same clinic. Well, So Sorry.
I don't get Anyway,
I see in my opinion. I thought you said the
You ready? All right, we're going to go ahead and get the meeting. I'm calling the meeting to order. If you'll stand for the pledge of allegiance, please standice for all. Please turn your cell phones to vibrate, silence, or the offsetting. The opioid abatement funding advisory board allows any person to speak regarding any item on
the agenda. The speaker is limited to two minutes unless otherwise determined by the chairperson to allow sufficient time for all speakers. Speaker shall refrain from abusive profane remarks. dis disruptive outward protest and other conduct which interferes with the orderly conduct of the meeting. Upon completion of the public comment period, discussion is limited to board members and questions raised by the board. Was the meeting properly advertised?
Madam Chair, this uh meeting was properly advertised on November 26 in the board's weekly meeting schedule. Thank you. All right. Has everybody had an opportunity to review the minutes from our last meeting? Do I have a motion to accept the meeting minutes? Settle the motion to accept the minutes as written. Second and a second. All in favor? I I um do we have any speakers?
Okay, no speakers. Next, we have the budget review. All right. Uh, not much has changed since our last budget meeting because we haven't allocated any funds, but just a reminder that the funding received to date is 5,498,458.51. Of that we have allocated 3,647,362.36
leaving a remaining balance for our future notice of funding availability applicants in the amount of 1 million851,96.15. Thank you. All right, we're ready to elect the next chairperson and vice chairperson. So, you just want us to submit this. And so, you have two sheets of paper in front of you. So, the first one I'm going to have you guys do is select the chairperson. And if you
can just write chairperson on the top of it and then on the second one, just write vice chair. And then just select somebody for the vice chair. And then Philip will grab those. All right, for the chairperson, we have two votes for Katherine White and one vote for Tommy White. Bless your heart. Happy new year. For the vice chair, we have uh two votes for Tommy White
and one vote for John Matthysse. Um just since we're kind of talking about this, just so you guys are aware, I believe you guys have already This is your fourth year, right? You're in your fourth year. Starting your fourth year. Yeah. So, um Kathy, your term expires on May 2026. Uh Tommy, yours expires same time, May 2026. And yours, John,
does not expire until September of 2026. So, we'll be reaching out to whoever appointed you, letting them know that you can't run again. It's a max of four years that they'll have to appoint someone else. Just to kind of give you a heads up. Thank you. Next, we have the reports on the 20 Well, do we have any Do you have anything else that we need
to add as far as 2024 funding availability? So, the 2024 funding availability, we're just going to have those awardes come up and give you guys a quick update on where they're at. Um, just to also give you a heads up on that that their one year is coming to an end in a few months. So, at the next meeting, I'll probably have an update with that. Um, if any of the applicants did not use some of their funding, it'll get returned to the pool of funds when that contract ends. Okay. Community health, do you guys want to start?
Good morning. Thank y'all um for having us here. Um we really don't have a whole lot of updates. Things are kind of clicking along. Um I do want to thank y'all for the reallocation of the 2024 funds. Speaking of spend down, we will now be able to spend down the vast majority of the funds that were allocated in 2024. Um again, we we we haven't sought anything in 2025. Um, and so we we just want to be good stewards of what you've already given us. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, emergency management core.
