26th 2026. Miss Durban, can you give us a roll call, please? >> Commissioner McCcluskey, Commissioner Duffy, Commissioner Carlson, >> here. >> Commissioner Han, Commissioner Me, Commissioner Hagga, >> here. >> Commissioner Sanderson here.
>> Chair Hubard >> here. Uh, if I could have a motion to adjopt today's agenda. >> So moved. >> There a second. >> I second. >> All in favor?
>> I >> and it's adopted. Uh, we do have >> we do we have four four is the quorum today. We do have a guest speaker today.
Alyssa Ymelt from Maria's voice. We'll be uh gracing her with her with her presence. You can start whenever you're ready. She did give us uh packets to look at handouts. >> Wonderful. Can you hear me? I've got a
good voice. Hello everyone. Thank you so much for inviting to be here tonight. We have a Why do we do that? Who supports us? Kind of where do we do that? And what kind of impact do we have on the community? So
that's kind of the focus of what we're going to be covering tonight. Okay. Okay. Go up. Great. So u we u domestic violence prevention education. So way to meet Maria, uh, the namesake of our organization. We're going to talk about
Maria's voice. We're going to talk about what is a prevention model and why do we do what we do. Uh, we're going to talk about our programs, just a real top overview of who we serve. Um, what impact um, our national and international community thinks about our
work and that's in our awards. Uh, we're going to talk about the people that we educate, which we call our education partners. Um, the support that we get from the community. Um, and who we have reached numerically and uh and a little
bit of uh action for you uh to be Maria's voice as well because as a public health model we can't do our work alone. We need everybody who hears our message to do a little something uh to prevent domestic abuse and we have a couple simple actionable and safe steps
that I'm going to ask you to take next. So Maria is the namesake of our organization. She's also our daughter. So um our daughter is Maria Fernand. We um adopted Maria in oh my gosh 1991 I
believe from Mexico City. Uh she's a wonderful person. Unfortunately Maria was murdered in her home in Maple Grove by her husband in 2020. Never thought I would be doing this work. Never even believe.
But this has been an emotional day. I apologize. So, thank you for your grace on that. Um, Maria was is an amazing person and she really inspires um our messaging with adults, children,
leadership and I think any parent who or sibling who um has endured or thinks about the treasure of their child. We all not having that treasure is something that would probably motivate you to take a step for some action and
that's what it did for my husband and me. So, as you can see, Maria, just a beautiful girl inside and out. The most wonderful thing about Maria was her heart. Um, she was a single LA graduate from college. She always looks like she's super young. Um, she's not 16,
she's 28 in most of these pictures. She's young. So, you know, she she is a a woman um who's becoming who she wants to be in life and unfortunately is ins snared by a very skilled in experienced domestic abuser. Someone who had done
that in a previous relationship and was very skilled at um roping someone in and then treating them poorly. So, which is the habit of a domestic abuser. So, we're going to talk not only about a little bit about abuse but really
basically about our as I mentioned but it's all built around Maria and the guidance that she gives us. Next, so we have three we have three things we are going to do. Um our mission is to prevent domestic abuse and when we started in 2020
uh a month and a half after Maria we incorporated um we of course didn't know anything about prevention. We did not know that no other nonprofit in Minnesota solely focused on prevention. We I probably wouldn't have done it, you
know, because it's been a hard road. However, we also have a value of optimism and perseverance. No matter what's happened to us and maybe no matter what's in our future, we persevere because we know we're making a huge difference. And our what we do is
awareness, education, and safe action. And because we are a public health model, and I'll explain that in just a second, we follow sciencebased best practices. I don't anything that hasn't already been laid out by scientific evidence as laid out by other strong
prevention models as designated by the CDC. So, we follow models that have prevented smoking, prevented um kids from flying out of their car and dying in an accident because they didn't have a car seat, kids from swallowing tide pods or people from smoking. So, we
follow the models the CDC has listed for prevention education. So we have a great scientific road mapap that we believe in and that we follow. So what are those? The strategy that the CDC is to prevent violence are six of
them. And in our six years um as a nonprofit, Maria's voice already endorses five. So, if you kind of take a look, I'm sorry it's a little bit hard to read, but one of the first things that we do is we partner with influential reader uh leaders across businesses across um cities,
governments, healthcare um in all the spheres that are influential in the community and we get them to champion our prevention education. Like I said at the beginning, we can't possibly do this alone. The second thing that we do is we make education available because one of the key um ingredients about preventing
violence is to encourage people to seek help. The um the CDC calls it encouraging help seeking behavior. So domestic violence has been really shameful and really not talked about. When we first started educating basically out in the street in Maple
Grove, I cannot tell you how fast people ran away from us. They'd stand back our that said, "Together we can prevent domestic abuse." And they would just take off Red. Nobody wanted to talk. And six years later, we found really great ways to um embrace the public, stop them
