Youth Council - Regular Meeting

We can call this meeting to order. So, hi, hello.

Hi, good evening.

Good evening, could you hear us?

I think that's good. How are you all doing it up?

Great. How are you doing?

Doing good. Doing good. I'm going to get my hair.

We're quickly just going to do a roll call just for our attendance over here. Chair Vecor? Here. Vice Chair Garcia? Here. Council Member Dominguez? Here. Council Member Glickman? Here. Council Member Tremeltas? Here. Council Member Naima Trevani? Here. Council Member Ricardo Trevani? Here. Chair, you have a forum.

Thank you. So does anyone have any questions about the minutes from last meeting? Three corrections.

Three corrections. Sorry about that. This is my spelling. Sorry about that. It's on page six, on the second paragraph, Vice Mayor Paul, I think he said Vice Chair, and then the bill was SB 5-2, and then on the eighth paragraph, I think the letters were jumbled. Yeah.

So our first discussion item is the Surfside Environmental Summit. Mr. Guerrero, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate you making the time for us.

Okay, so we have a couple ideas about how to sort of approach the environmental summit, but first we wanted to sort of hear from the Office of the Senator what you guys are looking to get out of the event and what you hope to be the primary goal of the event.

Yeah, so good question, and I think the beauty of Senator Jones and the kind of conversation he had and you all visited, I'm sorry, I don't believe all of you were here when

when the council came up, so just a quick introduction.

My name's Ty Burrell, and I serve in the legislative aid for Senator Jones. And super happy to be on this call in the short, what, four minutes that we have. You all definitely conduct yourself very professionally, so it's very good to see.

And kind of cool, I wish my city did something like this.

So, cool to see you all engaged in the political process at the local level. But as it pertains to the event, so Senator Jones The way I perceive the conversation is this is Paul's event.

Senator Jones is going to assist with putting it on and the program and everything, right? So I would be very interested to see what you all think.

Is this an environmental summit? Is this a youth environmental summit? Who's our target audience? I think if we can kind of start having those conversations and narrowing down the scope, then we can kind of move from there and figuring out the logistics of it post-session for when we're back into this trip.

Yeah, so we did want to sort of target youth, and while we did want the summit to be about raising awareness about climate problems, we wanted it to be sort of more solution-oriented, and we wanted participants and people to come away with tools to better understand sustainability, but also sort of push environmental initiatives in their own local communities. So we thought of approaching it from more of like a like teaching how public policy and how advocacy can sort of further these sustainable goals and sort of be hosting a couple workshops at the summit and giving a couple lectures on how that really can be done from Senator Jones or from a lot of people in Miami-Dade County so we can sort of help youth understand how they can use their voice to shape those sustainable initiatives.

Perfect, and you hit where I wanted to end, and that's the call to action, right? What do we want to leave here doing? What do we want the individuals to leave here and do, right? So we've identified that. I think it'd be great to have this targeted directly at youth. I think when we look at timelines as well, something we want to take into account is we don't get back to legislative session from session until May 2nd. or two off after session, which is going to take us towards closer to June when you all will no longer be in school. So I think we need to think about dates as well to ensure that people can get there, right? This may have to be a Saturday event to ensure that people have rides. Or if you don't mind me asking, how old are you all in the council?

We're all in high school. We're all either high school freshmen or high school juniors.

Okay, okay, perfect. So yeah, probably the client will be getting that. So if any individual needs to rely on repair for a ride, that's probably the best way for us to navigate it. As it pertains to location, I think doing this in Surfside would be great, as you all being my host.

Are there spaces, I know that you all have a community center.

What is the, do you know the capacity of this?

We do have a community center. We also recently redid our park, and so we have a really big event space there. Do you know the capacity of this?

So the indoor room is 100 capacity.

And the 96-seat? Yeah, the 96-seat park. So we have an indoor room at that park with a 100-person capacity, and then the outdoor space is also usable and very nice as well.

Perfect. I love it. And I love this being an environmental town hall. I think we utilize both spaces. And you mentioned the workshops. You know, we can do some inside, some outside, make it interactive, however that may look. You had mentioned the workshops, and I know this is a very elementary level of conversation, but when you mentioned those workshops, do you have anything specific in mind of where you want this to go?

For workshops, I have a few connections in the county level for public schools. I know the sustainability officer for Miami-Dade County Public Schools, and she has also in the past spoken a lot at environmental summits, but among environmental educators about sustainable policy and environmental policy. So I think she would definitely be up to that, just seeking more traction for sustainable goals in the public school system as well. So that could be one contact for workshops. But I also want to ask if, so our event is going to be in Surfside, but because Senator Jones obviously isn't only, his constituents aren't only people who live in Surfside, so do we want to be advertising this to only the people have searched for that or the entire district? And if so, what would be the most effective way to advertise it to the entire district?

Yeah, it's a good question. So I think, so we're in April now.

If we're able to get to a good landing spot by, you know, beginning of May, and I say that to say, you know, we kind of have an idea of what it is we want to do. We have an agenda kind of set.

And with that, if we find that there's good turnout, then maybe we can shift gears, if need be, we can find a bigger space, right? But I do see, this is, the way I see this, this isn't a Senator Jones and Surfside Youth Council event, this is a Surfside Youth Council event with Senator Jones, right? So I would encourage us to be in their space, or bigger than that, then we can certainly find another space and kind of shift gears.

