I'm sorry. I don't know. Oh, I remember that one. No, no, >> not at all. The time now is 7:04 p.m. We are going to begin our monthly meeting.
My name is Dr. Naomi Esther Blamer. I am the chair for the North Miami Commission for Women. It is an honor for us to have you here. At this time, we'll have roll call. >> Dr. Marie at
>> Dr. Nissa Glickman, >> present. >> Claudia Pasmino, >> present. Dr. Na Naomi Blair >> present. >> Faraja La Fortune >> present. >> Rosem Michelle Gumpier >> present. >> Emmanuela Florima. >> Chair you have cororum.
>> Thank you so very much. At this time we're going to ask Commissioner Faja to lead us in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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. >> Are there any amendments to the agenda? >> No, Madam Chair. Thank you. Good evening everyone. On behalf of the North Miami Commission for Women, it is
my honor to welcome you to tonight's monthly meeting. We are especially excited to present the state of women and girls in Florida, a community dialogue. This theme was inspired by last month's inaugural statewide
convening of commissions for women held in Tallahassee. a powerful gathering that reminded us of the importance of connection, collaboration, and shared purpose. It was there that we were challenged to bring these conversations
home, to continue the dialogue with our own communities, and to strengthen the network of women leaders across our state. Tonight, we are proud to do just that. We are honored to welcome Dr.
Rosario Kcha. Please stand to be recognized from the University of Miami School of Law who will share critical insights into the current status of women and girls in Florida. We are equally privileged to
have joined to be joined by Commissioner Belinda Kaiser and Commissioner Candace Vasilian from the Florida Commission on the Status of Women. Please stand to be recognized. as well as chairwoman Michelle Abru of
the Miami Dade County Commission for Women. Please stand to be recognized. Dr. Leon, chairwoman for the Commission for Women, Joral. And we also have uh with us Miss Harris,
the chair for the North Miami Beach Commission for Women. Please stand to be recognized. And there are so many other great organi organizations that you will hear from today. Your presence here this evening as leaders, advocates, and community
partners reflects a shared commitment to equity, opportunity, and empowerment. Together, we have the ability to shape solutions, elevate women's voices, and create lasting impact for generations to
come. As we listen, learn tonight's dialogue, let us also commit to action in sharing that the ideas share shared here lead to meaningful change within our communities. Thank you for all of
you joining us, for lending your voices, and for continuing the work of advancing the status of women and girls in Florida. Welcome, and let's have a powerful and inspiring evening together. You know,
prior to 2021, there was not a commission for women established here in the city of North Miami. But due due to the I would say not just the vision but the resilience
of councilwoman Mary Esté Irvin, we are all here tonight and at this time I will welcome her for opening remarks. Please put your hands together for the visionary and the one who established this commission by ordinance
councilwoman Mary Esté Irvin. Good evening women. Oh it good evening madame chair, good evening vice chair, members of the commission for women. Distinguished guest, it is with deep pride and heartfelt gratitude that I
welcome you tonight's meeting of the North Miami Commission for Women. As we gathered in this space, we are not only continuing the work of advocacy, we are building bridges, shaping futures, and honoring the legacy of those who have
paved the way for us to lead. Tonight's agenda reflects the very heartbeat of our mission to uplift, to empower, and unite women and girls across cities, across countries, across our state. From the distinguished voices presenting the
state of the women and girls in Florida to the powerful community partners joining us for a short addresses, we are surrounded by leaders who embodied resilience, innovation, and purpose. I want to extend a special welcome to
all our honored guests and dignitaries. Your presence here affirms the importance of collaboration across sector, government, education, healthc care, advocacy, and business as we work together to advance equity and
opportunity. As the sponsor of the resolution establishing the North Miami Commission for Women, I am especially excited to introduce our annual Miami Date County Women's Leadership. This initiative that would be presented later on by Dr. Naomi
Blamer will speak directly to our shared vision, a countrywride platform where women leaders convene and exchange ideas, launch joint initiative and inspire the next generation of change maker.
So let's move through tonight's meeting with intention and unity. Let us listen deeply, speak boldly and act collectively. Because when women lead, community thrive and when we come
together across cities, commissions, and sharing similar causes, we create a legacy of leadership that will echo for generations. So, thank you for being here, and let's begin the work. Thank you, Councilwoman.
>> Thank you, Councilwoman. At this time, we have joining us several other community leaders who we would like to recognize as well. We have Mr. Francesco Dubly, Survivors Pathway. Please stand to be recognized.
[Applause] We have Dr. Maria Hidaljo, First Vice Chair for Global Innovative Foundation. Please stand to be recognized. [Applause] We also have Mr. Dave Bernie, the great
of the Greater North Miami Chamber of Commerce. Sir, thank you. Please stand to be recognized. If I have missed anyone sitting in here who represents. Oh, we also have Miss Kenya Lespiron's educator and school
psychologist intern. Please stand to be recognized. >> Yes, Dr. I'd like to uh acknowledge Dr. Constson Miller, president of the Miami Chapter Black Nurses Association. Thank you. Dr. Latoya Lewis, uh, second
vice chair for Global Innovative Foundation, professor from University of Miami, and Wilder Tanny, uh, from Global Innovative Foundation PR. Thank you, commissioners. Are there anyone else?
Yeah, Kaitlyn Rash from North Miami Women Commission. And there is another community leader. She's in the back. I don't remember her name. She has the glasses. Um Dr. Floren Dosu. Um Mrice.
And then I don't remember her name. She has the glasses. Yes. So we would like to acknowledge you and thank you for being part of Yes. Oh, Vanessa, thank you so much for coming. We would love to
have you more often. >> Thank you. >> At this time, we will continue with the program. Uh we have our first speaker for this
evening that will be none other than Dr. Rosario Kcha. Dr. Rosario Kcha. I I must say speak from the heart to share the experience that we had with her in
Tallahassee. It was such that we we knew that we did not want to just walk away with this information without giving her the opportunity to come to the city of North Miami and share this information. When we went to Tallahassee, this was
the first uh convening. It was the inaugural con convening of all commissioner commissioner for women initiatives. We were all con coming together and we did not know exactly all
that was going to be done that day. But with the leadership of the Florida Commission on the Status of Women and the leadership of U Miami Day Commission for Women, we were introduced to Dr. Kcha. Dr. Kuncha holds a doctorate in
sociology and a master's degree in Hispanic literature as well as training as a clinical psychologist as an interdisciplinary scholar. She currently serves as a research associate at the human rights clinic university of Miami School of
Law. Dr. Kcha co-leads the Miami Dade Safety Project, a social policy research initiative focused on improving prevention and responses to genderbased violence alongside professors Caroline Bettinger Lopez and Donna Cucker as part
of the courage initiative. In 2021, as a doctoral student at the University of Miami, she began collaborating with the Human Rights Clinic on the on the courage in policing project, aiming to enhance police responses to genderbased
violence, GBV. After graduation, where she received the Barrett Prize for the best dissertation on a Latin American or Caribbean topic, Dr. Kunch continued her work with the courage team as a sociologist among legal professionals.
She contributes to the design and implementation of qualitative community informed methodologies for social policy planning. Please put your hands together for Dr. Rosario Koncha.
[Applause] >> Thank you. Um good evening. It's an honor to be here with you. I'm so happy that uh we could make this happen. Um yeah, it was very a very
meaningful um meeting in Tallahassee. Uh still we have many other commissions for women to to meet. Erh so that is uh something looking to look forward. So what I'm going to uh present today it's
a brief overview of the status of women and girls in Florida. Um and I'm going to highlight some pressing issues um and using different data sources. Um in this case since we are in
Miami I'm going to illustrate some of these challenges with examples of Miami date. Um, and also I'm going to be connecting uh this information with some preliminary findings of the Miami date
safety project that uh Dr. Leur mentioned. Uh the Miami date safety project aims to enhance prevention and responses to gender based violence in different ways such as intimate binary violence, sexual violence, human
trafficking and other forms of violence deeply affecting our community. >> Yes. Okay. Okay. I try to make this work. Um there. Okay. Uh as a point of departure
for today's conversation, uh I'm going to review some key findings of the survey titled Voices of Florida Women that the Florida Commission on the Status of Women gathered. [Music]
They gathered this information. Um and so they put together this report um highlighting the the leading challenges and priorities uh that according to the survey women um they were facing. Uh
they partnered with the University of Florida North Florida um and they published a report earlier this year. Um there thank you. So in this survey uh they use a sample
of over a thousand women 18 years uh or older which is a good sample size. Uh we can say that this is um a survey that can provide meaningful information about the trends at the state level. uh
and also the sample data was weighted to match the demographics of the Florida population in terms of educational attainment, age, race and geographic area. So this survey was basically measuring
uh opinions and attitudes and in part of this um part of the responses were measuring or trying to identify top priorities and main challenges. So I'm going to use some of the results
of the survey to highlight uh some erh some issues that our community is is facing. So in this um survey we had at least three uh important challenges uh that
women the survey women express. One challenge was a community economic security. For example, uh it was uh the top one of the sorry the top one uh challenge uh with 55% of the survey
women uh across across both age groups um expressed that they were concerned about financial stability. For example, the cost of living, housing, homelessness and employment opportunities. Health care was also a top one erh
challenge. Also 55% of women across both age groups were concerned about for example the quality and affordability of services. And uh the three third aspect that I
want to highlight uh is the issue the pro the worried about violence against women. women uh in the younger group 18 to 24 um highlighted that uh this was also a
challenge. 35% of women in this uh group were worried about violence against women for them was the top the top third challenge. So again the the interesting things here is that this resonates with some of the
funings of the Miami dates safety study and other organizations that are working on this pressing issues for women. So there's definitely some interesting pattern that uh it's in is important to
consider and analyze. Um so yes so again these findings re resonate with some of our preliminary findings and also with other research from other areas of the United States and local
uh so I'm going to go first um and um overview a little bit about the issue of a community security. So we see that um when women um mentioned that uh economic security was
a challenge uh within this group within this 55% 19% said that they were worried about saving money for the future. 18% within the 55% said that they were worried about being
able to pay rent or mortgage and a 17% uh were worried about essential living expenses for example finding affordable housing in our community or desired area. So this is very significative
because we have here that in options two and three we had that housing is a key concern and this is going to be something that we're going to see over and over. I'm what I'm going to do now is take
this challenge or worried. I'm going to give you some uh background information like microeconomic indicators that may give us an an insight of this about this word about these challenges. Not that it explain these opinions but it's
something to consider um about the specific context and circumstances that women are facing today. So first we're going to talk about uh the a standard indicator of economic security
is the federal poverty level. Uh and we're going to uh we're going to see that in Florida 13.6% of women live below the FPL the federal poverty level.
erh 25 20.5% of black women including Hispanics and Latinas live below FPL and 17.7% of Hispanic women uh are in the same situation.
