 I'm with the Department of Human Services with the city and the faith-based initiative and I'm going to pass this over to our local host for a word of welcome. Thank you Ann and thank you all for being here at your San Antonio Food Bank. My name is Eric Cooper, I'm the president CEO here and we're just so excited to host this conversation and seeing a lot of folks, friendly faces, partners in the audience and so excited to be here. This is your first time. To your San Antonio Food Bank, we ask that you return. We've got lots going on and would love to engage you fully in different strategies around the basic units of our residents throughout the community but welcome. I'm going to hand the microphone back to Ann and we're going to get this party started. Thanks. The Eric just said to me, we have officially come as unprepared as you asked us to. So this is a conversation, it's not like a panel discussion, it's really a conversation and they will be starting the conversation. There are going to be three questions that we're all going to be looking at and so they'll get a question and they're going to talk for a while and then we're going to move out and you're going to continue that conversation among yourselves and then we're going to come back for a second question and we repeat that process three times. We are also recording this through Nowcast SA. If anyone here is not comfortable with that, you should let Sharda then know she's going to leave her arm like this so Sharda can steer away from you. But we want to make sure that we record and hold it in harvest kind of the wisdom and the things that are happening that are in the room. We don't want to miss any of that. We'll also put it up on the mind in case you want to go back to your organization and congregation and be able to show that as well. So it should be a good resource for you. I think that's it. I'm going to quickly introduce our conversation starters and so Eric has already said happy and Mike Flores he's going to great wave his hand but he's the chancellor of animal colleges and he brings a conversation and of course with education and skills which you go back to. Eric's conversation at direct programs and services. I'm going to be asking you to think about what your ad to the conversation is. You're going to be at each point. Brenda Mascaro she's going to make her hand. She's the executive director of CERA, the South Alamo Regional Alliance for the Home Association. Her conversation at collaboration and support services. Ricardo Ramirez he's going to wave his hand. He's with Workforce Solutions, the director of analytics performance and strategy. I'm sorry he sounds really important. His conversation at job opportunities and success and then the person that I reported Melody Willsley who's the director of the American Human Services and her ad human services and local government which I'm still trying to figure out but I'm grateful to her. So we're going to start with our first conference our first question which is so this is to our conversation starters from your vantage point why is opening this conversation about a short name of line so important and if you have a story or some kind of stat to the validate before you think it's important but I feel that whole thing of red line, soup line, food line, clothing line, line, line. Everyone's in line. Not as many as my little carol cats most of the time but those are the lines that we're talking about and Eric and I were in a conversation probably two months ago which was before the mythern influx and he raised the question of we need statement actually we need to have the conversation about shortening the line and so I'm going to lobby it to end first because he kind of started the conversation a couple of months ago and then I'm going to hand it to Drew Devin and she gives me some of her advice. Yeah so I think you know in this industry we've made these over the four years that we've had an existence providing to partner organizations to their own in the context of this we tend to think about that and feel the line strategy and you know we've got an opportunity whether it's through an industry or any groceries or through, you know, preparation, on site competing, the gov's started to really pivot. A dual strategy is not to speak to the line but to speak to the line. Conversations have been to us has been. We'll be talking more about workforce development, meaningful jobs, sustainable wages. We know that we're not going to solve the rule of the camp but it's going to be a long list of people approaching. And so a dual strategy, we think it's critical. Obviously they've got a parable of kind of giving out fish, teaching them how to fish, but for a lifetime. Oftentimes I think when people say that, they gave that teaching as a more noble student like us, that's what we really want to turn energy in, maybe less than giving the fish, but I don't know what to go back to and say, it has to be done. You have to do both. If you don't pack it into the sandwich, she won't eat you, right? She can't. She needs to have her kids eat nourishment. So how do you stabilize that household while helping towards people employment? And so I think that's the work of short people. We know that's the need to nourish the work that we're doing and to also do ourselves a new system. So I think we don't know, I know folks say we know what we know, but I think it's what we don't know we don't know. And so when it comes to our own personal missions and our organizations, and I'm supposed to give you that, and just look at each other, to have to look at the crowd. But when we have those conversations, with other agencies, we start learning about things we don't know. Oftentimes we get so zoned in on what our work is, where our mission is, what we are trying to accomplish. And we start looking at things, and we start looking down to try to accomplish because a lot of us are aggressive, a lot of organizations want our role oriented, and we want to accomplish what we said we were going to accomplish. And the role and mission is very important. However, if we don't look up and see what other individuals are working on around us, we could totally miss the vote. And I'd say that as we can be really ready for emails, we can have individual votes working on things in a much more effective, better way that we haven't really paid attention and be able to help out. And then we sit in a circle like this and say, oh, so and so, I already did that in that organization over there, or they're working on that