 Welcome. For those who are just joining us, thank you all for hanging out with us a little bit before. And for those who are just joining, my name is Mariah Flynn. I use she, her pronouns. I am the director of our community coalition, the Burlington Partnership for a Healthy Community. I'm really excited to have you all here with us for what is one of my favorite Burlington Partnership for a Healthy Community events. This is our 12th annual Roots of Prevention Awards. I'm actually really looking forward to hearing from some of the speakers who are talking about the awardees tonight and learning more about what folks are doing. It just seems really amazing, all the work that's being done in Burlington, every time I read the nominations, I learn new things that are happening. I'm also really excited to hear from Will Jones and Monica Hutt, who have some great experience with and insight into both commercial cannabis at a national and a local level, as well as prevention and healthy communities. So thank you to both of them for joining us. Normally, this would be part of an in-person event where I go over where the exits and the restrooms are, but if you don't know how to find your own restroom, I cannot help you with that. So I will just say take care of yourself as you need to. We would love to see your face on camera so we can all share the event together, but if you need to have your camera off, that's fine too. I love that a nice part of virtual events is the flexibility. So usually I get myself a new outfit for our Roots of Prevention Award celebration so that I do not duplicate in pictures what I look like. At least that's how I justify it to myself every year. But for the virtual events, you will never know if I'm wearing the same sweat pants I wore last year or not. So I think we just come as we are and enjoy our time together for a little bit. And we'll try this day on time so that those of you who've been in long virtual meetings all day have a chance to take a screen break too. So if you need it, you should see a slide now with how to change your name and pronouns if you are currently listed as my office or owner or Joe's iPhone, you can take a minute and change it to your full name and pronouns so that we can greet each other in the chat. I'll ask that while the speakers are talking, while our keynote is talking, maybe take a break from chat for a little bit just so we can listen and not be distracted, but feel free during the rest of the celebration and to chat as you'd like and interact with one another. Let's see. And I'll just mention one more time that our silent auction is live and we close at midnight. We're not going to take a strike. Sorry. I'm just going to take that right off actually. There we go. So our silent auction is live. It's going to close at midnight tonight and I encourage you to check it out because like silent auctions virtually are great. Instead of slyly trying to beat someone out while the event is going and anonymously trying to get over there, you can just anonymously bid from home, set a proxy bid, let the site do all the work for you and Jill from next door will never know it's you that bid her out for the oil, the olive oil things until you invite her over for dinner or something. So I have been the lucky leader of the Burlington Partnership for a Healthy Community for more than 14 years now. I am continually impressed with the compassion and the commitment of so many people in our community doing important work to support health and wellness in Burlington. I recognized a lot of the people's names who registered but there's some new folks here too today who don't know us. So I just wanted to briefly share a little bit about what we do. Our mission is to address the causes and consequences of substance misuse in Burlington. If you were on earlier, you might have seen a few ways that we do that. We support kids to learn skills to empower them to be leaders for health and improvement in their community. We support public education and raise awareness of important substance use, prevention issues, and then we have a program for parents and teens. Parent in is one example of how we get information out to people. You can find that on social media or at parentinburlington.org and you'll receive tips and resources to help you prevent new substance use or just healthy development for kids. But I think one of the most important things that we do is challenge adult behavior and social norms that support substance misuse and disproportionately impact some populations that already have been impacted by inequitable systems and targeted by a commercial industry that needs to get people using substances early and often to make a profit. So it's important that we have protective factors in our community, more protective factors than we have risk factors in Burlington if we want to reduce substance misuse. So we support improvements to policy and practice that make healthy choices easier for community members. And we have lots of partners that we work with, but folks like Becca McCray and Dan Cahill and Shay Totten and Robin Friedner McGuire are all working on a little piece of that on their own as well. And what I love most about this work is how all those pieces work together to create an environment that supports us all. I stress this at our last event but I probably will just keep saying it every time because I don't think I can say it enough. The most effective way to prevent substance misuse is when the healthiest behavior is the easiest and most accessible to make for everyone. So we've got some work to do for that, but today I just want to celebrate those folks that are doing that work already. And that also brings me to our keynote. So often we use this event to invite local leaders as the keynote to make connections between public health and the work of the local organizations and the individuals and what they're doing to support protective factors. But with cannabis commercialization beginning soon in Vermont this year, we wanted to invite a speaker with more expertise about that issue and the impact it has on local communities. One thing that I can share from the work that I do, the work that we've been doing is that people are really confused about cannabis. The laws are changing the way the language that we're using to talk about it is changing, the research is constantly growing and changing, and we're learning new things all the time. And it is really hard to keep up, it's hard for me to keep up, and I do this for a job all the time. I'm constantly reading about it. We had one of our parent in workshops recently, a local child psychiatrist, Dr. David Ritoo said he had never seen a substance with such a big disconnect between what the research says and what people believe about the substance as cannabis. So we all have a lot of catching up to do. And I think our work in our organization is to help the community keep catching up, but we've invited Will to share some lessons learned from other states and help us support a Burlington where everyone has equal access to healthy choices and public health is prioritized above all. So Will Jones is the director of the community engagement and outreach at smart approaches to marijuana. He comes from a legacy of civil rights leaders in Washington DC. He's an experienced speaker and community activist. He works on issues of social justice at the local and national level. He partnered with drug policy advisors and leaders in DC in 2014 to found two is enough DC to raise awareness of the predatory practices of commercial industries targeting communities of color with substance use and helping to reduce marketing and improve policies that drive the inequities. He's been featured on TV radio print outlets talking about cannabis policy. One of the reasons that we invited him is that so many of our staff and our partners had seen him on various things and really appreciated his perspective. He's been on NBC, Reuters, TV, CBS, BBC World, I'll just see you're a C-Span, Washington Post, Puffington Post. He's earned an MPA from George Washington University in the School of Public Policy and Administration. And then just like all of us, we have lots of different experiences that bring us