[Music] [Music] for the record my name is Brian warell District for city counselor and I am the chair of the Boston city council committee on Ways and Means today is May 16th 2024 this hearing is being recorded it will be rebroadcast on Infinity Channel 8 RCN channel 82 and files Channel 964 at a later date the council's budget review process will Encompass a series of public hearings that began in April and will run and will and will run through June we strongly encourage residents to take a moment to engage in this process by giving test testimony for the record you can do this in several ways one attend one of our hearings and give public testimony we will take public testimony at the end of each departmental hearing and also have two hearings dedicated to public testimony the full hearing schedule is on our website at boston.gov back- budget our next scheduled hearing dedicated to public testimony is Tuesday May 28th at 6 PM you can give testimony in person for in person testimony please go to the table um at this this um behind um outside those doors right to the right um where you can sign up on the sheet when you are called to testify please state your name and affiliation residence and limit your comments to a few minutes to ensure that all comments and concerns can be heard two you can email your written testimony to the committee at cccw boston.gov or three submit a two-minute video of your testimony through the form on our website for more information on the City Council budget process and how to test IFI please visit the Council budget website at boston.gov back- budget Spanish interpretation is available if needed gracias thank you thank you today's hearing is on docket number 06 70 through 0672 orders for the fy2 operating budget including annual Appropriations for departmental operations for the school department and for other post employment benefits docet number is 0673 through 0675 orders for Capital fund transfer Appropriations and docket number 0676 through 0678 order for the capital budget including loan orders and lease purchase agreements these matters were sponsored by mayor Michelle woo and referred to the committee on April 10th 2024 four the focus of this hearing will be to discuss the fy2 budget for the office of Health and Human Services office of Workforce advant advancement youth engagement in advancement and youth employment in Opportunity today I'm joined by my colleagues in order arrival Council um councel Pepin who is also the vice chair of the committee council president Louis Jen Council um Weber Council Mahia Council Santana and counselor finan Anderson IID like to first go to my Council colleagues if they um have any opening remarks uh St starting with um Vice chair Pepin good evening everyone my name is Enrique Pepin I represent District 5 high Park Rosendale and matapan just an honor to be here with you tonight very special hearing that we're doing it in the community I'm excited to speak with the Departments tonight but also hear from the public testimonies thank you all so much for coming out uh council president Louis Jen the Flo is yours good evening everyone and thank you Mr chair I want to thank everyone for uh coming out tonight um it's great to have the hearings and to have them in community is even better so uh shout out to thank you to everyone at the Frederick who made this happen to the admin um and to community excited and looking forward to hearing from all of you thank you Council Weber the floor is yours uh thank you chair um you know my name is Ben Weber I'm the city council for district 6 uh I'm very happy to be here and be in the community and uh we have a lot of ground to cover so uh you know I'm looking forward to being a part of this thank you Council Mia the floor is yours thank you chair I wanted thank you chair for actually bringing uh this hearing to community which is where I believe most of this work needs to be done um in deep partnership with folks so I'm just excited to see that people are showing up um to share their thoughts with us so that we can do the people's work and I'm really grateful to have the administration here these are some of the Departments that I cherish the most in terms of of the work here so looking forward to the dialogue thank you Council Santana the floor is yours good evening everyone and thank you Mr chair um like my colleagues I'm I'm very excited um to be here tonight um I'm particularly excited to hear um from the office of Youth engagement um youth is my number one priority as I've been very open about um and excited to see youth um here with us today I'm looking forward to the public testimony thank you Mr chair thank you uh councelor fernan Anderson the floor is yours uh good evening everyone than from n Anderson uh just uh looking forward to the conversation uh want to understand if the allocations match the need um and hear from you the community thank you thank you and we're going to start with public testimony I want to thank everyone who made today possible and everyone who's here in attendance shout out to igr uh Central staff the admin and my Council colleagues who are all here and again thank you to the public um we'll start with public testimony when you hear your name called please come to the microphone uh state your name neighborhood and or organization affiliation please speak into the microphone and please keep your comments to 2 minutes um miss chislo the floor is yours and Then followed by Wen well miss chislo is making her way um I just want to acknowledge the administration who's here uh we have Chief maso um commissioner Shay and executive director Cruz thank you floor is yours um good evening everybody city council um a strong staff and everyone that's here um I do have some issues with some of the programs and things that are coming out of a strong um I'm looking at some of the notes that I took um we have vendors that provide services for the seniors um there's a delay in their payments they're telling us that they're not coming back um safety is another feature some of the buildings that the age uh the programs for seniors it's they're not safe safe um I requested three times to see if we could get speed humps for the program over at mild AV because we have a a city park a community center and a school and traffic diverts speeding through mild Avenue I haven't got a results yet um the other thing is is that I'd like to see more activities provided ided like swimming arts and crafts po um uh sewing and dance to substitute for exercise but we're not getting any of that and um I started a program at mild Avenue uh January well February 2023 and um it's been pulling teeth to get programs in and out of there and um we've been successful with some of the things that we're doing because it's not what you know it's who you know and that's how we're getting a lot of our services but I'd like to see more coming from the city thank you thank you Miss chislo and thank you for um your dedication to not only the community but to our seniors um waen U followed by uh NOA um good evening City councilors good evening everyone uh my name isim um I live in rockbury and I attend Boston Lain Academy I'm also a member of the youth Justice empowerment Union and I'm demanding that Michelle wo and the city councilors increase the youth pay rate from $15 an hour to $8 to $20 an hour by re reallocating the money from the police's budget into yeah into this um I think that's important to just acknowledge that the opportunities that youth jobs give to people um people there are many people I know that cannot put food on their table without the help of these jobs do not have the money or advantages to do so um having a job myself has just taught me to save my money like it's taught me how to actually use my money to like make my future better for me um and unfortunately making $15 an hour is not a livable wage here in Boston the median salary for people living in Boston is 88,000 and the median salary for specifically people of color is 31,000 to 37,000 if you're an adult living here with one kid you need to be making around $1,600,000 a year to be able to actually live in Boston with the median salary being 88,000 um specifically for Renters of color that's another 55,000 to be able to catch up to the median and another 79,000 to live in Boston with the current minimum wage being $15 an hour that allows youth to bring 6.5 th000 if they are working during the school year as well as working in the Summer with the addition uh with this this is still not enough to live in Boston and by raising the minimum wage to $8 to $20 an hour this would increase the amount that they could bring to the table by 1,700 thank you for your [Applause] time no followed by Kiara Kyra KY um hi my name is NOA I am from High Park and I'm here to talk about the importance of having Youth jobs being a year round thing um the reasons why we're advocating for youth jobs to be year round is because that is what makes the most sense I've never heard of anyone calling eversource and being like yo I ain't got a job this month so don't charge me this month like the youth need money because they have bills to pay they not only pay bills for themselves but they also contribute to their family and when we're not taking into consideration the fact that you need jobs every single month then we're also like forgetting the fact that families like rely on their youth um and we're messing up families like Financial Security um another thing is that youth are also using this money to save up money there are youth who are are going to college there are youth who want to find something to do after high school and this is money that they're trying to save up for their stuff and even if it's not for After High School but just their day-to-day stuff that they need to buy like we should be encouraging black and brown youth to have financial literacy we should be encouraging them to understand what it means to save what what does it mean to save what does it mean to actually invest their money um not living paycheck to paycheck um and then lastly we should also like encourage you to be independent especially in a day and age where like everyone kind of has to learn how to rely on themselves we should teach youth that like they shouldn't rely only on their parents solely to fund the things that they need but that they are old enough and smart enough to be able to go out there and find what they need for themselves um this the transition between the summer to the school year should not be an excuse and also should not be an expectation which is one that I've constantly talked about year in and year out that we shouldn't expect the fact that well it takes too long to transition from the summer to school year to be a valuable excuse that's not a good enough excuse um and also as someone who used to do Dy it would suck to watch my friend be able to like decide on a whim that they wanted to watch a movie but like I couldn't because at the time it was either October September November or Lord forbid it was May it was June it was July and it was like yeah like well my job hasn't started yet so I can't go watch that movie with you because I don't have that money and it's like ridiculous it's like almost six months out of the year that youth aren't working and there's no valuable reason as to why and if you think that this is okay this just shows that you do not live in the same Financial realm as the people you represent and you need to take a step back and re-evaluate the actual situation which is the fact that like youth need jobs to be year round um and lastly I would just like to say um a reminder is that Liz Braden Brian Rell Ed Flynn Gabrielle Keta and Aon Murphy voted to keep money for the police um equipment last year instead of putting money into the participatory budget which is money that could help with you jobs as well and so I want you to hear us very clearly clearly when we say we're demanding that you take 16 million from the police budget to increase youth jobs to 37 million and we're demanding that you make these jobs year round thank you so [Applause] much um Kyra followed by Alexa hello my name is Kyra Nunes I live in district 7 and I a youth leader at youth Justice EMP power Union I'm demanding that the city fully fund 37.6 million for good paying year round jobs for youth and 10 Outreach workers an increase of 16 million from the mayor's budget I also demand that the city provide organizations the slots that they need and reverse any cuts and the city is transparent with data about filling jobs and organization slots YP was also working on these demands the city needs to add more money for youth jobs affordable housing Mental Health crisis response and particip participatory budgeting and to stop the 15 million increase to the Boston police budget today I want to focus on increasing the pay the pay rates for youth workers the minimum wage went to $15 an hour in January 2023 and hasn't moved up since the pay range should be changed from 15 an hour to 18 to 20 an hour for youth 14 to 18 years old and 22 to 24 for 19 to 24 year olds this is a need because the older our youth get the more responsibilities they have in their own life the only and only making $15 an hour won't cut it it's not sust it can't sustain a living for them more the more you guys more than you guys acknowledge youth have to feed themselves and their siblings some of them have to help their parents pay rent just so they could have a roof over their heads and while thinking about inflation is increasing the prices of everything do you really expect us to live off of $15 an hour following this demand we need to pay we need pay range for our youth to be able to gain experience and for youth that take more responsibilities and that have been here in the same job for multiple years they deserve the right [Applause] compensation Alexa followed by khil hello I'm Alexa um I live in Dorchester and I'm a youth leader at the youth Justice Empower Union I am demanding that the city the city fully fund the $ 37.6 million for good paying yearr round youth jobs and 10 Outreach workers an increase of 16 million doll from the mayor's budget I also demand that the city provide organizations the slots they need and reverse any cuts and the city is transparent with data about filling jobs and organization slots there are monthly gaps during the year when young people cannot work which may seem insignificant to you but they are detrimental for young people to go about their lives I'm disappointed said at city council we have been begging and asking and City counselors have not delivered people of color are disproportionately affected by poverty and many of us struggle with getting food on our tables and putting clothes on our bags the money I get from my job I help my mom with bills and I pay for my clothes with the money I get paid life doesn't stop when you're not working and bills don't stop either young people need the space to build Financial competence and they need spaces to feel safe when young people enter these spaces they create community and they build skills they need as they grow they're occupying their time in a meaningful way and learning more about themselves without my job I wouldn't have made my special connections and the people I work with aren't just my colleagues they're like my family I wouldn't have found my passion and I wouldn't be able to financially support myself and help my family thank you [Applause] hi my name is khil and I live in Jamaica plane I'm also um the program coordinator with the youth Justice Empower Union um I just want to say thank you for making this hearing accessible for our young people and having it in the community and at a time that makes sense um so like uh so like many of the youth um and the staff of Y jpu who came before um I'm demanding that the city fully fund $ 37.6 million for good paying yearr round jobs uh youth jobs and 10 Outreach workers an increase of 16 million from the mayor's budget I also demand that the city provide organizations the slots they need and reverse any cuts and the city is transparent with the data about um filling jobs and organization slots uh the city needs to add more money for youth jobs affordable housing Mental Health crisis response and participatory budgeting and stop the 50 um the $50 million increase to the Boston police budget um today I'm going to focus on our ask to fill organization slots right now organizations are getting fewer slots than they've asked for uh organizations are being like y jpu less organized let's talk about it we're applying for these jobs last year they told us um that not enough youth are are applying for these jobs and now we have the the youth applying for these jobs and there's not enough organizational slot is DB it doesn't make any sense um they um smaller ORS with um less than 25 slots are having a hard time applying at all and yo has refused to answer questions about jobs and slots for the last four years and we need the data um the like I said the narrative has been that youth aren't signing up for jobs and youth jobs is overfunded and clearly that narrative is being pushed to continue to make youth an afterthought and y'all are going to hear their voices today because y'all are making it at a time where they can talk and I feel like because youth can't vote and because these meetings are early in the morning uh y'all forget about them and like I said today they're they're going to make you remember so um y'all are like cutting slots for organizations and denying funding families are barely making ends meet youth have a responsibility to take care of themselves and their family do better yo do better city council we need full information about any cuts and any decision to to deny jobs to organizations because people are asking how come we're not getting enough slots how come this is happening how come this is happening and nobody knows um or maybe people know and maybe there's no communication we need to find out the mayor promised that every BPS student who wants a job would get one and that there will be at least 6,000 summer and school year jobs to meet that promise we need to make sure organizations are getting the slots they need so that they can hire young people who want jobs thank you sh Charming um followed by sukai hello my name is charming salang I work with you Empire Union and I live in Dorchester I'm here to demanding that City counselors and the mayor increase youth jobs to $37 million and for that to come out of the police budget this money is to make year- round jobs for youth increase the pay rate for young people and to hire outre Outreach workers in school who support young people with jobs as a youth worker I'm in constant conversations with young people who need to take on jobs in order to survive meet their basic needs and help their family I believe and I know that young people need year round jobs in order to sustain themselves and their life because one there's a misconception and stigma around the ways that youth use their money when the reality is black and brown youth are using their money to survive because they often don't come from Financial privilege you may Wonder well what are these basic needs that young people are spending their money on well because of the financial privilege they often lack youth are required to pay and support with electric bills phone bills gas bills food clothes cloth school supp school supplies and personal care going 3 to four months without a job is not an option and it is a direct threat to their livelihoods can you imagine the impact on your mental health as a 15-year-old not being able to afford to live can you imagine the chronic stress youth are undergoing trying to maintain their school work and home life balance can you imagine the fear of not knowing how you're going to eat tomorrow or if you're going to be evicted I spoke about privilege earlier and here you are sitting in your privilege deciding the fate of young people's livelihood it isn't fear that we must Advocate year after year for basic needs to be met but again here we are so my demand is that youth should that folks fund $37 million into youth jobs and for that money to come out of the police budget and again to make yearr jobs for youth increase the pay rate and to hire Outreach workers in school thank you thank you U followed by Vina my name is Sakai Rollins I'm a longtime resident of District 4 and I've been a youth worker for most of my life I'm here to demand that the city council fully fund 37.6 million for good paying year round youth jobs and town Outreach workers an increase of 16 million from the mayor's budget Outreach workers serve as critical links between Youth and Resources they desperately need without Outreach workers youth facing barriers to employment such as coming from a lowi income background having a disability or a low English proficiency are being made disposable all youth not just the ones who live in well-connected communities deserve access to resources that ease the impossible burden of living in a city where survival and safe housing are only accessible to a select Elite well-resourced communities are safe communities as the mayor fights to increase the police budget by $50 million and as the city works so hard to convince us that violent police solve the problem of crime I want to remind us that it was the mayor's office of Workforce Development that released a study on more than 600 young people in Boston who participated in a Youth Employment Program this study found that violent crime dropped by 35% and that property crime dropped by 57% people are not inherently criminal social conditions which the mayor and councel help to produce increase or decrease crime we can't talk about the issue of crime without talking about the issue of poverty prioritizing youth jobs year round boosting wages and providing School Outreach programs are true Investments and Public Safety Not increase policing as a youth worker I've witnessed countless young people pushed out of school and into the adult Workforce because there aren't year-round jobs that accommodate their class schedule and their families need more Breadwinners for the Youth I work with year-round employment is not a luxury the city council and mayor have the power to keep these youth afloat or to let them sink youth are here year after year begging you for the same thing do not ignore and dismiss them Vina followed by Tara yeah so um there are people who signed up who um I'm going to play them from the phone so V is one of the people my name is V and I'm a youth worker and I live in District 3 I am demanding that the city fully fund $ 37.6 million for good paying yearr round youth jobs and Outreach workers an increase of $6 million from the mayor's budget I also demand that the city provide organizations the slots they need and reverse any cuts and the city is transparent with data about filling jobs and organizational slots the city needs to add more money for youth jobs affordable housing Mental Health crisis response and participatory budgeting and stop the $50 million increase to the Boston police budget young people help with bills for their household rent utilities and and food are yearr round expenses not just part of the year I've been a youth worker for a few years now and I've noticed that one of the biggest challenges youth face is financial burdens I know youth that by the age of 15 are going to school full-time at 8 hours and also working three jobs to support their families this capitalistic system is Weighing on the youth youth's leadership development and capacity currently 14 to 18 year olds get paid $15 an hour in 19 to 24 year olds get paid $20 an hour with no flexibility in their pay rates pay rates for youth should go up to $1 18 to $20 per hour for 14 to 18 year olds and 22 to $24 per hour for 19 to 24 year olds organizations should be able to pay a range of pay rates as young people gain more experience and take on responsibilities was that a good enough volume should it be okay I heard it Tara Tara you have t followed by Carmelo um can we come back to those um Amanda oh I have Carmelo sorry carelo Char is on The Zo okay this is Carmelo hello my name is Carmelo H I live in Dorchester in district 7 I'm a youth worker with the city school I'm demanding that the city fully fund $ 37.6 million for good paying year round youth jobs and 10 Outreach workers an increase of 16 million