Human Services Advisory Commission - August 28, 2025

Good afternoon. I'd like to call to
order the Human Services Advisory
Commission meeting on August 28th. Could
we start with a roll call, please? Chair
Lurie
here,
Vice Chair Jung
here,
Commissioner Jameson
here,
Commissioner Shear, Commissioner Kulie
here,
Commissioner Hill
here,
Commissioner Row
here.
Chair Lur, you have a quorum.
Thank you. All right. This is a time
reserved for public comment. Citizens
may address members of the commission
during this time. Uh, it's reserved for
non-aggendaized items. Arizona state law
prohibits the commission from discussing
or taking action on the items and uh
testimony is limited to three minutes
per speaker. Do we have any written
comment cards?
Chair Lori? No, we do not.
All right. Moving forward,
um you all should have received the
regular meeting minutes from August
14th, our last meeting. Can I get a
motion to approve the minutes? So moved.
Second.
All right. And
let's proceed with a roll call vote,
please.
Chair Lurie,
yes.
Vice Chair Jung,
yes.
Commissioner Jameson,
yes.
Commissioner Kulie,
yes.
Commissioner Hill,
yes.
Commissioner Row,
yes.
Uh so moving forward with our regular
meeting agenda, we have uh Amanda
Seagull from the Scottsdale Paradise
Valley Family YMCA.
Amanda, thank you for being here.
[Laughter]
circles.
Oh my gosh.
Thank you.
Thank you.
My name is Amanda Seagull, executive
director of the Scottsdale Paradise
Valley YMCA, and I'm so excited to tell
you about some of our incredible
programs and how we're partnering with
the city of Scottsdale to really
maximize impact.
Next slide.
First up is why Opus. So opus stands for
outreach program to aging seniors. We
serve this population through free
services. Primarily these revolve around
transportation to basic necessities
including doctor's appointments, grocery
shopping, and monthly socials, but we
also provide technology assistance and
household assistance as well. Our
primary age group is between 84 and 99
years old.
Go ahead to the next one.
Here you can see some stats. This is
from this year, January to July. You'll
see that we have served the Scottsdale
seniors with over 7,000 miles driven and
900 over 900 hours of direct in-person
service. The numbers on your left will
show you the types of services we're
doing. 31% are transportation to medical
appointments.
Sorry, that was 31. 24% to shopping,
that's groceries, and 22% to monthly
social events.
And we recognize that for this
population, these types of errands carry
much more significance and meaning than
perhaps someone most of us can fully
appreciate. Um, to demonstrate that, I'd
like to introduce you to Chris. And
Chris is one of our seniors. And this is
what she wrote about the program. She
said, "This is a lifesaver for me. With
no family or other support, although I'm
in my late 80s, I used to walk to a
local Kroger store, but it closed in May
last year. Scottsdale Paradise Valley
Yopus has taken me to Trader Joe's to
get affordable foods and to stay healthy
thanks to staff and some loving and
caring volunteers. A new volunteer,
Isaac, was the latest a busy dad. We've
known Chris since May of 2024 and since
then she has benefited from 38
appointments with YOPUS. Now Chris is
almost 89. She is hard of hearing and
like most of Opus seniors and probably
many you know she does not drive. Um
additionally she has no family as she
mentioned or support system in her life
locally. So facing this type of
challenges would be hard for someone of
any age. But for a senior who has a
fixed income and additional medical
challenges, this is debilitating. Um the
isolation that she faced before she was
integrated with the Opus program, she
describes as um more than she could
bear. So we're so glad that we've been
able to serve her during this time. She
mentioned that she was walking to and
from the grocery store. At one point she
even suffered heat stroke because she
was trying to make this happen on her
own. And as she mentioned, eventually
the grocery store closed and it was
impossible for her. So why has allowed
her to get basic needs met such as daily
nutrition um and then trips to those
doctor's appointments. She's also been
attending monthly socials um and got
tech support with her phone. This is a
big deal. You can go ahead to the next
one.
So here you'll see the growth of our
program. Why opus has been in existence
since May of 2024 and this is just a
snapshot of a few months. Sorry I said
2024 in 2023 is when we began. Um the
gray bars are 2024 numbers from January
to July and the blue bars are this past
year 2025 from January into July. Um, so
we continue to see expanded growth and
ultimately we are so excited to continue
to serve more Scottsdale seniors with
the partnership with the city of
Scottsdale. Since July 1, so two months
ago, uh we have been able to serve 23
Scottsdale seniors and we're really
proud of that and excited to continue to
expand our program. We pull a lot of our
volunteers from our YMCA's, but recently
to expand the program, we've also done a
direct mail campaign to reach outside of
our typical networks as we recruit more
volunteers. Our board of adviserss and
our our volunteer recruiters are
continuing to bring in more volunteers
and onboard them and train them. Um, and
ultimately, I mean, this is
life-changing work in terms of how the
seniors are affected. And it just goes
to show how volunteers have a massive
impact. And none of it would be possible
without funds like the ones that are
secured from the Human Services
Commission. So, we're really grateful
for that. Next program I'm going to
touch on is our youth development
programs.
Our first one is Y Academy. This is our
early learning program that serves ages
1 through five. Currently, 50% of those
enrolled are Scottsdale residents and of
those 70% of those students are on some
version of financial aid or assistance.
Now, I don't have to tell the parents in
the room that child care and preschool
costs are abs I mean, they're
astronomical. And so, we're really proud
that as an organization, we stand in the
gap for parents and we don't turn
anybody away for inability to pay. Um,
we work with them and try to find that
sweet spot where we can provide them
with scholarship and assistance at a
space that they can afford so that we
can give them exactly what it is that
they need. When our students come into
the program, they experience academic
curriculum. They experience physical
activity, social emotional learning, and
they also receive two nutritious snacks
per day. One of the families that I'd
like to tell you about here is
Grayson's. Grayson is four years old.
One of you got his card, but he's not
allowed to put his name on it. Um, and
he is come he comes from a a low-income
family led by a single mom. They're new
to our program. They used to participate
with a different facility, but after too
many negative experiences, they began at
the Y Academy at the beginning of
August. So, literally less than a month
ago, Grayson exhibits some challenging
behaviors and struggles to separate from
his mom. And what's amazing is that in
less than a month, his mom has described
him as happier, that his behaviors are
improving at home, and that he even asks
to come to school, which is a big deal.
Uh, and when he's with us, he puts on
the boot, the cowboy boots that we have
in our dramatic play area, and he uses
toys for shields as he marches around to
be a superhero. Um, so we love families
like Grayson, and it's again through our
financial assistance that we're able to
provide him with nutrition and education
in that space. You go ahead to the next
one. Our other youth development program
is our afterchool program. It's a before
and after for schoolaged kids. This
serves those in kindergarten through
sixth grade. Again, 50% of these
children enrolled are Scottsdale
residents. And we partner with nine
schools for this program. And we provide
transportation to school in the morning
and then we pick them up again in the
afternoon and they begin our daily
curriculum while they're with us. Our
daily curriculum is focused on steam
activities and they rotate from
different rooms to experience different
activities in their daily curriculum.
They also are provided with the
nutritious snack as soon as they come
into our doors. And then next one for
me.
In 2023, we were able to provide
Scottsdale residents with $70,000 of
financial assistance. And this past year
in 2024, we were able to increase that
to $80,000.
Um, and what that looks like to give you
an example, um, I'd like to tell you
about Tanya's family. Tanya was a mom of
two elementary daughters and they fled
an unsavory domestic situation and
landed in a shelter. Now, Tanya has a
job and she was working hard to continue
to provide for her family and imagine
their next chapter. But again, as
parents know, work schedules and school
schedules are rarely collaborative. And
so, she was finding it challenging to
provide supervision to keep her kids
safe. Plus, there are some policies in
the shelter. So, she's trying to figure
all of that out and still make her
income and keep her job. Our childare
director learned of this situation and
we have what we affectionately refer to
as the purple Ubers. There are YMCA mini
buses. They're purple. and he drove this
bus to South Scottsdale to pick up these
two elementary girls from their school
every day for about a month. To do that,
we had to give them a 100% scholarship
to bridge that gap. Um, and what's
really amazing about this story, we
don't always get to see what the next
chapter looks like for families.
Sometimes we're just one page in a very
long book. But in this particular
instance, during that one month of
service, this family was able to secure
housing. And this is such a critical
thing that many of you in the room uh
can appreciate more than most probably.
Um in that temporary time of assistance,
we were able to provide lifetime impact
and change the narrative of that family
so they didn't need to experience a life
unhoused or a life where they were
encountering other challenges that could
have been avoided. And so when they
exited our program and were able to
again get permanent housing and figure
out a new rhythm within their local
community in Scottsdale, um we were just
so happy and so proud to assist them in
that way.
Next one.
So thank you for helping us to provide
ultimately 40 lowincome Scottsdale
students um with affordable quality
child care and with nutrition daily. And
then thank you also for the 50
Scottsdale seniors that were able to
serve through your help. Um this kind of
work is preventative for larger issues
that our city might have to face and we
are just so grateful to continue to
expanding the work with your assistance.
So we're really grateful for the city of
Scottsdale and the human services
commission. Happy to take any questions
you might have.
