um teenagers so from anywhere from the age of 12 to 17 18 until they mix out the program basically
All right. And the program would be for them to stay there because?
This is a group home. So we're offering care somewhere for them to stay, somewhere for them to be nurtured, somewhere for them to grow.
These may be children who have lost parents. These may be children who have been displaced or sexually abused.
It's many different situations with the children when they come.
And how many people do you have as support staff there?
They will be monitored 24-7, and we're opposed to have two staff members there.
There is only one staff member that has to be there by state law.
However, for safety purposes, I wanted to have two staff members there at all times.
And how many people per, I thought there are four bedrooms?
Yes, it is.
Four children.
Okay, so it's one per bedroom?
The staff person is going to be where?
The staff people.
I'm sorry?
You're going to have shifts?
Yes, yes, they'll have shifts.
So the staff will come on and leave and like this.
All right, thank you.
You're welcome.
Will the children be on meds?
Are there medications involved?
Do you have social services support? How is that going to work?
So all of the children will have their own bed, their own closet, their own dressers.
As far as social services involved, once the children come from the different counties, the county members are always there to stay involved with the children.
There are times when if they're coming so far, sometimes parents are allowed to connect with them.
And then sometimes they are not, depending on each child's situation.
As far as medication, there may be children who may take medication, but then there may be some who don't. It's really a situation I can't tell you what it will be beforehand until the actual children come.
Well, I think my question is, how are you planning to deal with those children who some have been traumatized and may be on medication? How are you addressing? How are you planning to address that?
Oh, we have a program. So the goal of my program is to basically to nurture them. And we also our career, I'm sorry, academically based program. So the goal and I'm able to choose the children.
academically based program so the goal and i'm able to choose the children that we accept
so the goal is to get children who are looking towards help to get their high school diploma
to move on to get college degrees to move on to become even entrepreneurs so we have a lot of
different community-based options where we're offering tutoring we're offering um assistance
with helping them locate jobs or we are again we're having 24-hour care we have a behavioral
specialist that will be there as well there's all different type of support that a lot of times once
you get the children they come with themselves but then there's other things that we are going
to offer as well that mean that all the children are going to be homeschooled no the children when
they come, they can, they'll be merged into Philadelphia County schools unless they may
have something going on and they need homeschooling. But if, for instance, if I get a child from
Montour County, that's, I don't, I'm six hours away maybe, so they may come down and they'll
have to intricate into our school district in Philadelphia. Do you know what school is
the neighborhood school for this address?
I don't at the moment.
I also don't know because some children may come in and need middle school, then they
may need high school.
So it depends, again, on the ages of the children.
And often when the children do come down, you have to go to the Board of Education,
the School District of Philadelphia, I'm sorry.
And the school district is the ones who assign the children to whatever school that they
will attend.
What was the concern of your immediate neighbor? Do you know? Did they express the concern for
being opposed to what you're trying to do? I believe the main thing was that she says,
she mentioned something about there being other group homes somewhere in the neighborhood,
and she just didn't want another one there. Across the street. There's three across the street.
The across the street is a hospital. There's more than a hospital. There's also a senior building.
there's a group home facility
there's a youth
youth behavioral health center
and there's an emergency shelter
I think that those are
on the block somewhere
no they're literally across the street
in the Logan Plaza
other questions for the board
what's the plan for meals
and like how much access
to the first floor
are the kids going to get
for downtown are the girls going to get for
downtime? Okay, so that's
two questions. So the first question for meals, do you mean
will they, I'm sorry, I'm not sure of your exact questioning for the meals.
How are you handling meals on site? Like are they going to be doing cooking? Are they
going to be having meal service provided and are your staff going to be doing
the cooking? Sorry. Yes, the staff will be doing cooking for
the children. Sometimes they may come from homes where
no one prepared a meal for them so the staff will be preparing meals daily for the children
now another option that we did think of is that our kitchen will be closed off however we're going
to make different things available for the children to learn how to you know begin cooking
and different things like this we're going to give them their own air fryer their own you know small
things for them to begin to to learn how to cook or you know whatever but it'll also be something
for them to do if they want something outside of what may be prepared from the staff for their day
um their stay apart and i'm sorry i forgot the second question that you asked i asked so i guess
you partially answered it what parts of the first floor are they going to have access to it sounds
like there's going to be restrictions on the kitchen yes um how do you plan to do that since
we didn't see any floor plans just locking the door no no it won't be any doors locking um
where you know that's just basically the thing they're not going to they're not going to be
allowed to go into the kitchen like that's the rule that we're going to have you know no children
are allowed in the kitchen however right before the kitchen is the dining room the dining room
is a very large size i'm going to have um i guess like a microwave cart type of thing
available over there, again, where they'll be able to use the
air fryer, use the toaster oven, small things like that if they want something
outside of the regular meals that are prepared.
It'll also have snacks. Like sometimes, you know, some children
just need an extra snack or two. So they'll have different things that they'll have
available for them outside of the normal.
