 Karen. Okay. Okay. Well, let's see, we probably do have a quorum. And that one makes 10. Yeah. If he or she counts, we have 10. 10 counts, we have 10. I'm not sure I know what you mean, Jacqueline. I thought I heard a dog bark. How to join when you said, if we have a quorum and I heard a bark. Well, that was you. He just me coughing. That's all. Sorry about that. Now, there's only four of us, so we don't have a quorum yet. So we just have to wait a minute. I know that Greg cannot come on. I'll be really surprised if Christina is not here or so. Let's just wait a minute or two. I have to leave it a little early because I actually have a six o'clock dinner meeting. So that's okay. A few minutes early. Not a problem. Thanks for letting us know. Hi, Norma. Hi, Rosemary. Hi, Norma. Norma does encounter a quorum member, so we have to wait one more. So is it raining in the North Hammers? It's raining. It just started raining here. It just started here. It just came in from a walk. I'm in Echo Hill. Oh, and I don't see it. I don't think I see it anymore. Yeah, it's raining here on the South Side. Yeah. Not raining at UMass yet. I just read something about UMass and doing their semester differently next year. That sounds very. How do you feel about that? Um, graduation. That there is. Yeah, it's I'm I'm sad for my colleagues who have young children because that time between graduation and when the kids were out of school was always just the best time of year and, you know, that they're taking away a good because commencement is not until Memorial Day weekend. So we do have a longer January break, but I'd rather have. I mean, I think most of us would much rather have time off in May than in January. Yeah, yeah. And Memorial Day weekend. A hectic weekend as it is. Yeah, yeah. It's saying, well, we'll see. Ah, well, I'm really quite disappointed that the scene is not on. I think we should just go ahead and get started. Yeah. Yes. So I'll do a roll call and let me get that. Greg, and oh, oh, Chad is on. OK, that's great. Um, when you respond, respond using your voice to make sure that everybody's audio is OK. So Greg Baskham. Chad Fuller, Karen, Helfer, your Milla, Monty, Mior, Christine, Sharbi, Jacqueline, Smith, Crooks. Here. Dennis Vandal. Right here. And Terry Carr. Terry, is the sound on unmute? Terry, I think she's still. She is muted. I mean, you can't hear you. Looks like she can't hear us. Unmute Terry, please. Hello. OK, hi. Are you doing good? OK, very good. I call the meeting to order pursuant to Governor Baker's March 12th, 2020, order suspending certain provisions of the meeting law, GLC 30A 18. This meeting of the Council on Aging is being conducted via from remote participation. The meeting is also being recorded. And I would ask you all to unmute, I mean, to mute so that we don't have any background noise. I will also ask for any public comment at this time. Anyone in the public is welcome to make a comment for up to three minutes. And if you wish to speak, do so now. We will not respond or discuss what you say. Any comments in the public show of hand? OK. OK, well, let's move on. Then I'd like to introduce our new members of the council. First, I'd like to welcome everyone, our guests, Eric Earl Miller and. Jennifer Moisten. And I'd like to welcome also our new members, Terry Carr and Dennis Bandahl, who were just recently sworn in to be council members. So, Terry, do you want to say Terry disappeared? She might be having trouble with her connection. Dennis, do you want to say hi and say a few words about yourself? Yes, OK, I've just figured out how to unmute it temporarily. Hi, I'm Dennis Bandahl, a resident here of Amherst for only about 20 years. I'm a fly in. I'm still. Let's just say that I'm semi retired because photography never really leaves you. And that's basically what I do for a living. I've worked as a photographer and a photojournalist for. Really, my entire career and thanks to Rosemary, I became involved with with the the COA and I was I'm also a member of the Friends and also a member of the Salt Council. And that's that's basically about it. Previous to my involvement, I was a member of the Salt Council. To my involvement, my my my late wife, Ada Walsh, was also a member of the Friends and she was also for a while a member of the COA. So I'm I'm sort of like you might say that I'm following in her footsteps. So in other words, thank you very much for welcoming me aboard and and here I am. So I'll see whatever I can do for you. Just let me know. Thank you, Dennis. OK. And let's go around the table, so to speak. And introduce ourselves. I think you all know me. I've been involved with the senior sender as a volunteer and on the council and on the Friends committee. For many years, I got started in 2003 and I'm I'm still kicking. So Jacqueline, how about introducing yourself? Jacqueline is co-chair of the council on mute, though. Unmute Jacqueline Smith Crooks. And I'm on the council with Rosemary and I am co-chairing. This is my second time around in Amherst. I came here originally as a graduate student in the 70s and came back here again in the 21st century. We're happy to have you back for some years. Yes, thank you. OK. And Karen, how about yourself? I'm Karen Helfer. I'm a relatively new member of the council. I think maybe since January I've been. I'm a longtime resident of Amherst, 20 something years. And I'm a UMass professor also. And Terry, as our other new member of the council, if you can unmute and just tell us a bit about yourself. I'm Terry Carr. I've been an Amherst about a year and a half. I'm from Northampton originally and I volunteer at the senior center. So I get a