Speaker 1: On the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele do follow Speaker 2: San Antonio is a fast growing fast moving community with something new happening every day.

And that's why each week we go on the record with the Newsmakers who are driving this change.

Then we gather at the reporters round table to talk about the latest news stories with the journalists behind those stories.

Join us now as we go on.

Speaker 1: Hi everybody.

And thank you for joining us for this edition of on the record.

I'm Randy Beamer.

And sadly, over the past couple of weeks, we have had some very shocking headlines in the news here in San Antonio about domestic violence, child abuse and number of victims, including two children, as well as two couples, we believe was a murder suicide.

One of them, the other, we believe is a son who killed his parents just highlights the problem of domestic or family violence here.

Something that a collaborative commission on domestic violence has been working on now for two years in San Antonio, and here to talk about that.

And their year two report card basically is the deputy city manager, Maria via Gomez and judge Monique Diaz of the 150th district court.

Thank you very much for coming in.

When we see headlines like that, it is hard to think that we have made any progress.

And I know you hear this all the time.

People say, well, why is this still happening?

But you had a report card out basically a year to summary of this new collaborative commission.

What, where do we stand now in this problem?

Speaker 2: So thank you, Randy, for having us and domestic violence is such a complex issue.

And this is something that we are proud to be working on as a collaborative, the complexity of, oh, from law enforcement, the courts, the district attorney's office, nonprofit organizations that are involved, just the collaboration of working together and trying to address this issue of, from my perspective is, is an achievement.

This is something that we haven't done in the past.

This is the first time.

And for the past couple of years, we'll be working at this issue.

So that is one of the, the highlights that I would like to share, just a collaboration of ideas, how we can work together, you know, gaps that we have identified that that can help us to be stronger with our community and our response.

So the report that we provided to the community highlights some of the achievements for each of the committees that we have in, in the, in the collaborative Speaker 1: And these committees, you have six different committees.

This came out of another uptick in domestic violence murders.

A couple of years ago.

Finally, everybody here said we've had enough.

We needed to find a different way to do it.

So six committees came up with goals for each year.

And what are some of the highlights you think of what has been accomplished in those two years?

Well, I've served on the judiciary committee.

So I'd like to talk a little bit about what the courts have done to address domestic violence.

We've invested millions of dollars into our judicial system to better respond to domestic violence.

We have two additional courts on the criminal side that are helping to run through the backlog of domestic violence cases.

We have a new CPS court with a concentration in domestic violence.

On the civil side.

We also have an entire team called the civil family violence prevention program.

So every time I see a case that has domestic violence elements, I'm able to connect those victims, children and the offenders with specialized services that they need to break those cycles of abuse.

So that's one of the highlights on top of that.

We've also worked on making sure that we're getting firearms out of the hands of perpetrators who have committed domestic violence against their victims.

And recently just in the past a week, I guess, so that there has been an approval of money for some investigators, more investigators, where, what will Those investigators are dedicated to the family justice center, which is one of our local entities.

It's a one-stop shop for folks that need help getting a civil protective order.

They can go through the family justice center, they can get counseling and all sorts of resources that are available through that justice center.

And now those are the kinds of things we would say on the backside after it's happened to prevent that from happening again, affecting those people on the front side, dealing with the culture that leads to a domestic violence and abuse.

Where are we going with that?

What do we still need to do?

Speaker 2: Sure.

A lot of awareness to your point as a change in our culture here in San Antonio, how we view and how we address family violence.

So one of the committees is dedicated to education and starting with our schools, that is one of the areas that we're going to be working on this year, really to introduce family violence as part of the curriculum with schools and starting with, with our, with our young children, our youth in understanding that violence is not okay.

That fear in a, in a relationship is not okay in that there's help outside Jos letting the community know where they can call that there's assistance.

That is one of the goals of the collaborative to be more informative to our community.

Speaker 1: And it was people say abuse is or can be a learned behavior and a hundred.

It's interesting that you're getting into teen dating violence, right?

Because people sometimes say, well, kids are emotional.

They're going to be loud with each other and whatever, but that is really where these patterns start and you see it by the time it gets to the core, Right?

