Speaker 1: 05900590. Councilors Fernandes, Sanderson and Murphy offer the following order for a hearing to discuss ways in which RPA funding can support an ecosystem for nonprofit, holistic wraparound health services for disenfranchized populations.
Speaker 0: Thank you. The chair recognizes counsel Fernandez innocent. Counsel Fernandez innocent. You have the floor.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. President. And Mr. Clarke. When? When I was writing this, the title read like that. Just the way you read it. And I was like the now for holistic wraparound health services. So I was really enjoying the way you read that because this is exactly how it played my mind. I was like, Dang, this titles too long. But anyway, just the title I listen. I'm going to listen. You know what? It's a dissertation. No, it's four pages long. Yes, I know. Listen. Right. Y'all only allowed if I can if I if I can add counsel allusion as original co-sponsor as well. Mr. President.
Speaker 0: This Constitution is so ordered.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. Counsel. All right, all jokes aside, we hear councilman here talking about this all the time. And I don't know the I don't know how to quote you, but Boston is resource for coordination, but coordination poor. And so imagine an ecosystem that and I think this is already in play this is not something that I'm just pulling out of a hat. But imagine because I do that a lot. But imagine, though, an ecosystem that is actually working in synergy in terms of the health services or wraparound services. A lot of us talk about mental health or behavioral health, and I think that understanding the scope of it, I think even bringing training to the council, understanding the scope of like what preventative measures would look like in terms of wraparound services to address mental health is super important. So an ecosystem of all of these health services that are working together in collaboration with one one nonprofit that is serving as the hub or the connector. So in any type of health, you need the coordinator or the umbrella, if you will, of these services so that if I am going for substance abuse or substance misuse, rather services and I need housing, that there is an automatic network that you can plug me to so that it actually is wraparound, so that if I go for myself and my child needs help and but then you're also working with my uncle. You're working with my grandma that may need elderly housing or something like that. That is what we call in the trauma informed world of services wraparound that you were working with the full family or you're working with the full community in terms of holistic services, I think that there are a lot of agencies in our community that have proven best practices, that have actually implemented services in a very practical and efficient way. And I think it's warrant it warrants a conversation for us to talk about how are we looking at all of our resources in creating this so-called ecosystem? And I do have to say, Counsel Braden, I was not I was not motivated by your idea, but then because I wasn't really listening when you were breaking it down. So I apologize if this goes into specifics of your idea. And I came to see you today to say like, hey, look, oh my God, great minds think alike. But this is an actual more specific to to and as an extension to what you have brought up already. And I would love to collaborate in how we can fuze this together. And that's pretty much all I have to say about that. Thanks.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Counsel Fernandez and Fernandez Anderson. The chair recognizes counsel. Who? And counsel. You have the floor. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. The chair recognizes counsel. Murphy. Counsel. Murphy, you have the floor.
Speaker 7: Thank you. And thank you, Counselor Fernandez Anderson, for asking me to join on. And I do just have to say that it took a few days to read through it. My office kept saying, Did you read it yet? I'm like, I'm half way through, but I think I'm on board. So thank you for this work because we know it's so important. And so I will just state that, you know, we always need to support our nonprofits all the time, but especially through this pandemic and through the recovery that we'll be going through for a long time. And the mental health crisis is one of the pandemics within the pandemic. And we know so many are struggling. And we had a hearing yesterday where we heard from the nonprofits, and what we already knew was really shared more eloquently about the staffing is another crisis that so many of our nonprofits, social service industry are struggling through. They've been hit the hardest. You know, they've been stepping up and providing these supports, the much needed supports to keep our city moving forward. When we shut down, they were all out there on the front line and they needed to work more. And they have a staffing shortage. And we know that we don't pay our social service workers the pay that they need and they deserve. They also have been pivoting to ensure that our communities get the necessary services they need, and I know we hope covid's over, but we know it's not. And so many of our neighbors and residents not just need mental health services, but also basic services like food and heat and housing still. So we can't forget that. So I believe that this order is going to help Main Stream and ensure that the much needed services continue to get to the families in our city. So I look forward to the work ahead and partnering with you on this and also with council because I, I feel like most of the orders that have been filed in Council of Florida and those who have been around and it might seem like we keep kind of filing the same things, it seems like we care about the same thing. So moving forward, maybe we should, you know, we continue to work together, but in a way where we know that we're not in any way trying to step on each other's toes but get this important work done for the city. So thank you very much.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilor Murphy. The Chair recognizes Councilor John Councilors. And you have the floor.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. Chair. And may the force be with you.
Speaker 4: It's all right.
