Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) and Florida First Lady Casey DeSantis hold a press briefing to promote the embattled "Hope Florida" initiative.
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00:00:00Thanks so much. Great to be back in St. Johns County. Thank you so much. Great to be here.
00:00:10It's a great morning. We're here. We've got a lot of folks that you're going to hear from that I think
00:00:15is going to be really exciting, including our First Lady, my wife, Casey, our Florida Department
00:00:20of Children and Family Secretary, Taylor Hatch, Lead Hope Navigator, Liz Phillips, Hope Florida
00:00:27participants that you're going to hear, Katrina Daly and her mother, Cynthia, and of course,
00:00:32Anchor Faith Church Pastor Earl. Thank you for hosting us today. And then we also have Hope
00:00:38Navigator Aaron Pallone. So I want to thank him for being here. So the state of Florida,
00:00:45you know, it's interesting. We're ranked number one in economy two years in a row by CNBC,
00:00:50number one in education two years in a row by U.S. News and World Report. Over this period of time,
00:00:57if you look since I became governor, if you take all 180 years of Florida's history and all the
00:01:03debt the state accumulated over that time, we've retired 41% of it just in the East this term,
00:01:10and which is good. We have the lowest number of state workers per capita in the entire country.
00:01:19We have almost quadrupled our rainy day fund since I've become governor. And the state that's closest
00:01:26to us in population, New York, they now have 3 million, at least 3 million fewer residents than
00:01:33we do in Florida. Yet our budget is less than half the size of New York's budget. What are they getting
00:01:39for this? Are they getting better education, road service? Of course not. And we've also returned
00:01:45over 7 billion in tax relief to Florida taxpayers since 2019, which we've never done that much in
00:01:53that period of time in the history of Florida. And so, and look, I've got to use my authority to veto
00:01:59things from the budget. Sometimes you got to do that. Just the way it goes. But we've really set the
00:02:03standard of how to do this in a way that respects taxpayers, that is paying down debt, cutting taxes,
00:02:11but is also meeting the needs of the state of Florida. I mean, we've done more for infrastructure
00:02:19than anyone's ever done. We've done more for education than anyone. We've done more for
00:02:23conservation and environmental restoration than anyone's ever done. So things that really affect
00:02:28the lifeblood of the state, we've done very, very well on. And so that's a great model. It's great to do.
00:02:35Now, that's not the only way that we've been able to provide value for the taxpayer. And so Hope Florida
00:02:44is something that the First Lady spearheaded a couple years ago. It didn't cost any money to do.
00:02:51It basically said, started off with child welfare, but has really expanded beyond that. We have so many
00:02:57of these government programs that have been around, some of them since like the 1960s with the war on
00:03:02poverty. And the job you go into a government office and the bureaucrat is kind of programmed to
00:03:09just say, okay, what programs can I get you on? And the problem with that is that can sometimes become
00:03:14a culture and the dependency then develops on always being able to access some of these programs. It
00:03:22hasn't done a very good job of giving people a hand up and actually a pathway to self-sufficiency.
00:03:28So she saw and I agreed that we have a lot of great resources in the state of Florida outside of
00:03:37government, especially when you talk about our faith community. We've got all these churches that
00:03:44basically they're there to serve God and to help their fellow man. And so we need to harness that.