So our goal is to disrupt those cycles of abuse, both within a family unit and generationally and through education.

We're focusing on trying to disrupt those cycles.

What we know is that children who are often victims of, or witnessed domestic violence end up being victims in the future or perpetrators.

So we're trying to disrupt that cycle at a young age, intervene in order to prevent domestic violence in the future.

And also through websites, different things like that.

What do we have now?

There's some new resources for people.

Okay.

Speaker 2: So the CCTB has a website that is a focus on all domestic violence.

And it has a lot of resources, materials, headlines, where individuals can call.

We also do a lot of workshops and events with the community to bring that awareness also as part of both the county and the city with other services that we support our Metro health department has a violence prevention unit that focuses on gun violence, teen violence, disruption of violence as well.

So all of that collaboration and those resources are available on the CCTV website, as well as connected to the county, the CDN, the nonprofit organization.

Speaker 1: Are we still seeing higher numbers than we did?

I know during the pandemic, the worst of the pandemic, the numbers went off the charts across the country, as well as here.

Are we still seeing people because people are closed off as much abusing each other, taking it out on each other, Speaker 2: You know, from, from a law enforcement perspective, the nine 11 calls that we get to the police department, the number of family violence calls has increased.

It increased in 20, 20, 20, 21.

We don't have numbers for 20, 22 yet, but the past couple of years where we're much higher than what we saw in 2019.

Speaker 1: And we're seeing the same thing with child abuse and neglect as well.

But it's important to note that it's not unique to our community.

This is a global phenomenon that we're seeing in San Antonio across the nation and across the world.

But I'm proud of the efforts that we're taking in our community to take a new approach to it, to really collaboratively, try to get to the root of these issues and hopefully see those numbers drop in our community Over the years.

I've covered this for decades.

And you've seen this living here for decades, a bigger problem in San Antonio, according to some experts because of the culture, because it is expected in some areas for, for men to be macho or for people to repress their feelings.

How do you address that in education or, or awareness?

How do you directly combat that and say, that's not okay?

Is that because it's tough to talk about, It's a, it's a challenge because it's important for us to understand that domestic violence is an issue of one individual exerting power and control over a victim.

So while we may have that cultural underlying here in San Antonio, that's not necessarily what we attribute domestic violence to.

We attribute that to individuals, you know, inability to control their own desires, to be coercive over their intimate partners.

So while it's important to understand that those are issues that you often see co-exist with domestic violence, like the use of substances and drugs and alcohol as well, tend to co-exist with domestic violence.

They're not the cause of domestic violence, Your goals for next year.

What are these committees come up with their goals for next year?

And it's incremental.

And I guess this was structured originally as five, six years.

Speaker 2: Correct?

So, so yes.

So this was initiated by a couple of requests from a former council, woman, Gonzalez and Councilman Polis for the city to take a deep dive into our domestic violence system and identify gaps.

So there was a five-year strategic plan that was developed and approved by the city council in October of 2020.

So the strategies and the goals that the UC on the work that we have done in the collaborative are rooted in that strategic plan.

Now, I want to make clear, we're not going to solve domestic violence at five years, but we believe that through data informed evidence that we can start making changes in some of the indicators.

So for year three, and I'll pick one of, one of the committees law enforcement.

One thing that we started this year with the county was at the time of the non-office serve response to a coal there's a assessment done over the victim to identify where they, where they stand the danger that they face.

And through this assessment that the victim is still, you need to leave and you need to leave right now.

And it's sort of, the resources are available to you, either a shelter or hotel room to get them out of that environment.

So we started that with a county in August of 2021.

We are going to implement that with the police department in, in this calendar year 2022.

And that is a much more in-depth assessment than what we have done in the past.

Cause we, we do have a checklist that we do today in the police department, so that the, the goal is to minimize that is the goal is to remove the victims from that environment and connect them quickly to say, Speaker 1: And also to prevent this, it's really a gradual problem with some people and you have to identify it early.

So I am sure you encourage people out there.

If they're noticing a change in someone, whether it's their partner or a friend or whatever, to call, to identify it, to call someone and the best place to get information on that as a ccdv.work.