Amanda, thank you for being here. Thank
you for your enthusiasm and passion for
what you do.
Um looking around Uh, Commissioner
Kulie,
thank you, Amanda. Great. So
heartwarming to hear some of those
stories. Just have two quick questions
for you. The first one is during Greek
Heritage Month is why opus pronounced
yopas.
No. Okay. And then on slide
I'm not the cultural expert, so I'd have
to phone a friend.
Although my wife is part Greek, so
I love it.
And and I know that Roger's been there.
So uh and then I think it's slide four.
for your uh opas uh bar graph the blue
and gray. Interesting to see that uh in
the previous year it had dipped in April
and then in uh the current year that was
a peak peak month.
What do you think that was all about?
Yeah. So the program revolves around
volunteers and I would say the average
like avatar of the volunteer who serves
with this program tends to be in that
late 50s to 60s range. they're trying to
pay it forward to those older seniors.
Um, but they are able to drive and maybe
they're thinking of their parents and
they're trying to really assist that
that age group. For where we're located,
we see a pretty big migration seasonally
of that demographic. And so our first
year and even part of our second year
launching in that summer dip right
before summer hits, April, May, um, we
tend to see a bigger challenge in
getting volunteers in. It's not that the
seniors don't have the need. The need is
there, but our challenge is to match
them with volunteers who are available.
Um, in following years, we've built up
enough of a volunteer base where that
dip affected us less.
That's great. And is there a place on
the website for volunteers to go?
Yes. Yeah, we use a platform called
Volunteer Matters. Um, and so that
handles everything from driving
credentials because obviously if
volunteers are taking them in their car,
we have to do some vetting there,
background checks, um, personalities,
the whole shebang.
Thank you so much.
Yeah.
Oh, thank you. Um, great presentation. I
have just one question on the um the
school age child care.
Yes.
The acronym steam.
Yes.
I know STEM but I don't know steam.
Could you tell us what that stands for?
Absolutely. The A adds arts into the
mix. Um and so that was a movement I
want to say about a year or two ago.
This is not my area of expertise, but
more recently um enough research has
come out about the value of arts in
connection with engineering and
mathematics and and all of those kind of
really quality educational components
and recognizing that for some students
adding in that art piece is really
valuable for them.
Great. Thank you very much. And it's
showing too.
I was going to say you you're seeing
budding Picassos right in front of you.
Uh very good presentation, Amanda. We
really appreciate it. Um you know, we
provide probably a a small portion of
your overall funding. And my question is
in light of the recent announcement from
the White House about halting um federal
grant money for nonprofits,
uh how much of an impact is that going
to have on uh the why um generally
nationally, but because they're talking
about passroughs as well. So, um thank
goodness the courts have um up or halted
that temporarily, but is that a huge
concern? Could you opine on that for a
minute? Sure.
So, we're talking today about the
Scottsdale branch alone, but as probably
most of you know, the Valley of the Sun
Y incorporates 12 locations throughout
the valley. And so, I can tell you that
we've seen a $7 million dip in grant
funding over the past year. Um, and that
is quite significant for as a percentage
of our budget. Um the programs that
we're talking about today and many of
the programs at our Scottsdale location
um do not rely very heavily on grant
funding from a federal level. Um we work
primarily with local community partners.
Um and in our our scholarship budget,
which we refer to as our annual campaign
yearly, last year, for example, we
raised $175,000.
um that is from individual donors and
local businesses who are giving. And so
at least for the I can't speak with
expertise on the other locations, but
for Scottsdale, um in terms of our
notearned revenue, um our our biggest
bucket is really individual donations
opposed to grants.
Um
yes. Oh, yes, Cindy. But no, that's
okay. Um, I did have a question for you
and I was a little shocked when you said
it, so I want I want to just clarify.
You said that shocked in a good way.
Um, you said that of the children you
take them before school
on the buses or on the are they the
purple buses?
Okay. To the to the schools and then
pick them up and bring them back again.
Yes.
That to me that that's amazing. And then
so then you watch them afterward
and and and do your activities with
them.
Can you explain to me the type of family
that that that needs that type of
Absolutely. Yeah. Um so one of the
things I love about serving in
Scottsdale specifically is that we are
more diverse economically and in age
than most people appreciate. And so when
it comes to our before and after school
program, I liken it to the DMV that it's
a little bit of a melting pot of all
types of humans. And so we open at 6:30
a.m. Parents drop off. Not all parents
use both ends, but there's a good chunk
that use the before and the after. Um,
so parents will drop off at 6 anywhere
between 6:30 and 7:15. and then we bring
them to schools and then again picking
them up and we are able to supervise
them until 6:30 p.m. So it's a 12-h hour
program with a big gap for actual school
school in the middle. Um and we have a
mixture of
medical physicians children who are
working odd hours and they need to be at
the hospital at a certain time. um to
parents that are severely low income and
they work pretty far away and so they're
navigating a transition, a commute time
back and forth. Um we certainly have a
lot of single parents. Um a few of them
have multiple jobs so they've got kind
of like a a morning shift and then a
night shift somewhere else. It really is
a mixture of opportunities, I would say.
Um, a few of them, like I said, are
high-powered executives and they're
working 12-hour days and so they need to
find a way for their kid to get to
school and get back. Um, and then you
have the flip side of parents that don't
have many options and they're trying to
make ends meet and they need the care on
both sides.
So,
I'll make an assumption, high power
executives have more money. Um, so they
pay a full amount then for the for
basically this opportunity for their
children while they're doing that.
Yeah. So, I would say our full So, I'm a
mom of four and um I've only been with
the Y for a year and a half. So, I've
certainly had to secure my own child
care before working with the Y. Um and I
will say after shopping the options for
myself before I was with the Y. Um our
like full price pay for parents for both
the early learning program and the
before and after school program tends to
be cheaper than a lot of the other
options around. Um, but I think it's a
testament to the quality of the programs
that those who could afford other
options still choose to be with the Y.
And so that's what, like I said, that's
one of the reasons why I love the
program because we're mixing kids from
all different backgrounds and all
different family situations together and
that's life and they get to experience
it. Um, but yes, so those parents are
paying for in full and that's, you know,
a good chunk of our population as well.
They don't apply for financial aid
because that's not what they're
concerned with. In fact, some of them
are our donors that are scholarshipping
other children.
So that helps pay for the the children
that can't afford it. That's wonderful.
Thank you. I appreciate that.
I had two final questions. Uh you
mentioned I think nine schools that
you're working with.
Are any of those are some of those title
one schools?
I do not know the answer to that
question. I can tell you half of those
schools are in SUSD and half of them are
in PEV because we're kind of right in
the middle.
Um, and of those nine, two are
technically middle schools because we're
picking up children um that are aged 12,
but they're at the middle school.
Um, but I don't know about their their
classification as a title one school.
Yeah, I can find that out.
Yeah. And then for the uh OPAS op,
am I pronouncing that correctly? You
have to throw your hands up while you
all for the pass program. Are you
collaborating with uh with the senior
centers, Granite Reef and Via Linda?
Yes. Yeah, we sure are. And you're
probably familiar with Duet, which is a
similar type of program. We have a
couple senior centers right around our
facility. Um so we're certainly working
with them both in terms of serving their
populations or if they happen to have a
population that's driving, then we're
obviously recruiting them for
volunteerism as well.
Uh, seeing no other questions, Amanda,
thank you very much for being here.
Thank you so much for your time.
All right. Next, we have Beatatricor
from Southwest Autism Research and
Resource Center.
How are you all?
Thank you so much for having us uh
representing the organization. having us
here.
Um, and I'm going to specifically talk
about our Pyute campus.
Next slide,
please.
Let's enter.
Sorry. Now we're going.
There you go. I got it now.
Um, so SARKC is actually the oldest
autism organization in Arizona. We were
established in 1997
and uh we are internationally recognized
because of our mission but because of
how um unique our combination of
research and programs is. Um our mission
is to advance research and provide a
lifetime of support for individuals with
autism and their families. We started as
a researchonly organization and then
realized really quickly that as research
was advancing, we needed to support
people right now in the moment. And that
started uh a couple years after we were
established.
And uh we like to call ourselves a
little bit like um a university
nonprofit because we're able to do
research, but then we also really build
a lot of um staff to really help the
field and support more people. So we
really are training our staff uh to
expand our services. Oh, I need my
glasses here. Um so these are some of
our 2024
um impact numbers for SARKC as a whole
as an organization not just our PIOD
campus but 629 families uh parents
family members typical peers teachers
medical professionals and community
members received education and training.
So that's our outreach program.
Then we have 243 individuals were served
through Stark's diagnostic services
program. the first step on the right
path towards effective intervention.
That's something that as a state we
still continue to work on because of the
amount of weight lists that we have.
Different parts of the valley experience
weight list a little bit differently. So
SARKC actually uh had an innovative
research project that ended up in
diagnostics that we can provide
diagnosis virtually. So we can actually
diagnose people in remote areas on top
of just the valley here. Um we had 109
young children and their family members
who participated in jumpstart which is
what the naim calls it jumpst start into
the journey of autism and for these
program we actually don't uh require a
diagnosis for autism. So as people are
going through the diagnostic process we
can get them started to navigate the
world of autism. So not just giving them
hands-on tools but actually um how do
you contact your school district? what
do you ask for, right? What about
insurance funding? What about state
funding? So, that's what that program is
for is to really get them started uh
when they are not quite sure where to
go. We have 228
children both with and without autism
attended SARKCS community school program
across three campus locations. That's
the one I'm going to focus on the most
in a little bit. And since these data
from 2024 and 2025 January, we actually
opened our fourth location in northeast
Mesa. We have 125 people participated in
research and then 129,000 hours uh of
clinical intervention were provided to
children, teens and adults with autism.
