Common Council - Regular Meeting

Quest right from your smartphone. Need help dealing with unfair landlords? Use the app. Girl, I just don't understand. I'm paying rent and my landlord isn't fixing any of the issues in this apartment. What should I do? You know, you can report it on the Gary 311 app. Do you have it? What's that? Let me show you. Just go to your app store. Or maybe you need to request the birth certificate. Yeah, I can't find my birth certificate. Well, it probably just got misplaced during the move. Actually, we can request the new one through the Gary 311 app. Okay, new technology. I'm in. Let me show you. And guess what? You can even report illegal dumping. Look at him just dumping his garbage on private property. Well, called him in 4K. You know, we can report him on the Gary 311 app and to GPD's text. That's good. Never feel frustrated again about an issue. Use the Gary 311 app to report all your non-emergency needs. It's a free application that allows users to report community issues, pinpoint the location with GPS, attach photos, and more, all right from your smartphone. Download the Gary 311 app today. Available on iOS and Android. Get ready for a big adventure. Touch a truck is coming soon. This interactive event lets kids and kids at heart get up close and personal with the trucks, equipment, and vehicles that keep our community moving. Bring the whole family and get ready to climb [Music] aboard. Then join us as we honor freedom and culture at our Junth celebration happening June 21st at the Westside Theater Guild. Come out for a day of music, remembrance, and community pride. This is our infant classroom and you

just can't go by without looking at bait. We're here to talk about something that truly shapes the future of our city and that's early childhood education. All the curriculum is active and excite children about problem solving and learning. Today, what we are able to witness is the greatness of Gary and the greatness of Head Start coming together. We know that the success of our children directly influences the success of our city. In order to create big projects and deliver for Northwest Indiana, we have to have and must have an educational work force to be able to fill those jobs. will lay a foundation for stronger families, a stronger economy, and a stronger Yeri Indiana for generations to come. This isn't just about education. It's about building a stronger community. When we invest in our children, we invest in our community. Those students who have that early investment or intervention have a greater outcomes to be successful. Let's celebrate America's

birthday the Gary Way. Our Fourth of July parade rolls out July 3rd at 5:00 p. p.m. bringing excitement, community spirit, and plenty of red, white, and blue to the streets. And don't rush off. After the parade, head over to the Railcat Stadium for fireworks at 6:30 p.m. Then, gear up for a new school year at our back to school fest hosted by First Lady Crystal Melton and the city of Gary. Join us August 2nd at the Gary Railcat Stadium from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Get ready for free haircuts, free immunizations, free uniform vouchers, and exciting giveaways from backpacks and sneakers to gift cards and more. Plus, enjoy food, fun activities, music by DJ All Out, and free transportation provided by GPTC. Don't miss this incredible day of preparation and celebration as we send our students back to school in style. We just learned from the city of Gary that they activated their emergency response. But right now, the trees is the biggest issue. Um, General Service is out moving those trees in the streets. A lot of trees are fell on homes and cars. So, that's it's kind of like a recovery effort right now. So, what we do know um is that citizens in this neighborhood have identified and verbally articulated that they they see it a tornado that did touch ground in Gary. Multiple homes and businesses sustained wind damage and flooding as well as numerous trees and limbs down throughout the entire city. Our general service team, we've been working very closely with our utility company with NIPCO. We do know that NIPCO sustained over 13,000 power outages throughout northwest Indiana.

We're able to uh do a primary and secondary search on all of the residents and all of the houses in this neighborhood. Uh everyone is accounted for. We have found no other victims. Uh there are no reports of anybody missing. And thank God there were no fatalities that we know of at this point. I want to thank the Indiana Department of Transportation. I want to thank the Lake County Commissioner, Lake County Council from the County, the Red Cross, again, the Gary Sanitary District. The Gary Chicago International Airport has provided additional resources and trucks, payloaders to help clean up the debris throughout the entire city. So, I want to thank all of our partners and corporate partners. And a special shout out to the mayor of Hbert who has also extended his team and public works department to help us eliminate the trees. Be patient with us as we try to address the trees as we clear our main streets and thorough affairs. If you see a power line down, assume that it is live. Assume that is live. So, we want to encourage you all to stay away from down power lines. And also, we want to encourage everyone to seek shelter because as you can see, the weather is unpredictable right now. [Music] And finally, look to the skies. The Gary Air Show returns August 8th through 10th at the beautiful Marquette Park. Get ready for breathtaking aerial performances along the stunning Southshore of Lake Michigan. Admission is free, so bring your family, your friends, and your cameras. There's something for everyone this summer in the city of Gary. For more event details and updates, simply scan the QR code on the screen to sign up for our monthly

