SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON KENSINGTON, May 27, 2025

COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA SPECIAL COMMITTEE ON KENSINGTON Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19106 Tuesday, May 27, 2025 1:25 p.m. PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN QUETCY M. LOZADA, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN NINA AHMAD COUNCILMAN MICHAEL DRISCOLL COUNCILMAN JIM HARRITY

240720, 250164 - - -

Members that are in attendance, will you please indicate that you are present when your name is called.

Madam Chair Lozada.

Present.

Vice-Chair Jones. (No response.)

Councilwoman Ahmad.

Present.

Councilman Driscoll.

Present.

Councilman Harrity.

Present.

And, Councilman Squilla. (No response.)

Thank you. A quorum of this committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. This is a public hearing on the Special Committee on Kensington regarding Resolution No. 240720 and Resolution No. 250160. Will the Clerk please read the title of the first resolution on today's agenda.

Yes, Madam Chair. Resolution No. 240720, authorizing the Special Committee on Kensington to hold public hearings to examine the current state of transportation infrastructure and services in the City of Philadelphia in response to the opioid crisis.

Thank you. Before I begin, I would like to recognize the sponsor of the resolution for opening remarks.

Thank you, Chair. Good afternoon. Thank you all for being here. Today's hearing is more than transit lines or infrastructure. It's about how public systems intersect with public health and how we can work together to build a safer, more functional Philadelphia for everyone we know. Kensington has been at the epicenter of the opioid crisis. It's a public health emergency, but it's also a public infrastructure emergency. Our transit hubs, whether operated by SEPTA, Amtrak or Conrail, have become ground zero for this crisis, straining systems that were never built to act as frontline social service agencies. Riders, employees, residents and small business owners alike are navigating unsafe, unsanitary and often traumatizing conditions just to get to work, school or appointments. Let's be clear, SEPTA has stepped up in ways few expected. This includes efforts like the SCOPE program, showing real compassion and coordination. But this response is not sustainable. SEPTA is a transit agency, not a social services provider. And now, it faces budget shortfalls, declining ridership and the threat of service cuts as deep as 45%. That's why this hearing is so important. The solution doesn't rest with one agency or one jurisdiction. It's going to take real intergovernmental cooperation. Amtrak, Conrail, SEPTA, our city departments, state agencies, and even federal partners all have a role to play. Each touches this issue from a different angle, whether it's infrastructure, public safety, behavioral health or community development. We need more than acknowledgment. We need coordination. That means sharing data, aligning timelines, cofunding interventions and making sure every agency is working toward the same goal, safer, cleaner, more functional transit spaces that serve both riders and residents. If we're going to fix what's broken, we need to move beyond jurisdictional boundaries and towards shared accountability. This hearing is a chance to identify what's working, what's not, where we need more research, more resources and leadership. We need to ensure the riders, workers and businesses, whether it's Suburban Station or the Reading Terminal, can depend on safe, reliable transit. Thank you again for everyone participating today, especially our transit workers, outreach staff and community members who live these challenges every day. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Member Driscoll. I'd like to just recognize and acknowledge all of your work as it relates to this conversation. You know the residents of Kensington-Harrowgate and across the city of Philadelphia really depend on public transportation. It's their lifeline. And so, this conversation today I hope we're able to come up with some type of solutions or recommendations that we could work on together to be able to provide residents with the necessary resources that they need in order to be able to get to and from work and school. I can't tell you the number of times that I reach out to Wendy on the weekends, in late evenings to talk about some of the challenges. And so, I want to publicly thank you as well for always being very responsive. Even if sometimes there's not an answer, at least you acknowledge that you understand the frustration that residents have. And so, we're grateful for your partnership and I'm looking forward to the conversation. Are there other members of this committee for opening remarks? (No response.)

Will the Clerk please call the first panel we have to testify this afternoon on Resolution No. 240720.

We have Charles Lawson, Chief of Police, SEPTA Transit Police Department; and David Williams, Senior Director of Maintenance, SEPTA. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Good afternoon. Thank you for being with us this afternoon. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Madam Chair Lozada, Councilmembers Driscoll, Harrity, Squilla, Jones and Ahmad. My name is Chuck Lawson and I serve as the Chief of the SEPTA Police Department. I am pleased to be joined by David Williams, Senior Director of Custodial Services for SEPTA's subway and elevated operations. SEPTA is proud to work with the City Council's Special Committee on Kensington and I appreciate the opportunity to update you on the current state of SEPTA's infrastructure and services in the city of Philadelphia in response to the opioid crisis. Since the creation of the Special Committee and the development of the Kensington Community Revival Plan, SEPTA has committed to an increased presence of police, cleaning and outreach resources through the Kensington corridor. Over the past three fiscal years, SEPTA has more than doubled spending on safety, security and cleaning priorities. We are seeing a positive result through the SEPTA network. Last year SEPTA Transit Police Department recorded the largest one year decrease in serious crime in the department's 43-year history. Across all categories of serious crime, SEPTA decreased 33% compared to the year prior, including 350 fewer incidents on the system, a 42% decrease in robberies, a 42% decrease in criminal assaults on employees. We have a clearance rate for violent crimes that is 20% higher than the national average. These recent improvements are the result of successful, sustained recruitment and retention of transit police officers. The SEPTA Transit Police Department now has 248 uniformed officers, the highest number we've seen in more than a decade, and we anticipate filling more 5 positions this year and reached the 6 new budgeted head count which was 7 increased by another 10 officers. 8 SEPTA transit police 9 officers are committed to 10 safeguarding our customers and 11 improving the quality of life of 12 communities we serve. A record 13 number of officers gives me and my 14 command staff the personnel needed to deploy an increased presence at stations in Kensington and prioritize details that provide for a safe pathway for residents and students riding SEPTA. In 2024, each of the four stations located in Kensington experienced decreases in serious crime of more than 20%. Crime at SEPTA stations in the Kensington corridor dropped by a combined 34% last year, with enforcement efforts at Tioga Station producing the highest declines at a 58% reduction, while quality of life enforcement at Kensington Stations increased by 217% from the year before. Simply put, there are more transit police officers spending more time enforcing more laws and safety rules in Kensington than ever before in the history of our department. Increased officer patrols allow for enhanced enforcement of low-level misconduct and anti-social behavior on SEPTA. Last year transit police officers removed a record number, 147,000-plus code of conduct violators off the system and we more than doubled quality-of-life enforcement efforts across our most frequent offense categories. SEPTA wants law-abiding customers who are following the rules to feel safe and welcome in SEPTA stations and vehicles. Those who fail to obey or behave appropriately should expect to be engaged by an officer, removed from the system and face penalties, including fines, criminal prosecution and potential bans. Much of this work begins at the fare gate. Customers who pay a fare also follow other social norms and behave in a way that respects our riders and customers. SEPTA continues to combat fare evasion through enhanced policing and new technology infrastructure. SEPTA is installing new full length fare gates that are designed to prevent fare evasion from jumping over or crawling under the turnstile. These gates proved to be an effective mechanism to deter, detect and quantify fare evasion during a pilot that we ran at 69th Street Transportation Center.

SEPTA has budgeted another $10 million in Fiscal Year 2026 to expand this pilot to an additional nine more stations with more than 100 new fare gates installed. The Transit Police Department is also ramping up our efforts with a new targeted fare evasion enforcement blitzes that began last month at Huntingdon Station before moving on to other areas throughout the system. The goal of this effort is to stop fare evasion before it happens. SEPTA transit police officers are prominently positioned at the fare gates and new signage at stations to warn customers of the potential $300 fine. During the brief time this new initiative has been underway, revenue has increased at those stations that we've done this at. An increased enforcement of fare evasion has yielded broader customer safety benefits with fare evasion citations, leading to hundreds of arrests of individuals wanted for other crimes. Because cleanliness is directly tied to safety and security, SEPTA has restructured its cleaning operations under the direction of a newly-created position, Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Cleaning. SEPTA has hired 100 additional staff just this past year. And the Authority now has more than 700 cleaners and maintenance personnel, deployed strategically to keep stations and vehicles cleaner and respond to issues as they arise. New initiatives like pit crews that perform mid-route cleaning of Broad Street-Market Frankford Line train cars throughout the service day and emphasis on station deep cleaning are starting to be reflected in improved customer service scores. In Kensington, SEPTA has dedicated increased resources to Tioga, Somerset, Allegheny and Huntingdon Stations. On May 18th, SEPTA also resumed its annual summer deep cleaning efforts at targeted Market-Frankford and Broad Street Line Stations. 30 stations and another 10 bus loops are slated for intensive cleaning efforts performed daily at stations. Special assignment crews will be scheduled to perform high-intensity cleaning of all customer service areas, including platforms, stairways, sidewalks and elevators. Once a week entrances and exits, landings and sidewalks are pressure-washed and visible graffiti is removed. Station managers are required to inspect complete daily reports of their work to ensure that issues and conditions that contribute to anti-social behavior on the system are addressed. Infrastructure improvement investments at these stations has also hardened access to customer areas. Roto gates installed at the exits of each station prevents trespassers from gaining access to stairwells and obstructing customer egress. In 2021, SEPTA developed its SCOPE program to respond to increased instances of anti-social behavior and create a safe, clean and welcoming environment for our customers and employees. Our holistic approach focused on partnerships with social service agencies and health navigators, currently partnerships with Drexel and Widener Universities to connect individuals experiencing homelessness, substance abuse and mental health disorders with vital resources. Through engagement and trust building, the goal of SCOPE is to guide vulnerable individuals off the system and into resources for care, treatment and housing. SCOPE program is currently in a period of transition. In the near future, SEPTA anticipates executing a new third-party contract with a social service partner to provide engagement Services and expertise in this specialized area of need. In the meantime, SEPTA transit police officers, who are an integral part of the SCOPE continuum, are assuming many functions, including engagement and removals. The Authority remains committed to SCOPE's approach and broader goals to achieve ridership growth and contribute to the restoration of a vibrant, healthy Kensington community. I thank you again for the opportunity to update you on SEPTA's efforts in Kensington.

SEPTA knows it has an important role to play as a public transportation provider and we are grateful for the support and partnership of City Council, particularly this Special Committee on Kensington, the Parker Administration, District Attorney Krasner as we continue to navigate challenges that impact SEPTA operations in the communities we serve. I also want to acknowledge our close partnership with Police Commissioner Bethel and the Philadelphia Police Department, in particular East Division, as well as City's Office of Public Safety, the Opioid Response Unit, the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities, the Kensington Neighborhood Wellness Court and community groups, businesses, associations and social service agencies are all striving for long overdue change for the betterment of the Kensington community. I now welcome the opportunity to answer your questions. Thank you.

Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

How you doing. David Williams, Senior Director of Custodial Services.

Do you have testimony or you're just here for support?

No. 5

Okay. So thank you both for being with us. As I mentioned, I'm grateful for the partnership that we have. And all of the things that you mentioned, all of the initiatives that you mentioned, all of the additional resources that you mentioned that SEPTA has put in place are all extremely important, but they mean nothing if residents of the community feel that they're not safe, right. And so, can you speak to the work that you all are doing directly with the community to be able to inform them of ways to remain safe on the transportation system? How are your police officers engaging with riders? Are there officers on the platform so that if someone is on the train and feels unsafe, that they can peek out? Are there officers on the train? Can you speak a little bit about those particulars?

Yes. I think the biggest way that we communicate with our customers, we have a number of means of going back and forth with our customers. The two primary means are our customer service line, which is our line for customers to complain about any of the issues they see across SEPTA. We field thousands of those kind of complaints a year through there. The other way that we communicate primarily is through our Police Transit Watch app. So that's a direct line of communication where if our customers see something on the line, they're communicating directly with a police dispatcher and police are dispatching police services directly as they do that. I encourage community members to use that tool because that receives instantaneous police dispatch, whereas the customer service line is sort of a delayed feature. And so, a lot of the work that we're doing to push this out through our communications department, with a lot of the work that Wendy and her team does to get that information out in the field, but I'll be honest with you, we need to do more work. I speak with a number of community groups throughout the year, and every time I talk to a group for the first time about this I'm hearing that they don't know about these resources. So I admit we have more work to do to kind of get that information out there. The tools work, we know this. The immediacy of being able to -- what I see more than anything is when a customer uses our app and then like a station or two down the line, they're seeing a police officer respond to a train that they're sitting on, it's a tremendous, tremendous advantage for us in elevating their confidence level in what we're doing. We just need to get that information out there more.

Is that tool available or education information available in multiple languages? We know that Philadelphia is a diverse city, right. So is that information out in multiple languages? So you have to do better in education, right, in putting it out. But when folks are accessing it, are they able to access it in a language that they understand?

So it's available in multiple languages. It's also available for -- if you don't have a smartphone, it's available for a text to number feature. All that works through this system. And we field a number of these throughout the year. I mean, that number has been climbing and climbing every year. Wendy has some additional information we can leave with you. These are kind of tools and little pamphlets that we leave everywhere we go, an example that that we try and get this information out to the community.

And before I recognize the sponsor of the bill, of the 248 officers that you say you have how many are -- and I recognize that transportation is a citywide issue. But of course, for me the 7th Council District is who I represent. So of the 248 officers, how many of those officers are assigned to that footprint between Huntingdon and Tioga?

I can get you the exact officer count for that area. Happy to get that to you today. I can tell you that that area, which encompasses our District 4 area, is the largest patrol district that we staff throughout SEPTA. It's where we field the most complaints so it's where we field the most police officers. Every class that comes out of -- every graduating class out of the academy we make sure that a number of those folks get into District 4 there. So it is our largest patrol staff.

And coming out of graduation, are they trained to be able to respond to issues related to substance abuse disorder?

So all of our graduates go through a 12-week field training program that they must graduate from before they're in the field. That's done out in the field doing everyday work with an experienced police officer. It's sort of like training on the job is how we do most of that work throughout that 12-week period.

Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilmember Mike Driscoll.

Chief, thank you for your efforts and the cleaning efforts. Clearly, those numbers are going in the right direction so we're encouraged by that. We have a big budget to vote on in the next couple days and we know that we're asking our state partners to participate. So we have a lot of asks out there. Assuming -- imagine for a moment that money was not an issue. What would be the top two items on your list to ask for?

Well, I have a number in mind in terms of sworn staffing that I think that we should get to given the size of our transportation system and we're not there yet. So certainly, I think the addition of more sworn police staffing is probably due. What we have been able to evidence in just the last two years is as our staffing has grown, we've gotten better and better and better and the stats are kind of performing to that level. If you compare our transportation agency to other large scale agencies around the country, virtually all of them are staffed with a higher number of sworn police than we are. And so, I think that's probably number one on my list. And then what we've seen just by adding cleaning and devoting the resources into our cleaning crew, and Dave maybe could speak a little bit more to this, but there is very specialized equipment that makes these folks do their job so much better and it's expensive equipment. It costs a lot of resources. Dave, if you want to talk at all a little bit about that.

One of the biggest things like you said is personnel, but also the equipment, like we have high-power units that we use for cleaning. We took a visit to New York to compare what do we actually do with what New York does in comparison to another large agency. They have units that 80,000, 90,000 but it carries everything on there, so when we do high pressure cleaning we can no 9 longer take away the trailer and we can now just use a truck to get more optimal cleaning. It has different temperatures for different cleaning, specialized cleaning. As far as graffiti on buildings that before we couldn't get off, now we can because we can turn the temperature to what we need just for that area without damaging the employees. And then when we're done, we're able to turn it down. It gives you all the resources of -- like, basically the MCs, custodial cleaners, come in, get to the truck and everything they need at that moment is there. The truck is like a unit on wheels. It has everything in it. Right now we have to go in the basement and we had to grab stuff from here, there, hopefully we got enough of this. The trucks are stocked every night and will be stocked every night. And once they go on the street, they can do three or four locations without having to turn back and go get more supplies or more chemicals or more lines. It comes with dual lines for multipurposes. So if the line pops, now we have to go shut the cleaning down. On that truck if the line pops, they have another roll-up top that comes out if you can use it in the same conjunction with it. We're also looking to do high-reach cleaning. Right now what we do is we contract out a lot of our high-reach cleaning at our stations. It doesn't give us the same quality of work because those people are not employed by SEPTA, they're contracted through. So people that are employed by us are trained differently through us. And our standards are higher than what a contractor standard would be, so it gives us the ability to take on all of that and also saves us money long term because the work is done inhouse through personnel or higher so they're under our budget already.

