Human Services Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Alright. Good evening, It is 09/24/2025. The rapture did not happen. So I will go ahead and call this meeting of the human services advisory board to order at 06:04PM. We'll start out with roll call. Carol?

Okay. Lucy Gonzales? Yancey Aragolo? Present. Elias Martinez? Here. Linda Harper Williams? Here. Ethan Graves? Here. Sherif Gassiz?

Yeah. Here.

Lucy Johnson? Here. Alisa Ramirez. Let me double check over here. Nope. They're not the centers. Okay.

Okay. So we have

Six. Six.

Alright. We have six out of the seven voting members in attendance. We have a quorum. First up is our citizen comment period. We invite all local residents, business owners, friends of San Marcos, interested parties to come up and speak for three minutes during our citizen comments. Is there anyone online or here wishing to speak?

So, technically, y'all could speak if you want.

That's just the same thing. You're about

to You're about to No.

It's okay. I'm not saying we

so we we only have presenters. So no.

Okay. There being no wish to speak, I will close with some comments. Next up, we have the minutes from our last meeting of September 17. Do I hear a motion to approve the minutes as written?

Motion.

Do motion made by Yancey. Do I have a second? Aye. Thank you, Linda. Is there any discussion on the minutes? Any questions?

Okay. Carol? Aurora. Okay. Nancy? Yes. Elias?

Yes.

Linda? Yes. Ethan?

Yes.

Sherry? Yeah. Lucy? Aye. And Alyssa is not here.

Mix it up.

Yeah. Okay.

Alright. That motion was approved unanimously. I will remember to sign the minutes this time, and we will move on to our presentations.

We

will receive ten minute presentations by each of the applicant agencies for each program that was listed on this evening's agenda. Each agency will receive a thirty second warning as the ten minute time limit is approaching, but the time limit is somewhat flexible. Each presentation will be followed by a ten minute question answer session between board members and the agency regarding the program or application. Members of the public are welcome to listen but will not take part in the discussion or question answer session. So I devote my attention to all of you fabulous presenters. I will go ahead and give Carol the gavel, so to speak.

So to speak. Okay. So our first presenters are here representing Southside Community Center, their homelessness prevention program. And we have, in person here in the room, Jessica Kane and Neha Campos. And I was go ahead and introduce yourselves, and let's see if it'll show you

on this phone. Okay. I'm Jessica Kane. I'm the director of neighborhood engagement at Southside Community Center.

I'm Neha Santos. I am the housing program manager at Southside Community Center.

Okay. And I'll bring up y'all's presentation. Just to make sure. Well, let's see.

Yeah. So that.

Instead of Oh, maybe not. Nope.

You might have to leave it at all.

Share my screen. Hang on a sec. I'll share my screen. Okay. Okay. Then

It's not giving you the present option, but that's okay. That should be Okay.

Large enough for the folks at home, I hope. Okay.

And then y'all have to pop click? Sure.

Alright.

Well, hello. Thank you all for having us here today and for the work that you do on this board. I am here presenting on the homelessness prevention program at Southside Community Center and the grants that we put in associated with it. So the homelessness prevention program exists, at Southside already, but it is relatively new. We started officially in July.

And its goal or its existence is because we're trying to address and identify growth in both homelessness and housing instability here in San Marcos. The goal of this prevention program, which I will probably flip flop back and forth between saying eviction prevention and homelessness prevention because we use it interchangeably at Southside as well. But the goal of this program is to keep 65 families in stable permanent housing annually, and those families will represent approximately a 195 individuals based on the families that come to us and have already gone through the program, kind of how many are in each of those. So we have three basic rationales for why we started this program and why we want to see it continue here. The first is a very clear community need.

The homelessness the existence of homelessness in Hays County has increased by 83% since 2020, and we know that using the point in time count. In 2020, a 102 individuals were counted in Hays County, and in 2025, a 187. And we actually think the 2025 count is low because it was during one of the winter weeks where we had our weather shelter open, and we had about 25 folks inside. So we think our '25 numbers were probably similar to 24, which was 210 unhoused folks in Hays County. In 2025, again, that was one eighty seven, and a 100 of them were San Marcos residents.

We've also seen an increase in, instability in housing in our own program with our community partners and just kind of a general understanding in the community. We've had we're on track to have more than 400 applications for emergency assistance this year, and we've also had larger bills when people come in for emergency assistance. So we used to see a few $100, we're looking at thousands of dollars that people are bringing in, asking with for help with. In addition to that, not necessarily part of the eviction prevention program, but in our other programs at Southside, we have seen a 26% increase in our daily service use between January and August of this year. We are on track in September to see that increase even more.

And when I say daily services, I'm talking about our laundry and showers that are free to anybody as well as our free breakfast six days a week and free dinner all every day. All of those have seen a 26% increase at minimum over the last eight months. So there is a deep community need presenting itself. And then in addition to that, we know that 25% of our residents here live in poverty, 70% of them are renters, which puts them at a really precarious pay place if they have any sort of financial issues because that leads toward eviction. Eviction leads to not being able to find new housing because you have that on your record, which then, of course, leads to being unhoused very quickly with just a month or two of being behind.

The rationale for Southside doing this program is because we have the capacity. We have our case management team in place. They have experience implementing this program and also the emergency emergency assistance program, which we've had in place for eight years. This is really building on a program that already existed even though, homelessness prevention is technically new. We like to call ourselves the default organization in San Marcos.

When people encounter trouble and they go look for help, they often come to us. If they find someone and say, where can I get help? They're almost always told, go to Southside. And so we know that people are already coming to us, and so we're a good place to have the the services when we're able to do so as we are in this case. In addition, when we don't have other services or we don't have the full capacity to help a specific individual or family, we work with some of our local partners.

I see some of them are presenting tonight either here or online. We have 20 more than 20 local partnerships at this point, including community action, v r three t, the Salvation Army, Red Cross, Start Smart, Jason Caldwell, Los Altros La Gente, and some of our local churches that help fill in gaps that we can't, supply. Homelessness prevention is a cost effective solution, which is our third reason for really putting our focus on it at Southside. Homelessness costs on average $20,000 to the community per individual who is unhoused. That's medical care.

That's things we put in place to support folks who are unhoused. That's policing, all sorts of things go into that number. At Southside, we have a rapid rehousing program, and it costs us about $7,500 per family to rehouse folks. So, obviously, a steep decrease in cost right there. But prevention only cost us about $2,500 on average, and we're trying to actually get that even lower as we build this program out.

So it's just a clear, easy win right there when we're talking about trying to end the increase in homelessness. The first thing to do is to prevent more people from entering homelessness. There is a process for the program. I don't wanna give you all of the details because that will get very boring, but, basically, people apply for this program in the same way that they've applied for our emergency assistance. They're all funneled into the same form.

They need the same documentation, and they make an appointment with our case manager who then talks through all of that stuff with them at the appointment and determines whether they really need emergency assistance, eviction prevention, or perhaps some other thing that either we can't provide or we can't fully support them in. And they use a variety of metrics to decide where those folks fall. We have standard protocols for them mostly based on their actual need, what kind of assistance are they asking for, our capacity for assistance, whether financially or case management wise. And then in terms of homelessness prevention, the likelihood that our support would successfully stabilize the family. If they are approved into the program, they get one to three months of financial support and case management.