Yeah, and circling back to the idea of the workshops, I think what Ella mentioned, hosting these speakers, and that's important, and there could be sort of that aspect to it, but we wanted to make it also sort of engaging for the participants, as in like, maybe having some sort of activity that the speakers do and this could be discussed further down the line with whoever decided to speak but we also we wanted to sort of be like an interactive thing where we're engaging with you because that is sort of how a lot of us like to learn and so just trying to cater to that kind of learning style absolutely and i think that's a great point though you gotta meet people where they are and when you don't you gotta make sure you're captivating them

So, you know, we can host an event and have some people talk, but, you know, in our area, we're going to have some people fall asleep, right? So I 100% agree with you. Let's make this interactive.

Let's have people leaving asking when the next one's going to be and give them that sense of joy for our community and for our environment and why it's so important. So I completely understand where you're coming from and absolutely agree with that.

Great.

I don't know. Um, so yeah, it's going to be environmentally focused and then also targeting youth, you know, but do you think that it would also be valuable to have a general component in the event kind of about advocacy in general? to communicate how important it can be. Maybe it doesn't have to be a separate speaker. Maybe it could just be the youth council talking about their experience in Tallahassee and then taking questions maybe as an introduction or something like that. Just in terms of subjects, what do you think the ratio should be for environmental versus civic action?

Absolutely. I actually sat on a panel this afternoon with some individuals from Florida State, and the one question they all asked was, how do we get other individuals from our organizations engaged in politics, right? So this is something that students at Florida State College level are figuring out how to navigate, so I think it's wonderful to incorporate the advocacy issue into this and to let people politics is involved in your daily lives, from your young until you're ready to go buy a house, right? So I definitely think that would be a great segue for even Senator Jones to have a piece where he can speak of the advocacy, as well as you all, and how that was for you as advocates.

And then from Senator Jones' perspective, who's always hearing

for a certain cause. So I definitely think having an advocacy section out there would be great.

Yeah. And we know that Senator Jones has experience founding the South Florida Youth Summit, all that. We were sort of wondering if you know of any sort of advice or any lessons that you've learned working with his office about how to best organize these things, or if you have any sort of advice as we move forward in the planning process?

Yeah, of course. So I think there's a lot of things that we need to take into account. And in this brief conversation, I can see you already started thinking through some of them. I think we're going to narrow down the scope as to who our target audience is, right? Youth in the area. We spoke about the end goal, right? Our call to action, getting more individuals engaged and having some sort of action. So, you know, whether that be

having a beach cleanup, and I'm just throwing that out for an example, right? But some sort of, something that they can leave with to move forward and continue to work.

I think a lot of the times in the spaces that we're in is we have these great conversations about what we want to do and what we want to change, and then we leave and that's the end of it, right? so having something that you can share with individuals who go to continue this and what steps they can move forward in is i think that's perfect um and something else to to consider that can go to the advocacy section excuse me is that 2025 um and just for you all real quick um the way session works in the state of florida on odd number of years the session begins from march or sorry from Yes, from March until May, and in an even number of years, we go from January to March. The reason that's important is for 2025, this session will end in May. However, committee weeks start back up in August. So there's a very short turnaround time, just an odd number of years, where we go between the district and Tallahassee. I say that to say, we can add in some sort of language, some sort of discussion about what that advocacy looks like August, September, when session, if you need to start back up, and how they can engage in the legislative process moving forward.

That's a great point, and that would be super helpful. Maybe even, like, it could be Senator Jones speaking about it, or we could, we have a lot of sort of artistic members of our panel, like, creating some sort of brochure, some sort of, like, um, I don't know, like, yeah, post notes of ways to get involved in the coming legislative session. And that's a really good point, thank you. Absolutely, absolutely. So as we're sort of talking about different speakers, is that something Senator Jones wants to explore? Or should it be sort of exclusively Senator Jones? And if not, What do we know?

Senator Jones, something I love about him is he's knowledgeable about a lot of different things.

I don't know if, hopefully I don't get fired for this, I don't know if environmental is his number one thing where he is extremely knowledgeable in, so I definitely think bringing in the experts would be great. I know we did an environmental summit

lot of individuals on the call who i think could kind of serve as those experts unless you all have some as well but i definitely think bringing in some other individuals i think you mentioned the uh sustainability officer with my media county um bringing in those individuals to come speak i think would be great having after the summit.

And given that, we would super appreciate it if there are any connections or people you would potentially be able to connect us with to be a part of the speakers at this program. We do have just a couple in mind, but it never hurts to have more options and then sort of go from there. But that's something we would really appreciate if there's anyone that comes to mind in the past summits you've mentioned.

Yep. The first person is Dave Dobler, and he is with Biscayne Bay Marine Health Coalition, and I believe he also runs volunteer cleanup. We did this summit with him, and he's very knowledgeable on the space. That's certainly someone that our office could reach out to to see if he would be interested in doing this once we have a little bit more pens and paper on what it looks like. We can certainly reach out to him to see if it's something he'd be interested in. And then again, you mentioned you all have some as well.

Awesome, yeah. Oh.

I mean, I also had another contact just came to mind. I don't know if we mentioned this during our meeting, but our town is in the process of applying for the Biophilic Cities Network, which is like a network of cities that are kind of just sustainably oriented. And we actually had a Zoom in the past with the, I think, executive organizer of it. His name is J.D. Brown, so that just came to mind as another contact that we could probably maybe have speak. I don't really know where he lives, but even a virtual thing, I think you can also do, like, with a smart board or something, a virtual speaker.

