Council Study Session

MINUTES OF THE GILBERT TOWN COUNCIL, IN SPECIAL MEETING FOR A STUDY SESSION, OF TUESDAY, APRIL 4, 2023 AT 5:45 PM, MUNICIPAL CENTER I, COUNCIL CHAMBERS, 50 E. CIVIC CENTER DRIVE, GILBERT, ARIZONA COUNCIL Mayor Brigette PRESENT: Peterson Mayor Brigette Peterson, Vice Mayor Kathy Tilque, Councilmembers Scott Anderson (attended virtually), Chuck Bongiovanni, Bobbi Buchli, Yung Koprowski, and Jim Torgeson COUNCIL ABSENT: None STAFF PRESENT: Town Clerk Chaveli Herrera and Volunteer and Community Resources Manager Melanie Dykstra CALL TO ORDER OF SPECIAL MEETING Mayor Peterson called the meeting to order at 5:53 p.m. AGENDA ITEM 1. Presentation and discussion of the Community Engagement Task Force focus areas related to Mental Health and Suicide Prevention. Volunteer and Community Resources Manager Dykstra introduced herself and stated the committee was started in January 2022 and the first meeting was held in March 2022. She stated that Council had prioritized areas of focus for the committee which were domestic violence, homelessness, low-income challenges, human and sex trafficking, mental health and suicide prevention. She shared that the board members went through training to ensure they were educated on the issues so they could select the first focus area which was mental health and suicide prevention. She thanked Kathleen Dowler from Dignity Health who helped as a facilitator for her time and effort. She said the key areas they looked at were awareness of existing resources, promote positivity around mental health and, promote holistic support 1 of mental health. She shared short-term, mid-term, and long-term guidelines, and stated some resources would need to be allocated for some recommendations. She said there were opportunities for collaboration with outside partners and ways to work with the community as a whole. Community Engagement Task Force Member Amy Holstein introduced herself and shared her background experience which included mental health, behavioral health, social services, and child welfare. She shared a slide that had objectives of key components they wanted to work on 24/7 access, education awareness, alternative therapies, awareness sharing, reaching all age groups, wrap-around resources and services. She stated that Gilbert already did a lot and they could look into supporting and partnering with other existing programs and like professional navigation services to continue growing and building on the healthy foundation they already had started. She then explained service action items, trauma- informed services, outreach work, and the Gilbert advocacy center, and stated each situation would not be the same and could require more than one service. She covered the awareness campaign action items including Gilbert good business designation, mental health Mondays, and access to information through resource cards, marketing materials, resource fairs, advertising on Gilbert vehicles, and publications. Community Resources Manager Dykstra discussed the measurable success items of benchmark data, SMART goals, and post-survey information. She asked for feedback from the council. Vice Mayor Tilque thanked the group and stated that if there were any topics they wanted additional information on that was the feedback they wanted. She added that they choose the current topic based on the understanding that other topics they would be tackling, the root of that comes from some type of mental health issue, and some of the recommendations would be similar. She was jazzed about mental health Monday and the possibility of creating short public service announcements (PSA) that could be shared with the faith community, businesses, and all organizations to share the resources they will have available. 2 Councilmember Buchli stated the staff and residents that had been involved did a terrific job. She said the biggest thing with the program was educating the public and getting the information out to the people who needed assistance with mental health and their families. Councilmember Anderson thanked them for their efforts in the community and he thought they chose the right topic to start with that would make a difference in the community. He stated that some communities in the country were trying to replace the police with professionals in those areas that were presented that evening and he was glad to see they were including training with the police. He said they want to eliminate the stigma around mental health and let people know there were resources available. Mayor Peterson agreed that they were on the right track with mental health. She said that everything happening was related to mental health, the homelessness situation, the drug situation and even their next topic, human and sex trafficking. She asked if they would focus on one area before moving on to human and sex trafficking. Community Resources Manager Dykstra said the group would be moving on to the next topic and they would keep in mind the information and recommendations that they had received. She stated they had recently had a meeting with presentations on human and sex trafficking from three organizations, Gilbert police department, Starbright Foundation, and Cece’s Hope Center. She stated there would be some overlap of efforts between the topic areas and she thanked Kathleen Dowler for her help with setting up the process they used it will help them to move through some to the other topic areas quicker. Mayor Peterson inquired how they intended to work with other organizations and groups on the mental health portion, she mentioned a Gilbert leadership class project was focused on suicide prevention which was mental health. Community Resources Manager Dykstra stated it was brought up at the meeting to try to understand what was going on and what were potential resources and areas of support. She said there was an organization for the town that wanted to be an action arm and move things forward on their behalf and make sure there were different groups they could continue to educate through those different avenues. She mentioned Dignity Health was working on a zero-suicide initiative that they shared on their avenues and channels to make sure there was attendance and participation. Anything 3 they heard of that was related to what they talked about they were making sure that information was moving out into the Community. Mayor Peterson thanked Kathleen Dowler for everything that she did to assist the group and for attending that evening. She thanked the members of the committee at the meeting for their presentation and Community Resources Manager Dykstra for being the liaison to the group. She said it was an important position for her to hold, considering what she did within the community and being the liaison for the town. ADJOURN Mayor Peterson adjourned the meeting at 6:14 p.m. ATTEST: ___________________________ ___________________________________ Brigette Peterson, Mayor Chaveli Herrera, MMC, Town Clerk 4 CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Study Session of the Town Council of the Town of Gilbert held on the 4th day of April, 2023. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was present. Dated this ____ day of ____________________2023. ___________________________________ Chaveli Herrera, Town Clerk 5