to this room and he's also a husband and a father and serves as a DC firefighter and EMT. So Mr. Jones, thank you so much for joining us today. We are so excited to have you. I invite you to unmute your phone and talk and I'm going to mute myself. Thanks for that introduction. Good evening, everyone. It's great to be here with you all and share as a keynote speaker and congratulations to those that are receiving awards this evening for your work in prevention. I think that's such it's an important field in the work that you do is so important. So congratulations to you. I'm going to talk about perhaps what may be the next frontier in prevention for you all there in Vermont and definitely in other states and that has to do with cannabis policy in legalization as I know that's coming to you all I believe in October of this year. And so I'm going to give a brief overview of kind of what the field is looking like right now, but also specifically focusing on how legalization has been impacting minority communities. I know that's one of the things that was discussed in one of the questions earlier this evening about advertisements the level of saturation of advertisements in certain communities and so that's something that you guys are already aware of. So I just want to help us I guess see you know as we're celebrating the work that's already been done to also kind of give a preview of maybe how the work may change in the future and just things to be aware of in data and trends that are happening so that you all can continue to do the great work that you are doing. So let me share my screen, hope that works. There we go. So again I'll be focusing more narrowly on specifically on the impact of legalization and commercialization in communities of color and the intersection with social justice, but I think there will be some things that will broadly apply just across legalization as well. And since we just have 10 minutes I am going to be going through this faster than I might ordinarily go through it, but my contact information will be at the end and very happy to dig deeper into any one of these slides. You know to follow up with anyone whether that's by email or phone conversation or even over Zoom you know I'm happy to dig deeper on any of the topics that I touched on. So when it comes to marijuana legalization there's three core arguments and actually if you forget that just for anyone that's not aware of the organization that I work with Sam here I'll say we're a bipartisan national organization and we work on issues of marijuana policy at the local and federal level. We provide education as well as working with legislators and our goal really is to see marijuana policy move forward in a way between the extremes of incarceration and arrests on one hand. I think we all are aware of some of the harms of just treating substance abuse as a criminal justice issue but we're also want to avoid the extremes of commercialization on the other hand and so we're navigating that space in between that in ways that can move marijuana policy forward in a way that doesn't negatively impact public health. So back to the three core arguments and that's arrested incarceration business equity initiatives and reinvesting in communities harmed by war and drugs. Those are the most common topics that I've heard in this space again specifically when we're talking about issues of social justice and marijuana legalization. So I want to analyze these things really quickly just give a bird's eye view of what's going on in this space and again think that we can look out for in the future. I think it's really important that to start out to remember our past and not that long ago in all of our lifetimes in the 90s executives from Big Tobacco from RJ Reynolds said stuff like we don't smoke that shit we just sell it we reserve the right to smoke for the young, the poor, the black and the stupid. That was their explicit marketing tactics in in our lifetimes and so we have to be very aware because one of the questions that I often pose people actually that I always pose people and why I have this slide up is why do we think things will magically change if the same companies are just selling a different product right and and so here you see any slides and again if you do not remember anything else that I say in this presentation if the rest is kind of boring and droning on you know I hope you remember this slide in this question sticks in your mind but you see her in this that's me and my daughter actually a couple of summers ago now I went to get her some ice cream at nearest convenience store to us and this is what it looks like in 2022 and you know the closest store where I lived at the time and when I began working on this issue the closest store to my house in any direction was a liquor store and so I think we need to think honestly if these companies that you see here and you know the pictures behind me are now just selling a different product why do we believe that they will that anything will change in terms of how they market who they target and who has the most negative health impacts from these addictive addictive products and so we're seeing a lot of similarities between the tobacco and alcohol industries we're seeing investments from big tobacco industries over nearly two billion dollars from Altria which is the parent company of Philip Morris we've seen investments from the alcohol industry so Molson Coors, Corona, Blue Moon, Heineken and others again and this is a very lucrative industry the Washington Post said that it can bring in more than NFL if it's legalized at the national level and so to me what I see taking place and how it appears to me is that issues of injustice are being appropriated by corporations and by businesses that are looking for a way to to change the law so that they can you know for profit for their profit and so you know just as an example this was the campaign that was ran in DC that said legalization and discrimination and I always say if you think that the systemic issues of discrimination and equality in our country or your state are going to be solved simply by creating a new lucrative industry you have a naive and very shallow at best understanding of the depth of these issues in the United States and how they persist still in 2022 and in many ways we see the you know history repeating itself again tobacco companies that not that long ago are partnering with organizations in minority communities in this quote from Brown and Williamson tobacco companies is really insightful it said clearly the sole reason for B&W's interest in the Black and Hispanic communities is the actual and potential sales of B&W products within these communities and the profitability of these sales is relatively small and often tightly knit minority community can work to B&W's marketing advantage if exploited properly because I will repeat that last line if exploited properly that's what these companies are doing they're on the right where you see PACS um marijuana policy project and houseplant making the same types of partnerships in roads in minority communities that tobacco companies did in the past and this is important again if you're a brand like PACS or houseplant or whatnot you want to have that instant name recognition that instant brand recognition in the community with your product and so we're seeing again some of the same patterns take place unfortunately these are just some quick images on the left you see Big D liquors and then Benning Heights market those were again when I began working on this issue some of the actually the ecosystem my house and on the right we see you know some marijuana related businesses in Colorado looks you're really similar to me but more importantly I think is the placement to more importantly to be aware of this is a placement they're disproportionately located in communities of color one pot shop for every 47 residents in Denver Colorado more pot shops than Starbucks and McDonald's combined and so I say you know just to paint that picture imagine you're walking down the road uh you see a McDonald's or a Starbucks replace that with a dispensary add some more and that's the level of saturation that we're talking about particularly in