Absolutely. I think we should, and it's not a decision to be made now, but I think about, I think we look to What do you want the individuals to gain from the speakers? And then maybe from there we're able to identify who would fit the mold best for what you're looking for the individuals who intend to get out of that person. Because I'm sure we could think of a million different speakers who could speak in the environmental space. But if we're able to identify the ones who will speak best to what we're looking for, then we're golden.

Yeah. Well, we don't want to take up any more of your time. Thank you so much for meeting with us. In regards to date, does mid-June seem like a reasonable timeline just so we can sort of orient ourselves?

Yeah, I think so. We're beginning with April now. Our calendar doesn't go that far out, so mid-June works. We can go ahead and just lock down a If you all want to figure out a date that probably works best for you, send it over to me. Nine times out of ten, there shouldn't be anything on the calendar, so we should be able to lock it in. And then we can kind of start looking at, I think it'd be great if you all could put together a draft agenda, right?

The perfect world, the perfect summit, what that looks like for you all. So, you know, what you're looking for the speakers to speak on,

like how long we're going to need to put this on. But I do think middle of June is a good time for us.

Absolutely. So we will definitely get that to you. Is there anything else that we should be working on in the meantime or any other like stuff you want us to be exploring in the meantime besides compiling the agenda?

No, I think that's great. I think maybe once we get that agenda, i know i see you in the ring vice mandate we figure out what the partnership looks like from a logistical standpoint um so partnership what we need to cover what you all would be interested in covering and we can figure that out and then i think it's just promotion and getting this getting the word out to those individuals thank you and would you um want us to like email you the agenda so that we kind of get it uh like before our next meeting if we kind of like

do it kind of back and forth, or do we just get it situated and then present it at the next time we meet?

What's your next meeting?

It's in a month, but I think we could definitely get the agenda to you in the next two weeks, like prior, way before the next meeting.

Yeah, if you can get it to us in the next two weeks, so you all have two weeks to work on it, give us two weeks to review, and then come beginning of May, hopefully we'll be at a landed spot of what we want the agenda to look like, and we can begin working on the logistics of what the event looks like.

so our next meeting is is on may 7th um is there any i know you mentioned that um the office takes sort of a week off um is there we can should we arrange a time to meet sort of closer once we once we send out the agenda would that be helpful um just because it's after may 2nd doesn't mean that i won't be available so if may

I'll put the ball in your court on that one. But listen, if I'm awake, I'm working. So if it's May 7th, it'll be May 7th. That's awesome.

Okay, so yeah, maybe once we send out the agenda, we can decide sort of the next available, like the next time we need it.

Perfect, that sounds great. Is there anything else that you all want our office to start working on on the back end while you all put together the agenda?

I think that covers it. Thank you so much.

Okay, perfect. Sounds good. Well, listen, thank you so much. I am very, very impressed with you all and look forward to this partnership. And listen, if it goes off well, maybe this will be something that you all share moving forward with the new council that goes and we can continue this as a joint partnership until he's no longer the senator.

Thank you so much for meeting with us. Thank you.

Of course. You all take care. Have a great evening.

Have a great evening.

Thank you. Bye. Okay. So, sorry that we didn't really talk about the environment before we got on the call, but is there any sort of, like, So basically we met with Senator Jones and we sort of brought up the potential environmental summit event and then we sort of were like, can we help with that? Can we help that? He was super eager, said let's co-host it, all this, and that's sort of what we're in the process of planning for right now. And yeah, does anyone have any thoughts based on the conversation we just had? Anybody would like to take a lead on something? And we'll be talking about this a lot in the next couple weeks as we come up with the agenda, so we'll have time to definitely voice your opinion then. But is there anything that comes to mind right now that you guys want to talk about?

Can I mention Dave Dubler? He does the cleanup of Landing Beach. He's local to the area. I'm sure he'd be good to participate in this. We know him. I think also the sustainability committee would... I think it's good to maybe, it's up to you if you want to partner with other committees, the sustainability committee. If not, they can just provide resources. I'm sure they'd be happy to do that.

Yeah, we could definitely ask. They definitely know a lot of speakers in the environmental space.

Okay, so...

We'll be talking about that in the next couple weeks. If I may, if I may add just really fast. Dave Dobler, that's a name that's very familiar. He lives in Orbea Village and he's also part of the sustainability committee in Orbea Village. So if you're interested, you know, debate is right there. Also, I've met him before. He's very nice, very knowledgeable. So he is very local. Thank you.

And I think North Bay Village is also one of Senator Jones' districts.

Yes, yes. I used to work in North Bay Village, so that's why. I used to work with his voice disability, too, so that's why I'm very familiar with him and everybody there.

Yeah, he sounds like a lot of people are recommending him.

Yeah, everybody knows him. He's very well known in this area for sustainability. He's very, very active. And also the mayor from Norbury Village is also active. They do a lot of sustainable things.

And I mean, if he organizes these beach cleanups, this could be sort of that concrete event that Kyle was talking about to sort of like, oh, are you really interested in everything you learned today? Come to this beach cleanup, come to the, and then so people have sort of like a concrete change that they can make after the Minnesota. So the next item on our agenda is the Florida League of Cities Field Show Theater Group.

