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

(gentle music) - "R-Town", the show about Rochester meets a local artist weaving myth and culture, and we learn about a new county public health initiative and the community needs improvement plan.

All that coming up next on "R-Town", the show about Rochester.

(upbeat music) Coming to you from 125 Live in Rochester, Minnesota, "R-Town".

(upbeat music continues) Today we are joined by local artist Jahbulani Ori.

Welcome to "R-Town".

- Thank you.

- We are surrounded by your beautiful work here, and I find your work to be so vivid and so evocative.

Can you tell us a little bit about what inspires you?

- So my, what inspires me is actually humanity itself.

So, the thing about it is, I just got back from Kenya, and this is actually the first piece I ever made for Art by Jahbu.

This piece is about the Maasai of Kenya that is and is actually placed in the Nanyuki Kenya, near Mount Kenya, which is a holy place for the Kikuyu people.

So what I wanted to do was to represent that origin within Africa and through that, represent humanity, you know, so the core, the root of us comes from there.

So I was fortunate enough to go to the National Museum in Nairobi, Kenya, where they have some of the oldest human remains.

And it was so inspirational to me that I had to bring this painting today to show Kenya.

- It's almost full circle and the sort of specificity of the African culture and traditions, but then also the sort of the universal themes in your work.

So this is your first piece and this is your latest piece.

Can you tell us a little bit about this piece?

- So another thing you said universal, I really like astronomy.

Right, so the thing, what I'm trying to do is to have the simplistic meets the complex.

So here we have Ibeji.

Ibeji is of the Yoruba culture, and these are a set of twins inspired by my daughter.

So one twin represents beauty and creation, while the other twin represents judgment and mischief.

So one twin is adorned with a dress of petals and butterflies, while the other twin is adorned with succulent petals, with moths.

One represents day, the other represents night.

So I wanted to have that duality to show the balance that's within existence itself.

- Yeah, this painting, both of the paintings look so detailed and so rich, can you talk to us a little bit about your process in your artistic practice?

- Okay, so I started out as a traditional artist.

I went to the Maryland Institute College of Art for oil painting.

And while I was there I actually ended up getting a degree in graphic design.

So because I really love technology, but I also like traditional art, I ended up merging the two.

It was a long process.

The first time I ever started with digital art, it was with a mouse and a keyboard.

And that eventually evolved into the Wecom tablet.

It's essentially like a iPad and it has, it's touch and it's one-to-one.

It's almost as if you're painting on glass.

So one of the things that I do within the digital realm is I slow it down and I am able to get very good results because I'm not using digital in general terms, like quickly.

I'm slowing it down, it takes me weeks, months.

I start out with a simple sketch and I build that sketch up for maybe seven to 14 days.

And then from there I just work on honing and crafting that concept until it gets to a level that I'm satisfied with, yeah.

- I love that sort of slowing it down, sort of simulating the analog through the digital and the textures and the colors in this.

I mean, it really does look like oil painting as I'm looking at the paintings here, so that's amazing.

As we're wrapping up here, what do you hope that viewers of your work experience and see when they engage with your work?

- I honestly hope they see themselves.

I feel like us as human beings, we're just as unique as art itself because art comes through us.

So if we can see the difference within each and every one and see that we are different, I think that will bring us together.

So the best thing I can do is to represent myself through what I deem as my roots and as Africa.

So I feel like now is the time to do that, not getting any younger.

So I must take time to create this work and show it to the world.

That's all I want to do.

- Wonderful How can community members continue to stay connected with you and see more of your work?

- I am on Instagram at Jahbu-_Art.

I also have a microscopic small YouTube channel that talks about the visuals in today's entertainment.

I love gaming, I love movies.

That's called Jahbu Talks Visuals on YouTube.

And my website is just jahbu, JAHBU.com and you can find my canvases and all my work.

- Wonderful, thank you so much for joining us and inspiring us today, Jahbu.

- Yes, you're welcome.

Thank you.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - So today we're in the residence of Old Town Hall, which is a, you know, it's an apartment building that is formerly a nursing care facility.

(upbeat music continues) We've looked at housing options for people in our community, and one of the things we've noticed over the last, you know, several years is that an awful lot of affordable housing is being converted, whether it's being converted to market rate housing or whether the housing is being demolished and rebuilt as more market rate housing.

One of our priorities, not just as the county, but as a community as a whole, is to preserve the affordable housing we have.

When we were made aware of this as an opportunity to acquire this building, it's an amazing building and so we were really excited to jump at the chance to acquire a facility like this to preserve the affordable housing that's already here and then to continue to build on it.

- I'm a professional engineer and real estate broker and I've made my, an important part of my career buying and rehabilitating old and historic buildings.