And, Dave, could you speak to -- so I get when the train stops and you're at the station and you begin your cleaning. But when it's en route and you have a problem, a reported problem, how do you address that? That's one question. And then the other question is, and you don't have to necessarily answer this right now but maybe get back to us on this, I know that we're in design for new SEPTA rail cars. I think or 7 million federal money we got. If 8 we could get any suggestions from 9 you on -- I know you're not an 10 engineer, I know you're not an 11 architect, but you're the guy 12 that's cleaning these cars on a 13 regular basis. Is there something 14 we can share with the designers, 15 whether it's a drain where you can 16 come in and power-wash and just 17 drains right out wherever? Let's assume there's nobody on the car. Just trying to get creative here. We're spending a lot of money and we want to get the biggest bang for our buck. And that's why you're here today to help us understand better how we can help you.

As far as the cleaning goes with the trains, I wouldn't give a suggestion on how to physically change the train, but some of the material that we use, like right now in our elevators we've been changing our floors over -- Mat's back here. We've been changing the floors over so that we can eliminate a lot of the urine smells that you guys smell when you get on the elevators. So when we redo it, we're using a seamless cut. That means there's no gaps in the floor where urine can now get into and penetrate the wood. For me on the trains that would be one of the things because once that urine and stuff gets underneath of them, the material it seeps in. And no 23 matter how hard you scrub, how hard we powerwash, how many chemicals you put on there, it's hard to get it out. But on the new elevators that we've been retrofitting you can see at Huntingdon and you can see at Allegheny when we use that material, the little bit will last a lot longer. Eventually we'll have to replace them but not at the frequency that we do now with the metal and with the tiles that actually have seams in them. So that would be one of the suggestions for the actual cars to have a seamless transition where it can stop the urine and other bodily fluids from going underneath. And as far as our pit crews that we use in the middle, whenever we have a situation on the where the train has the issue, we try to isolate that one train, have everybody get on at a further train. Sometimes we actually use the cashier or MC to stand at the doors so people don't get on that car. And when it gets to the line, we go in, we try to clean the car as fast as possible, we have car pads there. We also now have pit crews in the middle to try to address those issues while in service to eliminate a long delay.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon and impressive, impressive progress made. I was just commenting to my colleague here we could do this in a very short time. How we allowed this to come to this over the last few decades is something we need to keep front and center that while we've made progress, we allowed this to happen. We did not need for so much investment if we had been on top of this from the very beginning. That said, thank you and particularly thank you, I guess you are now called the Deputy Chief Operating Officer for Cleaning --

I wish. I'm only the Senior Director.

All right. Special kudos to you. I clean my bathrooms in my house, right, so I can only imagine what your team goes through and I deeply am grateful to you for doing a great job and for doing this work in the first place. It really speaks to how we can -- we're changing the culture, right. To have 350 less incidents means people are realizing we can't do what we were doing here. And so, that's exactly what we want. My question was really about the SCOPE program, because obviously substance use disorder is not going away. We have a problem. We have to deal with it. We have people who are deeply traumatized in this space. You said that there's a transition going on. And does that mean that the Drexel and Widener Universities are not having their health navigators? Was that a pilot? And then going forward, who are you having on your team? You mentioned the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disabilities. Are we replacing the model that seemed to have worked with all the different collaborations? If you could speak to that specifically.

Yeah. So the partnership model that, you know, SCOPE is an acronym, the P in SCOPE stands for partnership, that model is not changing at all. In fact, we're trying to expand that. And I have with me my Interim Director of Outreach Services Theresa White with me. That's a lot of the work she's doing is to expand that partnership where we're bringing on even more volunteers and things that we're not even paying for to get folks onto SEPTA helping us out with this. The transition that we're going through right now is we were paying a number of different contracts for outreach services and we paused those contracts to investigate some issues that we were having with that contract. That was paused in February of this year so that we could work through how to build a better, stronger contract with our partners. We don't want this to go away. This is work that we saw with SCOPE that we saw instantaneous improvement when we moved away from police officers doing this work to folks who really know what they're doing in this field. So we're not moving away from the model. We just needed to investigate how to make our outreach contract stronger, and we're bringing that back effective July 1. So we're going to have a new contract out in the field. It's going to be bid on, that contract, and we'll have in place by July 1.

That's great. In terms of, you know, having issues, you sort of -- as the Mayor likes to put it you're flying the plane as you're building it, we get that, but what accountability measures are you putting in so that we don't have disruption and have to start fresh, because when you outsource to third parties, sometimes inadvertently, sometimes purposefully, there are violations along the way? And I'd like to know what because we just got a report off in the school district money being misappropriated in certain ways. And every penny taken away is penny we could have used in making a difference. So I just wanted to know what specifically are you addressing in this new iteration starting July 1?

So probably the biggest change, and what I'll say in the history of building this program, this was put together what I would describe as fairly quickly on the tail end of COVID and it was built up, and the folks who built this program did a lot of phenomenal things. Where we as an organization probably neglected is the back-end, oversight and accountability end of this. And so, that was probably the smallest section that we stand. There was only a couple SEPTA employees who were running this program and they just didn't have the staffing to really manage it and make sure that it was being run accountable and efficient. The biggest change that we've done now is move that entire SCOPE program within the Transit Police Department, now as an arm of the Transit Police Department. Our folks in the police department have been managing security contracts for a long time, so we're kind of used to managing a subcontractor. We have a program where we meet with subcontracted employees, management leadership team, not supervisors but leadership team every week. We go over invoicing. All of these things were kind of that we've been doing for many, many years now will be done in the SCOPE program. And Teresa who will run, lead the SCOPE effort for us I made a member of our command staff, so now she reports directly to the inspector of the Patrol Division and she has resources throughout the police department that are used at her disposal.

Thank you. And if it's Teresa that I'm thinking -- there she is -- she's wonderful. I worked with her before. Thank you so much. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. You mentioned the challenges with oversight. And I've been saying since I arrived here that one of the biggest issues we have as a government is the fact that we really do a horrible job at oversight. And so, what do you think if you needed to mention three things that you would immediately put in place in order to ensure that starting July 1 these things are must haves in order to ensure that this is an efficient and effective program, what would they be?

So I think we need to figure out -- and this is larger than SEPTA. Okay. I think what we should probably do is get together with the city and have a larger discussion because the city running outreach contracts as well. And we're all using the same people. We're using the same teams that are out there. We're all using the same folks. But I don't know that we're measuring this data the same way and I think we all got to get on the same page about how we're measuring engagements, what is an engagement, how are we measuring it, how can we hold these outreach contractors accountable to moving the bar, right, how we get it. We need to see that we're getting better or if we're not measuring it, you can't tell if you're getting better in any way. So I think it probably requires all of us to kind of work on a framework on how we're measuring this, whether or not we're improving, that we're reducing homelessness, are we reducing addiction, are we filling classes, are we filling housing and measure it all the same way so that each of us can hold each other accountable.

Do you think that part of the issues that you see in your experience do you think that part of the problem is that we are using some of the very same people all of the time as opposed to changing the selection process so that we're opening it up to more qualified responsive type providers? I mean, if the answer is no, that's great. But I think that often times when we continue to recycle the same contacts there's no way for us to change the way we're doing things, right. People are set in a certain way. And what we've been asking for a really long time is how do we do things differently, right, in order to change behavior, in order to change how we're collecting data, in order to change how people, riders are seeing the system or how people are treating the different processes that are in place. Do you think that plays a role in that? And if so, what can you all do to ensure that it's just not the same recycled people with the same recycled ideas?

Yeah, I do think that that's a problem. I say that because in our experience what we've encountered since we built this program was our outreach contractors have historically always failed to meet the head count that we wanted. And so, if we're using the same teams kind of we're cherry-picking from each other and none of us are getting what we're paying for in total head count, that's a problem. I think to get over that hurdle there's probably a shortage, because this requires a contractor kind of be set up in this area, right. We have looked at contractors who bid on these services but they were established in Boston or somewhere else in the world. It's kind of hard to know you're getting quality if you got to move your whole operation out to the city. And so, kind of we're reluctant to kind of go with that if you're not ingrained in the area. But I do think there's a shortage of qualified teams in the area to be handle -- everybody who's looking for these services.

The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity -- I get really stressed out over some of these things, because again, right, we've been saying for a long time, you know, and I'm going to use 2022 as a date for me, right, because it's when I came into the driver's seat in this process, right, and we continue to hear the same issues, the same ideas, we're using the same people, we know we're not getting different results. Well, that's obvious, right. It's common sense that if we keep using the same process and the same ideas and we're not challenging people to bring something new to the table to be able to respond to the issues that we're having, then we're not going to get anything new, right. So I guess what I'm trying to pull out of you is what are you all doing to ensure that things are done differently, right, to ensure that riders are safe, to ensure that your employees are safe, right? I talked to a lot of SEPTA employees who say, Councilmember, everybody focuses on the rider, right, the rider is paying, but I'm sitting there 8, 10, hours a day and who cares about my safety, right. What are we doing to ensure that all of these new programs that we're coming up with or are they really not new and they're just now have a new name, right? We have the tendency as a city to have all of these diversion programs and we know that none of them is responding 100% to what we need. But instead of tweaking the diversion program that we have to make it work in the way that we need to get the outcomes that we're looking for, instead of tweaking it we just create another one to be able to respond to that little thing and then we RFP it and we give it to somebody else, but we need this other contract in place. And so, to me I don't think that's efficient government. And SEPTA being in the situation that we're in now where we're trying to save every dollar we have so that we're using it in a way that's efficient and effective and that it has an impact on not just the system but on the city and the riders and the employees, how is this SCOPE program going to be different, right? Why should we as a legislative body or as City of Philadelphia, why should we say SEPTA is really responding to what the city needs, we're responding to what Kensington needs in order for us to say, yes, we're going to park our car, we're going to take public transportation? And I'm sorry, Councilmember. I know I recognized you.

So I'll probably tweak a few feathers with this and I may ramble on, so pull me back on track if I do. I am not against diversion at all. Okay. But inherently, diversion comes with -- well, you can kind of swap out words and one of the words you can swap out is comfort. Okay. And Councilmember Ahmad talked about this. I am a big believer in changing the environment in SEPTA, that you can't expect to act like you do out in the street corner on SEPTA and think that we're not going to respond the same way. That's our model. We built our model that way to be able to respond differently, and that doesn't necessarily help your constituents, right. Because like I said, we aren't just enforcing laws, et cetera. We're enforcing non-criminal issues. That's most of what we enforce all day long. And I recited the number 150,000 last year times that we -- more than 80% of that was non-crimes, non-legal things but they're safety violations and they're things that put our customers in jeopardy and we don't tolerate it. And so, we move people out of the system and we ban them from coming back in. And if you come back in and you're banned, we will lock you up for a misdemeanor. And I believe in putting those things in place where you're getting treated differently on SEPTA. And so, one of the things that we're looking for with our SCOPE team is that you're not left there, right, like when we're engaging you, we have to incentivize you accepting treatment somewhere or you're not going to accept treatment. If not accepting treatment is comfortable and you remain comfortable because you're fed all day and you really don't have to finish out your treatment because the misdemeanor crime that they grabbed you for that went away for you accepting treatment doesn't get attached back on if you don't finish treatment, like all of those things have to change because they keep people comfortable. And people are not going to accept change if you're comfortable. And so, our whole model is built on discomfort if you're not obeying the rules. And so, what we ask -- in fact, I've had folks pull out of a bid for contracting on these services for us because part of our requirement is you get rid of them. If you don't want services of any kind, if you're not interested in services, you're off the system. You got to go. And there's civilian-run contractors that don't feel comfortable with that. And so, we don't use them. I believe in doing things differently there and having a slightly bigger hammer than everyone else, because eventually people are going to get, you know. Part of the problem why we will never be at zero -- people feel comfortable using on SEPTA because it's safer. They're less likely to get robbed. They're more likely to be revived by somebody with Narcan if they happen to overdose on SEPTA as opposed to an alleyway, right. Somebody's going to come along and notify us and we're going to revive you. And so, we have to deal with that. And so, we have to do things slightly differently. If these things aren't being prosecuted the right way, then we got to look at that. If we're keeping people comfortable not accepting treatment, we got to figure out a path forward to make them accept treatment. And for us, it's pushing folks out that don't want any involvement with treatment or help or anything.

And I appreciate you as a transit system finally saying that, right. Because I think for a long time this committee, the administration, the police department, community residents, everybody has been saying we have to stop making people comfortable. No, we're not saying we can't continue to connect people with resources. We're saying you cannot be comfortable and what you're experiencing cannot impact the vast majority of the community. And while we want to be compassionate and empathetic, we recognize that you need resources, but your behavior cannot impact an entire transit system, an entire community, an entire neighborhood, an entire city, right. And so, I appreciate you saying that. I am just curious about how do we take that beyond words and really make it action, right. How do we convert that into action and is your leadership on the same page as it relates to doing things differently and holding people accountable, right. I asked in one of our budget hearings how many people on the Board were -- on the SEPTA Board were transportation engineers, like people that really understand the transit system, that really understand the transit system in the city of Philadelphia and what we're experiencing, right. I didn't get an answer to that and I'm still curious. I still want to know that because I think that your Board, your leadership understanding the transit system, understanding the city of Philadelphia and the crisis that we're experiencing in communities like Kensington are extremely important in order for us to get to that making people feel uncomfortable and changing the impact and the ways that we are operating and managing programs like the ones that you mentioned here, right. And so, does your leadership feel that way?

So I can tell you unequivocally everything that I have posed to our leadership has been received and they've acquiesced to and with no pushback whatsoever. The thing that excites me is that Chairman Ken Lawrence now has been on board with doing everything that we can do to clean up the system, to make it more appealing, to do everything that we have to do to the system, so much so -- and maybe you don't know this, maybe you'll welcome this information, but he's now establishing monthly ride-alongs out into the field for all the members of the Board to do this, to see what exactly what it looks like out in the field, ask questions, have leadership go along with them so that we can face the tough questions on what they're seeing out there. He's pushing hard for this. He was the champion for me to increase staffing.

How often does your leadership take your transit system? How often do they get on the train? And we have a resident that comes here every Thursday and is like who rode SEPTA today or who rode SEPTA this week, right. I get it. I get what he is saying. I get the importance of that too. I can tell you I rode SEPTA a few months ago and I was not comfortable riding SEPTA. And I said it, right. So if I am not comfortable and I'm an elected, if I'm not comfortable riding SEPTA it's a problem, right. How often is your leadership riding SEPTA? How often do you get on the train and experience what people are experiencing as they come and go? I know I'm a visual learner. I need to get on it. I need to touch it. I need to feel what people are feeling in spaces so that then I can better respond to it. So is your leadership riding SEPTA often enough and without all the fanfare, all the cameras and all of the folks around them to provide the protections that they may feel they need, are they doing that so that they get the full experience?

So I can't speak for every member of the board because I don't know their schedule. I know that Chairman Lawrence is in every week and he takes SEPTA in every single week. I know that our interim GM Scott Sauer, much to my dismay, right, because I want to make sure that he's squared away when he goes out in the field, he goes out all the time without notifying us. He's out every day and I'm out every week depending on my schedule, out in the field every week, making sure that I know what our team is doing. And so to that end, I can assure you that's being done. I can't speak for every member of the Board.

Thank you. Chair recognizes Councilmember Jimmy Harrity.

Thank you everybody. Definitely got to give my shout-out to Wendy. She is everywhere. And I can tell you, as the Councilwoman said going back to '22 I was in those meetings when we were just getting started with Wendy taking a lot of heat and keeping her composure. And we appreciate that service. So, Chief, I was also glad to hear the fact that you're not coddling. I've said it numerous occasions. I am one of them. And one thing I know about being one of them is that we need love but it's going to be tough love. You got to be regimented. We need rules. There has to be consequences. If there's no consequences for us, trust me we're going to take advantage more than you would even know. Forget take a couple inches to take a foot, we're going to take yards, you know 6 what I'm saying. So I'm glad to 7 hear that there's going to be a 8 kind of a no tolerance if they 9 don't want service. 10 For us it's about getting them into service. We don't want criminal records because it makes it hard then to get a job when they finally do get recovery. So we're thinking like that but there has to be consequences. We do better with consequences. If you talk to people that have been there and got sober during the '80s, they'll tell you straight up the judge does not send me to jail, I am not here, I'm dead or I'm still out there. That's just the bottom line. That's how it is. The messed up thing is for so long the prisons had better programs inside than we actually did outside. But my question is how does SEPTA's crime data distinguish between offenses committed by people in crisis versus more organized or repeat criminal activities? Is there a literal database for this kind of stuff? We know you're dealing with a lot of the, you know, things that come with addiction. What about actual the actual crime, shooting, stuff like that, is there a database? Can we see realtime what's going on?

