Commission on Status of Women annual report

1:35:30Good morning.

1:35:31Good morning. Great to see you ladies here. Good

1:35:34to be here.

1:35:35I've

1:35:35got a little bit of a group with me.

1:35:40Well I'm Jenny Yingling. I'm the current chair of the Pasco County Status on uh the Commission of Women, and we're here to do our annual report to you all, the board. But first, if you wouldn't mind, could the other ladies on the commission introduce themselves? Absolutely.

1:35:56I don't see my Jenny.

1:35:58Vanessa Hilton, I was the vice chair. Vanessa, you're with the school

1:36:04district.

1:36:04Yes. Oh I'm sorry, yes. Yes.

1:36:07Jean Abbey, I represent District One and this is my second term on the commission. Awesome.

1:36:16Good morning, commissioners. I'm Attorney Sarah Raymakers with the Law Office of Phillips and Raymakers representing Legal. I've been on for I think four months now, so I'm really enjoying it so far. Thank you all.

1:36:25Good morning. I know most of you. I'm Lindsay Moore. I'm the law enforcement agency um appointment to the board or to the commission. Um this is my first year on the commission, so thank you. Thanks, Lindsay.

1:36:36Good morning, I'm Denise Nicholas and I'm very proud to represent District Five. Yeah.

1:36:44Stephanie Pontlitz,

1:36:45I represent the Big Blue BBQ.

1:36:47Mm-hmm.

1:36:48Yeah.

1:36:49Good afternoon. I'm Michelle Chamberlain. I represent District Four. Yay.

1:36:53Yay. Three. Four.

1:36:55Three. Three.

1:36:55Three.

1:36:59Born Massali with Pasco EDC. I've been on about seven years now. Woohoo.

1:37:05And I represent District 2. Thank you, Commissioner Weightman. Yes. And the chair. So we just want to take a little bit of time and highlight uh what we've done over the last year. So if that's okay, we have a PowerPoint. Am I clicking or is Tony clicking?

1:37:23This is way more than I normally do. Well, you already know I'm Jenny. I'm the chair. Vanessa is my co-chair, and this year we have done some exciting things in our county. So the first you've got to meet all the lovely ladies that are here in attendance with me today, but we wouldn't be um hole if you didn't recognize some of the other wonderful women that we have on our commission. We work very hard to um represent uh the women in Pasco County. So we're

1:37:54gonna celebrate a little bit of a milestone. Cheryl Pollett, who is with Premier Health, is going to roll off. She is going to be the first woman to roll off the commission, meaning that she served all three of her terms. So it's kind of really exciting. So we just wanted to recognize her and let everybody know what a great that she was to the commission. Although she is rolling off, she will not go anywhere. We will still reach out and use her for all the resources that she has. Yes,

1:38:24committees. There's no rule about that.

1:38:28Alrighty, well let's look back at what we did last year. So um every every month when when the commission meets, we um bring a guest speaker in and we try to make sure that that speaker relates to some issues, needs, or concerns of the women in our community. So this past year um we had lots of great people come. One of them was Michelle Bradley. Michelle is the only female owner of a Kiki's franchise. Um so that was kind of really exciting.

1:39:00He

1:39:00was

1:39:00at that meeting. And so that was really exciting to hear um how how women in this community, especially Michelle, um not only are running businesses, but they're running families and they're productive uh members of our society. So always inspirational and exciting. The second um and was my favorite. I always got that one too. I think you were too. Was Michelle Duby. And Michelle Duby runs a mobile farmers market. You got it. And um It was

1:39:30really exciting to see how innovative she is about getting fresh food in communities that don't have fresh food and then providing fresh fruits and vegetables to people in need in our community. So it was really exciting to learn a little bit more about Michelle and what she is doing. She runs her farm just right off of Old Pasco Road. And she left corporate America to give back to the community. So very exciting. I know you most of you on the commission

1:40:00are familiar with Nicole, but I'm not sure if they are. I met with her. If you're not, you should get familiar with her because she is doing some amazing things. She's got great partners out in the community, Advent Health. I know that she kicked off a uh a big event last Thursday at the Boys and Girls Club. in Lacoucci, where she's their summer partner for fresh food, fruit and vegetables all summer long. Very exciting. I know Commissioner Weightman and I were at an event and she was the

1:40:32and she had all her fresh fruits and vegetables. That was two weeks ago. So she not only is she providing those opportunities in our community, but she's also giving back as well.

