ANCHORAGE REENTRY COALITION QUARTERLY MEETING Thu, May 29, 2025 6:02 - Christina Shadura 6:02 - Hillberry, Amanda F 6:02 - Christina Shadura 6:02 - Unidentified Speaker 6:02 - Unidentified Speaker 6:02 - Hillberry, Amanda F 6:02 - Christina Shadura 6:02 - Christina Shadura 6:02 - Hillberry, Amanda F 6:02 - Christina Shadura 6:02 - Unidentified Speaker 6:02 - Unidentified Speaker 6:02 - Christina Shadura Notice that most of these folks are trickling in after two o'clock here. I was telling the group I sent the reminder email and about 56 out-of-offices bounced back to me immediately. So might not have a full quorum here, but we'll have some folks and I appreciate you guys showing up. I know you could be anywhere right now and you're here listening to the coalition. So we appreciate you. Couple more minutes. Enjoy outer space lo-fi. All right, folks. Well, thank you for showing up here. I was just trying to give a couple more minutes for the stragglers to come in, but I do want to be respectful of your time here. Thank you for showing up. My name is Christina Shadura. I am your Anchorage Reentry Coalition Coordinator. I will show my here so you know that I'm a real person. Thanks again for showing up today. We have a full agenda here today for a couple things that I wanted to go over and I wanted to give some time to have a discussion, open it up for some meet and greets. If those of you who joined last meeting noticed, I kind of packed the schedule with a lot of program updates and presentations and we didn't really have a lot of time to hear from the membership and kind of introduce folks who are doing the same work in the community. So we'll definitely put some time in for that up on the screen there. And I believe Amanda and I did some IT. So let me know if you don't see the PowerPoint, but you should see right now, a big old agenda with some things that we're going to cover today. If you have any questions, please feel free to put them in the chat. But just keep in mind that it's just a, I'm a one lady show here. So if I'm not grabbing your question right off the bat, just because I'm looking at another screen, you know how it is. We will move forward here. One thing that I'm going to say we might not be able to get to is the measures for justice. Let's be clear. We have a presentation from a gentleman named Brian Gunn MFJ. He's over on the East Coast. We were scheduled to do this today, but I don't know if he's going to be able to attend. So he should be here at 2.20. So if he does pop on, we'll make some time for him. But if not, we'll work right on through. Okay. So first things first. I wanted to give you folks just a little bit of update to what the coalition has been working on and some things that I've been kind of coordinating and looking around. To me, I feel like it's been a lot of boiling the spaghetti noodles and throwing them against the wall and kind of seeing what sticks, as Amanda Hilberry and I were talking about before we got going here. There's a lot of priorities going on in the community, right? Homelessness is a huge factor. There's a budget deficit. There's education spending. Times are tight, right? I don't need to tell anybody that. But at the same time, we have a population that we want to represent and make sure that we're advocating for. And the best way that we can do that is by providing resources and making sure that we're part of these conversations. So right here, what you'll see in front of you is just a couple pictures, kind of screen caps that kind of highlight a couple things that we've been working with. Our last coalition meeting was in February, so this kind of takes off the last few three months of what we've been doing. So as you can see here, in March, the coalition went with the Summit on Anchorage's Coordinated Response to Homelessness, which was held by the Mayor's Office, Assembly Housing and Homelessness Committee, and the Anchorage Coalition to End Homelessness. We discussed progress, challenges, strategies to address homelessness in our community. There was community members, policy makers, service It was really cool to have everybody come together over there at SCF and kind of figure out how to do an approach to homelessness that puts people first. One thing that the coalition wanted to do is host a World Cafe table, which is kind of a discussion around the education and the awareness for criminal justice-involved folks and its relationship to housing and homelessness, right? Anybody who's heard me talk has heard me say that I don't think we're tracking the homelessness as well as we should be in the community in regards to folks who are homeless because of their impact or their touch with the criminal justice system. So it's something that we want to keep the conversation going. We were able to enjoy the summit there and kind of work with some community members and support some housers that are justice involved friendly. So a little bit of an update there on that. One thing we also did in April in recognition of Second Chance Month is we hosted a reentry simulation here at NeighborWorks. It was a great event, drew a really strong turnout of participants and volunteers. I opened up the slot for 50, you know, to make sure that the building had capacity, and we filled that slot up within five days. So there's definitely a need, there's definitely an interest in utilizing reentry simulations as kind of a toolkit, educational tool, conversation catalyst, whatever, what have you. It was a really good because following the simulation, attendees kind of all got together and we sat down and discussed, you know, kind of reflected on the experience, navigating the activity, how it relates to the community. And there was a huge consensus that successfully completing the simulation was more challenging than anticipated. Definitely had quite a few frustrated folks, which was the plan. And it definitely underscores real-world difficulties faced by our re-entrants returning into Anchorage. We had representation, folks from corrections, housing, social services, treatment providers. We had some peer support, folks from the courts, and community representatives were there too. The broad consensus is they'd like to host more, we'd like to host more, and I'd like to slate one for August. We'll talk about that in a little bit, but overall, it was a really huge success, and I think the next one we will do, we'll do it in a bigger space so that we can invite more people. I just wanted to thank everybody that was on it who had time to attend. I understand people, we can't attend everything, right? We have caseloads, we have things, I completely understand it. But the folks that were able to, I really appreciate you and we'll be setting that up for August here pretty soon. And then in May, pretty recently, a couple weeks ago, Recover Alaska and the Department of Health invited some folks to attend a training and team conversation called the Science of Stigma. Dr. Carrie Finley from Montana State University gave us a brief training session, kind of exploring the meaning of stigma and how it manifests, especially when it relates to alcohol and substance misuse. Why do certain conditions get stigmatized, right? And why do others not? Theories and factors that help to explain that. We got kind of a short, kind of short and sweet condensed hour version, but there's kind of a full workshop with breakout sessions. It's about three hours. And it's something that the Recover Alaska team is trying to host in community So it was kind of part workshop and then kind of afterwards we kind of sat together as a team and talked about is this something that our communities are willing to have the conversation about? Is it something you want to host in your conversations? I enjoyed the science behind stigma. I think it's obviously a topic that we obviously address a lot working with these populations. And so I expressed some interest in hosting the training in the future. It would of course be a free training. We could do it online. We could do it in person. Out for that, but I really thought that was a cool opportunity and we really appreciate Recover Alaska for inviting us to the table there. A couple other things real quick. The coalition has submitted a number of public testimonies and letters of support on behalf of House and Senate bills that are connected to reentry and justice involved folks, including bills to substitution of the Board of Parole membership, which was a bill that allowed to expand the Board of Parole from five members to seven and to have those two additional seats be represented by somebody who is either a mental health clinician, somebody in the treatment world, things like that. So that was one initiative that we thought the coalition would support on. We also put in letter of support and public testimony for the access to digital technology resources for inmates in the institutions to able to access things like tablets and just create more of a digital platform, at least remove those policies and procedures that seem to be blocking the institutions from allowing things to happen like that. So we will, I think actually that went through. I hope Terri jumps on. Everyone knows Terri Tibbetts is our legislative update gal. Hopefully she jumps on, but there was some good news with that. Looks like that moved through pretty well. And then the last thing that we submitted support of was the continuation of premium tax credits, which are designed to help individuals and families afford health insurance on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. In Alaska, these credits are crucial. Nearly 80% of marketplace enrollers rely on subsidies to make coverage affordable. So these credits are set to expire at the end of 2025. We know a lot of our folks utilize those type of supports in our population, so we wanted to make sure that we advocate for And then just a couple of little updates. I've been doing in-reach at the Anchorage Correctional Complex for the last few months. I go in once a month. I go in with the Partners for Progress crew. So we have the therapy to courts representation, as well as the re-entry case management there as well. And then I'm kind of in there, kind of shuffling in between, filling in blanks. One thing that we do want to get going is the resource board. For those of you who have had the honor of walking into Anchorage Jail, anytime soon. If you walk into the doors on the west side and you look at the left, there's a cork board. It says a resource board on the top. It was something that I had done when I was a release planner while working at Partners. Then it kind of got dropped. You know, somebody wasn't really watching, making sure