Welcome to our visitors.

I'd like to call a meeting of the Support Services Committee.

Call a meeting to order Wednesday, April 8th, 2026.

First order of business is prayer.

I'll take care of that if you bow your heads.

Heavenly Father, we gather here tonight to do the county's business.

Father, we ask that you will guide us, give us the strength, intelligence, and courage to do what's best for our constituents.

Father, again, we just thank you for this opportunity to get together with some of the community and the committee members, and thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

Okay, 3.0 is approval of the agenda. Can I get a motion?

No motion.

Motion by Ms. DeMeester.

I'll second it.

Second by Ms. Williams. Any discussion? Hearing none, all those in favor?

say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, same sign.

Very none.

Motion passes.

Review and approval of meeting minutes from March 11, 2026.

Can I get a motion?

So moved.

Motion by Mr. Busker.

Second.

Second by Mr. Meester.

Any discussions?

Seeing none.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, same sign.

Motion passes.

5.0 is approval of the claims of a total of $51,149.70.

Did anyone want to see the bills?

No, I should look at it online.

Okay.

Can I get a motion?

Motion to approve.

Motion by Mr. Hadley.

Second.

Second by Mr. Busker.

Any discussion?

Seeing none.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, same sign.

Motion passes.

I haven't signed this.

Pass it along.

Thank you.

6.0 is public comment.

Is there anybody here that isn't here for the youth diversion that wants to speak?

Send a signal.

Reports to committee.

Judge Houser, I actually called the judge this week.

I haven't talked to him in a while.

and I know I haven't been to the meeting, but it's usually covered by one of the other folks.

I said, you know, I appreciate that.

I said, just remind him that, you know, if anything comes up to give me a call.

Okay, moving on to public defender, Mr. Lutz.

Talked to him this week, too.

Yep.

The report got sent over from Lynn in my office.

I don't know if anybody's got questions about that or the content, any side of it.

Other than that, we are doing well, we're staffed as we need to be staffed, and moving along, we are getting ready for the Stevenson County Step-Up Challenge, so I hope everybody enjoys the dust that will come in the wake of that challenge, but good luck.

You got some stiff competition.

I got a couple of dogs.

There's an idea.

Oh, there you go.

Dogs and a Fitbit.

Do we have any questions for Ms. Lutz?

Seeing none, okay.

Next location, Dr. McGee is absent.

Did you hear from her at all?

I talked to her this morning and she said she wasn't 100% sure if she was able to make it.

so they've sunken. She's had some things come up, sir.

Okay. 7.4, the state's attorney, Mr. Larson.

Thank you. Good evening, everyone. You have my report in front of you. In every category except juvenile, we closed more cases than we opened this month, which was a positive thing.

Seems like we're starting to come together and things are falling into place. Feels like the office is running more smoothly than we have in quite some time.

I'd be happy to answer any questions you have, but I know you've got bigger things on the agenda tonight, so I'll leave it at that.

Thank you.

Does anybody have any questions for Ms. Larson?

Seeing none, thanks, Carl.

Thank you.

We'll move on to Circuit Clerk, Ms. Cardell.

Good evening.

You also should have a report.

Yes.

One thing I wanted to mention, we're going to start sending, in certain jury trials, we'll start sending a jury duty after your service letter. It just tells a little bit about how jury duty can be rewarding, but also stressful and hard on people. So it gives them some tips on managing that, some fine text lines, and we've spoken with Rosecrans and Cinecipe Center, and they're willing to speak with jurors that need to talk or have just some relief from serving for jury duty.

Okay.

Anybody have any questions for Ms. Bardell?

You know, I really enjoy being on the jury.

I can hear that.

I really did.

I served several times.

I really liked it.

So one time I got paid.

That was kind of nice.

Frankly.

Okay. Yeah, sorry. Yeah, that's right. Taxes, I see we only got so far collected about 1,053. Is that kind of shorter than we usually get every year?

You know, I don't know. And it's still early. Once they get a letter saying that their taxes are going to be taken and then they have 30 days to object to that.

So a lot of people might be getting the letters and we're not going to get it for a little bit of time So we will see maybe an increase till the summertime or something like that Okay, I'm just curious Thank you Anyone else?