Good morning. Core has been uh continuously busy. Um we have now transitioned over 514 patients that have successfully um found sobbriety and healing which has been uh tremendous. Uh we still that's out of 591 we've still maintained an 87% success rate which is still uh tremendous. Uh year-over-year we have increased our number of patient encounters from,249 for all
of 2024 to 2711 thus far. Wow. We have we have definitely been non-stop. Um one thing that we are still working against is stigma in the community allowing folks who are receiving Matt treatment to be a part of other programs. this community really needs to look at itself and realize that these folks are trying to do the right thing that we shouldn't discourage them. Um, as well as it is protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act. And for anyone listening,
I that's a reminder. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, CAT aim program. Good morning, Patty Hyde for Lake View. Um, we have uh were at full staff and then we lost somebody, so we're hiring again, but we were able to get our case manager on board. Um, everything's running really well. The groups are going every week. Um, we are having some
barriers with transportation, kind of like what we predicted. Uh, it's just hard for parents to get their kids up there um after school while they're cooking dinner. So, um, we haven't been able to utilize our van for, uh, pickup in the community. Um, so we we were looking forward to that next year, but I don't think we'll be able to next year either. Um, we have, uh, nine clients right now, and we'll soon be at the 15 uh, case load, the the cap for 15
uh, this month. So, we're excited about that. Thank you. Yes, ma'am. Uh, Opus. Good morning. Pardon my old joints. Um, okay. for uh end of September and October, the Opus team has distributed 179 boxes of Narcan, 160 uh fentanyl test strips, uh seven wound care um kits
and uh have conducted uh seven rapid heepsi test and 10 rapid HIV tests. Um they've done a total of eight education sessions um for overdose and infectious diseases for community outreach. Uh they participated in the International Overdose Awareness Day event that Hope Above Fear um sponsored at Valerie House and uh we also donated a basket to Sandy Key Medical. They held a raffle
um for uh to raise funds for Jaime's mom's house which um helped support um loved ones of people who've overdosed. Um and the basket was filled with a lot of risk reduction supplies like Narcan and fentel test strips, condoms, things like that. So apparently the raffle went pretty well. Um they've expanded um outreach to a couple of new homeless encampments. Um, one behind McDonald's at Fairfield and Pace. Um, one is behind the thumb on Mobile Highway and the other is on Herman Street
across from Waterfront. They've got uh some people over there too. So, they've uh expanded uh out outreach street outreach to those areas. Um they did a total of eight referrals, four to substance use treatment, um two to Can Community Health, uh one for um additional STD testing at the Florida Department of Health. And that's about it. Thank you. Thank you. Uh Ministry Village
Good morning. Uh we are excited to let you know that we have secured uh architect. We have also finished out civil engineering and now we are looking at uh finishing up the development order. Uh we have also secured a uh construction group that's going to build the building and the property has already been cleared. So we're ready to move forward. Uh we're at 20 ladies right now. Our max is 22. So, we are ready to get moving with the space that is needed. Thank you. Thank you. And Waterfront Mission,
Mark is Bill Waterfront. Um, happy to announce last month we had our ribbon cutting for our our houses. So, uh, in fact, uh, even with that ribbon cutting, we were waiting one last thing that's now finished. And uh beginning of last week, we had uh men start moving into the house. And so we're we're occupied. Uh now we'll have more. We have a graduation on December 12th, so we'll have more men moving in uh the weekend after that. Uh we have already received one reimbursement request and we'll be submitting our final uh request this month that will finish our our funding. So just
thank you for that and we'll we'll be done with this month. That's awesome. Thank you. Thank you. The next item on the agenda is the 2526 notice of funding availability. Additional application discussion. Um the first item we have is BreitBridge Ministry. Hi, thank you. Cheryl Hinnan, assistant director, and Ashley Brown, executive director at BreitBridge Ministries. We have a um a minor question for all of you. Um BreitBridge
Ministries would like to formally request an adjustment regarding our grant allocation for the case manager salary line item. Due to the delayed start of just so you know, we have a few grants that were delayed and we'll be starting at the beginning of this year. So I want you to know that this is a minor change but the same amount of money that would be allocated for 44% of salaries that total is $27,945 would be just divided between these two case managers which would be equally
obviously working with the grant. You might remember at the last meeting I asked you, we have three individuals who are in that category of case manager, shelter manager, one wears two hats. And so of those three, these two in particular, we're saying instead of just one receiving the full funding at 44% that those two be divided at 22%, which would basically bring the amount that each of them would be um allotted to $13,945.