from the mayor's budget I also demand that the city provide organizations the slots they need and reverse any cuts that were made and that the city is transparent with the data about filling jobs and organization slots the city needs to add more money for youth jobs affordable housing Mental Health crisis response and participatory participatory budgeting and to stop the $50 million increase to the police budget year round jobs with the city 14 to 18 year olds only get paid $15 an hour and the 19 to 24 year olds only get paid $20 an hour with no flexibility in the parot I believe that this should change and there should be a pay increase for both 14 to 18 year olds and 19 to 24 year olds specifically for the 14 to 18 year olds to go up to $18 to $20 an hour and for the 19 to 24 year olds to get up to 22 to $24 an hour this is because in a lot of situations youth help with the bills in their household help get food and are integral in helping their famili stay afloat with that in mind I also believe these year round jobs should be September through June because due to the small Gap in time between Summer and the year round jobs sometimes people are unable to provide what they need to their family and for themselves thank you Amanda followed by sanley okay yeah that's me again one go um hi my name is Amanda I go to Boston L Academy and I am part of mcos um the whole thing about being paid $15 an hour is very limiting um especially when it comes to my budget um because I have things in my house that I need to pay for you know um like my dad requires me to pay like over $100 um for some bills in the house and sometimes my mom needs help you know paying bills in the house so she requires me to spend money on that also um for my own I pay for my own phone which is like 45 bucks per month so that's also just cutting money out of the cost and stuff like that and sometimes I need to spend money for like Necessities such as like grocery shopping um because sometimes I need to like you know buy food to make like food for the week um at my school because the food at our school is um disgusting so yeah you know I kind of need more money so I can you know better manage it and have some left over so I can save up for bigger and better things like maybe buying a new car or actually learning how to drive or college or whatever I want to do in the future So yeah thank you um sanley followed by Simone okay um my name is sandley guo I didn't need to add my last name but yeah um I go to R PLS I'm inan e8th grade and I work at mashos um I really have a problem with working well one I mean with not working seasonal because that brings the trouble of trying to find a new job and if I don't find a new job I'm unemployed for like two three months at a time and the the $15 an hour thing it's annoying because for me I buy food um in the morning and after school because the school lunch it's kind of atrocious and the breakfast is Lally just milk and cereal and by that time actually if I'm doing that every single day I have maybe $170 by the time that by the next time I get paid so yeah thank you Stanley ma'am Simone followed by Austin two one okay um my name is Simone I'm a senior at Boston line and I work for mcos and I would say that like I think we deserve pay over $15 an hour just because it's not realistic for like me to live my like everyday life like as a senior like I have a lot of things that I need for the end of the year and I have a lot of things that I need like before I go to college and it's not enough to like make sure that I get everything set before I go like I have to choose between certain things and I shouldn't be able to have to I shouldn't be able to own afford to choose between Necessities instead of getting everything so I feel like that's why we deserve to be paid more than $15 an hour um I would also say with seasonal pay like it's really difficult because unexpected costs come up at random times and so even though I do save like a lot of my money like it sometimes it's not enough because things happen in that like two three month period that I didn't expect to happen and I have to spend the money on it and it's not fair to my parents to have to um shell that extra money for all the other stuff when I have a job um yeah Austin followed by Felicia atin so my name is Austin I'm a ninth grader at Boston Latin Academy um I'm sorry wait let's restart that one I thought he was on the phone okay um I'm my name is Austin I'm a ninth grader at Boston L Academy um working with ma Mash Kos and uh I would like to have you know like work more like get more money per hour because like normally I spend my money on a a lot of clothes and um a lot of shoes and like Necessities like food and stuff like that and only making 15 an hour isn't really you know paying off and for the what was that uh the a monthly um the monthly Gap I don't like that because I'm G be broke for those three very long months without no money so like what am I going to do beg my mom but I don't want to I don't want to have to do that because it's not fair for her to have to give me money when I have a job and and you know I'm also trying to save up for a car and so I need more money hi my name's can I go to the next one yeah Felicia yeah okay Felicia I'm in ninth grade and I go to Boston land Academy and um the reason why I feel like we should get paid more is because well me personally I'm I just don't have enough money to really you know buy things that I really want and um I just feel like I spend I spent a lot of my money on you know random stuff and I feel like if I had more money um I would be able to you know open up a a savings and put some money in my savings so that you know I can you know spend my money more on things that I really need and not just things that I really want uh Liam followed by George uh hi my name is Liam Quinn I'm the youth programs director at the Massachusetts Coalition for occupational safety and health AKA maskos um I'm really proud and excited and happy uh for all the young people that have uh found The Bravery to you know speak up about this issue either in person or virtually um and yeah coming from the perspective as a youth program director I think the main issues that we have is that you know the city rate for young workers in Boston um through especially like through the city and success link uh is $15 an hour uh with um significant monthly gaps uh seasonal gaps in between like summer and fall programming summer and school year programming I should say um and those two things really do have an impact on our young people and I think it does not uh value our young people for the incredible work that they do across this city um we are always touting you know the importance um and the yeah the importance of young people and changing the world but you know when push comes to shove we are not willing to Value them financially and monetarily as I believe that they should be valued in this city um and yeah and I think that you know the seasonal gaps make it and the low rate of pay I mean these young people could be going to like Chipotle and like fast food restaurants and making more um and that often does happen like we do not have competitive rates when it comes to uh in comparison to Big corporations that are likely going to exploit or get these young people in into kind of bad situations um as we've seen with fast food chains across uh the state and across the country um exploiting young workers making them work too late and young people running into even worse situations on the job um our our youth programs are amazing um holistic opportunities for young people but uh we don't have competitive rates and so the young people that need uh and could benefit from the work that we do the most don't want to work with us a lot of the time because they're not making any money and so I think it's all backwards and it's all twisted um and yeah I think the final thing I would add is that you know with programs job programs like success link and things like that they're amazing for making sure that our young people's wages are paid um but I think that you know there isn't enough support operationally for the youth programs across the city most youth programs I know of are operating at some sort of deficit or extremely wor like concerned with their finances um and in order in order to make these programs as amazing for the Youth that they serve I think that the city should fund the wages of the young people but also look to uh funding the uh operational capacity the ability to hire more staff uh the ability to pay more that do this work um and so and and I think that would help bring these youth programs to a place where they can do like yearly full-time stuff and not do the seasonal job placements anymore and and that would benefit our young people in that way as well so um I hope it was a bit rambly but I hope that made sense um and I appreciate your time thanks thank you um George followed by Christian and I'm just going to get that Tara one real quick so I'll be back okay good evening uh thank you councelor Rell for working with us to make this hearing happen I know it's a little bumpy figuring out the details but it's really great to be able to be here in the evening in the community there are three major youth events happening right now which is why we have so many of these testimonies by Audio um and thank you also for getting back to us about meeting with our groups next next Friday um we're going to finalize that time with you and we hope we can count on your vote this year and some good amendments in the budget um for all the counselors and and also why oh accountability is really important when yall hold so much power compared to those out here when we can't officially make the decisions and so there's three questions I want you to think about in terms of accountability one is specifically next Wednesday at 4:00 there's a Grassroots budget briefing that's run by groups it's not a city council hearing it's a community hearing um it's right downtown so you can just walk over after um city council meeting and we want want your answer to figure out if you can come next Wednesday at 4: number two want to make sure y'all can help make sure that yo gives us the data we need I'm going to go into a little bit some data we haven't gone for four years that's important to really strengthen youth jobs program and then number three is to be accountable to how you vote are you going to vote to put money into youth jobs participatory budgeting affordable housing Mental Health crisis response or will you keep it for example in the police um there's often amendments that say we'll move 3 million from police into youth jobs that's a very clear yes or no decision for you to make um and if you for some reason think the police equipment money is more important to protect that's a problem and that's why we need to hold you accountable but I want to go back to this theme of waiting for years and years I remember around 2020 being in zooms with director cop about um success link and trying to figure out um for example can we make these jobs year round why are they stopping from September to November why are they stopping May through June our organization continues to hire young people all the way till the end of June before summer um and now there's no reason to not do that um also we need questions around basic data a lot of young people get signed up late for Success link because of the bureaucracy um they don't get paid their full hours so we need to know again we've asked this since 2020 and haven't gotone the information how many hours are young people actually working how many weeks are they actually working um we also submitted uh public records request in June 2023 that's 11 months ago you're supposed to get that back to us in 10 days we haven't on the data so please get back to us um and similarly we need to know how many young people are applying for the different jobs and how many people get rejected um how many uh slots organizations are applying for how many jobs do they get cut how many jobs could they fill that success link is not giving them um because uh like C said a lot of organizations are telling us that that jobs are getting cut um and so we need to know that because when we often hear the blame on young people oh you don't want to finish the job application that's not true young people want the jobs um but we need a better system and Outreach workers to help young people connect um and finally I want want to just reemphasize the thing I started at the beginning when it comes to the budget amendments y'all can either rubber stamp the mayor's budget which last year just to be very clear on the numbers it was 45 million for the police budget based on the contracts and the new proposed budget it's $455 that's $50 million do you think $50 million is better for the police or for Community needs and so when um there's 5 million extra for equipment and contracts so are you going to keep the money for extra drones and brick analysts and guns or if there's an amendment that says let's not add 5 million for equipment and contracts let's give it to youth jobs participant budgeting housing which which way are you going to vote um are you going to vote to keep the $6.7 million overtime increase or put it into Community needs are you going to let the police keep having these Mega classes of 200 officers or are you going to say actually we don't need to keep hiring officers we can actually protect people and keep them safe in other ways so again please propose amendments that do the right thing and please vote Yes on the right amendments and don't let us down thank you Christian oh you have Tara yeah I have Tara and I just want to say um there was a woman up there named Marilyn who has accessibility issues and uh it's trying to testify at some point and we'll need some help Okay um yeah hello my name is thara daki traman and I live in Rosendale in District 5 I'm a youth worker and the director of programs and strategy at the city school in upams corner in Dorchester I've worked with youth organizations that have partnered with Dy since 2009 I'm calling on the city to fully fund 37.6 million for good paying year round youth jobs and 10 Outreach workers an increase of 16 million from the mayor's proposed budget I also call upon the city to provide Grassroots organizations the slots they need reverse any cuts and for the city to be transparent with data about filling jobs and organization slots the city needs to add more money for youth jobs affordable housing a community- based non-p police Mental Health crisis response and partis story budgeting and to do that through stopping the 50 million proposed increase to the Boston police budget specifically as a longtime partner organization of D that's in Coalition with many organizations in a similar position the city school wants to highlight that it's essential for organizations to get the full slots that we need many longtime organizational partners that support young people have had their jobs significantly cut this year this means fewer sustainable job opportunities for youth who are leading in their communities and providing vital education organizing advocacy and organizational leadership young people and young adults who work through success link play a critical itical role in financially supporting their families and stability and sustainability in these success link Jobs means housing stability improved mental health and different outcomes for young people and their families Boston Prides itself on its youth jobs program and our city funded jobs are one of the things that make Youth Development in the city possible however we as organizations that provide this vital leadership development and Workforce training for Boston residents need to have both sustainable jobs and clear and transparent information from the city around these jobs thank you for taking the time to listen to my testimony and the testimony of everyone here today thank you I just want to acknowledge that um Council Flynn has joined us Christian followed by Will hello I'm Christian and I'm uh from Roxberry district 7 and also a part of Y jpu I'm demanding um that the city fully funds 37.6 million for good paying yearround youth jobs and 10 Outreach workers I demand that the city provides organizations uh the slots they needed and reverse any cuts and the city to be transparent with data and about filling jobs and organization slots today I'm going to focus around uh yearr round uh youth jobs I believe that youth need money rent doesn't stop unlike youth jobs that take a pause from August through November and may through July many youth usually have a pay uh have to pay rent and every month that is not paid you're doing a great job you're doing a great job basically what I'm trying to say is is that rent is important um and we need money well You' need money because sometimes we have to pay pay rent um and because of those months absence we don't get to pay rent or buy food or Necessities um and how this makes me feel is that we're not being appreciated um as youth and um that we're lesser than adults thank you thank [Applause] you uh will followed by Patricia hi my name is uh will terman I live in the south ends um all right give this a shot um I've had this meeting circled to my calendar for two weeks now and boxed when I saw that I was at a middle school in Dorchester not because I imagined that the venue would have any bearing on my message but because the people in this room are exactly who I would want to hear it and it takes courage to make your voice heard truth be told I visited Jack Kennedy's Presidential Museum today and I'm going to try to channel some of that courage that he held in such high regard here tonight I'll bore you tonight with just two facts the city of Boston is losing population and Boston has one of the lowest rates of home ownership in any city in America despite the prominence of the headquarters of life insurance companies and the makeup of Boston skyline any honest actuary would not produce a Rosy outlook for the prospects of the current trajectory of the city losing population sounds pretty innocuous until you take a step back and realize that many thousands of people each year are evaluating their Futures and making the difficult but rational decision to move their families away from the city for a chance to pursue the American dream somewhere else home ownership in the city of Boston is outside the reach of not only most Americans but outside the reach of most bostonians the rate of owner occupied housing in Boston is at 35% Nationwide that percentage is 67% this is a city of renters this is a city of rent Seekers and Council to be explicitly clear I'm using the economic definition of rent seeking here and not talking about some you know undergrad looking for an apartment paraphrasing Brian Stevenson author and advocate for equality the opposite of poverty is not wealth the opposite of poverty is Justice the opposite of poverty is Justice what does Justice look like right here in Dorchester in this spring of 2024 I would argue a baseline requirement is both young and old people being able to afford a roof over their head I would argue that Justice looks a lot like leveraging the facts of a decreasing and increasingly divised population of the city of Boston is swiftly swing decision-making power to the elected representatives from neglected neighborhoods like Dorchester rockberry and East Boston despite a large concentration of wealth in neighborhoods like Back Bay and Beacon Hill the Hancock Tower and credential building have no residents and no votes Justice looks like political consequences for the inevitable rubber stamps on every bpda housing project that begins with the approval of a just barely tolerable threshold of affordable units will some slight inconvenience allows the developer and their dedicated Delaware registered limited liability Corporation to NX or defer their contractual obligations and proceed without review a repercussion for a failure to deliver affordable housing these documents can be be found and filtered in the bpd's article 80 records Library by the way thank thank you will that's it yes uh we have like 25 more people to go that's all Marilyn the floor is yours thank you I'm Marilyn McNab and I'm a lifelong resident of the city of Boston and I did go through Boston Public Schools I even though at my age now I do remember trying to go out and find a job while I was still in high school um it was very frightening wasn't sure what to expect had no one really to help me or promise so when I saw the ad in um the city of Boston thing asking for volunteers for the Youth up at the Reggie Lewis Center that now you've had two of them I will tell you that was and having been a public accountant that was one is one of the best most efficient run effic not only efficiently but everything's just wonderful about it that I have seen ever in my entire life in the city of Boston the um it had it was sections so the ages of the children would know which one fit them best they had dressed for success in the back room practice how to do an interview here's how to help write a resume I never had any of that what a wonderful thing that was the back gym now up in the front gym there was another hundred people and they had marked them down to they were banks for find learning the financials and there were government jobs and volunteer jobs for the summer as well as a track that you could follow and help to right then sit down at a computer and apply for a job and everybody was included if you did not have the means it didn't matter even the food was there was free so you're not sitting there eating with a nice stomach full or something and I have no money and feel bad everything was done even the raffle prizes fit the age groups and was Wai for everyone there was no price for a raffle ticket this was the best comprehensive job fair I have ever seen and I hope that they continue um which which one of these um departments it belongs to I'm not sure the next year I went to sign up again and they said oh well we're kind of full I said too bad I'm coming I'm going to be around these kids this is our youth I remember what they said about me as a youth coming through the city of Boston and I'm one of those City kids and they're nothing and D du these kids want to work I have a young man across the street from me I met him at 13 he's now 17 he comes over and helps me with my bundles because I'm disabled and I'm a senior citizen and um unfortunately he signed up he's in one of those go to college while you're still in high school he's going to Wentworth he wants to be an electrical engineer he signed up for a program and then during the um he so we didn't go to Reggie Lewis he said leave it for the people who need it I'm set well that set be came unset the the funding or something got pulled so he was there after Reggie Lewis but he went to the back to these folks I said call them learn how to write your resume go to a class and learn how to interview he has done all that and he's now um lining up for another position in the the city um with what was left thank you m it's excellent thank you and may no one ever say anything bad about our kids absolutely thank you Patricia followed by um Alisia good evening everyone good evening city council chair and to City Hall staff all elected officials it is an honor to see City elect officials in the community hearing from us it is a delight I'm I'm Patricia Whitehead I'm a resident of Mata pan and I am a senior and I'm here to speak on allocations and the needs of seniors there is a much needed allocation for senior centers we know that but we have to make sure that it goes to centers that are active and not just designated to those centers that are populated for excuse me the staff of the city we want to make sure that we get services and we do not like to do not like to not have our questions answered to be put off and say we will respond to you later on and the answers never get to us and that needs to be addressed we are seniors just like the youth here tonight they need jobs we need respect thank you thank you Alicia followed by marvina good evening thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony on the office of Youth Employment and opportunity success link program and the positive impact the youth jobs program has on the lives of Boston's young people my name is