 schedule a little bit. All right. Welcome everybody. Yeah, they're still joining. Okay, I've got my introduction ready. All right. Then they just let me know when we can get started officially. Yeah, maybe in one minute. Okay. I don't see any more attendees joining. I think we could probably get started. Okay, great. Well, let me welcome everybody. The time is now 7.06 and we have a quorum of committee members in attendance. So this public hearing is being called to order. Welcome everybody to the December 12, 2023 public meeting and hearing of the Amherst Community Development Block Grant Advisory Committee. Pursuant to chapter 20 of the acts of 2021 and extended by the state legislature, this meeting is being conducted virtually using the Zoom platform. The meeting is being recorded and minutes are being taken as usual. So we'll do a quick roll call to make sure everybody is in attendance and everybody's microphone and cameras are working. Since you're all nodding as I'm speaking, I'm assuming that my microphone is working. I'm Becky and I'll just go around and call people, call on people to do this. So Zoey. I'm Zoey Sondris. I'm a community member. Thank you. Excellent. Rika. Rika Clement. I am a member of the committee. Suzanne. Suzanne Schilling, also a member of the committee. Yes. I'm Matt Larson. All systems are nominal. Excellent. And Nate. Nate Maloy, a planner with the town and I help staff the committee. Great. Okay. Thanks everybody for being here. So tonight for the members of the public who are here, the purpose of our meeting tonight is to set our priorities for the upcoming grant cycle and to also just talk publicly about what that schedule will look like going forward. We also are looking at our community development strategy and ensuring that both the strategy and our priorities are in line with what the community is looking for from this committee. We also can review our target areas tonight as well just to make sure everybody understands those and see if anybody in the public has any thoughts about those and how we're going to do this, how the meeting will work tonight. First, we're going to have a session where the public can speak to us about those topics that I just outlined and then we'll go into a meeting where the committee will talk about what we've just heard and make some decisions about what the priorities will be. And for the, how many people are here? Oh, it looks like, actually I can pull it over. Looks like we have eight attendees. So thank you everybody for being here and I just want to clarify what this meeting is for and what we're interested in hearing from you about, which specifically is about priorities. We're not looking for information about particular agencies tonight. Obviously we have meetings that are focused on that and where we want to hear all the great details and the great work about what the agencies are doing tonight. It's really about priorities and subject matter. I will actually read what our priorities are on our current RFP that is available on the website right now, but so everybody can hear those and what we're interested in hearing from all of you is whether you have any priorities that you would add to that list and whether, or if there are any that you think shouldn't be on that list. Tonight we're making no decisions about ranking priorities or about what we think is the most important. It's really just about what should be on that list so that it's as inclusive as possible. And so what the priorities are and have been in the past, what we, I think we added a few last year, but what they are right now are household stabilization, both family and individual, support services for those experiencing homelessness, youth development, services that help develop economic self-sufficiency, including adult education and job training, food and nutrition programs, low-cost accessible comprehensive health services, and insurance navigation, support services for seniors, and transportation services. So those are what we have on there now and we are, as I said, interested in hearing from all of you about anything you would add, anything you would take off, but again we're not looking tonight to be prioritizing any particular priorities on that list. So with that all said, we're also going to give everybody about two to three minutes to speak and we will, we can open it up. And let me just say one more thing just if you're comfortable, what we're going to do is bring you in and actually have you be able to see your face and talk to you live rather than just having your photo, which is a practice that we started last year and then seemed to work successfully. But if you don't want to be on camera, that's fine as well. You can just turn your video off. Sure, yeah, so this just I, Nate, again, this hearing is being recorded and you can raise your hand and then we'll bring you in as a panelist, as Becky mentioned, and I see there is one hand raised. So you'll be asked to rejoin as a panelist and if you accept that then you can, you can speak to the committee. Hi. Let's see, start video. Hey, it's me. Great. Thanks for coming. And if you can introduce yourself and your role in the community, just for the we have some new members so everybody can know who you are and then we'd love to hear from you. Wonderful. Thank you. My name is Laura Reichsman. I'm the director of Family Outreach of Amherst and just a little background on me. I grew up in Amherst. I raised my son who's 43 in Amherst. He's a graduate of Amherst High School and I have been either a case worker or at the director at Family Outreach for going into my 32nd year. So I know Amherst really well and have known it for a very long time and I'm 60. I'm about to be 62. So I've been in Amherst for a very long time and so I guess what I would say is that I feel like I can speak to where Amherst is now and what families who are struggling are struggling with. And so in light of what you said, I'm really going to try not to just say, oh, you know, our housing program that CDBG funds, yes, prioritized. Obviously housing is a priority in all spectrums and retention, the news that they're going to adjust the Section 8. If you have heard about that right now, if you have a Section 8, you absolutely can't live in Amherst. It's too high. The rents are too high. And in fact, we've been having a hard time placing people in Springfield and Holyoke and that's intense because that's, you know, we've just been going farther and farther afield to find housing for people who have Section 8 so they don't lose them. And actually in this last six months, we have in fact had two people lose their Section 8 because they could not find housing. That's a problem in our society that's, you know, and so certainly retention is huge. Affordable housing is huge. Stabilization of families so they can pay their rent is huge to keep them stable, keep their kids healthy, keep them in the very