- [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(upbeat music) - Coming to you from 125 live, R-Town.

♪ Come back to me ♪ - So we're sitting today in the beautiful gathering space at 125 Live.

And 125 Live has been a really vital community for active adults in the area.

And today to talk to us about programming and opportunities for engagement and community is Operations Director, Ken Burg.

Welcome to R-Town, Ken.

- Great thanks for having me and thanks for coming to 125 Live.

- That's great, I love this space.

So obviously last year was a really difficult year for all of us, but our older adults in the community, they were disproportionately impacted.

So my question to you really is how did 125 Live address some of those challenges?

And in what ways did you support the older community members that you have?

- Well, one of the big things that we had for a challenge, like everyone else was surprised they were closed now.

So with the statewide closure happening with so little warning, we had to somehow figure out how to take all of our programming, which at the time was over 100 fitness classes a week, arts classes, education programming, advanced safety, and evidence-based wellness programs, and somehow compact them into a virtual or online setting.

Luckily for us so we had an amazing team of staff and volunteers were working really hard, almost around the clock, trying to figure out how we could do it.

We worked with insurance companies to maintain constant reimbursement for memberships here.

So we were able to continue to create new programs, new activities in an online format.

We've been as some of our TLC, our Technology Learning Center volunteers actually providing free online virtual classes to help older adults navigate how to provide those offsite types of visits even with medical visits.

Those same group actually created a online resource for vaccination scheduling for some of those individuals in our community who may not have that true access to some of those other online materials.

- Sure, yeah, you talked about that surprise factor, I'm sure.

And I love that you talked a little bit about the technology 'cause I think that was a huge learning curve for many of us certainly.

And that this space, I mean, there's no substitute for gathering in space and being in that community, did you find that you were able to, to the best of your ability to substitute some of those, like just personal connections that are so vital to your members?

- Well, definitely from the moment that we closed until we were able to reopen again, I mean, as a several month period, we were doing home calls to all of our members, we're reaching out.

We were trying to continue to get people to connect, reconnect with their friends via virtual formats.

We're doing virtual parties, different events that we could do from people's homes, maintaining all those safety orders.

And when the opportunity presented itself to give us even an inch of opportunity to bring people together outside 10 feet apart, no groups larger than nine people, we are out in the parking lot, doing classes and programs, doing music, doing different things that we could do.

Having official staff acting as a needle to six foot distance patrol to make sure everybody was following all of our safety guidelines.

But we just, as soon as we could knew, we had to get people back together, and with the isolation that a lot of our members have on their regular daily routines, the pandemic actually just amplify that times 10.

So we wanted to go ahead and actually combat that for them.

- Well, now things are opening up.

We're here, we're we're in person.

So what opportunities are currently available for members to participate in?

And then a second part of that is what are you most excited about?

- So right now, we're actually to the point where originally before the pandemic, we were growing at about 77 new members a month.

And when we were able to reopen, we've been growing back at about 110 members a month.

So we do have a couple of members, individuals who have maintained a suspension of their membership canceled, but will come back when they feel a little safer, but we've really been working as hard as we can to regain the trust of our community.

We're even working with the Olmsted County Department of Health to provide additional information regarding vaccine hesitancy.

All the different things that we're doing, just so that we can have parties and events and bring people together.

As soon as we were allowed to, we had to move some of our classes to our biggest room.

We have a 3,000 square foot space, which used to be for banquets.

Now it's where we hold zoomba because we have upwards of 35 people wanting to get in, play with their friends, do all the different things, just missing the way it was before.

- Fantastic.

So we're not completely out of the pandemic was, and you did mention some folks have suspended their memberships until they feel safer.

There's definitely vaccine hesitancy in the community.

Can you talk a little bit more about some ways that you're ensuring safety and protection for your membership community?

- So even back in early April of 2020, before there was any indication that there need to be a COVID preparedness plan, 125 Live our partners, we work together and we created one.