Alicia modestino and I'm the research director for the Daka Center for Urban and Regional policy at North Eastern University with financial support from the William T Grant Foundation I've been conducting a multi-year evaluation of the Summer Youth Employment Program since 2015 in my role as a program evaluator I've generated over 20 Publications regarding the impact of Boston's summer youth program on youth outcomes some of which actually you've heard from already today from some of these young people which is quite amazing my evaluation studied the impact on youth employment education and criminal justice outcomes each year I measure short-term outcomes such as improvements in job Readiness post-secondary aspirations and Community engagement using a pre-post survey of Youth during the summer and then link the survey data to administrative data on academic employment and Criminal Justice Records to measure improvements in longer term outcomes such as high school graduation subsequent employment and criminal justice involvement over the 1 to four years after finishing the program we find that the program improves a range of Behavioral academic and employment outcomes for youth with greater impacts for black and brown youth first the program reduces crime by fostering Community engagement and soft skills improvements in soft skills such as managing emotions resolving conflicts with a peer and asking adults for help we linked with a 35% reduction in violent crime and a 29% reduction and property crime second the program raises academic achievement through boosting aspirations and work habits increases in academic aspirations to attend college and improvements in work habits such as showing up on time were linked to better attendance in grades in the year after participating in the program which led to a 4 percentage Point increase in high school graduation having a private sector job placement was also shown to increase the likelihood of taking the SAT and enrolling in college shifting from two to fouryear institutions with greater impacts on students from Boston's open enrollment versus exam schools third the program boosts employment by raising job Readiness improvements in job Readiness skills such as creating a resume and practicing interview skills were linked to a 9 percentage Point increase in employment and a 30% increase in wages during the year following participation with greater impact for opportunity youth of color ages 19 to 24 and fourth these benefits do not just occre to youth but also to their families and communities and tangible ways our research found that nearly half of all youth use some portion of their summer jobs earnings to pay a household Bill like you've heard many of these youth testify providing needed support for low-income families finally many of the summer camps in Greater Boston could not run without the low cost labor supported by the summer jobs program providing lowcost daycare to entire communities of working parents overall sorry one last thing our research has shown that the benefits of reduced crime increased High School graduation and higher employ employment exceed the program cost by a factor of 3 to1 and all of the data in terms of jobs uh being filled in allocations and Slots are available on our website in a policy brief that was co-authored with uh director cope last year thank you very much thank you marvina followed by Karina um brief question Council after these folks go we think Jania um was on a previous list but either the name was skipped or mispronounced and seeing if she could go after the next people she was on the same list as Alexa and Amaya before all right is Karina all right uh free to start good hi good evening my name is Karina um but I will be reading on behalf of my colleague so my name is Maria Dominguez gray and I live in Roxbury I'm writing in my capacity as the executive director of The Philips Brooks house Association board member of the St Stevens youth programs and a mom of two Boston teens working at be safe and City spotlights to request that the city fully fund 37.6 million for good paying yearr round youth jobs and teen Outreach workers for an increase of 16 million from the mayor's budget as a longtime youth worker and leader in our city I know that this is one of the most important Investments we can make and that if we don't invest at our young people now in positive preventative programming that develops their leadership and provides opportunities we will be paying that money and then some in the future in the case of the Phillips Brooks house Association we provide over 650 lowincome Children and Youth from across Greater Boston and most Boston neighborhoods with six- week affordable quality summer enrichment program we received significant Cuts this year about 20 few are them requested and are at the lowest number we have been in years despite commitments to invest in youth jobs for many of you and the administration these Cuts will not only impact the number of teens we can hire but also the number of children we can serve every teen cuts a classroom of 10 children who we can serve additionally with the support of city jobs funding over the past two years we've been piloting a program for Rising high school students to provide them with a skills and mentorship to be supported and successful during this critical stage in their lives and are facing the possibility of needed to cut back on that program I also think that it is important for the council to be aware that other jobs funding like the longtime MLK program have pivoted their priorities in funding fewer non-stem youth programs with an agreement or understanding from the city that you would pick up the difference for pbha that was eight jobs that were transitioned to the city and now we've lost I know as a board member of St step's youth programs in partner with other Boston nonprofits that we are not alone in facing this unacceptable shortfall St stepen similarly is about 20 jobs short and already facing difficult budget challenges as are many since the pandemic funding has been pulled back I've been advocating for the need of Youth jobs for over 25 years and I'm deeply discourage that this Administration and city council that looks much different than that city council 25 years ago and is proven committed to all of our families and Community would not at a minimum honor the youth jobs needs of our amazing cbos the programs in so many ways keep this community going and help her City be more vibrant we should not be facing this level of cuts that leads teens behind that also has a negative impact on the number of elementary school students that are engaged in summer and year round the Financial Security of our most vulnerable families the performance of our high schools and quite honestly the safety of our communities please don't invite me to a focus group about how we can address the high school achievement Gap or the increase in violence in our city when you haven't invested enough into youth jobs which study after study shows is essential to turning around these other issues $16 million is not that much money our youth deserve it and our city deserves better thank you for your attention Owen followed by uh d hello uh my name is Owen I'm a student at Harvard and another representative of the Phillips Brooks house Association I know Henry Santana is a supporter over there I see him smiling um so I'm just here to add another voice on behalf of our our organization which um serves 1,000 young people uh through summer camps and after school programs across Boston uh uh we also employ 80 teens in the summer so as an organization that works very closely with teens um I'm I'm here to add an additional voice uh in support of a budget increase for year-round jobs uh and I just want to name the fact that you know what you're hearing from the community um is overwhelming support for this budget increase everyone out here today has come out and and made it quite clear um so it's it's it's quite clear um where the support lies um at the end of the day what this is about is you know young people taking ownership over their lives I think that's what we want to support what we want to cultivate in our teams in our high schoolers that's what we're seeing here today with the many young people who have come out uh they they have a vision for their future they know what they need uh they're taking ownership and they're making their voice heard uh and and programs like this the Youth Employment Program it just furthers that mission it gives young people an opportunity to take ownership of their lives of their finances um it gives them an opportunity to make a positive impact in their Community uh to spend time doing something that's positive so we hire we hire teens uh to be counselors uh in summer camp so they work with uh young people from their communities and they become mentors uh so we're really putting young people in positions of leadership so you know this program I I think it goes without saying it's good for the young people uh so I'm very concerned as my my colleague um uh was mentioning I'm very concerned that uh you know the council is going the opposite direction which is scaling back which is shrinking the program uh so as an organization I know that we and other organizations have experienced cuts to the number of slots we're allocated um and what that means for us is when we're not given the slots we need to hire young people to put them in positions of leadership um we have to make Cuts in other services so you know we offer immigrant support we got to cut that support to reallocate funds and redirect funds um so this budget increase is going to make sure that you can provide all the organizations that are interested in doing this work that you can provide them with the support they need and the slots they need to to make the impact that they're capable of making because we can make that impact if you enable us thanks thank you for the opportunity to speak and thank you also much forgetting my name right I am da Davis I am uh three years into caring for my 94-year-old mom with Alzheimer's Alzheimer's in the event that you don't know is a disease of neurological disorder in which the death of brain cells cause memory loss and cognitive decline a neurogen a neurodegenerative type of dementia the disease starts mild and gets progressively worse one of the ways that I've also had the disease EXP explained to me is that my mother's brain is shrinking every day um there is a strong correlation between Healthy nutrition and the prevention or the slowing of the onset of Alzheimer's and Dementia so to the extent where possible I do want to urge uh that Boston age strong provide uh and ensure healthy and brain and heart nutrition for elders I'd also like to urge uh more equity in the quality of the food that my mom and others who live in Dorchester receive and that that food align with brain and heart healthy nutrition uh some of the symptoms of a result of having poor uh nutrition uh there's D um disorientation in language mood swings loss of motivation not being able to take care of one's personal and emotional needs um my mother is one of more than 35 million people living with this dreaded disease shared with you some of the Sy symptoms the Alzheimer's Association and also the Centers for Disease uh control um provide examples of the type of food quality that uh would be beneficial icial and those foods are olive oils not canola legumes cheese walnuts seeds fresh fruit uh salmon broccoli and grapefruit lastly I also want to just remind you and urge you to uh ensure that uh people in Dorchester anywhere in the city of Boston have access to the same quality of food that people who live in duckberry and Danver and uh Deerfield have I also want to lend support to the voices of young people when young people are here asking for jobs you need to figure out ways to get them jobs thank [Applause] you Alex followed by Nathaniel is there an Alex thank you very much my name is Alex defronzo I live in East Boston and I am the executive director of Pierce Park Sailing Center uh we employ about 110 teenagers and young adults and a little bit more than half of those are supported through the city of Boston and I am just amazed by the testimony of the young people here tonight and inspired and uh just want to spend a few minutes talking about how important it is investing in young people and I think dollar for dollar when you're looking at how to spend public funds there is no more positive way to spend money than investing in young people it's um like you heard here tonight obviously an Employment Program where they're learning skills early on that 14 to when they are studying in college age is really like what sets them up for the rest of Life they're going to learn skills that are extremely important during that time but it's also a food program they're helping feed themselves and their families it's a housing program they're helping pay bills at home um everything that the youth take away from the program is is so so positive so uh just appreciate all of them coming out to testify tonight I hope that you you hear what they have said and um we'll support them thank you Nathaniel followed by Anthony good evening uh thank you so we're here chair world just want to say good evening to you specifically um good evening to the rest of the committee as well I appreciate you guys joining us here tonight um and I do mean tonight I just want to say that it is not lost on me that generally these hearings are held in the morning and I do want to just shout you out for that at the very least being able to have them one thing that I definitely don't want to shout you out for though is just having all of these different um parts of this hearing all combined into one we're talking about a bunch of different departments at least four um I feel like that's relatively disrespectful not only to our young people but also to our elders and also to those who are advocating on behalf of housing tonight so I don't want to leave without saying that first and foremost so my name is Nate McLean Nichols I'm the program director for the center for teen empowerment's Boston chapter I'm also a lifelong Boston resident I live currently in district one in the north 10 and I'm here to urge you all first and foremost today to reconsider the allocations towards the mayor's office of Youth Employment and opportunity I think that there needs to be more funding lent specifically towards youth jobs and I want to say that as the Director of this organization atast our Boston chapter the office of Youth and employment and opportunity has let us down and I don't say that to say that you guys are not doing a good job I don't know what it's like on a day-to-day basis being in that department but I do know that when an organization is you know as large as ours is asking for 30 plus youth jobs to be able to employ young people not just for the summer but all year round and we only get 22 slots that kind of leaves us at a detriment not only us but the young people that we wish to serve at a detriment not only the young people that we wish to serve at a detriment but also to our community that we serve alongside those young people that detriment and that's the same community that you guys are a part of as city of Boston residents so I just want you to think about that as stated in order number 0676 that propos 184 m780 th000 to be allocated to the BCF sen BHA bpda BPL environment fire mayor's office of housing moak BPD Property Management Public Works and transportation departments I personally think that's rather unfair not only to ask these Department to split less than 4.12% of the overall proposed budget of 4.6 billion but also it's disrespectful to our young people because I know what it was like being a teenager looking for employment and also looking for opportunities the last thing that I'll leave you all with is just understanding that if funding for creative jobs such as teen empowerment I have a future Massachusetts and more that young folks are able to use their voices and activate their communal power as cut our city and our young people will be worse off for it increase the budget for youth jobs and allocate those funds for yearr round youth jobs to make sure our youth Fe how important we say they are to us thank you Anthony followed by um Ella Anthony and then Ella H well hi I'm Anthony and I work for teen empowerment and I'm here really just to share my testimony and what I got to say for real so I've been working uh with youth jobs in Boston since I was 14 and in every other aspect like with developing social skills and all my other abilities I would say it's been pretty decent but the only thing I would say is the money like the money never really like was satisfactory for me like to do things I wanted to do as a youth growing up and I feel like having a job as a youth is very good cuz it helps me develop other skills but it's just very discouraging seeing my check and I can't really do much with it you feel me cuz I like as a as a kid I got things I want to buy too you feel me and I want to have like a little bit of self-sufficiency and I don't want to always have to ask my mom or family for things you feel me so I feel as like you feel me y'all should support youth more in that aspect but but yeah that's all I got to say that's it Ella followed by Amaya um hello my name is Ella Simone I am from Dorchester and I'm advocating for higher pay rates for youth in total I'm asking for 37.6 6 million for youth jobs and have minimum rates for 14 to 18 year olds to be um $8 to $20 for an hour which seems like a lot for youth but in when taking this into consideration inflation has increased and the minimum wage which we have now which is $15 an hour is not livable I personally use the money I get from my checks to go towards my savings and important purchases savings is a big aspect to me due to the fact that I would like to attend college and even though there are scholarships that can cover those some of those funds there are other expension what the pay I get from my job would go to also there are tons of kids who have been doing the same program for years who have not been getting the compensation that they deserve for their hard work kids deserve to be able to provide food for themselves and clothes and basic necessities for themselves and in some predicaments their families as well so I please ask that sh off onun these thank you thank you also Janiah should be on the list thank you yep Amaya followed by Mar marav Amaya okay sorry hello can you hear me yeah hello my name is Amaya French I live in Dorchester and I think it's important I think it's important we bring awareness to Def funding the police budget of to defunding the police budget of 40455 million and raising the pay of Youth to to 37 million the minimum wage of 14 to 18 year olds is currently $15 an hour and should be raised to $18 to $20 an hour and for 19 to 24 year olds should have a wage of 22 to $24 the the amount young people advocate for their families and communities are highly overlooked just like adults youth that live in low income neighborhoods have to help with utilities in their home such as paying bills taxes groceries and other necessities you expect us to have high grades a mature personality a proper appearance all while having to struggle trying to sustain living in affordable housing and bad mental health many organizations such as the one IM men youth just Empower Union have been fighting for higher pay rates and have been neglected organizations should be able to to pay a range of pay rates as young people gain experiences and take on more responsibilities thank you thank you um marev say sorry for Marley Marley Marley okay that looked like a V sorry hey uh my name is Marley um I'm a senior at the Henderson inclusion school um I live in Roxberry and I'm currently a youth organizer that works for teen empowerment I decided to work with teen empowerment again a nonprofit organization that employs us youth because what we stand for truly moved me weating a fire in me that burns to help the youth that extinguished prior teen empowerment really opened my eyes to the value of the individuals in our community they're people worth fighting for and they're in uh and they people worth believing in they're people who have grown to open my heart to in love it's very important for more funding to be put into uh youth jobs because youths need to be able to have personal agencies over their lives they need to be able to learn things like financial literacy uh earlier as opposed to having to potentially figure this out years postgraduation stunting growth that should have begun and cultivated as you've matured into an adult and for the Youth who perhaps not felt as connected to their Community like I have for most of my life I hope they get to experience that the love that I do for our people as well that'll be it thank you for your time thank you and um we're going to go back to miss Marilyn she wants to give some testimony towards a strong I don't consider my part myself part of a strong because that was a name that somebody decided to tell did I say tell the seniors this is what you're going to be called we can't hear you so we also would like to um make sure that as the lady said before to Echo her that seniors do need services but it's the services you should be talking to us not Consultants I've lived your age I've got a clue what it's like you have not lived mine and what we need we're not finding this in age strong we find people come in they get very good Training and they're gone then we have to find someone else new so I'd like to go back to you know let's go back to having a healthy office have everyone go back to work 5 days a week so a senior doesn't come in and nobody's there because they kind of work four days or three days and then they have meetings and um I would also recommend the location of the office in City Hall is down with the loading docks the Little Critters that run by the fumes from the dock the garbage the cigarette smoke that you find us a healthier place to put up we earn that respect thank you very much thank you iani sorry hi my name is iani Perez um thank you for having me I just wanted to share something um I just demand that the city council funds 37.6 million to the youth um I personally feel like we should fund youth jobs because growing up not having much teen empowerment showed me how to utilize my materials and the little resources I had in order to get where I am today the school system failed me and with knowing te helped me Network and have that opportunity to help myself and my situation out and others around me Teen en has kept me safe taught me healthy coping mechanisms and helped me find myself at my lowest with just struggling with back-to-back life situations every time I feel alone in any situation I know I'm not really alone because with every struggle teen empowerment has helped me with now graduating in less than a year I've been out of trouble and out of the streets trying to help others and help themselves make the community a better place and better citizens overall without this organization and them investing into to me and us and our stories we wouldn't be who we are today and for that I'm grateful for them they're my family thank you for having me Maya followed by Linda good evening y'all my name is Maya Korea um I am a program coordinator with teen empowerment and I actually am just a part of um I got on the team starting in February so that's kind of my testimony based on these last few months um work working I'm also the ELD eldest Latina daughter in my family so I know I'm very familiar with taking on some of those roles that come with being that sibling um and being a former um youth job holder um so rather than kind of go over um how youth jobs I'm advocating for basically um an increase in the budget and funding for youth jobs specifically I'm echoing what the youth have said what Nate has said um and rather than focusing on how youth jobs is um connected to reduction in crime I want to really focus and highlight how it's connected to keeping our young people alive um and I think that's very very important and I would hope youall feel the same and show that in your actions um like the youth have been talking about a big part of finding joy in your work is also having economic autonomy so with economic autonomy that means