All right, we're doing all right because you know this is not the norm for us, but we're gonna go ahead and I'm about to break out in a gospel song. I was just listening to CCY and then on the way, you all want me to sing for you just 100%. We're going to back up. You'll be glad this night will be the fifth. Yeah, that's all right. We're going to go ahead and keep this thing started because you know this is is one of my favorite subjects is our summer youth intern program. So I am excited to hear about what's going on. No, you've been okay, Ms. Daffin. Great, how about that? It's been a minute since I saw you. All right, I think the last time I saw you was in Orlando at the classic. Was it the classic? We bumped into each other in the parking lot. Realistic. I don't know how we run into people in our land. Though I wish they would bring a bait to town. The question is, were you rooting for the rappers of the Wildcat? Oh no. Did he really answer that question? I didn't hear you. I attempted to USF. That's the best answer. I went to box and there we go. He did he really? So, as I question, have you seen this trend? I attended the USF. That's the best answer. I did get out with the book. So here we go. He did, he really. So we'll answer that question. Have you seen this trend on social media? Yeah, that's the go. Where they're taking it. That's the best. And then we got to bring it up. And attaching it. Yeah, some of the comments. Baseline to them. Oh, I'm sure. Okay, let's go ahead and call to order the May 15, 2025 Youth and Family Services Committee. Could we do a roll call, please? There it is. Here. Givens. Okay, let's go ahead and call to order the May 15, 2025 Youth and Family Services Committee. Could we do a roll call, please? Here it is. Here. Givens. Here. Big sanders. Here. Here. Okay. Committee members, we have an agenda in front of us. I'll entertain a motion for approval. Move the approval. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. minutes from February 20th, 2025. I'll entertain a motion for approval. The approval. All in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay, right into new business for today and we're getting an update from the bold the boldly summer youth program. Sorry about that. We've got Brian Kaper development coordination managing director and Daphne Williams vice of employment and youth services for Bolly. And we're going to turn it over. Brian, we'll turn it over to you first. Great. Good morning. Thank you, Chair. Morning. So before we dive into Bolly, I did want to just take a moment to kind of explain. This is part of our overall workforce training and support services. This is one of many programs that is supported by our economic and workforce development team, which includes St. Pete Works, which is with our South St. Petersburg Community Redevelopment Area, that works with residents for employment and emerging jobs through training, education, support services, job placement and mentoring. We have the Mayor's Future Ready Academy, which is in conjunction with Pinellas Technical College, and we have graduated 21 cadets in 2024. Our workforce and talent committee, which is in conjunction with the Chamber of Commerce. And focus is on implementing adequate resources to help recruit, develop, and retain talent in St. Petersburg. There are 89 total participants through 37 partner organizations, and they've just launched their website in early 2025. And then we work with the St. Pete Youth Farm, Pinellas Technical College, the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg College, and Eckerd College on a variety of programs. But most importantly, what we're here to discuss this morning is Bully Centers. Bully is a critical component of our workforce and youth development service. We have a longstanding partnership between Bully Centers and the city and there's actually two programs that are managed by Bully. First of the summer youth intern program, which services youth from 15 to 24 who live within the city limits. The program is an eight to ten week program between June and August and the interns work 30 hours a week. And then we have the after school youth employment program, which services youth age 15 through high school graduation who live in the city limits. And the interns work 15 hours per week after school and on the weekends and the program operates throughout the entire school year. So with that, I would like to turn it over to Ms. Daphne Williams to walk through some of the specifics of their programs as well as some of their numbers. Thank you, Brian. A good morning. My name is Daphne Williams. I'm the Vice President of Employment and Youth Services at Bowley Centers. I'd like to take a moment to introduce our team who's here with me. I'm going to pass the mic over to Robert Johnson. My name is Robert Johnson. I'm the Program Manager for Youth Services at Bowley Centers. I'm Twana Grounds and I'm one of the Program Counselors at Bowley Centers for the Summer and after school program. I go to the Ferguson things for technician. I'm Latifa Agasan and I am a counselor at the Bowley Center. Okay. Welcome everybody. Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here. Are you driving? Would you like to? I'm happy too. Whatever you prefer. Well actually I have some notes here. So if you would mind driving that. Absolutely. Fantastic. Okay. So our program started in partnership with the City of St. Petersburg through the summer youth intern program in 2003. I am very happy to say that a council person Deborah Fig Sanders actually started with the program at its inception and she ran the program for several years during the summer. So the program was started as a diversion program to help combat the rise in summertime crime. The program was also started to help provide economic stimulus to low income households, young adults that reside within the city limits. Our goal was to get out and basically encourage local businesses to partner with us by providing employment opportunities for interns during the summer and a portion of the hourly wage was supplemented by the City of St. Petersburg. With this contract year, we are providing services to 75 interns during the summer and 35 interns during the school year. Back in 2013, additional funding was secured, and our program became a year. Back in 2013 additional funding was secured and our program became a year round program which afforded us the opportunity to allow youth to continue working during the school year. So as Brian mentioned earlier the age range for SYP is 15 to 24. They have to meet eligibility criteria regarding household income, which is 120% of the AMI. Of course, they have to be a resident of the city, wonderful city of St. Pete. Interns coming into the program need to be able to pass a local criminal background check. check and if they're being placed in positions of trust or special interests, working with kids, working with the elderly or any other vulnerable population, they also have to pass a level two background screening. For the after school youth employment program, the participants have to be at least 15 years old and attending high school. They have to maintain a minimum of a 2.0 GPA and maintain monthly contacts with Bully Center staff. Next slide please. This shows the geographical breakdown of the areas that we serve focusing on the CRA community redevelopment Area. We focus primarily on the zip codes 3 through 7 05, 3 through 7 11, 3 through 7 12, and 3 through 7 13. But as long as interns reside within the city, then they meet the criteria, the eligibility criteria for consideration. Next slide, please. So our team is made up of a family support technician, and that individual is responsible