Hello all. Hello all of Isaakqua. Um
this is Vice Chair Manny Brown um
chairing for our chairman um Haimey who
is uh will join us in a bit and we're
opening the uh Isiqua
Human Services Commission at uh 6:35
and uh call order.
any public comments?
>> Yeah, before we go into public comments,
I just want to call out um like you
mentioned, Haime's going to be joining
us late. Um and then uh we have a Trisha
Marshall
um just joining us. Is that Trish
or Laura? It's Trisha with with cultural
budget.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Trisha Sis is uh executive
director. So yes,
>> sorry I couldn't unmute.
So, she is she is supporting me.
>> Wonderful. All right, Trisha, so happy
to have you here. Um, we'll have your
presentation starting here shortly. Um,
and so we are uh just missing two
commissioners who might be joining us
late. Uh, JD and Trish Blur. Um, so we
will um see if they can join us shortly.
And then moving on to our public
comment, I just wanted to introduce we
do have one uh member in person for
public comment. Uh Christina, would you
mind introducing yourself and so
welcome?
>> Yeah, I'm Christina. I'm the board chair
of the downtown Isakiqua Association and
our office is the historic Shell gas
station on Front Street. So, as you
know, we interact quite a bit with
unhoused folks whether they're here in
Isiqua or passing through. So, I always
like to be engaged as to what's
happening. And I also saw Cultural
Bridges was on the agenda. So super
excited to hear an update from your team
and just want to say thanks to everybody
that's serving on a commission. I know
it's more evening work for everybody to
do, but you're doing meaningful work and
it is making a difference to the
community. So thank you.
>> Thank you so much for being here.
>> Well, then next is the approval of
minutes from November 19th
and January 7.
here.
>> Uh, Commissioner Fish and I move that we
approve the minutes. Can do they have to
be approved separately or can they be
approved together?
>> Approved together.
>> Okay. I move that we approve the minutes
from our meetings of November 19th and
January 7th.
>> And I this is Mory Edwards. I second
that.
have been moved to be approved and
second and uh take that as a note and go
to our agenda items. And first on our
agenda item is a nonprofit presentation
by uh Bridges.
>> Wonderful. Well, welcome Laura. Welcome
Trisha.
>> Thank you. Thanks everyone for having us
here. Um it's really our pleasure and
honor to present our culture bridges
program which is under the isawquest
schools foundation uh here to everyone
that uh what we're doing and what have
we achieved so far. Um can I share my
screen?
>> You should be able to do you see a share
um by your button? Yeah, please do.
>> Yes, thank you. Are you able to see it?
>> Yes.
>> Okay, thank you. That's good. Um so
let's start with could you just bear
with me
see how okay so first I just want to
introduce myself my my name is Lauren
and I uh coming from China Shanghai
China initially like 25 years ago um I
have undergraduate degree and master
degree in Michigan for computer science
and AI data retrieval
degree and and then I was in the uh one
of the online content retrieval manager
at an online daily publishing company
for eight years. Um it's in the Seattle
and also right now I am the Isakqua PTSA
council president. Um, as well as I'm
the staff in the circle community
navigator. Uh, and also I am the ISF uh
staff for the culture bridges and I'm
culture bridges manager. So I'm kind of
like multitasking. Um, and uh I start
with this uh culture bridges editing and
publishing job um at ISF since 2020. So
this is my five years, six years or five
years working with culture bridges and
um I will start my presentation and to
show you guys the ISD our school is
school district um demographic. I think
uh I don't know how many of you of you
might know um actually our um
demographic had changed dramatically in
2022 23 uh the entire district we have
uh almost 20,000 students but we are
having like about 42% white students and
58%
of student of color and with like 7.3
uh% of English language learners.
And this year uh we have about 19,000
students um across the district. Um and
we are about right now um 38.2%
white students and our um students of
color percentage um right now is 61%
almost 62%.
And then even though we have uh saw the
enrollment uh decrease however our
English language learner number
actually when you see it it's it's still
kind of 7.7 it's more than uh 2000 more
than 10 12 years ago. So that means uh
the needs and the the the needs for the
language uh support is still pretty uh
significant in our district
and that is why we are here for our uh
magazine culture bridges magazine.
Um so I just want to also start sharing
some history behind uh culture bridges
magazine. Uh we started there is like
2013 2014 there is uh two Latino parents
uh start trying to create a resource to
help Latino families. uh that is a very
like initial uh program they are trying
to do but um the magazine itself it
doesn't really started until uh 2015 and
2016 school year so this is the first
magazine like I I just give you the some
sense like how this magazine looks like
the first one um it is in uh English and
Spanish um and then it's only that by
then there is only three people working
on this magazine and there is three
bimonthly uh magazines uh available
annually but we are start to also at the
same time we are trying to uh work with
the school district to see what kind of
help that uh we can partner with the
district to help out with our families
especially like Latino family at that
time
however now is we just celebrate our
10th year anniversary last year 2025. So
10 years later uh we right now what we
have the team is like uh one manager
like me and then we have eight editors,
three proof readers, um one cover
designer, one photographer and two
community helpers. And then we publish
in eight different languages.
Arabic, Chinese, English, Japanese,
Korean, Russian, Spanish, and
Vietnamese.
We now publish one annual family guide
to help family navigate school system
from preschool to to high school
graduation. Um, and we also have three
issues per year with one issue combined
with family guide published, but we
right now we published online only. So
we published uh we print out paper
copies for
seven seven or eight years but however
um because of you know the the paper
cost and all all the online social media
blow up right now. So we write decided
to discontinue publishing the paper copy
but just publish online um right now. So
we annually we also attended or
supported tw more than 20 district-wide
events or workshops including ISD
resource fair, ISD family partnership
workshops, um district schools cultural
events, uh city cultural events, etc. So
we actually uh reach out to our
communities um to know what their needs
to listen and to understand what their
needs. So that that way we can we know
what things that people want to see in
the magazine and what they want to uh
learn about.
And we also partner with multiple
community organizations like the garage,
the circle, paps, isakqua, ptsa council,
uh isqua food and closing bank and king
county library systems. And we are also
uh we're keep expanding this com uh
community organization partnerships
um because we know right now especially
uh these couple years uh people need
lots of resources from our communities
uh to meet their basic whatever basic
needs or mental health needs. There's
lots of needs in our community and uh we
want to share as many uh resources as
possible to our community different
culture community to uh meet their uh
needs different needs
and I just want to show you like this is
what looks like uh for our magazine the
cover page the flyer and say this is our
10th anniversary cover uh flyer. Um and
we we publish like this is the family
guide we just published last August. Um
and this is the number 31 is the one we
just we just published in November last
November. So we continuously providing
um
information from the district, from the
community, uh parent, students
and also the resources and also we
providing the culture awareness to our
community to let people know okay so
this is actually one of the culture that
existing in our community and what
they're doing to what they're
celebrating.
what their holidays uh are, how they
celebrate it. So it is really the
feedback that we got from parents is
that's very interesting to know that um
different culture uh celebrate different
holidays
in our community
and uh I want to share something like
the feedback we got from the community
uh people normal parents uh one of the
feedback we uh it's coming from the
school PTSA uh during their uh general
membership ship meeting a parented just
like suddenly just just sharing how
helpful she found our culture bridges
are uh for the information about college
preparation and the steps since they
even though she has lived here for a
while but she grew up and went to school
in Canada so they she didn't know the
process but our our magazine helped her
to understand or have the knowledge
about how to get prepare for their kids
college. And also another parent uh
immediately share that how helpful she
found our uh acronym article in the
family guide uh help her to understand
all those acronyms that the district
used. Um because like I believe many
people or majority even the
English-speaking families lots of
acronyms they might not even know what
meaning for those. So these are help
them to better understand uh the school
systems and then there's also other
comments uh I just want to share with
you is uh we uh every time when we talk
to a parents uh one of the feedback they
they actually say is they really never
know this existing in our school or in
our community until they read our
magazine. Um so this is very um and then
this is all I just want I think I just
want to there's lots of more comments
that uh from different like from Russian
community parents from uh Japanese
uh community uh Korean community. So I
we got feedback from all other all the
communities that read a magazine and
then uh mostly they are talking about is
uh this is really help them to
understand or even just realize there is
something existing in the district.
Um so we just here we just want to uh
share some some some navigation ways
that we we are having. So by 202123
uh we are having like almost like 330
minutes call with families but that was
the one-on-one service and mostly uh
serve as the Spanish speaking families.
Um but since 2023 July to now we're
actually trying to focusing on
understanding all the families
challenges and needs by attending
different community meetings and events
and also connect with different groups
of people on the social media. So
instead of uh we focusing on one-on-one
meeting uh with just one group uh we are
trying to actually expanding our
navigation and outreach to folks and
understanding entire school district
communities and parents and and get what
they want to because different groups
have different needs. So we want to
understand different uh cultural groups
really what they want. Um and that's
just some facts. Uh we annually attend
15 to almost like more than 20 events
and reach almost 2,000 families. Um
support five to six school cultural
events every year. Um and also we uh we
based on the EVP data um there is like
language preference other than there's
families like selected language
preference other than English. Uh you
can see those numbers but um actually
these numbers is not accurate. uh this
because many families they they are
afraid of choosing uh other language
other than English because um they felt
this their kids will be um you know um
kind of um not they their kids will be
get um
get get like isolated or or um learning
less than the other kids. So that's why
they they know choosing the language
preference. Um but even with this data
we know that there is many families that
in our district need supports. Um not
only the student but the family as well.