newsletter. Did you know the city of Gary has a 311 app? You can report any non-emergency request right from your smartphone. Need help dealing with unfair landlords? Use the app. Girl, I just don't understand. I'm paying rent and my landlord isn't fixing any of the issues in this apartment. What should I do? You know, you can report it on the Gary 311 app. Do you have it? What's that? Let me show you. Just go to your app store. Or maybe you need to request the birth certificate. Yeah, I can't find my birth certificate. Well, it probably just got misplaced during the move. Actually, we can request the new one through the Gary 311 app. Okay, new technology. I'm in. Let me show you. And guess what? You can even report illegal dumping. Look at him just dumping his garbage on private property. Well, called him in 4K. You know, we can report them on the Gary 311 app and to GPD's taste tip. That's good. Never feel frustrated again about an issue. Use the Gary 311 app to report all your non-emergency needs. It's a free application that allows users to report community issues, pinpoint the location with GPS, attach photos, and more, all right from your smartphone. Download the Gary 311 app today. Available on iOS and Android. Get ready for a big adventure. Touch a truck is coming soon. This interactive event lets kids and kids at heart get up close and personal with the trucks, equipment, and vehicles that keep our community moving. Bring the whole family and get ready to climb [Music] aboard. Then join us as we honor freedom and culture at our Junth celebration happening June 21st at the Westside

Theater Guild. Come out for a day of music, remembrance, and community pride. This is our infant classroom and you just can't go over island without looking at the bait. We're here to talk about something that truly shapes the future of our city and that's early childhood education. All the curriculum is active and excite children about problem solving and learning. Today, what we are able to witness is the greatness of Gary and the greatness of Head Start coming together. We know that the success of our children directly influences the success of our city. In order to create big projects and deliver for Northwest Indiana, we have to have Good evening. I I am calling the meeting to order. the age friendly advisory council. Secret, can you take roll call? Yes. All righty. So, Anna Engel and I am here. Chantel Johnson, David Wright here. Jean Griffith, Adriana Garcia here. Bert Martinez here. Ricky Keith here. Don Michaels, Dominique Smiley here, Matthew Fitzgerald, Karen Jones here, Pete Smith here, Councilwoman Mary

Brown. We have a quorum. All right. Did everyone get an opportunity to review the um meeting minutes and agenda? Make a motion we approve and agenda. Second. Second. Second. All right. Minutes and agenda approved. All right. So, we're going to go ahead over over to business. We're going to talk about WhatsApp. All right. I wanted to kind of really check in with everyone and just ensure that we all have um our accounts established in WhatsApp. That is currently our new um platform that we will be utilizing to communicate with each other um easily. And so does everyone have their platform, their app, everything on their phone, email address, telephone number? Is everything everybody's receiving messages, right? Yes, I am. Yay. Yes. Okay. All right. Well, we are moving on down to new business. I would like to call to form an engagement committee. And so the reason why we're calling this to forum is because what we are in the process of doing now um based off of all the meetings that we have an opportunity to attend pop-up visits we had an opportunity to attend. Now it's really time for us to really start working on those goals and establishing um the various goals that we worked were working together on in the um task. And so the first thing we want to do is establish a committee. So the first committee is the engagement committee and we want to kind of establish the subcommittees under the engagement

community engagement committee and so I am asking um for our council members if we all can kind of identify a subcommittee um that we you know can contribute um volunteer work with each other um and then on top of you know identifying the subcommittee. If we can identify a chair of that subcommittee motion, I think this will be a great idea. So I definitely motion to create these different subcommittees and appoint leaders. So then we have somebody that's kind of spearheading it and we know where it's going and there's clear tasks. Is there a second? Second. I also have a question though if you want to go. Can we go directly to discussion? Yes. Okay. All right. Um I asked this because I'm listed on three of these. All right. So we have events and we have a community calendar. Should those be merged into one? So So for um our subcommittees, we have identified um events which will really focus on our u major event for our seniors in September and then any other events that are taking place here in the region. And then also um our second committee will be the community resources and activities. So that consists of any resources that we're obtaining um any activities, any presentations we want to introduce to