for following the kids during the school year, making sure that they are meeting their educational requirements, we're monitoring school attendance, we're monitoring GPA, we're meeting with families, doing assessments, trying to determine what their additional needs might be, as well as making referrals to community providers. We provide educational supports and guidance that is new to our program within the last few years. For many years, we simply focused on employment and helping those individuals in the program with job placement and establishing and developing a solid work foundation. Back in 2014, we secured funding from JWB. And the primary focus was educational success with the added job placement component. So we wanted both programs to basically mirror one another. So we were able to incorporate a family service technician on the city side of the contract to help oversee the educational pursuits of our young people. As I mentioned, job placement, we have staff that go out and interface with potential employers in the community getting them to partner with us to provide job opportunities for our youth in various industries. We do pay a portion of the interns hourly wage we also take care of the workers' comp insurance as well as payroll taxes. Orientation and employability skills. We provide training a minimum of 12 hours of training during the summer. Soft skills, work etiquette, interpersonal and coping skills, as well as financial literacy and money management. Our goal for the employability training as well as our job placement success is to begin to focus more on developing opportunities in the smarter, grow smarter area of the city. And we're looking at employability skills, time management, conflict resolution, as well as establishing partnerships with individuals from various industries, including marketing and finance, manufacturing, and I'm sure I'm a blank. Marine Sciences Next slide, please. So orientation that consists of eight hours of training initially and our kickoff is coming up on June 6th, Friday, June 6th, and we will be kicking off over at the ENOC Davis Center. Some of the topics that were covered during the last orientation included in HR presentation where we focused on sexual harassment and workplace safety, self-care and fitness, financial literacy, healthy relationships, and that presentation was done for us through the Hearts Camp, the Leeds Project, and then we focus on helping students to identify their roles and establish their aspirations. Our stop coaches focus on bringing in employers from different industries that align with what the students are interested in doing. So when they first come into the program we sit down with them we do an intake. We ensure that they meet the eligibility criteria and then we determine or help them determine what their interests are, what previous experience they might have, what areas they do well within school and then help them to identify a career path. Many of our students of course don't know exactly know exactly what they want to do. So the staff work with them to help them design their pathway. And then we try to match them up with jobs that they are interested in, and possibly careers that they plan to pursue after graduation. Next slide. We also offer an incentive program for our kids and this comes directly from the JWB side of the program where we have funding that is available to incentivize kids to attend school on a daily basis and maintain their GPA and also participate in volunteer activities. The partnership that we had with the HARTS camp provided funding so that we could provide incentives for our youth. Unfortunately, HARTS camp is experiencing some funding cuts so that will directly affect our ability to be able to continue to provide these incentives for our kids this year. We also offer incentives which include gift cards to fast food restaurants because that's very popular with our kids as well as snack packs. Next slide. We try to give our interns, we try to expose them to different types of events and things they may have never experienced in their life. So last year we did a red carpet event for our graduates. We secured the East Bay Country Club. We had a very nice turnout. And this was combined with the JWB graduates as well. So anytime we have activities that we do with our JWB participants, we make those opportunities available to our city participants. So we did a red carpet event. We encouraged the kids where tennis shoes and dress up and a lot of them showed up dressed very nicely and dressed like just like some of their role models, some of the rappers you know with the really really nice tuxedo tight style up top but then the sneakers at the bottom you know how to dress Mr. Will you can jump in but from the city side of the house we had six seniors seniors who graduated. We also offered a few scholarships. We had two academic scholars that got $750 scholarships. And we had two interns that qualified for the medallion scholarships, which is $250. This is another incentive that we offer for our JWB in terms. And if we have funds that have not been completely spent, then we can reach out to the city and get permission to provide incentives by way of scholarships to our city graduates as well. One special note, a success story. We had one intern who received the Medallion Scholarship who enrolled in PTC's Nail Technology Program. And she completed that program and got a job. Next slide. Our students participate in at least one volunteer project during the school year. And typically what we have done over the years is we've partnered through CareFest. And we sign up, we get an assignment, and then those students get together with the staff and they go out and complete the project. Last year, Ms. Quanta, we did we do the door hanging for the trees. No, we did one of the parks and wrecking with cleaning up the community. We're on the soft side of San Quintetburg and we have community projects that we'll be participating in. So it must have been a year before that before that we did the hanging of the door signs regarding that harbor project. Correct. So each year we encourage the kids to participate because we want them to understand the importance of giving back to the community that they live in and beautifying it. Next slide. Building friendships and relationships, that's one of the concepts, ideologies that we try to drive home in all of our students. It's all about networking and helping one another, reaching out and giving a fellow student a hand up. The staff worked very hard to build rapport with the kids as well as the families going out to the schools and interacting with teachers and guidance counselors, social workers to make sure that the kids are on track to graduate with a high school diploma and not just a certificate of completion. From the job perspective, we have staff that are building relationships and networking with employers in the community. And again, encouraging them to partner with us and give our kids an opportunity to learn. Because let's face it, we all have to work. Most of us have to work in order to be able to survive and achieve some things in life and obtain material possessions that are important to us. So it's important for us to make sure that our kids have the foundation so that they can too go out and be successful. Next slide. These are the outcome measures that are included in our contract, the goals that we work towards each year for the project. We want 80% of our seniors to graduate from high school with a diploma and also have some sort of plan for the future. Last year for the after school, we met that goal at 100%. We had seven students who went off to college and won that secured permanent employment. We want 80% of our participants to maintain employment for at least seven months of the school year. We met that goal at 70%. Keeping in mind that sometimes we don't have kids that start at the very beginning of the school year, we might bring kids in later during the year if we have a vacancy that becomes available. 