Labor and Economic Development Committee - Regular Meeting

Rental costs will go down, but in an environment where we don't have the supply that we need, we need more units.

And this is where you need to talk to the state individuals, your elected officials, because if you don't do something about the cost of rent going up, then they will truly be forced to a nursing home. If you want to shoot your budget, shoot yourself in the foot with about the budget, try to, $100,000 a year, I mean, the federal government pays A lot of that, but still can take a lot. So you better take a long look at the long haul picture of that because it could be very, very much more negatively impactful to your budget than trying to actually increase. And I understand landlords have to make a living, and I don't begrudge that, but to what extent is fair for those individuals. So it's something they really need to take a look at because if they don't have a roof over their head, they're going to be going out. state custody or something like that. So it can be a lot more costly.

For so long, we've looked at this as like, what can we afford to do? How much Section 8 can we afford? How many low-income housing tax credits can we afford? How much design change can we afford? And at some point, the conversation has to be, what can we afford not to do? Like, what are we giving up if we don't do these things? And it's increased nursing homes. increased emergency room visits, increased homelessness, stagnating economies. The city of Austin took a different approach, and they built, built, built. And their rents are going down, down, down because they increased their supply. So that's something that we all have to keep in mind. And that means not only do we need the funding streams and all of that, but people need to welcome housing into their neighborhoods.

We want people to experience our libraries, and one way to do that is through the library summer reading program. Last year, more than 27,000 kids and teens completed the program, the most in nearly a decade. It's been around since 1929. It's free, it's fun, it's interesting, and it gets kids so ready for the next chapter in their life indeed.

Summer reading is the most exciting time in the library because we really get to stop and celebrate the sheer joy of reading. Kids get to read for no other reason than it's fun right? And you can visit libraries across the city to really connect with the pleasure of learning and discovery.

22 years ago, Louisville's four largest institutions came together to form the Partnership for a Green City. Today, that partnership represents 30,000 employees and reaches 135,000 students each year. I'm sure some of those students were you.

The Founders Award honors individuals whose service has fundamentally shaped the Partnership for a Green City and advanced sustainability across Louisville. I'm honored to congratulate Louisville Metro's Executive Director of Parks and Recreation, Michelle King. Come on up, Michelle.

The partnership for Green City has truly been formative in my work with Louisville Metro government. It's a do, not a did. And that's what sustainability is. There is always another kilowatt to be saved. There's always another student to be reached. And there's always the opportunity for these four great partners to show leadership for our city.

We continue to honor the life and legacy of Colonel John E. Aubrey, a man whose commitment to public safety and service defined more than five decades of his life.

Metro TV will get going in 37 seconds.

I'm here. Let me go get my glasses. Hold on.

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. It is 3.03 Apple Time. This is the regular meeting of the Labor and Economic Development Committee for Tuesday, July 21st. I am Chair Councilman Ben Reno-Webber. This meeting is being held pursuant to KRS 61.826 and Council Rule 5A. I am joined today by Councilwoman Crystal Bast, Councilman Ken Herndon, Councilman J.P. Leninger, Councilman Khalil Bat-Chang, Councilman Hudson, and Councilman Kramer, and online by the bespectacled Councilwoman Donna Purvis. Because of some... To scheduling needs, we are going to do this in a slightly different order. So if we could start with item number three. Madam Clerk, will you read the title of the item?

Can I read the, did you say that we're being conducted virtually? I did.

I did.

Okay, here we go. A resolution approving the granting of local incentives to R.C. Bigelow, Inc. and any subsequent assignees or others, or approved affiliates there pursuant to KRS Chapter 154, Subchapter 32, Red and Blue.

Do I have a motion and a second? Second. Motion's in.

I need a different person.

Councilman Hudson did it, he just didn't have his, Councilman Hudson moved, Councilman Bachon. And do we have anyone here to speak to this item?

Yes, hello.

Introduce yourself for the record.

Yes, Hayden Candle, Senior Director of Market Development for One Louisville. So we're here in support.

Is your mic on? Hello. It should be. Hello, okay. There you go.