00:03:51And we have, you know, we have charitable organizations, you have businesses. Certainly
00:03:59I know in St. John's, you've got businesses that are actively involved in the community want to be
00:04:03helpful. And then individuals who just want to volunteer and make a difference. So all of that
00:04:08is there. But how do you actually, if someone needs a hand up, if somebody needs help, how do you link
00:04:16them with that? Because a lot of times people just don't know where to go to. Because it's just like,
00:04:20you know, you're in a tough spot. You don't know what resources are out there. So Hope Florida
00:04:25really represents a revolution of how government approaches these problems. And so instead of being
00:04:33a bureaucrat trying to get people on as many government programs as possible, you know, these
00:04:38folks have been repurposed to be navigators to navigate the person in need to all the other
00:04:45resources that are available outside of government. They even have a care portal where all the Hope
00:04:50Florida participants are plugged in. Somebody needs help. It goes out to the folks in the community,
00:04:56maybe the church, maybe charities, maybe some businesses, depending on the needs. And then all
00:05:01of a sudden, you have folks that can really spring into action. And the thing about that type of help
00:05:08is that's the type of help that can lead people to a pathway of self-sufficiency and ultimately expand
00:05:14their horizons in life. And so this is something that has been successful. And so since the
00:05:21since the advent of Hope Florida, and honestly, like, you know, it was started a few years ago,
00:05:29but I mean, really got going in a big way within the last two years. The initiative has helped more
00:05:36than 30,000 Floridians to reduce or completely eliminate their reliance on public assistance.
00:05:42Thanks to this success, Hope Florida will save taxpayers over $100 million per year,
00:05:50a billion dollar savings over a 10 year period. And so that is you want to talk about Doge and stuff.
00:05:57And we've been doing Doge in Florida for a long time. But but this is a way you're actually not even
00:06:04cutting any program per se. But you're just making those programs unnecessary for people because
00:06:10they're able to stand on their own two feet. That is the best way to save money and to save resources.
00:06:15And so that's what we've seen that's happened with Hope Florida. Now, other states have seen the success,
00:06:23and some other states have come, and they have tried to learn about it, and they're modeling it. You know,
00:06:29there's other states that they're intrigued by the results. But then when they find out that the faith
00:06:36communities involve some of the more liberal states, they don't want to do that. They don't want to
00:06:42partner with the faith community. And you know, they can do it how they want. But I think that's a big
00:06:46mistake. I think you're leaving so many resources out on the table. I think you have folks in the church
00:06:54that this is their program to want to help people. This is what they do. And so to say you're not going
00:07:00to be interacting, and nobody's forcing anyone to do anything. But if you have somebody maybe that
00:07:06gets evicted from their apartment, a mom, single mom that's got two young kids, and she needs a place
00:07:11to stay. And that goes out in the care portal and the church comes, you know, they're going to be able
00:07:16to get her in a good situation much easier, and probably much more effectively than some of these
00:07:22bureaucratic programs will. So we're harnessing the energy in the state, we're harnessing the goodwill
00:07:29to be able to help people in need. And ultimately, when you're serving as a facilitator,
00:07:36when you're serving to help navigate people around the community to see what's available to them and to
00:07:42help put them in a position to succeed, that's the best role for government. The role for government
00:07:47can't can just simply give checks indefinitely and expect things to magically get better. That just
00:07:52doesn't happen. That's not that's not it's been tried. It hasn't worked. So so far, not only is it
00:07:58saved over 100 million dollars, it's not only limited to child welfare. I mean, obviously,
00:08:04the Department of Children and Families is the premier agency that deals with issues affecting course
00:08:11child welfare. And that has a lot of the the the focus on Hope Florida and they have helped over 120,000
00:08:18Floridians through Hope Florida with the Department of Children and Families. But we also have other
00:08:24agencies that have actually been in the fight. Our agency for persons with disabilities have made over
00:08:3111,000 referrals through Hope Florida Department of Elder Affairs over 6000 referrals Department of Veteran
00:08:38Fair's over 1000 refers juvenile justice almost 1000 and Department of Education about 500. And so you see
00:08:46people that need help in all kinds of different ways. And we're going to be working on and announcing in
00:08:51the near future specific expansions to help with child care and to help because you know a lot of these
00:08:58churches do child care and and they and they do. And then you also have children with unique abilities
00:09:05and being able to use these resources to help them. So we're going to be working on that as well. So
00:09:10stay tuned for that. So this is not something that's only limited to the Department of Children
00:09:15and Families, the philosophy of repurposing how government functions and serving to to really be a
00:09:22navigator and a facilitator that spans agencies throughout the state of Florida. And that's that's going to
00:09:28save more money. And look, the money is important. And I started off talking about Florida's great record of
00:09:34fiscal. I mean, I can tell you, if you were in Illinois, you'd be getting taxed to high heaven
00:09:39with no end in sight, because they've got all these unfunded liabilities. Same with California,
00:09:43same with New York, you know, New York. I mean, you pay massive amounts of money for tolls
00:09:49when you're going, especially when you're going around New York City, but you drive on those roads.