Okay, moving on to youth diversion fees For the month of April, $873.75 was deposited Giving us a yearly total of $10,506.74 Thanks. So it was quite a jump. That's $250 higher than the previous high month. Yeah, I will say when we did bookkeeping this month, there was a lot more payments and a lot of that is from taxes. People just paying using their tax money. Okay. That makes sense. Yeah. All right. I got a question. Yes. Verify and issues the version. So we anticipated $7,000.

in revenue and $10,000 in expenditures.

So that's all we can expend tonight is the $10,000, correct?

Yes.

That's what I thought.

I just want to make sure because we've got some big ones here and we've got some little ones.

So we only have $10,000 to spend.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah, it was apparently the word got out, which is good.

I mean, that's what we're trying to do.

So old business, we have none.

New Business is the Approval of Recipients for the Youth Diversion Funding and we do have some guests here. I don't know how we decide who wants to go first. Who got here first? Or we could just, let's see, how do you have gone to this?

I hope. Is there someone here from I hope? Would you like to speak to her?

My name is William Brown Yeah, come over here, please You have to be on the OWL Yeah, you gotta speak It looks totally different on YouTube Hi, my name is William Brown I'm the founder and executive director of High Hope Freeport The program that we submitted a funding request for is the check-in mentoring program.

So the check-in mentoring program, right now, we're taking a small break on it, but we're going to start it up.

It basically is for fourth to sixth graders.

We facilitate the program out of the Boys and Girls Club, and it's also connected with careership and team setbacks.

So we have fast-forward mentors, we have coach mentors, and three continuous mentors, and right now, everything is all voluntary.

It's the need that we recognize that we want to give to the young people, these young men specifically.

I hope Freeport's mission is to address the root causes of community violence, and we do that by youth initiatives, mentoring, mediating, and getting ahead of what we think potential problems may be in the community.

We know early impact is prevention when we talk about community violence, so what the check-in mentoring program addresses.

The second mentoring program addresses is emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, entrepreneurial aspects, also getting the young people to really be able to express themselves. Also, a component of it is once we have our sessions, mostly twice a week, that we give them things to take home to interact with their parents.

So we also do the academic hustle is what we call it, where our young men become champions in the classroom, as well as the community.

We are core principles, the PAIL principles, and the curriculum is available if you all want to see it.

It was created and designed by ourselves.

So that is the program that I have three quarters requested by.

So it's a great program.

Any questions?

Yes, I got it.

Okay, so I see you're requesting for $5,500, so can you get by with less?

Could you still continue the program if we only gave you, you know, whatever we decide to give you?

Would the program continue if we gave you less than $5,500?

Yes, like I said, the program is voluntary, so all of the mentors and the co-dentors, we do it because we understand you need.

All right. So we just wanted to get out and understand there's other great programs, other organizations that are worth it. So it was just the idea of putting what that impact of that amount of funding would do for the program, but the program would continue.

Okay. Did you know Mr. Fair and Mr. Hilton, they have a similar program like yours?

No, I wasn't in Freeport at that time.

Oh, okay. So they, you know, they worked with younger people, taught them discipline and, you know, and stuff like that.

And understanding, like, one of the biggest core of what our program is is the impact of social media. So some of you may be familiar with me and the work that Howard Freeport does, and we understand a lot of the root cause of the community values that we see is the impact of social media. Like, it's not just a Freeport thing. Overall, it's a little other thing.

So one of the differences that may separate us from that program and the previous program is that we focus a lot on self-identity, right? Defining what manhood is and understanding that social media doesn't have to dictate.

I do have a couple questions. And also, I'll make a comment first. Mr. Brown and I have worked side by side during his summer cleanup because I'm part of the Pretzel Pickers.

so that's how we know each other I know that he has a he has a cleanup day in a specific area that he has a block party in that area resource block yeah resource block party which we're working on a plan for our table this year I guess and we also know too that we also have a church service during that same space time too but anyway so I'm I've been well acquainted with his High Hope program. The questions I have are your line item budget on your page lists amounts. You've separated down the cost of your program and the amounts in your line item budget do not match your line item narrative. So I'm just wondering if it didn't get moved or something like that.