from conversations and um inter engage with survivors. And those survivors today include many men who come up to us and tell us their experiences, not just women. So um offering education in public spots is really encouraging for
survivors to tell their stories and also to encourage the public to get help. Um the next thing we do is we uh teach in uh safe and healthy relationship skills. Um so that's really important. Do you know most of 70% of the American public
has no inclination they cannot name the signs of domestic violence. 70% of us. Bill and I were one of those. Unfortunately, Maria was one of those, too. Hello, Commissioner. I'm good to hear you. >> So, we we do that as well. And we teach
the science of abuse, but we teach healthy relationships, too. Amazing that we don't really know what those are either, right? Um, go for it. The next thing we do to also um u follow CDC guidelines is we teach educators, we
teach families, we teach faith communities. In 2025, we educated over 40,000 parishioners in various churches around the Twin Cities as um given to us from a grant by the Le Catholic Women Foundation. We were in everything from
moss to Catholic churches to um to Lutheran churches as well. So the Catholic women didn't care who we educated. They just to follow that model. We just finished a project for ECF, early childhood family educators where we work with many multicultural
families, moms predominantly who go to ECF classrooms to really understand and learn how to better parent. So one of the sessions we did what are the signs of domestic abuse and then how do you raise healthy kids? How do you listen to your kids? How do you encourage them to talk and come to you if they have an
issue because that's supporting helpseeking behaviors. So we embrace that too. The other thing we do is we support bystanders and survivors. So we believe their stories, we listen to them, we encourage them, we tell them how great they are and we use a lot of their education. A lot of the things
that they tell us become some of the um really innovative things that we do in our educational models. So unless we are out there talking to the public, we couldn't possibly learn all these things. It's been an amazing journey. So, how do we do that? How do we, you
know, what vehicle do we use to reach all these folks? Well, we do it through education we have created. So, we didn't, we weren't handed anything. We kind of had a blank slate. We just kind of had to go for it. The first thing we did was we designed a video presented by
um seven survivor educated uh educators who are multicultural men and women who um helped us with a video that we um we wrote and um we actually won oops a national award on that video um
and I'll tell you a little bit about that later. We also we look we looked at the power and control wheel which is something that had been in the public domain for over oh gosh I think probably from the 70s or 80s. It was written at a 16 grade reading level. So you had to be
over a college graduate to read that material and so full of words that I was dizzy when I read it. So we redesigned that wheel, took out um it really only referred to men as abusers when we know that both women and men are abusers. So
we used icons instead of words. And we really made it approachable, got it down to it's actually an eighth grade reading level because the words domestic and violence are written at an eighth grade reading level. If we could remove those from our materials, it would be at a fourth grade reading level. As a former teacher, that's what I would really
like. Do you know the average reading level in the United States? Take a guess. >> Yeah, little it's a little bit over fifth. Isn't that awful? So, we had to take a lot of our materials and make them so that people when they went on a website or when they went to look for
help, gosh, they could understand what they were looking at and they could follow the directions. So, you know, this was really important stuff to make things accessible to the public. Uh we on the right hand side and also in your packet are bathroom tear off sheets. We put those in city. We put those every
place we go and they're in English and Spanish as well. And that encourages helpseeking behavior. If you need some help, here's here's what violence might look like. And if you are private in a bathroom stall, tear off one of these, click it on your phone, and take an action. Call one of these numbers where
there's a professional waiting to talk to you and give you the advice that you're seeking. Um, we have cards over on the lefth hand side. They look like little business cards. Those cards are we call them shoe cards because any person and we have lots of people who
walk by our booth um our educational booth especially when we're outside at a festival like we'll be at River City Days. They walk by our booth with their family. They come back on their own palm a card. We leave them right on the front of a table. They take one and they walk
away. They put it in their pocket. We pretend they don't see them. They pretend they don't see us and they're gone. But they have a resource in their pocket. They disappear from bathrooms. They disappear from city halls. They disappear from the school districts we are in. They're really well used.
English, Spanish, Somali, M, and Russian. Top five languages in Minnesota. Uh, and then the middle down there where Maria's beautiful picture is, uh, we have a billboard on 694. And that billboard, uh, scrolls the 12 common signs of domestic violence, uh,
eighth grade reading level, sixth grade without the words domestic and violence. So, we put in the word abuse or um that's not cool. We put in we put in lots of words that just minimize that reading level because people are going by driving 75 miles an hour and we want them to get a message. >> Maybe faster.
