Welcome to our visitors.
I'd like to call the meeting of the support services committee.
Call the meeting to order Wednesday, April 8th, 2026.
First order of business is prayer.
I'll take care of that as you bow your heads.
Heavenly Father, we gather here tonight to do the county's business.
Father, we ask that you will guide us, give us the strength, intelligence and encouraged to do what's best for our constituents.
Father, again, we just thank you for this opportunity to get together with some of the community and the committee members.
And thank you, Lord, in Jesus name.
Amen.
Okay.
3.0 Is approval of the agenda.
Can I get a motion?
Motion by Ms. DeMeester.
I'll second it.
Second by Ms. Williams.
Any discussion?
Hearing none, all those in favor say aye.
All those opposed, same sign.
Hearing none, motion passes.
Review and approval of meeting minutes from March 11th, 2026.
Can I get a motion?
Motion by Mr. Busker.
Second by Ms. DeMeester.
Any discussions?
Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
Those opposed, same sign, motion passes, 5.0 is approval of the claims with a total of $51,149.70.
Does anyone want to see the bills?
You know, I should look it up online.
Okay, can I get a motion?
Motion to approve.
Motion by Mr. Hadley.
Second.
Second by Mr. And Mr. Busker.
Any discussion?
Seeing none, all those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Those opposed, same sign.
Motion passes.
I have signed this.
Pass it along.
Thank you.
At this point I will make a public comment.
Is there anybody here that isn't here for the youth diversion that wants to speak?
Saying, you know, okay, reports to committee.
Judge Howser, I actually called Judge this week, and I haven't talked to him in a while, and I know I haven't been in a meeting, but it's usually covered by one of the other folks.
I said, you know, I appreciate that.
I said, just remind him that, you know, if anything comes up to give me a call.
Okay, moving on to public defender, Mr. Lutz, talked to him this week too.
The report got sent over from Lynn in my office.
I don't know if anybody's got questions about that or the content on any side of it.
Other than that, we are doing well.
We're staffed as we need to be staffed.
Moving along, we are getting ready for the Stevens County Step Up Challenge.
So, I hope everybody enjoys the dust that will come in the wake of that challenge, but good luck.
You got some stiff competition.
I got a couple dogs.
There you go.
Dogs and a Fitbit.
Dr. McGee is absent.
Did you hear from her at all?
I talked to her this morning and she said she wasn't 100% sure if she was able to make it.
So thank you.
She's had some things come up.
7.4, The State Attorney, Mr. Larson.
Thank you.
Good evening everyone.
You have my report in front of you.
In every category except juvenile, we close more cases than we opened this month, which was a positive thing.
It feels like we're starting to come back, come together and things are falling into place.
It feels like the office is running more smoothly than we have in quite some time.
I'd be happy to answer any questions you have, but I know that you've got bigger things on the agenda tonight.
So I'll leave it at that.
Thank you.
Does anybody have any questions for Ms. Worsky?
Seeing none.
Thanks Carl.
Thank you.
We'll move on to circuit clerk, Ms. Cardell.
Good evening.
Do you also have a report?
Yes.
One thing I wanted to mention, we're going to start sending, in certain jury trials, we'll start sending a jury duty after your service letter.
It just tells a little bit about how jury duty can be rewarding, but also stressful and hard on people.
So it gives them some tips on managing that, some fine text lines.
And we've spoken with Rosecrans and Sinisibi Center, and they're willing to speak with jurors that need to talk or have just some relief from serving for jury duty.
If anybody have any questions for Ms. Pardella?
You know, I really enjoy being on the jury.
I've heard that.
I've really done that sort of several times.
I really liked it.
So one time I got paid.
That's been a nice thing.
Yeah, well, I'm sorry.
Yeah, that's all right.
Texas, I see we only got so far collected about 1,053.
Is that kind of shorter than we usually get every year or?
You know, I don't know and it's still early.
Once they get a letter saying that their taxes are going to be taken and then they have 30 days to object to that.
So a lot of people might be getting the letters and we're not going to get it for a little bit of time.
So we won't see maybe an increase till the summertime and something like that.
Okay, I'm just curious.
Thank you.
Anyone else?
Okay, moving on to use diversion fees.
For the month of April, $873.75 was deposited, giving us a yearly total of $10,506.74.
So it was quite a jump.
That's about $250 higher than the previous high month.