that youth have the wages they need to do what they have that consumer choice to support their siblings to support their families and to meet their basic needs um and that's a big part of that at teen empowerment we also focus on cultural pride and connection um being able to feel that is a big part of staying alive but sometimes you have to sacrifice that to have other jobs that pay you more and I don't think that's right and I should not I do not think that should be accepted and that's a big part of our conversation today um be I just wanted to be here uplift the youth voices that have already spoken um at teen empowerment we talk about this um youth L adult supported but I also want to implore you to listen to the youth that are here youth are expected to learn from adults adults should be expected to learn from Youth and what does that mean when you're thinking about your funding and your budgeting so do not uplift youth performatively you should uplift them in a real way and that's increasing our youth jobs budget thank you Linda follow um followed by ID DOA good evening everyone thank you for allowing this um two things yes you do have to empower Our Youth and yes you do need to hire them you want less chaos in the city do it how do you align that along with our seniors find programs to do the alignment why our seniors need help too after the pandemic so many have not been able to pull themselves out of isolation and I watched one of my neighbors who are going through that it's they've lost their muscle tone everything they're afraid to go out because every time they turn around there's more news about another covid variant or something else bring the intergenerational community back back together again include our special needs kids who are able to work it increases their job skills add their confidence in it do [Applause] something Victoria followed by Ella Victoria Ella okay uh Destiny okay sorry hello my name is Victoria I am from D I'm from Dorchester and I go to school at O'Brien youth jobs need Outreach workers for jobs at schools and higher pay rates I feel strongly about higher pay rates because the money I make is is used to cover the Necessities that I need without the money I make at work I will not be able to afford the clothes that I wear and the food that I eat youth jobs provides Financial Security for Youth and their families increasing the amount of money in youth jobs to 37 million will help youth understand the importance of financial Independence and help their families afford bills at home teenagers of the age of 14 to 18 get paid $15 an hour and 20 to 24 year olds gets paid $17 an hour this is not a livable wage for anyone for example I recently fractured my foot resulting in me not being able to walk for 2 months using crutches for 1 month and a booth for six and physical therapy that I still am in today I used the money to buy Ubers for transportation ever since I hurt my foot I cannot use public transportation having the fear of being pushed over or having to wait at a bus stop for a long time with my youth job I was provided security of having a way to getting to school for my education as well as making it safely to my appointments my youth job also provided me a friendship and a family that I could count on in a scary moment from being forced to quit a sport that I was doing for 4 years I was forced to stay at home for 2 months without them being at home for two months would have a strong impact on my mental health that is why I demand 37 million to increase in youth jobs so that others as well use the money for important things in their life and are allowed to be provided with the resources that they need destiny hi my name is Destiny I live in Boston my whole life I'm 17 years old so I've been living here since I was aorn baby I'm a youth Justice Paran I'm demanding from the city council to fund 37.6 million good paye jobs 10 Outreach workers and increasing it by 16 million from the Year from the May's budget personally I feel like you should definitely pay your youth good because these are the same youth that be waking up really early in the morning that had to start school early in the morning and then after school transportation Transportation Tak mad long and after transportation we have to go to youth jobs and you like you could say oh we could go to other different jobs but youth jobs are way better they it's like a youth in Justice paring is a family to me it's my safety net and I still get paid and get knowledge and I know how to use my voice instead of going to a job that doesn't care nothing about you going to working at McDonald's or Burger King they do not care so you should pay us way better because we work hardly and we need to like we're tired we start school we have school from Monday through Friday starting super early in the morning and then working and then getting home super late so now have enough time for our personal needs and for me personally I use the money for helping my mom with the bills special needs for me and you know for my future stuff I just feel like you should really care for your youth CU if you're saying that you care for your youth you should give us the money that we deserve and that we need thank you uh vickiana and then Fiona hello hi my name is Viana pom uh I am a resident of District 4 uh which I believe is under your jurisdiction Mor um so I'm here to Advocate um for the budgeting of $ 37.6 million for youth jobs I believe that's a $16 million increase from what is currently being asked of by the mayor um I've been lucky enough to see uh youth jobs through various perspectives one I had a youth job when I was a young person at 15 I started working I was fortunate enough to work within the mayor's youth Council and be able to walk into City Hall um almost every single day after school um and that taught me responsibility that connected me to people that I'm still connected to to this day who are the closest people I I have and have developed me so much as a young person and so I believe every young person in the city deserves that opportunity to have that same experience and I've also been able to see this perspective cuz uh I got to work at um Dy who was like you know making all this happen on the back end and so some of my co-workers were the folks who were hiring young people and processing them and I saw how overwork they were um and how much they needed more support um and how much more funding that needed to go into that that and then I also saw the weight lines of young people who just kept coming and coming and coming um and so just the amount of slots that are needed to really fulfill the demand it's really a lot of investment that needs to be put in this department um from inside and out um because right now uh I'm also hiring young people for the first time which is awesome because I'm able to provide that same experience that I had as a young person to other young people too and you know give them that opportunity and I'm hiring them through success link and going through that process um and it was really hard to reapply for slots for this next year because they're doing the new model where they're really only trying to fund big organizations that can handle like 25 slots and so um if you are a young organization who was still trying to provide that opportunity to um still trying to hire young people people but don't have you know the massive infrastructure the massive amount of staffs to really support hiring 25 slots um it makes it really really hard and so we just need to increase access in so many different ways um there's so many different ways that this program just enhances the city it's created its own culture for young people um that is really taking them far um and really establishing leaders in so many different varieties of sectors throughout throughout the city um it demands its full investment um it demands your full attention um because as of right now the way I see it the the police are defunding us it's defunding this program instead of in investing in this program we're seeing increases by like $50 million to police which I think is completely unfair uncalled for um and not supported by direct evidence of what will actually support our communities so please look at the research look at these testimonies um and invest in our future not the things that's actually holding us back thank you [Applause] Fiona hello hello um thank you for having this hearing uh my name is Fiona I live in JP and so that is District Six I previous previously worked with teen empowerment and I'm here today with the youth Justice and power Union the 37.6 million being demanded is actually the bare minimum that the city can do youth need good paying jobs year round and we need Outreach workers um I also demand that the city provide organization slots and reverse any cuts and the city be transparent about the data filling the jobs and organization slots you know we we are looking at a f $50 million increase to the Boston police budget and we're not even asking for that much of an increase and so really what we are asking for is supporting young people talking about um and paying their fam's bills we're talking about young people having joy in their lives we're talking about promoting mental health and as summer rolls around especially all of the counselors you guys know that the violence prevention strategy is youth jobs um and so I don't want to sit here in the summer and talk about oh we should have funded youth jobs because we have the opportunity to do it now um and the very least that we could do is add that $ 37.6 million because it's actually ridiculous we are seeing so many cuts and the system already does not work at where it's functioning so why are we cutting it um it just doesn't make sense to me and we need to do better as a city and we need to listen to Young people and what they said here today and make sure we are doing what we need to do as adults to support our future thank you a Lozano good evening everyone my name is Andora loano and I'm so glad to be here thank you for the thank you for the ways and means to the Ways and Means Committee the chairman the Boston city council um I'm approaching 70 so I'm sure I look at everyone on the panel and so you know what it's like to be a parent you know what it's like to be a teenager and you know what it's like probably to actually have buried your parents within the last 3 years we buried the southern side the Spanish side and the Jamaican side and I'm left and so it's very difficult but before they died I want to thank all of you because Ways and Means carries the burden of the decision okay if you've ever I've been on all sides I've receiv received receiv received an income I paid income and I wrote grants I've been on all the sides and so we all have to understand that Justice is a fair standard it's a fair standard for everyone and it's very difficult to achieve but we must aspire to it I was able to bring my uh mother-in-law my mother to Grove Hall uh Senior Citizen Center and they were able to uh sing and dance and eat and communicate and in their last days of their lives and these were women who raised good families all productive working members of society I also remember that I started work at 16 years old through a youth job and through that youth job I took seriously answering the phone filing you know um keeping files helping people and eventually when I went to work for um for Harvard I worked for um some members of The Carter Administration who were developing the division of Health policy research and education and such lovely people such targeted people and all of them had been youth workers and so you have the accountability you have the decision to make but all that you do for either side to honor thy mother and thy father that things may go well with us and to also to raise up these kids to know that they have a part you walk down the street now every corner it's cannabis every corner they going to have to fight cannabis and cannabis has already been shown that it destroys the neurotransmitters that it affects the sperm and the eggs and these children will come out more prone to ADHD and autism and all these things so fight for us and I thank you for everything you do thank you I again just want to thank um all who came to testify um and our young people in our AG strong Community uh thank you for coming out uh this evening uh now I'll turn it over to the administration for the present ation the floor is yours wonderful thank you so much good evening chair councelor warell uh other members of the council uh members of the community our young people and our older adults uh thank you all for being here this evening uh it's great to be here tonight uh with two members of my cabinet team to present to you on the fy2 budget for the office of Human Services the office of Youth engagement and advancement and the a strong commission I will lead off with a few slides on human services and will then hand it off to commissioner Emily Shay and executive director Pedro Cruz to share their slides the slides are in front I don't know council members if you're able to see them we have they do okay great um so if you can move to slide two please thank you uh so I'm going to lead off with some quick context especially for those members who may not be familiar with the Human Services cabinet uh the Human Services cabinet envisions Boston as a city where all residents have easy access to the services resources and opportunities they truly need to thrive next slide please this translates to our mission as a cabinet which is to lower barriers to access to essential Services resources and opportunities we meet residents in their neighborhoods to connect them to the things that they need our cabinet or chart is fairly straightforward and the only thing I would point out here is that we have six departments in our cabinet between these departments combined we have 66 locations and almost 1,000 workers Who deliver services to Residents in every neighborhood of the city four of our departments have already had a budget hearing and the remaining two plus our office are here this evening this slide depicts the organizational chart for our cabinet team along with the various offices and special advisors that are housed within the human services budget as you can see we have a great deal of responsibility for others finances but we do not have oversight of the operations for these offices um nor the special advisors this slide gives you the bird's eye view of four overarching goals that we adopted as a Cabinet when we started this work two years ago we remained focused on these goals as a team and our objectives and initiatives roll up to these four broad areas of improvement and now I'll run through the accomplishments we'd like to highlight for this hearing the Youth Development Fund is an annual investment that the city makes via grant program and programming for youth this year we were able to fund 88 programs through ydf with a focus on programs that align with the mayor's connect learn explore initiative we funded programs in every neighborhood of in three quarters of ydf funded organizations are led by folks who identify as black indigenous or people of color one Innovation we introduced to the wif this year was the emerging leaders program this emerging leaders program was a selective process where we chose 24 of the smaller nonprofit organizations to both receive funding and participate in a five-month skill building program the emerging leader cohort also received training on Outreach and recruitment resource development and evaluation among other concrete business skills we also paired each leader with an established nonprofit leader who could offer support to those who are still finding their way the cohort is still underway so there's more to come but the feedback so far has all been very positive the final slide I want to show is related to the work we've been doing on swim safety in fact just this week we had two Olympians come to Boston for two days to talk about water safety with youth and families in the city they visited two schools and three community centers to spread the message and we're so excited to have them as partners this year we've been able to deliver over 1500 swim lessons so far and on track to meet our goal of getting 2,000 kids enroll and swim lessons we've re reopened three pools so far and have more than we expect to bring on line um in the coming months in addition to that we are focused intently on lifeguard recruitment so we can be sure that all of our pools can operate safely and just to note our lifeguard starting wages begin at $22 an hour age is 16 years old and we do have training available for young people who are interested in becoming lifeguards with sign on bonuses up to $1,000 next slide please in addition to everything that we keep on doing we're excited about three new things this year that we'll be working on first we'll be launching a program in partnership with BCF that will bring highquality Arts programming to BCF centers this is an arpa funded project that will be done in collaboration with the mayor's office of arts and culture second with our team at a strong commission we're working on a study to understand how our programming aligns with current and future needs as well as how Boston does compared to other large cities we look forward to using the results of this study to inform future Investments finally we'll be digging deeper into the work on Youth Sports we know that youth sports are a vehicle for many kids to learn lifelong skills and healthy habits and we want to get as many youth as possible engaged in sports and with that I will wrap up and hand it off to Emily thank you all thanks Chief hi everybody uh chairman Morel counselors nice to see you all tonight uh I'm so glad to be here today to talk about the agong commission our work and our um proposed budget investment and I'd like to wish everybody a very happy older Americans month um so Boston older residents are increasing rapidly and actually we have some slides too if you can go to slide two if you look at slide two um between 2010 uh which was just a year before I came to the agong commission and 2025 which is uh next year we'll have a 48% increase in our older adult population it's our fastest growing population and our oldest baby boomers are only 78 so you can see the trajectory continues to Trend upwards um and as a city we need to respond to this demographic change um I just want to take a minute before I start to take thank my entire team I'm really lucky to work with them and I want to acknowledge our older adults as well we I know you heard from a few folks tonight um and uh we really appreciate them as partners um we have a lot of other partners we work with with that we appreciate as well as Chief maso and the entire Human Services team mayor woo and also all of you we really feel like it takes a village to do this work um and to make communities that are good to live in and AG in um I want to recognize a few of my staff that are here as well uh miles and Kareem behind me and Melissa here um are U members of my my uh senior staff um the AG commission if if you go to the next slide thank you the AG strong commission is a city of Boston department and Boston's Council on Aging and Area Agency on Aging our mission is to enhance the lives of Boston's older adults with meaningful programs resources and connections so that we can all age strong in Boston together we have a proposed 8.04 million operating budget which is a 0.7% increase from previous years and we estimate an external operating budget um of 11.25 million for a total budget of 19.2 n million um we give out about half of this money of around $10 million in contracts or grants to partner organizations that help to make up Boston's Aging Services Network we provide Direct Services such uh such as Transportation connection to Aging in City resources information and benefits Behavioral Health interventions opportunities to connect with others and stay active and engaged in community and volunteer programs we're committed to an age and dementia friendly Boston and work in partnership with others to ensure Boston systems structure programs and policies take our older residents into account um and we can't do this work alone especially given the diversity of Boston's older population so if you if you're all looking at the our partnership slide you can see the list of all of the Community Partners that we fund with our federal title 3 funding and our operating dollars as Boston's Area Agency on Aging we assess local needs and craft the city's plan for people over 60 and we fund a network of Partners to implement the goals of the older Americans act for the Boston area our partners provide important services such as caregiver support Meals on Wheels and Community cafes housing stability senior programming legal services and more in the past couple of years we've also had over $4 million in older Americans act arpa dollars which we're on track to spend by the September 30th 2024 deadline these funds have been critical for keeping up with the demand and incre increased cost of meals and services this extra Opera funding has also given us the ability to fund new services like guardianship support for our most vul vulnerable older adults uh next slide please we've had a really busy 2024 uh fy2 24 um we're excited to be in the final stages of our reorganization so we've we've successfully transitioned all current staff into their regraded positions and process their back pay additionally we've hired 17 new team members and promoted eight internal staff our commitment to reflecting the diversity of the communities we serve remains strong and we're pleased to have enhanced our team's language capacity with some of our new hires we'll continue to prioritize this as we fill our remaining vacant positions some of our most vital work focuses on the economic security of Boston's old are adults and I think I've I've told folks in the council before but we are um uh one of Massachusetts is the worst state in the entire country for Elder Economic Security and Boston is one of the worst places in the state so we have 74% of folks 65 plus living alone who have less income than expenses and 44% of Elder couples so over the past year we've embraced the mayor's directive to bring our services out of City Hall and into the community we've extended our steps office hours at neighborhood sites organized uh healthc Care open enrollment events to simplify the process of navigating health insurance and hosted four Regional resource fairs uh I know counselor you were at one the other day um so including uh we have an upcoming one on June 1st at the ibw in Dorchester where older adults can directly access a wide range of resources our team is well trained and dedicated to connecting older adults with Benefits programs like the Medicare Savings program which can save older adults up to 3,000 in healthare costs annually and I think she left but I want to get of a shout out to Mass senior Action Council we have some members up there who um who help to advocate for uh the asset limit changes to that program uh the impacts of the pandemic are still being felt on our population and will be for many years to come but the SI but the system of Behavioral Health support for older adults that exists in our community is broken which is why we've worked with a consultant this year to do A needs assessment a gap analysis and we're in the process of creating an elder Behavioral Health strategic plan which we expect to release this summer in addition our new Behavioral Health team is now able to provide short-term intervention while connecting older residents to longer term treatment um and we gave $450,000 in Grants to six Elder Behavioral Health projects to increase community support for older adults um in addition we're working with other City departments and a new community partner Barry Treasures to Pilot a comprehensive program providing support to older adults who are housing insecure because of hoarding disorder um this year we were able to work with the mayor and all of you to update our older adult property tax workof program which we really appreciate now folks can work off up to $2,000 of their property taxes by volunteering for 133 hours in a city Department um and we have an updated income guideline with a 60% area median income so we'd love your word getting