Um to add that um to add to this uh description uh also women are disproportionately represented in uh lowpaying jobs. Some of the leading occupations by race
for example house cleaners among Hispanic women, school teachers among white women and home healthc care aids among black women. So they're like there are these are female dominated jobs
um that have been historically um not very well paid. So and within the groups that are particularly that are being hit particularly by economic security are
domestic workers. Erh in our research and research from the Florida Policy Institute uh we see that uh this is a group that speci that is especially struggling for example more than nine in 10 domestic workers are women
and they work for example as home care aids 47% house cleaners 37% the majority are Latina about 45% and black women are overr represented since 25% of domestic workers are black
h in the state and the median hourly wage is about $12 in contrast to the 19 median earned uh by other workers. So we have a situation here that is clear that domestic workers and other
occupations we're going to see later are not earning a living wage. So, I'm going to uh give you information about the women living below the federal poverty level h specific to Miami. Uh
because the the situation is a similar trend, but it's more accentuated. Um for example um while the 13.6% of of women living under the poverty
line it increases uh 16.3% in Miami date. Again, for black women, the percentage goes to 20 from 20.5 at the state level to 21.8
in Miami date. And for Hispanic women, uh it's a little bit lower, but um than at the state level. So these are trends uh that are that are that that are pretty similar in the
state and in Miami date. So I'm going to give you two examples as well of um occupations and we are going to compare the wage that we we would expect or of
certain occupations to the rent that they are able to afford. For example, here um we're going to explore what is called uh the affordable uh housing affordability and we have
heard many times that there is affordable housing crisis in Florida and Miami date. So we I gave I'm going to give a couple of examples to understand what it is uh what this uh what this is about. Erh so a housing for housing to
be affordable no not more than 30% of a household total income should be spent on this category and if we see this table erh the first column
you see the area in this case is Miami Miami beach kendo this is an example in the second column we have information about occupation, elementary school teacher, a female dominated uh job. In
the third column, we have an estimated median hourly wage for this occupation, about $25. In the fourth column, we have the maximum amount that this worker should pay in rent to be considered affordable.
That is up to 30% of their monthly income. That is about uh uh 13 uh 1,334. And what does reality tells us? In the fifth column, we see that an estimated
cost of rent for a two-bedroom place is uh more than $2,000. Uh so in the sixth column we see that uh the percentage of income that these workers has to pay in rent to afford
this place is uh 52% way above um the affordable housing standard. The conclusion here is that many time many full-time working women in Florida such as school teachers do not have
access to affordable housing and we are going to go uh when explore another example home health and personal care aids. Uh let's remember that black women were uh this is also a female dominated occupation. Um and uh it's a
leading occupation among black women. So we have the same county area, a different occupation. Um so in the third column we have an estimated median hourly wage of almost $16. In the fourth
column, we have the maximum about this worker should pay in rent to be considered affordable. That is about $827. What's the reality? In the fifth column, we have that estimated cost of rent for
a two-bedroom place is more than $2,000. In the sixth column, we have that the percentage of income that this worker has to pay in rent to afford this two-bedroom place is 84%.
Full-time working black women in Miami Dade working as for example care aids cannot afford the rent. Um, we're gonna uh talk a little bit about mothers.
Most mothers in Florida make wages that contribute to their household, but there are significant disparities by race. 77% of black mothers make wages that contribute to their household
compared to 55% of Latina mothers and 49% of white mothers. Um, and we're going to talk we're going to add to this uh scene the issue of when
of gender wage gap. For example, in Florida, white women earn 80% of what white men earn. If we disagregate by race or compared to other race and ethnicities, we see that
uh black women only earn 59.4% of what uh white men earn and Latinas 70 57.1%. So we have here that the wage gap hits black and Latina working mothers
particularly hard. Uh next I want to explore a very interesting standard to assess poverty uh that is called alis um asset limited income constraint employed.
So um this is um an additional criteria to assess economic security is additional to the federal poverty uh level and it takes into account uh more local data and is more precise in terms
of cost of living and housing. Okay. So um and here instead of the individual being the the the reference is the household. So we have as we saw before that in 2023
13% of household were below the poverty level. But if we add to that that an additional 34% of household were experienced financial hardship that means that the household
income is not enough to cover basic needs needs. So that gives us an estimated 47% of household that experience economic security in Florida. So this is a very uh interesting uh
standard and it's a better and uh a more precise standard to measure the economic insecurity in our communities. All this information uh it's available uh the websites are there in this particular uh case uh is a study by United Way Florida
and United for Alice and it's based on the American community survey. Um so we're going to talk about how much is enough. Uh again, we're going to go back to Miami date. Uh so how much income is
enough? Uh the women's fund of Miami developed um self-sufficiency standard that establishes uh estimates the wage that is enough erh to be self-sufficient. That means to meet
basic needs for working age families uh without private or public assistance. So here what we have is an estimate. Uh again the the reference is the household. So this is the example of a
household with one adult, one infant and one school aer. On the left uh we have an estimate of costs by category. For example, housing is estimated for more than $1,000.
um uh of rent per month. Child care is about is close to 1,800 and so on. And what we have on the right is h a chart that represents the cost relative
to the monthly monthly income. So what we see is the biggest chunks here uh correspond to housing and child care. So what is the reality? To be able to
afford all these costs in Miami date, these parents need to make an hourly wage of $45 and an annual salary of about 95,000. We're talking about here there's no
money to go to the cinema, to go to Disney. This is the bare necessities. And if we turn transform this into hours is this parent would have to work about
140 hours per week to be a be able to afford. So um after exploring the issue of economic security uh we're going to explore the other concern of uh of women as appeared
in the survey. So the other challenge is healthcare. Uh 55% of women had this concern. Um 90 19% are concerned about the access to quality and affordable health care. 18%
are concerned about the availability of affordable health care and a 17% of cost of prescription drugs. So what we see here is that affordable affordability and quality are top
concerns in the in this in this in this dimension. So uh the ne in the next few slides I'm going to illustrate with the example a very important example in terms of uh
health which is maternary health. So this is an example this is the example of the uh rates of maternal mortality erh which means the it's an rate is a comparison between the number of deaths
erh related to child birth erh per 100,000 live births births. So on the left we have this you can see the deaths per 100,000 live births.
Uh overall we have that the maternal mortality rate is 21. Uh and again there are huge disparities uh by race. Erh for non-Hispanic black
women is 50. for non-Hispanic white women is 12.9 and for Hispanic is 16.3. >> I I don't think people realize what you just said. Can you repeat what it is for
black women? >> Black women are four times more likely to die in delivery related complications than white women. This is a example that like this puts
the United States in the lowest uh rank of uh developed countries in the world. >> Commissioner, you're recognized. Please step to the podium. >> This statistic has always just floored me.
What exactly contributes to a lot of those deaths? I I because I just I can't believe in the city that we live in that this continues to happen more than I mean we're supposed to be like a
thriving metropolitan city. And I'm really curious like that that our women at 50 at 50% levels are are dying during childirth. Sorry, it's not 50%. It's 50 per 100,000.
>> It's still too many, but I would just I'm very curious about that. Thank you for clarifying. >> Yeah. Um, >> so it's 50 per 100,000 and we all in agreement that is still too high. So what is it that you believe is in the
state of Florida is contributing to that? There is a extensive research erh about uh maternal mortality especially among black women.
Erh I'm sure that people know here why is this happening >> lack of access >> we have issues for example of a saying >> how close or far away uh there are hospitals,
>> the cost of traveling if they're far away. Um if you have uh if you also the relationship with the doctor makes a big difference. Erh, and it's if seen that
the the kind of care that a black doctor can give uh to a black person in general, but especially for black women, uh is unique and is fundamental. Erh among white doctors
uh there's a tendency of ignoring uh ignoring uh when a black pregnant woman expresses discomfort, pain, weakness. Um there's a clear tendency to ignore
and and that u basically they are blind to these signs of uh some problems during the pregnancy. So what I'm saying is well not only
shown by research but also you know it's so close to personal experiences and this not only affects um women living in undererved communities but throughout different social classes as
well for black women. Mhm. >> So if if we want to uh address the issue in uh Miami date for example, there's of course there's need to do more research locally, but at the national level and
in other states uh there's plenty of research that uh can uh illuminate very clearly what kind of interventions will be beneficial. >> Thank you. Um we're going to go now to an example.
Ah so I just want to highlight that um there are some commissions for women that are already reporting this kind of data. For example uh Broward and Miami date. So this is a very important uh
indicator that uh needs to be uh followed. So we're going to go now to uh maternal mortality in Miami date. The overall maternal mortality rate for 2023
was about 20.3 per uh 100,000 live births. Erh and again it's interesting to unpack uh by race that is that's why disagregated data by race is fundamental.
