 attended everyone that's so nice and I lean I don't know if you've ever subtracted out and see what number the first one I've never looked at my first number well we'll go there someday but right now we'll just let we'll remind Gail of 362 plus all the agenda setting one so we'll call to order with a roll call Commissioner Cameron good morning I am here Commissioner Brian I am here Commissioner Hill present we're all set then and as I said public meeting number 362 we don't have minutes this morning but we will start with the administrative update again good morning Karen morning Madam Chair members of the Commission to start off we're going to do the on-site casino updates and we have assistant director Bruce Band ready to tell you what's going on in the casinos morning Madam Chair commissioners it's kind of a light update I will start with MGM last Friday they had their holiday tree lighting and their official opening of their ice rink in attendance for Santa the Patriots at and the Patriots cheerleaders they also announced that on 12 13 MGM will fully open their hotel and this will include all fours and they will be open 24 7 hotel on core art is slated to open up the new VIP lounge 23 but it as of right now it will be without spots as this manufacturer has been able unable to deliver them because of supply shortage at this time they will put the slots in that area as soon as they are able to receive nothing new to report from plain rich park and that is the short version of the report yeah any questions please ask commissioners any questions for Bruce this morning Christian Hill you're all set I see okay excellent well thank you Bruce you're welcome okay so the next item on the administrative update is the hybrid work model and office reopening update as you're aware we implemented a pilot program through the end of the year for this hybrid remote working option for staff my recommendation is that the commission address what it wants to do on an sort of an ongoing basis starting in January at the next meeting on the 16th you know just recognizing staff be helpful you have some certainty and on the 16th that would give us some time before the start of the year it would also be helpful at that time for the commission to discuss as a body how it wants to conduct public meetings going forward I wanted to give you an update on extreme equipment staff did solicit bids for purchasing that equipment since the old equipment was no longer functional those bidders did come in and meet with team members on-site at the MGC offices to get a look at the layout of the public meeting room and see what the needs were for the commission and what the equipment is we've already received two of the bids and we may get another one as well and the plan is to meet next week to review the bids so that we can order equipment we did ask the bidders to give us information give us a response which included a setup which allowed for our former setup in the room with the horseshoe table and the cameras and getting a view of all the commissioners but also allow for a monitor so that the commission could view any potential remote participants what we're trying to get for the for the setup is that it would feel like you've done before with the in-person commission meeting but allow for example the MGM did want to you know have to travel for the entire day for a 15-20 minute presentation there would be the option to remote for remote participation but to limit the screen time for commissioners who'd want to engage with each other and have a robust meeting so that's where we are on that the estimation that the bidders gave to staff members that once ordered it could be I think it was there's six to 12 or six to 10 weeks for the equipment but given supply chain issues they our team is cautious that nothing is guaranteed so we can further test options for a hybrid meeting setup if we want to do that with camera equipment that we have or some other things that we have purchased we can continue to do that we can the commission can determine if it wants to do interim hybrid meetings until the commission gets this live stream permanent equipment setup so I think what the ask is so from my end of the staff and is you know let us know what you'd like to do for testing we're available you know we have another setup downstairs to use the owl if we had we wanted to do a hybrid meeting it can work it's not as good as the the equipment would be purchasing but it is an option and it would allow for in-person interaction among the commissioners but I'll leave it to the commission to determine if they want to run their meeting with just presenting that as an option the expectation on the staff level is that MGC participants so our team members here they those that are participating the meeting would be on site so that would be in in person at the meeting and the other issue I just want to make sure to flag for the commission is the duration of the time that our meetings would only be accessible virtually to the public you may want to consider when you about when you're discussing what you want to do for the meeting setup whether or not the public is is going to be allowed in the building and participate but just wanted to flag that for you when you make your decision so that's sort of where we are with the equipment could we just pause there on the equipment commissioners do you have questions for Karen on that Madam Chair I was in Commissioner O'Brien as well we had an in-depth conversation about this at a working group meeting so I know I'm fully updated on on the equipment options and what what makes sense so I don't have questions what do you what did you hear that Karen didn't just say um well they haven't had a chance to really review bids till next week so that'll be interesting but I think what's important is some testing is what I heard and Karen did mention that so that that can help them refine the bids you know the in-person testing would help so that I didn't quite realize when we were talking about equipment to be purchased that some more testing could be helpful with making that final decision it's not unusual with a bid to do demonstrations so to the extent that that's in the offer I don't know if it means off-site because they may not want to bring the equipment in unless it's easily transportable yeah I'll have to check on that because when I was talking about testing that was for interim options so testing the out you know setting up the room we are getting a new camera for the McHugh conference room so that conference room you could potentially use if you wanted to do public meeting where the public was not invited in person but participated virtually that's another option so we may be also testing some of the other options for the interim but I do think it's a good idea for us to look at what kind of information we can get back from the bidders on the equipment and what what the needs are other questions for Karen commissioner hill you're also so I guess my my question Karen you and I've had a little bit of conversations about this can the commissioners participate somehow because it is our meetings and ones that we have to manage yeah and that I think is my my preference because the uh the commissioners have the are the ones that are actually doing the meeting and it really has to work for you so um we can do um you know if you're mindful of the open meeting law but I'm happy to give out to all the commissioners the bid information and get any feedback on the bid information I think the most important we could make it a public thing we could just oh that's true yeah we could you know if we could just sit in there and we could notice it as public and if the public wants to watch us test yeah I think that's what we did last time you know right so I don't know if you remember is that what we did last time yeah you had set up a just a notice that it was public but that it was for testing purposes so we don't have anyone joining yeah thank you so there'll be the I think the we have the written response is like what the equipment is what's tricky is that um we do um you know uh unfortunately you know we have we've been fortunate enough to have to have Austin we do have another digital coordinator in that set of and I'll let Austin share his good news uh you know later time we'll deal with that but um you know we do need sort of the staff that's going to run this to um to be engaged in the process and have the that the folks that have the expertise on the equipment so for example if we get a bid and it's talking about like this certain camera I wouldn't be able to advise you on you know is that a good camera or what you know how strong is this company are they likely to be in business two years from now when we might need some maintenance things like that so we'll have to get some subject matter expertise for you as the commissioners uh in briefing you we can do silent briefings on you know our evaluations of the uh of the bids or we can you know do two by twos and you know go through the pluses and minuses for each bid before you know you may have a public meeting discussion on that but uh a hundred percent agree with Kathy is that we really want this to be what you want and how you want your meetings to feel and how this is going to be run because it is the the core function of the commission is to these public meetings so we want to make sure that it's what you want. Commissioner Hill? So I would just uh make sure and I know you've already spoke to this as well as the other commissioners uh we really do need to test whatever we think we're going to be purchasing okay last week as you know we we did a little testing with the owl yeah