good Amherst schools. Those are all priorities. Food, you know, the survival center is, I think, a huge priority just as representing family average of Amherst and seeing the huge impact that has on struggling families in Amherst. So I would say Spanish services, you know, we are pretty much the only game in town. You know, we see probably five families almost daily because Francine Rodriguez speaks Spanish. I think that's a priority because there's, you know, we're here and we help. It would be good if that was a priority, although hiring has been a bear for Spanish speaking family for case workers. And so that's what I would say. So if you have any questions of my experience with families. Are you just so I'm clear when you said prioritizing Spanish services, is that something that you would add to the list or just for, you just note that it's something that your agencies are needing and your agency needs to? I think families in Amherst, there's a lot of families in Amherst whose primary language is Spanish speaking. So it'd be interesting to see what other folks say if they think that's true as well. But certainly what we see, what I see, what I know. Yeah, I think access to the language that you're comfortable in is really important when you're seeking services. And I also recognize that it can be very hard. Yeah. Does anybody else have any questions for Laura? Just clarify. So are you seeing people who have been living in Amherst then with their Section 8 vouchers not being able to stay in Amherst and have to leave Amherst? Yes. Absolutely. The rents are too high. They're beyond the threshold of Section 8. And apparently, this article came out where they're apparently going to have it be by zip code. Whether that'll happen or get work will be great, I hope. But right now, you cannot live in Amherst. And if you have a Section 8 and you've gotten in, there's different things you can do. Sometimes if you have been living in a complex for a long time or with a landlord, they'll adjust it. Sometimes you can pay more on the side, $100 past the threshold. You can pay out of pocket that $300. Sometimes that works. Amherst's housing used to allow that more than they do now. Thanks, I see. But yeah. But advocates for housing, advocates for stabilization, obviously, I mean, we're all biased. There's no way. But that's what we see. And Survival Center is the most brilliant thing, brilliant concept. A lot of communities don't have anything like Survival Center. Well, thank you so much, Laura, if nobody has any questions. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. I'm looking forward to seeing you at another meeting, I'm sure. Yeah, yes. I'm hearing all about family outreach. Yes, exactly. I tried to stay neutral. Great. Thanks. Thank you. All right, Lev, your hand was raised. Next. Thanks so much for joining. If you can introduce yourself and just let everybody know who you work with and your role in the community is for the new members, that would be great. Yes, absolutely. I am Lev Benesra. I am the Executive Director of the Immersed Survival Center. Also grew up for part of my childhood in Amherst and I'm really thrilled to be back in the community in this capacity. And I just want to check, I, okay, I should be able to. I'm hoping to be able to share my screen just to share one graph that is kind of significant, but I'll get there. So just a big thank you again to the committee and the new members for your thoughtful engagement in this process. And I fully understand that the goal of this meeting is really to weigh in on community needs and priorities as currently, and that's definitely what I plan to do. However, I guess sort of full disclosure, obviously I'm seeing it through the lens of the trends that we're seeing at the Amherst Survival Center and that's where I have kind of concrete data. But I really feel like it speaks to a larger trend that certainly gets at needs very much in addition to food and nutrition where I have the most focus. And I wanted to comment, I really agreed in the past that community needs don't change like that much from year to year. And I think I've been now part of these committee processes for a few years and we see similar information come up on those surveys. And, but I'm going to say that over the last year, since the last community survey was conducted, I have actually seen some pretty significant shifts in community need that I think are worth speaking to. I, it is very evident to me that our community is facing a much greater number of people in crisis level need regarding basic economic stability, their, their ability to meet most basic needs, food, housing, medical care, bills, like essential, essential survival stuff. And one of the evidences of that has been what we've seen at the Amherst Survival Center in terms of just record use of our programs. And this is just, if I can really quickly the graph that I want to share here. Are you all seeing this graph? So what this shows is just the number of unduplicated individuals who are accessing our food pantry every month. And so at the bottom gray and blue and green, those lines were the month by month total numbers in 2019, 2020, 2021. Yellow is 2022, we saw an increase. Orange is 2023. 10 out of the 11 months so far of 2023 have set new records for the number of people that are using the Amherst Survival Center food pantry. And if we, there's another graph that I won't go into that shares specifically visits and also amounts of food and that is even more stark. So people are also returning more frequently. But what we see here is just this skyrocketing need. And certainly some of that is very specific to food need, but it also really speaks to a family's income and their stability, right, is all one pot and they're trying to meet these various needs. And so I think that graph is really indicative to what Laura was just sharing and really that focus there. The number of people that we really see, frankly, on a daily basis who come in and as they're registering for the very first time, tell us, I never thought I would be someone who would need this. I never thought I would be here, right? Like those kinds of stories and lots of different specific stories. But at the crux of it, we're really seeing hugely rising costs of basic needs. We had seen some real wage increases for a couple of years, but they really stagnated and especially in lower wage jobs are nowhere near the cost of living, particularly in a community like Amherst that has a relatively very high cost of living. And then all of the various COVID relief programs for individuals have ended child care tax credit, pandemic snap, those kinds of things. But the other part that gets a little bit less talked about is that also the COVID funds for organizations have ended as well, that those COVID supports ended. And of course that means that organizations are struggling to fill that gap because we're seeing this