That is actually one of the things that
makes SARKC very unique is that we
provide services across the lifespan. If
you uh look at autism organizations,
majority of them are going to focus on
children, especially young children. And
the bulk of the funding in any capacity
tends to focus on that age group, teens,
and definitely adults. It just continues
to get smaller and smaller. And that's
something that SARKC is really
passionate about is to make sure that we
can support families whenever they need
us.
Um and then we have 989 individuals
across the lifespan were supported.
Ah sorry was that the next one? Yes. Um
okay so now let's talk specifically
about our Pyute campus. Our Pyute campus
opened in 2021
in September 2021. Uh certainly with a
little bit of a delay because of uh you
probably all can imagine COVID. Um but
the the Pyote campus whenever we open a
new campus we start slow and we slowly
continue to add to it. So we started
just with our community school and then
in the last year or two we've slowly
added services that operate out of the
Scottsdale location and um just this
year just a few months ago we actually
added teams for our comprehensive
behavioral program. So next year we
should see an increase in that number.
But and the jump start program we serve
five families uh from Scottsdale. Our
comprehensive behavioral program is
onetoone home and community- based
treatment. In 2024 we uh serve 10
Scottsdale families. Like I said now we
actually have three teams that
specifically operate out of the Pyute
campus. That was not the case in 2024.
And then our community school, which I'm
going to talk about a little bit more,
is our inclusive preschool, which means
that it serves kids with and without
autism in an inclusive model, which
leads to inclusive communities in
general, right? So, we're teaching
children from the very beginning that we
are all different and we should accept,
celebrate, and just help each other out,
right? Because a lot of the time we have
the kids with autism helping the kids
that don't have autism, right? They
don't know anything in that regard. is
just we just help each other out. But
then also on top of that, we have
parents that obviously believe in
inclusion. If not, they wouldn't come to
our program. There's a child care center
anywhere, right? Every corner you can
find childare. Very expensive. I agree.
Um but they choose an inclusive model
for a reason. And those are adults today
that are co-workers of adults with
autism, potential employers, potential
employees of adults with autism today.
So the idea of SARKC is really that we
can build that inclusive community and
we serve 48 families in the 2425 school
year.
Um let's see. So SARKS inclusive
preschool is one of the very few
available in Scottsdale and we are a
licensed preschool through department of
health. So we really are wearing two
hats in that program which is the one
that you guys fund specifically and we
are preschool teachers. So we are
licensed through department of health
and follow all those regulations at the
same time that we're providing treatment
within the context of preschool. So
while they are in circle time we're
actually doing treatment and therapy in
that uh activity. Same thing we go
outside we go have snack all of that. So
if you're just looking from the outside
it just looks like a preschool but
there's a lot of uh good therapy that's
happening in there to make sure that the
kids continue to learn and grow.
Um, every campus is the same. Our
Scottsdale location has four age
assigned classrooms. So, we start as
young as 15 months. They just have to be
walking. That's the that's the need. Um,
all the way into preK going into
kindergarten. And we can serve in each
of those classrooms six kids with a
diagnosis of autism up to 10 kids
without the diagnosis. And we operate in
a 4:1 studenttoteer ratio.
These are just a couple of pictures of
our Pyute campus and building 10. Not
sure if you've been in Pyute, building
10 is where our four classrooms are.
And in the 2020 2024 2025 school year,
we serve 48 children, 32 with autism, 16
without. 12 of those children live in
Scottsdale, and the funding supported 28
full-time um staff. And uh a huge
accomplishment for us this year is that
we became a five-star quality first
rated preschool. Again, we we talk a lot
about our treatment model and about our
treatment program and that's our focus,
but really the preschool side is we got
a five-star through quality first. So,
we were very excited.
And now, let me share Eli's story. Eli
is one of our little ones. He just
graduated. And uh for any preschool
Graduation is a big deal. And for us uh
when a child that has worked so hard on
different goals graduates, it is a big
deal, right? And uh so this is little
Eli and he joined us the very first year
we opened. So when we were trying to
figure it out, right? And he was there
from the very beginning in the 2021 2022
school year. He worked on goals related
to communication with adults and his
peers. Again, that's the benefit of the
inclusive model. uh building
friendships, using coping strategies
when frustrated, and generally
developing just learning. And uh I'm
happy to share that after he just
started kindergarten through Scottsdale
Unified School District without any
additional supports. He did not qualify
for an IEP or any of that and he is just
in a regular education kindergarten
classroom in Scottsdale. And obviously,
we're very proud. That's a that's
exactly what we like to see.
any Oh, no. One more. And uh our for the
2025 uh we were awarded the $20,000 for
continued program operations and to
continue to expand uh our community
school Pyute campus. Um specifically the
community school, but again every we
have a much bigger reach at the Pyute
location.
um funding supports 33 full-time
positions and then the goal is to serve
48 children with and without autism
during the 2526 school year. Um
something that has been a little bit
challenging is the kids that don't have
autism in Scottsdale for some reason.
It's a little bit harder than our other
locations and uh we so we're offering
25% discount to City of Scottsdale
employees and their tuition. Um, and
we're collaborating of course with
partner agencies at PAU as well.
Thank you,
Beatric. Thank you for being here. And
on a personal note, I raised a son who
graduated high school in the year 2000
who is on the autism spectrum. Um, and I
I I I wish this type of program had
existed when he was,
you know, just at that age group. Yeah.
So, thank you for what you do.
Absolutely.
Um, looking around what? Yes.
Hard to believe. Beatress, thank you so
much. That's great. I I just wanted to
comment, too. Sarkc used to have the
best private label coffee
that they use for fundraiser. Boy, I
tell you what.
Yes.
I know. Oh,
quick aside. So, did I understand you
said there are fewer teens and adults
than before? Is that right?
No, the funding for teens and adults
goes down. Oh, the funding in general,
right? For for any funds even um the
bulk of our funding actually comes from
medical insurance because we are
technically a medical provider for our
treatment and uh it is hard to get an
authorization from medical insurance to
provide treatment to adults with autism.
Wow. Um, so then you have to rely on
other sources certainly and most
organizations or companies choose not to
even go there.
Um, so for us that's not an option.
I I heard recently that um, children
with autism are more prone to pool
accidents. I don't know if that's true
or not. And obviously you don't have a
pool on premises to help with that, but
do do you train in that way in that
regard at all?
Yeah. So in general, so part of all
SARKC programs, but certainly the
community school, caregiver training is
actually a big part of what we do. So
for the community school, even though
we're a preschool, we provide five hours
a month of caregiver training. And that
actually happens either on campus or
happens in the home or the community.
And that's when we actually add goals
like that. Not necessarily to teach them
to swim, but it's actually teach the
parents as well as danger awareness.
Right? That's that's several things is
how do we set up the the house to make
sure that it is safe. How can we make
sure that he stays engaged with
appropriate things to make sure that
they don't wander off and things like
that. So we have a lot all sorts of
goals in caregiver training. That would
be definitely a goal that we work on.
That's great. Thank you. One last
question. How is the facility at at Paou
Community Center for you from a
structural standpoint?
Yeah, it's beautiful. Okay, great.
It it is absolutely beautiful. I would
say is um it gives the right feel of uh
preschool an organization as well. So we
have our main campus which is where we
started and I don't love it as much.
It's very clinicy in that regard right
it feels very office. Uh Py is just
beautiful. So that's the first comment
everybody says is like oh my gosh this
is so gorgeous and that center courtyard
is absolutely beautiful. The classrooms
work out beautiful. it is uh we did a
lot of renovations to make sure that it
matches our model. So our classrooms, if
you come to see them, they have a very
random wall in the middle of the
classroom. So every classroom has like
two separate spaces and that's on
purpose. That's part of the treatment
model that we have and we were able to
do that perfectly at PAU. Um I would say
the noise level it's a little bit
challenging in those classrooms, right?
It used to be the gym. Um and uh when
doing the renovations, we didn't
necessarily bring the the ceilings down
as much as we could have should have.
So is that is a half wall to segregate
uh students or not?
It is not. It is not. That's actually
part of engagement and communication
opportunities.
Very good. Thank you so very much.
Yeah.
Hi.
Hi. Um,
you know, life works very strange and I
have in what I've been doing have
recently been surrounded by a lot of
people who have come to me personally um
looking for help with children with
autism.
And part of it is through the nonprofit
that I run,
but part of it is because I work with
police officers. And so there is a a big
push right now um to get children with
autism who are on the spectrum exposed
to police officers um and public safety
fire. Yep.