Um for black women is 61 was 61.6 in 2023 for Hispanic 15.31 and white women about 12. In Miami date,
black women are about five times more likely to die uh from complications related to pregnancy and childirth. Going to leave a moment of silence to assimilate that information.
Madame Chair, if I may, >> let's just have her complete it and then we can >> Yeah. Well, I'm I'm finishing. So, um just to wrap up, so we have seen that
um economic security is a very important challenge. Erh but according to our preliminary findings and other local research uh we see that housing instability, economic insecurity are
also very connected to violence again against women. Let's remember that the younger group in the survey erh were concerned about violence against women. Their top third concern was this issue.
And this is important and makes sense because women ages 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 experience the highest rates of intimate piner violence. So uh this makes sense that this cohort would be more
concerned. Um and also I'm going back to the survey. Uh women considered that uh the most positive change that they could see in their community or they would hope in
their community was in the category of cost of living h housing and homelessness. So overall erh I I want to reiterate this idea of the connection of housing stability uh with domestic violence. For
example, this is from the United States. Lifetime prevalence of intimate partner violence at some point of their lif of the lifetime. About two in five women in the US reported experience any physical violence by an intimate partner. again
is this this is at some point in their lifetime. 12.7% of women miss at least one day of work as a result of IPV. 5.5% of women needed housing services as
a result of IPV. So here we have over and over again this pattern of housing stability, economic insecurity, and intimate partner violence. Again, I'm going to go quickly over this. This is a one-year snapshot of
domestic violence in Florida. Uh, and we can see that e emergency shelters is a very important uh need erh for this for survivors. And here uh if we see this 24-hour
snapshot on the right uh again uh the services that are most requested are emergency housing, transition and transitional housing. So the demand is uh very very important.
It's very big. So just to wrap up there's uh different there are already uh frameworks that are highlighting the importance of housing security. For example, the national plan to end gender based violence that was
launched in 2023 h pointed out that gender based violence is a leading cause of homelessness for families with children. Econ er economic, food, and housing insecurities can exacerbate an individual's
vulnerability to violence, preventing survivors from living dangerous situations at home or work. And housing security is fundamental to survivors ability to escape abuse and rebuild their lives.
Um, so research, this kind of framework is based on solid research. For example, uh women who experienced intimate partner violence in the last year had almost four times the odds of reporting housing instability that women that do
not experience IPV. And just to wrap up um some good practices in terms of uh research and handling of data for commissions for women. It's very important to review secondary data. Uh
not all data is a good quality data. So always go to the original sources. All the data I have cited today it's available and it comes from um um mostly public institutions CDC uh
national institute of health then it's recommend it's recommendable to partner with local universities and publish local reports and one of the lessons we we can learn from today's presentation is the
important of think multi multi-dimensional questions to better understand pressing issues. Uh that is why disagregated data by gender and race and ethnicity is fundamental. For example, if we're going to talk about
inse economic insecurity and housing stability, we need to not only think about uh low pay lowpaying occupations where female are over represented, but also we need to um address and
understand how it interacts with race. The same with maternal mortality. And the the benefit of this information disagregated is that you can tailor uh solutions and strategies accordingly and
have more impact. I want to thank you to the commission h for giving me this opportunity and to share this information and looking forward to continue the conversation. Thank you. Let's give her a round of
applause. Thank you. As I shared earlier, words were very insufficient for me to articulate um these numbers and what it meant when I heard it. And I truly believe that it was necessary for us as a community here in Miami Date County to hear it
firsthand just as we heard it in Tallahassee. And we are moving forward as a commission to ensure that in the city of North Miami and beyond, we are advising our city council and proposing policy that would lead to transforming
those numbers into more positive uh numbers, numbers that we can we know that we won't be able to change everything, but but at minimum if we can bring these numbers down, I think that every person here in this room would
have uh succeeded in one way or the other. At this time, we're going to move forward with our next speaker. Uh we are fortunate to have two commissioners from the Florida uh Commission on the Status
of Women and the next speaker is going to be Belinda Kaiser. Belinda Kaiser has devoted her career to advancing Florida's economic development, higher education, workforce development, and global competitiveness communities. In
addition to serving on numerous public policy and government related boards, Kaiser is the vice chancellor of community relations and student advancement at Kaiser University, managing government relations, polic public policy, advocacy, media and
public relations, student and career services, and alumni relations. serving for approximately over 40 years as an advocate for social mobility, economic development, and talent and
cultivation. I am so sorry, she's actually not going to be our first speaker, but let's just give her a round of applause for this awesome bio. She is actually gonna go second. We're going to have uh Commissioner Candace
Falsetto. Commissioner Falsettto is an executive director and lending specialist in the Miami office of JP Morgan Private Bank. She guides highly successful individuals and families in formulating lending and
liquidity management strategies intended to enhance their wealth for generations to come. Candace takes the time necessary to understand each client's objectives. Leveraging 25 years of private banking experience and the
breadth of JP Morgan, she advises on how to effectively structure credit, enabling clients to pursue new investment opportunities, expand a business, or simply enjoy passion products projects, excuse me. Ladies and
gentlemen, please put your hands together for Commissioner Candace Vasilian. [Applause] >> Thank you so much for having us. We're really just so happy to be here and
appreciate the collaboration. Um it's really important for us to do this and and I'm just kind of wowed by you ladies up here. So, the Florida Commission on the Status of Women, we are a nonpartisan
board statutoily created in 1991. The Florida Commission's mandate is to study and report findings to the governor, cabinet, and legislature on issues affecting women and children. These findings are presented in the form
of our annual report that is distributed in the first quarter of each year. Our mission is the enabling of Florida women and girls to reach their fullest potential through collaboration, education, and
celebration. Our our annual report is issued each year as I mentioned and it's um it's really the one of the showcases of what we report
back to um our governing bodies. last year in 2024. Belinda is going to share um what we've done this year, but last year in 2024, very similar themes that we from what we heard earlier. um a lot
of issues surrounding income within within the state also housing issues, health care issues, um financial literacy and also we um we also did a roundt on
veterans pime, you know, focusing primarily on women veterans um but just issues relating to their mental health. Um in In Jacksonville, we held a round table
in March of last year and we really specifically focused on healthc care related matters. Um, in Miami, we held a round table in August of 2024 and we spoke and we focused primarily on uh
financial literacy and how financial issues really do affect women and the and children and we've seen the statistics on that. It's it's staggering. In Fort Myers, we held a round table in September that focused on
workforce development and again through the theme was um housing affordability. And then as I mentioned in December of last year, we we held a round table on veterans and mental health and fi and
fiscal stability. uh successful transitions transitioning back into civilian life, career and workforce development pathways. So those are some of the big themes that we talk about in our annual report. We're actually in the
process of um formulating and discussing what we've learned this year through surveys and through our we've kind of moved a little bit away from roundts but what we've learned this year and we'll be creating our uh annual report over
the next several months. Um but statutoily we are required to do so. What we're also required to do, and it's a really beautiful way to celebrate women, is we have what's called the Florida Women's Hall of Fame. It was
created by Florida Statue in 1982 to honor women um who through their lives and efforts make significant contributions to the improvement of lives for women and children and really all of Florida um
citizens. and it it really honors women who through throughout decades have just done a phenomenal amount of work for women. Um we also host um Florida
history contests and that is for school age children and school age children can do art projects. They can do um essays. They can do they can um they can also do
video cont uh conference contests rather. And these contests serve to celebrate women's history and increase awareness of the contributions made made by women in the past and present. They celebrate women's history and it
provides children the opportunity to celebrate um and recount stories of their ancestors talents uh sacrifices and commitments that have been made um that have inspired you know our next generation. Um we also through in 2024
had voices of Florida women. Um and in 2025 which again um Commissioner Kaiser will go into this but the commission partnered with the University of North Florida um through a public opinion research lab to develop a survey and the
goal of the survey was to identify key issues facing women. So we not only take the take it from um collaborative roundt meetings but we'll also do these um very
research developed surveys to identify what is facing women and what are the issues and how can we address those and how can we report back to our governing bodies. So that is a lot of the history of the commission and I've been in I've
been on the commission since 2000 and I've just seen a lot of the really interesting work done throughout the state. Um so I'm again just very excited to share our history and thank you so much for having us and I'll turn it over
to Commissioner Kaiser. >> Thank you so very much. At this time, we're going to have Commissioner Belinda Kaiser. >> Good evening, Madame Chair, fellow commissioners, members of the audience, family, and friends. It is truly an honor to be with you this evening. And
what I hope that I'll be able to do is to do something we talked about in Tallahassee and that is to continue together to drive collaboration because like Commissioner Falsetto, I am very very touched and impressed by the work
that we're seeing amongst women women leaders such as yourself, our commissions throughout the state. And it is my hope that our the spark plug the beginning of this was when we met in Tallahassee. So thank you Madam Chair.