need that orange line. But what it also means is that those additional services that had been available to families aren't there anymore because those programs, those like expanded programs have now been cut. So what I really want to encourage the community, the committee to think about in terms of the priorities this year in particular, based on what I'm seeing is a really high priority on basic needs. Kind of with looking at that par level of what our residents need to survive, to be healthy, to be stable. I was already planning to speak to the immense need for services in multiple languages. And I absolutely agree with Laura, the prior speaker that services in Spanish are critically important, but it is not only Spanish. So I don't think of that so much as a separate priority, but maybe something that the committee may want to consider about access to the other programs and services for speakers of different languages, because that's a really critical need that we're seeing. And I also, this has been discussed previously by the committee, but I think that especially in light of this explosion of need that programs like ours are seeing, I think it's critically important for the committee to consider in this round funding organizations that are currently funded. I know certainly for us, CDBG makes up about 10 percent of the food pantry cost of serving Amherst residents. It would definitely not be a problem to have, it would not all enough. It is hugely needed, especially as we're seeing these increases to have additional funding and there would be no issue of supplantation. And we'd be happy to provide that documentation, but I'm sure other organizations would be as well. So I really just want to encourage the committee to really be thinking strongly about basic needs and what I'm really seeing as I'm definitely talking with other local colleagues just this really dramatically rising need related to basic needs, food, shelter, clothing, health care, really core pieces. So thanks so much for your time and consideration. Thank you, that was helpful. And yeah, any questions? Does anybody have any questions? Just it's really enlightening and kind of shocking to see that graph of the need going up like that. Do you have a sense of what's the proportion of that increased need that is people who have been here, who haven't really needed the help before and how much of it is people coming in, in circumstances in which they really need this help? Thanks so much for that question, Nat. I don't have an answer in terms of off the top of my head in terms of like the statistics of which it is certainly some of both, but I would say more of the people who are coming for the first time are not necessarily new to the community. So we are certainly seeing an increase in people that are new to Amherst and coming, but a more we are also seeing and actually a larger increase. I would say our folks that have been here, but are just in a really different circumstance than they used to be. So it's a mix of both, but with my caveat that I'm not looking at any numbers right now to do that, but that's kind of my gut based on just conversations we've been having. That's great. Thank you. Anyone else? All right, Lev, thank you so much. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for your work. All right, Lev, you're going to become a attendee again. Let's see. Lori, you're going to be asked to become a panelist. So thank you for holding the hearing and for inviting multiple voices and perspectives. And I'm also speaking as someone who raised my children in Amherst whose kids played sports and went to the school and were formed by growing up in Amherst and also by as the director of Center for New Americans. And we have a site in Amherst and we're, you know, so happy to be supported this year. And I think I can't disagree with anything that anyone before me has said because I feel that this is a community that's blessed with very giving and hardworking nonprofits. And I know that our constituents take advantage of both family outreach of Amherst and the Survival Center. So supporting this network of safety net providers is really important. I will say that one of the things that always moved me about the Amherst master planning process was that early on Amherst named supporting diversity as a value. And I think one of the first master plans that I read said that diversity was a value that was prized by Amherst residents with the understanding that it needs to be supported. It doesn't happen by itself. And I know that when my children were in school, the children who came from other backgrounds were often invisible, that their parents didn't have cars. They took the bus, although the bus, the transportation was never as robust in Amherst as it might be in urban areas. And those kids just sort of muddled through because they were part of this great school system, but they often didn't have the resources that other people did. So, you know, we educate and train the parents of many of these children. The community is, yes, Spanish speaking, but much more diverse. There are, if you read the newspapers, everything that is global is local, right? So there are Haitians living in Amherst. There are Afghans living in Amherst. There are Ukrainians living in Amherst. All of the populations that have been forced to flee where they were have found their way into Massachusetts. And many of them are living in Amherst. There are people who have had successful asylum applications that we have filed for who are living in Amherst and all of them need support. And they range from women who never left their home in Afghanistan and were never educated and are getting their first experience of school in our classes to people who were professionals. And just think about children who are in our school system being raised by women who have never been to school. So we all know that the parent is the first teacher and that to the degree that we can support the parents, they will be better advocates and supporters of their children. So what I want to say is Amherst has always been a remarkably diverse place. Even though immigrants are not as visible, although if you go to UMass dining services, they employ tons and tons of immigrants. There are jobs in the community. There is a need for employees. That's why people resettle when there are jobs, even if the housing isn't always affordable or accessible. But there are jobs and the children are in the schools and educating and supporting the parents and connecting them to all these other community resources. That's what we do. So I thank you for the support. And just to consider that the education and training that helps Amherst remain diverse should hopefully be an ongoing part of your deliberations, I would hope. Thank you, Laurie. Does anybody have any questions for Laurie? Great. Thank you so much. We appreciate it. Thanks, Laurie. We'll change your role back to an