So, half of us, or four of us were there, and... Yeah, so overall, just to recap what it was generally about, it was, like, the main topic was civility in action, so... a lot of the program was just talking about, yeah, like, it defines civility and how important it is in political negotiations, and talking about how civility is not just politeness, but it's kind of retaining honesty and also, like, respect in a conversation, and also taught us, like, that Disagreements are normal in negotiations and actually necessary. So agreeing to disagree is super important when it comes to actually getting things done and getting policy changed. So yeah, and then other than that, we did some interactive activities as a youth council during the two days. And in the first day, they made all the youth councils write their own rules of engagement which basically are like guidelines to make sure that the youth council members stay engaged so um and then they said to discuss it obviously if your entire youth council is not there then so that everyone complies we need to discuss it in the meeting so the ones that we wrote down i'm just going to read it off and then we can like discuss them agree on them So the first one is that in a meeting, everyone must speak at least once. The second one was phones off. And the third one is everyone should have a long-term project that they're working on at all times. Also, this one is more because obviously we're reaching the end of the year, but it's for meetings to come and also next term. And then, yeah, so everyone should have a long-term project they're working on at all times. Everyone should develop and propose a long-term project at least once a year. And then this one was one kind of just to make sure that we're keeping up with current events. So one person compiles a town news recap before each meeting every month. And this might sound like really extra, but it's really not like for this, we were just thinking of a short, maybe four bullet points of what's happening in the town and kind of just start a meeting off like that so everyone's caught up with town news. And then the last one is ask every person to quickly debrief at the end of each meeting what their action items are and their kind of goals until the next meeting. That was a lot. Anyone have opinions or want to add anything that they think would keep people engaged in the meetings?

Are there any we shouldn't implement?

Yeah, did anyone disagree with something or was confused about something? I want to ask this. Do most people subscribe to the town newsletter on email? Basically, for the town news recap, we were just thinking, when you read your email every other week, just remember a few main things, like I know that we just had a special election yesterday, or Monday, just simple things like that, so you can just keep caught up, and that's it.

We sent this in a group chat, so yeah, that's cool. Yeah, and especially going into next term, we wanted to sort of have a more like, concrete rules of engagement so that we can be as productive as possible. Especially with closing and developing one long-term idea that you just present to the council, even if it doesn't ultimately get enough support. Just going through the act of saying, what do I want to change about my community? How can I help that? I think that'll help us make a bigger impact. But yeah, those are sort of the main points of our trip. We spoke with Senator Jones. Senator was a super, super amazing opportunity. And we can maybe go back next year. Yes, I want to. Okay, so the next, if no one has anything else to add to what Ella said. The next item is the internship database update. So far, so in the last meeting, we talked about sort of expanding the scope of the internship database. Originally, it was going to be only Surfside businesses, only Surfside internships, but that proved to be very difficult. So we're sort of expanding the scope to sort of more like South Florida. Again, just compiling internship days in that way. As of now, we have 10, like, potential ones. So we're going to hopefully get up to maybe, like, 30 before we publish it. And so that's just going to come with, like, reaching out to more contacts or just, like, asking people in our communities, like, what did you do last summer? Who did you intern with? Are they willing to accept more interns? And it's also just a lot of research. There are a lot of these databases in South Florida. There aren't any, like, I've been looking, like, any for, like, our area specifically, so sort of, we're just going to have to, like, research a lot, and that's something we'll be working on while we're doing the Environmental Summit and while we're working on all our other projects. But, yeah, and then I guess once we, once we get I would say, once we get maybe 10 more, is when we could maybe start reaching out to Frank and saying, how can we put this on the website?

How can we, like, sort of, like, make this accessible to Surfside youth?

Has anyone, like, I know everyone sent me, like, two internships or two jobs that are available to youth. Has anyone found any new ones or have anything else to share on this? Whenever we find one, do we just send it? Literally just send it. Even if it's in passing. like at my school a lot of kids just like have internships like every summer and it's like it's very like cutthroat and like at your school as well so like if you really overhear something just do a quick google search and send it in if your child could be an intern. Is there a set date that we want to have the internship date that is complete? That's a good question. I think since our last, I would love to have it, I think we need to have it complete by the next meeting and definitely reaching out to Frank before the next meeting so that we can discuss how we want to go about completing the website by the next meeting. So yeah, definitely, hopefully in the next couple weeks as well, we can get up to 30 and then we can do it. So if it will be on the website, it's going to be like updateable, right? That's the thing we need to think about.

I'm not sure exactly how... If it's a PDF, I'm guessing no. I don't think it should be a PDF.

I feel like it should be... There has to be a way to insert a graph. Yeah. Like have the link to the thing. I don't know. But that's another thing we can talk about. The user interface, if we wanted to be like... That's also something we should probably do.

I was also going to say... I don't know why I haven't realized this before, but if we're doing internships and jobs, it would probably also be helpful for high schoolers to have summer programs on there too. like free ones, the ones that are paid. And then I know like that's definitely a helpful resource for kids because, yeah, people are not only looking for internships, but summer programs and there's some pre-college stuff. And there's also, I think there's a good amount of ones that you don't have to pay any money and some even like fly you out. So, yeah.

There needs to be something about the database that makes it unique and that Surfside residents are going to seek it out. If that's not a geographic location and it's not looking for things nearby, what is it that's going to make people want to look at our database versus another database? Is there something that's Surfside specific? Or is it just that it's been, like, could we say they've been recommended by, like, we don't really...

It could be ones that you've heard of that are good or competitive. I think, like, our idea in the past of doing some college panel thing, that's kind of where I'm getting, like, this idea from. So just so kids, I know that a lot of kids are kind of not clueless, but they don't know where to start when it comes to summer programs and internships and jobs. So I think if we really advertise the database, it's going to be just something that's easily accessible to them. Because there's not a lot of things that are like compiled jobs, internships, and summer programs that are good in one place.