Okay, so we're here today in support of the Kentucky Business Investment Incentive for RC Bigelow Inc., also known as Bigelow Tea. They operate a tea manufacturing and packaging facility where it produces and distributes its nationally recognized line of specialty teas. The company is located at 2401 Constant Comet Place in District 11. In August 2021, the company received preliminary approval for these incentives through KEDFA, which included a total investment of $53 million. and the creation of 31 new jobs to add to their existing 126 with an average hourly wage of $21.65. They have completed their expansion and are requesting final approval for the KBI incentive, which is 1% of the wage assessment from Louisville Metro. The company complies with all program requirements established and monitored by the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development. Thank you.

Thank you. Is there anyone who would like to speak on this item? Councilman Cramer.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. As was mentioned, Bigelow Tea is in District 11. Bigelow has actually been in the industrial park for a number of years. I think a lot of folks didn't realize. We've all seen it on the shelves. Most of us have probably had it in one form or another. If you haven't tried their peach tea, it's really, really good. But they are expanding. They're adding a line. And they looked around at places that they could go, and they decided that they really liked what was going on here in Louisville. They decided they wanted to expand in the spot where they were. and so they reached out to ask for some incentives, and we're really proud to have them here. They are a great corporate citizen, and we'd love to see any support we can get to keep them here. So I'm asking for your support.

Thank you. Let the record reflect that we have been joined by Councilwoman Josie Raymond, who's masquerading as Councilman Stuart Benson by name tag. Anyone else care to speak on this? And I would let the record reflect, we have also been joined by Councilman Benson, actually virtually. Councilman Leninger.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. How many employees work at the manufacturing facility?

Currently, they're at about 126, and this will include 31 new jobs.

And what is the average wage on the line?

$21.65.

Thank you.

Anyone else care to speak to this? I will just note that having just left the one-level committee meeting focused on metrics that matter, this is exactly the sort of thing that we should be measuring growth of local companies in addition to our ability to attract, like having good corporate citizens here that are continuing to expand is something that we need to prioritize and what gets measured gets invested in. All right. If there's no further discussion, this is an item requiring a voice vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Any opposed? Excellent. Thank you, colleagues.

Thank you.

Because this was approved, this will be on the consent calendar. We're going to go ahead and continue before we get to our special discussion, which I'm very excited about. Let's go ahead and do item number two, the landmark building development.

In order to establish in a development area pursuant to, one second, let me just get this. To provisions of KRS 65.7041 through 65.7083 to be known as the landmark building development area designating the Metro Development Authority and Inc. as an agency adopting a development plan approving entering into a local participation agreement authorizing the payment of the released amount pursuant to the terms and conditions of the local participation agreement. requiring the submission of regular reports to Louisville-Jefferson County Metro government and authorizing the execution and delivery of any other documents and taking of any other actions necessary to accomplish the purposes authorized by this ordinance. Right in full.

Can I get a motion? Motion. And a second. All right. And will you introduce yourself for the record?