Thank you other commissioners for the interest in working more closely together to have a very positive impact on Florida women and their families. So Commissioner Falsetto shared with you a little bit about the commission and I've only been on for about three years. I'm
an educator by profession. I'm a mom um to a son, a wonderful son. I've been married many years since I was young. And I have I now have three beautiful grandchildren. And if you'll indulge me
for just a moment, their names are Bellina, who is now seven, and and her real name, although there are nicknames from time to time, is is a Balina. and my daughter-in-law who is a lawyer and a
CPA has twins and there no twins in our family. So, we've been very blessed with Roselina and Saraphina. So, I can only share that I believe the future is brighter and more wonderful
as long as we keep working together. Right? So about the commission, I can share with you there's a statutory requirement. Candace uh shared that as well. It was created in 1991 and as she said it was for the purpose, it's a
mandate to study and make recommendations to the governor, the cabinet and legislature on issues affecting women. It is in intent meant to be organic recognizing that women
throughout Florida have strong voices. So again, we ask for your help and your continued leadership as we move forward. The Florida Commission's mission is to enrich the ability of Florida women and girls to achieve their fullest
potential. Now, I'm going to need your help. There you go. There's the first slide. Okay. Now um so we were talking about what do we focus on? So as a commission we are appointed by various appointing agencies and I am happy to
share um that governor DSantis has a vacancy and so the appointing authorities are the governor, the pre uh president of the senate, the speaker of the house and
um the chief financial officer. And so I was appointed by uh CFO Patronis before he became a member of Congress. And so we serve stagger terms. So please please join us. We look forward to working together uh whether it's at a regional
level, an individual level or at the state level. The Women's Hall of Fame just recently kicked off and Commissioner Falsetto and I were trying to figure out the date, but we believe and you can check us on this and please tell us if if we've got this right. okay that we celebrated our women's hall of
fame and I just want to take a moment to read their bios because this is a statutory requirement. One of the things that we have recognized is although we all do very good work together, we're not as well known as we should be. Do you agree? So there is a lot of work to
do. I do want to do a shout out to these three women because their service to our state and to women and their families is incredibly impressive. So, let me move on. Okay. All right. And I'll probably go
back to that slide in a moment. So, I'm going to start with Belle Yates Bear. She's a principal of the Bear Family Foundation, a dedicated community member with a lifelong commitment to serving Escambia and Santa Rosa counties. She
was a founding member of Impact 100 Pensacola Bay Area, an organization dedicated to providing substantial grants to local nonprofits. Through her decades of service, Bearer held leadership and advisory roles across numerous organizations. She was appointed to the Governor's Mansion
Commission and was a founding board member of Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Northwest Florida. The list goes on and on, but her outstanding community impact has earned her nu numerous accolades, including the Florida Senate
Presidential Award, um, Senator awarded by Senator Don Gates, the Pensacola Blue Wahoo's Community Player of the Year Award and Pensacola Chambers Pioneer Award for Lifetime Achievement and Community Service. Second recipient, Die
Groover Skipper. And I believe that she is well it depends on where you're sitting but she's the one dressed in blue. Please my eyes says nobody used to be okay so let me know. Griefer Skipper is a leading voice in the fight against human trafficking. She currently serves
as the anti-trafficking director at the No More Foundation as chair of the Safe Alliance of Tampa Bay Board of Directors. Rooted in community service, she holds an appointment to the Florida Board of Massage Therapy and has previously served on the statewide drug
policy advisory council, the Hillsboro County Commission on the Status of Women, and the Hillsboro County Commission on Human Trafficking. In recognition of her impactful work, Gruber Skipper was honored with the 2024 Women Who Win award by the Tampa Bay
Business and Wealth Magazine and the 2024 Life Achievement Award from Hillsboro County Sheriff Chad Croninister. She founded the Heart Dance Foundation, a faith-based nonprofit devoted to empowering individuals are
healing from who are healing from exploitation, addiction, and other traumatic experiences with deep expertise and a strategic solution focused approach. Goober Guber Skipper has helped drive policy change and antihuman human
trafficking efforts across Florida and the nation. Mary Bickl often celebrated the third recipient who I believe is the person in the middle in the red. Many of you know of her >> great granddaughter
>> her great granddaughter. Thank you so much. Thank you. I want to make sure that we're accurate here. Okay. Often celebrated correct as the co-founder of Miami and known as the mother of Miami, Bickl played a pivotal role in shaping
the city's early development. She arrived in South Florida in 1871. >> Yeah. >> With her husband after acquiring more than 2,000 acres of land along the
beautiful Miami River. Together, the Bickls were instrumental in laying the foundation of what would become one of Florida's most iconic cities. They established the area's first post office, bank, and general store. All central figures in the community's
growth during the 1873 typhoid outbreak. The Bickls opened their home as a makeshift hospital, offering care to all in need. She >> bricklan fellow pioneer Julia Tuttle
played a key role in facilitating the arrival of Henry Flaggler's Florida East Coast Railway, selling him land that would streamline Miami's expansion through her tireless vision, generosity, and commitment to the community. Mary
Bickl remains a foundational figure in Miami's history. Let's give her a round of applause. We host that to recognize the efforts and the service of exemplary women every year. That's the Florida Women's Hall of Fame and that is part of our
responsibility as state commissioners. So that was an example of the Florida Florida Women's Hall of Fame. Last year I served as the public policy chair where we did a deep dive on the 2022 survey results and I realized last year
was 2024 25 but we we actually updated again the survey in 2025 and Dr. Gaha I think you did an outstanding job in covering the material and the research that we found.
So real quickly, I'm just going to demonstrate what we do as it relates to our survey. So there again is the women's hall of fame and I will move on to doing the de deeper dive in terms of
the voices of women 2025 survey. I found it very interesting that the needs of women and their families have not changed significantly. And as a matter of fact, one of the things that's significant about this
survey is that we did it from a regional basis. And when we said we did this, it was I believe the University of West Florida uh to give credit where credit is due. University of North Florida. Okay, I'll just double check that. Thank you, Dr. Kcha. And um they were divided
into categories of 18 to 24, 25 and over. and they looked at the thing the issues that mattered the most and I won't go into the detail that um Dr. Kcha did. But I do want to say this about the survey.
In 2025, when the women that we surveyed were asked, if there's one change, that's a tough question to answer. If there's one change that could make your community
better that you believe would have the greatest positive impact, what would that be? In 2025, the women surveyed answered housing and cost of living,
number one. Number two, health care and mental health. And number three, employment and economic security. And again, over and over again, we heard this underscored by Dr. Kcha, but very little change from
2022 to 2025. So, as we continue, we will continue to speak to women and listen intently because they will tell you what they need. They will tell you what has
changed and they will also tell you if you're doing well. So with that result in Jacksonville, my colleague mentioned that we had a healthcare and economic security panel. There you go. And those are some photos
of what we did at the Jacksonville round table. And our goal here, ladies and gentlemen, was to do a deeper dive and listen intently, but to also match local research resources because when women
share their experiences, it's very important to work with them so that they know that there are others that care and can be helpful. So that was part of our role was to look at the vast and varied resources across the state and connect
women and their families with the resources whether they're local or state level. So that occurred in Jacksonville. There are some pictures. Um let's see. I will want to invite Okay, let's go on to Fort Meyers. In Fort Myers, you can see there that we focused on workforce
development and housing. Our chair is Lori Day and she's in um well for me the extreme right but it's sort of a floral jacket and then the president of the Senate at that time um I can't believe
I'm uh playing very active Candace >> Jennifer Mullica is the commissioner and the Senate President at that time Pasadomo >> yes >> ladies and gentlemen please us. Senate
President, >> a long day. >> President, yes. Quite a long day. Quite a long day. Very effective. Always at our side advocating for women and their families. And and Commissioner Maluca to the left of the Senate President. So
that was in Fort Meyers. Moving on, um the Miami roundt. And so the Miami roundt and Commissioner Wood um hosted this at her law firm. And there continues to be a real strong interest
in capital, managing finances, um, foundations, and some may find this interesting, some may not, but it is a part of life taxes. So, we covered that in great detail to help women and their families have these tools. This is
Miami. In Tallahassee, we had a veterans roundt. So that's Miami and that's Commissioner Wood talking about financial literacy. And now moving on to Tallahassee, the round table. To the extreme left you will see uh former
Janette Nunes how now the president of one of your universities here in Miami, Lieutenant Governor Nunes, myself, Jimmy Petronis, formerly CFO who's now a member of Congress and Senator Jay Collins who is a Green Beret, a Purple
Heart recipient, an ampute who now is Lieutenant Governor of the state of Florida. And we had the head of veterans affairs for the state of Florida. We also had Senator Jay Collins is married to Leila Collins who is counter intelligence in the army and she was
there and we talked about what it means to a woman >> when her husband's deployed, what it means to a man when his wife in in counter intelligence is deployed. And how do we support the entire family for
those who proudly and bravely serve our country? spirit of community awards is something that we we would love to engage more and that is I know in every community you have women just like um the uh Miss
Bickl who was a pioneer and so what we look are for examples exemplary women who are leading the way and serving your community who we should simply honor and say thank you because our overall mission includes foods celebrate,
collaborate and educate. Annual lead summit is more of the same and that has taken the place of the public policy roundts. Our current chair has said let's go to the lead summit spirit of community. I'm a little behind
in my slides. Do you want to see this one? Spirit of community. Okay. And um the next one is our lead summit. any recommendations you might have are are certainly welcome. We do have um a
commissioner that um is going to be leading a virtual summit this year. Again, um it's coming up on November 7th and we encourage all of you to sign up and because it's digital, there are no limits to how many. We'd love to have you. And um she actually has served in
the military and has been on the commission for quite some time. So, please um feel free to join us. Here is the flyer. Please save the date. November 7th from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. And you can check the website. So,
ladies, uh this is >> Oh, go back. Go back. Absolutely. Well, that that does my heart good. I'm glad I'm glad that there's strong interest. Okay. Now, okay. And this is the Florida
Commission on the Status of Women and on the status of women. In total, there are 22 of us that have been appointed by leaders in the state of Florida. It's an honor. We look forward to working together even more closely in the future. Thank you so very much.