as well. Have you guys worked together? So I think that we need to look up what we are doing, because everything is inter-correlated when it has to do with working that line. We have a very long line right now in our coordinated entry system and for y'all that don't know, Sarah, the South Element Regional Alliance for the homeless, we don't provide any direct services. We are, we need to do the research, we need to do the data collection, we do the systemic work, we try to do the strategic planning around homelessness for our county San Antonio. But with that said, if we, again, don't look up, we miss what, all that, how everybody can work together to really try to shorten that list. We have a very long coordinated entry list and coordinated entry essential needs that are the most coming into the homeless system. And if that list is incredibly long and it's almost inconvenient to have a video on a list that's not kind of short, and we need to figure out how instead of putting it on this list, working with each other to see how we get that word, how we can help individuals from being homeless and help them in ways where the rest of the community can help us and not just be placed on a list, be placed on a list, or in this case, in the line. So, we just last night wrapped up our fifth graduation ceremony from our five colleges. So, we began last Friday with St. Gold's College, and then last night ended with Paul Walton College. We will have over 11,000 students graduate by the end of the summer of the year, which is a close to a record number of students. That's a majority of our students. Now, if you come to one of our five colleges, you have a likelihood that you're going to graduate or transfer. So, a majority, 50% of our students graduate or transfer the rest of the courses and then go on to achieve their next goal in life. But we should have more students graduate. We should actually have more students in a role. So, I would like to proper that we should have more students in line. Let me tell you why I say that. In 2012, we actually had 50% of our high school graduates in Baird County go to a college or university. It didn't have to be one of the out of the colleges. It could be UTSA, it could be St. Mary's, it could be any one of our public or private universities in the city or even the city. So, 50% in 2012 went into college. Right now, it's 45%. So, the line's gotten short. So, less students are availing themselves of the opportunity to go to college or university. And the reason that the line is not longer for us is because what we talk about is our students actually, we don't compete from the other colleges. We don't compete with UTSA, here we am, San Antonio. We compete with poverty. Our students make a choice between going to school and seeing if they can afford it and then wait opportunity costs and determine how many hours less that will mean in work. How much less they'll contribute to their household budget to assist oftentimes their mom. To see if they can work less hours and offer support to their parents. To give what implications that has for supporting their children. And so, for us, I think the importance is how can we assist more students to cross that stage with a credential and then go all the way to, in particular, there are many subgroups, but looking at one subgroup, when students cross the stage from a high school graduation, can we support them with enough services to determine if they go to school? Can they feel they have this community behind them to be able to avail themselves of that opportunity? I think it's interesting when you kind of think of this thought of a line that each organization that's here probably has a line and one way that your line might be shortened is evaluating capacity in other lines. So it might be just shifting. For us, there's so much around federal benefits in our community. Programs like SNAP, Wing, CHIP, Medicaid, TAN, and long-term care, those programs oftentimes have capacity in their line, right? And so individuals within our community just don't know maybe how to get in that line. Texas as a whole has about 40% of our residents that qualify to be in that line can find it, right? And so being a navigator to those lines with capacity can help shorten the line, ultimately bring some stabilization that they can move somewhat to never be in one line. And I think to add to that, you know, what's so important to us about having this conversation is despite having what seem to be vast resources we're not serving really even the majority of the people who need the services. And so I think we work with Workforce Solutions Alamo to provide childcare subsidies to the community and we're going to spend almost $70 million this year doing that and still have a waitlist and still have families who need childcare so they can work. So, you know, I think as from the local government perspective, we cannot impact this alone. So we work to have $1.5 billion of operation but we need, the collaboration is so important. It's the only thing that's effective is that we're all working together and so this is a great start to that. And that's really why the heat services department exists is to help facilitate those collaborations convene and participate in them and bring local government perspective. I think government has the opportunity, you know, at all levels, local, state, and federal to make great impact on communities and the government also has the ability to harm. And that's the other reason it's so important for us to be part of this conversation. I think a good example, and I know Haven for Hope is here and we'll understand that Sarah, you know, a good portion of the people that are coming wasn't either been in the foster care system, which is a state-run system or in the military. So government has to be at the table part of the conversation so it's not to create more issues, I think. Yeah, I think that this conversation is brilliant. I think it needs to happen. It seems like there's many lines where those who need different, and some people have different needs. And so they have a line for Alamo Colleges, they have a line for Food Bank, they have a line for each of our different agencies. And we are just like a handful of those agencies in the region. And so we need to have that conversation because, I guess to that point, how do we tackle each of those lines? And we don't all come together in some way to formulate the average resources and work together with 700,000 more people. We're going to have the challenges that we have today will grow. And so how do we tackle those now? And it's only through those conversations. We need decisions, we need decision-making bodies that can agree on certain things. We serve populations, we serve children, we serve veterans, we serve youth, we serve adults. And each one of those has their own challenges. So their challenges are our challenges. How do we put ourselves on their shoes so that we can understand better their needs? And how do we serve them better? And the only way to do that is by working together. Yeah, I hate to say we have to go, okay, we need to close this. But you did really well, so you're right on time. I have one more point. In terms of poverty, I was looking at data yesterday. 