job. I also thought it was appropriate the youth selected, although she's quite famous now. Amanda Gordon An excerpt of one of her poems. And again, I'll try to do it justice. Quote Let every dawn find us courageous. Brought closer, heeding the light before the fight is over. When this ends, we'll smile sweetly. Finally seeing in testing times, we became the best of beings, unquote. Amanda Gordon So with that, we thank you for your attention. We're available to answer any questions. Thank you to the staff. Really great presentation. I do have a vice mayor Richardson, I think has a motion to approve, but I have also a public comment by somewhere. Did you want to make some comments or you want me go to public comment first. Before the public comment? All right. Let me go, Madam Clerk. Let's do public comment, please. Our first speaker is Alexa King. Alexis Garcia and city council members. Hello. Yes. Please continue. American City Council members. My name is Alexa King. My parents are she hers. And I'm representing Council District number five and 19 years old. And I go to Cal State Fullerton and I'm also the founder of the nonprofit The Exceptional Day of Play. And for the past year or so, I have also had the privilege of being a youth ambassador. And I'm so thrilled to share this plan that we've worked so hard on with all of you today. I urge you to approve this recommendation, to receive this report and confirm the proposed citywide strategic plan for youth and emerging adults . And my time as youth ambassadors. I have been so lucky to have spoken with so many different people of all ages, from every background. But I can take away from the entire experience is that young people have voices that demand to be heard. This plan is a direct result of the collaboration from the youth of Long Beach and their shared experiences and opinions, all of which deserve to be recognized. It is no secret that our generation has inherited a planet in need of healing, and the young people who will one day be sitting where you sit in positions of power deserve to be part of the decision making. As you reflect on the recommendations here today, I urge you to think of the Long Beach youth who dedicated themselves to the adopting of this report and what it would mean for their futures to confirm the proposed citywide strategic plan for youth and emerging adults. Our futures depend on the decisions you make today, so please consider the feedback and recommendations shared from Long Beach youth and ensure the voices of young people are validated and represented. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Brianna Mendez Padilla. Hello? Yes, please begin. Hi there, Mayor Garcia, Long Beach councilmembers. My name is my pronouns are she her and I'm representing Council District one and 19 and a freshman at Cal State Long Beach. Over the past two years, I have been involved with my community as a youth reporter for local news Media Hub VOICE We have been given a platform to uplift voices by sharing their stories. I am a youth ambassador for the same reason we have worked strenuously on this plan. I am thrilled to share it with you all. I urge you to approve this recommendation, to receive this report and confirm the proposed citywide strategic plan for youth and emerging adults. My main goal is that you can be ambassador has been to ensure that you have access to resources and opportunities that possibly support your leadership and growth. This is a way to ensure that. I want to emphasize two main points. Firstly, this plan has been youth led from the start. It is for youth by youth, and that must continue with implementation. Black and consumers, youth of color of all genders, entities have been systemically disrupted by policing. Poverty and racism must remain key for justice decisionmakers. Those most impacted by systems of harm should be leading the solution. Secondly, the vital to ensure that funding for positive use of violence in the city is never threatened by budget cuts. The mayor and council members need to ensure that there is an established one with children and youth and in this year's implementation process, again are here to approve and support the feedback share today with all these using. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Cesar Armendariz. Hello. My name is Cesar Armendariz and I live in the third city council district. zipCode 90804. I want to express my support for the specificity, taking and recognizing the need to bring young people as partners to the decision making table. I feel very proud of the young people of our city and their allies who worked hard to put this plan together. This is progress because young people in our society are often excluded from the decisions that end up directly impacting their lives. The creation of the Youth of the Office of Youth Development is a cause for celebration because it implements a common sense solution to the issue of public health and public safety. Investing in the mental health of our youth and connecting them to resources and access to capital is a preventative and cost effective upstream policy. This plan gives us an alternative to the policies that inflict discriminatory and often lethal violence in our communities in the name of public safety. This plan gets us one step closer to building a community where public health and public safety is not measured by how many men with badges and guns patrol our streets. I urge city council members to increase funding to the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the Office of Equity and will oversee the Office of Youth Development, a well-funded health department prioritized through the city budget as the alternative to a healthier and safer Long Beach. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Dave. Now. I'm sorry. Dan can. And now. Yes. Thank you. Dan Knapp, your contribution call Armitage. Good evening, Honorable Mayor City Council again. Dan Knapp. At the core, we applaud the city for developing a citywide, comprehensive plan for youth and emerging adults. You know, the Conservation Corps, which has been serving Long Beach in the community, has been a community resource for over 30 years. Our mission to develop young people to reach their full potential through work service, conservation, education is our our stalwart of the corps. That being said, I'd like to say that we're first and foremost a youth development organization. We utilize a project work such as urban forestry, recycling, resource conservation, greenspace and park development as a means to help develop the young people of the Conservation Corps. Most young people come to our doors looking for paid work. What they find and what keeps them here is our holistic approach to job training, skills development, opportunities for new experiences in environment, case management, transition, support and opportunity to serve the community, and of course, a passionate and caring staff and board. The opportunity to an ability to serve cannot be understated. We cannot be more proud of our young people, especially during this past year, whether it was helping the city establish testing in health care facilities to support the city's pandemic efforts, or helping clean up downtown, uptown and Midtown. Today, after the Conservation Corps, Corps members and staff marched in support of Black Lives. Think your next speaker is Gabe Sanders. Mr. Mayor and council members. My name is Gabe Sanders. I'm a freshman history major, attended the University of Wisconsin virtually from Long Beach, where I've lived my entire life, and I represented District three as a youth ambassador. Long Beach has cultivated within me a commitment to public service and a profound passion for advocacy, both of which I carry with me today. As I implore this Council not only to respond to this long overdue plan with words of affirmation, but to implement our recommendations with a sense of urgency. It must be noted that as as this is the first plan of its kind, not every important issue could be fully addressed. For this reason, I would also urge the Council to look beyond the language of this report to local and global youth led effort against climate change, one of the most enduring and existential crises of our time. In the wake of a pandemic, it would be easy to turn a blind eye to seemingly less imminent threats of carbon emissions and rising tides. However, the issue of environmental justice should be of paramount importance to a city that hosts the second largest port in the country, a port that happens to sit in the backyard of our indigent communities of color. Last year, I participated in the city run program Youth Leadership Long Beach, which provided me and 29 other high school students with an opportunity to learn how we might integrate environmental sustainability into our lives. I was given a phenomenal experience, however, in a city with nearly half a million people. 130 person youth program is not enough. Whether expanding this effort to educate and activate youth means allotting funding for a similar program in every district, or bringing the curriculum to middle and high school campuses. Young people must be at the forefront, and the time must be now. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jennifer Hing. Hi. Can you hear me? Yes. Please begin. Thank you. Hi. Mayor Garcia and Long Beach Councilmember. My name is Jen and the lead organizer with Clean Girls in Action. Two things I want to list on this agenda item. First, you said your plan emerged because leaders of the Investing Youth Campaign envision a more equitable world where young people are valued and included in our city's budget and in decisions that impact their lives. Before the pandemic, close to 30% of our city's youth population, ages 19 and under, were already living in poverty. Districts one, two, four, six, eight and nine hold 90% of youth poverty in our city. With the release of the planet Earth, the Mayor and Council to respond to crises and support positive interventions like establishing and prioritizing along these Children and Youth Fund with a dedicated funding source in 2021. This has been young people's asses before this plan. Secondly, I want to uplift goal number four, specifically prevention and intervention proposed activities on behalf of our community. I strongly recommend that OPD use their own budget to assess youth and police relations, to inform policing practices and not to serve, and that a survey to inform community care to not be facilitated by the Long Beach Police Department in our survey, which was received and filed as official city data. 80% believe the best way to make our community safer and invest in community based youth development programs. Furthermore, additional data shows black indigenous youth of color in District six, seven and nine live in heavily police neighborhoods, which specifically lead to more fear and mistrust moving towards a new generation of hope and COVID 19 recovery means creating a process of community. I think your next speakers, Mac Harris. Good evening, Murcia Beach Council members. My name is Mac Harris. My pronouns are they them? And I'm representing Council District six. I am 22 years old. I'm also currently one of the youth ambassadors of the Institute, a plan that we are presenting here today. I am so excited to share this plan that we worked so hard on with you all, and I urge you