We follow-up at six and twelve months to see if they're still in housing. We have not reached that point with anyone yet, but that is part of the the protocol. And those who are denied are obviously not just sent away. We refer them to any of our other programs they can participate in or to our partner agencies. This program has a huge community impact. It creates stability. Both families and generations become more stable when folks are able to stay in housing. There's less emotional and financial costs. There's less trauma, and it helps to address some of the generational poverty and homelessness that we see here in San Marcos. And that actually leads into the community stability.

When people live in the same place, they get to know their neighbors. They get to know their landlords. They get to know the people around them. There's a community level of safety that exists from that. There is stability for children in schools, staying in the same schools all throughout their their schooling, hopefully. And then, of course, when there's less homelessness in the community, the community is more stable as a whole. This program will continue our partnerships with these local organizations. And as we move through it, we're hoping to help prevent duplication of and gaps in services that I'm sure y'all have heard about in San Marcos and Hays County in general. That is gonna be part of this program going forward as well. And then it's an effective use of funding.

I said that back earlier that prevention is the most cost effective solution to homelessness because the most effective is for people to never enter homelessness to begin with. Our medium term case management support for families leads to long term stability, unlike some of our other emergency assistance programs. And the grant money that we're asking from for y'all is going to help establish a foundation for a long term funding. I know y'all probably know that we received an ARPA grant through the city. That was really the starter funding to get all of the staff on board, to build the programs, to get the the technology that we needed to do this.

And so what we're asking for in this grant is money to get us through a little bit of the next section. Our money from Arco will last us through about February 2026. This money will help us get through the middle of next year as we work toward other grants, fundraisers that we're doing, soliciting money from individual donors and businesses, and then, governmental entities. This slide also gives a little bit of an overview of what this program looks like for us and then the community as well. We already have four full time staff doing this program.

Neha is one of them. We have two case managers, and then we also have me. So we already have those folks in place. They have the experience. They know what they're doing, and we're moving forward with it. So stability in this program will provide stability in the community. I said at the beginning, we're planning that this will serve at least 65 families by helping them avoid homelessness each year, and that will cost us about $288,000 a year. So we are requesting a 100,000 to get us through that 2026.

And with that, thank you. Okay. And then if you wanna send me that, I'll take the presentation down so we can

also Okay.

Okay. Now, that was the presentation. Are you also gonna present as well, or are

you here to answer questions? Okay.

I just realized I had to

jump in. Okay. It's okay. Neha's in the nitty gritty, so sometimes there's questions I don't know how to answer.

I also forgot to time it, but I'm assuming we

have probably about at least twelve minutes.

Started at talk. At 06:08. So we got nine minutes.

Nine minutes.

Okay. So y'all go ahead.

Well, I have a question. So how do families what's the requirements, and how do they apply? How do the families apply for the program?

So the application is online. If there is a barrier to filling it out online, they're able to come in or call in and have help filling it out. So and it's very accessible for anybody that way. And anybody can apply for it after they put the application in online. It bumps them over to a program that schedules them with a case manager immediately.

That's usually within a week or two of when they submit the form. They're supposed to upload all of the necessary documents, which Neha can maybe talk more about if you have questions about those. But it's, like, the lease agreement and their ledger of where they are, why you know, how they're behind, employment information, IDs, things like that. And then the from there, it's just talking to the case manager, really. And we do have some basic ideas of if you have a bill that's $500 or less, we call that emergency assistance.

If you have a bill that's over 500, you're likely to get pushed over into homelessness prevention. Mhmm. It's not a solid line, but that's kind of the dividing line for the most part. We do have some expectation that folks can pay at least part of the bill, but most places here will not take partial payments. And so what they're doing is coming to us to help fill in that gap so that they can pay the remainder. Okay.

Do you have a wait list of folks who apply who maybe you can't serve everyone who applies? Or

Not for our prevention program currently. We do have, our shelter waitlist. Mhmm. So that is pretty extensive right now. But for prevention, we don't currently have a waitlist. Okay. We have been seeing a lot of folks. And if folks do get denied, it's, you know, something like our financial assistance won't provide the stability that they need in enough time, or folks, you know, with unemployment issues or things like that. And that's not saying that we would deny folks for not being employed. It's just, are you currently looking for a job? Are you putting in that Mhmm. That, those extra steps to make sure that you you will also remain stable while we're doing our part as well. Great.

I have

another question. What would y'all say is kind of, if you have, like, an average turnaround for, like, when someone applies, like, when you guys are actually able to, like, help them with funding and stuff like that.

So currently, we are looking at about a two week turnaround time.

Yeah.

There are, you know, some cases where the follow-up, we have more questions when we go to staff them. So we're missing either certain documents, or we have just further questions if they you know, we had a case recently where, they were a student. So we wanted to know, are they a Texas State student? Can we connect them with resources on Texas State's campus and, you know, and kind of supplement that? So they're just follow-up questions. So right now, we're about a two week turnaround time, unless there's, you know, cases like that where we have further questions.

So the the the funds that you guys are requesting is, I think, a pretty sizable, portion of your budget. Could you guys talk a little bit more about your development strategy to diversify, support for the program?

Absolutely. That is me. So first of all, to be clear, that is the budget for homelessness prevention alone. The whole project that we have built with the ARPA funding is actually a $650,000 project. So we've tried to focus it in here on one portion of that, but we are working with the we have spoken to the city and the county about getting into their actual budgets.

Right now, we're kind of on the social service, human service, separate grants kinds of things. We do serve as the only weather shelter in the county. We are the default place, and so we're we're asking the that's when I say governmental entities. That's what I'm talking about is actually getting into the budgets there, which at this point is probably not happening till the '27 budget cycle. We are also working with a couple of businesses and banks for, hopefully, either matching funds with some of the other or just outright multiyear investments in this program specifically.

We have never really had a fundraising strategy at Southside before. I actually just started in this position in August. I've been on the staff since last May, and part of this position is the development side of things. So we are doing fundraisers. We've never done fundraisers before. We've kind of just asked for money and hope for the best. So there's a lot of more intentional asking both at the big level and then even with our individual donors.

Sure. I see your hand is up.

Yeah. I'm kinda piggybacking on Elias' Elias' question because I was trying to find any source of financials in the in the package you guys submitted. And if this is only one one program, as a board, we're flying blind. We don't know what else is being funded here. Then you you are requesting double what we've funded in the past. So where's the discrepancy between what we funded in the past 48,000 last year and 56, 58,000 the years before, and a 100,000 all of a sudden for one program alone?

Yeah. So our like I said, this is a new program. This entire program, which is the strategic action on homelessness that includes homelessness prevention as one portion of it, is a $650,000 addition to our current budget, which is about $450,000. So the the ask is that we are more than doubling what we are hoping to do as an institution, and, therefore, we really need the funding to double what we are doing. We really believe in this as a long term sustainable program at Southside and in the community, and we think the the results are already pretty clear that we're making a difference.

And we hope that we can truly stop the the growth of homelessness here in San Marcos and his county in general. So that's the ask is really we're asking ourselves for a whole lot more. And so as we go out and ask others to support the program, we're asking for more there as well.