164 census tracts, that's considered a neighborhood. And it's about 4,000 people in each of those neighborhoods in Bear County. 25% of the neighborhoods have 25% poverty or higher. Meaning one out of every four neighborhoods has the 25% poverty rate. Bill, did you write it down? Thank you. So the things that I heard in the why, the population growth, the access to other info and knowledge and others, the drop in education involvement, poverty, the capacity to meet the needs, can't find the line access, vast resources but still not reaching everyone in the line, that there are many lines and to challenge to know what the needs are and how those lines. That population growth by 2030, what does that mean for all of us? So now we're going to take a few minutes and I want to invite you to talk to no more than two other people. So that's in twos or threes so that you need to get a chance to converse with each other at your table. And I'm just going to say there's more room up here for others in the room. And it's the same question. So from your vantage point, so you want to introduce yourself. What your conversation at is, what are you bringing into the conversation? But then to start talking about why is this conversation so important to you from your vantage point? And I really appreciate the examples that you gave, the staff. And so if you have an example, a story or a stack to give and that, that would be really helpful as well. There's paper at your table that you can rip off copies if you need something to write on and take notes. So we're going to have about ten minutes to do that. I'll let you know we're going to have about two minutes to close up. So among three people that's about three minutes each. Thanks. So if we can all kind of recollect to the next question and next movement of our conversation while Mario brings up water. Before we forget, I already did once, but I want to thank you all for being here this morning. It's really exciting. And if you can see the diversity, even of the organizations and congregations that we have in the room, it's really exciting. And I don't know Mel and Eric if you can remember, but it's almost exactly two years ago that we met in the same room at the beginning of the faith-based initiative. And our conversation that day was about building a creating a resilient community. And how we've been doing that is through networking, intentional networking, and partnerships between faith-based organizations, nonprofits, congregations, governmental agencies, and institutions. So we've been working on that for two years. And it was also in one of those election runoff times two years ago. And that led us to, I put something on your table, and it's part of our next question. But the first resolution that was signed by our current council was the Charter for Compassion. That San Antonio joined 100 cities around the planet in being compassionate cities. That number has now grown to 450 cities around the planet who are working basically others to reach out to others in a way in which to be treated, fed, and reached out to as well. So the reason I bring this up, because for our next question, that compassion component is really important. If you look at the inside of the front cover, you will see the actual resolves from that resolution steps. And number four points to why we're gathering in this room, those resolutions about education, and celebrating the acts of compassion. Basically, number four, I'm going to show you a good look. Yes, talks about that this isn't a city, official city-run thing. This compassion happens in community and working together. So our next question, while continuing to stay compassionate, what needs to happen as a system? What needs to happen in the larger picture? And if there are examples of something that's already happening that might be contributing to a good change and a good movement, maybe share that, or something in particular that still needs to happen, that would be good information. So I can turn it all to you. So it's interesting, I mean, working in this space for only five years, and working with a lot of great educational institutions, the growth in students wanting to get into the non-profit sector comes with a lot of pain to me. Because it's this thought that like, hey, could we shrink this sector? Could we actually start to solve these problems so that we're in less demand? And so again, it's this thought about, do I need more canned goods, or do I need CEOs and conscience? If I have a student, if I can shape them in their pursuit of an MBA to have a greater sense of corporate responsibility to the community and their employees, that they would never imagine the food bank being a part of their benefits package to their employees, right? That they want to make sure that the ways that they're paying their employees is sustainable and meaningful so that they don't need the food bank. If I could have more CEOs and conscience, that goes farther than getting another student with a degree in social work that don't meet the line. One of the things we were talking about, you all were having your discussions was technology and how maybe one of the things that needs to happen or one of the things that absolutely needs to happen is the ability to look at, be client-focused and look at a client across systems and across programs. So all of these resources that go into providing services and shortening the line, we don't know what's happening from one program to the next and how the client is doing. A lot of times, something is very ear-toon and we stop tracking that particular outcome. So we don't know what's working and how do we create a system where we can look at what's happening to families and clients as they move forward and know for sure that they're getting the right service, the right