that the copies were posted up and things like that, right? So we'll be picking up that project again with the idea of somebody either releasing from the jail or family what have you, can utilize that resource board as a basic community navigation system, right? They'll have some basic applications. The partner's application will be there, right? Bus center, things like that. We'll definitely be surveying the group to figure out what type of resources we should add there. In the past, I put public assistance applications, you know, just very basic stuff, but at least it's right there. It's navigable, and at least it gives you that first option, especially when you're releasing for an institution. And instead of just kind of sitting in the parking lot, not knowing where to go, right? So a little bit of community orientation there too. So we'll be working on that. And then in some conversations with the re-entry unit there in DOC about figuring out how to utilize Anchorage Probation Office to have some more resource assistance and community navigation as well. I won't go in too much to that because we're kind of in beginning stages and trying to figure out what's possible. So we'll be working on that. So keep an eye on that. And last thing I want to mention is, I keep pushing it, but I'll push it again, is the website AnchorageReentry.org. We've kind of done an overhaul to it to make it a little bit more user-friendly. I have some calendars, any training, workshop-related, conference event that's related to criminal justice, that focuses on our focus groups of cops, courts, corrections, and community providers, anything related to that, I will put on that calendar so you can maybe utilize that as a second check to see if there's any training opportunities in the community, right? We'll have our simulation information, there'll be resources, we have our resource app, and we're going to keep that thing actively going. My hope is that it can be something that could serve not only folks who have access to the digital technology in the institutions, but also the workforce, you folks who are doing this work. If this can be anything short of helpful for you it's definitely something that we're going to keep doing. Okay, and those are just my really quick updates. Again, I don't want to take up too much time in the meeting here. 18:59 - Unidentified Speaker Any questions about those? 19:00 - Unidentified Speaker All right, no problem. 19:02 - Christina Shadura Short and sweet. So we're going to pop back to our agenda here. Let me see. And I wonder if Mr. Gunn, Did I see you jump on? I did. 19:15 - Unidentified Speaker Oh, there he is. 19:16 - Unidentified Speaker All right. 19:16 - Christina Shadura All right, Measures for Justice coming through. Brian is going to be presenting to us a little bit of a kind of an idea that I thought we could bring to Anchorage here. But I think at first it begins with an introduction and kind of an understanding about what Measures for Justice is. And I will let Brian go into most of it, and I will give you control of my screen here. But just real quick, Measures for Justice nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to transforming the criminal justice system through data transparency and accountability. Founded in 2011, MFJ's primary mission is to collect, standardize, and analyze criminal justice data from every county in the country, making it accessible and comparable for communities, policymakers, and institutions. Brian, thank you so much for being here. I know you're on the East Coast, I think we're copying to your end of your work day there. Yes, but I am here and present a little cold so you have to excuse my voice. 20:22 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 No worries, no worries. So let me see. Can I give you control here? 20:29 - Unidentified Speaker Let's see. 20:30 - Unidentified Speaker Idea. 20:31 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 Share screen. Okay, let's see if this does it. 20:37 - Unidentified Speaker Everybody see that? 20:38 - Unidentified Speaker Yes. 20:39 - Unidentified Speaker Yeah. 20:39 - Unidentified Speaker Okay. 20:40 - Unidentified Speaker Yeah, we got it. 20:41 - Unidentified Speaker All right. 20:42 - Unidentified Speaker All right. 20:43 - Christina Shadura Thanks to you all so much for having me. 20:47 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 My name is Brian Gunn MFJ, and I am the Senior Outreach and Impact Manager at Measures for Justice. We are based in Rochester, New York. However, I'm part of the Civic Impact Team, and most of us are headquartered or located in Birmingham, Alabama, with the exception of one team member who's in Dallas, Texas. As Christina mentioned, Measures for Justice was founded in 2011 with the founding philosophy of no data, no change. How can you hold someone accountable when you don't have the data? And so as we're going out into communities and communities are realizing that like, hey, our criminal justice institutions have the data, but they're not being transparent about How do we begin to have those conversations with those criminal justice institutions? One, in a way that's not threatening or that doesn't put them on the spot for their insufficiencies that may exist. It's a learning curve because some criminal justice institutions may not know like, hey, I need to collect data or what do I do with my data that I have? And so let's be clear is that approach that we have. This award-winning documentary that we created about data and the power that, the story that data has when presented in a non-threatening way. And so what we found out as we're going out to communities and they're wanting to, you know, know more about the data that their criminal justice institutions possess, they don't know where to start those conversations. And so let's be clear, is that entry point into having those conversations with your criminal justice institutions, whether that's your court system or your police department, or even your prosecutors, computer's office. And so we put together a package that we can disseminate throughout the country. That's at no cost. We received a grant to help us spread the word about the story that data has to tell. And that's Let's Be Clear. And I have a trailer that I can show everyone that goes into kind of what Let's Be Clear is about and then how it is using stories of everyday people that have been impacted by the criminal justice system to begin those conversations, those critical conversations in community to talk about making sure that our data, our criminal justice institutions are accountable and transparent with the data that they have. So with that, I can share the trailer. Let's see. And then we can go from there. Stop sharing. Okay, and let me know if you all can hear the sound. 23:36 - Unidentified Speaker How does a prisoner get the attention of the most powerful man in the United United States, if not the world. 23:54 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 90% of everybody we were getting in this jail was suffering from addiction. 24:03 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 It was overwhelming our system. 24:06 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 2 He had the power over me because I was a prisoner and nobody would believe me. 24:16 - Unidentified Speaker Almost four months I didn't get a bond hearing. 24:22 - Unidentified Speaker Nobody has attorneys and everyone's acting like this is a normal thing. The due process shouldn't take that long. 24:35 - Unidentified Speaker How did we get here? 24:39 - Unidentified Speaker What we didn't realize is we had just waived our right You know, I was fighting for my life, for my freedom. 24:51 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 We didn't know what we were doing. 24:54 - Unidentified Speaker We just know that we had to do something. 24:58 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 2 We have a unique opportunity to reimagine justice. How do we actually do that? The process begins with data. 25:11 - Unidentified Speaker OK. 25:12 - Unidentified Speaker Yes. 25:13 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 So every time I see even the trailer, it always moves me to want to act, especially in my own local community. But that is the power of Let's Be Clear. It's supposed to be that conversation starter and it's supposed to move people to action and community to action. And so that's what we want to do with Let's Be Clear. We want to make sure that we bring it to communities that are ready to have conversations in their community about their criminal justice system and how they can begin that process of having their criminal justice systems accountable and transparent with the data that they possess. Because if you can't have access to the data, you can't really control the change or the narrative in your criminal justice system. One that's equitable, creating a criminal justice system that's equitable and fair for every individual in your community. And so I can share a little bit more. We talked about, let's be clear, you saw the documentary. We talked a little bit about Measures for Justice. This is our nonpartisan approach. We're a nonpartisan nonprofit that invests in the world in which the criminal justice system is fully transparent, accessible, and accountable. We're on a mission to inspire data-driven change by creating tools that help communities and the institutions that they serve reshape how the system works. And so this is our approach. When the public, police, prosecutors, and courts have access to the same data, those data become the common ground for dialogue and reform. And so that is the entry point. With, let's be clear, how do we begin to have those conversations, the dialogue to reform and change the criminal justice system into one that is accessible and one that is accountable. And so let's be clear as that. Campaign highlights, there are 12 compelling stories from across the country. We have a conversation guide that accompanies the screening. So it'll help you when you invite, whether whether it's your prosecutor or your police department or any elected officials out to the self-led screening, there's a conversation guide that accompanies the documentary that'll help you kind of organize your conversation and have a conversation that's meaningful and that steers the criminal justice institutions in your community into having deeper thought about what does it mean to have data transparency. We engage in social justice advocates as partners. So it's important to have those people at the table, whether there's like, you know, your local advocates, your partners, whether they're community-based organizations, and then having a panel to kind of discuss and dissect the film as well. And so in doing all of that, that's just an entry point into Measures for Justice. Measures for Justice is, again, like a nonprofit. We're a nonprofit, but we have several different resources that help communities hold their criminal justice systems accountable. After we have that conversation with Let's Be Clear, we have a product in our disposal that we've developed called Commons, and it is a system that takes all of the data that a criminal justice institution has and puts it into a user-friendly dashboard where community members can access the data points and they can see where the criminal justice institution is making progress on a policy goal that is co-created by the community and the criminal justice institution. So here's how you host your own screening. I've already shared with Christina the checklist, you identify your venue where you'd like to host the screening, you start the dialogue with the community and your community partners, and then you continue the conversation. We've developed a space where a community can engage with other community members across the country called the All-In Network. And so once you view this film, you'll have the opportunity to join that network and communicate with other individuals across the country who have done the same thing and may have even taken it a step further and pushed for a comments dashboard in their community. And they're in the process of launching their comments dashboard. Brian, this is Christie. 