attendee. Susan, you'll be asked to be a panelist. Hey, everyone. Appreciate this committee meeting happening tonight. I very much agree with everything that all my colleagues who spoke before me have shared. And again, Susan Nicastro from Big Brothers Big Sisters of Hampshire County, and we just from a youth development perspective and touching on all the areas that have been shared about by everyone preceding me, we are certainly seeing an increase in needs related to family stabilization in terms of housing and the so many employment needs that families are experiencing and how that impacts their children. So the need for additional supports for youth who are part of families who are struggling is definitely a significant increase in the demand that we're seeing for youth requesting support who we know would benefit from more support. And so I'm so glad that the priorities that have been discussed are going to be or plan to be addressed by these funds. And I'm very glad to see that youth development continues to be a priority because it's very much interwoven with all of the needs that have been highlighted and discussed. So yes, I just wanted to echo that and really we're looking forward to applying for these funds. And as a continuing grantee, I know something that I've discussed with Nate as well, but any information regarding returning grantees and how to approach requests for, as a continuing grantee, but how to also request funds for this new cycle in order to best address the growing needs that we see, that would be greatly appreciated. So I hope that that can be part any more information that can be available through this meeting or through other sources on that topic would be great. So thank you all for your consideration and everything that you do to mobilize these funds that are greatly needed and much appreciated. Thank you. I want to just address your point about the, you know, the overlapping time period and we have, well I should wait, Nate, as I know trying to get as much information as you can sort of on the back end about that because it's something that we obviously wouldn't want anybody wasting any time filling out an application and then not us not being able to give it because it somehow doesn't meet the requirements. So any information we get, we will share immediately. Great. I appreciate that very much. Thank you for your, does anybody have any questions for Susan? Okay, thanks for coming. Thank you so much for your work. Take care. Take care. Susan, I'll change your role back to an attendee. Okay, thank you. It's like nobody else has a hand raised right now. So maybe we'll just make sure that nobody who's here who hasn't spoken wants to, like give them everybody an opportunity to raise a hand. So yeah, in the meantime, I'll read or I'll paraphrase an email that came in today from a resident who said that they frequently use East Pleasant Street to come in from their neighborhood to the town center or for their kids to go to school. And they find that East Pleasant in particular is dangerous with a sidewalk on one side and fast traffic speed. And so generally they recommended sidewalk and pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure in and around the town center as a priority. And they had certain things like bike lanes on East Pleasant Street, maybe more roundabouts or stop signs near Strong Street or some traffic calming, and then sidewalks on East Pleasant as specifics, but more generally just a focus on transportation projects as a priority. And so I just wanted to get that on the record. Great. And it looks like nobody else is raising their hand. So maybe we'll transition into the public meeting. Sure, I think we can do that. I could wait one more minute in case someone decides to speak. I'll just check my email too. I don't think anyone has emailed me this evening. All right, looks like Lev raised her hand. But you can unmute yourself. Sorry, I just, Jen Weston is we're sharing a computer, but she was hoping to speak. So I'm not actually trying to speak again. Oh, so hold on. I'll make Jen a panelist. And then she can be visible. I think you're a panelist now. Yeah. Hi, everyone. So I'm here in my, not my town capacity, but my capacity as the board president of the Amherst survival center. And I just kind of wanted to reiterate some of the things that Lev had said, particularly with the rising costs of groceries. And I just want folks to remember that things like food stamps and the housing allotment and, you know, haven't been increased in a very long time. And so if you were a family of five and just say hypothetically, you were getting $497 in food stamps, that might have gotten three and a half weeks of groceries. It now probably gets you about two weeks of groceries. And so I just really wanted to reiterate that that basic need for groceries is very high right now. And that was really it. And I thank you all for your time. Thank you. It's helpful to hear concrete examples like that. So I appreciate you coming on with that. Does anybody have any questions for Jen? Great. Thank you. Thanks, Jen. I'll change your rollback to an attendee. Sorry, I was trying to type some notes to it at the same time. While some of the attendees are still here, I think I had emailed some I kind of emailed this out, but I can I'll say it now we put on the website that the state's recommending for social service agencies and say for Valley is starting a technical assistance program for micro enterprise businesses. But for those types of services that they start on July 1, 2025. So our current awards grants will run through June 30th 2025 for social services. And that's when the grant program kind of the first initial contract entry it is. And so the state's recommending that if if an agency gets an award in the 24 cycle that we just start the contract on July 1. So there's no overlap. And so I had asked about supplanting other things in the response really was just started July 1. So there's no overlap. I think I think there's some I think it's more than supplanting. I don't know. It sounds like they they really want to have that. That way they don't have to justify that it's an expansion of a service or something. So, you know, for like a month of overlap or a few months of overlap, they just said it's easier if you just have contracts, you know, go back to back. And that's the case, Nate, for even if it's a if we end up giving money to an organization that isn't currently getting money, everybody. They could start earlier then. Okay. Yeah. Okay, so the July 1. So just to clarify for everyone the July 1 2025 is only if they're a current grantee. Right. What was our two year grant allotment. Right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, that's what we had our contracts running. We had our contracts running through June 30th. Sometimes the funding might be expended before then, but the program would still run through