Rockland opioid funds panel hears four grant proposals before November vote

[0:00] Speaker A (unidentified): Yep. Good evening, everyone, and welcome to this meeting of the Opioid Settlement Participatory Budgeting Committee. We are having a panel discussion tonight as we enter into voting season for this second year of grant awards. So this is... Yeah, that's all right. That's just what the room is seeing. So this is the second time we're going through this cycle, and in the best tradition of building the plane as you fly it. We are trying something different this year, which is instead of having a competitive vote between the organizations, the committee acting as a vetting committee is presenting an up or down vote on all four of the proposals. So voters will vote yes or no, and then you all will get the funding or not. So just so you know, just so people know, we have thirty one and a half thousand dollars to spend this year, and it looks like we're close to spending all of that with these proposals, or not quite, I'm doing quick math. So the four organizations we have right now are the Emergency Warming Center, the Mid-Coast Recovery Coalition, Metro Treatment of Maine, and Homeworthy. They each have a program. They're here this evening to talk through their proposals. We'll have time for questions and any sort of discussion or cross-pollination that happens. Voting will kick off like as the vote does, so absentee ballots are just about to go out, and then we'll get most of the votes on election day, which is, you know, less than 40 days away now, something like that. So do we have a sense of the order we want to go in? Should we just, should I go down our list? So the first proposal I have listed is the Emergency Warming Center. So Jess, do you want to go first? [2:23] Jessica Bergelin: I'm Jessica Bergelin, and I'm the Director for the Emergency Warming Center. And so thank you for the opportunity to share more about the Warming Center and the work that we're doing in Rockland. We're requesting $7,500 in opioid settlement funding. This will strengthen the 26 27 season and help us better support people experiencing homelessness, substance use challenges, and barriers to recovery. As you can see here, EWC is a no barrier overnight shelter providing safety, dignity, and basic needs during the coldest nights. Last winter we were open for 33 nights and served 28 different individuals. People who are experiencing chaotic substance use often face a number of barriers and at the same time have unstable housing, difficulty maintaining a phone, transportation problems, involvement with legal system, withdrawal, and difficulty navigating traditional services. EWC gives people a safe place to stabilize without requiring sobriety or participation in services. At the same time we provide overdose prevention support, de-escalation, hygiene, clean clothing and transportation and opportunities to connect with treatment and recovery resources when the guest is ready. Guests receive warmth, meals,, showers, clean clothing, harm reduction supplies, wound care, support, transportation, and referrals, which meet an immediate need for them in the moment. Our goal is to be open 68 consecutive nights, December 23 through February 28, then sporadically the months of early December, March, and April. It will be based on need, volunteer availability and weather and consistently being open will help strengthen our guest connections to medication assisted treatment, behavioral health, recovery services and harm reduction resources. We plan to train all our overnight staff in overdose prevention, expand our CPR training and train at a minimum 20 additional community members in overdose response and de-escalation. Our guests will not be required to be sober or participate in services to receive shelter. This is just a little bit of a overview of our leadership staff. We have experience working in housing instability, substance use, mental health, and crisis situation. situation. All of our volunteers also have to go to the mandatory training to be a volunteer, which includes the administration of naloxone or Narcan, as well as a brief overview of what our current situation with substance use looks like here in Rockland and ways that we can help to mitigate that and going over as well the Good Samaritan law and how to protect ourselves as volunteers. We work with local partners providing food, overdose prevention supplies, drug testing, harm reduction, wound care, clothing, hygiene supplies, and other supports. The network allows us to connect guests with help beyond the shelter itself. We have a connection to, this is just a list of a few places that we are connected with. There's plenty more, but the ones we use the most currently happen to be on this list. At the time that we applied for this grant, the numbers show a significant need in our area. Homeworthy currently had 139 clients receiving services with another 42 people waiting for