Congratulations to our founding state Municipal League winners. Lets give it up for them one more time. [applause] ernow several other speakers this morning help us recognize the Important Role that intergovernmental relationships play in the history of cities, towns and villages over the years. And her speakers this afternoon are going to die even deeper into the power of those started. We are going to kick things off here with a very important topic, a topic in which how leaders like us can develop and support Strong Mental Health resources and services for our own communities. The great news [applause] the great news is that we have partners in congress. We truly do have partners in congress on both sides of the aisle who are a ready to help us do the work through the Bipartisan SenateMental Health caucus. And today it is my true conversation with one of the caucus cochairs, senator tina smith from the state ofm minnesota. [applause] senator schmitt was once chief of staff to the mayor of minneapolis and has a long history with a partnership here at nlc. Today, we areed to welcome her back home. So please put your hands together forba senator you for joining us, store smith, here today. [applause] im looking for the minnesotans. [cheers and applause] they are in the house. Very nice sock. Do you like the . Thats great. They go with my ukraine tied. Now we come together, im curious, how did you come together with your colleagues, senator joni ernst senator thom tillis as well as senator alex padilla to launch the bipartisan Mental Health caucus . So as you were saying in your opening comments, i think there is an increasing focus on Mental Health in c also said its not a democratic or republican thing its a bipartisan thing. I dont have all of you view but my view of it is that Mental Health has been and the need for access to better Mental Health care has been issued for many, many many years. But i do thinkfted it to the forefront both in terms of addressing, the kind of starting to overcome some of the stigma about addressing Mental Health and also just its become such a big thing. I think we have an epidemic of Mental Health challenges in this country right now. So those of us, alex andave all been working on this. We all had some experience with some Mental Health challenges and her own lies, and so coming together just made ultimate come made such great since and its been i think its helped to focus us in a lot of ways Mental Health in congress is so spread out around so many different committees. It is providing a locus for effort which is really important. Thats great. Amid the national Mental Health crisis we all recognize we are in a Mental Health crisis, how would the caucus worked to prioritize which areas they want to focus on in terms of developing policy . So everybody brings their own kind of priorities. Senator ernst for example who served on i believe she serves on Armed Services and is very focused on Veterans Issues and especially women Veterans Issues brings am my particular focus is on improving access to youth Mental Health care, addressing the tremendous shortage of Mental Health care providers. Im also quite focus on making sure Mental Health care is covered at the same ways, at the same levels as physical althcare. Making sure Insurance Companies and medicare and medicaid are covering Mental Health care as they should be so people can get help paying for what is expensive. Right. For the past 20 years past several years anyway, i want iseral years caucus has worked on a bipartisan basis to implement crucial and critical Mental Health services, and things that are included in this action are like establishing the ninthded suicide and crisis hotline, expanding access to Suicide Prevention programs 988 suicide and building out the infrastructure or k12 system. Last year caucus took the a stork step forward in passage of the bipartisan Safer Communities act which includes Major Investments in communitybased Mental Health services. So my question to you would be how will the caucus work to ensure those investments are effective and improve the lives of American Families . As you say congress over the last couple of years had made with a significant new improvements investments in Mental Health care. Im sure many of you in this room can appreciate the value of Community Health centers in your community provide basic health care to folks who might struggle to afford it. We were able to pass a huge expansion of Community BehavioralHealthcare Centers which i think will benefit so many states in this country a huge benefit to minnesota of my home state. To help make sure when people are going into a clinic that the middle Healthcare Resources as well as physical Healthcare Resources right there for them. So making sure that gets supplemented correctly and it is expanded as a should be as i think is a huge opportunity for improving access to care. Another area weather is so much opportunity is in schoolbased Mental Health i want to give an example of what that looksi like. I bet anybody in this room could tell a story about how you were seeing schoolbased care really rise to the forefront. I know that my friend mayor kim norton from rochester minnesota, is here. I saw her just a bit ago. Not sure where she is in the audience today but in rochester, minnesota at John Marshall high school there such a good example of what this looks like. When you go into the school, right near the opening the front door of the school there is a center that anybody can go into. You might go into because you need help with tutoring. You might go into because theres a food bank, or, and when you go in the door then theres somebody who can do a a bit of triage and figure out whether you need, what you might need when it comes to Mental Health care. And the triage can get you connected up with the School Nurse Program or whatever kind of care that you need. Whats great about it is that there is again there is no stigma no shame. You just walked in the you might not want everybody to know why youre going in there but you can get the help you need. Of course thats where students hours of their day. Removing the barriers like transportation barriers that can be submitted for people, how do you think of how to leave school and middle of the day when you did to get care is really just awesome. Those providers are also helping to connect with the students parents so there is a kind of a holistic to their that i think is just such an of the things that happens in communities is there are provided at the often they are not able to work in schoolso i been working on legislation that would improve that and allow them to be able to be in schools more. Of course fundamentally it is a local issuesur local School Boards and cities are all try to figure out as well. What i want to do is make sure the federal government is a good partner, is resources is not providing too many hurdles that make it difficult for small districts or small communities to participate and get involved. Its just a great example of what i think we can accomplish. An awesome example. I have twin 12yearold daughter in School System switches sink almost sounds aye wraparound service. You come in and you get everything that you a level of counseling. Part of it is also, i bet youve all seen this in your work to. Adult counselors, but also peertopeer counseling. So they have trained a cadre of youth who can go out and talk to their peers and say hey you might want to go in and talk the Counseling Center and she might be able to help you. Then the student is going to hear that from their peer in a way they might not be abl a teacher or even a parent. That is amazing. Hes also been a member of the on Health Education labor and pension. Known as speeded we like to name our commi right the longer they are the more important they are. The other way around. How is a committee working on these very