>> Thank you. Thank you. My pleasure. >> Commissioner Kaiser, Commissioner Candace, let's just give them another round of applause. At this time for the last portion of this evening, we have several community
leaders who we invited here today to not only share what they're doing, but how we can work together. But the last speaker we're going to have be before we have these community leaders is none
other than Michelle Abru. Michelle Abru is the chairwoman for the Miami Dade County Commission for Women. Michelle is a passionate loan originator with First Horizon dedicated to helping clients
achieve the dream of home ownership since 1991. With a strong background in mortgage origination and real estate, she specializes in firsttime home buyer education and down payment assistant programs. A committed community
advocate, Michelle serves as chair of the Miami Day Commission for Women and has been recognized by local leaders for her impactful service. Her deep connections as the state and national levels allow her to better support families and strengthen community
partnerships. Outside of work, she is a proud grandmother who loves spending time outdoors with her family. Ladies and gentlemen, please put your hands together for Michelle Abru. [Applause]
>> And I I must say even before she speaks, we are here today because of the vision of Miami Day Commission for Women and the vision of the Florida Commission on the Status of Women. Michelle,
>> good evening to everyone. So, I made a whole speech, but I'm going to cut it down because I know we've all been here and we've all been running. So, let me start off by I'm so happy to be here. As chair of the Miami Day Commission, when
my director, Rose Martin, brought this up to me, I was like, "What are you talking about? There's a state board commissioner for women?" She's like, "Yes." And I've been talking to them and we're going to get together and we're going to do this. I was like,
"Okay, Rose." Because Rose passes these things and you didn't think this was going to happen. And let me tell you something. I went to Tallahassee thinking I was going to go to this trip. And I was very pumped to see more than
75 women get together and brainstorm of how we can get things done in the state of Florida. It was very impressive. Okay. And I got to thank all of our I would also like to recognize that I
saw one of our Oh, no. M Lord, our vice chair is back there. Marie is also on our board of of Miami date commission for women. And Chlora, did I miss anybody? Nope. Um, so we've we've worked together
and we have a lot of work to do. And you know, we heard the results and this is not a lie. This is something that we've been hearing for a while. >> We just haven't heard or made enough noise. And it is shocking to hear how
many women pass away >> giving birth. And how many women go to a hospital and because of their race are turned away and say, "No, you go home and have a pill, drink something, it's your stomach." And they go home and
that's the problem we have. That is what we need to make note of tonight. Thank you very much. Thank you for inviting me. I'm so happy to be here. >> Thank you, Chairwoman Abru. Thank you so very much. And we want to acknowledge
again Vice Chair Lordes Abadin, who's in the back. Thank you so very much for being here. We truly appreciate your support and leadership and all that uh you all at the county is doing. At this time, we're
going to move quickly. There are two podiums here. We're going to call up our community partners who are going to receive two minutes to share of the work that they're doing and how they would
like to partner with the Commission for Women. Uh we are going to call forward first Mr. Francesco Dubberly. Please put your hands together. Founder and chief executive of Survivors Pathway. He's a
clinical psychologist with a master's degree in both public health and clinical mental health. He is known nationally and internationally for his work developing and implementing programs that promote equality, inclusion, and social justice in in the
United States and Latin America. Thank you so very much, Mr. Jubilee. >> Thank you. No, first of all, thank you so much for uh inviting me. Uh it's an honor and especially because I know most of you and I have high level of
appreciation for everything you do. So, I'm I'm really honored to be here today. Thank you so so much. So, as you said, I'm the uh uh CEO and founder of Survivors Pathway, a uh justice center here in the state of Florida. And um
obviously our main uh quarter, it's in Miami and and where we serve more uh of our clients. um uh survivors pathway host very interesting numbers that I think uh portrays uh very clear uh the
impact of violence in women. Uh and I and and I know it's late and we're tired uh but I just want to throw some numbers. Um in the year 2024 uh survivors pathway serve uh 4,500 victims of crimes. 4,500 victims of
crime in in Miami Day County. And out of those 4,000 people and 500 4,500 victims, 85% were women. >> 85% of those were women. And that says a lot, right? When I show those numbers, I want people to reflect about it because
4,500 victims is a lot in Miami Day County, right? Only served by one organization, M by Survivors Pathway. And then when you talk about the fact that 85% are women and within that 85% are either are African-American, black
African-American and Latinas, then uh then that might lead you to think about what's going on in our city, right? Uh the biggest numbers we're seeing in terms of crimes is domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking.
And then and then we know by statistics that Miami date county is leading the numbers in human trafficking and in domestic violence especially in the lethality uh of domestic violence. By the way, I'm the chairman also of the domestic violence and sexual assault
council of greater Miami. Yes. >> And we will be presenting on October 31st the most recent numbers of women killed in domestic violence incident. So the fatality the fatalities associated
with domestic violence. So just to give you an example, during the year 2024, we serve more than 1,000 women victims of domestic violence. Uh and and and and and that should lead us to reflect and
to think about uh how violence affect women and why what you guys can do it, what we collectively uh can do. And um another matter that we're taking very serious because we know the connection right between uh uh domestic violence uh
poverty and healthcare and within healthcare is HIV. >> Yes. >> So Miami date county is the number one county in United States of America. The number one county in United States of
America leading the new infections and HIV. >> Wow. That's shameful. In this point of time in United States when other bigger uh metropolitan cities have been able to control the infection, Miami date county
continue leading the numbers. But the most uh concerning is that among those huge numbers that are putting our city on the spot nationwide, most of them are women. So people tend
to think that HIV is an issue that pertains to the gay community, but now we know that women in Miami Day County are leading those numbers. More women are getting infected. And what we have discovered and survivors pathway is that there's a strong correlation within
domestic violence, human trafficking and HIV affecting women. >> Yes. So we need to think that issues that pertains to women. We have to see it in an in an integrated manner. So we cannot just talk about poverty or we
cannot just talking about housing issues and women because we have to see how all of them interconnect to create a much bigger issue for our women in Miami Day County. So those that are victims of domestic violence are
also victims of uh sex trafficking and at the same times they're getting infected with HIV and living in poverty. So and most of them are either Latinas or black African-Americans. So that it's I I leave you with that. Uh and I hope
it becomes a reflection at least to close this up. I'm very honored to say that by the year by the end of the year 2025, Survivors Pathway has been able to invest $6 million $6 million in services
to those 85% women that we're serving and we very honored uh to invest this amount of money uh in different services, housing. Now we have our healthcare uh clinics, attorneys, victim advocacy, victim advocates. Um so that's
it. Thank you so much and and and I hope to come back again one day to continue either even uh providing more in-depth data uh in regards of the state of uh women in Miami Day County. >> Absolutely. Thank you so very much Dr. Dubberly. We look forward to working
with you. Thank you. At this time we have several several organizations. As I call your name, please stand in the middle so we can do this very quickly. Two minutes each. Please stay to your two minutes
and we're going to use both mics. At this time, we're going to call Dr. Belinda Leon, Dural, Commission for Women. Trisha Harris, North Miami Beach Commission for Women, Metritz Bats, President of the Miami Women's Club. Ladies, please come forward. Please come
forward and each person take uh one of the the podiums. We are going to have Mirinell Fur Fur Haitian American N nurses Association of Florida. Dr. Marie
Hidalgo, first vice chair, Global Innovative Foundation. Marie F. Lendor Lort, executive director for Ayadab. Dave Bernie, the Greater North Miami Chamber of Commerce, Kenya Lesparas, educator and school psychologist intern.
We ask that everyone please stand in the middle. And yes, please. Global Innovative Foundation, please take the podium. Um, so we ask that only one person speaks for each organization. You could stand. Thank you. >> Yes, please stand.
>> President President Metress Bats, president of the Miami Women's Club. >> Good evening. And I'm a resident of the city of North Miami. >> Yes, she is. I'm also the executive director of the Overtown Business
Association and I'm here to say thank you for the personal invitation to the Miami Women's Club. >> We are celebrating 125 years. We are part of the General Federation of Women's Clubs and they're celebrating 130 years in the state of Florida.
There's 189 clubs. We've done over 10,000 service projects and over the last three years between grants, scholarships, cashed income contributions, we've raised over $3.5 million. A part of our club categories
is the women's club, junior women's clubs, and juniors. Women's club ladies, the junior women's club are younger adult women, and the juniors are uh school age children. We are part of district 11 and there's 12 clubs. Most
of our club have club houses. The Miami Women's Club located at 1737 North Bay Shore Drive, Coral Gables, Cocoa Plum, uh Homestead, Key West is also part of our district. Um we're celebrating 125 years. What we focus on, our key area of
support is art and culture, supporting local artists, cultural initiatives, foster creative and communication, education, libraries. We do an annual scholarship program over the summer where we award students going to FIU Embrace um
program at FIU also day county public schools. We participate with domestic violence, human trafficking. We partner with other organizations. Um we work with environmental projects as well. Um our claim to fame is that our building
is a historic building. Um, and a lot of our founding members were a part of the fabric of the history of Miami. The club was founded sitting on Mary Bickl's Mary Bickl's porch in Julia Tuttles's house. Um, I have a couple of members here who
are also members of other organizations as well. >> Please stand to be recognized if you're here with President Betts. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. >> So, what we're able to do I don't need my glasses for this part. [Music]
part of our strategic plan and what we're able to do is partner with organizations to to collaborate on community events and activities because we have an amazing venue. We can also partner to collaborate to help fund raise. One of the things about our clubs
is we don't apply for grants. We are able to give micro grants to small nonprofit organizations and anybody that's in alignment with what we are doing. We can collaborate. We can't fund you 100%. But we can collaborate to
partner. Our venue should be used to help all of our organizations raise money. That's what I came here to say. It's not free. >> It's not free. However, a >> discount price meet with us. Let's sit down and look at
how do we leverage all of our resources to fill in the gaps to help us reach our deliverables to help you reach your deliverables. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Thank you so very much. >> Oh, one more thing. Oh, well, not the celebration. The
celebration is November 8th and we're sold out. However, May Man Jennings was inducted in the Hall of Fame in 202023. So, members of the Miami Women's Club in JFWC, Florida are very familiar with the work that you're doing with the
commission because we advocate for women's leadership and historic preservation. >> Excellent. Excellent. Okay. Right here we have uh Dr. Maria Hidalgo, first vice chair, Global Innovative Foundation.