Yeah, so we had to move some things around. One of the parts of, and I will take the blame on that, we wanted to, exposure is a big thing, right? So one of the things that we wanted to do was take the homeboys to Northern Louis University, as well as the regional science industry. And I think my quagmire was when they responded on what the cost would be. I had an initial cost there, and then once I got the confirmation on what the cost was, so that maybe it will be the mix-up.

Yeah, well, that's the thing is it looks like you, yeah, it looks like you had some ideas up here and then you had some new ideas down here and you just didn't get coordinated.

So try to make it as accurate as possible and also give the board an idea of where every dollar is going, right, so it won't be a miscrease.

Okay, thank you.

And just to comment on Ms. Williams, what she's speaking on is the 40 Days of Peace and Community Building, and we are going into the second year, so I would invite all of the board members to come out and be a part of it.

and Ms. Williams and the Great Press and Pickers. We have three-day events and on Fridays we go out and do what we call a block of sync. We just go up and clean up the community where we would be having our resource block parties at. And our resource block parties is when we invite other organizations like Miles Voices to come out. Voices, we had Center City participate last year, Smart Guns for Kids, Robbie Capp, and Justin, we had community organizations.

The goal is to meet people where they're at.

So normally the areas that we go in is six designated locations and three port that we identify as high hope areas that we feel need the resources and may not be aware of it.

So we invite the boards to come out, too.

You can follow the high hope page for more information.

Websites are under reconstruction right now.

I just have one question, do you bring religion, do you bring love into it all?

They are three-day events, so the 40 Days of Peace and Community Building, what it exists of is three events, and we also have a Shoots and Knock Duns tournament, where last year we had 80 youth participate in it, we did that also through the Boys and Girls Club, but Friday, Sunday is the beautify the block, Saturday is the resource block party, and Sunday is what we call church in the streets that's presented by the faith leaders for peace. So it's clergy people Sunday that literally have church in the streets. And it will be at the same location. And I brought flags. And I'm sorry, I know I'm taking up everybody's hands. We also have the youth expo, we're doing our second annual youth entrepreneurs expo that will be at Tony Baker's Fest.

July 11th to be at the main Adam Street Stadium.

I'm done.

All right, well, thank you very much.

Thank you all for your time.

Thank you.

Okay, next, I have vote wins.

That's what I'm supposed to read.

Okay.

This letter is from Lindsay McDaniel. Hello, I wanted to reach out regarding the grant opportunity and share that Hope Wins would be a strong potential recipient. Unfortunately, I regret missing tonight's meeting. We have our Hope Wins board meeting this evening, which we were unable to hold last month due to illness, so it was important that we proceed as scheduled. I did consider sending someone to my place, but all our key members are participating in the board meeting as well.

I did want to share that the grant being discussed is based on a program we already have fully implemented at Hope Wins. The program is currently running and going extremely well. We are seeing meaningful impact with the families and the youth we serve. I included some recent feedback below to provide a snapshot of that success. I would welcome the opportunity to connect further and answer any questions. I'll provide any information. You may be considered potential recipients. And I do have her contact information if anybody's interested.

Yeah. Information she included is on that.

Okay. And let's see. She has, with today's event, give you tools, strategies, or ideas you can use at home. 95% say yes.

and it's hard to tell what the rest of them, but 95% said yes and that's pretty good.

I felt welcomed and included at today's event and 64% said yes and no, zero no's.

So it looks, you know, from that, those graphs, I would say that the program seems to be doing well.

I'm going to see the request of Church 200 just a little bit.

Yes.

There also is a just a thought here.

She's talking on page five at the top paragraph.

She's talking about the third year implementation of 10 family connection events annually.

ago, Emily, she says the cost of each one costs $800.

Unfortunately, I think, you know, yes.

So are there any other questions or comments about the packet they sent us?

They have some nice letters of recommendation.

so we'll take that one and view that one then then the next one is ramp someone from ramp nope okay well let's see the ramp here from what I've read of course ramp is as you know they're a well-known established organization, and it's like they're going to use, they would use it, using the money on a program to help students that are with disabilities try and fit in better at school and more mobility, some training involved so that they fit into the community better, or I don't want to necessarily better, but more comfortably have SFS.

And I think for 2,000, 2,000 total budget could be $9,000.

Anybody have any comments, questions on their information packet?

I wish we had more money to give out.

Yeah.

Okay.