Yeah, I will say when we did bookkeeping this month, there was a lot more payments and a lot that is from taxes, people just paying, using their tax money.
Okay.
Well, okay.
That makes sense, yeah.
All right.
I got a question.
Yes.
Verifying this huge diversion.
So, we anticipated $7,000 in revenue and $10,000 in expenditures, so that's all we can expend tonight is the $10,000, correct?
Yes.
That's what I thought.
I just want to make sure, because we've had some big ones here and we got some little ones, so we only have $10,000 to spend, so, okay.
Yeah, it was, apparently the word got out, which is good, and that's what we're trying to do.
Old business, we have none.
New business is the approval of the recipients for the use diversion funding.
And we do have some some guests.
Chair, I don't know how we decide who wants to go first.
Who got here first?
Or we could just, let's see, how do you have one?
I hope.
Is there someone here from I hope?
Would you like to speak to her?
Brown.
Come over here, please.
You have to be on the owl.
Yeah, you gotta speak.
It looks totally different on YouTube.
Hi, my name is William Brown.
I'm the founder and executive director of High Hope Freeport.
The program that we submitted a funding request for is the Check In Mentoring Program.
So the Check In Mentoring Program, right now, we're taking a small break on it, but we're going to start it up.
It basically is for fourth to sixth graders, we facilitate the program out of the Boys and Girls Club, and it's also connected with career ship and team setbacks.
And we have culture mentors and three continuous mentors and right now everything is all voluntary.
It's the need that we recognize that we want to give to the young people of the East Indian specifically.
I hope Freeport's mission is to address the root causes of community violence and we do We do that by youth initiatives, mentoring, mediating, and getting ahead of what we think potential problems may be in a community.
We know early impact is prevention when we talk about community violence, so what the Checking Mentoring Program Address.
The second mentoring program address is emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, entrepreneurial aspects, also getting the young people to really be able to express themselves, also a component of it is once we have our sessions, mostly twice a week, that we give them things to take home to interact with their parents, so we also do the academic hustle is what we call it, where our young and they become champions in the classroom as well as the community.
We, our core principles is the PALE principles and the curriculum is available if you all want to see it.
It was created and designed by ourselves.
So that is the program that House report is requested by the chief.
So it's a great program.
Any questions?
Yes, I got a fact.
Okay.
So I see you're requesting for 5,500.
So can you get by with less?
Could you still continue the program if we only gave you, you know, whatever we decided to give you?
Would the program continue if we gave you less than 5,500?
Yes.
Like I say, the program is voluntary.
So all of the mentors and the coaching mentors, we do it because we understand you need.
So, we just wanted to get out and understand these other great programs, other organizations that work with us, so it was just the idea of putting what that impact of that amount of funding would do for the program, but the program would continue.
Okay.
Did you know Mr. Fair and Mr. Hilton, they had a similar program like yours?
No, I wasn't in Freeport at that time.
Okay, so they, you know, they worked with younger people, taught them discipline and, you know, and stuff like that.
And understanding, like, one of the biggest core of what I hope is the impact of social media.
So some of you may be familiar with me and work at how Freeport does, and we understand a lot of the root cause of the community balance that we see is the impact of social media.
And like, it's not just a three, four thing.
Overall, it's a lot of things.
So one of the differences that may separate us from that program and the previous program and that we focus a lot on self active, right?
Define what manhood is and understanding that social media doesn't have to dictate.
I do have a couple of questions.
And also I'll make a comment first.
Mr. Brown and I have worked side by side during his summer cleanup is because I'm part of the pretzel pickers.
So that's how we know each other.
I know that he has a, he has a cleanup day in a specific area that he has a block party in that area.
Resource block.
Yeah, resource block party, which we're working on a plan for our table this year, I guess.
And we also know too that we also have a church service during that same space time too.
But anyway, so I've been well acquainted with his High Hope program.
The questions I have are your line item budget on your page with amounts, you separated down the cost of your program and the amounts in your line item budget do not match your line item narrative.
So I'm just wondering if you if it didn't get moved or something like that yeah so we had to move some things around one of the parts of and I will take the blame on that we wanted to exposure is a big thing right so one of the things that we wanted to do was take the boys to know that was on the first day as well as the recent outsizing street and I think my grandmother was when they responded on what the cost would be.
I had an initial cost there and then once I got the confirmation on what the cost was so that maybe it will be the mix up.