down in the um conference room and although it was workable I would not have said it was ideal right and I want to make sure that whatever we do moving forward it's going to be ideal for all the commissioners uh because it's important uh that we do have that um access um but proving me wrong kind of last week was because we were able to test it right and I would hate to go and purchase all this um equipment and then it not be what we thought it was going to be so that's my red flag for the for this conversation. I want to see us back I I love in-person stuff that's just the way I am but again after what we saw last week I just don't know if it was going to be with the current um equipment was going to be as good as I had hoped and I think that the commissioner commission would hope that it would be. Yeah that makes sense especially given the you know the sizable investment we really want to make sure that's what you want absolutely. So we'll we'll stay tuned but the idea is that the commission commissioners will be involved in um you know I guess not formally part of a PMT procurement management team but somehow our input will be part of the overall evaluation. Correct. Okay that would be really helpful. Okay so um the couple of the other issues just to flag for you um you know we do uh we probably want to let staff know of the current dress code where we have let people dress a little more casually in jeans while the office is open in the hybrid model and not open to the public do you want to continue that I will say that I've gotten very positive response from the staff on that policy that we have in place now so I expect my recommendation would be to continue it but it's one of these things that's part of the culture of the agency and what do you want to see happen. The other issue that came up is the daily screening survey that we're having people fill out I think that my recollection Gail for my conversation with uh with Loretta after your uh the opening meeting was that while helpful you know the compliance is difficult to manage and it may have outlived its usefulness so I don't know if you want to comment on that people are trying but people will come to work and like oh I forgot to do it or you know so it's um it may be a little outdated at this point uh so I don't know Gail if you have any comments from the meeting or I do thank you I think and I think the most interesting thing I heard about that was from HR who advised that they actually think it's outlived its usefulness and at this point wasn't all that helpful so that was persuasive to me that maybe it's not necessary that briefing from HR so that may be something we can address at the meeting uh on the 16th or um I mean theoretically I guess decide not to do anymore now I'll defer to the commission on how you'd like to handle that process wise did did we approve that to begin with Karen that's what I'm trying to remember is it's a good point that may have been sort of an executive director initiative um so if the commission generally is comfortable with not doing anymore I may be able to just say that's not no longer required yeah my recollection is that the working group discussed it thought it was a good idea to implement with the you know coming back to work um that was talked about at a commission meeting but I don't believe there was any formal vote on that okay all right so I may just go ahead with that then if there's no objection okay so I think just I'd appreciate any feedback from you as the commission on what would be helpful for you for teeing up the meeting on the 16th on the uh you know the ongoing policy for the office on hybrid working and remote working um so my expectation is that I would put the current policy that we have in the packet I can send it to you in advance um probably you can send that today so you have a chance to review it before the meeting on the 16th and just you know make notes of any questions or any uh or any any particular issues you think would be helpful to discuss um but I just wanted to ask the commission if there's anything I can do to help with that agenda item staff together for you anything like that let me know and I can do that for you I think um from my perspective I see the working group return to work working group in the very same way that I saw the COVID working group I named uh commission on bringing you and I were on that and we made regular well you know updates to through you Karen and Loretta to the the commission and some either recommendations or direct ask so maybe next week if you've already I guess you had a meeting yesterday I don't know if you would have another meeting if it's necessary but to come and you know you've had the the folks at the table thinking about this if you could come and explain your thoughts if there's recommendations and then I guess the where the commission either needs to establish at least um kind of a consensus or actually take formal action right um commissioner Cameron I see you nodding your head but what do you how do you want to give input on this well I know it's been really beneficial to be part of the working group because you get to ask questions have you thought of this what about that and and it really was a very productive dialogue about you know from directors of what's happening with their teams so I don't know if if that would be helpful to the two commissioners or not on the working group to maybe have a two by two to have that same information before the discussion on the 16 um or if you're more comfortable just waiting for the 16th and having a briefing from uh from the executive director about the work of the working group either way I think would be would work I'm comfortable with the latter then we don't worry about any kind of you know sort of serial discussions or whatever um and and the whole group will hear all the team will hear the questions too and and here and and buy in I think the work has been going on and and we've heard quite a bit of the policies but the actual pilot ends the end of December yep end of December so I think yeah maybe if there's a recommendation going forward um or at least some you know of the thoughts or the the pros and cons I always sort of say the pluses and the minuses for what we want to do in the future now as a response the working group did have recommendations as of yesterday's meeting to bring forth to the commission but certainly it's always up to the commission to to make those decisions so that seems to make sense I'll basically would convene the working group but instead of commissioners Cameron or Brian I'd have commissioners Bill and Judd Stein at the at the meeting I can do that I don't um do you want so Brad do you if we I mean a two by two is always possible but I don't know if it takes the place of a rigorous public discussion among the four of us because then okay so just leave it on for the for the 16th don't have a sort of a pre-meeting with uh commissioners Hill and Chair is that what you're saying yeah Brad are you Brad just comfortable with that yeah yeah and then when the four of us can talk among ourselves you know it's a public discussion but you know different than what we would do okay so uh aside from circulating the uh policy that's currently in place the pilot policy any other um information that any of the commissioners would need from me okay I know that you're yeah just in terms of um public health um issues of course yeah it's not as though we have this um pandemic behind us so anything that's relevant to that yeah going forward on practices right yeah so all right so that's where we are thank you so that's where we are on that uh let me know if if you need anything else but otherwise you know people seem well and um you know I'm excited to see the new camera for the CUBE conference room because that's a different kind of camera I'm all set all right well thank you any any other questions for uh Karen Commissioner Brian Commissioner Hill you're all set all right well Karen thank you um uh of course my um computer just went dark right now I do know what our next item is and I'm very excited about it so first I want to greet Ben Hires good morning Ben so nice to see you um we're very excited uh for our single item that I don't think that's ever happened um since I've done board but maybe my memory is off very excited to have your presentation today and I'll have um Director Vanderlinden do a proper introduction good morning good morning Madam Chair good morning commissioners um I think you're right Chair Juddstein I don't remember remember this but it's a fitting issue to to make sure that we give it enough space um and time so that we can really dive into it um actually this morning I'm going to um turn it over to Marie Claire to kind of kick this item off and introduce our presenters but um likewise I welcome um and hello to to our presenters today and I I too am looking forward to the presentation and discussion Marie Claire great thank you Mark uh good morning Madam Chair commissioners today's presentation is entitled living here feeling so isolated and far from home unpacking the root causes of problem gambling in the Asian community um this study is part of our community engaged research projects and this category of research is intended to advance knowledge regarding casino impacts on population subgroups that are not reached by the general population surveys the focus of this work is on uh communities considered to be at greater risk of experiencing gambling related harm since this is a report for the community by the community the Asian care team had an in-person launch event of the report to the community back in October uh Chair Juddstein and