30:04 - Christina Shadura I was wondering, do you think you could show us a shot of the basic, what the dashboard looks like, Yeah, I can give you a high level overview of the dashboard. 30:15 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 And then if we want a more thorough overview of the dashboard, I can arrange for one of our team members to come in and give a presentation as well. 30:28 - Unidentified Speaker Great. 30:28 - Unidentified Speaker I can pull this up. 30:31 - Unidentified Speaker Give me one second. 30:32 - Unidentified Speaker No worries. 30:33 - Unidentified Speaker Sorry to put you on the spot there. 30:37 - Christina Shadura I think the conversation around data, of course, is something that we all battle with and being able to turn our story into these data points to show what things are working or not working, right? But also being able to show that data in a way that's streamlined, that's accessible, that makes sense for a community to institution. So when you showed me that dashboard, I thought it was a really cool concept. 31:04 - Christina Shadura So I was just hoping maybe the team could just get a glimpse of it. 31:09 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 Yes, absolutely. Let's see if this, let me know if this shares. So this is one of our dashboards. If it's sharing or not. OK, so this is my dashboard that we've done with the community in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. As you can see here, it's this is the home page of the dashboard. It highlights the power of community and it highlights, you know, the district attorney there, Hiller Moore and his thoughts on developing a platform to, you know, make his data transparent. And then we have a community member here who was part of the comments process and co-creating the policy goal in conjunction with Hillermoor. And so here you can track the policy goal. So this particular collective decided to do a policy goal around maintaining pretrial diversions at or above 8%. And so you can track here how they're performing on that. And if they just so happen don't make a goal one quarter or one month, you can click to find out why they did it or what was the reasoning behind them not achieving their goal. And so you can even go further down into the data and you can see here the cases received by a prosecutor. You can see case decisions after a case review. That are often offered diversions, and it tells you all of the data on that. And so if you want to, let's say, go into a point or take a deeper dive into a data point, you can click here to explore more. And you can break it down into like the last 12 months, monthly, quarterly, or annually. So let's take a look at it quarterly. And you can also, you can see here how many cases have been received. And you can also break it down by race. And you can see they've received over 1,449 cases for individuals that identify as black and let's see Hispanic, 92 cases. And so you can begin to see some of the disproportionalities that may exist in the cases received. So if there's a disproportionate amount of people that are being, are having cases referred to the prosecutor, that may be something that you may wanna call out to your prosecutor, your criminal justice institution and say, hey, based on the data that we have and that you've shared with us, this is a concern for our community. So what can we do to ensure that justice is equitable for everyone? Let's see, where else can I go? So you can, let's see, you can go into other measures here. Case is closed, not guilty verdicts at trial. You can even explore the median time from offense to arrest. Let's see, case is closed. So you can see here that 14% of individuals that are black had cases that were closed. 16% of white individuals had cases that were closed. There's only one Native American or Alaska Native that had a case that's awaiting resolution. And so you can begin to compare. So if you want to, let's say, take all the black individuals, let's take the white, you can begin to compare and see trends or disparities proportionalities that may exist with the data that you're providing. Very cool. 35:04 - Christina Shadura Thank you so much for giving us that rundown. Again, I think this is one of the cooler databases I've seen that provides kind of that user ability on the dashboard level and something that not only can you capture data, but you can also explore how that data is kind of playing into these initiatives and strategies that the county or the community have developed. So I think it could be If anybody on the chat here is interested in that, I mean, I see other opportunities with this too, as far as being able to collect demographic data for things like funding opportunities or social service programs, right? Yeah. I see a lot of good stuff here, Brian. Exactly. 35:45 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 And there's a whole host of programs that we have at MFJ. Of course, when we're dealing with data, we also know that communities may not understand how to interpret or analyze data. And so we have researchers on staff that do data literacy trainings to help community to understand what they're looking at and how to read the data. So there's a whole host of things that accompany not only just the data dashboard, but like the wraparound service to make sure that community understands what they're looking at, how can they put together programs to begin to make sure that their criminal justice institutions stay accountable once the dashboards are live. And a whole host of toolkits that we have to make sure that once the data is transparent and accessible, we don't lose focus of the bigger goal, and that's the accountability. Absolutely, absolutely. Circling back, do you have a few more minutes with us, Brian? 36:40 - Christina Shadura Absolutely. I wanted to circle back to the Let's Be Clear documentary. This is kind of where everything starts, right? I mean, the data, the proofs in the pudding on the data side, but everybody knows you can't sit there and talk about data forever. Hour without losing some folks. And so I really thought that the documentary provided a whole lot of interesting perspectives from folks who are cops, courts, corrections, community. I was wondering if you would be able to show one of the trailers. I know we looked at the judge trailer one. I saw Linnell Bruce, the carpenter. I kind of thought that spoke to us too. Whichever one you think, I mean, they're all great, but I think just for the group here before we open it up to questions, Let's do Judge Vernetta Perkins Walker. 37:26 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 She's here in Selma, Alabama. Perfect. And so we're getting ready to work with them now and down in Selma to launch their Commons Collective. 37:40 - Unidentified Speaker Let's see. 37:41 - Christina Shadura If you want to get in touch with Brian, I will, of course, have all his information and measures for justice and all the contact information after we're done with the presentation here too. 38:00 - Unidentified Speaker Absolutely. 38:01 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 Let's see if this loads. 38:04 - Unidentified Speaker Okay. 38:05 - Unidentified Speaker I'm going to share my screen. 38:08 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 2 When you are preparing a case as a prosecutor, you build it on I am making an argument for reimagining justice. 38:23 - Unidentified Speaker And as evidence for that argument, I have to use the data of where we are right now to paint a picture of why change is needed. 38:39 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 2 My name is Vernetta Perkins and I am the first female judge in Dallas County, Alabama. I was in this courtroom pretty often as a child growing up. I would always participate in the mock trial competitions. I would play a lawyer. It seems kind of prophetic now that I ended up back here. Graduated Selma High School. Right out of law school, I became a prosecutor in Montgomery. I was thriving at the DA's office, gaining some prestige and notoriety. Building my little American dream life. Never imagined that I would be here long term. Just kind of got engulfed in being back at home and what was needed here. Look at that, this whole neighborhood. It's gone. Whether we like it or not, we're at a turning point in history in Selma. This tornado that just came has ravaged our community. From one end of the county to the other, hundreds of houses damaged, including mine. The county jail is damaged, cannot house any inmates. And I do believe with my whole heart that this is a moment for us. We have a unique opportunity to reimagine, Reimagine justice. How do we actually do that? What are the action steps? Any organizing, strategic planning space will tell you the process begins with data. We have the pieces of it, but it's not gathered together or aggregated in a way where it can be useful. We don't know who's in the jail, how long they've been there. Are these people that have been in jail for five years with no trial? What are the barriers to prosecution? We have boxes and boxes of warrants that haven't been served. So many cases have fallen through the system. So now is a moment for leadership. Are we as leaders going to hold ourselves accountable and build these ways to report out to the people? There's so many solutions that can be built if we understood exactly what was happening. And the data will answer those questions. My vision for this city in 10 years is a place that is alive and thriving. It's a learning community filled with opportunity, a restorative criminal justice system where people feel that court served them. We're going to have to look at ourselves as a community and make these decisions about who we are and who we want to be. I really do believe that Selma is about to change the world again. 