Yeah well that's the thing is it looks like you yeah it looks like you had some ideas up here yeah and some new ideas down here and it just didn't get coordinated.
So try to make it as accurate as possible and also give the board an idea of where every dollar is going all right so it won't be a missed use okay thank you and just to comment on um miss Williams what she's speaking on is the 40 days of peace and community building and we are going into the second year so I would invite all of the board members to come out and be a part of it and miss Williams in a great press and pictures we have three day events and on friday we go out and I can do what we call re-fire the block, which simply is go up there, clean up the community where we would be having our resource block parties at, and our resource block parties is when we invite other organizations like Miles Voices to come out.
Voices, we had Center City participate last year, Smart Guns for Kids, Robbie Capp and Justin.
We had community organizations, the goal is to meet people where they're at.
So normally the areas that we go in is six designated locations and Freeport that we identify as high hold areas that we feel need the resources and may not be aware of it.
So we invite the board to come out soon.
You can follow the Highholds page for more information.
We have some sort of pre-construction right now.
So it's very nice.
Thank you.
I just have one question.
Yes, ma'am.
Do you bring religion in?
Do you bring life into it all?
So, there are three day events.
So, the 40 Days of Peace and Community Building, what it exists of is three events.
And we also have a Shoots and our Guns tournament.
Well, last year we had 80 youth participate in it.
Uh, we did that also through the Boys and Girls Club, but Friday is the Beautiful Feather Block, Saturday is the Resource Block Party, and Sunday is what we call Church in the Streets that's presented by the Faithful Youths for Peace.
So it's clergy people Sunday that literally have church in the streets, and it will be at the same location.
And I brought flies.
And also, I'm sorry, I know I'm taking up everybody's time.
We also have the Youth Expo, we're doing our second annual Youth Entrepreneurs Expo that will be at Sunnybaker, July 11th to 3 at the Maynard Street Stage.
I'm done.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.
Okay, next I have vote wins.
I wanted to reach out regarding the grant opportunity and share that Hope wins would be a strong potential recipient.
Unfortunately I regret missing tonight's meeting.
We have our Hope wins board meeting this evening which we were unable to through hold last month due to illness.
So it was important that we proceed as scheduled.
I did consider sending someone to my place, but all our key members are participating in the board meeting as well.
I did want to share that the grant being discussed is based on a program we already have fully implemented at Hope Winds.
The program is currently running and going extremely well.
We are seeing meaningful impact with the families and the youth we serve.
I included some recent feedback below to provide a snapshot of that success.
I would welcome the opportunity to connect further and answer any questions or provide any information.
You may be considered potential recipients and I do have her contact information if anybody's interested.
Yeah, information she included is on the left here.
Okay.
And let's see, she has, with today's event, give you tools, strategies, ideas you can use at home.
95% Said yes, and it's hard to tell what the rest of them, but 95% said yes, and that's pretty good.
I felt welcome to include it at today's event.
And 64% said yes, and no, zero no's.
So looks, you know, from that, those graphs, I would say that the program seems to be doing well.
Let me see the request in terms of 200, just a little bit.
Yes.
There also is just a thought here.
She's talking on page five at the top paragraph.
She's talking about the third year implementation of 10 family connection events annually.
She says the cost of each one costs $800.
Good resets.
Yeah.
And my 10 family commissioners.
Do you have a family commission events?
No, the page part of that shows the total project costs 8,000 but they're only requesting 32.
Right, right.
Unfortunately, I think we're, you know, yes.
So are there any other questions or comments about the public, the packet they sent us?
They have some nice letters of recommendation.
So, we'll take that one and view that one then, then the next one is Ramp, has someone from Ramp?
No?
Okay.
Yeah, let's look at Ramp, there we go, from what I've read, Ramp is a, you know, they're are all well known, the staffed organization.
And it looks like they're going to use, they would be using the money on a program to help students that are with disabilities, try and fit in better at school and more mobility, some training involved so that they fit so that they fit into the community better or I don't know necessarily better, more comfortably I guess it feels.
You can turn it.
I'm asking for $2,000, $2,000, total budget could be $9,000.
Anybody have any comments, questions on their information packet?
I wish we had more money to give out.
Yeah.
Okay, next one is so good.
