Well, as I have 175 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 presented before, and perhaps you've already heard, it was about nine years ago where a group of Philadelphians did go to Boston to have the opportunity to observe what was going on in Boston, which was known as "the Boston Miracle." As you know, it was done under Reverend Eugene Rivers, and it was a heavy clergy-based initiative that really helped to identify those young people in the Boston area that were committing most of the crimes. We came back from Boston with a lot of learnings and have adapted that model to Philadelphia. And let me explain why there were some adaptations. In Boston, obviously, it's a much smaller municipality, and they were having primarily their crimes in one concentrated area. In Philadelphia, we don't have the luxury of that. We have multiple areas where we have concentrations of crime, so we had to do some adaptation 176 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 around that model. The other part was that their crimes were gang-based in the traditional gang sense, where they wore colors, through signs, and were very identifiable on the streets. As we know, in Philadelphia, and particularly going back eight years, when YVRP started, we didn't have that level of crime -- I mean, gangs, as demonstrated in Boston. Our gangs are more loosely associated groups that come together around drug corners. And so they aren't -- they don't have that infrastructure of hierarchy that the traditional Crips and Bloods have. And that's what Boston was dealing with. And so we had to come back and, again, do some adaptations to make it applicable to Philadelphia. Since the inception of YVRP eight years ago, we have reduced in the areas where we currently are working, 177 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 which is in the 24th, 25th Police District, the 12th. And at the end of last year, we moved into the 19th Police District. And just recently this summer, we moved into the 22nd Police District. In those areas where we have been at least a year, we have re -- the average of reduction in homicides in the age group in which we focus is 42 percent. So, again, we primarily focus on those young people. And I think, Councilman, that you were saying, how do you identify those most at risk? A little different than AVRP, ours are -- ours are already in the system; it is not a prevention initiative. It is an intervention initiative, with the primary focus of reducing youth homicides. We go up to the age of 24, and so we say our primary mission is to keep these young people alive until 25. 178 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 And we do that with intensive surveillance. We have tremendous cooperation from adult and juvenile probation, the District Attorney's Office, a lot of nonprofit organizations such as Philadelphia Safe and Sound, Philadelphia Anti-drug Anti-violence Network. There's multiple people at the table working on YVRP. And it's through this intensive surveillance where the probation officer -- traditionally an adult -- could have up to 200 cases. The YVRP adult probation officer, the maximum they can have is 25. It's a very different intensity that they have. There are also very set accountabilities in terms of what kind of performance they have to have in terms of benchmarks that they have to meet each month with their youth partner, and that's what we call our young people. And so the surveillance piece 179 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 is more intensified. But on the same side, in line with the Boston model, we have this piece called "Positive Supports." We know that, yes, our primary focus is to keep these young people from being killed or killing others; but at the same time, while we're working with them, we want to turn their lives around. And for me, what I always say is --
-- if it weren't for YVRP, these young people would never get these services again.
And I'm not 180 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 suggesting that it should be.
It is not. It's modeled after it fairly closely but not exactly.
Okay. Thank you. My last question is if: We can't capture the full universe of post-school-aged dropouts, are we at least tracking every program participant, everyone who's in the system in terms of whether they are dropouts or not? Do we at least have data for everyone that's in the system with regard to whether they've dropped out of school or not?
All the ones in our system, yes, we do keep their educational level or whether or not they're in --
So everyone who is in the system we have data of whether they dropped out of school or not? 181 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708
You mean in the -- now which system? Are you talking about the total --
I'm not talking about the total universe of post-school-aged dropouts; I'm talking about the total universe of people who are in the system, do we absolutely have dropout data on them?
Well, if it's the parent, no, we wouldn't. We would have the educational level, and you could assume that they've dropped out. If it's any the youth, yes, we do identify what is their educational level, 'cause, first of all, for us, any youth we're dealing with, we don't want them to be a dropout. I mean, that would be a focus of treatment.
One is by the asking. Secondly is by the coordination with our school system in order to 182 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 determine what grade they're in and whether or not they're attending. I mean, a part of the treatment piece is, for instance, in all of our social services programs --
Is there a specific source of data that tells us how much education they have?
No, there is no -- we are trying to get a data link with the school system, but we don't have a central source of data coming to us beyond our asking those systems, what grade are you in? what is your educational attainment level?
Can we find out -- can we make it part of our business, so to speak, to find out, one, the educational attainment level; and two, just very specifically, are they a dropout or not?
I mean, I'd 183 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 like to see a whole universe of post-school-aged dropouts and see us go target those people. But at least for the people that are in the system, can't we at least make sure we have dropout data on them?
I mean, that's just a matter of asking them, you know, because for us, we would then want to address that.
You're welcome. And, by the way, I do want to say to you, Councilman, that while we can't say conclusively they're at risk, because we direct our AVRP pieces and place them according to where the police have identified the highest youth levels of violence and homicide. We feel that just by the nature of their living in an 184 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 environment of exposure, they are at risk.
Thank you very much. Are there any other questions for Miss Danzy or Miss Clayton? (No further questions.)
Recre ation Commissioner? (Witness comes forward.) COMMISSIONER RICHARDS: Good afternoon, Madam Chair, Councilman, and Councilwoman.
Good afternoon and thank you. COMMISSIONER RICHARDS: My name is Vic Richard, I'm the Recreation Commissioner, and I thank you for the opportunity to present testimony concerning Resolution No. 060708. In our after-school programs in the fiscal year of '06, the Department operated 90 after-school sites across the city. Seven of those 185 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 ninety sites were faith-based or community partners. During those 90, sites there were 2,750 children that registered for the program, with an average daily attendance of 2,235. So far in the beginning of this school year, we have 85 after-school program sites up and running, 7 partner sites with an anticipated registration of over 2500. This past summer, the Department created a program to employ high school students as assistants in the rec centers in the neighborhood. The difference with these young people is, the Department intentionally hired the young people to work directly with the center director and the camp directors to achieve a higher level of job training and career development also in our after-school programs and summer camps. Twenty of the students that 25 participated in that program this past 186 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 summer were recruited directly from the centers that are operating across the 4 city. 5 Currently, there are 20 high 6 school assistant program participants 7 who have been hired and are being 8 trained right now to work in our 9 after-school programs and at special 10 events in the recreation centers. 11 Sixteen of the 20 high school assistants 12 were recruited from the Department's 13 teen centers as well. 14 This selection/hiring practice 15 helps us to showcase the young person in 16 his or her particular neighborhood and 17 create self-esteem and peer group 18 prestige. The training also provides 19 the teens with exposure to the professional sports and leisure career track as well. The Teen Center Program in '06, the department just this past summer hosted 13 dances on Saturday nights. These dances created a 187 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 structured social-growth environment for over 672 teenagers across the city. The teen centers also hosted Friday-night movie nights across the 6 city as well. 7 There have been five personal- 8 development workshop geared specifically 9 for teen girls, with a registration of 10 approximately 300 young ladies, where there have been 220 young ladies that have graduated from this unique program. Currently, the Department operates centers, with a registration 15 of over 3100 teenagers and several 16 thousand drop-ins daily. 17 The Department will dedicate 18 Teen Center No. 10 and 11 in the next 19 three weeks, and has begun construction retrofit of Teen Center No. 12 and 13. I thank you for the opportunity to present this brief testimony today, and I appreciate your leadership and your dedication to our city. 188 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708
Thank you very much. Any questions? (No questions.)
Thank you. We want to have our commissioners -- Commissioner King and Commissioner Paris, you're next. And then I promised that I would get -- Sutan, don't leave us. We need you all. Hang with us for a little bit. Thank you. (Witness comes forward.)
Thank you, Commissioner King, and I thank you for all that you do. You know, many people may not note that when you were hiring, you came right here, right on the pavement of City Hall, and you conducted hiring and had applications there. And you've really instituted a 189 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 new style when it comes to being a commissioner and upgrading and modernizing what we do. It's not easy. Overcrowding makes it not easy. COMMISSIONER KING: Correct.
And, as you know, we try to work with the Local 159. I believe they're concerned people too. None of it is easy, but we appreciate the job that you do and certainly support you in your leadership. COMMISSIONER KING: Thank you, Councilwoman Blackwell.
Thank you. COMMISSIONER KING: I'm Leon King, Commissioner of the Philadelphia Prisons, and I do have some brief remarks; I'm going to read them. And my plan is to digress just once and then wait for your questions. I want to thank you for this 190 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 opportunity to testify. There are 2600 men and women who work in the Philadelphia prison system, who are also residents of the City of Philadelphia and who care deeply about the future of our city. We join you in raising our voices to call for end to violence on our streets. Like everyone else in Philadelphia, correctional staff is affected by crime in their neighborhoods, but they also feel the impact of crime in their workplace. The same people who are dealing drugs and shooting each other on the streets of Philadelphia try to continue their illegal activity once they come to jail. We join you in this call to action. We want to make peace in our homes, in our streets, in our schools, and in our workplaces. And we encourage you to learn about the opportunities of working together with us to achieve these goals. 191 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Let me add that the 8,800 who are in our custody are also residents of Philadelphia and are also adversely affected by the culture of crime in our streets. Some of them identify with that culture, many of them actively participate and find profit in it. But at the same time, they and their family members are among the most victimized and vulnerable people in our city. And if you walk through our jails and speak with the inmates, you will find that the vast majority of them are just as horrified at the murders and just as angry and desirous of change as you and I. We must help them recognize that change begins with them. We must help them understand that we need to put aside our anger, put aside our fear, and work for real and lasting change in our personal behavior if we are going to change the culture of the streets. So I wanted to come here this 192 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 morning to tell you that our staff is doubly affected by crime, that most inmates want the same peace and safety for their families and their neighborhoods as you and I do, but also to make these three points. First -- and this is the most important point -- any long-term violence-reduction strategy must take into the account the potential impact on the prison system. I am not saying do not put people in jail; I am saying that if that is a part of your strategy, go into it with an understanding and a preparedness to meet the real costs of incarceration as well as the real costs of meaningful alternatives to incarceration, and go into it with some concrete ideas of what you would want incarceration to accomplish, and to work with us to arrive at some realistic, sensible, and coordinated planning of how that might be achieved. And I just want to digress here. 193 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 We're now involved in a mayoral campaign to see who's going to take over when Mayor Street's term of office is up, and I want to connect something that came up with Mothers In Charge and what I read in the newspaper. A while back, there was an article in the Daily News -- I think it was about a shooting or something that happened, and there were two things that were featured. One was an interview with all of the mayoral candidates, asking what they would do about violence in the city. Another was an article about five kids up in SCI Graterford. And all five mayoral candidates said, well, what they would do to fight crime in the city is hire more police, spend more overtime, and I think there was some talk in there about increasing mandatory sentences for thus and thus. And there's two things to be said about that. Whenever we seek to 194 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 increase mandatory sentences, that affects this prison system, the State Department of corrections.
