Okay, welcome everybody and thank you very much for joining us tonight. To begin, I'd like to ask Hannover Township Police Chief Mike Lock to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. Chief to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it
stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you, Chief. Okay, we would like to begin by introducing our panel starting with our superintendent of re the regional high
school, Maria Carol. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you for having me tonight. Maria Carroll. I'm superintendent of the Hanover Park Regional High School District. >> Well, good evening. Uh, first and foremost, I'd like to uh give Mayor Penulla um his regrets that he couldn't
be here tonight. he wanted to be here. He had a conflict. Um, my name is John Centenni. I'm the coordinator for the office emergency management and the fire director for East Standover. I'm a uh retired firefighter, chief of the department for New York, 30 years.
>> Hi, I'm Tracy Capichelli, the director of the New Jersey statewide student support services program for Morris and Sussex counties. >> Good evening everyone. Chief Jack Ambrose, Mars County Sheriff's Office, Chief of the Patrol Division, and I'm
very happy to represent Sheriff Ganon in his absence. >> Mark Taylor, Burough Floren Park Mayor. I want to thank my very good friend Ace and for all his uh cohorts here, Christa, for getting this all together and uh putting this meeting together as a great idea. Thank you, Mark. Hover
Township Mayor Tom A. Gallagher. >> Who's Tom? Mayor Tim Dy Marstown. Steven Shaw, director of the Morris County Board of County Commissioners. >> Donna Geriglia, mayor of Morris Township, Carolyn Dempsey, mayor of the
Burough of Cadam. And I just want to say I'm thrilled to be here. This is my first time in uh Hannover Township in the chambers. And I would thank Mayor Gallagher for for the invitation. >> Britney Hler, program coordinator for recreation and Hanover Township.
>> I didn't know we were going uh Fern Walen. I'm a resident of Hanover Township for about 38 years and I'm here tonight speaking on behalf of the New Jersey coalition against human trafficking. >> Chelsea Whiten Morris County Sheriff's
Office. I'm the hope one and hope coordinator. >> I'm Mike Lock, the police chief here in Hanover Township. >> Hi everybody. My name is Meg Rodriguez. I'm chief assistant prosecutor at the Morris County Prosecutor's Office. Happy to be here on behalf of prosecutor Carol
John Misha, police chief, Madison, uh, Madison, New Jersey. I'm also, uh, a board member for the Hanover Township Regional Board of Ed, and I happen to be the, uh, president of the Mars County Police Chief Association for this year. So, thank you, mayor, for for having me
tonight. Thank you. Uh, my name is Rich Kilmer. I'm a Sergeant Bon. Uh, obviously, I'm a little further out, but I'm a guest of ACE. I work in our community outreach unit and uh our arrive together program. >> Thank you very much sir
GQ recreation park. >> Good evening everybody. I am Chris Park High School. >> Hi everyone. Dr. Lisa, well coordinator. >> Hi everybody. Thank you AC for having us
here tonight. I'm council. >> We still have a few more people that are part of our solution here. I think Dr. Cap back there. >> Thank you. Steve Park super >> and I see another superintendent over there. >> Yeah,
Township superintendent Steve. >> Well, thank you very much everybody for being here. I have an opening comment and then we're going to get right to it. Welcome and thank you very much for joining us here tonight. And for the record, we will be recording this entire
symposium so it could be viewed by everyone and anyone at any time in the privacy of their own homes. I would like to take a minute and set the stage and run through the purpose of tonight's mental health and wellness symposium and
what we would like to accomplish in the time we will be spending together. Many times in our lives when we are facing difficulty or challenges in almost any area, we may say to ourselves, I know what to do, but I don't know how to do it. Or, I think I know what I should do,
but I don't know how to do it. From there, the problem solving path is usually pretty consistent. It is to reach out to the best most competent trustworthy people we can and from there work to access the best resources available to us to work towards
addressing that specific need or concern. However, in parenting too many times we actually don't know what to do, how to do it or wonder sometimes if we even have a problem at all or who to speak to if we do in fact believe we have a
problem. It is tough. How many times have we heard there is no handbook for parenting? Well, there are actually plenty of handbooks for parenting, but not one that can possibly address each specific need of each individual child.
The purpose of this type of symposium is very specific and designed to introduce as many students, parents, and/or guardians as possible to the incredible people and resources we have right here in Hannover Township, as well as the phenomenal people and
resources we have throughout many of our neighboring municipalities and the top agencies here in Morris County and the state of New Jersey. Tonight, we have assembled the top representatives in the highest levels of
public service that specifically deal with our mental health and wellness. These top professionals are prepared to run through many issues that many of our children and us parents may be currently facing.
They will also be very clear on who to call if we do have a problem, a concern, or just even a question. From there, they will discuss many available programs and initiatives that they currently offer and that are
available every day for any student, parent or guardian if they believe they may be helpful. The Mental Health Association along with this diverse panel will also go through many issues that our families may be currently struggling with and will share with you
the many resources and programs that are available every day, 24 hours a day to anyone and everyone that may want or need them. The panel is comprised of the very best tople professionals in this field. they
are ready, willing, and able to serve and be there for you with just one phone call, text, or email. The last takeaway for tonight is we want to make it crystal clear to everyone that you are not alone. We are all available to you and to each other at
all times and all the resources we have access to are yours and they are just one phone call away. And for the record, if anyone would like to reach out to me personally at any time for any reason, please call 973-428-2466
or 973441 0114. Thank you very much and I'd like to begin the program. And the title of this presentation is bringing wellness to your students, staff, and our community.
Maria Carol Thank you, Mayor Gallagher. Good evening, everyone. As Mayor Gallagher said, I'm Maria Carroll. I'm superintendent of schools of the Hanover Park Regional High School District. To my left is Mr. Kelly, principal of Whippony Park High School. And to my right is Dr. Algyire. She is our
district wellness coordinator, which is a very unique program to our high school pro our high school district. So, you know, I wanted to start out by talking to you a little bit about our mission as educators within the Hannover Park Regional High School District. And that when we talk about education, many of us
just think about reading, writing, and arithmetic. But what we really truly believe and foster in the Hannover Park Regional High School District is the education of the whole child. looking at the whole child from a comprehensive standpoint, looking at their academics, but then also looking at their social
emotional wellness and how the growth of the academic program directly co correlates to the social emotional wellness of a student. So what we had done, let me just so back in the 202021 school year, and
I'm sure many of you remember what was going on in 2020 and 2021, we started to talk about wellness and we started to talk about student mental health. But what we wanted to do is we wanted to change the focus of what mental health was. And we wanted to change the focus
by using the concept of wellness, knowing that wellness was something that was very important to our student population in order for them to learn and grow. If you look at Maslo's hierarchy in the bottom of the triangle of Maslo's hierarchy, some of the bottom pillars of that hierarchy are safety and
security. You need students to feel safe and secure in order for them to reach self-actualization at the pinnacle of that pyramid. So what we wanted to do is we wanted to put in programs in order to allow our students to not only feel safe and secure physically but also feel safe
and secure mentally. So that's where that concept of wellness has come in. And what we have done is we um hired actually a district wellness coordinator with Dr. Algy which is one of the first uh types of positions we've had in the state um with regards to this position.
And what Dr. Algy has done is she's worked with myself, Mr. Kelly and the rest of the administrative team very closely in order to develop a wellness program. So over the course of the presentation tonight, you'll hear from Dr. Algyer and Mr. Kelly to talk about what wellness is, what our district does
um regarding the wellness program and what impact that wellness program has specifically on our school community. And when we talk about school community, we're not just talking about students. We're talking about students, parents, and the greater community at large. As Dr. Algar would talk about some parent
presentations that she hosts on a regular basis, one at which she held even last night um over at Hanover Park. Um and then obviously some wellness strategies and techniques that we use with our students in order for them to be successful both in the classroom and
outside of the classroom as well. Good evening everyone. So thank you for the introduction. Thank you for the invitation to be here. I am very passionate about what I do. I'm privileged to take care of the children in our community to be one with our
peers, our colleagues, our families, our extended families. And when we think of wellness, it's a very buzzing word right now. What is wellness? Is it yoga? Is it namaste? It it could be. I like that part, but it's so much more than that. We're talking about how do we perceive
oursel? How do we perceive oursel in the in the realm of academics? How do we feel in the body we've been given? Do we feel socially connected? Are we isolated? Do we feel secure financially? Talk about Maslov and what is most important. Do we have food on the table,
roof over our head? If not, how are we supposed to feel well in the school building? And if not, can we help connect you to resources that you might need? When we think about other aspects, we talk about emotional. A lot of our kids, they're so insightful, but some have not been asked, "How are you
feeling?" Well, in what way? In connection to your ability, in connection to your identity, in connection to your family relationships. Do you belong somewhere on this campus? Do you feel like you're seen somewhere in this campus? And how to make make the connections with them so there is more
of a support system in place outside of the home and with us. We also talk about why is wellness important now more than ever. Oh, I'm You got me on my toes here. Now more than ever and really the past 5
to 10 years, there has been an increasing need for support. And why might that be? Why now, right? Why not 20 years ago, 30 years ago? We're talking about a very complex intersection of not just oh there was a
pandemic and we were locked down and that was very stressful which believe it or not five years later we're still seeing residual impact because there's a great sense of isolation and a low access to help. And during the time of a need for help there was a record time
low of providers but a record high of needs. So what were people doing at home by themselves? How are they coping? Were they turning to substance abuse? Was there abuse in the home? Was there feelings of not feeling understood and connected? A lot of that has still have
impact today on the adults and the children. There is a lot of managing pressure. There's a perfectionistic feel that we have for the students. We have to achieve well. We have to get this particular school. I have to have a plan. They're 14. Their prefrontal
cortex is not done cooked yet. They're not finished. they're not developed. How are they supposed to know? But they feel whether it's from social media, from parental expectations, from just the general vibe in their community. I should know. I should know what to do the rest of my life the next 40 years.
And if you ask any one of us, you know, we don't know in 5 years what we want to do sometime. So, how can we expect it of them? But they feel the pressure. They're not sure what to do with it. There's a burnout possibility when we are with all of our helping fields in this room. When working with families,
with teachers, with students, with law enforcement, with social services, there's compassion fatigue. So, can we talk about that? Can we give light to it? Can we connect with each other? This is hard. This is hard work. Can I understand and get an empathetic nod from someone, a side conversation with a
colleague and leaders in our building? How can I get through today? This has been a lot. And we want to provide a dialogue for all of that. There's also an understanding that when the morale of the students and the staff feel better, we do better. When the families feel more supported, when I can
throw a lifeline to a family, here's a care plus phone number. Here's MHI. Have you talked about NJ4s in your home yet? Can we discuss if you need nourish? Is there not there's not enough food in your household? Is there a political unrest and and scarcity and anxiety that's brewing in your home that's
bubbling over into the school day? Is there someone I can connect you to? Can you text 988? All of these different community resources, they develop over time, it's my is it my fourth year, my fifth year? It feels longer, but the more I reach out and understand who's in our
community to connect our kids to and our adults to, the better off they feel supported. the more secure they feel that there's someone else on the end of the line and the better they perform in school and then most importantly the better they feel about themselves the more value they have.