So right from the beginning before we could even dream of opening, we knew that we had to have a strategy to keep everybody safe.

That's everything from routine cleaning, adding additional facility staff, working and making sure that our HVAC systems were operating at 100% or as optimal capacity as they can constantly circulating clean, fresh air into the building.

But then also making sure our members are aware that we can provide them with additional help or services if they needed so that even if they can't physically come in, we still provide some online services.

And up until just a few weeks ago, a very large portfolio of activities they could still do from home, but we're slowly finding out that everybody wants to get back.

So we're easing off those and bringing them back in a safe manner.

- Fantastic.

Of course R city has a growing aging population and I think really has a commitment to ensuring that that community is thriving and doing well.

So in what ways do you see 125 Live really providing some essential opportunities and support in that space?

- Our big thing is, and we're really excited about it is right now we're gonna go through summer with some of our traditional programs and activities we've been doing, but we really working on really understanding the term inclusive.

And we really wanna make sure that any adult can feel welcome in our facility no matter what their independent status is.

And so we're working with a couple of other partners, as well as constantly brainstorming a new ways that we can bring in more groups of individuals, no matter what their socioeconomic statuses are, as we're partnering with a couple of groups that are helping us with that as well as their cognitive or physical abilities.

So we know that as we come into September, we're gonna be able to offer a variety of new programs and activities that will be interesting and meaningful to just a full wide demographic of individuals.

- Wonderful, well, thank you so much for all you do.

I'm sure we'll catch up with you again, Ken.

Thanks for joining us.

- Thanks for having me.

(upbeat music) - Be sure to stick around.

We have much more coming your way on R-Town.

Danielle Teal sits down with Judy Brotts from Rochesterfest to discuss this year's Turnout.

We check in with Jory Johnson to hear about city initiatives and workforce development.

But first we head out to Silver Lake Pool to find out why the pools are such a fun option to beat the heat in this week's R Culture segment.

(upbeat music) - Well, we had actually never been to this pool before to have the day off, and I wanted to do something fun with my son.

And I decided to just take him swimming with his cousins.

- The outdoor pools are a popular destination in Rochester any year, but then this year, the City Council was able to allocate some funding so that we could have it be free of charge for everyone.

- [Teresa] So I think it's really been a difficult year for a lot of people financially.

So the fact that they could make the pools free this summer, I think is a really great thing for a lot of families.

(upbeat music) - So those first couple of really hot days when it was in the nineties, we were having five to 600 people at a time at the pools.

We had some issues happening at the pool where individuals were not following the rules that they should be.

And when you're around water that safety component is so important.

We don't want anything bad to happen to individuals while they're out of the pool.

- We hadn't gone to any pools yet this summer, but we had heard that a couple of them closed down to some aggressiveness or people fighting or something like that.

- Everybody's coming out of the pandemic.

So I think there may have been a few things that led to it, but ultimately when we're around a body of water, like an outdoor pool, we need to take those precautions and safety is very important.

- So we were really disappointed 'cause we thought they weren't gonna be open this summer.

- We closed temporarily, redid some of our planning, came up with some better plans, more underlining what the rules are, making sure that we had staff available that could assist the lifeguard so that they good encourage rule following and positive behavior at the pools.

And so we've been able to get some of those things implemented this year.

- Luckily they did open up last week sometime.

So we were really fortunate to come here today.

You want toys?

We like to play with toys.

We typically bring a lot of floaty toys, a lot of pool toys.

And we like to have those poolside snacks and fresh fruit and watermelon.

That's I think our favorite part.

(upbeat music) - One of he changes that we made, we did limit some capacity just to try to alleviate any potential issues going forward.

But right now we're taking 300 people at a time into each pool.

We do have a online registration system on our website that patrons can sign up ahead of time.

With the capacity limits we have, it's certainly encouraged them to do that so they make sure they've got a spot for the session that they wanna come and swim during.