assistance. And then at the same time, there were only 37 combined family shelter beds across Knox County, Lincoln County, and Waldo County. And most importantly, there is currently no low-barrier overnight shelter in any of these three counties. When the EWC is closed, someone may have to travel 60 to 90 minutes to reach a low-barrier shelter. That can mean leaving behind treatment providers, support systems, employment, family, and the community relationships that create their stability. So what will this money do? The $7,500 investment would directly strengthen both winter survival and recovery support. It would help us safely open more nights, recruit and retain trained overnight staff,, maintain overdose prevention and de-escalation readiness, provide transportation to treatment and recovery resources, keep essential supplies available, and document outcomes that can help guide through the shelter's future development. We're also building sustainability through private donations, churches, rotary organizations, additional grants, and continued conversations with the City of Rockland and Knox County. Ultimately, the funding helps us do something very simple, but very important. Keep people alive, warm, connected, and supported long enough to have the opportunity to take the next step in their recovery journey. [8:41] Speaker A (unidentified): Does anyone have any questions? Can [8:46] Shannon Scheimer: I add a vote of support for this? Yes. Yes. I'm Shannon Scheimer. I'm the Director of Social Services at Homeworthy. We cheer every time EWC is open. You saw the stats for Homeworthy up there. We are working with folks who are experiencing homelessness. We operate a 22-bed family shelter on Old County Road that is consistently always full. As soon as a family moves out into stable housing, we move another family in. And when EWC is open for the winter, it is incredible. Credible when folks need a warming center if EWC isn't open the closest one is that I typically would steer a client towards would be in Brunswick, which is quite far, and I, Home Inc., I guess, would be the next one up that way, right? And so every night that EWC is open, it is tremendous for the entire community. So it's kind of funny, this, I know we're not part of your grit, your application, but it is really helpful for another organization up here. [9:48] Jessica Bergelin: Yeah, and given that you are a family shelter, most of the folks that stay with us are single men, which would not have the opportunity to stay at the Homeworthy Hospitality Shelter. [10:04] Shannon Scheimer: Yeah, it's not a population we're able to serve. Right,. [10:08] Jessica Bergelin: And our population has primarily, it's been more men than women, and all without children. We do take pets though. I would also like to put my recommendation [10:21] Laura: in for this too. I'm Laura from Midcoast Recovery and this time of the year we start receiving a lot of applications for recovery housing because they can't find anything else. So with this open, and it's mostly when the cold weather hits and things, they decide, well, maybe I want help with my recovery, which a lot of them don't want the help, but they just need a place to stay. So this, I totally go with this and Homeworthy, and yeah. [11:00] Jessica Bergelin: We're meeting people where they are, whether that is, you know, recovery now or recovery later. Yeah, you know you got to live to tomorrow and tomorrow might be the day. Yeah, so we'll get you through the night [11:16] Speaker A (unidentified): Sure. Yeah, and I'll just say anyone who's worked in the field for a while knows like anytime you try to like solve a problem or untangle a knot what you realize is that all of These problems are interrelated Exactly, and but that also means like all the solutions are interconnected And so I think that's one of the reasons we didn't want to set this up as a competition for limited funds, but give that sense that we're all collaborating, we're all working together, and we're all... [11:47] Laura: Thank you for that. Sure. I appreciate it. I know that. We all need each other. Yeah, we do. [11:54] Speaker A (unidentified): Laura, would you like to go? Yes. [11:56] Laura: Again, I'm Laura from Midcoast Recovery Coalition. I'm Board President, and I would like to thank you for this opportunity to present our request for scholarship money for our bed. We are requesting $11,400, which would cover one year, 12 months of a bed for an individual staying at the friend's house. We are MAR certified, and we are allowed three beds for both of our houses, and we are all self-paid. We do not take insurance. So if somebody comes in, say, from the Bolduc unit or somewhere, they don't have a job at that point. They don't have any money to pay for their rent for that. So, if the house in Camden for women are using up the MAR beds that we are allowed, that leaves us with no money coming in for the bed for the friend's house. So, this scholarship