the facilities here in Northwest Indiana um where we kind of coordinate and provide those resources to the facilities. Actually I in that case community resources and community. Oh, a couple. There we go. Okay, I'll start over. In that case, uh maybe community um calendar should be part of the resources because we actually looked at events as you know events that organizations that are on the council are holding separate from the major events that we'd be sponsoring as a council as one of those resources. I mean, that actually came up in our conversation literally right down the street. Um not saying that um that isn't um important enough to be a second I mean a separate committee but since we've already you know got our finger on it in a sense um maybe uh that could um bring you and Anna into the conversation that Pete and I have already you know kind of started setting the table for I mean is that appropriate? And I ask you because you and Anna are on that list. So did you want to combine forces and make that community I mean make that one of the resources? I'm actually going to put that to a vote. Yeah. So um but can we uh do we already have a motion on the table right now? We should clear that one and then I mean I I forget how Roberts goes. Yeah. Yeah. I could go ahead and um on the agenda that we're reviewing, make

sure that those are just together now that we're talking about it and have it reflect that going forward because I agree. I think that that'd be better to pair them together. It seems simple enough to do so. Does everyone agree? I would agree with that. Um David and I came to came up with with u with quite a few events. Uh, and I think that would that would fit that category of a combination of the calendar and resource. So, uh, I'd agree to that. You're a second. Yes. Should I need a that's in the motion? Okay. Go ahead. I'll second that. That's a great idea. Okay. Here we go. Well, speaking of um community uh resources in the calendar, um David and Pete, would you like to share your report out? Yeah. Um well, we met um that was on the 5th. Um so, it was a bit long ago than I thought. Um what we wanted to start off with is basically listing all of the organizations that were on the um on you know on the the council because those and their resources are potentially part of the resources that we've got. Um we listed everybody out. We also created a sub a a master list of medical organizations that included Oak Street Anthem um Health Link, Northshore Community Health Lab. I'm not sure if we missed one. Um, housing, gha, habitat for humanity, serenity lakes, um, and looked at our mission and that included the set of resources that you sent.

What we want to do is um maybe housed on the web page for the council on the on uh the city's website a listing all those organizations and for each organization if you as a representative have um some resources that you have that um you want to have included. we can maybe populate that that subpage with those resources. I mean for for me um we had um talking to uh our resources with towns and cities and other communities that we connect with um the township uh media um medical organizations that aren't on here that we are already interface with. we've already got, you know, contacts in these organizations. So that way people who are coming to the age friendly website will basically have a list of contact information for all of these organizations that we already work with. Um it may take, you know, a couple months to get all that put together. Um but uh I mean I think that's the direction that we wanted to go and that included um trying to figure out where I had it listed specifically. Um that events calendar as as part of that um and uh we started with the day of caring volunteer. I heard you brought that up right? Yeah. If you don't mind I can pass out. Uh just day of caring is here. Just take one of these please just to get an idea. It's a hard copy of what of what that day of caring is and it's it's a United Way share with you. You have enough what it is. It's a United Way's largest single day volunteer event uniting people from all

over the corner corners of Northwest Indiana to assist other nonprofits. Is everybody familiar with what United Way or the uh day of caring is? Okay. So, it's going to happen on August 1st. The deadline for these um for your projects uh will be June 30th. And I'll I'll make sure that everyone gets an emailed copy of uh of um everything that's involved with that. But this is this is a one pager and it basically gives you an idea of what's going on. Um, also Dave, I brought I brought some hard copies of the resources and I got this from you Dominic some some months back. Okay. And u for the No, that's just one that's just one. You can just Yeah, it's just one copy. you can take a peek through it and see what uh see what those resources that are already already listed on behalf of Northwest Indiana and I believe it's 2023. It can be updated um because we did speak with the fellow from the um oh u that fellow that township. Oh, um, Ronnie from K Township, Ca Township has, uh, resources that he wanted to share with us. So, this can be updated. I have a I have a couple attorneys that, um, would have promised to do pro bono work depending on the case. Naturally, they can't do pro bono with every case, but uh, there's attorneys that, uh, we can add to that list. um construction trades still working