So we try and track crimes being committed by what we call members of the vulnerable community, right, not hardened criminals, just folks that are out on the streets maybe experiencing addiction, maybe experiencing mental health. I don't have the hard numbers. We can certainly do some research and get you numbers on that. I can tell you unequivocally that that group is engaged in far less serious crime on SEPTA. We have folks using SEPTA to transverse through the city. What we see more than anything is a lot of folks engaging in retail theft all over the city and outside the city but using SEPTA to get to and from. That's probably the biggest subset of crime category that we're seeing with our vulnerable population. Outside of that, they're generally not -- there's no pattern crime that we can determine. There's very few pattern crimes that we have, but the bulk of that pattern crime is usually juvenilerelated. And so, there's nothing that kind of jumps out at me that folks that are living on the street are engaged in pattern-wise other than potentially retail theft that don't really impact SEPTA, per se, but they're using SEPTA to move around.

Yeah. Listen, you guys aren't -- you're law enforcement. You're supposed to enforce the law and make people feel safe. It's not your job to be a therapist. It's not your job to be a social worker. I get that. We know that the SCOPE program had some significant challenges but also had some good stuff that happened out of it. What are we doing in the revamping of this to make sure -- like you said, we know some of these people are not doing what they're supposed to be doing. The fact of the matter is we see coming from -- I live literally a block from SEPTA, the Allegheny stop on G Street, and I've said to my colleague on numerous occasions going by in the morning at different times at first I thought maybe it was just a morning meeting. You know, of these people just coordinating saying, okay, I'm going to be over here, you're over there, yada, yada, yada, but I kept seeing it happening at different times so I know it's not that. This is just them sitting around talking to each other while I'm watching and looking at 30 people sitting a little bit further up from SEPTA. So how do we go about getting the people in there that are actually going to do the work and weed out these people that didn't work because I know there were two groups doing it? One was Merakey. The other was a group out of the Northeast, I believe. And from what I understood, there was a problem with the people out of the Northeast. And so, that's why we're revamping this program. I would like to see -- as you said, we do have people here that can do this work. You have Self-Help. You have One Day At A Time. There are people that are very good this. I spent time on the board of One Day At A Time. I know Mel very well. The people that he trains, the same with Self-Help with Coop and them, they know what they're doing. And I think that we need to get the people that have been successful with this, Self-Help and One Day At A Time, both have been around 30 years at least, you know what I'm saying. They are known in the neighborhood, they're known for getting results and they're known for also doing it right. So in other words, One Day At A Time has houses all over North Philly. Complaints there are very few and far between. And you can always distinguish what houses are theirs because they're painted blue and orange so you can't -- there's no getting around it. If somebody said it's the blue and orange, it's One Day At A Time, you know what I mean. So these are people that have been doing it. They're from Philadelphia. They have a stake in this community just like us. I'd like us to see -- maybe they're not as big as some of these other players. They're not Merakey, but maybe that's what we need. Maybe we need those people that are boots on the ground, maybe overseen by Merakey, but people that we know can do that work.

Well, I'll tell you that when this was kind of put in my lap to kind of figure out a path forward with SCOPE to make it stronger, make it better, more efficient, more accountable moving forward, so a couple of things I identified early on were, and you said one thing already, which is training. We're going to revamp our entire onboard training. And so, when we bring this group in, we're going to do a full weeklong session with them. Here's the expectation from us, here's what an engagement looks like, here's what we want you doing out in the field, here's what you can't do out in the field. We're going to give them examples on camera of do's and don'ts and things that way, so we're revamping our entire training process. They need a better tool to kind of do, to record their work out in the field. So I'm in the process of reworking that tool now to give them the availability to do it right from the field. In the former iteration, they had to wait until the end of the shift or go on a break before they kind of record this information. I don't want to take them away from the field, right, where they're doing the work. So we're rebuilding a new tool for that. The other thing is we committed to hiring internal SEPTA supervisors to run this program. Each of our contractors have their own supervisory teams out there and I work with some of them. Some of them have been fantastic. But their allegiance is to that organization and I want somebody from SEPTA keeping an eye on and minding the shop and figuring out what's going on, staying on top of our teams, looking in on cameras all day long. How are we looking here, why does it look like the way it does that you described in the morning if we're teams out there. So we're adding our own supervisors, building up the back- end staff that we can use to make sure there's better accountability.

Yeah, you kind of hit on it too. Some of these people that are out there doing it are not -- they're out there to get a payday. They're not out there to help anybody. That's why I pointed out the other groups we know, groups that are out there that are doing things and enabling people to actually stay out there. The whole idea has to be getting people into recovery. And to be honest with you, I don't see giving somebody water as a touch. That's not a touch. I gave a guy water, I do that times a day driving around 7 in my car, you know what I'm 8 saying. So thank you and thank you 9 for all you're doing. I mean, 10 trust me it's the difference that I 11 see at Allegheny alone compared to 12 when the Councilwoman first 13 started, you know what I'm saying. 14 Again, I'm always proud 15 of my District Councilperson 16 because she lets you know, you know 17 what I mean, and she also takes the 18 heat. She's not afraid to show up 19 like Wendy. Showing up is a big 20 deal, especially in a neighborhood like mine where it was neglected for so long. So I always appreciate those who show up. Thank you.

I just want to add one last thing. There was some fat in our former contract. Not only was there some fat that I clearly saw, but again going back to an inability to staff to the level that we were looking at the time, so we never saw the total amount of teams that we were paying for. So I'd scale down. I'd rather scale down the total number, use data to better position them and get better and more efficient with less people, but that may open up the door to smaller contractors who probably couldn't staff to the level we were looking for before, but now potentially we're bringing in some other players.

Yeah, I thank you for that. And I agree. I mean, the other thing is them small players they have a stake, you know what I'm saying. They want to get better. They want to get bigger, you know what I mean. So I think that we should be looking at that. And the fact that you're looking at streamlining maybe, I agree you might not need as many people if you have qualified people who are ready to do the work.

Sometimes the smaller groups have the biggest impact.

Absolutely.

Before I recognize Dr. Ahmad, can you just speak to the partnership or the relationship that you have with the Philadelphia Police Department and our prison systems? How do you all collaborate with each other? How do you communicate with each other? What do you all have in place in order to ensure that there is a safe experience on the transit system?

From my experience, the biggest way to impact that is at the local district level. So each division of the Philadelphia Police Department our team interacts with, our Patrol Division interacts with. So for me the biggest thing is making sure that certainly out in Kensington Chief Deputy Commissioner Rosario's folks know, have the contact information for me and my team out in the districts out there. They're in communication every week. We're a part of like the weekly opioid meeting every week in Kensington. All of these things we're embedded in with them and we're sharing information in realtime. We report our crime through the City of Philadelphia. We're not an independent reporting agency. So we are directly integrated into their network. And so, all the information that their cops are doing out in Kensington I have access to it, my team has access to it and vice versa. So that's important. So talking together every week, having the same information. We have access to the same information. And I'm a big, big believer in -- I don't think I've ever said no to anyone for anything. And certainly, the City, PPD has come through in a big way for me most recently and kind of adding checks on SEPTA throughout SEPTA. And so, I support them in anything that they're doing. And certainly Commissioner Rosario and I have talked, and he knows the way that I feel about that there. Is no ask that they can make for me that I'll shy away from.

Thank you. The Chair recognizes Dr. Nina Ahmad.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Just to put a point on SEPTA quality, Blue and Orange Line very different from Regional Rail. I just took it recently and I have to tell you I had a great ride into town. And if we can do it on that, we really need to be able to do it everywhere, right. And I know it's a different community and it's all kinds of socioeconomic issues, but we have to really strive to be able to have that same quality we get on Regional Rail. My question really was about 2026 and how all of this segues into being ready because what happens in just one section in Kensington spills over everywhere. So I just wondered what plans you have, how specific we are to be ready and it's coming up very soon?

So we are tied in through the city with all of their planning committees. So all the way out, infrastructure, transportation, special events, you name it SEPTA's a part of those discussions going on. We're a sitting member at the FIFA, larger FIFA committee. And so, we're engaged in all those discussions. I look at this as a partnership where every plan that the city, PPD is making, that the city's making, broad scale over the course of the city, we're implementing essentially the same security strategies on board SEPTA. So there's not anything that they're going to take as an approach that we're not going to be incorporating at SEPTA. And then we're talking to our federal partners to bring in additional protection measures for counterterrorism and other things that the federal agencies can support us with. So those discussions are ongoing as well.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

Thank you. Are there any additional questions for this panel from members of the committee? (No response.)

Before I close out, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for the work that you all are doing. I am interested in hearing in the future about the folks that you guys are going to hire to specifically oversee the SCOPE program, the way that you all shift to better collection of data or more consistent collection of data in a way that everyone understands it and that it's meaningful and impactful. And I'm also looking forward to hearing about ways that we are doing things differently in the SCOPE program but more excited about sharing this information with residents, right, and encouraging them to use it more often. I would also like for SEPTA to be or to consider being more intentional in the future. In the Kensington Harrowgate community, there are multiple community groups that meet on a monthly basis. And so, it doesn't always have to be the same SEPTA representative, but having someone from SEPTA in those community meetings on a consistent basis I think would have a huge impact on the community and would show them that you're hearing them, that you see them, that you're respecting, that there's value, that they are valuable to you as individuals, as a community, as a neighborhood but also as riders. And so, I encourage you to try to send a representative of SEPTA to every monthly meeting in the Kensington Harrowgate community so that you hear from neighbors directly what their experiences are. Are there any further panels to speak on this resolution? I want to recognize that the Philadelphia Police Department is here. I don't know if you all want to share any comments or if you're just here to support SEPTA. If you are here and you want to share any comments as it relates to your partnership with SEPTA, you're welcome to come to the table. (No response.)

Thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you. Hearing none, will the Clerk please call the next witness -- Mr. Clerk, are there further panels to speak regarding this resolution?

There are no 13 other panels. But I'd like to recognize Wendy. I think she wants to speak.

Councilmember, thank you so much for this opportunity. I just wanted you to know we heard you about the question about the board composition and we will be sure to get your response in writing to that.

Thank you so much.

You're welcome.

Thank you. Appreciate that. Anyone else?

There are no 8 further panels, Madam Chair.

Hearing none, will the Clerk please call the first witness -- (inaudible).

No one signed up for public comment as well, Madam Chair.

There being no further witnesses to testify on Resolution 240720, will the Clerk please read the title of the next resolution on the agenda.

Yes, Madam Chair. Resolution No. 250164, authorizing the Special Committee on Kensington to hold hearings on the implementation of Art Therapy Programming as a low-barrier intervention method in addressing substance abuse disorder and serious mental illness during and after incarceration.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Before I begin, I would like to recognize the sponsor of the resolution for opening remarks Councilmember Jim Harrity.

Thank you, colleagues. Thank you everyone who's here to testify for me. This is just like it was said in the bill. It's about mental health. It's about making people well. If we're really going to say that we're trying to rehabilitate people while they're in prison, we need to give them the avenues in order to do that. Talking to somebody is good, but it doesn't work for everybody. Art therapy is a way that people can get their feelings out without hurting someone else. It's about having an outlet for me and it's about giving these people an outlet so that they could start to heal. Because the bottom line is this is all trauma. Anybody who knows and heard me talk about it before when it comes to drug abuse, the prison system, it all starts with trauma. Trauma when you were a child, trauma when you were a young adult, trauma, trauma, trauma. So this is a way that I feel that I and this committee can help and this Council can help to heal people even if they are incarcerated. Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Harrity. This resolution to me is important because we recognize that there is no one-size-fits-all to recovery. I'd like to thank Councilmember Harrity for his continued leadership and for bringing this important topic to the table today. He brings a unique experience to this. He brings lived experience to this. And so, we just finished listening to a resolution where we talked a lot about doing things differently and bringing different options and opening up different options for people to be able to begin their journey or continue their journey of recovery. And so, this is one of those actions. And so, I appreciate your leadership. I appreciate your willingness to always talk about your story, to help us understand your lived experience and figure out ways where we're connecting people with the much needed services in order for them to begin their journey and heal. And so, I appreciate you and I look forward to the conversation and the ideas that we're going to hear about today. Are there any other members of this committee that would like to make opening remarks? (No response.)

There being none, will the Clerk please call the first panel to testify this afternoon on Resolution No. 250164.

Yes, Madam Chair. We have Jane Golden, Executive Director for Mural Arts supported by Nadia Malik, Director of the Porch Light Department, Mural Arts Philadelphia; Sandy Scheller, Director and President of the Scheller Family Foundation; Mat Tomezsko, Color Me Back Program Manager; Caridad Enzi Hernandez, Color Me Back Assistant Artist; Danilo Carbonell, Color Me Back Assistant Artist; and Becky Shank, Color Me Bad -- Back Assistant Artist. (Witnesses approached witness table.)

Good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for being with us this afternoon. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon. We feel very honored to be here so thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. And as members of the Kensington Caucus, I know how hard you work. It's tireless so our gratitude is huge. So my name is Jane Golden and I am the Executive Director of our city's Mural Arts Program, yay. And I want to thank you for this opportunity to talk to you today about two of our signature programs, the Porch Light Program and Restorative Justice. These programs exemplify how art can address trauma, support healing and make a lasting impact on the Kensington community. I'm joined today not only by our incredible Mural Arts staff as well as by Sandy Scheller, whose foundation has generously supported our work in Kensington. You will hear from a number of individuals who have participated in our programs and bring powerful firsthand perspectives. Creative expression supports healing. That is the bottom line, especially in communities navigating chronic stress, trauma or disinvestment. Research shows that engaging in the arts can reduce anxiety, depression, strengthen connection and help people build confidence and hope. Visual art in particular creates openings when language is not accessible or isn't enough. Programs like our Porch Light Program and Restorative Justice are designed to be welcoming and accessible. They don't require art experience, just a willingness to engage. These programs meet urgent needs like economic stability and emotional safety while also supporting behavioral health, reducing stress, easing isolation and helping people build emotional regulation, self- worth and connection. Many of our participants leave with pride in what they've created and a stronger sense of who they are and what is possible. The Porch Light Program, our partnership with the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services, addresses trauma at the individual and community level through art-focused workshops and mural-making, particularly for those who may not engage with other therapeutic approaches. Porch Light storefronts in Kensington, the Northeast and Southeast Foster Community Connection and Strengthen Bonds, Color Me Back, which you'll hear about today, which is so fantastic offers people experiencing economic insecurity, the chance to earn wages by making art and learning a variety of skills and also having access to social services and CareerLink. The Restorative Justice program at Mural Arts, which we date back to 2002, engages people navigating incarceration, re-entry and the broader impacts of the justice system using art education and hands-on assistance on large- scale mural projects. The program offers workforce readiness training and fosters healing by building strong connections among justice- impacted individuals and the communities they belong to. Restorative Justice focuses on self-development and workforce participation through its SCI Phoenix program, its Reimagining Re-entry Fellowship program, our Keep the Guild, which is our foundational Re-entry program, and the Rec Crew which is our advanced Re-entry Program. Restorative Justice has proven to have a significant impact on improving recidivism rate. Since its beginning in 2009, our Re-entry program has a recidivism rate of 6% compared to 55% for Pennsylvania, 6%. Today I'm excited for you to hear directly from the people at the heart of these programs, the ones who are making this work possible every single day. I want to especially recognize Nadia Malik, the Director of our Porch Light Program, yay, and Damon McWhite, the Director of Restorative Justice. Like all of Mural Arts projects, their work not only enhances the beauty of the city but helps individuals discover their own inner beauty. Thank you. Now, we'd like to turn it over to Nadia Malik.

