And it is Community Connection time and it's being brought to you by Tall Grass Motors. Also Wesley and Kitty College, Arnold Moore and Kneecamp Funeral Home all right here on K one, plus the Fraternal Order of Eagles. Don't want to leave them out. And today we have Quinn Shipper
here with us today and Quinn is running for City Council. Now, Quinn, you were one of seven applicants to buy for the Ward four unexpired term of the Late Billy Roan, and you are unanimously appointed by the City Council back in June to represent Ward four.
But you have been quite busy.
You've done your homework forty five consecutive regular city Hall meetings and you consider you continue to serve on the Planning Commission, Comprehensive Planned Advisory Committee and the Water Resources Committee. And sometimes he goes home and visits is closed and has a meal.
Get that in somehow, how you been.
I'm a good time. I can always enjoy being in the studio with you. Thank you so much. I'm going to start with just a quick geography lesson because a lot of people don't know what ward they're in. One of five but here in Ward four, if you take Highway sixty Adams Road, everything north of Adams Road that is city limits from the highway Highway seventy five to the runway of the airport everything north, and then go downtown here to Shawnee, goes south to thirteenth and cut west.
There's a little notch there and that's all of Ward four. So it is the most diverse ward in the city. We talk about that another time, but it's very diverse.
Oh yeah, A little bit of everything going.
On here, A little bit of everything going on here, which is really exciting.
That that is really cool. Now you have a platform and folks get ready for this with Quinn Shipper. This is called leader ship. See what they did there? All right, okay, so tell us a little bit about leadership.
Thank you, Tom. I believe in leadership and want to represent leadership one that is approachable, one that's informed, and one that's engaged. We'll be talking about that here a little bit in the program this morning. And also to talk about one of the top three concerns that I hear.
I call them the three ahs. Number one is homelessness, Number two is H two O water and number three is health, But I really want to focus on the homelessness concern because it is number one from what I'm hearing, and not just in Ward four, but in other sectors of the community.
It's very visible, more so now than anytime I can remember in the nearly six years that I've.
Lived here exactly. And so homeless is not just a community issue, it's a state issue. It's a national issue. But we need to know how to address this responsibly as a local community. We do so as a city councilor in all regards, I need to know and stay in my lane, like what is my lane as a city councilor for addressing homelessness. So one way that's addressed tom is through the Strategic Plan, the next plan. People can find this online. They can go to the City
Bartlesviille website. It's all there, but three points that are addressing homelessness in that strategic Plan. One the city has been and is working to collaborate with other entities that are addressing homelessness to see how we can contribute to that conversation some of the solutions. There was a review completed this spring of existing laws and enforcement policies so
that there is criminal activity. The police are trained and equipped to address those things specifically, and then also to utilize the Barisville Police department Mental Health Unit, so we know where the homeless are, numbers, specific needs, and one practical outcome of that was we have this CERT team gosh, the Crisis Intervention Response Team to learn all these acronyms
on it. And on August nineteenth there was a special meeting call to the city council so we could accept and approve a grant of one hundred and twenty thousand dollars that will be administered over the next two years between the police and Grand Health very specifically to address
homelessness on the Pathfinder. People have substance abuse, so it's a program really designed for rehabilitation, not just to remove people from from the Pathfinder, but to engage them in mental health programming resources to elevate them beyond that circumstance. Very exciting.
We're one of the few police departments works in cities, of course, in the nation, they have done this and we've been seeing some success.
We haven't seen success because the cert team it averages one hundred and fifty encounters with homelessness per month and so they're trained to be addressing that. Of course, the Pathfinder Parkway was brought under the umbrella of the Parks District this last year. There are more specific patrolling going on, and so one concerned people have by perception is am I safe? Not just on the Pathfinder, but when they see someone they might perceive to be homeless?
All right, So we've got all that going on here too. So this is the one of the big issues. And I understand that you've been collaborating with some folks at the state level on this too.
Yeah, last week I had a really wonderful opportunity to hear Representative Judd Strom. He spoke at a meeting. I tended to hear what the state is doing with an initiatives they're taking to address homelessness. And in Judge's inimitable way, he took the prism and turned it so we could see it differently. And what I agree that gift he has a gift, he really does. And what I appreciated about that as he reminded the audience that the homeless
are people too. They are they are somebody's mother or father, or sibling or friend or other relative. They are people. They just live differently and have needs may be different than yours and mind Tom, and so how are we looking at them with measures of compassion but also responsibility. Because the top presenting needs are mental illness and substance abuse, doesn't mean the every homeless person is dealing with that, but those are things that need to be addressed. So
homelessness does not equal criminality. He made a big point of that. Well, it's very true.