Commissioner Keele were able to attend and so this particular study unpacks some of the root causes of problem gambling in the Asian community and the research was motivated to fill in the gap of understanding how problem gambling manifests in the Asian community and also to understand whether existing program services and interventions are adequately serving this community so the findings of this research are important to inform prevention and early intervention effort to support the Asian community and to avoid gambling harm at the personal family and community level in the meeting package you'll find the full report and the research snapshot summarizing the report and we have with us today to present on this study Ben Hires executive director of Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center Yoyo Yao who's a chief program officer at Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center and who's also part of the G-PAC gaming policy advisory committee addiction sub-committees and Dr. Hong Leong Rubin who's an Asian CARES principal investigator and community engagement consultant and I believe we may have some additional presenters as well that I might let Ben introduce but over to you Ben. Thank you Mary Claire good morning everyone. Happy Hanukkah and happy December everyone it's incredible that we are staring at 2022 and hoping that it will be a better year for all. Thank you Mark thank you Mary Claire thank you Madam Chair and fellow commissioners and as Marie Claire mentioned we we did have a really successful community launch of the report at first Parish Maldon on October 27th and I want to thank Chair Judge Stein and Commissioner Hill Mark and Marie Claire for joining us we had almost 50 people attend it was I think the day after the big nor'easter that a lot of people lost electricity so it was amazing that elected officials community members people representing public health and hospitals and researchers and others who care about this topic came out in person for this so we are pleased to be able to to share this so again my name is Ben Hyers and I have the privilege of being the the leader of BCNC or Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center. Today I also have the privilege of representing Asian CARES which stands for the Center for Addressing Research Education and Services and we're proud to have been able to do this report thanks to the Mass Gaming Commission. Now Asian CARES is a coalition of ethnic community-based organizations including BCNC, Asian Task Force Against Domestic Violence, the Vietnamese American Initiative for Development, and the Cambodian Mutual Assistance Association of Greater Lowell. I also want to thank our lead research team of Dr. Heng Leung Rubin, research manager Mia Colby and Tuft School of Medicine researcher Dr. Susan Koch Weiser. And our research builds off of and expands the work that Dr. Caroline Wong and Giles Lee my predecessor did in 2018 and 19 in a report titled talking about casino gambling community voices from Boston Chinatown which the commission also supported. Asian CARES is also grateful to Tuft's Clinical and Translational Science Institute and the Tuft School of Medicine for supporting our work as well as the Massachusetts Department of Public Health Office of Problem Gambling who together with the commission you all have made a commitment to listen and serve and provide resources to the Asian community and all communities at risk. I also want to recognize and thank our community research field workers and community members who work and live with the issue of problem gambling every single day and in a minute you'll have a chance to hear from Gina Kim who is an ATASC field worker who will get a chance to share her experience working with and interviewing families as part of this research who've been impacted by gambling. And the need for this research really came from the stories that we heard from our community members over many many years. It came from daughters and sons and wives and partners and it also came from staff like Gina who every day or on the front lines meeting the needs of our community the educational needs the employment needs the mental health and the linguistic and cultural needs of our families. And the report really looked at how these are the root causes to create the conditions for gambling to become an issue that leads to things like domestic violence financial ruin and families being torn apart. So I think you know also underlying this report is the idea that many times people who are struggling the most are least heard and thought about in solutions that they're never really asked what they need in order to get help because they may be deemed to be too hard to reach and they're overlooked. But our community research believes that the people who are closest to the problem are also closest to the solution. And so to quote George I who's a human-centered design thinker today we want to honor the people's reality create pathways for ownership and build collective power. And when I say collective power it was all the people who joined us in Malden and also all the all of you today in this virtual space. And I think you know one of the most challenging things about this work and in life in general sometimes is empathy and understanding. And so I think if there's one thing that you're able to take away from this report in our presentation it's an insight into how gambling intersects in unique ways with immigrant and working class Asians which I assume are shoes that many of us have not walked in or walked in before. So thanks again to the commission for the support and the opportunity to share this research today. And now I would like to introduce Gina Kim to tell a little bit about her experience. Thank you. Hi my name is Gina Kim. I'm a Korean Language Access Program Navigator at A-Test where I serve Asian domestic violence survivors especially providing lingual and cultural support. I was one of the community field workers who interviewed the participant for the Asian CARES project. One story I heard during the interviews was about how gambling caused devastation in the family. He and his wife started a family business together but the wife had to manage the business all by herself because he didn't work and took money whenever he had a chance. His business was the only income that supported the family. When he wasn't taking money from the business he was asking friends and family for money or selling their valuables. She tried to hide the money from his husband but it caused other consequences. If she would not give him money to gamble he would emotionally and verbally abuse the family. He often took his anger out on his children physically abusing them under the name of disability. The children prefer when their father was away from home and as they got older encouraged their mother to live in. His abuse didn't stop until they were others and their family divorced. At the casino he was treated like a king. It would give him free hotel rooms and free food. In the beginning she would go with him enjoying the experience until she realized he had a serious problem. Even when he stayed at home he sometimes got a call from the casino inviting him back offering special treatment and making him feel important. Eventually his gambling led the financial ruin of the family. When attempting to sell the house the wife found out that he had used the house as a collateral for his gambling. He was stuck with the debt and had to paid it off with help from her relatives. She felt ashamed and helpless. She wanted the therapy but there was none in her language. She wanted help but also didn't know who she could trust with the issue. It was so sensitive and private in her culture. Thank you Gina. So I think you know one of the things you may have heard in the story and in a minute Dr. Heng-Roo Min will explicate a little bit more through the research is that the issue problem gambling certainly with many of the people that we see is a family issue. You know it's not just an individual challenge and towards the end you know Gina talked a little bit about the difficulty that Asian community members have in terms of finding support and resources especially linguistic access to resources and in terms of Asian culture how they think about some of these challenges and whether or not they go out and get help. So thank you Gina for all the work that you're doing and now I'd like to introduce Dr. Heng-Roo Min who has worked a lot with BCNC and all of our community field workers. Dr. Rubin. Hi sorry I had to unmute myself. So good morning everybody. I'm Dr. Heng-Roo Min and we really Asian CARES really appreciates having this opportunity to come and present on this research that you know is really important to the community and we're you know really looking forward to having a robust discussion afterwards. So you know as Ben said you know we really believe that the narratives that our field workers collected you know help people maybe not from the community as he said you know really walk in the shoes of those who live with and struggle you know with this problem. You know the story you heard from Gina is really reflected across the 40 interviews collected by our 18 bilingual bicultural community research field workers who met with Cambodian, Chinese, Korean and Vietnamese people across the Boston region primarily representing Lowell, Dorchester and Chinatown. 