time. Absolutely the right level of service that they need to make an impact on in the right quality. Right now we really struggle to do that. And I think part of that, using a system like that to make decisions is to stop doing what isn't effective and isn't working or isn't efficient and focusing on the things that we know will make a difference. And that may not seem compassionate if it impacts your funding or your staff but as far as shortening the lines, the most compassionate thing I think. You know, in order for people about what's going on as well. So I think it's getting the right people to the table. I've been to meetings where it's not a downtown problem, it's not a this problem, it's not a that problem. You know, because people just don't know, a lot of folks just don't know about the need. Folks do know, many folks know, but there's a general public out there that's not aware of how great things can get and how great things are right now. So I think getting people to the table, as far as an example, the continuum of care that Sarah, we have only been around for three years but I think it's a good start because if you look at our board of directors we have a representative of the city of San Antonio, we have a representative of Barrett County, we have a membership by non-voting membership council in chairs, we have the chair is on the board, Chief of Advances is on the board and then one of them can't make it, they always send their second command to the meetings. The fact that we have also USA and New Star and so on and so forth on the board is important but we also just need to have those broader conversations with more people and really educate them on what's going on because the reality is folks in here care but a lot of folks out there just don't think it's their obligation or their business to care and so I think what needs to happen is we need to really focus on that general public and I know that we do it every day but really continue to have people at the table because sometimes if they own it, if they're part of something, if they're part of a change, then once they own it, they work harder towards helping the mission. And then the other piece is just looking at things, you talked about technology, looking at things, not from the technology in the HMS and the homeless arena or the technology that other companies or whatever organizational technology you're using but looking at what other technologies exist that may work because there's levels of expertise in other areas. We were just talking about how the curbside at HB and so on and so forth, looking at those things are very important, looking at what other industries are doing and not just looking at what our individual industries are using. So I think for me coming from the educational perspective of primary what is to look at leveraging those systems, those resources, those models that are already in place and I'll give you two examples. One that has been effective and one that is emerging. So the first model, first comprehensive system is the early college high school model. So the Alamo Colleges District has over 10 early college high schools of partnership with our area ISDs and charter schools and what we've seen with that model is that these students are students who not only would not have ever attended college but they were in danger of completing high school altogether. So these are students who would not have completed high school and would have never dreamed of going to college and what we're seeing as Dr. Ford has mentioned last night in our graduation ceremony in Palo Alto College and that our sister's schools is that we have almost 200 early college high school students walk the stage and receive their associates degree before they even receive their high school diploma. And so when you talk about system changes that is a tremendous, tremendous win and in one of our partner high schools we found that all but one, all but one of their graduating seniors left with either an associates degree or a college level in math, reading and writing. And when you look at our entering freshmen 70% of those students are not ready for college level material but our early college high school students are leaving college ready and whether they have college courses or the associates degree to leave college ready, that is a win. That is a system that's serving new students and so that is a system that's effective. In terms of a system that's emerging in you we have our animal promise program and that program provides free college for the first two years for students and that program is set to launch next fall and we have a lot of students who are going to qualify for federal aid that will help cover the expenses of tuition and fees but there are students who are right on the bubble, right on the brink who are going to qualify for that federal aid but are going to need support and the Iowa College is partnering with the city and partnering with the county and people need those investment dollars and support for that particular program and again when we talk about the systems there the investment is a piece that's needed and when we talk about revolutionary change and trying to shorten the lines and remove the lines, you know the education is at the crux of that, it's at the center of that and programs like Promise and like early college high school they take away all those barriers to bring the students into school I think the second piece that needs to happen in terms of the system and in terms of being passionate is that we have to be courageous and we have to be courageous to fail to Melody's point and be courageous to say this isn't working and we can no longer offer it and so the animal colleges several years ago stepped into the space of meeting the basic needs of our students that they were struggling with outside of the classroom in educational institutions their focus is teaching and learning that's about the core service delivery models teaching and learning in the classroom and so several years ago we said no, they're not even maintenance class because they don't have transportation they don't have childcare, they're hungry so they can't even focus when they are here and we have a responsibility to our students and our community to try to help them overcome those barriers so that they can come to class they can stay in school they can make it to the next semester and they can complete that credential because without that credential and a living wage then what does this all mean in the end and so we partnered