80% of participants will maintain a 2.0 GPA or higher. We met that goal at 56%. We do have some work to do in that area. The family support technician has been working on encouraging kids and families to participate in tutoring for those whose GPAs are lower than the 2.0 and then also providing incentives for kids when they increase their GPA. We want a hundred percent of our participants to attend the trainings orientation and that's for both programs and we met that goal that goal at 100%. 80% of participants to attend the four-hour midterm training, and that's just for the summer. We met that goal by 81%. 75% of participants will complete the eight-week internship. We met that goal by 95%. 75% of participants will open a checking or savings account. We met that goal by 100%. And we've done quite well with that, pertaining to like the financial literacy training, years ago, many of our young people, when they would work in the program, they would take their checks to the local neighborhood check cashing place, and they would pay an exorbitant amount of fees in order to cash their checks. So in cooperation with the city, with the bank on initiative, we have had great success, partnering with individuals from bank on, having them come in and do presentations to our youth, and also in some cases to our parents so that they can avoid the predatory lenders and folks from different institutions that charge an arm and a leg to basically provide financial services. We want to teach our kids the importance of developing a relationship with a reputable financial institution so that they can keep more money in their packet and pay less for fees and establishing relationships with the local credit unions and banks. Sometimes they have the opportunity to save money. They're different programs that will match what they save. And those are the opportunities that we want them to be aware of so that they can take advantage of. The final goal is for a 15% increase of new employers, preferably in the green, environmentally safe financial services, specialized manufacturing, creative arts and design, data analytics and marine life sciences, those gross smarter industries. Next slide. That just gives you an overview of how we did as far as the breakdown is concerned, regarding applications that we received, some data regarding percentages, how many kids successfully completed the program, the majority of zip codes where the kids are coming from that are being served, and then we also have a breakdown of private and public sector as far as parks and recreations. We categorize them as public sector, even though they do pay the hourly wages, just like the private sector does. And then our private employers, some of our private employers as well. Next slide. And that is the breakdown for the after school in the same areas, regarding how many applications we receive, employers that we worked with during the year, how many successful completions we had, as well as how many terminations and the reasons. Next slide. We do employer and interns that affections surveys, and that's usually towards the end of the program, whether it's the end of the school year or the end of the summer. This just gives you an overview of surveys that were sent out, scores that we received for the intern surveys. The highest score is 60, and we averaged 56.6. And for the employer surveys, the highest score is 40, and our average score is 39.3. Next slide. So that at a nutshell is our Summer Youth and Afterschool Youth Employment Program. We really do feel like we are making a difference in the lives of the youth and families in St. Petersburg, and we could not do it without the support of the city of St. Petersburg. So at this point, I'll open it up to any questions that you all might have. Thank you, committee members. Vice Chair Gibbons, thank you so much, Chair. And thank you, Daphne, and thank you to the team over at Bolly for being here today. I'm one of your biggest advocates. I'm always out there motivating our young people to go over to Bolly. Get a job. I think I'll handle a devil's play around. And I- Moira at Bowley for being here today. I'm one of your biggest advocates. I'm always out there motivating our young people to go over to Bowley. Get a job. I think I don't handle the devil's playground. And I definitely believe that we should be pipelining our kids towards these career opportunities. Did I have a couple of questions? I heard you talk about some of your outreach strategies, how you're getting out there, trying to reach that target demographic question. Do you do any social media marketing, TikTok, Instagram, Facebook? Are you out there reaching out to any of these high school football coaches, basketball coaches? Do you have any connections with the faith-based communities? Okay, I'm going to open it up to the team to jump in because we have different strategies that we utilize during the recruitment season. So I'm going to open up to the team. When it comes to advertising, we have to make sure we go through our marketing director first and make sure that we're able to advertise. So to speak to some of the people that you're saying that we need to reach out to. So social media, we have to get approval of course. And we can advocate for that because that's the biggest industry for us right now. I've been begging for them to come into the 20th century, so is me. And at this particular time, we're creating and wanting to start doing the social media part of that for our youth and public program. Bayes' programs definitely work with plenty of those in the past and in the future, we're looking forward to doing it as well. And regardless of football coaches I don't know what you mean. We should have to put football forward. I'll actually be sure. I'm going to be no. You mean whatever. Can you come up to the mic if you're going to answer to it? Sorry, fine. Okay. Oh, my face you had it in my fantasy. I've had communication with some of the high school, uh, Ben, director's here in the county because I was a music player. I was sorry, I apologize. I just graduated from Pathun Cookbien, so I here in the county because I was a music band. I was sorry, I apologize. I just graduated from Putham Cookbien, so I was in the marching band there as well. So I have a connection to some of the school teachers that are here that teach music over in the community. So I've actually reached out to a Gibbs High School and that with a couple of connections to get some resources out there to those kids. I'm still making way into community because I just got here. So, just making strides for that way as well. Yeah, so we do reach out to the schools themselves just to kind of get a one-on-one direction. I'm still making way into community on because I just got here. So, just making strides for that way as well. Yeah, so we do reach out to the schools themselves just to kind of get a one-on-one direction with them just to kind of have that, you know, hand in hand connection. It's great. Welcome to St.P. Thank you. Oh, wow, kids. We do have a Facebook page that we advertise different events that are going on with bowling. Awesome. Thank you. as far as social media is concerned. Thank you. We're not with TikTok yet. That's right. It still come one day. Thanks, look. events that are going on with bowling. Awesome. Thank you. As far as social media is concerned. Thank