So it has a couple of benefits.

- I think we will come back often probably more on the weekends 'cause I do work full time, but any chance I get I'd love to come back here.

It's been a great experience so far.

- We certainly feel like coming out to the park or the pool is a great way to build some new friendships, build community.

Everybody comes together in the parks and public spaces.

Our pools are getting to be a little older.

They're getting close to being beyond their useful life cycle.

So we're also in the planning stage now of what can we do to update or replace some of the pool or outdoor aquatic features in Rochester.

So we're interested in getting that community feedback to make sure we're doing in line with what the community needs and desires are so we can get always maintain a good outdoor aquatic program for the city.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator 2] For more information about this story and other R-Town features, connect with us on Facebook, twitter @ksmq#RTown or ksmq.org/rtown.

♪ And we'll see what we can find ♪ - I'm Danielle Teal, your moderator for the R-Town Spotlight, a segment we'd like to dedicate to spotlighting businesses and organizations in Rochester.

With us today is Judy Brotts.

If you've not seen her around, it may be a surprise because she is all over the place at different events and organizations.

She's awesome.

She's also the Chair of Rochesterfest, and is here to discuss how this last fest wins and what we can all look forward to in the future.

Welcome Judy.

- Thank you, great to be here.

- I know, I was so excited to see you on the list that you're gonna be here and ready to dive in because we actually talked to Brandon a few weeks ago about how Rochesterfest was going to be done this year.

And now we wanna know what the outcome is.

So what was the ultimate turnout for Rochesterfest?

- Well, no surprise, but it was really great.

It was so fun to reconnect with people that I hadn't seen for a long time and to see families come out.

And so we were real pleased with the turnout for the whole week.

- That's awesome.

And I know that there were numerous offerings.

Weather did play a factor in some cases.

Share a little bit about what those offerings were and what was super popular ultimately with Rochesterfest.

- Yes, well of course all the favorite foods were there.

All our favorite vendors were there supporting Rochesterfest.

So everything from the Turkey drumsticks to cheese curds to mini donuts.

So pretty much the favorite kind of food.

An addition this year was our family fun field and oh, Danielle, it was so fun to see families and parents and kids there playing.

And it was free to everybody to come to family fun field.

I can't tell you how many times people came up to our information booth and said, "Do we have to pay to get into the bounce houses and inflatables?"

And I said, "No, it's all free."

So they had mini golf there and it was a free every day that the Rocheterfest was open from Monday to Saturday.

- What is the plan for next year and how can people get involved?

- Yeah, well, it's easy to get involved, just reach out to us on the rochesterfest.com.

Our social media pages, ask me, I'll help you get involved and get you on our list.

But the other thing is next year, we're gonna have more time to plan for the entire Rochesterfest week or nine days it is.

This year, we didn't really get a lot of the planning done until we knew that the face masks were lifted like the beginning of May.

So we did a lot.

I shouldn't say we, the board is amazing and the volunteers that help really worked hard to get everything planned for the week.

So next year look for a bigger, better family fun field that'll be available all week.

Even more entertainment that we wanted to have this year, but it was just too tight of a schedule to get it done.

- Awesome to hear.

Thank you so much for being on the show.

- [Judy] My pleasure.

- You're amazing.

- [Judy] Thank you.

(upbeat music) - So I would like to welcome a new face to R-Town.

With us is Michael Lojack to present the Rundown.

Take it away, Michael.

- Hey, this is Michael LoJack with your R-Town Rundown.

It's good to be back for a new season.

Thursday's downtown is starting one of the highlights of the Rochester summer.

You can go out there any Thursday between now and September 9th.

Of course, the rain plays a role in this as well.

There is live music every day at 11:30, 5:00 PM and 7:00 PM.

A lot of great, local and regional artists.

It's a lot of fun.

It's one of the highlights of the summer here, get out there and enjoy it.