41:34 - Unidentified Speaker So yeah, that's Judge Vernetta Perkins Walker. 41:44 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 She is a stalwart in the Selma community and she is changing the very landscape of the criminal justice system there. As you heard her mention, they have boxes of data, boxes, like their data is in boxes. It's not even digital. And so just for them to even begin the process of digitizing their data, that is a whole thing in and of itself. So a lot of communities that we work in, we understand that they may not have the appropriate data infrastructure to even begin to make their data transparent. Or even accessible, like cases in Dallas County, in Selma, Alabama, because they don't have it digitized. And so we work with these criminal justice institutions to help them understand how to improve their data infrastructure. And so we have a whole team of data scientists on staff at MFJ. We have teams of researchers, criminologists, and civic impact engagement managers. On staff that will help communities navigate this somewhat tedious process of working with their criminal justice system to bring transparency and accountability. Thank you so much, Brian. 43:11 - Christina Shadura Does anybody have any questions for Brian about the documentary, about Measures for Justice, the database? Feel free to raise your hand or call it out there. I had a quick question. 43:25 - Carrie Huck This is Carrie Huck from the SNAP team at the Food Bank, and we help people with food stamp applications. But quite frankly, we are actually at a point where we are bridging our connection with Department of Justice, or Department of Corrections, I should say more. And we're trying to move in that direction of being able to work together to kind of help people with food stamp questions or applying and such that are basically re-entering back into the community. So my question to you would be is, do we have some data like that representing our state at the moment, like Alaska or anything that would point us in the right direction? 44:09 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 So the only thing that I would probably point you out to is our national data portal we put together some years ago. And let me see if Alaska is in here. And that may be able to shed some light on some things that may be going on in Alaska in terms of data in the criminal justice system. Let's see. 44:33 - Carrie Huck Would you be able to add that to our chat if you find that link? 44:39 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 Yep. Unfortunately, Alaska is unavailable. 44:41 - Christina Shadura Of course. 44:42 - Carrie Huck For that dirt coal. It's okay we're often in the wrong spot on a map too so you know it's. Yeah well I can share the national data portal so you all can look at that as well. 45:01 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 Any other questions? If not, Christina, you can definitely share my information out, my email, my phone number. And if you do have any questions that may arise between like now and whenever, feel free to reach out to me because this is going to take a collaborative effort to move our country's criminal justice system to one that's more accountable and transparent. 45:32 - Unidentified Speaker Wonderful. 45:33 - Christina Shadura Brian, I want to thank you again for being here and pushing in some after hours time there and we will definitely be in touch. You are more than welcome to stay online if you'd like to, but what basically is going to happen now is I'm going to talk to the team here about whether or not this is a conversation we should be having in the community right now and just kind of pull the audience here. You're more than welcome to stay around for that, but if not, thanks for being you, thanks for the work you folks are doing, and we'll make sure you get the contact information sent out to the group here. 46:03 - Unidentified Speaker Yes, off the ground. 46:05 - Unidentified Speaker Cool. 46:05 - Christina Shadura Thanks, sir. 46:06 - Unidentified Speaker All right, folks. 46:07 - Christina Shadura So that was kind of the let's be clear gist of things. Obviously, just having conversations with Brian and just kind of reading more about the story to data and what that could kind of invoke in the community. I think there's obviously a place for that in our state. But what I would like to do is move forward in hosting a screening and kind of getting that community conversation going. But I need to slow my roll here because I am not the coalition. I am the coordinator and you folks make up the coalition membership. So what I would like to do, now that you saw the quick little presentation there, is ask you folks if this is something that we should do or should not do. I'm gonna launch a poll question for you. Again, I know there's a lot of priorities right now happening in the world. We have homelessness, we have budget deficits, education spending. I know a lot of conversations right now, but my question is, is this something that we should bring to Anchorage? Screening and kind of getting a little bit of a panel discussion going and seeing if this is something that, you know, we want to do. So if you could just put your answer in there, I won't be mad at you if you say no. I just wanted to kind of get some buy in there. Okay, and I'm seeing on my end, I don't know if you guys can see that, but I'm seeing an overwhelming response of yes. So I think we will, Brian, you did good. I think we'll move forward with figuring out what that looks like in screening. I thought it might be cool maybe to do it at Moose's or something, but we'll figure out the logistics of all that. But it sounds like we're going to bring measures for justice up to Alaska here, which is exciting. 47:59 - Unidentified Speaker Very cool. 48:00 - Christina Shadura All right, let's move forward, unless anybody has any questions. Oh, you had anything to add there, Brian? 48:05 - Conference Room (Brian Gunn MFJ) - Speaker 1 No, I was just saying it's very exciting. And we are here to support your efforts and making sure that the criminal justice system is accountable and transparent in Alaska and particularly in Anchorage. 48:16 - Unidentified Speaker We love it. 48:17 - Christina Shadura Thank you again, sir. All right, let's pop back to our agenda here. Can everybody see my screen? 48:31 - Unidentified Speaker Agenda? 48:32 - Christina Shadura Yell out if you can. I cannot, Christina. Okay. How about now? Yes, ma'am. 48:43 - Unidentified Speaker Cool. 48:47 - Christina Shadura Amanda's my unofficial IT person here. So next up, we're going to go ahead and talk about some available housing funds. There's been a couple things that have kind of come through the channels here you might have seen. I sent out a couple things in newsletters. You know, one thing we always struggle with in the community, right, is being able to access information in certain networks. We feel like some people know some stuff, some people don't. When the emergency rental assistance came out through the municipality. I got a couple questions off the bat because NeighborWorks is connected to that. So I thought what we would do is just take a quick little opportunity to highlight some current housing funding opportunities that are local in Anchorage and maybe even one that's maybe statewide. But the first thing I'd like to do is introduce Partners for Progress, Doreen or maybe Adams or Eric. If you folks wanted to pop on real quick to talk about the AHFC housing funds you guys have right now? 49:46 - Joshua Adams, MSW Yeah, I can go and jump in there if you'd like, 49:50 - Unidentified Speaker Thanks, Adam. 49:51 - Joshua Adams, MSW Yeah, of course. So we do have a homeless stability program. However, unfortunately, that program's ending this September, so we're no longer taking on new clients into it. I did have AHFC reallocate our remaining slots to the other agencies that are still utilizing them. Unfortunately, the way that that program works is it initially started out as a 15-month program where you could put somebody into transitional housing for three months, and then it pays for 12 months in an apartment, and then it also has around $8,000 for each individual client slot to buy them supportive services like bus passes, vouchers, pay for their transitional housing, and so on. And initially, when we got that program, it was only supposed to be for 15 months, and they just continued to extend it and extend it. And the final, final date that they're not going to extend it past is the end of September. So for every month we enroll somebody further down the line, it's less housing they get. So for instance, if I enroll somebody today, the only apartment assistance they're going to get is through September. So we can't even, they're required to be in transitional housing when we're getting them into an apartment. So we can't actually pay for the transitional housing for the full three months to get them into that apartment. And by the time they get into that apartment, they get one or two months of rent relief. So we are no longer accepting anybody into that program, however, I know that there are other agencies that are doing so currently. Do you have any questions? 