So I don't typically use a microphone. I hope that's okay. Um I've been given kind of two parameters for tonight. You don't talk too much cuz it takes me 10 minutes just to say hello and then try to make sure that the volume microphone. >> I do have to use the microphone. All right. Well, I warned everybody. So,
full full disclosure. >> I've never seen >> All right, there we go. So, uh I also walk around a lot while I talk. So, I'm going to move over here if that's okay. Um couple of things that I uh I need to give you just my my general impression
on this. So, it's my 11th year as high school principal at Whippy Park High School. I started at Hanover Park and the other principal at Hanover Park High School and I were pretty much in lock step. Pretty much everything that we're talking about here is mirrored in both schools. So, it's really really important for those of you who are curious about Anna Park, it's the same
thing. I once heard a quote long ago that if your students feel safe and secure in the building, then the test scores will take care of themselves. And I think that that's something that we always tried to do. That was always the goal of our school communities or small schools or community- based schools. A lot of our students, they come back,
they live in town, they're send their students or their kids back to our schools. I have a lot of teachers who went to Hanover Park. I have teachers who went to Whippony Park High School. It's a very very tight-knit community and that's one of the things that we really really enjoy about it. But I would say it started in about 2010 2011
with the advent of cell phones and access to the internet. You started to see students feel more and more isolated and they were still kind of wrapping their head around it. Now we have these students who are fully digital natives. They are immersed in a world that is completely digital and they have two realities. So when I have meetings with
my students, I have class meetings once a marking period. I meet with all our students and I say to them, you have the reality in which you live with us, the face tof face reality, the reality with adults with handshakes, eye contact, smiles, nuance, but then you also have this digital realm in which you live. I'm not a native to that, but you know
things before we know things. You see things brewing before we see things. And what we're constantly trying to do in the school culture that results in wellness that'll impact academic performance, improving their health outcomes, they're fostering meaningful relationships, supporting social emotional learning, bolstering healthy
healthier social and academic habits, increasing student engagement and awareness, and empowering them. Really, it boils down to one word. If you ask me, it's connectivity. Our students are starving for connectivity. And when they go out into the real world and they immerse themselves or they sit down and
they'll sit and watch a phone for hours, they will scroll through Tik Tok, they'll scroll through Instagram and they will spend a lot of time interfacing with something that's curated and it's really trying to manipulate them. What we try to do is when we bring them back into the
building, we have people like Dr. Algy, we have our SRO's and our CEO in the building and we have our guidance counselors and we have our teachers and at every faculty meeting and every time I talk to them, there are a couple things that I ask them to do. Number one, in order for our kids to connect with us and feel like they're part of
us, we have to get to know them. We need to know their names. We need to know a little bit about them. We need to know what they're dealing with. And that also has to have a ton of communication between our faculty, our staff, our administration. So on a daily basis, we're trying to touch base with the students. We're trying to touch base
with the wellness coordinator, with the guidance counselors, with the teachers. And I have in Hover Park High School and at Whitney Park, we have an open door policy. And we say to the kids, you don't have to be Batman. You don't have to save somebody else. But if you feel like somebody's struggling, tell an
adult. Tell a coach. Because we tell our coaches, we train our coaches on how to deal with these things. We have meetings at the beginning of the year and we do talk strategy and we talk about winning games which is important right but we also talk about if you want a healthy culture of a team those students have to
feel secure and they have to feel validated and they have to feel seen and that's one of the things that we're constantly trying to do because 15 years ago it was more about test scores it was more about showing up and now like you said it's this intersection of so much information that quite frankly they
can't process it and what we're really trying trying to do is just build a community and a sense of belonging and a sense of safety where no matter what's going on in the world, all the noise in the world, all the noise at home, when you walk into the building, you feel like you have a connection. It might not be with me, which is probably a good
thing in some ways, right? They don't want to talk to me, but it might be with Dr. Algy or it might be with their counselor. It might be with their coach. It might be with a teacher. It could be with an aid. It could be with anybody in that building who we understand if they need help, they can reach out to. and then that person can reach out to me or
somebody else in the district and we can get them help. And that's ultimately our goal. But if you have this overarching sense of it's important that your state of mind is in a good place and that you feel comfortable here and comfortable enough to ask for help because you feel
connected, then chances are we can really help you. And on a daily basis there are kids who struggle probably more than I've ever seen. You know, I'm a product of the 80s. So, a lot of this didn't even exist back then, right? But it's a different world. It's a different
reality. And we try to make sure that those kids can connect to somebody so that they can feel that they're important and where they are mentally and emotionally and physically, quite frankly, puts them in a better space. So, thanks to the leadership of
Mrs. Carol, we brought on Dr. Algy. um if I could clone her, I would have 10 of her in my building every day. Um because the kids, they flocked to her. And I will tell you this, and I'll get into some other things, but last year was probably the biggest test of me as a principal, bar none. I had a student who
was almost fatally taken from us. Um it's still hard for me to talk about. And she was in an accident with several other students. As much as I was worried about the student who was in critical condition, I had five other girls who were on the
precipice of leaving and going to college, she got them into the building. She met with them. That was the connectivity. And that for me was a big test for us. And I think if we can continue to do that where the kids when they're really dealing with something
visceral and brutal, if they can feel connected to somebody and I can get them back in the building and they can go to class and they can go to lunch and they can see somebody, then I think we're winning. And fortunately that I mean you all know what I'm talking about, right?
Um we had a big day for the young lady and it was a great story. It's a resounding success story. I'll carry it with me forever. But the people behind the scenes who help those kids, we're the wellness coordinator, the counselors, we're the teachers, and it's
all about connectivity. Okay. So then just some of the nuts and bolts, we infuse a lot of this into our curriculum, right? So we train our teachers, we talk to them about how you talk to kids, when you talk to kids, mandatory reporting, things of that nature. And then we also have a lot of
character education and service learning. And I'll get into that a little bit more. That's part of our character education. But in a nutshell, it's really about taking what you're learning and putting into action. Because if you do that, the studies will show you. And anecdotally, I will tell you, you have a more empathetic group of students in the building. And if you
have more empathetic students in the building, you have quite frankly a nicer place to work and a nicer place to go to school. Um, we do a ton with our co-curricular programs. We have a lot of clubs, so many clubs. And I'll come back to that later as well. How that's also going to go back to what I started with
connectivity. Like if you don't have a club and there's not something here for you, what do you want to do? Maybe we can start one. It might fade in 6 years cuz you've moved on. But I got you into the building. You're a wild cat. You're a hornet. You have an identity. You've
been validated. You've been seen. Oh, you're not doing great. Let's talk. And it's kind of the the way you can pull them in and make them feel like they're a part of something bigger than themselves. and also feel supported. Um, Dr. Alaggy does a ton of programming with our students and our parents. And then of course we have crisis
intervention that we use all the time. Um, I'm sorry that I made eye contact with Chief Rock when I said crisis, but sometimes he gets the call. Um, and then we also have a ton of connection to the community resources as well as risk assessment protocols and things like that that are all built in. So if I'm
out of the building for whatever reason, my assistant principal, he knows what the steps are to help somebody. We have a lot of protocols in place because ultimately at the end of the day, we just want to make sure, like I say to them when they're freshman, when you walk in this door, I want to see you in four years when you're wearing the cap
and gown and you're walking out. And the only way we can do that is if we have a sense of community and connectivity. We've talked a lot about the overarching umbrella and the program in it as a whole, but one thing that we didn't talk about is how this gets into the classrooms on a daily basis. So, some of
the things is that that we have that's very unique to the Hannover Park Regional High School District. As Mr. Kelly said, when I speak about the district, I'm speaking about Hannover Park High School and Whippony Park High School is that we have wellness courses that are integrated into our program. courses like dynamics of healthcare, fundamentals of health and wellness and
scientific principles and nutrition. Those are actually dual credit courses where students are getting coursework not only through Hannover Park Regional High School District, but they're also getting credit through Ruckers University. So, those are dual credit programs that are focused specifically
specifically on health and wellness. Um, mindfulness, which is a unique course, a semester course elective that we have for our upper classmen at Hannover Park Regional. Um, Dr. Algy pushes into that class at times. Um, and that is a very popular elective with our upper classmen. Public speaking is something
that we initiated or we reinitiated back recently into our curriculum. And it's interesting what we're seeing in public speaking is the anxiety that students are having to speak in front of a group. Dr. Algy is working with those students to push in to manage that anxiety and
allow students to be flourishing in a public type of speaking environment. So Dr. Dr. Algy services are not only on that broader spectrum, but they're getting pushed into the classroom in courses such as this. We have an independent reading initiative in our English language arts departments at
both high schools. The concept of choice is extremely important for our students. Giving the students choice empowers them and allows them to learn and grow in the manner at which they choose. So that independent reading initiative is very important to us in order to allow
students that concept of choice. Obviously, I talked about Dr. Algy and how she pushes in to the um to classes, and it's not only the classes that I spoken about. There's a number of classes that she will push into on a regular basis to talk to them about self- advocacy. Our freshman seminar
program she has been in multiple times to talk about how as freshmen you can advocate for yourself to allow for additional stu student success, allow them to make those responsible decision-making skills. We know they're adolescents. We know they're going to make mistakes, but the question is going
to be, how are you going to learn and grow from those mistakes in order to be successful human beings in the future? Developing that social awareness and relationship skills are pivotal. As Mr. Kelly talked about, these students are very used to being on a phone. They do
not speak with each other on a regular basis like you and I would. So what we try to do is we try to incorporate skill development in the classroom such as cooperative learning types of skill sets in order for students to be able to speak with each other both in a
professional academic manner but also in a relationship building type of manner. Those are skills that you and I might have taken for granted when we were adolescence that are not skills that are inherently developed in the teenagers of today. So all those mindsets that we
sometimes think as as adults, oh well this is what we do. That's not what adolescence do on a regular basis. And that's why we have to be very conscious of what we do to allow them to learn and grow in those skill sets and those soft skills essentially which are extremely
important that we find as high school educators. Okay. So, I'm going to talk to you just a little bit about our character education initiative. Um, which really was kind of revamped, I want to say around 2010 because we found that it wasn't really
working. We had a lot of placards on the walls, right? It would say citizenship, caring, fairness, respect, and we do an announcement and we expected the kids to be like, "Okay, we're going to do it." Um, they're in high school. They don't even read them and they don't listen to the announcements unless their name is on it. I'm just being totally frank with
you. So, we had to re revisit it. And one of the things that we wanted to do was we wanted to have an endgame. And the endgame was really about getting the kids more involved and experiencing something and then kind of thinking back on it, reflecting and making it a little more intrinsic. And we knew that we weren't going to move a mountain in a
day, but over time it might help. So, we started our character education initiative. And at hand park high school and at Whipony Park High School, it really the secret to our sauce is something called service learning. So, I'm going to reference back to being a child of the 80s where when I was in
high school, we did community service. I'd go rake leaves or I'd bring in a can of soup and I did my duty or I'd go to church and I had to help out in some way. And that was community service. Well, now what we do is we take a class and we teach them something. And then we
take that concept that we teach them and we ask them, "Well, how do you want to put this in action? How can you do something with this?" And then the best ideas always come from the kids. So a while back pre-COVID we had something called the gallery walk. We had a genocide studies class. The kids would
study genocides, genocidal atrocities, the causes, the roots, things like that. Initially when we offered the course, I didn't think anybody would take it, but it happened to be one of our most popular electives. The kids were like, well, we want to do something where we can educate everybody on what genocide is, what causes it, and things like that. And then essentially what we would
do is we build a pop-up museum in the hallways and every kid in history class would go through a packet and they'd learn about genocidal atrocities, the causes, the impacts, the effects, things of that nature. Then we would couple that with a guest speaker by the name of Maam who survived the Holocaust. She
would speak to the students and then she would walk through it and then she would talk to the students as they walk through it with her and then the kids would write it down on pen and paper and they'd reflect and it'd be a really simple question. How did your experience in the gallery walk reflect one of the pillars?