It affects us in that people's bails are going to be higher. If your bail is higher, you're less likely to get out of prison, which means we need to find a place to put you. We don't have much space. Right now, things are climbing down, but prisons were full this summer. So you have to plan about where you're going to put these people. And the prisons are not a bottomless pit where you can just continue emptying thousands of people and having us cram them where we can find them, because then, what's going to happen is, not only will the correctional staff be affected by just dealing with inmates daily, but you're affecting the lives of the people who work at the prison system, because the more you crowd people, the more dangerous it gets, and 195 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 it just takes one little spark to set some inmates off, and you've got employees and inmates who are hurt. The second thing about planning for incarceration is, in that Daily News article, the next one, they talk about five or six kids who are up in SCI Graterford. They were either 10 or in their early 20s, and they were 11 involved in gun violence. And always 12 the gun violence has something to do 13 with drugs most of the time. And they 14 interviewed them. 15 And, you know, it runs the 16 gamut, as we see in the prisons, where 17 some of them had parents who said, "Do 18 the right thing," and they didn't 19 listen. Some of them didn't have parents to help guide them that way, and they ended up doing things that they shouldn't have done. And, I think, going back to one of Councilman Goode's points, I think they all started having trouble in 196 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 middle school, stopped paying attention, and dropped out. They grew up and they were involved in the culture of the street. " That's not the way it works. So we have to take these things into account when we're talking about increasing mandatory sentences and sending people to jail, because the Police Commissioner likes to say, "We 197 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. " We could build jails until we're all blue in the fact and it's three generations away, and what will happen is, we will fill them up, and then we won't have any -- most of the African-American men in this city won't be walking around Center City or in any of your Councilmatic districts; they'll all be up on State Road, in whatever various prison facility we build. So it's very important that we think about what you want incarceration to be, what you want the end-product to be, and making sure that everybody is involved in what the solution is. " And when I first started teaching it two years ago, the textbook told us that the United States 198 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 2 million people. The last textbook came out and told us that we're now the leader in the entire world in the number of people that we have incarcerated. And if you think about that and if you think about the fact that we are also not the safest country in the whole world, I think that makes a glaring point about the effectiveness of incarceration and whether or not that's going to be the solution to crime in the city. Second, public health officials have long looked at incarceration as an opportunity for intervention. That intervention is including testing, evaluation, education, and counseling, as well as treatment and referral of individuals with high-risk behavior and/or chronic or acute medical and behavioral health 199 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 issues. That may be an appropriate model for a response to issues of gun violence and assaultive behavior -- if, after identifying the target population, we can create and support programs to the effective of counseling, education, and treatment both inside the jails and in the community. Third, we welcome your participation in our work. The challenges we face are huge. Fortunately, we are not alone.
We cooperate closely with the courts, other the City departments, criminal justice agencies to create a network of care and support especially for inmates with substance-abuse issues, with abuse issues, with medical and behavioral-health issues who are returning to our communities. We understand the need to work effectively with community-based and neighborhood-based organizations as well 200 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 to meet the needs of those who are coming out of jail. Not only to meet the needs but help those who want to change. The pilot project for this has been the Frankford Reentry Project. It has had its ups and downs during its startup year, but we believe that the relationships we are building with faith-based and community organizations in Frankford that are supported by Probation and Parole and the Courts and the Department of Human Services and others will provide an effective model for reentry that can be replicated in other neighborhoods. And just one digression, 'cause I want to pick up on what somebody said about the business community. That's been one of my frustrations, because the business community has a responsibility and an interest in a safe Philadelphia. And they do not, as far as I can tell, step 201 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 up to the plate either in hiring ex-offenders or in sponsoring organizations like the one that testified before, to come up to the jail and do things like car detailing too often. I was at a community meeting out at 52nd and Parkside or 53rd and Parkside, and I had an ex-offender come up to me, and he had been involved in gun violence and drugs, and he apparently got a light sentence, was set up on State Road, and probably went through the Options Program and some other stuff, and decided that, you know, he was going to give this up. And he went back and got custody of his six kids; one of his daughters I met there at the meeting. He was working under the table for his uncle, he didn't have any health benefit for those kids, et cetera, et cetera. And he told me he actually had a job -- I forget what company he was 202 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 working in. And when they found out about his criminal record, they fired him. So now he's out there, trying to provide for his family, trying to do the right thing. I'm trying to find him a job. But, you know, that's the type of situation. You have somebody who's now off the street, trying to do the right thing, can't get a job because people are discriminating. You know, your debt to society, as far as I'm concerned, is the time of your sentence. If it's two years, when it's done, you go do something else. But that's the situation where that man, in the future, could get so frustrated with the fact that he's been trying to do the right thing, and all of the doors have been shut in his face, and he may well become an angry young man again and take to drugs and terrorizing his neighborhood with guns. 203 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 So, you know, the business community has a lot of responsibility here to step up to the plate -- not only to hire people but to sponsor them. You know, they have Verizon, Aramark -- all of these companies have divisions where they give money to the community. And one of the things they need to start thinking about is sponsoring scholarships for inmates; and whether they're inside or outside the walls, to get them working to make them become productive members of society. In my mind, you know, if you were a gun-toting gun dealer in 1995 and you went to jail for five years or six years and you were at Graterford and you decide you got your bachelor's degree in accounting, when you get out, you should be able to become an accountant. I don't see what one has to do with the other. Now, if you were an embezzler or a thief, that might be a little 204 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 different.
But, you know, you have to be more sensible about what crime you've committed and what job you can do. If we are to extend that model from community custody and minimum custody offenders, to men and women charged with violent offenses, we must have confidence in our ability to effectively intervene in the lives of particular individuals. We must have confidence that we can redirect their desire to find satisfactions and rewards from the culture of the streets to the civic culture of work, family, and community. I invite you to join us in this effort. It is not glamorous work. We do not have all of the answers, and the evidence that we do have suggests that we need to develop programs based on specific needs and underlying issues of particular individuals. We cannot do it without your support. Jail offers a negative 205 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 example. For the few weeks or months or years that an inmate is in jail, they are surrounded by other inmates who are often bad examples of behavior. We need to create communities of positive examples in jails, which we've been starting to do, where people can model good behavior and be rewarded for it, just as we need to develop those communities of positive behavior on the streets, and we need to do it with the same tools -- with education, communication and outreach, with meaningful and productive employment, with decent and affordable housing, with support for families and family reunification, access to medical and behavioral health care, and with safe streets. If this sounds to you like a circular argument, then I invite you to take a step into the circle with us, if you're able, and work with us where we are, with some of the most violent and 206 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 hardened people in the city, but also some of the most vulnerable and needy. That concludes my testimony, and I'm willing to take any questions you may have.
Thank you very much. We had a young man who was sitting to my right who came down to the office yesterday -- I invited him to testify but, of course, this is an extended time -- who just came out of prison, spent many years there, and said, as you mentioned in your testimony, that he knew he was wrong and that he wanted to do something to give back to his community. So it is, as you say: Many people do -- he's no longer a young man but, many do want to contribute to make life better if we can redirect them. And what's the common costs that we say it takes to keep a prisoner incarcerated in a year? 207 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 COMMISSIONER KING: I believe it's $88 a day, around there, about $89 a day.
How much, you said? COMMISSIONER KING: It's about $88 dollars a day.
Yeah, so it makes a big difference. We hear those in numbers all the time. But thank you. That was excellent testimony. Councilman Goode and Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown.
Good afternoon, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER KING: Good afternoon.
To your statement about what we want incarceration to be and to your analogy of how it takes more than an angel coming down on the shoulder of an inmate to make them a quality citizen, please 208 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 speak to what types of efforts -- and very briefly 'cause I know you went into this in great detail during the budget hearings, but for these proceedings, for the, record the types of efforts, educational efforts, that are currently in place in the prison system so that they walk out with some level or degree of additional education more than they had when they came in there. COMMISSIONER KING: Well, for all the certified juveniles, they're required to go to school every day, and they get a high school diploma if they're there long enough. You know, the School District runs that program and they pick them up wherever they left off in high school. And they, you know, move along. And every June, we have a graduation.
Oh, I see. COMMISSIONER KING: So if 209 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 you're there long enough, you get your high school diploma. I think you get a Lincoln High School diploma; it doesn't say "Philadelphia Prisons."
I see. COMMISSIONER KING: And then we have a GED program that the School District also runs for inmates who are not, you know, mandatory -- required to go to school, and I forget the numbers, but we graduate hundreds of people every year through the GED program because, you know, we have teachers that teach the GED, we have Plato and some other things that, you know, if you're not -- if your reading and comprehension level isn't good enough to get you in the GED class, we have a computer-based program called Plato that we allow inmates to work with to get them up to the level so that we can get them to GED. So, we do offer -- you know, if you come and you are there long 210 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 enough, you can get your high school diploma.
And to your best knowledge, the GED program administered by the School District is not in jeopardy? Have you heard any notion about anything that is in jeopardy? COMMISSIONER KING: Well, I mean, the only thing -- it came up in the sense that the Juvenile Law Center was concerned about the extent of the services and the public defender that were being provided to the juveniles. And there was some discussion of scaling back the GED program and taking some of those teachers out of the GED program to meet the requirements that people were demanding of the juveniles. But as I understand it, that did not occur. I haven't heard anything in months about them.
211 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Do you get reports of the number of young people graduating, getting their GED, who are affiliated with the public school system? COMMISSIONER KING: I don't get regular reports on that, but I could get them for you if you would like, if you want.
I would certainly be interested particularly in the context now that the School District has this severe deficit. And I know you invite Councilmembers to the graduation of your officers. Begin to invite us to the graduation of these young people who are coming back into the real world and have completed their GED. COMMISSIONER KING: And that's -- I mean, that's one of the challenges too. I like to tell the story when I'm out in the community: You know, when you have the juveniles who 212 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 graduate, you know, we give them caps and gowns and we play and we have a valedictorian. And a lot of times -- the last two times I've been to graduation, you know, if you have kids graduating, 8 there's maybe two of them that have any 9 family there, and the rest is just, you 10 know, prison staff, if they have a 11 minute, who come into the auditorium. So it would be very good to, you know, have Councilmembers come up to those graduations and the GED graduates. I recall Councilwoman Blackwell has been to one of the GED graduations, and they always appreciate it when you come. It makes them feel important.