Many people didn't ask to be in that situation. It just happened.
It just happened for a variety of reasons, but he did. I want to point out something he brought to my attention is called the Healthy Minds Policy Initiative. There's working to treat or to address untreated mental illness and addiction with the homeless. He also talked about alternatives to traditional houses, transitional living. So just last Monday, I think it was, was when the White House did the groundbreaking for a
transitional living center. He talked about room and board, other alternatives for providing homes for those who are homeless than just putting them in a house. That doesn't always solve new problems. So if we can bring a bit closer to home, the statistic was presented that meeting that two hundred pre K to twelfth grade students in Bartlesville are homeless. Two hundred.
I'm not surprised.
I'm not surprised either, but it's something we don't really want to hear.
That's true, and we've got to find a solution.
We're looking for solutions for that. And so one is state and local initiatives to feed children can make all the difference in their ability to concentrate and staying gay throughout the school day or even as the day may end to the weekends. Now, on the bright side, Tom, you and I both know there are a lot of community entities, individuals, churches, organizations, programs that are offering various kinds of service at city as well the police Department,
Grand Health. So as I'm campaigning to retain my seat on Ward four, I want to touch on the first thing being approachable, because over recent months you'd be surprised how many people, and not just from Ward four, have approached me to have conversation about homelessness and poverty specifically. Just I don't think it's a coincidence. I'm just hearing a lot of that. Second is informed. So my interest in homelessness. I could go back to twenty ten when
we were in Stillwater. That's another conversation for another time, that we had over sixty community entities collaborating by MoU and in other ways to address poverty, which included homelessness. But over two years ago, my dear friend that departed Billy Rohan, and we met with Lisa Carey the United Way. We met with the mcphails before be the Light was a thing and we were having conversations with community leaders
and others. Then to understand and be informed about homelessness nearby and what is happening in other parts of the state and other parts of the country, to learn we want to learn from others about how we can address this, and then finally to be engaged. Obviously I'm passionate about this. I'm highly motivated as not just a citizen, but a citizen happens to be a city councilor to address homelessness in collaborative and strategic ways. So I think the information
is there, there are already some collaborations happening. That's not the only answer, but it is an answer, and to facilitate that is something I really want to continue doing, hopefully as the representative for Ward four, but something I'm motivated to be doing personally as a citizen as well. They go together.
Yes, man, I got to tell you that's it's a tall order, but you're working hard on it.
I can tell it's really something else.
It's something that we see every day and a lot of people just say, boy, I sure wish there was an answer, and here you are working on some possible some possible solutions here and the fact.
That there are solutions that are working. Again, if a person is seen on the street or wherever and they're perceived as homeless, perception is not always the reality. It's true, I'm down very early in the morning, as you know, and I could easily be perceived by my early morning dress when it's dusk, moving around the streets having a morning walk. But our perception is not always the reality. And so we want to recognize those who are addressing
it strategically and collaboratively. We want to hear from those who want to be engaged. So approach me. You have information that I want to be informed about. I want to engage with the community as a counselor, as a citizen and so people can approach me several ways.
And how do we how do we approach you? I'm looking at a list of about ninety different ways.
Well, we won't go through all night ago, I see my time is about up here. One thing I would encourage people to do is go to my Facebook page, Super simple Shipper Ward four. I've been doing an out and about in Ward four, and so I've highlighted at least one topic on homeless. You can read some of those there. Today I'm picking up yard signs they've come in. And so maybe you're a person who would like to support me by putting yards on your business or on
your home property. But contact me these two ways, real simple again, ship Ward four Shippers S C H I P P E R at Ward four, Sorry Shipperward four at gmail dot com. Or you can text me or call me on my cell phone at four zero five seven one four three five seven five and let's have some conversation and let's make a difference together.
All right, Quinn Shipper, thank you for being with us today.
I'm glad to be here. Tom always, thank you.
Alrighty.
Our program has been brought to you by Tall Grass Motors. Wesley and Kitty College, Arnold Morney Camp Uneral Home and the return