93% of our interviewees were immigrants, 50% had a high school diploma or less, 66 identified as having a medium English proficiency or less and 52% worked in the service industry. You know this is a population that often does not get captured in large survey research. All interviewees had stories that drew from direct experiences of family members, friends, co-workers and neighbors who gambled. Like Gina, our field workers listened to stories of hardship, pain and suffering that play out as child neglect, spousal abuse, elder isolation, strange family relations, depression, financial stress and ruin and even death in our communities. When our Asian CARES directors first listened to our preliminary findings it prompted one of them to say problem gambling is the canary in the coal mine. Problem gambling sets light on many of the systemic issues that the Asian community has been struggling against for decades. How do some of our immigrant workers get stuck in a cycle of poverty, low wage work and gambling? You know if you talk to the Department of Public Health you know they will always tell us we know from research that you know poverty is one of the root causes of gambling. So some of what we heard from our participants is that you know working is hard gambling is a shortcut one person shared. More than only using gambling as a way to supplement wages, interviewers observed that some turn to gambling as a way to earn quick money and have relief from their current job so they can quote have freedom and money. Too often though this is a false hope that can lead to devastating financial ruin just as we heard from Gina's story. Another Chinese interviewer observed when you gamble everything will be gone clothes, house and then relationships and trust. Couples under financial distress from gambling find the very fabric of their family lives being unraveled. Many in the Chinese community are particularly concerned about our restaurant workers. One Chinese interviewer said some people working in restaurants have a very hard life here. They work 12 hours usually come back home very late at night such as at 11 p.m. and then they want to relax. This is year after year day after day. So I want you to just really listen to that quote and let that sit with you year after year day after day. 40% of our interviewers mentioned the word boredom as a potential reason for why people turn to gambling. But what does boredom mean for our immigrant communities? Like pieces of a puzzle these interviews reveal that boredom represents deep pain that some immigrants feel. One person said boredom is part of the life cycle of being an immigrant and another connected boredom to the challenge of quote integrating into American culture. Relegated to jobs in which they don't find meaning some turn to gambling as a way to relieve stress. One Cambodian interviewer noted people here work so hard and there's no place to have fun they can only go to the casino. You know think about this you know think about where you might go to relieve stress. For our immigrant communities one observed it's not easy to go to a bar and have a drink and find ways to entertain. Another Chinese interviewer said they are alone lonely unable to integrate into American society. This loneliness cultural and social isolation can be particularly hard for our elders who have lost traditional kinship networks and their working adult children struggle to find ways to help their parents feel a sense of pride self-worth and belonging. Difficult jobs no places to have fun no outlets for stress relief may lead some to suffer from chronic stress and depression. The cycle of gambling in which one is continuous continually losing and becoming more and more undead can lead to depression stress and even desperation. One Cambodian interviewer shed light on the saying depression when people are poor they tend to have no way of getting out of it. They try to find the easiest way which is gambling. Others in the Cambodian community believed gambling helped people to quote escape reality which a few felt was a way of coping with the genocide they fled in Cambodia. The cumulative stress that these stories narrate about poverty financial distress cultural and social isolation loneliness can be so overwhelming that it leads people down the road to domestic violence just as you heard in Gina's story. Over half of our interviewees saw domestic violence in families in which there was a spouse who gambled. What draws some to the casino? Building on Dr. Wong's work we learned that many go to casinos to gamble because it is easy to access particularly because of the casino buses. Once at the casino one doesn't need to speak English and they can just start gambling with just a few dollars. One Cambodian interviewer said the bus fares you to a place where you are treated like a king you don't have to think about real world problems. As part of our work we did a scan to understand the existing problem gambling treatment and services in Massachusetts which were specifically targeted towards the Asian community. The scan indicated that there are services available for problem gambling however these services are primarily offered in English or offered through translators or part of a system that requires navigation English. Many of our interviews revealed a lack of knowledge of or an ambivalence about existing services. What do these tapestry of interviews tell us about gambling in the Asian community? No one starts gambling with the intention of becoming an addict hurting their families or wanting to destabilize community life. People may start down the road towards problem gambling as a form of escapism to supplement wages as a way to relieve the stress loneliness and social and cultural isolation of being an immigrant or they get lured to the casinos. Many of our immigrants work in jobs where they may not earn enough or where they don't find a sense of pride dignity and meaning. Many don't find what we are calling spaces of belonging in this country. I found it very tragic that one person observed of a gambler they came to the United States for more than 20 years although they have children a family and house they still have no sense of belonging. One Chinese interview we said gambling is a shadow on the child. If you think about it gambling has been casting a shadow on our communities. When Gina talked about the shame that many in our communities experience where there's gambling addiction in our families it leads me to wonder where this is a learn shame that we as a community have internalized because we as a society do not talk enough about the systemic issues that have created this problem or made a concerted approach to address the root causes. Something that the Asian community fights against on so many different issues problem gambling you know behavioral health is often you know people use the culture argument and want to put it you know they just you know want to blame our community and I think what our report does as we've said you know really tries to shed light on the systemic root causes of the problem. So we believe that this report sheds light on this really intractable issue. At the same time it also really reveals where there is light coming in. We see the light that hope with our community-based organizations. We all know what a critical central and compassionate role these organizations play as a safety net as cultural brokers as a bridge as the first responders when any crisis the pandemic anti-Asian violence hits our communities. These organizations are the building blocks for strong and resilient communities and they help our immigrant communities navigate fragmented broken and confusing systems. One Asian Cares director once asked me why are we not seen and compensated as experts because of the linguistic and cultural expertise that we bring to the table. The value of this linguistic and cultural expertise our community agencies bring was reinforced by one Chinese interviewee who said they wanted services in an Asian organization that could quote communicate with the people in our community. Another said it needs to be in a place with the Chinese atmosphere and a Korean interviewee noted the importance of cultural connection in these spaces. These organizations and the people that work there bring valuable lived experiences to their work. These agencies like BCNCA task CMMA V&A they've been trying to address problem gambling and the consequences of it on family and community life with no funding to do so. I believe this inequity this unpaid labor needs to end. To honor these stories I invite all of us here to think about what we can do so that the data in this report is actionable knowledge that can lead to meaningful change in our communities. The Vietnamese field worker told me a story that when she tried to recruit someone into the study the community member expressed what I actually think is a fair and healthy skepticism about academic research. This person said why should I participate how will my story make a difference. You know let's not disappoint her and the many others who participated in this research so that they know that their stories their pain their experience can make a difference. We want all our immigrant communities to grow thrive and flourish. Now I want to introduce my colleague Yoyo Yao chief program officer at Boston Chinatown neighborhood center who will share the key recommendation that the Asian Cares Coalition is advocating for that comes out of our collaborative work that focuses primarily on intervention and prevention. As you listen to these recommendations I want to really urge you to consider investing and investigating upstream prevention and not just mitigating once gambling has become a problem. Thank you. Yoyo. Thank you Dr. Rubin. My name is Yoyo Yao. I work at Boston Chinatown neighborhood center and myself also a licensed mental health counselor and in the last 11 years I have seen so many