Thank you, Jane. Members of the Kensington Caucus, thank you for having us here. As Jane mentioned, my name is Nadia Malik. I'm the Director of the Porch Light Department at Mural Arts. Porch Light is an 18-year partnership, as Jane mentioned, with the Department of Behavioral Health and Intellectual Disability Services and our goal is to provide a pathway to mental and behavioral health services through art-making. In our history, the Porch Light team has had the chance to provide programs and projects that work with the most vulnerable residents of Philadelphia. Our work focuses on trauma and we continually hear directly from residents about what these art-making opportunities have done for them. We work with thousands of people every year all throughout the city. In our history, we've created 90 public art projects, 80 of those murals but other 4 amazing public art projects that 5 we've done in 18 years. And we 6 also have a very long history. As 7 you're aware, in the Kensington 8 neighborhood we've been embedded in 9 Kensington for eight years now. 10 It's part of the work that we're probably the most proud of. We love being in the neighborhood and we love that the neighborhood has welcomed us. Mat will be talking a little bit about Color me Back, our Same Day Work program, but Color Me Back is now the largest program under Porch Light. It's grown significantly over the five years that we've been running or, sorry, six years that we've been running Color Me Back. Sandy Scheller will also be speaking a little bit about the work that we've done in Color Me Back. But that program, for those who don't know about it, is we pay unhoused and economically insecure folks in cash daily to work on art-making. Our goal is to provide wraparound services to help break down the barriers to employment. Most of the folks that we work with have a background of trauma, mental health concerns or substance use concerns or a combination of all three. They all also have amazing resilience and have really overcome a lot to continue to work with us. We provide them an outlet, but they do the hard work of making things happen for themselves. You'll be hearing from three of our participants from Color Me Back, and they're going to be sharing their personal experiences in the program but also how art specifically has helped them in their personal lives. In the six years that Color Me Back has run, we have now two sites, one in Kensington, one in Suburban Station just down the street. We've worked with more than 1400 unique participants and we've made more than $660,000 in direct payments to individuals, to those 1400 folks that we work with. In Kensington alone, you can find Porch Light and Color Me Back 15 projects. You'll see some of them, 16 the easels here. Mat is one of our 17 main artists in the Kensington 18 neighborhood and the work that you 19 see up here is the creation that 20 he's done called the Garden Wall Series. He'll talk a little bit more about it. But beyond Mat's amazing projects, we have 20 beautiful projects coming up and down Kensington and are planning to do a lot more this year, so probably at least six or seven more coming up this year. In Color Me Back, we've also been able to create a pipeline for employment and we're planning to enhance that this year as well. We have the support of the amazing CEO Department at the city and we're creating -- actually I'm in the middle of creating a second step program that will let people go through a training program, similar if you know the Guild program in Restorative Justice that will then have supportive employment at the end of it. I also want to give a lot of credit to Emily Crane, who was not able to be here today unfortunately, but she's been the program manager for Color Me Back for the six years. And under her, we've just really flourished and really grown in a way that none of us were expecting six years ago.

We've also been lucky to have a partnership with the Kensington Wellness Center and Riverview Wellness, so the Restorative Justice Department just did an amazing install of Mat's Garden Well Series at the Kensington Wellness Center. And at Riverview Wellness, we're currently working on two mural projects which we're excited to spend some more time there this year and also be able to hopefully refer some of our participants over to the Riverview program. These partnerships underscore the value that art brings to solving the very real problem that residents in Kensington face. And to give you a little background on myself, I moved to Philadelphia eight years ago to go to social work school. And while I was in school, my focus was on art and mental health, and especially how art can help unlock trauma. Councilmember Harrity, as you mentioned, some people are just not ready or if they're traumatized or not able to talk about what they've gone through, you know the direct connection between trauma and substance use. And so, art for me was really an amazing way to unlock this trauma that people are facing that they can express, but didn't necessarily have to go through verbal therapy or just weren't ready to go through that. Sandy is an art therapist and she'll be talking a lot more about those specifics. But I just wanted to give you a little information, just a little background on what we see onsite. So I'm trained as a therapist, but we don't perform art therapy onsite but we do use those concepts of art therapy and we see them unfold every single day in our programs. One of the things that we see all the time is the satisfaction of starting and completing a project. As you can see from these murals, these are massive projects and being involved in that, for folks who are often made to feel like a burden on the city, they're beautifying the city. Their hands are directly involved in these projects and they get to see that start and finish. And that's an amazing sense of self- satisfaction, an amazing sense of discovery while you're going through that process. Our goal is also to create spaces that are nonjudgmental and inclusive, giving people an opportunity and incentive to learn something new and the room 5 to fail. I think failure is a big part of our work, letting people fail, but then giving them the room 8 to come back. I think that's what we provide, that, hey, you can try things out here. And that's also the thing with art is that you get to try things. You get to decide what color you're going to use, what direction you're going to go in. That kind of decision-making is huge for a lot of the people that we work with. And then when people who are able to succeed at something they didn't previously think they had the skills for, that builds self-confidence and we see that shift constantly in our participants. The empowerment that we provide I think is not a small thing. And also, art provides an outlet to let go. You come into our spaces. You don't have to worry about the things that are going on outside. You have a few hours just to let everything go. And also, art is this way to channel all of your emotions, right. All the things that you're feeling you can put it into the art-making instead of putting it into other parts of your life. We want to have a container that release, right, to give people that permission. Just Porch Light itself was built on a study conducted by the Yale School of Medicine, and we've worked on that evidence-based work for the last 18 years. But this idea of the art and art therapy and the philosophy behind that art, we continue to build on it every year, right. We have that baseline for Porch Light for years and every year we learn something new, and it's because we're just on the ground doing the work. We see what happens in our spaces. We build off of that.

8 We've also seen that 9 with the support that art-making 10 provides, the people we work with 11 tap into skills and resilience that 12 they already have and truly, truly 13 thrived. We're not trying to sell 14 people a story. We are really 15 talking about people who have come 16 from being on the street, who have 17 substance use disorder and they 18 spend time with us, sometimes years, sometimes months and we see them truly thriving in the work that they do with us. Thank you again for giving us the time to share our work with you and some of that background that we have at Porch Light and of art therapy. I'll now turn it over to Sandy Scheller, who's the Director and President of the Scheller Family Foundation, a Board- certified art therapist and a licensed professional counselor.

Thank you, Nadia. Okay. So I began by thinking about how our city is graced with over 4000 beautiful murals --

State your name for the record first.

Oh, I'm so sorry. Okay. So my name is Sandy Scheller. And like she said, I'm a Board-certified art therapist, family therapist and licensed professional counselor. I happen to have worked --

(Inaudible).

What's that?

(Inaudible).

Oh, gosh. I happen to have worked with families experiencing homelessness for over years at a Salvation 9 Army shelter, the Red Shield Family 10 Residence and other places. But I now am in the role of the family of the Scheller Family Foundation. And so, when I thought about what I wanted to say today, I thought about how mural arts has graced our city with over 4000 beautiful murals and has given our city a lot of character setting us apart. But some think of that as just the cherry on the top of a Sunday that gets shaved away when budgets are strapped and money is tight. But I'm here to tell you that what mural arts does is so much more, as already Jane and Nadia alluded to, that it actually heals many of the difficult issues our city and citizens face. And I was thinking about the dirt, the crime, the poverty, the drugs, to name a few. And in many tangible ways, they're the perfect partner for the city to address these problems. You see mural arts offers people a truly welcoming opportunity to engage without questions asked and without the typical barriers that prevent one from entering into restoring themselves. The philosophy is come as you are and we will work with you. On the back-end, we know that once you're here you won't stay that way. They do this in the way that they operate, the way they provide opportunity that people trust with understanding trauma and adversities impact and in the way they invite people back that have failed without stigma or encouraging shame. And anyone that has faced an addiction problem knows that sometimes you have to fail and come back a couple times. But more importantly, the work of making art provides a non-threatening pathway that's healing and empowering, and I think we've heard a little bit about that, the process is not only relaxing and pleasurable but helps give form to one's feelings and thoughts, often previously only acted out or not understood. It becomes a safe container and provides a safe discharge from what otherwise could be very dysregulated. And through repeated experiences with art, one can master their emotions and gain emotional regulation. And this is really important for someone suffering with a behavioral health problem unmedicated on the streets. And it's important for someone struggling with an addiction problem that's anesthetizing to not feel. Now, overwhelming experiences can be brought safely into control as the person externalizes their story in the art. The art is less threatening often. The first thing people create when they come into Color Me Back is a name tag, and that's where they begin to share their story. And many of them who keep returning to the program, and we're going to hear about some of them, start to believe in themselves and their pathway forward and this then prompts them to want to connect to services, go into treatment or become medicated so they can continue to advance in the program and beyond. Now, it's important to understand we've talked a little bit about trauma, but trauma is stored in a part of our brain that has no words, only images. And when we create art, it activates the ability to verbalize the experience and it helps people move past what's kept them stuck. They can then rehearse or experiment with different ways of being and acting, giving them the ability to positively and proactively move forward in their lives, creating and viewing art together, reducing one's sense of isolation, helping disenfranchised individuals learn to develop healthy relationships and other social skills necessary to re-enter society and the work force. And when we were waiting outside, Jane and I were talking about how much the Color Me Back program has become sort of like a safe home for a lot of our participants, a sense of community. And learning new skills and completing murals gives people an experience of mastery, pride and gross self-esteem. This then allows them to return to dreaming, planning and goal-setting.

This is the only way someone can truly move into the future, as if they begin to be able to dream again. Now, may I remind you that Color Me Back was named by the participants, and these people also are exercising agency by deciding the themes of the murals, and Nadia said the colors and a lot more. And I'm proud to share a part of a poem one participant wrote demonstrating how much this program meant to him. He said, Colored into a world where I matter, where I have a voice and a chance. Colors and lines and what's inside invited out. I earned something. I learned something. I am part of something again. Kindness an actual chance. Tough love debunked. Love made it rain. And I rejoice in thanks for this color me back to life again. Now, we have seen monumental changes when you consider people that have been on the street, some for 10 years or more, are now being stabilized in this program, developing all the relationship and soft skills needed to be successful in the onramp to work and back to being productive members of society. The trust that people develop by participating in this program makes way for them to accept the city services that previously they may have rejected, and many have gone on to other employment opportunities, either within Mural Arts or elsewhere. They've obtained housing, restored family relationships. This is deep and inner treatment also and this is deep rehabilitating work that can only be done with the nuances, and I stress nuances, and skill set that Mural Arts sets as a standard best practice for its workers. And this is why the Scheller Family Foundation first went to Jane when we wanted to address an uptake in street homelessness over five years ago. We had researched what other cities were doing to offer same-day wages to address economic instability, and we wanted to do something here in Philly but wanted to be more than picking up trash. While others said no because they were afraid to give cash for same- day work, Jane was willing to take a risk and she said, yes. The success of this program has not only proved others wrong but has gone beyond what we all initially envisioned. We so believe in this work that our foundation has continued to fund it every year since we co-developed it with Mural Arts to the tune of $350,000 a year. Now, one participant beautifully expressed the experience of being in the program when he said, What I've learned is that is when one is rising from defeat, despair and hopelessness, it is like rising from the depths of the ocean. Before returning safely to the surface, one needs to stay a while in a decompression chamber. Well, Color Me Back has been a decompression chamber for many as they find their path back into society. It has given them the time to learn to believe in themselves, to trust again in a world that has judged them and let them down, to heal, to build the skills needed to meet the demands of the working world and to savor the fruits of their labor long enough to be able to dream upon a meaningful future and take productive next steps. In conclusion, I hope I've convinced you that this is much more than painting pictures and it's much more than just giving people an opportunity to work. What's important to remember and where I started is most of the people that are now entering the onramp to work because of Mural Arts previously, although wanting and willing to work, experience too many obstacles and barriers to participate in even the most low-barrier programs offered in the city. With your support, particularly enhanced support, as time progresses I believe we will all see a tangible change in the number of truly chronically homeless. We will see a positive impact on the cleanliness of the city, a number of people connected with needed services and a reduction in incidences of violence, crime and negative street behaviors as we have already seen and experienced in many instances.

Thank you so much and I will now turn it over to Mat Tomezsko, muralist and program manager for the Color Me Back program. Thank you.

Thank you. That was beautiful. My name is Mat Tomezsko. I'm a program manager for the Color Me Back program and lead artist for the Garden Wall mural series that serves as the flagship project for the program. I've spent the last four years on the ground in Kensington making art with members of the community in our studio at Kensington and Allegheny and onsite around the neighborhood. The methods of engagement and art-making in the Color Me Back program are pivotal to the experience of the participants and to the positive outcomes in both individuals and the community. Everything is made to be as accessible as possible. No experience is required. Our philosophy is if you want to work with us, we want to work with you. But that doesn't mean it's easy or devoid of meaning. We have expectations. The projects are complex and require genuine engagement. They begin simply, but there is a lot more if you put in the effort. People may come primarily for the money, but once they are there they have access to pathways towards growth. If they choose, they can get better at the activities, challenge themselves, learn more skills, interact with others and contribute to something bigger than themselves. The incentive is built in. I have observed something important in many participants who have come through the program. The art provides a new space for them. That space is both mental and physical. There is a calming effect where people can focus and quiet their mind. This is also a safe space where they are free to express themselves and are seen and heard by the people around them. The space is removed from ordinary life and the pressing challenges of their immediate environment, stressors, both internal and external. It allows them to inhabit this new space away from the other things to rest, be calm and reflect. It offers new possibilities, new futures and choices that weren't there before. The art that we make beautifies the neighborhood, but the real work is with the people and the impact that art makes on them. It is an opportunity for self-empowerment which contributes to a stronger community. We will hear directly from a few exemplary individuals about their own experiences with the program, Angie Hernandez, Danilo Carbonell and Becky Shank. Thank you.

We're going to hear all of the testimony first and then we'll open it up for questions. Is that? okay?

Yep.

Okay. Good afternoon and thank you for being with us today. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

Hello everybody. My name is Caridad Hernandez but I go by Angie. I was born in Puerto Rico, raised in Philadelphia and I'm currently living in a transitional recovery housing in Kensington. I started as a participant in Color Me Back program in May 2024 and was recently contracted as an assistant artist to support the program and Mural project with the neighborhood organization Mother of Mercy House. In my role as an assistant artist, I work closely with all participants in a program but I work closest with the Spanish-speaking individuals. (Spanish translation). I love helping people in my community and being a positive example for others in recovery. The Color Me Back program provides an outlet and opportunity for everyone. It doesn't matter if you aren't an artist, if you only speak Spanish or if you struggle with substance abuse. Everyone is welcome and appreciated for their contribution. The artists and the staff are so supportive and helpful. They make everyone feel like they are valued and they matter. For me, the program has not only supported my recovery, it has given me a space to feel welcome and safe, a chance to express myself without judgment and the opportunity to learn and grow as an individual. I can't say enough about this program and how much the art and the relationships I've built have really helped me. Thank you.

Thank you. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

My name is Danilo Carbonell. In English you call me Daniel. I came to Color Me Back through my brother Hector. He is an assistant -- I mean, he was an artist and he was making murals in our neighborhood with the program. At first I was interested in being an artist, but then I found out I was good at other tasks, like priming, installing mural cloth and cutting wood to make panels. The place felt like home. It eased my mind and kept me out the streets and it kept me coming back to create things I would never had done before. I learned a lot of things that I never would not have known that I did before. I see some people in the neighborhood in new ways. I see some people going down the path that they should not supposed to and I want them to better themselves and give them resources and helpful towards them to get on that path. Also, I learned de-escalation. When people come up to me on the streets, I know I can use words to settle things. I know we can talk it out as men and shake hands and go our separate ways. I got lived training and I am learning all steps to make murals. I've been an assistant on several murals which is more than my brother now.

Thank you. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

My name is Becky Shank. I'm an assistant artist and a teaching artist. I work in the Art Education Department and with Color Me Back. I just want to tell you about how mural arts changed my life. I wouldn't be here today to speak to you about how great of a program it was for me because I would be dead. When I found Color Me Back, I was homeless on the streets of Kensington for a few years and I felt no sense of purpose, hope. I wanted that last shot to take my life. Word of mouth, somebody said there's an art program here in Kensington that can help, you can get paid to work. And I said, I'm always a worker. I'll do it. And I went down, my first day with Mat changed my whole life. I felt -- he didn't know me from a can of beans and he didn't have to know all the bad things that I did in my life for me to be there and paint and enjoy my company and look forward to seeing me every day to see what I could do next. It gave me the empowerment to want to do better, to feel purpose, to feel like there's people there that do care about you that you don't even have to know. They're not my family but they became my family. As time went on -- this was December 2021 that I found this program. I just wanted to do better for my life. You know, working alongside Mat it changed my whole thought process, having friends, making friends, finding new avenues. And housing, you know, I got assistance. I got my driver's license back. My whole life was turning around and I wanted to keep going and I did. I went to rehab and they had my back. And they promised when you come back, there's going to be work for you, Becky, and they were right and they did. They let me work as much as I possibly wanted to and I never said no. I kept showing up and so do they. They showed up for me too. They got me -- any help that I needed they were there. So not only did they accept me at my worst, but they hired me at my best. I've been two and a half years clean now and I love the program. And if I could inspire more people, join, join. It'll change you. It changed me. And I tell everyone I have the best job in the world, the best. I work with the greatest people. They change lives every day. And maybe they don't know what they've done for this person or that person, but I know they changed my life and I love them all for it. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you for sharing your story with us. Are there other members of the committee -- are there other members here to testify?

This is the first panel, Madam Chair, should you have any questions for them.