Um so for 10 years our culture bridges
has supported ISD family events and help
with hundreds of individual families.
This is a pallet program and work very
closely with ISD ever since. But um
since ISD have right now has their own
cultural and family partnership team and
their family event have been expanded
and well known and they have the three
um district employee uh family leaons
are actively working with the ISD family
oneonone. So our needs to that saying
our needs to have the one-on-one support
to to the district family is kind of
redundant with the three family leaison
that work in the district. So we want to
we want to uh switch our gear to
continue be a resource for all the
families instead of just like uh
focusing on the one-on-one. So that is
why we uh right now we trying to uh we
still working pretty closely with the
ISD different department different
admins uh different schools and
supporting ISD family events by helping
like broadcasting the uh to different
culture groups and supporting the school
cultural events. Uh we and we are
continue publishing the community
resources from different Isakqua
community organizations. Um so people
knows first is uh they have those
organization in our isakqua community.
Two is uh these are the resources that
they can ask for or available to them
when they need. So um the that is very
important message to the the the uh
other group cultures because when they
first came here or you know they are
they they have no idea where to find
things. So that one the more resources
we provide to them um the better.
Um this is just briefly um in tell you
go tell all of you like how when we
publish uh paper print copies how how
many copies that we actually printed
out. Um it's it's a large number every
time. It's over um
over 10,000 copies. Uh we we print out
every single publication. Um what we do
by the time is we manually distribute
all those magazines to to all the school
to the libraries to the community uh
partners uh buildings. So uh that's a
lot lots of printers printings and that
is a lots of efforts for our volunteers
or uh order editors.
So right now uh we are fully converted
to our online magazine in uh late 2023
um beginning of 2024.
Um
however we did encounter some
difficulties for this switch. So we did
see the drop in the reads um and then we
kind of start to uh navigate the
different ways to increase the reads
number. Um but the good news is like if
you see for our 2024
we have 15,642
reads 58 clicks. The clicks means uh
people actually click the links inside
the uh publication and there's like 133
downloads in 2024.
Uh and then in 2025 we have 11,535
reads but our link clicks is increased
like uh six times or seven times more
than 2024.
That means uh people are click our links
actually reading our magazines and click
inside the magazine and we have double
almost double the downloads number. Um
so one thing I want also share is when
people download the magazine when we
kind of losing the control how many
people actually that person share to. So
they might share to 10 people, they
might share to 100 people. We don't we
lost the control when they download the
magazine. So um that's why I keep saying
if we saw the clicks rates uh higher and
the download rate higher that means we
are uh health we are pretty health at
this moment. Um that means the people
willing to download and read and share
at PDF to their community.
Um and we do have uh tried a very lots
of different ways to reach out to
people. Um and then we added keep adding
some new features into uh each issue and
publication since 2005 like we adding
the index page with article link to the
page and homepage button in each in the
each of the article in the end of each
article. So that way can with the online
version it will help people easily to
navigate each articles back and forth
and that works pretty well. The feedback
is people think it's easier to to find
stuff uh instead of scroll down uh from
one to page one to page 24. Um and our
current marketing tool including the
emails to all the uh district uh ELLL
MML team, teachers, all those um
communications or you know far family
partnerships PTSA presidents
um and then we start to sending the
culture bridges newsletter to every
parents in the district based on their
uh language preference. So if the family
uh language preference is Chinese, we
will send that family Chinese uh culture
bridges newsletter
and then if there they select Russian,
we will uh send the Russian version of
the newsletter. So we sending different
groups, different uh language
newsletters and we using social media
like Facebook, Instagram um and reach
out to 32 community Facebook pages,
groups and we have shared on six
WhatsApp groups and 30 wehat groups and
three Korean CA Kaka talks and then we
also like if that the the editors we ask
editors and also community member
members to share with us in their
communities. Um we print out we started
to print out paper flyers like eight
different language uh paper flyers were
sent to all ISD schools and uh four IS
uh ISD libraries um as well as we shared
with the circle and the poster the big
posters we sent to each school office to
put inside their school buildings. So
hopefully they that when the family and
student walk inside a school they they
can just scan the QR code and then start
read the magazine.
Um so we're saying this is like very
each publication we are now having
between 24 to 28 pages um and that is
really uh need lots of work to to put
everything together. So as our CB
manager um it we I have to complete like
the each magazine publication cycle with
like um about 20 hours per week and our
every single e uh culture bridges
editors they are translate and proofread
each magazine content and also help us
promoting the magazines. They each
issues each publication they will spend
about like 30 hours to translate and
proofread uh for us. And for the cover
designer they uh that person help us to
design all eight language covers as well
as like posters, flyers for each issue.
So it's really a team efforts to lots of
team efforts to put one publication
together every four months.
Um and this is just the uh list of the
community parties and resources that we
are currently work with. Um you will see
like this like Isaakqua school district
uh city of Isakqua, Seamesh, uh King
County Library System, Food Bank, all
those different organizations that we
working with and they are willing to
contribute the articles in our um
publication.
Uh that's it. Any questions?
>> Thank you.
That's incredible.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you, Laura.
>> Any questions?
>> I have one. Hi, Laura. This is Ray
Manahan. Just a comment on um you
answered my first question, which is
what you have on the screen here is how
you increase your distribution is by
connecting
>> to all these organizations. So I would
assume that if you go on to each of
these organizations website there's a
way to access the link to to um your
publication through there. Is that how
you them that so so people can read it?
>> That is good question.
Thank you for actually you give a very
good idea. I never
done.
Yeah. So, some of the organization, yes,
like uh districts, yes, they have the
culture bridges link. Um I believe like
uh Isaakqua also shared uh our culture
bridges through their newsletter. Um and
then the the um uh Isaokqua PTSA council
shared uh the the the culture bridges
publication um on their social media and
also uh I don't I think on the on the
website too um but all the other
partners you just gave me the idea I can
tell them like if there's a possibility
to put us on their website so thank you
for the idea
>> and I was just going to say for the city
Yeah, that's something that you can page
where somebody's going to isqua.gov
>> and then there's a link to that that's
>> they can easily find. It doesn't have to
be on the homepage, but if there's a
location where it makes sense to put
that.
>> Yeah, we have a resource page that may
or may not be there, but I'll double
check and if not, that's an easy ad.
>> Yeah,
>> great idea.
>> So, that was number one. And then number
two, um Laura was
I think content is really key, right?
You want to keep the the folks who are
reading it engaged and interested.
There's probably a lot of um things that
are going on at each school. Let's just
take Isiqua High School as an example.
They must have a journalism department
where they know what's going on in the
school where there's a certain area of
focus that each each school can maybe
have um uh a topic that would land on
your magazine that would be of interest
to the broader community, right? just to
share it share it broadly.
>> Yes. So actually we did have her uh we
did publish uh students share like what
they they're happening at the school
like the what's the club uh like robotic
club or you know Chinese class, Chinese
language class uh or some other uh
activities they experience inside a
school. We do have the student uh
writing articles for us uh to to share
what they experienced at school and then
what is the program they they
participated. Um and then we also have
like uh influence the choice they have
the student contribute uh what is the
you know their voices means for uh the
the uh those drug use uh say no how to
say no all those yes we do including the
student voice and then the student voice
and a parent voice are a big part of our
magazine
>> and then if you yeah if you see like I
shared uh um this uh for our 10th
anniversary just for example uh
unfortunately this is in Russian but uh
actually this the the page the the cover
page it shows the students that in the
skyline high school AI club um and they
share their experience like their how
they explore their uh AI artificial
intelligent and what the artificial
intelligent um main for them at the
school, what changed their uh work, what
changed their school experience. So, uh
just example of uh the student voice. Um
and then we do also like this one. Um I
don't know, it's hard a little bit hard
to see. Um but this inside this is a
micro school that is uh one of the new
program that a school district have and
the uh they share the the uh pictures
and you know the the what the students
doing inside the class. So all those um
are yes. So we we encourage and we
trying to reach out to different schools
uh students to get their voices.
>> Thank you for for for your question.
>> Thank you.
>> And Laura, this is uh Commissioner
Brown. I uh you answered one of my
questions about um the um family guides
you put out. U I assume it's eight
different guides, not just one. Is that
correct?
>> Um it is one family guide containing the
information from preschool to high
school. So
>> as far as as far as language wise, is
there one booklet or eight booklets?
>> Language uh there's eight different
language. eight different uh
>> booklets.
>> Booket. Yes.
>> Okay. And and secondly, um can you tell
me what the PPS is?
>> What is that?