And I mean, the fact that we're marketing to a certain size is something that makes us stand out. Most people, it's just like, you're like, for most databases, you need to really search for them. So I guess that could be something that makes us stand out. We don't have any other ideas. We'll move on to the next. Okay, so our next item is the Youth Council Updates. This is something, I don't know, Hannah, if you want to speak on this. This is sort of, like, what you've been working on with Frank about, like, the Updates page, if you want to share.

Oh, yeah, sure. So, last month, I, for a month of I did it for the month of February, but I didn't do it for March because I got sick. I didn't do it for March, but I did do it for February, and I just kind of spoke about what we were doing as a council. It was a little part of the February Gazette in the bottom of it. So yeah, I just kind of spoke about how we were applying to make our town go by the city, and I included a little bit about what that meant, just so that people could stay updated and know what we were doing, and the progress that we've been making, so people know that we're not just here to be hearing and we're actually doing things. So, yeah, I can, is it, like, does anyone else want to write, or is it fine if I, like, write it for this?

Sorry, we have someone coming in to speak about the e-scooter, like, e-scooter safety on this item, but she can't, like, find her way here. Is there a way we can go get her? Yeah.

She's, like, here. I kind of have, but if she's out there, I'll meet her.

Her name is Michelle Weinberg.

Oh, okay. She's by the door.

Also, for the Youth Council updates, is there anything that you guys want me to specifically touch on when I'm writing about it? Because I know I can write a little bit about, well, you said we were trying to get a page for the

Yeah, we were trying to get a page in the set. So I think maybe even for this month, if you just make the updates a bit longer, we could really repurpose that for the page. you can work with either Ella or Denise or Constanza with just trying to get all the specifics from the trip down.

So if for this month I can write about obviously the trip, is there anything else that you guys want me to specifically touch on? Because I can touch on the fact that we're planning, we're in the midst of planning the summit and creating a job database that people can look towards or look forward to.

But I think you can just use the minutes as like a reference because that will be like your, well, they don't always come out like right after a meeting, obviously, but you know, just, yeah, it'll remind me.

But does that just sound good as like a phrase?

Yeah, that sounds good, yeah. And so if no one has anything else to add on that item, then... We're running time because we're moving on to the e-scooter safety. So Denise, do you want to touch upon what you've been working on? And is there any way that we could like project something? Since this is already set up.

Yeah, if you would have sent it to me in advance, then I would have been able to have IT put it up. But right now, besides you put it in your computer, I don't have a way to put it up there.

So do you want to just talk about the e-scooter safety video?

Wait, is it possible for like one to join the Zoom and then like if I have the video on my phone?

I don't even, I don't have access for the Zoom. Okay, it's fine. IT is the one who does everything.

Okay. So basically Yasmeen finished editing it and I emailed Frank the final video and he sent us back like just another part to add towards the end. which is kind of just like a, let me see.

It was like, this is brought to you by the search department.

Yeah. So I know that Michelle wanted to add something at the end, because I know she's an occupational therapist, as Sarah was telling me. And so maybe we can work on making like a slide or something with information that you want to add. It's just that this project has kind of been extended a while because there were technical difficulties, so that's why it took such a long time. a long time to finish the editing and video. But now that it's finally done, we can go and add everything else that we wanted to add to it. So do you want anything specific? I actually don't know what you mean.

If you don't mind, if you could please say your name and address for the record before speaking. Thank you.

I've never been to your team. Thank you for inviting me. My name is Michelle Weinberg. I'm an occupational therapist. I live on 624 92nd Street, Surfside. And I came today with interest of telling you a little about myself, but also why I'm so interested in your amazing group here. I have been practicing for 20 years as an occupational therapist. I specifically work with traumatic brain injury survivors, as well as stroke and spinal cord injury. And in the recent years, I would say the last five years, I have seen a significant rise in electric scooter accidents. And it's not necessarily teens, but it's all ages. But I believe that if we could somehow mobilize a community group of young people smart teenagers that are in and understand the impact of electric scooters and not micro-mobility. I love micro-mobility. I even love electric scooters, but I'm talking about people just not wearing helmets. I think that people don't understand the risk they take when they get on an electric scooter on the roads, and if you If they just wear helmets, all these injuries that I see are so preventable. So I'm here today just to tell you, like, you know, maybe I can help in any way. I've been wanting to change the law, but I realize that is not something that I can do, especially in the state of Florida. But even just starting with Surfside and starting with teens and seeing if I can help you guys in any way, there are many programs. So I'm not sure exactly what you guys have done just yet. But I would love to partner with you in any way because my voice is really, it's really your voices. Because no one wants to hear me speak. No one wants to hear an adult telling them they need to put on a helmet.

And I think what you're, the real recent increase in the accidents is something that our police department noted as well. And so to sort of give a background on the project Misa's describing, our, one of Frank Trigger has reached out to the council and asked if we could put together like an e-scooter safety video. So that they could share on social media platforms and in their newsletter. Because this has become such a big problem, e-scooters are really big in Surfside, too. compared to other places like where my friends live. So what, so Denise and another member of our youth council used me, they worked with the police department to come up with like, it's like this two minute video sort of detailing the certain safety procedures that you should, or like safety like rules that you should follow when you're on a police scooter. And so we can, we'll share that with you. I'm sorry that we couldn't, that we're not sharing it right now, but like, we could definitely just like add whatever your input is on like how to improve like even just like like if there's anything we missed in the video um i know we did mention helmets um but if there's anything we missed we can definitely add it at the end or if there's any way you see like we can improve the video um that could be a great place to start

Um, I can just, like, send it to you or something, and then you just watch it, and then you, like, let us know and send the feedback.