51:14 - Christina Shadura Anybody got questions? And then, Adams, I believe Doreen might have been talking about, and maybe I'm mistaken, was there some DIG funding through AHSC? 51:27 - Joshua Adams, MSW Yes, yes, I'm pretty sure I see you doing that but essentially we got, they dubbed it dig three, but essentially it's another grant we had gone for. It was awarded really late in the year. So we had a really short amount of time to actually utilize the funds. So we got awarded nine months into the fiscal year. We started using it a week ago or two weeks ago. So we only have two weeks to spend the funds down. So we open it up to anybody in the Alaska community, as long as the individual they're sponsoring is, within 12 months of release, and they are a mental health trust beneficiary. So as long as they meet that category, they seem to have a third party agency submit the request on their behalf to Ashley or I. And if it's reasonable, if they release in that 12 months and they have a disorder of some sort, we can help them with housing. Housing is the primary need for it or primary reason for it. However, we can do things that go towards keeping them in housing, like say they need repairs for their car to get back and forth to work, or they need clothing for work. We're clothing, we can do things like that. So yeah, we are currently taking applications for that. However, I will say when I looked Monday, we had already submitted so many requests that we were down to around 8,000 or 9,000. So we're holding off on submitting any additional requests until tomorrow when we can make sure that we still have funds available. So in the first two weeks, I think we did over 60 requests. 52:51 - Christina Shadura OK, great. Wow. OK, cool. So probably not something that folks could reach out to you about, or you guys kind of maybe in a holding pattern for that, the dig fund stuff. 53:01 - Joshua Adams, MSW So they're welcome to reach out to Ashley and I, and Friday we'll review everybody, we'll review all of them, and then based off of need, you know, we'll approve any, we'll approve the ones that we can with the remaining funds. We just don't, as you know, we just don't want to overspend. 53:16 - Christina Shadura Absolutely. Yeah, I'll spend it during habit. Okay. 53:18 - Joshua Adams, MSW And as always, we, you know, we still have our normal reentry program, we're a walk-in center, you know, anybody that released from Department of Corrections custody, whether that's a halfway house, prison, jail, what have you, you know, in the last six months, they're welcome to come in, they just have to be willing to do the four to five month program. They can have minimal open cases, we just have to get attorney assurance, they're not going to remand, and they need to be able to pass a UA, you know, for obvious reasons. But we'll screen anybody and even if they're not eligible, we'll try to get them to the right place so they can still get services. 53:49 - Christina Shadura Great. And that the request was that was that a separate request form? I think you might have sent that to me in an email. 53:56 - Joshua Adams, MSW Yeah, so it's just a one-pager. Essentially, the sponsoring agency would fill it out with the client, the sponsoring case manager, and the client will sign it. They'd submit that with the invoice for what they want purchased, along with a W-9 for what we're purchasing. So, best example would be if you have a client in transitional housing, you'd submit the invoice for the transitional housing. We can prepay through July. Has given us permission for that. So, in most cases, people will submit pro-rated May, June, and July rent requests, and then they'll submit the one-page form and a W-9, and then if we have the funds, we process that for payment. Great. 54:32 - Christina Shadura Are you okay if I send out, and to answer your question, Carrie, all the documents and the forms and even a copy of this recording of the meeting I send out later? Adams, is it okay if I include that? All right, great. Yeah, absolutely. 54:45 - Joshua Adams, MSW You can always give out my email, too. I can send the documents to you. When we're done with this meeting, just in case you don't have all of them. 54:55 - Christina Shadura That'd be awesome, too. 54:56 - Unidentified Speaker Yeah, absolutely. 54:57 - Unidentified Speaker Great. Any questions for partners? 54:59 - Unidentified Speaker Reentry Center? 55:00 - Unidentified Speaker Anybody? 55:00 - Unidentified Speaker Okay, thank you, Adams. 55:02 - Unidentified Speaker Of course. 55:03 - Christina Shadura All right, and then the next thing we're going to go down the line is some of you might have been seeing ERA, our Emergency Rental Assistant funds. Like I had mentioned, I will what I've been seeing is this cool little handy thingamabobber. It's kind of a one sheet, I guess you could call it. This is available online and basically what it does is kind of show you where the funds are, who has what. I know that New Life Development, which is a houser that a lot of us have worked with in the past, have a little bit of part of that funding as well as Henning choosing our Read's, NeighborWorks, and the United Way. This funding, the questions I have gotten personally is if it is connected to the coordinated entry list or not, which is, as some of us may know, tends to be an issue with our long-term incarcerated population because they don't qualify under the homeless definition if you've been incarcerated for more than 90 days. But this is not connected to that, so it sounds like It's a free green situation as long as you're eligible. I wanted to mention it because NeighborWorks does have a part of that funding. Laura, I hate to put you on the spot, but I was wondering if there was anything that you wanted to mention about the program. I noticed there's a wait list up on our website about it. 56:34 - Laura Cox Are we at capacity for applications? Yeah, so we have um initially met all of our um you did put me on the spot christina thanks I'm just kidding um all of our funding requirements and so as um as we get actuals in um actual amounts that we're certain that we will be serving towards clients um those amounts are likely to change and reduce, therefore allowing us to take more individuals off of our waitlist. So we urge individuals to apply for the program still and get placed on the waitlist with hopes of getting them moved on as we move through each individual and get them individually identified for services. And then, of course, there's a all the other agencies that you listed that are still continuing to take applications and assist individuals based on their own budgets. So just kind of depending on those specific eligibility requirements for each agency, it would be pretty beneficial for others to also apply to those if they feel that they can meet the eligibility requirements. 57:58 - Christina Shadura Okay, and then just for workforce purposes, there's folks on the call who might be referring folks to apply for this funding. Is there any guidance that you have about this? I heard that maybe applying, submitting applications at each organization is not the right thing to do, right? 58:22 - Laura Cox So, I mean, we're doing it collaboratively. So, we have a list. As long as the ROI has been filled out by the applicant, we have a list of clients that have applied for all of our programs. And so, we're looking at that list and making sure that we're not duplicating anything or approving them in one program and another. And so, that's kind of helping. It is good to use the screener. I think AHD has a screener And based on that, it kind of gets moved to where that screener feels is the best program for that individual. So that's helpful. And then also, I mean, I would say if you have individuals who have an eviction notice, an active eviction notice, notice, United Way is definitely your first choice. And then I think Henning and then NeighborWorks, if they have minor children, are doing all of that. I think New Life Development also is doing eviction notices as well. So that's kind of the for those if they are actively houseless. Henning, well I mean all of them actually except for United Way, Henning, New Life, Development, NeighborWorks and Choosing Our Roots. Except Choosing Our Roots is their first preference I believe is that they meet the LGBTQ requirements and be between the agency of 18 and 24. And so the other thing to note is this is a very short-term program and it will end the end of September. So for individuals who really need, you know, that permanent supportive housing or the case management, this is probably not the best route to go with and look into other agencies that are doing permanent supportive housing. And if the individual is currently homeless and needs that more intensive case management and long-term assistance, definitely get them connected to Coordinated Entry, where a lot of those PSH programs are taking referrals from Awesome. Thank you, Laura. 1:00:58 - Christina Shadura I'm sorry again to put you on the spot, but I know you have all the goods, so I appreciate the life hacks about the housing assistance here. 1:01:08 - Laura Cox Yeah, no, not a problem at all. We also, so NeighborWorks also will have have a new program starting for individuals who are experiencing domestic violence or trafficking, that's going to start July 1st. And so be on the lookout for those applications to be on our website as well if you have individuals that fit that criteria. 1:01:35 - Unidentified Speaker Great. 1:01:35 - Christina Shadura Anybody have any questions for Laura? Maybe not related to ERA. Portion of it. 1:01:43 - Unidentified Speaker All right. 1:01:44 - Unidentified Speaker Thank you, Laura. 1:01:46 - Christina Shadura And the last thing I have on here, this isn't exactly, I wouldn't call it like a housing funding opportunity, but this was on the municipality's website and I thought it was kind of cool. There's always a question. Many of us maybe on this call might have an understanding about how to refer somebody to the shelter or what kind of is the correct referral protocol. Of course, there's always this misconceptions in the community, right? They can only come after 6 o'clock. They could have to go here or there, you know, that's past the UA. There's always different misconceptions, so I thought this was kind of an interesting one sheet. I will include this in our transcript and our recordings tomorrow with all the meeting recapped, but something to have. Maybe you could post it on the wall or send out to your workforce or your teams, but I thought it had some good information there and some follow up for question contact information stuff. I will also include that there as well. Right, moving through the agenda here, doing pretty good on time. Next up, we're going to do some greet and meets. Again, I feel like the last meeting I talked way too much, overpacked the schedule, and I didn't get a chance to meet you folks and kind of hear about updates, what's going on in the community, and to kind of go from there. So I was hoping we could start that off, and I actually invited somebody to maybe kind of kick us off here. David Christ-Hopkins, I think you're online. I might have saw you. 1:03:11 - Christina Shadura I'm here. 1:03:11 - Unidentified Speaker Oh, hey. 1:03:12 - Christina Shadura I wanted to see if maybe you would