>> Oh, PAPS. Paps is actually a uh parent
education
uh nonprofit parent education
organization.
um they initially they focusing on the
uh Latino families but now they are
trying to reach out to uh multicultural
families and they provide different uh
parent education like how to com for
example how to communicate with
teenagers
um and then also like something like how
to get ready uh for like for parents and
student how to get ready to navigate
this US system um for the transition,
different grades transition. All those
like parent education
um that that can help their articles can
help parents to understand um more on
like different group of families. What
is um the the you know the the parent
what is the proper way mostly like how
to support your students how to support
teenager what is a way to to parenting
your kids when they grow up here.
>> Great. And um to Preston hope you're
still there. Uh are you aware of this?
>> Um yeah. Sorry, my camera's off because
my parents were in the room. But um I
think I I have seen this um magazine. I
know that they offer it at the front
desk and I know that I've seen it like
multiple times at both my high school
and at my middle school. Um at least the
old versions when they were back on
paper, but um I've never actually looked
at it in um I've never actually
downloaded the online version. So maybe
I should give that a read.
And for those don't know, press is our
um youth representative. So, thank you.
>> Any questions?
>> I have a follow-up question just random
with all the AI talk.
So, you mentioned that you have staff
that are actually acting as translators
to translate the magazine from one
language to the other. Is that right?
>> Yeah.
>> A lot of um online content has done that
that process is done through AI. So you
you can hover over uh an article or and
then you just say I'd like to translate
this to Tagalog or something and it's
able to do that for you. So I don't know
more and more companies are downsizing
because of the computer's ability to do
that.
>> So if if if staffing is an issue just I
would that's maybe something that you
might want to keep in mind.
>> Put your staff towards other things,
right?
>> Um yes. So we do think about this like
we also keep talking about like if we
can using AI translators instead of
person but the fact is uh because this
lots of content is district specific
content so when you using directly just
using the AI translator there's some
content it will translate it very weird
um I I actually uh what I find out
because I can read Chinese
So there is one time uh one of my editor
using AI translator um to translate a
magazine and I can find out immediately
because the content translation is very
weird if you really read it uh doesn't
make lots of lot there's lots of places
it doesn't make sense um because it need
uh actually need background knowledge to
understand what is the what is this?
That's why our translators, our editors
are all ISD parents.
>> Ah, okay. That's great.
>> Yes. Um, yeah, that's that's that
because uh there's lots of content is it
really like ISD uh related if they don't
have the back end knowledge um it will
be very weird uh translated. one of used
to have one of the translators they uh
she doesn't have the kids she didn't
have the kids in the ISD and every
single time that's the Chinese
translator and every single time there
is one uh events that she gave me the
translation is so off I was just like
very I have to I have to change to you
know change every single time and but
she that's because she doesn't even have
the back sto story or knowledge what
about what is this events and that one
it is actually the um the the ISF also
found it as the um what is that oh my
gosh it's I just forgot but it's related
to the the um graduation event you might
just remind me um what is the when that
happened going to be happen in the March
for the high school to to uh explore
different opportunity. What is that?
>> Oh, career kick. Oh, great career.
Korea.
>> Oh, yes. The great Korea. Yes, exactly.
So, the great Korea we used to publish
that the great Korea uh in our magazine
and then uh and then the the translation
the parent uh that that translator
doesn't have the knowledge about this
great Korean. And then the the the title
she translated is so off. It it's so
awful. So that
that is why we're saying like yes we we
need we still need a people person have
the backand knowledge to to translate.
Yeah.
>> Thank you. Commissioner you you had a
question.
>> Hi. No it was more of a comment. I was
just going to piggyback off of Preston
Manny. I think you were basically trying
to get at like the visibility of this
magazine. Um, and while I cannot know
from a student perspective, from a
parent perspective, I will say that it
is visible. It caught my attention when
I first enrolled my child in the school
district. Um, you know, we received a
bunch of, you know, different materials
like a school calendar, etc. And this
magazine was one of the things that, um,
that came in it. And I was immediately
taken by it. was meaningful. It I didn't
know anything much about the school
district, but it made me immediately
feel like I was sending my child who is
multi-racial to a place where
um to a place that was inclusive and
that made me it really helped me feel
better about sending my child to a
school district that I knew nothing
about. Um it was really informative and
it was really relevant. So yes, it is
visible and um I think it makes a really
positive impact. Thank you for all your
work on this project.
>> So
>> thank you so much. Thank you.
>> Now, what impressed me was the uh
numbers you gave as far as um the u
student of color.
>> Um I've been here 35 years and that is a
big difference from when my children
went to school here.
>> So appreciate your effort.
Yes. And then it's we keep that that's
really also our mission is the bridge
right we not only the c uh not only
culture but also race they are all the
same we are trying to connect every
community groups together and that is
always that's why we're saying disregard
your language like even you you you
speak English this is something that can
help you as well. So um we that's why I
we f uh reach out to all the groups all
the racials all the all the uh culturals
that is our ultimate missions for for
the magazine
>> Laura thank you
>> thank you
>> so much you thank you for everything you
guys do
>> thank you so much
>> thank you
>> Laura we really appreciate your time and
thank you Trisha and you guys are
welcome to jump off or of rest you're
welcome to stay as well.
>> Thank you.
>> Have a great
presentation.
I can move on to the human service
commission you work with.
>> Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. Commissioners,
we are shifting gears to kind of the the
big 2026
year. Um so we have um our work plan. Um
so we this is an action item. So, I'm
going to need a an approval from
commissioners with or without edits. Um,
we're going to review it this evening.
Um, this is a city requirement for all
boards and commission in this format um
for our work plan. Um, and it's
basically divided up. You have it
printed out in front of you or in your
packet. Um, but it is uh divided into
just kind of our general work plans, um,
some administrative tasks and kind of
any other items that we have for the
year. Um for those of you who have been
with our human services commission for a
while, you have seen the pattern. We're
kind of on this every other year um
where we are reviewing um applications
and making funding recommendations and
offers we are usually just trying to
follow those dollars, learn about our
nonprofits and get a little more
involved in our community. 2026 is a
review year. So we have our work cut out
for us. Um and so you can see here kind
of going through what it looks like. Um
you've seen in my emails and you can see
also in our staff report. Um the way
that my brain works is I think about
kind of what's our plan for each
commission meeting. We have a pretty set
schedule for this year. Um this is a
little bit different format. This is
more list and and what you can expect um
from from our staff and um what we have
to get done. Primarily we have um grants
um in grants there's a lot of
preparation that has to happen. Um first
we have our supplemental um that we will
um provide and kind of just send send
for moreformational information to our
commission. Um we have uh preparation
and training. Um so this looks like um
going in more depth of our toolkit. How
do we um review the application? How do
we measure applications? How do we come
to recommendations? What's the
background? What are our priority areas?
So that will be the next couple months
really setting um us up for success in
reviewing and what our process is. Um
and then we will have um kind of the end
goal which is our recommendations that
will be presented to our city mayor and
then presented to our city council that
is um in the city budget. So they don't
see um these recommendations until
around October, November when they
approve um the the larger budget.
Hannah, are those it says 2027 2028.
>> Yep. So, we are preparing for that's the
GR. So, we are currently in the grant
cycle 2025 and 26. So, in 2024, the
commission made funding recommendations
for the two following years because
we're in a bianual bianium um funding
cycle.
>> Okay.
>> So, 25 and 26, you've already made your
recommendations. We're already
contracted with them. Those contracts
end um December 31st, 2026. and then our
new contracts will begin January 1st,
2027.
>> Okay,
>> it's a little complicated.
Um, one of the things that I'm really
excited about that I think is
foundational to the review process is
our equity training. Um, so that's
actually going to be one of our next
meetings is a joint um, commission uh,
meeting for it's going to be a workshop.
Um, so we'll go in a little more detail
on that. Um, but that's going to be on
March 14th. Um and then of course we
always like to provide you quarterly
updates as we can. Um division updates
um anything related to human services
items that we cannot predict in January
that comes up later in the year. Um so
that's kind of the general work plan for
this year. Um and then just our typical
administrative tasks we have to get done
is uh we'll have elections. We're
actually going to be doing recruiting.
Um uh the application for uh boards and
commission is now opened. Um it closes
February 15th. So uh we will have some
open positions here on our commission
that will need to be filled. Uh so if
you have anybody in your sphere or world
or that you think would be interested in
serving um please let them know um that
that's online and you are more than
welcome to have them get connected to me
if they have any questions. Um so those
uh interviews will happen in March and
then they will be um appointed starting
in May. So if terms we have a few terms
ending um end of those terms is end of
April. Uh new terms begin in May.
Um and then we will shortly do election
um of officers.
>> So we have the joint equity training on
the 14th. We still have it our 18th
meeting.
>> Okay.
>> Yeah. And I'll go more details of what
to like our schedules for 2026 in our
staff report of kind of what um each
month looks like.
Um let's see.
Um and then a few I think you from our
January meeting you're aware we have
some the we're part of the transit study
uh focus groups. So we are anticipating
see them one more time in 2026.