we'd love your help getting the word out about this program and please let us know if you'd like to host a volunteer um one of the things that we've heard from all of our older residents is they want more ongoing programming in this our city my team worked diligently over the past year and I'm proud of our accomplishments through last year's budget investment and a partnership with Goddard house our Citywide events and programs team increase from six to 11 people and we're just about finalizing uh that hiring we've been uh with with this investment we have expanded social engagement and reduced social isolation by activating 22 ongoing in-person classes including Fitness Arts mindfulness Wellness sessions as well as educational opportunities in neighborhoods across Boston um we know that more is needed in this area and with our additional staff uh we're prepared to roll out more next next uh in this next fiscal year to broaden our reach we've also increased our virtual programming to8 weekly live classes and three OnDemand creative arts video series accessible at any time and we've strengthened our partnership with BCF and other Community Partners to continue to support their expansion of program offerings for older adults um finally we've also finished our first full year of programming over at our East Boston Senior Center which has been really successful and exciting and if you haven't gotten out there we welcome you to come um at the end of the last fiscal year we reallocated $360,000 to fund 16 grants to community organizations throughout the year these grantees we funded have been targeting underserved populations with social engagement work their work has been so successful that we've grown the program and this year we used our FY 24 senior programming budget investment to issue over $500,000 in Grants to 37 Community organizations and they'll be working over this next year to support social connection for older adults throughout Boston's neighborhood um next slide please or oh the previous slide then um sorry so we are really uh excited about the year to come and all of the work we hope to accomplish every four years we Implement A needs assessment and planning process as part of our responsibility as an Area Agency on Aging we'll begin the process this summer and hope to have it complete by the end of December we'll also be going out to bid with all of our or almost all of our older Americans act funds um for the new federal fiscal year that starts October 1 we'll be increasing access to program programs and benefits with more enrollment events resource fairs and regular Community hours and we're excited to finally have the Staffing in place to launch a community ambassador program which will help help us create trust and build Bridges to diverse communities we're enhancing Transportation access for older adults through the a agong shuttle by opening up access to non-medical rides reducing day of cancellations and maximizing the use of our scheduling software to increase the number of rides we can offer daily furthermore we're we're set to begin modernizing the taxi coupon program to make it more Equitable and accessible we'll also restart our six week Civic engagement C Academy class and build on it creating a year-round Civic engagement program for our older residents and working in partnership with others will begin implementation of our Elder Behavioral Health strategic plan so finally and I was saving this for last because it certainly keeps me up at night um we need to do more and we will around programming for our older residents we anticipate having this strategic plan for programming um and spaces for older adults that Chief maso mentioned complete some time this fall um the this budget again invests in our expanding engagement grants with $500,000 and we're really grateful for that this will be the fourth year we're giving out those grants um and it also invests in a advocacy and benefit specialist as we know that as we increase sites for senior programming across the city we also need to support those sites in helping older adults connect to resources we're excited to continue collaboration with our city partners our Human Services cabinet BCF libraries Parks police and all of you and our Community Partners as we work to expand senior spaces and programs across Boston so thank you all so much for your support of our office we look forward to continuing our work in partnership with all of you and Boston's older residents um and now I will turn it over to director Cruz um hi city council it's a pleasure to be here my name is Pedro Cruz I am the executive director of The Office of Youth engagement and advancement um wait do you want me to to start we good yeah yeah yeah no rush we'll start it up um so I would just like to start off by saying that we actually are a brand new office or the youngest office under Chief maso's leadership we just hit a year in February super proud of the work that we've been able to do this past year I believe that the goal of this office was to answer sir um you you can start to the next one thank you um the goal of this office was really to answer the question as to where does you work live in City Hall so we've been able to really just build this office we adopted some work that's been already um across the city but also implemented some new initiatives but before we get into that I just want to start off by highlighting the team so you'll see that on the second slide um we have four of the team members um the one before please we have four of the team members that are our full-time employees um we have two vacancies right now but there's also an additional five success link um positions under my supervision so it's a team of 11 positions total I'm super proud of saying this because when I adopted the work in the office majority if not all of my staff was seasonal or under success link um positions and I've been able to Advocate after the last year's budget to um give um five additional aside for myself full-time positions and make them part of City payroll and hopefully after this budget season we'll be able to turn the remaining five success link positions still under my office into additional full-time position as well as um 12 month Fellowship positions which we hope to um extend it to young people especially coming out of college and or high school to be able to engage with City work and build their Network and Advance their careers next slide please so I'll start off with the quote that I I've been repeating for the last year that youth are not an initiative at Oya they are the mission of the office um and with that I would like to highlight three main goals that we've been really focusing on and it's to uplift Young Voices and decision making through Civic engagement connect young people to Opportunities and resources through a central Hub and support serving um youth serving organizations and youth facing individuals in the field and what I always like to say is that all the work that we do at o yeah is to support one or more of the three levels of youth work which is what we calling the three levels of youth work which is the youth organizations the the ones who create the spaces for the young people the youth workers who build the relationships within those spaces with the young people and then the young population themselves so all the work that we do focuses on those three levels of youth work um next slide please so through that I'll go through um our initiatives right now I'll start off by the mayor's you Council which I'm glad we had testimony of just the impact that we've had across the city this last cycle we've been able to engage we've received 229 applications from young people across the city which I believe just shows um the interest in the program and their willingness to be part of um local government we've have 60 youth on the council 20 which are paid through Su um sucess link then I'll go over to the youth Fleet the change which is our participatory budget program where young people in the city have the power to decide what to do with a million dollars as of now we have collected over 772 ideas across the city all from young people as to what to do with these funds and we're now in the voting stages which we go back out to the community for young people to vote on which ideas they want us to fund and we have um we're close to 5,000 with the goal of 10,000 by the end end of this voting season the next program I'll share is the youth resource Hub so we really want to be there's a lot of resources in City Hall and a lot of opportunities but it's scary enough to navigate City Hall as an adult so that fear is Amplified for young people who do I go to where do I talk to so we really want to be that connector for young people within City Hall but also across their communities um so with that we've launched actually today we just launched the youth resource Hub which we're um branded in the youth line you might have heard that before we're bringing that brand back and the youth line again is our way of connecting young people to resources we've um with the mayor's team we've launched a online dashboard that right now houses 410 resources and opportun uh an opportuni strictly for young people and our goal is to make it easy to find these opportunities and also for this to be a tool for youth workers within that youth line program I want to highlight our MBTA youth Pass Program which we've been in collaboration with uh with the state MBTA this program exists outside of the city but we do oversee the program within the city we have um today processed over 7,000 MBTA youth pass applications directly out of the tolbin community center as well as served over 600 constituents in person through this MBTA youth Pass Program and through this initiative we've also put together a community calendar on our website to continuously highlight specifically youth events to make it easy for young people to connect to what's happening across the city not just in City Hall but all the amazing work that our Community Partners and up to date we have promoted over 2,000 different events on this community calendar I'll jump over to the mayor's youth Summit which um a lot of you attended and I really appreciate that it was super impactful to have leadership there present for the young people um we sold out the event we had 300 people sign up we had a weight list of 100 we've hosted over 200 100 young people in person over a 100 adults connected young people to 17 different resources and partners and awarded two young leaders for their civic engagement for the work that they're doing across the city through these Community organizations I'll jump over to the next initiative which is our youth worker professional development series me being a longtime youth worker myself a lifelong it's all I've ever done to be honest I knew how powerful these professional development opportunities were for me I didn't have the degre Rees that other the other Industries might require and these professional development opportunities gave me the language and the confidence to be able to sit at these tables and hold these conversations as of now we have um hosted 39 sessions total covering 23 different topics everything from walk um working with lgbtq youth to working with homelessness um homeless youth to financial literacy and art and so on and so forth um we've collaborated with 18 different trainers um everything from Community organizations to individual contractors and again this is our way of being able to make it accessible I knew how hard it was for me to one to find them and then two to fund them and then when when I was in the nonprofit and we'll get them to fund and it's like do I go by myself do my colleagues come with me do I teach this and come bring it back and then with that um again they're completely free which is what I want to highlight they're completely free and we did the hard work of that and then I'll close up with uh two more things which is our partner Network um we wanted to break down the silos that exist in youth work now we all serve the same young people they go to BPS they go to BCF they go to these Community organizations and we don't speak with each other so we've been able to host a partner Network right now we've been able to build that to 950 youth servant individuals from 250 different youth servant organizations we meet every other month we have an average attendance of 85 to 90 youth organizations in the city individuals from these organizations and then this upcoming year one thing we're super excited about is our youth needs assessment um survey which is uh we want to launch that to really collect raw data around what young people need so that we could start making real decisions in City Hall but also that Community Partners could use that information to make decisions within their own spaces and then the last slide is just some pictures and then on behalf of my team I want to thank everybody thank you um now we'll go to my Council colleagues um for questions uh Vice chair Pepin the the floor is yours thank you chair and I just first want to start with thanking the um public testimonies that we heard today shout out to the youth for showing up and to everyone else that had just brought some amazing comments here very glad that we decided to do this one in person because obviously the testimony um was very important so thank you so much for everyone that showed out um Chief commissioner director it's good to see you all thank you all so so much for the work that you do my first question is going to be directed to um commissioner Shay you mentioned that Massachusetts in Boston is one of the worst places for senior economic protection um why is that Economic Security it's because of the um because of the cost of living and the average income of the residents gotta so it's a it's actually a formula similar to the family self-sufficiency standard it's called The Elder index and it's calculated for every uh County across the United States um but it's it's done uh the calculations are done at UMass Boston and so they do a special one for us for the city of Boston okay thank you for that um And in regards to that are we having any conversations with the senior specifically that our homeowners in regards to um property taxes and having those conversations with with with residents sure I mean I think I I would say that um we certainly have heard from residents that property taxes are are a challenge um and I'm sure we'll hear that in our needs assessment as well um uh and and I would say rent for that matter right at all housing costs are are um difficult for people to meet in Boston um we were we're excited we're able to increase the um property tax workof program amount from 1,500 to 2,000 we have done everything that we can to increase the 41c elderly exemption um and uh if it's part of our uh in order to increase it higher we would need State intervention and it is actually a part of the home roll petition that was submitted around the transfer tax that's a a piece of that as well you need to get the word out I'm Miss Harvey Sorry Miss Harvey only questions from thank you thank you Miss Harvey I thank you yes ma'am that was actually one of my followup questions can we um following points can we have some workshops with the seniors just for education purposes on how to how to deal with this going forward sure of course I mean I think that's one of the things our resource fairs are trying to get at and we've been doing a lot of Outreach for those reaching out to groups we've been firing neighborhoods um but I you know we need to do continual Outreach kind of on on all the different topics and all the different things that the resource all the different resources that people have access to and we need to do those in we need to get it out to community in all different ways people speak different languages people access uh information in print and online uh people need to see it multiple times so they need to see it in person so there's there's a lot of work that needs to get done thank you commissioner um director Cruz I um first of all just very proud of the work you've done in your first year just seeing your commitment in the community is just very inspiring to see um thank you the the youth brought up a good point in their testimonies and it was the question of having jobs year round what is the reason for that Gap and can we s sorry that is a question for Workforce Development but um I guess I'll ask them that question but um is there anything that your office can do um to fulfill that Gap not necessarily in terms of the Gap like as you mentioned that's a question for Workforce but one thing we have been doing it's it's amplifying the work that's happening across the city so we have a a newsletter right now with over 30,000 young people from the city that all work through success link and we're continuously sharing job opportunities so I I believe our Ro is to amplify the opportunities that are there so um in terms of closing the Gap it's just a matter um we we're here to really amplify the work and make sure that they get connected that's awesome that's good and I'm glad to see that you have so much subscribers so we know that there is appetite from from our youth in our city for sure um thank you for that in regards to youth um Chief moso Miss ketcho brought up a good point in her um in her testimony she spoke about speed humps in front of the mild as you may know I'm a big fan I'm advocate for Speed humps what partnership can I know obviously you're not BTD but what advocacy as a chief can you do to request something as small as a speed hump to BTD in partnership with let's say my office is that something that um an advocacy that you can also do not just for the mil but just any small infrastructure improvements around our BCF centers absolutely so I think it's just working closely you know with office and with my city colleagues to really determine what the needs are what the possibilities are and what the forecast in terms of strategy is as well uh so it's really just being able to use my position to be able to say hey I know you're hearing this as well this is things that we're hearing is there anything that we can amplify is there anything that we could prioritize recognizing now know pretty much there's a system but again where does this fall within the system what is that we can communicate and how often can we communicate so it makes sure people know that they are being seen and heard right thank you for that and I know my time is over I just want to thank y'all I'll hold my time for the next round sure thank you uh Council Weber the floor is yours oh thank you chair uh people hear me um thank you uh you commissioner Shay I just want to thank you for uh you know we worked together uh on the edar P Benjamin to um you know get a receiver appointed and and in my visits there since that happened both the you know the residents and the staff are you know in a much better spirits and seems like people are getting the care they need so thank you for your work on that um I I I had a question um for you uh in terms of you talked about increasing numbers of seniors in Boston so what what is the like per year what's the percentage increase or or do you have a per five years what do you expect um so let me I have the numbers let me let me just look uh the percentage increase from uh from 2020 to 2025 I think is about a 30% increase okay if that's if that's helpful and I could get you the numbers for I I can get you the numbers for the years but I don't have I don't have the numbers that's okay and so what's the I think did you say what's the percentage increase from the budget in in your AG strong budg budget from last year uh uh 7% yeah so I you know I I mean I I think the the need is outstripping the increase is that am I am I wrong about that I mean I I think with our with our reorganization like we're we're grateful to be finally fully going to be fully staffed um we're going to be able to to we'll have a team of uh if we get this one added position we'll have a team of 101 um but you know we certainly have increasing numbers of folks and I think that one of the things our department has always been really good at is leveraging uh also our external resources and so that's something that we're we'll be working with Chief maso and his team on especially as we look at senior programming and the plan coming out in the fall um we'll really be looking at uh how can we leverage external resources external partners because we'll need to move that work forward do you know so is there something in the budget that I can look at which identifies how much we're spending on services around Alzheimer's um how do I pick out a number yeah um so what I would say to that is um we have one position that's dedicated towards uh kind of what we call dementia friendly work um and then a lot of our programming uh people with dementia attend we run a couple of different memory cafes we run a support group um and then some of the other uh kind of Alzheimer specific Services um might be like inhome services and those are paid out of uh there's money that comes from the state not to us but to other partners for those types of services um I will say I was with the Alzheimer's Association today over um uh over in Codman Square at a at a uh listening session around around Alzheimer's disease and dementia um and there are uh we're working with the Boston Public Health commission they have a uh multi-million dollar grant called The Bold Grant which is really to set up a public health infrastructure for Alzheimer's so I'd be more than happy to meet with you at some point in time and kind of explain uh stuff that's going on at the city level and at other levels but I will also say that as we look at our fastest growing population it's kind of 85 Plus and and uh as our numbers go up with older adults we are going to have a lot of people with dementia and we're going to need to figure out how do we make sure we have the supports in place that are needed I I agree just one more question um sorry this is from the resource Fair uh that we both attended in West rockberry there's a agef friendly certification program yeah uh I had a senior at the resource Affair wanted to know if we could have someone on staff who can train businesses to you know uh provide better customer service to seniors is that something that uh that we do now or or if not it's something we can provide yeah we do do a um agent dementor friendly business certification training and so we have a whole customer service training that we that we give and we'd be happy to talk more to you about that and partner with you but uh businesses go through a certification so if any of you know business out there business out there that wants to get certified we can work with them and get them certified okay thank thank you back back to you thank you councelor Mia the floor is yours thank you thank you chair and uh I'm glad to see that people are still standing or sitting you're still here so that's that's important um and I do appreciate you all more importantly I just want to acknowledge that the administration stayed here to listen into community and that is such an important part of these conversations and I'm so glad that you all sat through that um because that's what people want is to feel seen and heard and and you did just that and the worker empowerment folks even though you were not stated to speak you have been listening here and I think that people do pay attention to those things so I just want to acknowledge y'all and thank you for for doing that I I have a few questions um my questions are specifically um I'm curious about can you tell me commissioner how many uh seniors live in Boston sure um the 2020 number was about3 uh 115,000 okay and out of that 115,000 how much do you say we spend per like if you had to break down the numbers oh goodness do you is it like a dollar per senior like just you know how many like what in terms of service um I mean I don't know if if you took 8 million and you divided it by 115 or it's probably closer to 100 and you know it's maybe $50 per person I don't know per person per year per day per so I can tell you how much I get from the state because I know that because that's actually done on a per person basis so from the from the state I get $14 per person per year that's it that's it so that and that's about that's a