start us off here. David reached out to me and introduced himself as the new Community Resource Librarian at the Anchorage Public Library. And so, David, I thought you could just introduce us a little bit about the Community Resource Library position and anything else you'd like to add. 1:03:31 - Kreiss-Tomkins, David W. Very good. Thank you. Yeah, I was able to watch recording of the last meeting, and I'm new to Anchorage, coming from Sitka. I moved here last month, and the Anchorage Public Library is restarting their community resource group, but instead of hiring social workers, they're focusing more on library and information services. And so they have hired librarians and people with library experience instead of people with social workers, and we're in the middle of our hiring process. And I am looking for people with library and social work experience. So hopefully we have some good people applying and accepting jobs there. But yeah, some of you may have been more familiar with the previous social workers here in the library system at the branches and at LUSAC. And I think the new group will be doing a little bit less hopefully getting out into the community more, learning about different resources around the community, and then be able to distribute that information to library patrons, as well as to get out into the community and educate community members about what the library can offer from online, from screens, and maybe some pop-up library events around town. I've been talking with the Eagle River branch manager about maybe doing something within Highland. But that's in the works and the things that I am still learning about. So thanks for listening. And if you have any comments or things that I should know, I'm definitely new to Anchorage and feeling things out. Thanks for the time. Yeah, we appreciate it, David. 1:05:27 - Christina Shadura You're definitely welcome to these meetings. You have a wealth of information just on the chat right now. Yeah, I see that. But we'll send you some more resources. And it's helpful for us to know, too, because I know that the library has kind of taken different roles in the community service response. I remember at one point they were doing job training and resume writing and kind of workshop stuff, right? And then there were some walk-in hours where you could come in and kind of have that social service element. And I know you're kind of in the beginning stages of the gig here, but would you say that what's available right now, as far as if I were to send somebody who just released and they want to go to the library, what do you think I could send them to today? 1:06:12 - Kreiss-Tomkins, David W. Yeah, I think, well, we've been doing the ERA tabling with the Acreage Health Department, and we had one last week, and we'll have another one just this on the first floor, and we had a good number of folks come by and express curiosity and even, yeah, and were able to sign up. We have, at the library here at LUSAC and at other branches, we have laptops that are available to check out. I think you have to keep them on in the library building, but those can be quite useful if you need a screen, for example, to do applications. Applications, and I think a good first step to start getting some of those resources. Great. 1:06:57 - Christina Shadura Thank you so much, David. 1:06:59 - Christina Shadura If you want to put your information there in the chat, if you haven't done so already, anybody wants to connect with, you've got to connect at the library now. There you go. Okay. Does anybody else want to introduce themselves, talk about any program updates, policy updates, new funding, loss of funding. Love to hear from some DOC folks if there's any updates there. Just go ahead and raise your hand or jump off the mute there and floor is yours. 1:07:39 - Hillberry, Amanda F Okay, because I feel the need to fill the silence. I'm Amanda with the Public Defender Agency, word has pretty much gotten out at this point that our AmeriCorps program that has become pretty well established over the last eight years has now come to an end due to loss of funding. But I did want to let everybody know that does interact with our agency that our commitment to a holistic defense approach with our clients who are predominantly in pretrial status in the justice system is unwavering. So we are currently transitioning those holistic defense efforts to our existing staffing. It's going to be kind of a slow transition over the next few months. So if any of your organizations are used to interacting with certain people around arranging services for our clients from our agency, there will be some new names and some new email addresses, but we will still be doing most of the same functions. We are still primarily seeking to get our justice-involved clients hooked up with treatment resources. That's probably the most common thing that we're doing. We'll also be doing some work with getting our folks connected with other social services, public assistance, mental health services, getting help obtaining their identification when they come out of incarceration so they can get the ball rolling on everything else that they need to do. So we're still committed. We're still doing those things. 1:09:30 - Unidentified Speaker It will just be different faces and names and email addresses. 1:09:37 - Christina Shadura Anybody have any follow-up for Amanda? Amanda, I was curious, how do the people, the clients that you work with, get connected to the holistic? Is it an assessment thing? Do they have to request it specifically? 1:09:50 - Hillberry, Amanda F No, they don't have to request it specifically. The attorneys that are assigned to their cases do an initial screening when they first meet with clients. And if they get information from any of our clients in the agency, that there are things going on outside of the legal purview or, you know, things going on that could help them resolve their legal issues, then they'll let our holistic team know and do an internal referral to us. 1:10:19 - Christina Shadura Very cool. 1:10:20 - Hillberry, Amanda F So if any of you are working with somebody who is justice involved and you want, you know, to kind of collaborate with us on some of these services things for that client, they're assigned to turn is the gateway to that. 1:10:35 - Christina Shadura Got it. 1:10:36 - Christina Shadura And is there anybody who's not eligible for this service based on their charge, crime, anything like that? No. 1:10:43 - Hillberry, Amanda F I mean, the more severe the charge, the more jail time potentially the person is facing, then there might be less that we can do in the services realm, but it doesn't prohibit us from getting involved and finding out what the needs are and doing the best that we can. 1:11:02 - Christina Shadura Great. Thank you for that, Manny. If you want to put your, I think I saw you do it already, but if you wouldn't mind putting it in again for folks who want to connect with you there. Thank you for the update. Yep. Mr. Prostatnik, I don't want to call you out, but here I am calling you out. 1:11:23 - Pistotnik, Jonathan F Any updates from your side of the grass there? 1:11:26 - Pistotnik, Jonathan F No pressure. Sure. Jonathan Prostatnik, Reentry Program Manager with DOC. Also, my team helps oversee educational programming and vocational trainings that are delivered in the facilities. So that's kind of like what our team works on. I'll just say firstly that the loss of the AmeriCorps support is like, I personally feel for you, Amanda, and your team and all that. I think some of you know this, that I actually got started in this re-entry space through an AmeriCorps VISTA position in San Diego. So like that's kind of my on-ramp into this work and into this space was through AmeriCorps. And it's actually where I met my wife who was also doing AmeriCorps. So that was personal as well about that loss. So just wanted to say that. In terms of updates over here, so Again, some of you know this. Some of this, it might be news. My team was moved out of the Atwood and we're over at 800A. So that's where probation is located. We're on the second floor. Christina, you kind of mentioned this earlier. We're gearing up. It's been a slow, slow process, but the hope is that eventually we'll have a physical office space that people can kind of come in and access access us with a little bit more ease than when we were at the Atwood. And we're still building out our office space. It is really slow. But we do have kind of like a lobby space and we do have a couple sort of meeting spaces that we're in the process of activating. And when I say activating, our hope is that we can hold small group meetings or training trainings, or, you know, if we're talking about outreach specialists are trying to engage with the community, like maybe we can figure out a way to sort of schedule that make our doors kind of open and available on a limited basis. We don't have a lot of capacity to like, run 24 seven kind of stuff. So we're starting out slow. And we have a lobby space that we're really interested in just equipping it filling it with information like Like the easiest thing that we can do, it's pretty much almost no cost. So this is my call to action to all of you that are on this call. If you have information, flyers, handouts, that sort of thing that we can put on a cork board or print out and have on a table, that's what we can do now while we continue to try to build out this space. You can reach out to me or Chris Black or Casey Shaw, any of us, we're happy to like take that stuff. If you have pronouns, I'd probably refer you over to Casey. He's kind of helping to take the lead on filling the space with stuff, with content. But we really hope to be just a hub of information, just an additional resource where people can come and just get up to speed with what's available in the community. It's just meant to be supplemental. And so yeah, I guess I would just say that if you're interested, if this like rings a bell, like, hey, maybe we could do recruitment or do paperwork signup, that kind of stuff. Like, we're actually if you don't know where we are, we're a literal stone's throw from Parkview as well. So that's across the street. And we do have probation in our building as well. Just stay tuned for more developments on that. And then I don't know if you mentioned it, Christina, HB 35? 1:15:17 - Christina Shadura Kind of, but if you want to go more into detail, that'd be great. 