Another question. So for those I know you said, 65 families is what you're hoping to, help with the homelessness prevention funding. Are you guys I guess, I don't know if you have any data on this, but are you expecting to kind of those 65 to be spread out pretty evenly throughout the year in terms of when they ask for funding, or are you kind of expecting certain whether it's seasons or, like, certain months out of the year to have a higher frequency of asks than others?

So I

I I got it. So we do have more asks for assistance generally during the winter months. This program obviously hasn't existed during the winter months yet, so we can't say with certainty. But the way that we've built the program is that we have two case managers, and they will each be taking on new cases each month and rolling off cases each month. So we'll stay pretty stable at about six cases per month in the homelessness prevention program.

Right.

If we get toward the end of the year and we have more asks and we have the capacity both financially and with our case managers, we can absolutely tack on extras at the end, but that is totally dependent on the the funding at that point.

Right. Thank you. I have a question.

And just so you know, we're coming close to time, but please go ahead.

Okay. You said this program started in July, right, of this year? Mhmm. So how many people or families have you helped since July?

25 is what I wrote down. I was just checking to make sure it wasn't new. Okay. Yes.

It has been 25 at least.

So And so how many more do

you expect to serve for?

So average about six per month.

I'm supposed send that. Six. There's only three months left. Yeah. So, like, 18 to 20 more. Mhmm. And we don't have our September numbers yet, so probably between eighteen and twenty five more before the end of the month or year.

That's one one one. You mentioned earlier that there's no wait list. Right? Is there historically a wait list, or you guy you guys are talking about, like, growing the program. Right? And there certainly is, like, the need, you know, for to create more housing stability in town. What are you kind of basing the anticipated need to grow the program? What are you kind of basing that up? Are you getting lots of requests that you aren't fulfilling right now? Is like, what's the what's what are the indicators that are kind of, leading you guys to double the program or wanna double the program?

The big one is the emergency assistance, the folks coming in needing more folks coming in needing assistance and the folks who come in needing more assistance than in the past. So we were looking at bills of hundreds of dollars. Now we're looking at thousands of dollars from those folks. And our emergency assistance program just isn't built to do that. We would deplete it in a month or two. So So large of funneling those folks into this program instead. Okay. So we're building a a new kind of level of support.

So you're taking an existing program and kind of using this program to expand services?

Yes. So whereas before, we would either deny them outright because the bills were too high or work with some of our community partners to maybe piece together enough money. Hopefully, we'll be able to take those folks and just help them on their own.

Mhmm. And that's really where this program was born is because our mark we were seeing inundated bill. Like, we were inundated with so many large bills, and so our case managers were spending hours just trying to piece these bills together between all our community partners. And so we were able to, you know, reallocate some funds and create this program to be able to do that. We're still seeing a lot of notice to vacates within our emergency assistance program as well. And so those bills are a little bit lower. Mhmm. But with this homelessness prevention, we're able to do those larger bills.

Sure. Alright.

We are definitely over time now. That's fine. So, Ladys, thank you so much for your presentation. Thank you for coming in tonight in person. We really appreciate it.

Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Our next presenters are online, and so I'm just gonna move them over.

So, Brittany, I'm gonna promote you to panelists. Also, Lauren Mitchell and Melissa Ramirez. And then I have somebody, a, Lowry, and I know I cannot think of your first name, but I know you're related. So I'm gonna make all of you panelists so you're all able to talk to present. Okay.

Yeah. Okay. I can't remember who's that that's like a manager or something. Okay. Alright. I think everybody's here. So we have first on the agenda, the Scheidt Center Mental Health Services Clinic. And I have written down just Brittany and Richie presenting, but y'all are welcome to do a group presentation if needed. And, Brittany, if you would just introduce yourself and then go ahead and go into the presentation.

Certainly. I'm Brittany Richie. I'm the treasurer for the Scheib Center here today. I'm gonna be presenting with two of our program directors as well. And I'm trying to share my screen, but I'm not sure that I'm sharing the right screen. So I'm not sure what you guys are seeing.

We're seeing the it's like a screensaver. It must be your desktop.

Okay. Let me I apologize for let me get my stuff together. I believe it's showing a wrong screen. I apologize.

Alright. And I won't start your time till the technology is working for you. So Missed that.

For some reason, now that I'm your a different viewer, I

Oh, you know what? May let me make you cohost. Hang on one second. Thank you. That's that's all. That seems to help. Okay. Try that.

Okay. Yes. That's what I needed, I think. So alright. Let me try one more time.

There you go.

It's still going to that other one. Okay. Let me swap my screen. I see you guys over there, and it seems to be showing that one.

Yeah. It still looks like your desktop, like some weird earth with rivers.

It's whatever window's been on there. I apologize. I sincerely apologize. Let me see.

Looks like it's a delta of some kind.

Okay. Like a tropical. Yeah. Nice. Okay.

And you see the now you're seeing the viewer. Is that right?

Yes. And Melissa, Amy Lowry declined to be a panelist. Let me go back in there, maybe now that you're asking, she'll go ahead and come on over.

Yeah. She she'll she'll be needing to do that.

Sarah, she's coming over.

It may just be this screen that you see, but at least you can see it. So

That's good.

Okay is Amy on now?

Yeah she should be.

Okay I'm gonna just go ahead and get started. I apologize to everyone. My name is Brittney Richey. I am the treasurer for Scheib Center. Amy Lowery is our mental health clinic director who will be leading that portion. And our director of children's services is Melissa Ramirez, and our youth crisis respite center director is Lauren Mitchell, and she will be leading that portion. So, just briefly, I've listed our boards of board of directors, which you should have a list of in your packet. We've had a couple of additions since the packet was produced. We started in September, so we've had a couple more additions to our board, and a couple people left. So I wanted to share that updated information.

All of our board members and everybody involved with Scheib are volunteers. We have no paid staff. All of our contracted employees are through Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental Disability Services. Our mission of the Scheib Center is to promote general welfare related to mental health and disabilities, and to promote an understanding of developmental disabilities and mental health in our community. We prefer to provide our information, at the least amount of cost that there could possibly be.

And so we have decided to do a partnership between, Hill Country MHDD and ourselves. We've been in the nonprofit organization business, providing mental health services since 1971. And we have provided these programs in lots of different ways at different points in our long life. We've had our own staff. We currently do not have staff.

We are currently all volunteers, and we partner with Hill Country MHDD who provides the staffing of the programs. This contractual agreement ensures that the licensing qualifications, liability, and benefits of the staff, are provided for. The Scheib Center is responsible for certain specific program needs within the facilities that we own. SHIB manages the contractual agreement with Hill Country MHDD. We monitor the staffing services that is provided by Hill Country MHDD.

And we also provide supplies within the programs, the physical buildings, the utilities, insurance, various program, miscellaneous things such as miscellaneous furniture that might be in the lobby and that sort of thing, funds for program events. We do contracts for cleaning services, maintenance, etcetera. So Hill Country provides the staff and their personal desks and the materials for each staff member. We have three building sections within our property. Our main property, Building 200 is our mental health clinic that we'll talk about first.