you. We're not with TikTok yet. Yeah. It's still come one day. Facebook. They're not on there. I. You know where they are. I know. Yeah, she keeps saying, but they don't use Facebook. I'm like, oh, they're not Facebook. No, they say Facebook. They use that. It's not for older people. He was seasoned. Yeah. And the sports team, yes. Most definitely reach out to some of the coaches. We had a recent grad that I went to a signing day where he received a scholarship to go wrestle up in Iowa as far as to continue his wrestling career. But definitely a test base of a lot of those sports coaches and encourage them to stay involved, especially Lakewood and Gibbs and just try to stay at Bogey-Age and try to stay active with a lot of the sports teams. He meant to say Gibbs and really that's what he meant to say Gibbs then Lakewood. All about the way. Any connections or collaborations with Job Corps about you? Yes, only. Oh, it was. Thank you. I appreciate it. I missed that. I will go back and look at that. I apologize. I heard you talk about terminations. Can you speak to that a little bit? Yes, our terminations. Sometimes it determines what some of the youth have never worked before. and they're not used to, I guess, following some of the protocols that the employers need to follow. Most of it is mostly like not being on those cell phones. And it's something you try to teach them over and over again about those cell phones. It was mostly minor things like that. Employers are willing to work with them and give them a second chance. Then you would have something like the parents coming the job sites and you don't want them to do that as well. So some of those terminations might come into effect when frequent things happen back to that when it comes to cell phone usage, parents coming on and trying to change schedules to fit their schedule. Things like that, but it's not the major. We haven't had anything major with our use of our determination that something is very bad, but it's mostly the cell phone usage. It's one of those things that a lot of times are taught how to get a job. We need to work hard on how to keep it job. And that's going to be my next question is, is what can we do for you? So I'm thinking about mentors, right? I'm sure you're already connected to our greenhouse, but you have leaders in the business community who may be willing to serve as mentors. you. So I'm thinking about mentors, right? I'm sure you're already connected to our greenhouse, but you have leaders in the business community who may be willing to serve as mentors. I certainly want to get connected to one of these young people to find out how can we guide them, how can we connect them to the fields of the industries that they're interested in. So you talked about some of those industries I'd love to get you connected if you're not already to the innovation district, and then we also have code box just right around the corner. They're leaders in tech and manufacturing. So I definitely think there are other opportunities for you. We love to get connected with you further. So I look forward to chatting with you, Daphne, and decided about the future. So that would be awesome. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Committee members and councilmember for senators. Thank you. Well, first of all, we can rate it to go all the way back since I brought you and I was gonna introduce you. Thank you. Committee members and council members. Thank you. Well, first of all, we can rate it to go all the way back since I brought this in. I was going to introduce why you all the year. But we're going to go back. As Stephanie said, first of all, I am so excited that the Southern Youth Entertainment Program and after school program is still going, that we still have that partnership. And again, I was there from day one, so you know, it's kind of like your baby, and you kind of walk through it through all the stages. I brought the item because as things go, and things progress, you all weren't here during the early part of it, I became concerned as to where the program was going. And so I wanted to monitor, I wanted to stay on top because one of the things that the summer youth intern program did for a lot of our children, not only did they provide financial assistance, but I was strict. I was extremely strict with the households and the children and I wanted to ensure that we continued not to lower our standards to society standards for our children. So with that being said, you know, the background check, I'm glad that we are still doing the background check, the 120 percent AMI, it wasn't always that high. It wasn't. And I'm over that 120% AMI because it really deters from the other children that needed the most. I'll throw that out there. The growth smarter industry, I appreciate growth smarter, but just like everything else, we're getting away from growth smarter. Our children, the ones that we typically work within this program, are not interested in gross martyr areas. They will not excel in gross martyr areas. And I don't want us to try to set up our children for failure by giving them a vision of something that they would never be able to attain. I want us to be realistic. that was one of the issues that I had, which is why I brought it, is because there was a time when we worked with our children, what they were interested in. But then when it went to a lottery where we just put your in anywhere, that did not work for me. Because if there's an intern that doesn't like children, we're not going to send them to a rec center. We're not going to send them to a daycare. But that started to happen. And that was one of my flags. Their line inches piece of it. I love the gift cards. And we do love fast food, but they don't need fast food. We deal with old people now that they have medical issues because of fast food. I need us to be healthier choices. We can do what is it? Roe box, you know, row bucks or whatever. We can do those kind of things. But the fast food is the role. What is it? Roe box. Come on. We're going to go from fast food to video games? Yeah. Well, not even just video games. I mean, give them T.J. Maxx, give them something what they want to Amazon. Yeah, you give them Amazon, but the fast food thing, like I said, health issues are for real. And because I wrote down here Amazon on my sheet. And I did see in here, we talk about business. A lot of the people that I work with on an adult scale, entrepreneurship is the key. Teaching our big, we asked some young ones selling their lemonade and their little lipstick and their jewelry and no, they're starting with entrepreneurship very early. Because a lot of us, we see it now, people losing their job. Our young people are competing with people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s for these jobs. So just getting a job is not going to get them to that next level. And I know, definitely, know that I've had this conversation with her about our employers. There was a time, and I don't know how we could work on improving this, I love the fact that Charleston County was a failure at the Siren. I love the fact that it's saying it was a failure. I love the fact that they go to Taco Bell. But at one time, we had interns at Dennis offices, doctors offices. They did administrative business business professional jobs and that gave them a different standard. Everybody can do fast food. We can't we can't put our children in fast food. Those cannot be the only and in rec centers. Those can't be their only options. So when I say our standards are going to have to be hard and it's to necessities especially for our community that has to be a mission and that has to be a custom as to what we're offering. So my