1:15:23 - Pistotnik, Jonathan F Well, what I can do is just HB 35 passed and what that can do, I think, it's not signed by the governor yet, but it'll help open the door for more digital technology options within our DOC facilities. And we're already kind of moving towards that, but I think that this was a good policy step that will enable us to go further and maybe not hit as many policy barriers going forward. So I'll just put the link to the AK Ledge website in the chat if you haven't seen it. It's not live yet, but we expect the governor to sign it. I guess that's all I had. 1:16:10 - Christina Shadura Awesome. Any follow-up questions for Jonathan and DOC there? 1:16:13 - Carrie Huck Mainly just if anybody could put their information in the chat, it makes it easier for all of us to follow up. Or if there's a follow-up email with all of it too, that would be helpful. There will. I'll make sure there's a transcript. 1:16:28 - Christina Shadura There'll be a copy of the recording. I put the meeting recording on the website, so if anybody needs to go back to it again, it'll all be readily available. Wouldn't hurt to throw another contact there in the chat. Thank you for the update, Jonathan. And yeah, I think one thing the coalition can do is provide the access to that information for what resources and things we have identified that could be useful at APO. So we are more than happy to offer that platform to figure out what's possible. I know when I saw the space, I got excited and threw out some ideas of what could be. I thought it would be cool to do groups and things there, but I understand that there's logistical challenges. There's no public bathrooms, correct, and parking's a madness. So seeing what's possible, what's feasible, but if anybody has any ideas, I'm also happy to hear some of that stuff too. Anybody else have updates or introductions or anything? 1:17:29 - Unidentified Speaker I don't like to call on people because I know that's kind of, I guess that's online rude. 1:17:37 - Christina Shadura But there's a couple of folks I've been interested in hearing kind of what's going on. Kate, I don't know if you're, if you're around, Kate, Zoomie? Hi. 1:17:49 - Unidentified Speaker I'm sorry to call you out. 1:17:52 - Christina Shadura No one's going to attend these meetings I know I'm calling people out, but 1:17:58 - Kate Sumey No, no, it's okay. I was listening. My name is Kate Sumey. I'm the project coordinator for the Anchorage Coordinated Resources Project or the mental health court. So we are basically, we're diversion. So not exactly re-entry, but honestly, there's a lot of overlap. We're all competing for the same resources. So there's not a ton of changes with therapeutic courts. Therapeutic courts here in Anchorage and around the state, we've got capacity. They're all pre-sentence people, so if you have anybody who has open criminal cases. So I think things that may happen is, you know, people may end up serving a sentence and then they get a new case. So if they have an open criminal case, they definitely should be speaking with their attorney to see if one of the therapeutic might be an option for them. We have, so I work with people with serious mental health disorders and co-occurring mental health and substance disorders. We have a veterans court. We have a addictions court. Our addictions court, of course, works with people with different types of mental health issues, primary addiction issues. So we have felony drug and DUI courts. We also have a, we also have like a child in need of aid court here in Anchorage. There's one in Palmer also. So yeah, there's capacity in all of the therapeutic courts. And all the therapeutic courts, they work a little bit differently. For the mental health court, we really get people connected to services based on their diagnosis and honestly, their insurance. So we're working with all different behavioral health providers and, of course, housing providers and competing for some of the same resources that anybody who's, you know, in community needs. I can probably go on and on. I've done this work for a long time. Does anybody have any questions? I can put my info again in the chat. I would say if you have somebody that comes through and you think that they have mental health issues, serious addiction issues, and they have open criminal cases, they really should be talking to their attorney to see if one of the treatment courts or therapeutic courts is an option for them. That's actually the question. 1:20:29 - Christina Shadura So when I do in-reach or talk about resources, Kate, that's always the number one question when therapeutic courts come up is, how do I get connected? And I think there's some misconception that a probation officer can start that process, but it sounds like we work with the prosecutor? Most definitely. 1:20:46 - Kate Sumey So if they talked with a probation officer, then I mean, we just, we just really need that anybody can, you know, email me at name and date of birth, then we can do a little research, really, somebody has to talk with their attorney, and they need to see if if it's even an option for them. So the prosecutor has to review cases, but we don't know who interested in doing one of the treatment courts unless we know they're out there. So we definitely have capacity. The addiction courts, they're a little bit more structured. And there's so like DUI courts, they are 18 months by statute. And there are certain treatment providers that are in the DUI courts. So it's felony drug or there's misdemeanor courts, but it's 18 months by statute. But non-DUI, OUI offenses, they sometimes can land in any of the courts, really coming back to, if you encounter somebody, encourage somebody to talk with their attorney about their legal options and ask them if they're eligible for one of the therapeutic courts. That's, every single case is gonna be processed differently, but if they're pre-sentence, we, you know, we can be taking a look at them. Every program has a little different application process. For mental health court, we really try and make it just as easy as possible. It's just a screening that their attorney does with them. If anybody has any referrals, it doesn't hurt to send me the information and I can follow up with the attorneys. It doesn't mean somebody is going to be eligible or not. I hope that makes sense. And it's, so I was saying about some programs are 18 months, and the mental health court, more often we have people who receive intensive services in the community for about six months. Sometimes people may participate like nine months or a little longer, depending if they have problems, bumps in the road. So yeah, if somebody has an open case, addiction, mental health issues, they should be talking with their attorney. Hope that helps. That totally helps. Thank you so much, Kate. I appreciate you. 1:23:11 - Christina Shadura Kate's been working with the court system for a few years now and she's a resource in herself. So if you could pop your email in the chat or something, that would be great in case folks want to reach out to you. Anybody else want to jump on, introduce themselves, kind of talk about what's going on with their program? Anything like that? Oh, I see a hand raised. Emily. Alright, let's talk to Emily. With reentry and restoratives. Yeah, I do it. Hey good, thanks for having me on. 1:23:44 - Emily Robinson Really cool to see everybody on here. I just wanted to share. I work with Kathleen McLaughlin at restorative and reentry services and we're doing the third party oversight for the emergency cold weather shelter system and we currently have had an extension for the non-congregate beds so we are going to be able to have a continuation of 200 non-congregate beds in the hotel rooms for this at least until June 30th with hopes of being able to extend throughout the summer and also the 200 congregate beds at the East 56 shelter. So when it comes to individuals experiencing homelessness we have a continued capacity versus the on off pattern that we've had in the past, which has been really helpful with continuity of care. So we've also been starting up a lot of abatement work. So we're going to be abating Davis Park starting tomorrow. The posts are going to start tomorrow. And so we're taking a lot of those non-congregate spaces and we're prioritizing campers that are being abated. So we're going to be seeing a lot of movement hopefully in the right direction and yeah that's what we've been up to. 1:25:12 - Christina Shadura All right thank you Emily. 1:25:14 - Unidentified Speaker Careful out there. 1:25:15 - Unidentified Speaker Thanks. 1:25:16 - Christina Shadura I think we got time for One or two more intros, if anybody's interested. No, I won't put anybody else on the spot, I promise. All right, let's move forward here. I got one more section to cover, and I'll release you guys. Oh, oh, I saw a hand up. Carrie, Food Bank. Go ahead, the floor is yours. Thank you. 1:25:39 - Carrie Huck I just want to let people know we're a resource in the community, but also across the state for food stamps. We're a partner agency with Division of Public Assistance so we have the same applications and forms that the DPA has and we help people get the application and submit it as well as track their case if they process if they send documents through us we actually help track that case all the way through to see if it gets processed in a timely manner and such. We are partners with Alaska Legal Services as well so if clients need to file for fair hearings to appeal their cases for any public assistance programs we can help people with that step as well. So I just want to let people know we have a text line which makes it the easiest way for people to reach out and check on their case status and that text line has become kind of like golden across the state especially in our rural communities trying to reach out and check on their food stamp cases. We cannot process a case or make a determination or complete the step of an However, we do know of some fee agents available in rural communities. We know how to connect people to locations where they can get their interviews done or over the phone. So we do try to help make the process as easy as possible for clients that reach out to our team. So I'll just drop our text information in the chat, but also at any point people can reach us at snap.foodbankofalaska.org if they ever have questions. So, that's all. 1:27:13 - Unidentified Speaker Thank you so much, Carrie. 