1:40:45And now I'm gonna invite Gene up to highlight another great um presentation speaker and field trip the commission got to go on.

1:40:54Thanks, Jenny. I wanted to elaborate a little bit on our community partner, St. Leo University, and just to recap their support for our commission. For our inaugural Women Uplifting Women Luncheon in May of 2023. We were able to have Dr. Cindy Lee from St. Leo University as our guest speaker. Her topic, Inspire Your Career. Tied in with the university's CAP program, or better known Center for

1:41:24Alternative Pathway Programs, which offers cutting-edge alternative short-term micro-credentials for individuals who want to keep current with the workplace skills of today. I always called it the best kept secret, in our community for women to brush up on skills, learn new skills, or prepare to get back in the workforce after raising a family. She was also part of our panel discussion and provided a resource table. At

1:41:55our second annual Women Uplifting Women Luncheon, Dr. Ebony Perez, Social Work Chair from St. Leo University, joined our panelists in 2024 for our theme: Economic Stability, Women's Health, and Social Justice. Later that year, Dr. Jen Shaw, Vice President at St. Leo University, spoke at our November meeting about Career Closet Initiative, which provides professional

1:42:25attire to students and community members for job interviews and career events. And I'm proud to say that our PASCO commission made several donations from our closets toward the career closet at St. Leo. From our Women Uplifting Women Luncheon event that year, St. Leo University CAP program, now referred to as the Skills Academy, received a scholarship in the amount of

1:42:55$225.79 from our leftover funds to help a deserving student. December 2nd in 2024, St. Leo University hosted our monthly meeting in the Student Activities Building on campus at Saint Leo. Our a tour was provided and a lunch from the dining hall and it was very delicious. Saint Leo continues to be a resource for the women of Pasco County. Thank you.

1:43:25Very nice. Is anyone gonna speak about t this year's luncheon?

1:43:30In one moment because it was fabulous. But just so you guys get an idea of um of what goes on at our meetings and who we're bringing in. So as you can see we have some really dynamic speakers that come in. But Commissioner Starkey, yes, we're gonna tell you all about the third annual Women Uplifting Women Luncheon. But to do that, I'm gonna invite Vanessa, my co-chair up, and she's gonna talk about our exciting um luncheon. You're welcome. I hope

1:44:00I can do that. It is my pleasure to share the details of this third annual women uplifting luncheon and event. The purpose of this luncheon this year and really for the past three years has been to gather together women in Pasco County with a shared commitment to empower, uplift, and celebrate the achievements of women in our community, which directly align to the mission of the organization.

1:44:27This year, in alignment with what we heard from the women in our community, we had wonderful, a wonderful keynote speaker, Ms. Effie Santos, who helped our attendees reframe their mindset in a positive manner, even when dealing with unthinkable situations. Effie joined three other diverse women from our community in leadership on a panel which engaged such meaningful topics as time management, asking for support, which is not always easy, finding balance, and everyday challenges in our community. You

1:44:58can see on this slide that our event was packed. Each year we have grown. From our first year, about 100 attendees, and actually, us planning for maybe 50 people will show up, and we got 100 to over 150 this year. We also this year charged a nominal fee for the lunch for the very first time, and not only did we have more More participants. We also maintained a waiting list until the till the day of the event. This is

1:45:28now a known event as we sold out in about 48 hours. Yeah, 48 hours this year. And what that says is that the women in Pasco are eager to gather, to connect, and to support one another. We have wonderful community partnerships and support that has also grown each year from our very own Commissioner Starkey to Rosie Paulson with the State Committee, to Nikki Alvarez Soles, who was our keynote in 2024, and

1:45:58our MC this year. As well, oh, another shot, as well as all of the sponsors that you see here, some are return sponsors from previous years as well. So much support for this event in particular and our commission. Each year we've recruited speakers and resource partners who can directly address the topics and issues that the women in our community have said are important to them. We've

1:46:29facilitated a survey after each event to get to know the women we are serving. And with more on that, I'll turn it over to Lauren.