Good afternoon, committee members. My name is Katie Littman. I'm the deputy director of Louisville Metro's Cabinet for Economic Development. I'm here today to discuss creating a TIF district for the landmark building conversion project. This project is made up of two historic buildings at 300 and 310 West Liberty Street. They were originally constructed in 1853 and 1907, originally built as a post office, the first US customs house west of the Allegheny Mountains. and then later the warehousing facility that was built to accompany that. So great history in these buildings. They've also been home to the Courier Journal over time and the Louisville Chamber of Commerce. These buildings have sat mostly vacant since the early 2000s, fully vacant since 2017. So it's a key block right by the convention center that's been sitting dark. And we now have a group that is interested in redeveloping these properties. Landmark Landlord LLC, which is referenced in the ordinance, is tied to a Louisville-based development group called the Timbawala Group. They've done other hotels in the area. They are planning to invest $74 million to renovate the property into a 150-room boutique hotel. The flag will be a canopy by Hilton, and it will be managed by the Schulte Hospitality Group. There will also be restaurant, bar, cafe, and meeting space on the site, so creating some nice potential for that ground level retail activity. But given the age of the buildings, there is significant remediation work that needs to be done to the interior, including lead paint and asbestos remediation to preserve the historic elements of the building while doing substantial upgrades that are needed to create a modern day hospitality space. And so given these costs, the project has requested tax increment financing to fill the gap in their capital stack. This proposal is for a local only TIF, so local property taxes only. So that's the metro tax and the urban services district tax. It does not include the school district taxes. Of course, that is prohibited under state statute. It's a reimbursement-based TIF. So that's the way all of our TIFs are structured. I'm rebating a portion of the growth in property taxes over time that are generated by the project each year. So they pay their property taxes each year, and then they get a reimbursement based on the new revenue that's been generated. And Metro keeps a 20% portion of those new revenues as well as our base revenues that the project is currently generating. So this means that the incentive is performance-based. If the project doesn't generate the revenues that they expect, then they're only rebated a portion of what they do generate, not what's projected. And so the amount of the requested TIF is $3,758,524. This is over 20 years. Their 2025 property tax bill assessed value for these two buildings is only $5 million. $752,710, so this generates only $25,000 approximately in local property taxes each year for Metro. But after completion, the projected property taxes generated over 20 years is over $5 million, $308,975. So this will result in Louisville Metro earning over $1.5 million compared to the just 610,000 that we would otherwise receive if this property continues to sit dormant and without conversion. So we're really excited about this project. It's an important set of buildings in downtown, a great history, really excited to put it back to life, especially near the convention center where there is so much exciting activity that's underway. Thank you all for letting me speak today.

Councilman Herndon, this is in your district.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Yes, this is the dictionary definition of a missing tooth that we talk about a lot. It's a stunningly beautiful building, one of my very personal favorite buildings architecturally in downtown. And I'm really happy to see this happen. I don't believe in tiffs everywhere all the time, but I think I support this one. As you said, it has to perform. And it's... the surrounding area is brought down by it sitting there this long empty and I really look forward to that being filled in and all the things that are happening right next door with the JW Marriott, the Omni, the other Marriott, everything around there and I think this one missing piece is what needs to be finally filling in that area and make the area whole. So I would ask you to support it, thank you.

Is there anyone else here care to speak on this?

All right, seeing none, this is an item requiring a, an ordinance requiring a roll call vote. Madam Chair, will you open the voting?

Council Member Purvis? Yes. Mr. Chair, you have six yes votes and one no vote.

All right, this was, we'll move to Old Business. Thank you. Thank you, Deputy Director. Madam Clerk, let's quickly do item, I should never say that. Madam Clerk, let us do item number four on the agenda.

A resolution authorizing the Mayor to accept $25,000 from the National League of Cities Institute, NLCI, as part of the Building Economic Resilience and Communities Program to be administered by the Office of Social Services, right in full.

We have a motion and a second. Is there anyone here to speak to this?

Good afternoon. Josh Swetnam, co-director, Office of Social Services with Louisville Metro. And we are here because we have received a $25,000 grant from the National League of Cities. This is... a pilot that is gonna be located in one of our neighborhood place locations, South Central Neighborhood Place, where we are going to use this funding to help blend our financial empowerment work with our housing stabilization and case management work. And we are going to basically do two things with this funding. One, expand our financial empowerment work and make financial counseling a core piece of the service array for folks who are there for case management and housing support. But at the same time, we are going to use the funding to support a data analysis project where we're gonna look back four years at our financial empowerment data and data from our our housing stabilization work to look at the intersection of variables that make both more effective. And then our goal is to be able to take that data and use it to make our services more effective in the future.

Thank you so much. Is there anyone who would care to speak to this? Okay, seeing none, this is an item that requires a voice vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying aye. Any opposed? All right, by acclamation, this will move to the consent calendar.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, sir. It is one of my great pleasures in this committee that we are often able to highlight the groups and organizations who are contributing to our economic development, often in ways that are unseen or that are building the parts of our workforce or economic development that we don't often get to hear about, but that are clutch to our success as a city. And so I'm very excited to welcome our first item on the agenda.

Madam Clerk, do you have to read the title of this one? Okay.

NAMI.