minority communities um and so I'm going to breeze through these again I used up most of the time already but I want to give just again a bird's eye view of what's happening in terms of rest incarceration in the other two topics um so even the ACLU found that extreme racial disparities in marijuana arrests persist even in legalized or decriminalized states and what we're seeing is that even though there have been reductions in certain categories of marijuana arrests very specific categories of rest marijuana related arrests the overall rate of arrests of African-Americans in Colorado Denver and in other states as well has remained unchanged or even gone up in these states since then and again to me this is because there's a systemic underlying issue that is not being addressed in even if marijuana is legal if you haven't dealt with those underlying issues holding people out of first law advice accountable um holding those departments accountable um then you're going to have the same issues pop up and just a different excuse maybe they'll say well it's legal but you have too much on your person or you're using in a place where you shouldn't or there's a whole host of excuses and I don't want to paint law enforcement with a broad brush brush either and say that all of them you know enforce law with bias but for those that do they should be held accountable legalization does not hold them accountable and so we see uh persistent if not increased bias in arrests um depending on you know there's multiple ways to interpret this data but we can just say again overall arrests increased um certain on view arrests are more likely uh in Colorado in the years following legalization for for blacks uh than prior to legalization um the juvenile arrest rate this is very important school prison pipeline because it's still illegal under the age of 21 minority youth according to the data best available data that was from the Colorado division of criminal justice um saw that there was actually well it did actually drop a small bit for white youth I think five percent it increased 35 percent for Latino youth and 54 percent for uh for black youth so just things we got to be aware of moving forward um adult arrests kind of already touched on that and again I'm not going to dig through all these limits but just to show you're tracking them we're talking about them in the trends are that even after legalization that the um there's no significant decrease in in arrests in black arrests in Massachusetts here you see a decrease after 2020 um that's when COVID hit so every state across the board saw significant reductions in arrests after when COVID hit in the same story with incarcerated population I know in DC our prison population was decreasing for several years prior to legalization same thing in Colorado and then for some reason after legalization that decreased change or an increase I don't have time to fully break down the slide but just to say there is no state that post legalization in the years following legalization saw any significant uh reduction in their um prison populations while um and this is what the second dotted lines are there actually were some significant reductions in prison populations on legislation I was passed I was actually specifically narrowly targeted at criminal justice reform so it's an interesting contrast there and why in my opinion marijuana legalization is stealing the oxygen from the room from greater reforms that could be done in the space um just California again don't have time to break down what's happening there but just in there was a if you go back here there was a small bump not huge but in 2017 small bump in their prison population which is right after they legalize and then it continued on its prior trajectory business equity initiatives um people you know I think this quote from the founder of the national diversity and inclusion cannabis alliances is very insightful and it says people had dreams and hopes of building generational wealth and it's done just the opposite it's ruining lives at this point um because these promises of equity are not being upheld nationally it's still less than four percent ownership by um by African Americans in the cannabis industry um you know even within the medical marijuana industry which has been around a little bit longer even in places like New Jersey where it's been there for 10 years only one license holder was black um and so there's a lot of concern by people that are excited about legalization but are seeing how this is actually hurting not harming the equity isn't being realized and people that have made investment made dreams um and things like that are really just being left out to dry and it's creating um hurt uh rather than help um but one other quote I'll just highlight uh as time is really up on selling your business dream as a social justice movement this is from the president of the minority cannabis business association and so then again you see headline after headline after headline repeating the same story that the promises and they sound wonderful I will be the first to say that these things sound great but the reality is again headline headline headline and so many more the they're not materializing the systems of inequality are still in place and so we're not seeing the promises for equity take place just more headlines again don't have time to break all of this down but just to show you that there's so much uh that's there and that is not being addressed by legalization when it comes to equity initiatives and then lastly reinvesting communities harmed by the one drugs again great idea same kind of concept of though uh kind of I almost called them like campaign promises of legalization right and then what actually happens is um you know the racial wealth gap is actually being compounded not helped and just to emphasize that point I have a very short video from congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez um you know I I like it's less than a minute I like sharing this video because again for our organization Sam this is not a shouldn't be a partisan issue sometimes it is but it shouldn't be and so we're looking at what people are saying on both sides of the aisle and then trying to take a step back and say so what what are the overall takeaways that we can have from this so um you know she is an advocate for legalization but even she is is saying hey this is compounding the racial wealth gap not helping so gonna play that really quick let me make sure I have my audio shared uh share computer sound and then I will be done compounding the racial wealth gap right now um based on who is getting the first mover advantage according to an industry trade publication 73 percent of cannabis executives in Colorado and Washington are male 81 percent are white in the state of Massachusetts um just 3.1 percent of the marijuana businesses in the state were owned by minorities and just 2.2 percent were owned by women is this industry representative of the communities that have historically bared the greatest brunt of injustice based on the prohibition of marijuana absolutely not it doesn't look like any of the people who are reaping the profits of this are the people who were directly impacted that's correct and so um again just wanted to share that to say people on both sides of the aisles are seeing that a lot of these promises aren't painting out and then again I bring it back to that initial image I showed in question of you know why do we think anything's magically going to change just because new corporate you know sorry old corporations are selling a new product we already know how they operate you know who they harm the most um and you guys work in prevention so I think you know we just have to be aware of this new frontier moving forward this is just a personal side I always tell people kind of what's my why why am I motivated to continue working on this issue and be passionate when a lot of people tell me you know like hey the train's already left the station why are you saying anything and for me it's just important to say uh what my truth is um to share that I have that in my family history that's my great-grand, finally great-uncle they were the first to sit in desegregate