And that's like a bit of SOG, sounds of good news, there you go, sounds of good news, good evening, I'm so glad I don't have sounds of bad news, yes, yeah, please do that, but it's good to see all of you, many of you would remember me, I kind of fell into a legacy that mom taught us seven kids to use our talents and I our experiences to help make our communities better.
And that's what I've been doing my whole life.
And this year marks 47 years of inspiring and empowering people to be their best.
And especially young people, but I throw the adults in there too, because adults like to hear my music.
Absolutely.
That's not my fault.
No.
But I do want to say that basically for me in our packet, you can see a lot of really special things that occurred in the last couple of years.
We did apply and received a couple of years ago.
We missed it last year.
I ended up getting some late information that didn't apply.
But this year we have a really nice package for you.
Be sure and go to the website.
There are lots of We have wonderful music videos with kids in it.
We're really excited.
I'm glad to have my lovely wife Diana with us tonight.
She's Director of Education for our Young Eagle Success Yes Club.
We are happy to continue working with Freeport Middle School, sixth, seventh, and eighth grade choir participants.
And these kids are coming out of their shells.
I don't know what happened.
All I know is that we're getting a lot of young people who don't sing, they don't dance, but when they spend a few minutes with me, they're singing and dancing.
So I don't know, I can't explain that.
But I do know that it's about inspiration.
And for me, it's about perspiration.
I do want to say that I'm thankful for Georgia.
I appreciate her, she's been helping keep me in line here.
And also for Chairman Helms, of course, it's nice to see him.
And I wanted to mention Mr. Larson also just because he knows I'm on his side.
I'm kind of in another area, but our programs are all about anti-drugs, anti-crime, anti-violence.
So I'm his friend.
We don't talk every day, but I'm absolutely his friend.
And I do want to also mention Mr. Hadley.
Thank you, sir, for so many years of inspiration and you have been a great supporter of the Yes Club.
And you just spilled all the beans when you said I should brought my keyboard in there.
It's so funny because I'm kind of slowing down, I'm getting old, getting kind of tired, but I'm still inspired.
But just wanted to say to all of you, it's really not about the amount of dollars per se, but it's more about the work that we can do to help kids get good grades, behave, and to learn how to be community servants as well.
And a lot of young people are learning from us that community service does count.
And now, as all of you know, in college, it counts when high school students have community service.
And that's just something that I've always had just because that's how we were taught.
So when mom was in the Illinois History Magazine in 1963, She passed in 2020, but I am thankful for her because she didn't just write songs and write poetry.
April is National Poetry Month, also Jazz Appreciation Month, so, you know, try to jam when we can.
But I will just finish by saying that I appreciate all of you because it's a very serious thing to be able to say that you are a part of the solution for, in our case, young people and teens have to deal with so much stuff but like at least with us, we do character development for excellence and we also use fine arts to promote unity and diversity and to promote things that matter.
And all of us can be better but sometimes with them they might not be getting it at home.
Some of them are from broken families and some of them just don't care.
So for some reason our yes club, they get in there and they care and I'll finish with this.
We deal with white, black, Hispanic, mixed and there's a young white gentleman who's in one of the classes and he's going to teach us how to deal with that.
And so we're working with one of the music teachers in the district.
So she said, Mr. C, you know, he wants to be in it.
A lot of them want to meet you.
They've been online, they saw you.
So they want to see what this is all about.
But this particular young man evidently said, you know, I don't think that Mr. C can reach me or whatever.
So she told Diana and we say, well, I mean, not about bus reaching him as much as all of us reaching each other and he's a part of the family.
So when he came his first day and I'll just say this I'm not joking or kidding or anything and I do have good sense of humor but I will tell you this I almost had to sit that young guy down he was so excited he was jumping all over the place doing I almost said that's too much dude that's two of us but he was so happy and I just said you know to see young people to be excited about something that is directly connected to their inspiration and empowerment to be better and by the way folks you still don't have a lot of programs that are teaching respect and it's just a strange thing but I am a respect person and I will teach them and I will tell them if they have had their pants hanging down, I will tell them, I'm not scared of them, who's scared of them?
I will tell them comb your hair, that's just how I am.
I've done it in Walmart before, a little boy, my mom told me something, he was so mean, I walked right up to him, I said, hey buddy, I said, do you think that's nice to scream at your mom, does she feed you?
And I said, yes, sir, does she feed you, he said, yes, I mean, maybe, you know, he saw and the first time I saw a big black guy, he was scared.