We also have a youth crisis respite home that is right down the street from Scheib, at 614. And then we have our youth respite program staff that is housed in Building 100. And our David's Hall 300, includes our MCOT, our mental health and transportation type of facilities, counseling staff, our board office, and our meeting rooms. So this portion of the requests are for our mental health program. We're requesting $30,000 to be used in Building 200.

It is in need of leveling and some building repairs, outdoor property maintenance that that we're trying to achieve. It's 34% of the 2026, shy budgeted cost of these items for Building 200. So to actually talk to you about the program that is housed in this building, I'm gonna turn it over to Amy. She is the Hill Country MHDD, Clinic Director. So I'll start with Amy.

Hi. Thank you so much for having me. I've been with Hill Country for a little over eleven years, and I've been the clinic director here in San Marcos for, I think, about six years now. I love what I do, and I'm gonna be respectful of your time. So I'm gonna breeze through some of my slides. But please feel free to ask any questions you have at the end of me. And there we go. So, I wanna focus. I did want you all to to see our vision, mission, and our values. Our mission has changed a couple of times even since I've been with Hill Country, over the last ten years.

But what really what I relate to the most is our vision to empower people, foster hope, support choices, and celebrate successes. So I'd say that's probably the reason that I've I've I'm still with Hill Country, and I love being a part of the program here. Next, please. I'm not gonna bore you with all the specific details of a certified community behavioral health center, but we are really proud of being a state certified community health behavioral health center. We we first achieved our certification in December 2021, and we recently were recertified in February, and that lasts for three years.

The important part about CCBHC certification is that it really focuses on making sure that we are connecting individuals with the services that they're needing expediently and that we are partnering with community partners so that we can provide a vast array of assistance and also focusing on what individual needs are to make sure that we're meeting those needs as well. Next. So by some of the things that we've been working on since 2021 as a certified community behavioral health center is we have worked on increasing the amount of substance abuse treatment that we're offering and also our partnerships throughout the community. So we currently partner with quite a few stakeholders, law enforcement, hospitals, schools, some various nonprofit agencies throughout the area. So, the goal is just to make sure that we're meeting the needs of individuals.

We've started, surveys to ask a lot more about what kind of support individuals are needing, and that also has, encouraged us to to have specialty programs. So there's also a list there of some specialty programs that we've we've begun to offer over the last, couple of years. Next. And this is just some demographical information for you. I do wanna point out, we currently have a thousand one one thousand one hundred and thirty five individuals that are active in services.

That number actually doesn't include the crisis services that we are providing to individuals, and I'll talk about that just a little bit more in a bit. But for this year alone, we've provided over 15,000 individual services of of different kinds to to folks. And I also if you're interested in the demographics, I also included that here for you.

Next, please.

And the the majority of individuals and services with us are between the ages of 15 and 39. I just usually, that's a question I've been asked before, so I thought I would make sure to share that information with you. Next. And we're I I wanted to include a slide on this because we're I'm so proud of our ability to do this. This is one area that we've really worked hard to progress in is being able to provide prompt service to individuals.

So when someone walks in the door, they're usually able to meet with someone that day and start the intake process. And then within three days, on average, they're able to begin their services with us if they qualify for the services. And this is just a list of some of all the different services that we offer: course psychiatric services, counseling, case management, rehabilitative services, and then there's also a list of some of our additional specialty services. These are all the services that we've offered, in 2025. So just a an array of different services that are available, to individuals as they come in, and I I'm I'm also glad that we're able to continue to expand on that as well.

Next, please. So I will point out a couple of outside of the ones that I that I talked about before, we also offer family partner services. So we have an individual that, works with parents of children who are in services. Okay. I'm gonna mute her just real quick.

We are almost out of time. I just wanted to bring that up. It is pretty flexible, so you can continue. We just try to keep it at twenty minutes total for each agency I mean, each program, actually. So here we are.

You may have to unmute yourself, Amy.

Oh, okay. We go. Yes. Okay. This is just a a list of all the different services that we offer, and we're we're right at the end, actually.

If you'll go to the next one, I wanted to share some information about our crisis. So we have a crisis team that's available twenty four hours a day, seven days a week, three hundred and sixty five days a year, that we meet with individuals sometimes in person or sometimes, by video to to work through, navigating that crisis experience and making sure that they're getting the support that they're needing. And this is just a a list of all the different in person, groups that we have. We also have some virtual groups that are offered, And, I wanted to share a couple of pictures of our, our community events that we've had this year, and that's it. Thank you so much.

Alright. Thank you. And then now, of course, we're open for questions. And if, you could go ahead and close your slideshow, that would probably be best so we can see each other again.

Have a question. So regarding the, Building 200, right, is that the building where all of the the Hill Country, mental and behavioral health service happen? Is that

Yes. And so it's actually multiple buildings. We call Building 200 as if it's a one one place, but it it has a hallway, and it's got a second building attached to it. Amy can probably tell you exactly what happens in there, but that is our mental health facility. Yes.

Okay. We actually have three three buildings. Yeah. Three buildings on the premises, and Building 200 is is the the Mental Health building. And then the building on the front at Bishop Street is we have our youth respite program there. And then David's Hall, which is the newer building, houses our our MCOT team and, some other providers.

Can you guys maybe talk a little bit about some of the different ways that you guys are monitoring or measuring your impact the impact that you're having beyond? You've mentioned that you had, like, 15,000, I think, touch points where you were offering service. What are some other ways that you guys are are monitoring or measuring the impact that you guys are having on the community?

So we do, we actually have an advisory board, and so we send out a request to gather information about, how experiences have been at Shive and what other needs are. So that's one way. We have a a board that also, the board encompasses individuals that are in services as well as individuals that are just in the community, as well as community partners. So that's one way that we also do it, but we've also increased, access to surveys so that we can get feedback and, you know, keep a record of of what kind of new services, which is really what has sparked our, initiatives for the specialty services, you know, by request. So

And I know I'm staff, but I'm gonna go ahead and enter into the conversation. Because what I wanted to make sure we were clear on this year is, we have requests from Shive Center, and we have requests from Hill Country MHCb. This is a request from Shyde Center. Shyde offers the facilities. Mhmm.

And then MHCV, Hill Country, staffs them. And so they're presenting, here's the program that we do, but the request and then, you know, the request is for the building because that's what Shive is over. And so just so you know, on our agenda today, we have two program requests from Shive, and then we have one that's, so and those are related to facilities. And then we have one that's from Hill Country MHDB, and that's for a program. So I just wanted to make that really clear distinction this year. So back to the board. Any other questions? Oh, go ahead, Sherry.

Okay. So just so we're clear, is this one for both the mental health services and the program facilities,

this presentation? This particular presentation is for mental health. So this is the building that we're providing mental health services out of specifically. So we do separate out our different programs by building, and so Shyb will have a different program budget for different things, and this particular one is for our mental health facility that we do.

Okay. So it's the first one. Okay. Yes.

Any other questions? No? Okay. Let's go ahead and call it, and then let's go on to the next presentation, also, Brittany Uraji. Okay. And this one is Shive Center, and it was just, I think, entitled program facilities. And so

please go ahead. This is for our youth respite mainly. I I just have a brief I'll share my screen again. Hopefully, you can see. Are you able to see my screen?