money came in really, we got it a little bit last year, which helped tremendously. We served, I believe, 12 guys last year, I believe, if I remember right. The Friends House approximately serves 17 to 22 men a year as recovery, sober living. They are required to work, but sometimes it takes a couple months for them to be able to find a job. job anybody it's we've been really lucky more and more places are starting to hire those in recovery so that's a blessing last year we did serve 25 men and I would like to say that probably 75 of those 75 percent of those men went on to better things with their own places their own lives their family you know some have gotten their children back visiting and so yeah we have some that do not succeed but that is why we stay in business we want to help as much as we can and this would definitely help and just a little bit. UMA did a study in January through July of this year. There were 4,740 responses to overdoses. Fatal were 137 and non-fatal were 4,603. And that was because more and more people have the Narcan and are trained in that which both of our house managers are in every resident that comes into our house is trained on Narcan so we did have an overdose a few months ago which turned out really well he was given Narcan and taken to the hospital spent a few days there and he is back at the house we pride ourselves in looking at the individual themselves. We do have rules, but each individual has their own journey, and we look at that individual to say what is going to be best for this individual. And this individual had a stroke, and he got depressed, and this is what led. So we look at the whole picture, and we did allow him back into the house, and he's doing fantastic now so it's not a one-fit-all home that we have and in that we have also requested three thousand dollars to have a counselor come into the home and counsel these guys on their trauma that they've had in the past their depression there are things because we have found that this is what causes the addiction it trauma things that have happened and most of them do not have a vehicle to get somewhere They're not going to go if it's going to take time to walk or anything to a counselor. So we requested this money to for a counselor to come in to the home and have a group meeting to start for a couple months and then do individual as needed for the guys there. So that's the total that we had asked for, $11,400. And Knox County alone, there was 86 confirmed overdoses January through July. And that was just reported, that's not counting the ones that were not reported, which as we all know, overdoses that happen at parties aren't going to be reported a lot. The Narcan is given and they thank goodness that nobody died at that point. So yeah, so but again, thank you very much for this opportunity to present my case and it's called Pathways to Recovery Wellness Fund. So thank you very much. Thank you, Laura. [17:51] Speaker A (unidentified): Yeah, we really were excited to see the addition of counseling as a part of the proposal. Yeah,. Yeah, it just feels like a better possibility for durable, sustainable recovery if they're doing that work. And that's it, yeah, that's it. [18:07] Laura: Yeah. That was kind of a recommendation from, I actually asked the residents, what could you use that you don't have? And they said, you know, I think we could use somebody to talk to. But we can't always get there. And trying to find an appointment and things. So, you know, if we could have scheduled house meetings for them to come in and talk to them for a couple group meetings and then individual, they could work around the schedule. [18:40] Speaker A (unidentified): So yeah, so it's great, thank you. Yeah, thank you. Anyone else, any questions, comments, man, I'll [18:48] Shannon Scheimer: have a comment on every single one just because there's overlap though, I mean, yeah, we Homeworthy often has clients who are staying in one of the two locations, male or female, and the houses, and it's tremendous because it can, when somebody is ready to start to tackle recovery, we have a place in the community that is available. There's, I'll say something when you could, we just, we have so much overlap and it takes, I think it takes everyone up here to do their piece that to support anyone's recovery. I agree and [19:24] Laura: I've tried as taking over board president to get to know people a little bit better in the community and in work with the community members and kind of we all depend on each other, you know, so, yeah. [19:40] Shannon Scheimer: When folks who are in case management at Homeworthy go to one of the beds that you're talking about, they're able to stay in case management with us, so, yeah, it's just a really nice relationship. [19:53] Laura: We're pretty proud of the houses, yeah. You should be. [19:56] Michelle Carey: Same with the treatment option. Yeah, exactly. If we can't find people with beds here, then they have to go