Also this Sunday, the Down by the Riverside concerts are starting.

They are free.

So the first Riverside concert will be this Sunday evening.

Did you also know we do movies in the park at Central Park downtown?

This Saturday at 7:30 PM, the movie showing will be dirty dancing.

If you wanna go back and relive the '80s a little bit, you can get out there and enjoy that one.

Safe City Nights another program that brings the community together with law enforcement and other public safety officials is going on.

There's gonna be four of these events this summer.

The first one is going to be on July 13th at the Jefferson Elementary School in Northeast Rochester.

Some additional artistic openings that happen to be going on.

Human Scaleon is opening at the Rochester Art Center.

There is an opening session going on on July 9th, but if you miss that, the exhibit is going to be there through October.

Additionally, there's some new programming coming on at Rochester Civic Theater.

"Our Kid's Birthday" is the second in a series by That Theatre Company is showing this weekend and next weekend.

I saw the first in that series.

It was a lot of fun, it's adult content, get out there and enjoy it.

And there'll also be a one-day performance of "What Trees know" on July 14th.

It's a duet.

It looks like a very innovative program for the City of Rochester.

There are so many things going on in Rochester.

That's just a little bit of what's going on.

(upbeat music) - So we know that a diverse workforce is really vital to any thriving sustainable economy.

As the city of Rochester grows and as it works to meet the challenges of really providing an equitable workforce and to address some of the disparities within our economy, our Workforce Development and Target Workforce Development has become a really central piece of that puzzle.

So today to join us is Jory Johnson, Project Manager of the Targeted Business and Workforce Compliance for the City of Rochester.

Thank you so much for joining us, Jory.

- You're welcome.

Thank you so much for having me.

- So I think congratulations are in order because the City of Rochester was chosen to be one of the Bloomberg Global Mayors Challenge finalists.

And I would love for you to tell us a little bit more about that.

How we won that and became a finalist and a little bit about the project specifically around black, indigenous people of color and women in construction.

- Thank you.

- So we had this opportunity to apply for the Bloomberg 2021 Global Mayors Challenge earlier this year.

Our mayor Kim Norton is concerned about the economic stability of our community.

And from the research that we did earlier this year, we found that our minority Bay Park community members have a higher rate of poverty as well as women.

So the intersection of our minority community members and women showed that greatest rate of poverty.

And we know that COVID 19 effected exact survey, did that poverty level in employment, especially in hospitality and service industries.

And so we really wanted to try to give opportunities for career success in areas that a lot of investments are being made through DMC in public infrastructure, our streets and sewers, and then also private investments through DMC.

And so we are trying to, we're working, we have a team of community members right now, community partners planning our next phase of the Bloomberg Mayors Challenge application.

Right now, we are validating our ideas that women have been under represented in the construction industry, as well as minorities, and trying to understand why, what are the barriers, what are the challenges, what is preventing them from going into the trades or pre-construction jobs such as architecture, engineering design?

Is it a cultural set perceptions that the construction industry is not for them?

Or is it just career awareness from either early childhood through middle school and high school, and then helping create solutions to help women and especially Bay Park women get into the trades, or like I said, the professional side of the construction industry, architecture, engineering design.

So right now we are validating this idea and then we'll be going into the co-design process, which means we are actually going to be working with community members to create solutions, to help Bay Park women learn more about the construction industry, what the possibilities are for them, and that they can be involved in the industry.

At the same time, we are working with construction industry contractors to really investigate their corporate cultures, to make sure that they have the welcoming and inclusive environments so that they are recruiting and training and retaining the diverse workforce that we have in Rochester.

- So it sounds like you're hitting this from all sorts of different levels.

And then you started by talking about leveraging really the existing investment that's going on in this field while building that capacity.

I know you've been on the show before to talk a lot about construction and that sort of the workforce development around that.

And I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit more about the work that you were doing with the Latinx, Hispanic construction workers and just promoting that entrepreneurship around construction.