Okay. So before I recognize the sponsor of the bill, let me just say that I'm grateful for each one of you who has shared your stories, right. We hear all the time that everyone's journey is different. But one thing that I think was consistent in the story is that you all continue to show up, right. You said yes. And when you said yes, the service and the resource was there, right. And I appreciate that because I think that many times as a Caucus, as a Special Committee we have often said that there are resources there, there are resources available. There are resources within reach. All you need to do is say yes. No one's going to judge you. No one's going to compare you to anybody. No one's going to ask you how or why you're where you are or what your situation is because it doesn't matter, right. I want you to know that for us as a body it doesn't matter. The fact that you showed up and you said I'm here, what can I do or how can I help or how can I be involved. And then you had all of these people around you to wrap their arms around you and consistently show you that all of that past didn't matter, that what was important was that you were there. The now and the how we move forward in the future says a lot about who you are and about you holding yourselves accountable. And I think that as a committee we've said that often, right, that we just want people to hold themselves accountable so that they're able to take advantage of all of the resources because you are deserving, because you are worthy of having a healthy life. Whatever that looks like for you as a person, you're worthy of that. And so, I just want to say thank you to you. Thank you for your willingness to hold yourself accountable and for continuing to show up and for taking it one step at a time, right, one day at a time, one mural, one stroke at a time. Not every day is easy, right. Not every day is perfect, but the fact that you're there and you're allowing all of these people to wrap themselves around you and continue to hold you and move you forward, I think really should be acknowledged. And so, thank you so much and congratulations to each of you on your journey. Councilmember Jimmy Harrity.

Well, I'm proud of every single one of you just so you know that. My two sisters in recovery, I got an anniversary coming up in August, 7 years. As we say, by the grace of 8 God. I don't actually keep track 9 of my time. I did that before I 10 got a little too hung up in it. 11 I had 12 years and ended 12 up relapsing. Cost me 10 years of 13 my life because I didn't want to go 14 speak to somebody about losing my 15 child, trauma, you know. Our mistakes are not a life sentence. Strength isn't measured by how many times you get knocked down. It's measured by how many times you could actually get back up. I had more reincarnations of myself than I care to remember. People always ask me, well, how'd you go from there to here. And I always say I took that bad energy that I used to have so much of and I turned it into a good energy trying to do something back. And things I've learned over years and working my program is that this program is for life. I'll never recover. I am always recovering. I got to remind myself of that every day. But for me it's easy because I don't worry about tomorrow. Today I know I'm going to be sober. I'm good. I'm going to do what I got to do to stay where I'm at. Thank God I'm with you guys in case I don't have to make a meeting tonight, you know what I'm saying. But we can rebuild ourselves. We can revive. And that same-day pay program, I've said it before when I was on the board of One Day At A Time when I worked for Senator Street, that was life-changing for us over there, because people don't get it. It's the same thing. When you get out of prison, you get home, the first month is great, you know what I mean. If you're lucky enough to still have a significant other, they're happy to see you. The first month's great. They love you. But then month two comes and they come in from work and you're still sitting on that couch and they say, well, when are you going to get up and participate, but you got a criminal over that. Nobody wants to hire you. So for me that's what it is about. It's about giving people a chance. That's why I believe I'm here. I'm here because I know what recovery is. I know what people have to do to stay sober, which means I know what resources they also need, you know what I'm saying. So I'm proud of you all. I'm glad to see you're going back -- this is you, this stuff is you. This is going to be -- I mean, can you imagine. I know how you feel. I really do, because it's something beyond your wildest imaginations, right. You get to get up every day and have that smile. And I said to Quetcy, you guys look great, right. I could show you some pictures of me back in the day. I didn't look great. Michael remembers, you know. So I just want to thank you. And, Michelle, I said you are a superhero to me. And you and Steve really are because I've known you for I mean probably as long as I've known Jane since the late '90s. You know, through Senator Street I got to meet you and Steve and work with yous on a number of different things. And you guys put your money where your mouth is, but that's not it. You show up. When you put your money into a program, that's not it. You're there because it's got your name attached to it. And the work you do I just want to let you know and give you your props now while you're here, and before everybody that is here that we appreciate you as a city, you and Steve. Like I said, you guys are my heroes. So I thank you. The only question I really have, Michelle, can you tell us about the foundation and how you've been involved in these programs? Like I said, you're in there, you're on the ground. You're not just somebody putting up money and coming around just to grab the thing. And in your opinion, how have these programs helped participate with rehabilitation for their substance abuse?

All right. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. So when we started the foundation, we were just kind of giving a little bit of money to lots of different people. And I took a step back and said, you know what, I really want to make an impact so let's do less projects but really address what we felt were the social injustice issues. So we don't have a website. We don't really solicit. What we do is we look at an issue, like the issue that we're working on right now is to address the opioid crisis in Kensington, right, big time. And so, what we do is we research what other cities are doing, what other people are doing and we put together a team of experts and we ask them what do you think will work, where are you and we sort of partner. And all of what we donate is in the local Philadelphia area because I feel really strongly there are social injustice issues all around the world. But if you give money over to Africa, it's great but it's not about you. If you look at what's right in your front door, you have to take responsibility that you're part of it, you're part of what created it. You have to be part of the solution. That's why we stay in for the long haul. And when we lift up the most disenfranchised in our community, we're really lifting everyone up. And that's how we kind of feel about the whole thing, is to stay in it. We look for exemplary teams of people that are experts but have really the commitment. And I think you have seen Mat, Emily, Nadia, Jane, they get it. They have a real commitment and a real desire. And I would just address in all respect, Councilwoman Quetcy, there are a lot of programs, but what we found, my husband and I, when we were doing the deep dive research, why is there an uptick in homelessness, why are these people on the street, and we put money towards doing outreach is that many of the people had so much trauma or had so many negative experiences that they didn't trust and they didn't connect to the programs that were available. And what's really unique about a program like Mural Arts, a program whether it's Color Me Back or Restorative Justice, is that they accept the individual where they are and they're very nuanced. In other words, to know that it's not a one-size-fits-all, that people have a lot of struggles and until they can gain the trust of the person, until that person feels safe, they're not going to really take your offer however good and well-intended you mean it to be. It's going to be really hard to get people to sign up. And I think that that's the power and the beauty of what they do and the power and beauty of art-making also is it helps to build the trust. I'm looking over here at a mural that was done on Emerald Street. I think it's in your district. The beauty of that project was that there was a lot of distrust in the community. The community has been beaten down. They're tired. You know, they have to deal with this day-in and day-out. The children have to walk across the lines of people openly using. It's horrible, right. We sat down with the community. We listened to their voices. And so, the beauty of this project is that the community members that lived in houses but were always feeling all of this, feeling the trauma of all of this, they painted this mural with the people from the Color Me Back program that were on the street homeless and they were able to see we have more in common than we have in differences and they were able to build that relationship back and that trust back, and how are we together going to solve this problem of what's going on in Kensington. And it was a beautiful project that was very, very successful. And I hope I've answered your questions, but that's what we look for and look to do.

And that's what I was getting at. You guys work with the community. It's a partnership.

Yes.

And that's what so many other organizations lack.

Yeah. The other thing that's really important that I believe in is collecting the data to prove the evidence. There are a lot of organizations that intended to do really great work, but they never measure it. And so, you don't know is it really doing something. And I believe that that's a really important aspect. So for the first so many years, and we're probably already doing -- Color Me Back collected a lot of data, data that said how many people really connected to services or move forward, but qualitative data, the stories of people's lives, that change lives. Becky and the other two, they're just three stories amongst millions of stories now that have been collected. And we were able to tweak a couple things to improve the program from the data collected. And now out of that is growing what should be the next step for an onramp to work which is really important because there's still this sort of need for the next step so we can move people from Color Me Back to the next place, invite more people in and really start to see a big difference. So thank you.

Councilwoman Lozada is always saying show me the data. She wants to see the data, and I'm glad you have it. And please if you could share it with us so that we could share it with the city so that they know too. Jane, especially I'm beating them up for you. You got to give me data.

Yes, we would be happy to share the data with you that we have from both fortunately Color Me Back and Restorative Justice. Because we have with Restorative Justice, we've actually been collecting it for years and that's how we know about recidivism patterns, patterns of high percentage of employment, staying with employment, all of that. And we think it's so important. It's important to do the work, it's important to measure it. So we would be happy to share that with you.

Thank you. Nadia, did you want to add anything?

I was just going to mention that when people come in to Color Me Back, they opt into a survey so we don't make anyone take it. That survey is pretty encompassing where we get information on where people are coming from, what their living situation is but also asking what resources they do need and then using that information to, again like we talk about our program as a breakdown of barriers. So we use that information of you don't have a driver's license, you don't have a Social Security card, how can we help you get to that point. But as Jane mentioned, yeah, we're happy to share that information because we do what Sandy also said, we build our program off of that information. We don't want to keep running a program that's not actually effective. So we want to hear from people on what's actually helping them.

Thank you for that. I think it is extremely important for you all to be able to share with us how you measure success, right. One of the things that we mentioned earlier, one of the challenges that we have as a city and different city programs is that, first of all, we don't talk to each other, right. So we don't share information. There's no way for us to know who's receiving the services, how are they receiving them. What's a success to you, right? And how does that also turn out to be a success not just for the person that's receiving but for the community that you're bringing them out of, right, that you're giving them an opportunity to be able to move forward? And so, what does that even look like? But also, just what we can do to build on this type of program if it is successful, right? If you're showing us data that is successful, how do we build on that, right? What does it cost to be able to, you know, provide 15 people with this specific 16 opportunity? What does that 17 opportunity look like? And what 18 are those additional wraparound 19 services that came in because they 20 wanted to respond to their trauma 21 this way but once they build trust 22 in you, you also found out that 23 they needed all of these additional 24 services? And so, if you can share with us what are some of those services? Is it a Social Security card, a birth certificate? Is it they're credits away from 5 completing a degree, right, that 6 you can connect them to community 7 college and that they can finish 8 that, what does that look like? I 9 think that would be really helpful 10 to us as well.

Yes, thank you. It's an amazing question and I can definitely provide more detail from the data that we've collected. But I will say one of the things that I know the City is well aware of and is working on is housing is huge, right. I think for folks who are in recovery who are dealing with substance use disorder, being able to go to a place that's safe and being able to live somewhere is huge. Being on the street constantly and having to survive, it takes away your ability to do anything else, right, your ability to focus on anything but the survival part of things. So just more access to housing. And your question about what the success of the program looks like I think for me is the people that we're working with. I mean, it's not just the stories that we collect, but it is how many barriers have you broken down, right. What does today look like that's different from yesterday. Obviously, we have the numbers, we have the murals that we're working on, the number of people that we've paid. But it really is what's that shift in your self confidence, what's that shift in who you are as a person, what is your shift in how you're moving about in the world, especially in the Kensington neighborhood. Do you feel an ownership of this neighborhood, right, how are you contributing to it. I think that for us is the biggest success measurement. It's just that change in each individual, which I know is not an easy thing to track but we try to do our best to do that.

Thank you. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Mark Squilla.

Thank you. Thank you, Madam Chair. And I'm saying this is really a refreshing hearing. And, Michelle, I know when you were asking Jane if she would do something, the problem sometimes with Jane is she never says no, right. She says no, but the ability to find the funding and the resources to do those things. And it's always great because I've been saying this for years, Mural Arts is not just murals. It's so much more than murals. And not that murals are a bad thing, they're a great thing. We have the biggest outdoor museum in the country, in the world and they're great. But just when you see Mural Arts, you see it obviously has an opportunity to do more. And so, when you're willing to invest in it or have a private-public partnership and how we as the city can see these things or how do we grow these things but make sure we fund them in a way that keeps them going and keeps these successful programs a lot?

You want --

Yes.

Okay.

I'm not going to ask Jane because she'll get in trouble.

Yeah, thank you so much. All right. So I'll just begin by saying I've disclosed what our Foundation has committed to funding every year and that basically keeps the program alive and well as it is. And I think to date there's 30 opportunities a day, something like that. So one of the things that's my dream, my personal dream is the next pipeline, the next onramp. So these people that have been in this program for these five years to keep showing up. We say an average if somebody shows up more than seven times they're really committed to the program, right. And so, you should know it used to be a lottery line pre-COVID where you had an opportunity for one day for $50 in cash. And then during COVID, because they had to make sure everybody was safe they painted over 200 columns in the SEPTA Concourse and people had to show up for a week worth and get $200 at the end of a week. And they showed up every day. So we were building the work readiness skills just there, right. So my dream really is that these people that are successful they get to move into a more intensified apprenticeship and it could be in a variety of disciplines because they're learning other skills. They could learn scaffolding. They can learn soft electric skills. They could learn hospitality, whatever that is, and that it still is a stipend opportunity because to jump into let's say training with the union or doing some of these trainings, it's unpaid and people that need money to live, to feed themselves day-by-day aren't going to stop getting money to go two weeks to an unpaid thing, that if there could be pilots done and we'd measure it to move people into the next level, that's a pipeline for more permanent work and that also in terms of that decompression chamber allows these people to continue to work on their obstacles and their barriers to strengthen their ability to show up every day, because someone truthfully that's been really disconnected from society isn't going to be able to get up and work a 40-hour work week tomorrow. There has to be a little onramp for that. So that's my dream, is to create with the city or with whoever these other pipelines of opportunities and they could be in any neighborhood really, or all neighborhoods. The other thing is it's only 30 opportunities. And we know from our days back when there was a lottery line, there were over 100 people lining up for an opportunity. The city at one point was going to have, you know, in West Philly, in North Philly and South Philly, they were going to have different opportunities for 100 slots a day. If we could have this funded to open up more sites than just the two locations, that would be an amazing thing.

I was just going to add something.

Yeah, you can add something.

Thank you. I just want to say just so for all of you to know how precarious our budget is that if the CEO had not come up with that $750,000, we would be shutting down a site. So the Scheller's money is funding from heaven for us. It's so important. But the line item in our city budget is small, and that's how close we came to losing one of our sites. And my prayers are that that doesn't happen again, that somehow the city in their wisdom and with your concern, your care, your empathy will figure out a way to stabilize this work so moving forward we can not only continue but we can build on it as Sandy Scheller has just articulated so beautifully.

I would just add it fills the criteria for workforce, but it fills the criteria for a behavioral health right. It fills the criteria for restorative justice, for the substance abuse treatment. It fills different buckets. It's not for art. It shouldn't just get attention or funding from one thing. Like I said, this could be a real partner for you to address a multitude of the issues the city faces. But she's saying to have it be a stable line item and not have to be dependent upon whoever's in office at the time and do they understand or appreciate would be an amazing thing, because it is so much more than --

I think this hearing actually brings light to that because you're talking about these things that maybe some people don't even know Mural Arts is doing, right. And when you saw that, it's almost like a continuum of care of somebody in addiction as you continue to care for them along the way. It's the same way when somebody's on the street and they're continuing to get little pieces of positive reinforcement gradually builds up and then you have to continue that where you can't expect them to even do same-day pay and then go to, like you said, a 40-hour-a-day job, right. That takes some time. And that's why we need to look at other ways to continue that. And again, it does need resources. And of course, it's budgeting and it's always where do you put money first. But when you see the success rates of things and even the Guild program and other programs that Mural Arts does, it's so important to understand we are actually saving money in the long run because we end up spending way more money dealing with the after effects of somebody who's not well or not doing better. And so, this hearing today really brings light to us and I think it challenges us to do more and how we could do more and we appreciate the efforts that you have made and your philanthropy and what you have done to help our city become a better place. So thank you.

Thank you. And we're not even talking about the work they do around education or the work they do around the immigrant population or any of the other things, you know, in all fairness.

I think that's why the data is so important, right. No one's going to tell the story of Mural Arts better than Mural Arts or its participants, right. And so, I think it's important for us to have the information because when we're having these budget conversations, we can have the conversation about not how much it's going to cost but how much is going to save, right. I think that's really the conversation we should be having, how much is this program saving us over here, what is the impact, the real impact that this is having on individuals' lives and on us as a city and on Kensington as a neighborhood, right. We keep saying we want people to do things differently, but where we were sometimes challenged with telling the story of what is actually happening that is different that is actually working, right. And it could be because maybe they consider Mural Arts just a small piece of that. What we said earlier that sometimes the smaller programs and the smaller groups have the largest impact, right. So I think we need to do better at telling the story about how much money we're saving and the huge impact that you're having, so we're going to need your help in that so that we're not always -- like you said, we're not always having the conversation of can a Councilmember carry the bucket, the priority bucket, for Mural Arts and can this just be a standard line item because it is saving us X number of dollars and it's helping us respond to the crisis that we're having in Kensington and the citywide problem that we talk about all the time, right. So if you all share that information with us, I think it'll help us carry the bucket of water differently because we're having a different conversation. One question that I have is the therapy sessions. What are the qualifications for this therapist or is there a requirement for the therapist? Is there a requirement for the participant, right? I know for a fact that I can't draw a straight line to save my life. I could try. I can't even draw a straight line with a ruler. It's always crooked, right. And so, is there a requirement for the therapist to be able to hold these classes? Is there a requirement for the attendee, the participant? And if so, what does that look like?