00:09:53It's like being on a roller coaster. It's so bumpy, the roads, I mean, like they don't take care of the
00:09:58roads. I'm like, where does all this money go? I mean, if I'm paying a $9 toll to go over
00:10:04some bridge, and then I end up with these bumpy roads, it's like you get motion sickness on doing
00:10:09it. And then, you know, where would you rather go need to get a driver's license? Would you rather
00:10:13go to the New York City DMV? Or would you rather go in Florida? I mean, you're going to get it quicker
00:10:18in Florida, I know you will get it quicker here in St. John's, because I did that back in the day.
00:10:22So it's, it's just the services are just night and day, the the taxpayer treatment night and day.
00:10:30Obviously, we have a big budget surplus, we're doing things. And that's really important. And
00:10:36being good fiscal stewards is important. So to be able to save money, to be able to obviate the need
00:10:40for folks to be on different programs, that's important. But much more important than that
00:10:46is these individuals being able to expand their horizons, to be able to give them some hope that
00:10:51they can actually do really important things. And not every life's not easy, life's not fair,
00:10:58there are things that come, there's curveballs that are thrown at you. But you're not in it alone,
00:11:03you got a lot of people in your communities throughout Florida, that want to help, and that
00:11:07they're there to help. And that's really meaningful for people. And that can make the difference
00:11:12in so many different ways. So I'm, I'm really grateful that they were able to, to make such a big
00:11:18difference. We have announced that earlier this month, we were in Pensacola. And we announced that
00:11:24Hope Florida now has a liaison station in each of our 28 state colleges. Because if you think about it,
00:11:30the state college system, you have some people go from high school to state college, and there's
00:11:34great programs, nursing programs, we've supported a lot of that workforce. But then you also have folks
00:11:39that maybe are in a transition part of their life, you do have a lot of single moms that end up trying
00:11:43to go and get some get some education so that you can you can support a family. And there is a need for
00:11:49this at our state colleges and universities. And so we were also able to announce recently that
00:11:56there's a Hope Florida liaison and each one of Florida 67 sheriff's departments. And if you think
00:12:02about it, who sees some of the things that some of the misfortune in society more than law enforcement,
00:12:09they're just out, they see this stuff. And they do have a liaison now that can plug in some of these
00:12:15folks that need help through Hope Florida. So I'm really excited about doing that. Now we have
00:12:22over 120 businesses around the state that are recognized as Hope Florida employers. And so when
00:12:29people are looking out for employment, they want to work, they want to be self sufficient. There's a
00:12:35number of businesses that are there, there's been almost 2000 individuals referred to career source
00:12:40through Hope Florida that have obtained a job or received help that helped lead to them increasing
00:12:46their earnings. So that's something that's very, very significant as well. We highlighted one of the
00:12:52stories we had ginger come to the to our state of the state address and how Hope Florida helped her get
00:12:58her GED and then complete a certificate for physical therapy. So she's now doing that. And it's somebody that
00:13:05is able to support herself without the need to have constant government support. So all this stuff is
00:13:13really significant. You have, you know, the the agencies have really been transformed. And I think
00:13:20a lot of the people who are involved as navigators, you'll hear you'll hear some of that today. This is
00:13:26much more rewarding to be a navigator and to be able to see the horizons open. So I'm very proud of that. And
00:13:34I'm proud of what they've been able to do. We also use the Hope Florida model for disaster response.