with those guys and they're um they're in agreement that we should partner. Now, whatever that partnership looks like um that is what we're going to be uh doing some type of partnership with the trades is going to be a plus. Uh was there was there anything else that we would youth build? Excuse me, guys. I got Pete, you'd mentioned a mentorship program that we talked about as well. That's the uh that's the youth build. Okay. And what Youth Build is, it's a girl, it's it's a um Youth Build program, United Way, Northwest Indiana, and and the US Department of Labor have agreed to a $1.3 million grant to um and they want to target they want to target young people that have not graduated high uh and teach them labor skills. The project will be housed at the Bowman. Um the intent is to have these young people uh be taught construction trades, electrical, uh carpentry, uh plumbing, HBAC, those type of skills. And also once if they if they maintain this class, they're going to give them uh they're going to help them earn their uh not necessarily a GED, but a but a um a diploma, high school

diploma. And to get into the skills trades, you have to most times you can share that with anyone that wants to hold on to it. uh most times to get into the construction trades you have to have experience. Well, this will give these young people uh experience. Um again, it's and it's a mentoring program and they want to focus on on young people from 16 to 24 years old. So, um am I leaving anything out? Um, no. I think our next steps would be maybe by the time we meet again, I'll have to remember that. our next steps. Um by the time we meet again as a council um uh between now and then um if you can get additional information in terms of contact information and um organizational um resources aside from yourselves for your agency and get that to myself and Pete. um then maybe we can work with um Dominique and Kiana on um categorizing that and putting it together and you know finding some way of getting it onto the website and that includes events that your organization is putting together for that community calendar. Um we have um I think I at the last meeting we mentioned the um the uh um health department they have their health fair that's going to be happening at uh IU Northwest. We're probably going to have at least one public meeting uh you know, we being GPTC um this summer. Um we're actually got a grant that we're working with the Save the Dunes Council and Purdue um extension that is going to be at least one event. We're working with somebody at um Miller Beach Tourism

for another event. So all these events that we're putting together and that you know your organizations are putting together, they would be a great way to start that community calendar and they themselves would be resources. So a lot of what we're, you know, we'd like to have as the bulk of these resources and calendar appointments are things we're already doing. We just need to put them in put them on paper or put them in an email and make it available for people on the website. One thing I'd like to add um and we need to be particular about this particular grant we were talking about earlier. When you get grants, they they have to they're specific. This grant um is uh they're focusing on uh young people eight or 16 to 24 primarily from Gary East Chicago and Portage and it's going to kick off in June. So, are there any questions on what we're what we're saying so far? Yes, I do have a question. You said everything is going to be housed at the Bowman. Is it the the training? The training will be housing. Okay. But it will it be at the high school or the ones that's the the Bowman that's closed. The elementary school that's right on Sixth Avenue. Oh, right. On Fifth Avenue or Sixth Avenue? Sixth Avenue. No, Sixth Avenue. It's my understand I haven't I haven't been to that site yet. is at is right across next to Holy Angels. Yeah. Next to Holy Angels, across the street from the police department. It's my understanding it's going to be at the at the uh at the new school at the high school on 15th. I'm sorry. On Fifth Avenue. It's my understanding. Will they have bus transportation? I will make sure that once we have everything put together, we will advertise and um see if we can facilitate as get it make it as as well

known as possible you know how do you how to get there by bus and the bulman is accessible by two bus routes currently and the R1 and the R3 now you know I'm certain that that'll that wouldn't be an issue we've had events at the Abul We've made sure that um you know that the specific way to get there by bus um is on on the flyer. We can do that again this time. All right. Any further discussion? Well, thank you both for taking your time and working on um the community resource packet and the calendar. I think this will be a this would be awesome for our um seniors here in Gary. And then also making the resources accessible, right? You know, putting them online, sharing them on a social media. So my question for you, so my question for you, what are the next steps? Getting information from um each organization at this table on the most important resources you want as a representative of that organization to have in this list. What I'm going to be doing in addition to what we already have is pouring over our contacts um basically our um our stakeholder list and the most relevant ones to the age friendly mission would also be added to that resource list and that would include like I said um any additional medical organizations aside from the ones here at the table um any housing organizations um media um basically people we already work with that would be relevant to the age friendly uh council. So maybe by the next meeting if you've got some contacts in your organization or related to your