with San Antonio Cooping we partnered with Goodwill we partnered with the communities and schools we went to experts in this space and we tried something that had never been done before not only for the animal colleges but nationally we found that our students who are accessing new services they're doing better they're staying in school they have higher grade winologies and they're moving towards completing those credentials and that's what being courageous looks like but it has to be the system kind of taking on that mindset and being afraid to fail and being afraid to let go of things that aren't effective that's fabulous that's great work you have to go outside of your space and that's often quite challenging and scary and risky and you're going to fail many times I'm so proud of our city that has taken this compassion as part of the resolution and I'm not sure if they if the city defined compassion or how does the city define compassion one way would be wishing well or others were wishing for them to be happy but it also involves action doing the things that will make that person or individual be well so intention meaning intentional the policies that we set in place have to be intentional then happen just by random chance there's policies that we set in place there's things that are structural in nature that bring us to where we are one of our challenges when we were developing the target occupation list let's say a list of the in demand occupations and industries that show the most promise for which we pay training for one of those challenges involves industries that can be very vocal and that have a huge role in the region but that the wages may not be those that will not leave them hungry at the table when they work and so we recognize the importance of those industries because they do bring a lot of money to the region and they do bring a lot of jobs but they don't necessarily look after I didn't say that they don't necessarily the industries bring don't necessarily get distributed across the table and so but we at the same time have to recognize the importance so we included some of those occupations in our target list in speaking to some of the representatives myself I said okay, you know, I'm willing to do this but I'm going to ask something back from me a spokesperson and an advocate for wages because your median wages don't meet our standards that you would be an advocate in your industry so that the wages go up to at least $15 an hour and at that point they committed to do that but then a conversation that they they didn't know necessarily how to do that there's many things that I guess they get in the way and so how do we engage in those conversations that will actually make that bigger impact is very challenging a lot of politics involved a lot of voices need to be at the table but they have to be voices and intentional voices this is the way that we're going and this is the way that it has to be if we are going to I would say again this is just being a little transparent the food bank is an employer we have employees and I think we as organizations have to make sure that we're offering healthcare to our part-time employees we have to make sure that we're paying that living wage and figure it out internally before we take it externally and walk the walk ourselves if we're going to be successful thank you so what I've heard here kind of the summation of the role of the industries in terms of equity advocacy and becoming more compassionate and learning what that means and to define that Ricardo I'll use one of my favorite words which is as maritime intentional but within this resolution it is compassionate city it is compassionate in action and that's what we look at how are we working together for those compassionate outcomes to go outside our space I heard that overcoming barriers through partnerships education is central to leverage models and systems that are already in place looking at what other industries are doing focus on general public and being a part of something getting the right people to the table stop doing what isn't effective or efficient compassion isn't always nice but it is always kind and it does look for the greater good and that's part of the definition as well technology and the role it plays across the systems and programs and the shaping of students we'll sit back together like the CEOs of conscience and that's one of the things that I've been watching as well people who are bringing their better selves to the table their conscience to the table leading where they are with what they've got available back out here into these circles as well I want to apologize though I did not introduce Catherine Mike had to leave but Catherine was here and continued the conversation and she's also with Alamo colleges I know that some of you that two or three people you know that was a little difficult for you if you want to talk as a table please make sure everybody at the table gets a chance to talk because that's what happens so I still encourage two to three still encourage and my favorite riddle is somebody who doesn't know this right now there's no innovation on the planet the imagination the imagination because it has no boundaries no barriers, no walls, no lines and so with the second question I encourage you to engage that nation within you and bring forth your best innovation as well okay so while containers stay compassionate what needs to happen as a system to change I have examples that would be great about 10 minutes okay if we could all come back together a bit we're coming in for the the landing portion here our third question actually has two parts to it go back to that imagination and being as as possible do we move forward to make this change happen how do we do that what might the steps be but the two part to this is what action would you prioritize as a group that's talking and conversing would you prioritize as having the most potential there's going to be a lot of steps but trying to to pick one that might leverage and be most strategic that is a piece of wisdom and it could be a simple thing doesn't mean it won't be difficult to actually do but a simple thing so that's a real challenge for this group as well to talk and to review what those steps are and then to prioritize what do you think has the most benefit it's kind of like a TED talk, the real TED talks they decide which of those TED talks has the most potential which idea so that's what you're coming down with and I'm going to move over this way Ricardo always gets