Please make that a practice for us. Thank you for your testimony. Thank you, Madam Chair.
Thank you. 213 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 And you always feel like you're in a high school motivational setting. You know, they're so happy. COMMISSIONER KING: Yeah.
And they seem so innocent and so overjoyed. COMMISSIONER KING: Yes.
And so hopeful. It's a wonderful experience. Thank you. Councilman Goode?
Thank you, Madam Chair. Good afternoon, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER KING: Good afternoon.
First I have the obvious question: Of your 8800 inmates, how many are high school dropouts? COMMISSIONER KING: I would say 70 to 80 percent of them.
But do we 214 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 know specifically? COMMISSIONER KING: I could get you that information.
That would be -- COMMISSIONER KING: I could search the database to see if we have that information, and get it. But generally speaking, you know, my modus operandi is 70 or 80 percent of the people there are at a 4th-grade comprehension-in-reading level, so they --
My specific question is: Do we know specifically who they are? Do we know -- COMMISSIONER KING: I will look and see if we can get you that information.
And the second questions is: Do we know how many have GEDs? COMMISSIONER KING: I can get you that information. 215 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708
And, thirdly, how many GEDs are obtained in a year in your system? COMMISSIONER KING: Okay.
Thank you very much. Are there any further questions?
Commissioner Danzy spoke about how systems are now talking across each other, which is a major leap for the City of Philadelphia compared to where we were ten years ago. Is there any connect, link with the prison system for the young persons that they're serving and DHS and the School District and the Rec Department up at -- COMMISSIONER KING: Yes. 216 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Prisons is part of DSS. And our information is integrated into DSS Cares. And, actually, yesterday was the first time I've actually heard some data come out of DSS Cares, and we had -- I think 'cause we're looking at reorganizing and revamping all of our reentry programs, and we got some information, 'cause we know with 35 percent maybe of our population is homeless upon discharge.
Uh-huh. COMMISSIONER KING: So we always want to know, well, how many of them ended up in a shelter? And we found out, I think, that about 6 percent end up in an emergency shelter. So we're beginning to get that information so that, you know, everybody knows where everybody else has been.
Sure. 217 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 COMMISSIONER KING: And it helps us coordinate services, especially, for example, with the women, 'cause I know you're always concerned with the women and, you know, reuniting them with their families and knowing who has, you know, a case in DHS and who doesn't. So they're actually starting to train people on that system now. So we're in the beginning stages of actually using that system.
I'm delighted to hear that. I know, seven years ago, when I came here, there was literally no 18 conversation across systems. And given these days of tighter dollars coming from the Feds, it requires municipalities to act smarter because the dollars are fewer, and to know that DSS is now a real tangible product, that leadership across those departments can interact with is to be applauded. 218 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Thank you for your testimony. COMMISSIONER KING: Thank you.
Thank you again, Commissioner. COMMISSIONER KING: Thank you, Councilwoman.
And thanks for all you do. We appreciate it. Next is our Health Commissioner, my friend Commissioner Carmen Paris. These aren't easy days, but we do appreciate you. We know it's difficult, but we thank you for the job that you're doing. COMMISSIONER PARIS: Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairwoman Blackwell and members of the Committee on Finance. I am Carmen Paris, interim Health Commissioner, and I would like to present some of the current programs that the Division of Social Services, Department of Public Health has in place 219 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 to help address the issues of violence as part of the Philadelphia Safer Streets initiative. We in the Department of Public Health have incorporated many of the preventive measures the Mayor addressed earlier today. As we have testified in the past, many of us in the public field believe that an approach to effectively reduce violence is one that incorporates concurrently applied strategies that target a variety of risk factors, serves individuals and families. The public health approach component that include identification of the nature of the specific problem through surveillance systems for morbidity and mortality associated with interpersonal violence, identification of those persons or entities that are at risk, application of case-controlled methods to modify risk factors for victims and perpetrators, and institution of ongoing evaluation of the 220 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 controlled methods that have been established. The preeminent component of this model is prevention. This model is not a quick fix that any one entity can expect to put in place; but, rather, it's an approach that must be supported in part by all three levels of government, community leaders and community members, social-service agencies, students, teachers, parents, extended family members, neighbors, peers, behavioral and medical health providers, and the business community. It fairly well documented that there are many risk factors associated with the potential of violence. Youths who are victims of weapons-related violence are at risk for repeat injury and/or death or for becoming perpetrators of violent acts themselves. The identification of youth who are at risk and the application of early intervention techniques are two 221 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 functions that fall within the public health model of addressing violence. The Department of Public Health participates in a number of violence-prevention activities, which includes the Pennsylvania Injury Reporting and Intervention System, PIRIS. This is basically a research project that is funded by the State Department of Health where we are intervening with those young people that have been the victims of shooting. Firearm safety and gun safety lock programs through the Department of Environmental Health Services Injury Prevention Program, we provide firearm safety program, and we do that by every time, we're going to the home, we provide injury-prevention education. And part of that is providing firearm safety locks during the home safety inspection. We also do that at health fairs, with the focus of getting safety 222 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 locks into the hands of home owners possessing guns to reduce the incidence of accidental weapons discharge that may result in injury or death. We have the ability to distribute approximately 800 firearm safety locks per year citywide during these home inspections. We also have the grief assistance program that provides counseling and support services to surviving families, and we are currently operating and have been operating that program out of the Medical Examiner's Office. We also have various domestic violence prevention programs at the eight District Health Centers, and we are also conducting these programs through the Maternity, Child, Family Health programs.
We have extensively trained our staff, our clerical staff, in addressing the issues of violence and 223 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 identifying potential victims. The Department also provides staff for approximately 400 neighborhood health fairs each year throughout the city. Many of our representatives are trained in recognizing the signs of violence, and we have violence prevention and gun safety information at many of these events. I appreciate the opportunity to present testimony of the Department of Public Health programs that focus on the violence prevention as part of the Safer Streets Initiative. Thank you. And I would now like to answer any questions that you might have, ma'am.
Thank you, Commissioner. I didn't realize that you ran the Grief Assistance Program and gave out the locks. I thought it was the police or the D.A.'s Office. So I apologize. 224 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 COMMISSIONER PARIS: Not a problem.
And we thank you for all that do you there. Are there any questions? (No questions.)
Thank you, commissioner. COMMISSIONER PARIS: My pleasure.
And now I'd like to call the University of Pennsylvania Assistant Vice President of Community Relations, Glenn Bryant; and Roosevelt Hairston, Vice President of Government Community Relations, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia; Dr. Fine, if he's still here. Let me tell you, I won't forget you, Mother Mantua. We got our eye on you. Let me tell you, it must be because we're trying to do what we need to do because these gentlemen I work 225 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 with, and we're talking about not millions, but billions of dollars of investment certainly in West Philadelphia, as you know. And we couldn't make it without 'em. So they can't say that we're not trying to do our very best, because, as I said, we're talking billions of dollars and a new initiative Penn is now starting on its next billion-dollar investment. So we appreciate you. Thank you for your patience. Next time you're here, we'll call you first; is that a deal?
And thank you very much. Please identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony.
Hi. Thank you. My name is Glenn Bryant, Assistant Vice President of the University of 226 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Pennsylvania and head of Community Relations. I want to thank you and Councilman Goode and all of the members of the committee that were here. It was a pleasure to hear the testimony. That's one good thing. Sitting through it is not bad because this -- you know, room should be filled based on this issue of violence as being a present and growing epidemic in our city. And I was listening to the Commissioner of Prisons, who talked about -- and I got my calculator, and I I'm sure you did too. And $88 a day, that averages into $32,120 a year that it costs to have a person in prison. It sounds like a good job to me. And in our call to action, we should consider really the development of a comprehensive plan involving the city and, as Bilal talked about and others, the business community, faith-based, educational institutions, 227 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 and health-care institutions. I think that's really very, very important. My colleague, who should be -- who, I'm sure, will testify a little bit later, he had to leave, Cory Bowman with our Center for Community Partnerships, he will come and talk about some of the programs that exist with respect to youth violence and alternative measures and programs that we believe speak to this critical issue. The various interventions that he will -- that will be discussed, as you know, only represent a small and beginning step in addressing the national and local problem. We clearly understand that the challenges before us will call for a collaborative and well-coordinated effort amongst institutions such as Penn, CHOP, local government, community- and faith-based institutions to create an atmosphere of hope -- and I say "hope" -- and meaningful and long-lasting engagement. 228 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 It has become clear that the needed enforcement interventions are only one measure to address this problem. Youth engagement that includes academic and social exposure and coordinated resources amongst community stakeholders is the key to making inroads with respect to this issue. It's also become clearer that there is an erosion of innate and learned skills in resolving conflict. And I think when we're looking at violence -- and I've been hearing it all this morning -- we're looking at it as a one-lump sum kind of situation, and it's really not that; it's categorized violence. I think there's conflict and that's how people resolve issues more and more. Someone mentioned earlier about behavioral health not being mental health. They're the same thing as far as I'm concerned. People, you know, the individuals that you really need to 229 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 worry about in terms of their mental status are -- those are the individuals that can't cope and are using violence as a form of resolving conflict. It calls for community organizations, health-delivery systems, local and state government agencies to work directly with schools to explore ways to collaboratively address youth violence and all kinds of violence. I spend like one day, one evening a month in Penn's emergency room, and I speak to families, and I see who comes in, and it's not pretty; it truly isn't. Penn has an emergency and trauma room which serves the West Philadelphia community and even beyond. And the amount of violence that I see as a result of gunshot wounds and the like, it really crowds up our trauma room 23 'cause that lets you know how many people are being shot every day and every night in West Philadelphia and in 230 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Philadelphia. In the past year -- with all that said, in the past year under the leadership of the present government, we've embarked upon an agenda that aims at local engagement, and that's just a term.