question is what is the the next strategy for more private employees and what that means is the private employer pays half the salary for the interns. So what do we look like in the business sector, an entrepreneurship sector? Even if I don't, I would not even dismiss land scapers. My land scaper is booming. I mean, he got five, six trucks, a contract, those type of positions where our children can intern and see the next three four stairs, not the next level, but the next two and three levels. So how can we improve on the private sector position? We'll be very proud of that. We have a surprise for it. Okay, I'm ready. I need that. Is it on the screen? No. No, it's not. Well, where's the big surprise? Well, maybe we can pass it to her so she can see what we've done so far. Okay. When you put this summer, we've already started off with some of the things that you're requesting. So, I don't know. We can... We have employers in the areas of education and child care, retail, hospitality and food service, creative art and design, and transportation. So over the years, I just want to hit on a couple of the points that you just mentioned, Councilwoman Sanders. We've had partnerships with various employers over the past, you know, as programs grow and things change, interest change as well. And Ms. Toanna has done a fantastic job going out and bringing employers from various industries on board. We ran into some issues with our interns not performing to the expectations of those employers. So we've acquired contracts, we lost contracts, but she still keeps trying. Regarding earlier terminations, our goal is to not terminate our kids. We do our very, very best to work with our kids, giving them opportunity after opportunity after opportunity. If we terminate an individual from the program, it's because we've exhausted our avenues as far as resources are concerned. and the kid just is not motivated to come in and do what they need to do. As far as resources are concerned and the kid just is not motivated to come in and do what they need to do. As far as stepping it up to the next level, our family support technician is going to be working more closely with those families to determine exactly what they need so that we can connect them to those additional resources. Our focus is on employment and education, but each household might need something different. Also preparing our kids to be able to go into those different environments with the soft skills that they're going to need in order to be able to be successful because we can't just send them there without the appropriate training and support and incentive. Most recently, Ms. Twana reestablished our partnership with PSTA. We have worked with them in the past. They have given our kids opportunities. They ran into some budgetary constraints a few years ago and had not partnered with us in the past. But now they're back on board. So that's very exciting. I understand what you're saying about higher standards. And when the staff is doing intakes, they are taking that into consideration, making sure that we are bringing in in terms that are motivated and want to succeed. I'm gonna stop talking and let the team jump in now. So I will jump in. So when we go to 24 years of age, I wanna 24 year old working in Taco Bell. Now I want to you know try to try to we have small business owners here in the city of St. Petersburg. Let us know let let me I'm going to say us but let me help with some of those things because that's why the partnership is here. You know and that's why the doors are opened. We have we have a greenhouse. Have we had the conversation Brian about working with the greenhouse. We have a database of employers that are right here connected with the city of St. Petersburg. We have a lot of staff that are business owners right here in the city of St. Petersburg that I'm hoping would be able to work with our children to show them other options, which is why it was vital for me to bring you all here today. They have that conversation that you know that you are not out there by yourself. You know, we are St. Pete. And if we mean what we say as elected officials, as administrators, as city staff, city employers, then we will step out and make that effort because you're right. This program has been around for a very long time and it's gone through different phases. I know we've had leadership changes and things like that. But this is too good of a treasure in the city of St. Petersburg, not for us to help you grow, especially with one of the most sensitive populations that we have in the city of St. Petersburg. So we find money for a whole lot of things because I know it was 250. What is the budget now? 400. So we had 400 because we added that to school program. So it was 250 for years and I'm going to have to give council member Wayne Gayden to create it. He took it up the 300 for us. And so when we added it to the 400 for the after school program. So if there's anything that we need to do, I really want to see us ramp up on the private sector employees and give them more business and I don't know how we can partner with the greenhouse to get some referrals and references and incentivize some of our small business owners to help us introduce our children to Taco Bell is fine because I like my chicken cases deal in my order right?. I'm not a new one. But I want them to work with the owner of talk. See how they can purchase a franchise. See how they can grow in those areas. So a lot of them, we have the generational poverty. So that's all we know. I'ma say we, that's all we know. But I want us to be able to expose our children because I love how you said you want to show them different things. And, you know, you know one of my things, I don't refer to them as kids, I call them children scholars, whether I don't, they're not kids with me. But that's something that I want us when it comes down to the refunding and the Winchester contract of May 31st because you all had five years total five years five year contract and it's up the five years of this no next next next right right okay so yeah I would I would love to see where we can help you with this because this program is too vital. You're welcome, you're help. You're support. I'm very excited about this program. I've always been the only one invited me to none. Let me go and put that out there. I've got to be in bed. I ain't got no idea. I'm being pretty. Listen, they had the little sneaker ball. I wear sneakers. No, but I'm serious though really because this is a very important program. And I just wanted to make sure that we didn't lose focus. Our visibility of what you all are doing, because Bolly has done a great job. It's what, by five of y'all, we started it before. It was one in three workers, right? And so you all are growing, because you see that there's a need. Yes, ma'am. And so I do appreciate, you know, what you all are doing and whatever we can do. Please let us... you all are growing because you see that there's a need. Yes ma'am. And so I do appreciate, you know, what you all are doing and whatever we can do, please let us have that conversation. We will be in contact with you. We'll trust you. You know I know I defied it. Not I defied it. And we do appreciate all that the city has done to make this possible. Because as I mentioned earlier, we could not do this without you. Okay. And our partners, our employer partners, but anytime that we can expand said employers, we are definitely open to that. Sounds good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Jared, I think council's person, Sanders covered everything that was there. All right. I just have a couple of questions. So on slide 14, it talks about 177 applications received and