schools in Washington DC um and I draw an interesting contrast on the right there you have John Boehner who's now going to make 24 million dollars if marijuana is legalized at the federal level and I say you know there's not always a big paycheck at the end of the day if you're doing the right thing um and yeah I know you all working in prevention you would love it too if if your paycheck for working there in the community was 24 million dollars unfortunately we don't always have that paycheck but um the work that you guys are doing is so important and that's something to be proud of um and that's where I continue to speak out on this issue so that you know I can look back and say hey I spoke up I shared I did my best to speak the truth um as you know as we're moving into this new frontier of marijuana legalization commercialization um this is again my contact information so happy to continue the conversation or dig deeper into any of the slides or topics that I went through like a little bit over but I hope that was some good information for you all thank you thank you so much will thank you for your patience with us as we got things going and for doing this and for multitasking through all of it um that was amazing and impressive and uh I don't know how long you'll be able to stay on with us I know you're gonna have to jump off but thank you for coming and for your time today um we really appreciate it um and we will um try hopefully we can make the sounds quality workout and make just a quick little chunk of that portion of will's presentation that folks can watch later too as a separate piece thank you and you're getting a lot of fantastics in the chat will thank you for your time um if you're joining us from DC and now go fight a fire I'm guessing or whatever you need to do to save the world next I want to invite to bring it back to our state and Vermont and the things that are happening here we've invited Monica Hutt who's the chief prevention officer for the state of Vermont to share a few words about the state of our state as it relates to prevention and what's happening at a state level that impacts um how we might think about our next steps in Burlington too so Monica has been working for the state of Vermont with positions in the agency of human services the department of children and families she was appointed as commissioner of the department of disabilities aging and independent living in 2015 and then just in 2021 accepted the governor's appointment to chief prevention officer for the state so she has been really instrumental also in the human service field working in a variety of different human service positions also as the executive director of the Sarah Holbrook center here in Burlington years and years ago so she has some strong connections to this community as well in her role as chief prevention officer she serves as the governor's liaison to the cannabis control board and I've been really just excited to see you in this position Monica because I've just been so grateful for how approachable and genuine you are as a human but also the champ what a champion you've been for our work and for health and thinking about more upstream work that we do in our state in addition to our crisis interventions so thank you for being here and go ahead well thanks for having me I will just say it's kind of funny that will's camera kept going dark because I have I mean fear that mine will as well my husband I think just to amuse himself during COVID installed motion detector lights in our basement which is where I'm sitting so every once in a while they go off so I have to stand up and do crazy things to make them go back on so he's amused and I'm almost always in the dark down here so if that happens I'll do some waving and hopefully be back on will was amazing I could have listened to him for another hour just because I think so much of what he said was relevant and I'm not going to talk really specifically about cannabis but just as a reminder for folks Vermont is launching an adult use cannabis market in the next few months and I think that we're the only state in the country where this decision happened legislatively and the governor let that legislative process unfold and let that bill go into law without his signature and set a couple of really strong parameters and priorities for the market as it unfolded if it was going to happen as a as legislatively decided he really wanted the market focused on safety on prevention and on the social equity pieces that will refer to and I'm realizing just in listening to will talk that I probably need to dig a lot deeper into the social equity conversation to understand it but very recently the the cannabis control board launched its initial kind of provisional licensing for cultivators and growers just to kind of get a sense of what was happening in the state and the reports that I get through the cannabis control board is that the there's a really good variety of of kind of small medium and large with emphasis on small both retail establishments and growers that are applying which I think is a good thing for Vermont but again it's something that we're going to need to keep paying attention to one of the things that Mariah asked me to think about was you know what was making me feel hopeful in this in this world of substance use and prevention and I have to say that I am shocked and pleasantly surprised by the number of conversations around prevention that are happening all over the state I feel like it's all of a sudden gotten this huge boost and I am wondering how much the community conversations that coalitions like Burlington have been able to lead around the the cannabis conversation have kind of generated this energy and communities to think and talk and plan about substances and although the conversation is a lot about cannabis there's a great opening in the door to talk about substances across the board for our youth so tobacco and and opiates and alcohol which I think sometimes kind of ebb and flow so I'm actually feeling really hopeful about the world of prevention for the state of Vermont because I think we're taking it really seriously for a variety of reasons maybe some good reasons and some not so good reasons but the conversations have been incredibly real plus which I think is wonderful and I also will say that I am hearing more and more that the conversations aren't stopping on one substance or even or even just the issue of substance use but they're really about prevention large right writ large so people are talking about some of the co-occurring issues that we know some of our youth and some of our adults are facing in terms of mental health issues or poor physical health or all of those social determinants of health that need to be in place that can be negative or can also be part of our particular factors in building resilience so I just feel like the conversation has gotten really robust and rich and that people are talking about prevention not as its own silo where it competes with other things for funding or attention but as part of this entire continuum so in the substance use world you know really thinking about prevention as part of the beginning of a continuum which includes then treatment and recovery right but also thinking about it in terms of all of those other social determinants of health and the co-occurring issues that can happen with substance use so it's not as if prevention is standing by itself anymore it's got all of this support and energy from the other aspects of work along that continuum that I think are helping people to see it as a yes and we don't have to fund prevention and not fund other things we don't have to fund other things and ignore prevention I will also say that I really I am hopeful and also the end of the legislative session is this really wild time where literally my phone is pinging almost constantly and something good has happened or something not so good has happened and so I was hoping that at this point in time I would be able to give you a quick update on what's going on legislatively but literally nothing has been decided yet it's all still very much in flux and the legislature is also having really rich robust conversations about