We need to put things in action, and we've been looking at ways -- we're the largest private employer in the City of Philadelphia, second to the city, where we intend to build probably more development than the city will see in the next years east of the campus. 15 There are plenty of opportunities. So the question is: How do we change -- how do we turn violence and the issue of violence and all of the symptoms around violence, how do we turn that into opportunities? And I think one of the ways is not only just through enforcement, but how do we put people to work? how do we give people hope? I want to, Councilwoman 231 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Blackwell, thank you for insisting and urging the University to undertake a very large economic inclusion program which puts people to work, but we are taking one step higher, as you've indicated earlier in this hearing. Not everyone goes to college. In fact, percent of the population in 10 Philadelphia have a BA degree in a city 11 that has more colleges and universities 12 than Boston -- figure that out. 13 But the other piece is: How 14 do we expose our youth to college life 15 and early on? So we intend to double the amount of programming that we have with the youth in our community to come to Penn, to be involved in programs, and to begin today to talk about the summer of 2007 -- not wait until later on to do that, but to talk about it now. And we really challenge all of the business community and all of the other institutions to really think about 232 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 what we can do in terms of a call to action regarding this. 'Cause, like I said, not everyone goes to college, but guess what? There are a lot of buildings that are being constructed. And as I said earlier, we're going to be doing that. And Councilwoman Blackwell has alluded to it early, and we are going to develop what we call the Lucien E. Blackwell Apprenticeship Program. As you know, the unions have not been too friendly for years. Now they are, they seem to be coming around. The School District has announced an apprenticeship program. We're announcing an apprenticeship program very soon. We'll start up and we will employ people on construction jobs at Penn so that they can learn the skill trades and become -- you know, have hope. And I can tell you this and 233 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 then I'll shut up after this. I speak with -- I don't sit just at the ivy tower at Penn, you know. I'm on 52nd Street, which is a major corridor in West Philadelphia, and I speak to the young brothers and I talk to them about -- and some of the older ones, as Councilman Goode said, that have been out and have been in and out of jail, in and out of trouble, have nothing to do no hope. And I kind of mention this program to them, and their eyes lit up, because they too want an opportunity to do something with their lives. They just don't want to sell crack and dope and hide it around porches on the street. They want to do something viable with their lives. And we feel that this program and another program that we're starting, the Skills Development Center, will hopefully be one piece of our attempt to look and address this issue of violence. 234 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 So it is clear that our conventional ways are not working. We feel these are ways that directly address the problem of violence in one respect. So I would like to thank you, Councilwoman Blackwell, for urging the University and working with us to develop programming to meet the needs of -- and address the needs of the community and for your tireless efforts in developing institutional partnerships with the local schools and improving the quality of education and for your efforts in securing additional services and resources for all of us as we work together to improve the quality of life in our neighborhoods. Thank you. I have next to me someone who just popped in.
I was talking so much, I didn't see him come in, but Cory Bowman, who is the Associate Director of our Center for Community Partnerships. 235 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Which has had a long history of engagement in the community in dealing with community schools. Even before the Beacon Schools stuff even started, Penn was involved in the community school movement, opening up schools all across West Philadelphia.
Welcome and good afternoon. I thank you for coming back, Cory.
Thank you, Councilwoman Blackwell and members of the committee for sponsoring this resolution and convening this important discussion. I'm Cory Bowman. I work at the Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania and have been working to help create community schools in West Philadelphia. The partnerships I want to talk about briefly represent two decades of collaboration between Penn, community organizations, and the public schools in 236 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 West Philadelphia. Our Center for Community Partnership has created, in partnership with a number of organizations, university-assisted community schools that are -- these schools are the centers of education, engagement, and provide a range of services for students, parents, and all community members. The approach behind community schools works towards integrating, mobilizing, and galvanizing the resources of the entire community, including colleges and universities, to improve the community, the school, and the learning of students. More specifically, the community school strategy assumes that, like colleges and universities, public schools can function as environment- changing institutions that can become the strategic centers of partnerships that engage and coordinate a variety of 237 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 organizations and institutions. Public schools belong to all members of the community. Public schools are well suited, therefore, to function as the neighborhood hubs or the nodes around which partnerships and youth programs can be generated and formed. Through collaboration between school, university and community partners, each university-assisted community school site has a variety of locally determined activities and partnerships. Many of these focus on health, environment, and arts and cultures. These programs engage all students, K to 12, and college and university in real-world, hands-on problem-solving. This problem-solving is integrated into school-day learning as well as to after-school, evening, weekend, and summer programs. Young people in community 238 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 schools are engaged in creative work to advance their skills and abilities, advance their social development through service to their school and family, and at the same time, improve quality of life in their own local communities. There are a couple guiding principles of a university-assisted community school. Focus on the neighborhood school as the core institution to revitalize the community. Community schools are open to youth, parents, and community members before and after school, weekends, and summers. University-assisted community schools bring together a university or any institution of higher education and community partners in neighborhood- centered, action oriented efforts that will serve educate-all members that will serve and educate all members of the community, to serve as the educational, social-service, health, and recreational needs of the entire community through 239 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 partnerships with community organizations and social and human service agencies. And, finally, they work to link the school's curriculum programs and services to actually solving, actually addressing identified real-world local problems. I want to spend just a minute to talk about the Sayre High School at 58th and Walnut and Penn University- Assisted Community School Partnership. The Sayre High School Penn University-Assisted Community School Initiative is an example of how these principles are actually put into practice. There's a Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Program that was developed in the school that is a part of Sayre High School becoming a health-focussed high school. Sayre now, after transitioning from becoming a middle school, has 240 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 students in all high school grades, about 700 of them.
And Penn classes, several dozen, are focused in the school to help the high school in this development. Additionally, Penn's Health Professional Schools, such as Social Work, Nursing, Dentistry, Medicine, Law, Designs, et cetera, work to provide clinical and educational services to the school's school day and after school and weekends. Moreover, Sayre is a Beacon Community School, and through Penn, we recently received awards for a 21st Century Community School site. We're finally operating a school-based school and community health center that will be open to all members of the community that will address people without regard to an ability to pay and will serve not only children but families and all members of the community. 241 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 There are four elements of this partnership. First, the school day programming. Our coordinators partner with teachers to create engaging curricula on health topics that complement the core curricula. These curricula are effective interventions exposing students to health knowledge, as well as allowing them to become deliverers of health promotion and deliverers of education to the entire community. For example, Sayre 11th-graders are taking an intake medical procedures course with Penn students to learn how to perform the basic intake medical procedures such as blood pressure, height and weight screenings, glucose, reflex, vision, et cetera. The Sayre students learn about prominent community health concerns, such as hypertension, diabetes, obesity, et cetera, and they gain clinical 242 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 experience by operating a weekly after-school monitoring clinic, where they work with Penn doctors, nurses, and other health professional students and community members to provide medical intake services, education, and referrals. These students will be working in the Sayre Health Center when it opens in the next month or two to support its outreach in clinical operations. It's an example of our students learning about health care through actual health care-delivery and improving their own education at the same time and delivering a concrete service to the community. That's an example of school day programming. The second component is, we have after-school, evening, weekend, and summer programs that we operate at Sayre. The Sayre site, through Beacon Community School funding, 21st Century funding, and additional funding that it 243 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 has leveraged through the University and Community Partners operates programs for all members of the community, all ages. They provide free classes that are academic, cultural, recreational, and job training. It's governed by a community advisory board, and it is in the process of working broadly with other city and community agencies to help expand these services. For example, we have an elementary school project at the school that serves well over a hundred children Monday through Friday, three hours a day, during the entire academic year. We have another 200 students in grades 6 through 8 programs. We have another several dozen students in high school career- and college-readiness programs. Moreover, two evenings a week, we have between 150 and 200 members of the community show and attend for three family fitness nights. People take exercise, yoga, cooking, dance, GED, and 244 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 a variety of other recreational classes. We're open on Saturdays, and we provide an academic sports league, and we also provide a Beacon Pride summer camp that serves well over 120 students at the school, including elementary students through Freedom School, a job-readiness program for high school students, and we run a major peer sexual health program and a major nutrition education program where the students learn about these topics by providing educational services to local health clinics and local communities of faith.
Third, we are working with health and clinical collaborations with the school. Our school health needs are supplemented by a number of departments at Penn; for example, the Penn Dental School provides free us dental screenings and care on our dental van, providing critical dental care to over 50 Sayre students a year, as well as 245 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 oral health screenings for several hundred students during the day and an additional several hundred families and community members during fitness nights. Additionally, nursing students work with the school nurse to support heights, weights, vision screenings, and other health services. Students from across the university work with the health teachers to implement engaging health and physical education activities. Fourth and finally, we are in the process of opening a school-based school and communitywide health center. This is federally funded and is a 501(c)(3), an independent community organization that is comprised of the school, community leadership, and the University to operate a unique clinic in the United States that will not only be a community clinic that provides quality health-care services onsite in a school, but is directly linked to the 246 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 educational program of the school, where student from Sayre will be involved in all operations of the health center, its organization, its evaluation, its outreach, and its clinical services. That's our fourth component. In summary, university- assisted community schools serve, educate, and activate their students, their families, and all local residents. Students learn not only by doing, but they learn by and for service. Simultaneously, the University benefits from the unique opportunities community schools provide for learning, research, outreach, and program development. To speed the advance and development of university-assisted community schools as a vehicle to make our schools and communities safer for students, teaches, parents, neighborhoods, and businesses, Philadelphia City government could: 247 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 One, develop and apply innovative funding strategies that provide support to broad-based local coalitions that are designed to develop and sustain university-assisted community schools; and, second, create a multi-agency commission designed to advance and implement university-assisted community schools. We would like to applaud this committee of Council, Councilwoman Blackwell, and City Council in general for holding these important hearings. Thank you very much for your time.
You know, everybody should be here. I hope all of you in your offices have heard it. Just use the Third District as a model, and you will see all of the great things we're doing. Councilwoman Reynolds-Brown?
And we'll get a good example of what's possible when the University connects in 248 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 a meaningful way, both this way but this way as well, and reaches to the real trench of where you're trying to make a difference. So through your testimony, is one to assume that Sayre -- what is the catchment area for the University of Pennsylvania when it comes to these types of programs?
As a liaison between Penn and the West Philadelphia public schools, I work with University City High and its entire feeder pattern, West Philadelphia High and its entire feeder pattern. As you know, there are more high schools now such as Sayre as a high school. Sayre, being 58th and Walnut, serves about 35,000 people in that catchment area as a community, but the Sayre Community School has activities that are distinct from the Shaw Community School that are distinct from 249 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 University City High. Each community school identifies locally its priorities.
And some of them focus on job training, some of them focus on health care primarily.