then 75 placements. Talk to me about the delta between the 177 and the 75 and what's holding that back from being larger, And then can you talk to me about what the capacity is? So funding. Funding. So you're at capacity at 75? With the amount of funding that we receive, yes we are. So if we had more money, we could serve more kids. And I'm sorry that I don't know this. Brian of the 400,000 is that all payroll or is any of that administrative? I believe that's all payroll. Okay. And just a couple of more kind of like organizational questions before I just I have a couple of piggybacks of feedback. Like as you're thinking for 2026 like what's the number one thing you're working on today? That's like we want to go from You know C to D E to F like what's the what's the next step? Like where are you trying to get better? With the opportunities that we have as far as job placements So partner partners partners and different industries because ideally when we interface with a youth and a family if they say I'm interested in becoming a veterinarian yep we want to be able to go to our list our pool of partners and align that child's interests with a partner who has a vacancy both of that okay So ideally that's where we envision our soils. Awesome. I don't know if anybody else wants to add to that. I state to my not just how to get a job, but how to keep a job. Yeah. And a lot of those soft skills are also needed to help with training on how to maintain that. OK. When I know marketing was brought up, and I am probably a little bit more traditional, I mean, I don't have TikTok. And hopefully I never have it. But is there any type of opportunity, and this is curiosity, is there any type of opportunity to do some of this, because I liked what Councilmember Givens brought up about like being in front of coaches, being in front of Bant, like that's speaking my language. And like is there any opportunity to do some of this, what you're doing in orientation and offer it to St. Pete, Highs, Athletic teams, or all of the bands in St. Pete? Like, is there, yeah, go ahead. You're itching at it, so I'll be right. I came aboard in December, and one December and one of the things I was wanting to move fast and let's go do this, do this, and I was cautioning, hey, you just slow down, wait and see. And the numbers that you first notice stands out. You're already at 177 that you're bringing in. You're only able to maintain that 75. Now I'm going to go out and I receive another 100. Well, my, my, you get what I'm saying. I totally understand what you're saying. I understand that there's a capacity issue. My point is that I think to some of my colleagues' comments, you still make an impression with some of this training without the internship because some of those kids are going to go get a job not through this program, right? Or they're going to get a job after they graduate and they maybe would have never had a training like this. Yes, advertising, I understand a capacity problem. I think there's lots of us that want to try to help you with that capacity problem. But I think you have an opportunity that you're doing something for youth that not a lot of organizations are doing. And so it helps the greater good no matter what, whether they become an intern or not, it's kind of how I feel about it. I know I'm expanding your roles probably a little bit, but when I look at it, it's like, yeah, I mean, I get the marketing on social media and all those things. To me, that's secondary because of the capacity problem. You have an opportunity to touch with the programming that you've already created to go in and do a one hour with 400 athletes, and that's a training they would have never had. And I think that's powerful. And so I just wanted to bring that up. And I'm not trying to make things more difficult. I just think you've built it out. Not a lot of organizations have done that for youth. I mean, we could send an adult over to the greenhouse tomorrow. Right? I can't send a 15-year-old there. And I think that's where you come in. And so. Is there a connection to communication? Peace at that point, just a high back connection with those employers and those people who feel it had that in the the hapless places at that office? Yeah, I mean, I think about me, right? At three younger brothers, let's say I go through that training for the first time. Me, I couldn't have had a job in high school. I was too busy on a baseball field or a swim pool or on a with an instrument in my hand or, you know, because I did everything I could at school and that was just how I did it, right? I was blessed to be able to do that. But my brother right under me, he could have had a job. You just had my house. Right, right. And so I could have said, man, I went through this training, right? And like, that's just an easy, I think when you're pulling from somebody that you know, it's easy. So to your point. And we have situations like that where we have students that are involved in extracurricular activities, but they want to work. That's where the fast food restaurants come into play because they're open later after hours, they're open on weekends. So if we got a kid who's playing football or in the band, but they still want to work, they can get some hours if we place them with one of our fast food partners. Yeah. And there was a referral service in your sense. You need to come to the table. I know. Because we need the cashier on the mic. I apologize. Oh, that's OK. It was. It lets Rob stretch. There is a section in their Ascentive Reports as well where they do have a referral service. So we've had a couple, two of the Northeast students that play football together, have had a referral service throughout the program to say, hey, I just got into this internship, come over and come up the next day. It's literally two days later, he said, yeah, my friend Gerald, he's running back, he called me to come over. So there is a referral section to say, hey, bring your friends, bring your call everybody else in there. And we do have that report on what other people that we speak to and say, hey, bring somebody else in. Do you have friends every day? And I love that. And again, I'm not trying to widen the mission of what we are trying to accomplish. And you're on a daily basis, boots on the ground. But I'll just use me again. If I had had some of this while not being able to work, I would have been a significantly better employee when I got my first job. Because I did the same thing in college that I did in high school. I couldn't have a job, right? And so, yeah, right. Activing. And got my first job, I'm like, what is this? Blocking. Yeah. I'm like, I got 12 people telling me what to do rather than one. This is bonkers to me, right? And so I think that's where this programming is significantly impactful, again, whether they become an intern or not. And that's why apartments come into play. They're willing to give them training because of the cost cut. So this is, they're giving them that opportunity, they're willing to train them and willing to give them the job skills. They'll do that, you know. Love that. Yeah, hold on, just, let me get through this. So I totally agree with the fast food and the snack packs thing. I was like, come on. But here, I would, like when I was hearing your stories, by the way, not just rappers, where sneakers are. Right. So, politicians do too. Thank you too. Thank you, too. No, entrepreneurs do too. That's a huge turn that I'm curious. This is a second there. This is barely a job, right? Okay, and so. But what I would tell you is I think like there's an opportunity. I love the Amazon idea. Like I would turn Amazon gift cards into my snack packs. And I would, if it were me, and