organization in mind get that to myself and Pete. Okay. Deadline date I would say a week before the next meeting. Okay. to send over um to send over that information to Pete and David so then they can work together and um work on that list and then be able to report out at our next meeting on the 19th of June. And when it comes to um those resources that are events, we will include um Dominique and Anna in that um in that uh chain. So you'll you know maintain your figure on that. Did you say the next meeting is 19th of June? The 16th. My apologies. Okay. Whatever Monday that is in the next month. Right. So just to make sure I heard that right. Do we want to say we want to try to do this deadline a week out from today? No. For the resources. A week ahead of the next meeting. Okay. A week. Okay. Okay. Okay. Gotcha. So if it is the 16th, I guess that would be the 9th of June. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. So we are still identifying um community or members, council members who would like to join the subcommittee with Dave and Pete. Do we have any volunteers? Aside from you and Anna, right? Were we volunteer? So, we're we're we're talking about combining uh the community resources and

the calendar. That's the committee you're talking about at this point? Yes. Yes, I can join the committee. Okay. And then also we have uh our events committee. Um Karen, are you also are you including yourself on both committees or just the community resource and calendar? I can join the committee. Um with uh Dave and Pete. Okay. Okay. Leading and then with the events committee. I know last time Chantel um was talking about heading that one. I know she was supposed to go to uh I think Porter County's uh event that they had for age friendly. So just waiting for her report on that one. Okay. Yes. Just to speak on that. Um I'm pretty sure that is tomorrow in Portage. If anybody is interested in going, um, I will pull it up on my computer the information and share when we do announcements, but I do know that that is happening tomorrow. I do not believe that their council is through AARP, but it would still be great to see like what they're doing and, you know, be able to kind of base our event off that. I can go tomorrow to the boardage event. Okay, last thing. We do need to identify a chair for each committee. Anyone willing to accept that role?

So Dave, I'll do community resourc. Okay. So Dave agreed to being the chair for the community resource um committee and also keep in mind with the community resource committee um we're also while you are kind of discussing the the variety of different resources, we also want to make sure that we're sharing that information out to the facilities. maybe we have, you know, some organizations that are willing to present to our age friendly u members. So, um that's something that we also want to keep in mind because we can, you know, help schedule some of those presentations. Thank you for taking that taking that on. Um anyone interested in chairing the subcommittee for events? And so far, I mean, we've only we're only discussing one major event so far. Anyone anyone want to take that on? [Laughter] I can. [Laughter] No pressure, but yes. Y No, I'm happy to. Thank you. You're welcome. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. You guys are rock stars. Thank you so much. Okay, now moving on. So Anna and I had an opportunity to kind of, you know, do a process mapping of the various categories. And so what we did, we were able to review all of the notes from our popup visits. And so from the notes, we were able to kind of focus on three categories. Um and so those three categories are which you guys already started community resources activities and we included

transportation. Transportation was huge on the notes and it was something that um our age friendly members really really really needed more resources on and so we wanted to make sure that we target on that and include that into your uh resources and activities. Okay. So, and then the next one is communication, right? And so, actually Pete and Dave, you you you both have really touched on some of our our uh top targets here because we really want to focus on how we want to relay the message. You know, how do we want to get the information out to our community members here in Gary? And so, social media, we, you know, we all discuss social media, putting information on social media, but how does that look? Um, so that's something that we need to discuss. um how we want to share the information on the social media platforms and then also um our website, right? And so um Dave and Pete, you gave some really great ideas on how to share out those resources in the calendar. Um and so that's our next step is to kind of get that into motion. Um and then the last one is the senior facility community cleanup beautifification. And so, actually, I want um Ricky to kind of report out on um the senior facility that gave you a report on how awesome it looked after we had a popup visit with the mayor. Um after we had a popup visit with the mayor, um they complained about the side sidewalks a little bit, but mostly the streets around Gilroy and that going around the park and stuff. And I think two or three days later, the mayor had