And some of them focus on arts, et cetera. Almost all of them have all of those components, but they prioritize locally what they want, and we support it as that community council sees fit.
Well taken. Are you a one-person shop, or do you have a team?
The Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania has 40 full-time staff. We have eight full-time staff at the 250 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Sayre School alone. We have a full-time career- and college-readiness coordinator, we have three Beacon full-time staff running evening, weekend, and summer programs. We have three full-time staff working on the school day curriculum to help our Sayre students learn about health through actual health delivery and service learning. And we have a number of other resources. Most of our staff are based in the West Philadelphia public schools.
Okay. And so they are employees of the University of Pennsylvania or of the funding pot that supports that program, or whom?
Councilwoman, that's a good question. The University of Pennsylvania is the fiscal agent, so they are on the University of Pennsylvania payroll, but many of them come through grants. 251 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708
So, for example, the three full-time staff are paid for by a Beacon grant of which we are one of --
But those employees happen to be managed and supervised fiscally by the University of Pennsylvania, but we make sure that in our model that they report to the Sayre Beacon Community Advisory Council.
I see. And with either dotted lines or bold lines directly to you as well?
We are fiscally responsible but jointly programmatically responsible, meaning that the direction 252 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 of our full-time staff is supervised by our organization at Penn, the principal administration of each school, as well as that Community Advisory Council. But we ultimately are responsible.
Okay. So who are the staff ultimately held accountable by?
By our office, based on the promises and commitments and binding agreements we make with the funding agencies, but we do those in conjunction with our school and community board partners.
Very well. Finally, the programs mentioned here are needed, are substantive, and are substantial in terms of the scale. Where's the evaluation component? 'Cause it's great to offer programming; I did it for years as a program manager, program planner with the City of Philadelphia. 253 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 What matters is that at the end of the day, it's not just a giving out of the money, but the fact that a difference has been made.
I appreciate this question. Thank you. First is, is that we are accountable to individual funders, so for example, the Beacon Program across the city has evaluated our after school as having the highest attendance of all Beacon programs. 14
We have a number 17 of other outcomes with students in terms 18 of raising their attendance and other 19 outcomes that are related to funding. 20 So I guess the first answer to 21 your question is that different funding 22 streams have their own evaluation measures.
I see. 254 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708
Our community schools have been funded sometimes by the Pennsylvania Department of Labor, and we have to have a percentage of people who complete GED or job referrals. We've always met or exceeded all of those. So the first answer is: We meet and exceed through our partnerships the individual requirements of the funders. This is because we can leverage so many resources. So, for example, our after-school programs, by working with the University, we have two-to-one, three-to-one tutor rations because we bring so many university students -- undergraduate, graduate, and also staff -- to the table that other Beacons that may not have higher ed partnerships, so I think that helps our success. But the second part of evaluation, besides individual 255 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 requirements by the many funding sources is, we are for the first time putting together a comprehensive evaluation with the Sayre community, looking at how all of these components add up to actually change the quality of life and health in the Sayre community. And so we are convening a committee that is comprised of the Beacon Program, the after-school program, the school day, the health center to look at what are we doing to actually improve the economic, social, physical, and educational health of the entire community. And we are beginning to figure out how we can actually measure -- how these programs, once we integrate and aggregate them, often the problem is that individual funding sources do not request comprehensive evaluation. They require to just tell us what your attendance is for this piece or what's the graduation rate for this piece? 256 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708
But we are excited that we're trying to bring together through our partnership a comprehensive neighborhood health indicator system, where we are collectively responsible for making tangible, measurable change in the health of our communities.
I would submit that the beauty of that information is, at the end, when you look at the evaluation report, the convergence of the services you're offering stacked against what is not happening in other parts of city, because this is probably the only section of the city where you have the convergence of so many needed services, the hope is that there would be a substantial difference made, compared to other parts of the city where you do not have an analogous circumstance. Do you 257 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 follow me?
That's right. The belief of this community school work is that if we create community schools as hubs, while our communities definitely need more resources, a key problem is, how do we integrate and aggregate the resources that are already there. Especially if we leverage the resources of higher education, we can do exactly what you recommend, Councilwoman, which is integrate and aggregate so that these resources truly add up to measurable change, and that's the theory behind community schools.
The public policy direction of the city is to look closely at truancy, to look closely at what's happening between the young people 13 through 17, I believe, with AVRP. And to Councilman Goode's concern and interest, to look at what's happening with the out-of-school youth, 258 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 noting that those are three priority public-policy area of the city that would be useful and helpful for what you're doing to factor and consider those three areas as you evaluate the programs there in West Philadelphia.
Thank you very much. And we note that the Vice Chair probably knows Dr. Ira Harkavey, who is the Director of the Center for Community Partnerships.
Yes, he is. He happens to be out of town today and 259 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 wishes he could be here.
Thank you. Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is extremely special to me. Many of you that the park in the city where they request most use is the Friends of Malcolm X Park at 52nd and Pine Streets, and that whole renaissance began because of the contribution of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. We couldn't have begun, we couldn't have designed it, we could not have gotten new playground equipment. It looks like a suburban park in the heart of our community. It's across from an elementary school, Bryant School, and a church. And all of that renaissance 260 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 happened because of the wonderful partnership with Children's Hospital and the direct support of Roosevelt Hairston, Vice President of Government and Community Relations. And we thank you. I promise that you and Glenn will be first next time. That's a promise. (Laughter.)
Thank you. Please identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony. Again thank you.
Thank you, Madam Councilwoman. My name is Roosevelt Hairston, and I'm Senior Vice President for Government Relations, Community Affairs, and Deputy General Counsel at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. I'm not going to spend a long time. I'm going to really limit my comments to just a few brief ones. What I would like to do, if it's okay, is to 261 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 just submit our written testimony.
Both mine and Dr. Fine's, rest on that written testimony for the record, as well as to highlight just a few points for the Council, if possible. The first is that we are not going to take up your time today and tell you all of the wonderful things that Children's Hospital of Philadelphia is doing for children. I think it's in the record that we are 151 years old, the oldest children's hospital in the country. Last year we had over a million outpatient encounters. Our emergency department, where Dr. Fine spends part of his time, is one of the busiest emergency departments in the country of any independent children's hospital. We constantly respond and see the tragedies 262 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 that violence causes the children of this city and indeed in the region and nationally. One of the things that we have submitted with our testimony is a 13-page document that outlines for you many of the violence-prevention programs that we currently have in place. And I will tell you, I will confess that we did not put this document together for my testimony or Dr. Fine's today. We put this document together following the tragedy of the Amish shootings. We have received five of the children, the little girls, who were shot in that event. They are still with us at our hospital. One of the difficult things that we learned following that, the initial traumatic period, was that the Amish shooting was indeed and in fact a tragedy that should not have happened. But what we learned and what we became keenly aware of, more so than 263 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 before, is that the violence that's perpetrated upon children that we see every day goes, in large measure, not talked about, not discussed, and not really addressed in a coordinated fashion. And so we commend the Council for having this hearing today. We also commend Council for moving forward in new initiatives. We're not going to spend a lot of time -- or indeed any time, really -- talking about the initiatives that are outlined here, because we have looked at these initiatives as a starting point, not as something to tout for Council or for anyone else. We're going to look at what we're doing. We are here in an effort to be partners, in an effort to be good citizens, and in an effort because we see violence against children as one of the number-one pediatric health issues in this country and certainly a major health issue to the citizens of 264 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Philadelphia. And so we are here, Councilwoman, to provide you with some information about what we intend to do in the future. And I underscore the word "some" because we would hope that we can partner with you and other members of this Council in the future so that we can enhance some of the things that we are doing, and maybe we can provide value to some of the things that the city is seeking to do. With me today is Dr. Joel Fine, and Dr. Fine is an attending physician, one of our fine emergency department physicians. He is also the principle investigator of the Philadelphia Collaborative Violence Prevention Center, and he's going to provide you with some comments about the work that he is moving forward with doing at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.
Thank 265 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 you, Mr. Hairston. Thank you, Dr. Fine.
Thank you. My name is Joel Fine, and I'm from Children's Hospital, and thank you Chairwoman Blackwell and members of the Finance Committee. I wanted to come to you today wearing a number of hats -- not just because it's cold out. But as an emergency physician at CHOP, I witness firsthand the devastation that violence reaps on the families and the patients that we take care of in Philadelphia. And every day I can say that our emergency department sees an adolescent or a child that's been injured in a fight, even in their own home. Sometimes we see these children on the nightly news or in the daily papers demonstrating the worse that bullets and knives can cause. But to be honest, most of the 266 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 time, these injuries are minor, and we can patch them up, send them out, and hope that it doesn't happen again. But in our hearts, we know that it will -- if not to them, then to their friends, their classmates, their brothers, or their sisters. And I'm wearing my second hat as a pediatrician. There are other things that we should know. We know that some studies show that the return rate for teenagers who are hospitalized after a violent injury can be up to 44 percent to that same hospital. We also know that the danger of experiencing violence, even worrying about it every day, extends way deeper than the cuts, bruises, and broken bones. The psychological ramifications of violence in the home and on the streets include anxiety and depression, which can lead to substance abuse and other high-risk behaviors that decrease 267 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 the line span of our Philadelphia citizens. Our children often feel that they are offered no choices that can redirect them towards a more positive future. It is our job as parents, physicians, and legislators to work together to give them those choices. And there are many excellent programs and organizations in Philadelphia that can set out to do this. We've heard from many of them today: Men United for a Better Philadelphia; we'll hear from PAN, Mothers In Charge; and some of the more recent ones like the Pennsylvania Injury Reporting and Intervention System, or PIRIS, and the Blueprints for a Safer Philadelphia. My third hat, and the one that I've acquired most recently, is as the director and principle investigator of the Philadelphia Collaborative Violence Prevention Center. This center is a 268 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 CDC-funded, community-based research partnership that includes Penn, CHOP, Drexel, Temple, as well a compendium of interested community organizations, known as PARCC -- the Philadelphia Area Research Community Coalition. Together, we hope to design and implement and evaluate primary prevention programs that reduce violence and aggression in children and in young adults. However, many of these programs count on the fact that kids need a place to go that is not the street corner or an unsafe park. For example, our center hopes to find venues in the city where youth ages 10 to 14 and their parents can congregate, and we hope to utilize the resources and personnel at these sites to implement successful violence-prevention initiatives. The legislation that you're considering will increase the hours of 269 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 operation for recreation facilities and will also provide support for those community members who will want to volunteer for our efforts. We're hopeful that you will consider partnering with us and that other dedicated men and women who work so tirelessly and passionately to seek and reduce the incidents of an impact of violence in our city. I want to thank the committee for their efforts in this initiative and for your consideration.