lot of background info from there. And I'm happy to be here. Thank you. And Terry is also secretary and does the minutes for us. So and let's move on to our guest or Chad, Chad, from our sorry. Chad, please introduce yourself. Sure, I'm Chad. I don't know what that underneath my name is. I think that's some kind of legal thing. Charles Fuller, the third, I don't know. OK, well, welcome. Thanks. And then we have Norma Halleck, who is here. Introduce yourself, Norma. Unmute first. Hello, I'm Norma Halleck. And I served on the board for almost six years until they changed the rules about you had to be a member of live in the in this town and city of Amherst. So I am involved with the friends on the board. And I used to do blood pressures on Tuesdays at the senior center and volunteer when I can to help out with functions or. Yeah, what about with functions? So and I belong to the Island Valley Elder Services Board. So as part of that, I'm on their. Their nutrition council. And I've been on that for five years. And we meet only every other month. And the meeting got changed till after your meeting, because I report back to this board. And so I will give a brief report when my time comes. Thank you, Norma. And Linda, I'm you, I'm you. Sorry, thank you. I'm Linda Terry. I'm from the board of Amherst Neighbors. I'm one of the founding members also and we're a variety of hats. Anything from communications and clerk. Now, you know, it happens when you're a founding member, you never leave, you just rotate your job description. And so I'm very dedicated to it. But I want to be at Rosemary and I talked and we'd like to have a regular voice and, you know, be a part of the council and and be able to work together. So I hope to be that representative from the Amherst Neighbors and Jackie, I have to just comment. I also have two lives in Amherst. I was here as a single parent and went to graduate school. And then I went on the career circuit and came back in the 20th, 21st century to literally 2000. Well, 2008 actually was later. So, yeah, it's like a magnet kind of gets draws you back. And here I am. And Christina, welcome. Thank you. And would you unmute and introduce yourself, please? Yes. Um, I'm Christina Charba, and I just had a frantic run because I got out of work and I had to go to two stores. So I'm like, I don't even know where any of my cell phone or anything is right now, frazzled. But I live here in Amherst for 30 somewhat years. I came from Brooklyn, New York. I work two part-time jobs. And I enjoy civic engagement. And I'm active member of the African American Church in Amherst called Goodwin Memorial. And I am honored to be on this committee and hopefully enjoy my time and do some constructive things. Thank you. OK. And then we have special guests. Jennifer Moisten is here from the town. If you want to introduce yourself, Jennifer. Oh, good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jennifer Moisten. I'm the assistant director of diversity, equity, inclusion here for the town. I've worked for the town for about almost nine years next month. It'll be my ninth year. I've lived in Amherst for about 40 plus years. And I remember volunteering at the senior center when I was like 11 or 12. And I, you know, I helped my mom deliver meals on wheels. So I'm here to help and support you guys in any way that I can. And it's an honor to be here. Thank you. And I recognize most of you. So hi. And Earl Miller. Hi, everyone. I am the newest to town. I've only been here for four weeks, so I think that puts me in the minority. I'm the director of the new community responders for equity, safety and service program. So it's a wonderful once in a century opportunity to start a new public safety department. No pressure. And so four weeks in where we're trying to build something that everyone will be happy with. So you can imagine that's a tricky. But it is my dream job. So I'm really glad to be here with you all. I think about this all the time and I'm looking to be a good partner with you all. I have two daughters, Valencia and Carmelina. You will see the little one here in the summer. Her name is Valencia. I expect she'll want to hang out at the senior center. That is her crowd. So I'm looking forward to spending time with you all. Thank you. And we look forward to hearing hearing about the Crest program. And I'm afraid Haley just disappeared, but she is probably the most important person to introduce. She is the director of senior services, so she'll be back. So let's let's move on. Actually, Haley is the first up on the agenda, as a matter of fact. So I wanted her to give you a report. What's going on with at the senior center and the activities. So when she comes back, we'll have her do that. But in the meantime, Jennifer, can you talk to us about your program that on diversity and inclusion? So currently right now, you know, this is a new department for the town similar to Crest being a new department. And we're waiting for the director to be hired. I basically have been doing diversity, equity and inclusion work for the town since the town changed its charter. When we kind of changed our form of government and the administrative tasks that I was doing before no longer belong to this office. And so I had some free time where I was able to kind of dive into the EI. So I'm really here to kind of support you guys. I do do a workshop that's about an hour and a half that, you know, if it's needed. But we really are just I'm just here to support you guys. I know at some at some point was an issue and I know it's a town goal to have all of the staff and boards and committees, you know, start being trained on on equity