But I am nice and I do have a nice smile.
But when I got done with him, I taught him to apologize to his mama.
I'm trying to tell you all, this is just for real.
And he did and she cried.
And I found out later because she said, you hardly ever hear anybody that will really stand up for respect.
Guess what?
I tell them to watch their language.
I'm not going to deal with the first grader cussing me out.
Oh, no, that'd be the first and last time, baby.
That's just for me, because they have to learn how to do better.
And the best way I think is for them to see somebody doing better.
They have to see it.
They have to see love.
They have to see light and they have to see life.
And that's what we do.
So thank you for anything.
So could I ask you a question quick?
Of course.
Thank you for the presentation.
And Fricke.
Thank you for the presentation.
It says here on, you're going to use, you're requesting $2,500 to, you're going to set up a webpage.
Is that what the $2,500 is for?
No, we have that already.
Okay.
All right.
I know he's requesting for 2000.
Oh, I did.
Okay.
I was reading 2500.
I did.
That was $2500.
Okay.
That's a report from the and the last dispersal that we've ever seen.
Oh, great, all right.
Okay, so you're mentoring the children with God in mind and I mean, do you have meetings with the children?
What actually do you, music?
I'm assuming music is involved.
Music is kind of the secret weapon that brings them together.
And do you meet at the Boys and Girls Club or do you?
No, we actually are in Freeport Middle School.
We actually did it in this class.
Okay.
So they have select students who get their parent permission slips and we actually go there and we meet with them during the class time.
OK.
And we do have a community club where we meet maybe once a month, twice a month, and we do that at our church.
But all of the things that we teach are all monkey, all Bible, all stuff.
And we teach them how to go to rule.
We just teach them the truth and we teach them how to act right.
And there's not a lot of ways to teach them.
You just got to tell them and you have to show them.
And if you can do it in a way that they want to do it, I believe it was President John F. Kennedy that said that good leadership is when you can get people to do what you want them to do because they want to do it.
So make sure you Google that.
I don't think it's actually true.
I have, I, I do have a question.
Okay.
You're saying that your funding will cover fees for travel, class visits, and studio time, and then you put in print to see song compositions, arrangements, audio productions, and video filming and editing.
So you're doing that right now.
So it's just additional, it's not a new, new part of the program, but these are the things that you're already doing.
Just keeping it going because we have no kids and no projects.
The children that you're recording and they're performing and we actually film them at the school so we're teaching the songs and we're showing the different things when we're there and then we also have core group kids that must have done other stuff so I can vouch for Dr. Pohl I've been to many of his programs and he didn't emphasize but you still go to Springfield at the State Fair and present a program down there for everybody to see.
I've been to that program, I've been to your church programs and yes, those kids are very polite.
When you walk up to them, yes sir, no sir, I mean he has them very disciplined and he takes people that can't even sing and sing great now, I believe it's a, you know, I can voucher that it's a really good program and the money goes to good use and stuff like that.
How many you have in the three-part program now?
I'd say around 40.
Really?
Sometimes we don't know where they came from, maybe 50.
And I can vouch too the parents show up down and for the performances in the state fair and the parents were always very happy that we're you know that the funds are going towards to help their kids from staying on the trail and giving them something to do.
Yeah, it's report to our home town so you know when you want to make sure we give them that.
I don't know what my heart means and telling me off.
No, and the Cole family has been very, very successful.
I know, I know some of you guys.
Music is, you know, the universal language, they say, right?
Yes, sir.
And we are already online also because a lot of, you have first graders, second graders, they've got four or five iPhones.
I asked one of them, why?
He said, well, I had, my grandma gave me one, my uncle gave me one.
I said, you don't need five iPhones.
And these are like $1,500, $2,000 devices.
You don't need that.
And I said, I'm sure you don't have internet.
Yes, I do.
I have my grandmother's code or whatever.
And that means they can get off any website.
And that's exactly what they do.
And some of them have tons of girlfriends.
Frenzel Boyfriends and different little phone numbers and you may find out the hard way that all those phone numbers don't work because I'm going to get cut off, it is all past stuff.
But we're glad that we're here and I'm able to say, hey, I went to this school in this building.
No, you didn't.
And we have one girl, she just lost her grandmother.
She couldn't believe that we knew her grandmother when she was a girl.
That's what happens when you get old.