I've done 19 of 'em, including this one.

(upbeat music continues) When I got it in 2001, there were 12 tenants and nine full-time staff operating this virtually empty building and in a poor state of repair.

I was ultimately able to get financing and some TIF help from the city and county and school district and was able to reclaim this building into a new useful life.

(upbeat music continues) In 2007 we did windows, roofs, new boilers, new air conditioner, all new finishes, lots of building code requirements, added fire sprinklers, central air conditioning.

So we spent several million dollars improving the building.

(upbeat music continues) - It's in great shape.

It's, you know, 60 units of housing that are desperately needed to be maintained in our community.

The first floor has seven housing units.

Our plan there is to really prioritize for that first floor, those kind of, that youth, that 18 to 24, that group of people who really is looking for their first apartment, maybe doesn't have a lot of support at home, maybe doesn't have a rental history, but just really trying to get started in their lives.

The next use that we're really trying to prioritize and, you know, floors two and three are what we call housing support program.

What that is, it's for people who are over the age of 65 or have a disabling condition.

- I think the original founders and I had always helped that this was a contributor to the community.

I'm getting at that stage of life, I'd like to retire.

Frankly helped to find this kind of a buyer for this building and give it another 50 years of new life.

- We also want to be fiscally responsible, so doing it in a way that minimizes the utilization of public funds really makes sure that we get a prudent use of those dollars.

And so a facility like this, you know, we'll be able to own and operate this facility for the next 50 plus years and do it in a way that won't require an ongoing and operating subsidies so that one time investment in funds will be creating these housing in perpetuity for people who otherwise may not have a place to live.

It really was a decision that we made as, the county commissioners made, to move forward with this investment.

We need to have places for everyone to call home, whether that home is for somebody who is maybe 19 and trying to get their first rental apartment or whether that person is 90 and needs assistance to continue to live independently.

- [Narrator] For more information about this story and other "R-Town" features, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter at KSMQ#RTown or KSMQ.org/rtown.

(upbeat music continues) - Hi, this is Danielle Teal with "R-Town" Spotlight, where we cover events, happenings, and organizations across this fine city.

I'm here with Abby Romme today and we're gonna cover Credence Apex, which share a little bit more about yourself and how you got this business started.

- Like, like Danielle said, I'm Abby Romme, I'm really excited to be here.

I got into fitness kind of lifelong goals.

I was in cross country and track in college and just kind of pursued it through everything and had an opportunity to join in with Apex.

Apex is a really goal centered high level focusing on the individual gym.

We do all sorts of personal training, we have small group classes and the feel is just to bring and meet the person where they're at and help them pull the best parts of themselves forward.

- And by trade and background you actually have nursing experience.

- I do.

- So you're pairing some of that with also this kind of personal training aspect.

You talk about how it's customized and it's individualized.

Can you share a little bit more about how you do that and full disclosure, you do work with me.

- I do.

- [Danielle] One-on-one.

- Yeah.

- And we do have an event coming up that we'd like to share a little bit more about, but what about that individual customized dynamic?

- Yeah, so we meet one-on-one with the client right from the start so we can get to know what their goals are.

We have three, six month, 12 year goals and then beyond that we look at everything from family life, friends, career goals to fitness goals clearly.

And then we meet you where you're at.

So if your goal is to just stand up well, walk well, and just be able to go up a hill easily that's what we're gonna start with and we'll go from there.

And it's really fun to see everybody just meet us too where they're at and enjoy the process and have fun with us while we're doing it.

- And that's what I appreciate most about you is that you have a way of kind of talking through the busyness of the mind and really digging into, okay, how do we unpack that and really focus on what do we need to do to get somebody to a healthy stage in their life where they're getting out the door and they're doing a workout or they're connecting with people.

- Exactly.

- So what informed kind of that approach?

- For me it's always been meeting the person where they're at.

I think every individual is beautiful and it's just finding that part of that person, sitting down with them and finding that peace and then finding what they want to do and then meeting them, seeing them where they're at and just pulling out the parts of them that are enjoyable.

So whatever it is, it's talking, it's laughing, it's- - [Danielle] Just having a good time.

- Having a good time - Yeah and speaking, - Pulling fitness into it.

- And speaking of that, we are gonna plan to have a really good time.

We have an event on January 27th.

- [Abby] Yes.

- Where you and I are just hosting something that is pretty informal just to get people to center on their new year new refresh, correct?

- Yes, yep.

It's the new year, new you, what do you wanna do?

Make those dreams come true.

And not really not have New Year's resolutions.

Just make the new you permanent.

- Yeah, perfect, love it.

Thank you so much for being here.

- Definitely, thank you.