issues. So I'll just leave it there and see if anyone has any questions or if there's anything anyone wants to say. But I'm I'm really mostly here to support you guys. So I guess hearing how you guys feel about equity and inclusion would be a great place to start. I'm I wondered what your workshop was about. You said you did a workshop and I. Yeah, so my workshop really starts off with the notion to give everyone the same common language and knowledge in regards to equity. And then the goal of that is to hope that it inspires people to want to do a little more self exploration, which then we would have follow up trainings for. But it's really what I call like the ABCs of the EI. A lot of people in life have been misinformed for a long time about the actual history. And so I'm just kind of here to my workshop kind of dismantles those theories that are not real. So and and what time is involved? I mean, is this a workshop that we could do during one of our meetings, for instance, you could. And I it would take up the bulk of a good percentage of the meeting. So my suggestion would be to schedule a separate meeting for it. But we just because, you know, once conversation starts, it kind of extends it out. I recently ran this workshop over at UMass for the microbiology program and we did it in about an hour and 15. So it can be done, but that, you know, it. We kind of skipped and I gave them stuff to go back and look at later, right? That's how I had to do it to squeeze it into the hour. So instead of being able to do the whole thing together as a group, they had to go out and do it separately. So is this an interactive workshop then? Well, it is in the sense that we're all together. I mean, I personally rather do these in person. I don't typically do them via Zoom. I think there's something lost when we have these kind of conversations and they're not in person, but they can be done by Zoom. Yeah. OK, OK. Any other questions from anyone? Thank you, Jennifer. Yeah, I guess. Chad, did you have a question? No, yes. Well, I was just going to add support as opposed to a question. I've gone through this with Jennifer and it's very comprehensive. We would get absolutely no work done as a board. We get a lot of work done on this topic. It's one of the best I've ever I've ever attended. And I've been doing this for 50, 60 years, but she hits all the points. It's great. Oh, thank you, Chad. I do I do have to say that, you know, the benefit of it is that everybody has the same common knowledge and that, you know, the senior center there's a disconnect with seniors from the BIPOC community and other marginalized community members. And so one of the things that it does is it kind of opens up and helps you understand where that disconnect may be, which makes it a little bit easier for you to go out into the community and approach folks. And it breaks down that barrier, that wall a little bit from your perspective so that you have a better understanding of what might of how to connect with people on another level. It sounds excellent. Yes. OK. Thank you very much, Jennifer. You are welcome. OK, and I don't see I see that Haley hasn't reconnected with us yet. And unfortunately, Terry Carr keeps losing her connection as well. So I'd like to move on then and have Earl tell us about his program in Crest Community Responders for it's a mouthful. Don't worry. It's going to take you a while. It's not as catchy as Fire Department yet, but we'll get there. Community Responders for Equity, Safety and Service. This was the Department of Town set up in response to, you know, in large part the murder of George Floyd and Amherst being an action oriented place really did develop this thing. So there's been this two year work plan. I'm sure some of you have seen it or been involved. I know certainly Jennifer has to develop this thing. Just tell you a little bit about myself. I'm from Holyoke. I spent the last four years at the Department of Mental Health working as a director of recovery and employment services. So this is it's interesting. I think sometimes people think town stuff moves slow, but compared to the state, it feels like rocket speed. I don't know that I've worked this fast and in a long time. What we're doing right now is really building up the infrastructure. Crest is going to be 10 folks when we start. Me, a program assistant and then eight responders. I know there's been some concerns, particularly from the senior community, that does this mean the police won't show up if I call 911? Promise you the right people will show up. We don't fight fires. We are not. We don't have any of the mechanisms police have. But really what this is, is that, you know, frankly, not all 911 calls require the police or fire department to show up. And right now they do show up to those things, but often, you know, it's taxing on them doing the work that they they really do on a daily basis. And so we'll be doing that. We're just starting. So my commitment to folks is that by mid June, we'll be out on the streets patrolling to some degree. Come July, we'll be full bore. And you'll be able to reach us both through 911. If you call 911, some calls will be routed directly to us. It may be that the police and us show up and then we'll show up and figure out who's the right person or maybe it's a combination. The town isn't losing anything. You're gaining a whole other department that can do things like kind of stay and do the meaningful support, be invested. Jennifer is working with us. If you want a chance to engage with us, we're going to come to where you live. If you live in an apartment complex and if you don't, we'll make sure you get to come join us