to go last yeah I'm glad he got the hard one I was still thinking about answering that question I guess I thought I guess it would be the what for me first largest impact for us it would be through the childcare program where we serve approximately 8,000 kids if you look at a three-year period we may serve about 10,000 12,000 single parents mostly single parents mostly single female parents who have one or two kids in their mid to early 30s and who are working so they're employed and are going to school when I look at some of that data and we try to see how many of them actually leave the program because their income increased just enough that they don't qualify anymore and it was actually 1% of those families who exited the program because they no longer qualify because they had a job that they made enough money to not qualify anymore the other one say job there may be other reasons but I think down that the program adopters don't take it that way I think it's a fabulous program it's known so much it helps families to have affordable quality childcare for the kids it relies on stable quality childcare which is so important for our future generations so it's a huge population and what kind of impact could we have and that's for the how not how do we do that well of course it would be the closest partners that we have would be with the city then it would be those who may touch those groups the most and it could be the food bank it could be San Antonio Housing Authority for those who are being trained it could be our colleges for those who have working with those finding out who those groups are and then bringing them at the table and seeing how we could have a greater greater impact on these families how this is credentialed that they need maybe in one year maybe paying for childcare for three years maybe if we get that person to be trained to get our credential in one year we would act and lift them up we would save two years of childcare some of these by investing in that credential if we did it the right way so I think that's how I would prioritize the other way that I would prioritize would be I would say that working solutions is open I wonder if we want to hear what the others think that priority is and I think that whatever that consensus is I think that's the direction that we would go I just want to say this is a hard question it would just be special to any priorities but I think that's why it's an important question because we all have our individual priorities and trying to define what is a priority and a shared priority is always difficult I agree with the government and that it should be whatever has largest impact in our case there are so many priorities it's so difficult to say which one we would focus on but I think diversion and prevention of homelessness because homelessness really in turn affects everybody in this room it affects every corner of the city and the county and so we could focus on diverting people and preventing people from becoming homeless and doing that but again I ask you that question I was just thinking about how we've done this before 2016 there was a focus in the city to end better homelessness and everybody rally on it and it happened we're still making sure that better homelessness once we identify their house within specific on-the-days because the entire community rally on us so whatever the priority does come out this conversation or any other conversation I think the important part is that the whole community rallies on it and then once it is obtained the goal is obtained then continue work towards making sure it stays the way it was meant to be with that said it's not going to be any better homelessness we've done as what's next coming as a community to identify what that is and supporting that idea and that would be gone to the next one and then the next one and then the next one but unless we do that we should have a bunch of goals and everybody individually and that needs really to get accomplished I think that's a great point and the collaboration is essential I'm on the same page as Ricardo as far as starting early and aligning really to how for me is aligning systems and so you have an education system government system social services systems health systems how do we align those systems to focus on children's health and children's well-being so that the zip code they're born in doesn't limit the opportunities they have for success because right now it does the zip code you're born in determines a lot about how to change that and for example as far as aligning systems we have school gets out at three o'clock and then we wrap childcare around so that parents can work or kids don't have child and so how do we align things so that people can work most families don't have the luxury of wanting to stay sound like they did in the 50s so we need to attest to that and even the services we provide when people are working and so how do we change what we're doing and aligning to focus on the clients and the families so I think that's the how and for me the prioritization would be focusing on children again even before they're born so the mothers are healthy the children have all the preventative care and immunizations and then all these systems that we provide so I know we were guided not to prepare for the session but I don't prepare my nature so as I was kind of sketching out my thoughts this question was extremely difficult for me and it still sits blank on my paper and I am the pragmatic problem solver mixed with the dreamer and the innovator so usually questions like this is difficult because it's such a large question and such a large undertaking and this talks about where we begin our work so we talked about coordinating and care and collaborating and partnering but what is that local aid and so I agree with Melanie that it's about taking stock of the current system and place the current structures and place and figuring out how we bring those together to be a comprehensive set of services and supports for community members and as I shared earlier I think there's some abnormal structures that are already in existence and some that are emerging and we need to get behind those and rally behind those those structures, those systems those are going to be changing changes for our community and helping our community members assess the better life for themselves whether we just meet in a zip code we take a look at the program in Powell Walter College with our students we look at for early-day LISD educational treatment rates for those