Take a moment and write something down. And then that's really where you see the kids start to process it on an individual basis. And believe it or not, that's service learning. That's taking what you're learning, having the kids create the projects, create the pop-up museum, and have students go through it
and reflect. And the kids who went through it and did it, they reflected upon it. It was great. But the kids who really learned the most, the kids where you saw the spark were the ones who created the museum. They're the ones who did the projects. And then at lunch, you're like, man, did you see what I did
in the gallery walk? Did you check that out? What do you think about that? And then they're high school kids. They're going to talk and then they're going to weave in and out. They're going to weave in to the project and the genocide and they're going to weave out and talk about Friday night's game, right? And they're going to weave into it and they're going to talk about how my tie
doesn't match my shoes or something like that. They're high school kids. But if you listen to those conversations in the cafeteria, you can see that it starts to have an impact. And that's essentially what we do. So then we take those activities and then we connect them to our pillars of character and then we try to reinforce that on a daily basis. What
do you think you can do? And it's always about choice. What can you choose to do? Even when we have students who are in our office for bad decisions, why did you choose to do that? What do you think the impact of that is? Cuz the easy thing is that you're in trouble. Get out of here. But it's much harder to have
those conversations and get the kids to reflect. Then if you can do that, it's much more helpful. But again, they feel connected. Those activities bring connectivity. And then when they start acting on it and you listen to their ideas and you let them like I want to do a
some sort of bake sale. All right, we'll find the materials, we'll find the money. You do a bake sale, but what's it for? Why? Well, I learned in my nutrition class that we should make like high protein meals for people who are, you know, indigent and things like that. And you connect it and they have the bake sale and then they take that money
and then they give it to the Morris County Food Shelter. Something to that effect. And that really, really helps. And that in a nutshell is kind of our character education. And we have a lot of bullet points up here. The service learning, we integrate it and it's in our curriculum, it's in our goals, it's in our PDPs, things of that nature. And
then we also do the heavy hitters like we do the October awareness of the months. We do newsletters and we try to highlight the students who do it. But if you look at our if you follow us on Instagram, shameless plug, I'm just saying. I know probably you probably both have Instagram accounts. What you'll see is we try to put up
there as much as we can random acts of kindness. So, I don't want the kid who's, you know, the super athlete or the straight A student all the time. I want the kid who went out of his or her way to help somebody, didn't make much noise about it, didn't say anything,
just did it. And the teachers email me or call me or they come down. I like, listen, you know, I always say Johnny, right? Johnny did a really good job. He did this for another kid. I just want you to know. Cool. I bring him down. I give him a t-shirt. If I have any gift cards at Starbucks left over, I give
them to them and then I take their picture and I post it out and then the parents get a nice surprise. Why are you on social media? Oh, well, I just helped out a student who was having an issue or a really bad day. I helped out a student who special needs. I had a student who was struggling or I helped somebody. I picked something up. I did something
that was totally random that somebody saw and that teacher recognized it. Connectivity. Connectivity. still sorry I'm still going. Um I'll be very brief. I thought that connectivity was like a really good closing, wasn't
it? Come on. I was like um so uh that was warned. I apologize. So a lot of things that we have done just nuts and bolts. We have a ton of clubs. These are just a few. Book club, kids helping
kids, saga, erase, interact. Those are all kind of service clubs. There's a lot of clubs. I have a sports media club. Iowa Wall Street club. Uh over the years I've had a lot of I had a ultimate frisbee club one year, right? Like but we've had a lot of clubs where we try to get the kids involved and then
we also do student focus groups. So the superintendent a few few years ago spoke to me and the principal at Hover Park and said, "Listen, I want to hear from the kids. This is what I want you to do. I want you to get a panel of six kids. One panel is going to be freshman, then another one sophomores, then juniors and
seniors. Twice a year, different kids. I'm going to meet with them in the guidance conference room and she's going to ask them questions. I call the kids down. I say, "Listen, you're going to have to you're going to have the opportunity to sit down with the superintendent and ask she's going to ask you questions and they all think they're in trouble." Like, "No, no, no,
no. You're going to get a very candid conversation with a superintendent of schools who's going to ask you essentially, how can we make the schools better?" The number of ideas that have come out of that are awesome. But then what happens is the superintendent gets
firsthand knowledge, boots on the ground, feedback from the kids. And then what the kids do is they go out. Where were you third period? I was the focus group. I was the superintendent. Mr. Kelly was awesome. What did they ask you? Oh, they asked me my opinion. They wanted to know about this. They want Did
you tell them about the paper to Yeah, I told them about that. And then the next thing you know, I'll have four or five kids come out like, "Hey, the next focus group, I'm your guy. I'm your guy. No, no, I want to be in on that. But what we try to do when we make these focus groups is we try to take a cross-section
of the student body. I want to take kids who are involved in everything who want to go to Princeton. And then I want to take kids who are not as involved and don't necessarily know what they want to do. And then I want to take kids who are low tech like, "No, I'm going to go into HVAC and make a fortune and you're going
to be calling me in 10 years, Mr. Kelly." I'm like, "Yes, you're coming to the focus group." So that I have we have different disparit voices and that's really how you gain information. But the power of being able to sit down with a superintendent of schools. She takes the time to do this. It builds again
connectivity. Um the game of life is something where we bring in an outside organization and the kids go through they're given scenarios and they have to find out where the resources are. Scenario might be well you need you know you're out of power you don't have any money who do you have to talk to? and you go to the various communities organizations. They'll come up, they'll
set up tables, and you'll go to them with their situation and they'll help you out. And it's just to kind of introduce them to the resources that are in the community. And then we have wellness that's infused into our classes like crazy. A lot of our teachers do breathing exercises. They have the kids sometimes do standing and stretching. Um
do brain break walks, grounding through the senses, and then the public speaking thing is amazing. I have students who are brilliant, brilliant. you put them in front of a crowd and they and they and they freeze up. So, that's something that we really
need to address. Uh, and we're doing that through a public speaking course and then also through my other pieces of the curriculum. And then AP exams. If you're not familiar with advanced placement exams, it's a testing it's a testing rodeo that takes place in May where the kids are really, really
stressed out. And we do a lot of things with the kids. We'll do a lot of AP study sessions and things like that. And as we get closer and closer to the test, it's not as much about content as it is managing how you're approaching it. When you start to feel stressed out on the
test, what do you do? You do the breathing box. You reflect. What are you drinking while you're taking the test? Are you drinking water? Are you drinking a monster? Right? Things like that. And we try to help the kids so that they can manage that stress, not just when
they're taking the test, but building up to it because there's a massive amount of anxiety when these kids are like, "Well, I really want to do well on these tests because ultimately they could have some implications on college credit where I get into school and things of that nature. They're high stakes and we
try to make them more realistic about what those high stakes really are. You're going to be okay. This test is not who you are. Just approach it the best you can and here are some strategies to do it. Okay, I'm out.
>> All right, so this is my favorite part to share. This is my office at Whippony Park. Not the traditional looking office. I have an a very similar one at Hanover Park. And you can see there's some setups. There are some twinkly lights. There's a lotus in the middle.
It does not give the vibe of let's get down to business, get a SC score five on an AP exam. Let's make sure we get number one on the team. No. Come in. You're welcome. Whoever you are, you are welcome. I run a number of wellness groups. I thought maybe I'd do one or
two per school. See how it goes. I'm running six currently. And between the two buildings, we have a big big breath and variety of types of kids that are signing up. It used to be a few with like some good intellectual literature minds that have some insight who want to
go a little deeper. Oh, well then they brought a friend. Now there's actually a jock from one of our teams on there. Now there's this whole group of kids. I brought three friends and now they're all signing up. I want to get to the next one. When's the next one? And I'm thinking, okay, well, what do they want to do? What do they want to learn about?
The number one thing is actually connection. They want to be in there. They want to be seen. Their points want to be valid. They want to understand that they're not the only ones going through this. We have groups such as the art of assertive communication. Now, I'm
pretty much 80s, maybe 90s with my childhood, and still no phones. Our kids are afraid to call to make an appointment. If I say, "Call your dentist." Like, "Oh my god, are you kidding? Click. Is there a way I can text them? Can I text for the appointment? Please, please, please."
You know, can you go to that teacher and ask for help? Would an email be better? No. No, it would not. Please show up. Please do something. But they're nervous. So, how are we going to talk about that? What do I need? How can I ask for it? Why are my needs important? Who's going to advocate besides me? No
one. You are the number one advocate. The second area, transfer student support. We are lucky that we have a diverse community. They're coming from all areas of the state, if not the world. When we've exchanged students, people coming from Ukraine, we have people coming from other counties. It is
a very different vibe coming from southern Florida rolling into northern New Jersey. And they're walking through the hallway saying, "Where are my people? Who do I belong to?" More like, "Who do I sit with at lunch? Who do I walk the track with during gym?" Are
they going to think I'm weird? I don't dress like this. I dress like this. My hair is like this. They come in nervous, worried. We had four different countries represented in our last transfer group. Not only did we have children that were new to the district, we had children new
to the language. I'm talking Chinese and I'm supposed to connect somehow with a with a student from here that's grown up since they were three in the school district. So, a lot of that group was we do have overlap. We can be welcoming. How can we extend our hand to these students? How
can we make connections with these students? We have things called under pressure. I just had this this morning. I had six AP kids. And when I say AP kids, we're talking four APs in their schedule scheduled for five next year. They are under a lot of pressure. And they
sometimes get tripped up with irrational belief systems. If I don't get A4 or A5 and get my credit, I will not get into this college. If I don't get into this college, I won't get into this career. If I don't get into this, and before you know it, you're walked all the way down
to I am jobless and unhappy and and on a rocking chair by myself until the end of my days. Whoa. Because we couldn't get a good score and and lit an AP lit. Where can we where can we walk it back and try to go back to the basics of how do I
deal with distress? Can I tolerate it? Can I accept it's there? Can I manage myself with a strategy and move forward? They're on yoga mats doing grounded breathing techniques, leaving the room just a little bit lighter.
We have a lot of groups have to do with the ins and outs of resilience. It's not going to go away all the time. Not for us, not for them. How do we deal with that? There are groups about anxiety, about anger management, that I too might feel isolated or depressed, and how do I reach out when I can barely feel I can
get out of bed? And then there's a lot of things that have to do with academic vocational. I have some students right now that are working with DVRs, the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation Services. They have special needs. And way back in the day, they might be thought of as someone who might be unemployable. And that's not the case.
There are job coaches, there are resume builders, there's community- based instruction, they are valuable members of our community. So, how can we make them feel that way? How can we prepare them? There's a tier support of services much like a pyramid and my popins to every
single solitary freshman seminar class is to make my face known and that services are known that is universal. Having a speaker come for assemblies about the use and misuse of social media universal. But then there's the wellness groups where the kids are like I need
this. I want to sign up for this. I'm struggling with my mood. I need to connect to someone. They're self-identifying. They're a tier 2 group. And then the tippy top of the pyramid, the top little percentage that I work with are the most psychiatric cases we have in the district that are
facing the most adversity. These are kids who may be products of abuse. These are children who have substance abuse that is running rampant in their homes and they need somewhere to go to talk about it. These are kids who have tempted their lives before, who need a suicide risk assessment and who need
resources beyond the school and the family. These are kids we have to have other agencies. Many of you are here tonight. We've worked with the Arrive program. We've worked with NJ4S to extend a hand from the outside to pull them up because they can't get up themselves. And those are the kids I see
one-on-one. Those are the kids that we sometimes have to send out for psychiatric evaluations. Those are the kids that are in my nest in this room every single week. And they're the most precious children that need the help the most that are part of our group. Last
but not least, we have parent workshops. Just last night, I worked with a room full of parents about how do I not only handle stress and anxiety, how do I handle my stressed out teenager that is now living in my home? Oh my god, I'm scared of them. Okay. Okay, let's walk
that back. What are they doing? What's happening? And how can I help them cope without one either ignoring and not validating it's real, it's real to them. We might be wise enough to know this will pass. or we need the help in like starting that conversation. They're
holed up in the room all night. How do I get them out and talking? So, a lot of what we do is community outreach, individual intensive services, structured programs, and a lot of connection. So, you'll see me associated with
graduation readiness or our nest workshop. Yes, they're going to graduate. They're getting their diploma, but do they know how to navigate a campus map by themselves and ask for help? Do they understand how to reach out to a therapist when they're living in another state away from their family? Do they know what it means to advocate
when something not right is happening, they have to speak up for themselves? There's workshops on college planning that the counseling department puts on every year. And there's resources for family. There are so many families that want the help, they just don't know where to start. So, we're here to
connect them, to make the warm pass off to a human, to someone we recommend, to an agency we've worked with before. Either one. >> He's like, keep the microphone. Fine. So what we're seeing is the more we see our
children, when I say see them, see them for who they are, how they identify, what they're experiencing, the more they come to us, the more they feel safe, the more they feel like no matter what happens, no matter what landed me in detention, the principal's office, whatever it might be, they're still
going to be loved. They're still going to be welcomed back. We're still going to work it out with them. They're going to feel more engaged. There's something for everyone. There's a pingpong club. you can do anything. There was a Minds Over Matter organization a little while back about people want to learn about therapeutic effect and how to find more
accuracy in the community. We want to see the staff engaged with our children. I'm invited into public speaking courses so I can just help them with their jitters. I'm invited into other courses where we're going to do a mindful walk and inhale and exhale and stimulate a
vagus nerve to make a calming sensation over our body so we can handle the hard decisions that are in front of us. We're giving tools to everyone. There's an increase in parent involvement. And when there's an increase in involvement, there's an increase in selfworth because
now I know you care enough to show up and hear me out and take me seriously. And then there's evidence. through our surveys and our focus groups and our meetings and our student observations that we gather informally and some of this is, oh my god, they're coming to
school. Wow, this kid's been absent this many times and they're actually in their seat engaging. What a phenomenal piece of data. Now, that data is not look the same as an SAT score. And the life that's in the seat because we helped bolster it and make them feel worthy is
not going to always show up in a ranking of a school. But what we're going to see is that these kids are gaining value in who they are and why it's worth striving for a higher quality of life. And that's when we know we've done a job well done. And all the resources can be found
there. But I think more conversationally so when we see it in our children, in our community, in our groups, you see it live in front of you. >> Does anyone have any questions? >> When can I get an appointment for the breathing?
Your referral swipe can be handed in tonight. We can sign you up. >> I just want to thank you, Mayor Gallagher, for having us this evening. Oh, I'm sorry. There's a question. >> Question. It's a comment. I'm very happy to see that you're embedding social
emotional learning into your curriculum. You have, I don't know if you're aware of it or not, you have a study out there, a med study that backs you up. It was done in 2011 by by Loyola University and University of Illinois. It was a
study of 214 districts uh covered every demographic cover it was 2,000 or 275,000 students K through 12. By embedding the social emotional learning into the
curriculum, those districts experienced a 50% drop in disciplinary problems and an 11% increase in test scores and I believe a follow-up study a few years later, those test scores were up to
about 14%. >> Um, so my background, I was fire captain for 26 years. While I was in that job, I was the contact officer for critical incidents. When I retired, I became a
disciplinarian in a middle school. So, I had a lot of work with emotionally challenged >> Thank you. >> uh students and uh one of the problems with um this please. Thank you.
One of the problems uh with kids being in a constant state of anxiety, it triggers that fight orflight syndrome and it actually affects the architecture of the brain. The good part is it's not irreversible.