So we call ourselves the lowest barrier entry program, workforce program in the city. There is no requirement for the skill. Really the only requirement, as Mat said, is you have to show up and you have to follow the rules of the space, which are pretty low barrier, just being participating in the work. I love art and therapy. I am a horrible artist. So there is no requirement for anyone to be an artist. Mat will always find a way. And I'll speak on the therapy part of things and I'll let Mat speak on the art part of things. On the therapy side of things, so because we're a nonprofit, we are not a social service agency, I am trained as a clinician. We have other people who are trained as clinicians. We don't practice art therapy on site because we're not certified to do that, right, onsite as a nonprofit and not as a social service agency. But what we do have is the backing of the Department of Behavioral Health. So as a social worker, I oversee the program. We infuse the trauma-informed principles and the art therapy principles into the program. And one example I'll give is Sandy Bloom, amazing anthropologist from Philadelphia, created the sanctuary model. And the sanctuary model is really about how nonclinical spaces can have trauma-informed ways of doing their work. And so, on our site every day we follow the sanctuary model so it comes -- the sanctuary model has sanctuary questions, and every morning we start off with a morning meeting. So both sites in Kensington and Suburban Station, they start off with four questions that are talking about your name, but then what are you feeling in this moment, what is your goal for today, who are you going to lean on for when you need support, and what is your practice for wellness. And so, those are nonclinicians who are asking those questions. But then for our staff it gives them a baseline like, hey, this person came in and said, I'm feeling really angry because something happened yesterday, so we know we have to check in with that person or we have to keep them a little separated or just, hey, we just want to make sure that they're doing okay for the rest of the day. So we use those trauma-informed principles and those therapy principles in our work, but we're not actually doing therapy onsite. But then we also have -- the Department of Behavioral Health is backing so we have peer services onsite. And so, folks with lived experiences they're onsite with us every day. So these are folks who have gone through recovery, have gone through mental health services. They work side-by-side with the participants. And so, on the mental health side we're building that framework and then referring people out for therapy. However, we are also training our staff. So social workers trained in a lot of these things but also training our staff, as Danilo mentioned, in de-escalation. We are training people in trauma- informed principles. Everyone's trained in Narcan. So training people in some mental health, first aid, doing that training. And then the artists that come onsite we always talk to them about their experience working in mental health work. They don't have to have that training, but we do talk to our artists about why they want to work specifically in our populations. So every single -- so Mat went through this process when he was doing Emerald Street. We got this amazing grant from the city to do work on Emerald Street. And so, for months talked to talk to artists about why they want to do that work and Mat was the best choice. Clearly, he stayed on after that, but it was like, hey, as an artist what experience do you have working in these populations, why do you want to work in these populations, what's your interest in mental health, and then on the art making part of it.

Yeah, you're not alone. A lot of people come in and they don't know how to -- they've never seen a tube of paint in their life. And that, to me is not a problem. I'm sure we can get something useful. And so, I take it on as that's my job to make use of it. I need to design an artwork that requires somebody to just participate in it and I'll make use of that participation. So I often think of it like a music composition. I'm composing something, and we need people to play the instruments, right. And so, it's like some of it's very simple and percussion and some of it gets very intricate. And so, there you can come in and know nothing, you can learn and get better. You can come in and be an expert and we could use your help. And so, it's just really whoever's coming in the door and figuring out how to make use of that. We try to build that all into the planning and the way the projects unfold. And you can see that I think in the result too. The Garden Wall Series, it's ostensibly about flowers but when you look at it, it's about people, you know. And so, all of the art that we make is sort of about people.

Thank you for that and thank you for explaining trauma-informed care, right, because a lot of times -- and what the principles are. Because a lot of times, especially in the Kensington community, when you talk to some of the providers or when you just talk to people in general they're like, oh, yeah, well, we found trauma- informed care principles. And some people are like, well, what does that even mean. So thank you for explaining that. Appreciate that.

I just have two things as an art therapist. You don't need to know how to draw. Drawing is really or artwork, art-making is really a way of seeing. And so, I think what they're doing is they're helping people see differently through different lens, which is maybe they're at a crisis point and they really needed a redirect. Okay. Often if you are very excelled in art-making, you can use sort of barriers to not -- really tell your story. So those that don't haven't had experience with art-making, it's really fresh and their ability to put their emotions on that canvas or their stories on that canvas is much better actually. And the art-making can be healing in itself. Remember, trauma is not stored in words. So just being able to have it there in the shapes and the colors or whatever is really healing. And I would love Mat to describe more about the work with the Garden because it's so amazingly beautiful. Each person gets their own, what, triangle or diamond or whatever. And it's really -- I mean if you could explain it, it's amazing.

Sure. So we start with space. So everybody, sort of all the compositions are broken down into triangle shapes that sort of repeat, there's repeated imagery. And there's an image and there's a list of paint that you need to do it. And there's usually a stencil where it's already drawn out or you have to trace it out. But from there, it's up to you. You need to bring it out the way that you see it. And then that is sort of put right next to somebody else and that person might have done the same image that you did but it looks totally different, and then it all sort of adds up into this culmination of all these different voices and ways of seeing and being and experiencing things, and that's what the compositions end up being. So it really does take, you know, everybody to participate in it. There's no way for one person to do it, but that's a tool for empowerment as well.

And people learn how to get along with each other, right, in the process.

Thank you.

And that's why I think the secret sauce at Mural Arts, and you'll hear this at Restorative Justice with Porch Light in art education, the art-making is really key. Doing art in itself is important. I'm an artist. Of course I see great value in that. But working on something together, collectively, collaboratively it takes a lot of analysis, critical thinking, imagination, also the ability to work and just connect with each other. But then people get to drive around the city and they see what they've done. They see the fruits of their work and that's very powerful.

Thank you for that. Before I recognize Dr. Nina Ahmad, I've heard multiple times that in order for a person on their journey to heal their family members need to be a part of the conversation, a part of the process. Has Color Me Back or your art therapy or your other programs, have they opened up those opportunities for participants to also bring their families in to share their experience as they go through their journey. And can you speak to that?

Yeah. Fortunately, as Sandy mentioned, we work in Color Me Back we work in Kensington often and we also work in several other neighborhoods. So we have programs in Southeast and Northeast Philadelphia and in Kensington itself we have our three storefronts in those spaces, and those are very much family spaces. So those are open workshops for people to come in. Especially in Southeast and Northeast, we're working with refugee and immigrant communities and a lot of that for our folks is preservation of that culture for the kids that are in those programs. So the adults bring in all these amazing talents, right. And then they preserve them for their families. But in Kensington, outside of our work in Color Me Back, we have the storefront where we offer free workshops. And I will say being at Kensington and Allegheny, we weren't sure how that was going to go. We offered free clay workshops last year when we were doing a project. Every single weekend that we offered a workshop it was family members coming in together. Parents bringing their kids to K&A and feeling comfortable in our space and coming from local churches, coming from local neighborhoods, just people heard about it. And every week I was a little bit worried. It was I think, a 14-week series and I was little worried that we would have weeks where no one showed up. It was kids coming in to play with clay with their parents every single weekend. And so, that's what we've been doing with the storefront work. In Color Me Back, because of regulations of work and paying people we can't have people necessarily who are under 18. We do have family members who come in together to Color Me Back, residents who are looking for a little extra money they'll come in together. But then our storefront work supplements that of providing again free art activities for people that they can enjoy together as family members.

Thank you. Thank you for that. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Dr. Nina Ahmad.

Thank you. Actually this answer was part of what I was going to ask. First of all, thank you all for being here and the irrepre -- irrepla -- what is the word that describes Jane, Irrepressible Jane Golden. I haven't seen you jump out of your chair yet, but I'm sorry I had to step out for something else. But on those lines of engaging community, you're working with people obviously from certain streams. We have people returning home, people with substance use disorder, another very impacted communities, young people who are not in any of these categories who are impacted. And I wondered what part of your program specifically, not just the storefronts, not just sort of happenstance you come by, but really targeting young people who are watching what is happening in their communities, who are hearing how imprisoned their families feel in certain spaces, I wonder how much unpacking and how much resources are specifically for that part of the community?

Well, we have a large art education program that serves 2500 young people and they range in age between and 18. And we work with the Department of Human Services and the Office of Children and Families so we're really reaching a lot of critical demographics and they're very intensive programs. There's a foundation program and then there's a more advanced program, and then we have an entrepreneurial program, an internship program and apprenticeship program. So as kids are getting older, we're increasing the opportunities for them and you can come in at age 11 and stay until you're 18. So we just had a big art show last week and it represented the work of probably over 400 kids. And what I noticed at the event was when we were talking like everybody was really quiet and listening and they were so engaged. And some of the kids said to me, Mural Arts is like a family. And that I think is really true, Councilperson. And I think that it's really important for us to do this work with Restorative Justice and Porch Light. It's also important for us to reach as many young people as possible with its art education, but it's like youth development/art education because it's really looking at the whole young person and thinking about how many -- like, we want to provide young people with every opportunity and option possible. And anything less than that quite frankly is just a nonstarter for us.

So you mentioned 11 and up. What about the 11 and under? The reason why, you know, our tax dollars are going to support a lot of this work and our constituents are talking about how much of the resources are going in certain sectors. And so, I would love to see the equation balanced in a way that talks about impacted communities, whether they come from a certain specific subgroup or people who are there. I want to have a really focused way of answering that question when I'm asked that, to say X number of dollars are going from this age group to this age group in this way. Just like you answered the other ones, people are getting paid to come to some of the other programs. I just want to see what are we doing holistically for that area through Mural Arts and through these programs for 11 and under.

For 11 and under, historically we haven't worked with 11 and under. We don't have enough funding and sometimes you just have to make choices. And so, the choice was middle school and high school and then we reach young adults in Restorative Justice and adults a range of age in the other programs. So what we did five years ago was we thought creatively about how can we reach the younger ones. And so, we have something called Murals on the Move, which is a van that has a million art supplies in it and a range of teaching artists who are well- trained. And we go around to every rec center and every park and that's where we reach the younger ones. And it's a way of trying to provide services without having -- because we don't have the grant money or the city dollars to really have something that's more complicated, but I'm like why should perfection be the enemy of the good, why should that stop us, why not be creative because we actually can reach young people if we do it this way. So that's what we've been doing. In the storefronts though, I do want to say we are reaching younger people.

Yeah. So our Southeast program, it's mostly working in -- it's where the Bok Building. And so, we have homework help for kids. Every week through the school year two days a week, the kids come in from the local schools in Southeast Philadelphia and come in for homework help after school but also other programs that work with us. And then Northeast Philadelphia too, we work with children in those programs. But, yeah, it is really based on the refugee populations and the immigrant populations in those spaces.

Just, Madam Chair, I would love to get a breakdown of how dollars are spent in different segments along and then a comparable sort of who is targeted in those to see -- and particularly in the 7th District, you know, Bok is kind of outside the 7th District. I would like to see what are the focused interventions for everybody and then segment that maybe by age, maybe by type of community that's in there for me to be able to say this much of the money is spent on this, this much of money is spent on this. It's very important for us to know how those dollars are being used.

We have a really good breakdown we can submit and we also have a breakdown of how much we raise private funds for every dollar the City gives us.

Thank you. I'd appreciate that. Thank you, Madam Chair.

Awesome. Thank you. I thank you so much for being with us today. We look forward to receiving the information from all of you regarding your program, regarding the impact and regarding how much money you're saving the City of Philadelphia as a result of your programming. And we look forward to continuing the conversation. Again, I want to thank Councilmember Harrity for bringing this resolution to the table and for helping us see, right, that -- and for proving that one size doesn't fit all and that if we want to continue to respond and reimagine a healthy Kensington community, if we want to see and reimagine and respond to the problem that we have citywide as it relates to trauma and substance abuse disorder, that we have to look at different options, that we can't continue to do things the way that we have done them in the past. So thank you so much for the work that you all are doing on the ground. Congratulations again to those of you who are on your journey. We wish you well. I know that our offices are always available and open to you and your families as well as to the families that come to your programming. We're here to provide assistance and support, right. For somebody like me who's a District Councilmember in the 7th Council District, I want to see a Kensington where community residents walk out their door and see all of this beautiful art around them that will not erase what is happening there now, but that it will become a part of their story, right. It will become a part of who Kensington is, right, and who Kensington has the potential to be in the future. I want young people to be able to stand in front of rooms and say I am from Kensington. I am Kensington, right, and I'm proud to be here. So I'm looking forward to working with all of you to be able to allow for our kids to do that, right, to be proud of who they are, where they come from. And again, as we prepare for 2026, people that think they're taking the train to come and see what they see online, that when they arrive in Kensington they see all of this art that helps us tell a story of hope, of resilience, right, of empathy, of compassion, of a community that is destined to succeed because I know that we are. So thank you so much for all of the work that you all are doing. We look forward to continuing the conversation. Mr. Clerk, are there any additional panels to present to us regarding this particular resolution?

Yes, Madam Chair. We have Morgan Jacco, Deputy Commissioner of Restorative and Transitional Service from the Department of Prisons. (Witness approached witness table.)

Good afternoon. Thank you for being with us this afternoon. Thank you for your patience. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER JACCO: Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Morgan Jacco. Good afternoon, Chair Lozada and members of the Special Committee on Kensington. My name is Morgan Jacco, the Deputy Commissioner of Restorative and Transitional Services for the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. And I'm speaking on behalf of Prisons Commissioner Michael Resnick. I'm here to support Resolution 250164, introduced by Councilmember Harrity, which authorizes hearings on the implementation of art therapy programming as a low barrier intervention method in addressing substance use disorder and serious mental illness during and after incarceration. PDP believes that evidence-based therapeutic interventions are vital for enhancing the well-being of individuals under our care and custody, improving institutional safety across State Road and ultimately reducing recidivism and increasing public safety. Presumably, many individuals coming into PDP have experienced high adverse childhood experiences or ACEs stemming from trauma, substance use and mental health issues. Knowing that one size does not fit all for programming purposes, PDP has various types of therapeutic interventions, including cognitive behavioral therapy, substance use treatment, activities such as dancing and poetry, work and education programs and art therapy as well. PDP recognizes that art therapy fosters growth and provides space for exploring emotions and building self-awareness and communication skills, all which are really vital for post-release success. So PDP currently contracts with Mural Arts Philadelphia and is embarking on three new mural art installations within State Road this calendar year. These projects will focus on the juvenile population and the young emerging male adults within the Philadelphia Department of Prisons. PDP also values Sankofa Healing Studios and the group art therapy they provide to the female population on State Road. Their art therapy provides a space to work through trauma and learn about addiction, boundaries, resilience and growth. These types of therapies not only align with PDP's mission of preparing individuals for re-entry but also have been found to reduce disciplinary infractions within the incarceration period, increase participants engagement with other programming, gain emotional regulation and provide the needed space for growth and change within the carceral environment. PDP recognizes the need for low barrier intervention methods for the incarcerated population and understands art therapy has been shown to be an effective intervention for those in recovery from addiction and trauma. We will continue to assess all programming and therapeutic options in order to bring a myriad of interventions and services to the population. Therapeutic interventions provide the space needed to address the root causes of criminal behavior. Providing pathways for this type of self- exploration support during the incarceration process is a win-win for all of us. Therapeutic interventions are cost-effective ways to address individuals' needs during their incarceration and ultimately aid in their rehabilitation process. So thank you. And with that, I'm happy to answer any questions the Council may have.

Thank you so much for your testimony. You mentioned different forms of therapy that you all offer. How do you all assess what form of therapy or what program a specific person should go to or do you offer it to everyone? What is the assessment that is done? And can you tell me how many inmates participate in these particular programs annually? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER JACCO: Great question. So I will say that determining programming needs is something that the RTS Division is currently reassessing how we're doing that. So we're in the middle of an evaluation. We provide an RNR assessment at intake, which we are currently going through just an overhaul. And so right now, individuals that are seeking programming they are just working directly with a social worker talking about their needs. So it's a little bit more subjective than what we're going for. We're really looking at implementing an RNR assessment, Risk-Need-Responsivity assessment that addresses chronogenic risk and needs upon entering and then providing a case plan and providing referrals to programming from there. So the way that it is currently happening is a little bit more subjective, but I will say that individuals through our different therapeutic interventions, as I've heard before today, like during the other panels is that one size doesn't fit all, right. One person might need a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit of that. So it's not one program that's going to fix someone. There's no magic pill. And so, it's looking at what's going to help each individual person, which is where that individualized case plan comes from. Currently, I would say that in our different programming options we have a little under 1000. And so, it's like in right now that are involved in programming efforts. And so, I guess with that number I'll say that we need more services. We need more assistance. We have a proposal currently with the Mural Arts to help provide more programming to the adult population. I have a meeting with Sankofa Arts trying to provide more programming. Everybody wants to work within PDP. We need more funding to provide those services.