important issues . Again this is a committee that has a real history a tradition of bipartisanship and trying to move things forward. So in a variety of ways, this this is a primary health policyic committee of the senate, and so it is very influential when itl health. Ive been working on this in a variety of ways. This iss where the rubber meets the road when it comes to addressing Mental Health workforce challenges. Ive been working very close with my colleague Lisa Murkowski from alaska to try to address how we can get more people trained across the continuum in Mental Health care. As you well knowll theres a real shortage i from a Substance Use disorder counselors and family therapists, childrens therapists psychologists psychiatrists, all across the continuum. And someone the education need in order to work in this field is quite expensive and that can be a barrier for people moving into the field. So lisa and i have worked on specific programs for loan forgiveness for people going into Mental Health counseling or training that would give them loan forgiveness especially and when theyre willing to practice in areas of the country or in fields where there is a really significant shortage. I dont know how many here represent sll communities where is a shortage of Mental Health care providers is particularly acute. Nlc were going to be up on capitol hill wednesday. We are going to be up there. We often have other clients to where were engaging. I want to know how can local leaders support the work of the caucus to ensure that the challenges and the successes with implantation are consideredd by congress as current programs are evaluated and what are created . Well, your voice isy powerful and having you here talking to my colleague colleagues in the senate and the house and to their staffs is very important. Because we listen to you. We care what you think and we know that you have a better idea than we do about what is happening on the ground in your communities. So theirst thing is just getting as the lay of the land in terms of how things are going, but then also bringing forth the beste ideas. Pointed out that i was once the chief chief of staff for the mayor of minneapolis, ive been a little bit about what that job is like. Theres no job that is too big or too small for the mayor of any city in this country right . To be a pothole or it could be tional incident, and its still something your constituents expect you to work on andts have a solution to. So yourn knowledge about your communities is that huge value. Tell us when somethings are not working, to cook when you see its too hard, theres a grant but is too hard for my committee to apply for that grant. Thats a big problem. Whatever itt is, let us know and then we can work to try to fix it. Is great for that 3000 attendees to hear. Also ways in which we can help. Tina smith, thank you so much for being here. I know you are very busy and we really appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to come and join us here at nlc. Welcome home. Thank you so much. I want to thank all of you for the work you do to make our communities work all across minnesota and the country. I am so grateful for you. And what i love about mayors and city administrators and city councilmembers is that you are problem solvers. You are not, its just a question of trying to make government work for your communities and we really need you, so thank you so very much. [applause] thank you. [applause] thank you. Goodbye everyone. All right. Now we would like to share a quick video with you. In a recent gallup poll, 63 of americans describe crime as either extremely serious or very serious as a problem in our communities. The cities, towns and villages across the country are proving that Collaborative Community centered violence prevention and Safety Strategies can absolutely lead to real results. Last year the National Homicide rate dropped 13 from the prior year with many city saying significant drops. Adia is an example. Homicide rate dropped 21 . Baltimore dropped 25 . The National Incident nationwide instances of aggravated assault were all down, too. Earlier this month nlc hosted a a webinar focused on successful strategies for advancing and reducing violence, and we wanted to take a moment to highlight some of the ways local leaders are making a real impact. With that, lets roll the video. From the a truly Safe Community is a community that is not fearful of enjoying the assets that are part of the fabric of our t community. A Safe Community is one that everybody can be free. A Safe Community to me is one where we are aware of each other and we care for each other. I find whether his crime but when we start moving forward and changing the trajectory of Public Safety, i see a community where there is hope. Prevention is a huge programats worked for us develop a program, thats Mental Health services. Opeful and healthy umbrella, we have reimagined and refrained Public Safety by focusing o pillars of Law EnforcementMental Health and community engagement. More opportunity to reduce Violent Crime in the committee to create pathways for young people out of situations that he could not get out. Trying to be successful in this world and the challenges. They help remove that barrier. Engages young adults, and paid training opportunities to connect the longterm careers. We do that with specific focus for job in the future so climate related jobs, clean energy infrastructure. Cl people have too have access to opportunity, access to clean water, fresh food, retail into neighborhoods, goodpaying jobs in the neighborhoods in order to thrive. If we this in whenever going to disrupt the crime cycle. Our alumni recidivism rate is under 10 far lower lower tha supporting things like can embrace the young adults. We see you we love you its more than about guns or violence. We know you just need some help figuring how to putno all those pieces together. I ran on a platform of transforming Public Safety and putting the public back insf Public Safety. To me that meant deploying the right resources to the right calls. The Diversion Program in philadelphia a program that combines social service providers, Law Enforcement and the city agencies to really help help for people. Reimagining policing means that we are only limited by our imagination. We want those who areited to solve the problem come to join in the process. The job developer all at the same time, all the stuff engaged in our communities. We use the Police Budget so we not raising your taxes to do it. Were just trying to look differently alldo of the players that are involved in Public Safety. We have found based on the data that our trajectory is one that is leading us in the right direction. Everybody benefits, whether its the neighbors the clients. Rise and fall together, work together. Theres nothing we cannot accomplish for we will not get out of it without the hard work without anyone come together holding up their sleeves to invest in our communities. And the only way you will build trust withay anybody is really building something together and working together and going into the trenches together. A [applause] was at fantastic . We need to keep this great work moving forward so lets keep up with the great work that is being done. For the next segment were going to shift gears again and dive into the topic of Workforce Development. Anyone whos been involved in nlc over the last year or so has undoubtedly heard of an Amazing Program called good jobs, great cities academy. It began through a through a partnership with the u. S. Department of labor, and under our immediate past president mayor wittersship and is engaging with 33 communities across the United States and developing innovative are upscaling and reskilling workers in quality high demand jobs in infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing. The industries that are truly going