that. And so that's kind of what the contract program period is. And so that way the next contract will just start in July. And so, you know, what that means for the town is that our grant may be under spent. You know, when it comes time for the next cycle, you know, you might not have spent typically they want 70% spent within a year. So we can always request a waiver. And I said, well, what if we run into this issue? And they said, well, you know, we've told you that it could happen. So I think that they'd be aware that this is kind of how they're going to recommend it to a lot of communities. So I don't really see it as an issue helpful. Good to know. So the good thing is that it doesn't cause a problem. But I guess on the flip side, it means that for agencies that we've been funding, there's no kind of additional funding that they can kind of double up on. So it'll be just extending. Right. Yeah. I mean, I guess that they wanted to say it was an expanded service and clearly demonstrate that then maybe they could start the funding early. But I'd want to, you know, if anyone has questions about that, we could send me an email and we could I could go back to the state. So, you know, for instance, a survival center showing greater need, but is just increasing the amount of, you know, food and certain things available because there's a greater need. Is that considered an expanded service or not? You know, it doesn't have to be something, you know, is it just, you know, is it the same service just meeting more need? It would an expanded service be like, oh, we're now doing, I know they say they do like a, you know, kids boost or whatever during school vacation. It's like, oh, now we're doing something different. A different type of program. Yeah. And so that's why I think they said July 1st, because I don't think they want to then have to turn around and try to explain it to HUD or someone if they're saying, well, what is the expanded activity? If it's somewhat difficult to decipher that, it's just easier to run it sequentially and not concurrently. Yeah. So the next, well, I guess in terms of the agenda, we should just start if anybody has any announcements. That was a good announcement that they just gave. Does anybody else have any announcements they want to make? I'll say that. I think we talked about it before the webinar started that the new the state pushed back the grant application deadline to March 25th. So that the schedule we'll talk about will probably change a little bit. And it's been posted online. So some of the dates might get pushed back a bit. And it looks like we need to change the dates anyway now learning that Tuesday night ends up not being a good night for all the, for everybody. So I think we had just started a discussion when we moved into the meeting about the calendar. And I think I had asked whether, but didn't we didn't answer whether Thursday night, or I guess whether Monday or Thursday really the remaining two possibilities for people. And if anybody has any regular obstacles on either of those two nights that would keep them from coming? Looks like no. I often have board meetings on Monday nights, but you know, depends on them, not every single week, but maybe a couple times a month. Thursday is a better night for you? Probably. I mean, some Mondays will work too. But are we going to, we're going to talk specific dates, not just days of the week. Correct. But yeah, we have enough. I think we have three meetings that we need to reschedule. Oh, maybe just the two. Actually, the rest of it is sort of behind the scenes. So if we move, so right now we have February 6th and 13th, but if we moved those to the, I guess we could maybe do the 12th and the 26th, would that, or no, that doesn't make sense to the. Well, let's just, I took some notes on the strategy, but if we want to do dates first, we had originally that the proposals were due on the 16th. And maybe we could push that back to January 19th. And we still just wanted to do a week for a question. So then the committee would give me questions on the 26, so by the 26, we'd ask applicants then to have them back on the second. And that should be fine. And then, and there would be when is the next, when is the block grant committee meeting to review the proposals and rank them. And so our first meeting, if we move the public meeting to, oh, right, to get your rating, sorry. I'm just looking at the. Yeah, I was looking like, would it be February 8th? Is that enough time? You know, it's just, you'd already have read the proposals. What, you know, from the second to the eighth, you would get any new information. Right. So if we got our, if we gave you the, if we tried to have our first, maybe the public meeting on the, on the 12th, and we got you our responses on the eighth, is that what we're thinking? Yeah, if we want to do the Monday, the 12th, that works for most, for most everyone. Does that work for everybody Monday, the 12th? We'll make it work. Okay. Great. All right. And then. And then we want to skip the following week. So because it's school vacation week, so maybe public hearing have that be on the Monday, the 26th or Thursday, the 29th? Yeah, I have a board meeting already on the 26th. Is Thursday the 29th work for people? Okay. Hey, that's leap year, isn't it? It is. Oh, are there leap year celebrations that we're going to be? The, yeah, that works out, I'll say for timing wise for me, I think that's good if we have that time between the meeting and the hearing. So the town manager and staff can review the committee recommendations and also gives the committee time if, for instance, on the 12th, we can't finalize everything. Maybe we'd have a supplemental meeting in there that week. And then that gives me three weeks to then put the whole application together, which is really what it takes. It takes quite a bit of time to get everything then. So that would work pretty, I guess it works out pretty well. Great. Okay, perfect. So should we move into a discussion and review comments from the public hearing? Unless anybody has other announcements? So just to sort of, as we're thinking about what the themes that we heard, I think one of the, you know, one thing to remember is that we can change both priorities by, you know, adding or deleting from the list of priorities, but we can also add in that we're looking for organizations to include in their discussion how they work with people who speak different languages, for example. So we had decided last time around, for example, I think that around climate, we wanted to hear I think how people's green initiatives and how they sort of factored climate issues into their work were relevant, but we didn't make that a priority. And so I'm thinking that with the language piece, that might be something, you know, hearing from, I think there were at least two people who talked about it, maybe even three, that that might be something we would