at one of those. We're going to bring some food, break bread with folks. And the reality is we're still building this. We want your input. This will be in the bank center. So we're going to be good neighbors. We went to a tool of painting class, me and my implementation director of Dala last week. We're not very good at painting, but we sure did do all the stuff about painting and trying to think if there's anything. Oh, I would be remiss if I didn't mention tomorrow. We're doing a cup of Joe over at the senior center. Feel free to come over and have some coffee. The other piece I just want to say is this is new and new does not always feel really good. So if you have a question or, you know, hey, what is that guy doing up there? How do I learn more? I want to answer your questions. And sometimes I learn more from people asking the question than trying to answer it. So if you're thinking of something, I want to hear it. You guys have a tremendous amount of wisdom. If I can, if I can, I'd like to learn from some of it to maybe avoid some of my own mistakes. And if you see me walking into a land mine, stop me. So if you see something happen, it would crest it that feels like it's not working for you. I this program is more important than me. So I want to hear from you. I want to get this right. You deserve to have this work. We're going to be the first of these programs to open up in New England. So Amherst is going to be on the map. We're going to be first. We're going to aim to be best. I don't know what best looks like right now, but we're going to dig as deep. The police department here is, I think, one of the best. The fire department here is one of the best. We have a high expectation level to reach. And we might not get there on day one, but I promise we'll keep going till we do. So so that's really this is like I said at the beginning, this is my dream job. I think about this all the time. The last time there was a new public safety department was the fire department in about 1880. So this opportunity doesn't roll around too often. And and I'm I do not forget that. And we're going to people ask, what is the role we'll have with seniors? You'll define that for us. The community will tell us what we need to do. We'll be responsive to that. So glad to answer any questions. And obviously, we're going to be rolling this out. So this won't be the last time you get a chance to ask a question. So does anyone have any questions? Couple hands up and unmute if you do. I do have a one question. You said that there would be 10 people all together, one assistant to you and eight responders. What is the role and what is the title of each responder going to be? Well, the community responders are one role. Initially, there was some thought that we would differentiate them by some would be behavioral health and some would be community responders. Actually, we know from looking at like the fire department, everybody has to be able to do the work when they're on. So it's a little bit more of a generous approach. Those community responders, all of them, their role is to respond to needs that they find in the community to look at disparities. So people who may not otherwise be feeling very connected to the town. And and we're still figuring that out. So the big thing I would say is they're all going to be community responders, but you should know them by name. There's only 10 of us. So the other piece is I wouldn't worry so much about the title. Once we get the people, I'll make sure I bring them around and you get to look them in the eye. Tell me how you feel about them and their background. They would all have similar background. We haven't hired all of them yet, but hopefully not. We were hoping that some of them will have mental health backgrounds. We certainly want some folks to be from this town, because I recognize this town has a very unique perspective, a very interesting background. One of the things we're committed to is really a diversity of views. They're all going to get very intensive training. We have two months of training they're all going to go through. We're going to work very hard in that training. That training is going to be around conflict, de-escalation, nonviolent communication. First aid will be able to do CPR. We'll have defibrillators in our cars. We'll have a lot of the kind of first aid equipment. And some of it is going to be we're going to tour the town, get to know where folks are and how we can be responsive to them. And we're working with Haley on how we can be supportive to folks at the senior center. So some of that will be just if folks come in and one of the things we'll have is two vehicles. So one of the things we've been thinking about is how, you know, if folks need a ride home, could we do that? Could that be an engagement point? We'll be at the library helping to close down the library every day so that the librarians can be librarians. And it also gives us an opportunity to meet those folks. So I don't think we're quite so concrete yet on what it'll look like. We're wanting to be flexible so that we can meet the need. But what you can count on is that they'll be respectful. They'll be knowledgeable in the things that they do. And they'll be curious about what you think we can do better. So you we're going to build this with you also. You tell us what we need to be experts at and we'll work towards it. And I imagine that you will not be responding to people on campus, for instance, as that's separate from town or. So I think right now, I think right now, yes, we haven't actually I haven't met the Amherst, the UMass PD yet. So we'll talk to them. I think with eight folks will really