Sure.

Like, although the video's complete, we could, like, if it's, like, really, like, something that needs to be added, we could always just film more parts and add it before we send it back. When were you planning on sending it out? There's no, like, really set date. I mean, we're kind of just trying to get it done as soon as we can now. Okay. So yeah, I can send you the video now if you want to look at it.

Also, in terms of, like, the surf site, is that I can add a portion in there about scooter safety and, like, the precautions that you can take for it. So I can add what you added in your video and also if there's anything else that you think, like...

Okay, great. I saw that you guys, maybe in February, you had something on electric scooter safety. All these things help. They help. But you have to look from a public health model perspective that if we don't maybe even distribute helmets, working with an organization that will distribute helmets, because you have to think of why are people riding electric scooters but then not wearing a helmet? Is it because it's uncomfortable, it's sweaty, it's hot? We live in a hot climate. Is it annoying to carry around when you get to school? You can leave your electric scooter, but then you don't know where to put your helmet. So also finding out why people are just so against wearing helmets. Or maybe even changing the narrative of helmets are cool. How can we make them cool? Because people don't like them. They're cumbersome.

Maybe we could do some sort of like interview, or not interview, like question in there. Like ask people our age who do ride electric scooters or bikes or skateboards if they wear helmets and if they don't, why they don't. So just figure out what the reason is and then tackle that after. I think that's great. I think that's an excellent idea. Yeah.

I was thinking about... Like, if we're talking about Ruth K. Broad, it's a lot of middle schoolers, I'm guessing you're saying, who play electric scooters. And just when I think about middle schoolers in general, I feel like they wanted to fly, you know, whatever adults tell them, or just people in authority in general. I don't know, like, also for outreach, again, the Gazette, I feel like there's, I don't think any middle schoolers read it, and I doubt that their parents tell them about what the Gazette says, so I think, I mean, a lot of, all kids have social media now, I'm sure they all have Instagram, but a lot don't follow the Surfside Instagram, I doubt it, but I know that I don't know if anyone else experiences this, but when you're going through stories, there's this ad section. You get advertisements that you can't really skip. They just kind of appear. I don't know how that works with the Town of Suicide Instagram. I'm sure you have to pay for it. If Frank knows anything about that. I think we have to make it something that's inevitable. It has to be annoying. It has to be something they can't really ignore. like putting up signs everywhere, or maybe even like school police constantly reminding kids because you need to annoy them for them to do it. I mean, they can always defy that, you know, with that, you know, you can't really control that, but I do think we have to approach it maybe not aggressively, but less, I don't know, like less optional and more attacking the problem, like... hey, you need to do this. I mean, this is kind of... Like, for cigarette ads, for example, like, a lot of ads for that, for nicotine, like, anti-vape, they show, like, the x-rays and the brain scans, and that would freak someone out. Like, that would maybe change a kid's mind, rather than, you know, just saying, like, where it's cool, because a lot of kids are probably like, oh, it's not cool, I don't feel any better. So, maybe just showing them the reality of the situation, I think, if you're able to get access to like, or that we could use pictures of like, obviously it's not going to be like violent or anything, but things like that, that show them like, this is really an issue. Obviously cases are rising in the past five years and like, this could be you. And it is really scary. And it's like, we're almost like, I know that when people do the advertisements for like school shootings and they make it like a real life event that kids can see themselves in that place. So I think if we think about it more like that, in a way that makes it real to them, rather than trying to convince them of something, that would be the most effective way. What do you guys think about doing something like that? How can you do that?

I think I agree with what you're saying. I like how you're saying this shouldn't be optional. Something for me is like, Like, we watched so many safety videos in middle school, and, like, even if it came from, like, unless it came from, like, my friends or something, like, I really don't know. Or, like, I mean, I personally, like, one time, like, I had a really scary experience on an e-scooter, and that, for me, shifted my perspective, and now, like, I'm, like, way more careful. But, like, I don't, like... I'm trying to think of what would have changed my perspective, and I think it really is, like, that bigger issue of, like, changing the narrative, and I don't buy electric scooters that much anymore, so I think the first step really should be, like, understanding why they do it, and if it's the cool factor, then that's a pattern to go down, but if it's If it's just like, oh, is it really that bad? Like, I didn't realize all these things. I, like, I myself didn't know that, like, we're supposed to, like, we're the same rules as cars. Like, I, like, that e-scooters are the same rules as cars. So maybe there's an awareness component of it. And I liked your idea of distributing helmets. Maybe some people, like, just don't have, like, the helmets. And we could, we could look into local sort of non-profits or local bike shops or something, and we can maybe partner with them, like, try to find, try to achieve a partnership in that way, but I really think that, you know, why people don't, and that could entail, like, reaching out to schools, like, reaching out to RootKate Broad and trying to say, like, could you please, like, send this out, this survey out with your students, and having the backing from the police department and, like, an occupational therapist, like, a practice like that could be helpful in establishing the credibility of what we're trying to do.