Yes. Now we can.

Okay. So I'm gonna go ahead with the youth respite program. We actually have two of our facilities dedicated to the youth crisis. One of them is a four bedroom home, and it has served a 132 San Marcos adolescents in 2025. We would like to purchase additional an additional place sometime in the near future because we see that that need is just really strong.

And our Building 100 located in our central facility is also dedicated to the staff and the resources for that program there in Building 100. So this particular request would would service both the office staff and the four bedroom home. The clients that that receive help at the youth respite home are between the ages of 13 and 17. They enter the home voluntarily. They participate with twenty four hour supervision.

They're monitored, obviously. They have a tendency to be experiencing a mental health or behavioral crisis, and they need a therapeutic environment. San Marcos school districts have seen a really rapid increase in mental health disorders and behaviors, distress in adolescents. It's a national crisis as we all know. So I'm gonna introduce to you oh, excuse me. So my next slide is what we're requesting. We're requesting $15,000 for these two facilities to maintain and keep them in running order for for the program. So I'm gonna introduce Melissa, and I think she's going to introduce her staff member Lauren as well. I'm not sure who's gonna present today.

Thank you so much, Britney. Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Melissa. I'm the director of children's services with Hill Country MHDD, and I'm gonna pass this off to the youth crisis respite director, Lauren, who is expert in all the wonderfulness that she does in the home.

Hi. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for having me. Like Melissa said, my name is Lauren. I am the director there at Respite, and we're just going to kind of go over this program and some of the things that we're looking for as far as our facility.

We can go to the next slide. So our mission and impact, we provide twenty four seven year round support to youth in our in Hays County across all the catchment areas of Hill Country for youth that are in crisis. So our program, what we're trying to do is we're trying to take kids out of the hospitals. We don't want kids seeking higher restrictive levels of care, and we wanna make sure we're meeting kids where they're at and we're able to provide them a so a resource within our community so that way we can help them before they're escalating to a higher level of care. So our program, we serve as that resource for kids across Hays County.

I will say Hays County is one of our largest counties as far as the kids that are coming through to respite. We can go on to the next slide. So this is a little bit of data I pulled here. So respite facilities in our area, there is a minimum. You can see here we have our program, and then we also have our next one, which is a sister company that modeled their respite after our program, and that's in Travis County.

As far as kids admitted into our program since reopening post COVID, We've had 265, and a 132 of those were from Hays County. As far as overnight short term residential use facilities in Hays County, there are none. The option is hospitalization, emergency room, or long term residential care, which is your RTCs. Next slide, please.

So

what makes our center so special is that it does have a beautiful, magical feeling to it when you walk in. And I encourage anybody to take a tour anytime that they want. It isn't a home like design and is designed like that for a specific reason. So we follow a living room model. So we don't want kids who are going there to stay and move through crisis to feel like they're being institutionalized or feel like they're forced to be in a clinical setting, and that can be further traumatizing and stifling.

So we have dedicated quiet spaces. Our home is decorated by the youth that are there. So we put up their artwork, their poetry, their painting, their play sculptures. It it feels very, very special knowing that kids have left little pieces of themselves as they as they've come through and have focused on recovery. We have creative healing spaces that encourage healthy expression.

We also have strength based decor. So we wanna make sure that our our decor is calm, it's warm, it's inviting, it's empowering, and we want to make sure everyone's feeling good in any part of the spaces spaces in the room. As far as the environment, we take pride in making sure that it's safe and welcoming and person centered and trauma informed. We want to make sure our facility feels like a supportive home versus a treatment facility. Next slide, please.

Updates through the years. We have been very creative with the funding that we do have, because it runs out quickly. Because we are a grant funded program, there's not a lot of funding sources that we've been able to attain. So we've gotten very creative, with what we have. Like I said, we use our artwork. We make sure that the environment is fostering comfort and healing. We make sure that we're very careful with the colors that we're putting up. All the beds are made. At any point, if somebody tours that facility, it is completely spotless. It smells good.

It feels warm. It feels cozy. There's pillows on the couch. It is it just feels like a very cozy home. So we make sure that as far as updating the home, making sure that it's clean, we're, moving around furniture, we're trying to upkeep the garden, we're painting rocks and putting decorative things outside, we make sure that we kind of upkeep that with the resources that we do have. Next slide, please. Essential elements needed for a supportive environment. There are several to create a trauma informed space. So things like keeping a safe and secure physical environment. So a few examples would be curtains that have breakaway special structures on there.

We wanna make sure that we have locks on different areas where we don't want youth getting into. We may we need to make sure that the environment is as safe as possible for our kids that are coming through that do have some self harming tendencies or are struggling with some suicidal ideations. We also, put funding towards empowering activities for personal growth and healing. So those are curriculums, our arts, our crafts, the different things that we do with kids, to promote that healing and recovery. We use a lot of, sensory soothing items for coping.

So that's our fidgets, our furniture, our pillows, things that kids can hold onto. Those are all tools that we use daily, as well as the comfortable, comfortable seating and, spaces where kids can relax and decompress. We wanna make sure that feels very cozy as well. We have noticed an increase, with just with the economy changing and all the new things that our world is experiencing. Family supports are a very big ask.

Transportation is difficult sometimes for families even getting from one side of the city to the next. They just do not have the funds to get gas into their car. So sometimes it's giving them a $10 HEV card or h e Walmart card to give them gas. Sometimes kids come through and they don't have any clothing, or the clothing that they have is so deteriorated. I wouldn't want them walking around the community feeling just just unsafe or not feeling empowered within what they're wearing.

So sometimes we do have to purchase clothing for kids and making sure that they have everything that they need to feel healthy and feel confident. We also frequently have to freshen up the outdoor spaces. It's Texas. We all know that everything in San Marcos is just dirt right now. So frequently buying plants and making sure that when kids are walking up and they're in crisis with their families, they feel like they're walking up to a welcome space, greenery.

They can see some flowers. It feels friendly. We also provide access to supportive resources and psychoeducational tools and materials. And sometimes that looks like flyers, booklets, journals, pens, different type of educational tools that the kids can use. And then moving forward, we also, we've looked into painting the home, you know, fixing the lighting.

Those things do become very costly. So those are some of the things that we're looking at, hopefully, kind of freshening up the house and making sure that we're providing that supportive environment for our kiddos. I put here, lastly, because every young person deserves the place to heal, to hope, and to belong, thank you for standing with us. I think any support to our cause would be tremendously appreciative. This is a program that we are very proud of, and our Hays youth frequently come back.

We do have a lot of repeat kids in our county because their experience is it it's just so helpful. A lot of these kids have repeated in RTCs and in hospitalizations, but once they come to respite, that cycle and pattern break. So that's what we wanna see. We want kids to know that there is a way out, there is support, and there are things that you can do to change your path. And that's kind of what we wanna be a part of. Thank you so much.

I just

wanna say thank you also. I if on behalf of the shop center.

Thanks. So, we are just right at time. So we have about ten minutes to ask questions on this program, the facilities for the Youthrusted Crisis Center.

Okay. Well, I'll go. Approximately, many kids does the center hold, and are you at a capacity limit point right now? Are you getting too many calls for what you can take?