- Okay, so earlier this year, we produced some videos for Workforce Development to promote the construction trades training that they hosted.

And we had those produced in English, Somali, and Spanish, and then we are now working on producing videos to help encourage community members to start businesses in construction.

So we interviewed a few community member.

Hispanic community members.

Darcy Tello owns Med City Installation.

A female, a woman minority owned business.

And then we interviewed Abel Garcia.

He owns remodeling DL, and he has been involved with numerous DMC projects already and is a great mentor for other Hispanic, Latino people just wanting to get into the trades and starting businesses.

And then he's also partnering with Juan Castro in contracts and to recruit other Hispanic, Latino people.

So we interviewed him as well.

- And when can we expect to have those videos out in the world?

- I can get you that video right now.

- So that's fantastic just getting that out.

And you talked about the co-design process.

So I think at every step of the way, just engaging community and amplifying the voices of those that are already in those fields in that space.

I know that part of this is also part of just the strategy for DMC in the city.

And I was wondering if you could tell us a little bit about the DMC 2020 target business and workforce participation work plan, and what some of the key components of that plan are.

- Okay, thank you.

So, before I started with the city two years ago, DMC projects had a targeted business plan, and we had a consultant working with the city to implement the plan.

Basically at that point, they were just tracking targeted business contracts and workforce participation.

I took it to the next level.

So now in my annual work plan, I have a portion for managing and tracking the results on projects, but I wanted to take it to the next level.

And as you were saying, build capacity in both targeted business and workforce, meaning we want more women and minority owned companies, locally winning contracts on the city and DMC projects.

We also want more women and minority community members working in the workforce on our projects.

So that's where we're talking about building capacity of the workforce, not just to meet our goals, but to help the people in the community find careers that they enjoy, that are well great paying with benefits for the longterm.

- Fantastic.

So I know that you've also got the Targeted Business and Workforce Participation summary survey for this last month of June.

And as I was looking at it, I was also thinking about last summer during the pandemic time.

And maybe, could you talk a little bit about how this summary from this past month compares to last summary?

- So I do the monthly report, or I prepare a monthly report summarizing both targeted business and workforce participation in construction and professional services, which are our studies such as the Rapid Transit Project.

We have currently 3.5% women working in construction.

And our goal is 7%.

And our goal is actually going to be increasing to 8% next year.

So we really have a gap between our goal and the number of women we have.

And we're trying to identify why, and we're trying to create strategies to increase the number of women working in construction.

Fortunately, we have above our targeted, excuse me, we have above our workforce participation goal for minorities, we are at about 16% and our goal is 15%, but that doesn't mean we're limited to 15 or 16%.

We would love to see that number increase because we have over 20% of a population in Rochester are minority community members.

- Thank you so much, Jory.

There's so much to talk about with this.

And we would love to welcome you back to chat a little bit more and get more in depth about the work that you're doing, but thank you for joining us today to give us an overview.

- Oh gosh, Thank you.

You're welcome.

- And thank you for joining us today for a more wonderful content produced right here in Rochester.

Please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter at #RTown.

Be well and stay safe.

We'll see you next on R-Town, the show about Rochester.

♪ Dollar ♪ ♪ You know I'll tell you I'm sure ♪ ♪ And I'll tell you I'm sure ♪ ♪ And I'll tell you I'm sure ♪ ♪ I'm proving we never let a moment ♪ ♪ Just to sit and wonder ♪ ♪ I'm wondering what this is all then is for ♪ ♪ Maybe you and I are gonna move by the Australian dollar ♪ ♪ You know I'll tell you I'm sure ♪ ♪ And I'll tell you I'm sure ♪ ♪ And I'll you tell you I'm sure ♪ ♪ You know I'll tell you I'm sure ♪ ♪ And I'll tell you I'm sure ♪ ♪ And I'll tell you I'm sure ♪ - [Narrator 1] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.