I don't know if this is possible, but I feel like what Lucy was saying about hearing it from your friends is the most important part. So there's a health information program at our school, it's called PIP, and it's basically just a group of students who get selected, or like, you know, they have to be qualified, and they go in front of a classroom of younger high schoolers, and they kind of teach about, like, basically health safety, like staying away from drugs, like, situations and stuff like that, so maybe we could try to, like, implement helmet safety, because I'm not sure what's in the modules right now, maybe we could try to, like, implement, like, helmet safety and stuff like that in one of the modules that they teach, or, I mean, this is, like, a lot more out there, but just making a specific program for like street safety, including helmet safety, having units on that or something like that. I would be interested in helping in that area.

Because HIP is a super established organization, especially at Miami Beach, and it's peer-to-peer teaching. And so trying to incorporate, and it's also a national organization, like every school can start a chapter. So maybe trying to like lobby to sort of incorporate some sort of like street, car, bike safety aspect to the program, that could be a way that like, could our, like this could go beyond like our independent service side at least.

Yeah, like already, like HIP is like in like Dash, Miami Senior High, Mass, like so many other schools. So it's definitely like getting like the information out there to people. And I feel like a lot of the freshmen, at least when I was a freshman, I would look up to me like, oh, that's cool that like they're teaching us this and stuff. Like that's like the only real way Like, they would get them to participate. And they'd make it very, like, fun and interactive. Like, there would obviously be, like, lectures, but I don't know. It was, like, I mean... It resonates with you.

You actually, you get the information. You're like, oh, this is from one of my friends. I get what they're saying. I'm going to think about this. I'm actually going to not brush it off.

Yeah. But I do also, like, agree with your point. That's, like... like, when you hear from your friend, it does make an impact, but at the same time, like, I think that those videos, like you said, that, like, really kind of, they kind of freak you out, like, scare you, those actually do make an impact, because I know, like, a good amount of us drive, and, like, that, the drug and alcohol video that you watch, where it, like, shows you in a real-life accident, and you see, like, those images, those freak you out, like, that makes you, like, scared of, like, driving, period. So, even if it's not, like, just, like, it, I do think that in some form, like, it's scary. It's scaring them into it. It's not, like, inflicting, like, fear. It's, like, I don't know. What happened? It's using fear. And it's, like, realistic. Yeah, it's, like. Yes, it is using fear, but for something that people need to be fearful of.

I would say the whole nicotine thing, where you show the brain scans and the different brains on how much nicotine and how your brain develops less by the time you're 21 type of thing. I know a lot of people use those arguments to oppose it. They're like, oh, you're going to lose brain cells and stuff like that. So I do think showing the truth of it would be really helpful. But obviously, yeah, first we have to figure out why kids don't use it.

And maybe that could also be more effective because something like, for example, like what Ella was saying with the nicotine, like that's like an addiction, like that's not easy to get out of, so a lot of people just ignore that because they're like, well, whatever, it's supposed to be on the wall, I can't get out of this. But maybe for the, I mean, you're not addicted to not wearing a helmet, so it's something that you can actually listen to, yeah. It's just a habit. It's a habit, just like seatbelts.

People were very opposed to wearing seatbelts for so many years, and then now it's, you know, it's a law. And that's why everybody does it when they get in a car.

You can also maybe even, like, work into making a separate video, kind of like a real-life situation video, where we're all, like, playing parts, like, as actors, and, like, someone gets into an accident or something. Kind of like the video. I just sent you the video, so whenever you get the chance to watch it, you can... So kind of just to show people the reality and then, I don't know, someone goes to the hospital. That would be good.

That would be good. But Hannah brings up an interesting point because when we all get certified to drive, we're required to watch that video. It's not like we found that video on our own, but there isn't really that same parallel in the e-scooter world. There's no certification you need where they command that you don't watch this. So it's really like, I know school's schools have this helmet curriculum, and I think that in elementary school, at least, I'm just literally only speaking from my experience, in elementary school, I don't think that's a problem. The students, I feel like, you do what your parents say. It's like the teens, it's like the preteens, like that sort of demographic, and I don't, And in that case, I don't think the school videos are working. So I really like the hip idea, because I think I know how much it would impact those peer, what do they call it?

PAGs, the peer health educators.

They have a big impact on the school culture. I don't know. Trying to get that as part of the curriculum also paired with, I agree, the realized situation that this could be you. But it's just how do we, like, we have the good video, like, where can we distribute this? Yeah, outreach is a problem a lot of the time.

Well, there is a good way for, like, outreach because I do a lot of film and there's hundreds of film competitions that have PSA categories and not like yeah you do win money but they also podcast your film to like a ton of places not just like in Florida but like all over the country so yeah we've always applied to those.

I think you guys have awesome ideas. I think starting maybe, see it's hard for me to get into the schools. Like I would have to do, it's very hard to get into the school system. Then you go into like IRB, which is International Review Board. But I think maybe connecting with, I'd love to see your video. I want to see that, at least getting that video out there. I think that's a great place to start for sure. And then we can be the model. Our community could be the model because everybody's commuting through Bay Harbor, Bell Harbor. Surfside to Miami Beach. And you see that flow of traffic and it's going this way and that way. I commute to Hollywood every day. So I commute sometimes from Miami Beach all the way to Hollywood. And the electric scooters that I see on the road, it's bananas. It's crazy. And they're all going over the bridge too. It's, with earbuds, no helmet, and on their phone. I'm like, no, no way. Like, this person will be my next patient. But, no, God forbid. But I, so my point is, I think the video is great. It's a great way to start. Maybe connecting with someone who is connected with the peer-to-peer, the HIP program. I think I know someone who actually does it. Ellie Small, I think. Oh, she's in that? I believe she might be in that program. She just applied, yeah.