>> Yeah. Yeah. 694 and Maple Grove. Believe me, it's faster. Yeah. So, those are just some of the methods that we use. And on the upper right are a lot of things that are in city hall. It's kind of the backbone of our education is a a postcard. It just gives what are the signs of violence? How can you help a
friend? And where do you go? Where do you go for that help? Easy, accessible numbers, national and local hotlines. They're really good. So that that's our adult program. You can go forward release. We have a teen, a kids, and a men's program. Our men's program is
really cool. It's called Bold Voices. We ask men to talk to other men about their behavior. We also talk we ask men to talk to other men about seeking help should they be in a relationship that is really not good for them. So to come forward and let people know that I need
help and there are lots of resources and places that they can access and that's called bold voices. Uh over on the lefth hand side you were talk or you I'm sorry you were talking about our Rocky color books. Uh our kids program is run by Maria's dog Rocky. He's a 100 pound
black lab just full of love. Kids absolutely adore him. So I've written six color books. They're a third grade reading level English and Spanish and and Uh, we're just about to hand out our six color book that Rocky talks to his friends about how to be a good friend
and basically how to go to a parent, a teacher, or someone that you trust when you have a problem. Don't keep it to yourself. Don't hide it. Don't keep secrets. So, we really stress that in all of our books. And the pink one in the middle, we just had a team listening
session with four school districts and other their school resource officers and the chiefs of police of all four districts. and the teens created this postcard at the end of it and it's really amazing. It's we we we launched it in the AIO Maple Grove School
District which is massive you guys. That that place is just massive and um it's just getting amazing recognition. And on the bottom of the bold voices is our first bold voice which is uh Chief Booker Hodgeges at the city of Bloomington who's just been an amazing
supporter of Maria's voice. an amazing guy with a personal story that would rock your world and his his support of domestic abuse prevention is really um is he's just he's one of my personal heroes. So those are kind of ways that
we reach people and u next so what do folks think about what we're doing? Okay, I have to tell you I'm shameless. I love old words. I really do. So, we won a a a gold telly for our video. It's kind of the equivalent of an
Oscar in the video world, except it had no money and no fancy dress, but it's a really, really, really prestigious award in marketing. So, our first time out of the shoot to win a gold telly for our educational video, we won excellence in video education and training. First
prize, gold star. Yay. Um, we've won uh five Purple Ribbon Awards and that comes from the number one domestic violence organization in the nation and they actually give international awards. So Rocky's won two, Bull Voices won one and
our program has won one. Our overall program and then we partner with lots of people. So, we um nominated Kristen Robbins who is who's a legislator um in the state of Minnesota legislature and she supported our work from the very beginning and we just wanted to
recognize her because of all the amazing things she's done to keep her district safe by supporting domestic violence education. So, um that our collaboration with her won an award as well. We get places in spread of prevention because of collaboration and that board kind of
signifies that. Next, so where do we go? Oh my gosh, where we go? Um, we strategically go places. We um educate in businesses. We educate at civic and community groups. We educate
in government and law enforcement. We have a big program in law enforcement to train officers for how to do better reporting um and different reporting when they go to a domestic so when they bring that case forward to a city prosecutor it's not tossed out. So how do they do more accurate and different
reporting to find out information in a highly stressful time when people very often give inaccurate information because of the dynamics of what's happening in the household. So we train law enforcement uh we train the judiciary. We've trained the first, the fourth, and the sixth, and the second
judicial districts of judges. Very important folks to educate because they know about this much about domestic violence. Huge need in their courtrooms. Uh, obviously, I mentioned we train uh faith-based, we train advocacy groups, and then we work with other domestic
violence shelters and nonprofits as well. So, our spread is pretty far. And then to keep our boots on the ground, we're always at events. So we we're in a lot of we're in a lot of places. So we go where people gather and we just want to know we can't do that without
the public supporting us. So we get um donations from beautiful places like the Lions and the Rotary support us. Thank you. The Rotary supported us this year. Thank you so much. Uh we have a lot of foundation support. Uh the the Women's Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation
support us. But as I mentioned, um, you know, like the League of Catholic Women Foundation, the Eden Prairie Community Foundation, um, they believe in safety in homes and they want to support our initiative in doing that. So, it's not just domestic violence prevention, it's about how to keep home safe. And then we
all we need the public as well. And um, so those are some of the places that work with us, you know, to support us. But I wanted to mention that we're also working, we're just going to initiate our second federal grant, which is just amazing for a little organization to get
two federal grants. Amazing. And that's in the third congressional district. So that that's just awesome. Uh so next, uh what do what what do we do with all those folks we reach? Well, last year our educational reach exceeded a
million. We're a small organization about five part-time employees. So my message is domestic abuse prevention education real honestly is honestly cheap. You can do a lot with very few uh with a lot of innovative
ideas and a little money. So you need innovation, you need a way to spread that innovation. You need collaboration, but you don't need a whole lot of money to do that. in contrast to what it costs to help people heal from from abuse for years and years and years. So we are a
really coste effective model but we save you know this saves your soul as well. It's it's not just saving money it is prevention is really where we need to be in the domestic violence lane but we have lots of people helping us and again our reach was over a million people last year. That that just blew my mind. Next
one. Um so what can you do? I was I told you I was going to put the arm on you a little bit because everybody has to our our theme is you can be Maria's voice. You do not have to be an expert to prevent domestic abuse. You don't have to be an expert to have a conversation, but we want you to
be always safe. So, we really focus on what can you do as an individual to spread information that is safe. So, we don't ever want you to do anything heroic. We do never want you to um um confront an abuser.