You guys have approached the microphone.

Can that come over here? Is it permanent over there? Okay, okay. You can stand.

If you want to stand and just, someone needs to run the slides.

I use my hands too much and kind of start moving around. But I am Nancy Brooks. I'm the executive director of NAMI Louisville, and we are the local affiliate of the National Alliance on Mental Illness. We've been in this community for decades, but we are doing some really powerful things right now that I think will change the trajectory of the work that we do. I want to start by reminding everyone that mental health touches everyone. There is no one in our community who doesn't know someone who suffers from some form of mental health condition. Often it can be seen in substance abuse. It may be seen in things like eating disorders or anxiety. It can be that someone is depressed. It's not often viewed that way because what we see are the very visible signs of some of the seriously mentally ill folks in our community who we might notice in the homeless population. That's not everyone that's affected by mental health. It is your neighbor. It's your child. It's possibly yourself. And so we need to start thinking in our community more about how mental health is in all of our neighborhoods. And that's one of the reasons we wanted to speak with some of the city council members. So one of the things that can get confusing about our organization is our affiliation with the National Alliance. The beauty of that is that the National Alliance creates, with the top experts in our nation, the programs that we bring to Louisville. However, we really are an independent nonprofit. We're our own 501 , we listen to the community, and we provide services we know our community needs. All of our programs are peer led, which means that everyone who comes to our organization to take a support group or an education class or workplace training will be led by someone who really knows what it's like to be in that seat, not clinically talking down to them. And all of our services are provided at no cost to those who would like to take a class or sit in on a support group. Why does this make a difference to the community? Because a lot of what we see when it comes to mental health is after the crisis. There are incredible amounts of professionals and supportive services like hospitals where they treat the diagnosis, where they offer therapy, where they might have a crisis response. We are different. Being peer-led, our goal is to help everyone from that young individual who is just coming of age to the senior citizen who is sitting in a residence have the best quality of life possible. And the only way that we can do that is by providing connection and to work preventatively. So one of the biggest things we're trying to do now is bring more visibility to the work that we do so we can get in front of those crisis moments. This is one of my favorite projects and one of the ways that we're doing this and one of the ways I think most of you guys can find our services useful in your neighborhoods. The NAMI Wellness Wheels. It's a project that the city did invest in initially and Cozair for Kids is one of our partners in this. We are reaching youth at schools. We are reaching families at community events. We are going everywhere someone lives, works, and plays in order to get stigma reducing, engaging activities that will help people build resilience and build coping skills. Again, this project can go into your neighborhood. If you have a community event and you want us there, if you have a community partner who's doing a health fair and it has some outdoor space, let us know. We will bring the Wellness Wheels. It's had fabulous reviews. So again, we're working very closely with JCPS on this as well. How does this strengthen the community? Well, a healthy workforce requires healthy people. Healthy people have to maintain their health every day. I'll use an example. We had an ex-board member or past board member who's an incredibly successful individual. He's in his early 80s. His wife had a hip injury. He's now thinking sad thoughts about how life will be if he loses his wife. It doesn't matter where we are, the amount of success we've had, what neighborhood or zip code we live in, life happens. So we are there to make sure that those individuals are successful in being resilient and using their skills that they