Because one of my really good friends is the president now of the organization. So they just like accepted you applicants, and I think I'm pretty sure Ellison was in it, so that's good. Maybe she was telling me about it. And I know so many, a lot of my friends that are on the board, which is like very useful because they're the ones who control what is getting out there. Oh, wow.

That's great. Okay, so maybe connecting with them and then seeing what they have in their...

curriculum already in their modules or what they talk about in their discussion groups if there is anything on specifically helmets electric scooters and i mean if we want to get to like administration or something to really listen to us name is mom is also a teacher at my school so she could be so helpful with like getting content to any one we need like in the office or something because I know HIP, like, although it's controlled by the board, it's more, like, the modules that they teach, it's, like, is it nationwide? It's controlled by, like, a district. Like, it's not that they can control what they're teaching, but, like, that would be, like, we would have to contact, like, the head of HIP. Like, I don't know how we would do that, but we could obviously start by contacting the president of, like, my local school and stuff like that. And what school are you at? I'm at Miami Beach.

Oh, okay, okay. Yeah. Amazing. I don't want to take too much of it.

So definitely just getting feedback on the video, and then we'll work on the head contact, at least to start.

I can help you with the survey, too, creating the survey that we could also maybe distribute in the head program to start with that.

We've distributed surveys. We distributed like one. I think we distributed one survey. And it's gotten like a 20, 30 response. And then it's not been like, I don't know. It's nothing. So I think we need to maybe find new channels to distribute that survey. And even if that's literally like next door or something like that, I don't know. I feel like the main people, at least, For today, I'm worried about this for moms and dads and parents who have seen their children on the road like that. I don't know if you're connected with any groups or anything that could share the survey too. Because we share our surveys on the Instagram, and like Ella said, not a lot of students follow that Instagram. I think one thing you can do is maybe print a flyer, make a QR code and put it in Starbucks or put it around town, something like that, so it's in people's faces. That's a good idea.

So bullets can still get in the skybox?

I like the next door idea and then parents should make your kids take this because I'm sure all the kids have phones and iPads. Or just ask your kids and then fill out the survey yourself. Well, actually, the kids might not answer when we don't let them.

But yeah, I think a lot of parents are our next door. How do you beat being anonymous? Do you just answer as truthfully as you can? If it's anonymous, people aren't going to be concerned about like, oh, I don't want my people to know that, yeah.

Right. Yeah. For the next meeting, we have to identify people our age that we attribute ourselves to. That's a great idea.

Anyone else have anything they want to add? So we're working on like Denise, Naima, Ella, you guys work on the beach hip. We'll receive feedback on the video and I'll take it accordingly. And then working, the rest of us can get a flyer and get started at Starbucks. We just have Starbucks, yeah. And then if you hear any, if you like, Thank you so much for coming. Thank you. I brought some OT stickers for you guys. Thank you.

help finding your way out? No. Okay. I mean, I count. No, yeah. Bye. Thank you for having me.

Thank you so much. Thank you so much for coming. Okay. So then, moving on to the last, not the last, okay. My next project is your project proposal and selection. This is the agenda, like, or this was recently before I think we went to the university.

It was before we got the summit. I think the summit. Yeah, before we got Norell's.

Does anyone have a project proposal that they'd like to? I know, oh, um, sorry, I'm, like, really into these stickers. At the, like, at the end of this, at the link of students, we're, like, We asked on the Instagram, like, what's a project you want to see? And it was, like, college council, resume workshop, civic engagement lecture. And I think I can, or Frank will have to look back and see which one was winning, but it was, like, there were, like, four people voting. So we can just probably decide between ourselves. But I think, I mean, we only have, our term is not in June. Like, our last meeting is next meeting. During our last meeting, we'll be in August.

I thought the same thing, but then I had you read the charter with the clerk. So your term is August to August. So you guys have two more meetings, and then in August, it will be a selection of a new appointment for the council. Okay. So you will have to reapply, basically, to be considered again.

So, okay, so then we do have, okay, so yeah, after the environmental summit, it's probably going to be just like wrapping up more of what we already did. I don't know, we could, is anyone, I mean, I know I have a connection to a college council, and we can just, I feel like we should discuss new projects sort of maybe after we get through the environmental summit and the internship database, and that is good or something. Does anyone like,

Are we going to talk at all about the two-year kind of thing?

I mean, if we talk about it, we can talk about it again. Okay, nice. Okay, so the last agenda meeting is the youth council additional meeting dates.

Yeah, so that's what I wanted to discuss. It's just in there what you can see is your meetings for the entire year. And then I just added those extra two just for you to have for your reference. But this is just so you guys can see it, that the two meetings have been added. And then, yeah, so your last meeting will be of this term, will be August 6th. So that will be a Wednesday. I know that during summer, some of you guys might be out of town, but I do want to remind you about the three absences per year. You don't need to make three absences per year. Yes. So if you are going to be out of town for summer, just let me know in advance. And as long as it doesn't exceed your three absences, then you should be there. You are subject to be removed from the board. And then what happens if, like, who decides that? Uh, the commission. Whoever appointed you. What if no one appointed me? I mean, you guys weren't all appointed at large, so.

Alright. So, maybe like these stickers. Okay.

So, I think that was the last... So yeah, our next meeting is May 7th. Is there, does anyone have a motion to adjourn?

Yes, motion to adjourn. Can I have a second? Second. Me and adjourn? Let's go.