Thank you so much. And we appreciate the partnership and all that you are -- not only to the citizens of our city and those five children from Lancaster who are there, but what you are to this country and this world. And I'm just proud to represent CHOP here, and we look forward to doing everything that we can to continue to work together. 270 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 And thank you for always coming forward whenever we ask you for documents. Or if we're having any health emergencies, you always come forth. You bring your doctors, your professionals forward so we know what to present in schools. When we went from meningitis years ago at a school in Mantua, whatever the issue has been, CHOP has always been there, and we gratefully appreciate it. Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds-Brown?
Good afternoon, gentlemen. I first need to echo Chairperson Blackwell's comments. We do appreciate it. And clearly, the region appreciates it. So to my question. You've shared with us the number of programs you have on line for children. Have you shared this information with the 271 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 parochial schools, the private schools in the region? since we know now that, as far as Lancaster, parents have had the need for the services that you provide. And the reason why I ask that question is, I know for a fact that a number of school districts are now having lockdown drills because of the Lancaster tragedy. So to that, have you considered making this kind of information public to the school districts across the region?
Yes. Let me start out by saying that one of the -- in my mind, one of the difficult things that Children's Hospital has not done effectively over the years is to tell its story tell, tell the story about some of the programming like some of the ones that are outlined in this document to the public more generally.
272 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Mm-hmm.
That is something that we're in the process of doing. Part of the reason why we wanted to do compile this as a starring point was to be able to tell the story in a more effective and transparent way.
So part of what we intend to do over the next 12 to 18 months, in addition to looking at our partnerships, in addition to trying to create new partnerships where they don't exist, in addition to trying to help people like Dr. Fine, we are also going to be trying to tell our story and provide the information to school districts in a more effective fashion.
And I want to put one of our staff people on the spot. 273 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 That is up to Val Cristalis (ph.), who's with us today, as well as Suzanne Ramsey, who is one of our public-affairs writers, to really do for us in a way we haven't done in the past.
I would strongly encourage you to do that because we already know that the time has passed for the need to do that -- again, given the Lancaster tragedies. And it certainly will put school districts at a different place in terms of being proactive and on the ready when they know what's available at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. So if I need to put that request in writing, I'm always ready to do that. But I will say on the record that we would strongly encourage you to look favorably upon that effort. Thank you.
And we will share. As we move forward, we will share information and our communications 274 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 with Council.
Okay. And, again, I emphasize across the region, because parents everywhere have the same concern.
Not just those of us in the urban communities -- as, again, Lancaster has already illustrated.
Thank you again for all that you do. Let us ask Brother Sutan Achmed (ph.); Dr. Bivins and Mr. Bivins, if you're here; and the Mother of Mantua, Mary Jenkins. We get you next. And don't forget, ladies and 275 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 gentlemen, we still will make a skit on violence available for those who are interested and able to remain. And then after that DVD, we will recess until tomorrow. Thank you, Brother Sutan.
Thank you, Madam Chair, and I thank the Council for the opportunity to come before them. My name is Sutan Achmed. I'm the father of a son who was murdered in the City of Philadelphia, a 15-year-old killed by a 16-year-old over a girl's phone number. My wife and myself have decided that we had to respond to this issue more than just the tears of our loss but in an effort to change the quality of life for young people. One of things that we've looked at as -- and as I've sat here today and listened to much of the various testimony from the Mayor's Office, from the departments of the city, and the adjoining agencies, I find 276 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 that we still have a major contradiction, and I would just like to suggest about four or five things right quick. One, we say to young people that we're concerned about them, but yet we've cut youth service programs. One, we see say that young people need education, but we've cut funding and programs in the School District. One, we say that young people need to grow and develop, but we've cut funding to libraries. We say that children should have safe havens and places to go, but we've cut the recreation budget. We say that we're concerned about young people, but we've seen across the board both from city, state, and federal government that we have continued to cut, cut, cut. And we talk about not cutting in Iran and Iraq, but we have cut and 277 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 run on our children. We've have not given our children the real quality of life or a real opportunity to grow. We have, over the last three years, have held five youth leadership forums where we brought together over 1500 young people and put them at the table and let them qualify what this problem is, how they deal with this problem, and the effects of what they go through each and every day. And out of their discussion, we have come up with a document where we are proposing a bond, a bond. We know that the city has used bonds, and I hope that the other Councilpeople are listening and Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds, but we're proposing a bond. We're proposing that over the last few years, we've used bonds as a way to solve a problem now and full fund it now and then pay for it later. We just passed -- I seen the Finance Committee just passed a 278 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 $150 million bond for arts and culture and, you know, the Philadelphia Zoo and the Parkway and things like that. Governor Rendell recently passed a $600 million bond for the environmental green. We've seen that Mayor Street passed an NTI bond for brick and mortar for 500 million. We've seen that we've passed bonds for the Gas Works, for the Airport, for all other kinds of infrastructure relationships, but we've never passed a bond for the human growth of society. All of or bonds have been targeted to a 30-year period, but they've also been targeted to the growth of the infrastructure of society. And so we're proposing a bond that could be a community youth revenue-generating bond, and the bond is called the $500 million Community Youth Revenue-Generating Bond, and we think that this bond could address six major 279 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 issues. One, it could address the issue of unemployment among our youth. Two, it could address the issue of education, college tuition, and internship. Three, it could address the issues of public-safety programs. Four, it could address the issue of recreation. Five, it could address the issue of economic development. And, six, it could address the issue of community-based funding. We think that this bond, over a 30-year period and in its first year, could put 25,000 young people in full-time, part-time, after-school, and weekend jobs in the public sector, the private sector, the neighborhood sector across the City of Philadelphia.
We think in the first year we could put a thousand youth in college, pay their tuition, and then match them 280 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 up with a community-based organization for their internship to help those community-based organizations to grow and develop. Three, we think that the public-safety initiatives that we could address in such a bond, we could address after-school programs, Town Watch, witness protection programs, and neighborhood policing. Four, we think that we could actually look at fully funding our recreation centers. I know there was a commission report a year ago that talked about that the Department of Recreation would need about $50 million over the next five years to revamp and fully staff these facilities. My own community recreation center that's at 22nd and Cecil B. Moore has almost 25,000 square root of space, and less than 5,000 is being used. It's an entire second floor of 12 offices that are padlocked because there is no 281 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 staff there and there is no program capabilities in such a facility. We think that we can look at the young people who have figured out a way to make money illegally and move them into the economic fiber of their society by creating goods and stock on shelves in stores on many of our commercial corridors throughout the City of Philadelphia. We think this will, in turn, create a tax base, create jobs, and use the very valuable resource that young people bring to the table. And, in fact, last year, the sneaker business was a $16 billion industry growth last year of sneakers alone. So young people will spend all of our money so we can show them how to make money and create a tax base while we're doing that. And we think that we can find a way to look at the many community-based organizations throughout this city who, day in and day out, 282 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 provide goods and services, provide extracurricular support to families throughout the city, but who are all fighting on shoestring budgets. We think that we can now look at a way to fund those groups in a comprehensive way, from A to Z, where they could provide goods and services to their communities based on the scopes of their programs and their ability to change the quality of life. In summary, we think that in four years, we could add 100,000 young people into a workforce, creating new tax dollars to the city's base. In four years, we would have 4,000 youth in colleges who are giving back to community groups by way of the community organizations. In four years, through public-safety initiatives, we would see a major reduction in homicides and other violent acts, helping to move people in the direction of handling their 283 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 contradictions in a nonviolent way. And I would have to suggest to you that in America, this appetite for violence doesn't just start with children; it starts with world leaders, it starts with sports people, it starts with entertainers, it starts with the news, the video games, and across the board. So how hypocritical can we be at times to suggest that young people should resolve their contradiction in a non-violent way when we have world leaders who can't even do that. In a four-year period, we're suggesting that we could create safe havens and recreation facilities across this City of Philadelphia. We think that we have the ability to change the quality of life, that we could restore our small-business corridors with a neighborhood infusion of new dollars and economic development, which would provide goods and services within our 284 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 neighborhoods, leading to new jobs and a new tax base. And in four years, we will tackle the problems of social ills by fully funding community-based organizations.
Finally, our achievable goals would be that we would reduce idle time, giving youth something to do, going back to the concept of working for a living. We think we would strengthen the education and its outcome. We restore the feelings of safety and comfort. We restore positive recreational activities, which would negate the negative behavior. We reestablish the economic bases of our neighborhoods, and we end this cycle of poverty and dependency, restoring growth to many families. Some people said a while ago that the war on poverty is over; I would suggest to you that the war on poverty is not over. In my closing statement, if we 285 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 can use bonds for the infrastructure of society such as bridges, highways, water works, electric systems, convention centers, stadiums, brick and mortar, offices complexes, why not think outside the box and create a human capital bond where we can address the issues of unemployment, education, public safety, recreation, neighborhood economic development, community-based funding. And we could use this $500 million now and pay for it over the next 30 years, as this bond will generate its own revenue growth. As I understood it the other day, the new bond that we passed for the zoo and the arts and culture and to bring tourists to the City of Philadelphia will have a $12 million payback debt service. This bond would generate those kinds of dollars. In closing, bonds have been used as a historical way of solving problems. There is a 30-year cycle 286 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 related to the bond. We think over that same 30-year cycle, we are now changing the quality of life. I would just like to thank you for this opportunity and just say, in closing, that if we are serious about young people in this city, in this state, and in this country, then we have to look at the priority. One of the key statistics that I became aware of recently -- and now the number has changed -- is: 300 million Americans; 250 million guns, with a gun being made every 10 seconds; 195 million cell phones, with a phone being sold every five seconds; and less than 50 million books in our schools. The priorities are completely in the wrong place. And if we're talking about the infrastructure of society and we look at the Office of the President, where there are several departments of government in his office, that no matter who's the 287 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 president, those departments continue to cycle for the growth of society. If we look at the Governor's Office, no matter who becomes the governor, there are secretaries who are responsible for the growth of society. And if we look at the Mayor's Office and look at whoever is in the Mayor's Office, there are departments that have the responsibility for the cycle of growth. Why can't we prioritize and have a Department of Youth at a presidential level, a Department of Youth at the governor's level, or a Department of Youth at a mayor's level. If we're going to solve this problem, we got to deal with it. Being a father who knows what the pain is, who knows that -- I've heard a lot of statistics today, and I heard that, "Under my administration, there's less killings than under the administration. I heard that recreation 288 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 centers are doing this, and I heard that. The only stat that's important to me is that I will never see my child's child, because he was murdered at years old. The only statistic 8 that's important to me and many other 9 mothers and fathers who are losing their 10 children daily is that they will never 11 see the growth of their children. As 12 opposed to planning futures, we're 13 planning funerals. 14 And I'm suggesting that this 15 charge and this Council, who has the ability to change the quality of life in this city, look at such a bond idea.