Um could you just tell me maybe what you
do or what that looks like on your
campus? Yeah. So, SARKC as a whole, um,
we actually worked with Vertra to
develop a program for police officers to
be able to identify someone that
potentially has autism. And it is
literally a kind of like a 3D
experience. Virtual reality, that's the
actual word, virtual reality. So we help
them develop this technique and at these
point is been used in several states but
it was SARKC and local police uh
departments and they go in and they
basically practice situations in which
they could potentially be facing someone
with autism and that is to help them
kind of navigate right like what
questions to ask. How do you approach
someone that potentially has autism to
make sure that they respond how we would
like them to respond in a safe way
versus potentially attacking back
because they don't know etc. So that's
the first thing as an organization what
we've done to support first responders.
So that is uh huge for us. On the other
side a majority of those goals will be
part of caregiver training and the
second part is um having visitors. We
are also a preschool, but we always have
some intentionality behind it. Is having
police officers come and read books
potentially
uh have the the police car available for
them to be able to kind of see,
high-five, just positive interactions,
right? Because it's you you need a lot
of positive interactions to to be able
to build a little bit of trust at least.
Are those things you're doing or things
you want to do?
We've done in the past. Okay. Um, to be
honest, we haven't done them as often as
we would like since CO. That was
something that we did twice a year
before CO.
Okay.
We haven't gotten back into the the
rhythm again.
Um, I don't know why, but there are a
lot of police officers that do have
children with with autism. Um, so that's
why I'm kind of, you know, in in that
and and so that's what they tell me,
too. and they're trying to work with
other police officers to actually, you
know, help help these children and help
the officers to understand it. So, I'm
so glad it's a two-way street. Yeah. And
I'm so happy to hear that. So, I
appreciate that very much.
Um, and then I was just curious
because it's a mixed inclusive group.
Um, how do people who aren't really
associated with autism, how do they know
about it? How would they know to come to
your school or apply or?
Yeah, that's a great question. So, I
would say word of mouth is our most
powerful marketing strategy is uh making
sure that they come and visit if they
tour.
Pretty about 90% will end up enrolling.
We just need to get them in the door.
Just come check it out. Um, a lot of
them are actually siblings of the kids
with autism, cousins, and at this point,
majority of people are impacted by
autism in one degree or another, a
neighbor or whatever it is. Um, so I
would say word of mouth is our most
powerful tool. Um, we do things like we
do for city of Scottsdale. So, he's
making sure that we have offers, right?
So, 25% SARKC staff, we get 50% off of
tuition. So we have a lot of SARKC staff
children that end up enrolling. Mine uh
graduated from our Tempe campus, mine,
too. So that was great. Uh but I would
say majority of them are word of mouth
from somebody that does have a
connection. So we got a cousin that
enrolled and then they have their own
groups. We're also joining a lot of like
parent groups, Facebook parent groups
and things like that and just kind of
promote our programs that way.
Thank you so much. I I really appreciate
what you're doing and yeah, I I believe
actually want to learn more. So,
absolutely. And I was going to add um
and there's a couple of things that we
also do. So, we we try to keep it very
affordable the same way, right? To make
sure that we we are um it's enticing as
well to even come check us out. Um we
also promote the training of our staff.
It's a little bit different. Uh it's uh
everybody has a registered behavior
technician certification. So we also
promote we we sell that right like we
share that information. Um and uh we are
actually very flexible. A lot of
preschools are very rigid and you have
to commit to five days a week or three
days a week but always Monday,
Wednesday, Friday and always has to be
the same. We're actually very flexible
in that regard. You can literally mix
and match. You can do two mornings a
week and that's all you do or you can do
five days a week all day long. So that
gives a lot of flexibility which is also
very um yeah it's good for for parents
especially working parents.
Yeah,
good questions. Looking this way
Petricus uh wonderful work you guys are
doing.
Thank you.
I know that we are supporting well our
grant is supporting 33 positions.
Yep.
And I'm I'm just curious of the research
that is done. Could you tell me about
the credentials of the researchers and
how that all gets compiled and is
everybody in the school a researcher and
you know pulling pulling data in order
to do everything that you do in the in
the research realm?
Yeah, that's a great question. So we
actually have a research department and
they do their own research a lot of time
is pharmaceutical. We've done the
diagnosing
um research to decrease the age of
diagnosis or the virtual portion. That
way we can serve more people. So we have
our own research department
and are those the 33 is not that
researcher I'm sorry are those PhD
yeah so no the 33 positions are actually
specifically for the inclusive preschool
and those are all registered behavior
technicians. So what that means is we
have a board for behavior analysis. So
the therapy that we do is applied
behavior analysis and we have a board
and um for staff that work directly with
the children they are called registered
behavior technicians. Um I would say
half of them
probably about 75% have a bachelor's
degree. About 25% don't and a good
percentage of them when they're in
higher positions are actually going for
their masters.
Then the every classroom is supervised
by a behavior analyst by a licensed
behavior analyst to keep our ratios that
way. We provide the group treatment in
the more in the mornings in the
preschool uh setting. We actually staff
our classrooms four or five. So we have
the four classrooms, our toddler and
preschool one, which are our young kids.
We actually staff those classrooms at
five therapists and then the older
classrooms at four. We also offer full
day child care for both the kids with
and without autism. So we have a team of
six that runs our afterare program plus
the supervisors. So the all of that adds
up to the adds up to the 33.
Yeah, we're a staffheavy.
All right.
Program. Yeah. Uh, next question is, uh,
same thing I asked Amanda with the
recent announcement about nonprofits and
funding streams. Could you talk about
how much uh, federal money you get
directly or pass through and those types
of things?
Yeah, that's a great question. Um,
thankfully we haven't been impacted by
that. A majority of our funds, our
revenue actually comes from services and
like I mentioned a little bit earlier.
So, we are a medical provider. Similar
as a doctor, we work with medical
insurance. We write our treatment plans.
We get an authorization.
Build the claims. Literally is the exact
same way. So the bulk of our revenue is
actually from services that we provide.
That completely flipped in the last 15
years for SARKC. We really depended on
donations and grants. Now is completely
flipped. So we're pretty sustainable
just with the services that we provide.
Any grants tend to be very local local
grants and then corporate donations and
individual donations. Mhm. So, your
insurance uh includes private and uh
access.
Okay.
Yep.
Very good.
Yeah.
Thank you.
No problem.
And anything else?
Okay, Beatric, thank you. Thank you
again for what you do. Thanks for the
engaging questions from the
commissioners.
Um have a great evening.
Uh, next up we have Phil Sharf. Uh, Phil
is the CEO of Tempe Community Action
Agency. Uh,
no, I need to
I
Sorry, I was saying you can't leave now.
I mean, I you know,
I've I've had the I've had the pleasure
uh like Amanda running into uh Phil
actually have have known Phil for at
least 20 years. We
collaborated on some projects at Arizona
State University together. So, Phil,
well, it's always always a pleasure to
see you, sir. Uh and thank you to all
the commissioners for having us here. Uh
it's a privilege uh to be here. Uh my
name is Phil Sharf, as Mr. Lori
referred. I am the chief executive
officer for Tempe Community Action
Agency, which is a poorly named uh
organization because we don't just serve
Tempe. So that's the curiosity of why
I'm here. Um as Roger referred, I did
spend 20 years uh in higher education.
Uh and then I pivoted and I ran uh
Central Arizona Shelter Service for a
couple of years before coming over to
TCAA. So my background is a little bit
diverse um but it it aligns well with
the work we're doing here. I'm going to
cover kind of 20,000 foot numbers for
you and then we'll dig a little bit into
a couple of programs and uh along the
way we'll certainly call out the ways in
which we're serving the residents of
Scottsdale and working with um all of
the wonderful people on my left. So just
kind of give you a a snapshot of our
last year numbers. This is throughout
all of our programs. We're kind of
rooted in three main areas, health,
housing, and upward mobility. Uh and so
we run a homeless shelter. We run the
largest food pantry uh in the Tempe
South Scottsdale area. We run a health
start program. We run a neighbors
helping neighbors program. We run a home
delivered meal program. We run a kind
keeps going. So these are just some of
the highlights of some of those
programs. Um in the ialth program um
which is our shelter. We had 401 unique
individuals last year come through
shelter. I'll get to some more details
in a minute, but um of that five of
those um were Scottsdale residents. We
gave out almost a million dollars in
rents and utility assistance um to over
2100 unique individuals. Um we served
over 720 individuals through our health
start initiative uh as well as uh almost
90 people through neighbors helping
neighbors. We gave out 60,000
um people were fed um through the
organization um which constitutes over
9,000 meals through congregate lunch as
well as over 43,000 meals and home
delivered. The rest of the people fed
are through that food pantry program. Um
in that food pantry program, it accounts
for over 680,000 meals a year that's
delivered through those food boxes um to
those families. To give you a sense then
of congregate, um just to dive down into
that program a bit, um we do serve
Scottsdale in a in a very profound way
and we have a great partnership um at
Granite Reef um and with Jessica uh Rap
uh on your on your staff here. um really
looking at serving our seniors in a in a
communal way. Uh and so that provides
them a warm meal on a daily basis should
they choose to attend. And then we also
do education around nutrition. Um we do
some trainings and we also try to have a
lot of fun uh with our seniors there.