the um the street all paved and also uh the railroad tracks on at 15th Avenue and Harrison, I believe. So he um and they the seniors in that was in the Glen Park highrise. They are very happy about the street being paid. Awesome. Thank you for that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for that. Madam Chair, let me could I um just make a suggestion. The senior facility uh and and combining this with the day of caring all the senior citizen uh situations we have. United Way is looking for projects also. We've got plenty of volunteers, but uh if if there's a need for a paint uh or or landscaping or whatever to be uh held at one of the senior citizens u outfits, somebody should make a um submit that request to the United Way and that'll be one of the projects that these volunteers can uh can take on. Can that project be submitted? They need to go to your web page and then can you help us and letting us know how I've got a QR code I'm going to give you give out give you guys so that you can um speak to the person that's actually coordinating these these uh this day of caring and um yeah we can do it that way. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you for uh informing us about the day of hearing because there are a few more um senior facilities that we do need to um go out and um really, you know, take care of the outside. Um so I know that um the mayor was able to kind

of work on that one facility, but we do have three additional facilities that we do need to look into. So this is something that we can submit. Good. Any project that can be done within a a two to six hour period, two to six, okay, is uh is what they're going to tackle. Okay. Any projects that they would not do? I don't I wouldn't know kind of project you thought. I'm not sure. What do you What do you have? No, they're they're talking about like say uh painting or or um or um oh boy, what am I Yeah, any beautifification kind of situation that uh that's needed. Landscaping. I mentioned that already. But uh yeah, those types of those types of products uh projects Any questions? Open for discussion. Process mapping categories. Everyone in agreement. Okay. Um I'm going to go back up to our um committees, our subcommittees. And so like I've said earlier, David, you have agreed to be the chair for our community resource

calendar committee, right? And then um Ariana, you have agreed to do to be the chair for events, correct? Yes. Yay. Okay. All right. All in favor? All in favor? I I. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Okay. Next on the agenda, promotional materials. So, I've sent out an email in regards to promotional materials. everyone had an opportunity to review the email and send back um their um ideas, suggestions. So, we're going to take a take a quick look at what is listed on our agenda here. Are we in agreement with what we have here? Is there anything additional that we need to add? I thought I'd sent an email with some suggestions. Um, what were your suggestions? I don't remember. I have a question. Does the city already have a particular Does the city already have a particular color scheme or a logo or anything that they use that we should also be following since we are a city committee? Yes. So, we do have the um you do have the city of Gary um logo and then you also have the age friendly. Yep. We're going to use both. And so once we kind of decide on those promotional items, our list would then, you know, then we'll go to the city of Gary for approval and then we will work on trying to get some of those things ordered for our um our events that we will be participating in. So, are we okay with this list? Was there anything

additional? All in favor? I [Music] I oppose. I know Pete walked out, but All right. All right. This is approved. I found a list. All right. I had mentioned um refrigerator or file cabinet magnets depending on where I'm at, right? Um keychains and QR cards which I thought I mean we ended up using a lot and we actually ran out. I got to buy some I gota get some new ones um for uh Gary Transit. So I mean they don't have to be at the same level as what we've got here but those are what I had suggested uh via email. I want to send it be a week or so ago. All right. Which again, I had totally forgotten. I had to go to the email and find it. All right. Okay. Motion to approve. Do it again. You want me to officially add those? Yeah. Add those to Okay. I move that we add um uh magnets, keychains, and QR cards as potential promotional items for the age friendly council and pens. Do we have pens already or and we should have pins? Yeah. All right. Second. While we're on it actually for a second. Sorry. Um, in terms of other promotional items, I was thinking that it might be a good idea for us to do some sort of mailout considering that a lot of the demographic that we're targeting is not maybe going to be on social media. So, I think that that would be a really great way to make sure that like everybody's getting that information and nobody's being left out because they don't go on social media. Followup. How do we develop that mailing