Um, and that's the only joint meeting
that we have on our calendar, the equity
training and then the equity board um,
for now, but that could change.
>> Yeah, for the transportation.
>> I did hear back from Thomas.
>> Yeah, that was great. The followup. Um I
think the question I asked him was what
was the price of what was going on with
the taxation and and uh told me back
when it was developed it was uh 14
billion
>> and now it's the 22 to 30 billion.
>> So
>> trying to leave a little help
>> and behind.
>> Yeah. Did you ask about the timeline in
that same conversation?
>> It's gonna we know it's going to move.
Yeah.
>> Yeah.
>> So, commissioners, any questions, any
comments or any mostly want to know if
there's any edits or if you feel like
there are any items that were missing?
>> Is this pretty is there anything you
want to highlight in terms of uh changes
that you made or is this pretty much the
same
timeline that we've been following?
>> Great question. Um but yeah, this is
very just a general format of what we
have. This is our grant cycle year. So
you're going to see on even years this
common general work plan is what how we
typically do it. And again, you'll we'll
go through the breakdown of kind of what
our monthtomonth will look like for the
rest of the year as well.
>> Are Jay and I the only ones that are new
to this process? Have you guys all gone
through this before?
>> Mory has been on. Huma, I think Huma was
on last time, right, Huma?
Yes, she was.
>> And Trish is
>> Sorry, I can't tell if somebody said
just said my name.
>> I did. Um, you you went you went through
the review process last cycle, right?
You were with us.
>> Yeah, I was. Yep. It was me and Trish.
And Yeah. And then you would join
sometimes.
>> That's right. Yeah. And we currently
have a vacant position. Um, so we will
anticipate having a new commissioner
that we'll have to kind of get up to
speed. Um, and um,
yes,
>> I have a question, Anna.
>> Yes.
>> Uh, this is my um, do, uh, I think I
need to reapply for my position. Is that
correct?
>> Yes, that's correct. You still have to
go through kind of the same process as
if you were new. Um, we'll still do an
interview, but the way we're doing
interviews is a very different this
year. So, I'm not sure exactly what to
expect other than we have like a we're
trying to do all interviews for all
boards and commission on one evening.
Um, so in March, basically we're going
to have just a five hour sit down and
meet people. So,
>> what part of March will that be in Anna?
>> I have the date. Um, and again, Murray,
I'll I'll double check since he uh I'll
see if uh reapplying commissioners need
to do it in a different format. So,
apologies. I don't have all the details
yet just because we're doing it
different
>> and our city clerk office is kind of
leading the
um the process, but it looks like March
12th.
>> I get back I get back into town on the
24th
>> of March. Oh, yeah. That's right. You're
gone.
>> Okay. We we'll accommodate we'll
accommodate Mory. No problem. We'll
we'll work it out.
>> Thank you, Anna. Thank you.
>> Thanks for the heads up.
>> Okay,
>> there you go.
>> Maybe that brings a bigger question to
Commission. Is that who would have to
reapply if there u is there anybody
coming up besides Commissioner Murray in
terms of expiration?
>> Yeah, we have a uh two commissioners
terms ending in 2026.
Um well, technically three. The 2026 one
we had is vacant now where uh we had
Commissioner Bo step down. Um and then
we have uh Mory's 2026 4-year term and
Manny Brown's four-year term that will
be ending in 2026.
>> Is that why it says like vice chair and
chair?
>> I'm sitting in the wrong place.
>> I'm liking this.
>> Yeah. Yeah. So, so yeah. So, so, uh, my
will and Manny will have to decide if
they want to reapply and then we'll go
through the process.
>> Thank you.
>> Uh,
and sorry, Morin,
>> I said thank you.
>> Of course. Yeah. And then, um, come May
or June, we will need to, um, vote on
chair and vice chair position. So, if
anybody's interested in that in that um,
you know, note that I will be that
that'll be a month I will 100% be gone.
Um, so just just note that you will have
a Brenda taking over as staff liaison.
Um, so you may want to consider keeping
chairs and vice chairs or if you are
ready to mix it up um could be a year
for that as well.
>> Okay.
>> Just um as it gets closer and you're
interested in a vice chair or chair,
let's just have a a chat about that and
then we'll um have an official vote come
May or June.
>> Do you know when we'll get the
supplemental information?
Great question. I was just looking at
that because it's supposed to be a
February um topic. Uh but we don't have
a February meeting because of a
significant religious holiday. Uh it's
the first day of Ramadan, so we don't
have meetings on those days and so we
decided to cancel that.
>> Um
so we can it is it's public information
that's going to get posted online. So I
can email it to you prior to that or it
would be March 18th is when you would
review it. But that's when applications
already open. So it'll already be
>> Oh.
>> Um it's a pretty it's a pretty copy and
paste from last format. So we can even
um I can review send you the current the
one from last cycle.
>> Um it basically a supplemental um is so
we are a part of a 17 city
collaboration. Um but this is our
opportunity to say what's unique about
isqua. How much funding do we have? Um
what are our priority areas? are we um
are we requesting any other different
items in your application? Um and so
that hasn't really changed. Um we are
still aligned with our human services
strategic plan priority areas from our
last cycle. Um so those will continue to
be our priority areas. Um our funding
amount dollar probably will change and
so we are working on finalizing that.
Um, our dollar amount is a calculation
um that we use our previous year cycles
and it's a a fun calculation of cola and
CPI. So um our index of people and kind
of the dollar amount basically. So we
anticipate increases each year is the
end goal but um we just need to get that
confirmed from our finance team.
>> You're talking about people in the city,
right? Mhm.
>> So, has there been an increase?
>> Um, actually, I've seen decrease
numbers. So, we'll see. We'll see. We'll
again, uh, we got to provide that. One
thing to note, commissioners, with our
funding dollar amount is that we did,
um, h we used I don't know if you
recall, um, but we had to use the
$130,000
o opioid settlement funds. We put that
into typically it's general budget
funds. Um but we were pulling from a
different bucket for our behavioral
health services. Um so we're just
working with our city administration on
u making sure that we still have uh the
full dollar amount. So more
>> detail get that 138 for funding
appropriate.
>> Correct. That was just a one-time
funding that we were able to utilize.
>> So right there the number is going to be
smaller than we
>> um the goal Yeah. the the goal is to to
use it as a base seller, but that's
that's we we have to confirm with our
finance team on that one. Yeah. So,
the realities unfortunately.
Um so, that's the main thing on the
supplement is basically saying, hey,
this is how much money we have. Um here
are our priority areas.
Um and then, um it's usually just a
one-page pretty simple
item that each city gets to provide.
Okay.
Any items um that you would like to see
changed or edited? And if not, can we
move forward with approved?
>> Yeah, it has been approved. Uh I'll This
is Commissioner Fish and I move that we
approve the 2026 work plan as presented.
>> Second, Commissioner Edwards and I
second.
>> Sorry, I'm going to give that one to
Ray. Here it is. Voice second. And do we
have unanimous consent? Say I.
Thank you.
>> All right. Thank you, uh, Anna, and
we'll see you again at the, uh, services
grand annual performance now.
>> Me again. Okay. Uh, oop, sorry. Let me
share my screen.
I start off by saying it'll be difficult
this year because we've had a a lot of
great presentations
>> this past year and to
down
you know who are giving funds to was
very
>> yeah commissioners you have one of the
hardest tasks I would say from boards
and commission making funding decisions
that um you know these dollars are going
to people in need um and you know
there's just not enough the need is high
the money is never enough. So, um that's
why we have trainings and toolkit and a
strategic plan to help guide and help
make these decisions that um seem really
impossible. So, we really are trying to
give you all tools so you can make
educated um equitable decisions.
>> How many other recommendations are
accepted by the city? Um, it really
depends on what you all recommend, but
for example, for last year, we received
95 applications and out of those 95, 42
of those programs were funded. Um, not
at 100% request. Um, some were at 100,
some were at 50, depending on how much
they were asking. We received 1.2
million in request um, and only had um,
just over 600,000.
So, we anticipate that number on both
ends to go much higher.
Okay. So, for the rest of the evening,
commissioners, um we are basically just
going to spend time in 2025 and just
look at um um some uh the report for our
grants and then we're going to our next
um item is our division update as well.
I'll try to be um sensitive to time as I
believe we're a little behind. Um so
just please pause me if you have any
questions or otherwise we'll have time
to um talk afterwards. So
this presentation really um we are
looking at um so our human services
grants we contract with them they
provide quarterly reports um that we
track their scope of works. Have they
met their service unit goals? Have they
met their um their resident goals? Um
and so um from that we also received
narratives to learn more about what's
going on um in their communities and in
their services. Um so I'm just providing
an update on that.
So um in 2025 2026 we had the exact
dollar 612,61800,000
is that right? 34 organizations, 42
programs. Um, and the goal was to serve,
um, just under 5,000 Islam residents.