Really dangerous. So, we want you to leave that to the professionals and we have a lot of ways for you to do that and they're all in this packet. I'm going to suggest two easy things. One of them is what I call a bathroom stall. You can leave this in your place of
work. You can leave it in city hall. You can leave it at your favorite bar and ask them to post it. These walk these just these disappear. It's sad. We we place these all over the Twin Cities. But it's a good thing, too. They're in English and Spanish as most of our materials are. So, you could take that
and make an admission to say, I'm going to bring this to my church and put it in the men's room or even put it in the women's room, right? And put them in both. So, that would be an idea. Or you could take this card, this little postcard, and watch our
15minute national award-winning video to be educated yourself. And this just gives you access to our website and where the video is located. And maybe share it with a friend, maybe share with someone in your family. Um, so that would be a great way for you
to be educated and then have a twominut, one minute, 30 second conversation about that, you know, and Since we have men here, I would really encourage you to also go on our website and look at bold voices. And if you would like to be a bold voice, could you please contact me and let me know that you have something
to say or we could help you say that and say, "I'd like to volunteer for that program." And we have a great amazing videographer who would help you be comfortable giving that statement to other men. So, those are things that you could do.
And you can share our Rocky Color book with kids and grandkids because it's really sweet. So that's kind of us in a nutshell. Oh my gosh, how fast did I talk? Um, so thank you so much. Any questions that I can help you with? But that's a nutshell of what we do and how we reach
the public and what the public thinks about us. >> I'm sure we have some questions. I'll let everyone digest for a second. >> I know that was a lot, wasn't it? too. >> Thank you for being here. >> Oh, you're welcome.
>> Your message of prevention um sometimes I think uh we don't always know what to do and how to do it, >> right?
>> And particularly when we talk about uh domestic violence again, you you suggested do not confront. >> Um, but what are good ways for us to be
an ally to someone who is in a situation that um is dangerous, is uh is threatening, >> right? Or struggling >> or or struggling. What can I do? >> Right? That is the most important
question. So, thank you for asking it. And it's really something that prevents people from doing something because we always think I don't want to do something wrong. I don't want to say something wrong. I don't want them to get further hurt. So, I think it that's wise. All of that's really wise. But there are really little things to do
that um survivors tell us that this is the most important thing that ever happened to them is it's normally basically a stranger, someone who they barely know. Maybe it's an acquaintance at work, but it usually is not a good
friend who says to them, "I'm kind of concerned about you." Or they say to you at church, "You know, I haven't seen you for so long. Where the heck have you been? I've missed you. Can we go for coffee? Do you have time to chat?" Honest to gosh, that simple. that they
are so unrecognized they don't even recognize themselves, but they're so unrecognized as a human with value in their own home that for someone that they barely know to tell them, I miss you. I miss our friendship. I miss seeing your your smiling face.
Can we chat? And that conversation usually allows them to share something that's going on that they're embarrassed or ashamed of. So when that happens, we always advise people to listen without any judgment.
