Speaker 0: Thank you, counsel. Would anyone else like to speak on this matter? Docket 019 will remain in committee. Docket 0314 will remain in committee motions. Order in resolutions. Mr. Clerk, please read Docket 04090409.
Speaker 1: Councilor Fernandes Anderson offered the following In order for a hearing to discuss developing an app to support parental involvement and support.
Speaker 0: Thank you. The chair recognizes Counsel Fernandez Sanderson. Counsel Fernandez Sanderson. You have the floor.
Speaker 5: Thank you, Mr. President. So in my experiences, I'm going to tell you a little bit about some of the my efforts in my past experiences and the things that I've developed over the years, working in behavioral health, working for the Boston Public Schools, as well as just working in community advocacy as well. So as a foster parent, there are so many ways that there are resources already existing that supports our children in the community or lack thereof. When you're a parent, especially when you are a single parent and you lack resources to navigate a child's schedule, to navigate all of these services that come into place, especially with a high level care of foster care, you definitely need more resources to be able to consolidate all of these services, all of the collaterals, all of the appointments, all of the people involved that it takes in order for you to raise a child in a healthy environment. And so I spent 11 years working as an intensive care coordinator, which means essentially an umbrella of that oversees all behavioral health initiatives. And the issue that I faced was basically that in providing, I also provided in-home therapy to families. And so in providing those services, you have to assist parents with charts or therapeutic interventions in order for them to follow through with the therapeutic treatment plants. And so you give them charts. You create different ways of navigating these systems or of supporting that child with that out of school time. But it's all over the place. You know, people are inundated with stressors. People are busy. People have two jobs. And there are so many collateral and different services coming in to the child's home. And so all of these charts are not enough to be able to consolidate services and to be able to organize a child's out-of-school time . What I did is create a toolbox that I would give parents, right? So back in back then it would be a toolbox that, you know, one is for behavior modification or one is understanding a child diagnosis and what that meant in order to follow through with the treatment plan. This one is for de-escalating crises. This one is for communication. This one is for maybe problem solving. It's a lot on it's on a parent. It's a lot for them to track your child's all of the physical appointments with the doctors. Maybe the alternative for psych meds is physical therapy or some sort of, you know, fitness and wellness, nutrition and all the other stuff. So I thought what an opportunity would be to create this toolbox that offered all of it in one place. So I actually created this and I would do like group therapy and all this sort of stuff that would do it. Then when I went into Peeps, I worked partly with Perry University as well as family engagement, where you can parents can attain classes or credit courses by taking these courses that would support the children with academic supports in the home. And I also taught ESL. So then I went into creating this curriculum, sort of a binder that parents can also support the children with academic supports in the home. So always thinking of how to consolidating this and making it easier for parents. Here I am in City Hall. I thought, wow, here we go. Full circle. Right. As a parent, as a single parent, we know for those of you who are not parents yet, even when you have your nieces and nephews with you or you're babysitting, it's a lot. And let's admit it. At first, you kind of wing it. You just, you know, 19, your first child breaks a leg. Your second child is okay. Your third child's a genius. That's the child that makes it. So I am proposing that we get together and talk about the possibilities of looking at different curriculums, the possibility of looking at already stuff that's already in place. How do we collaborate, maybe with a tech company or maybe a school to look at a possibility of one location to put all of this so that one the parent is saying Johnny brush his teeth or behavior modification, you guest stars. And the incentive is at the end of the week, you get allowance, but you track it all in one place. Me and my kids, I'm a tomboy. I know I look cute. I'm very girly, but I'm a tomboy. I ride a pickup truck. So I used to run with my kids 5:00 in the morning. But what if this app could also do physical fitness tracking? What if this app. I can also do nutrition. You're teaching parents to have very little resources to put all of this in one place and help them to be involved. Homeschool connection. Therapeutic Intervention. Follow support. Behavior modification, connecting to the site, connecting to all the services, all on one location. We know with digital divide parents and not all don't always have the time or the access to go on computers. But they're on Facebook, right? On Twitter. They have a phone. And so maybe we can use those resources to make it more accessible, user friendly, and support our families in improving and setting up their child for success. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilor Fernandez Anderson. Would anyone else like to speak on this matter? The chair recognizes Councilor Baker. Councilor Baker, you have the floor.
Speaker 2: Thank you. Councilor Fernandez Sanderson. I'm the 12th of 13, so I guess that makes me like a super genius or something like that. But I just want to rise and sign my name on. Thank you.
Speaker 0: Thank you. Please, Councilor Baker's name. What? Anyone else like to speak? The chair recognizes Councilor Edwards. Councilor Edwards, you have the floor.