prevention so what I wanted to do Mariah was just give just a quick synopsis of some of the legislation and the bills that I'm paying attention to that I'm happy about or really concerned about to maybe just set the stage for all of you to kind of keep thinking and talking as we move forward so I'm going to start with the budget the governor governor's thought proposed in the budget funding for substance use disorder that really did hit that continuum and there was a huge chunk of funding for prevention a chunk of funding for intervention and treatment and then a chunk of funding for recovery so we started really strong with that continuum approach and recognizing the importance of prevention in a way that I don't think has been really done in the state before now and the intention was to fund local coalitions like Burlington across the states that they could really stabilize and become a network that wasn't dependent on federal funds that tend to be much more fluid but also I was going to say whimsical and I realized that I probably don't want that word recorded when I'm talking about federal funding but a little a little less stable sort of based on different substances different strategies but not operationally foundational for our coalitions so this money was really meant to be operational funding for coalitions so that they could grow and thrive and strengthen and be responsive to communities and community need that funding has ebbed and flowed throughout the session it's come out it's gone back in different bills have been introduced that that sort of took the dollars that were intended for prevention coalitions but at last count today this morning I think it's back in the budget the legislature has kind of understood the importance of it and it is in there at a slightly reduced amount so that's really hopeful and exciting I want to now talk just about a couple of bills that are also in play H711 creates the opioid settlement advisory committee coming from all of the settlements that the attorney general's office has worked out with the pharmaceutical companies around the opioid epidemic and that money is designed to for abatement purposes and can be used for prevention so that will be another source of funding kind of trying to rectify the harm that was done through opiates and over prescribing opiates that will be available to the state of Vermont to use so so in a really very real sense it's it's it's a reparation for harm that was done through the use of opiates which I think has been which will be great a couple of areas that I think are of concern that I wanted to just kind of share with you all one is very specific to cannabis the legislature had some very strong laws I think that people have noted that Vermont created with the onset or the planning for the adult use market really had a strong foundation in prevention and in safety one of the things that's most concerning to me right now is a bill it's H548 which is miscellaneous cannabis bill and in that bill the legislature walked back from a THC limit for concentrates cannabis concentrates the limit had been set at 60 percent which is high but is actually lower than most other states in the country that have moved into legalization the this bill actually eliminates that limit which is of significant concern I think for everybody because we know as you said Mariah that there's more and more research out there about cannabis cannabis use cannabis induced psychosis and the higher the THC level the more likely that is to have to happen and the more risk it is for our kids so that's a bill that we're really concerned about and paying attention to and I really urge you all to just take a quick look at it it's just literally one strike through in the bill but it's a significant strike through um I don't know that I need to go into any of the other bills I've been trying to make sure that all the coalitions stay informed and sending out a spreadsheet pretty much once a week updating the bill so that you all can pay attention but I will say that I just to kind of close us out I am grateful to be in this position at a point in time where the conversations around prevention are as ubiquitous as they have become and when we're talking about that we're talking about it really globally cross substances cross age really trying to understand the root causes of substance use and how to build the kind of healthy communities that we want to see and I really have come to believe and understand that our local coalitions are the only way to do that you know we can legislate we can have you know state agencies that are doing the work that they need to do but when it comes right down to it it's really about community it's really about reaching your community connecting with people building and creating the kind of buy-in that you need for both youth and adults to make a change and and kind of pay attention on the ground so I'm excited to be partnering with Mariah in this work and with all of our other coalitions and so excited for all of the awardees who I think really represent that continuum of social service of protective factors of social determinants in a way that build healthy communities for us so I will stop there thank you so much Monica for your time this evening too and for coming in kind of giving us a little state of the state and where things are and what we should be watching out for in the state house have been there's each session there's always so many bills related to substance use that it's hard to keep up with and things change as you all know I'm sure for anyone who follows any bills that it's changes so rapidly that it's been really great to have Monica to be able to highlight for us the things that we should be paying attention to thank you so much for your time Monica and for all the work that you're doing to champion prevention um so uh I was gonna have us all take a little break now um but I think just an interest of time and because we're a little bit behind where we planned to be at this point I would say just stretch maybe uh give yourself a minute stand up if you need to um yes Becca will lead us and stretch us the nurse here she can show you all move stand move your body um and we're just gonna power through so that you can get to the point of the night where a lot of you came for which is to um which is to talk about our awardees um so before uh the you know this part of the night we talked a lot about our mission of of issues that were related directly to our mission of preventing substance misuse but now I want to talk about um the people in our community that are doing things that help people thrive um and make it easier for um our work um so it's making easier for us in our substance use prevention work um every year we receive uh nominations from folks that are doing important work in Burlington and usually they're doing it without a lot of recognition just because it's needed just like the folks that um that we're talking about today and um 90 percent of the people who develop a substance use disorder starting started using substances before they turned 18 so delaying use and helping youth find other ways to cope and connect and feel valued um are incredibly important um and not just for youth but it is one of the places where we we spend our time um and there are some folks in our community who are doing things that help uh prevent substance use problems that help create a layer of protection for folks that um get in the way of those barriers to positive outcomes for folks for kids and adults um so I think the nominations that we got this year are just a good reminder of um how many generous and dedicated and creative and supportive people we have in our community um we don't have enough um capacity to acknowledge everyone that's been nominated but um I know that there are a lot of others just like Becca and um McCray and Dan Cahill and Shay Totten and Robin um Friedner McGuire um even the folks who are here today who continue to show up for their community and for health and wellness um I have uh reflected a lot over the years about this community I was mentioning it a little bit earlier um and about all the strengths that Burlington has and I think that one of the things that