family impacted by gambling. Probably those problems is before my arrival and I hope today is the day we could exam our systems and bring some hope to the community. So as we heard all the findings problem gambling is a symptom of underlying structures poverty social and cultural isolations. To tackle the cause of the problems we definitely need to look into the culturally, linguistic, appropriate surface are the key elements to response to immigration stress and behavioral health issues. A span high is that we need to look into the systems create the partnership and create the ownership together and now I'm going to walk you through the six key findings in the six key recommendations in this report. The first one is the fund invests in ethnic next community-based organizations to develop culturally linguistic appropriate services for gambling prevention and interventions. The role of community-based organizations that live by bilingual bi-cultural staff the interventions address problem gambling is very naturally integrated into work around services delivery. The implementations of the services is caring, flexible, equitable and the goal of these interventions is restore the immigration's sense of belonging identity that is often lost through the process of migrations. Number two, recommends develop new innovative reimbursement model for community-based organizations during gambling prevention and interventions go beyond the traditional clinical model. This innovative services should take place in community settings such as church recreational center schools with services delivered by the culturally linguistic cultural broker use a family system approach that is tailored to account to affect and social services the elements among the Asian community in massachusetts. Number three, invest in a space of belongings coping with the challenge of migrations immigrants may usually gamble as an outlet for psychosocial stressor for immigrants imported in the restaurant or small business there's a little time for recreations after work and in a very physical low-page job by investing in the neighborhood where immigrants work lift plates immigrant can find a safe recreational and social opportunity this will create a space of belongings for immigrant community number four, extend the definitions and use medications fund to develop creatively workforce development program geared to immigrants as the data show the immigrants primarily serves industry worker often find themselves in a very stressful low-wage job that offer very little hope for their career advancement economic disadvantage and culturally differences led to social isolations hidden distress loneliness depressions alienations one of the interviews say that they find their job has no hope very boring very painful and instead gambling give people a false sense of accomplishment so it's very important to expand the use of medications fund to create workforce development opportunity to work immigrant community number five, conduct a equity audit for casino focus on responsive gambling and advertisement toward the Asian community casino provide culturally appropriate entertainment services include a family friendly resource a welcome environment for elders the casino make it easier for reducing the language and cultural barrier and provide transportation one of the interviews say she is wondering whether the casino are strategically in being available when restaurant worker get off their work in very middle of the night and when people finish eating dinner in the Chinatown and take a free shuttle go to the casino there is a sense that the casino create environment that look people to them take advantage of a very vulnerable working class community number six, develop a steering committee of a key community leader to guide the development of policy partners service around addressing the root cause of problem gambling for example partner with Asian Pacific Islander civic actions network API cans to address the root cause of problem gambling the systematic nature of the issues indicate the social isolations loneliness dislocations the results of the immigrations the immigrant community many of find themselves racism discriminations at the individuals and institutions level struggle to find and maintain and fulfillment employment support their family feel a sense of pride and purpose and meaning and respect for the coalition's buildings partnership with the API cans invest resources in the community based organizations will provide workforce development opportunity healthy family functions behavioral health and child support now I would like to conclude that no one start gambling with intentions become a edit or hurting their family the story we heard and show the systematic issues the root cause of the problem can destroy the family and community life whether they gamble to increase the rage or the release stress some fall into the trap of problem gambling addictions why some may argue that casino are offer of employment opportunity culturally activity for this community however the harmful impact of gambling found within this report make one questions whether casino take advantage of the vulnerable community with very few alternative options massachusetts has the opportunity to become a leader in developing innovative solutions to address problem gambling by invest in community-based organizations value their life experience immigrant community deserve a systems that is responsive to their need and provide linguistic culturally appropriate services that enable individuals to live and thrive today is the day to reexamine the intersection no barrier and complexity of the book and system which we create ownership be a power to make systematic change in massachusetts thank you everybody thank you yo yo uh i'll just say a few words to wrap up and then i will ask director uh vanderlinden to to sort of wrap us up and get some of his thoughts and grateful to him and his team for again allowing us to be able to do this work i think um you know that's a lot right to to sort of take in and listen and you know last 20 minutes um and again as i as i said in my early earlier comments you know what i hope for you know what i don't want to happen right is that you know and i think director vanderlinden agrees right we don't want this just to sit on a shelf and get dusty right and we want this to be an action oriented report and for me a lot of times i think about well how do we how are we moved to action um we're typically moved to action when things directly affect us um or we you know our heart is moved and opened up to you know the the issue at hand and again many of us probably can't directly relate to a lot of this research and these experiences but i think you know it's it's actually not just about the asian community um i think you know a lot of the structural you know findings um the the root causes are things that i think we're all probably concerned about as you know people who live in massachusetts as americans these are issues that um you know maybe it not going to affect our bottom line or our families but they in the in the essence they do affect the communities that we live in and and the people that are part of our neighborhoods and i think just for that is very good reason to think very creatively as some of our recommendations are to think differently because as we know these root cause challenges they're not going to be solved over not night and they're not just going to be solved sort of in in sort of separate pockets they these need to work together so i think you know the workforce the um access to to to public health resources and such kind of gets to these larger issues um that you know hopefully won't won't ever affect any of our direct families but do affect a lot of the members of our community so i think you know taking what you heard and then taking it to that sort of wider context to me is hopefully a way to kind of imprint upon your hearts and minds the needs that are out there um so again very appreciative to this and and the last thing in terms of the action orientation grateful to the commission as well as the department of public health for supporting ongoing work that we are going to base off of this research so mark thank you and i'll turn it over to you yeah thanks ben i didn't really prepare too much but been as if i would say a few words and i do have i have a lot to say about this but first thank you so much hang um yo yo jena um mia thank you for coordinating and making sure this all comes up um so this is a really bold report and one that we don't really in our research agenda we cover a lot of different topics um for a report to come across our proposal and a report to come to us that really attempts to address and examine root causes is a bold effort um problem gambling is incredibly complex and as as i think you see from this report and hopefully some other reports that have come our way um it's not an individual problem this is problem gambling is a systemic problem a community problem and um to identify easy solutions would be great but these are complex and um i think yo yo uh now i've seen this a few times you do a really wonderful job and the report to the one that the job of highlighting some of the ways we can begin to chip away um at at some of this and i will say root causes are as i said root causes are really complex what your proposals are are are um addressing those but those really just chip away at at at it and that's no criticism it's just recognizing um this this this issue um this was community engaged research and as marie claire said that she kicked it off it's it's research that's really intended to be