And social emotional learning gives these kids the skills they need to deal with the stressors. So now with social emotional learning if it's done properly the kids are managing the stressors instead of the stressors managing the
kids. Um uh what else did I notice? Um yeah so a uh as you said um kids are constantly on their phones and everything you know like I said when I was a disciplinarian that was that was a
big issue but what in doing that as you well know they're losing those interpersonal skills which also affects problem solving skills which as they get older and you know parents were I have a 30 31year-old son and you always want to
try to solve all their problems problems, but that doesn't do them justice in the long run because you're not always going to be there when they need a problem solved. And if they don't develop those skills at, you know, basic levels over the years, they're not going to have them when they really need them.
And that's going to become a problem in the long run. Um, also removing the stressors, uh, the kids being able to deal better with anxiety. The study also showed that it reduced
uh uh physical problems in adults years later. So you are absolutely, you know, you you hit the bullseye. Uh it it's you have studies to back you up and the the districts that are out there doing that,
it's it's showing real real benefits, you know, in the in the long run. I I think part of the problem that you know I noticed when I was a parent um I'm on the mayor's wellness committee in Chhatten and in some communities it's
like a it's like a competition with the kids. My kid did you know my kid got higher scores than yours. You know the kid should be competing with themselves trying to get the best that they can out of their abilities. And
the more parents, you know, start to start to live through their kids and it's like, you know, well, it's a reflection on how good a parent I am, how good, you know, my child does. That's a lot of pressure to put on a kid and it's not fair. Uh, you know, just
you're not going to not get into Harvard, like you said, if uh, you know, if if you if you went to your club or you played baseball or something like that. There's got to be a balance. And I think a lot of parents, you know, we need to reach the parents and say, "Hey,
you know what? It's fine to motivate your kids, but it's not good to drive them. That's not going to that's that's not going to be good for your kid in the long run. Thank you. First of all, I'd like to thank Christa Dei Giorgio for helping us
set this up. Christa, thank you very much. She did an INCREDIBLE JOB. I'D LIKE TO thank and recognize Deputy Mayor Malco who's back there. Mike, how you doing? And Hannah Retention PD, thank you very much for being a big part of everything. Uh, I'd just like to say
to our team from Whippy Park, actually, Hannibal Park Regional, what was really special about tonight to me is a lot of people talk to us about what we should do, not knowing what we actually do and not knowing what you actually do. So, how many times do we go to assemblies at
our schools and watch our children? But I haven't seen an opportunity for our families and children to watch you and what you do for them. So, the fact that we're recording this tonight, it's going to get a lot of views. We're going to put a lot of time into the editing and
we're going to section it out. So, we're al also going to work with you on how to title this portion, and it's going to be what Hannover Park Regional High School is doing for you because many, many people don't know what you do until something goes sideways and then they
learn. >> But I think you do a phenomenal job for whatever that's worth. >> Tonight, I learned a lot and therefore, our families are going to learn a lot. And I could speak on behalf of our team. We really appreciate everything you do. And Mr. Kelly, one thing you said is interesting and I learned this title
from Tracy. We learned a long time ago how dangerous being isolated is, >> but when you take isolation and then you referred to connections three times. I know the connections in your building and I know the connections in Hannibal Park which is very very is the same. It
the uh atmosphere and the attitude is the same. >> Absolutely. >> So connections piggybacks onto isolation Tracy and and I think I know how important that is. So, that being said, we hope you hang out with us for a little while. Maria Cow, you have to. You're on the day, so you're not going anywhere yet.
>> But thank you very much, everybody. Great job. >> Thank you very much. >> Okay, now our secret weapon, not just Township, but our entire group that works together side by side on many, many issues is Tracy. And Tracy's um
title of her portion is navigating the high school years, emotional well-being and academic pressure and mental health support for students and how to help. And Tracy, I just want to say even before you begin, thank you. And thank you for everything you do 24 hours a day
and for years that I know of. So, thank you and God bless you. >> Thank you. And thank you all for being here. Um I've had the privilege of working I guess I should turn my mic on. Um, I've had the privilege of working with Hanover Park Schools for years and they're wonderful. You know, they don't
just talk the talk, they walk the walk. Um, they really do care for their students and I think that really showed by all the great programs that they offer. You know, not every school takes wellness into account like handover does. So, I'm glad that they were able
to tell you about all the great things that they're doing and that really separates them from other schools in the county and even other counties as well. All right, I need my glasses. I can't see. Uh,
I was like, Christa, it's not working. Oh, no. >> Okay. Who's said that? >> Oh, look at this. I'm just pressing buttons. Where's Christa? Does she leave? >> Okay, >> we have our police department here. We
can find her pretty quick. >> No, it's okay. I think we're good. Well, what button do I press? And then hit the top. Yeah, that's what I did. I think you're good. >> Okay. So, um tonight we're following a theme, right? So, we're really going to
be talking about how the stress of students comes home with them and how not only as a school, a parent, an educator, but as a community, we could really help them. All right, Maria, what
one is it? This one. >> Oh, jeez. Oh, okay. There we go. Um, I thought that was a power button. >> I think I need a stronger prescription. Okay. So, um, high school is a period of, and anyone that I think has a high
schooler or maybe even went to high school, um, where's Did Mr. Kelly leave? I'm actually Oh, there you are. Sorry, I couldn't see you. Um, I am a product of the 80s as well, so we didn't have cell phones or anything like that either. We
still had some pressure, but I don't believe it's the same as what kids are under now. Um, you know, I had my old neighbor actually I saw her from my bedroom window like driving her kids a million places during the night. Like
they were on baseball, they were on wreck baseball, they were on I don't know a million other kinds of baseball teams. So they were always going going and it's like how do you have time to rest and reset? Okay. Academic pressures. Um I know. Oh,
she laughed. I think Lisa. Yes. >> Um so many students feel that they are consistently behind or never doing enough. Um you know between coursework, exams, college admissions, extracurriculars. Like I was
saying, it's not just like baseball, high school baseball, it's wreck baseball. I mean, my friend, her son is in middle school and he does wreck hockey and she just went to Florida and before that she went to Buffalo, so it's
like all over. Um, so for some students, academic pressure um becomes tied to self-worth. And I think we mentioned this earlier, one of the um wonderful people from handover did where grades feel and I think the gentleman in the
back where grades really feel a measure of who they are um and not just what they've learned. And also too, stress really becomes a problem when there's no recovery and no support and no downtime
to rest. You know, we've been talking about social media a lot and they say on average high schoolers spend around 5 hours a day on social media. And listen, like sometimes I wake up at midnight and I'm like, "Oh, just scroll through my phone for a minute." So, you know, it's
not just adolescents, but they have so much more pressure. It's so hard to shut down. So, emotional and mental health challenges, stress, anxiety, common experience for all really high
schoolers, you know, but many struggle quietly. Um, you know, often a fear of disappointing their parents, um, you know, even teachers themselves, coaches. Um, some students don't even speak up because they don't want to be a
burden. We see this a lot too when students are struggling with mental health issues. Maybe they don't want to tell a parent because they feel like, well, my parent already has enough to deal with. I don't want to just add something more onto their plate. Um, so that could be another reason. They might
not even know what's going on. So, when I was in middle school, no, when I was in Yeah. No, when I was in high school, sorry, it all blends together when you're my age. Um, I was diagnosed with depression and I remember I was like, I
don't know what's going on. Like, I just don't feel like hanging out with my friends. I don't feel like talking on the phone, but I didn't know that that was really depression. So, sometimes people or young people may not know what's going on. Um, they might be
scared to ask for help. That's why a trusted adult is so important. Um, and students could have or youth could have more than one trusted adult. But it's so important to teach those parents and I know this is spoken up spoken of earlier about how to have those conversations,
those honest conversations and to really be open to what the youth in your life is saying. Okay. So, students may experience all these that are up on the the board here. Um, but families might see something
different. And I think sometimes it's hard, and we talk about this a lot, where typical adolescent behavior might look very similar to someone struggling with a mental health challenge. Um, and that's where it becomes a little hard for, I think, parents. Um, but some
things to keep in mind if you see the youth in your life not hanging out with their friends, um, maybe giving up the sport that they enjoy, that's when you want to be like, "Okay, there's something going on here." And let's be
honest, youth have their ups and downs in their mood. I could actually say I have my ups and downs with my mood every day. Um, but when you see a specific pattern of behavior, you know, let's say that they're irritable, but maybe it's been 2
weeks and they're irritable and you notice that they haven't been hanging out with their friends. Okay, something more might be going on. Again, we all have our ups and downs and our moods, but when you see a constant change, that's when we want to have a conversation. And I think it's so important that when we do have that
conversation, it's focusing on why that behavior is happening because we're not going to get to the bottom of it if we don't ask why. If we just focus on, okay, well, you're coming home, you're angry all the time, like, and yelling at them. It's really getting to
the core of what's going on. Um, social media, we spoke about again, 5 hours a day. Youth, think about that. They go to school. What What time do you get out for high schools? 2:30. 2:45. >> So 2:45 and they probably go to bed at 11:00. They have homework, they have
sports, and within that time they're spending 5 hours on their phone. So it's just a lot going on. And when you think about it, you know, there's so much pressure on social media to look happy, to be happy. The number of likes, I feel
like I'm preaching to the choir. I mean, I will be the first one to admit that I kind of look at how many likes I get, too, on social media. Um, but it's that um the fear of missing out, too. So, social media plays such a big role um in
our youth lives. You know, we I didn't have social media. I didn't even have a phone. I'm pretty sure cell phones didn't exist till I was like 21. Um so, it just pays plays such an important role in our life. And as parents, um,
sometimes we might not understand that. But again, it it goes to what Ace was saying, what we were all saying. It's about connection. And yes, social media might there might be a lot of negatives around social media, but there is some positives when we talk about that
connection and the ability to connect with um people online, you know, especially family members. Okay. signs adults often miss. Increased irritability. Um, change in sleep. Uh, I remember when I was in high school, I used to sleep
till noon. I mean, I feel like all my friends slept till noon, but if the youth in your life is normally up at 8:00 and they're sleeping till noon, okay, well, what's going on there? Um, physical complaints, uh, perfectionism, you know, and that
just really adds to the stress. Um, and stress could be a risk factor for developing a mental health issue, which is so important, another reason why it's so important to have conversations with your youth. Um, and you know, we say it
all the time that we need to normalize the conversation in our house about mental health, about mental illness. Because if we're not talking about it at home, why would the youth in our life feel okay to come to us if they're
struggling with their mental health? Um, so I think one thing that we could do is really open that communication at home. So why these signs might be missed? You know, sometimes it's really hard to identify things that might be stressful.
Um, you know, if a student is feeling stressed, they might not show it. Um, they might try to hide how they're feeling. You know, we do have that like I feel like mentality that world. It's like, well, everyone's stressed. Who isn't stressed? We're all under stress.
Kind of normalize it when it's not, it shouldn't be a normal part of our youth lives. So, challenges faced by families, you know, um, communication barrier. I think having open communication
um listening I always say this actually I always put it in my presentations but I didn't today because I was trying to change it up is that I always say that um when we listen to someone we hear them into existence if we just think about ourselves as adults and the busy
schedules that we have and the time that we take to talk to someone how that really what that can mean to that person and it can mean a And let's think about how hard it is as adults to reach out for help. Like I don't like it. I'd rather do a 100
things at work than be like, can you help me with this? And think about for student our youth to reach out and ask for help. Especially when, you know, we have that mentality like, oh, you're being dramatic. It's not that bad. So,
it makes it even harder. And we have to learn how to support our youth in that and really listen to them when they come to us and not think that they're being dramatic. And I think I tell this story all the time, too. Um I remember my
first breakup when I was 16 that I thought I was never going to find anyone, that I was going to die alone. I told my mom like this was the person I was going to end up with. now that we're not together, I'm definitely going to be alone and not find anyone else. And I
was so depressed and I was crying all the time and my mom really listened. She wasn't like, "Oh my god, really? You're 16? Like, relax, chill out." Um, so she really did listen to me. Um, recognizing signs of distress. That's why you're here to recognize, to know what to look
for, and to have those conversations. balance balancing support and independence. As parents, I feel like we just want to fix things and not necessarily just listen. And I think listening is so important. Like think about an instance where maybe you're at work, maybe you're
on the phone talking to a friend and you're just venting. You had a really bad day and you're like just letting it all go and then the person you're talking to is like, you know what you should do? It's like, no, what should I do? Like I just want to vent. Like I don't want you to fix it. I don't want
you to give me your suggestions. Like I just want to talk about how I'm feeling. So why students don't ask for help? They feel like they're a burden. We see that a lot. Like I said, when people are struggling with their mental health stigma, even though it's 2026,
there's still so much stigma around mental health. That's why it's so important to start those conversations in our homes. Talking about mental health is not going to, you know, make your child become depressed or diagnosed with anxiety. It actually allows them to
have a conversation with you. Um they might not know where to go and um belief that they need to be in crisis when sometimes they're coping just enough to not be in crisis, but it doesn't mean
that they're not struggling. you know, access to mental health resources can be really tough. Um, you know, between insurance and people's finances, transportation, we see this a lot. We work in Sussex County. You know, there's
it's so hard to get somewhere. Maybe a youth comes from a single parent household and that parent works two jobs. They can't take them to therapy. So even when a youth might want help, sometimes it's hard to get the help for
many reasons. What helps? Protective factors. Having one trusted adult in your life, in a youth's life, is um one of the greatest protective factors. It really helps youth weather the storm. And they could
have more than one protective factor. They could go to one person for one thing and maybe another person for another thing. But just having that trusted adult um goes such a long way. It really helps students weather the
storm. So, how families can support their high schoolers. Listen. I feel like I've said that a million times. I'll probably say it at least five more times before this presentation ends. So, if you get anything out of this, it's about listening and listening non-judgmentally
is so important. Um so encouraging helpseeking as a strength uh maintaining routines boundaries. I think it's important that we um also what is the word that I'm looking for?