00:13:41And so activate hope was kind of the central place because what happens in these disasters,
00:13:47and fortunately, we don't or I say I shouldn't say fortunately, hopefully, we won't I'm counting my
00:13:53chickens before they hatch. Hopefully, we won't get a major hurricane this hurricane season. But you know,
00:13:58we've had six major hurricanes in the last seven years in Florida. And and so we're prepared.
00:14:07We obviously work hard to to do the immediate response. And there's a lot that goes into that
00:14:13from power restoration to bridge repair anything you have to do. But then you have kind of okay,
00:14:20some people may need help with with clear elderly may need help clearing debris off their property,
00:14:26someone may need help repairing something gutting their home. Unfortunately, people get water in
00:14:31their home, they have to do different things. Some people need a hot meal. So you have these
00:14:35organizations that do come organizations that will come serve food organizations that will come
00:14:41and show up at your house and help work on helping you do it, especially for people that aren't in a
00:14:45position to do it. So there's all these different resources that can descend, particularly when you
00:14:50have really major events like we had with Hurricane Ian, like we had with Hurricane Helene, and even
00:14:56Milton, they come. But how do you know what to do? Well, now through activate hope, they plug in to the
00:15:03hope network, the hope bus will show up at some of these places where we do points of distribution.
00:15:09And so these organizations are now plugged in, and the word can get out, and people have an ability to
00:15:15get linked to the support that they need. So you notice in Florida, it's not easy dealing with this.
00:15:22FEMA has been a big pain. I know it's been slowing things down in the Gulf Coast of Florida,
00:15:28the West Coast of Florida, in the aftermath of both Helene and Milton. We work very fast in Florida.
00:15:35FEMA is a bureaucracy, and it causes some things to do. But that being said, from the state's perspective,
00:15:43we work really hard to get a rapid bounce back. And you do see that more so than any other places.
00:15:48I mean, I was just down in the Sarasota area. I went to a charity event, and I'm going down like on
00:15:54the beaches. I mean, they got hit by Helene and Milton. And I'm looking, there's people everywhere.
00:16:00You know, they're putting up more buildings and doing all this stuff. You know, if you didn't know
00:16:05that there had been a storm, you probably wouldn't even realize that there had been a storm. I don't
00:16:10know that that would be true in a lot of other states. But part of it is because we've got a lot
00:16:15of folks that want to come in and help. And I think that that's really, really significant. So
00:16:20I'm proud to be able to be here to say that we've got something that is that's working. We're expanding.
00:16:28We're not going to let anybody slow us down. You know, don't don't misunderstand. You know,
00:16:32when you see some of these political attacks, that's just because people know this is effective.
00:16:37Uh, that is because they're threatened by this model. Some people are threatened politically,
00:16:42uh, because the first lady's been so good at doing this. Uh, but that's what that's about.
00:16:47It's not about the actual substance of this. Um, and shouldn't we as Floridians, uh, put aside
00:16:54political agenda, uh, to embrace things that have actually lifted people up, offered them hope,
00:17:00and put them on a pathway to self-sufficiency. You should not wield political agenda to try
00:17:06to kneecap something that is helping people do really, really big things. And so I appreciate
00:17:11all the partners that we have throughout the state of Florida. Um, our churches have been amazing in
00:17:18really, uh, leading the charge here. Um, I don't know that we could have done even nearly as much of
00:17:23this, uh, without having the faith-based community there with us side by side. So on behalf of the,
00:17:29of the state of Florida, thank you for being in, in the fight to help people. Uh, thank you for putting
00:17:34your money where your mouth is and we can report we've had great results. Uh, but the best is yet to
00:17:40come. Okay. Our first lady, come on. Well, it's, it's good to see everybody. Thank you for taking the
00:17:55time to come. It's really, it's an honor and a privilege. And I've said that from the very beginning
00:17:59and know that I mean that from the very bottom of my heart, every day that I have the opportunity
00:18:03to serve you and to be able to do good on behalf of the people of this state is a privilege. And I'm
00:18:09very honored to be able to be here now today, by the way, was, I don't know if you knew this was take
00:18:12your child to work day. And so just for a side note, we were going to bring them here. I had this big
00:18:17discussion, but they had something going on at school and they didn't want to miss it. But as we were
00:18:22driving in here, we were thinking about it, we're going to pass cold cow. And I was like, wait a minute,
00:18:26if they knew that they would definitely have wanted to skip school to come with us to work
