Connecting Us - Sustaining Progress (CUSP)

Date: January 2, 2020 Subject: Meeting Minutes, CUSP Personal and Public Safety Committee Location: Creekside Counseling, Idaho Falls Meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. by Dr. Janet Allen, Committee Chairwoman. In attendance: • Dr. Janet Allen, Chairwoman • Paul Allen • Brad Landes • Amy Gamett (co-chair) • Anthony Tirino (co-chair) • Carol Mascarenas • John Ferguson • Not in attendance: Rolanda Bjornson John Landers notified the Chair immediately prior to the meeting that he was dropping off the committee. As such, the committee was only missing one member, and it was determined that a quorum was in attendance. (For future meetings, a quorum will be five (5) members.) Members reintroduced themselves. Chairwoman discussed her vision for how she saw the progression of this committee’s objectives. Chairwoman opened the discussion of the scope of the committee, specifically what the priorities should be. Brainstormed the following list: • Suicide (special note that the Mayor specifically mentioned this one frequently when discussing the Personal and Public Safety committee • Drug overdose • Active shooter awareness • Communications technology • Digital forensics • DNA technology, including rape kits • Homeless outreach • Officer/first responder wellness • Opioid crisis response • PTSD • Social Media/cyber bullying • Rape 1  • Vulnerable populations o Mentally ill o Elderly o Unreported abused o Minority populations, especially LatinX and non-English speaking • Human trafficking • Road bicycle safety • Well-being and recreation w/ safety components, i.e. safe places to recreate • LGBTQ community safety, especially safe spaces for youth groups • Immunization/vaccine resistance • Education on safety topics • Domestic violence, with awareness of socioeconomic dynamics • Gun safety • Bullying (in general) • Access to mental health services Member provided data on Idaho Resident Mortality Rates pulled from an Idaho Division of Public Health database. Some discussion ensued, with special notice of the prevalence of suicide. Member began discussion recognizing that a large number of issues listed (above) are behavior-based issues, such as rape, child abuse, suicide, homelessness, mental health, etc. Noted that an educational approach to addressing such issues should target three specific audiences: children, parents and law enforcement. This resulted in a lengthy discussion on driving safety in the community as part of a culture shift. Member noted the importance of this committee understanding how well the existing community programs communicate. Recommended gathering data on all existing local programs at the city, county and state level, and mapping them graphically over a representation of the “Whole, Well Person”, i.e. physical well-being, mental well-being, spiritual well-being, financial well-being, etc. Member suggested that by so doing, we could identify places where there are gaps in attending to the needs of the whole “citizen”. This was considered important because “well citizens are much safer citizens” and that wellness is a function of how well they are doing in all the facets of well-being. Same member noted that success in this regard was largely achieved at the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) by virtue of making the topic of safety “personal”. The overall driving principals pertaining to safety for the INL leadership was “Simplicity” and “Trust” and that leadership knew what those meant, and utilized them in informing daily decision-making. This resulted in further discussion: • How does the city communicate the services that are already provided to citizens? • Where are the gaps? • Identify a few things the city itself could focus on • Develop a marketing and communications plan that might include effective “sound bites” that could help effectuate the culture change (example of a successful sound-bite being used around the country right now is “If you see something, say something.”) • The emphasis of all of this is to help the city better emphasize and communicate what they are doing to support the well-being of the whole person in Idaho Falls 2  • “Awareness, Action and Wellness” Member discussed the thought that among the things we might consider is to emphasize options that the city can act on because they are under their control, such as infrastructure matters (parks, employees, roadways, sidewalks, police force, fire department, etc.) Member raised the issue of wellness of service providers, i.e. police officers, firefighters, EMS providers, etc. resulting in a discussion around the need for first responder mental health, and the things the city is currently engaged in to facilitate that objective. Member raised the issue of holding community events, and the importance of ensuring they are held in multiple locations as that could be instrumental in determining who comes to those events. Member asked if there is a “Coordinating Council” of representatives from all of the various service- providing agencies and organizations, and noted that he had participated in similar councils elsewhere to great effect. Chairwoman attempted at that point to consolidate the ideas down to a handful of grouped topics: • Coordinating Council • Culture change, beginning with an assessment of services supporting the whole person, and utilizing marketing “sound bites” to help carry the message • Education • Infrastructure topics • Recognition of the common underlying root-causes of many of the behavior-based topics, and how to approach those as a community • “Healthy People are Safer People” • “Safety Matters because People Matter” Member discussed the idea of beginning the culture shift at the city leadership level, with the recognition that safety culture is generally a top-down proposition. Suggest that the first place to start is the Leadership of the city and all of its various offices carrying the safety culture into everything the city itself does, helping to drive it out to the greater community. Same member noted that at the INL, leadership makes safety at work a top priority with the hope that the culture of safety is then carried home by employees. Same could be true in the city, where the city offices make the culture of safety a top priority, with the hope that it carries to the greater body of citizens. Chairwoman discussed the important role that relationships play in establishing safety in most, if not all, the behavior-based matters. Agencies that facilitate safety-related activities will be more effective if their relationships with the public are emphasized. Member asked what each of the city departments do now in support of public safety, recognizing that many already do by the very nature of those departments (police, fire, power, recreation) Suggested that we need to find out what outreach they are currently providing, and whether or not they coordinate with each other (which coordination would facilitate better culture shift) Chairwoman then asked everyone for an action they could take prior to the next meeting: 3  • Paul – Contact the City to ask about safety-related plans the city already has in place, i.e. for sidewalks, bicycle paths, etc.; • Brad – Will come prepared to discuss educational resources and opportunities; • Anthony – Will start to pull together a list of the existing agencies and resources that support public and personal safety issues; • Amy – Will research what other communities have done in the areas of public and personal safety; • Carol – Will research what other cities in the Northwest are doing in the areas of safety, as well as research how the city offices are currently addressing the well-being of the whole person; • John – Will research Coordinating Councils • Janet – Will contact the absent person to catch them up; will get some face-time with the Chief of Police, the Fire Chief, and Bonneville County Sherriff to assess their perception of how the culture of mental health and wellness among first responders is being received, or what the concerns are. Next meeting was scheduled for Thursday, January 23, 2020 at 7:00 at Creekside Counseling, 550 W. Sunnyside Ste. 1, Idaho Falls. Meeting was adjourned at 9:15 pm. 4