And that is in direct collaboration with
Jessica and team at Granite Reef. So
also thinking about how do we
incorporate all of the other programs um
that go into the work there. And this
fall, we'll also be running um a
commercial kitchen in that space and
providing what we hope is an enhanced
meal for all of our Scottsdale
residents. So, looking really forward to
that opportunity and a huge thanks to
the city of Scottsdale for that
opportunity. As I mentioned, our our
food pantry um is the largest in in the
Tempe South Scottsdale area. Um close to
60,000 people served last year. Um
823,000
pounds of food. For the most part, that
food comes into us through the United
Food Bank. Um, but we do have to
purchase some, um, on the peripheral
when we're either running short, um, or
as changes, which I know is a question
from Commissioner Jameson coming my way,
as changes have occurred in the federal
landscape, we've seen a major cut in
food subsidies for farmers in Arizona to
actually supply food for the food banks.
And so, we've had to purchase more as
that fresh produce has gone away. Um, so
that's one one explicit impact that
we've had. And then again, we're serving
about 14,000 unique individuals there.
Um, people can come to our food pantry
up to twice a month. Um, and it services
anyone with the state of Arizona ID. So,
a lot of people from the South Scotsdale
area are accessing it. And as SNAP
benefits have changed, also to your
question, Commissioner Jameson, as SNAP
benefits have changed, we've seen an
increase of Scottsdale residents coming
to the food pantry as they may have
other services that are being restricted
or they may no longer have eligibility
for some of those other services. Our
community assistance program we call CAP
is where we give out all of our rent and
utility assistance. A large percentage
of these dollars are restricted dollars
and we can only service the people of
Tempee and Fountain Hills. That's our
contract. However, we do have some flex
spending in this bucket of of services
and we do serve Scottsdale residents
mainly people with APS um that need
utility assistance. So obviously right
now we are under an APS and up uh APS
and SRP moratorium on shutting off power
but unfortunately people don't realize
that when the power gets turned back on
you oftentimes have a bill of $1,500 to
$2,000 because it's the summer months
during that moratorum. And so what we're
going to be seeing now coming into
September and those moratoriums kind of
ending is an increase of our residents
needing to step forward especially in
that utility assistance space to kind of
get caught up. We mainly serve
Scottsdale residents in that utility
space. we don't have the availability to
serve them in the rent and move in space
because that's there where that contract
um restricts our access. Our health
start program um is basically neonatal
education all the way through two um and
then we hand them off to these wonderful
ladies that already presented for their
incredible programs of enrichment. Um so
we're really working on making sure that
we have healthy birth weight. Um we have
a 94% healthy birth weight of everyone
that came through our program last year
and we're at about a 98% immunization
rate. Um so we were really focused on
healthy birth and then making sure
people have access to the appropriate
immunizations. Uh we are also working a
lot with our community health members in
this program. Um doing homebased visits.
So every single one of our families and
participants gets a homebased visit
every single week um from our community
health workers. And so we're able to do
a lot of interventional services um as
well as make a lot of referrals to other
programs through um through those
homebased visits. Our IHELP program,
which I know is of uh great interest to
the city, um is our shelter program. Um
it has been running for 20 years and
it's one of only two IHELPS left in the
state of Arizona. IHELP is a national
model. Um basically it's an interfaith
model for support of those experiencing
homelessness. Um and it has a lot of
positives and it also has a lot of
drawbacks. Um the biggest drawback for
us is that because we are in a
rotational pattern, I'll explain to that
in a second. we really have limitations
to who we can shelter. Um, and so every
single night we rotate through a
different faith-based organization that
supports our shelter. So, every
afternoon we send trailers out to the
new location. They're going to set up
all of our CS. They're going to set up
our laundry. They're going to set up our
showers. We're going to stay at that
facility for 10 to 12 hours. We're going
to bring in up to 40 um individuals
experiencing homelessness to stay in an
emergency shelter. And then the next
morning, they exit that facility. And
then we rotate to a new facility. and
then our community joins us at the new
facility. Um it is logistically a
challenge as you can imagine. Um but it
also means that anyone that has a second
or a third shift job um is unable to
stay at IHELP because we can only
shelter overnight. Right now we're close
to 80% of our participants in shelter
having employment. Uh and so one of
those misnomers about people being
unemployed and and unhoused, right, is
we have a lot of people that are
employed and unhoused and still staying
with us. Um, and in fact, I would rather
them have overnight jobs because the pay
differential is is really important for
us to get as much pay as possible. So,
um, on my next slide, I'll get to where
I'm going with that. Um, but we are, um,
we're still running in in this
operation. As I mentioned, we had 401
total unique individuals. On average,
they're staying about 40 days. Um, we
are definitionally an emergency shelter,
and so we can shelter for up to 90 days
without any intervention sought. Um, and
so that's the legal guidelines. That's
not how we run the program, but that's
the kind of the guidance from the
federal government. Um, we generally
will allow people to stay with us past
the 90 days so long as they are
successfully making strides towards
their um hopeful outcome of independent
living. So, we do not remove people from
the program so long as they're doing the
appropriate things to get to their
goals. Um, as I mentioned, we have close
to 80% that are employed. And so, all of
those individuals again would be able to
stay with us until they get into that
permanent housing. As I mentioned, we
have five individuals staying with us
from Scottsdale. Um those generally come
in from referral. Um and we work closely
with uh a myriad of different agencies
to to get those referrals, but a lot is
done by outreach teams um either through
city contacts or through organizations
like community bridges or others that
will refer them to us. We are part of
the continuum of care and we are a entry
site into homelessness. So some
individuals also come to us for an entry
point but don't end up staying with us.
Um, so we also help to facilitate people
getting into shelter throughout the
entire continuum. We only shelter single
adults, so we have no ability um to
shelter families. Um, I know families
are obviously top of mind to everyone
and so I hope that you um are also all
supporting my good friend Ted Taylor at
Family Promise um who offers a great
service to the city of Scottsdale and
all of those families um and a very
similar model to the IHEL model. Um in
addition obviously to that shelter um
you'll also see that we provided about
14,000 meals um to individuals that are
experiencing homelessness and staying
with us in in those shelters. We are
making a major pivot however as an
organization and as a shelter. Uh and so
we are um groundb broken. Um it's really
just a dirt lot still but um they told
me that the ground has been broken. Um,
and we are in the process of building
what will become, um, our brand new
human services center. Um, and I'm
really excited to announce um, that we
received a $2 million contribution from
Jerry Brock, who's a longtime resident
of the city of Tempe. Uh, and so this
will be the Jerry Brock Human Services
Center uh, when it opens. So that's
that's actually we just found that out
this morning, so you're the first
persons to know. And I haven't signed
the contract, so I probably shouldn't
have said anything. Uh, don't say
anything. Um, but we will be moving to
this building by the end of 2026. Um,
and what this means is that we will now
be able to operate a 24-hour um 7-day a
week emergency shelter um with expanded
services, wraparound services, the
ability to, you know, really house
people no matter when they may be able
to find that job if they're working
overnight still staying with us. Um we
are going to be going from 40 beds to 68
beds in the emergency shelter with an
additional 12 beds um in the
transitional shelter space. And so that
allows for a whole different set of
rules um for individuals to really make
that transition from shelter to
permanent housing um in a structured and
a supported environment. To your
question, Commissioner Jameson, to get
ahead of it with the reduction in
federal fundings, I will close my doors.
We will not be able to persist or exist
with the reductions in federal fundings.
Um and recently the notice of funding
and the decisions of Maricopa County and
their priorities. We are not
prioritizing emergency shelter in this
county for funding. So the priorities
are going to um substance.
They're going to housing uh affordable
housing. But we have shifted almost
every dollar away from emergency
shelter. And in fact we are the only
shelter in town that has any plans of
expansion. Uh and we are now up to 116
beds in Maricopa County closing since
last year. So the need for the emergency
shelter space is profound because we
obviously have a multi-year runway to
get caught up in the housing space for
us to backfill the need. Um and so that
is profound for us. So this will allow
us to to um house up to um 68 people in
an emergency shelter. We will also be
running a commercial kitchen from this
building as well. um which is why we're
so excited about the project with the
city of Scottsdale and Granite Reef. Um
so that we can make sure that we are
doing things in an appropriate manner um
and meeting all of the needs for our
congregate and home delivered meals um
as well as everybody in shelter. Um so a
lot of changes coming there and we'll
also be rotating our pantry to this
location as well. And we're going to be
moving away from a preboxed pantry meal
to a blended experience. So individuals
will get some of their um items in a
pre-boxed way and then they'll have some
self- selection. um so that you know if
you have a priority over a certain type
of deli meat for an example, you can
choose something for your family that's
going to be more befitting of what their
kind of needs and desires are.
That is what I prepared for you because
I was really wanted to make sure that
we're staying on time. Um I have a ton
more I can talk about, but I'll I'll
open it up to questions about those
programs.
Phil, thank you for being here. Thank
you for what TCA does as an
organization.
uh what what it's it's essential. Um and
uh you closed with a humbling moment. Um
yeah,
I don't mean it to be a Debbie Downer,
Roger, but it happens.
But but but thank you for your honesty.
Um when that 247 shelter opens,
will that take the place of the IHEL?