The next one is SOG. That's a bit of SOG. Sounds of good news. There you go. Sounds of good news. Good evening. I'm so glad I don't have sounds of bad news. Yes. It's good to see all of you. Many of you would remember me. I kind of fell into a legacy that mom taught us seven kids to use our talents and our experiences to help make our communities better and that's what I've been doing my whole life and this year marks 47 years of inspiring and empowering people to be their best especially young people but I throw the adults in there too because adults like to hear my music absolutely that's not my fault no but I do want to say that basically Basically for me, in our packet, you can see a lot of really special things that occurred in the last couple of years. We did apply and receive a couple of years ago. We missed it last year. I ended up getting some late information. It didn't apply. But this year, we have a really nice packet for you. Be sure and go to the website.

There are lots of wonderful music videos with kids in it. We're really excited. I'm glad to have my lovely wife, Diana, with us tonight. She's Director of Education for our Young Eagle Success Yes Club. We are happy to continue working with Freeport Middle School 6th, 7th, and 8th grade choir participants.

and these kids are coming out of their shells. I don't know what happened. All I know is that we're getting a lot of young people who don't sing, they don't dance, but when they spend a few minutes with me, they're singing and dancing, so I can't explain that, but I do know that it's about inspiration and for me, it's about perspiration. I do want to say that I'm thankful for Georgia. I appreciate her.

he's been helping keep me in line here and also for Chairman Helms of course it's nice to see him and I wanted to mention Mr. Larson also just because he knows I'm on his side I'm kind of in in another area but our programs are all about anti-drugs anti-crime anti-violence so I'm his friend we don't talk every day but I'm absolutely his friend and I I do want to also mention, Mr. Hadley, thank you, sir, for so many years of inspiration, and you have been a great supporter of the Yes Club, and you just spilled all the beans when you said I should have brought my keyboard in there.

It's so funny because I'm kind of slowing down. I'm getting old, getting kind of tired, but I'm still inspired.

but I just wanted to say to all of you it's really not about the amount of dollars per se but it's more about the work that we can do to help kids get good grades behave and to learn how to be community servants as well and a lot of young people are learning from us and community service does count and now as all of you know in college it counts when high school students have community service and that's just something that I've always had just because that's how we were taught so when mom was in the Illinois history magazine in 1963 I was two I was a little squirt on the bottom it's like a stair step but she passed in 2020 but I am thankful for her because she didn't just write songs and write poetry April is National Poetry Month also Jazz Appreciation Month. So, you know, we try to jam when we can. But I will just finish by saying that I appreciate all of you because it's a very serious thing to be able to say that you are a part of the solution for, in our case, young people. And teens have to deal with so much stuff. But like, at least with us. We do character development for excellence and we also use fine arts to promote unity and diversity

and to promote things that matter so that young people have hope to be better and all of us can be better but sometimes with them they might not be getting it at home. Some of them are from broken families and some of them just don't care so for some reason our Yes Club they get in there and they Care. And I'll finish with this. We deal with white, black, Hispanic, mixed. And there's a young white gentleman who's in one of the classes. And so we're working with one of the music teachers in the district. So she said, Mr. C, you know, he wants to be in it. A lot of them want to meet you. They've been online. They saw you. So they want to see what this is all about. But this particular young man evidently said, you know, I don't, I don't think that Mr. C can reach me or whatever. So she told Diana and we said, well, I mean, it's not about us reaching him as much as all of us reaching each other and he's a part of the family. So when he came his first day, and I'll just say this, I'm not joking or kidding or or anything. I do have a good sense of humor, but I will tell you this. I almost had to sit that young guy down. He was so excited. He was jumping all over the place. I almost said, that's too much, dude. That's too much. But he was so happy. And I just said, you know, to see young people, to be excited about something that is directly connected to their inspiration and empowerment to be better.

and by the way folks you still don't have a lot of programs that are teaching respect and it's just a strange thing but I am a respect person and I will teach them and I will tell them if they have their pants hanging down I will tell them I'm not scared of them who's scared of them I will tell them comb your hair that's just how I am I've done it in Walmart before little boy mom told me something and he was so mean I walked right up to him I said hey buddy I said do you think that's nice to scream at your mom does she feed you and I said yes sir does she feed you he said yes sir I mean maybe you know he saw a big black guy maybe he was scared I don't know but I am nice and I do have a nice smile but when I got done with him I taught him to apologize to his mama I'm trying to tell y'all this is just for real and he did and she cried and I found out later because she said you hardly ever hear anybody that would really stand up for respect. Guess what? I tell them to watch their language. I'm not going to deal with the first grader cussing me out. I'll be the first and last time, baby. That's just for me because they have to learn how to do better.