You don't have to say a word. You do not solve their problem. You don't do that. You don't do that. We are not equipped to do that. I'm not a doctor. I'm not a cop. I'm not an advocate. But what do I do? I give them one of these little
cards, these wonderful cards that have access to helplines. And these people are geniuses. I've sat in their help lines and listened to them talk. They are amazing. What they really actually do is go through a few short questions that help them with what they call a
lethality assessment. How close is this person to something really dangerous happening to them? And where do they need to where do they need to intervene for pretty quick help? What do they need to do? These folks are brilliant. They're the expert. They're like the neurosurgeon, right? That's the only
brilliant word I can think of right now. So you what your action is? Your action is to hand them a resource. And your action is to be friendly, not judgmental, encouraging, and wow, what you're going through sounds really tough. Wow, this this this must be a
really difficult time for you. You listen, listen, listen, and then you say, you know, I can help you with something. I'm going to ask you to call these folks because they really know what to do. Can you do that? Can you do you have a private moment where you can call them?
and you're done. You don't invite them to live in your house. You don't take them to the police. You don't take care of their kids because all that's dangerous. It really it is. This is what you do or it's potentially dangerous. This is what you do. You refer to a
resource who's professional who asks a series of questions to see kind of where they are on this slippery slope and they give them advice. It takes usually a person who was abused seven times,
an average of seven times to leave their abuser. This is not easy for them and it's not easy for us to know what to do either. So, I'm going to give you a quick example when um the public health model to prevent heart attack and stroke
was to give people CPR. Remember that when we all learned CPR? Mhm. >> I was a wellness coach at the time in in a huge organization and scheduled wellness speakers. I cannot tell you how many CPR sessions we did. >> Years of teaching people CPR. Do you
think they would do it? No. They didn't want to touch a person. They didn't want to do something wrong. And they did not want to put their lips on somebody who was probably going to barf on them, you know, and they didn't want to be responsible for them dying if they did it wrong. So finally after 22
years of trying to teach people to do CPR, what did they actually really end up telling us to do? Was the best thing to do? Call 911. This is 911. This is what people will do. This is
what they will do. This is what you should do because it's safe. And here are the experts. You're not an expert. You don't need to be. You just need to have a resource. That's it. So, it sounds simple, but survivors tell us this is accurate and this works. Their
mom might have told them 20 times to call. They did. You tell them once, they do. You just get them on that date. It's really an amazing thing, but we've heard it so many times. I believe it's correct. And
advocates tell us that as well. So, that's a great question. Thank you so much. Perfect question. >> I have another question. Um, you shared numbers with us.
>> Um, amazing numbers. C. Do you have the ability to take a look at the numbers of how and what those um uh statistics are for Carver County or
the city of Cha particularly city of Chaza but but maybe generally Carver County? >> No. >> Okay. >> I don't. Yeah. Just to put it in a nutshell, no I don't. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Wish I did but no I don't. Yeah. And even like hotlines, unless they um
you know get a specific location from people, they they can't give you that either. They can give you generically by the number of calls. So like if they serve, you know, a threecount area or something like the national the local hotline serves all of Bloomington, Richie, Dining, and Prairie. I mean,
they serve a ton of people. They they can't pinpoint what what Bloomington needs in outside of what Edina needs. I think what it what is uh a common thought is is that surely we don't have
that going on here in our community. >> Yeah. Wouldn't that be nice? We're living in La La Land if we think that. >> Yeah. And that's in the reality those numbers that you showed earlier in your vid in your um in your uh presentation
clearly says that we do have this issue and it and we need to we need to know as much as we can to be helpful to our community. >> So there's 12 common signs of domestic violence in one alone in the physical violence alone. One out of three women
one out of four men. So, in Minnesota, that's roughly a million women and 750,000 men. If you're not in an area where this happens, I'd like to know where that is. It is not. Um, so, um, you can look at
at statistics because police report, are they going on a domestic, are they going on a dispute in a home? They most of them are pretty straightforward about what kind of calls they're on. But if you ask a chief of police in Edina in Edina or Lake Mitaka, you know, areas
that we think are really, you know, oh my goodness, it's not going to happen there. The statistics bear the same that almost a third of the time that they go to a door and answer a call that they have been called to, onethird of those calls are domestic disputes.
No matter where. It's just a little bit higher in some areas, but no matter where that's the base number and that's that's that unfortunately holds nationally. It's appalling. We can do better. We need to do better. We must do better.