I've noticed over and over again is that one of the biggest strengths of this community or this the city is the people the passionate people and organizations that just keep showing up day and day in and day out to make our community a better place um sometimes like Robin Friedner McGuire and Shay Totten they are doing it by recognizing a problem in the community and not waiting for somebody else to fix it but stepping up to do what's needed and making sure that others follow sometimes like Rebecca McCray they are enhancing policies and resources so that all members of our community have access to health um and then there's people like Dan Cahill who are dedicating their time and their talents to activities that increase connection and build community um so thank you so much for all that you are doing in Burlington um I wanted to just mention that we have a theme that helps us think about um uh this award um so we themed it on um the roots of prevention because we think about our awardees as planting little prevention seedlings in the community each of them is an individual tree that is supporting the leaves and limbs that they're connected to but for them and for all of us there are um as there are more trees supporting healthy individuals and policies and practices in the community the gaps between them all get smaller and as a forest we are stronger than any one individual tree and it provides an environment where everyone can flourish um so I know that we can't do a round of applause like I would like to do um for our awardees at um an in-person celebration but maybe wave or hit the little reaction button um just show your support for the folks who and all they have done in this community you can also unmute and clap too if you'd like. I wanted to start us off by um talking about our DG Weaver award winner so DG Weaver as I mentioned um earlier if you were on um during our pre uh pre-program time is that um it was a late assistant principal of Burlington High School we give this annual award in his honor to a person associated with the Burlington schools who like Mr. Weaver is a positive role model and goes above and beyond to support healthy opportunities and activities for youth and either as a staff or a volunteer um we started organizing this in his um dedication 14 plus years ago now 14 years ago um because of all the support that he had done in the Burlington school district to create healthy opportunities for kids um so I wanted to invite um uh Evan to share uh our speaker for uh Rebecca today who's Tom plan again who couldn't be here tonight there's quite a few things happening in the district this evening as many of the folks who are uh who had hoped to be here are also tasked with being other places um but Tom has provided a video that we're going to play about and Evan I don't think the sound is not playing so give us just a minute to we'll get there this particular video I just had a few little moments um earlier but um I will say as Evan is playing the video that um I'm excited to see some of Becca's family here tonight so I um actually know Becca from years ago we went to school together um and then just recently reconnected and I will say that um it's been really um exciting to have you as a partner at the district Becca because she brings such a wealth of um passion for policies and systems and effective um creating effective policies and systems and strategies that help support a larger number of people so I'm just really grateful to have her we'll try again let's see how we go down okay let me know if you can't hear it this works during our trial volumes all the way up everyone my name is Tom plan again and I'm the superintendent of Burlington school can hear it I'm sorry I can't be there in person today I'm honored to be able to share this video congratulating Becca McCray Burlington school district's lead nurse on winning the DG Weaver award congratulations Becca Becca as our lead district nurse and COVID response coordinator you have researched written and implemented at least five different COVID response guidance protocols setup surveillance testing for staff contact traced at all hours of the night and weekends handed out countless tests and swab countless noses you've pushed us to be more cautious when we needed to be and you assured me our team and your colleagues through anxious times you advocated for student and staff safety at our district leadership meetings and at the state level the secretary of french aoe representatives and your nursing colleagues and you urged us to follow the science even when that wasn't popular you have been available at all hours of the day to offer your colleagues both professional and even personal guidance around COVID even now as restrictions loosen I know you were working closely with the team to keep families and staff informed and safe I know there were times when you've been exhausted and lost sleep or canceled plans to do this work I know I want you to know how grateful we are for your leadership and commitment in the most challenging time in our schools in this generation we would not have made it through without you plus this the plus side of this is that because we did do so many evening calls together you Russ and I that Russ and I now are close friends with you your boyfriend John and your dog Barkley and we will treasure that we were honored to nominate you for this award and thank you and thankful for having you in our district thank you beckham a craig for helping us shepherd us through this immensely difficult time with care skill and grace and congratulations on this award our districts city and state are better because of you thank you beckham yay yes thank you all please you um yes use your you can clap you can shout you can wave um thank you beckham for all that you've done in the community um like I said we just really appreciate everything that you've done um and uh I want to just share so we um would normally be handing off to becka a um an award but we can't because it's a virtual event so I will just show you that we um we work with a local artist who does um the awards for us every year and makes a stained glass award that I will be presenting to you um hopefully sometime soon that we can set up a time to come and bring that to you thank you so much for all of your work um uh in the berlington community um beckham you are welcome to say something if you would like but also there is no you do not have to say a few words I I'm super honored um to receive this award and um I I couldn't have done this without um the people I work with without the trust that they put in me to do this work I definitely could not have done this without the support of my family um and as tom said yes this work has interrupted many holidays and evenings and weekends and um I'm I'm just so um glad that I could provide um some peace to the chaos of COVID and some clarity um through the work that I did um at both the state and the local levels so um thank you so much and um I'm very proud of berlington schools for following the science thank you awesome thank you becka um I will now invite um frank lentie to come and talk to us about um dan kelly hill who is receiving the youth and families award okay great thanks Brian thanks for having me I I really appreciate having the opportunity to to speak um about dan I was thrilled to hear that he was nominated for the youth and families award um I've known Dan for for many years now and I've always known him as a a man about town and and over the years I've we um I remember thinking we had a good connection because of our competitive spirit um playing sports and staying active but really it was it's about over the years I've learned that Dan just likes being out there and in making our community great and being with with the people of our community so as as many may know Dan is a land steward for the city of berlington parks and rec and I just was thrilled when I heard that he was receiving this award because the last few years I last few years I'd see Dan when we when we'd go down to the uh the uh the Donahue C caves at Arthur park there in berlington right across the high school in between north avenue and and 127 and I always think like because Dan