I'm, if you have thought about this, I'm sorry for double clicking on it, but like, foot locker just moved here. Like, move it to two eight and have foot locker donate a pair of Jordans for somebody to get to two eight or a gift card to foot locker or there's an article that came out today that Dix is about to buy footlocker. So and Dix has a massive presence here. Like that is a carrot to me, you know, especially as somebody that buys a lot of Jordan's. But I just think I'm don't get me wrong man, I love a big Mac and I love me some breakfast case of Dia Taco Bell too but I Like That's not a carrot to me, right? Like a Carrot is something that I'm going to be able to have and I look at and then go I got that because I worked hard That meal is gone in five minutes. They will not remember it the next day they wouldn't be able to tell you what they ordered. But in some cases, we have families that are dealing with food instability. Then I would say let's give them the option. And then again, funding. Yeah. The funding dictates what we can buy. And the incentives that we're purchasing don't come from the $400,000 that we have to operate. No, this, yeah, and I'm not. And I like donations. Yes, that's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about partnerships. Yes. Yeah, yeah, I'm not. I don't want you to be spending money on those things. Correct. We don't have it to be. I want you to spend money paying our kids. Correct. Partnerships are for things like food, yeah, food and shoes and Amazon gift cards and things like that. Yeah, yeah. The thing I want to mention, you mentioned earlier about the split. So the contract pays $4 an hour. And we all know minimum wage has been increasing the last few years. On the JWB side of the house, JWB pays $6 an hour and then our employers now pay $7 an hour because minimum wage has increased to 13. We're still paying four and our employers have taken the increases on. So just blanket statement that I wanted to put out there in the event that there might be some additional funding to help with that. So when she approaches that one, respond to that. Okay. Well, thank you for everything that you're doing. Please take my ideas not as criticisms just as like I love what you're doing just trying to take it to a different level to where you know I because I think about me you know I my first job out of college I hated I hated it. I did not like being an employee to council member Fick Sanders. It is not, I'm not built for it. And I had to go figure that out. And it took me three years to figure that out, right? I could have figured that out a long time ago. What was your first job if I'm an analyst? I was a business analyst at a PEO. A PEO? Yeah, employment, private employment organization. It's just like a staffing company that does payroll. It's like ADP with the staffing wing, is essentially what it is. And so my job was to help businesses connect with the PEO. And it was horrendous. I could not stand it. And the good Lord heard my calls, and the recession happened, and I got laid off. At 27 years old, I, no, 26 years old, my first job I got laid off. And so it took me three years to figure out what page eight could have told me in a summer That I wasn't made to be an employee. I just I'm not built that way, right and so Then I had to go find out well, how do I start a business with no capital and No marketing skills and all these other things and I had to find again took me three years to do it I had to I had to find a partner that helped me do that and so I just I Love what you're doing. It's it's amazing work and so From my standpoint anything we can do to continue to support and I'm very happy councilmember fix Sanders Brought you brought. And just to, and now I've been a financial advisor for 15 years. And if I had told you, if you had said, Copa, you're going to be a financial advisor when I was a senior in high school, I would have laughed at you and walked away. politely. I just would have been like, ha, math? No. No, thank you. But here I am, right? And it's one of the biggest blessings that's ever happened to me. Thank you. Thank you. We'll go to Council Member Givens and then Council Member Finxair. Excuse me, Vice Sheriff, givens. Thank you. Just a couple of quick questions. After hearing my colleagues, I did have some other questions. So you mentioned the ability to pass of criminal background check. It's my understanding that the city of St. Petersburg banned the box and they don't require a criminal history background check. If that's correct, so I just want to understand why you all require the criminal background check. So that is still a part of our contract. And when we go out and we network with potential employers they want to know what kind of individual kind of young adult are you sending me. So it's a feather in our cap to be able to say you know we have participants in the program who have passed a local and in some cases a level two background screening. So that is still a part of our eligibility criteria. And if I could, Council Member, just to clarify, and we can certainly follow up with you with Chris Quell and Tom Green. My understanding is that we ban the box on the initial application because we don't wanna be prejudiced in who we interview, but before we do move to the actual hiring process, I do believe that we do a criminal background check. And I appreciate that clarification. And to that point, you don't want to be prejudiced on who you interview. I think about the majority of the youth themselves seem peed specifically within the CRA that we're trying to reach those hard to reach demographics, a lot of them don't come to programs like this simply because they know, hey, I've gotten in some trouble, I don't even qualify because I don't meet your minimum requirements. So I want us to be considerate, moving forward. If I was to renew a contract like this, I'd't even qualify because I don't meet your minimum requirements. So I want us to be considerate, moving forward. If I was to renew a contract like this, I'd want to see that gone because I want to eliminate that barrier, that's a roadblock, you know, to a lot of the youth that we're trying to reach. And speaking of the youth that don't meet the minimum requirements, for those kids who are above council member if they Sanders point that AMI, their parents are making a little bit above that income threshold. Instead of turning them away, have we looked at possibly providing and allotting them with these on the job training opportunities that may be on pay, but hey, they're still getting that experience. We don't turn away anyone, even if they do have the criminal history, we make sure that we don't turn them away because we know what can happen to you. We definitely give them other resources to go to. And there are a lot of community resources that take second chances. And I have employers that are willing to work with ones that do have a criminal background. So even though they can't come through our program, I do refer them to those sources. We also refer to career source for assistance as well as Perk, depending on old they are programs like that. Good. Thank you. And a couple other questions. So you mentioned you're preparing these interns. Just a little feedback on the process as we talked about these mentors, teaching them how to keep these jobs. Again, as you're bringing them into the program, just connecting them with them into our keeps stressing that because I think that's important because we're going to teach them how to dress for that interview, right? How to go to that interview, be on time, how to get public trends, and if you need to depend on that to get there. So please, please, please rely on