1:46:40All right, I will keep this section brief for you guys, but you'll see um the first year we had about 37 respondents and 47 the second year, and this year we were able to take it. Um I called Tony and I was like, We're only at 47 and we had that last year, we need more. So then we called uh Tambri and her team pushed it out on social media a couple times. Commissioner Starkey's office pushed it out, and we hopped up to 85. So that's very exciting. Yeah. Okay, so age demographics, you'll see that um this is trending with the county

1:47:11and kind of our average age is going a little bit down, so we're pretty high in the 35 to 44 range. And then Um the race and ethnicity seems to correspond with our um core county demographics as well.

1:47:30This is just individual income for all of the ladies who answered the um questions. So quite a spike in the ladies uh making over two hundred thousand this year that responded. So yay them.

1:47:45And then do you have any children under 18? This had a pretty significant increase. So we had about 30 that said yes under 18, and then 55 said no, which again they could still have older children. We just didn't ask that one.

1:48:01Okay, so then this one: what is the most impactful challenge or problem that you face in your daily life? So, economy and finances, we know that's a struggle nationwide right now. Um, we thought it was very interesting as we were reviewing that there was a significant increase in mental health concerns, time, energy, and motivation, stress. So that will play into some of the resource partners that we try and bring in throughout the year. Mm-hmm. Okay, and then which of the following health related challenges impacts you

1:48:31the most? Um you'll see some of the key words are affordable access, flexibility from work, um, lack of paid sick leave. So um these are some some big issues that I know um everyone is facing. So that's why we're gonna keep reaching out to Cheryl even though she's trying to leave us. So

1:48:51How responsive do you think your local government is? Um, the majority of them said you guys are all pretty responsive, so that looks good and pretty in line with all the previous years.

1:49:02Uh if there was one change that could be made in your community that would result in the greatest positive impact on women, what would it be? You'll see that one is um significantly higher than the remaining ones. Cost of living, affordable housing, childcare, it's ongoing trends you guys hear about often.

1:49:21Uh how familiar were you with the Commission on the Status of Women? So um this is pretty on par for um the people who attended the lunch and that were familiar with us, and then you'll see that some were not familiar at all. Um so that was probably the people that we sent it to out on social media that had just seen it for the first time. But our name is getting out there and people do know us. Um again the oh am I on the average price of childcare. Yeah. So that is uh hugely unaffordable

1:49:52responded.

1:49:55Uh public education system, that one's a little bit um below what we'd like to see, I'm sure. So we have our new superintendent in and we know he's making some changes and moves. And we um he we're sad to see Vanessa go on our commission after today. She's been a great asset, but we are gonna be welcoming Tony in um for our next meeting. So then we'll continue to grow that relationship and see how we can help with that. And then this one is um leadership roles. So this is just how women are

1:50:25feeling. Uh do they think that they have equal opportunity to leadership roles? So A lot were unsure on kind of what that meant. A lot also thought maybe they don't, and then kind of even keel on the yeses.