driven by the community and for the community and so um ben and team i hope this uh was really valuable and and you will find it to be useful um as we begin to put some finer detail to this issue within the asian communities in massachusetts and it'll also be useful as a way to to advance um sort of your your recommendations as as um ways to to get at the root causes salute some of the solutions that that are presented here so thank you for that um uh with that i'll i'll turn it over back over to your uh chair judge stein yeah first off a big thank you to um to to ben and yoyo at in your leadership at bcnc this is a very um it's a a creative request i'm fully behind the community engaged research and and hope that we can continue to make that a rigorous part of our overall research framework um dr ruben i had the pleasure of hearing you in malden and she pointed out and i and i and i know it was directed at me a reminder of what marc just said that this is very much a systemic issue and that was my big takeaway dr ruben and because we are regulators of gaming we need to reflect on this even if we can't necessarily um come up with all the systemic corrections we we can use the tools that we were given to the legislature to help inform community leaders lawmakers people in positions to to start to address these very clear systemic issues i don't want to turn it over to my fellow commissioners and i and i do have a follow-up question but i just wanted to make very clear that dr ruben and um and uh miss kim jena the impact of your presentation has stayed with me and i know with commissioner hill it's enormously powerful so for that we thank you you know commissioner hill oh sorry let me just say um really quickly kathy this is dr ruben i'm sorry i'm wondering where the voice is coming from yes um i just wanted to really appreciate and thank you you know for that comment um you know one is you know um you know for someone who's you know who was engaged in um you know research on systemic racism for probably you know i mean i studied ethnic studies in 1995 in california and you know you know one of the hard things is that it takes a long time for knowledge to really change things um and so you know and i think that we're you know you know in this country we're really in a huge moment of racial reckoning um and and i think that you know all of us have had to take looks you know internally to wonder you know where all of us not pushed hard enough or where have all of us not understood things about different communities um and so i really appreciate um you know um you know and i will say you know the the cultural pieces you know it is something we hear from a lot of people you know and so i really appreciate you you know receiving this comment that like i said the asian community has been arguing about you know for decades um and i think you know as mark said you know systemic issues take a lot of time um but i do think that if we can be more intentional about starting to chip away at it then you know in five years and ten years things can look different you know for our community i mean just like the other day i was saying actually last night to a friend i was saying you know things you know you know things can change right things can change and i think even like looking at my own son you know things will be different for him you know as an asian american growing up and i think you know it is all of us wanting to make that change that can make this world different thank you and i'll turn to my my fellow commissioners commissioner hill i see that you have unmuted would you like is that intentional that is intentional okay great this is probably going to be one of my longer comments that i've made um since i've come on the commission so i ask for your indulgence and um as i make these comments first of all the the report itself is it was fantastic the fact that you could go right into the community and talk to people and they were willing to talk to you and give you you know what they truly believed i know during the press conference someone made a comment that they were concerned that whatever they were telling the interviewers that it would go nowhere well i think i can assure you that it's going somewhere it was a very well done report and gave us a lot of information and in fact i believe that it's now a roadmap for the mass gaming commission to use moving forward in regards to problem gaming uh when i was at the press conference and we actually heard from some of some other people and we heard from a very young gentleman who was our first speaker if i'm not mistaken and he told us about his experiences with his father and it was a very touching moment uh what he told us and he told us how he had to sit in a car for hours at a time while his father and and mother went into a casino and the kids sat in their car for hours hours while their parents went in and gambled but more importantly how abusive the dad was toward the children and if it didn't pull out your heart strings then something was wrong uh because it did to everybody that was in that room and jeena you reminded us of the family interview about the family uh owning the restaurant and how the father you know took those dollars and and he abused his children uh because of his serious gaming addiction and he used that his house for collateral and no one else in the family even knew that that was taking place i mean those are real stories that you folks heard and put into this report and we heard loud and clear on that day as we have today um what's been going on in regards you know into the asian community but of course outside of the community as well and dr rubin um when you mentioned in your comments that this is a whole family issue boy have this report shows that through and through that this is a family issue not an individual in uh issue for those who have the gaming problems but i was also happy to be and hear at the press conference in a little bit today but not as much as we did at the press conference was the involvement with dph uh i think dph needs to be a partner in this and and they are from what i could gather on that day and from what i read in the report but what i would hope as a commission and i guess i would look to my fellow commissioners and and to the staff is what can we do to advocate to the administration and to the legislature uh that they need to maybe put forward a bigger effort not that their effort that they're putting in is bad right now but could it be better i'm going to say yes i think it could be better it could be a little bit stronger but it takes funding to do that and as we've been reading over the last few days there have been some arbor funds that have been allocated to the state to the tune of almost five billion dollars and i would have to believe that during the COVID-19 pandemic that gaming issues may have risen and i would think that the funds should be used for something like this because i think that's what the intent was when congress passed these dollars is what came out of the COVID-19 pandemic and how can we use these funds to help get us through the pandemic i would argue today that those funds could be in part used for addressing and excuse me as i'm the recommendations you know that have been put forth and i would like to know and again i'm the newbie on the on the board you know do we as a commission do we reach out to the secretary of health and human service udders do we meet with the acting commissioner who i believe is commissioner cook at this time to share these results from this from this very good report and how we can interact with them because i believe in my hearts of hearts that's where this needs to go and needs to be addressed at least to begin with so that we can move forward and help not just the individuals but the families who are being affected by this particular issue so i again it was a great report i was thrilled with the people who i will say it had the guts to stand up at that press conference and tell us their stories because some of those were very heartwarming but i would argue it very hard to tell and they stood there and they told to 50 people 50 strangers that particular day and certainly shared their stories for this report so great report great job i hope and i i really do hope that as a commission we can work with our partners in the legislature and in the administration to see if we can start looking at the the systemic issue of this particular gaming problem so i'll i'll leave it at that madam chair and i'm sorry i went on longer than i normally do i'm usually the short one i think but today this is this is very serious and i hope that this doesn't end today you know as a former selectman we did a lot of studies that ended up on bookshelves for decades and decades and i don't want to see that happen with this report i don't believe it will but i think it's going to take all of us working together to make sure that thank you madam chair to my fellow commissioners thank you for indulging me for the longer than usual comment no indulging we're thrilled and and just also want to point out that ben did send in the snapchat a very nice thank you to you commissioner hill what really what he refers to his action oriented recommendations and i know then that's exactly what what you are seeking here i think we all join his sentiment that this is not to be a shelved report none of our research reports should ever be viewed as anything that is should it should always lead to action and i know that marx team particularly with my reclear now on board that's their mission so in terms of next steps with respect to commissioner hill and i'll go to the other commissioners the good