And this document is drafted from myself, my wife, and a group of young people who believe that bonds have solved other problems, and this bond could change the quality of life in Philadelphia. Thank you very much. ) 289 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708
Thank you very much. And certainly, Mr. Achmed, we thank you for your consistency.
We've been talking about this for years. You're always motivated and always serious about your commitment to this idea, and we commend you.
Thank you very much. Dr. Bivins and Mr. Bivins, after whom, we will hear Mother of Mantua, Reverend Mother Mary Jenkins. (Witnesses come forward.)
Thank you for your patience. And we really appreciate your commitment to education over the years. I keep up with you, I listen to you whenever I can or whenever you call talk 290 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 radio and when you contribute about your summer school program. As you know, we're Chair of Education again, and you've always been available.
Thank you. We're not always available anymore since we spend about a half a year in Florida now.
I know that. Lucky you. But I know that your time spent here is well spent.
Meanwhile, we're here to address you. We thank you for this opportunity to develop young citizens into contributing persons.
Thank you. Please identify yourself for 291 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 the record.
I'm Eugene Bivins, and this is my wife, Dr. Karen Bivins. And we have been directors of a nonprofit organization called Black Caucus Schools at one time. We have five different sites across the city brought on by a strike by the Federation of Teachers years ago, and we have 12 been contributing that work, although 13 now in one site at (indiscernible) 14 United Methodist Church behind 15 Germantown High School. 16 However, we are set up, and 17 because we are accredited, we can go 18 into any building and carry our 19 accreditation with us and teachers on 20 our staff if needed. 21 We thank you for this 22 opportunity to develop our young 23 persons. You know the problems, so we 24 need not enumerate them in great depth. 25 Some of the problems they face 292 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 include a lack of readiness to enter the world of work. Our schools are licensed and accredited by the Pennsylvania Department of Education and the accrediting commission of the academic schools of Pennsylvania. We see a need for many young people to find a trade. However, to become a carpenter or an electrician or a plumber, a construction worker, many will need to gain the number-one skill, that of being able to measure. The lack of this skill stops most of them from entering the job market at step one. Our schools can provide the knowledge of measuring in the English and metric system. Schools in the United States have been unable to find enough teachers who are able to train others to do this for our industries to produce competent workers. We need not dwell on the reasons for the failure of the schools to provide such workers but recognize 293 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 the problem. The United States has fallen so far behind other countries that we must hire foreign teachers to teach science and math. We can teach conversion to and from the metric system and measurement in the English system as well. Most of you have heard that the United States had to drop the teaching of the metric system. We are the only major country in the world to do so, yet every industrial science laboratory in the United States and elsewhere uses the metric system. You can get it from us. If it is only measurement in English units, we can provide that too. We can create new instructors to teach others. To access the target population, we've proposed to rent space from the charter schools. You'll find them across the city so, therefore, the problem that the Mayor talked about of 294 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 reaching all neighborhoods would be solved by using charter schools. This includes the MLK Association for Non-violence adjacent to the Carpenters' Union on Spring Garden. The budget would depend upon the number of applicants. We estimate the cost to be approximately 600 per pupil for a six-week period. If we can be of service, we stand ready to help develop willing persons into productive citizens. It was mentioned earlier by the Police Commissioner and his staff that they have difficulty in solving the problems of I.D. on the street. This is not a part of my presentation, but I would like to bring out the fact that technology exists today. There are certain corporations that produce chips, and chips can be at birth through the nanotechnology, which can produce them so small and put them right under the skin at birth. Of 295 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 course, a lot of people will start yelling that you're getting the mark of the beast or something, but we have to evaluate whether or not it's a program that should be considered by society as far as identifying young people on the streets. I turn it over to my wife now, because she has a slightly different slant on how we should attack this problem.
Good afternoon. My name is Karen C. Bivins, and I'm the Education Chair for the Philadelphia branch of NAACP. I've been doing that since 1998, along with -- I've been teaching since 1957, and I retired in 1993. And being a glutton for punishment, I went to work for Vision Quest for two years, working with adjudicated youth. So I have had a full-rounded experience in that area. 296 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 I taught biology, chemistry, and physical science and general math. So also, dealing with high school students, I also had a rounded education in working with those young people. I want to start with my position now. Council Lady Blackwell, ladies and gentlemen, we thank you for this opportunity to help to develop and improve the reading schools of ex-offenders with their cooperation so that they may become contributing students. An article in the Friday, October 20, 2006, Inquirer discussing programs to help at-risk students described the School District's dropout prevention efforts. The article notes that 30,000 students dropped out of the city's public schools between 2000 and 2005. They also noted that 8th-graders who attended school less 297 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 than 80 percent of the time and failed either English or math have a 75 percent probability of dropping out of high school. Many have been unable to obtain legitimate employment and became involved in illegal activities to support themselves. Your literature has stated that 35,000 ex-offenders will be released this year. It has been my observation that a significant number of ex-offenders may have been dropped out of school between 6th and 8th grade and may be described as functional illiterates. As a result, their incarceration may have been related to low levels of reading comprehension, resulting in their decisions to turn to robbery, assaults, purse-snatching, car-jacking, drugs-selling, prostitution, and/or other illegal activities due to their inability to obtain legitimate employment. 298 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Unless they received reading remediation while they were incarcerated, they returned to the streets with the same deficits that led them to their incarceration. Therefore, they may need to receive reading remediation as a necessary intervention to prevent recidivism. Otherwise, they will gain -- they will again revert to negative activities and renewed incarceration. Mandatory reading remediation may ensure that they will be able to function successfully in society by obtaining and maintaining meaningful employment. They will need a phonics-based remedial program to help them to read at a 9th-grade level or better. At my direction, our school contests students to determine their reading level and recruit qualified instructors to provide reading remediation. 299 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 As my husband stated, this budget will depend on the number of applicants who will attend the two-hour classes five days a week for six weeks, with an estimated cost of $600 per applicant. That boils down to about $10 per hour of remediation and teaching. I hope that you will consider my proposal. Thank you.
Thank you very much, Dr. Bivins. Thank you, Mr. Bivins. And you always have something positive to add. And absolutely, reading remediation is so basic. And we thank you very much. Thank you always for coming, your patience, and we are certainly glad to have that important part of your testimony, and we'll fight for that.
Well, we thank you for inviting us and giving us this opportunity.
Thank 300 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 you very much.
Next is Reverend Jenkins, Mom Jenkins, the Mother of Mantua. (Witness comes forward.)
Thank you for your patience. I'm sorry to hold all of you for so long. It does become too long a day for you. And we thank you for -- thanks for your patience and your commitment to Mantua and to kids and seniors in our city.
My name is Mary -- Evangelist Mary Lou Odom/Jenkins, known as Mother of Mantua. I am here on behalf of the following agencies: Mantua Community Planners, Inc., Mantua Block Captain 301 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Association, and the community at-large. Being an advocate for 40 years or are more for families, children, youth, and justice for humanity has given me the urge to dig deeper in the storehouse. I found in the storehouse of my soul no justice, no peace. The homeless, the hunger, the angry. Why do we find all of the above in the storehouse mentioned? When people are faced with any kind of injustice, they become angry. Anger breeds crime. When we begin to look at the cause and stop blaming the victim, we will see a decline in some of this violence. We need more than the law enforcement to cease the violence. We have to move planning in regards to cease the violence to a level of caring about humanity: Creating jobs for young and old, meeting heads of households better education for all, more treatment for total health care, and support of 302 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 all advocates who are working in God's vineyard, advocating for justice and peace for all humanity. Being in a leadership position, we must remember that it takes an entire community to cease the violence. We must begin with prayer and faith, believing that we can make a difference. Before I close, I would like to say that the storehouse I'm talking about as we, we as people, we as leaders, we as workers, we have the tools, and we are asking for more tools. Mainly, we need tools of faith, tools of strength, and our governments that we serve to help us in our communities, not just one, but the total community. When I say "total community," I'm speaking about the Philadelphia community and its surroundings. Wherever God sends us, that's where we must go to make this violence stop. However the plan comes 303 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 to us, this is how we should utilize it. We must have tools to work -- to meet with, meaning finances to purchase those materials where they are needed. And that material, those materials that I'm speaking about, are simple things. Like when someone is hungry, feed them, make a pot of soup, cook for those who are hungry, feed those who are hungry, clothe those who are naked, and be there for those who ask a helping hand, no matter what it is. If they need your last dollar, give them your last dollar, because the god that we serve will give you another dollar and maybe more. I'm got going to preach, Council, so I'm going to shut up and get off this mic because I know much more I can say, but maybe the next time. And thank you for giving me the opportunity to share this much.
Thank 304 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 you. I appreciate you talking about the victim. Lucien Blackwell used to talk about it all the time. We certainly agree with you. We thank you for your testimony and for being the example you always are. Mary Jenkins, whenever you have a meetings, there's food. She always practices certainly what she preaches. We're sorry to hold everyone. Anthony Murphy, Executive Director of Town Watch Integrated Services; Wiley Smith, Specialist Town Watch Integrated Services. I don't know if Tumar is coming up with you. We welcome you. While you're coming up, we will note that Robert Stone, Director of Stone Center in Southwest Philadelphia, had to leave. 1930 South 60th Street is the Stone Center, and we will submit his testimony for the record. 305 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 We haven't forgotten you, Toby. Next, after our friend Annie Murphy, we will have Marcy Green and Gary Ames. (Witnesses come forward.)
Thank you for patience. It doesn't mean we don't care, and I thank you for your patience. And for those who would like to stay after this, we have not forgotten you, either. Mr. Ferrelli, we got you, from Buffalo Soldiers. I see you, Patricia. We see you, Pat. We will have our testimony. And at the end of all our testimony, we are going to conclude with the skit from Sharon Baptist Church, excerpts of it that we promised we would show sooner. So if some of you in offices would like to see that, we're saying give us about 10, 15 minutes, and we will begin playing that, and that is 306 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 how we will adjourn our hearing for the day. Mr. Murphy, thank you please identify yourself for the record and begin your testimony. Thank you for the important work that Town Watch does.