And all your good-looking folks in here, you don't have to worry about it.
Who cares if you get older, if you don't look old.
But don't talk on my knees.
Thanks so much for the time.
Thank you.
Thanks, Carl.
Appreciate anything you can do.
Yeah, thank you.
OK, next up, I have voices.
Oh, yes.
Well, hello, everyone.
Hi, my name is Jack Revcik, I'm the Prevention and Training Coordinator for Voices of Stephenson County, and then I serve as the Camp Director for the Voices Youth Development Camp.
We have a multitude of camp programming throughout the school year.
We have a winter break camp, the spring break camp, but we specifically asked for funding for our Youth Development Summer Camp this year.
We are going into our ninth year with our Youth Development Summer Camp.
Historically it was a one week camp for elementary students.
Within the last two years, we realized that there was a greater need within the community.
And so now we are a two week elementary camp, a one week junior high camp, and then we also do a high school leadership training camp.
Our camp is completely free.
It's just something that's different than most of the camps within our area.
We provide breakfast, lunch and snacks completely free to the kids.
Last year we served within our program, our overall program.
We served about 180 youth.
This year for our summer program, we're looking to serve about 50 elementary kids, 30 junior high kids, and we're bringing on 12 high schoolers.
So our high school program is set for a week.
We train them up how to be camp counselors.
And then for the younger camps, they serve as camp counselors.
Through that, we're teaching them leadership skills.
We're teaching them respect.
For teaching violence prevention initiatives.
Our camp in general is focused on social-emotional learning as well as violence prevention with the focus mainly being on violence prevention.
This year, our goal is to hone in on respect, kindness, and community-mindedness, because we realized that we can't prevent violence without looking at the holistic approach of it.
So we look at community involvement, community pride, and trying to cultivate that with the youth.
For us, for the summer to run our camp, it cost us about $13,000.
We did ask it from here, we asked for quite a bit more than everyone else.
We would be very appreciative for any amount.
We focus a lot on showing the kids that there are people in the community that really care about them and that want to see them succeed.
And so we focus a lot on letting them know who exactly contributed to their ability to So we hold them at Bethany Church over on St. Euston Street.
And I'd also like to add, I'm Julie Hillier with Voices of Stephenson County.
And I'd like to add that at Voices, we believe that we change lives, because I think most you know that voices assist survivors of domestic and sexual violence and in the camp specifically, I think we more mold, help mold our workers at that point and we do bring as Jack said those violence prevention principles into key and we are looking at camp as a means of helping instill those values in the kids and helping build their self-esteem and we will know whether we've done that by there are different surveys that we're going to give the kids at the beginning and end of camp to see that they've learned whether for instance that they're there that they do have safe people that they can go to and that's one of the things that we are going to be focusing on and helping just instill some of those values in them in terms of the money the money that we are asking for Our ask is for all of the expenses that it takes.
We do already have some community support, the $13,000 that it takes.
The State Bank Foundation has already come on board.
They're covering the mentor stipends because the mentors do get a stipend of $500 for being a camp mentor.
So, but it takes the kids go on field trips.
As Jack said, we feed the kids.
So, you know, obviously we're going to beat them.
So that's all of those expenses plus all of our curriculum and all the craft.
All of our curriculum and all the crafts and everything that they do.
It is just like a regular summer camp.
The kids play, the kids have crafts, and then we do leave all of the lessons and the prevention education principles that the kids are already getting in the public schools.
When Jack mentioned she's a prevention coordinator, we're providing prevention education curriculum.
And how many schools, Jack?
We do every school across Stephenson County from kindergarten to 12th grade.
So they're just, we're building upon that curriculum to help reinforce all of that in the kids.
Yeah, so I just wanted to, you know, make some of those flights as well.
This is how we think we're building a more resilient.
Could you explain that, what's the curriculum for the grade in school?
So our curriculum is the BITE, so for kindergarten through second grade, we use the safe at last curriculum.
That is a four day curriculum where we go when we talk about safe people, respect on day one.
Day two focuses on safety with strangers, and then our body safety rules of say no, get away until a safe person.
And then day three, we focus on the safe touches and unsafe touches.
And then day four, of course, it's like a review day, we bring a puppet in, the kids love it.
Our mascot is Buddy, the body safety bear.
Our third through fifth grade curriculum is a tailor made Well, it's community-informed or community-tailored curriculum that we made in-house called Body Safety Boss.