list? Do we start with the AP mailing list or drop them off? That is a great question. I I would suggest that we drop them off at the highrises. Everybody's already in the building. That way you don't need specific names, things like that. So, just get the number that's needed for each high-rise. And just make sure uh who's in charge, the manager. Make sure everyone in that building receives them. Also, um Emily just texted me literally saying that they have they they actually have fridge magnets. Oh, so that's something that they already they can, you know, help us out with in terms of putting together items. Okay. So, I'm going to take that off the list and that she can um donate AP pins for the council to use as promotion. Okay. I missed an email. I mean, I missed a text. Perfect. Okay. Anything additional? Maybe I was thinking the clear square plastic bottles of water. Um we have something at the clinic that they are like magnifiers and they seniors love that because they can use it at any time. They can put put it in their purses, wallets. So those would be the two items that I would suggest to add. It's plastic containers. Okay. All right. Well, thank you all. Was this Did we approve? I think we did it like three times. Motion to approve. Second. So move.

In favor? I I Okay, approve. So, just a note, I will submit this um list to the city. We may not get everything on the list, but I will submit it. Okay. So, just keep in mind that we um will submit the the list of the things that we need. Okay. All right. Um any announcements? I do have one other question. Um, in the promotional material, it can come from any organization or it has to all come from um from the age friendly. So, so the promotional material we are requesting that it does have the city of Gary's information logo and the ARP, but if you have from your organization, maybe you work for you want to share out some of your information at the resource table, that would be fine, too. Yeah. Okay. resources you want to share out. Um like a um Miss uh Lightfoot when she comes she always hands out a AARP ink pens. So if I get ink pens from my organization will you know will that suffice and for giving out at like a resource fair? Yeah, you can you can share your promotional items. Okay. But we want to make sure that we have promotional items from the city of Gary in AP. Okay. Yeah.

Any additional questions? No. Okay. Um announcements. Any announcements? Let here let me just say that uh in in my uh comments the um because I was asked about the QR code and is this is this open to we're sharing this information to our council but to the community is absolutely something that our community needs to know that these uh that this particular uh federal program these dollars that are for and if you don't mind I'm going to read this thing, the introduction and the purpose because I don't want you to miss it. Uh, Youth Build is a proven federally funded workforce development program targeting young adults aged 16 to 24 who are out of school and face barriers to education and employment. And the uh so the program integrates academics, voc vocational training, leadership development as the mentorship comes in and support services all align with our school's mission to empower students holistically. So yeah, this is our information, but but the community absolutely needs to hear uh because we all have young brothers and neighbors and those sisters that need uh work and and those type of skills jobs. So, um, I mentioned the QR code. Our secretary has it. Um, I may have another flyer with it, but before you leave for the for the community, for the the the uh if you want that QR code, you need to get it. And, uh, uh, on the other end of that code is a is a person that will give you information on how to how to get a be a part of the of the day of caring. For sure.

Um I have another question. Um in this training session, how long will it be? Is it just like a summer session or six week session or two or three weeks or it's going to be like a a nine month? It's my understanding it's a year. It's a year and a half. It's an 18month okay 18month program. And I believe after the first six months there's a stipen involved those I think it's a $500 stipen that uh is given to the students that are sticking with it. When you're dealing with uh young people that that's already um quit school. They didn't graduate. they quit school and and you know one day the light comes on and and then you know they're encouraged to um to change their ways you know and and uh and continue to and and want to be a a skilled person want to get into the trades because once you complete this you'll be qualified with your um with your high school diploma and the skills behind do and that's what the construction trades are asking for. Um, do you have any experience? Well, you're going to be you're going to be given experience. Uh, yeah. So, it's my understanding there's going to be a $500 stipen after the first six months and uh an opportunity to go on to IvyTech and get that um that associates degree. It's an associates degree in applied sciences is what is is what you're getting. So yeah, 18 months is my is my understanding. Okay. Uh, the parks department will be hosting