Um, you can see here, um, these are our
priority areas within our strategic
plan. So, we look at each program and
we, uh, label them in one of the four
categories. Um you could see there were
housing continuum we had 10 programs
community resources 12 programs physical
and behavioral health and then we had
our language access and cultural
specific services.
So in our annual performance review uh
we look at um did these reports come in
time? Were they complete? Did they meet
their service unit goal and their
resident goal? Um so we had almost
everybody in time um send their reports.
uh 100% of them were accurate and
complete which tells them we've trained
them well.
Um and then as far as service units, so
service units really varies between
programs, right? So for unhoused, we
might be measuring um shelter nights um
or bed that were that were served. Other
ones could be case management. So the
service unit is um per hour or rental
assistance, maybe it's a household. So
you can see there there's such a
variation depending on the program uh
what the service unit is that we're
measuring. Um but this is what we work
on in and you'll see in their
application what they are applying for
and then we finalize it in the
contracting aspect of it. Um and so some
of them have one service unit um within
the contract some of them have up to
three. Um and you can see 40 of the 42
programs did meet their annual service
unit goals. Um, and then the two that
did not were newer programs that were
still establishing kind of their
relationship with the squat community.
So, we have some good uh game plans for
them to meet their goals for this year.
>> So, how far off were they?
>> Um, they were under 75%.
>> Yeah.
Um, okay. This number I think is very
impressive. So, um, what we do is Q4 we
look at the reports and we see the total
residents that they served. Um, so we
collected all that information. Um, and
um, you can see 41 of our 42 met that
resident goal that they set out for. Um,
but you can see how many ISO residents
combined that our nonprofits serve
through our human services grant funding
was over 22,000. But a person could be
counted more than once if they
>> It's very likely Yeah.
>> that a good number of this is one person
was measured was once at the food bank
but also went to the Isqua community
services but also received um services
from the circle. So realistically this
is not the exact number. Um there's no
way with our current system to um
determine who's not. But um regardless
when we're comparing this number to 2024
we saw a 65% increase.
>> How do you track that they're residents
that you're serving?
>> Um so each organization does it
differently. Um but a lot of them have
intakes because a lot of them are city
funded and they receive funding from
Isiqua and they have their goals for
Isiqua and they also see funding from
Samish and Belleview or Reton. And so
they basically have their intake process
Um, so like Isiqua Food and Clothing
Make for example, not everyone's from
Isiqua. And so in order to receive their
services, they have to fill in an intake
that determines their zip code.
>> So that's what part of our monitoring
process is. We get to see, okay, how are
you tracking us? What is your internal
system?
>> Um, so it's it it does vary.
>> Maybe this is kind of commissioner. Um,
I'm looking at in terms of like the
background of human services and talking
about residents with low income
disability, individual homeless,
immigrant, refugee and other groups.
Now given that number 22,000 we know
this is kind of sky um is there ways to
break it down to that specific um
demographics?
Um, we do receive annual demographic
reports from our nonprofits um that we
could um get reported numbers. Again,
not everything's reported. Um, but yes,
we do have that information of people
who um whether it's by race or by um
poverty or uh disability. So, that is
something that we do collect.
>> Also, are those unhoused, do they have a
zip code?
>> Unhoused is a little tricky. Um, so the
way that we in our unhoused or homeless
outreach program, the way that we um
basically we gather that information
versus like our nonprofits, so shelters
for example, um, our funding has shifted
where it previously back back before my
time, they had to if Isiqua was funding
porch light, let's say, um, congregation
for the homeless back then. Um and we
basically paid for like two beds per
month. They would have to save these
beds for isol then there would be these
empty beds and but because of the way
the funding cycle works. So we had to
shift our funding to say okay this is a
regional problem and so we are
regionally uh funding these beds for
unhoused individuals since it really is
hard to determine where where folks are
from or um where they live. They don't
have a zip code.
Yeah. Do you know how the different
nonprofits collect the intake
information or is it like somewhat
streamlined? Is it completely? Yeah,
this has been a conversation for years
now that that we would love just kind of
like one just like um technology that
would suffice for all of our nonprofits.
Yeah. You you worked at a nonprofit.
>> The challenges of that it's really hard.
I mean, it's expensive. Um, you know,
>> you can have someone that comes to the
food bank that's, you know, like couch
surfing. So, they have a a a zip code
for Isiqua, but then maybe the next time
they come, they've
>> couch surfed someplace the same person.
And
>> it's just it's really hard to
>> and I think for nonprofits and maybe you
can attest to this is
>> data is really important, right? because
it is it's a part of granting cycle and
I think you're going to receive you're
going to learn more of this in the
equity training but a lot of nonprofit
services it's it's the narrative right
it it is the the work that's happening
that is really hard to quantify but you
know is making a needle movement impact
in people's lives so I think it's really
important in reviewing these grants and
reviewing these reports of understanding
numbers are important numbers do tell a
part of the story but just a part of the
story. That's why it's so helpful to see
the narratives um and and get these
life-changing success stories that we
get to read in these reports. So, to
give us the fuller picture of the type
of impact that pro program can have.
>> And
when you guys ask for this information
as part of your quarterly reports, is
that like all streamlined as well or is
that like each nonprofit can provide it
in in very different?
>> It's very streamlined. Um yeah, so they
get to do one report and they get to
basically report to like their five
different funded cities and get paid um
either in a poolled fund or separately.
So it's a very streamlined process at
least for that.
>> Okay.
>> So then you guys would be able to have
that data aggregated like from all the
different nonprofits together at least
in in one function.
>> Then the city doesn't have to be like oh
I received this report as like a Google
sheet or this one is in Excel and this
one's like a separate system.
>> Yeah.
>> Okay. So there would be like a way to
potentially get like statistics of
>> how many services and people.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Absolutely.
>> I think also the important part is that
the the human part of this is that we
don't want to be invasive to those that
come in.
>> There's a line to navigate there. Yeah.
>> Yeah. We've learned there's there's just
some questions and demographic questions
that are not appropriate to ask or or
people don't feel safe sharing right
now. Um so um it's the challenge of this
type of business. People are not numbers
you know.
>> Thank you commissioners. Great comments
and questions.
Um so so part of this report I like to
kind of share out um kind of the trends
that we see and the challenges and then
we'll we'll end on a positive note and
share highlights. Um 2025 was a tough
year though. Um I think we we had a few
meetings. We talked about it here. you
met many of our nonprofits that also
attested to many of the challenges they
saw. Um, a trend that I kept on hearing
from our nonprofits in our narratives,
but also in special meetings is just
this common theme of uh the need just
keeps going up and funding was cut
significantly in 2025. Um, we saw it
here locally. Uh, city of Isaba had to
make funding cuts. We saw it statewide
and we saw it federally. Um and the
impacts are still we're still going to
see that trickle effect probably for
years at this point. Um in addition, we
had administration changes and pol
federal policy changes that left uh a
lot of just kind of this unknown this
kind of this this what does this mean?
What when when are we going to see the
impacts here in Isiqua? Um what does it
mean for nonprofits trying to um do
their services? I we saw nonprofits
decline federal funding because of the
policy changes. So so it we saw those
impacts. Um we also recently in Q4 we
had a government uh shutdown with SNAP
benefits. Um so there was a little a
month-long kind of food basic need
crisis um of where where's food going to
come from? Um how do people access um
this? Do can they drive to work or do
they feed their family? Um and then
specifically here in Isiqua, we saw the
flooding. Um whether you all were
impacted personally. Um but we also saw
um our unhoused individuals um were
displaced. Uh we saw um our our
nonprofits struggling. We saw I saw in
our narratives it impacted how services
were provided because people couldn't
access or leave their house um or do
home visits. So we saw a lot of those
challenges.
Um, continuing on, um, a lot of our
housing programs, rental assistant
programs, um, saw a common theme
between, um, all all of them talking
about, uh, just this common increase in
rent and, uh, there was a lot more
eviction notices. So, a lot more people
were needing financial assistance to
stay housed. Um and then uh we also saw
a few more reports of individuals um
that were self-reporting they were
sleeping outside um um or living in
their vehicles.
So housing continues to be a challenge
here in Isiqua.
Um within the policy changes, I think
these were just like just constant words
I kept on hearing um just people so
fearful. Again, we had um I think
especially with ICE and immigration
changes, a lot of people not leaving
their homes causing isolation.
Um just a lot of just again this
uncertainty and we know when you we live
in unknowns, it it increases stress. Um
so just a lot of anxiety um from our
staff staff from the nonprofits um as
well as our residents. Um but one of the
things we heard from our nonprofits is
again um with these policy changes, it
really impacted our immigration
population, our unhoused uh people with
mental health um and um our non-binary
and uh gender identity community members
um have been just very much sharing
these stories of just afraid not not
going to services, not going to the food
because they don't want to leave their
house.
Um I just thought this was interesting.
Um got this information from crisis
connections
um when uh
when the government was shutting down
and you could see um just again that
common theme of increase in need and uh
decrease of funding. So there was no
funding during shutdown. But you can see
the blue line is 2025. Um compared to
the yellow line in 2024.