And the best way, I think, is for them to see somebody doing better. They have to see it. They have to see love. They have to see light. And they have to see life. And that's what we do. So thank you for anything.

So could I ask you a question quick?

Of course.

Thank you for the presentation.

Thank you for the presentation.

Certainly.

It says here on you're going to use, you're requesting $2,500 to, you're going to set up a web page, is that what the $2,500 is for?

No, we have that already.

Okay.

Okay.

All right.

No, he's requesting for $2,000.

Oh, I did.

Okay, I was reading $2,500.

I did.

That was $2,500.

Okay.

I did request $2,500.

It's a report from the last, just for a little bit of a new receipt.

Oh, great. All right. Okay. So you're mentoring the children with God in mind. And I mean, do you have meetings with the children? What actually do you, music? I'm assuming music is involved.

Music is kind of the secret weapon that brings them together.

And do you meet at the Boys and Girls Club or do you?

No, we actually are in Freeport Middle School. We actually have it in the school.

okay so they have select students who get their parent permission slips and we actually go there okay and we meet with them during the last time okay and we do have a community yes club where we meet maybe once a month twice a month and we do that in our church but all of the things that we teach are all um all bible all stuff um we teach the golden rule we just we just teach them the truth and we teach them how to act right. And there's not a lot of ways to teach them. You just got to tell them and you have to show them. And if you can do it in a way that they want to do it, I believe it was President John F. Kennedy that said that good leadership is when you can get people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it. Yes. So make sure you Google that. I don't think they say stuff that ain't true.

I have I do have a question. Yes, ma'am. Okay, you're saying that your funding will cover fees for travel, class visits and studio time. And then you put in parentheses, song compositions, arrangements, audio productions, and video filming and editing. Yes, ma'am. So you're doing that right now. So it's just additional. It's not a new new part of the program.

No, it's just keeping it going because we have no kids and no projects.

So you have the children that you're recording and they're performing.

And we actually film them at the school.

So we're teaching the songs and we're showing the different things when we're there.

And then we also have core group kids that plus with our other stuff.

So I can vouch for Dr. Full.

I've been to many of his programs and he didn't emphasize but you still go to Springfield at the state fair every year and present a program down there for everybody to see I've been to that program I've been to your church programs and yes those kids are very polite when you walk up to them yes sir no sir I mean he has them very decimate and He takes people that can't even sing and sing great now, you know I believe it's a, you know, I can vouch that it's a really good program and the money goes to good use and stuff like that How many of you have in the free book program now?

I'd say around 40 Really?

Sometimes we don't know where they came from, maybe 50 up And I can vouch too, the parents show up down and for the performances is in the state fair, and the parents were always very happy that the funds are going towards to help their kids from staying on the trails and giving them something to do.

It's three points our whole town, so we want to make sure that we give them that.

I don't want my heart to read and tell them me off.

No, and the Cole family has been very successful. I know certainly you guys. And music is, you know, the universal language, as I said, right?

Yes, sir. And we are already online also because a lot of, you have first graders, second graders, they've got four or five iPhones. I asked one of them, why?

You say, well, I had, my grandma gave me one, my uncle did, I said, you don't need five iPhones, and these are like $1,500, $2,000 devices, you don't need that, and I say, I'm sure you don't have internet, yes, I do, I have my grandmother's code or whatever, and that means they can get off any website, good or bad, and that's exactly what they do, and some of them have tons of girlfriends and boyfriends, and different little phone numbers, and you may find out the hard way that all Those phone numbers don't work. I'm going to get cut off. It's all kinds of stuff. But we're glad that we're here. And I'm able to say, hey, I went to this school in this building. No, you didn't. And we have one girl, she just lost her grandmother. She couldn't believe that we knew her grandmother when she was a grandma. So that's what happens when you get old. And all your good looking folks from here, you don't have to worry about it. Who cares if you get older? You don't look old.