learn. We start at the ground level, youth. When we go into schools, we are talking with youth about how to self-identify, how to make sure that if they feel something might be not so right, they're asking the counselor or their parent for some help. We're also sending messages that substance use is related to mental health. If you are a young person and you start thinking, man, this feels good when I get high or when I drink, you're probably doing what we call self-medicating. As adults, that might look like I'm driving down the highway and I've had a bad day at work and some lovely driver in the city has ticked me off a bit. When you go home, if you open the bottle of wine and just start chugging, you're using it as a coping skill. If instead you prepare the meal and then say, hmm, that Chardonnay might taste good with this and have one glass, you're using adult coping skills. We have to start seeing that in ourselves. We have to know when something feels not so right. How do we do that? We work with families and we work with every other community partner, including housing stability partners who need us to come in and provide training. Our stigma-free workplace training is something that Ben and I had talked about a long time ago. In the Highlands, there's lots of small businesses who don't have HR, who don't have necessarily any outlet or connection with someone who can help them if there is a situation with one of their employees. That is a way we could work with our community partners. We can also work with large corporate entities where we go in and train them in a stigma-free platform that we have, it's got a slew of really awesome presentations but probably the most important part is building that culture of care that develops within the business where they understand that you might need to take a day off for your mental health or where they might be cognizant of what words they use within the workplace so that we develop healthy cultures in our workplaces. This goes back to education. Again, we are doing a ton there. I feel like I might have covered most of this before, but I wanna reemphasize the early intervention and support, and that together we can work for a brighter future, because only by catching folks before that crisis moment, before that time when they're further impacted by either being arrested or ending up in a psychiatric hospital, Are we able to really make a difference? And we do this, again, through family engagement. We are the only agency that supports the family. We have been working with one of Dr. Lederman's committees to improve response from emergency personnel, and a lot of that goes down to what happens to the family when their loved one gets picked up. It may be that you have a mental health inquest warrant, or now they're calling them 202As, and they want help, but when they're picked up and taken to the hospital, they become an adult all of a sudden. that adult might not be able to be, due to HIPAA laws, have anything provided to the family. So where's my child becomes a question that NAMI Louisville can support the family in. Our education courses are amazing for them as well and probably the most important part is they get connected with others and hope resides again. We talked a bit about this mental health not discriminating. It's gonna find you in any zip code that you're in, in any district that you cover. But there's more segregation to that as well that we're aware of. So we have provided programming that is specific to certain populations to make sure everyone feels inclusive. and gets the resources that they need and can talk openly about things that may only affect certain folks of certain backgrounds. This is our impact statement and I think it's pretty sound. We reach over 10,000 people a year. We have presented over 100 presentations to workplaces and schools in the past year. We have 45 workplace partners that we're working with in our stigma-free workplace. Over 3,000 people attended our support groups and education classes. We actually have 1,000 attendees of support groups every month. But as you can imagine, some of those people come every month. So we don't get to count them three times. the thousand students who have been educated and empowered because of our work. And this is Mary's turn. I have with me Mary Dossett. She is our board vice chair, and she has a story she'd like to share with you guys.