1:50:39Resource guide. You'll see that this is a part of our future planning that Jenny will go over in a little bit, but I just wanted to let you guys know that we do have a plan for this. So during the event we hosted this year, we took the responses from this survey last year and we really thought about the types of partners that we were going to bring in as resource tables in the back rather than letting sponsors just have tables. So we had our Open Spaces and Vibrant Places table that had the public library system, parks and recreation. We had a family leave support table, which we had representatives from

1:51:09Danny Burgess and Gus Bilarakis' office. We had affordable housing table, which had information from the Habitat for Humanity and Pasco County Community Development Resources. We had nutritional support with UF IFIST, the county extension, Endubi's mobile market and her nonprofit that Nicole runs as well, Access to Fresh, which helps get that into additional homes in the area. And then business support, we had Smart Start, which is a part of Pasco EDC's programming for small business

1:51:40support and entrepreneur support. And the Office of Economic Growth. And then we had Child and Youth Resources with Pay Center for Girls Information and the Early Learning Coalition. So there's a couple other ones that are mixed in there in the responses. So what we're gonna do is collect some of their brochures that are already existing, put it together in a comprehensive guide. ask Joanna to have her team make us pretty cover pages for it and then put it online for everybody. So that is my area. So back to Jenny.

1:52:11Keep getting the microphone in the clicker.

1:52:15So with all that information about what a great event we had, and I know Commissioner Starkey, you got to attend. Um, it was a packed house, it's sold out. PHSC has been a great space for us over the last three years, but we have outgrown it. Yes, we have. So we are definitely looking to um out to see where we can grow our event. And as we all know, it's a little limited in Pasco County, so we are eager to try to grow that event. So we're gonna make one request today from you guys, if

1:52:45that's okay. But currently Our funds are about $5,000, and we'd like to see if we could increase that by $2,500 in order to offset the growth of the Women Uplifting Women Luncheon event. And those funds would be used to help us secure events. venue, help us to secure our keynote, help us to secure printing and those kinds of items, and then we'll still work through

1:53:15our sponsors who have been quite committed to us over the last three years to offset the cost for food along with a nominal buy-in fee from the women that attend the luncheon. So I'd love to hear a motion. Move to okay. I'll make a motion.

1:53:31Second. Thank you. All in favor? Aye. Great. Thank you guys so much.

1:53:36Now with that, what are we going to do next year real quick? So I just wanted you guys to know that the focus doesn't end when the luncheon ends. So we're already starting to plan for next year's luncheon. So next year some of the things that we are going to focus on are community engagement. And visibility, support for women-owned businesses, policy and data advocacy, and public education and awareness. So the one thing we'd really like to share with you guys today

1:54:06is our big project that we're gonna click kick off at the beginning of next month. But we're really hopeful, Laura. Lauren, where's Lauren? This is one of Lauren's babies that we've talked about for a while. We're really hopeful that we'll be able to work with Mike Fasano's office in creating a registry for women-owned businesses. It would help us to capture women-owned businesses, veterans-owned businesses, and we think that data would be crucial in moving forward in the county, not just for the status of women, but

1:54:37As a whole, when people are um looking to invest and um and make Pasco home. So that's something that we're really committed to. And I know Commissioner Starkey's team, um, Jenny's here somewhere. Yep, sit down over there. She she has been um so helpful to us, and she's agreed to help us look through policies in the best. way to execute that because our goal on the commission isn't just to meet and and and and have a luncheon, our goal is to push forward and so we'd like to lead the way in capturing

1:55:07that data so we can continue to grow as a successful county. Great job, guys. Thank you so much. So without further ado, we just want to thank one person. Yes.

1:55:19Has been amazing. We're always so fortunate to have managers and Tony has not disappointed us. He has been the right hand. He's probably tired of my emails and my text messages. But we wouldn't be able to have pulled off the luncheon, our work plan and have such a great year for Warren for Tony. So thank you guys again for allowing us to serve on your behalf. Thanks Tony. We appreciate it.

1:55:44Great report ladies.

1:55:52Um we gotta do it quick, quickly. Yeah, real quick. Because we had eleven forty-five time in. You guys can stay up on my own.

1:56:03Hi, how are you? And if you miss that one, then you miss the green.

1:56:10The green breaks us.

1:56:13The green makes us look good, right?

1:56:15Yeah.

1:56:18Are you ready? One, two, three.

1:56:23Perfect. All right.

1:56:24All right. Thank you. Good job, bro. Great job.