>> Good evening and thank you um all board members. This is a privilege to be here with you and also to collaborate with all these great organizations that are fighting for the rights of women, protecting women in many ways. And we
also thank our volunteers and our board members because they're doing an incredible job. This was the vision of um Dr. Maria Tien [Laughter] >> and I was one of the founding members
and I'm still here with her side by side wherever she goes blindly blindly because God is within her and she will not fall. Right. All of us, all of us. Um, our organization, um,
advocates and we have programs and educational programs for not only domestic violence victims, but also human trafficking victims. And, um, gun awareness, gun violence awareness. That is something that is special, too. We
have our signature event in March. So you're invited at the Builmore Hotel and that is uh the power and influence lunchon and we give awards and scholarships and it's just a wonderful thing to see you know young people that
are there that were h helping um we have many um many events not only events throughout the year which is amazing thanks to our our board members and to our volunteers and to Nory also. Thank
you, Nori, for everything you do. But, uh, we want to partner with you because in strength, you know, in numbers there is strength. Right now, you see me here and I'm a mother. Uh, I'm actually a domestic
violence victim. I have never said this publicly, but I'm a victor. I'm a victor. I'm a victor and I'm a professional. God has placed me in some wonderful, wonderful places with great people. And my daughter now
is going through the same thing, even worse. >> And what I like to speak about tonight also is not just global innovative foundation and we're going to make history because there are some laws coming that will help women. We need all of you to be involved. We need all of
you to be involved and we have sponsors for the laws already. But my um my daughter is going through not just Darvo which is Daro. Do you know all of you what Darvo is? >> No. >> Okay. We need to know this and we need
to educate others. Daro is deny attack reverse victim offender. All domestic violence abusers are narcissists. Not all narcissists are abusers.
>> Okay? And we need to be very aware of this because they have very strategic tactics. She is facing next Tuesday criminal court and it's all a fabricated frivolous case because he wants her in jail, wants to keep the child that's 9
years old, the house and everything else. So this is the danger. We're mo we're women. We have that soft heart, right? We have a soft heart. We forgive. We want our family together. We don't press charges, right? many times we
these crimes go under reportported and then look what happens. So thank you and if you know I can have your prayers for all the victims because I never imagined being a mother and having this and thank you thank you for all your support. We hope to work with
you very closely on these laws. >> Thank you. Thank you so very much. Kenya Leperas. Chairwoman, please come to this podium. Good evening everyone. Um, it's an honor
to be here this evening. Thank you. My name is Kenya Lesperance, founder of Ed Solutions for All. I'm also an educator. I'm also an educational consultant. And lastly, I'm a school psychologist intern for Florida International University. I'm currently interning at Miami Day
County Public Schools. I've pretty much dedicated nearly a decade of serving exceptional and underrepresented students in Florida public schools. In every classroom and every meeting, including ESC meetings, I've learned that advocacy um isn't just about
policy, but it's also about presence. It's standing in the gap for children and families who don't always have the words, the knowledge, and the means to make their needs known through education. um solutions for all. I help families, educators, and students find
clarity in that space by building understanding and creating actionable solutions so that their children can be successful in their learning environment. In 2015, Florida's statewide report that third grade reading proficiency is only 57% and
that's um statewide. um fourth grade they noticed there was a decline a steady decline actually where the average for national assessment of educational progress in reading was a tw 225 and then it dropped this year to 218
so we're do see we do see um a decline this is why my work focuses on what I call the triangle effect which is the powerful connection between home school and community helping the community understand a multi-tered support systems
to help the total child at large. I also consult and educate parents and community partners on how to support their children's academic needs at home. I also help with the early identification process for children with disabilities by giving them the right
services and the right um form of access to interventions to help them. I also provide counseling services for children and adolesccents um focusing on topics such as interventions for victimized youth bullying as well as future planning so that they're prepared for um
post-secondary success. Um as an advocate and consultant I bring the system together. I interpret the language of education for parents. I translate data into human stories for policy makers. and I ensure that each child is not just seen as for for their
label um but also for their potential. Um my mission is to support the local community, especially right here in um the city of North Miami. I was born and raised here, by the way. Um so I believe that building connections between education and empowerment can help our children have a brighter future within
their learning environment. My goal is to ensure that every child and family feel seen and supported. Today I lend my voice um to the state of women and girls in Florida because their stories matter. Um too often their strength is quieted, their needs minimized, and their
brilliance are se unseen. My purpose is to be the voice for the voiceless, especially when their voice can't yet be loud enough. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. Let's give it up for Kenya Lesperans. We have our
chairwoman from North Miami Beach Commission for Women, >> Patricia Harris, >> and she does not like to speak publicly. >> Okay. I joined I wasn't aware of what we were supposed to be talking about. So, I
joined the committee back in 2013 because I saw a need for the young girls to be educated, to become city council, to become women in charge and to take care of
themselves. So, as far as our commission, what we do is we try to do youth symposiums for the children. We support the police department, the PAL. We do a Mother's Day breakfast, which um
this was we we opened up in 1979. Um, Jacqueline Smith started it in the North Miami Beach area and we try to educate, do different things for the
children to try to get them out of and we assist with domestic violence. We're part of the domestic violence. We partner with the police department with that. We do back to school giveaways, uh, cancer awareness workshops, which by the way, I'm a stage three cancer
um, survivor, and that's what the pink is all about because I have to wear it the whole month. So, and then the mission for us is to educate and give health services. And I
did hear someone mention somewhere down the line there's a vehicle that comes to the city of North Miami Beach. Um their loc their actual location is in Miami Gardens um on 8th Avenue and 183rd Street, but
they have a mobile unit that comes to the city once a month and it's for anyone that does not have insurance and they do it right on the premises and if you need something else you they will give you a reference to go somewhere
else if you do not have insurance and it's covered. Um, there's a different van that does mammogram. I'm not sure if they do the mammogram themselves, but this is the things that the city of North Miami
Beach is doing. Some of the things that I've heard that you young ladies have come up here and said is unbelievable. I was not aware of some of the stuff that the young lady said and what you said, but put me on your
list for fighting. I have a very large mouth, even though I do not like to speak in public. >> Thank you. Let's give it up for our chairwoman for North Miami Beach Commission for Women. Last but not least, we have Mr. Dave Bernie, the
Greater North Miami Chamber of Commerce. >> Don't forget Dr. Flo. Oh, I won't forget Dr. Floyd. She sat down. That's why. Dr. Floyd, if you can please come to this podium. If there's anyone still who has not yet spoken, please stay in the
middle aisle so I can see you. And please move to the podium as the speakers move. >> Mr. Dave Bernie. >> Banana. Good evening. >> Good evening everybody. >> I'm Dave Bernie, chairman of the Greater North Miami Chamber. We are host to the
first women's business center in Miami Dade County in Monroe County by the SBA. The closest one is uh Delray Beach, Jacksonville, Melbourne. You guys know the Jacksonville Chamber is host of the women's business center in Jacksonville that's been open 20 years and we are
less than a year old. So I'll go into my thing. Uh we've recently launched the Business Center Miami which has been designated by the SBA as the official women's business center for Miami Dade and Monroe counties. Our mission isn't to duplicate what anyone else is already doing. It's to complement and support
women who are still in the idea or early stage of business. Our approach is very hands-on. The theme we lead with is turn your business idea into action. We help women define and strengthen their business concept, identify their customers and market potential, develop
practical goals and milestones, organize operations and resources, build confidence, and create an actionable plan. What makes it different is its real practical support. Our sessions are con conversational, interactive, and
designed to help women make measurable progress step by step from concept to cash flow. And most importantly, we want to collaborate with other chambers and organizations. If you have women in your networks who are just getting started or looking for extra guidance, send them
our way. Likewise, we want to learn about your programs so we can amplify and align with. We'd love to partner. We have two locations. One at our location we've had since 1947 at 13100 West Dixie Highway next to the North Miami High School and the North Miami Library. In
our new location next to Whole Foods on 123rd and 16th, the former Chewist Bank, we have 29 parking spaces and that will be available for evening and weekend appointments to better serve women who can't meet during the week because of family work and other commitments. Check
us out at the businesscenterm.org. And thank you to the commission for women for all you do. Thank you. >> Thank you so very much. Last but not least, we have Dr. Fa Lendor Lertu, executive director for IADP and actually
the first HaitianAmerican woman to sit on the Florida Commission on the Status of Women. Please, Dr. Flor, when you are caught off guard and think that you are last, in reality, you are
first. And um when you are first, you are not first for numbers. You need to be a connector. I'm Dr. Marie Florlandu Kandis Belinda and Dr. Kosha. Welcome to North Miami.
In 2000 when appointed by Governor Jeb Bush to the Florida Commission on the Statute of Women, we decided that going to each of the counties that we will leave an impact. Then we make sure that
in each counters that we visited and this is my advice for you because Kellya is still there and Michelle Manning tell them that you met Dr. Flo. Then um as the first Haitian woman then I'm the one
who created the public policy initiative. Then um once I've done it, I left it as a tool for you guys to benefit from today. And I want to applaud you ladies for the work.
I want to I will be remiss to not leave the facts speak for themselves. I pass the baton to Monica Russo. Monica Russo has been a pillar in sharing the
work of Laura Maria. we would go and create the woman commission and not Miami Beach. And we could not leave here without acknowledging >> um Kaitlyn
and who was with me when we created it. It's Lucenzi Pierre. That's right. >> Then we want to be remembered as connectors. While we are here today, we want to also
acknowledge Marie Erlan Stil because we work with her and the month of March that is also social work awareness month and bringing women month and also
acknowledge um our con council woman Marvin to continue the tradition and create the labor of those ladies here working here today. And you need to clap for them.