consider adding into the portion of the application where it's not a priority, but it's just including sort of, you know, how they, how they handle that issue in their organizations. Yeah, that might be a good idea. Just looking at the RFP, there's a, one of the social service RFP items under project description is identify the roles and responsibilities of all personnel involved in the project, as well as internal controls might be a good place to add, you know, kind of language proficiencies. Yep. I mean, could we say, you know, we'd like to know how they address working with non-native English speakers? I mean, just, I mean, maybe there's language proficiencies on staff, but there any other strategies they use as well? Yeah, so I, you know, I can, let me share my screen and then some live edits while we're speaking. Is this visible for everyone? Yes, you know, I was just adding this bullet right here, how organizations address, organization addresses non-native speakers, and I'll just say translation services. I mean, it could be, you know, is that kind of Rika, what you were saying? Yes, I don't know. I mean, addresses working with non-native speakers somehow, addresses non-native speakers seems a little weird. Non-English speakers? Yeah, non-English. Or non-native English, but for whatever, yeah. You want to say like this? The native ads. Yeah. Just non-English. Non-English speakers. Speakers, right. Well, except that, you know, I do teach English to some non-native speakers, so they speak English, but I would say they still need some more assistance around that. So maybe it's for whom English isn't primary language or... What did you say, primary? Yeah, I don't... I think that's good. Clients who are, for whom English is not the primary language. Putting a lot of pressure on you to type perfectly made as well. I know, really, and it's hard to wordsmith something as a committee, but... That's all right. I actually say this is one of the benefits of Zoom, so we can do something like this. Okay. Or you can say how do organizations address barriers and communicate them, and then... No, I think this is more specific. That's good. Yeah. Maybe communication, for example, working with clients for whom English is not a primary language. Yeah, that's good, because that's a little broader barrier, because there could be other... There could be other, yes, you know, so it's not only English, but it's, you know, American Sign Language. Exactly, right. I know, I was always jealous there was a some friends of mine in college who I think they majored in American Sign Language, but they would talk to each other at parties and all the time, and I was like, man, that's not fair. Right. I know, I'm always jealous of people who can speak multiple languages. Yeah. All right, and then... Yes, thank you. In the strategy, I just put a few notes, and I think it's things that are already mentioned, but, you know, when we're talking about housing, I said housing opportunity for all income levels and demographics. And I think it's in this, in the narrative, but, you know, to me, that's something that I gathered from tonight. It's not anything that's highlighted, you know, basic needs, services with translation, services... You want to put that up, Nate, or go to that? Oh, sorry. Yeah, you know what? I know you're looking at it, I think, but we're not. Yes. Yeah, I thought, how come I can't find this? Yeah, and why... Oh, there we are. Right, so in this, is this visible now in the strategy? Yes, yes. I can make it a little bit bigger. So I just, you know, it was a highlighted here, some notes from tonight, housing opportunity for all income levels and demographics. And I would just make sure that we have that within this paragraph and then as a priority on the action list. Similarly, basic needs, network of providers that support community, I think education and training of immigrants and residents, food security. So I think we say, I just want to make sure that it's actually, you know, it is expressed in this document, workforce training and technical assistance programs is something that I heard. And, you know, as part of the strategy, unfortunately, it's supposed to be, you know, this very short concise document and then also list, you know, action steps, translation services. And I think that what we've done in the past in the state hasn't said anything as we have, you know, a category from the master plan is how this is developed. And then timeframe and then the activity, we kind of usually keep it broad. And so I think it captures everything that was said tonight. I don't think we need to tweak, you know, for instance, number two is community services. And we say, you know, social service programs, including but not limited to a number of things. I think it addresses all the comments that were said tonight, same with the housing option. And so, you know, later on in the cycle on the February 29 hearing will also include, you know, comments on the recommended activities, but also a final review of this strategy. So if over the course of the next few months, we determine that we think the, you know, the strategy could be updated a bit to reflect a little bit more accurately the proposals that are recommended, we can do that. So I think it actually says it, you know, I'm not sure we're missing anything. And this was updated, I think pretty thoroughly last year, we had a pretty big rewrite. The only thing I might suggest under community services is, you know, it talks about food security and nutrition. And I think what we're hearing more about is just addressing basic needs, you know, not just getting nutritious food, but getting food at all. So I might make that a little bit more about addressing basic household needs. That would be my recommendation is make it a little bit more just baseline getting food. Yeah, I agree. And I think there was, I feel like the word crisis is something crisis night. And I don't know whether we put that in. But it's, I mean, I could change it here support social programs address basic household needs. Yeah, right. I think you could even use that rather than the food security and nutrition programs. Because we're beyond just, you know, making sure that they're getting nutritious meals that we just need to make sure families can provide food. Yeah, we'll say food security programs. I think the state sometimes gets particular that we want to identify specific activities. So I don't want to say services that address household needs and not include this just so we could point to like we did mention food or certain, you know, household stabilization or, you know, economic self-sufficiency. And so we can say that the activities then address this, you know, second priority. That makes sense. Okay. Yeah, I like that. That was a great suggestion. The other piece that I think is, I don't know that it's in here, but I'm looking at, you know, Laurie's point about supporting