Thank you. Do you have any questions? Anybody? All right. Thank you. Thank you. And I think we do need you guys to vote on that. Okay. Unless you want to vote on that one and reap together. Either is fine. Let's Do you want to go ahead? Let's go ahead and vote on this one first. Do I have a motion to accept the changes by BreitBridge Ministry? Oh, okay. I'll make the motion we accept the changes. Do I have
a second? Second. All in favor? I. So, the motion passes. Next, we have Reap. Good morning. Vinnie Whs, executive director of RIT Pensacola. I'm here to answer any questions that the board may have. I have one. Um, I was looking through your your documentation and this may be
a question for for all of the programs and I was look after reading yours and not to you just kind of like happen to be the one that kind of like set the questions in motion. um out of waterfront uh Westminster uh Breitb any any other ones that's providing housing. Is it usual and customary that the people coming through the programs are charged to be there? I will give you a a general answer and then they can certainly answer. But typically,
yeah, I mean the program is designed to give these folks the case management that they need to get them back on their feet and to become self-independent. So part of that process and it might be through SNAP benefits of some sort or disability or it could be just getting a job. So, initially I will say most of them come into the program with no fee, but once they go through the case management and get on their feet and get a job or get their benefits, then typically they will start to pay something because eventually they're going to need to transition out on their
own. And this just kind of starts their process of budgeting and how do I pay for those things. Um, but certainly anybody else can give a response, but that's just my experience. Uh, I've seen waterfront. Uh can you can you kind of can give a I would echo exactly what said. Um usually when people come into the program there is no fee to it. Uh as they obtain employment uh as they obtain housing there is a we call a program participation fee and really it is that exercise of learning how
to use and manage a budget. Um and so that's what that fee from Brightbridge perspective echoing ditto to you. a great job as well. And I would just say it actually is a disservice to them to not eventually move into that or they do not learn the behavioral skills to budget, to pay a living rent, etc. Uh we tend to not have any program fees for the first 45 to 60 days and then they can ramp up towards what our program fees are based on the income that they're
getting in either day labor or W2 employment. So it's very individualized case management, but it is a part of that recovery process. Westminster can what we do is after graduation which is one year so our program is one year then transitional living is after that transitional living so 13 months after that is 10% of their right and that's we know that's I I kind of like that model I know
um um the other models I don't know how long after before they start paying a fee. Uh at Waterfront, it would be six months into the program. So, it's really their last three months of the program where they gained employment. Okay. All right. And so, in your proposal here, you got the first two weeks after acceptance and therefore after will be charged 1250 per day as as program fees.
So the challenge that I have is that person comes in totally messed up. How are you going to get them in two weeks able to pay fees for for for the program? That that just seems to be that just seems to be unrealistic. And so what do you do? You So now if they So what do you do then? you just just say, "Hey, you can't pay, so you got to go." That's a that's
a very good question. Let me for the most part, I would echo the comments made by each each of the organizations. Or do you only accept certain people that have the ability to pay? No, mo most of the people that come that we anticipate coming in this program will be as described by Liz, they're going to come out and they don't have any any resources. And so you got to figure out a way to make it work for them. Uh if you look at look at our budget, the amount of money that we we uh proposed for spending on housing uh is not enough to cover
the normal rents for the for the course of the the year period for the two houses. At the same time, we recognize and we have to do it on a case-byase basis. What is that person what do they have? What what assets do they have? If they don't have assets, then you've got to give them a longer time. And so I wouldn't want the uh the board to to feel like uh we're going to hold to a strict uh two-eek period. It's going to be based on an individual basis. Uh when they are working uh they're stabilized, then we expect them to pay because that's part of that participation
uh that it's a part of it. It's part of that training that they're going to need to move on to the next state. So if you said are you committed to to two weeks, I would say we can back off that. uh that that's not a fair but I would say that it's important that we have in our program the ability to to charge individuals when they're in a position whereby they can pay. I can understand that but here you in your language you have two weeks after acceptance into the program and
I can't agree with that. I mean that's too I mean what are you going to do in two what would a person do in two weeks? Let me ask you, is there some particular language that would be acceptable that would meet both the needs of the individual and and for for the organization that's running the program? So, how long is the how long is your program? Uh, we expect the program will be about six weeks for each of the individuals. We expect that kind of a turn and so that in the course in the course of a year it would turn five or six times for each of the houses
for each of the individuals. So, your program is six weeks. That's correct. And this is the this is your treatment program. So now you walk me through your program. All right. The individual would first probably be referred to us either from core from a local hospital uh uh on discharge of the patients uh refer referrals to us uh from the individuals themselves or their family or from for
example a re-entry program. uh a number of the people that are being released into the re-entry program uh about 70% of them have have a history of addiction and so they would come from a number of different sources. We would bring them into our program and immediately assign a case manager to them, an experienced case manager as well as a uh a peer peer specialist that would be residing in the house where they they would be residing. uh and work that way. Uh close close contact on a very regular basis to get them through that initial uh several weeks uh of uh of suffering
uh and and uh giving up uh uh the status that they're in and then moving forward and then when they get to the point where they they can make it on their own uh they will be released into that. We will follow up thereafter uh as a case man on a regular basis but but the concept is is really a a short-term transitional program. Okay. And so do you have addition to this right here? Okay. So this is your intake housing. So what's your transitional housing? Do you do you deal?