We um I'll come back to that. It'll come to me. Um model say it's up there. We model good behaviors for our youth. You know, maybe it's not having your cell phone at the dinner table. Maybe it's taking the
time to actually have conversations. Small, consistent actions can have a significant impact. So, showing consistent interest. If you're telling someone that they could come and talk to you anytime and you're not giving them the space to do that,
are they going to come and talk to you? Giving someone your full attention, not being on your cell phone when they're trying to have a conversation. Again, let's think of it as an adult. how hard it is to talk to someone when we're struggling. Imagine being a youth. Imagine being in high school. Um
creating a safe place. I think that's also important without pressure, without distractions. Staying calm. You know, even though it might be difficult to do so, you know, I've always said that I've heard that I haven't had a good poker face or that I
don't. But it's really important if someone in your life that's a youth comes to you that you really take the time to not be judgmental and letting your teen know that they that they are not a problem that needs to be solved.
So what you might say okay well now that I know that I have to be supportive. Well what does that look like? So, here are some things that you can say, which I think is so important because sometimes even though we may know we need to do better, sometimes we don't
know what to say. Um, so something like that sounds really overwhelming. I'm really glad you told me. Do you want help or do you just want me to listen? I I remember giving a presentation a long time ago and I was
saying something like, you know, I'm here to help you if you need to, if you need me to. And I remember telling my mom and she was like, well, you know, she's in her 80s and she's like, if someone asked me for help, I'd be like, nah, I'm good. I'm never going to come
to you if I need help. If you say something like support, like that's a little bit different. um how if you ever need support, you could come to me. And sometimes it's just helping without actually being asked. I think that's a big thing, too. Um I was mentioning my
mom's age because she um lives in a really great neighborhood and she's out there shoveling by herself and neighbors will just come by to help her. And you know, if a neighbor was like, "Oh, do you need help? Can I come help you?" She'd be like, "No, I'm good." But the
fact that they just did it, I think is is wonderful. So I think just um having that ability to just do something instead of asking, I think is also great. Okay. Helping with academic stress
without more pressure. I think it's focusing on the efforts. Um encouraging balance. Again, there's so much pressure um with academics already. there's so much pressure that our youth put on themselves without having a parent add
more pressure. Um, and again, it's just offering support and supporting emotional well-being at home, modeling healthy behavior, eating, um, talking about mental health, keeping
expectations clear but flexible when stress is really high, I think is important. And you don't need to be perfect. You don't need to have all the answers. Um, it's just showing up is so beneficial when we're talking about
youth. And as you see here on the bottom, your presence and willingness to engage are powerful protective factors. Um, we all play a role in helping our youth when it comes to stressors in
life, whatever that looks like. Um, and I actually wrote something down where I was like, "Wow, this is kind of really awesome." So, sometimes, no, that's not what I wanted to say. Hold on. I highlighted it. So, open conversations where students feel heard rather than
fixed can reduce isolation and build resilience. And sometimes small actions, a check-in, a conversation could really change a student's tra uh trajectory in life. So, that being said, we have a lot
of resources here. I'm not going to go through all of them. Um, you know, if you do have a youth, starting with their school counselor, uh, is a great place to start. And here are some other resources. And here's some local ones in Sussex
County, statewide. Second floor is a great resource in New Jersey for youth. They actually have a wonderful app that's pretty new that parents can use as well. Um, and youth can connect to different
groups on this app, too. And it's monitored by um volunteers that are trained. Um, perform care is usually um the first one of the first entrances to
the system of care in New Jersey. 988. Great. You don't have to be suicidal. You just dial 988 if you're looking for some support. Crisis text line, New Jersey 211. Um here are some additional supports.
The Morris County Community um and behavioral health services, family crisis intervention, all these. And I'm sure the mayor will send these out. Here's my information if you're looking for more. I know I kind of went through um things a little quickly today cuz I
know we're pressed for time and I'm sure Christa who's great I don't know where she is. I probably can't see her. Um she will be sending this out I'm sure to anyone that registered. Any questions? I'm really sorry. I probably just screamed in your ear for 20 minutes.
>> There's Chris. >> Oh where? Oh yeah. I said you'd probably be sending this out. >> Yeah. Tracy, we are going to be putting together a one pager and we are in our video going to have closeups of all of our um all of our displays here,
including and especially our phone numbers and our contact information. But before we conclude with you, I just want to say we've been working with you for a couple years now and I want to thank you on behalf of thousands of people that you touch and that you help.
And I've said it before and I'll say it again right here on this recording. If you weren't here, we weren't doing this. You are very, very special. And thank you for everything you do. For real. >> Thank you. >> And I have to say that um these have
become my family. I've been doing this now for over 3 years, 4 years probably. So, I love getting together with all of them. And you know, they really are. I know that may sound cheesy, but they really are part of my family, part of
the community that um I work with. And I'm so fortunate to have met all of you and to work with all of you. Um it's really my pleasure. I feel like I'm the lucky one. >> Well, thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Hover Township Police Chief Mike
Lock. Chief, we've heard a lot about arrive and the importance of arrive. Could you please take the floor with your team and explain to us what arrive is and why is it important? Thank you. >> Thank you, mayor. So, arrive is an acronym. So, it stands for alternative
responses to reduce instances of violence and escalation. So, here in Morris County, we have the arrive together program. So, what it does is it partners law enforcement with mental health clinicians to be able to go out proactively to respond to instances um
to serve the public to get them resources as close to the time of the incident as possible. So, here in handover, we have a clinician in the building on Fridays. Um that's our assigned day. Um, we've been doing this
since October of 2024 here in Hanover. We've been fortunate enough to have that relationship. Uh, before it started here in Hover, it was a county program in 10 towns, Madison being one of the first ones. Um, so as soon as it was kind of
brought to our attention, I immediately called Chief Misha and asked him how the program program was going and he said, "Hands down, one of the best initiatives that there is." So, as soon as we were given the opportunity to get on board, we took every opportunity that we could
and it's been great ever since. Um, so part of what that does is it's the outreach. Um, as Mr. Kelly said, it's the connectivity part of this. So, our liaison to the arrive program is the
school resource officer at Whippity Park High School, Paul Weaver. It's not by accident that we chose Paul Weaver to to have this this job. Um so he is fantastic at it. Um he has gone to more training than we can imagine to
implement this and have it succeed in the high school but also for the general public here in Hanover Township. Um, so in the calendar year of 2025, we had officers submit 70 referrals to the arrive program here in handover while
also having 40 co-responses from our clinicians. Um, so we've had over a hundred instances where we have put this program to use. Um, it could be from calls for an emotionally disturbed person to a domestic violence incident
to a missing person or to a death of a family member. Those clinicians are out there even when they're not here on Fridays. We are calling them to come from other towns to be able to provide those services. Um, so it's been a great resource for the officers to have that
clinician there with them and being able to to get those services as close to the time of the incident as possible. Um, so within Morris County, this program has been led by Chief Assistant Prosecutor
Meg Rodriguez. So, she's going to go into a little bit of how the program started statewide here in Morris County, but because of Meg's dedication to this program, um she was awarded the County Prosecutors Association of New Jersey
with the outstanding advocacy over a career in a non-trial position award mostly for all of her work in this arrive program. SO THAT'S this is the second time I've gotten to embarrass Meg with that uh reading that
award out. Um so I knew she wouldn't tell everybody. So I I wanted to make sure that she does get credit for that. Um it's a testament to her hard work for the arrive program for every municipality that is afforded this program. Um and obviously the dedicated
work that goes out to the the public that it's serving. So Meg, it's all yours. >> Thank you, Chief. I I appreciate that. I I really love and adore being embarrassed. So I that that was great. Um just just briefly because uh uh Chief
already talked a little bit about really what the program is. Uh it's it's a far cry from what we initially thought it was going to be. Um it initially started in Cumberland County as an initiative between their state police and their screening unit because they wanted to
try to get screeners out to incidents where there was a mental health crisis quickly. So that's how it started and they recognized that one of the big issues that occurs when somebody is in crisis is that there's a higher likelihood or potential for there to be
a use of force on on the part of law enforcement. A lot of times it's just simply unavoidable. you you might have to put hands on somebody to get them into the ambulance if they don't want to go. And unfortunately, as we're all very familiar with, at times those incidents can escalate even further. Uh
and obviously, nobody in anywhere wants that to happen. So, it it showed some success down in South Jersey and uh then the attorney general's office started saying, "Hey, let's let's move this out throughout the state." Uh, so we were
approached here in Morris County and said, "Hey, listen. How do you want to do this? We want to put some this program out there. What do you think is going to work for your county?" So, we're like, "Let's figure this out." Um, and they're like, "Well, slow down. Not
exactly how you might want it to work." Uh, there is a certain structure. Um, it can either be co-response, meaning you have a police officer and a clinician in the same car responding out to those crisis incidents.
Or it could be a close-in time response, meaning the clinician can follow the officer, whoever that officer is that catches that call to the scene and respond that way. Or it could be teleaalth, which we didn't think was going to be the best idea. Or it could
be follow-up, meaning if an officer responds to uh somebody who is in any form of mental health crisis and feels that they would benefit from connections to services. Um that the officer would then submit a follow-up referral form
and then the clinician would be able to follow literally follow up on that and the next day or as quickly as possible. So, we're like, well, why do we have to settle with or or or or or what do we think is going to work best? And and we were reaching out uh Chief Misha was was
definitely uh heavily involved in this because uh Madison was already looking at trying to do a co-response program. Uh we spoke to a number of the chiefs to to try to figure out how is this going to work for your officers because
ultimately what we saw is not just worrying about the potential use of force and not just only worrying about an incidence of an emotionally disturbed person, but we're recognizing that our officers when somebody calls 911, they
are called upon to be the experts in everything. Whether it is obviously regular policing, showing up to a a a car accident, investigating a homicide or a sexual assault, getting a cat out
of a tree, whatever it is, they're expected to be the experts. And when it comes to mental health crisis, they were also expected to be a clinician, a counselor, somebody who could psychologically diagnose somebody. And
you know what? That wasn't fair to them. it wasn't fair to them and they shouldn't have been put in that position. So, we're like, what can we do to help our officers in those situations? So, we're like, can we do the closing time or co-response model plus the
follow-up to try to get that off of their plate so they don't have to be the expert in that arena. And that's how our program here in Morris has evolved. Um, and I can say, you know, you start talking about numbers. Um,
there's a couple numbers that that I could go through and and one is on my phone. I get the alerts along with MHA for uh any time the the comm center calls out uh a a CA a call that might be
a mental health related call. And l I just see I wasn't trying to not listen to Tracy cuz I it kept buzzing and I wanted to see how many just in the last 10 hours. There were 10 in the last 10 hours. One an hour at least. And there
are days that that this phone is buzzing like there's no tomorrow. That's what our officers are facing and dealing with. Um so being able to assist them with our arrive program has I I hopefully been a great asset. And we we initially started in in Morristown,
Madison, Morris Plains, Morris Township, Roxberry, Danville, uh Randolph, nope, Randolph came afterwards. Um and initially eight towns and then we we came here to to Hanover because clearly here in Hanover there there's a significant need with the
variety of populations. Um and now we we've moved over to East Hanover, we've moved over to Floren Park, we've moved over to the Chadams. So, we are actually countywide at this point in time with the exception of Victory Gardens. That's my job for 2026. Um, and to get everybody on board because we want to
make sure everybody can get these services out to them. But one of the key things that Arrive does assist with is youth because if you have somebody who's having a psychiatric emergency and the screener goes out, they can't really go out for a child. You need to get
performed care. you you need to get um family uh crisis intervention to try to get out and then you need the the parent to agree to that. Arrive will help with all ages. We and and what I do find striking about these numbers is a lot of
times we are seeing like really young kids to you know to to to the aged. So we we deal with everything from juvenile issues to Alzheimer's, dementia, you name it. whatever the officers need help with, our arrived clinicians will go out
and assist with. So, as far as numbers to close on that, as far as connections that that we aim to make, uh right now, Morris County, uh we started the program in 2024. The program
itself started in 2021. And if you go to the attorney general's website, there is uh the arrive data dashboard and you can see how many as of uh January 5th. That's that's where we're at at this moment as far as their dashboard. Um
there have been over 15,000 arrive interactions throughout the state. Um we started later. We initially started with eight towns. We added handover. We added and then just went countywide this summer. Uh and Morris County alone
accounts for 20 2357 cases of the 15. And the reason for that is not necessarily that we have that much more, you know, mentally um challenged or crisis
uh in PE people dealing with those types of of challenges. really why our numbers are that high is because our officers have bought into the program and are making those referrals and really trying to connect people to services that they need. So, it it's I appreciate any
credit that I get as far as my involvement, but I can't take that credit because really the credit belongs to the police officers who are on the streets and dealing with the these issues and the co-responders and MHA who
are actually out there and connecting with everybody. So, I appreciate the fact that the towns have been so supportive. Uh we look forward to trying to help as many people as we can and to try to help our our uh our police officers do the best job that they can
as well. Thank you. >> Chief Mish, would you like to embarrass me? I've done I've done it a couple times myself. Um but uh yeah, the Arrive program is uh we've been we've been on several panels uh for the Arrive
program and um it it does a fantastic job. I actually looked up our numbers in Madison before I came here to talk about connections. Um but we uh for 2025 we had 170 total um arrive incidents. Uh, I
didn't break down the follow-ups and uh, responses, but um, the year prior we had about half of that. So, we were um, we're using it. Uh, officers uh, really bought into it. The it works. Our use of force. Um, I
think we we the year prior when I when I looked at it, use of force for any arrive uh, related calls were were zero. We didn't have any. So, um, it's it's it's a great program. It's working. And you know, Megan and and Mike heard me say it's a no-brainer that you know,
that we have this program and we utilize the program and you know, we couldn't do it without the prosecutor's office, MHA, uh the sheriff. So, um and our local officials. So, thank you. >> Thank you, sir. >> Sergeant Kilmer, do you have Arrive in Bayon or a program similar?