elsewhere, then they can't get to treatment. [20:03] Laura: Exactly,. [20:04] Jessica Bergelin: Makes it difficult for sure. I've met several of the ladies from the house that you have in Camden. They utilize another service that I'm a part of, yeah, the SOS in Camden, and they speak very highly of that. Oh, and they're, they're lovely folks, and it's within walking distance, and the community in Camden is very close to that. Yeah, so they have the opportunity to integrate, which I've heard from several of the ladies has been a wonderful opportunity for them to get where they want to be. [20:35] Laura: And actually, a few of the guys that have vehicles have heard about the SOS. So they will give rides up there. No, that's great. Because I've mentioned, you know, well, the ladies go up there. Oh, really? And a lot of them didn't know about it. So that's worked out. Yeah. And they're getting jobs. [20:54] Jessica Bergelin: And they come and they say, hey, I've got a new job, you know. And we give them some clothes for the interview or for the new job. And it really works out great. Yeah. [21:05] Laura: Thank you for that part of you. [21:06] Jessica Bergelin: No, I'm very supportive of what you're doing. [21:13] Speaker A (unidentified): Great. Next on my list is the Metro Treatment of Maine for the SAFE program. [21:19] Michelle Carey: Okay. So I'm Michelle Carey. I am the program director in New Hampshire, but I am covering the last few months in the Rockland office. So just a little bit about New Season. So New Season, we were formerly the Metro of Rockland, But we rebranded to New Season a few years ago. So we're a provider of outpatient opioid treatment services in the United States. We do evidence-based medicated assisted treatment, counseling, and comprehensive recovery support services. We help individuals overcome opiate use disorder and build healthier futures. We have a commitment to expanding access to high-quality addiction treatment. And New Season serves communities across the country with compassionate patient-centered care. Our mission statement is to triumph over opioid addiction by integrating treatment counseling and comprehensive patient care that saves lives. We are in 90 plus states in the United States. We have about 33,000 patients total across these facilities. We are on our fifth mobile unit going into New Hampshire. We have one in Maine right now, so the two centers we have in Maine are Penobscot and Rockland. So the benefits of MAT are to prevent withdrawal symptoms and cravings. We try to reduce overdose and relapse risk, and we normalize brain chemistry, and it restores daily functions. It lowers disease transmissions. So the standard MAT medication offerings that we have are methadone, buprenorphine, and Suboxone. We are primarily methadone in the Rockland Center. It just, you know, most of the centers tend to be mostly methadone. Suboxone has sort of moved away. We have, you know, just a small percentage that will choose that. We offer Narcan and safety planning. Medication eligibility, so we have diagnostic assessments that patients have to do, there's physical dependence evidence, and then physician consideration for their doses. The treatment goals, so the core treatment goals that we have are to stabilize physical health, harm reduction for patients and community, regain their life control, and stop illicit opioid misuse. Treatment duration, so recovery is based on each individual. We don't set a specific goal for each patient. We work with them on what their goal is. As most people have said, you know, it's very individualized. You can't just sort of have a one-stop shop. Recovery is a long process, and it's nothing that is a short-term option. MAT versus untreated opioid use disorder. So with physical withdrawal, there's frequent and severe episodes. MAT is prevented and stabilized. For relapse, there's extremely higher risk of relapse with untreated opioid use disorder, and with MAT, it's significantly reduced. For overdoses, there's severe fatal risk, and then with MAT, there's over 50% reduction in mortality. Healthcare engagement, disrupted and crisis-driven for untreated, and for MAT, it's consistent and continuous care. there. Daily functioning, we see folks come in with severe impairment, and on MAT, there's restored autonomy and employment and other options. On the road, so like I mentioned, Rockland has a mobile unit. Currently, we are going to Belfast and Waterville and also to Bridges Jail, which has been a great addition for Rockland to kind of get out in other areas that are needed. So the point of our mobile units, like I said, we have one in Rockland, Jacksonville, Greensboro, and Portland, Oregon. And that's just serve multiple underserved communities and get to places where, you know, folks are really struggling to get transportation. So the mobile unit services, the mobile unit acts exactly like the brick and mortar clinic. So we do daily dosing. There are two dosing