So, in 2022, we did a bunch of community needs assessments, we did a ton of focus groups with youth, and we created this curriculum called the Boss Curriculum, where it stands for Boundaries, Objects, Stand Firm, and Say Something, where we focus on teaching boundaries, what boundaries look like, how to enact your boundaries, how to state your boundaries, and then also advocate for yourself.
And then what to do if someone crosses those boundaries and kind of fighting against social norms versus actual healthy relationships.
Our sixth through 12th grade curriculum focuses on Aaron's Law.
So that is the 2011 mandate that was passed in the state of Illinois based off of Aaron Marin, who was a child survivor of sexual abuse.
So we go in and we share Aaron's story, and then we focus on healthy relationships, internet safety, consent, boundaries, really just about anything that we kind of tailor every year to what the schools are dealing with.
So, you know, we might be in Freeport Middle School where they're having a problem with like sexting, but then we might get to Freeport High School and they're having a big issue with consent and things like that.
So it's always different based on the school, but it's tailored to what the school needs.
Any questions?
Comments?
Just one.
So usually about 80 people go to this summer camp?
Yes, so we were capping it this year.
Last year we didn't cap it and we had about, on our largest day we had like 96 kids there and that was way too much.
And so this year we're capping it for elementary at 50.
It really does come down to funding.
If we have enough funding, we will open it to more.
If we don't have enough funding, then we'll keep it at the 50.
But right now, whether we receive more funding or not, it's gonna stay at 50 for elementary, 30 for junior high, and then we're bringing on 12 high schoolers.
Many of the youth who attend the camp have experienced domestic homosexual violence in their background at some point, whether they were the survivor themselves or it has been in their household.
So this camp is vitally important for them to help them be able to get some of these coping skills and learn that there are better ways.
And just to add to that, even the kids that maybe haven't experienced domestic or sexual violence, it's open to anyone.
So it's not just our clients or kids that identify having some kind of experience or exposure to it.
It is open to anyone in the community.
However, we do see a lot of youth come in that are at more high risk of domestic and sexual violence.
And that also is partly because it's a free camp program.
And so the families that are at a higher risk, they don't have to worry about, do I have the funds to send my kid to camp?
Or is my kid going to be safe at a camp?
Because our main priority is safety of everyone.
We're one of the only free summer camps.
Yes, that might be the answer.
And Stephenson County.
Yes.
That's in Stephenson County and we're committed to that.
And to answer, to heed off any questions, we are committed, Voices is committed to holding this camp regardless of if we get funding.
But we would really like funding.
Understood.
Anything will help and be greatly appreciated.
So thank you very much.
How long has Voices been in state use and counseling?
So we started in 1982 with the YWCA, with the Voices DB program.
They had a domestic violence volunteer program all the way back in 1917, but we incorporated our own non-for-profit under Voices DB in 1982.
And then we incorporated the sexual assault services when the Center of Abuse and Assault.
Assault and Abuse Services, yes, when they closed down in 2014, I believe.
So we incorporated or we absorbed their sexual assault program.
They've been operating as a dual program since.
44 Years.
Yes.
Yeah, to say one thing, you do a great thing for the community.
I've talked to Carl many times.
We have a huge domestic violence problem in Steven's account.
I mean, every day I got somebody put the Sharks app on my phone and every day I and I walk on just a maze of the people that come in on domestic violence out of our County jail.
And I'm glad we're keeping them out there too, because I see the judges are keeping them in there and stuff.
So you do a great program.
I know a lot of people that I've known that had domestic violence and they said that your program's excellent and everything.
So thank you for your community, for doing the service for our community and everything.
Thank you and keep them.
You appreciate that.
Anybody else?
Well, thank you ladies.
Appreciate it.
Thank you for your time.
Thank you.
And last, but certainly not least, we have the Boys and Girls Club.
We have a representative from the Slovakian Girls Club.
Doesn't look like it.
Let's take that back.
1,150.
I think they've been recipients of this program before.
Anybody have any comments or questions from them, from their packet?
They all did a wonderful job of filling out the paperwork.
I wish we had enough money.
Yeah.
So by, you know, looking these things.
I didn't expect to have any that we said, give them any money.
That wouldn't be the case.
So, you know, I don't know what you guys' thoughts are, but since we have six deserving organizations, I would say you just divided the $10,000 by six, which is about $1,660.