Can everyone hear me? First of all, I want to thank you all for allowing me to be here today to speak. I'm going to read a little bit, which I typically don't do, but I know I have limited time and I can go on and on about the most beautiful son that one could have, and that is my son Alex. When people ask me why I am so passionate about mental health, the answer is simple. My son Alex. Alex was a gifted. He was identified as gifted and talented both intellectually and artistically. He was an extraordinary visual artist. In fact, the art that you see on the screen of his cousins, he drew that when he was 12 years old. And the tiger that this picture doesn't do justice to, he drew when he was 14. Amazingly talented, and he did not get that from me. He was deeply empathetic, almost to a fault. It was amazing how much of an empath Alex was, incredibly sensitive, and one of the kindest people you would ever meet. But Alex suffered. He lived with anxiety, depression, and ADHD. More than anything, though, he suffered from low self-esteem. He believed that his illness was his fault, and he carried shame. That shame became so powerful that it convinced him he was alone, even though he wasn't. He had friends who loved him. He had a family who loved him. He had people who would have done anything to help him. But mental illness has a way of convincing people that they are a burden that no one will understand and that they should keep their pain to themselves. He was so loved and so loving. I wanted to include a photo here of Alex just two days before we lost him. Alex loved his little niece Valerie. He was so compassionate and loving and she loved him and he was so proud in this picture because we sat down on the floor that morning and he built this little Tykes ice cream truck And the joy that he found in rolling back and forth that little truck for my niece to me speaks volumes that I could show to all of you how just loving he was. But that shame became so powerful that it convinced him he was alone. Again, I think I may have already read this, so please forgive me. He had friends who loved him, he had family who loved him, he had people who have done anything to help him, but mental illness, again, has a way of convincing people that they are a burden that no one will understand and that they should keep the pain to themselves. Sadly, as a parent, I found often, particularly within the school system, that this is true. Even if counselors or teachers or others within the school system realize it or not, When a child is disorganized, when a child isn't performing up to par, Alex was in a gifted and talented school, there were expectations. And when his grades fell, I got a letter that they were going to kick him out. That did not sit well, and it took a fight. But they, instead of realizing that Alex was gifted and talented, and that he was contributing to the school and to the future that he could become as an individual, they kind of put that stigma on him and they were going to let him go. Luckily, we got him on an IEP and he stayed. We were fortunate in many ways. We had excellent insurance. We found an outstanding psychiatrist and therapist. Alex received wonderful clinical care. And we are, to this day, so very, very grateful for the professionals who cared for him. But there was something he never received. No one ever told us about NAMI. No one told us there was a community of people who understood because they had lived it themselves. No one had told us there were families who could have helped us carry the fear, the uncertainty, and the isolation. Most importantly, no one told Alex there were peers who truly understood what he was experiencing. People who knew that depression isn't something you simply shake off, that if you just get out of bed and go exercise, it's going to be a miracle cure. Because what that does is they bring the shame on more, unintentionally. People who know that depression isn't something, again, that you just shake off. People who understood the anxiety that kept him from driving. People who could honestly tell him, this is not your fault. He would have had someone who could listen without judgment because they had been there themselves. Someone who could relate in a way his friends, as much as they loved him, simply couldn't. Alex didn't want to burden the people he loved, so instead he suffered in silence. He went to his appointments, he answered the doctor's questions, he took his medications, he did everything that was asked of him. But every time he came home, he seemed a little more defeated, slipping further into shame and isolation. There are so many what ifs and whys. I have come to accept that I as a mother will never know all those answers. But I also know I will never stop asking them. And that is exactly what I do not want for another parent and I do not want for another child. I don't want another child to believe they have to suffer alone. I don't want another family to discover too late that there was community waiting to help them all along. Clinical care is essential, ladies and gentlemen. It saves lives. I am forever grateful for the clinical care that Alex received. But clinical care is only part of the healing. What Alex needed and what I needed was understanding, connection, hope. A community that could say, we've been where you are, and you don't have to walk this road alone. That is what NAMI provides. NAMI does not replace psychiatrists, therapists, or hospitals. It complements them. It fills the space between appointments, the evenings when fears creeps in, the moments when families don't know where to turn, and the loneliness that mental illness so often creates. That is why I tell Alex's story. Because I believe that if I can help just one young person realize that they are not alone, or one parent find hope before despair, then Alex's life continues to make a difference. And that is why I will never stop advocating for NAMI Louisville. I thank you so much.