So I asked that question because I have friends who have gotten incarcerated and never knew that they knew how to draw. Like I said earlier, right, I can't even draw a straight line. But you receive correspondence from folks inside and they have these beautiful pieces of art, right. And so, is it just a plain assessment or is it a conversation? Maybe this person this month decided that they wanted to go into the dance program and were not even never exposed to the art therapy. How is it that you guys say to this person, you know, maybe you should consider this dancing or consider art as instead of, you know -- DEPUTY COMMISSIONER JACCO: Sitting in your cell.

-- singing, yeah, right. How is it that it's offered or, you know, I thought that it was offered to everybody, like, all of the programs are offered to everybody and you sign up and this is what you do. But what I'm hearing is that there's an assessment that's done and that person is connected to the program that the therapist or that the case manager determines is the best for that person; is that correct? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER JACCO: In the future, that will be how programs are determined. Not saying that you can't be referred into a program if you're interested in it and there's space. But we're focusing on programs, you know, there's a large population that come in and out within two weeks, and then the other part of the population is there for seven months or longer, so really trying to figure out which interventions fit which population. Right now it's one-on- one work with the case manager, with a social worker, understanding who they're working with and what they have expressed interest in. For the Mural Arts project right now I went with the group that came in to talk to the juveniles about it and just said, who would be interested, who's interested in this type of project. And some right away raised their hands. Others didn't. I think it's really about the outreach, about people understanding that it's there. We definitely try to provide just blanket program options and let people know within the housing units, within the social workers' offices kind of just new programs that are offered, programs that are continuously offered. You're right, some aren't able to enroll in a program, say, if they're close custody and we have a work program outside the walls, so it really has to fit depending upon the classification and the security of the individual. With the Sankofa Healing of Arts, there's over 50 women that come into the gym and get that art therapy and get to engage in that group. So it really just depends on which institution, when and where of who's coming to the table with that.

Okay. And then you've heard us ask other panels about impact, right. How do you measure the impact that the program has in the prisons? And how have you seen the program help inmates grow emotionally and how has it built self-awareness in them? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER JACCO: I wish I could tell you that I can quantify the data at this point. I don't have it. Part of that evaluation process that RTS is going through is data tracking, performance metrics and all of that. I can say anecdotally when you are talking to someone that's been engaged in art therapy or in any of our therapeutic programs, it's that light that goes off, it's them being willing and wanting to explore more to go into different programs to understand themselves and the trauma that they've experienced in a different way. When you see someone opening up and being willing and able to grow and just kind of take off that layer, it really helps. You know, art therapy is a pathway to more growth in a different program into whether it's substance use treatment or work. I loved how someone was saying you can't necessarily go to a 40-hour work week, so it's figuring out that pathway for each individual and how it affects them. I will say I also loved what a different panel member said about daydreaming and the way that arts opens that up. Because if you can't dream about doing something different, being somebody different, being in a different situation, if there's no 6 daydreaming, if there's no 7 imagination, then I think it's just a lost cause. So these types of programs open up someone's ability to dream about something different and be something different and then they can work towards those goals.

Thank you. You mentioned the art therapy provided by Sankofa Healing Studios. Can you speak a little bit about what that program actually is and how does it address the needs of the female population at State Road? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER JACCO: Well, I will say that it changes as the group meets, right. So the great thing about Sankofa Healing of Arts is that they come to the table and prepared to, you know, they have an agenda and then they sit down and meet with the group. And if someone wants to talk about housing and those issues, they work through that together as a group all while working. I would say there's, different crafts, there's different coloring, there's different things that Jackie brings to the table for individuals to explore. But it's really more about that conversation people open up more when they're doing art. And so, it's really a pathway for them to express themselves. So it's group therapy in kind of the way of what's on everybody's minds right now today to address how people are feeling at that moment instead of, you know of course she does have a syllabus that she follows if needed. But it's really kind of meeting people where they're at that day. So it's really to talk about resilience, about growth, about goals, setting those goals for progress and really helping them explore what that looks like that day.

Okay. Before I turn it over to Councilmember Harrity, I'm just going to ask on behalf of this committee for you to be able to get back to us on the data, right. How many people are participating in your programs? What is the impact that it's having? How is it saving us money, right? We're in the middle of budget season and there are different priorities, right. We want to be able to tell the story about why your program or these programs in our prison system are so important and how are they helping to prepare individuals for coming beyond the walls and coming back into society. So I think that is important for us to receive those numbers so that it helps us continue to tell the story in a different way. I think that we need to change how we think about things. We can't continue to look at programs through the lens of what is it costing us. Instead we need to start looking at it back through the lens of what is it saving us, how much is it saving us, how are we pouring into people and what are we receiving back from them. And as it relates to the prison systems, what are we receiving from them when they come out and re-enter into society? How are these programs helping to positively impact them when they come out? Do you all connect some of the inmates that are in these programs, in these art programs to programs like Mural Arts when they're returning? Is there a partnership? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER JACCO: I would say yes. I mean, I've just met with Jane Golden recently to discuss, you know, kind of when we were talking about the proposal that's in front of me right now it's how is that referral process going from inside to outside, is that possible. And she said, yes, that is happening right now in different ways. I think formalizing that more and working with our partners in our coordination process is just going to strengthen it even more.

Yeah, I think that's important because I think that the last time the Commissioner was here we talked about what are those wraparound services that individuals need beyond being incarcerated, right. And if something like an art therapy program is successful, right, if it's helping them communicate, if it's helping them be able to express themselves and what they're feeling while they're on the inside knowing that there's a program like Mural Arts on the outside and connecting them, intentionally connecting them is extremely important, especially if they can make that $200, right, when they come out. We know there is no 19 secret that when they come out there's challenges, right. And so, connecting them with something that they experienced on the inside positively to the outside I think would benefit all of us and it should be a part of the story of the impact that we're making and why these programs are important. Jane.

Oh, yes. You'll hear from our wonderful Restorative Justice team in a minute, but I wanted to say we've had a longstanding relationship with the county jail that started probably when John Street was mayor. And then right around COVID, our contract got cut which we understood. It was a fiscal crisis. But then when Commissioner Resnick was appointed by the Mayor, because I knew him when he worked for Leon King, I reached out to him. And he was like, I expected you to reach out to me. And then he opened the door and said we should be working together. And as the Deputy Commissioner said, so we're thinking -- so one is a pathway -- already people are coming, and Damon will speak about this, the pathway from the county to Mural Arts. And, two, is to really have what we used to have is an abundance of art programs there so people could start on the inside and come out to us. It's a great pathway. It was very successful for years. And so, we're very excited about rebuilding this.

Yeah, definitely. I think it's important to talk about what it's saving us, how it's saving us and what the impact that it has and how it transitions from the inside to the out. So thank you so much for that. I look forward to receiving that information in the future. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Jim Harrity.

Thank you, Chairwoman. Thank you for your service. Appreciate you. Very happy to hear that you guys are supportive of this. And I can honestly say when we reached out to the Commissioner he was absolutely for it, art therapy, giving people a chance to heal. If we're actually saying about rehabilitating people, this is part of it. And like you said, we need to use different things for different people. Not everything works. It's not one-size-fits-all, as you said. So I'm happy that the system is kind of looking at it and looking at what they can do to actually help in the healing process. You know, all this is about trauma for sure. Can you just tell us how you feel that it would enhance the other therapeutic options if we had or were able to have more of this if it goes the way we're hoping it will? How do you see it being one of the tools? DEPUTY COMMISSIONER JACCO: Sure. I mean, I see it as complementary to the other therapeutic options that are within PDP, supplemental to what we're doing in terms of, you know, I think we've heard previously from the panels and from what I testified to, the ability of the arts to kind of -- I don't want to say break someone down to build them back up, but to shed what it is be able to look internally to grow, to be able to look ahead and to kind of work through some of those traumas. And so, you can't run, you know, a marathon without trying for a half marathon. This is a weird analogy. I don't know where I'm going with it. But, you know, it's taking one step at a time and art therapy helps open that up so people can go into other options, other treatment, other therapeutic -- whether it's working, which I definitely see as a therapeutic intervention, whether it's substance use, mental health. Just opening up and talking to someone about it, art therapy helps individuals process their feelings, their emotions, kind of gauge where they're at and really open up in a way that other therapy modules might not do that. And so, it's a really great -- I don't want to say prerequisite, but just a way to plant a seed for someone else to start first for them to start growing.

Yeah. You know, hurt people hurt people, but hurt people that are trying to help themselves are less likely to hurt people because they're too busy working on themselves. I'm a firm believer that it takes all kinds of different things. I mean, I tried all kinds of stuff before I got my act together. And for everybody it's different. You know, I get that. I just am glad to see that the prison system is not only aware but for art therapy and bringing it back and getting it more involved into our prison system. You know, like I said, any way that we can give people to get this trauma out and I think that what you're saying, you know, what I heard you say was that the art is just one part of it. It's actually what they do before they get started and talking to each other and going through things as a group together thinking stuff out and coming up with solutions together, you know, besides just doing the art. The art is just one part of it. So thank you. Thank you again. Thank you, Madam Chair,

Thank you. Are there additional questions for this panel? (No response.)

Thank you for being with us today. DEPUTY COMMISSIONER JACCO: Thank you.

Will the Clerk please call the names of the next panel we have to testify.

Yes, Madam Chair. Damon McWhite, Director of Mural Arts, Restorative Justice; Louis Suave Gonzalez, (inaudible) Re-entry Program Coordinator; Priscilla Ruby Rodriguez, Rec Crew Coordinator; Tyjamir Ford, Rec Crew Leader; Keisha Vankirk, Rec Crew Leader; and December Collins, Rec Crew Leader. ) MR. McWHITE: Good afternoon. My name is Damon McWhite. I am the Director of the Restorative Justice Department at Mural Arts. Before I lead into my testimony, I did just want to follow up on the Porch Light conversation. I began my time with Mural Arts, working with both the Restorative Justice Department, spending time down at Porch Light or Color Me Back at the Suburban Station space. And one of the things that I pulled from that work was some things we now practice in the department of Restorative Justice, because you could see the impact of those morning check-ins, right, where people were coming from all parts of the city. You're dealing with individuals that may have not slept in a bed or even a couch or space last night, coming in and talking about some of the things that they look at as wellness or what they felt was positive or what they were looking forward to that day. And you as a person who was being paid to be there, struggling to get there in the morning trying to deal with your own things and you hear those stories, it definitely leaves an impact on you. So I do applaud the work that happens at Porch Light. It has heavily impacted our department, some of the things that we've brought in. And I'll jump into the testimony from there. So my passion for creating opportunity extends to those who have been affected by the justice system and the trauma that crime and violence is placed on our neighborhoods. I received my first letter from prison at the age of 9. My uncle, who battled drug addiction, sent me a letter advising me to continue to focus on school, sports and avoid the mistakes he felt that resulted him in being incarcerated. More letters followed with the occasional phone call, interrupted by a voice reminding us that this was a collect call from Trenton state prison. Unfortunately, this is an experience that too many of us can relate to. Many of our participants have been on both sides of those phone calls and letters. Our program began in 2002 when Jane Golden visited SCI Graterford to meet with a group of men who were artists and wanted to create a mural inside the facility with the support of Mural Arts. Today we operate three core areas of programming, the Guild, a 12-week life readiness program focused on three outcomes; job placement, education or programming opportunities or placement in our Rec Crew. The Rec Crew is a 24-week workforce development program with career pathways that include operations, creative sector in the economy, creative sector and creative economy, community engagement and working with Parks and Recreation. Finally, our SCI Phoenix Prison program provides art instruction and mural production opportunities to a group of participants currently serving life sentences at SCI Phoenix. The core tenet in our work is that art is transformational. We understand that art is a thread that connects the areas of mental health, economic mobility and the community empowerment and can help transform an individual to finding a productive pathway for future success. Art has an ability to connect an individual to a skill, a community and, most importantly, a purpose. From July 2023 to the end of 2024, we served 131 participants, completed over 30 rec center projects and sold over $20,000 worth of artwork created by artists at SCI Phoenix. 1 million in wages and profits to participants in all areas of our programming by combining wages with dedicated programming aligned with mental and physical wellness, skill development and community building. They experienced a 6% recidivism rate amongst participants during this time period.

85% of participants in the Guild program were able to find employment, be connected to additional programming or hired into our Rec Crew program. We've been able to successfully connect Rec Crew participants to job opportunities with the Streets Department, Sanitation as well as Parks and Recreation. Our communities benefit from the murals that we've produced that uplift and celebrate the stories that make this city special. Our neighborhoods desperately, desperately need positive, productive and inspired citizens to ignite change. Our program is preparing individuals to fill that void. A few weeks ago my uncle called me to wish me a happy birthday. This time there was no 8 voice to remind us that the call was being monitored. After a second stint at Trenton State, he's been drug-free for over years. 12 He pointed out how important 13 programs like Mural Arts can be in 14 helping those impacted by the 15 justice system and how the right 16 program can change a life as it did 17 his own. This is exactly what our 18 department is doing every day, 19 changing lives. Thank you. 20

21 Thank you. Please state your name 22 for the record and begin with 23 your -- 24

Hi. My name is Ruby Rodriguez. How you doing? I'm kind of nervous. I'm the Coordinator of the Rec Crew, the advanced program of our department. Our mission is simple but transformative. We support returning citizens, individuals re-entering society after incarceration as well as those impacted by the justice system directly or indirectly, by giving them meaningful opportunities to contribute to the communities they call home. Through the art of mural-making, we're doing more than beautify city walls. We're telling stories of resilience, redemption and hope. These murals are created by the hands of people who know struggle, who understand the importance of second chances and who are eager to give back in a visible, lasting way. This program is about healing communities that have been impacted by incarceration and helping returning citizens rebuild their lives with dignity and purpose. Every brushstroke is a statement that says we are here, we matter, we are part of the city. We partner with local artists, community groups and city leaders to ensure that every mural reflects the voices of the neighborhoods they live in. Together we are creating more than art. We're building pathways to employment, fostering unity and redefining what it means to return home. Since I started in Mural Arts as a Guild member and the Restorative Justice department in November of 2021, I have found a new sense of life and career choices that I can honestly say I'm proud of. Art has actually been a part of my life since my dad. He used to tag his moniker all around the city in the early '70s. When I was pregnant with my first son, I became intrigued in art and started tracing and drawing cartoons and doing my name in different graffiti styles all over my notebooks. Fast-forward to the last few years, my second oldest son (inaudible) loves to freehand- draw anime cartoons all over his notebooks and papers. He is the reason behind me joining Mural Arts in the Guild program because I wanted to see why he was so dedicated to art in these drawings that he will get lost and express himself in them. And I found the answer. It was therapeutic, serenity and tranquility. It was an expression that only you can understand and show the world your talent. When I started painting and drawing, I lost myself in it and it felt good and a different adrenaline from my normal life, especially when you've been through so much and you use that as your coping mechanism to handle life in a therapeutic way. Mural Arts have opened my eyes in more artistic ways to express myself in different ways I never imagined. I became a Rec Crew leader in 2022, putting me in charge of a group of adults with the same vision and the same struggles as me. Fast-forward to now I'm the coordinator. Not only do I manage a crew of 30-plus to beautify rec centers, city walls and assisted murals but I get to help them live out their dreams in becoming an artist. I help them conquer their fear every day as well as get them in other career choices like working for the city or other departments within Mural Arts like Art Ed. One of my crew leaders that's here can tell you more of she has achieved and learned. She's December Collins. She has assisted in murals with Serena Saunders, Carlos Rosa and (inaudible) as well as also with the Art Ed. department. December has taken the role of a versatile artist as well as a jack of all trades. She has taken more than she can handle at times but that makes her who she is. I also have Tyjamir Ford, a leader not only in my crew but in his community. He has created a path to a podcast called Street Therapy. He speaks to the youth that's facing everyday struggles and advises them, counsels them and leads them in the right direction. He has also four participants that were in need of change of (inaudible) and they have been working for the Rec Crew keeping them out of trouble. Another one that's not here right now, which is also Keisha Vankirk, another crew leader.