00:18:30today. So, you know, but it's good to be back home too, because as we're driving around and,
00:18:34you know, we have a lot of good memories here, heck, we probably knocked on a lot of your doors
00:18:37back in the day. Um, and just, uh, it's good to be back. So, you know, I just wanted to say this,
00:18:42I think there's kind of like, um, uh, a misunderstanding or just, um, not, um, it might not,
00:18:50yeah, a misunderstanding, I guess, is the best way to say it about what Hope Florida is. Hope
00:18:54Florida is not a program. Hope Florida is an idea. Hope Florida is a philosophy. It is,
00:19:02how can we help people in need and do better legitimately? It's not about just giving somebody
00:19:08a check and hoping it goes well, we'll see you later. And this is what you're entitled to. And
00:19:13that's the end of the story. What we've tried to do is to really re-engineer, rethink the way that we
00:19:19can help somebody, to help guide them on a pathway to economic self-sufficiency,
00:19:24to help them on a pathway ultimately to happiness. Because I know a lot of people in this room,
00:19:30it hurts your soul if you see somebody suffering and you know that you can do something about it,
00:19:36that you can lend them a helping hand. I mean, I've seen people on the side of the road and I think to
00:19:40myself, there is something that can be done. There is no reason, if they do not want to be there,
00:19:48that they should be there. So how do we legitimately help people? And this really emanated from talking
00:19:53to a lot of people all across the state about how can we do better? Not going into it with a
00:19:59preconceived notion of, oh, we know how to do this, we're government, we'll figure it out. No,
00:20:03government's the problem, right? You're the solution. So how do we then leverage government to be able to
00:20:09help the people across the state and leverage the resources that the governor mentioned are already
00:20:14existing in society? Well, the idea came from you going around and talking to key stakeholders,
00:20:20whether it was the faith-based community, whether it's the nonprofits, whether it's the private sector,
00:20:25local government, state government. And when you go and talk to key people who are in the fight,
00:20:31you find something becomes very clear, and that is it's all siloed. There are good things happening,
00:20:38but there's little communication and collaboration to be able to help good people,
00:20:42good people in need of help. There are good people who are willing to help. The question is,
00:20:47can you make the connection? And so you saw that. So then we internalized that and we said, okay,
00:20:52because of the late 1960s and the way that people who were vulnerable came into government to get
00:20:57assistance, we said, okay, well, because we're government and the most vulnerable people are coming
00:21:02in to get help. We're uniquely positioned to be able to make a connection now with people who need help
00:21:09to go back to the community where they had always been really from the beginning, right? The community
00:21:14is always the one that's the key player to make a difference, not government. So now we're able to get
00:21:19them back in a meaningful way back into the community to get help. So how do we do that? What is this
00:21:25process, this pathway to self-sufficiency, the pathway to prosperity, a pathway to purpose? What
00:21:30does this all start with? Well, it's a couple of things. One, it's a number. You call a number,
00:21:35833-GET-HOPE, and you can talk to a human. How novel is that, by the way, to be able to talk to a
00:21:40human? It's like you want to be able to just, especially if you're suffering, to be able to have
00:21:46that human-to-human relation, to be able to put your guard down for a second to say, I'm struggling,
00:21:52and I need help, and here's what I need help with. The other thing that we do is we take a proactive
00:21:57approach to this, which is also pretty novel for government, which I think is great. If we see you're
00:22:02on government assistance, how about this? How about we call you, and the navigators will say something
00:22:07as simple as, hey, I see that you're in need of help. What's going on? How can we help? Where do you
00:22:15see yourself in five years? And imagine what that does to somebody's soul to think, man, you're taking an
00:22:21interest in me. You want to see what I have the potential to do. You want to be able to walk with
00:22:27me, to be able to help me get on this pathway. So that's very special. We also take a unique approach,
00:22:33as he mentioned, with the sheriff's deputies, all 67. That's impactful because, as what he said,
00:22:38you have our deputies who are on the front lines, and they see a lot of suffering. But sometimes they
00:22:43don't know where to go, and they don't know where to turn, and they might know of one or two
00:22:47non-profits. But maybe if they get into this Hope Florida initiative, they can understand there's a
00:22:53lot more. Hey, call this number. Oh, let me let you talk to somebody who's involved in this,
00:22:57and they're going to help you. You know, our CPIs, our child protective investigators.