It's our basic human right to live in a safe home. You got great questions. You should come and work for us. >> If not, just put up your bathroom stall. have your tear off, would you? Well, you all have been really
wonderful. I really, really, really appreciate you listening. You You're just an amazing group of people. Thank you for the influence you have in our community and thank you for caring about such an important topic and it takes all of us to care to keep everybody in our home safe. So, thank you bottom of my heart. Thank you. And thank you from
Maria as well. >> Thank you for coming. >> Oh, you're welcome. >> Anyone else with any questions? I think we would like to see you come back >> again. >> Sure. >> Maybe next year or me personally, I mean, I'm speaking for everybody, so you
know, but uh come back and and and speak again, but maybe put on a seminar or a class or something to that effect. Um I see this every day. So every day I go to work, I see it for 12 hours, right? >> Wow. So I think it's it's important
>> that we talk about this. >> You know, we we think about as adults, man against woman or woman against man or whatever, but I see kids all day, >> right? >> And every child that comes through is domestic abuse something. Um I think
the more we can tackle the problem, more we talk about the problem, hopefully we can chip away at that rock a little bit. So I personally would like to see your organization come back Thank you. I'd love to do that. We could start maybe with watching our video first and you
know make that available to you and then maybe we could do a debrief on that and just kind of have a little education about what does that mean or whatever format you'd like. I'd be very happy to do that. Um and the effect on children is the stats there. Oh my gosh, they're awful. But there's really no secret to
me why little Johnny can't read and Susie can't focus. There's a reason why they can't >> and it's called what happened in their home. what's happening in their homes. You know, that's a huge contributing factor to that. And this is a massive public health issue that we need to get our arms around and we need to be honest
about this. You know, nobody not blaming. We can do better. >> We can >> we need to do better. It's very It's not all that hard to be a good person. We can do better. >> Um Well, >> well, so thank you for what you do. >> We could be talking for hours. >> Yeah. Thank you for what you do as well
to support kids because it's such a I mean they've got such burdens in those little amazing hearts of theirs. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. That's why they really love Rocky. >> This silly black dog of ours. Oh my god. He's a black lab of course. He loves and licks everybody. These kids just beat him up
when we go to an event and Rocky's not with us. We're kind of chop liver without him. They want Rocky. Well, thank you so much. You guys are just so so lovely. Thanks. And Ask me again, we'll say yes. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> And thanks for all your work. My
goodness. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> We'll see you at River City Days. >> We'll be there. Hot and sweaty. >> Thanks a lot. >> Thank you. Tell your husband we said hello. >> I will. >> Can you ask for another?
>> Um, can we get another >> Oh, yeah. Oh, I'm sorry. Sure. Absolutely. >> Or maybe two more. That way we can have >> two more. I'll wait. Cool. No, I'd like >> Did I forget yours, Commissioner Duffy? Did I forget? >> You're welcome. I'll leave you one more. >> Thank you so much.
>> Yeah, you're welcome. We'll talk soon. >> See you soon. >> Thank you. >> Thanks a lot. >> You guys are you as well. >> As we move on, uh we have a quorum now. Enough folks to approve last month's meeting minutes.
Are there go ahead you had a question? >> Oh, no. >> I just was thinking >> Oh, okay. I just happened to look up and I looked that way and I saw >> I've heard that before. >> Um, any questions or comments about May
28th's meeting minutes? Everyone take a chance to look over them. I make a motion to adopt the uh meeting minutes of May 28, 2026. >> Second.
>> All in favor say I. >> I. >> against opposed. It passes. They are approved. Mr. Durban. We have the treasures report, please. >> Yes, chair and commissioners. Uh since your May meeting, we've been purchasing
items related to uh this Saturday's Pride event. So you will see um a few purchases there, including the ice cream giveaways, tie-dye kits. Um and so right now, actually, there's been a couple more charges since we published this
last week. Um the balance for Pride, which you had approved at the April meeting of $3,000 budget, is just under $2,000. Um and by your next meeting in July, we will have a final total, but we don't
anticipate using that entire amount. So the balance, if you include the Pride event remaining balance, is just under $3,000. >> Thank you. Any questions or comments? We will have music. >> Okay.
>> Any other comments or questions on the budget? Treasures report. >> Do we have a motion to approve the treasures report? I'll make a motion to approve the treasures report. >> Do we have a second?
>> I second. >> All in favor say I. >> I. >> I. >> Opposed? And it passes. It's been approved. >> Move. Moving on to old business. Is there anyone here who can talk about Pride the weekend's Pride celebration?