Since she started in 2024 she has shown me nothing but leadership, resilience and that she's not afraid to handle the toughest job, like the one she is now working on at Belfield Rec Center and dealing with the constant changes that's being brought upon her. I have other persons that have gotten full-time jobs in the city, like the Sanitation Department and the Parks & Rec. Others have chosen other programs like culinary and engineering that they have graduated from like OIC, Uplift and (inaudible). When we go into communities to beautify, we bond with the people that live there and they appreciate us for doing the job. They will sit there and talk, even help with the work because they know it will bring an impact to the community, something they can't be proud of. Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for your testimony. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony. State your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

My name is Louis Gonzalez and I'm a proud participant of the Mural Arts. I started with Mural Arts in 2003. I was one of the guys that wrote Jane a letter when I was incarcerated at SCI Graterford for serving the life sentence. And I asked her to come in and she came in and we told her we want to give back to our community. And she kept coming in and we was able to create what they call the Healing Walls. And from there, Jane began teaching us. She began teaching us the art of engaging the community for healing, using art so we was able to create the Healing Walls. And from that day, I knew that my life would change. I was incarcerated as a juvenile and I went to prison with an IQ of 56. I didn't know what a proposal was. I did not know what writing a grant was. I learned that through the Mural Arts and nobody gave us a chance. Everybody thought, oh, these are lifers. This guy is going to die in prison. Fast-forward to 2017, I come home, I used the same skills that the Mural Arts gave me to create my podcast, which won a Pulitzer Prize. Now, think about that. The skills that I learned in an art project led me to the steps of Columbia University to the pinnacle of journalism. The first formerly incarcerated person to win a Pulitzer Prize, the first formerly incarcerated person to have a piece of artwork done inside a prison inducted into the Smithsonian Museum. I learned that through the Mural Arts. This is why these programs are important in the prison system. The education that I got through the Mural Arts saved my life, which today I am a success coach at Community College for the IMO program, where I give formerly incarcerated and justice-impacted individuals the opportunity to come to college. I have 130 students, and my involvement is I coordinate with the Mural Arts in the Restorative Justice program. For the participants that want to go to college, they come to us, we get them in college. No questions asked. We don't judge because we believe that everybody deserves a second chance. We are the faces of second chance. A lot of people don't hear about this because it's not publicized. But if you think about it, a person that learned how to read a proposal that Jane gave us how to do community engagement is today a Pulitzer Prize winner. That is quite amazing. That is something to take notice. Because if it wasn't for her, I would never ever learn how to write a proposal. I would never learn how to write grants which keeps my program going today. So I'm here to tell you that these type of programs work and we are living proof of that work. I work with the Mural Arts today. I do Restorative Justice. Every month we put up events where we bring juveniles and young people together so they could display their creativity. And not one incident, you know, and I always tell people a lot of times young people get a bad rap in the city because of the stuff that's going on. Not these participants. These participants are coming, they're learning. They are displaying their creativity. Two weeks ago we just put on a fashion show with different designers all justice- impacted. It was amazing. So I tell people let's give people a chance. Let's create programs like the Mural Arts Restorative Justice because they work. Again, I was a juvenile lifer serving life in a maximum security prison. I served 31 years, 85 days and hours. When 6 I came home, the first person that 7 reached out to me and told me if 8 you need help with anything was the 9 Mural Arts project. 10

11 Thank you. Thank you for sharing 12 your story. 13 Please state your name 14 for the record and begin with your 15 testimony. You're going to be all 16 right. You can do it. 17

Hi. My 18 name is December Blessing Collins. 19 I'm an artist and I'm a Team Leader 20 at the Rec Crew. I've been with 21 Mural Arts since 2022. I started 22 with the Women's Re-entry Program 23 and then I graduated into the Rec 24 Crew. Growing up in this life has -- I mean, excuse me, growing up in this life comes with struggle in time. However, we live by choice, depending on the choice you make can result into a good outcome or a bad one. I never wanted to be a statistic, but indeed I am a product of my environment. I have been affected directly and indirectly by the justice system. I've been through every program or institution that's designed to teach you how to be the best version of yourself. But sometimes you lose sight of those things due to outside distractions. I went from a college graduate to domestic violence to jail to rehab to mental institutions to homelessness. And now, I'm in the Restorative Justice program. And I can say this program actually works. Jail made me angry. Domestic violence made me shelter off. Going into rehab made me think that I was losing my mind when I knew that everything in front of me was revealing the truth, but I was scared to face it in a way. This is the only program that I feel like is bringing me peace. Some opportunities that I've experienced through this program are certifications like anger management, peer support, finance and overcoming one of my biggest fears, which is heights by obtaining my list certification, et cetera. These classes have made a major impact on my life through learning things I thought I forgot, healing my inner self, setting boundaries, having self-compassion for myself and others and, most of all, as I said before, I have my peace and I enjoy what I do. I've always wanted to help people, but now I get a chance to help others see their light. I guess it'd be my authentic self and it makes me happy and I choose me because I'm the walking testimony of not looking like what I've been through. Success has always been my God-given right. And art has paved the way for me to find healing through dance, song, writing, painting and speaking. Art showed me a deeper appreciation to my whole being, inside and out, and I'm the change it takes.

Thank you for sharing your story with us. Please state your name for the record and begin with your testimony.

My name is Tyjamir Ford and I joined the Mural Arts in 2020 so that's like a fragile time for a lot of people. If anybody can remember that time that was the end of COVID, mid-COVID and I was finally being released from prison. I went in prison at and I came home at 10 years old. And that was the most 11 scariest moment when you're being 12 released, because it's everything 13 you was talking on the phone, 14 everything you've written down, 15 it's like now you got to put your 16 money where your mouth is, right. 17 And so, that was like a real up and 18 down moment for me. 19 I was 20 years old. I 20 got released on my 20th birthday actually so I'm 20 years old, I'm just coming home, and I met with COVID and all the temptations that was out here during that time. And I came across Mural Arts. And they accepted me. They gave me hope. They made me realize that it's going to be okay and even times throughout the process of being in Mural Arts and in the Guild, because when I first came in I was part of the Guild program and I was just a participant, and I didn't really understand what was going on. I was just living day to day with everybody else. And so, with that being said sometimes I did fail. Sometimes I did fall short, but Mural Arts is a place of understanding and second chances. So my second chance became more than one, two second chances because they believed in me when I didn't believe in myself. So Mural Arts gave me hope. The Guild gave me hope and then we came up and then I've been here since 2020 so I think the Rec Crew was introduced maybe like in '22 maybe. And we came from -- you learn job readiness in the Guild, and I learned what I want to do in the Guild. And I said, oh, I want to do this. And then the Rec Crew came and I graduated to the Rec Crew, but it still gave me opportunity to be able to explore. It didn't just shut off and say, well, you have to just do this one thing because at the end of the day, we are artists. So they always let you tap back into what your artist bound is, so that's very important. Throughout the program, I took a lot of falls and I learned a lot of ups as well. I got my forklift certification, my skylift certification. I took all the certifications that they offered just so I can be able to find my path, but throughout this process I felt my passion. So I always was just stuck. While I'm in Mural Arts I got to find a job, I have to work, I have to work. But throughout this I found my passion and that's basically like journalism, that's videography, that's talking to my people being a peer specialist for my people. So I found my passion throughout trying to find myself in this program. So that's where I came up with the podcast Street Therapy. We're pushing their brand. It's like street but it's therapy, because in our community we are closed off to therapy. We don't want to talk to somebody that don't look like us or we can't talk to somebody that don't understand us, but really talking about your trauma is a form of therapy. So we can trauma bond about something we can relate to, then we're getting through it, we're coping. So that's kind of how I felt my platform throughout finding myself through Mural Arts, and it's a platform for artists. It's a platform for all of us that has been reformed and has been impacted by the justice system and all of us sitting here are testimonies of Mural Arts. And it's not the person, but it's the program and it's the person that's in the program. So if you want the change for yourself, attending Mural Arts the change is going to come to you because we walk into rooms like this. We walk into rooms where this guy's an amazing artist, she's an amazing writer, he's an amazing artist. I would never know until I walk into these rooms. So it's producing what you are interested in, if you are interested, if you're passionate about your change because it changes within you.

Because throughout the program, I didn't change yet until I say I want to change and then that's when I changed. So I love Mural Arts for real.

Thank you. Thank you for sharing your story with us. Please state your name for the benefit and begin with your testimony.

Good afternoon, Council. My name is Eddie Ramirez and I spent almost 28 years in prison for a crime I didn't commit. And I could say that for the first seven years of that sentence I was angry and I had no idea what to do with my anger. I bounced from jail to jail to prison to prison until I ended up at SCI Graterford. And for those of us who can sort of remember back to those days, Graterford had a mythical legend about itself as being lawless, the Wild Wild West, a place where just dangerous things happened every day. When I ended up there in 2003, I met Suave Gonzalez, (inaudible) Charles Lawson and Jane Golden and I found that it was anything but dangerous. It was a place of opportunity. It was a place where the administration itself gave an opportunity to the individuals there to either -- they gave them the tools. You can either hurt yourself with this or help yourself with this. And Mural Arts was absolutely one of the most powerful tools that was given to us to be able to help not only ourselves, our families and our communities. The first mural that I participated in was the Healing Walls that can be seen in Germantown. We did two of them because the first one there was some feeling that it really wasn't representing the community in the best way. So we were blessed to be able to do a second one, two beautiful murals that were, as far as I'm concerned, the crowning achievement of Mural Arts at the time, an incredible documentary through steel and concrete was produced about it. And it was so powerful because, Councilmember Lozada, Chairwoman, you said you couldn't even draw a straight line. I couldn't draw a stick figure to save my life. And when they first invited me into the program, I was like, well, what am I going to do. I'm a graffiti artist. I'm a vandal. That's not what I do. I messed things up. They was like, nah, man, if you could just paint a circle, you could paint a mural. And they showed me that it was basically a giant paint-by-numbers set. And it was so incredible to be up close on something and all you're doing is painting shapes. But then to be able to step back and your eyes focus and you see the image and it is incredible. And it wasn't just us painting the mural inside the prison, it was victims, advocates painting the murals alongside of us, victims of crime as well. And even being out so far as to I think it was St. Ann's Church that we were doing this, our family members, so though we were separated from the community we were brought together by Mural Arts. Mural Arts at the end of the day is about empowerment. It's about giving people an opportunity to look past whatever the labels that have been put on them and to rebrand themselves as something worthy, as being brothers and sisters and family members and community members. My life changed because of that experience. I'm still angry. I still have a ton of resentment because I lost all of my 20s, all of my 30s and most of my 40s for something I didn't do. Anybody who said they weren't angry about that I'd say they're just repressing. But what I learned was how to use that anger like a laser beam in the most focused way to do something that was greater than the greatest injury that has ever been done to me, the greatest injury that has ever been done to anyone. And I use that laser to sort of hone in on people who have potential and I make that potential real. I tell people you don't have to be an artist, you just have to do something. And the more you do that something, the more you commit to it, the sooner it becomes an art. It doesn't have to be painting, it can be writing, it can be music, it can be dancing, it can be telling jokes, anything you want to do. If you do it long enough, it will become an art, and Mural Arts is what gives us that opportunity. And with the blessing of this Council, and hopefully my intention is to tell everyone about Mural Arts. Dig into your pocket, pull out $1, pull out $2 because this is our thing.

It is our responsibility to reach back into the community. We talk about recidivism through Mural Arts being 6%. I say this: I don't think so much about recidivism. I think about you want to know what we're saving, what the cost is. Without programs like Mural Arts, then crime becomes exponentially more likely. This is what we invest in, not just programs but in people who know how to carry a vision into reality. So I'm not going to belabor the point any more than that. I thank you for the opportunity to come present before you.

Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing your stories with us, right. Again, in this committee and the Caucus, we've talked about changing our community, right, reimagining a Kensington, reimagining a 7th Council District that people are proud of. And I think that one of the things that we can all agree on has been consistent today is that no one has enabled you to do anything or to continue on the wrong path, right. No one has given you the tools to stay on that wrong path. What we have heard today is that you continue to show up and everyone that you connected with when you showed up was ready to give you an opportunity. And the reason that you each are successful on your own journeys is because you were willing to accept that resource. You were willing to accept that chance. And so, I think that you all have proven to us that as a committee what we have been saying for a long time is that you have to show up, that you are worthy. You're a perfect example of recognizing your worth, recognizing your capacity, recognizing that if you're given a small tool, a small tool, you can make, you can turn that into greatness and you've shown us that. I think that again it's important for us to talk about why Mural Arts is important not through how much it cost us, but how much it's saving us. And it's not saving us money. It's saving us lives. It's saving people. It's giving people opportunities. And so, what you all did for me today was reaffirm that when I say we will not give up on people, we will not give up on the opportunities and connecting people to opportunities no matter how many people fight us. I think that we are on the right path and our message is going in the right direction. And so, I thank you. I thank you for reaffirming that. I thank you for continuing to show up on your own journeys, in your own path, in your own way. And thank you to Mural Arts for creating those opportunities, right. I believe that if you did your time on the inside, it's done, it's done. When you come out, it's in Spanish, we say, (Spanish translation). We've erased all of that and we started anew, right. I appreciate those opportunities, those starting again and we really look forward to receiving the information so that we can change how we're telling the story about Mural Arts and its programs are saving lives in the Kensington community and helping us to help others reimagine a Kensington that an entire community deserves. So thank you so much for your for being with us today. Are there any comments or questions from members of this committee? The Chair recognizes Councilmember Harrity.

To reiterate, thank you for coming in and sharing your story. Eddie, I've heard your story a million times. It's unbelievable. And the fact that you can sit there as calm as you are when you're talking about it just says about what kind of man you are. You know, I'm sorry, you know what I'm saying. And for everyone else, I thank you because, like you said, you are the proof that this works just like I'm the proof that the program works, you know what I'm saying. Our mistakes should not be a life sentence. We should be able to do our time, pay our debt to society and come back and re-assimilate. That's what it's about. If we're saying we're rehabilitating people, we have to give them an opportunity to rehabilitate. We have to give them opportunities so when they get out, they're not stuck in that same rut they get stuck in, you know what I mean, I can't find a job, what am I going to do. Same thing I did before that got me back in the same place, bam, bam, bam, same circle. So I appreciate you and I thank you for your candor and I thank you for being honest with us.

Can I just say one thing, Councilperson? There's always one distinction that I like to make. Instead we often talk about criminal justice and prison from the terms of those who have committed crime and who may owe a debt. And while my situation may be unique in the fact that I committed no crime, I in no way want to say that I'm owed a debt or that there was a surplus. What I'd want to say is I'd like to get rid of the language of debts and surpluses and to say that we are people and none of us were sort of born on an island. We didn't grow up in a test tube. We are the product of a community and that community has to be the foundation, has to be one of love and confidence. It's the only way. It's not about debts and surpluses.

Thank you. Thank you --

One last thing. I would love to invite y'all to our next Restorative Justice night. I would love to invite each one of y'all to our next Restorative Justice night because it's easy to sit here and just tell you about it, but seeing it is different. If y'all can make it on June 15th -- 15th, David? MR. McWHITE: (Gestured).

June 15th. And she's hosting, so y'all can see what we doing with these youth and the young people at Restorative Justice night in Mural Arts.

Absolutely. Thank you so much for the invitation. We'll reach out to Jane to make sure that we all get there. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Squilla.

Thank you. And I just want to say how we were all touched by this testimony. It's really important to hear not only about the person willing to accept the change, but to hear that there needs to be an opportunity for somebody to be willing to accept the change, right. So you need that opportunity. First, somebody has to present it to you and then within yourself you find it. But if we don't provide those opportunities, then the chances of you willing to change or being able to garnish your anger or whatever it may have been would not have happened. So that's why Mural Arts and the things that some of these programs are so important is that opportunity to be there. And then it's up to you to take that opportunity or not. But without the opportunity, you don't even have the choice. So that's what's more important about our budgeting process and how we do that. And to hear what everyone has said during the whole hearing process is uplifting and reaffirming and that we have to continue this fight. We have to continue providing these opportunities and be giving people those choices to make and make sure that we provide those opportunities to make choices. And so, thank you so much for your testimony and very much appreciate it.

Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for being with us this afternoon. Are there any other members in chamber that are here to testify on behalf of either of the two resolutions, 240720 or 250160? (No response.)

Madam Chair, that concludes all testimony and public comment on today's agenda.

There being no further witnesses to testify, I will ask if there's anyone present in this chamber whose name we failed to call or wishes to offer testimony on either of the resolutions being heard today? (No response.)

Hearing none, I want to thank all of the panels and the witnesses for their participation today. We value your opinions. This concludes the business before the Special Committee on Kensington today. Thank you all very much and we wish you a very great afternoon. (Special Committee on Kensington concluded at 4:55 p.m.) C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and that this is a correct transcript of the same. __________________________________ TANEHA CARROLL