news is that director and linden maintains a very strong communication channel with dph and victoria t's and and assistant commissioner lindsay talker who of course reports to the commissioner department public health and secretary sudders and i think this is exactly a report that highlights an opportunity for collaboration mark that we've talked about with respect to the public health trust funds so i think commissioner hill stay tuned i i believe mark will will take your words to heart and think exactly about how we we um enhance that collaboration and then i know that i i feel the commissioners that we turn to commissioner hill to help us on the his expertise as a former elected official of the legislature see how we best send this research you know to our lawmakers and to key administration members to to think about how to how to move this issue forward with that commissioner camera commissioner brian yes commissioner camera thank you first of all i want to thank the entire team here today meaning all those who presented all those who you know really were so passionate about this issue and the commitment to this issue i feel like i'm much better educated along the lines of what the issues really are you know i remember being somewhat i'm not surprised but just when the sigma report uh you know advised us that the asian community as a whole was not more likely to be involved with the problem gaming or to develop but what you're focusing on here is is the immigrant community meaning those who may not have the opportunity for you know their language skills might be limited their education and employment opportunities are limited that's the vulnerable population here and you know all of your recommendations i look forward to our team coming back to us and telling us what we can do to support those recommendations and i really appreciate the chair and and commissioner hill for presenting a better understanding because it really does move you personal stories like this you know it takes you from making a policy decision to saying okay how can we how can we elevate this issue how can we really be helpful so i just want to appreciate every i want to express my appreciation for all the presenters for really making it more than a research report and really helping us understand the urgency and helping give us the opportunity if we can to help with some of the recommendations so just thank you to everyone involved and it really did help me understand the issues better and and appreciate it thank you commissioner brian sure thank you madam chair i agree with the sentiments that have already been expressed i appreciate the time and the candor that was included in the in the report and in the presentation today and what struck me the most is somewhat keying off what commissioner camera just said is the the insight that can be gained when you have people that culturally know a community and have the ability to effectively communicate and to understand some of the barriers to full disclosure it reminds me of sort of training in domestic violence back when i was in the da's office where you could get people going in from one group that everything was fine when in reality if you knew the shame and you the the language and the circumstances you would get the accurate picture of it and that's sort of the feel that i get from this report is if you really know how to ask the questions in a manner that will get the trust in the honesty you get a better picture of what's actually going on and i think it's as has been said it's a multi-factor approach in terms of dealing with it this is not something that has a one method to fix and it's going to be multifaceted and again going back to my background i i wonder about as you said the dissemination of the report not only to the legislature but to other agencies that maybe get an understanding like da's offices they have prevention they need to get educated also about sort of the multi layers to some of the criminal activity they may see on the other end so in addition to what we've talked about in terms of public health agencies and the legislature and community outreach groups i am wondering about what if anything we do in terms of our connection with the ag's office and the the various da's office particularly when you're talking about suffoc and middle sex with the communities that you highlighted in your report whether there's some way we can disseminate this or have conversations with them also but i do i thank everyone for the time and and coming here today to talk to us about it thank you commissioner ryan so if i could just add in a couple of more substantive thoughts first off i i do want um all of you to know that the gaming commission has affirmatively adopted an equity and inclusion policy and has adopted five um action steps that we we we abide by or follow on a daily basis our executive director is tasked to implementing it and i think we are becoming more naturally intentional about making sure there are policies and our procedures with respect to hiring procurement our regulatory process in terms of adopting and in writing them and and um our own internal culture we are being intentional to think about uh you know disproportionate negative effects on people of color uh i don't minimize that work we've seen already a lot of impact since we adopted it in june of 2020 uh so that's our internal work and and today your work only makes me think about how we can can do our work better internal work better um now again i just lost my screen so bear with me as i bring it back up um i am looking at recommendation number five ben and um yo yo that's the one that on our screen says fund an equity audit about responsible gambling and responsible advertising in the asian community that includes assessing whether they are engaged in any predatory practices can you elaborate on on how you imagine that recommendation being implemented if you have any one if you already have some research that uh really um examines uh at least in massachusetts advertising practices if you're starting would be starting with ground zero just where you think that and i hear an equity audit um i guess i'd like to understand what you're imagining that to be mark i also don't know if you want to jump in as well i mean i think that's um like the stories there's a lot of real life uh if not even got just real life um experience with how that plays out within the asian communities i mean we already mentioned uh you know everyone i think knows about the buses um you you look at actually uh one particular casino's website and you look at their slot machines and the i don't know three out of the five games that they promote right on their website are targeting asians i mean targeting maybe you know you know debate that word right so i think um you know there's an imagination of really looking at how those practices um you know who are they actually targeting how are they impacting those particular folks um how are then perhaps um once folks getting gay and there are other things actually not that that are gambling base you know the the entertainment that is provided the family oriented entertainment perhaps that's provided and you know to go back to commissioner's hill recognition of weignet's story about the fact that he had to stay in a car i mean there are things that are drawing parents there are things drawing families um perhaps of these places that then get them uh sort of trapped in into the issue of gambling so um yo yo i think you want to add some yeah thank you yeah so i do want to add some element on that um i tell you a very quick story um before the fanscaping uh uh and i know uh she said oh uh on the fanscaping way i'm going to casino i say why she said uh she's going to bring her family as well she's very fabulous they hire very famous asian singer you will not be able to attend a concert in asias but you will be able to attend concert in united states in the casino so for seven hundred dollars uh with her family uh visit the casino stay overnight the casino will hold the concert at uh 12 am finish 2 a.m in the night so you definitely stay in the restaurant and uh get full of the entrance full the casino and attend the concert when you finish you have get through the casino and then attend uh the place in the hotel so um i think casino have a entire asian team uh focus on marketing so they are not get into just focus on casino they get into um entertainment recreations they not only target uh individuals working family but they also target elders as well too so it's very comprehensive marketing strategy and i think if we really uh want to look into this elements two area i think we need to look into is uh consult an attorney about marketing strategy as well as hire someone could go into a casino to collect those data because uh as a community-based organization we don't have those resources but we hear from the ground all the time someone told me that uh the shuttle bus run more frequent than nbta bus uh in the china town you could just hope up a shuttle bus go to casino anytime you want those are my thoughts um chair chair judge stein if i may add a piece to this yes please um so yeah i was i paid close attention to that recommendation as well um and i because it's directly related to the work that i do and as it forces us to ask ourselves what what are we doing and how can we do that better so you know in terms of an equity audit related to responsible gaming we're near finishing writing a request for proposals for the game sense program and an aspect of that is to examine um how responsive or culturally responsive the game sense program is um that's a small piece of it i i i recognize