particular zip codes they have changed and they've gotten better and they've moved out of that space and kind of a lower spectrum where early-day they didn't want to be because the program is like for the college-based school it's a trio because of communities and schools and communities coming together so it's possible and we've seen it and we've seen it happen what do those conversations look like in general because that's where that's where we end how did that answer I'm still struggling with it so I'm still pondering this stuff that I put out there that imagination was the best nation in the world and donations are the best it's so hard because you see you need to prioritize at the same time any of our organizations are hopefully staying on a super highway where there's multiple lanes so I would just say we have to get to a place where poverty is unacceptable poverty is unacceptable then what is the strategy to defend that as a huge spurt of spam and some defense that's the coordinated care that's the coordination once we go to the law we defend each one of us have a role to play and it's in playing that role and making it into poverty that I think we can move collectively in a strategy with technology anchoring the accountability to help us test improvement, maybe technique but now is the time this is our community so we can move for this moment in time where we can say can I just really quickly to your point about donations I'm the type of person that loves to address the other things in the room a lot of the time and donations is a real good example of limited resources and so it's hard to choose the priority for everyone because we have limited resources and we want our priority to be the priority that's picked but I think that also is a great point about oftentimes having to put your priority on the cyber to get to that one priority that has the most impact and the cyber doesn't necessarily it's coming off so but doing that is a lot harder said than done because you have your ego, you have your goals and your VR who you are and just saying well let's focus on this it's going to have a better impact and it's going to impact everything else it's hard to do so I think having those conversations about the elements of the room and the fact that there's limited resources is also critical and then to your point on not being able to answer the question that we were supposed to answer the question I think that this is why this is beautiful is because we're having a conversation it's pronounced do nation and nation we're being the imagine nation do nation so you give those funds okay that's it so the things that I heard is that now is the time it's leaning to it and how technology can bring us accountability and transparency within that moving from the zone to one on a place where poverty is unacceptable taking stock of those systems that are in existence and emerging and aligning those systems focus on children even before birth so that zip code doesn't pull back those opportunities something that the whole community rallies around and even in one sense kind of getting over ourselves and moving forward as a collective to work together in priority and it's interesting to be started with childcare affordable and bringing to the table partnerships with those who have the closest contact so we're going to move into our last round but while you're having the conversation of this last question these folks are going to take everything that they just talked about and they're going to come up with one statement what they have talked about and what might hold the greatest potential not all four steps or ten steps or twenty steps of potential and I will tell you when there's still about five minutes left so whoever you're talking with you are inviting you to do the same thing you will take everything that you've heard about yourselves and you will come up with one statement that has the greatest potential does that make sense okay and then we're going to hear all of those alright so final question being as innovative as possible looking forward to make this happen what action would you prioritize as one back into the conversation we have exactly fifteen minutes there are fifteen conversation circles which also includes this one right here so that means each circle has one minute and I have a timer so that will help you as well so since these are our conversation starters I'm just going to stand up and tell us what they're going to do in a minute four or less age this morning we came up with a statement and then our first focus area so our statement is lean into the discomfort and no longer focus areas and on families so including mothers, fathers children, youth grandparents and focusing on that particular area and what are you going to do when you leave this room and make that happen we have ten seconds left for your team very intentionally we have two microphones here and who is what? we have a lot of lots of organizations out here organizations that want to play it a great step always bring someone to receive this so going out and really also ongoing education and having organizations educate about the issues of what's going on in there so we've got bringing somebody eventually with you forming another partnership within the next year and what was the last one? ongoing education thank you, another going over here it's not just the open systems but life skills that the trauma had on the life that city-wide compassion we've got to be able to have this city-wide compassion so Eric when you go back to Haven are you going to intentionally share what you said with the leadership there to help move that forward? one of our key values is to learn the process of educating our staff about the problems and the trauma and all of our partners at Haven are part of teaching life skills so going back to where we serve being intentional about education forming another partnership and taking those that are being served along and focusing and who else? going over here maybe it comes to me and ask do you know a organization or a non-profit that can help build that resource pool and the action that we are taking is continuing this conversation outside of this good step continuing the same conversation outside of the space and intentionally working on that resource pool as well so did you all know each other before? no so you're going to continue that conversation over here hi my name is Mark with all the system issues that don't match with the family needs and I think that for the last few years for us