Um just a significant amount of uh need
just going up.
Okay. But on the good notes, some
highlights because it wasn't all bad. Um
I do I do want to highlight a few things
here. Um, biggest one is I I can't tell
you how proud and impressed I was of our
Isiqua community. Um, people were are
currently living in fear with the
government shutdown. Basic needs were
down, food was down, but what I kept on
hearing from our nonprofits is we have a
lot of donations. People are stepping
up. We have uh people who are supporting
us um in different ways. And and I think
that just attests to the type of
community we live in um is that uh that
we care. We care for each other and we
care for a healthy community and um it
it really takes everybody involved. Um
so I think that was um just extremely
impressive and again just very proud of
um for that. Um, I also want to shout
out to our leadership, um, you know,
whether it's our city mayor, city
administration, um, in our parks
department, um, with Brenda as well.
Just a lot of advocacy in our, um, in
human services. I mean, that's a huge
part of our job is to know what's going
on with our vulnerable population, what
are the needs, and to help share that
story in a way. And we saw that with our
mayor Paulie um responding with um
emergency funding um and and with
support with our different um challenges
that we came across.
Um another big success um I would say is
advanced payment. So advanced payment is
a new process of offering our nonprofits
basically money upfront. So we're
performance model. We need to pay them
based off of them meeting their
contract. But we heard for years saying
that's really hard for grassroot
organizations. they kind of need the
money up front. Um so, uh we implemented
that for the first time this year and so
far successful. Um there's no no
concerns with people not meeting their
contract goals. Um so we're going to
just continue to monitor their monitor
that
um but the other thing that I saw um
that I have I've actually not seen at
this level before in my years here is
our service units. Right? So we talked
about the scope of work. um the service
unit being case management or um
financial aid or different things like
that um everything was well over 100%. I
mean it was like some some were a
thousand% over what our contract was. Um
so again I think it it speaks to the
need but I think it it speaks to the
impact and and to our residents that
they're having. There's a lot of work
being done and a lot of people are are
exceeding their service unit goals.
Um 211, again these are just some highly
named a few nonprofits. 211 Transition
um they are now the sole um 211 provider
and 988. So if you call 988 um they're
the ones who are um answering those
lines um statewide. Um so there here's
just some numbers that they provided.
When they took over October um first
they saw an increase. So, I think
they're just saying, "Hey, this is a
very efficient way of doing this."
So, good on 211. Um, circle just
highlighting some of their top needs.
Um, basic needs is always usually I
always see it at the top three. Um, but
we saw it as our number one. Um, housing
advocacy, legal services we know is up
there. Mental health, they do a lot of
great services.
Um and then on Freebook, I think um
their stats are always really um helpful
and and wanted to highlight a few
things. Um they did see a 16% increase
in their um household served in food
services since 2024.
Um they saw a different trend um this
year, which was uh larger sized families
and households mostly because they're
multigenerational
um and they have an increase in diverse
client base. They reported
Um they are wonderful working with our
school district. They have power pack
program they've had for many years. They
saw 41% increase in that. Um
additionally they had a very successful
holiday gift program serving um 444
families providing gift cards and um
serving um 1100 children.
Okay. So that was 2025 and I always like
to say what's next. Um for 2026, as you
all know, um we have our grant um grant
process again that we'll be doing more
training on. We'll be focusing on our
strategic plan and those priority areas
and um we'll be following our equity
training um guidelines and then we'll be
using our review tool to help um make
those funding decisions.
>> Boom. Any questions or comments?
>> Oh, it's on this kind of this highlight
page that you did.
>> Oh, yeah. That's actually going to be
our next top. Oh, okay.
>> Anything about our grants though.
>> I was curious about the advanced
payment. So, to be able to do that, you
have to pull from a purse. Where where
is that coming from? Like
>> general funds.
>> Just general funds.
>> Yeah, we have we have it allotted. So,
the 612
>> Yeah.,000.
>> It's already basically like in our bank
that we are able to pull,
>> but that that's not going to the
organization. that's that's already been
allocated to the organizations that are
going to receive the funds, but you're
giving them like the in Q4 last year.
They received money from a purse. That
wasn't the purse that they received from
that was allocated for the human
services.
>> Yes, it was. So, for example, so so
annually we have the 612,000 plus um
that is divided by the 42 program. So,
the we we've allocated a dollar amount
per program. So for example, the circle
receives 42 is our largest um program
funded for 42,000. They signed up for
advanced payment. So in 2025, they
received 21,000
in when contract was created in Q1 and
then they received their second they
still provided the quarterly report
saying, "Hey, we're doing the services.
Here's our update." And then July 15th
is when they received the second
payment. So instead of doing a quarterly
payment of
>> 42 Yeah. So they're just getting the
money up front basically, but we're
still monitoring their their
performance.
>> Okay. So it's still part of the the
human services.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah. We brought that in last year if I
remember right. And um it was agreed
that most of these uh nonprofit places
need the funds up front.
>> Yes.
>> Yeah.
>> Yeah.
Yeah. Thank you.
>> Right. More questions. Um I'm going to
go again turn it back over
service division highlights.
>> Wonderful. Thank you so much. Okay, let
me share my screen one more time.
>> Really good job, Hannah.
>> Oh, thanks Mark.
>> You know, I love this stuff. I nerd out
on human services.
Okay. Well, now to kind of transition to
um our human services division. So
that's our kind of staffing highlights
for 2025. So Brenda and I are going to
present on this one and kind of divide
and conquer this. So you have
commissioners in your packet as well as
online. Um we provided two reports. The
first one is a pretty highlight page
with numbers and pictures and colors.
And then the other report is the kind of
more the meat of the detailed
information um that provides uh the
background information um a few more
metrics and outcomes from our division.
So let me just start human services
division. Um really uh we are um a small
but mighty team. So we have Brenda our
human services manager uh myself as the
coordinator who um works with the
planning and the funding and then we
have three human uh or sorry behavioral
health coordinators who provide direct
service and our behavioral health and
homeless outreach team. Um, our division
really is intended to serve our
vulnerable population here in Esqua. Um,
we are known as an affluent area.
However, we still have people who live
in poverty. We still have people who are
unhoused. We still have the elderly, the
young, uh, disabled that um, our our
funding really goes to support. Um,
human services used to just be primarily
u focused as a funer to our nonprofit
and we have expanded and grown in the
last 5 years to a division um that does
the direct service that does uh our
planning or advocacy, the coordinating
um in in my role, my my bread and butter
is really our human services um which
includes our strategic plan, our human
services grants, our coordinating the
relationships with our nonprofits,
monitoring those grants. Um, and so, um,
the highlights here, um, are is kind of
a repeat of what we just talked about.
So, I'm not going to go in too much
detail about that since we had a big
presentation on that. Um, but the the
main things again that I want to um
highlight at least from the human
services side and then I'll pass it on
to Brenda for um for more of the
behavioral health and homeless outreach
information is um
human services. I think again my role
and my privilege that I have is working
with our nonprofits and our nonprofits
do a lot of uh very impactful work. I
think we learned that a lot here last
year having um the nonprofits share um
what their programming looks like in
Isiqua. Uh but it it is always such an
honor to partner with them and to learn
where what's going on, what are the
trends, um what's working well, what's
not working well. One of the things um
we had um impacted for this our our city
is that we had funding cuts this last
year. And one of those funding cuts was
our uh cultural specific um programming.
So we um had five different cultural
events throughout the year that we would
host and fund. Um and uh that those
dollars got cut. However, we still had
nonprofits say we still want to do it.
We want to make this happen. It's
important to our community. Um so the
city was able to help support that
through space um through staffing. Um,
and so we saw um, Hispanic Heritage
Month and AAPI um, uh, month and then we
of course had our cultural fest which is
a city sponsored event. Um, another
highlight I think that happened in 2025
is um, a creation of a new nonprofit to
help the service gap gap of clothing.
Um, so we had community clothing have
two free clothing events that were
extremely successful. Um, you had a
chance to meet with them and they will
be applying to this next funding cycle.
Um so really excited about um a new
development of a nonprofit that's is awa
specific. Um the other thing I want to
highlight that we did in human services
is really comes from our uh previous
mayor mayor Paulie. Um she really wanted
to understand kind of the human service
crisis that we might be um stepping
into. Um and so she did a wonderful job
uh with our council member Barbie
Michelle of um trying to basically
gather the data, the stories to take it
to the next legislative and state level
to say we need funding in human services
and this is why.
>> So Mary Lou was doing that and she was
also meeting with um community nonprofit
leaders. Is that going to continue with
our new mayor?
>> Um the plan is yes mostly through Barb
Michelle. um she will be
>> uh council president Barb Michelle she
will be uh moving forward with um that
initiative and from what I've heard
mayor mullet is supposed to participate
in that but he's you know week three so
he's learning a lot right now so
>> sure we'll we'll see that but but we do
have a council member who is pressing on
with that
>> okay very good
>> so that's human services um again we
went through most of those highlights
already in our previous
>> So but I I did want to ask a question
here so I the bottom line here. So, 184
individuals with
>> do that.
