A.G. Gancarski
3:54: Some animated discussion over what’s in the Journey budget, versus what once was. Many Journey items have been moved to other departments.
3:56: Juvenile Re-Entry Center. The JREC provides help, counseling, et al. Free clothes, job programs, and so on.
3:58: A significant increase in the out of school suspension budget, at the expense of other programs.
4:01: Journey wants to combine ex-offender training with ex-offender employment, to cut recidivism rate and increase employment.
4:03: Weinstein questions the assertion that JJ is poorly funded. There are, apparently, team-up programs. All of the Journey’s bills are paid from other departments.
4:05: Weinstein contends that some Journey functions predated the Journey.
4:09: Mousa and the Journey representative are bickering over what constitutes a Journey program. Some Journey initiatives are not funded as part of the Jacksonville Journey.
4:10: “It’s very different than how the concept of Journey” was defined, Mousa says “I really want to learn what’s in Journey today.”
4:12: “The city council hasn’t been real receptive to Journey,” says the Journey representative. Cites the Jacksonville Commitment scholarship program as the example, which helped kids on free or reduced lunch to go to one of four area colleges.
4:14: Mousa: “All council did was separate the programs.” Others add that some programs were dropped.
4:16: Shuman defines the Jacksonville Commitment as “an economical way to get kids out of the neighborhoods” and into school.
4:20: Re: ex-offender programs, they went to a “pay for performance” model.
4:21: A new Neighborhood Accountability Board will be created. The expectation is that fines will fund them and make these revenue-neutral.