to approve the recommendation to receive this and report and confirm the proposed citywide plan for youth and emerging adults. I grew up in the city. Went to high school in the city. Like myself. And then one more way back to myself. With the help of the community in the city, I wouldn't be where I am today without the community I found. That's what uplifting the voices do or reminding a young person of what their power looks like. This plan is a way for the city to listen and be accountable to the youth reside within it. I want to bring that to the attention of the Council today. The Need for Youth Fund. Young people need infrastructure to support city wise, positive youth development and dedicated funding to ensure there is equal access and resources and opportunities. It is finally time I start our city side by youth and invest in our future. Lastly, it is vital to this plan that young people in Long Beach have an equitable opportunity to continue shaping the implementation of this plan. We deserve a voice at the table. Prior to this, there is no end to institutionalized practice that brings young people to the table to talk about needs and priorities that will shape our city budget and policies. Many spaces are adult led to the release of this plan shows what can and should be done differently. Please consider this feedback. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jordan Wynn. Hi there. This is Jordan Win District two resident and representative for the everyone in Mommy's campaign. I just want to speak to the great support of this wonderful Strategic Youth Initiative that has been in the works for quite some time. At this point, all the wonderful people at many of the nonprofits, including Kaga, who have been very close to creating this this really successful looking program. I just want to emphasize the need for affordable housing. As someone who was recently a youth and someone who has siblings who are growing up, you know, born and raised through the wonderful Lumbee public schooling system, we have a very stark housing affordability crisis in front of myself. I am getting by, but as the years go on, rents continue to rise and our affordable housing needs also continue to rise. We need close to 11,000 new affordable units, according to our regional housing needs assessment. So when we think about affordable housing, we need to think about investing in our youth, the people who have grown here in Long Beach. You know, I went to poly and the slogan is Enter to learn, go forth to serve. And I love to serve my city here so long as it's not breaking the bank. So I thank you for bringing this presentation forward, and I look forward to all the good that will come from it. Thank you very much. Thank your next speaker is Mina Marder. Good evening, magazine Long Beach Councilmembers. My name is Mina. My pronouns are she her. I'm 18 and I'm currently a freshman at UC Santa Barbara, majoring in history of public policy and law. I graduated last year as a valedictorian from Wilson High School, where my involvement in clubs and student run organizations fostered in me a passion for community and youth activism. I am honored to be in front of you today as a youth ambassador representing District five. This plan is incredibly important to me and I'm so excited that we get to share it with you. I urge you to receive this report and confirm the proposed citywide strategic plan for youth and emerging adults. As someone who lived in Long Beach my entire life, I feel very close to these issues and I'm so grateful to have been a part of this process. Like many youth in America, I've struggled with mental health issues and experienced many barriers when trying to access support. This is an opportunity to attack this issue head on, especially since it has intensified because of the pandemic. The city needs to play a more active role in bringing mental health resources to students. It could look like prioritizing funding for on campus counseling, creating safe spaces for students who don't feel safe, talking about their emotions at home, or even educating families in the best way to support their children. Your people will allow us to secure the futures that we envision for ourselves and ensure the mental well-being of Long Beach youth for years to come. Although this plan is the first of its kind, it must not be the last. The strategic plan itself speaks to just how capable the youth are when they are empowered and valued in society. Youth have been at the forefront of several movements, especially in the past year. Our collective initiative has shown that there is no. Thank you. Our next speaker is Sharon Sinegal. Good evening, Mayor and city council members. My name is Sharon Sinegal and I'm the executive director of Rodney's house. We appreciate the dedication and hard work of the city staff and the youth ambassadors and the entire team, including Arnold Lopez and Eli, for their dedication to this youth initiative. This past week, Ronnie's House and Success and Challenges host the 35 Team and Creative Leadership Program that integrated mental health, mentorship and podcast training. Thanks to the CARES Act funding, we asked teens to answer a survey to tell us where their priorities were. And in this order, number one was opening up a business. Number two were career opportunities. Three, Tutoring and mental health teams are hungry for the knowledge and the programing and mentorship, and we owe them. And we have an obligation to them to ensure that they receive that support. If we are committed as a city to public safety, stopping gun violence, eliminating poverty and building an equitable Long Beach. We must invest in our youth through leadership