windows on the mobile van. There's intake opportunities on the van. We offer telehealth services so folks can stop by the van. They could do all parts of the intake without having to travel anywhere. We have a counselor that does telehealth. We have a doctor as well. So we kind of just get the whole intake done right there so they could dose that day. And then we do crisis counseling as well on the mobile van. We have a Our risk reduction model, so the principle is that it's practical and compassionate social justice movement, so we build on respect for the rights and dignity of individuals who use substances. MAT tends to have a large stigma, especially around methadone. Our option is to save lives daily, so every single day a patient medicates at the facility is potentially one day that they do not use illicit street opiates. Our core services, so syringe access to disposal, safe drug use education, naloxone, MAT, supervised consumption services, housing first, pharmacy connections, et cetera. For the lock boxes. [27:09] Laura: Sure. And why you need the money? Yep. [27:13] Michelle Carey: Yep, that's the next slide. Okay. Okay, so the safe medication storage treatment, so that's the program that we're looking for. The grant request is $5,000. So it's for patient safety first, to provide compliant, secure storage for take-home doses from day one. So the procurement target would be about 166 lockboxes. Eximated cost is $30 per lockbox. It removes phase barriers, so it eliminates out-of-pocket costs for patients advancing to take-homes. homes. So the target population is about 181 patients, and priority is given to the lower phases. So with methadone, people work from, you know, zero take homes up to 27, and so priority would be given through phases zero to four, so that's, you know, zero to four days. And it directly prevents diversion theft and accidental household and yeah supporting recovery and independence questions I love. [28:31] Jessica Bergelin: Your program, yeah, and the fact that you've got the van in Belfast now. I have heard multiple good things about that, yeah. You know, meeting at the soup kitchen, which is a prime location, there's a lot of outlying towns in the in that area. I had people stay at the warming center that I watched having withdrawal, and it is horrifying. And the next morning after I took them to the emergency room, I took them up to you guys, and to watch, you know, they ended up they stayed with us about 10 days, and to see the transformation in that time frame was unbelievable. What you're doing is important, and I saw it [29:16] Michelle Carey: firsthand, yeah. Watching people walk in on day one to, you know, even day, you know, two through five [29:22] Jessica Bergelin: is amazing. And protecting kids from, you know, with the lock boxes and other family members and limiting that risk is really important, especially for the demographic that you're talking about, because that's people in the first stages when they've just started getting it, and that's, I think, when they need that protection the most, yeah. [29:49] Speaker A (unidentified): The lock boxes are they're just like one of those unglamorous things that actually really make a big difference in people's homes and keeping [29:58] Laura: people safe. All of our residents have locked boxes at the at the resident for their medication, and we don't have anybody to give them their medication, but we do medication counts, so they have all their meds, and we check it in, and they put it in their lockbox. And then we do counts. They never know when we're going to count. So it's a surprise. It's count day. But, yeah, that keeps it safe from the other residents too. So the lockboxes are like a non-glamorous thing that they have, but it's a necessity. So, yeah, I agree. [30:42] Speaker A (unidentified): I'll just be another voice that is just a fan for the mobile unit. That's the other thing we always see is like transportation is the barrier, and especially here, you know, people on the peninsula's or the islands is like they [30:57] Shannon Scheimer: have no access, which kind of brings you over to me. My name is Shannon Shimer. I'm the director of social services at Home Worthy. We work to break cycles of poverty and homelessness in mid-coast Maine. We work with folks experiencing homelessness in Knox, Lincoln, and Waldo counties. But our proposal has to do with transportation. We are a bit unique in the case management world in that our Homeworthy case managers are able to transport clients wherever they may need to be. In addition to the 12 case managers we currently have, we have an urgent needs coordinator, and also we have a home where the van that runs transportation Monday through Friday, 8 to 3, and so our proposal here is to help support the case manager stipend that they are paid for inter Knox County travel. It would be a really big overhaul for case managers to track all their mileage in county, and so we cover a flat