>> I can jump in. Um, yes. this weekend, Saturday, 3 to 6:00 p.m. at Lion's Park. Um the weather doesn't look as hot as last year, so I am thankful for that that it's not this Monday's coming weather. Um
yeah, we're just wrapping up kind of final details at this point in time. Uh we will have food truck, tie dying, several um different groups that will be participating including the library, health and human services from the
county, several churches. Um we have a community art project, um ice cream, treats, the usual. It it'll look very similar to years past, but I know that's been a
good formula for success. So, that is where where the subcommittee landed. Uh, I don't know. We'd love to see commissioners attend and help if they're available that day. >> Are there specific things you need help
on or just show up and see? >> Show up and see if you have availability. >> Okay, cool. >> Well, I'm excited to see it happen. I may not be there. However, I'm happy that's going on. I did take vacation time. I don't know if it's going to be
approved. So, we'll see. >> Any questions or comments on Pride? >> Wear our t-shirts. >> All right, let's move on. River City Days, our cultural celebration. have
anyone here to speak on that? >> Well, I've missed the last meeting, so I'm not sure what I was assigned as far as where we are and we were going to meet last week. Um, however, we um had to reschedule because there was a sickness and someone out the country and
I don't know if we landed on a a new date to reconvene. Yeah. Are we have we? >> No, we have not. Like maybe I missed it. So, uh, more to come, but I do know we secured a couple of of of people, but I'm not sure exactly the groups. If
someone else can speak to who we've secured so far be part of the celebration as far as the parade you happen to know. >> I also there was a tana I don't know if we have an update since uh our emails
after we all we meet. Um, but we have both reached out to a couple different organizations. I reached out to um the walk community and I've kind of bounced to different emails around to try to see
who might be the best uh person to talk to. So I'm still in in that chain. Um as well as the local chapter of the Sons of Norway. Um and I know you had reached out to Latino Voices. Is that correct?
>> Was she included on the email or not yet? Uh we have we have not engaged with her. >> Okay. >> Yet uh I guess >> y >> I will reach out to her if she is still interested. >> Okay.
>> And has anyone reached out to Eastern Carver Somali community? >> So I had a good conversation today with Erica Merik from the school district. Uh she has a long list. um Medina uh from
the school district, she and I connected and she is in touch with our local Somali community and so she's working on some things there. Um as well as I have whole long list of different things that they've done as they've done cultural celebrations within the schools. So that
will be the next thing um is to get connected with those folks. Additionally, our uh Indian community uh we have I have gotten in touch with Chattton who has helped with our celebrate India events. Very excited to be asked. So he is checking within his
community as well. Uh we do have the Romanian community is set to come and um be a part of the celebration and we're also looking into the disabled community and the Ukrainian
community as well. There's a couple of uh options and ideas except for there's going to be a parade in different area um and then also opportunities to present or dance or something whatever folks want to present
as well as an opportunity to table. So we've kind of given folks um opportunities to do all or one of those things or two I suppose too. Um so participate in a variety of different ways. Any
anything else? Sorry, I was taking notes. I'm trying to process it. Um, no other questions on that comments. All right, let's move on then. Any new
business? Commissioner Carlson, it looks like you brought something for us today. >> Um, I wanted to share with you um several documents that um talk about resources within Carver County. One is
this Carver County family resource guide and it's just it's lots of telephone numbers um in a more extended kind of description of what folks do. The most important one is, and I shared a story before we began, is this little orange
card. And this little orange card has I don't know how many numbers on here, but I carry one in my wallet. Um, I was with a group of people the other day and a young person approached us and asked about some help um and needed a
resource. This little orange card just came so in handy because although I know a person, I know the number may maybe I was able to pull it out of my purse and say absolutely the number is and because
we just had Maria's voice here um her organization, Maria's voice is on this piece of paper. I can't find it right off the top of my head, but I feel like it is. And now that I say that, maybe not.
Okay, maybe not. I I'll study that too long. But what >> the phone number that they refer to is >> great. >> So, it's just a it's an easy thing. Um I know we all carry a cell phone. We can all say, "Oh, sure. I can look that up
for you." But Google sometimes takes longer or however whatever data source you use to look up a telephone number to give somebody as a suggested resource. Um, this is all contained in this this wonderful card. The the neat thing about
the orange little card is each year they change the color. So if there are changes in numbers or changes in programming, next year you'll see it on a different color card. But it's just a easy kind of
thing. And the other thing I gave you was a bookmark for the Carver County Family Resource Center. And that's um right here in Chaza at the Chesa Moravian Church. So I and their
hours are probably you can scan the QR code um or take a look at the family resource center that just resources that are here uh available to our Chaza residents um
and uh can be helpful when when there's a need. Thank you for sharing. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Anyone else with new business? >> I just want to let folks know this
actually be my last commission meetings and my family's moving out of the city of Chaza. So, we purchased house in Hopkins. I'm going to be moving to Hopkins. Um I'm going to be staying on the subcommittees that I'm a part of through the end of my term to keep doing the things that I've committed to.