I'm just concerned.
Now, some said that they can go on with their programs.
And I'm just concerned if, you know, if we're giving them the 1660, you know, that are they going to be able to use it or use it or not?
And if not, you know, we can give it to another organization, you know, so that's my big concern.
You know, I mean, if we fully funded, you know, it's up to the committee what they want to do I'm just always concerned that if we give just a little bit now going to said they would you know utilize whatever they got I think they all said the same thing, that they would be happy to get whatever they got.
Some of the organizations weren't here tonight, so.
Well, the one organization had a board meeting, and I don't know why, nobody from the.
So we didn't get to ask two of the organizations that question, you know, so.
And another thing that I might mention that we do next year is put in the application that we have a deadline, look at them and then lay it over for a month and then award them in May or something like that.
I think that's a good idea.
Because we're overwhelmed this time and, uh, and that would have given us a chance to get that or two people in, or, uh, have Georgia address them, you know, send them an email to address some concerns and questions we had.
So, so I would say next year, let's change that, you know, where the deadline is April, we love them over, lay them over till May so we can really give a good decision on this.
But whatever the committee wants to do, that's fine.
Hopefully they'll utilize the money we give them.
Well, I would entertain a motion to just take the $10,000 divided by six and give each one a equal amount.
I'll make that motion.
Okay.
So I have a motion.
Can I get a second?
Second.
Second by Mr. Any other questions or comments?
Just comment.
I mean, I think, like you say, I think we next year, we need a little more time, but you know, it sounds like all these programs are very deserving and that all of them can go on without this, but this will help.
I think, you know, the more that'll get outreach to the most amount of people, which is what we really want to do.
So I think, you know, if this helps them offset some of their costs and we can reach a broader amount of people, I think that's probably the best.
That's my reason for making that motion.
And we might also, you know, have more money next year to budget too, you know, because we're going to have some money left over.
So hopefully we'll have a bigger budget next year to budget so we can give out more money, so.
Yeah.
Okay.
You know, the other comment that I would make is that I'd like to encourage public to invest in these programs and to ask us questions about what was submitted to us and the programs that are going to be there so that maybe somebody wants to make private donations to these organizations too.
I mean, I think that's part of it is that we need to share and we need to share what we've just learned in the program.
I didn't know half of this.
I don't know.
Yes.
I don't know unless Carl disagrees with me.
I don't see a reason why we couldn't lay this over.
I mean, I know we talked and it says that it would be awarded and it won't, but is there- We can't lay anything over it.
I mean, if that is a point that- Okay.
Could we get a census of anybody who would be in favor of laying it over?
I guess the question I would have is that if we lay it over, are we going to sit and make a different decision?
In my mind, I'm not going to make a different decision.
Well, that's, I hate it.
I think it's a great idea for next year.
But the problem, the problem I see is that either that or you've got to sit here and and you got to say, well, you're not going to get anything at all.
And I don't know that necessarily that I want to do that either.
Well, the same, some of that, we've done that before.
We've fully funded some programs that we thought were, you know, they're all worthwhile.
Yes.
But what I would say is if we fully fund their program this year, you know, we would say we're going to fully fund somebody else's program next year or something like that.
That's right.
We've been doing this for quite a few years.
It's a great program and about contributing.
I remember when Mr. Fair and Mr. Hilton had their program, one of the Board members used to contribute to their program since Mr. Hilton was on the County Board too.
So yeah, these are all good programs, I got to say.
And I'm happy that we have these programs in the community because my years in the Department of Corrections seeing the grandfather, the father and the sons come into the prison system is not acceptable.
And I've been out of the business 12 years and seeing some of the grandkids coming in, they're awful.
And maybe we could have saved them if we had programs like this in our community.
So I'm all for these programs.
So, yeah, I'll support you.
Okay, well, I've got a motion and a second.
So we'll take a vote.
All those in favor say aye.
Aye.
Opposed?
Same sign?
Very no.
Six equal amounts, I hope that helps you out some.
We appreciate your time and all of the reports and we appreciate what you do.
Believe me.
Thank you so much and make sure you look at that magazine article that took a lot of work.
Okay, I'll close you to adjourn.
Sec second.
All those in favor?
Say aye.
Aye.
Those opposed?
Same sign.
Thanks, everybody.
Thank you for listening.