>> Oh, that's you. Yeah. Dang it. Okay.
Sorry. Sorry about that. Okay.
>> Close.
>> So, I'll transition to Brenda over to
focus more on our direct service
programs that we have.
>> Thank you.
>> Thanks, Brenda. I
>> I just want to start by a great big
thank you to all of you. I don't get to
be here very often. You'll see me a lot
more now with Hannah transitioning into
her new role, but um it's just really
good to be here and to see all the work
you're doing. And I'm I'm looking
forward to it. And you're going to see
that I'm going to keep this very brief.
So we'll we'll take a look at first the
types of homelessness that we saw. U
kind of the usual things, couch surfing,
the the people staying in shelters, the
people on the street. Those are the ones
that we really can kind of see and know
of who's out there. But the vehicles, I
just want to kind of make a a point
here. They have to move every day. So, I
really believe that this number is is um
under reportported. I think there's a
lot more people out there in their
vehicles
>> and they're just they constantly have to
move and cycle and it's it's very
unfortunate and we don't you know we
don't have safe parking here in Isiqua
so we're not seeing them congregate in
the evening and able to count them. So
that's something to kind of look at. The
as far as the annual contacts, this is
you can see 1,86
contacts. And what I would say about
that is a contact can be, you know, very
brief. It can be a few minutes sending
someone some resources or it can be
something that takes several hours. We
could be out on a call with someone,
with the police, with uh community
partners. So those contacts, I think
it's pretty impressive that we're seeing
a number that high, but when you add in
how much time that actually takes, I
think it's even more impressive. Our
behavioral health coordinators, like
Hannah mentioned, they're doing awesome
work and it's just every day is is new.
You never know what you're going to see
each day and how much time that's going
to take. So
uh the other thing that I want so
looking down below then the 184
individuals that we serve those are
unduplicated. So that's um how many
people have reached out for services and
then you see again the number of
contacts the 366 that's the number that
we measure of of service connections.
Those are actual followed through with
being connected to that service. So
there could be multiple times where we
offer the resources and people are like
not interested no thank you but these
are the ones that we have actually made
that connect made that connection. I
also want to draw your attention to the
number permanently housed nine it it
might look like a small number this is
huge for our area
>> and also uh the people that were housed.
I wish I could tell you a story about
every one of those people. I could tell
you a story about every one of those
people. I won't. But we know them. We
know their story. We know that they have
been on the streets in Isiqua and other
places. Some of these of the nine more
than 10 years. That's a long time. More
than I I think we have a couple of
individuals who are closer to 20 years.
>> Oh my goodness.
>> So the work that we put in with these
people and our I just again calling out
our behavioral health coordinators. they
have spent hours not only looking for
the resources but building a rapport
with them, you know, building when
someone has been on the street that
long, you can't just say, "Hey, I have a
um I have a housing opportunity for
you." You really have to get to know
them and hear their story and and you
have to feel the rejection of, you know,
of having something available to them
and having them say, "No, thank you."
>> I have to add, they have to trust you,
too.
>> They have to trust us and they do. Yes.
So what's to retain on on that?
>> So we're still I think it'll be
it'll be interesting to see over the
next couple of years because and I'll
talk about this in a minute. Um well
I'll talk about it now. So we have a new
program that we're working with called
coordinated entry and some of you might
be familiar with that. It's part of the
homeless management information system
with King County. They have a program
where really the first step in finding
housing is to get them on this list.
>> So that once they're on the list and we
know who they are and we know what the
need is, we the coordinators then daily
are able to nominate them for housing
that comes up. So there's a pool of
housing throughout the county and we've
at it's several steps. I won't go into
all the details, but we've basically
interviewed them to find out where will
you go, what will you accept, what
location, when is it available, what
criteria. Some of it is based on the
time that they've been unhoused. Some of
it is based on age, on disability or
substance use. So, there's a number of
criteria and we we hadn't used this
before in the city of Isiqua until about
six months ago. and all of the staff
went through extensive training. And so
I think now we're we're really going to
be able to answer your question, Manny,
I think now we're going to be able to
see, okay, we have this person housed
now. Maybe it's in Seattle, maybe it's
in Belleview, how long did they stay?
And I think that's going to be really an
interesting number because part of the
problem in Isiqua is we're taking people
who are from here, this is their
community, and because we don't have
those resources here, placing them
somewhere else, which is great that they
they have a place to go, but will they
stay or do they do we see them coming
back here now? We're kind of taking them
away from their support network here.
So, a lot of to be determined with that
number.
>> So, is more permanent housing available,
but there's a leg in getting people
making the right match.
>> The matching process is a big part of
it.
>> Okay. And it's not just, you know, the
list is huge and, you know, there's
people who have been on the list for
years, unfortunately.
>> So,
>> yeah, just a couple of things I wanted
to to point out. And then also in
thinking about the people we're working
with, the acuity of the the mental
health and substance use issues that
we're seeing is so high. It's it's hard
to put a number on that, but you
probably know just from the people you
encounter. We're encountering people who
have significant mental health and
substance use issues. And you know, back
in the day, they used to put them in
hospitals or, you know, and so that
whole system has changed.
>> And so now we see and deal with people
who are really in in um
in a crisis situation that, you know, we
wouldn't normally see. And I'm not just
talking recently over the last couple
years. I'm talking decades of of a cycle
if you know what I mean.
>> So um you have police referrals here.
Referrals are
difference between police referrals and
behavioral health. Uh or
is there different numbers because
referrals could be someone that's
putting someone else in behavior where
>> right? So, so a police referral, we also
knew to the behavioral health team this
year is that we are we are able to be
dispatched out directly from Isiqua
Police Department from dispatch.
>> And so a police referral is when they
maybe the police go out, they have a
call and either they call us directly
and dispatch us to that call or they
send us a referral afterwards and we
make contact, send resources, um connect
them to services. So that's what a
police referral is. Other referrals come
from walk-ins. They come from community
partners. They come from across the the
community, but those ones we track
specifically.
>> Yeah. I guess the warning threw me off
as well. You're looking referrals from
police.
>> Yes.
>> Okay. Yes. Not to police.
>> Okay.
>> Good. Oh, that's a good point, Mandy.
>> Yeah.
>> No, these are from and we're working
side by side with them on those
referrals.
>> And this is Commissioner Hime B. I
appreciate you kind of highlighting I
was just going to go there with that
Manny that I think with Mayor Mark Mully
talking about strong public safety.
This goes handinhand with
um you know I used to work in the
juvenile system 14 years court and you
name it and uh you brought the point
about hospitals but that that that was
the idea sometimes we would you can't
police yourself out of it in terms of
safety. So I I love the fact that we're
continuing that partnership because that
is safety meaning that you're you're
providing services to
families that meet our our end from you
know mental health, housing, uh
substance acuity and that you can't
release yourself out of it. That is the
that is the work is actually to do the
connections, the rehabilitation, the
working. You can't just hey this
person's having experienced mental
health and we're gonna be you know
jailing this this individ
how how do we um provide safety for all
including the people that are being
impacted. So I love the fact that we're
tracking this information and ways to
ensure that we are bringing safety for
all including people that are you know
struggling. We there's a good book that
talks about uh uh you can't just keep
punishing the poor,
>> right?
>> You know, through criminal systems. And
so I love the fact that we're continuing
that partnership with law enforcement to
ensure that we're providing the best
services. And I think that is what we do
here in the human services.
>> Yeah. So
>> I think it's also worth noting too in
the in the work that we do with the
police is from a staffing perspective,
this I don't send the team out one just
one at a time. They're in pairs. So the
the impact on staff when you look at 110
police referrals generally that's two
people going out to make sure that
they're safe.
>> Um and then there's also on the back end
of that there's co-raining that needs to
have that needs to happen more so with
the police department. we've started and
we have a I feel pretty good about the
policies that we have in place, but
that's something we'll be doing ongoing
as well is we'll be making sure that
we're co-training with our um emergency
responders on the fire side and the
police side. So again, when you see
these numbers, there's a lot that goes
into that. Now,
>> how is the uh police side accepting and
um I guess
>> being open?
>> Yeah, being open.
>> Yeah. I think we still have some room to
grow, but I think it's been a great
response. I think that um I think they
definitely see the value and
unfortunately there's not enough of us.
We can't be there 24/7 and a lot of
police calls do come in in the evening
or on weekends and so we're not able to
to be available I think as much as we
would like to be. But the relationships
are growing and the trust is growing and
I think we're we're really on the right
track to work well with them. I'm
sitting in this chair so I have
briefness. um that uh it's 8:09 right
now and I would move that we go another
10 two 10 minutes that's okay with
everyone
>> um just the people that ease that we're
>> we're going towards the end but
>> yeah absolutely and that's that is all I
have for mine so if there
>> so in these annual contacts like 2025
the 1,86
were those like all contacts just from
the three behavioral health
coordinators.
>> Yes. A handful from Hannah and I. Yeah.