- This is Danielle Teal with "R-Town Spotlight".

(upbeat music continues) - Hello, once again.

This is Michael Wojcik with your "R Town Legislative Rundown".

2023 was perhaps the most impactful legislative session of my lifetime.

Irrespective of where you stand on the outcomes of certain decisions, a number of decisions were made and passed into law and what was particularly unique about this session is I had never seen so much impactful legislation as it pertains to transportation and the related issues of environmental issues and greenhouse gases and climate change.

Now, if 2023 was the year of transportation, I expect 2024 is going to touch heavily on the issues of land use.

Land use is probably the most important topic that you've never paid much attention to, but a recent article in the "Post Bulletin" highlighted just how challenged we are here in southeastern Minnesota.

Did you know that between 1980 and 2022, Rochester saw its population increase 111%?

You might be surprised to know in absolute numbers, Minneapolis grew by much higher number, but certainly not a higher percent.

Now in geographical size, the city grew by 208%.

We're actually now geographically bigger than Minneapolis or St. Paul.

That's astonishing with just a fraction of the population.

And if you look at the number of miles of roadway, over that same period of time, they increased 255%.

If you think about that, that means that when it comes to infrastructure, we are doing less with more, which is the opposite of what people say that they want.

This inefficient land use, which is happening throughout the state, comes with enormous financial, social, and environmental costs.

Here in Rochester, if the average person was paying a thousand dollars for infrastructure in 1980, that's probably over $4,000 today when you factor in inflation in the construction industry.

It's a huge challenge and part of the reason why the state's looking at a number of opportunities for more efficient land use.

This has been Michael Wojcik with your "R-Town Legislative Rundown".

(projector clicking) (upbeat music continues) - Hi, I'm Danielle Teal with" R-Town Walkabout" and we are out and about in Rochester at Pop's Art Theater doing the best winter activity, which is indoors.

I'm here with Maggie Panetta.

So let's talk about a day in a life of Pop's Art Theater.

- Yeah.

- What does that look like?

- So, well, we're here in our very small but cozy indie movie theater in Rochester.

And every day you can come in and look at some of the movie related records we have on display.

We have candy, popcorn if you need a snack, but most importantly you can come and see a movie.

We have older films and newer films every single day.

We play two to three different films in one day.

- [Danielle] Okay, so let's talk about a little preview of what's gonna shake out in February.

What's on deck?

- Oh, February is so exciting, especially because we're going into the Oscar ceremony in March.

And so some of the things that we're doing is we're bringing back the film, "Past Lives".

That's gonna be the week of Valentine's Day.

We will have a Valentine's Day special as well.

- Love is in the air.

- To get out to the movies with your loved ones.

We're also doing a Black History Month series, and so we love to do film series here that are themed or are about a director.

So we'll have several films for that in February.

And like I said, you'll see some Oscar nominees here showing before March - [Danielle] Now do folks request movies at times that they'd really love to see that?

- Oh, good question.

I think we kind of hear the buzz in the air about what people are excited about and what we're excited about.

We love watching movie trailers and I think some people get really excited just about our trailers before our movies so they get to know what we're excited about.

- Thank you Maddie.

This is Danielle Teal with "R-Town Walkabout".

(upbeat music continues) - Olmsted County recently shared the Community Health Improvement Plan.

Here to tell us more about this plan and some key initiatives as it relates to community health needs are Shay Baumbach and Derrick Fritz.

Welcome to "R-Town".

- Thank you.

- Thank you, appreciate it.

- So let's start with you Derrick.

Can you tell us a little bit about what the Community Health Needs Assessment is and how does it relate to the community health improvement plan?

- Yeah, they're really both part of the community health assessment and planning process, which is a process that's been going on since 2012 and led by not only Olmsted County Public Health, but also Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center, and a lot of our great community partners.

And this process is really about assessing our community health and identifying and really understanding the wellbeing and how wellbeing is with our residents.

And then identifying what are our top health issues in our community, and then ultimately, which is the improvement plan part of how do we address and make an impact on those issues.

- So in terms of the assessment, what are some of the key issues that came up in this user's assessment?

- Yeah, we do have three priorities that our residents identified: access to healthcare, mental health and drug use and we're really excited that this time, this approach that we're using is called a collective impact approach.

So really asking organizations, what can you do?

What are your organizations planning to do?

Or what could you do to make an impact on one or more of these issues?

And so that's really where we're seeing a lot of these great initiatives like CredibleMinds that Shay will talk about, drug use or substance use education.

The Rochester Public Schools is working on mental health screenings.

So a lot of awesome initiatives that are coming out of this collective impact approach to address each and every one of those priorities.