it's poverty we don't want that poverty it was a very new side of it my side of it this coming together this morning my first step in that is removing the stigma because as it was said to make poverty unacceptable we have to be able to understand that impoverished people are fully acceptable and full members of our community okay so what we we went along the same lines as what you stated that an individual may have homelessness but it may not be what their main concern is they may have mental health issues they may have other health care issues it could be external or internal issues so our statement is conduct an internal and external individual root cause analysis in order to align those systems because without that data information you're not going to be able to make your decisions on how to distribute your funds that you receive if you get donations what are you going to do with that so the focus area is data to drive your decisions for your purpose so I heard in that I think it connects to what Mel said earlier but you were talking about an internal assessment and Mel was mentioning across the systems which that internal process then connected to all different systems would be an amazing step addressing that albeit through means of legislation and policy if we're talking about sustainable wages and the way the action that we thought about as well is collaboration and industries, they also do any recovery so that's really the first step in tackling the cycle of ending poverty is obtaining a job how do you obtain a job, get your IT a lot of them can't get IT because of warrants so what we have discussed is keeping action and collaboration with the number of partners to see how we can all work together to address that issue and did you find that list of partners you don't know that I'm sure of it and we've actually been working with others we had SAP continuum we just witnessed what we do and kind of try and collaborate based on that so we have SAPD, St. Mary's Surrealist, SAPB St. Mary's Surrealist and you're just one more if there's anyone interested come and please let us know see the next step is having that working, yes speculative that might not be working our conversation was a little more basic those SAPA were not connected we had to do with the conversation of changing the wording and how we speak to each other speak to those folks that have a little change in the conversation not hey that guy over there that guy is some son some language who else some of this topic is sort of a confession of work that's out of the experience that you've had in school districts and for any rise these have creators and specialists that are looking into this area for trauma trauma-sensitive campuses and also ensuring that what kind of process you get into the school districts quickly and also other organizations that support an outside school and so we've had a very job experience understanding what these schools would like and understanding what the long-term effects of those are and how the problem system is. So looking at the causes and what's behind them Monica Silva, I'm the director of programs and partnerships that communities and schools here in San Antonio and one of the conversations that we had was really focusing on that a lot of the populations and individuals out there as well but in the realm that we work in the space we work with the students and families and coming to us so building relationships to educate so a lot of times people will not take the information we give them unless we are actually a genuine and we build those relationships and understand where they're coming from so like what Tyla was saying in terms of trauma and understanding that particular aspect that they will actually enrich the relationship you actually would have with that individual to give them a step further and so doing that would also be through that educational piece of developing the resources that a lot of folks have educated and in San Antonio I think it's doing a really good job with the director that they can establish and I think that's one step to build past several resources within the community over the years and I think the conversation has come together as of yet how you can connect all of those such as through the United Way those kind of things so educating ourselves to educate others I think it's one of the main pieces that we need to work on here educational relationships who are we missing we're focused on accessibility and what a collaboration can do for accessibility for resources in the community resources and access is complexity whatever group is also in San Antonio where you can call and get qualified for the resources all in one place and learn about what is available to you and organizations together you can provide all of those resources in one place rather than finding out that you need something and then you have to go somewhere else get it or you know next so I'm here over here and I'm going to take a minute to say that we have a conversation where we talk about education so we have to give them a hope after a very pleasant dinner and then we have a base in our table but then we decided to focus on the safety and safety of our family for our wonderful childcare and better wages job opportunities because if people are struggling being their baby they're going to struggle more to send their kids off to school and all those things so I work with also in San Antonio and I don't we're working together enough to provide all the services that are more coordinated services as well so I'm going to go back to that table back there who has a favorite plan? I've got a lot of things and so I'll stress the best way to do it we want to link in one line in particular which is the line of people standing in the same conversation so that is one thing that we want to do and we think that we can look at ourselves and talk about compassion and recognizing that we should not support any system in the streets so that we can meet ourselves and watch our screens so that we think that by having that conversation with our families and with our neighbors, with our colleagues at work it's one minute till and in compassionate respect for your time I want to thank you all for coming you're probably welcome to stay here and network and converse until Mario can passionately ask you to leave that is but just to hear about her write that down, we'll make sure and get you on that list also and following that donation as many of them as you wish so thank you for coming have a great day pick 11am