And then I guess my last question is, what's the age range
question is what's the age range of girls i'm taking them as young as 12 um and i was going
of girls I'm taking
to say 18 but sometimes some children may not um go right out of the program um for various reasons
but 18 is kind of like the cutoff and do you have play over that or is that by the state
so it's by the state however there are times when they can get a board extension they get a board
extension if maybe they didn't complete school if they didn't reach some of their goals that
they were supposed to meet that we have in place for them at the program you know we have a business
plan it's not like you know I don't have those things together we have a business plan where
they're going to have goals that they have to meet and we're going to try to get those goals met
for them by the age of 18, but as you know that there are some children, sometimes
they're 18, they may not even have a 9th grade education.
So there are times that they may have to ask for a board extension.
And you haven't done this before?
Not residential overnight, no. Okay. All right.
Other questions on the board?
Questions or comments from our attorney, Hillary Emerson? Not at this time, Mr. Chair.
questions or comments from the audience or the virtual audience. So I'm going to start in this
audience here. Why don't you take a seat back in the first row, right? Why don't you come up?
Thank you.
If you could get close to the mic and pull them right next to you, okay?
Okay. Hello? Okay. My name... Go ahead. My name is Dorothea.
Burnett. That's D-O-R-O-T-H-E-A, Burnett, B-U-R-N-E-T-T. Do you swear or affirm that tell
the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth? Yes. And are you a neighbor? Yes, I am.
Please proceed with your testimony. I am not opposed to anyone helping young people,
but I'm looking more so at the concern of where the facility is being held at.
we have a residential area and the house itself is residential if you're having four young women
there we don't really know what their situations are but you only have one bathroom and these young
ladies need different programmings because and activities if we're really concerned about their
overall. Welfare, you know, where are the programs? That house is set up more so for residential
family type. You know, different programs need to be extended to these young women and they
should be on the facility. As far as their activities is concerned, you know, for the
welfare of their emotions and their structural transportation situation. I'm looking at the
comfort of the young ladies and the emotional status of the young ladies within the facility.
They need outside activities and freedom and comfort. And this is not supplied in that
residential close houses adjacent right up on each other. The yard itself is very small.
I live on the block. We have yards and they're very small. That backyard has a lot of trees
and fencing. I mean, the growth is enormous in the backyard. So the young ladies would be limited
just for that confines of that house. If we're looking for the best interests of the girls and
we want to help them and develop them, as she said, she doesn't know what type of girls she's
going to get. We don't know what type of trauma or medications or how you're going to supply that.
I mean, she may take them outside.
I don't know what that's going to be like.
But for the overall concern of the residents, as well as the health and comfort and, you
know, the emotional status of the young ladies, I think a better facility that has more of
an extenuating expanse for these young ladies so they can get proper programming and they
can get all the things that they need to make them wholesome.
And that's just, you know, the way we feel.
I feel that way.
And I think a lot of the neighbors do.
It's not in the best.
Thank you very much for your testimony.
Who else wants to testify over there?
Come on up, sir.
Good afternoon, sir.
Good. If you would get closer to the mic, could you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
If you would get closer to the mic, could you state your name and spell for the stenographer?
Yes. Keith Eil. K-E-I-T-H. Eil is spelled E-L.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Affirm.
Are you a neighbor?
Adjacent to 29, yes.
All right. Please start your presentation.
um we were able to get to the meeting uh the rco meeting and it was the last minute thing that we
that we learned about it but we did go and when we got there um
the vote went i think it was something like eight eight or nine to two
uh people that have voted to uh went against the um the rco or whatever whoever's the plan right
and questions were asked and the questions were were not answered at that particular time
now we didn't know the procedures for the rco or the board the board like this one here and
and we learned from our experience for the meetings we've been coming to.
Well, this is our, I believe it's the fourth or fifth time here for this very situation.
And when we got here, I mean, when we got here, we learned more about it.
And one of the things that we learned is you had to go through your city council person.
So we got with the city council and they gave us instructions on, you know, what we should do.
And one of the things that we did immediately, we got, we live in like a, it's an awkward type of a block.
You know, we got the hospital on one end and your house is on Wagner Avenue.
So we dealt with the people in the very location where we are.
and you should have in your records that um we have a petition with over 60 people on the block
we have the we have it the very block that we live on yep uh that said that they did not desire to
have such a facility on the block one of the things that was mentioned a little earlier about
what we already have on the block.
We have a shelter.
We have a, I don't know which, a veteran house at the corner.
And our neighbor, she takes care of children,
people who are disabled.
So the block as it is right now,
we do pretty good.
you know but we don't need more uh situations like that so my neighbor miss d he has heard us
speak and initially when we when we first had the first meeting here we went to the library
and the library allowed us to use their facility to uh zoom to this meeting
we got pretty good attendance in that meeting
because what we're talking about is senior citizen i'm a junior and i'm retired so the people who
have to work they have to um get around and many of the people that we that you have on that
petition here they came and come out the house so that's the kind of neighborhood that we have
okay so we asked him to be considered from that standpoint uh to not allow the the variance