rate stipend for case managers. We see an intersection with folks in recovery and homelessness that I think we all know they're, they can, they can be linked, not for every client experiencing homelessness by any means, but our proposal is because of the transportation that is a barrier. It's funny, I actually, I heard just say it when you just said bringing somebody to the ER and taking them to the clinic. I heard Laura say it when you're talking about bringing a counselor in because there's not transportation out, so we, many, not all, but many of our clients enrolled in services have Medicaid, they have Main Care, and there is a transportation component available. However, you need a fixed address to be able to access Main Care transportation, and that's really hard when you're experiencing homelessness and you're, you may be going from place to place every couple days or maybe every week, maybe your location where you sleep at night changes, and so in for our Rockland residents last year, case managers don't track mileage, but our home where the van tracks mileage to, a so based on the van data, we couldn't even factor in case managers, but the van data, we drove 68, 6802 miles for Rockland residents alone last year. That may have been to New Seasons for the methadone clinic, that may be, that may be picking up folks at Midcoast Recovery. It's crazy that we really are, yeah, so overlapped, that may also include, oh, supporting somebody's recovery going to the CRCC, Coastal Recovery Community Center. I would say the new season is the big one there. Yeah, I mean, you know, we live in a rural area. We know transportation isn't where we would hope it would be. And so Homeworthy is providing transportation. We are able to do it for folks who are not able to access that main care transportation consistently. I would say that this is something we're able to do for clients. We're not able to do it for the community at large, although it sounds like it would be helpful one day, which, yeah. So what we are able to do for transportation is for clients. We, our request is for seventy two hundred dollars, which is half of the stipend, it which is half of the stipend for a year of the case managers. That amount doesn't touch the van driver's salaries, but that was the best way we could figure how to demonstrate the transportation piece. But, yeah, we're really grateful for the partnership. There are so many. I would say everyone up here we would consider to be a partner in the work we're doing. Yeah, so that's what we're requesting. [35:11] Laura: I would like to back that one. Yeah, transportation, I mean, I know I have volunteered to take people to get their medication or go to a doctor's appointment or, you know, they'll call and say, Laura, I can't find a ride. Would you be able to take me? You know, I've driven residents that didn't, maybe didn't work out at the house because we couldn't give them the care that they needed. I ended up taking a guy to Brunswick one day because he couldn't find a ride, so yeah, the transportation thing is immense. Yeah, in this area it's, it's hard to track. It's funny when I [35:55] Shannon Scheimer: was writing this grant and I don't have a caseload of clients myself, but when I was actively writing it a case manager called and said, hey, so-and-so is walking to New Seasons, they just told me they don't feel good. Like they're lightheaded. They hadn't dosed in a few days and, she was like, can you go, can you go pick them up? And I said, sure. That never got tracked anywhere, but that's the sort of response that we're able to do because it's important for [36:19] Laura: recovery. Exactly. Exactly. I think, I mean, all of us here, it's something that's in our hearts, and that we are very much committed to. So we don't even think twice, as far as helping those that need it, so and I think we all kind of like you said, we all intermingle and depend on each other to get this recovery and the addiction thing under control as much as we can, so that's [36:53] Speaker A (unidentified): great. Any other questions, concerns, comments? I [37:05] Laura: Just want to add that, and I didn't even mention this, that our, the friend's house keeps the residents from being homeless and having to look for a home. So this gives them a safe place that they can work on their recovery and not be out in a tent and then calling homeless shelters or, you know. So this is really important, I think, for all of us to work together as far as that goes still. [37:37] Jessica Bergelin: I think there's a succession here. Yeah. I think they start with me. And in an ideal world, they move to you or you or both. And then once they're stable, they receive some assistance from case management. I think there's actually an actual flow to what we have going here. [37:57] Laura: Yeah, I totally agree. [38:06] Speaker F (unidentified): First of all, thank you all for being here tonight. Thank you, Mark, Lisa, Aaron, for all your work