What I promise to do is to call tomorrow and make a re a recommendation for one of them to be appointed by the governor. I know the process. I will not say who I will recommend, but I will make that
happen and I will continue working with you. You can just take my number which is 305 308 >> 28 89. Belinda is good >> 2889.
We will work on that recommendation as there is the opening and see if we work with the governor to appoint one of them. That's will be action and not word. also seep um October aside from breast
awareness month and we want to acknowledge Dr. Lumana Joseph who did an excellent work yesterday with the Lumana Foundation. We want to acknowledge that in conclusion which I rarely do conclusion but I like
to do connection then um I want to inspire you by telling you the numbers mentioned by um honorary Dr. Dubelly for women whether it's in domestic violence
or in human trafficking started with the South Florida AIDS network one of the first institution of working with HIV and AIDS in Miami date county in 1992 where I was a case manager and also became a social worker and also became
an administrator. Those numbers today of women leading HIV and AIDS in 2025, 33 years later, has been first since 1992. I want to leave you reflecting on that
and let you know, yes, that the Commission of Women had knock on doors and do outreach to help reduce those numbers. Have done that throughout the years and we commend um Dr. the um honorary Dr. Dubelly for bringing those
facts and commend him for his work and also acknowledge with the commission of women the few men present in the womb tonight for doing the work with us because we women we cannot do it without
the men who understand that we are not women without a man by our side. Thank you. Thank you so very much Dr. Florendo Lortio. Uh as we move forward to conclude we are we want to acknowledge
Mr. Paul Nafi representative from FUM and also and Dr. Lummana Joseph from the Lummana Foundation. Thank you so very much. New business proposal annual Miami Dade
Women's Leadership Summit presented by Dr. Naomi Esther Blereir. The North Miami Commission for Women proposes hosting an annual Miami Day Commission for Women Summit, uniting women leaders across the county to strengthen
partnerships and share best practices. Highlight innovative community initiatives. Identify shared challenges and collaborative solutions. Empower women to lead and serve more effectively. purpose to create a unified
space where city, county, and community leaders collaborate on advancing equity, leadership, and opportunity for women and girls across Miami date county. Proposed timeline, spring of 2026.
Proposed partners, you all sitting here today. Miami Dade County Commission for Women, Municipal Commissions throughout the county, chambers of commerce, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and community advocacy
groups, and of course, our Florida Commission on the Status of Women. We are looking to working with everyone sitting here today. Expected outcomes. Development of a countywide network of women's commissions and leaders. Launch
of joint initiatives addressing education, economic opportunity, health and safety for women and girls. A published summary report based on the attendees outlining key recommendations
and next steps for implementation. This annual summit will serve as a collaborative platform for leadership, innovation, and impact, ensuring Miami Day County remains at the forefront of advancing women's rights and
representation. The city of North Miami will just be uh what I would call a facilitator for all of us to come together. As we can see, the time now is 8:56. There's so much more to be said.
We did not even have Q&A and so we know the need is there. We want to be the facilitator in the event that you believe in this. We believe this will transform Miami date county forever and we will never
come back and hear the numbers that we are that we have heard tonight. At this time I take I present it over to staff for a vote. >> Um Madame Chair, can I have my note please? the yellow one. Both of my
agenda. >> Can I have a motion? >> Dr. Blair. I have a motion for approve for the proposal of the annual Miami Dade Women's Leadership Summit. >> Do we have a second? >> I second.
>> Okay. So, motion made by Dr. Bir seconded by Dr. Etienne Claudia Pasmino >> I approve yes >> lain >> I approve >> Dr. Bamir
>> yes Dr. Nissa >> yes >> Dr. Ten. >> Yes. >> Rose Gumpier. >> I approved. >> Emmanuel Flurry. >> Yes. >> Motion passes.
>> Thank you, ladies. >> Thank you, commissioners. At this time, public hearing is now open. Um, I'm not sure if this is appropriate, but I did receive a text from the um
president of the Haitian American Nurses Association apologizing for not being able to u be here this evening, but uh ask me to uh give the regards to the uh c the commission and the public that the
Haitian-American Nurses Association is a 501c3 notfor-profit organization that empowers um Unite Nurses. It's a membership organization and how they would help the city is to
collaborate and educate the young girls on health prevent uh preventative measures um and of course mentorship opportunities. Thank you. >> Thank you so very much, Commissioner. >> Public hearing is still open. U Madame
Chair, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Kaiser. Um, the last time I saw you was in 2023 at the Florida Commission and I was one of the awardees for the community of spirit award. Uh, and I just want to say
thank you for your hospitality. That meeting really opened our eyes and this is what we bring and I was very grateful to see our chairwoman had an opportunity to partake in Tallahassee because it's important for us to unite
as women as you stated to uh together we will we will be stronger uh to help women uh uh in the state of Florida. So thank you for being here. Thank you for allowing your university to support us and thank you to everyone.
>> Good evening everyone. >> Good evening. >> Um it's such a privilege for me to be here. Uh thank you for the invite. Um as you all were speaking tonight, I can concur with all the information given.
as a survivor of domestic violence, human trafficking, and sexual abuse. Um, it is with great honor for me to stand as a victor, like you said, uh, Dr. Hudalgo, as a nursing student, to know that even
in the midst of it all, I am not in Dade County anymore, but I am in Broward County. And yes, as a single mom to a 9-year-old, it is very terrifying to know that um I have to work three jobs
to cover my cost of living and to take care of a special needs child. So, um, it it just so happened that today I needed to hear this again to push myself harder and continue to connect with
Global Innovative Foundation, with Survivor Pathways, and with uh the Commission of Women. Um, I I am open. I know that my schedules are like tight, but I am willing to connect like Dr.
Flores to be a connector into helping. One thing that I can say the reason why a lot of these things happen is because no one is listening. And not no one is listening. But imagine a single mom who
have daughters. I don't have a daughter. I have a son, but it can happen to a a boy too. And they're working. Who's there to watch them? Who's there listening? So there's a lot of things happening and tonight hearing this is
just asking the question. Yes, there's a problem. So what am I going to do about it to change? I don't want to be a talker. I'm always a doer. So what am I going to do to change it? I know for me, I do not work as much so
that I can be there for my son. So that I can provide for him. Well, how do I live? I always say God is always providing for me. >> Amen. >> All the time because you ask I always ask myself I'm always trying to catch up with rent
because I'm not working because I have to take care of my son. I need to be there to pick him up. I need to be there to drop him off. But in the middle of the day when he's not okay at school, who's going to pick him up? I have to be ready at all times.
And so looking at it, it it opens the conversation not just for the commission of women, but the community as a wide to our churches, to our schools. Teachers
are overwhelmed with parents who cannot attend because we're surviving, >> trying to be a parent, even surviving just to be a woman. I know we're dealing with time, but it's
touching to my heart because I know what it means to not have someone to be there. I know what it means to be in a relationship where they're the provider
and you're staying in the relationship because you don't want to lose your home. You don't want your child to grow up in a a single parent household. I know what it means to be home and you have friends around and no one knows that you didn't
eat today. I know what it means to wake up in the morning asking yourself, "Do I really want to wake up?" >> Cuz it's all about mental health, too. >> Yes. >> It's all connected.
And you're striving to survive. I'm standing here because I know what it means. I know how it feels. I'm in that shoes. I know what it means when the doctors
don't listen to you. I know what that means. I can agree. Cuz if I didn't go to a hospital nearby, I myself would not have been here carrying my my son.
could have been bored at 24 weeks. I had constant pain. No one was listening. So, I know what it means not to have someone advocate for you. I know what it means. So, today I stand as not crying
out of emotion, but knowing there is strength in numbers and there is strength in knowing that people now are listening. We can't change the past. We can only change the future. >> That's right.
>> Before you leave, before you leave, as a community, if there was one thing we can do tomorrow to help you, what would that be? >> Yeah, it would be more than one, but for
me, it would be finance. >> Economic. >> Economic. Yeah. Because >> money >> or our a job opportunity that gives you flexibility. >> Correct. >> Okay. >> Correct. >> Because if you look at it, money we may
not say money is the foundation of a lot of things. >> The living, the feeding and not having someone to have power over you, you know. So it's also it's economic. Yes. >> Thank you. Thank you so very much.
Madame Sher, may I >> One second. Let's just have her and then >> No, no, I have to give tell her something. Give her to her. >> No, let her speak so we can close the >> uh public hearing and then >> Good evening.
>> Good evening. >> Good evening. It's truly a privileged and inspiration to be among you all as a young lady myself. My name is Nahisa Jeene Lewis and I am currently a junior at Christ Miami High School. I myself am
not an organization, but through my school I want to uplift and help my community thrive as it has poured so much into me. My community event will be a community
event that nourishes and provides for those who don't know about the services that our beautiful city has to provide whether it's governmental or non-governmental assistance. We also want to give Thanksgiving essentials for that day because as shown tonight,
there's devastating data that this event could >> medicate >> could medicate and just take off the load of so many families, especially women, single women out there that are
going through so much. This event is dear to me and very personal as I have gone through most of the data shown presented here tonight. >> My mom is a single mother and with that
I have developed much character. She's always taught me that I need to honor and be proud of where I come from before I go on to new things in life. And this is what I want to do through this event. So although I am not an
organization myself, I ask for your support and all the organizations here today to make this event a success for not only the community but the women in this beautiful city so we can build each
other up instead of growing separately. >> Thank you. Thank you so very much. [Music] When is >> Hi, I am Madison Pierre and I go to
Palmer Trinity School and I have a um and right now I have a question that says how how can teens like me and other girls at my school work with these organ
organizations to improve care because my mom is single. school and she needs Oh, sorry. And sometimes even um ladies her age need to improve care. So that's my
question. >> Thank you. Great question. We're going to have our commissioner Faraja speak specific to that because we do have a mentorship program for women of all ages. Commissioner, >> good evening. How are you? I am fine. And you
>> doing well, thank you. I just want to say that I'm very proud of you and of um the young lady who spoke earlier. Um you guys are giving me hope for the future. You guys are you show me that we do have
a bright future us as women and you know please keep up the good work. Um we do have a mentorship program that's supposed to start very soon and um the aim of this program is to educate
is to strengthen it's to pretty much provide all the the services that the women in uh the in this city need in order to thrive. So please stay tuned to
our next um meetings because we will give dates for when it's going to launch. But we will treat many different topics going from financial literacy to health care to everything that pertains to us as
women and young girls like you that will help for uh you to live, survive and thrive. Okay? So please keep watching or keep attending our meetings and then we will provide more information on that.