little over a million dollars so if you take our $8 million budget right so the reason why I ask is because I think about our seniors they're the ones who have spent most of their lives paying into a system right that often times when it's time for them to utilize it they don't get a return on that investment right right and you hear from our our seniors who are here who are asking for more services and and and more opportunities is that and when I think and I sit through these budgets I always think about our values and when I think about our aging population I think about our young people I and Human Services I think about all of those things that really matter in terms of the quality of life and I think that your budget needs to reflect that increase I think for is not hitting the mark for our elders right um because if we had more money in the budget then people would probably you would have the resources to get the word out around some of the programs that exist so I want to talk a little bit about your Outreach and engagement um if you could just tell me you know in the ideal world you know what what would help strengthen your Outreach and engagement efforts yeah I uh so I think that um I think there there's a lot of things that could strengthen those efforts and and um in our reorg we're we're growing our Communications team a little bit um uh and so the things that we're going to be focused on are getting getting the word out in different ways right so using using print using mail um potentially uh radio um also a lot of in-person things our community ambassador program will help help with with getting the word out um we can get the word out through Partnerships so I think it's a it's a lot of different things and and it's continuing to get the word out all the time and then it's also trying to figure out if you have a hundred things to get the word out about how do you do that in a way that people can hear the information I appreci and how do you do it in all the different languages so let's talk a little bit about how you what your decision-making model looks like for uh identifying which senior centor are are getting services or how much Services they're getting what's your what's your model how do you decide which who gets what sure so um so we have uh certain senior spaces right now that um that have like fully I would say fully operating senior centers right a Brighton one that has operated for a long time and East Boston one that's that's new um I wouldn't say our our office didn't choose either of those locations but we're grateful that those are up and running um BCF has a couple of spaces that um are running five day a week senior programs um Miss kisaw was uh uh led the the effort to get the Mildred up and running two days a week but I think that this um plan that we're doing with the consultant is going to help us by kind of matching population to excuse me a plan first space across the city um and and I think that that that's going to be critical when we're citing programs now um we are doing it based on um a lot of it based on where there's there's nothing happening so we we know what programs we're funding we know what's already up and running we're hearing from community and we're going to a lot of places where not as much is happening so that's what we're doing now but we're going to we're excited to have uh to be in a planning process so that we can do it in a more thoughtful way as we move and I know my time is up and I I just would like to Advocate that as you continue to I I appreciate Consultants but I think that the best folks are often the times the folks who are actually live in the reality so having seniors being the ones that you're hiring and that you are employing because just because you're retired doesn't necessarily mean that you're done and there's so many opportunities to really engage seniors in meaningful ways so that they can pay those prop taxes for sure no I agree and and they'll be a part of the the process um there's paid to get input thank you and I did a little bit of math um thank you and 8 million divided by the 115,000 is $70 per person per year yes um Council Santana the floor is yours thank you Mr chair excuse me and thank you um for the administration for being here um so great to see you all I'll jump in right into the questions um commissioner um can you just speak I know I know you spoke about the community engagement process um that you do for um Outreach to our seniors and um you know hearing the testimonies I I also want to know about specifically for our Boston Housing Authority residents and our seniors um what um specific outreach are you doing to them to make sure um that these resources are available to all of them as well sure um so you know I I think that we we do partner with um the BHA and we've been meeting with them to see how we can work kind of even more deeply with them they have uh a lot of senior buildings they probably have 27 right now or so uh senior buildings across across the city there's over 5,000 older adults living in those spaces so it's a lot of people with a lot of need um uh we uh are doing some programs in in some of those spaces we're also funding some programming in some of those spaces and when we put on kind of uh like our our enrollment events and our resource fairs we're outreaching to those spaces and we're doing some transportation from those spaces but uh just like kind of everybody across the city uh more needs to be done uh to engage folks across the city um and and so we look forward to to doing more with with people oh thank you commissioner yeah definitely would like to go on the record of um advocating for that and advocating for more Communications to happen for our um BHA um seniors um so but thank you for the work that you're doing um director Cruz so great to see you and um you know want to Echo some of my colleagues I think I I'm very proud to see the work that you've done over the last year um the team the incredible team that you've been able to build um and um your thoughtfulness for um a sustainable office um you know I I've been working very closely with your mayor's youth Council um they're an incredible group um are they can you talk to me about the recruitment um of of the mayor youth Council who has access to them how do you um get get these into these positions and um is there any compensation or stien um with with with the participation of this program yeah for sure so when I first um adopted the program or when it got moved over to my leadership there was 90 individuals on there and I thought that was just too large of a group to manage and really create impact with so one of the first decisions we did was to bring it down to 60 for this first year just to really see um try to control that and be more impactful out of that 60 20 are paid positions but they do have a higher level of commitment so they're expected to be with us during the school year Monday through Friday and those 20 individuals are within leadership on the mayor youth console the other 40 on the mayor youth conso have a lower level of commitment and are expected to be with us for um I I can't remember off the top of my head but definitely a few hours throughout the month and they're really more of like a voting body and just also um to be able to uplift their voices and we've been engaging with them through BP uh BPS and in community organizations and really going with the young people are at one of the main goals that we have is to diversify it and I'll be fully transparent about that I do want to create um bring I want the council to represent the youth population across the city and I don't and I think right now we've been experiencing a lot of people applying from schools that have a lot of support and and I really want to get into the just the other schools like the English the Madison and really make sure that young people are represented on that Council and that we have a diverse voice on that Council so we're going to continue to amplify that work and really make sure that this opportunity is shared across all BPS we just launched the application not too long ago and we're working closely with BPS BPL BCF and our partners Network that I mentioned of 250 organizations to make sure that this opportunity gets in front of all these young people great thank you so much um really appreciate that and please keep my office in the loop in any way that we can um support that I know my time is up I just want to go on the record of saying I I see Workforce Development here um since day one on January 1st my first day I've been advocating for year round jobs for our youth that's been my number one priority um and I look forward to having those conversations um with you all as well as long as with my colleagues in the administration um thank you Mr chair thank you Council fernan Anderson thank you Mr CH thank you um I know right the time I'm gonna steal that clock and break it um I just wanted to go on record and um state that like a lot of I know that most of the youth well nobody's here um are not here anymore but hopefully they'll review this tape and they they're going to want to um and the process that they laid out is not the process and so there there were say there were a lot of statements most of them were saying you know uh the counselor you have this power or that we as though we decide on the budget and I heard a couple seniors mentioning this that you know ways and means you have this you you you are creating this budget but that's it's the mayor's budget and the mayor's budget comes to the council and if we don't have nine votes to override the mayor's veto because most likely even if we have seven and we pass it with our amendments and if we don't have nine to override that veto then we have no power so we have you have to get the uh 2third majority to oppose what the mayor is proposing in order to create that those amendments and the other thing that happens is that you know um early on around January or December really to January uh there their propos or recommendations from each department and OBM then reviews that process and uh or those recommendations OBM may say you know we have other priorities over here and so they play with the money and whatever you know they can feel one is sustainable two there's enough capacity or can be built in the the fisal year time to be able to handle such budget um and be able to um expend either the contractual stuff or the uh Personnel by building capacity if they feel like they can't hire fast enough to handle the job or if they feel like they can't expend U fast enough on contractural Services then also those recommendations are not going to be made and so the growth in budget has to be gradual in terms of one building capacity so hiring enough people as well as building that you know contractual like um list of people that you can uh get to do the job and so I saw this with yo and obviously we moved funds um as chair as a chair when I was chair last term uh we moved funds and our chair here uh was one of the people that fought for uh increasing youth jobs so um I feel like you know we're having a conversation and it's an odd process we come here we ask questions to the panelists and it's not enough time and it's all feels moot because in the end we know the answers already I like for example I have a thousand questions that like on numbers but then there it's easily researchable and to find out so I think that the process you know Robert's Rules or whatever and the way that we're executing it is not fair to community and I wanted to say to the people that are still here um we I know that the chair is is looking at looking at um the you know the structure moving forward and how we do working sessions um and he's been very creative and very uh forthcoming transparent in this and looking at ways that we can be more efficient in the conversation um my questions are going to at be very raw about you know building capacity like if the mayor decided say that we convinced the mayor to add more money to Elder service or yo could you handle another 10 million could you handle another 30 million and that's really that's really the question is if you can't if you don't have the capacity um and you can't build it within the F the this fiscal year then what what are we talking about in terms of increasing funds and I think that in terms of like obviously we're not investing in seniors we're not investing enough in youth we're not doing any of that but it does take time to again build up that budget in order for us to get to um executing Services um um efficiently fairly and equitably across the city and that's across all departments what seems unfair here is like the uh the police department and the contracts I want to be clear about that too a lot of misinformation is that you know there's a contract that needed to be settled and I for one was one of those people that said this contract needs to be settled so that we can actually work with real numbers and understand what we owed them in the last three years and what they need to be paid and so now that the contract is being settled we have legal legal parameters that we cannot like break we cannot U cross these bounds so we have to pay people what they're contracted to do um and even if we were to create amendments and the council did it and we were misinformed we'd get sued and then we'd have to pay it back so there's that and then there's looking at you know in terms of like assuming smooth spending across each department and figuring out what's priority what needs to be handled infrastructure is super important you'll see a lot of money in uh development for infrastructure and like streets cabinet has a whole lot money right but guess what our City's really old and it looks like crap so it needs to be fixed so there's a lot of that um and so I'm for I'm going to stop now Mr chair thank you um but I think that you know I we have another work budget Workshop in D7 coming up and I think it's about looking at the numbers across the board and ass assuming smooth spending say they need 10 million but they are asking for 13 million it's looking at the capacity and what they can handle and then for us the counselors to look to say look let's analyze these numbers and let's figure out where is inflated where we think that monies can be moved and see if we can squeeze a little bit more in areas that we feel a priorities um so I hope that you take that in good faith and I look forward to doing the work in your service um obviously and always thank you thank you uh Council Flynn the floor is yours thank thank you Mr chair and thank you to my colleagues and to the administration for testifying and to the public as well for testifying I listen closely to the public and I also listen closely to my colleagues in the administration and Council Fernandez Anderson you you made excellent points in your in your statement and your comments here tonight and and think it I think she is exactly right is is is we have to have an honest con conversation about the budget what the city can do and what the city can't do and I think it was referenced that if if if a police officer is working a shift or two shifts in a row and if we cut the city budget that police officer is still going to get paid um so you know to say we're going to we're going to cut the police department 40 or $50 million and we're going to take it out of the overtime budget it's just not it's just not going to happen but I understand the point you are making that you know why are people working so many hours and making a lot of money and and the and the real reason is we we don't have a good system of Manning the Boston Police Department and we and it's it's not the overtime it's not enough police officers and and when we do hire police officers let's ensure that is's that we do the Outreach and the retention and to recruit more people of color um but I don't I don't want to come here and and and and say and just relate to people and relate to the audience and and not not be honest but we're just not going to cut the police department but as it relates to the summer jobs program where a lot of the funding would go to and VAR is from from listening to the testimony I worked closely with Pedro for a lot of years in the South End and you do an outstanding job Pedro um thank you so my my question Pedro is I listen to the I listen to the young people talking about youth employment employment was there youth last summer that wanted to work that just weren't able to work because I just want to um Workforce Development um they're they're up next and they are the um okay where success links lives okay with Su links okay um but my I guess my point was if if we want to take the money from the city budget and put it into youth employment were there youth I'd really like to know how many youth last year wanted to work that were not able to work and then that's the number we really want to increase I don't know if it's 500 youth that wanted to work I don't know if it's 200 do we have any type of ballpark that someone seriously wanted to work and just wasn't able to work that's the number we need to increase for youth employment in let's be realistic if it's 500 maybe we increase it to 700 or to 800 in in increase it but but just to say we need you know $40 million more that's not that's not realistic my fi my final point in listening to my colleagues also is supporting our seniors and our seniors as as we all know have worked hard their entire their entire career they might be a homeowner and maybe they bought their home in the 1960s for 10,000 bucks or 15,000 bucks now they live in a home that's worth $700,000 it doesn't it doesn't make them wealthy it probably makes them poor they're unable to pay the property taxes and I and I see the seniors in in my neighborhood they're looking at a can of tuna fish and they're trying to figure out if they have enough money to buy a can of tuna fish for $159 I I've seen it recently and I said to the senior what are you what are you looking at the the price for and I'm thinking 159 is not a big deal because I have the money but the senior doesn't have that money and they worked hard their whole life and they're trying to figure out if they can make ends meet those are the types of issues that we need to have a serious discussion about during this budget I also want to recognize uh my friend Council or for his important work he's doing as chairman of this uh important committee thank you Council or thank you and um I'm gonna I agree a lot of my colleagues have asked some of the questions um and you know we we work um you know have a good relationship with everyone on this panel um you know whether it's increasing the a strong budget understanding you know the numbers that you laid out on the economics for seniors and knowing that we're only growing um our senior population um I looked up a number that said there was 5.8 million uh seniors um that are leave living with Alzheimer's and that's supposed to be growing um to 14 million by 2016 so understanding the importance of the getting the investments into aong um is so important because we know uh we're just going to have to just keep on giving more to making sure that our seniors could age and place with dignity so just looking forward to working with uh your team Chief moo um Pedro you've been doing amazing job and just looking to continue that collaboration and work um I'm only speeding up because we have to get out of here um they give us a time limit so I'm just going to call Office of Workforce Development up and thank you to the administration for being here thank you thanks thank you so um I'm just going to just introduce um um the department we have chief of Workforce Development uh Chief wi uh Chief of Staff of Workforce Development Chief of Staff Lee uh Deputy Chief of Workforce devel Development deputy chief cope um programs and administrative Specialist of office of Workforce Development um Administration specialist kesy I'm executive director of Youth Employment and opportunity executive director and please correct me if I get this wrong Verner verer ver right all right and deputy director of Youth Employment and opportunity can you help me up e eikan osian osian yes the floor is now yours and just for sake of time if we can run through the presentation absolutely um actually um if we may we are going to alter the uh presentation so um we actually gave you more information so that you can review it absorb it we want this to be a dialogue um this is a ongoing process so I I want to thank you for your time and for staying um and then what we're going to do is you have all of our slides and what uh I'm going to do is I'm going to hand it over to our deputy chief um Rashad cop and he's going to just give an overview and then I will tell you what's in the slide so that you can absorb it when you go home have it for bedtime reading I don't know it could make you fall asleep faster and then if you have additional questions we're happy to have ongoing dialogue with you and then we're going to quickly hand it over to um Allison and her team to talk about the summer youth jobs and um the the youth and employment and opportunity Department which I'm sure you'll have a lot of questions so if I may um follow that format for you um Tren win chief of worker empowerment before I start I want all of the staff to to just raise your hand that's here plus more and yes that's everybody but that's good we're loyal um and we got to listen and to learn from the community and that's a gift so we're not complaining at all um and the staff has just been amazing to the work um so I want to give a shout out to to them um so Rashad why don't you just go over the slides and then I'll uh tell you what's in it so that you can review it at your time point point of clarification yes um Mr chair what okay so are they taking like five a minute each and then we're they're they're going to run through it as fast as possible and then we're going to turn it back to us okay yep all right so yes it's 9 o' go go ahead I thought it was 8:30 yes yeah I thought it was 8:0 MyTime uh yes we going to run through this very quickly um so we can have um folks pull up our slides here um good evening um chair warell um in City Council Members um um the first slide that we're going to cover here um we're not going to walk through this in its entirety um many folks have seen this um but in it in its totality um our cabinet um we aspire to become a comprehensive um Hub um accessible to all fostering secure sustainable in a well-prepared Workforce system um and as you can see here the work of owd um it aligns with that third bullet there um which is around expanding Economic Opportunity for workers through quality jobs financial and skills training and also career pipelines um and to us that simply means that like we believe the work of this cabinet is to open doors to a career path um and prepare folks for the workforce and doing that um with a focus on an equitable lens um the quick slide here um Chief W is going to dive into some of these units shortly um but within the office of Workforce Development um there's 10 units that encompasses the bread of the office of Workforce Development role um next slide here um here um our our mission for owd um our commitment is to essentially Foster the the active involvement um you see the mission and vision here um to Foster the active involvement of every Boston resident in the city's economic growth in future Direction um our team and some of the folks are here um is dedicated to connecting low-income residents with training and job opportunities while also advocating for lifelong literacy and educational Pathways um and for those that are seeking um advancement um next slide here um and then again very quickly um you know in summary here are some of our priorities um for the office of Workforce Development um supporting Youth and Young adults in Access um assessing or accessing career Pathways it does remain a top priority um in digital literacy and adult education the aim is to enhance esol um and adult basic education Services offering professional development and guidance to integrate digital skills SKS into the classroom um and then the last two here um through our Center for Working Families initiatives um we'll continue to provide resources like Financial coaching and asset building opportunities to Foster economic well-being um and then just