But don't talk on my knees. Thanks so much for your time. Appreciate it. Appreciate anything you can do. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Next up, I have voices. Oh, yes. Hello, everyone. My name is Jack Redstick. I'm the Prevention and Training Coordinator for Voices of Stevenson County. And then I serve as the Camp Director for the Voices Youth Development Camp.

We have a multitude of camp programming throughout the school year. We have a winter break camp, a spring break camp, but we specifically asked for funding for our youth development summer camp this year.

We are going into our ninth year with our youth development summer camp. Historically, it was a one-week camp for elementary students. Within the last two years, we realized that there was a greater need within the community.

And so now we are a two-week elementary camp, a one-week junior high camp, and then we also do a high school leadership training camp.

Our camp is completely free. It's just something that's different than most of the camps within our area.

We provide breakfast, lunch, and snacks completely free to the kids.

Last year, we served within our program, our overall program, we served about 180 youth.

this year for a summer program we're looking to serve about 50 elementary kids 30 junior high kids we're bringing on 12 high schoolers so our high school program is set for a week we train them up how to be camp counselors and then for the younger camps they serve as camp counselors through that we're teaching them leadership skills we're teaching them respect we're teaching violence prevention initiatives our camp in general is focused on social emotional learning as well as violence prevention with the focus mainly being on violence prevention. This year, our goal is to hone in on respect, kindness, and community-mindedness because we realized that we can't prevent violence without looking at the holistic approach of it. So we look at community involvement, community pride, and trying to cultivate that within youth.

For us, for the summer to run our camp, it cost us about $13,000. We did ask it from here, and Jasper, quite a bit more than everyone else. We would be very appreciative for any amount. We focus a lot on showing the kids that there are people in the community that really care about them and want to see them succeed. And so we focus a lot on letting them know who exactly contributed to their ability to get the program in. So any questions?

Where do you have the camps at?

Yes, so we hold them at Bethany Church on Bronson, Easton Street.

And I'd also like to add, I'm Julie Hillier with Voices of Stevenson County, and I'd like to add that at Voices, we believe that we change lives, because I think most of you know that Voices assist survivors of domestic and sexual violence, and in the camps specifically, I think we more mold help mold our lives at that point. And we do bring, as Jack said, those violence prevention principles into camp. And we are looking at camp as a means of helping instill those values in the kids and helping build their self-esteem up. And we will know whether we've done that by there are different surveys that we're going to give the kids at the beginning and end of camp to see that they've learned whether, for instance, that they do have safe people that they can go to. And that's one of the things that we are going to be focusing on and helping just instill some of those values in them.

In terms of the money, the money that we are asking for, our ask is for all of the expenses that it takes.

We do already have some community support, the $13,000 that it takes. The State Bank Foundation has already come on board. They're covering the mentor stipends because the mentors do get a stipend of $500 for a camp, being a camp mentor. So, but it takes the kids go on field trips. As Jack said, we feed the kids. So, you know, we're obviously we're going to feed them. So that's all of those expenses, plus all of our curriculum and all the craft.

all of our curriculum and all the crafts and everything that they do. It is just like a regular summer camp. The kids play, the kids have crafts, and then we do leave all of the lessons and the prevention education principles that the kids are already getting in the public schools. When Jack mentioned she's a prevention coordinator, we're providing prevention education curriculum in how many schools, Jack? We do every school across Stevenson County from kindergarten to 12th grade.

So we're building upon that curriculum to help reinforce all of that in the kids. So we just wanted to make some of those points as well. This is how we think we're building a more resilient thing.

Could you explain the curriculum for the school?