That's correct.

We do have all of those resources@cctv.org.

And we do want to make sure people understand that if you are in need of help, you should call 9 1 1, but you're also able to text 9 1, 1, thanks to SAP D and a system that they've put in place to assist victims to get help when they otherwise may not Be able to.

All right.

Well, thanks very much.

I wish we had more time, but it's great to see that there is some progress despite the headlines and people are changing attitudes.

Judge Monique Diaz, 150th district court and deputy city manager, Maria Villagomez.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

Thank you for having us.

San Antonio is getting ready to launch a new job training program here approved by voters.

It's called essay, ready to work, joining us to explain how it's going to work, who it's going to affect.

Who's eligible is the executive director of the city of San Antonio is workforce development.

Newly arrived from Florida from Baton Rouge, Michael Ramsey.

Also Doug McMurry, who is here with a ready to work advisory board.

He is member of the associated general contractors works for the associated general contractors.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Now we have had a different program, similar to essay, ready to work for while that came out of the first cares act money in the pandemic.

How is this different than that?

The, Speaker 2: The Rams are, are similar in that they aim to help people in San Antonio who have been unemployed, underemployed, or underrepresented in our workforce.

Major differences train for jobs came about at the heart of the pandemic.

We're facing double digit unemployment, and we're seeking a way to help people to keep the lights on, keep the rent paid and keep food on the table.

So train for jobs.

The city responded very quickly in launching that program about $60 million was invested and it included stipends to individuals to help them to have income flowing in while they're in their training program and hoping that it would assist them in achieving training in a job area that would lead to a stable job for them.

Speaker 1: And now even supporters of that said, it's kind of got off to a slow start.

There were these big goals, 10,000 people were going to be helped and it didn't get there.

Or at least hasn't gotten there yet.

It still continues by the way, through the funding.

Why was that?

That you don't think it, it may be achieved what we had hoped and why will this be different?

Well, I think the city was really trying to build an airplane as they were flying it.

I mean, we were in the heat of the pandemic.

So as part of the ready to work advisory board, we built on the lessons from train for jobs and worth looking to the future.

And now how does, how does this work in terms of what it gives to a person who applies to the program?

Speaker 2: They're going to get number one, guidance, coaching and mentoring.

So many people on the outskirts of the employment sector are achieving their employment goals.

I should say because they don't have the knowledge.

They don't have the access to number one, what jobs are available?

Number two, what skills do I need to get those jobs?

And then number three, the assistance to overcome any barriers that may be facing to help them to achieve that goal ready to work is going to deliver in all three of those.

Speaker 1: So this isn't just basically a scholarship program where you say, I want to get this degree or certification and give me the money.

And I do it much more than that, Correct?

I mean, using real data from a variety of sources, we are targeting different industries, healthcare, construction, manufacturing, and so forth.

And so what this program is going to do in a very real way is establish, we hope a national model for workforce development going forward.

We have the resources.

We never had that before.

You know, we've lamented often in San Antonio that this is a low wage, low skill town.

And now we have an opportunity to make a real big difference with ready to.

And you're saying, this is really getting some attention across the country.

And it was approved by 77%.

I mean, majority of people approved this program.

And so we're pretty optimistic with the, with the staff that Mike has and with the agencies and organizations that were recently approved by city council, we think we've got an all-star cast, But it's also not just run and administered only by the city.

People might wonder, well, we have to have this big bureaucracy that is created.

No, you're really overseeing it.

We have a whole lot of partners out there.

Who are you working with?

Speaker 2: Absolutely.

We've chosen experts in the community that have been doing this work for years here in San Antonio, workforce solutions, Alamo Alamo college district, our community college system is vital to the success of the program.

We have project quest and restore education, and those groups have many partners that are working with them in order to assist them in achieving their goals of helping the people in San Antonio who needed.

And we're going to make sure that we do our part as a city to oversee and guide that work to ensure that the outcomes that those voters voted for is achieved.

Speaker 1: And you also have a lot of employers lined up who have, I guess, taken a pledge that we will hire.

Yeah.