the community if we can connect you to those faith-based partners. Let's help you there. And I see Mr. George sitting back there, and I'm thinking about the CRA. So you talked about funding. Is that a resource that we can tap into for additional funding? Should we decide we want to open this up to maybe 300 applicants? So councilmember I will add in the FY 26 operating budget we have increased our request by a hundred thousand dollars So we are requesting $500,000 for this program. Now due to the time frame of the agreement versus our fiscal year, it will end about halfway through FY26. It would be our intent moving forward to increase funding for this in that new agreement that would take effect effectively next May. Thank you, May. Thank you, Brian. Thank you. Councilmember McSanders. I'm smiling behind the mask. Thank you. I'm smiling behind the mask too, but I want to make sure that 500 is well spent. And the reason why I say that is when we look at the public and private employers, how All that works is the public, and the reason why I asked about the end of the contract, for the public, and I'm just going to throw a number out there, an inter makes $10 an hour, and the grant pays that full 10. The more private you have, the private employee will pay for, and we really need to look at that, because it's seven now the private pays what nine nine but it's across the board everybody is paying it's paying okay so I do know the difference between the public and the private the more private you had the more public you can employ because you had that offset between the two so I'm going going back to Chair Gertis' question. The 177 applications, I understand that that may be capacity, but it's not capacity of quality. You can have 500 applications in 20 of them not going to work out anywhere. So the more you put yourselves in front of organizations that have some kind of structure The better of a pool you'll have to draw from So when you talk about you know the sports and the organizations in the youth clubs and the things like that They already have a built-in mentorship because that's what you found them with an adult leading those children. So I wanted to make that point so that that add 100 more. It does work. It just depends on where you get an extra 100 from. So I will allow the C300 quality applications then 500 where you know you're going to put them on a job and they're not going to be successful. So I do think standing in front of other organizations would definitely benefit your cause. Again, I still want us to look at that breakdown. I don't know what the new breakdown is, but I do know the more private you have, the more public you can hire. And going back to Brian, that money does pay for the staffing costs, I mean, everything comes out of that money. There's nothing separate that Bowley paid from out of another pocket. Everything comes from that money. So to hear that $500 increase would help with your public employers. And hopefully when we look at the new contract, when do you think you're going to have the breakdown of the finances, the budget for the new program? We would have that in the next agreement. So when we take a renewal in next May, we would have that updated budget. Okay. Is there any way that we could see the presentation, note we're voting on, or looking at the 500, what that breakdown looks like. Absolutely. Okay. Okay. Because I would love to see how we can we can help with the private employers they help carry some of those public positions because we can do we can feel those public was quick. Just to clarify if I may. In the beginning the public sector was paid at 100% by the contract. Right. That changed some years ago. Okay, so we're not paying. Okay. Everybody's paying. Okay. So even though we have it broken down public and private, everybody is actually private because everybody pays their portion. So the public, now you're saying that's where they're okay. The parking recreation or paying $9 an hour and billing $4 to the contract. So that's why your numbers drop. Everybody is paying. That's why the numbers drop so drastically because if your public is still contributing to it is eating up more your dollar. Okay that's why your drop. Well, the numbers drop because when the CFO looked at the 400,000 and she factored it up and she said this is how many we can serve based off this amount of money. Yeah, you probably need to rethink some of those numbers because your numbers dropped drastically. We used to be an employee 150, 150, 200, 200. It was a big number compared to 75. Correct. It was a big number. So I wonder why did the numbers dropped drastically? OK, I'll't have it in front of me, so I don't know the number, but there's a lot. It's number two, discussion regarding the 2022 census data, including a report from administration on the city's efforts to alleviate child poverty. Yeah, so I'm at this point ready to take that off since I was kind of frustrated. It's been on there languishing for a long time. Now at this point, I don't think it's a relevant conversation because it's been on their languishing for a long time. Now at this point I don't think it's a relevant conversation because it's from 2022 so I'm gonna bring something back at some point based off of what I see come out in the future but I'm here to tell you all that can be removed for now. Okay so committee members and entertain a motion to remove number two from the referral list. Move the approval. All in favor. Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries to take number two off the referral list. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Floyd. Council Member Givins and Council Member McSandor's the remaining items are yours. I'm assuming you'd like to keep all of them. Yes. Okay. All right. Are any of you or any of those items ready to come to the August 21st, 2025? So I need to chat with the administration on this one, Ryan. The social action funding for the non-homest incentives. I think I had this conversation with you two. I was asking for additional dollars for the departments to look at their budgets to see if we can do a budget cleanup to provide funding for social action agencies that are not directly attached to social to homelessness because over the years it is transitioned only to homeless that 70 what is it seven almost 800,000 but there's nothing that Works with any other social agency that deal with other things other than home So I know we had that conversation so it's not rather I'm ready or not who do I need to Get the ball rolling well I think there's a couple different things there council member one is if you want to take the current allocation and open it up beyond homelessness, that would be through. That was the request. No, we don't have enough of that. And probably I would think the budget process might be the best process to discuss this, because if what you're looking for really is additional funds to go to social action funding for non-homeless activities, what you're really asking for sounds like is additional Yeah, I am. I am, because I know we don't have enough for the homeless since because I sit on that committee. So we can have that discussion committee or through the budget process, whatever council prefers. Okay. So you're a discretion chair. Okay. All right, we'll check in with the other three items, and we'll get something scheduled for the August 21st, 2025 meeting. I don't want to put any pressure and make sure that happens today. We've obviously got some time. If there's nothing else for the good of the order, okay, May 15th, Youth and Family Services Committee is adjourned. Thank you, everybody. Thank you, Chair. Thank you. I'm going to go to the bathroom. Thank you.