programs, spaces for recreation and creativity, and we must connect them with the proper mentorship and mental health resources. We can leverage our city owned properties and work with our local businesses. We can also invest some of the money that is put into our police department, expand our CARES Act funding and move some of our cannabis dollars into our youth. Considering that the cannabis industry has hurt many communities with the war on drugs. Thank you. That concludes public comment for this item. Thank you very much for that. I'm going to turn this over to Vice Mayor Richardson, but I just wanted to just say something real briefly, because I've been listening to all the comment, and I just want to just I just have to start us off by just saying how impressive everyone that spoke is. And it just I'm sure for everyone that's going to speak from the council, it just gives, like me just so much hope to hear all of our young people and the future of our city speak so forcefully about the issues that they care about and about putting this plan together. And, you know, just the testament to even those that have gone on to the next phase of their education but are still involved and still back and promoting this plan. It just speaks to, I think, the integrity of everyone that was involved in this. And, I mean, it just brings me back to all the great memories of of being in a classroom and just seeing students succeed. And you guys are awesome. So just thank you for all those amazing comments that some of the best stuff I've heard and at a council meeting in a very long time and I just want to thank you all for really uplifting the rest of us. So excellent, excellent work and comments. So with that, Vice Mayor Richardson. I couldn't agree. I couldn't agree more, Mayor. I think first, the timing couldn't be better. All the things taking place in our community to hear such passion and vinegar from our young people, it's really exciting. And to see that they know what they're talking about, how they've contributed this report to standing up and endorsing this report, that means a lot. I want to acknowledge the youth ambassadors and everybody who participated, Jillian Mack, everyone who contributed to this. You did an incredible job on the Invest in Youth Coalition. I remember when this was just a twinkle in your eye in the beginning. You know, that request was for youth that you have to move away from, that you want to youth hear you loud and clear out. We pivoted and mayor, thank you. It was your budget that allocated $100,000 to start the conversation on Youth Fund. And the youth said, hey, let's use that on a strategic plan. So I'm great. I'm glad to see the progress that we have we've made. I remember there was a discussion at my field office three years ago, you know, of numerous youth, our planning, strategic planning, you know, to bring this to front of the city council. So it looks it looks good. I think the goal is it was it was a lot of things. I like the goal. I think that to create the best youth development system in America, it's holistic and intersectional. And we have great institutions already, but we need to work together with one strategic plan. I love the term Live Our Best Lives. Kelly said that a few times. I wrote that now for our youth to live their best lives that we want for our children want them to live their best lives. I love the statement of possibility that was incredible that the youth prepared. I think the challenges faced by youth that were outlined really align with the challenges faced by the broader community. They brought out mental health. They brought up transportation to transit. And that's that's really insightful. I think equity really comes across here. And and framing our youth is assets and that's really a youth development to me is about reframing the conversation from youth, having a bit of insurmountable odds to changing those ads for making sure the system promotes and develops harmony. I think that's important to know. I'm inspired by these youth. I was 26 when I started working at City Hall. I'm you've all talked about 16 to 24 the adolescent, right? You guys can change the world. You can change the city to make it better. You have the opportunity to do that more specifically, just a few things. I think some critical next steps are important. You know, you strategic plan was one step in the reconciliation. We created the office youth development manager you see past there's all of those things create alignment I believe people know I'm always talking about plan plan this plan that. But then after you have the plan, you work the plan. That's where we need to go. Next one, a couple of things. One, I'm going to introduce the motion on Tuesday to begin the process. Now that measure us is adopted, create the process of structuring a youth fund for the community, for the community, as well as the youth that talked about we should leverage our measure us. But also look at L.A. County Measure J. That's important. Secondly, we got to think about integrating youth into our all of our planning process. We're already doing that. But I think the way we can appropriately do that is think about a civic engagement element in our general plan, our youth, to actually submit themselves and their voice into the future. The last thing I'll say is there was a discussion during My Brother's Keeper and all of this about creating a youth council within the city of our youth at Youth and Adults, the Youth Council of Youth. That's something I want to see that we pursue. Now, I'm not sure what the timeline would be. That's certainly something I think we need to have. Thank you to staff. Thank you to everyone who contributed this. I think this landed in a great. And I'm really eager. The timing is incredible to see what we can do to grow this clan and to make sure that we work this plan with our new offices. Development and measure U.S. Opportunity Manager Jack. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Price. There we go. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'm sorry about that. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I want to thank staff for that amazing presentation. I love that it was done in partnership between health and parks, because I think that programing and providing opportunities and activities that are subsidized by the city for youth throughout the city to be involved in is such an important piece of this. And so I want to thank staff for the presentation. I want to thank Gabe Sanders, who was one of the youth that I recommended, and Mina motta, who spoke tonight, and Ali Khan, who did not speak tonight, but who were all people I recommended and served on this committee. I'm just so impressed by you guys. Mina motta was involved in our youth participatory budgeting plan that we did many years ago, and there's not a day that I don't walk through Marina Vista Park and look at the Luke Johnson Sport Court and think of the work that that youth did to honor a third district youth who passed away as a result of cancer. But what they did was engage that park and activate it. And that's been really positive. And I really want to talk about just Gabe's comments regarding climate change. There was a study that I read about recently in The New York Times regarding how climate change is affecting the youth in terms of allergies and how much longer they're staying sick. And these are climate change impacts that sometimes we don't think about, especially for a councilmember who represents the coast. We're often thinking about sea level rise and other major climate impacts, but we're not thinking about how these climate impacts are affecting our youth and their ability to succeed and thrive. I love the part of the strategic plan that talks about housing and transportation. I know that for my mother and I, we struggled quite a bit to find our footing in America when we came. And, you know, my own personal experience has dictated to me that if you don't have a safe structure from with from which to build your future, have that solid foundation, it's really the odds are against you. And so anything that we can do as a city to help build that strong structure in terms of housing and transportation is critical. We can't expect people to to thrive if they're set up for failure. And so I think that that's really important that that's in there. And then I just want to talk a lot about mental health and substance abuse. I staff one of the collaborative courts in my daily job, and I see people whose lives have been completely devastated as a result of substance abuse that started when they were in this age group. And specifically, what concerns me the most is opiate use. And I just worry that sometimes the pressures in life get really hard for all of our youth, regardless of what part of the city they live in. And if they don't have the support and the infrastructure in place, then they can easily go down the wrong path. And once you get on that wrong path, it's it's so difficult to get back out and be able to to make something great of your life. And so I just want to encourage our health department and our Parks and Rec department to think about mental health in terms of our youth. We should be offering programing in every corner of this city for our youth to have the support of infrastructure in place, to route their anxieties, their fears and their concerns in a healthy way. That, to me, is the number one issue that we should be focused on once we establish a strong foundation of housing and transportation and get people in a place where they can actually think about the type of support they need and utilize those opportunities. So I want to thank the youth that served on this committee, those of whom I I'm aware of, those who have never met. Thank you for your leadership, because you guys are the future of the city. And I'm really grateful for your participation in this process. Thank you. The next step we have. And by the way, I think the motion was made by Vice Mayor Richardson and there was a second by Councilman Rice. Is that right? Right. Okay. Yes, Mr. Mayor. Okay. Then we have. Next up is Councilman Mongo. Thank you. What a great presentation. This is amazing. I want to thank all the ambassadors and the hard work that you put in. You spoke so eloquently about the item and your passion that you put into it. Thank you so much for your contributions. As I've been saying a lot with our listening sessions, it's really we as the elected officials that are here to represent your ideas and your opinions and make sure that the things that are important to you and allow you to grow, thrive and be prosperous are available. And so thank you for bringing forward this roadmap. I look forward to investing in it, and I really appreciate everyone who contributed to this report. Thank you. Thank you. Councilman Zoro, please. Thank you, Mayor. So I want to thank my girls in action for their leadership, as well as our youth ambassadors, our, you know, the youth that participated Project Teen Advisory Committee part and all the partners. And just so much went into completing this, especially during a pandemic. And I just want to thank Ms.. Collopy and Mr. Dennis for his presentation and all the staff were working on this item. You know, as the former executive director of My Girls in Action from 2006 to 2011, I'm just so proud of our young people's leadership