Dan would um he would get people excited to get down there and do some work to do the shoveling and and create a uh a real community down there in the winter and this last two winters of especially you know with with the the pandemic and the the lack of opportunity to to do things socially and and you know get exercise indoors we were faced with um having to be outside and you know I mean I love being outside but not everyone loves being outside in winters long but if you if you can find something to do during the winter it can be such a nice time and so if if people aren't aware Dan worked and created um a real positive momentum to get the uh the C caves project going where there's we'd have teams down there shoveling hockey ranks there's ice there's figure skating ranks there's huge ribbon for people to skate down there um people can come down to do um ice skating I mean um excuse me cross country skiing and bring their dogs and and it was really just a perfect way to to include all all sorts of people to um enjoy being outside and in the beauty of his right in Burlington and people sometimes people don't even know that this is wonderful resources right in Burlington but um getting back to Dan he transformed that C caves area and he'll be the first to tell you that you know he's so modest he'll he'll say that it was the the team that he'd always give the credit to all the people who are who'd help out but Dan was the one who who was snow blowing at 10 o'clock in the evening time and back the next morning to to tune it up right so it would be good for people to come down and and these last two years it's been so important and more than ever to get out and have healthy options and things to do um since we've been so cooped up in isolation and and just it's just so important that this is uh this is really um grown to what it is and um um let me see I'm not the most eloquent speaker but let me just check my notes here um anyway anyway like I said Dan will be the first to um deflect any praise and and and and recognize the the folks he's helping out but he's our inspirational leader at the C caves and honestly it's all throughout town and and the work he does in his profession and also just as a community member so Dan congratulations for receiving the youth and families award it's well deserved you are our leader and you deserve it thanks so much congratulations Dan thank you so much thank you Frank and thank you Dan for all of you've you've done in the community it was um exciting to read about this project and also just in speaking with Dan um I have I'm kind of telling people that they get the awards um it was a real pleasure just to hear about the things you're doing and I learned so much about um all the little ways that you're helping beyond just connecting folks and and providing the resources and being out there to snow shovel but also maybe providing some music and some fun for some some extra um special events as well so I really appreciate that thank you for everything you've done um and you're welcome to say something but there is no pressure and you do not need to sure I'll say a few words um well first and foremost thank you all um and um thank you Mariah Steph Evan for putting on this event something like this is not easy to do and this weird world that we're in uh figuring out how to gather um so that's off to you guys for that um yeah and Frank you know he's right I'm about to give credit to a bunch of other people um but and actually Frank deserves a lot of credit because I had the uh the opportunity to be traveling and I uh was in Mexico and I got a text from Frank checking in about how things were looking for the CKS this winter which was a really helpful kind of nudge to get ready and think about how to mobilize so Frank gets a lot of credit for this also um and there's a lot of community volunteers um in particular want to call out um Keith Hestcock who is really instrumental in helping teach us and learning how to do a lot of um working with ice last winter that led into the momentum of this winter um in tons of community volunteers the beauty of this project is that we got a bunch of shovels and we put them out down at the CKS we do some snowblowing to keep things kind of cleared but the community did a lot of the work keeping it going so that was a big part of it um shout out to the parts of the next staff that I work with who had a lot to do with it um we had um uh Ben Rogers, Olivia Woof, and Paul Morris, the people of folks who just really were instrumental in helping mobilize the effort working with me um and just I just want to say I love Burlington I love all the people in Burlington um I think we all share that together here um but one of the things that's special about this project is it's a it's a place it's one of our natural areas we have a lot of wonderful nature in Burlington it's a special place where humans and non-humans can kind of come together and share an experience um you know there's lots of wildlife there's lots of birds down there um overall just just a wonderful thing so thank you all for this recognition um it's it means so much and um thanks thanks for this great event thank you all um and same as I said Rebecca we will I know Dan that you are actually not in Vermont at the moment which is another joy of virtual events we can all come from wherever we are um so uh when you are back in the state or at some point we will um make sure that you get your award as well um and now I wanted to invite um Pam McCarthy to come and speak about uh Shay Totten and Robin Friedner-McGoyer and their award they are both sorry there we go they are both receiving um outstanding individual awards this year thanks a lot oh man this is so great to be here tonight um as you said I'm Pam McCarthy I'm the former president CEO of Vermont Family Network and a longtime advocate for children youth and families throughout Vermont I am so excited to be part of this evening it is so great to have the opportunity to celebrate my wonderful colleagues Robin Friedner-McGoyer and Shay Totten for their remarkable mental health first Burlington initiative and their tireless efforts to bring the innovative and effective cahoots model to Burlington to better support individuals and families dealing with mental health challenges I've known Robin for many years as a dedicated organizer and successful advocate first in Vermont's marriage equality movement and then in building bright futures and let's grow kids early childhood systems change work when she called me a couple of years ago to talk about her interest in making Burlington's mental health supports and services more responsive effective and impactful I was absolutely floored by her passion and vision as a leader of Vermont's family voices organization I was immediately drawn in as a collaborative partner for mental health first BTB and that was just the beginning Robin quickly recruited others to this effort including strong and knowledgeable folks from the ACLU the Howard Center and the Burlington community overall in the spring of 2020 as a pandemic loomed over everything we began to meet and share ideas gives him and that is where I finally met Shay Totten whose reputation had certainly preceded him as a skilled and articulate journalist and political commentator Shay had been involved in mental health advocacy for a long time he was the perfect co-lead with Robin for mental health first BTB as parents lived experiences of Vermont's mental health system of care Robin and Shay have been exceptionally authentic and compelling family leaders consistently influencing positive change with their expertise their wisdom and their strong commitment to making things better I can think of no better description for them than outstanding individuals in this time where the need for person and family centered mental health care is increasing daily the work that Robin and Shay have done to lay the foundation for a Burlington based cohoots model deserves great recognition and continued investment I'll leave it to these fearless leaders to tell you more about cohoots congratulations Robin and Shay it's been a privilege working with you on this and thank you thank you so much I know that maybe Robin or Shay