a note tomorrow um our cabinet will be launching the worker empowerment learning lab um which is a vital Hub um for generating and sharing um credible information um and knowledge to support evidence-based Workforce policy development um in Service delivery um in this Innovative approach it will look to identify gaps and opportunities in the Workforce Development space and facilitate collaboration among employers um to address Talent needs um so we're excited about that and then I'm just going to quickly turn it back over to Chief wi great so um these slides that you will see this is our um the budget the breakdown how much we have in Grants and to my right is our Director of Finance Devin wedge he's happy to answer additional questions you may have next slide and um just kind of breaking down what types of Grants um the amounts and where uh which federal agency and what the funding sources are next slide um and then just to kind of guide you through some of our special initiatives on good jobs uh Coalition and also the Greater Boston apprenti ship programs next slide um and then giving you uh the ARA overview the impact the work that we've been doing we've been very efficient about it somebody said that um you know do we have enough capacity for scale yes we do we have built it for the last 10 years we're ready for that uh absorbent and then working with over uh 250 Partners in the community next slide um and this just kind of uh gives you the next uh uh five to six or seven slides will talk to you give you an overview about the Boss Boston Life Sciences Workforce initiative uh Boston saves children's savings accounts tuition free Community College um Boston builds credit that works with low-wage workers to increase and improve credits um and all the great career Pathways that uh Council Mahia has been working with us with the neighborhoods jobs trust you have the slides you have the programs you have the the information happy to answer additional question questions um so I'm I'm going to just uh close with that with the office of Workforce Development happy to take questions and I'm going to hand it over to um my colleague Allison to quickly run through the um office of Youth Employment and opportunity which has a summer jobs program wonderful thank you Chief uh I'm going to keep going through so if you want to go to the next slide uh as you all know we provide youth employment that's our mission but we also do provide Career Development training and a lot of work we do is also outreaching the community strategic partnership to make sure you've get the best opportunities uh if you go to the next slide I'm not gonna dwell on the amazing impact of our programs because the youth and and everybody who testified did a great job at that we do keep measuring the impact of our program through our deep partnership with Northeastern um and continue to publish data and publish results year after year thanks to that Partnership if you go to the next slide you'll see some of our key fiscal year 2024 accomplishments uh we hired over 9,000 youth through our ecosystem of employment uh and within that over 5,000 almost 6,000 where From Success link opportunities that are City funded and then we have about 1,500 opportunities that were school year jobs uh those are still in progress right now and being counted you can see some of the other numbers like I said we've got uh over 200 Partnerships across the city we run a lot of workshops that impact uh thousands of Youth as well and we also had our biggest job fair ever uh we reached over 2,000 attendees at the job fair that we had in March uh we're really excited about that we also worked uh on two key launches this year that hopefully you've all heard about our future boss and then our future boss pledge to make sure that we are providing the resources that youth need at a One-Stop shop for for youth employment looking at fiscal year 2025 uh we have here a few numbers that you should feel free to look at I think the key thing to point out is that we are seeing um that most of our budget is getting uh and going directly to youth wages uh 94% of our budget goes directly to youth wages and that's what it's uh leveraged for and then we make sure that we're also partnering with other entities to leverage other funds right so we can really grow that poll so we leverage youth Works funding from the state we also partner with private foundations and corporations to make sure we can really maximize impact on youth um this year we are really looking to um continue to increase our ecosystem and increase our reach towards youth you can see kind of the breakdown of job opportunities uh between the ones that are success link and directly City funded but that's not all that we help grow we also help grow other opportunities across the city that you can see on the right hand side um and if you go to um the next slide I'm not going to go through those but those are a few of the ways that we are actually working through through to get to filling those jobs and getting those jobs provided and getting the youth engaged um we're trying to connect that jobs ecosystem more closely so that we get more employers involved uh from the private sector as well as as connecting with our nonprofit Partners we are trying to connect more closely with BPS as well to make sure that all schools are are getting the awareness and the support that they need um driving growth in private sector opportunities as I said so that we are leveraging fundings from outside ources continuing to optimize processes for our subsidized jobs uh and finally uh making sure that we're U putting Equity at the center of what we do and and launching you know initiatives like our Dei Academy and things like that thank you uh executive director I'm sure the council has a lot of questions for you yeah uh starting with Council M the floor is yours oh I'm going first you are first I'm the last one standing all right so thank you I appreciate the presentation yeah I am curious um and like I believe one of the young people here talked about her journey she was a young person now she so very similar to me I was a I got a youth job when I was a kid I ended up overseeing a work site that I partnered up with um ABCD I ran a Workforce Development initiative so I know this is I know this work and I know how important the impact of Youth jobs uh make on the entire family I'm curious if you could talk to me a little bit about your Outreach and engagement strategy where how are you I informing your decision-making process like who are you talking to that is informing you on how to get young people the information that they need plugged into the job opportunities that are available to them what's your strategy what does that look like yeah so sorry when it comes to uh Outreach and engagement so we have a team that's dedicated to that with three uh full-time team members uh and it's continuously evolving uh we try to really reach uh all neighborhoods and then uh all different types of schools right so we try to increase our presence in schools uh as well as all neighborhoods this year we ran our Citywide job fair like I said we had about 2,000 youth presents and then we have increased the number of neighborhood job fairs that we're running so do you know what the barriers are for young people do you have something specific in mind yeah so what what okay um in terms of what's preventing young people from like oh from hearing about jobs or accessing jobs yeah we we interact with youth a lot through those events through being being in schools um we know that um some youth some of them are not aware about jobs in the first place right uh and so let me just ask a few questions um for school year jobs they only last around six months can you just talk to us a little bit about um you know why not 10 what what's been what's been the Gap there on the length of the of the jobs yeah so we have the summer programs that runs from the end of June until the end of August and then we have the fall program that runs from October until the end of May um the transition is really in between the transition between the school year and and the summer program um we are allocating slots different programs have different needs between the two seasons um and then we try to restart as soon as we can uh in in the fall can you tell me out of the 10,000 jobs that the mayor talked about during her State of the Union Address um how many of them were city jobs from last summer specifically yeah absolutely uh while she's looking up those uh numbers for you counselor a couple of things one is that we've been doing um neighborhood popup job fairs at uh hotspots in various neighborhoods nine of them in the city of Boston we've also increased communitybased uh grants called Community Partners and it's not going through the city that we're allocating making grants and putting slots right in the middle and directly uh making grants for uh the nonprofits uh directly thank you TR and to answer your question about 18,000 jobs were uh directly in City agent, 00 I'm sorry 1800 it's getting late out of 10,000 only 1,800 jobs were in City agencies uh if you're asking about the ones that were funded by the city I got because that's what we're that the goal is is that we fought really hard in the budget season and so I want to make sure that so so so the the the jobs in the city is1 1800 but we've made almost uh 7,000 jobs to communitybased Partners so they're not within City Hall but they're in different neighborhoods and nonprofits have those slots and pay young people but how many were directly through success success link yeah success Link at about 5,500 jobs uh last summer wow I I'm you know I really do appreciate the fact that we don't have this is one of the most important e the this is I don't know chair given the fact that you know we have a timer and I mean I just feel like this is important and do you have another do you have another question I mean I I heard the the ringer you got ask another question you don't have to adjourn cuz I well I have her in my ear saying I don't have to adjourn and you're saying that we have to leave here so I need to I need Clarity yeah what's the what's the can we come back for a second round we have to leave leave here by 10:30 in order for us to leave here by 10:30 um we have to start packing up by around like 9:30 I'll wait I I want to go ahead uh sorry chair I was saying that you don't have to adjourn that this could be postponed oh yeah we could come back and have this conversation we could always bring back office of Workforce Development yes um counselor Santana the floor is yours thank you Mr chair um and I would like to go on the record I think we would love to have you back I think this is just um a very important um hearing to have um this is something that we're hearing from Community obviously we saw the you know public testimony took about two hours just to go through right and I think this is something that um our youth in particular really care about um Chief um and um deputy chief cope um great to see you and nice to U meet you all um you know deputy chief cop you've known for The Last 5 Years when we met um this is something you know year round jobs and summer jobs is something that I've been advocating for um and I also heard some I think from the public testimony of how much your office is overworked um and I've always also advocated for more staff um within your office um just to keep it very simple I mean we heard from all the public testimony from all our youth of of advocating for yearound jobs um where are you know how many job yearound jobs do we currently have right now um and and what's the difference between um how many summer jobs we currently have um and the year year year round jobs that we currently offer yeah uh so during the summer we have throughout our entire ecosystem uh last summer a little bit above 9,000 jobs that were provided for the school year at this point uh we are only tracking the jobs provided through success link specifically we haven't quite captured the entire ecosystem that's a work that's in progress to get more of that data specifically through success link uh it's about 1,500 jobs that get provided through the school year so from 9,000 to, 1500 so success link is about 5,000 in the summer 9,000 in the entire ecosystem there's also other jobs provided um so from about 5,500 uh and then in the school year we provide about, 1500 school year jobs great thank you I mean that's the only like that's really the only question I have and that's really what I want to advocate for um I mentioned since day one on this job I've been advocating for year round jobs um I was one of those people who had a summer job and I had to rely on other funding for year round jobs um one of my organizations that I participated in Philips Brooks house um was here and and and testified and they're losing funding um and you know they're advocating for that as that well so um I just really want to go on the record of of of really finding out how we can get more money for our youth for year round job job um this is not just something that we want it's a need um we heard from many of our residents and our youth of how much they're helping with um bills how much they're helping with um whatever the case may be we actually don't need to know what they're spending their money on um but you know having year round jobs um is also um a form of Public Safety and as chair of Public Safety U I want to make sure that our youth are are being occupied I also want to go on the record of advocating for um higher um um pay increases in particular to our older um youth um and and and to put them in leadership positions to do that so um Mr chair I I would love to go through you in terms of just being able to ask to bring um this office back for for forther continuation yes um I I just want to quickly say for this summer there were um nonprofit agencies requesting 8,655 jobs we want to do all of them and we were only able to allocate 6,481 and so the gap between that would be nice to fund so that every no one gets cut or actually cut less so you're saying about 2,000 different and year round jobs or was that just this for this this is the number for the summer specific summer so we have all right well I'll advocate for both of thank you so much I appreciate that Chief um Mr chair that's all my time thank you Council fernan Anderson the floor is yours uh thank you Mr chair I I think I want Clarity because I'm really confused um and I'm serious like I I I I don't mean to be factious at all um so in terms of you know uh summer jobs and yearround jobs and I just want to know like school school time and summertime last year how many jobs were we able how many youth did we employee school time are you asking how many specific jobs were funded by the city uh tell me the difference y so last summer so summer 2023 there's two key numbers that we look at there's the jobs that are directly funded by the city through the success link program that number last year was about 5,500 jobs one second sorry so success link school time sorry I'm still in summer so far and then I can tell you I I wanted school time first but okay summer got so summer scratch that summer how many jobs about 5,500 jobs 5,500 jobs and then success length school time 1,500 thank you and then um the ecosystem and private school time, 1500 and then tell me about the other source sorry said that again the the source of Revenue the one that pays for the other jobs oh yeah so so in the summer uh the total number of jobs that we're able to account for is uh 9,300 a little bit above that the total number does that include the 5,500 correct okay so thank you um so not so just what is it is it just 3500 uh yeah right we can do some quick math but yeah outp paid paid from the other source what is that what is that other source correct that we raise money for separately than the city budget external correct thank you so much um so external funds and then what about school time so during the school time, 1500 jobs are uh funded by success link and then as I was mentioning before we haven't been tracking yet um the full number of jobs that get provided by other funds so 3,500 jobs um but you don't know of that which one is summer which one is school time sorry school year success link is500 jobs yes right yep so sorry what what is your question do this again so success link summer jobs 5,500 correct success link School time, 1500 jobs correct all year round you said 9,000 we deducted that it's external funded by external funds s so um 9,000 is the total number for the summer not for year rounds okay so 9,000 is your total number for this summer so then that's why I asked you what about school time funded by external funds we don't have we don't have that number what yes we will have it this year understood all right so then you have these jobs can you tell me how many youth in Boston yes the estimates uh so the census actually doesn't uh break it down exactly by the youth ages that we serve working like teenagers 13 to 24 so 15 to 19 it's 48,000 youth in Boston and 20 to 24 it's 65,000 youth sorry 20 to 24 65,000 youth thank you now okay then you told you're saying that you have capacity you can do this if we give you $37 million more you've built infrastructure to handle it we have the most competitive efficient not perfect model to absorb scalability in a quality way in the state of Massachusetts the state even gives us leftover funds when other regions don't spend it quick enough because we have built that capacity to absorb very quickly on a scalable level without compromising the Integrity of the quality and service of employment do we know the number numbers of the sorry um I'm going to say it's about 100 13,000 of the 113,000 youth in Boston do we know uh income bracket of lower socio economic class I don't have that data here but I'm sure that's something we can follow up what say of that is 30% and you did 30% of that that's about 35 ,000 youth in Boston I would argue that there's more you would argue that there's more yes I would arue more and then so the need is there like to get to the point right the need is there we're not reaching Capa like you have capacity you have so much Capac you're so good at what you do and I believe that Trend remember two years ago when I said I I like you a lot you're so good at what you do and I don't mean that like to patronize you I really mean that um and Rashad you like you know what I feel like I think you you're phenomenal but here you are building this department and this cabinet and you you have it to the point where it's like bring it over to the city let's bring this money over from bpda let's let's fix it and so we're doing good we're going up if we made amendments you can handle it so is it a matter of choice I mean we're talking about social determins of Health we're talking about black boys quit uh High School quicker we're talk about black boys die sooner we're talk about black people die about 22 years sooner than their white counterparts we're talking about socioeconomic like Injustice and here we are as a city one of the most if not the richest cities in the freaking country right arguably maybe the world because considerably if we are the best country um then what are we doing is this a choice do we not do we now want to invest when you say I can handle 37 more million is it a choice then why did you recommend only the amount that you recommended to OBM was that your recommendation was that OBM saying no we're only going to give you this amount of money don't answer that all right thank you Council Anderson thank you so much um Council Flynn the floor is yours so sad thank you thank you Mr chair amazing work it's good to see all of you and thank you for the important work you're doing I followed the numbers very closely for summer jobs so the total number of summer jobs um last year was 9,000 do you have an idea of how many people were looking for jobs that weren't able to get jobs yes we had uh across the entire ecosystem so not just through success link applications across the entire city there were about 12,000 applicants for youth jobs okay and we were able to fulfill a little bit over 9,000 of those so we had about 3,000 that were not able to get a summer job that's correct okay I want I I would also argue that there are other young people that we did not see that was that were not able to even go into the portal because they didn't know how so immigrant all the barriers immigrant youth parents working two or three jobs can't those are the young people who we worry about most that are not in the system because you've seen the total number we're not we yes we see 12,000 coming into the portal we couldn't provide all summer jobs for them but we worry and I worry about the young people who don't we who we don't see and who who are not involved in the portal thank you if we if we were able to hire have had hired those 3,000 people how much would that have cost us cost the city if we're able to hire those 3,000 extra workers we would have to come back with the numbers um we we wouldn't I wouldn't know how to give you the quick number right now but I can follow up with that um also with the 3,000 youth other partners and hiring managers need capacity to so it's not just the number of Youth um so we can come back to you with that number and Council Flynn I think it's also um really important to note that um there are also young people working in jobs outside of the city summer jobs program um so there's an effort underway um under Allen's leadership to really focus on tracking indirect jobs as well so those are young people that are working um you know whether it's retail small business um other places across the community that we can track and we can count um their engagement um in a Works Space so I think that's important to know as well no thank you that's helpful I I guess my final point or my main point is May maybe I won't to ask about numbers but what is the what is the figure that you you are requesting that can that we could help advocate for a realistic figure that we could help advocate for for anyone that wants to work this summer Andor anyone that wants to work those 10 months as well or or yeah 10 months as well throughout the year so is there a is there a current figure you think that would be best that's realistic that we could advocate for I don't know what that figure is I was trying to figure it out a little bit but what is that figure that we're able to hire people that want to work I I just don't want to I just don't want to go back and say let's take $40 million in the police department and put it into summer jobs that's not realistic I I want to know what the figure would be that the city could give to you so everybody could be hired that's what I want to do anyone that wants to get hired give them an opportunity to work but what is that extra figure that we should advocate for we would have to get back to you on on that okay thank you I mean we we are very supportive of Mayor Wu and the administration for all the work that they've supported um with us so um we would have to get back to no I I I understand I my main my main concern is we go through the budget process and we we do the listening session and young people are coming in here and I'm glad they are coming in coming in here and the asking us to um advocate for $40 million for $30 million um but I I don't know I don't think that's the right figure I don't know what the right figure is but for the for young people to advocate for $40 million um and take it away from a particular department for summer jobs and then say well we don't need $40 million we need $8 million we need $10 million you know we we're better off telling the young people you know it's not $40 million that would we want to cut it might be $10 million that that might have to be cut from a particular Department I just want to be realistic when I speak to young people or when they speak to us I should say that let's provide everybody with accurate data and information so that they can effectively Lobby City councils or city Administration but but to say that you know we're going to the city council is going to uh take $40 million million away from the police department it's just it's just unrealistic and we're we're not being we're not being honest uh when we listen to the conversations and just um well than thank you thank you for the work