It's a great question. So, we're in
active conversation right now actually
with all of our faith-based partners
about how do we continue some semblance
of either their engagement in the
process or to stand up kind of a
smallcaled operation for them to allow
to continue to support people and and
really it's becoming a much more
critical conversation um as some of
these shifts in contracts exist. So
right now what we're seeing is a shift
in our federal contracts and all pass
through contracts that are requiring
identification in order for us to
provide any service. Well, the issue
with homelessness is that you may not
have identification because you're
homeless. So we're no longer going to be
able to support people that are
unsheltered and unided. Um and so we're
going to rely on those church partners
because they're not receiving those
federal funds to actually try to support
some of our documented and undocumented
individuals that just don't have
physical identification. Right? there's
a there's a whole other level of
undocumented when you don't have the
physical possession of an ID because
you're homeless. So, we're really
re-engaging with them right now. The
original plan was to shutter the IHEL
program and move everything to the 247.
that's probably no longer going to be a
doable. Um, and so my plans right now
are actually to split up the 40 beds
that we have that we would normally
rotate and actually see if we can't get
some of those um, faith-based partners
to actually quote unquote own some of
those CS so we can get out of the
operational business of rotating every
day, but we can continue to support
those individuals that are in need. So,
we're looking for a a happy middle
ground that allows a little bit of a a
strain release from our staffing model.
Okay, I could keep going with questions,
but I'm going to I'm going to give my
other commissioners a chance to
surprise Mr. Pulley.
Who would have thought?
Philip, good seeing you again. Thank
you.
A pleasure, sir.
Are any of your faith-based IHEAL
partners located in Scottsdale?
None of them are, sir. So, we don't
shelter anyone in the city of
Scottsdale. We just shelter Scottsdale
residents in Tempee. Um, which may be a
little bit of a sore topic when I
present to Tempee. Um, but we don't uh
we don't have any shelter at all in this
in the city of Scottsdale space. It's
all city of Tempee interfaith partners.
And it may seem like a small number,
five out of 401
um that are Scottsdale residents, but to
me, I look at it as if if you're serving
people outside of our or adjacent to our
our territory, why wouldn't they
potentially have become Scottsdale
residents at some point if you weren't
helping them? Yes, sir. Well, and what
we all know about homelessness is it's a
fairly transient population. And so the
location they're coming from or the
location they are stated as being from
may be the location they've spent the
last week or two. And so, you know, the
difficulty always in reporting out data
is, and I appreciate your commentary so
much, is half the people that said
they're from Tempee in a month might
have said they were from Mesa or might
have said they were from Scottsdale or
wherever that last residence was. And
so, you know, from a a personal
standpoint, the frustration we always
have is we're not supporting a city's
homeless. We're supporting the homeless.
Um, and we want to support anyone that's
coming in and raises their hand that's
ready to take that next step to
resolving their issues. Um, you know, it
usually takes between seven and 12
outreach attempts before somebody's
willing to come into shelter. So, I want
to get them in if they're saying yes,
regardless of of where they say they're
from. Very good.
You're 100% correct, sir.
Thank you.
Thank you, Phil. That was a great
presentation and sobering one. I'm very
excited for the prospect of your
beautiful new facility, but I'm
wondering if you have an estimate of the
annual uh funding needs for operations
once the doors are open.
Sadly, I do. I Gosh,
you guys put me last for a reason. Um,
so we are right now all of our programs
allin. We're at about a five and a half
operating $5.5 million operation allin
for all of our programs. We're looking
at an increase in a new building of
about 2 and a.5 million annualized and
that is the combination of the cost of a
24,000 foot building the cost of the
operations of moving the shelter
internal which means that we also now
have to start paying for food um and
staff. So right now the iHelp model
allows us to not have the staffing model
we would need and all of that food is
donated. And so about two million of
that $2.5 million increase all comes
from running that shelter in a 247 model
because one of the other commitments
we've made to everyone is we are not
going to be dumping the building. So you
know on a Saturday if people don't want
to leave the building you can stay in
the building and our seniors that are
staying with us can stay in the building
and so that you know we we have to run
the building all the time. So, we're
looking at between 5 and 600,000
annualized just for the building and
then about 18 to 2 million from program.
Great. Thank you very much.
Absolutely. Thank you for asking the
question.
Oh, uh, Philip, great great
presentation. I I appreciate what you
said about um if the federal funds dry
up for you, you can't do what you're
doing. And that that's for boating. And
um I've experienced that myself. My
first job out of college was with a
capar
during that was about 100 years ago. But
um we had year after year of funding
interruptions and I was laid off three
times in a 4-year period. And it was
hugely disruptive and I just hope that
uh we can get past this and um that you
guys can continue to do what you do.
I appreciate that, sir. And obviously
we're looking to, you know, diversify
our revenue in real time and and really
try to get ahead of some of what, you
know, was expected but unexpected in
terms of changes and cuts. We appreciate
the support.
I just have one final question and and I
have volunteered over at Community
House, which is a day relief center in
Scottsdale.
And and I've experienced a number of
those individuals who say, "I I I would
rather die on the street than go into a
shelter."
Yep.
To what frequency do you see that? And
do you do you have a remedy? Do you have
a
Yeah. uh a way of dealing with those
individuals.
So, really appreciate the question,
Commissioner. The reality is we're
probably seeing up to about 20% of
people that are unsheltered that have no
interest at all in seeking shelter in
the way in which we want to shelter
them. Right? So, that's the big caveat.
And so, here's the question I'll ask
every commissioner. When is the last
time somebody told you it's lights out?
When is the last time somebody told you
you couldn't use the bathroom right now?
When is the last time somebody told you
you can't go outside and have a
cigarette or do any of the things that
all of us get to do every day? And so
the choice of leaving an unsheltered
scenario to go into a shelter is a
choice to give up your autonomy and to
follow the rules that are being dictated
by an organization you may not know and
live amongst people you have never
necessarily seen while giving up your
family and community that was on the
streets. And so what we need to do is is
really build the trust in the
individuals but also create ways that we
can allow them to have the autonomy
necessary for them to be willing to take
the services. And so that's where you
know really thinking about how do you
create dynamic settings and how do you
create dynamic shelters that don't have
a one-sizefits-all cookie cutter model
um because we are seeing is that
individuals should be met where they're
they're at. Um, we work closely with an
individual that has PTSD who is dear
friends with us and accepts services
from us but will never seek shelter with
us because the thought of being in that
environment is way too similar to what
he experienced when he was in the
military in barracks and it's a
triggering event. And so he would rather
die on the street knowing that he could
have had air conditioning because that's
an easier effect than having to deal
with the PTSD. Now of course we're
making the referrals to behavioral
health, you know, we're trying to get
them connected that way, but It's it's
all of those things. Um but it's it it
always comes down to autonomy. Do you
want to give up autonomy um versus what
you have on the streets and then other
restrictions. As an example, you know,
if you're married, you can't stay with
your wife at my shelter. So, you're
sleeping on the men's side, your wife's
sleeping on the women's side. During the
day, you can see her, but on the
streets, you can cuddle. I don't, you
know, I like to cuddle. I don't want to
take that away from people.
Okay. Thank you. that that really was a
a a very good presentation. Um it really
opened up a lot of eyes. I believe
a a question I have is regarding the
demographics and you started to get into
that. So I was wondering if you could
tell me I know you said they're all
adults but can you break it down for me
a little bit in terms of more of the
demographics?
Yep. So totality of our organization we
serve about 20% of our population is
over the age of 55. About 20% of our
population is the kids that are part of
that health start program and then 60%
of that population is that 18 to 54
range. In the shelter, it's really about
85% is 18 to 54 and about 15% right now
is what we would consider senior. So in
homelessness definition, seniors start
at age 55. Um the continuum in Maropa
County right now uh is about 30% of
people experiencing homelessness are
over the age of 55. It's also the
fastest growing um number, but we have
not seen a huge increase at TCA. So,
right now in shelter, we're about 15%
over 55. Everybody else under um you
know 18 to 54. Um and we are overall
services, we actually serve more females
than males, but in shelter we serve way
more males than females. And it's
probably partially just because of who's
coming to pick up things and get things
is who gets counted as the gender. Not
necessarily that it's a gendered
rationale for why that is. It's just the
moms are sadly the ones that are taking
the kids to health start. So they get
counted a lot of times for those types
of things.
Okay. H how about um military?
Yep. So military um in shelter right now
we have less than 10 um all throughout
the entire continuum this year we have
542 people in all of Maricopa County
that are a veteran status and
experiencing homelessness. Um
can you repeat that? I'm sorry.
Yep. 542 people in Maricopa County are
both veteran and homeless. Um and so the
the good news if there is and I I hate
to say it's good news about something
and it's not good. Um, the good news is
is that we have found that most veterans
are able to gain access to the supports
that they need because of the robust
nature of the VA and other services. And
in fact, the new director of human
services at Maroba County um comes from
that military background and and she and
I have met many times on that exact
topic on, you know, how do we get to
continue to address the needs of um our
our veteran homeless. Um, but thankfully
the number has dwindled. Um, it's less
than half of of what it was in the 90s.
Um, so we're making good strides there.
I'm very happy to hear that.
It's a wonderful thing.
I know. We just need to do it for
everybody else. Right.
Including them. I'm not Yeah. Everybody.
Absolutely.
Exactly. Um and can you just tell me
where the new building is located?