on the committee. It's very much appreciated. Thank you to all of our community partners who put in this year for the OSF money. We really appreciate the work you do in the community. It's vital work. It's very important. I just wanted to take a moment and kind of frame why we're here and why this effort is so important for the city of Rockland. Our city is receiving approximately $350,000 over the course of a 15-year period. We're already four years in. These funds come directly from legal agreements with major pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, and pharmacies to hold them accountable for their role in the opioid epidemic. Under Maine State's agreement, every dollar of this money is strictly earmarked to support evidence-based opioid prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services right here in our community. These are not tax dollars, and how this money is spent is outlined. I want to be very clear about that. It has to be used for prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery services, and that's exactly what was outlined here tonight by each one of these organizations. So when we talk about things like transportation and lock boxes and keeping people alive at night when there's no place to sleep or having severe weather events because they're unhoused because they're struggling with substance use until they can find recovery and keeping people alive with harm reduction. That's exactly what we're talking about. In 2024, when I wrote this order and the city council passed it in a five-zero vote, the order creating the opioid settlement participatory budgeting committee, our goal was simple. We wanted the people who know Rockland best to decide how this money gets spent. Rather than having a small group of officials or city staff decide, the committee puts real decision making power in the hands of the community. We know the best solutions come directly from our residents, local service providers like the ones here tonight. Sorry, I lost my place. Local service providers and individuals with lived experience who navigate these challenges every day. Tonight's workshops is one of the final crucial steps in that process. In 34 days, four proposals will go before the entire city. The people of Rockland will vote directly on whether or not these funds to fund these projects. Hearing the impact of each of these organizations has on repairing the harm caused in our community is a vital step in making our choice on November 3rd. If we don't vote for these to fund these projects, the money will go back into the account and it will roll over and we'll do this process again next year. So I just want to make sure that the community is aware for the folks watching at home tonight that's what happens. This money is only earmarked for those four things that I talked about tonight. This money cannot be diverted for anything else. We're doing that this way for transparency and so the community has a voice and how this money is spent. Yeah, I'll just say currently we've got [42:03] Speaker A (unidentified): fifty thousand dollars in the bank, more coming over the next twelve years. Now the Sackler settlement money will also be coming and for me that money this settlement turns suffering into solutions and it turns like the pain of a community into like a community building exercise and working together with what this money allows us to do is think in ways that are visionary and I'm I'm so thankful for all of you for coming forward with proposals and thankful for all the Rockland residents who take part in the process. And together, you know, we like we'll get our hands wrapped around this and we deepen our relationships. We deepen in community and, you know, community is really the thing that is really the antidote to addiction. So we're building it together. And thank you all. [43:08] Laura: To add to that I think that's what we're all trying to do is make responsible community members to go back into the community so yeah I absolutely agree with that I'd like to encourage [43:20] Jessica Bergelin: People to vote for this. Yes, exactly. I think that you know I know for my project it's about keeping the doors open. We do not have a steady income flow. We receive donations, that is how we continue to operate. There is no overarching organization that's filtering money down to us. We only have what we have and the only way to sustain it is to continue to get donations. So I'd like to encourage the public to vote for this. [43:51] Laura: I gotta agree with that because we depend on grants and whatever rent we can, financial contribution, we don't like to call it rent, financial contribution to the houses and as everybody knows light bills oil bills to keep the houses running barely gets paid and then we have you know salaries so we're not making any money let's put it that way on this so yeah [44:37] Speaker A (unidentified): I'd like to head to the fiscal year, so I think today is like the-