Speaker 5: I made sure I set it up. I want to thank the leadership of Councilor Fernanda Anderson and Councilor Murphy on this issue. I'm happy to be added. We know that non-profits engage in COVID 19 and health recovery services are already doing the work in the communities that we live in and that they serve. I mean, if you don't know that these nonprofits are doing the work, you're not looking hard enough because they're there. They're present, oftentimes using money from their own pockets and helping a nonprofit leader who's been who's been pouring herself into this work of really shepherding her nonprofit through the not throughout COVID and is behind on some on some of our housing payments, because she's caused so much of her own funds into this work. So they need our support as concerts are construction on this and said wraparound services provide a comprehensive and holistic family driven solutions to health services. It puts the individual youth and families right at the center. COVID relief funds have been almost completely and inaccessible to our communities, to our undocumented communities, to returning citizens and a shelter rights committee and Immigrant Advancement Committee. I want to make sure that everything we do is in partnership with those who it's it's has become and has historically been easy for us to exclude. So we need to make sure that they're getting the resources they need so that they can share in the prosperity of the city. We know that oftentimes providing a housing voucher or job training will not solve the underlying problem because people are complex. And, you know, the the needs are very varied. And I think nonprofits oftentimes are doing meeting people at all of their various needs. I think about, you know, the work of the Brazilian Worker Center Equity now and beyond Asad on La Alianza, so many nonprofits out there that are doing the work sometimes out of their own kitchen . And this is especially the case when it comes to black and brown nonprofits that don't have the advantage of networking, of structures and of access. And so I'm incredibly excited to support the work conjuring Andre Anderson of making sure that we are building ecosystems that work and that are responsive and working in partnership with the people already doing the work. So thank you very much for this opportunity and I look forward to the work.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Can't solution. Is anyone else hoping to speak on this matter? The chair recognizes Councilor Braden and counsel Brady. You have the floor.
Speaker 4: Thank you, Mr. President. And thank you, Councilor Fernandez Anderson, for this initiative. You know, just I think the connection and the building of networks, an effective, effective coalition building across different non-profits to do different parts of the job. Having and having a safety net and a network that actually doesn't have big holes in it. And when we see the holes being able to try to correct the deficiencies. I just want to speak to something that happens out in Alstom. Brighton, we have the Alstom Brighton Health Collaborative and it is a very loose coalition of folks who from a wide range of, of nonprofit entities and our neighborhood is about 40 organizations all together and they work together pre-COVID. But when COVID hit, they the coordinator, the executive director had a Adam multiple several times a week covered networking meeting so that we pulled all our resources together and connected. And that network includes the Brazilian Workers Center, the Brazilian Women's Center, ABC, and the Elizabeth Hospital, the whole the whole range and the community health centers. And it was really about, okay, what does anybody need? What's going on on the ground? How can we get better, more resources? And it was really that sort of. Collaborative approach that helped us weather the storm. And, you know, I think we need to explore more models of that. I know what a neighborhood level, every neighborhood organizes and does this, but it's maybe formalizing it and putting some more resources into it. These are these networks, these former neighborhood networks. Formalizing them more and putting some resources into supporting that grassroots, neighborhood level. Wraparound interventions is is really something we probably should be looking at very, very carefully. So thank you so much for this hearing order and please have my name.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Thank you, counsel. Brian, the chair recognizes counsel me here, councilman. Here you have the.
Speaker 6: Full thank you to the makers for bringing this hearing order to the space. Really super excited about the conversation. As someone who always talks about the fact that I started my career in the nonprofit sector and that's all I've ever known aside from my time at MTV. And even then I was still working with the nonprofit sector in different capacities. I think that, you know, when I talk about our ability to be resourceful, oftentimes those who have the most access to information are the ones who usually get the most dollars and also are the ones that have the most capacity. But the ones who are doing the work oftentimes are overlooked. And I think creating an ecosystem where we're all really recognizing the strengths and we're not going to be acting like, you know, crabs in a battle, always fighting for whatever little resources and whatever crumbs we can get. So I think this whole idea of really creating an ecosystem that creates opportunities for people to be in collaboration with, not in competition with each other, will really help us get at the core of a lot of the issues that we have relied on our nonprofit sector to lean into. And I'll just say that, you know, I know that this is specifically for established nonprofits. I'd just like to add that our office has been doing a lot of work with mutual aid groups who are looking for organizations to partner up with. And I think that when we think about building capacity, there are a lot of folks who are doing the work right out of their homes with very limited resources. And so our hope through this conversation and we hope to bring some of these mutual aid groups into the into the fold. We're going to be hosting a capacity building conference in July to help support these organizations. And so look forward to having the hearing before then so that we can learn how we can better support everyone. So thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, councilman here. If you'd like to add your name, please raise your hand. Mr. Clarke, please have counsel. Royal Counselor Baker Counsel of Bar Counsel Braden. Counsel Fiery Counsel Lara. Counsel here. Counsel Murphy. Counsel. Earl, please out the chair. 20590 will be referred to the Committee on Boston's COVID 19 recovery. Mr. Quirk, please regroup at.
Speaker 1: 05910591 Council of Clarity offered the following order requesting certain information under Section 17 of relative to the Mission Hill K through eight school.
Order for a hearing to discuss ways in which ARPA Funding can support an ecosystem of Non-Profit Holistic Wraparound Health Services for Disenfranchised Populations.
On motion of Councilors Fernandes Anderson and Murphy, Rule 12 was invoked to include Councilor Louijeune as a co-sponsor.