Is that okay? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner. Public hearing is now closed. At this time, we're going to open the floor with Commissioner Folima that wanted to make a statement.
Commissioner Fmer, you're recognized. >> Thank you, Madam Chair. Um, as a public servant, as a mental health counselor, I understand you.
And uh, my service is to help people like you that we've been doing for the past 10 years. Please call me after. and I'm not going to be able to solve all your problems, >> but you're going to be part of MJD
Wellness and Community Center agenda. I'm not going to say everything going to close. You're not going to complain. No, >> but at least we will put food on your table. You will have healthcare services with or without insurance.
>> That's what I promise to Thank you. At this time, commissioners, please keep it down to one minute. We're going to start. Uh, Commissioner Pasmino, once again, I want to thank everybody
for attending, especially the gentlemen. And yes, I ask that you follow our Facebook page as well as the page of City of North Miami for upcoming events, not only by this commission, but by the city itself, because the city is offering a lot of help for the residents and non-residents. Thank you so very much, Commissioner W
Grampier. >> Thank you so much, Madame Chair. Thank you to each and everyone of you here. We know you have a busy schedule, but you took some time to give priority
to these topics which are very important. Thank you madame consil woman for this initiative to put together women and girls in North Miami to serve the community of the beautiful city of
North Miami. I am glad that uh Dr. Contra bought three topics or three uh tit subtitles I would say economic security >> health which include mental health which
is very important to me and domestic violence those three they go hands in hands. Y >> if you don't have financial security, you don't have health in the household,
of course the outcome will be domestic violence, either verbally or physically. So therefore we need to work on each one of them separately. Put them together as well so that we have a positive outcome
not only for one woman but for the entire household and of course the entire city and the entire nation. Thank you so much for your help. >> Thank you Commissioner Floim.
Oh um I am very glad to meet you Dr. Kaiser. I'm one of your students. I'm doing my MBA. Thank you. And in healthcare even I have a bachelor I have a bachelor in
psychology. I'm a doctor in Dominican Republic. But since I'm doing the organization is growing too much. I don't have the business capacity. So I choose your school to be um to educate me. So I my specialty will be healthcare
management. One thing that I want to say I remember when I was in school I did um my internship. I'm going to take one minute more please. One lady died a friend of me when she was giving birth.
And that day until today, I said, "If I'm going to be a doctor, I cannot be a good doctor. I'm gonna leave med school." The baby passed away because she didn't have money, but it was in Haiti at that
time. She didn't have money to buy a gloves. So, and my school every Friday, I I because I it wasn't I I was in school in Dior and then go do my practice in Haiti. So I collect money
from every student, every everyone that passed by the big door. So for me to buy stuff so I can bring to Haiti to help those women in need. And hearing that from you today, that's giving more strength to fight for health
care because I am the founder and CEO of MJD Wellness and Community Center. We provide social services, food, and health care. And we are a 340B entity that provide medication and testing treatment to the HIV um patient in this
city no in Miami date and um homestead I so hearing that tonight make us understand as a healthc care provider Dr. is one of them. We need to fight not only talking because it's beautiful talk
talk. What is the next action after when you leave this womb? We need to make sure that they hear from us. We don't need that in the hospital because our father of medicine never write a word who said we need to treat
the white one, the Hispanic one different. We need to treat people equal. That's what I heard. I I learn at school, but please, I may don't have your voice because I have too much to do, too much work to do, but you you can
talk to the to the governor or talk to other people. Go talk and then me, I'm here to do the work. And we have a lot of other organization that here to do the work and we're going to continue doing it. This need to be end. No more people dying because of color or because
of healthcare. There is one thing that I would love you to address is healthcare. The Obamacare they call affordable care. It's not working because if you don't have an income, I talked about that with
several um state representative from the state of Florida. If they are not working, they cannot have it. I did I'm sorry, madame chair. This is healthcare. You know, this is my passion. Yeah, but we have to >> I did something last year.
>> 30 seconds. >> Yes. So, I said, "You know what? I'm going to cut my my health insurance to see." And then out of nowhere, I get sick. I I I'm very allergic. And then I have an allergic reaction. I went to the hospital for one night. They charged me
$43,000. So now I realize when I tell someone, "You have to go to the hospital." They say, they call me Manuel in the community. manu how I'm going to pay that bill now I understand. So we need to work in the affordable care to make
that care affordable because in Canada people go to the hospital for free. We are United States of America. We have to fight for everybody to have healthcare insurance. Thank you so much. And I'm sorry. >> Thank you so very much. Please stick to
the one minute. Uh Commissioner Dr. Iten please. 1 minute. >> You are asking the professor. >> We have a great reception for you. Please please don't leave. We're we're literally 5 minutes away. Dr. Dr.
>> Thank you, Madame Chair. Uh thank you to everyone for attending tonight. Um thank you Dr. uh Kcha for uh sharing the data when the question Yeah. Thank you. Let's give her a round of applause. >> Yeah. when when when
the question was what are some of the factors that contribute to uh maternal uh death and you pause and everybody was like wow wow >> well I can tell you from experience my
my um cousin was uh nine nine nine nine months and she both her and the baby died last November and so to answer your question to everybody When we look at the data, we know that structure structural racism and implicit
bias is is happening in healthcare. Whether it's delayed diagnosis, whether it's inadequate care or dismissive care, uh the disparity exists uh whether uh we have poor quality care. So one of the things that we notice is that the
chronic conditions that um such as the hypertension, the diabetes, uh cardiovascular disease that are co-orbidities that are help uh amplify that are uh increasing the risk of these complications. Those are the things we're not talking about. Last month at a
meeting here, I proposed a policy and the policy is on women's health equity and preventative uh initiative and the proposal was presented to the board. It was unanimously voted and I was asked to bring a budget for tonight's discussion,
but because we had such a lengthy agenda, we did not get a chance to look at the budget and who we can partner with. So, I'm hoping that that item will be on the agenda next meeting. So, we and I'm inviting all of you to come back to hear this because I want you to be
part of the solution. And so it's so funny that everything you asked, everything you said tonight were the three item that were outlined on my proposal. Guess what they were? >> High uninsured rate and limited access
to care, chronic disease burden, and maternal and rep reproductive health care access. So, uh, Councilwoman, uh, this proposal will come to your to your desk with the mayor and council, and the budget is going to be very stiff, and
I'm going to need your council and the city manager and everyone in the city to make this happen because we are going to stop talking. We're going to take action. Okay? And that's what that's what I'm proposing. Thank you.
>> Thank you so very much, Commissioner. Commissioner Glickman. >> Thank you everyone for coming. I'm happy to be here to meet all the all the guests that this is the most I ever seen.
And um I want to thank you the um woman club representing district 11 that I'm one of the club. Thank you from KO Pal and to speak for all our district and uh
for the children they are sleeping here. >> Uh we have the we have the support from the Rotary Cup. That's why I'm supporting this area from city of North Miami. I'm very much in favor to help the student in North Miami and uh
especially for the sophomore student and going to um high school and we are sponsoring the student three-day weekend trip uh for leadership training and we have a private boat and we will pick you
up and so if you like to apply all the student can apply for it and so if you qualify and we will support and sponsor you >> and and thank the GI airport for everything >> for coming
>> for for what that >> the their present >> of for that and um and I'm h happy that uh to be able to support and sponsor some student. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Glickman.
>> Yeah, >> Commissioner I'll be quick one minute. >> Thank you so much to everyone. Thank you for the data. Thank you for the knowledge, for the information. We're ready to go to work. We're ready to fight like Manu said. Yeah, that's how
they call. Okay. We're ready to fight. And um we look forward to collaborating with every single one of you. And the two young ladies, you just stole my heart. Please wait afterwards. I need to to to take your contact information so we can get the job going. Thank you.
>> Thank you so very much to our council woman. Please stand again. Let's give her all of >> Let's all stand for her. >> Without her vision and leadership, we would not be here tonight. To Dr.
Koncha, thank you so very much. We honor you today and we look forward to working with you. to our commissioners, uh, Commissioner Kaiser, Commissioner Candace. Thank you so very much. We look forward to working with you. And at this
time, motion to adjourn. >> Second. >> Second. Uh, >> our assistant city manager, Katya Filippo, for being the leazison for the women's commission. Just want to thank you so very much
>> to staff uh assistant city manager Katya Filippo um our tech dun dun please come out just give us a wave. Thank you so very much. We really appreciate you. Uh
uh Gertie who was very instrumental in making today possible. Uh Betrova, thank you so very much. We really appreciate the staff as a commission. We are all volunteers and without them we could not do what we do. And Katya, thank you for
putting up with me. I appreciate you. >> Motion to adjourn. >> Not with us. >> Second. >> Uh second. >> Second. >> I have a motion made by >> I'm sorry, Commissioner. Seconded by
>> I second it. >> Seconded by Commissioner Glickman. All in favor? >> I I >> The time now is 9:25. >> Yeah. Meeting adjourn. >> Thank you.