So our curriculum is the body so for kindergarten through second grade we use the safe at last curriculum so that is a four day curriculum where we go and we talk about safe people respect on day one day two focuses on safety with strangers and then our body safety rules of say no get away and tell a safe person and then day three we focus on the safe touches and unsafe touches and then day four of course it's like a review day we bring a puppet in the kids love it Our mascot is Buddy, the body safety bear. Our third through fifth grade curriculum is a tailor-made, well, it's community-informed or community-tailored curriculum that we made in-house called Body Safety Boss. So in 2022, we did a bunch of community needs assessments. We did a ton of focus groups with youth, and we created this curriculum called the Boss Curriculum, where it stands for boundaries, object, stand firm, and say something where we focus on teaching boundaries, what boundaries look like, how to enact your boundaries, how to state your boundaries, and then also advocate for yourself and then what to do if someone crosses those boundaries and kind of fighting against social norms versus actual healthy relationships. Our sixth through 12th grade curriculum focuses on Aaron's Law. So that is the 2011 mandate that was passed in the state of Illinois based off of Aaron Morin, who was a child survivor of sexual abuse. So we go in and we share Aaron's story and then we

focus on healthy relationships, internet safety, consent, boundaries, really just about anything that we kind of tailor every year to what the schools are dealing with. So, you know, we might be in Freeport Middle School where they're having a problem with like sexting, but then we might get to Freeport High School, and they're having a big issue with consent and things like that.

So it's always different based on the school, but it's tailored to what the school needs.

Very nice. Okay. Any questions? Comments?

Well, just one. So usually about 80 people go to this summer camp?

Yes. So we were capping it this year. Last year, we didn't cap it, and we had about, on our largest day, We had like 96 kids there, and that was way too much. So this year we're casting it for elementary at 50. It really does come down to funding. If we have enough funding, we will open it to more. If we don't have enough funding, then we'll keep it at the 50th. But right now, whether we receive more funding or not, it's going to stay at 50 for elementary, 30 for junior high, and then we're bringing on 12 high schoolers.

Many of the youth who attend the camp have experienced domestic sexual violence in their background at some point, whether they were the survivor themselves or it has been in their household.

So this camp is vitally important for them to help them be able to get some of these coping skills and learn that there are better ways.

And just to add to that, even the kids that maybe haven't experienced domestic or sexual violence, it's open to anyone. So it's not just our clients or kids that identify having some kind of experience or exposure to it. It is open to anyone in the community. However, we do see a lot of youth come in that are at more high risk of domestic and sexual violence.

and that also is partly because it's a free camp program and so the families that are at a higher risk they don't have to worry about do I have the funds to send my kid to camp or is my kid going to be safe at a camp because our main priority is safety of everyone. Are we one of the only free summer camps?

Yes, that might be there. I guess you shouldn't speak of that but yes.

in Stevenson County. And we're committed to that. And to answer, to heat off any questions, we are committed, Voices is committed to holding this camp, regardless of if we get funding. But we would really like funding.

Understood.

Anything will help and be greatly appreciated. So thank you very much.

as voices have been in stadiums and towns.

So we started in 1982 with the YWCA, with the VoicesDB program.

They had a domestic violence volunteer program all the way back in 1917, but we incorporated our own non-for-profit under VoicesDB in 1982, and then we incorporated the sexual assault Services when the Center of Abuse and Assault. No, Assault Abuse Services. Assault Abuse Services. Yes, when they closed down in 2014, I believe. So we incorporated or reabsorbed their sexual assault program. We've been operating as a dual program since.

44 years. Yes.

I've got to say one thing. You do a great thing for the community. I've talked to Carl many times. We have a huge domestic violence problem in Stephen's account.

I mean every day I got somebody put the sheriff's app on my phone and every day I look I'm just amazed of the people that come in on domestic violence out of our county jail and I'm glad we're keeping them out there too because I see the judges are keeping them in there and stuff so you do a great program I know a lot of people that I've known that had domestic violence and they said that your program's excellent and everything so Thank you for your community, for doing the service for our community and everything, you know.

Thank you, thank you. We appreciate it.

Anybody else? Well, thank you, ladies. Appreciate it.

Thank you for your time. Thank you.

And last, but certainly not least, we have a Boys and Girls Club. We have a representative from the Boys and Girls Club.

Doesn't look like it.

I think they've been recipients of this program before. Anybody have any comments or questions from their packet? They all did a wonderful job of filling out the paperwork.

I wish we had enough money.

Yeah, but so I, you know, looking at these things, I didn't expect to have any that we said, oh, I can't give them any money. That wouldn't be the case.

So, you know, I don't know what you guys' thoughts are, but since we have six deserving organizations, I would say you just divide it to $10,000 by six, which is about $1,660.