diversity as a value. And whether I know that we added that maybe we can go back to the RFP in a minute and look at that. But is that incorporated? The idea, oh, it is. Okay, here we go. Good. We have it here. Let me just make a note here. And so I'll just, you know, tomorrow I'll just review the document to make sure that these, what's highlighted is, is clearer in these sections. And I can send it out with like track changes and I can put it online. So it's easy to see what's been updated. And can we go back to the RFP and just look at the diversity piece that we have there? I just can't remember exactly how we've... And is that, is that visible for everyone now? Yes. Yes. As well. Where is that in the document? I feel... I can't remember. Yeah. And I thought that we included it as, I mean, maybe it's above. Above in the sort of listing of the priority people to talk about. Yeah. Sorry for the spoil. Yeah, I thought it, I thought it was up here. I think we have, in fact, a priority of addressing rights. That's how we did it. Yeah. That's sort of different though. It's a different... It is. I just did a keyword search. I don't know if I, if they found it. Yeah. I mean, is that, was that bullet enough or do we have, would we want to have it somewhere else in this document? I mean, I think the, I, you know, Lori's point was that, that supporting diversity is, is a value in the town, you know, that the town, or is a quality that the town values. Yeah. I mean, I think would it go somewhere in community involvement? It's a poor... Or who would just add that as a bullet point after the, out of the impact addressing systemic racial injustice? Add another bullet point about addressing or, you know, promoting diversity? Not just promoting, but sort of recognizing the value of. I mean, I'm thinking about, I guess, you know, I think about like a, the survival center, for example, ensuring that they have different foods for different cultures, you know, that that seems like some, that's not necessarily, that's really recognizing the value more than, I guess, promoting. All right. So I added this. That looks good. Yeah. I like that. You're just adding some of those. And this is. And then make one other change in this. I think we added another bullet. I just went to, yeah, here we are. I like that. And so, you know, we're looking at social service for non-social service. I still think, you know, we have, you know, the three target areas and, you know, we'll try to get the word out some more about getting projects going. The town's already started talking and, you know, I've emailed certain organizations and it's, it's been in the paper. So some of it is, you know, we hope, I hope we get, you know, a few different project applications and proposals. And so, you know, we have to build up to our grant. What's this? Including East Pleasant Street. Yeah, you know, it's really tricky. I'll share my screen. The, even though the town's considered a majority low mod, the, that's not what I want. Make me have that comment last year, too, about East Pleasant Street and the sidewalk, like a sidewalk. Yeah. And I think, is that, is this map visible? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So the green, I think it comes up as kind of greenish yellow. Those are considered the income eligible areas in town. And so, but we still have to define a service area for an activity, which is, you know, so we have to determine like, okay, where is it that most likely, you know, whoever would use it. So if we said sidewalks, you know, on East Pleasant Street here, you know, it could be that, okay, most of the residents in this area will use it and it might be eligible. You know, we could, we'd have to say that, for instance, that a lot of, say, students or in areas that are not income eligible wouldn't use it. And so, when we've applied in the past last year for the combined grant, we are doing some work on this section down here on, we call it Southeast Street extension. It's on the common and then a little bit of Belcher Town Road right here, Route 9. And that's in an income eligible area. And it's pretty easy to say that, you know, doing sidewalks in here, when the block groups are 70% low mob that the users will, you know, will be a majority low or moderate income. It gets trickier in other parts of town. And so, you know, unless it's a an affordable housing project or something that specifically addresses, you know, the income eligibility piece, it's hard to say let's do sidewalks or, you know, public infrastructure in quite a bit of the town, actually. And so, yeah, it's just, you know, I think it's just, it gets tricky to find eligible projects. So did you say it is okay if the project is right on the line of the income eligible area? Yeah, well, we have to do those. Say, for instance, if we said, oh, a portion of East Puzzle Street, say it's up here. Yeah. We'd say, well, that means, you know, the neighborhood, this neighborhood, which is slightly below majority and this neighborhood would use it. And we, you know, typically we'd say that the service area for a sidewalk might be a half a mile to three quarter of a mile radius around it, walking distance. And so then we'd do some statistical manipulation of the census data and we'd say, okay, is it or is it that, you know, buffer area, a majority low mod? And, you know, and so here, be close, right? It'd be close, right? Yeah. Down here, yes, it would be better. Clear, yeah. But I think what I heard tonight, and I, you know, we say actually we mentioned East Puzzle Street explicitly in the strategy, as one of the goals was, you know, one of the, you know, eight kind of priority things. Number three was transportation. Let me say a continuous safe accessible network of, you know, pedestrian and bicycle or multi-use pathways. And we mentioned East Puzzle Street as one of those areas. And so another town manager would like to see more work done in the town center. The only caveat there, too, there's another one in that any work in a neighborhood, it should be at least 75% residential. And if it's a mostly commercial area that concern is right, then the users may not be the people who live there. And so, you know, we couldn't do like North Puzzle Street with all the shops, but we could do some of the streets around the town center. So I'm assuming we'll see some proposals for that type of, you know, some sidewalks in public infrastructure. Do we typically get a large number of applicants or submitted, you know, that we would have to review? I think for social services, it can range from anywhere from, you know, five to 10. And for non-social service, we can only fund three up to three. So, you know, even if we had a number, we can only recommend three. But typically we might have two to four. I think some of it is the capital projects with Block Grant have such strict requirements. The program does that, you know, a lot of times