a age friendly bingo every first Friday of the month starting June 6th through September at Roosevelt Park Pavilion from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. And then I also wanted to make a quick announcement also on our assessments. We have successfully submitted 127 online assessments. Yay. Hey, good job. Um, so good job with that, guys. We are We still have a little bit more to go. So, please ensure to follow up with your facilities, check in. Um, if anyone needs assistance at the facilities, please reach out to the council members and let's see if we can get out there and u assist with completing the assessments, whether they're online or a paper assessment. Um all of the paper assessments have been um completed or I'm sorry the online assessments are now aligned with the paper assessments. So that is done as of May 15th. So if we are inputting assessments the paper assessments to online it all everything should line up perfectly. Okay. So you shouldn't have any issues there. Okay. Um, the parks department will be hosting a age friendly bingo every first Friday of the month starting June 6th through September at Roosevelt Park Pavilion from 10:00 a.m. to 2 p.m. Is this through the city of Gary? Yes, the parks department. Okay, thank you. I would like to announce two events if

that's okay. Yeah. Um, we already talked about this. It's for tomorrow at 9:00. The Portage Seniors Health Fair. It's going to be held at Woodland Park at 2100 Willow Willow Creek Road in Portage, Indiana. And then on Wednesday, May the 21st, Ross Township is hosting their monthly senior lunchon at 6355 Broadway in Marville. Okay, there's one last any additional announcements. No, I have one. Um, ARP is having a AMC movies for grown-up night at the AMC in Hbert on June the 4th. Uh, I believe the show is probably either starting at uh 6:30 or 7:00. I'll clear that up because I think for us it was we needed to be there by 6:30. And if you're an member of ARP and you sign up online and I have to find out if that if the signups are available now, you get a free ticket to the show. And last year we had many unsold tickets. So if you can't get online, you still may be able to get a ticket if we have tickets that haven't been committed yet. And then also in July on July 10th, the Railcats game, we're sponsoring anywhere between 100 and 200 tickets to the Rail Cats game under the same requirements that you have to be an ARP member. Register online if possible. Do you have a flyer for that game? do not have a flyer for that gaming, but if I have uh I can ask Emily to send me something because I'm sure there is a flyer and then I'll forward it to you Dominic. Okay. And to you, Anna. Okay. Wanted to add that we also have a we haven't scheduled our GPTC at the um at

the Steelard Day yet, but u we usually have a uh a game where um people can get, you know, people who have uh transit passes can get free passes u into the game. We just haven't identified that game yet. Hopefully, I'll have it by the next meeting. Okay. Any additional announcements? So, um, as we're getting closer to the end of the month, uh, May May 29th is our last day to accept, um, the assessments. And so, our, um, event committee, um, I will encourage you to kind of think through how should we share the information out to the community. And so take some time work with um committee members and um report back to the council on how we can share the information out. How can we celebrate? Okay. All right. May I have a motion to adorn the meeting? Oh, forgot about that. Uh I'm sorry. I'm opening the floor for comments. Any comments? Any questions? Yep. You can step up to the podium. Very good. Hi, my name is Lenora. And for the buses that are going or the transportation that is going to the highrises, is it only for seniors in highrises or for any seniors? Sorry, are you talking specifically

public transit? I'm not sure. I just heard that the trans that the um transportation goes to each of the highrises. Is that public transportation for to take them somewhere or was that an event or something? Yeah, I think we were probably talking about public transportation. We could talk after the meeting, but yeah, we've got every one of the um senior highrises in Gary is served by public transportation uh fixed route public transportation, you know, on a schedule, but people who have any kind of disability may be eligible for um a program we call access 219, which is a curbto curb um paratransit service. So after the meeting, I didn't bring any cards. Um I can give you my information and you can um card. Do you Okay, great. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. No problem. And for United Way project, is that for seniors only? And what are the ages for it? For the um paint jobs and is that paint jobs on the inside of the home and the um yard work? Is that for what ages? There's no there's no particular age. You mean for volunteers? No, for the work to be done for. Is that for seniors? No, it's it's it's uh it's generally um from one nonprofit agency to another, but it's any a any agency, any school um that wants to participate. They're welcome to throw their uh address and um business into the hat and we'll find volunteers to help them uh get that job done. So, no, there's no age if that's your question. Okay. Yeah. All right. Thank you. And and um again, if you wanted to get a a copy of that QR code, I left one with the uh with our

secretary. You can get it from her. Okay. All right. Any additional comments? No. Okay. Well, thank you. May I believe I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? I'll make the motion we adjourn the meeting. Second. All right. Meeting is all in favor. Did you know the city of Gary has a 311