>> Yes, actually I'm the arrive leaison for Bayon. Um we do the co-respondent and we do the follow-up. Also, we have arrived in our town. We have mental health screeners 2 days a week. We're lucky at this point to have that. Um, it's like everybody says, it's a fantastic
program. You're responding to a call of a mental crisis, if it's suicide, something like that with law enforcement with a mental health screener there also. So, you're bringing them right to the scene and it is making a huge impact. Um, with that
with arrive, we have uh crisis interventions training, too. Uh, crisis interventions training is a 40-hour course, and it's for the officers and the screeners to have a better understanding of what somebody in a
mental crisis is going through. And, you know, that that it's a great impact on the officer to understand that more, to get that additional training, to understand what somebody might be going through. And I think it's a great program. I'm sure you guys are utilizing
that too as our coordinator for for >> I love my CIT classes. Um and and yeah, we do have CIT. Uh Chelsea has been there, Tracy has has has taught there as well. Uh and it's it's I think one of the other keys to it again, this keeps
going back to this connection theme. uh it's not only helping the officers and the clinicians understand what somebody in crisis is going through. What I think one of the keys is is that it it helps the officers understand how the screeners are dealing with it and and
and other mental health providers are dealing with it and how mental health providers get to understand what officers are facing and how they are dealing and why they are dealing with it in the ways that they are. Because a lot of times you have, you know, sometimes here, especially here in Morris County,
we are resourceri that is what they call it. We have all of these things, but nobody knows how to interact with each other. Nobody understands each other's jobs and everybody's in their own silos. So, uh, our CIT classes uh, which are open to any advocates uh, as for people
in involved with families with u mental health uh, concerns. Uh it it really helps everybody understand how to best treat anybody who is in crisis. >> Go to the connection word. I just added
probably about a dozen contacts into my phone through the CIT training from every aspect of what we're dealing with from the the supervisors of the mental health screeners to uh
988 M court uh to aspects of homeless shelters and things like that within our county. And that's what is going to help this program by having the resource, by being able to make contact with that
person and getting the person help. >> Chief Lock, you want to close out this portion? So, I think everybody can kind of clearly see that this is a a very successful program. Um, but it is the the partnerships that we do have through the police department and the schools and the mental health associations that
are able to provide these services. Um, and I think it it helps everybody involved, especially the community that we're looking to uh provide resources to. Um, so if anyone has obviously any questions for those resources, um, you
know, this information will be pushed out, but by all means, please call either um, the prosecutor's office through, your local police department, or obviously through your schools to help connect on those resources. So, thank you, mayor. >> Hey, I just want to say thank you very much for the for bringing this program
to us, and thank you very much for all the great work you do. Thank you. Okay. This next introduction is going to kind of be fun because we always unofficially call Sheriff James Ganon Had Township's big brother and everyone knows that
Chief Jack Ambrose is our brother. So, Chief, you are here in some pretty big shoes, but you have some pretty big shoes, too. So, I appreciate you being here. And if you'd like to take the floor and talk a little bit about some of your programs in Hope One, I would greatly appreciate it. Thank you so
much, Ace. You know, the arrive program was spearheaded definitely by Chief Assistant Prosecutor Meg Rodriguez. And by the way, Mars County was late to the gate, but were the
number one user of the Arrive program in the state. So that's that's thanks to you, Mayor. You you you said it. Access to the best resources. You put this together. You keep putting this together. This is access to the best
resources. Mr. Kelly, great partner. Maria Carol, superintendent. Great partners over the years in East Hanover. Uh I hated when you moved over to Whippy Park. You You have the quote of the evening, sense of community and a sense of
connectivity. we can solve all problems if we implement that. So, thank you so much for that. So, Sheriff Ganon when he was c on the campaign trail uh spent time at 4,500 houses knocking on doors. He came up
with the number one problem. The number one problem was addiction. So, he got experts together, nice experts together. They said what can we do to solve this? And hope one was created. All right. spirit, you know, spirited by a partner
by officer Chelsea Whiting, who's here tonight, 19 uh 2017. Since then, 13,000 life-saving Narcan kits distributed, 191 used Narcan kits returned, which saved a life.
2400 uh 20,048 referrals for life-changing services, and every 6.22 minutes, a new contact is made at Hope One. Uh and and hope has been replicated in nine other counties in the state and it's going uh nationwide and
internationally too. Hope one bred hope which was people or individuals at an acute risk level. We identified them at acute risk level.
uh 823 individuals and families were referred to the hopeub uh in 2025. The acutely elevated risk people reduced 100% of the situations. So everyone we met we reduced their
situation 100% success in 2025. From 2021 to 2025 the acutely elevated risk people will reduce 97%. So, we're getting really good at it and that's because we have 81 different partners
with resources and access to services. It's great, great program. Last program is the Perry program, the police assisted addiction and recovery initiative. 26 of the 37 towns of Mars County use it and it's people for
struggle struggling with uh substance abuse disorder and it's again another successful program and believe you me I was one of the reluctant ones in the beginning to to get this initiated uh you know until you until you learn things that yeah sometimes it's good to lock people
up but it's better to give them help or they're not going to go back and do it again. So it it was is a tough challenge to get cops to break out of that cycle. Sheriff also has an ID program. You can't get a bank account with ID. You can't get services from officer
temporary assistance without ID. Our program in the sheriff's office has given out 1665 IDs, county IDs to people so they can get services so they can get a bank account. So when they when they do get a job, they can access a bank
account, access services when they need it, EBT cards, etc. Lastly is community connections. Again, uh uh officer Justin Sudall uh launched in 2021. Community connections assist court involved individuals with
access to life-changing services. The program operates in conjunction with the Mars County Prosecutor's Office and the Superior Court of Mars County. Community Collections has helped 756 individuals in civil, criminal, family, municipal,
and recovery courts and pre-trial. Pretty successful programs, and we're helping a lot of people. Thank you, CHIEF. Chief Santani, I know you have a hard stop. Can we have you for a little while longer? >> Yes. Yes.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. Would you would you like to add to that? >> Sure. If you'd like me to add, >> please. >> Okay. Perfect. So, I actually came over I started working in the jail in 2017, the Morris County Correctional Facility.
Um, and the recidivism rates are high, right? So, just like uh Chief Ambrose said when Sheriff Ganon was walking around, right, going door todo, he saw the need for substance use and mental health. Um that's what everybody had in common, right? That was the common denominator. Um everybody knows somebody
right now that's struggling with either substance use or mental health. Um it hit my family. I'm sure it's hit many of your families. Um and it hits you hard, right? So, I was in the jail. I was there for 2 years and I saw the hope one trucks outside and that is what I wanted
to do for the rest of my life. So I went through the police academy, I came out of the police academy, I got hired at the courthouse, went back through the police academy, um and then I ended up on hope one and I absolutely just love love love my job. Um I eat, sleep, and
breathe hope one. Um we are here. I'm going to take a page out of Tracy's book to support you. Um, so if you need anything, my number is 97359 0330. So I was lucky enough to work on Hope
one. Um, and then they asked me to actually spearhead the hopeub. So it originated in Canada, came over to Chelsea, Massachusetts. They told me my name was Chelsea. I was going to be super great. Um, and then we launched the Hope Hub. So our hopeub is the
second in the nation. Um and you know we are striving for perfection. Um the arrive program strives for perfection. We strive for perfection. Um so we're hoping that the 100% of situations that were reduced in AER continues. Um, I
thought that we would run out of people eventually to help, but right now we have actually visited every single one of our referrals, which is over combined 1,500 individuals out in the community since 2021. Um, we do outreach them. We
provide them with a non-p perishable bag of um, food, toiletries, and then also a folder of resources which has food pantries. um all just basic information, right, for essentially to meet Maslo's hierarchy of needs, right? We have to
make sure that bottom level is covered before we can start making the next steps. Um so that is really all I have. I absolutely love my job. Um and I'm so thankful to be a part of it. Um and
thank you to ACE for having us here. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. OKAY, THE newest one to our team tonight, he's Britney. Britney, welcome and thank you for being here. Thanks for having >> uh Britney is going to go through mental health through recreation and the
importance again, Mr. Kelly, the key word for tonight and I think our seminars from now are going to be called connections, but the connections and the importance of rec mental health. Britney, please take the floor for a minute if you would. >> Thank you. Okay, so when we talk about mental health, we often think about
counseling services and support systems, which of course we know are all incredibly important. But mental health also lives in the everyday moments. Having somewhere to go after school, feeling part of a team, moving your body, laughing with friends, or simply knowing you belong. And that's where
recreation fits in. Our programs aren't just about sports classes or events. They're about connection, routine, confidence, and community. Recreation creates spaces where people can unplug, move, socialize, and feel supported without that pressure. Uh, for a
student, it might be a place to belong after school. For an adult, it might be a class that gets them out of the house once a week. For a family, it might be shared time that builds connection. Again, thank you, Mr. Kelly. Those moments matter and they add up. Mental health isn't just something we respond
to. It's something we build every day. And recreation is proud to be one piece of that foundation. Um over the summer we have different camps going on. So we have our summer plus camp for incoming 1 through 6th graders, our traveling teens camp for incoming 7th through 9th graders. And
these camps provide structure, routine, and a sense of belonging during the months when those supports can be hardest to find. And as our campers get older, that connection doesn't stop. We have uh we hire summer plus counselors starting at 16. Beginning at 15 years old, they can participate as counselors
in training. and this gives them the leadership opportunities and a meaningful way to stay connected to the programs that they were once a part of. Um, this spring we're offering robotics for 1 through sixth graders. We also have a new executive functioning uh
class for fifth through 8th graders and that's going to focus on skills like organization, planning, and self-regulation. So, both of those show tools that directly support emotional well-being both in and out of the classroom. For adults and seniors, we offer programs that support both physical and mental
wellness through movement and connection. Our chair yoga and senior circuit classes are incredibly wellreceived and loved by participants, while country line dancing and Zumba provide fun social ways for them to stay active. We also offer karate, our longest running program, serving
participants from kindergarten through adulthood, uh reinforcing discipline, confidence, and growth across generations. In addition, our senior citizens club meets twice a month and offers activities like movie days, book club, walking club, and other social programs
helping reduce their isolation and keep them engaged and connected as well. Beyond classes and camps, our summer concert series, patriotic celebration, winter wonderland, and Hanover Township Day bring the community together in ways that create shared joy, connection, and
memories across generations. as well. We're also grateful to partner with students from the Whippony Park High School Interact Club who volunteer at many of our events and they themselves model leadership service and community engagement for our younger participants. And then I'm just going to end by saying
when I was in high school, I don't remember there being many resources. There was not much conversation or emphasis on mental health at all. It always felt like something we dealt with on our own. But the way things are going and my hope is that a few years from now another
program coordinator can sit here and say I don't remember when we didn't have resources or I don't remember feeling isolated and alone. I always had somewhere to go. And that's the goal in recreation. We're just proud to be part of that future.