agencies won't propose projects. So, you know, affordable housing, 51% of the units have to be affordable, which is a high number. The Housing Authority will often apply because most all their units are considered affordable. And so that works for them. But, you know, a developer, for instance, wouldn't come in and take Block Grant money because typically it's like 20 or 25% of the units are affordable, not 51%. And so, you know, we were using it to do, we could use it to do like a neighborhood playground, public infrastructure, housing, you know, we don't have an urban renewal area. So, some communities use it for facade improvements in downtowns or signs in the downtown. We are not really eligible for that. Direct assistance to micro-enterprise businesses, where the owners are, and our workers are low or moderate income, that's eligible and Valley CDC is taking advantage of that. And so, yeah, actually, in a meeting with some Block Grant communities a few weeks ago, someone actually said, oh, it's getting harder to find eligible projects because their community is not a majority low-mod and then with the service area that we have to define each capital project with the service area, you know, you really have to, you know, you have to justify any vacant land what's happening in the next five years with it, what are the plans for housing in the area for economic development and then it takes a little bit of justification to do the project. So, in terms of the RFP, are we at a place where we can just say it's done? Do you want to send it out one more time to all of us for one final read through or it looks like we agreed on those two minor additions or three, I guess. Yeah, minor, minor importance, but just they were small. Yeah, I sent them out today. I mean, if the committee wants to look at, you know, individually and we could say that we'll still try to issue it by Friday at the latest. And so, I'll revise the dates and I think with those additions, I think they're probably all set. So, I'd gone through the other week and updated all the dates and information and they've been online and you've seen them. So, I don't, you know, unless there's, you know, we can give everyone another day or two to look at it if there's anything major, but Well, why don't we say this? If we, if you haven't heard from us by 9am on Thursday morning, then go for it. All right. Okay. And we just talked about the target areas. I'm just going through the agenda. So, I think we're good there. And then we have public comment. If any of our three public want to speak again on these topics, we can give them a second to raise their hands if they want. And while we're waiting for that, actually, we can, does anybody have any topics that we're not reasonably anticipated? Or we put the agenda together? All right. And I don't see anybody's hands raised. So, I think we're in good shape. So, our next convening will not be until February, but we'll be doing a ton of work between now and then, right? Yes. And yeah, and if any committee member, I guess we, I guess now I got some email, it's on, I think last time most members wanted paper copies of the proposals. And so then I can, you know, make copies when they come in for everyone. Thank you. Because we're all old people. Yes. Thank you. Yeah. So, just to confirm then, so you're getting all of the applications in January 19th? Is that right? Yes. And then we'll get questions back to you by January 26th. Okay. So, that's kind of kind of time for looking at all the stuff. And the meeting on the 12th is typically a longer meeting, correct? Because we're going to be reviewing ranking or how we each have sent in our rankings to you and then kind of determine who we would be issuing. And also, from the organizations as well. So that's all active. Yeah. 12th is usually a longer one. Yeah. I think for the 26th now, you're kind of right that is a crunch time. I think it could be that the first read of the proposal is something just, you know, is there missing information, general questions? You know, you're not necessarily, you might not, committee members don't necessarily have to do the ranking yet, you have until the 12th, but it could just be looking through saying if, you know, we think the budget sheet might be, it might be missing or, you know, maybe they didn't have an explanation of a certain part of the program or service. Nat, are you thinking it makes more sense to give a little more time on that first read? Because it does seem like it's a, that's a short period in whether we should... Yeah. Yeah, maybe because then I guess the question is how much time then do we give the organizations to respond to any questions that we have? Well, I thought that was going to be questions, would you do back February 2nd? Right. And then we'd have until the 12th. So we could actually change that a little bit. I could give you, I mean, you could have until the 29th or 30th, you know, give you a weekend again. Okay. That'd be nice. I think that's a good idea. Yeah. Yeah. Why don't we get you our questions by the 20, by the, by four o'clock on the 29th? Okay. That day? And then we give... Wait a minute. I thought we just said... Oh, right. And then rankings on the 12th. Okay. Questions by the 29th? Yep. And then we could, then we give applicants, you know, a week, say until the fifth. Yeah. And then you have then after their questions, their responses another week to really, you know, digest everything and come up with the rankings. Although actually, wait, if we're meeting now on the 12th, that's what we said, right? Yeah. Yep. But we'll have read them. We'll have done a first. Yeah. So, Nate, when would you need our rankings by to have them ready for the meeting on the 12th? The 11th. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, you know, what we've done in the past and the last few years, which I think is nice, I don't have to see your individual score sheets. It's just your ranking. So, you know, agency one, two, three, four, whatever. And then I, you know, if everyone sends me those and it can just be something I can share in it. And, you know, if it's, you know, it's almost like a scatterplot, like, oh, these few might be kind of everyone agrees as a top few. And here's some middle. Yeah. I think that works. Great. It's good to have these days in advance. So, you are making them part of your routine. Yes. Yeah. Great. All right. Does anybody have any other issues? Anything else? All right. Well, we'll see everybody on February 12th, but lots of work in between and just a reminder to everybody that if questions come up as you're reading or you have any issues, don't email the whole group because that's a public violation. So just email Nate and he can get the information out to whoever needs it and he can send emails to all of us. Okay. All right. Great. Great. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Have a good holidays. Yes, thank you. Bye.