So, no. We are not at a capacity point. What what typically happens when we have an influx of calls is we never wanna tell a kid, absolutely no. You can't come through. It's just a hard pass. See you soon. Not gonna happen. What we do is we'll get creative. So, typically, what we see is one kid is discharging, another one's admitting, and we're kind of just interchanging kids as we're going and organizing. So if somebody gets screened today and they're hoping to seek respite services and they can't admit today because maybe we have five or six kids in the home already, what we'll look at is tomorrow, we have a kid discharging or the next day, and that's when you're gonna come through.

We make sure they have a safety plan. We make sure they have that supportive resource, and then they come through to us. And we just make sure that we're able to organize in a way where we're able to serve everybody. I have not been at a point where I've had to deny kids for more than a couple of days. A kid will come through as soon as we're able to open up that room. Okay.

The Shive Center does see a need for an additional space, though, and so we are looking forward to the future of purchasing further properties for this program, but we're not doing that this year.

Yeah. I was gonna say having teens I mean, at risk teens, sometimes when they get to that crisis point, two days is a really long

time to wait. Mhmm. Yeah.

Any other questions?

What does a typical day look like?

Yeah. So a typical day is going to look different for every single kid because they have unique unique needs, and they have a very unique crisis to what they're moving through. So what we do in taking a trauma informed approach to these kids is we wanna know where they're at. We're gonna meet them where they're at, and we're gonna base their day off of that. So if I have a kiddo that's struggling with maybe some social I social isolations and depression, really struggling to have motivation to even move through their daily habits, we're gonna structure a day that is supportive of that.

So maybe and I are gonna go on a walk for fifteen, twenty minutes, get out into the community, have some fresh air where I'm not gonna push this kid into a crowd of people because that wouldn't be okay, but we're gonna have a conversation. So that could be an activity, and we're gonna structure that in a way where kiddo is understanding that having that social connection and also getting yourself outside, that's already two birds right there. We'll talk about daily habits. We'll create a schedule that's written up on a big glass board where they will be able to see what's coming up next. And they can also get that dry erase marker and say, you know what?

I wanna try this, or can we remove that and try this? So each day is going to look completely different. They do participate in breakfast, lunch, and dinner with our staff, and that is a traditional style of eating. So we will sit at the table with them. It looks very family oriented. They'll participate in that eating, and those are all life skills that we're teaching. As well as the cleanup, making your bed, taking your shower, those are all things that are going to promote healthy habits and make you feel better physically and mentally. So those are all parts of the day that we incorporate. Now what we do is we really try to make sure that these days are something that they can mimic once they go home. So I'm not gonna take a kid to San Antonio to Fiesta, Texas because they've never been there because they're likely not gonna be able to do that when they get home.

But you better believe in the morning, I'm gonna have breakfast with you. We're gonna talk over, you know, snack time. We're gonna go on a walk. We're gonna do some healthy habits. We're gonna have a few activities. We're gonna sit at the table and have some conversations, lunch, dinner, close it out the evening with some, you know, conversation and some processing, have some downtime. These are all things that they can do and they can take home and break those cycles and patterns and live a healthier life once they leave us. And that's the main that's the main point. So we're trying to equip them with things that they can use once they go home back into their family system.

Great. Thank you. Yes.

I have, one question really quickly. And I'm sorry if this was mentioned, but do y'all have staff at the youth center twenty four seven, overnight, and stuff like that? Yep.

Twenty four seven staff, no matter what.

Any other questions? No? Okay. I oh, go ahead.

Do the kids go to school while they're staying there, That's a good question.

So they do have the opportunity to go to school within our communities. We have had kids get onto the bus stop, so staff will drive them to the the bus stop. We've had collaboration with the schools where they will fax all that information to me, and we will carve out time for studies in school, and staff will help them, almost like private tutor, just making sure that they don't fall behind. They are not required to. It just really depends where that stressor is.

So if school was the stressor, some parents will say, no homework. I want them to focus on their mental health. But then you have some kids that their mental health is being impacted because they wanna do so well in school. So I'm not going to put in additional stressors, so let's make that work. We So will structure the day where we can make all of that happen, and that kid at the end of the day can feel like I knocked everything out. I'm not falling behind. I got it all done, and it's a successful day.

And what's the I know it's short

term, but what's the average stay?

So the average stay is about four point five days. They can stay with us up to seven days.

Okay. We still just have a few more minutes if anybody else has questions. Okay.

Not a question. Just thank you for what you do.

Of course. Thank you so much.

We appreciate the opportunity that you guys have given us. Thank you so much.

I think Sherif might have a question. He has his hand up, but I don't

know he's able We've got Sherif with a question and then Yancey as well, and I don't know which one came first. Okay. Sherif, you're up.

Just, piggybacking on Yancey's previous question, what's the main, difference of somebody staying four and a half days versus a full seven days, and how often does somebody stay a full seven days?

So it is more often that kids are staying seven days. It really depends on on the year. So we've noticed that kids will have a longer stay at the beginning months of the school year because those social stressors have increased dramatically, and they're really wanting that help. We've noticed kind of around the holidays, those are shorter stays. It's kind of little bursts of maybe they're going through depression, maybe they've experienced a traumatic event around that time, lost loved ones, and so they're just trying to touch base and make sure they're able to move through things.

So as far as the differences between somebody staying 4.5 and seven days, I I there's not a major, major difference. Every single day that these kids are with us, they are having some type of experiences experience that's promoting healing and recovery. Some kids, by day three, they feel completely rejuvenated because they've been pulled from that environment. They were able to reflect. They got what they needed, and they're ready to go. Some kids need that full seven days, and that seven days, they're ready to fly that coop. So there's not a major difference. It really just is unique and depends on that child.

Go ahead.

So how many currently has this program served this year?

So this year, I need to pull that number. I'm so sorry. I should have had that in front

of me.

It was on this slide. I believe it was a 132.

132. Thank you, Britney. You're welcome.

Anything else? We still have time. Do y'all have any other questions?

I guess follow-up. How many more are

you expected to serve through the end of year?

So I will say we're noticing a very big increase even just in this month. I've been getting back to back calls. I do anticipate a larger increase than what it was last year. And with that, it comes with the word-of-mouth of our program. So the more people are hearing about our program, we're getting into the schools. We are partnering up with probation. We are in the communities a lot more than we even were last year. And so I do anticipate those numbers being a lot higher, especially with our newer programs, our other respite programs that's at the Scheib Center. There's just more word-of-mouth in the community that respite exists, so I do anticipate a large increase.

And that's one reason why the shop center would like to expand the services. We see that. I

guess, one more question. Is is there a particular I'm assuming, you know, it's the youth crisis center. I'm assuming it's, like, 18, but is there kind of a low like, a minimum age requirement for the people that y'all serve, or is it kind of like, are y'all an all ages facility?

Yeah. So we we typically serve ages 13 to 17. I have gone just a little bit lower, but we have found at a younger age, they're not able to process some more of that psychoeducational material that we're delivering or group work. Or our younger ages, they don't wanna be away from home. They get homesick. And so that's that's kind of the reasoning where we stick to that 13 to 17 age.