- I know mental health and wellbeing has been something that has come up quite a few times in these assessments over the last few years and especially since the pandemic.

Shay, can you talk to us a little bit about what the CredibleMind app is?

And how this initiative is gonna be helping the community?

- Yeah, so as Derrick mentioned, this is one of our collective impact projects that Olmsted County Public Health is working on.

We actually received the funding though from the opioid settlement funds.

So we're really excited that we have that funding to be able to pilot this.

So the CredibleMind is a free online platform that anybody in our community can utilize.

It has over 200 different topics, anything from parenting to mental health to substance use to access to care.

The really neat thing though is that when people are looking for materials, they know, they tend to go to Google, right?

And sometimes you don't always know if it is credible or if it's trustworthy.

So CredibleMind is gonna provide that to our community members.

And so it's been medically reviewed by the CredibleMind team.

So anything that is on there, it has been approved by experts and researched and we know that it's trusted and it's safe.

- And how can community members access the app and sort of learn more about it?

- Yeah, so the platform, people can find it by visiting our Olmsted County Public Health website.

It's also on our Olmsted County website right now, and there is a URL as well.

So that is OlmstedCounty.CredibleMind.com.

- Thank you so much.

You also mentioned Access to Care, Derrick, and this is one of the top three needs.

Being the home of healthcare institutions like Mayo Clinic and Olmsted Medical Center, why are we seeing persistent barriers to access to healthcare?

- Yeah, I think that's a complex question and a complex issue, in general.

So speaking and looking directly at our community health needs assessment and kind of bringing that lens, we do ask residents if they've delayed any healthcare over the last 12 months.

And some of the big reasons that we're seeing is cost of care, insurance coverage, either lack thereof or the costs associated with various procedures.

Folks also note family or work obligations as a barrier to delaying care as well as not knowing where to go and concerns of what other folks might think about that, especially around mental health care.

So there's definitely a lot of barriers that we see with our community health needs assessment and our residents are telling us and hopefully with some of the initiatives that I mentioned and as we continue with the collective impact approach, we can hopefully make an impact on some of these issues.

- Wonderful, thank you.

I know it is a really complex issue and as part of that collective, can you say that again?

The collective- - Impact approach.

- Impact approach.

How does the county work with the Mayo Clinic, Olmsted Medical Center, Zumbro River Health Center, and all these other healthcare institutions that are here in Rochester?

- Yeah, they're one of our partners as well and they're a great partner.

So we work with a bunch of different organizations and really bring that collective sense of what can we as leaders and organizations throughout Olmsted County make an impact on these issues.

And so it's really been a great collaborative process since 2012 of being able to connect with these organizations on a monthly and quarterly basis and checking in and seeing how these initiatives are going and then how can we maybe work together on some other large scale issues as well.

- The plan, the improvement plan has this particular sort of timeline timeframe, can you talk a little bit about that?

Is it a one year thing, a three year thing?

What does that look like?

- Yeah, that's a great question.

It is a three year plan for our improvement plan.

So it just started here in January of 2024 and will continue through December of 2026.

- And in terms of the previous improvement plan, what were some of the outcomes of that?

- Yeah, we definitely saw some collaboration especially around substance use being one of our priorities and one of our brand new priorities during that cycle.

And so really being able to bring people together and have kind of that initial collaborative effort that will continue now and start to focus in on that education around substance use.

And then other folks within public health as well really worked on a school-wide health assessment system, a mental health assessment system called Shape, and really trying to educate schools about utilizing that platform to understand their mental health kind of where they're at with their mental health initiatives and programs.

So a couple key outcomes from last cycle.

- Great and Shay, what what you just said, Derrick, with Shape and what you're talking about with CredibleMinds Shay and sort of your kind of world, what is sort of the future of using these digital tools and platforms for community health?

- Yeah, it's a great question.

We, you know, having an online platform we know won't reach everybody.

So first and foremost we'll continue to reach people in a variety of different ways to let them know about the resources.

- As we're wrapping up here, what, where can community members learn more about the Community Health Improvement Plan and just stay connected to what the county's doing in terms of community and public health?

- Yeah, for the Community Health Improvement Plan, if you go to the Olmsted County website, in the search bar, just Search CHAP or C-H-A-P. That's where folks will be able to find not only that data that talked and spoke about a little bit earlier, but also all of the different strategies and initiatives that our great organizations here in Olmsted County are working on.

- Wonderful, thank you both for joining us today and thank you for joining us today.

I hope you learned as much as I did about all that's going on in our city and the people making it happen.

From our wonderful content produced right here in Rochester, please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter at #RTown.

I'm Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara, host of "R-Town", the show about Rochester.

We'll see you next week.

(upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) - [Narrator] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.