last uh opportunity to be in this seat. So, it's been a privilege for the past five years and I'll miss working with you guys, but I won't be as >> It has been a pleasure working with you for the last No, you say five years. Is
it six? Five and a half. >> Yeah. Um I've enjoyed being on the commission with you and I'm going to miss you. So, I want to leave you with that. >> Can you join us um um at our MLK
breakfast? >> My >> next year, >> you're going to be there. Can you be there? >> Can you? >> I hope so. >> Okay. Don't forget I asked two or three times. >> And don't you don't you normally have
that day off anyway? >> Typically, yes. >> Yes. >> Oh, so you will be there. Fant. I'm not asking I'm not asking you to help. I'm just want to make sure that you're there. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate you. >> Do my best.
>> Any other uh any new business or >> no? No new business. >> I'm going to say something. Um it's not necessarily new business. It's just a thought that I've had. Um, I was kind of thinking about it today in um, Maria's
voice and a lot of things going on within the city or whatever. I work at the jail for those of you who don't know, been there for three years. And I think my first year, year and a half in, um, worked with adults. Now I work with kids, then I was working with
adults. And we had this gentleman came in and he was, um, high. He was out of his mind. and he wasn't there and for three days he kind of sat in booking and nothing happened and he would um just wasn't there
mentally um he was on some sort of drug maybe xylazine I don't who knows what it was um but they'd give him food and through this food tray he never left the room and he would take it and throw it around the room and um so three meals a day I want you to picture a cell and
it's it's concrete it's stinks there's no airflow There's a toilet in there. There's a bed in there. You're in there. You're high, if that's what you want to call it. Um, they're giving you food. You
don't realize it's food. You're throwing it all over your cell. You're spreading it all over the room. Um, you're spreading your urine and feces all over the room uh for two or three days. Think about that. Just picture that. Close your eyes and picture that right now. And picture what that smells like. Um,
no one would enter the room because he was banging on doors and yelling and screaming. This is just one of those people you just didn't want to go into. And um, one of my shifts, it was an hour before I got off, I decided I'm going to try to get this person booked into the
jail and it's like, "Okay, let's do this." And opened up the door and the smell hit me. Boom. It's like, oh, I couldn't breathe. I lost my breath. But this person is in there and he sees me coming and and he's trying to straighten
up a little bit and I walk in. So I got to walk into this room and think of this room that I remember for sure he had baked beans because they're all splattered across the floor a lot of other things. And as I walk into this room, the smell, the look, this person
and I'm a I I'm a I'm a Christian. Okay, so I believe Jesus died for me. All right, that being said, I walked into the room and first thing God said is, "This is where I get my people. This is where I go. I go deep down into the muck, the dirt, the trash, this
environment to help people." And that's kind of how I live my life now. Does that make sense? So, you know, Maria's talking, she was talking uh about helping people. Take that step. go into the deep dark dirt
sometimes and give a person a hand because you don't know what they need. Um, he allowed me to book him in. His attitude tra changed. What happens when you walk into the room? Does the room change for the better or for the worse? And hopefully it changes for the better. So, every time you go into a room, every
time you think um about something, let it be for the better. I guess that's my two cents. I've had a long two days. So, I guess that's my two cents to say, are you making a difference when you walk in and someone really needs your help because you don't know um today might be someone's last day because they're
thinking about taking their own life. And the simple thing of saying hello, how are you could have stopped them from doing that. And I think we have a we have a role here in that we are the light in the darkness. And and so how do we use that? I know we put
on a lot of events, but how do we interact with the community out there when they need us? Um, are we turning away and walking away because it's too hard or actually are we going to step in the dirt and kind of help pull them out or just give them a helping hand or
whatever that may be. Um, so that's my two cents. Sorry, it might be a little It wasn't polished. It wasn't refined. I didn't type it up. It just um I needed to say it before I lost my chance to say it. So, anything else? Any other new business comments,
questions, concerns? I know that was a little deep. Sorry. Nothing else. >> I appreciate that comment. So, >> and if we all take that approach, the world would be a better place. So, >> I think there's a song that we could all sing.
>> Go ahead, sir. >> Yes. I'll be your backup singer. If there's nothing else, our next meeting will be July 23rd, right before River City Days. >> Is there You haven't sent the next meeting for
River City Days yet, right? >> It is on my list to do tomorrow morning anyway. >> I know. All right. Uh if there's nothing else, we can entertain a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjurnn. >> Second.
>> A second. >> All in favor? >> I >> oppose. All right. Bye. See you next week. Oh, let me do this. Oh, I can't