1:27:14 - Unidentified Speaker So great meeting you. 1:27:16 - Christina Shadura Thank you for coming to the re-entry simulation and supporting that. I hope it was very frustrating for you. Very much. I learned something new from you today about as far as what the food bank can offer. I didn't know you folks, so you track applications? Yeah. Okay. 1:27:32 - Carrie Huck We do all of our own audits on all of our files that we submit, so we are constantly checking if it's processed on time and if it's not we kick it over to their operations team or we reach out to a client if they need legal services assistance etc. So we actually are a big step and we also keep a record of everything we send to the DPA which is an added bonus for if they get stuck in backlogs we'll be able to pull up the record and say yep we sent it on this date we know exactly when it was sent in and very helpful for a lot of clients to have that extra piece of of mind. 1:28:08 - Unidentified Speaker Very helpful. 1:28:08 - Christina Shadura Amanda, do you have a question for Carrie? 1:28:11 - Hillberry, Amanda F Yeah, sorry, I didn't wait for you to ask for questions. My bad. 1:28:16 - Unidentified Speaker Is this statewide, Carrie? 1:28:17 - Hillberry, Amanda F Yes. Like all food banks? Okay. Yes. That's amazing. 1:28:20 - Carrie Huck Yes. 1:28:21 - Carrie Huck So we, Food Bank of Alaska has a SNAP outreach team. That's what I'm a part of There's only a team of four of us here at the Food Bank of Alaska. And it's not per se at all of where people go to get their food if they're short on their food budget for the month or whatever. What we are is more of a partner agency to the state. So it's best if people contact through our team. And I'll put our information again in the chat. But also, we represent across the state. So if someone calls us from Sitka or somewhere, we can look up their case because we have access to the DPS. Database to check on food stamp cases in particular. So the food stamps is huge for people that are waiting months or whatever and they're waiting to find out what's going on with their cases. That's the step of the piece of the puzzle that we can help fill in for people. 1:29:24 - Christina Shadura That's awesome. Carrie, in your expert opinion, should somebody incarcerated apply for food stamps even if they have a release date? 1:29:31 - Carrie Huck They should not until they are released however they can start the process as they're slowly working with their caseworker or their parole officer etc as they're merging into that they can start the process so that's something they will have to have a there are a couple of forms that do have to be signed if they've had any drug felonies or any kind of sexual abuse etc they do have to have a parole officer sign off on that that they've completed treatment programs and such to be able to apply for food stamps. So it is an important piece of the puzzle that they have to be aware of There's an added form that will need to be completed with with signing up for food stamps. 1:30:19 - Christina Shadura Okay, well question Jonathan. 1:30:20 - Pistotnik, Jonathan F Harry is there a way is it possible to get a waiver to allow applications to be submitted and processed pre-release? 1:30:29 - Carrie Huck I could check with our policy team because we meet with them monthly and that's an excellent question feel free to email that to me and I'll put it on our we have a meeting coming up early next month and I can put that on there. 1:30:45 - Pistotnik, Jonathan F I feel like in the in somewhere in the past I became aware that there is a waiver that somebody entities like public assistance DOC like there's a way that you could at least circum circumvent or like sort of allow that part of the process to proceed if the necessary people in leadership like signs off on it. But I'm definitely interested in that. 1:31:08 - Carrie Huck So there's some new health commissioners and so on so it honestly it comes down to whatever the current policies are. So go ahead and shoot your question to me. It's an excellent question because we're continuing to try to bridge this gap. So I'm happy to ask that question, find out more and get back to you. 1:31:28 - Unidentified Speaker Thanks. 1:31:28 - Christina Shadura Yeah, that would be awesome. 1:31:30 - Christina Shadura I think that's always a misconception too, especially on the case management side about whether or not folks can apply. And I feel like there's been different things floating in the air, like yes, if they're releasing within 30 days, but if they do apply and they're not released, the application goes to the bottom of the pile. So it's just good to know that what's the, from the horse's mouth, what should we do, you know, and create that standard in the community. 1:31:54 - Christina Shadura So we're not doing different things all the time, but 1:31:57 - Carrie Huck Well, if anybody's interested, we host a once a month forum meeting by Zoom, and that is where we keep a lot of our providers and caseworkers connected to updates from DPA or the legal team, and even our outreach of things we have going on. So if anybody's interested, again, just feel free to send me an email or I'll put all of our general contact information in here, but I'll put my direct information in as well. 1:32:21 - Unidentified Speaker Awesome. 1:32:21 - Christina Shadura Can I add that to the website, the events and the calendar upcoming? Great. I'll add that too, so people can please, please do. Awesome. Thanks, Carrie. 1:32:30 - Unidentified Speaker Appreciate you being here. 1:32:33 - Christina Shadura All right. Last call. Any, any more meet and greets? Greets and meets? No worries if not. All right, folks. I appreciate you hanging in there. Oh, Miss Autumn. Boy, I haven't heard your name in a minute. How you doing, Autumn? Floor's yours. Oh, Mike, I can't hear you. It might be nine. I can't hear you. Can anybody hear her? 1:32:57 - Unidentified Speaker I'm not hearing her. 1:32:59 - Christina Shadura Darn mics. Can you hear me now? Yes. 1:33:03 - Christina Shadura Ah, I got a new headset. 1:33:06 - Vea, Autumn N I'm back at DBH. My name's Autumn Veya. I've been in state service for around 17 years. Been all over the place, Office of Children's Services, Department of Corrections, DBH previously, and the Alaska Mental Health Trust, where I was most recently. I left the trust about a year and a half ago to do a project on evaluating health care outcomes for the Federal Bureau of Prisons. And so I've spent the last year and a half traveling all over the U.S. And going behind the walls into the federal prison system. So that's been exciting. That came to a crashing halt like much federal contracting has done and now I'm back at DBH and I'll be overseeing the prevention and early intervention section and we'll be working on reentry and recidivism grants. So I think you may have worked previously maybe with Alyssa Wooten or Wooden and I'll be taking over some of those responsibilities along with some other prevention and early and stuff. So it's great to be back working with Alaska, state of Alaska, and great to be working back on the criminal justice population. So I'm around. It's autumn.vea.alaska.gov. Feel free to shoot me an email. I'm on day three, so I haven't quite gotten myself regrounded in the work I'll be doing, but I'm sure I will be a frequent flyer at your coalition meetings. So I appreciate it. Very cool. 1:34:33 - Christina Shadura We're happy to have you, Autumn, and glad we took you back from the feds. Welcome back to the stateside, and looking forward to working with you more as we move down the road here. 1:34:45 - Unidentified Speaker Awesome. 1:34:45 - Unidentified Speaker That's great. 1:34:46 - Unidentified Speaker All right, folks. 1:34:47 - Christina Shadura Seeing no more hands jump up, so let's go ahead and end this here. I got just one more thing. If you can still see my screen, I hope it says wrap-up, upcomings, just some stuff I wanted you folks to be aware of The ACLU Alaska is having a prison project online tonight. It is registration required, so the registration link is on acluak.org on their website, and it's good to know about kind of their legislative priorities. You might have been seeing the news. They've got some recent legal actions popping up, so it's good to be able to ask some questions with some local folks. Their prison project also has some folks doing some in-reach and things like that. They have a huge presence at the halfway houses right now, so If you're interested in that, that's going on tonight. The Alaska Mental Health Trust Authority is doing their strategic planning sessions where they want to hold public comment for folks. There's also a written comment section and an anonymous survey you can complete if you're not into the public speaking thing. That's all on their website as well. And I will definitely be participating there, but I think it would be good to make sure our voices are heard as some of you may or may The Mental Health Trust Authority does fund the coalition positions, the four of us in Fairbanks, Matthew, Sue, Juno, and myself. They've been doing this for eight or nine years. They made the decision after the next fiscal year to step back from funding. So we will be fully funded for the next fiscal year, which starts July 1 here for the state. And then after that, it might be sunsetting for us all there, but you guys, for the next And I hope you folks, if you have some time there on the 9th to go ahead and show up and provide some feedback, whether it's reentry or any other priority, right? They need to hear from us, the people in the community, boots on the ground doing the work. So stick around for that. That should be interesting. And then the citywide case management meetings from Alaska Housing Finance is kicking up again. Some of you folks might be familiar with those. They do them through their family sufficiency program. And kind of similar to what this is, except it's more on a community case management level. They'll have all type of focus areas, not just reentry and criminal justice related, but it's a pretty good thing to attend. They were in person, but I think I saw a Zoom meeting now, so I think they might be online. If you are interested in being added onto that list, or if you want to be one of the programs that present, Jennifer Bernard is going to be your contact there, and I have her information at the bottom. Those are just some things that are coming up here, coming down the pike in the next few weeks. And you know what, folks? That's pretty much all I have. Our next scheduled meeting is going to be Thursday, August 29th. That's the three months from now. We will be hosting a reentry simulation in August, like I talked about. So stay tuned for that, updates and registration and all the things. Any questions or anything like that, I'm always here for you folks. Other than that, thank you so much for attending. I appreciate you, and we'll see you in August. 1:38:00 - Unidentified Speaker Thank you. 1:38:01 - Unidentified Speaker Thank you, folks.