Thank you, Mary.

Thank you. Colleagues.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just want to say first, I'm terribly sorry for your loss and thank you for sharing your son's story and his beautiful drawings and everything. He's beautiful.

Thank you so much.

I appreciate that.

What can the city do to best help support NAMI?

Well, at this point, I'd really like... more visibility, more awareness, bringing us out to your communities, connecting us with partners, business partners, or community leaders, will really help to deliver that message. Again, our plan is to grow exponentially over the next five years, and my hope is that that will no longer be an issue. But this is that time the wheel is rolling, and we need your support there. you know, many feel we never want to hear the story that Mary had to share. And I hear it far too often. And it's because people don't know. I think of both the families of the recent losses on mental health calls by LMPD, didn't know we were there either. They couldn't come out and bring their self and their loved one to our programs. And so episodes that were out of their control occurred. These are serious opportunities for people but they just don't know that we're there and we're not as connected as we should be in some parts of town. So again, that's really my biggest ask because ultimately, The resilience, the early intervention, and the development of community is what is going to change this trajectory of our current mental health crisis. That is where NAMI sits. We need to be visible, and we need to be there before the crisis happens.

And if I can kind of add to that, when you ask what this committee can do is exactly what you're doing today, and that is giving us a seat at the table. giving us an opportunity to come in and really tell you how we bridge the gap. Because you're not gonna make a difference in mental health just from a clinical standpoint and you're not gonna reduce stigma if we don't give an opportunity for the humanity to come in for those who are dealing with mental illness. How can we partner with this committee when we go into the workplace? How can we collaborate when we're going in and providing presentations, maybe not just on stigma reduction, but maybe it is going in and making it a safe place and teaching leaders that you're only gonna come and ask for help in as much as you're safe for asking for that help. And as an organization, we're looking to build that awareness and we are looking to build the partnerships with each of you and with each of the city agencies so that we have a well-rounded way to address mental illness at a time and suicide in youth at a time when we're at a crisis. And I'm sorry again that I'm going on and on. I tend to do that.

Anyone else? I'll let the record reflect that we have been joined by Dr. McCraney, and you are recognized, Councilwoman McCraney.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I want to ask the question. I think you mentioned something about having a seat at the table. If we were wanting to have a neighborhood meeting, would you be open to an invitation to come and talk with our constituents about this issue?

Absolutely. And as Nancy, 100% of the time, absolutely. We would bring our wellness wheels. We have materials on site. The beautiful thing about Wellness Wheels, again, and one of the beautiful things about our program is that we are not just supporting the individual, we're supporting the family. When we go into a school, counselors need support as well. So not only do we have information for the counselors, but we have information for moms and dads. We have information for the children. So we would not only come in and talk to your constituents, but we would come in prepared in any way that you need us to to provide support and education material.

And we, of course, would love to work with you in advance to target that discussion around some of the things that you're experiencing in your neighborhood. Yes, I would like that.

Thank you so much, because we recently had an issue where a fellow locked himself into his home and he was experiencing a mental breakdown. And I'm so fortunate to have the Linden Police Department and the St. Matthew's Police Department that were both on the scene to assist him. And they talked him through it. It took six hours. And so I just think I need to have a meeting just in case there are others in the community, in the district that I serve, that could just use some information, especially on how to help their loved ones.

Well, and you mentioned law enforcement having to come in and be involved. NAMI has, we were the originators of the crisis intervention training decades ago at LMPD. We work with LMPD, we work with the detention center, and so we would love to work with any of these community law enforcements. You know, St. Matthew's comes to mind when you said that. J-Town, I know, has one, Shively, I believe. So again, if your neighborhood has one, a law department or a police department that is not connected with LMPD and you feel that your officers could use some training, please let us know. It is all about safely managing that situation and we'll bring in either a family member or an individual with lived experience and law enforcement connection to help solidify that story, to tell them what went right and what went wrong. Thank you so, so much. Yeah.

Councilman Herndon.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to let you know, ma'am, I am a proud product of therapy, many years of it. I at one point during my work was diagnosed as clinically depressed. I never turned that corner luckily for whatever stroke of luck or happenstance. I'm so sorry that that happened to you and to him. but I think it's incredibly important that you're here to talk about this, to let people know out there watching that especially younger people, especially younger men who are often afraid to ask for help, it's not a sign of weakness. And they need to know that, and I'm so grateful that you two are here, especially you, ma'am, and are sharing that with everybody. I'm certain he would be proud of you for doing so.

Oh, gosh, thank you. He was so private, so sometimes I wonder. He was very private. But yes, and I think, again, you know, congratulations for being in therapy. I've been in therapy for many years. We were in family therapy. Alex was in therapy. You know, again, one of the unique things I don't know if anything I said resonated to you. If you agree that maybe part of what was missing from your clinical support was again that feeling that I actually have someone to talk to that I know isn't gonna look at me, in my mind I'm thinking, and look down or not understand and that they truly do understand. And I really wanna reiterate when we're talking about young men or young children, one of the things that also makes NAMI very unique and one of the things that we've worked really hard on as an organization over the last few years is that many of our programs when we go into school are peer led by youth. Obviously, it escalates up to adults, but when you're sitting in a room full of your own peers and you're approaching mental illness on their level in a relatable way, whether it's talking about a musician, whether it's talking about all of a sudden you're opening up a door that a counselor may have been trying to open for months. So just trying to really educate us all today and thank you again. Yeah.

All right. Thank you all so much for being here. Really appreciate your time and your passion.

We're grateful very much so. Thank you guys.

All right. Without objection, we are adjourned.