And so what's key here is that it's employer driven and you're absolutely right about the pledgers.

The city has been very good about explaining to employers that this program is for them it's to be led by them.

And as a result, as a member of the advisory board, I've been talking to employers about signing the pledge and we have, I think almost 200 companies, many of whom we would all know, but they've already taken the pledge.

And the pledge is really just an agreement to share information as an employer.

These are my needs and the city will come back or the agencies will come back and say, these are the things that we're doing.

Are they fitting with your needs?

What are some of those positions, jobs industries right now that people might not think about where they could get a job, but are really in demand.

Speaker 2: One of those sectors, Doug represents here today, the construction industry, it's one of the quickest path to the middle-class we're individuals in our community.

And now they're in desperate need for skilled labor.

So we want to make sure that we're filling that pipeline with electricians and carpenters and brick masons in order to make sure that the growth that's happening in San Antonio has the labor force behind it to meet that demand.

Speaker 1: Also not just for certification for those kinds of jobs.

It's also two and four year degrees is correct.

Yeah.

And that's the great thing about it is which wasn't The case in the other program Speaker 2: That is absolutely correct.

Yeah.

Two and four-year or a part of the essay ready to work program.

Many of our sectors, such as healthcare and information technology places, great value on those degrees.

And we recognize that individual with higher education attainment rate have higher earnings initially.

So I wanted to make sure that we feed that pipeline of skilled talent as well as educated talent here in San Antonio.

Speaker 1: So on the construction point, just for a minute, you know, there's a connection between the upcoming bond election, not just the cities, but north side there, San Antonio has a lot of construction work the infrastructure and not to mention all the stuff that happens in the seventh largest city in the private sector.

There are a lot of construction jobs that need to be filled, and we're optimistic that ready for work will help us fill those jobs.

But as we've talked about, it's not just construction, it's all the other targeted industries.

And together as a package, we think we can really move the needle in terms of getting people into better paying higher skilled jobs About specifically to San Antonio auto manufacturing, cyber security, or people want to get into that.

They think is this part of the job.

If I want that kind of Speaker 2: Absolutely.

As well as aerospace.

Now, the key sector here in San Antonio, we want to make sure that those entities, those companies that are operating in the, in the, here in San Antonio and in the region have access to that talent, no matter what they may be looking for, whether it is degrees, whether it's credentials and certifications ready to work has a pathway.

Speaker 1: And again, you said, this is aimed at underemployed or unemployed.

There are some requirements for people who are wanting Vienna involved with this.

Sure.

They have to be committed to finish.

And, you know, again, think back to the height of the pandemic.

And we saw these godawful lines at the food bank, and this was really response.

The train for jobs was first.

We learned some valuable lessons, and then we asked the voters for approval to do this on a much bigger, better, more efficient scale with ready to work.

And so the whole concept here is to lift people up into better paying higher skilled jobs in a variety of targeted industries.

Sure.

After that slow start with the first program and you know, the numbers, I guess the initial program was targeted to 10,000.

Didn't meet that yet.

This one was initially we talked about 40,000 people being helped.

And, and now that isn't the number that you're looking at.

Speaker 2: Well, I don't feel that pressure at all.

It's to be honest with you, I believe that train for jobs is going to hit some.

It's going to help a lot of people here in the city.

And I believe it's helped a lot of people in the city over 1400 people that found jobs already through that program nearly.

And we're on track to hit the targets of that program was aiming towards when you talk about the numbers of ready to work with the 40,000 number that's out there, it's the top of the funnel, 40,000 people expressing interest in the program and entering that pipeline of matriculating through an education and training program, you can ask them nutrition along the way, which is why the numbers would go down, but it's all based upon the budget and how much money you have to serve as many people as Speaker 1: Possible.

And the best way to get information about this is call Speaker 2: Three one, one, call three one, one, and you can you be connected and get into a pre-register for the program?

If you're a potential participant, again, it doesn't start until April.

So you'll be in queue to sign up.

At that time.

You can go through our website of the city of San Antonio's website and get information for the program there.

If you're an employer wishing to sign the pledge, we welcome you.