you're doing thank you Mr chairman thank you um I'll try to be quick um how much do we pay our young people per hour I mean if we know that we know what 3,000 times right yes although just to caveat that we also have administrative fees that goes with um youth jobs and and some site cost but young people uh age 14 to 18 get paid $15 an hour and then what is that total for the summer the total amount that of which one person like how much would one person one young person make for the summer oh yeah gotcha um I can get that number for you it's a little bit uh it's around I believe $3,000 but I can get the exact number for you we have those in our uh Grant agreements right it say let's just say it's 3,000 right 3,000 times 3,000 it's $9 million right so that that's what we're missing in the gap before for summer jobs and then but then we're not factoring the people on the sideline but that's just for getting the people who have applied um when we talk about school jobs how many people have applied that are not getting the jobs what was what was the application for this year round jobs how many slots did they want it uh for the upcoming school year y let me get that for you and then what while we're doing that I mean young people do more than I mean some people play sports like do we know what our young people are just doing overall like do we track that um during the school year I worked but then there were some years I went to you know summer camp or tutoring like do we do we have that information on our young people like what they're doing throughout the school year and the summer if they're not working we don't have that very clearly we're trying to work on that um that's one of places where there's good areas for my department and Pedro Cruz's Department to to partner because they have some visibility and they Orient the youth to those different resources and programs as well um and to answer your previous question for the um upcoming school year we got uh about 5,000 requests for jobs 5,000 and how how how many so so there's so it's so if if you look at 5,000 as a demand and then let's say we if we're lucky this this summer this school year we have 15 so so we're missing 3500 correct so that's how you would back out the numbers now and then do we how much does the young person get paid for the school year yeah it adds up to a little bit more once again I can send you those uh exact numbers because it's more weeks it adds up a little bit more but they work Less hours during the week usually so maybe 3500 for for the school year school year 3500 $4,000 so um I would say 4,000 times 3500 and that would be the school year to fill that Gap if if you wanted to do those numbers right so that's an 14 million right 14 million 14 million what I what did I say the last time 9 million the other million million or n million so that's 23 million then my last question is you have to count the rest of the time remaining for kids to sign up as well as the kids that don't have access that need it yeah but we're just going to be looking at what the demand is I mean we can't count what we don't know right correct yeah um and then my other question is how much funding or like our external Partners do we like on like how much do they usually typically kick it like is it 25% is it 30 like what's the ratio so what what uh what was the private what was the total private investments from in the ecosystem and what was the number yep in fiscal year uh 2024 last summer it was about $110 million and how and what was the number of jobs that they provided yes in that 10 million uh so it's that difference between 5,500 and 9,000 so um 3,500 3500 yeah and they provided about10 million 10 million okay those are the funds that we either raise or raise with our partners to fund those youth agencies directly it doesn't have to go through us but we work with them to say fund Denise's agency at a 100 youth slots and they send the check over to them we don't we count those numbers within our larger pool but it doesn't have to go through our office so we could back out $10 million from what I just added up all right all right thank you um anyone else have I do yep ccil me here thank you chair um so I I I absolutely so much appreciate you Tren and and Mr cope I have enjoyed working with you all in the last four years and our partnership and everywhere that I go um I see you out in these streets committed to the work and that speaks volumes to your commitment to people of color in particular because we you see us and you affirm us and I appreciate you for that um and I I'm also really excited to learn a little bit more about the line item that I established um one of my first big wins on the council was a line item for youth jobs for 19 to 24 year olds these are non-traditional young people um who really need strong pathway careers and I'm just curious if you could talk to us a little bit about some updates in terms of what that work has looked like um and and some Investments and then I'm just a little bit confused because I haven't heard much from Mr cope and I've heard a lot from the yeah so what who like you know congratulate like like who what's the hierarchy here because I'm just I'm just curious about the leadership and I'm very just like i' like to hear from I I apologize I I apologize we didn't go through the organizational structure in a timely manner because we were trying to rush things through but but for the record can you tell me yes um but let me just tell you that 19 to 24 we have an answer for you but our director Katie Gul she had to go because she had a child care issue her son needed to to leave um so she'll answer that question for you um I have I am the um chief of the cabinet and within the cabinet we have three major departments yo owd and labor compliance which you've heard last uh last week and then we are lucky to have two Deputy Chiefs that report directly to me so it's uh Rashad hope is Deputy Chief he oversees all three departments not just Yeo and also uh jod uh sugerman brosen is another deputy chief who sees mainly um partly owd but mainly labor compliance so she focuses on that but Rashad and I do the whole cabinet and um he in order for for Rashad to focus on all three cabinets we have to release his responsibility on the Yeo and hire somebody else to actually do that work so he him and I can do all the other stuff with three cabinets so yeah and so just to introduce myself my name is Alison Verner I started the city about six months ago and so I'm the executive director of The Office of Youth Employment and opportunity so I'm following in Rashad's footsteps and and all the great do you're the new Mr C you can say that although he's still very much here uh and I'm very thankful for that but yes I oversee the office of Youth Employment as of December 2023 okay congratulations um so let's talk a little bit about um I'm just curious about the from what I've heard uh some of the reasons why um you were unable to onboard young people was because there was some computer system that was different for nonprofit organizations that you were unable to onboard on board them has that been resolved yeah could Mr cope speak like thank you Council here I would say that um there have been some major improvements um to the youth jobs process this year um Alison and I'm briefly alluded to our new Future boss um web page um we'll make sure that we share um that information with you all um but it does allow young people to navigate jobs across the entire ecosystem um you know in a much easier way um and then the expectation is that that also leads to an easier hiring and onboarding process um for young people as well um so a lot of work has gone in um you know to revamping um the process um the we want to thank the mayor's office um just for their commitment and their investment and working alongside our staff and our cabinet um to help make some of those improvements thank you thank you um and I I I really do appreciate councelor Anderson's uh breakdown and really helping us ground ourselves in in the reality about what it looks like to meet the moment and Tren haven't worked with you I know that you can meet the moment and you have the capacity to do that um and so I would love to figure out to counselor Flynn's point is really having a really deep understanding of what the Gap is so that when we are advocating for resources that we know exactly what we can and cannot do what we need to do and then as we continue to navigate these conversations having those difficult conversations about where do we pull from because that's what I think is the biggest moment of you know the biggest point of contention for the council but at the end of the day I don't want to set you guys up for failure right and we have to have these conversations in ways that if we say we're going to allocate you know an additional 3,000 year round jobs we were going to want to hear from you who are the employers that you have already lined up what type of quality jobs young people are going to have because I don't think that just working in certain spaces and places you can just check off the box and say that that we've met we've met the moment right so and I am going to end with this I while I appreciate exam schools I I think that a lot of our young people and somebody I forget who it was that made this point but young people who have access to um privilege and information are the ones who are applying for jobs and then what happens come June and July when there aren't any more jobs left right it's the kids who are most vulnerable who get left out of these conversations so Allison is that your name yes Allison to you my charge and I'm going to ask for you to kind of give me a specific plan for what you're going to do to ensure that immigrant you know young people who English is limited um dreamers young people who are even undocumented um I I'd love to hear your plan for outreach and engagement for our most vulnerable young people and making sure that's how I'm going to measure your success is seeing those numbers increase of like how do we get these harder to reach young people into those jobs that is that how are you going to do that yeah I'm happy to continue the conversation if you want us to go deeper at some point uh I think a couple examples I can give you the main one is the um increase investment we're making in our partnership with the mayor's office of immigrant advancement so we have increased the funding allocation to that uh to that group of Youth that we support by a little bit over 50% from from past year so um that's one of the ways that that I can share with you here um that we're doing um and then as I said we've expended uh our Outreach efforts we uh this year for the first time are doing a neighborhood Fair specifically in Chinatown for example where we know there is a population of Youth that maybe we haven't reached as much in the past um and we have a couple more like those uh in the works um so those are a couple examples but we definitely have have a lot of of different initiatives um another one that that's a pretty major one is that we uh in partnership with Northeast work uh to do some allocations of Youth into City agency jobs so that we are making sure that um there's no bias in the way that youth get selected uh that's of course if they've applied at that point so that's why we're also trying to do the Upstream engagement better um but that's one of the other things we do uh we definitely have a long way to go and a lot of you to reach uh but those are just a couple examples y i I think you're your point is a really good one for us and it's it's a task so what what we're going to do is kind of map out um the percentage of young out of that 9,000 where do those young people live and then so one we can report back like where are those we we know where they are so we'll map that out for you number one and number two what we can do is see to the best of our ability to see the ethnic and gender breakdown of that 9,4 400 uh youth last year and then then the third map we should present to you is where are these communitybased Partners within the city of Boston as entry points for young people to go and apply and work and so we can start mapping that out and once we map that out we'll we'll have a better understanding of where the gaps are so we can put our focus in those Gap areas so maybe we can do more translations there bilingual uh job fairs in that specific neighborhood at a certain time that can get parents and young people out that will work for them so unless we see that Gap and map those areas out we can then strategize where that Gap is and present that back to you um maybe you know late summer or the fall and for the record that's why you're you're the chief so everybody knows I I am a public worker thank you Council May here uh Council FZ Anderson the floor is yours that's thank you um uh thank you Mr chair um I'm sorry that I'm doing a speedy thing here because I know like we have press for time so um I just I have some questions and if you don't have the answers um submitting them on record uh officially through the chair that we get these responses um and so like we we heard it today but I've been hearing also that organizations had um their slots cut out um cut and um can hire more young people than success link will allow um and then obviously like why is this why is this happening the cap that we heard today I've I've heard it before is there a limit to how many people PE uh programs can hire through success link well yeah there there's a there's a cap on the slot like that's how we got the demand so there were 8,500 um slots that were requested and we can only fund about 6 6500 this is a funding issue so you're Distributing through across programs got it um and then can you give us a list um hopefully by next Thursday of all the organizations that applied and of slots absolutely um for slots and um I guess how many you know with how many 14 to 18 year old and 19 to 24 year old slots um they applied for how many slots uh they got and how many slots they got last year I can submit this in writing as well um and will you restore any cuts um to organizations that had uh their jobs cut we would have to take a look at the analysis I mean what what we want to do is make sure that there's no over allocations to to a certain neighborhood and not to one so we can work that through with you in a working session perhaps but that's not equable because based on your ratioing correct of who's impacted you have to go equitably to the places where the majority of need is um okay no problem um also there's a director cop I I think last year we had a conversation about I mean it was public hearing um looking at the range of pay rates um so that organizations could pay for 14 to 18 year olds and um 19 to 24 year olds more um as they gained experience it took more responsibility I heard this from you um what conversations have happened around this and have are we any closer to implementing it I would say that we have made some strides in that direction um we were able to raise the pay raate um for 19 to 24 year olds um from $18 an hour to $20 an hour um so I think that was a First Step um and then we will continue to have conversations around ways in which we can do that for our younger population as well um no thank you so much that's awesome um also uh I guess you don't have to answer today but after conversations if you would consider um raising um based on what the youth were saying today 14 to 18 paying them between $8 and $20 an hour and then 19 to 24 olds paying them 22 to2 for raising them again um and again I think pending conversations it's a fair request um thank you and then in the past um many youth have shared success link didn't pay them on time have we fixed these kinks in the uh system how are we doing we paying youth on time yeah that's uh one of the things we've been working on uh what um Rashad was referring to about us bringing everything into the ecosystem uh closer into our our future boss platform so we can get better visibility earlier into the youth and then we can get them through that onboarding process faster um we've also made some improvements into the setup in our office to make sure we also have really Hands-On support for youth who want to come in um so we have additional space in the Tobin where we're located for youth Welcome Center so where we can help you from kind of start to finish on that onboarding process that's what's created in the past delays in pay is youth not being on the Peril so but there's two system in which we're um building the back end one is with the city uh young people working for the city and that's that's that's the number that's different from the the partners and so we have made a conscious decision to make grants directly to the partners so that they can pay and do payroll verification with them separately because the city is working on absorbing a larger amount of young people but that's the city's separate and the nonprofit system is separate so we're building backends separately parallel so we can absorb the scalability thank you um just final comment because I sorry I know you gave me five minutes um so uh it sounds like you know in terms of like sustaining or absorbing scalability you need to tap more into your philanthropic sources and figure out how you can build that um I I think that sounds really good um but you spent more than you requested so you actually went over so when when we made the Amendments and we increased it you actually went way over you spent more I looked at the numbers and um but then you requested 3 million less than what you spent so actually the need is there and you keep spending more because the need is there the demand is there um but you're not getting enough money and you're also well technically we're only seeing what's approved to not what you actually requested um because still I keep asking if the process of you requesting to OBM the amount that you need is transparent if it's in writing where is it last year we heard from OBM that it wasn't but I know that it is we can foyo it but we don't want to do that we just want to have transparent conversation this is not on you um but also like there were inflated budgets in different departments where you knew knew that they weren't going to build $8 million of capacity this is not your department but they then this year when they came back example streets cabinet came back and I was arguing it and then you saw the haral and all these crazy papers put out like you know G Anderson doesn't know what she's doing and I was like Hey assuming smooth spending you have like $8 million extra what are you going to do with this do you know what they told me this year that when the money doesn't get spent it goes back up to OBM and it's to the discretion of OBM and the mayor obviously to decide what happens to it you know what the argument is is that if the money is above smooth spending and way bigger than what they can build capacity for say like $10 million Can you hire $10 million of people in one fiscal year in Personnel line item no so I was saying let's put it in contractual line item and figure out and that that way they are forced to come back to the the the council to tell us what they're going to spend it on on instead when it doesn't get spent when it's in Personnel the Administration has the power to move it to move that money that extra money into OBM and do whatever the heck they want or into other departments and that's what's happening here is that certain departments have too much money or hiding money as I said like you know like the mama bear that puts the money under her pillow and then guess what other departments like yours that could handle it that is obviously needing it it that people are advocating for that we want to and today a simple math cherel proved $23 million easily you could use that extra in addition to what you're requested so I thank you for your diplomacy your professionalism and your Brilliance and I I'm going to continue to advocate for this this is extremely important I worked with uh children behavioral health for 11 years I was a foster parent to 11 to 17 kids I work to DCF my concentration is Youth Development like this is super super important I understand this issue deeply um and I was a teenager who at 13 undocumented worked saved money and got my brother and sister out of West Africa by the time I was 15 so I deeply understand what these kids are going through and it's just so sad that we keep talking about how our kids are dying and we we then sit here and have to compromise what where are we going to get the Mone from where we know that we as a wealthy City can do it thank you Council Anderson thank you so much Council Flyn the floor is yours thank you Mr chair and again thank you to um the administration team that is here I have one question um I don't necessarily need it answered now if you want to follow up with me but I'd like to ask what the Outreach you are doing to and again I think councilor Santana mentioned it but what are the out what is the Outreach you are doing for summer employment in the public housing developments I represent a lot of residents in public housing but could I get an update maybe tomorrow on that issue um that's one question that I had I know you mentioned the um you mentioned the Chinatown Community as well there's there's a group called yes in Chinatown I know I know you know what W um maybe we can do a little bit of Outreach there I was over the Boston International High School on Monday of this week and I was just talking to students and they were asking me about summer employment programs I told them um you know I'd pass along that information to the appropriate City officials um I don't have any further questions I don't have any further comments other than to say thank you for the important work you are doing under under difficult um circumstances and also want to say thank you to um the chief the chair of the um Ways and Means Committee thank you Brian thank you um I just have a maybe one or two questions and thank you to Central staff um I know y'all want to go home yeah I'm G get him I'm GNA get him out of here I know um I know I know we've been talking a lot about youth jobs um I want to know what do we what are our investments in college readiness programs um I'm I'm a product of a college readiness program B for Academy I I live by it I swear by it um you know it was College um exposure over the summer um it was you know Fe free field trips it was free SAT prep um during the school year it was tutoring two days a week um that I went to so what what have what are our investments to college readiness programs knowing that our our youth can have options right I think there's a world that we could you know have summer jobs and have college readiness programs so can you talk to me about any investments in college readiness programs yeah we have to do more on in that front um I think I'm going to defer to the Boston public schools that have early enrollment dual enrollment and early college because there's about 6 to 12 programs within the schools so I I I can get that info um for you um so we have been our investments are in two areas um one is tuition free community college so um young people who choose to do dual enrollment Early College in that area that chooses any of the six uh tfcc schools we pay for it for three years free uh computers um food gift cards whatever we pay for for that the second piece is that we did a pilot with uh Bunker Hill Community College on early college prep and um the students who were in there from the school from Boston Public Schools we pay for their stiens to study so we incentivize them by saying if you enroll and if you reenroll and you actually move towards postsecondary education we will pay you a stip in so um we're still evaluating that program and that's a pilot program for about 300 young people all right and then we have to do more we just don't have the funs but we have sounds like we need to definitely scale that up yes um and yeah that's my last question guys um I want to thank everyone for being here big shout out to igr today Denise I appreciate you thank you thank you thank you um thank you to the administration uh thank you to Central staff thank you to my colleagues um and thank you for everyone who stayed and came to testify um the hearing on darkest number 0670 through 0678 is adjourned [Music]