>> Sometimes we're in the office and and
there are times where I'll still go out
on the you know, if we have only one
person available, I'll jump in the car
and still go out and work in the field.
So, okay. Yeah, that's a small that's a
lot of contacts for one small team.
>> Yes, that is that is very
>> And the increase you'll see too, a lot
of that has to do with the coordinated
entry because it does take so many more
contacts
>> um to do that housing piece. So, you
know, we're officially not case managers
but we are doing some case management
tasks and so that has increased the
number as well
>> and the coordinated entry program that's
an east side like that's a cons
>> that's a countywide
>> countywide system okay
>> and I have to applaud both Brenda and
Anna this is your babies I know so
congratulations numbers are amazing
>> thank you um and then the other question
I had so for the types of homelessness
like the shelters is only like 10% Do
they have like do you think that number
could be higher
>> if there's spacing or do you think that
number like we'll probably usually stay
around 10% just because there's not
additional space.
>> I I think it would definitely um if we
had shelter here we would be measuring
we would be seeing that from
what am I trying to say? We would be
seeing that directly
>> but we're this is from self-report.
They're telling us that they are staying
shelter right. And I will also add we
offer shelter all the time. A lot of
people don't want to unless there's
emergency weather, people more inclined
or they're offered a motel voucher. Um
but congregate shelter especi co really
transition shelter because it turned
into motelling and so now that's been
the expectation for you know years
later. Um but it that's expensive.
>> Yeah.
>> Not sustainable. Um so so a lot of uh
folks would rather actually we found
choose to sleep outside than be in a
shelter situation. They find it safer
outside than in a shelter in some cases.
So um and they certainly don't want to
travel to be in the shelter. So they
don't want to get on the bus to go to
I
a homeless youth shelter. So kids under
21.
>> Yeah.
>> So and yeah they were like I don't trust
anyone here.
>> So definitely get that. But yeah, just
always looking at like well you know if
there's additional services like would
they use or
>> Yeah, it's a great question.
>> Thank you everyone.
>> Thank you.
>> Thank you Brand.
Um we have uh chair and commission
reports. anything from the chair,
anything?
>> I don't I don't I'm just grateful to
I'll say this. I'm grateful to be doing
this journey with all of you, even the
folks on the screen. It's going to be um
a good learning experience around the
strategic plan, that grant funding, and
uh as as Hannah alluded to, it's going
to be one of those things that we're
just going to have to lean in giving
these tough decisions. Um and also I
would encourage too is you know what do
we want as our goals you know after the
grant cycle one of the things we we kind
of agreed as a group was having a you
know the site visits having the
nonprofit folks coming in and that
naturally fit hand in hand to like
really get a pulse around some of the
decision making and that might be
something
>> as we finish out the funding cycle to
start thinking about that as well. So
>> thank you. Um, our use for suppressed
and
still with us.
>> Yeah. Sorry, I had to turn my camera
off. Um, I'm having some Wi-Fi issues
and the camera kind of struggles with
that one.
>> You got anything for us today?
>> Um, no youth report for today.
>> Um, I'm just going to add to the youth
report topic for you, Preston. Um, I
don't know if you were here when Manny
um asked the question if we could look
into um youth representation here on our
commission to have uh more um to have a
vote, an official vote and maybe pull
the position. Um I did check in with
city clerks about that and basically
that is a bylaw change. So we would need
to go into those bylaws and change it.
However, I was told to push pause on
that because they are we are looking at
that citywide to see if we can change
that youth policy. Um so hopefully we'll
have uh more youth um voice and
representation citywide on our boards of
commission. So more information to come
on to that. So
>> sounds awesome. I'd love to get to vote.
>> Yeah, we still like your vote. I still
kind of count your hand, but the
official Yes.
That's great. Thank you. And and staff
reports.
>> Okay, staff reports. So, I always report
on council and mayor updates. So, we
have um some basically staffing changes
on that end. So, I listed those out
there. Um so, we have a new mayor, Mark
Mullet. I listed kind of his priority
areas from an email he sent. Um new
council members with new position. Barby
Michelle's our new council president. Uh
Tola Marts is our deputy council
president. Um, we have a new council
member, Kevin Nichols. Um, and then our
vacant position, when I filled this out,
we didn't know who it was, but I can
give you an update. Um, the council is
Paul Adair, I believe, is how you
pronounce it. Um, he was voted in last
night.
>> Um, he what? Uh,
>> Tuesday. Yeah,
>> Tuesday. Yep. He is on the uh park board
um currently and he also served u on the
public facilities task force. um he has
accounting background so he has been
appointed to be on the council.
And then the other part I give updates
on is our human services commission
update. I like to use this for our
schedule because it's a busy year. Um
you can see all the work that we've
done. Oh my goodness, we did a lot this
last year. Um but I want to focus our
attention on the upcoming meetings. Um
so
um this is the schedule that we kind of
agreed on since last time we met in
November. If anything needs a change,
let's discuss it. But currently, we are
scheduled for not meeting in February.
Um the reason why is February 18th a
regular meeting is um a religious and
cultural holiday with significant work
restrictions. So we would have to do a
special meeting. Since we're meeting
twice in January, twice in March, we
decided to take a pause in February. Um
the next time we will see each other
will be a while. Um so it'll be um
actually as a special meeting. Um March
14th is our equity uh workshop and
that's going to be at cityman hall.
Please note folks, this is in person
only. Hybrid last time uh did not work
and so we are just requiring it to be in
person. If you can't make it, we'll give
you an update. Um
>> I'm not even
>> Yeah, please carpool.
>> Oh man,
>> um we will be starting at 8:30. Please
arrive. um as close to that as possible.
This is the time to grab coffee, mingle,
all that fun stuff. We will begin at
9:00 promptly. This is a little
different format. We are making it a
threeh hour, so um just kind of gear up
for a Saturday morning. Um if you're not
able to attend, please please let me
know. Um I already am aware my has will
be out of town. Thank you, Mora. We'll
fill you in on that. Um this workshop
really um just so you heads up and
you'll receive some emails on this.
There's going to be homework. So
pre-work will be sent out. Do whatever
you can. I know everyone's busy, but
just it it will help kind of get
everyone on the same page to start off
with the workshop. So, um, invest in
that what you you can. And that will be
sent out a couple weeks prior. Um, and
then the workshop is kind of going to
be, you know, again, everyone's a little
bit different on their equity journey.
So, we're going to go through some basic
information, um, some foundational
information, and then we're going to get
a little more in how do we have this
equity lens in reviewing these
applications, how do we implement in our
toolkits, um, some good breakout
sessions. Um, but I think what will be
the most impact for us is the postwork.
So, the postwork is going to happen on
our regular meeting March 18th. Um,
that's where we're going to basically do
the follow-up. I love the timing because
it will be still fresh in our mind. Um
we'll go from a Saturday meeting to a
Wednesday meeting and we'll discuss the
training um the implications of that and
how to gear up. So that will be March
18th is we'll do that follow-up
discussion that will be is specific and
that's when um we will start getting in
the uh nitty-gritty of our process and
how how we will u facilitate that. Um,
April 15th, we will continue continue
with the uh preparation. Hopefully, I
will still be here. Um, application
closes April 6. My goal is to have all
the numbers for you all by the 15th
saying this is how much was requested.
These are how many programs were
requested. I will have them categorized
within our strategic plan priority
areas. And at that point, we we will
need to decide subgroup um review
groups.
Um then that will probably be my
farewell. Um hopefully I'll last that
long and my water won't break when I'm
here. Um and then Brenda will take over
uh for our May meeting, which is
basically you'll have a homework
assignment to just uh look at one
application, maybe two, and then come
back in May if you have any questions.
And this is where we'll just make sure
everyone feels very solid about the
review process. Um they're good to go.
June there will be no meeting. However,
you'll have lots of meetings. Um you
potentially will have our joint meeting
with equity board and then you'll be
doing subgroup meetings. Those will be
hour and a half long meetings at least
two between June and mid July where you
will not be on camera. It will not be a
quorum meeting. It'll just be a
discussion on your priority areas um
with your subcommittee group and um
staff. Um July 15th, you'll come back
and we'll have a report out, have a
discussion. Um at that point, uh we'll
probably meet some follow-up meeting and
then we'll come back in August. Um or if
you need a recess in August, you can
come back in September at the latest and
u vote on your recommendations. And then
you can breathe a little bit, take a
little break, and then I'll be back in
November.
You can tell me all about it.
>> Yeah. So, any questions about the
schedule uh moving forward?
Got a fun year ahead of us.
Wow. Is there any other business?
Um have make a statement that uh
I ran into a show um Rachel Mal's uh
show called um Burn Order.
>> Burn Order
>> Burn Order, which was uh highlights on a
on the Japanese American uh incarnation
after World War II. Um it's amazing done
with very very well. Um if you get a
chance to see that and you can see it on
YouTube
about it.
It's very touching this.
>> Any other questions?
Well, that ends our meeting for the day
and I will close at 8:22
p.m.
Thank you all.
>> Well done, Andy. Good night everybody.