Speaker 6: I wanted to rise to thank the maker. I think this is an incredibly creative approach to having the city meet people where they are and really acknowledging who the people are and what their day to day concerns and issues are coming from the perspective of a single parent coming from somebody who, as you said, is just trying to manage so many balls in the air. Creating an app or creating a city service is what I see it as. That means people there simply they can download it and possibly help organize well organized health, organize their day to day concerns and issues. And this is part of a lot of conversations when it comes to apps, as some of you may be aware, Attorney General Maura Healey had an app that dealt with young people who are in recovery or potentially going to be in recovery and concerned. So meeting people through an app is something a lot of local governments have not our state government has already tried to do, and I think it's wonderful to meet parents that way. They are already reaching out in so many different digital aspects to try and deal with how we run, how we eat. If you have intermittent fasting, if you have social, social, social connections, meeting people across the world, it's all happening on our watches. So the fact that the city of Boston that is so committed to meeting people where they are should also come up with a way to meet people on their watches or on their website that people can download apps for our school busses. We do that right now. We download apps to figure out all sorts of different things. So I think it's great. I also wanted to just echo the work that we have done in the City Council, the conversations we've had that as we build this again, meeting people where they are opportunity , app opportunities to look at whatever as we build this. Just wanted to note the work that our sisters in service Mayor Woo and also councilor at large Julia McKee did in the language access ordinance to making sure that as this is developed we are developing in a way that it's meeting all people where they are in the language that they want. And again, credit where credit is due, not necessarily in words but using. The app to meet people who may not have the same literacy competency as everybody else. So thank you again, councilman, here for making sure that as we grow to meet people, we're meeting them that way as well. So I look forward to a culturally competent, language accessible app conversation about meeting parents and gathering resources together. Thank you so much for starting that conversation.
Speaker 0: Councilor Anderson Thank you, Counsel. Edwards The Chair recognizes Councilman here, Councilman here you have the floor.
Speaker 4: Thank you, President Flint. And thank you to my sister who is bringing so much innovation and creativity to how we are approaching city government and the role that we play. So I just want to thank Councilor Fernandez Anderson for her thoughtfulness and innovative ways of how we move through our committee around accessibility. These are the sort of things that we have really been exploring, like how do we make sure that city services are accessible to the people? So that accessibility piece is really important. And I really do appreciate my colleague, Councilor Edwards, uplifting the fact that there are a lot of people, adults. You know, I often talk about the fact that my mom didn't make it beyond the third grade and struggles to read and write, even in her native language. And as we start thinking about accessibility, that we have to be super mindful of the fact that we have returning citizens who are coming back, who are struggling with literacy . We have young people who are being passing grade to grade, who are struggling religiously. So all of our digital accessibility issues need to be centered on the fact that not everybody knows how to read and write, and that's a privilege that a lot of us have. So thinking about the use of visuals and videos and other ways, it's going to cost a little bit more. But if we're serious about making sure that everyone has access to the information, even if it's through an app, that visual component and audio is going to be key to the success of this. And I also really do appreciate that you brought in your own story in terms of navigating, because as my good colleague, Counsel Lara always says, that the personal is political. Right? And when we're creating policies that we have lived through, what the solutions that we come to the table with are based on things that we wish we would have had. And so I know that I'm your leadership in this space. Not only is going to be about the public hearing, but you're going to also lean into it to make sure that we also get the resources that we need to be able to do it. I just want to say thank you and counsel that I uplifted you and our education committee because you do you do mention that the personal is is political and professional. And the and the intersectionality is the expectation is is that we are supposed to leave ourselves at the door when we come into this chamber. But we need to bring all of who we are into these spaces so that we can make sure that we fight for the people who put us here to ensure that we're representing them and their issues. And that's what this does today. So thank you, Consul Fernandez Anderson.
Speaker 0: Thank you, Councilman. Here. Anyone else like to speak on this matter?
Speaker 4: Can you add my name to please?
Speaker 0: Yes, please. Out, councilman. His name? The chair recognizes counsel. Clarity plays out. Counsel, fire his name. If you'd like to add your name, please raise your hand. Please add counselor Royal Counselor Bock Counsel Brady and Counsel Edwards. Counsel Clarity. Counsel Laura. Counsel Eugene. Counsel of counsel to hear counsel. Murphy Counsel Rao, please add the chair. 0409 will we refer it to the Committee on Public Health, Homelessness and Recovery? Mr. KIRK Please read so I could 0410 please.
Order for a hearing to discuss developing an app to support parental involvement and support.