to see it as item and that it proposes a citywide strategic plan for young youth and emerging adults. You know, at that time, when I was that age, it was a vision, a dream that all of us doing the youth development and leadership work had something like this an office for Youth Development and to create an integrated system for young people, to have a seat at the table, to have their voice heard, and to make decisions impacting their lives. So I believe it's just so critical, crucial that we invest in young people's success by investing in programs and process, that it prevents the social health, social health, public health and educational disparities and inequities. So I've been I've always been deeply and fiercely passionate about developing and supporting our young people to organize and fight for a system that works for them. And I still do. And this is just a great example of how we can better support young people to grow and thrive and be engaged in a civic process and a systemic beginning process for systemic change. And I support keeping the Office of Youth Development and the Health and Human Services Department and of course, to supporting the strategic plans implementation. And I enthusiastically support this item. Thank you. Thank you, Councilman Austin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. And I, too, want to just leave my congratulations and applaud all of those involved in creating this plan, especially the youth ambassadors who participated. Our staff and the many community partners and advisors who were engaged in this is a very impressive document. I think it's a it's a great guideline and a good start for continue or improving engagement of our youth. I think looking at this, you know, understanding that positive youth development is the framework or a baseline for us to to develop this plan. I would say it would be lost on us, not to to mention that the most positive youth development is good parenting. And so I salute the parents out there who are nurturing and doing the right thing in terms of developing their kids and allowing them to build the confidence and allowing them to dream and be there, achieve their best lives. I do like that this plan emphasizes safe communities and stable communities as a as a as something necessary for it, for youth to be developed in the way that that provides a positive outcome for them. And I think that includes, you know, livable communities, walkable communities. We have to continue our investment in neighborhood libraries and in parks and recreation programs that really go a long way to to create a positive, a good experience for our youth in our city. And also, I would like to to just make a suggestion that, you know, we we continue to engage. I didn't see it much in the plan, but we continue to engage. You know, outlets like. Youth sports and the coaches related to those still sport programs as as strong strategic partners for the city and in developing. Hopefully this will will be done through the Office of Youth Development. The mentoring the many mentoring programs in the city as well as coordinating the internships that are so important in terms of developing our youth. But this is this is a great, great plan. I want to applaud the staff. I want to applaud the youth who were involved in this. I look forward to good things coming out of this Office of Youth Development. And I'm glad that this is that we now have an umbrella kind of organization or piece of our organization that will help us focus more on youth development in the city. So again, thank you. I'm happy to support this and I was delighted to see this before this evening. Thank you. Councilman Ringa. Thank you. And I think the comments have been made by my colleague is spot on. They're all exit comments and I couldn't be more proud of our youth in the public comment period when they came forward and spoke of their experience and their wishes for the future. We're doing a good job here at Long Beach. As I go, we'll close to 40 years of working with the city and the city, not only as an employee, but also as a member of the Community College Board of Trustees and City Council. And this is a proud moment for me as a city council member because we've tried this before. I want to be the stick in the mud. But we've had youth commissions before. We've had strategic, strategic plans dealing with youth and getting them to a level that we want. But this is the most comprehensive report and plan that I have that I've seen anywhere, and I think that it's an excellent one to reach out to both our directors of Parks, Recreation, Marine and Health and Human Services for the detail that they've done. And of course, they don't do it without the support of their staff. I think everyone did a great job with this. But as you all agree, the old village proverb goes It takes a village to do everything and to do anything to be successful. And by the way, if I didn't see it last week, I would say right now that Happy Black History Month, when it comes to these types of projects and these kinds of commitments, what I say, it takes a village. It takes all the stakeholders that we have in the city to get involved from employers to our boards of education, community colleges, universities. And we have in place the college promise that I think we can use and benefit from and get it more engaged in terms of what's going on with our youth and in our future. We have the city college, we have the district, we have the university, and then we have that fourth cog that are which was the of law, which involved which creates the full loop of education, internships and opportunity and employment. And where we put all that together, we have a