>> Thank you. >> And TQ Tom Quirk, superintendent of wreck. you you came on. You did an incredible job. You're doing an incredible job. And TQ is also a former Hannover Township policeman. So, thank you for everything, TQ. Thank you. And Britney, thank you.
The next portion is um a little bit interesting, very sad, and and very dark. Um I went to two seminars and I thought I had a pretty good understanding on what it what it was. And I spoke to Fern a few times about
it. And Fern came and spoke to our mayor's wellness campaign about it. And Fern, I I really appreciate you educating me more on this. I understand now how much I have to learn. It is very, very scary. It can happen to
anybody. It's an area you don't even want to go to mentally to think about it. So when I say it's dark, I just mean it's it's so troubling. I want to fix it. But I the only way we could fix it is if we learn and we educate people about the problem. So it's an honor to introduce Fern to take the floor for a
few minutes and talk to us about it. But you know you have my commitment and you have our commitment to help this initiative to bring it into more conversations with more and more people. So thank you Fern. >> Um thank you Mayor Gallagher for inviting me here tonight to speak on
behalf of the New Jersey Coalition Against Human Trafficking. By way of history, um, the Coalition has been a nonprofit organization since its inception in 2011. I've been volunteering with the coalition for 8 years in many capacities. I just want to
tell you really briefly how I got involved. Um, I was literally I told you I'm I'm a 38-year resident of Hanover Township and I was sitting on my living room couch reading the Hanover Eagle about 8 years ago and there was an
article about um human trafficking in our town. And I was shocked. I was horrified. I couldn't believe that this doesn't happen here. This can happen here. And so I started googling more
about human trafficking and what we could do and what you know how I can get involved. And I found the coalition and I met with the executive director who is a fabulous person and I just started volunteering to do anything they needed me to do. I have had no expertise in
anything but they they're such a wonderful organization that they used me to the extent that they could and until I learned everything I needed to learn. Um, so I just want to say first of all, I am so excited about everyone here on
this day is because I didn't know that I was going to be speaking to law enforcement and educators um and mayors because those are our target audiences. Um, when we do trainings, when we do
education, uh, this is who we who we target. We target um we have training for teachers, we have training for police departments, we have training for bankers, we I mean we have a lot of different trainings and I I probably
don't need to tell you very much about human trafficking um and how what a serious serious problem it is not only in the world but in this country in New Jersey and in every single town. I mean,
I I and as Ace said, it is dark and I'm sorry that we're gonna end on this, but um but what I wanted to say is um it's not just a crime against people's bodies, but also their mental health. Um
one survivor told me, and I know her well, she speaks often and Ace, you met her, um that it's her survivorship is a lifelong journey. It's been 40 plus years and she still live lives with
issues of guilt, poor self-esteem, nightmares, and fear from being trafficked from nothing that she herself caused. Um, so this is unfortunately currently happening to our children and
teenagers um mostly through the internet. Um, it doesn't happen like you see on TV or in movies that often. And I'm not saying it never happens, but people getting picked up off the streets and cars, you know, coming down the street and grabbing
someone, that happens sometimes, but right now it's the internet. It's very dangerous for our children. And so the kids themselves need to learn more about it themselves.
We focus on uh we have a program we present to high schools. Um, we also do middle schools. Um, it's like a halfhour long program, but we also have for the educators in the room. And I think, uh,
Superintendent Carol, you actually did use our training for some of your teachers. So, I thank you for that. Um, and we would love to have all the schools in in in Morris Township um,
have our presenters come and present to the students. We also have a training program for teachers. Uh we teach them how to deal with this issue and how to recognize the signs, the red flags when they ha might have a student who is
going through something like this. They don't just come out and tell you. They don't even know what's happening to them. They have been tricked. Um they they are just confused and it's a horrible situation. So, um I'm not going
to tell you very much about uh the coalition because there's a lot to tell and we don't have enough time, but I will tell you just that you need to trust me that it is such a good coalition that last year we had the
attorney general come to our law enforcement conference as our keynote speaker and this year we are having the new attorney general come as our keynote speaker again. So um so for the educators we have those programs for the
students and for the teachers. For law enforcement we have a law enforcement conference. This is our second year. Um Chief look has provided uh someone last year and again this year. I know we have
people coming from Morris Township. We have people coming I think from Chattam um and uh Bin and a couple of other towns that I know for sure are sending someone to attend. Mayors can attend. Um
it's more law enforcement, but we're happy to have you. Um so I would say that I don't want to take a lot of your time um telling you what we do. You can look us up online, saferj.org. or um but
we really really the uh law enforcement conference is coming up March 4th and 5th. There was a special rate cuz it's a two-day conference. If you want to come, I can even though that rate is gone,
just contact me. I can get you that special rate. Okay. Um and and the prosecutor's office, we would love for the prosecutor's office to be there. There is so much to learn. We have so many speakers. Um we have
survivors. It's all survivor informed. Um and I'm just extremely proud at how much Hanover Township has um done in this regard. We have the superintendent of schools. We have um we did uh as as Ace
said the wellness committee I did a presentation they did a proclamation on human trafficking awareness just two weeks ago I think. Um so they're very involved. Hanover Township is I want all of Mars County to be very involved. This
is such um an incredibly difficult um situation. Um, and so I'm going to end with this cuz everybody's been here a long time. Um, please please go to
saferenj.org. Um, if you're in the audience or anybody who wants to know more about human trafficking, um, please contact me, Fern Walan 973-4893378. And if anyone here in the deis has a
card to give me, I will send you all the law enforcement uh information or education information whatever um so that you can participate in this because it is so so important and our kids
seriously are depending on us to learn everything we can about this so we can teach them to be careful and to to you know just be safe. Okay. Can you give the number one more time? >> My phone number 973-4893378.
>> Don't. >> Thank you very much. Thank you. >> So I just want to adjust my intro Fern with an exit of your presentation by saying if the more we learn, the more likely we are to prevent this from
occurring. So, I want to leave your presentation on a very optimistic note and you have my commitment and I just said to Mark and Mayor Dowy, we should go down there at least one of the days. I'm going to ask my colleagues up here after the event. Let's let's go down for a day, learn as much as we can and
support this initiative as much as we can. >> Yeah, just reach out to me and I will set you up with the special rate. >> Okay. Thank you very much. I you know what? We have an opportunity here for questions and answers, but we did run late. Um, if anybody has a quick
question or two and to the gentleman in the back, I would definitely like to get your name and number after this. I really appreciate your comments and um, looks like you have a lot of gas in the tank and I I definitely want to talk to you and see how you can be helpful to our team. I want I want to siphon some of that
gas. Does anybody have a question or two before we have our closing comments for anybody up here? Okay, Bri, it's like a meeting hearing. Hearing none, seeing none. Okay, so what I'd like to do now, starting with our superintendent,
Ria Carol, if you have a closing comment, that'd be great. >> So, I'd like to thank everyone for coming this evening. Um, you know, I am very blessed to be part of a uh district and I've been in high schools, believe it or not. This is my 28th year um in in public education and my all my education has always been as a high school
teacher, administrator, and now superintendent. And um like I said I am blessed to work um in in such a special district with such special people um with Mr. Kelly. Dr. Algyire was one of our hires and um as you know we said if we can clone her we would. Um the amount
of a effect positive a effect that she has on our student population is palatable and um you know has not only impacted our student population but also our staff population. And when you have that positive culture and climate in a high school students flourish. Um, so
I'd like to thank you, Ace, for allowing us to showcase our special program this evening and thank you for allowing us here tonight. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, Maria. >> Chief John Santani, please take the floor. >> All right, Mayor, when uh Mace when uh when when Mayor Ace asked me to sit in
on on this panel, I thought to myself, what do I have to offer? You know, what do I bring to this? And then, you know, I thought about it in 40 years of uh public safety in the fire service and my life experience. I said I might be able to add some to this. So, the mayor said
I had a hard stop tonight. I was supposed we had a family death. Uh one of my close friends and a cousin died last night and we were all gathering at at his house tonight. But as soon as I heard what was going on, I belonged here tonight and I think they would
appreciate that. Um, I came from a big Italian family, huge Italian family, and we have every one of these problems that we're talking about intergrated into our family. And two things I heard tonight, two words I heard tonight, uh, Chief
Jack was not only connectivity, Chris, that soon as I heard it, I wrote it down. Direction, Tracy, direction. In that big family, we had an informal um network of people that gave you direction, that gave you connection,
that that gave you guidance when maybe you weren't going right. Um and connection is everything, right? And and direction is everything. So, I try to uh live back. I try to give that back. Now, we do that through our C program and our office emergency management. We work with the high schools on many programs,
mentoring programs with the junior members. we have our uh program where we were sending kids off to school at college and try to, you know, enlighten them on what you you have in the world. And then I thought, you know, what do I bring from my fire service background?
And I heard my fellow fire officer back there, you know, he hit a home run when he brought that up and I I said, I have to introduce that into this conversation. So, we had another informal operation that went on. Our kitchen table, our kitchen table was a place where a lot of this got vented
out. people's home problems, problems on the job, and then maybe you grabbed something and you brought that back and made it a formal um issue to help them out with, you know, a formal direction. But um I had a 700 man department, a
very diverse department, 700 member department, guys and girls, and you had everything going on, and you realized how important direction is and how important connection is. Um, if you can make a connection with somebody, you can help them. And I'm saying this from a
personal perspective. I live with all of this. I lived with all of it. And they know I I worked very closely with uh Maria, Jack, Councilman Brokaw. Um, we they know my story, you know, and without direction, I could have went a
whole different way. Um, but with direction, I wound up being pretty successful beyond my belief ever. So, I think this is phenomenal. Again, I should have been somewhere, but I'm glad I was here, and I think they would appreciate the fact that I'm here. And
uh you won me over again, mayor. I'm I'm part of your team with this. I think it's a great job. Great job by the presenters today. And and this is a little off, but that human trafficking is huge. We've been teaching this in East Hanover for the last 10 years, and
it doesn't just happen to children. It happens at all levels. We have a a World Soccer Cup coming to our area. This is very important. Don't let that just be a side note of tonight. That's very, very important. Thank you for bringing me in
as part of the team. And you got me. Thank you, CHIEF. >> TRACY, if I had my snare drum here, I'd give you a snare drum roll. But Tracy, please closing comment. And thank you. >> I don't know how to follow that. >> You did. you inspired me to say so many things.
>> Um I just want to thank everyone for coming out um on a Thursday night. It just goes to show how important and invested you are um and the youth um in our town, our community, our county. So I just wanted to say thank you for coming out.
>> Thank you. Chief Jack Ambrose, I got to tell you, thanks to you, I've been exposed to the Mars Plains School District, East Hanover Township School District, and now the Whippony Park, the Hanover Park and Whippony Park High School school district. And the resiliency they teach
with these kids is just fantastic. We have the best school systems in the country. I got to tell you that. So, thank you. That's all that's all I keep it short. Thank you, Chief. Floor Park Mayor Mark Taylor. Well, on this very cold night, we have to thank Christa in
the back there for all of her hard WORK and Ace for continuing to put this group together of uh great individuals, great people uh who bring a lot of talent to the room. Uh you know, raising two children uh where I knew nothing. The
children knew everything as they grew up. uh become both very successful, both products of the Floren Park school system and Hannover Park. Uh but as well, I serve on the uh Jersey First board of directors and it gave me great pleasure and um and honor to go around
the state when we were advocating for children during CO to say that we have our children in school at least half the day and that I must give a big take my hat off to Maria and to Dr. Cap who was here earlier uh because for without you
people our children would have been further behind the eightball during this whole crisis that we went through in co so uh my life story were not for a guy named Arty Stober at Hanover Park High School I probably wouldn't be in the profession that I've been pretty
successful at uh for over 40 years uh teaching me small engines back in the day. Um, I now work in a corporation that is, um, I represent 40 companies in the automotive aftermarket, mostly in the race car and performance business. And it all came from that background of
just having something in school that was different than what everybody else was doing and taught me how to make a living. So, I have to give a big uh, shout out to Arty. I don't believe he's still with us, but uh, he is. >> I don't think >> I don't think so either, but he was the
best. So, and uh again, I want to thank uh ACE for putting this together and bringing all these great people together. So, thank you. >> Thank you, MAYOR. >> Morristown Mayor Tim Dowy. Thank uh we've been doing this now for a
while. Um, I remember I when I first got the call from ACE, um, through our assistance, um, my assistant said, uh, the mayor handover wants you to get together and come to this meeting. I'm like, wow. I've been mayor for 13 plus years, and it's the first time I had a
mayor from the other side of the aisle reach out and actually wanted me to be involved in something. So, I said, "This has got to be something different." Uh, so we connected and become good friends since. Um, and I've been to every one of these. Um, it's personal for me in some
ways. Um, and I've shared that publicly before. Um, but in Morristown, you know, we we have a diverse community and we see a lot of different things. Um, human trafficking is one of the conversations that I've had with people in in my town
um or uh in in different different organizations. And I actually when uh Fern was talking I texted my public safety director and said I authorized police to go to this to I get a response from this. He we'll check it first thing in the morning. So hopefully they'll be
in attendance. Um cuz it is important. Um, we have a community engagement unit in Marstown um that uh that I started that authorized the police to do because uh being on the street for as long as I've been on the street in Marstown um
you see a lot of the mental mental health issues uh that that that are out there um you know uh addiction and and u has has no barriers has it's doesn't discriminate really doesn't and it will
take everything from you, your family, and then we'll take you. Uh, and I've seen it. I've lived it. Um, and, uh, it's why I'm very supportive of what we do here. Um, and although you don't have 500 people claiming to, you know, trying
to get in the door for these for these mental health symposiums, but the fact that he's videotaping this, people will see it, people will know. And I got to I got to tell you, I don't I don't want to take a lot of time up, but your presentation, >> you Mr. Kelly, right?