that because um game sense has been a key piece to the commission's responsible gaming efforts um but i think a question is is is that is that part enough is that the does it is it that adaptable that it can it can be responsive to to various communities and so we hope to get some information from that um ben you mentioned specifically uh themes on some of the games and i think that is that's an important issue that i think doesn't get a lot of attention and and looking at specific themes on the games and what types of stereotypes they perhaps intentionally or unintentionally perpetuate and how that may be harmful um i know british columbia lottery corporation is has initiated some efforts in that area to do an audit of gaming within that jurisdiction and um and it's something that is it be interested to see how that goes and and where that is relevant in massachusetts um advertising um is something that we've um we actually uh following this report began to pick up um and take a look at what other jurisdictions are doing um it both within the united states than outside of united states and we're in the process of preparing a document for the commission to review what that looks like um the university of nevada las vegas has done some really interesting work in this space um and i think that um you know i i think that we can look at that and and yo yo i know we can't deliberate on this as part of the addiction services subcommittee but i would wonder what what uh we could possibly do that avenue um on any on any of this um i think that there's some possibility for us to grab ahold of something in the um this this report already has has made inroads and caused us to think differently or do a deeper dive in this specific area so i i appreciate that dan uh mark may i ask the question um i think we have had a conversation you know to go back to the buses which is one very visible element to this um you know in a lot of fronts um my recollection is that was there supposed to be an audit of the buses in terms of how frequent numbers of people picked up you know locations you know because again if we think again at the next level kind of structural i know that there are some elected certainly in suffolk um who and you know come from the community concerns about the pollution of buses idling you know sitting there taking up space um in these communities etc um and you know there's a public house to pollution i mean especially into let's boss in china town which is one of the highest polluted neighborhoods in boston for example um so if i'm misremembering or can you speak to that audit um that actually i'm sorry been is one area that we have i haven't since this report tackled that but i don't think we should let that fall off the radar either so to be honest but you know again it's um i think it's something we can ask a point of clarification when we're speaking about buses it's my understanding that buses come from our massachusetts licensee or licensees but am i also right in understanding that they come from neighboring at least one neighboring state as well that's my understanding yes yeah i can i can answer that so um yeah so um a lot of what we're seeing recently has been a lot from here but historically and still there are buses coming from connecticut as well um the i think the higher frequency buses are here in massachusetts just because they can make more trips so i guess that shows them the need for an audit you know really for us to understand the the whole ecosystem um mia can you can you share where the buses go right now where they have pickups um what people talked about yeah so i don't have the exact exact locations i know um there are pickups in chinatown there are pickets i believe malden center um there are also pickups in quincy and most of these pickups both for the buses from massachusetts but also buses from connecticut all primarily pick up outside of either asian grocery stores or asian eateries um so those are some others i do know they they do also pick up in other places but the most frequent visits are the are the places that are highly concentrated asian populations working class immigrant yes i understand and i do know that some of the comments that came out of our interviews was people said they were restaurant workers and there was always the bus knew when the restaurants in chinatown closed down so they're always idling right out front of the restaurants knowing when the restaurant workers leave to pick them up and take them right to the casino if they want to go and now i know that was a big concern of a lot of community members thank you mia any other questions or um around the recommendations or anything that you want to we know that ben and team will always be available to answer questions we have um but dr rubin and her valuable time and her team's time any further questions for them i guess i'll say on behalf of the four of us dr rubin jena yoyo van mia um i think i've got everyone it was again a pleasure to meet you in person in malden and now to have this um very very thorough presentation today in the luxury for us to think about once one subject matter in such a significant one so i think we digest this and mark um we roll up our sleeves a bit to just see you know i'm a believer in tackling what we can tackle sooner than than later and then i think we're all hearing there's there's an opportunity for us to at least be reaching out to other um significant community members and leaders in the community and in the commonwealth that can that will be interested in this report and ben i also know you're doing that outreach yourself there in in a great way so um thank you yeah commissioner jetstein i i'd just like to say this is dr just as dr rubin um you know first i i really want to you know recognize all the commissioners who who really you know gave us your commitment well first of all who took these stories to heart um and and really gave us your commitment that this wouldn't be a report that sat on your shelf um and that you know and through partnership right um like we we can access the stories from the communities you guys can you know access the legislators you know that really through this you know kind of community based public you know public private partnership that that you know i think the community can really you know make some inroads so i really wanted to appreciate that and and i really also want to appreciate mark and marie claire for stewarding this community engaged research arm you know for the commission you know for recognizing that you know large epidemiological surveys are important you know and they are not enough um and you know really want to you know really want to recognize and honor mark and marie claire for you know for having this and also for really um you know believing in our research and really wanting to figure out how to move the needle on this um and then just the last thing is um you know i really want to again honor the 18 field workers you know that went out and collected these stories um i can't remember which commissioner um i'm sorry i don't remember your name you know you talk to me from your working dv recognizing that you know it is it is these folks that can get these stories like i i didn't do a single interview you know i didn't do a single interview i mean i met with these field workers um every week and you know i just want to say you know remember these field workers were doing this during the pandemic after the shootings in atlanta um and you know their their heart was really was really in it and and mark was great he you know gave us some additional funding when we realized that you know doing this kind of human labor intensive you know research you know took more funds than what we hadn't originally um you know put in the grant um so you know really want to appreciate the commission for recognizing and supporting this kind of research so i just want to thank you for that but thank you dr rovin and i i think that those are great concluding remarks um we'll we'll follow up um mark perhaps even our next commission meeting on some initial observations and steps um i'll probably you know again look at our equity inclusion um caring our our um commitment you know and then the issue around cultural competency with respect to how we procure research we should be thinking about that we we we've learned a lot today um for our own work as i said and now we also have the work that we regulate so thank you so much yeah thank you thank you all righty um ben anything that you want to conclude with or just uh look forward to seeing you again yeah thank you thank you chair yeah i hope everyone has uh safe and healthy holiday with their families coming up yeah well thank you so much and so i think because we have this very tidy um agenda the next the next item is any commissioner update no okay um any matter that i haven't thought of crystal something that i haven't thought of today that we need to address not that i can think of i think she's got some florida sunshine on her face she needs to get out there so um crystal thank you for uh for staying with us and i hope you enjoy your family uh commissioners if there's nothing else we have a need from motion to adjourn move to adjourn second i'll set anything commissioner brian we're all set all right roll call vote commissioner cameron i commissioner brian i commissioner hill hi i vote yes four zero todd and todd i don't know what jeans you're wearing but you look you're you look very professional in our office space today i'm sorry that i'm not seeing you in person thank you for noticing i'm actually wearing a real i figured have a good day everyone thank you so much we're adjourned