Thank you.

Mhmm. Okay. We are at time, so I'll go ahead and cut us off there, and then then we will roll into the next presentation. So this one is, a request by Hill Country MHDD, and it's about the youth crisis respite center. And so the presenters I have them are Melissa Ramirez and Lauren Mitchell. And I

did need to share my screen. I don't know if I need to rescore

It's easier if I make you a cohost. I think that just works better. One second. Okay. You should see something, I guess, pop up that helps.

Let's see.

I don't know what your screen looks like.

But

I don't I don't see anything popping up at all.

Oh, you're currently a cohost, and so you you should have the ability to share your screen.

Okay. But

yeah. There we go.

Can you can you see my screen?

Yeah. It's opening, I think. There we go. There it is. Yep.

Okay. Perfect.

Oh, we just lost it. Oh, because I think it was Melissa who had

been sharing. I think it was me. I will go ahead and share my screen. Give me one second.

Perfect. Alright.

Can you everyone see?

Now we can see the presentation. Yeah. Cool.

Okay. So I know I went over just a little bit of this information in our facilities presentation, but I did want to share that the purpose of this presentation is distinct from the facility portion, and this is more of program support for the Youth Crisis Respite Center, just ensuring that our essential services for youth and family in crisis, the funding is going to the overall program itself. Next slide, please. So what is the YCRC? So our program, we serve youth from 13 to 17 that are experiencing a crisis and stressors within their community.

So this can be within their family systems. It could be within their social supports, within the community, at school. It could be in a stomach view of these things, it could be anywhere in their worlds. But these stressors are so intense that it is preventing them from being successful in their everyday life. So when they come to respite, we provide that home like environment with twenty four seven supervision, therapeutic interventions, and the supportive services that they're needing to help them through that crisis.

Like I said a little bit earlier, we do operate off of the living room model, safe and welcoming spaces that do promote healing and recovery rather than that hospitalization feel that a lot of the kids in our San Marcos and Hays County area have experienced. And the the purpose of our program is that we focus on stabilization and skill building. We want them to be able to feel equipped enough to move through their current crisis and any future future crisis that they may have to navigate. We always let our kids know the problem a may be solved today, but we're probably gonna have b through z in your adolescence. So how can we equip you to be able to move through all of those situations as you progress through adolescence and teenhood into early adulthood?

Next slide, please. Our mission so our mission is to prevent out of home placements and higher levels of care. What we're finding is that kids in our community do not have a lot of resources. So some kids will come through, and they've never seen a therapist in their life, a psychiatrist, and all they have is a school counselor who they also do college applications with. So it's not a formal a formal experience of therapy.

They just don't have a whole lot. But then when they're asking for help or they are experiencing maybe some suicidal ideation, some intrusive thinking, or just really feeling like they're hopeless and at a loss, the answer is hospitalization or your family is to take you to an emergency room. And I don't know about y'all, but to me, I feel like that would be absolutely terrifying and that further traumatizes kids that are experiencing some pretty heavy things through adolescence. So what we wanna do is we wanna reduce the reliance on our ERs, hospitalization, and these long term facilities. And god forbid, those more punitive actions, where we'll we're getting PD involved, mental health officers involved, and some kids are just they're really getting deep in when all they needed was a handout at the very beginning so they can kind of deescalate from that crisis.

We wanna make sure that we're promoting autonomy, empowerment, and social inclusion through our compassionate youth centered services. In our at our facility, we do provide individualized activities. So like I said earlier, no no youth is gonna go through the same experience as their next youth. Everybody's gonna have a completely unique experience because what they're moving through is very unique, and we understand that. And we wanna make sure that whatever it is that they're moving through is going to be supported.

Same thing goes for if that same youth comes back to us a second time because maybe they're going through something else. That stay is gonna be completely different because it's a different situation with different attached feelings. A big part of our mission is strengthening the family system and reunification. So we wanna make sure not just the youth, but the family has the coping tools that they need for healing and recovery and fostering resilience within the family system. We wanna make sure when they come together at the end, everybody feels equipped to come back together and break that pattern and move forward.

We don't want anybody to be separated. We don't want anybody falling through the cracks. We make sure that we're keeping consistent, collaboration and communication with our families even while the youth is staying with us. Next slide, please. So as far as our environment, we do take pride in being a trauma informed care environment.

So what that means is we recognize that the system involves a multitude of things. Right? This is not just a kid coming through that has a crisis, needs prevention, and then out they go. We understand that traumatic stress is very, very unique and incredibly heavy. And kids that are coming through, they're scared, they're nervous, as are their families.

We also understand that trauma intersects with culture, history, race, gender, location, and language in ways that will shape their individual experience through that traumatic event and their experience through respite care. So we make sure that we support all of that, while they're staying with us. Next slide, please. As far as building a trauma informed care environment, a big thing that we do is transparency and trust. So as soon as you walk into your onto our building, you're gonna see a big staff wall with name sheets with information about us.

Because we're a twenty four seven facility, we have rotating staff. So if a kid admits at 01:00 in the morning, when they wake up, they're gonna see a totally different set of staff, and that can be a little jarring. So these staff sheets tell a little bit about us, who we are, and they essentially get to meet us before they actually physically meet us. So there's a little touches that we have where a kid can come through, feel like they're in a home where they're they know who they're gonna see. They'll read little fun facts. I have kids come up to me, and they're like, hey. You like sushi? I love sushi too. It's the first time I'm meeting them. And I'm like, wait.

What? And then I realize it's on my sheet. So little things like that make a really big difference for a kid that is experiencing major depression or heavy anxiety or some severe trauma, and they see something friendly like that that they can connect with me, and then that rapport starts building. Another big thing is youth empowerment. We encourage youth to share their ideas and interest.

I always give this example because it's the funniest thing to me, but we had a kid that was the most active athletic kid I've ever met in my life. And that kid was challenging me to push up contest almost every hour. And when he would challenge me to those push up contests, right afterwards, he would sit and we'd have the deepest conversations. I knew that that was something that made him feel comfortable, made him feel relaxed for for so for seven days straight, that's what I was doing with him. And I was so incredibly sore, but it worked.

And it worked for him, and I met him where he was at. And I lifted off of that strength, and it was a beautiful experience for him and for me because we we learned together. So, yeah, we we encourage them to let us know. How do you want this experience to look? And we're gonna make that happen, and I'm gonna get creative with what I know and with what you know, and we're gonna put that together. Another thing is compassionate understanding. We recognize that not everybody really understands what trauma looks like, what poor coping skills look like. So an example of a poor coping skill would be a kid that's running away constantly. To people who don't know about all of that, it's gonna look like you're a runaway. We're gonna get cops involved.

You're 18. What are you doing out there? I wanna know what are you running from? Why do you feel safer running away than staying? So that's what it means by being trauma informed, and we take that approach at our center and understanding what they're doing right now that's not working. I just wanna understand where we're at and why we're doing that. And when we gain that understanding, we're able to lead off to recovery and healing a lot quicker than just trying to change somebody. Next slide, please. So that's a little look at our center. Those are a few of our living spaces.