I recognize how important these hearings are. And no 10 slight at all at the time and how much it takes. There's a lot to be said. In listening the testimony that was in front of me, I would like to try to tailor my responses, not just to what Town Watch Integrated Services does as addressing violence, but also how we begin to look at trying to take a wholistic approach to interacting in the communities in the City of Philadelphia. Town Watch, as you know, is developing and organizing citizens to become involved in community policing. It is through community policing, which is a community engaged and empowered to police itself, that we believe violence 307 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 can be addressed. However, violence in the City of Philadelphia, as is violence throughout our nation, is still growing. Town Watch, in the last few months, particularly with the thrust of the Mayor's Safer Streets Program, we have over 35 new Town Watch groups. We have trained over 800 new citizens -- some for established groups as well as those for new groups. We also train and certify citizens to do safe corridors. We are now currently working with neighborhoods to develop coalitions. Those coalitions are designed around neighborhood issues because we believe neighborhood people are the professionals and have the answers that we need in order to move our communities forward. Our community is families; and, therefore, we have to address families. Town Watch Integrated Services, which took Town Watch s step further from just dealing with groups 308 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 who wanted to patrol their neighborhood, who wanted to report crime, is now to get people involved in addressing it in a proactive manner. We're not waiting for things to happen; we want to make things happen. And the things that we want to make happen are things that prevent negative behavior. To that arm, Town Watch Integrated Services is also a youth-provider agency for the (indiscernible) and violence reduction program in the northwest area of the city. You see, it's important that you don't just deal with those who may do wrong. It's important that you get citizens involved. It is important that we begin to build the type of communities that the City of Philadelphia was always known for, a city of neighborhoods, meaning that in those neighborhoods: 309 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 You were the first line of defense, you were the first line of corrections. We also work with the school system, and we provide incident management for schools and also continually address racial situations throughout our City of Philadelphia. So, again, it's not just Town Watch as Town Watch used to be, but it is involving citizens in the complexity of the problems that we face. Violence in Philadelphia is not unique and is not separate. It's not disjointed. It is connected; it is connected to a culture of violence. It is not just connected to rap music -- and, yeah, we had Caesar Lawrence Tucker, who was our most staunch fighter against that type of music because of the wording. And what we've done is, we've embraced it. And in embracing it, we've embraced the negative images that come from it. And as our children have 310 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 become disjointed -- and, yes, we are dealing with the second and third generations of crack, that drug in and of itself was designed to impact on the female population, unfortunately, always being the strength in the black community. That's what they were. Mothers always made it so that fathers could do. Fathers always did what mothers needed them to do. We've lost that. We no longer have that type of community identification. It is important that as these hearings move forward, we reach out and wrap our arms around the most important ingredients in our community, and that is the family. That is the family in its nucleus, not the family that could pulled apart, because it has happened.
And what we attempt to do in dealing with Town Watch groups is to say that whatever the issue is, we will address the issue with you. And it's not just dealing with 311 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 crime, because Town Watch is about quality of life. It is improving the quality of life that will change the fabric and the culture here in Philadelphia as well as the culture across the state. We've had Columbines. Philadelphia has not had a Columbine. See, we've had incidents of violence throughout our nation that we have not had here. Yes, we've had 330-some-odd homicides. And in Philadelphia, in my youth, we had more homicides in a year than that through an era. " We have to teach children to care, and in order to teach them to care, we must show them some love. And if we do that, and if and when we 312 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 continue to do that and continue to support the initiatives that bring about love, those will be the ingredients that change it around. We are a part of a faith-based initiative because, you see, those institutions in our communities as well as the schools and businesses in our communities must be our partners of change -- not just in one area of the City of Philadelphia but in every area. And not just in Philadelphia; we are throughout the State of Pennsylvania. And not just in Pennsylvania, but throughout our nation. We are a nation that is now suffering from the fact that our culture has been one that has embraced violence as a behavior and has accepted it. We no longer can tolerate violence as an answer to a problem. Young people must learn and must understand, as do we, that it is not going to be solved through the barrel of 313 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 a gun, but it can be resolved through a conversation and a commitment to peace. Thank you for hearing me.
Thank you very much. The work of Town Watch is, as you say, is citywide, it's all-inclusive and absolutely affecting our quality of life. And we thank you for always giving out a Lucien Blackwell Award every year in his honor. And thank you for what you're doing for our city.
As you know, you and Lucien were very much instrumental in my desire to continue to do what I do. Thank you very much. (Applause.)
Thank you, thank you. Next is Ms. Marcy Green and Mr. Gary Ames. (Witnesses come forward.)
Next we will have Kenneth Ferrelli. Then 314 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 we'll have Michael Maleek Allah and Patricia Baltimore. Don't forget, folks, we still have a -- Toby, we haven't forgotten you, and we still will have our video for those who would like to see it. Thank you. Thank you so much for your patience. You were here early. You're so patient. We sure appreciate you.
Good afternoon. I'm Marcy Green. Thank you, Madam Chairwoman, and thank you, members of City Council, for giving me the opportunity to share this critical information with you today. Just for the record, I am a born and bred Philadelphian, lived here all of my life until the last 315 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 three-and-a-half years. During my adult years, I served as a volunteer in Town Watch and Victim Assistance for over 5 years. 6 Also, it should be noted that 7 I have no previous or present vested 8 interest in the modality that I am 9 presenting here today. None of my 10 friends or relatives sell or use this 11 method in their careers. I only know 12 about this amazing development and have 13 been researching it for approximately 15 14 years now. 15 Although significant numbers 16 of people haven't been exposed to the 17 efficacy of this modality, neurofeedback 18 has its roots and discipline that go 19 back 30-plus years, so this is by no 20 means a "Johnny Come Lately." Technology has developed to the level that we can now virtually change the face of the criminal justice system as we know it, to evolve as a safer, more humane, and truly remedial 316 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 institution. We can turn this frightening pandemic of violent behavior and drug and alcohol addiction around if -- big if -- we are willing to step out of the box, explore, and utilize an innovative modality that the more sophisticated computers and software currently have made possible. The name of this modality is neurobiofeedback, and it is the most assuredly very powerful, effective and yet safe, non-invasive method to return an individual to the productive, non-violent person he or she was born to be, with the full measure of self-esteem that is their birthright. Due to the limited time frame we have to make this presentation, I will relate just one choice example that demonstrates how powerful and innovative this is. Several years ago, a young prison official requested that the Texas 317 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 State Correctional Institute, the juvenile division specifically, permit him to initiate a study utilizing neurofeedback. At the time, he worked on the neurofeedback study, Alphonso Breema (ph.) had a master's degree and was given Ph.D.'s to work under him on this program that he proposed. The outcome was that these young folk who had commit capital criminal offenses -- we're speaking of murder and rape -- were so improved that they then had to develop a second follow-up program for early release. The results were virtually remarkable. The revolving-door syndrome phased out. Without further ado, I introduce for the members of City Council and the other presenters that are still here Mr. Gary Ames. Gary is a neurofeedback professional and does hands-on work with this innovative modality. Gary is a licensed 318 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 psychologist in Pennsylvania. His interest in neurobiofeedback began in graduate school in the 1970s during the inception of the field. He resumed his interest in training in neurofeedback in 2002, when the technology arrived. Gary.
I am Gary Ames, citizens and servants and representatives. I have the answer to violent crime. I have the answer to violent crime because I know exactly where the problem lies -- in the right prefrontal cortex. Nineteen out of twenty death-row inmates show electroencephalographic abnormalities right there. Whether the cause be genetic, traumatic brain injury, family, 319 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 community, the cure is the same: Fix the brain and the nervous system, you heal the life, you solve the problem. Does anyone know what the recidivism rate for violent criminals?
That's low. It's about 65 after three years. That's fairly typical. I've brought a few articles summarizing a study that was done over years, with 2,776 felons that were 16 given biofeedback and neurofeedback 17 training. And at the end of 40 sessions 18 of this training, the recidivism rate 19 for this group was 15 percent. That's 20 about a 70 percent reduction in 21 recidivism. 22 We're talking about 23 biofeedback. Biofeedback basically 24 means -- it starts with monitoring of 25 some physiological system and consists 320 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 of interacting with a display of your own physiology. The most powerful sort is brainwave biofeedback. If you put a few sensors up here and we'll see what's going on under the lid, under the hood, and you can make changes in the brain that are permanent, have pervasive benefit. This is safe, non-invasive, and has profound pervasive and enduring benefits. This is fairly -- neurofeedback is so advanced now, it's rather easy to implement. It can be in many settings. Biofeedback in the hands of a physician with his patients is medicine. In the psychologist with his clients, it's therapy. When a teacher does this with her students, it's education. If a parent buys biofeedback equipment for his son, it's parenting. And if a child uses his own brain as the joystick in a game, that's just fun. Nobody owns this. If someone 321 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 in prison or probation uses biofeedback with an offender, then it's rehabilitation. It's easiest to fold a biofeedback or a neurofeedback program into an existing program probably -- whether a halfway house, prisons, these curfew centers I heard about today, and there are programs within police stations for young offenders. Or school programs. About 10, 20, 40 sessions is typically all that is required, hours of training. Typically, people receive better-quality sleep, more emotional calm, greater mental focus. Within ten sessions, most everybody gets that. The price of this equipment can be a few hundred dollars and a few thousand dollars. The program that I have here, which is called "Correcting the Incorrigible," was primarily administered by volunteers in prisons. 322 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 I ask you to have an open mind. Look at the evidence. This is a little strange. Wires on the head, brainwave training is -- but it's not that strange. It is doable, it's cost-effective. I have a few handouts here. Please, you can look at my website, alertfocus.com. There's a section there on criminality. And Google neurofeedback. And I've come here to ask, can I get a meeting?
Of course. And we'll have someone come up -- we'll have Mr. Christmas come up and get some of the information that you have. We're always available to meet with you. Mr. Christmas will likewise give you his card. And if you call us, we're happy for follow-up. We thank you very much. We will read all of the documents you've given us. 323 10/24/06 - Finance Committee - Res. 060708 Are there any questions from members of the Committee? (No questions.)
Thank you. Brother Maleek Allah. (Witness comes forward.)