be looking at the kind of town stuff. We'll have our hands full with just that. But we certainly hope to spread the idea. I would say at the start, we'll be working with them. If there are students still living in the community that we can serve kind of our motto is we don't have an age we serve. We don't have a type of person. If someone resides in the borders of Amherst, we'll work with them if they want us to. Are there other questions from anybody? Yeah, where's the cup of Joe? What time? That's a good question. Justina, it's it's eight thirty tomorrow. It's at the bank center. Haley can tell you what room it is, because I've only been there a few times. The town manager will be there. He's a pretty great guy, too. And we will have coffee and I hear pastries, although there are not pastries. I don't want to be blamed for that. It just I wanted to add that both of these programs or departments are a response to a need that the community felt was very important for the town to have. So the community safety working group worked really hard on creating, you know, they were they were the ones that envisioned the DEI department and the Crest Department. And I just think that's really special for folks to know that these two departments are community driven, which means a lot, which means that your opinions and your thoughts and your experiences are very important to us. So I just wanted to add that piece in there. Thank you. And Chad, I see you have a question. Yes, I was wondering exactly two questions in one. If the staff will have any disaster, mental health, training or experience along the same lines, would you advocate for a community resilience center or started to get into the earth changes? And there's going to be some big things happening there. Yeah, Chad, that that actually was one of my specialties at DMH. I was the emergency management director. If you look in my car right now, I have about a 20 pound box of disaster behavioral health training manuals. So we will we will do that. We will work with folks who are recovering from any sort of disaster fire, a natural disaster, whatever, we will be prepared for that. And I am in favor of this town growing resources for folks. I think having a space where people can go. It's obviously so meaningful at the senior center for folks to have a place they can go to feel safe. And so to have that for everyone, I think, is important. But I'm so new to the town. I really want to trust you all. If you think a hub needs to happen, what I can commit to is whatever the town does, we'll support it. So if they if they have a resiliency hub, you can count on Crest being a partner and a support to the folks there, whatever direction they go, you can count on us being a good partner. Jennifer, you got anything I just I forgot to mention that he that Earl had mentioned the community outreach efforts and that we will be going to different neighborhoods and an apartment complexes. And I remember at one point we did this and I believe it was Amherst neighbors that attended, but it was very nice. And it was a good way for folks to intermingle because some people aren't aware that the senior center exists or that it offers the amount of programming that it does or even that Amherst neighbors exist, which is another resource for our seniors. So when we come out with these dates, we'll make sure that we get them to Haley because at the same time that we will be really pushing out Crest, we want it to be all inclusive of all the other town departments because those resources, their resources for folks who aren't connected. And it's so important that people who aren't currently connected know that the resources are available to them. The other thing I just want to add is if invite me over for coffee, I want to sit down with you all and have these long conversations because this is an exciting opportunity. It does not come around that often. We live in exciting times. I want to sit with you and what do you dream Crest can be? Because what I'll commit to you is what we are on day one is not what we'll be in year two. We're going to continue to grow. We're going to start out somewhat limited, but that won't last for long. We're going to keep growing. So if there are things you, like I said, I like to talk. That's one of my favorite things. I'll be at the kind of town counselor meetings that they have in your communities. Any opportunity to meet with you and other folks in this town who have thoughts or opinions, don't just tell. Invite me. I'll be there if you have coffee. That's great, but I can bring my own. OK, thank you so much. And if there are no further questions and we will move along and Haley, we were about to introduce you. Although everybody knows you and then suddenly you disappear. I know I had a little tech difficulty, but my IT department was on it. They came out stat and fixed it right up. So hopefully I need no introduction. You're right, Rose Mary, Senior Services Director. I've been on the job since January of this year. And what I'm most excited about right now is we have so many more programs coming up in May and June and beyond. And I'm really looking forward to having people back at the center. Thank you. And we are looking forward to it to believe me we are. Actually, we bypassed your discussion of some of the activities and programs that are lined up and maybe even your comments about the age dementia friendly project. I'm sorry, I just wanted to say goodbye to everyone and not just exit out. Thanks, Jennifer. And Rose Mary, please feel free to reach out to me if you guys want to move forward with the training. OK? Thank you very much. Thank you. Bye, Jen.