As you can see, it looks like your traditional home, other than the big craft room, unless you have a craft room in your home. But yeah. So we have our kids' artwork all up. We have some soft spaces where kids can just kind of relax and listen to music and books, your traditional rooms and kitchen, and all that good stuff. Next slide.

These are some other little areas in our space. We have a really open, backyard that we'd like to do more with. We've had kids, you know, tell us that we need, you know, monkey bars out there or games that they can play or just things that they can do. But, of course, a lot of funding goes attached in that, but it is a beautiful space. The reason why we do have peacocks sporadically in this slideshow is because the peacocks from Monet World do travel over to respite.

I like to think that it's because the magic that this program just throws out, but all the peacocks will come and take naps and hang out. And, yeah, once wintertime comes, we have guineas. We've had surprise rabbits, deer, peacocks all at the same time, and they just kinda gravitate to our our living space. Next slide, please.

Break in. We're almost at time, but it is flexible. So I just wanted to bring it up.

Okay. I can speed it up just a little bit. So as far as our process, there needs to be a recognized need in the community. What's really amazing about that is anybody in a community can make a referral. So I have received calls calls from probation, law enforcement, pastors, librarians, friends of family, counselors. I mean, you name it. A system of people that are trying to come together to help a kid. So once that referral is made, we get that legal guardian, the youth involved in a crisis screening. What this will determine is their level of care. We wanna make sure that respite is appropriate and supportive for what they're going through.

They will talk to me about that screening, and it is very quick that they will have an answer. So if something's happening maybe in the morning, they are likely to be admitted or be able to come into our program by lunchtime. The admission experience is very collaborative. It's not just me speaking to the guardian. We want to make sure that kid wants to be there and that it's the right place for them. So it looks like tours, having conversation, asking them what they want the experience to look like. We really empower the youth to have a say so in their treatment. As well as the discharge that is collaborative, we bring the entire family together. I have also had pastors attend discharge. We've had community friends attend, school counselors attend.

The more people, the better. So we make that discharge collaborative so that way we can bring that system together and we send kiddo back on out. Next slide, please. So this is just really quickly, I pulled some data on the effectiveness of our services. So we do pull qualitative and quantitative data through surveys because we want to make sure that what we're doing is working, and what we're not doing, we can incorporate.

So an evaluation of services does happen at the end of discharge where we ask certain questions. Some highlights of this slide right here, if you notice, is youth reported as well as guarded reported. That hospitalization for parents, it was over fifty percent. Youth, a little bit under, but hospitalization would be where they would have gone. That was the option, and that was heartbreaking.

Another thing was would you use respite services again? As you can see, the majority did say yes. They would absolutely come through, and we have noticed that with our Hays County youth that those are kids that frequently do repeat because we are right in their community. Next slide, please. The effectiveness of our program, regarding continuity of care.

So what we do is we will follow-up a little bit after they discharge, and then we will continue those follow ups even months afterwards to make sure that they're still doing okay and remind them we're still here. So things improving after discharge, as you can see, a lot of them report that they were better. A lot reported that very helpful that very helpful area that skills, the skills that they had learned were very helpful. Excuse me. And then as far as their safety plan, which is something that we do at the time of discharge, most of our kids have used that safety plan, and it has been helpful to them.

We have had a few that have not had to use them. But to note that, it's because they haven't needed to, which is a really good thing to hear. So that kind of gives you an idea of what those yes and no answers mean. A few of these quotes, I'll just go ahead and read one because I know I'm becoming short on time. Respite made me realize what truly matters. I don't know if I would still be here if I hadn't met y'all. And this was from a 15 year old youth from Hays County. So a lot of these kids will let us know. I don't even know if I would have made it till tomorrow. Or parents will be crying at discharge saying, like, I thought that was it.

I I didn't think I had anything else. So we really take pride on being that light in that dark tunnel that these families have been traveling for a really long time, not knowing that there were other options out there. Next slide. And that's it. I'm so sorry if I spoke really fast, but I really wanted to get all that information to you.

I did want to just add one little thing if y'all don't mind. The daily cost rate, for putting a kid into respite is at about $320. When we are looking at facilities, higher levels of care, those hospitalizations, long term treatment facilities, the cost to put a kit there is significantly higher. So we're looking at Austin State Hospital is about $1,200, and then we're looking at other treatment centers at a close to $800 at at a daily cost rate. So respite is significantly lower and is, yeah, cost effective and supportive to our community.

And I just wanted to make sure that had an understanding of where that where that balance was. Thank you so much.

Okay. Thank you. And we have about five minutes for questions, so y'all go ahead. Well, you may have gotten them on the last one. Does anybody have questions? I don't wanna rush you.

I guess the only question I have is I know you mentioned kind of, like, long term care facilities. And, obviously, like, if you guys weren't a resource that was available, people would have to go either to, like, the ER or, like, law enforcement or something like that. Are you aware of any other facility that uses your model and how far away of a resource that is? Because I assume y'all would probably be one of the only ones in Hays County, but if there are other ones that you're aware of.

Yeah. That's a really great question. So we are the only one in Hays County, but I will say, and this is something I take big pride on, is that respite facilities that are a little bit closer to us, so I believe there's one in San Antonio, then we have one in Travis County. When their programs moved forward with opening a respite facility, they traveled to us and modeled their entire programs off of our program down to the policies, the procedures, taking pictures of the walls because it is such a staple in our community and has been so successful. And I have partnered up with the most beautiful people forming these programs outside of our counties because there just needs to be more across the state of Texas. And so our program has been a model for these other programs opening across the state of Texas.

Thank you.

Mhmm. Sharif, I see your hand.

Mine's a lot easier than that. Those those Peacocks just randomly show up, or are they part of the center?

They randomly show up. So they actually belong in Wonderwall. They are not ours, but they think they're ours. And I think they're ours. So even today, we have four kids in the home. They all sat Indian style by the window, and all the peacocks were eating food. And the kids just watched them, I swear, for, like, an hour just talking and watching peacocks. And I I really attribute that to just the magic that's coming from that program. It's just good vibes there for sure.

Just have a comment. I wanna commend you on the effectiveness data that you guys have collected, all that survey data. Made it really easy to understand the impact that you guys are having. So thanks for sharing all that.

Yes. Thank you so much.

We're lucky, Minh.

Anyone else? We have a few minutes left. This will be the end of our SHAG slash Hill Country section. Go ahead, Yancey.

So how many unduplicated San Marcos residents?

Don't have that number with me, but I can pull that information and send it over to y'all. Email it over if that's if that's something that would be helpful. I just don't have that number on me right now at this moment. But we do we do collect that information.

Thank you. Yeah. If you'll send that to me, I'll forward it to the board. Yes, ma'am. Anything else? Okay. Great. We'll close that down then. Our next presenter is in person. And so And I'll actually,

first, thank you, ladies, so much for your presentation. Yes. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you coming, and you are welcome. Carol is gonna push you over

off the panel. Yeah.

And it is 07:30 right I'm gonna go ahead and give us a ten minute break for, refill our water bottles, use the ladies right men's room, and,

just take a little bit

of a break before our next and final presenter. Sorry about that. No problem. Okay. We will get back here at 07:40.

Okay. And y'all are always welcome to observe or leave. Either one. So

Thank you.

Thank you.