wanted to say a few words you're welcome to unmute yourself want to do rock paper scissors Shay Pam thank you so much for that really thorough and sweet introduction and I also just want to thank the organizers for this event tonight I know it's it's hard but I really appreciate all the work that went into it and the only the only thing that I really want to add is just that I was so surprised when this came up because so many people were involved a lot of people were involved in this and Pam named a few of them but there were other families who participated we had mental health providers who participated and there were people who were just constant supports all along the way and a get part she's on tonight she was such a cheerleader early on AJ Rubin also from Vermont disabilities also was really helpful and honestly if it wasn't for Shay who just has been so solid every step of the way I just Shay appreciate you so much you just are such a fierce advocate with a kind heart and you're amazing and the city's really lucky to have you Vermont is and I also really want to just express my appreciation to counselor Karen Paul because it felt like we had almost like a we had a lot of time under her about doing some advocacy and it felt like it was Karen who really kind of breathed life into the hope around this and she has really committed herself to ensuring that her colleagues and the mayor really understood why creating something like cahoots is so important and I mean I guess just in short to describe it it's it's an alternative response to mental health crisis and folks who are also experienced a crisis because of substance use and abuse that deploys not the police but two individuals an EMT and a mental health crisis intervention worker both of whom are wells trained many hours of training and in de-escalation and other strategies and then help connect people to resources and that's a very cliff notes version of that but I'm really thrilled that the city is moving forward and I guess the last thing that I'll say is that I through this process I have spoken fairly frequently I would say initially but with a woman named Nikki Brennan and she is Phil Brennan's daughter and for those of you who don't know who Phil Brennan was he was killed by police in a mental health crisis he was a dad and a grandfather and um you know she advocated I believe with Shay early on and she just on occasion would give me messages of encouragement from afar she doesn't live in the stadium more so I'm really pleased that thanks to the help of Shay and everybody else that this is moving forward and that you know we can say to Nikki that her father didn't didn't die in vain and that real change is happening here in the city so thank you for for recognizing the work really appreciate it thank you Robin and Robin and Shay we will make sure that you get your words as well um and I just uh yeah thank you all so much um for all that you're doing um um uh we can't give our awardees the standing ovation that they deserve so maybe everyone can give a collective wave or a clap or um you know put a hit the reaction button on your panel to show your support for them in their efforts um I really just appreciate the time that folks take to nominate people too which is um important to recognize who folks are and what they're doing in the community um I um have to say that I love reading the nominations for um the Roots of Prevention Awards but there are also a lot of unsung heroes in the community doing great work um I'm usually the one that gets to call people and tell them that they've been nominated and chosen for the award and um it happened this year and it's happened many times in the years past that I hear from folks um I didn't think anyone noticed that I was doing this and how much work it went into whatever the project was um so with that in mind I want to say two things first to all the awardees um people noticed um we appreciate all you're doing um we know that there were many unseen contributions that you've made just supported the community too um but you are seen um and thank you um and for everyone else um don't forget to tell people that you notice and appreciate what they're doing sometimes it feels a little bit awkward but do it anyway um we all need people to see us and recognize our efforts um probably even more lately than we ever have before um so if you see someone is making a contribution to the health and safety and wellness of the Burlington community um you can consider nominating them for Roots of Prevention Award next year if you keep nominating we'll keep doing this every year um um and uh if you don't think it fits right in with our mission just tell them anyway um because people need to hear it um so supporting prevention comes in many forms um for some of like our awardees it's the donation of their time and their expertise but for others with financial resources donations of funds can have a profound impact um on improving outcomes in our community so I just want to take a minute to um acknowledge Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont who's been a generous sponsor of this event um for many many years um and helping us to reduce substance misuse in Burlington um and also our board chair Megan Peek is here tonight he works in community relations and health promotion at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont and is a wonderful champion um for helping us plan this event for making connections of Blue Cross Blue Shield and for lots of other great work in the community um so thank you Megan too and thank you for everyone who donated um auction items um from um uh we had them donated from local artists and businesses um so feel free to keep bidding like I said the auction is open until tonight at um it'll close at midnight so until 11 59 um and last I checked there was all sorts of um cool things that um that were still fairly low so you can keep bidding um and get some great deals um and I also want to say thank you to our wonderful staff um it takes a lot even for a virtual event there's a lot of things that have to come together um to put together an event um and Steph and Evan and Reagan who are all on tonight worked really hard to make another virtual event special so that we can honor people um it's not always easy to do that in a virtual way I hope next year we'll be able to do it in person and I can give you all your awards um in person and you can take it home with them you that night um but I'm really um lucky to have this uh amazing group of staff that helped put all of this together um so I can attend and be with you all and just enjoy it and be panic-free because they do all the hard work um and I just want to maybe leave us with um a quote from one of my favorite community organizers um who I quote often and probably have at a previous award celebration um um Margaret Wheatley who believed in the power of people coming together um so in one of her poems just a little quick bit she says be brave enough to start a conversation that matters talk to people you know talk to people you don't know talk to people you never talk to remember you don't feel fear people the story you don't know and real listening always brings people closer together so tonight we heard a few new things made some new connections heard some new stories about what's happening um in the community and I wish for you that you can continue that start some new conversations that lead to more positive changes for our community um in particular around substance use it's impacting everyone in the community in some way um so I hope that we can change the way we think about it so it becomes one of the issues like COVID where we wrap our energy and our resources around to prevent those long-term consequences um because substance use prevention is not the crisis it's the steady long-term investment in policies and practices and education and community assets that prevent the constant need for crisis management um and I encourage you to just keep planning those routes for prevention um and help our community thrive um in the coming future so good night I'm sorry we kept you a little bit longer but thank you all for your time really appreciate you being here good night