So I take it you have other spaces for transition where you kind of move them forward. Well, let me let me just say this that right now reap uh as a total organization, we have over 22 houses. Uh and uh out of out of those 22, there are three of them that are that are uh u a little bit larger facilities that have uh at least six or more people in them. U and and that's kind of kind of our philosophy is, you know, smaller homes if they need individualized uh treatment kind of a
deal and then moving forward from there. Okay. So your program is six weeks. That's correct. You're you're stabilizing like two weeks. Yeah. We want them to be stable. When they're stable, we want them to move out and move move for the next person, right? So why not give them that six week reprieve while they're in the program until you get them to transitional housing because 6 weeks is only a month and a half. Um and based on you know and to me I you know to me that's a very
short period of time also when you're dealing with somebody that may have a serious addiction problem a a month and a half to be on a stable situation. Um, so why not give them that 6 weeks reprieve time to actually to so that's one less thing that they have to be concerned about of how I'm going to make this payment $1250 a day. So how would how do you how do you recoup how do you get that from them? I I I I think the important part is that a a necessary uh part of that recovery process
is imposing upon them some some some rules and regulations that they must abide to. No, I get that. No, I I I definitely get that. I understand that wholeheartedly. No, it's just not like a free-for-all where you're just willy-nilly in and out the door. You got to have this. My concern is a person that's on the streets and need help and let's just say the Opus team goes out find someone out in one of the encampments and they need a space but they have no financial way of paying
for one of these situations. What do we do? We just what do we just turn them away? What what I would suggested to do at that person time uh with that person is get them with that case manager. that case manager says, "This person's doing A, B, and C, and D that we need them to do, but he doesn't have the funding. He doesn't have any any source of funding. Just let them ride till you work through that thing." That's kind of the idea is that as they move forward and they make their progress, then then you start getting in a position whereby you can charge them.
I might Tommy interject here reading this the 1250 per day but then right after that with case managers having the authority to adjust this mount depending on the client's particular financial circumstances. I think that sums it up right there. So I really don't have an issue with this. So okay I think the other two if I can just interject is to remember that not every person is the same and everybody is going to be in a different situation. And if if I found somebody out on the street that needed a place to stay immediately that had no income, shelter is
step one. Then you can connect them to the case workers and figure out if is it opioid addiction that they need. They might need something entirely different. So there is kind of that assessment period. There's not going to be a if I've learned anything in my years being involved in nonprofits, there is not a one one thingall kind of thing. So each individual has to be assessed at wherever they're at. Um, lucky for us, Escambia County has some amazing resources for just about every uh person I can think of, but it's not all of them are going to fit in Vinnie's transitional
housing. They're just not right. Right. And I think to maybe put you at ease, we can also require reporting tenant based so that we could see, okay, who's who's in what house? When were they put in? When did they start paying rent? What is the source of rent? You know, and you might see somebody who's been there for four weeks that hasn't paid anything. You might see somebody who's there one week and they already had an income and they're able to pay something. But we can track that too to make sure that the funds are being used as as they're intended. And we need to
keep in mind just like you said, this is a six-w weekek program. Some of the other programs are year-long programs. So, it does make a difference. Um, that's I don't have any issues with that. Any other questions? Do we need to take a vote on this? Yeah, we have to take a vote. So, do I have a recommendation to accept the re program as it is? So moved. and a second.