Come on board there's room at the table for everybody small, medium, and large employers to give us information as to what your true needs and demands are, and for us to help to align our training programs Speaker 1: To meet those needs.

Right.

Very complicated.

3, 1, 1, 1.

Thanks very much.

Doug McMurry and Michael Ramsey.

Appreciate it.

Thanks.

Speaker 2: Thank you.

Speaker 1: You may or may not have noticed, but there is a big kind of boom going on in San Antonio.

Right now you could read about it in the San Antonio business journal.

They're talking about deluxe development.

That is luxury retail that is being developed on the north side.

Joining us to explain all about it is Carly Williams, who is a reporter for the San Antonio business journal.

Thanks for coming in.

Thank you for having Speaker 2: Me.

How Speaker 1: Big is this push in, in luxury development now here in San Antonio?

What are we seeing?

Speaker 2: Well, of course, when you think of luxury, you're going to think of Miami New York, Los Angeles, but really we're seeing a boom in the Sunbelt with the wealth creation that's happening here.

And you're seeing kind of underdog cities that you may not have thought about luxury, go on this path towards more deluxe development, bringing in new retailers.

And you're seeing brands move to these cities that they might have not been in before.

Speaker 1: I like lock on Tara and north star, some brands that are so hip, I don't even know what they are, War bees or something like that.

And the we, the top and Speaker 2: The yes, more Warby Parker is more of a, it's targeted more towards middle-class, but culturally, it's more of an upscale image.

And as far as things like Louis Vuitton Gucci, you've seen those brands moving as well.

So you're seeing, you know, more development of classical names that people are in demand for.

Speaker 1: And it's because of the demographic that we have that is exploding here as well.

What, what are the numbers on that?

What is that?

Speaker 2: Right?

You're seeing a lot more white collar salaries in San Antonio with the Exodus from California, with, you know, people moving from even the mountain states, Colorado, even people moving from cities like Chicago, your, this, this job, boom, in the Sunbelt, it's creating this wealth that we haven't seen before, and that is just going to increase demand.

And it continually, I think you're going to see more and more developers and more and more retailers marketing high-skill goods it more similarly to cities like Austin, Speaker 1: You really drill down in here into the numbers in terms of zip codes as to how much people make.

And it's kind of surprising the top 10 zip codes unit Speaker 2: Right there, all on the north side.

And we're going to continue to see that I believe as more money comes into the city and as wages continue to go up, that's what we've seen before in the past two years, especially with the great resignation, employees are demanding more.

We're seeing salaries go up, but those working class salaries in areas like the east side and the south side, those are not expanding as quickly.

And you're going to continue seeing that Wolf creation on the north side.

Speaker 1: Are we going to see more of jobs coming here like that?

Do you think, or are you covering that aspect as Speaker 2: Well?

Retail jobs are as far as well Speaker 1: Retail jobs, but the jobs that will support this kind of expansion, are we getting spill over from Austin?

Right?

Speaker 2: Absolutely.

There's one of the brokers described as a halo effect from Austin.

I believe you're going to continue to see, to see investment in San Antonio, but most of these brokers are, you know, sometimes coming and investing from New York, I'm from Dallas and sometimes, you know, other states.

So as far as investment with real estate, you're going to continue to see that money to see that money come from out of state.

Speaker 1: So there's no indication in the south side.

I mean, there's a lot of jobs going to the south side, but not that would support this kind of Speaker 2: No, no.

As of now, no, we're seeing industrial hubs being built on the east side.

We have Amazon there, you know, we've had the hub fulfillment center there.

It's not uncomparable, you know, just the, the disparities there it's, you know, black and white, well Speaker 1: In black and white and in color, you can read all about it.

And Carly Williams also has, what do you call it?

A hub page.

We call it a hub, a hub page.

And this is an actual physical paper.

Speaker 2: It's very, it's Speaker 1: Very deluxe Antonio business journal.

It actually fits in my mailbox.

Thank you very much for coming in.

Thank you for having me.

Thank you for joining us for this edition of on the record.

You can see the show again or previous shows as well as the podcast at dot org.

And we'll see you next time.

on the record is brought to you by Steve and Adele do follow.