Yeah. So, um So,
we're in a spot of land that nobody
knows about. So, we're on a p we're
going to be building on Apache just east
of the 101. Okay.
Right a breast to the um
the canal that separates Tempe from
Mesa. Okay.
So, we are literally on the corner of
Mesa and Tempe, right on the light rail.
Um, and so it's a really phenomenal
location for us because almost all the
human services that are being provided
in the city of Tempe by us and other
partners are all along the Apache
corridor. So, anyone experiencing any
vulnerability can use the light rail to
access almost all of those services. Um,
so it's really works out well. Our other
main service location is also on Apache.
Um, the Tempe Envision Center is also on
Apache. Uh, so it works out really well
from that perspective. Um, but we're
basically in Mesa. Nobody knows it's
actually Tempe because it's east of the
101.
Your name is really going to be
confusing then.
It's Yeah, we're Yeah, we're working on
that as a whole separate thing. I've
only been here since April. So, I got,
you know, I gota
I got some time before I can get the
name changed.
May I ask one more thing? I I'm very
excited about your program working with
Granite Reef Senior Center. I think
that's a wonderful program. Um I'm
looking forward to seeing how that all
turns out and I'm actually going to go
down and get a meal and and so I thank
you for doing that and I think that's
it's a wonderful thing. So, um I hope
that program really is turns out well.
It it I can't say enough about the
partnership um throughout all of our
programs at the city of Scottsdale, but
certainly that and I think the work that
Jessica has done um even in our short
time working together has been profound
um and certainly with the assistance of
Mary to make sure that we're really
being focused on those outcomes and the
success of the program, but also all
citizens. So, we're happy to be here and
and anything we can do to make the city
better, um you know, we're committed to
doing that.
Thank you.
And that program, by the way, is is uh
funded or partially funded through the
uh SRPMIC
grant.
That is correct.
So, Phil, thank you. I seeing no other
questions. Uh great spirited
conversation. Really appreciate you
being here and appreciate the uh
conversation with the commission. Um,
and uh on behalf of the commission,
Amanda, Beatatric, and Phil, thank you
for being here, giving up your evening
time. Uh, I know you've got four kids at
home. You probably
need to go take care of them. Um, but
but this is really invaluable to us. Uh
pretty soon we'll be going back into the
funding process and evaluating
uh responses and really having firsthand
information from you is really
invaluable for us making our decisions.
So thank you again.
And
we have the infamous Mary Whitsky
for the director's report. the infamous.
I'm not sure I can live up to that,
Chair Luri, tonight.
All right, I will try to keep it quick
since uh we are getting on time. We're
getting late on time, but I do have a
lot of exciting um things to tell you
about tonight. I have a plethora of
notes. Um so, I will dive right in with
that. And the first center we will focus
on is
youth and family services.
So there are several things going on at
youth and family services. The first one
um is regarding working with uh
Scottsdale Unified School District um
and doing a presentation talking about
programming. Um the YFS team presented
to the social services team to share
about the services and they've begun
collaborating on efforts for red ribbon
week which is in the last month of
October and related to drug-free
education. Um they're going to be
providing those services in five high
schools. Each of the team members will
be providing some outreach activity on
campus. Um some activities are more
robust depending on the needs and the
requests of each of the individual
schools. more information and
collaboration with the community of
Scottsdale marketing team will take
place. Um and then Kelly Substance Youth
Coalition will be participating in these
efforts along with the various community
agencies. Um they're also going to
continue to plan to coordinate with the
school resource officers, principles,
and vice principles um as well as the
social workers to ensure the referrals
for the ARJIT program, restorative
justice intervention program are handled
best. And with these direct
communications, um, they're able to
handle the cases much better. Next up is
Nope, we're still on youth and family
services.
We, um, human services newsletter. So
Christy Han McDonald who is um working
on the our human services strategic plan
on the marketing outreach goal has
partnered up with Jessica Rap and we're
going to be um consolidating our
newsletters into one human services
newsletter um with our communications
and marketing uh for distribution. also
calling out some of our partners, our
community agencies, and doing some
recognition um and maybe even some polls
and do survey feedback so we can get
community support. So, please be on the
lookout for updates regarding our human
services newsletter. Um we have the
opioid sediment fund strategic plan that
is officially kicking off. We have um
secured a contract with Lacroy and
Milligan and we are kicking it off um on
next week Tuesday and we'll be setting
up focus groups for internal staff and
then external partners. Um you guys will
be invited as part of the internal um to
participate in those focus groups.
There'll be there'll only be two focus
groups. Um and as we proceed down those
you will hear more updates about our
strategic plan on using those opioid
funds.
Um the regional veterans court um youth
and family services has started to
receive referrals directly from Tempee's
regional veterans court um and they're
implementing new forms in their
electronic records system along with new
processes. They're working directly with
the city's prosecutor and taking um
referrals and connections with Aver
Health um to ensure for substance use
testing has been initiated.
And last but not least, there's a
picture of our mayor's youth council.
Five of the students from the mayor's
youth council um represented the League
of Arizona Cities and Towns Conference
on Wednesday, August 20th here at the
Scottsdale Princess in Scottsdale.
Students participate in a statewide flag
ceremony, engaged with public officials,
andworked with student advisory boards
all over the valley. The children or the
youth that are on the board reported
benefiting from the engagement with
like-minded students and felt empowered
to do more with their community.
Now, ne Now, next up, Vista Del Camino.
Vista Del Camino has a lot of exciting
new things going on. We have some
fantastic pictures up here. Um, let's
start out with our food bank on the
Well, it's on my right hand side, so it
is on your right hand side. We have a
new box truck. Um, the food bank box
truck was replaced with um the old one
was replaced with a new one from the
fleet department. It has a bigger lift
gate, making it easier for staff to load
and unload items. We are working um with
looking for funding and um possibly
retrofitting this for refrigeration so
that we can rescue more food. Um we and
the next one um with regards to the food
bank is gold certification. The
Scottsdale food bank is proud to share
that they received the gold
certification through Leah's pantry's
nutrition pantry program. This
recognition reflects their deep
commitment to reducing food insecurity,
upholding client dignity, and achieving
operational excellence. The gold
certificate was earned by strengthening
all six pillars of the program to
include nutrition guidelines, client
experience, environment, education,
community partnerships, and evaluation.
And that picture is in the bottom right
hand corner. So, we're very proud of our
food bank staff. And last but not least,
um, and you'll hear about this again
when I talk about Granite Reef, we have
a new trolley stop. The new trolley stop
has been initiated on Thursday mornings
from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 pm. Not only is
it serving those who um are on the brown
bag program, but it is um for people who
have appointments to pick up food boxes
as well.
Next up with Vista, we are continuing
our recreational programs um with our
family Fridays for July and early
August. The program attracted a total of
77 participants. Some of the activities
included Jurassic Jamberee, where
families participated in fun activities
such as helping dinosaur eggs hatch,
making dinosaur mass, and digging up
dinosaur fossils. Summer rocks night,
they painted rocks into colorful
insects, flowers, and other creative
design. Um, and then on the picture on
the on the PowerPoint, you can see
activities from their summer lu luau
where they received CPR training night
that we partnered with South Phoenix
Healthy Start through Maricopa County
which provided that educational CPR and
heat related illness with hands-on
training for all the ages. And then
social services update. Um, I'm proud to
announce that clients are being assigned
a caseworker within 5 to 10 business
days from the time they submit their
application. So there is no longer a six
week wait.
So we'll give Sue a round of applause
for that. And Liz Heavenri.
Okay.
All right.
Granite Reef Senior Center. We have some
photos in the middle um with regards to
that is the first day that the food uh
that the trolley rent. You can see our
one of our council members rode the
trolley with our seniors over to pick up
the food bank um to food pick up their
brown bags over at the food bank. Um the
route is on the right on the lefthand
side. We're happy to announce and I
believe there was a press release that
went out of the back to school program
um was definitely a success this year.
445 families were served which
encompassed 927 children. Um, also Phil
mentioned a pilot project. Um, so
recently Jessica and I worked with Phil
and we're going to be implementing
they're going to be using the commercial
kitchen and preparing the food fresh. So
they won't have to deliver it pre-made.
They'll be serving the food fresh from
the kitchen and hopefully um we'll get
some positive feedback. But that will be
beginning on October 1st and run through
December 31st. So, we do welcome you to
come to the Granite Reef Senior Center
um during the lunch hour, 11:30 to 1,
11:30 to 12, pick up and have a have a
meal with one of the seniors.
All right, next up, Pyute Neighborhood
Center. Lots of things going on here. We
have um community workshops um and
discussion groups going on. Um the
community workshops include things like
little scientist um from the family
resource center um books can where they
the July was the start of the F FRC's
book can series. It's a six-week program
based on Arizona's infant toddler
guidelines. Um they held Paute Legal
Night on July 8th and then they
participated in the back to school event
which is in the bottom right hand corner
where they provided um swag and
information to 103 adults and 148
children. The first things first East
Maricopa regional director even
volunteered and joined joined them for
the event. Um some updating um up
updates on news and events coming. The
community recreation classes will start
in September here at Pyute Neighborhood
Center. Um, and they will be providing
um programs that include creative
movement for toddlers ages 1 through
three, Tai Chi for adults 18 and older,
and young Rembrandts, a cooking, baking,
and drawing workshop designed for youth
age 8 to 13. They are continuing with
their ESL classes. Those will kick off
in September. And as you look on the
right hand side, you'll see a picture of
um the farm and the family resource
center is currently um redoing their
layout um and their theme um turning the
family resource center into a barnyard.