As chair, I'm going to pass the baton over to you so that I can second this. Do I need to do anything else for that? Okay, you have to say please vote. Please vote. Vote I I You're voting against I am based on the two weeks I am voting against. Okay.
Next we have new business. Are there any items for discussion? Um just wanted to let you guys know that the 2526 applications are going to go to the BCC on Thursday, December 11th. So, at the next meeting that we have, we'll be able to let you guys know how that vote goes, and we should also have the contracts drawn up for the each um nonprofit. Great. So, the next thing that we need to do is just schedule our next meeting
for February. Would that be or when? Okay. Before we do that, let me ask a question. Uh, Liz, in your you're reporting, um, well, once you you're drawing up your contracts, um, can you include those questions of like how long a program is and what is it a participant uh, expected to pay for those particular programs. So we can have that information moving forward. Um,
you know, as what what they're, you know, how long the program, what they're expected to pay, and all that great stuff. Yeah, we can probably add that in a spreadsheet might be the easiest way to view that so we know exactly what each entity is doing, how long. Yeah, we can do that. Okay. And don't get me wrong, and I understand things have to be taken care of, compensated for, but I also think in the spirit of actually of our mission, and this is, you know, um sometimes people say I think take things really to heart, in which this mission is I really take this mission
to heart. Um because I've had a a um couple of family members pass away from opioid addiction. uh my sister-in-law um died from from that and uh and so being appointed to this board at that particular matter of fact it happened around the same time that appointed to this board and uh and the um from Miss uh Stephanie coming in and then Miss House coming in and and conveying the stories of their sons and things of that nature. And I want people to understand,
and I know we don't have much time left. Um, I I do not take this as just, let me just say this, just a willy-nilly board. I look at this as doing real work, saving real lives, having a real impact. And when we were tasked tasked with this, I thought it was like one of the greatest and I've served on a few different boards. But I think this board right here has probably been one of the most the greatest honors of serving on because of the mission and being a formal uh naval aircraft
controller. Missiondriven is very important to me. Um and I'm sure it's important to everyone on this board from Katherine to Chief Matthysse. And forgive me for the sometime the hard questions and things of that particular nature, but I wanted to understand because I knew once this information and stuff hit the streets. I get, you know, uh, inundated with calls about different things from different people with different organizations all the time about, hey man, I need and I and I've had to tell them in a nice gentle way that is not our mission. Our mission is
about saving lives. It's impacting lives, saving lives. And I apologize about I know I sometimes ask some of the hard questions and some of the detailed questions because I want to make sure that we're on our mission. And at the end of the day, we can be accountable for and as Joey, he was one of one of the first people I was able to interact with being part of this board and go down there to the EMS center to see exactly what they do. And that core organization is is a hell of
an organization. I thank God for them because I've referred people to them and they rapidly responded the same day in order to help save lives. And so I just want everyone to understand as that continue to keep the mission first in our in our our our charge and and this is nothing against but I just know that I've seen people addicted and I
know sometimes circumstances and time frames and the time that you're asking them to turn around. Be cognizant of that that a few weeks is not going to get it. It's not going to get it. And so when you when you're detailing your programs, give them grace. Give them grace. For we all need grace at some time, but give them grace. That's all I have to say. Thank you.
Thank you. Our next board meeting, how does everybody's calendar look for February the 9th? No. Will in the creek. Don't I'm second. I won't be here the February the 9th, but that's fine. I haven't missed any in recently. Uh let's move it to the second just in case. How about the second? Can you do that day? Won't be out of town the entire month of February. Okay. When I grow up, I want to be just like Chief Matis, man.
You know, we're going to keep going. So, how do you look in March? Like the first is Are you available March the 2nd? I'll be leaving the around the 10th of January and back in town around the 10th of March or something like that. Will we be fine for March the 16th? If I knew for sure Matt would be here, can we can we contact Matt and see if he can be here in February? Do you want to schedule it in February and then we'll reach out to both to Dr. Irvin and
and let you guys know if we need to reschedu it. Let's let's go ahead then where we'll schedule it for February the 9th and then if you'll just reach out and let us know and if we need to reschedule we'll do so at that time. Okay. All right. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you. Thank you.