>> That's correct. >> You know, I'm like, man, I don't get involved in in the school side. Um because I I let that take care of itself cuz they have a school board and they have elected people that do their job. But uh that was impressive. Um and uh
and I took a lot from it and I'm going to reach out to my superintendent uh Dr. Mucci and let her know what I've learned here tonight and hopefully that Marstown and our school district is implementing some of the things that I heard. I I'm assuming they are um uh
like I guess I don't get that involved, but I was very impressed with uh what I heard tonight from you and your organization um and what you do here in handover. What a what a when when people see this video and it won't be just in handover. It'll be all over Mars County. You're going to people are going to want
to move here. Are are you building anything here? I don't want to talk about that tonight. >> So, so, so, so it was very very impressive. But uh again, everybody that comes out here and spends their time um doing this is important. Um because the
biggest challenge, a lot of the challenge I see with our police department and and uh is a lot of mental health issues. Um I see it all the time. And it was funny. I I have a new neighbor a couple doors down. I was walking the dog and and uh she said, "How you doing? How's everything going
to town?" I said, "Oh, good." She goes, "Oh, what's you busy night?" And I said, "Yeah, I got up, believe it or not, going to a mental health." Oh, I'm in that field. If you never need a resource, please don't hesitate to ask. So, boom. It's just it's there. Uh so, thank you, uh, Mayor Gallagher. Thank
you for all the mayors and all the distinguished people that are on this deis, uh, and our law enforcement and the people in the public that come out and the people in the public that will hear this. Um, you guys are doing a great job. And uh and now you're going to hear from the director of the
commissioners of Morris County who's our leader at the county level. Thank you, MAYOR. I I want to thank you, Ace. I think I've participated in every one of these that you've put together. And in some respects, I think, you know, Morris County is one of the wealthiest counties
in the nation. And we kind of think, oh, you know, we don't have any problems here in Morris County. It's a great place to to live, work, and play, and raise a family. We say that all the time and it is, but as the mayor was saying, mental uh health and substance abuse, it knows no socioeconomic boundaries,
political boundaries, demographic boundaries. Um, so it's so important that you have these symposiums to shed a light. And I think that, you know, the one takeaway, and we all learn this as public servants, you know, you can't do anything by yourself. You've got to, you
know, work with other people, develop partnerships, and there are so many resources out there on all different levels of government. Nobody should feel as if there's no place that they can go for help. There's plenty of places to go. Um, we need to make sure they know where those how to get in touch with
them. That's what this does. And, uh, you know, I want to thank you for that. And it's so important, uh, um, that people understand that there's help out there. and uh you know we're a stigma-free county. This is not something that you should be um you know kind of pushing under the rug. I mean
that's kind of what we did back in the day. You know when I when I grew up you didn't talk about this stuff. And once again echo what you said about Mr. Kelly. I mean phenomenal what you're doing over there. Um so I just I'm going to end with Ace. Thanks for connecting
us. Mayor Donna. >> Thank you, Mayor Ace. Um, again, I think I I missed one of these maybe, but um now I've been involved a little bit and I just have a couple quick comments. One, um, we do share the Morris School District is Morris Plains, Morristown,
and Morris Township. And again, um, I think that's great that Mayor Dy is is going to reach out. They are doing an awful lot. I love being at Morristown High. I am so incredibly impressed with all the work that they do for our kids.
Um it's a really diverse population, but what they do to help their mental health and especially some of the situations they are going through is pretty phenomenal. So when you talk to Dr. Mucci, I'm sure you know we'll just keep building on that. Um, that being said,
the issue about so many resources in not in Morris County and our surrounding municipalities, my husband and I have raised four kids. Um, the youngest who is 33 is going to graduate college in May on a different path because some of
his uh mental health issues, his learning issues. He'll have some of these mental health issues for the rest of his life. But because we lived here and had the resources and had the ability to get in touch with all these good agencies and people who could help
us and the help he had through school, I met I know so many mothers that when they had to move away for different reasons were panicking because of they were moving to states that didn't have the kind of resources that are here. So I do on the record want to urge people
two things. one to seek the help because seeking the help is a strength and we do have resources and they're getting better and better. So don't be afraid whether you're the parent or a teacher or a coach or whatever. Make sure you connect people so that they get to help.
There's so much of our population that needs these resources and not only do they not know about them, they don't know how to get them and they they don't even know who to contact. So that's a big issue. And the last thing I want to
say is don't give up hope though because we are every day with all the stressors that people have, all the things we're going through. There is a lot of help out there, the arrive program, hope one, everything, we are helping people. So
don't ever give up hope. We will get better at this. we will be able to help people and we will be able to get back to a place we where we are feeling better about how we all live our lives because we are in one of the greatest
counties in the United States. So that's my message. >> Okay. The newest one to this team is Mayor Carolyn. Would you like to make a closing comment? >> Sure. Um first of all, thank you so much for inviting me. It's my first time and
uh and I I just uh I love that everyone is coming together, all these professionals in so many different fields in shedding light on um like you say you were talking about um Fern speaking about human trafficking about how dark it is. Well, it is dark, but by
shedding light on it and by educating people, by educating uh our communities and our kids about the importance of mental health and of wellness. And I love I'm going to go back to Mr. Mr. Kelly again. Your name said a lot tonight. um that uh you know you're ed
we're educating our kids not only in you know math and sciences and and literature and and physical health but by incorporating the the wellness into the curriculum is phenomenal because and
and that connectivity because as as you age like human connection throughout your life is beneficial. So teaching that how important that is and weaving that in and making that part of your life for a young person is so important.
Um there's a um a documentary called Join or Die about how important it is to maintain connections and join clubs and and be a part of your community as you um go through your life. And it adds uh
years to your life. It adds uh value to your mental health. And uh so I just uh applaud um all of you for um our our our um uh teachers and our educators, our uh
our law enforcement uh at at putting that at the forefront because we're just that is making lives better for everybody. And like U Mayor Grigley said like we're it's evolving and we're getting better at it all the time. And part something that I struggle with is
thinking about we've got all these resources and how to connect those resources with the people that need them because I feel like sometimes the people that need them are are the ones that are hardest to reach and I I so appreciate the um at at the county Casey Erico and
doing the community resource event. I think that's phenomenal. and we we started doing that locally in Chattam Burough to try to to to reach people who who may be difficult to reach and getting them the resources. So, I want to thank so much that is shedding light on some things that can be dark but but
are part of life and that that that we need to talk about and and and address. So, I want to thank you so much. Um and I look forward to coming back next year. >> Well, you'll be back. Thank you, MAYOR >> BRITNEY. >> YEAH. I just want to say I learned an
immense amount and as someone who was born and raised in handover, I went to Whippony Park. A lot has changed and I I love everything that you're doing and I'm very honored and I'm grateful that you have asked me to be part of this panel. So, thank you to ACE and everyone
up here for including me and letting me be a part of this today. >> Thank you, >> Fern. >> Yeah. Um, so, uh, very short, I I wanted to, uh, tell everyone
more darkness, but I neglected a big piece of what I was going to say, but I didn't stick to my script, which was that this um, human trafficking can happen to men, women, girls, boys of any
age, um, any race, LGBTQ, citizen, non-citizen, So everybody should just know that because this is not something that happens to one demographic. Um I wanted to ask the parents out there to if you
hear this and you you um are concerned, you should contact your superintendent of schools, your principles um because they can contact us and we can provide a program for them. Um, and
uh, what else? Oh, yes, I do have brochures outside on the table. So, grab one. It has, you know, all the contact information. Doesn't have mine, but you have mine. Um, and if if anybody here can leave me with a card, that would be
great. And I also want to thank Ace and everybody here because um like Britney said, I have learned so much tonight and I am so grateful that you invited me to be a part of this. Um it's just amazing because my kids went to Whippony Park
High School and I don't think this was available to them. This is going back a while while um I think it's fantastic. I just think it's amazing and um I just thank everyone for being here and sharing their expertise with us and with
everybody who's going to see this. >> Chelsea, >> hi. Thank you again for having us. Um, I just want to say, uh, for the Morris County Sheriff's Office, um, we're here to support you and help you, um, through anything that there is that you need
assistance with. Um, we are connected with 81 different partners throughout Morris County. Um, so any of those needs that anybody is struggling with, um, I've personally been there myself. Um, I've needed connections to different
resources um, prior to coming onto law enforcement um, with my family members. So, if there's anything that you do need, please feel free to reach out. We are stigmafree. We are a judgmentfree zone um, and just trying to break down
that barrier to get those who need help and the help that they deserve and that they need. You're not alone in this. >> Keith Lock, >> I just want to say thank you, mayor, for putting this all together. Um, the police department here in handover couldn't do it without the support of
the mayor and, uh, township committeeman Cahill, who is our liaison to the committee, um, but also the schools. So, Superintendent Carol, Superintendent Tumi, thank you very much for helping us do our part. Um and obviously to the prosecutor's office and uh the other
surrounding municipalities that have helped us grow this program. Um so thank you all for that and uh we greatly appreciate it. So thank you. >> Thank you sir. Thank you, mayor, for including me in this. And I definitely appreciate uh
being a part of all of this. And I just want to reiterate the message that uh law enforcement and our uh mental health providers in Morris County, I think, are top-notch. Uh and we're out here to help you. So, if there's anything that you do
need, I I echo what Chelsea said. We are here to help. >> Thank you. Madison, Chief Misha. >> Thank you, Mayor. U thank you for inviting me. It's my first time here. Uh this is fantastic. Um I mean, just goes
to show you. I'll take a a line from Sheriff Ganon. You know, Mars County does it best and you really see it here tonight. Um Yep. Just thank you. This has been great. Appreciate it. Yes, SIR.
AND CHIEF, thank you very much for being one of our regional board of ed members, too. You're public servant, a true public servant. Thank you, sir. So, Beon, New Jersey, Sergeant Kilmer. All right. Thank you, Mayor Gallagher, for having me today. Uh, it was a great night. It was great to experience all
this. I think we all understand what the pandemic did with isolation, alcohol, and substance abuse. Um, the importance of that is that we're having conversations like this. We realize that mental health is a serious issue. Uh we we realize that no one is perfect. I'm
certainly not perfect myself and if you had cancer or another type of disease, you wouldn't hide it and you would seek help. So, it's important to break the stigma. It's important to speak up. I'm proud to say that I'm coming up on four years of removing alcohol from my life
and UH and uh health is wealth. Thank you, mayor. >> Thank you, sir. All right. Before my closing comment, which will be very short, I just want to thank everybody here for your time, your expertise, and
your giving and your dedication. Uh I just want to say that, you know, I said it before and here's where I'm going to end it. The last takeaway for tonight is we want to make it crystal clear to everyone that you're not alone. I think you can see that clearly
tonight. And we do this not just in Hover Township, but we've done it with our partners in other parts of the county. I want you to know, I said it before, we are available to you and to each other at all times. All of our resources are your resources, and
they're just a phone call away. So, please, we are available. And I'll end it on a funny note for Chief Lock. Every one of us in all our positions typically don't want to make the phone call. They show up at our houses and don't know what to do. They don't know who to call. They don't know what
programs are available. So many times people will come to my house and ask me to call the police and tell me why. And I said, "Why do you call the police?" They said, "Oh, no. I don't want to bother him." Uh the chief says, "Tell them to call me." We right, Chief. How many times do we have this conversation?
But that's how people are with mental health. They don't know the programs are out there. They don't want to make the phone call. They don't want to be judged. And stigmafree is a beautiful, beautiful slogan. But we all have to practice it a little bit better. Every
one of us. And the one thing I'm going to say and and I just want to say once again how much I appreciate these this team. We've all became very very close. We do a lot of beautiful things together. So that's my comment guys. Thank you very much and hope to see you soon.