And so they have barnyard crafty story
time coming up real soon. Last but not
least, the staff um went on a tour on
July 18th to through Noah. Um during the
visit they learned that Chola is Noah's
largest clinic equipped with a variety
of services and resources for patients
and surrounding community.
All right.
Now we get to talk about housing I
believe is next. Housing and community
assistance office. And we are kneedeep
in federal regulations um and federal
compliance reports. Section 8 management
assessment reports. The cap has been
completed, but I'm going to leave you in
suspense till the end of September. I do
know our score, but I am going to save
it for the actual housing and governing
board meeting. Um, I'm not going to give
anything away. You're going to have to
wait to hear the news at that point. Um,
our financial data schedule um is due
tomorrow when we are currently working
with our our contracted CPA. That will
be completed. And then our consolidated
annual performance and evaluation report
um is due on September 30th that will be
coming before the commission um to talk
about our year accomplishments. So
you'll be able to get an update with
regards to the CDBG programs. On the
right hand side you can see Ree Miller
um our operation fix it. He is busy
working on um preparations for our fall
festival. Um so the city of Scottsdale
is having a fall festival here at the
civic center area. on October 18th. Um I
believe it's from 4:30 to 8:30 or 5 to
8. Um I don't know the time exactly. I'm
drawing a blank. Um but um human
services has a theme of apples and
ganghum. It will be a retro vintage
feel. Um that is the type of event. Um
and you will have to come out to the
event to see what this picture will be
turning into.
And last but not least, Vinda Senior
Center. So before I talk about the photo
up there, I want to talk a little bit
about some of the senior services that
are currently going on. Summer memory
camp. Senior services launched a new
program called Summer Memory Camp
offering meaningful services to
Scottsdale residents experiencing memory
loss. The vision was to provide
structured engaging activities that
support cognitive functioning while also
offering emotional support and resources
to the participants. The program was
offered monthly both at Granite Reef and
Via Linda Senior Center in June, July
and August and had average monthly
attendance of 20 of 25 pictures. Um she
did provide me with pictures I can
forward them to if you would like. um
but I did not get them in time to put
them and it's my fault for missing the
email to put them on the PowerPoint, but
I'll be happy to share those pictures
with you if you so choose. With regards
to HEAF, the demand for the HEAF funding
remains high, reflecting the ongoing
need for utility assistance in our
community. To date, the program has
provided critical support from Arizona
Public Service um Salt River Project and
Southwest Gas. They have provided $5,841
in APS assistance and $24,000
approximately $24,800 in SRP assistance
and 2,200 in Southwest Gas.
All right. And as you guys know, the
Vinda um senior center is the bond
project is moving forward for Vinda
expansion. Um the design is currently
underway. This is a sneak peek. Um the
design has been tweaked since this one,
but this is a sneak peek of the
expansion of what um will have some
additional space at Vinda. You can see
that there's two additional large wck
rooms or ballrooms. Um we have an
entryway on the bottom left hand side.
Um it doesn't look green up there, but
it looks green on my screen. That is the
warming kitchen. So people can park in
the parking lot and bring the food into
the kitchen. um with regards to Honor
Health who brings in um the congregate
meals for their programs. You can see
the lobby along with the the bathrooms.
There will also be um a family bathroom
with an adult changing area to meet um
ADA standards and those with special
needs.
Um the additional thing um that I forgot
about Gran uh Granite Reef is that we
are working with Honor Health on a
feasibility study for um adult daycare
which um is also one of the bond
projects.
That concludes my presentation and I'll
be happy to answer any questions about
what's going on in human services.
No. Oh, I do not see any questions from
Commissioner Kulie.
And so if he doesn't have any questions,
I suspect nobody else does.
But
I do.
Yeah. Okay.
I have a question, Mary. Um I see a lot
of num square footage numbers up there,
but um what are we currently in terms of
square feet and then where will we be
after this um
change?
After the change, it'll be about 4600
additional square feet. Current square
footage gan is
4,000 4,000
4,000 total for both areas but what is
the current square footage for via Linda
over 22,000 square feet. So, it's an
additional probably up to 4,600 square
feet for space and programming.
25%. That's great.
Go ahead.
He's Hold on. And we're getting him a
microphone so that the
So we if you can imagine in terms of
number of people right now we top out at
about 100 120 something people in the
largest room that we have which is
literally three small rooms turned into
room one two and three and so we're
going to be growing up to close to 300
uh capacity um rooms that we have. So in
those two ballrooms. So we're looking
really forward to that and then also
maintaining the square footage that we
have in the original building and so
forth. So pretty exciting for us and um
you know we're starting to we're working
on a 3D rendering that hopefully we'll
be able to bring back to the commission.
So
wonderful. Thank you.
Okay. See no other Oh
yes sir.
Oh well thank you. Thank you so much
Roger. Uh, thanks Mary. Wonderful as
always to get filled in. Appreciate
that. So glad to hear that the trolley
is going to the food distribution
center. That's huge. Now if we could
just get them over to Noah for the Choya
Health Center. I think that came up
during the one of the focus groups for
the Strat plan. So I don't know if
there's any should I ask the
transportation commission about that.
What
chair Luri members of the commission in
order to add permanent routes a transit
feasibility study would need to occur.
So, um, that would be a conversation
directed to our transportation manager
um for the city of Scottsdale, Nathan
Doi.
Gotcha. Okay.
Very good. And do do you happen to know
if any of the mayor's youth council
carried over from previous years?
Chair Lori, members of the commission, I
don't know that answer tonight's, but I
can get back to you.
Thank you.
And speaking of the mayor's youth
council, um they will appoint or or
designate two representatives to uh help
evaluate our our um grants.
Great.
Like last year, isn't that correct?
Chair Lori, members of the commission.
Correct.
All right. I think we're at the point to
identify future agenda items. Our next
meeting, I believe, is September 11th.
We will hold elections for chair and
vice chair. Um, and I believe Sue, we
will have a homeless outreach update at
the next meeting, including having
Phoenix Rescue Mission and Community
House here. Excellent. Looking forward
to that. Um, are there other agenda
items? Yes, commissioner.
Who would who would have thought? Mary,
is it appropriate for us to have a
landlord update now that you're
leaisonless?
Leaison less le
without leaison.
Chair Lori, members of the commission, I
can put that on the Scottsdale Housing
Agency governing board.
Yes, thanks. I know those people. Thank
you.
It's a good question.
Um, I actually have a question. uh was
speaking with a group of people from
that are north of um via Le the Vinda
Senior Center and they are very curious
to know if and when what is going to
happen if anything is going to happen in
the north side of Scottsdale
for like yeah
senior center further north
is that going to be possible or is there
something in the works for that
chair Lori members of the commission are
you asking me if there's going to be
another senior center.
Well, I'm just asking if that's
something that can be agendaized or you
could talk about or I mean if there's an
answer to it more than I would love to
know, but Chair Lori, members of the
commission, I'll put it down um to
follow up on that.
Okay. Thank you.
There are homed delivered meals provided
in North Scottsdale by Area Agency on
Aging.
Yeah, North Scottsdale is a very large
geographic area. Um perhaps
uh auxiliary services in that north
region. Um it sounds like something
worth worth uh having on an a future
agenda.
Other items.
Okay.
Chair Luri, members of commission, may I
ask for clarification? Are you
specifically asking about senior
services or social services in general?
What what is the gap you would are
requesting to be addressed?
Uh I'm looking at uh Cindy think
well well I think I just I just know I'm
getting a lot of questions about what is
available for a lot of folks up there
and I and sometimes
the location is deceptive as to what
people's means actually are or even
what's available to them even if they do
have means but what's available to them
um as seniors. So, I I think if you
could answer the question broadly, I I
think that would be wonderful.
Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, with that, uh could I get a
motion? Oh, did you have another agenda
item?
Thanks, Roger. I um I was at a meeting
uh yesterday with or a couple days ago
with Brandon Chapman, uh the city's
volunteer coordinator, and there's so
much going on in the city relative to
our services. Um, I think it might be
informative for uh Brandon to make a
presentation to us about volunteer
opportunities throughout the city. Uh,
so it would be uh I think it would be
very informative and um it was
surprising how much we're involved in as
as from a volunteer standpoint.
Scope-wise, would we be limited to uh
volunteer
opportunities as it relates to human
services?
Chair Lori, members of the commission, I
believe so. Um, but we can have um
Brandon Chapman come and talk about the
the new electronic system that we're
using. Um, and I can have Deanna also
co-present with him as that is her focus
with regards to the strategic plan.
Very good. Good question.
All right. Could I get a motion to
adjurnn?
So moved.
A second.
Seconded.
All right. And a roll call vote.
Chair Lori.
Yes.
Yes.
Commissioner Jameson.
Yes.
Commissioner Row.
Yes.
Commissioner Jung.
Yes.
Vice Chair Jones. You get two votes.
Commissioner Kulie. Yes, Commissioner
Hill.
Yes.
All right, we are adjourned.