successful and great city. So I am looking forward to the implementation of this program. There's a lot of different elements to it that we need to work on, but I think it won't be. It won't work unless we get everybody involved. And that's where we have been successful in the past, is that there hasn't really been that connection, that that opportunity to get all the stakeholders involved and engaged in what we're trying to do here. So I'm looking forward to working with our colleagues on the College Board and the school board at the university to strengthen our educational system. To strengthen the opportunities that we have for our youth to go into the programs, not only in terms of the community, college and university would be a doctor, programs and high paying jobs here in the city and elsewhere. So that that's my comment today and had really like I say, it's a proud moment for me being on the city council adopting this plan. Thank you very much. Thank you for that, councilwoman in Dallas. Thank you, Mayor. I just wanted to say a big, big thank you for Director Denis and Ms.. Collopy for this very impressive presentation. And even bigger, thank you to our ambassadors who obviously did put in so much work into into this plan. And I'm so excited. I couldn't be more thrilled with what's supporting this item. And as we all know it, it makes a huge difference when we have programs set in place for our youth. They could mean the difference between going down the wrong path or creating and achieving their dreams and being successful and really productive members of society. So I'm just super thrilled to be able to support these efforts that have been made. And I know it's been a long time coming and I know that it's been worked on for years, but the end result is a really great result and I look forward to in the near future supporting a fund for our children and youth. I think that that's going to be very important and that we need to move in that direction. So thank you very much for everyone that worked on this. And I'm very, very happy, any group to support this item tonight. Thank you, Councilman Allen. Thank you, Mayor. Just what a great presentation. And thank you, Director Colletti, and thank you, Director Dennis, for all of your hard work on this report. I also want to give a big shout out to all the 19 youth ambassadors and the staff who work so hard on all the forums and all the town halls. And like the mayor said earlier in his comments, I was just so impressed and and just really moved by all the the speakers tonight. I'm just so proud of the youth in our city, I believe, and the youth in our city. And I, too, want them to live and fulfill their best lives. And I look forward to supporting this office and making sure that we're able to find all of the elements of this plan. And as a young person who grew up in this city, I'm just so proud of our progress. Just great work, everyone. Thank you. Next up is Councilwoman Mango. Thank you. I was so excited to thank everyone and the youth and so impressed by all the things they said. I forgot that I had one question. Mr. Modica or Ms.. Cappelli, perhaps one of the slides discussed the transportation for youth and the desire to have complimentary transportation available. I know that we have a program in my district that we're piloting with the Transit Authority. Is that project. I mean, it was before COVID and obviously it was it was initiated and provided through Millikan High School. And so I'm not sure where we are with programs like that. Is that something that we could get an update on either via email or two from Ford just so we know that they know that providing free transportation to our youth is a a critical service. Councilmember Enter the objective one under goal six the current activity and say we're supporting a discount of bus passes for eligible students and increasing awareness at the city colleges. No cost, strong beach bus pass. So there are some free options right now. And then the intent would be to expand that. So I'm not as aware of the one that you're referring to, but we'd love to learn more. On how wonderful it was to the Long Beach Transit director way before that. And that program rolled out its best to potentially move citywide. And with COVID, I guess students weren't technically moving to and from school, but we can do during COVID to help facilitate getting those transportation options into their hands. I imagine that they're just as important now as when they're in school. Thank you so much. And with the staff and the community and the participants and the ambassadors, great presentation. Thank you. That concludes council comment and I just want to circle back and just thank everyone on the team. And I think folks have been really, really active at all levels at the city and it's just been really wonderful to see. And so thank you to the Health Department, to our Parks Department, all the especially the youth and the different groups that also were involved in the creation. And so great work, really great plan. I look forward to being able to implement it here at the city and and continue to engage youth as actively as this process did . So thank you. And a roll call vote, please. District one. I. District two. I. District three. Councilwoman. Is that an eye? It was an I. Can you hear me? Yes, thank you. District four. District five. I. District six. Office. District seven. II. District eight. I. District nine. All right. Motion carries. Thank you. That concludes the two big items we had tonight. Most of the public comment. So we're going to go back to open public comment. And Madam Karp, you can go ahead and go through those and then we'll go back to the agenda.