I'm just concerned now some said that they can go on with their programs I'm just concerned if you know if we're giving them the 1660 you know that are they going to be able to use it or use it or not and if not you know we can give it to another organization you know so that's my big concern you know I mean if we If we fully fund it, we could fully fund about three and maybe give a partial, but it's up to the committee what they want to do. I'm just always concerned that if we give just a little bit, now Voyager said they would, you know, utilize whatever they got.

to utilize whatever they got.

So, I mean, it's just my concern.

I think they all said the same thing, that they would be happy to get whatever they got.

And now some of the organizations weren't here tonight, so.

Well, the one organization had a board meeting, and I don't know why.

Nobody from the, so we didn't get to ask two of the organizations that question, you know, so.

Right.

And another thing that I might mention that we do next year is put in the application that we, you know, have a deadline, look at them, and then lay it over for a month and then award them in May or something like that.

I think that's a good idea, you know, because we're overwhelmed this time and that would have given us a chance to get better two people in or have Georgia address them, you know, send them an email to address some concerns and questions we had.

So I would say next year, let's change that, you know, where the deadline is April, we lug them over, lay them over till May so we can really give a good decision on this. But whatever the committee wants to do, that's fine. You know, hopefully they'll utilize the money we give them, you know.

Well, I would entertain a motion to just take the $10,000 divided by six and give each one an equal amount.

I'll make that motion.

Okay.

So I have a motion.

Can I get a second?

Second by Mr. Meester.

Any other questions or comments?

Just comment.

I mean, I think, like you say, I think next year we need a little more time.

but you know it sounds like all these programs are very deserving and that all of them can go on without this but this will help I think you know the more that'll get outreach to the most amount of people which is what we really want to do so I think you know if they if this helps them offset some of their costs and we can reach a broader amount of people I think that's probably the best that's my reason for making that motion. And we might also, you know, have more money next year to budget too, you know, because we're going to have some money left over. So hopefully we'll have a bigger budget next year to budget. So we give out more money. So yeah. Okay. You know, the other comment that I would make is that I'd like to encourage public to invest in these programs and to ask ask us questions about what was submitted to us and the programs that are going to be there so that maybe somebody wants to make private donations to these organizations too.

And I'm sure there are people that have donated to them.

Correct.

And I think that's part of it is that we need to share what we've just learned in the program.

I didn't know half of this.

I don't know.

Yes.

I don't know unless Carl disagrees with me.

I don't see a reason why we couldn't play this.

over. I mean, I know we talked and it says that it would be awarded in cable, but is there anything over?

I mean, if that is a point.

Okay.

Could we get a census if anybody would be in favor of laying it over?

I guess the question I would have is that if we lay it over, are we going to sit and make a different decision?

In my mind, I'm not going to make a different decision.

Well, that's, I hate it.

I think it's a great idea for next year.

But the problem I see is that either that or you've got to sit here and you've got to say, well, you're not going to get anything at all.

And I don't know that necessarily that I want to do that either.

Well, the saying some of that, we've done that before.

We fully funded some programs that we thought were, you know, they're all worthwhile.

Yes.

But what I would say is if we fully fund their program this year, you know, we would say we're going to fully fund somebody else's program next year or something like that, you know.

That's why we've been doing this for quite a few years.

It's a great program and about contributing.

I remember when Mr. Fair and Mr. Hilton had their program, a lot of the board members used to contribute to their program since Mr. Hilton was on the county board too.

so yeah these are all good programs I gotta say and I'm happy that we have these programs in the community because my years in the Department of Corrections seeing the grandfather the father and the sons come into the prison system is not acceptable and I've been out of the business 12 years and seeing some of the grandkids coming in they're awful and maybe we could have saved them if we had programs like this in our community, you know, so, on all four of these programs, so, yeah, I'll support.

Okay, well, I've got a motion in a second, so we'll take a vote.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

Those opposed, same sign.

Hearing none, motion passes, so six equal amounts, I hope that helps you out some.

We appreciate your time and all of the reports, and we appreciate what you do.

Thank you. Believe me. Thank you so much. And make sure you look at that magazine article. That took a lot of work, but that one. Take a deep breath. Okay. Motion to adjourn. Second. Second. All those in favor, say aye. Aye. All opposed, same sign. Thanks, everybody.

Have a good evening, everyone. You too.

Thank you.