00:23:02So, you know, prior to the governor being elected, they would be going out. They would be investigating
00:23:06child abuse and neglect. If they didn't see any reason to take a child from the household,
00:23:11a lot of times prior to him, that's where the story would end. But they would see
00:23:15that they needed help, that there were problems there. So how about now reach out to a Hope Florida
00:23:21navigator and start to get in front of it? And how about this? How about we keep people out of
00:23:26government? How about we prevent people from having to go into a potential culture of dependency?
00:23:32How about we help them communicate with the communities so that way they can start to see
00:23:37their God-given potential? They can start to see the pathway. They can see that there are skills out
00:23:42there that they can acquire through all of the things the governor's done, vocational, technical,
00:23:46rapid credentialing, paid apprenticeships, all of our colleges. We even have Hope liaisons in all
00:23:51of our 28 colleges across the state. Now they can start to see it. And then they can start to see,
00:23:55and it doesn't happen overnight. Pathway to economic self-sufficiency is going to take a minute.
00:23:59But now you can start to see that there are jobs available to meet the skills. And it all becomes clear.
00:24:06And you have that one navigator who's holding their hand. Because again, it goes back to what
00:24:10I said earlier. A lot of people who are calling who want to admit that they're suffering and need
00:24:15help don't want to have to tell their stories 18,000 times to 18 different people, to 18 different
00:24:20bureaucracies, only to have to keep sticky notes on the refrigerator door to figure out who did I talk
00:24:24to? It's hard. And you're struggling. And you're suffering. You're trying to keep a job. You're trying to
00:24:31put food on the table. There's a lot of opportunity out there within the community. You need that
00:24:37navigator to be able to hold your hand, to take on the burden, and to help navigate all of the
00:24:42different entities that are out there. What else I'm very proud of, that we're the first state in
00:24:47the nation to do, is to embrace the faith-based community in a meaningful way. And that is a game
00:24:53changer. And I would recommend every state across the United States to do the same. And here's why.
00:24:58We have 16.5 million people of faith across the state of Florida, 20,000 institutions of faith.
00:25:03They've always been there ready and willing to help, but they never knew some of these people
00:25:06were over here suffering in need of help. So now government has become a communicator and a
00:25:12collaborator with the churches, which is huge. He mentioned the care portal technology. That's
00:25:16really the connective tissue that we use. So as our navigators are working, as they talk to somebody,
00:25:22right, who's in need of help, let's say they're talking to a single mom, and that mom's going
00:25:26through a list of things that she might need help with. There are nonprofits, right? We're going
00:25:30through a Rolodex of all of the nonprofits that are available to be able to meet those needs.
00:25:34But then we take it one step further. We go to our churches, and we use something called the
00:25:39care portal technology, which is really fantastic. So you have the navigator saying, okay, I see you're
00:25:45having a hard time. Like, this is a true story, actually. There was a mom who had a broken refrigerator,
00:25:48and she was really struggling to keep food fresh in the house and didn't know what to do. So the
00:25:53navigator put into the care portal request an electronic alert to all of the participating
00:25:59faith-based organizations saying, can you help this mom? Within minutes, it was met. And the church
00:26:05literally delivered everything to her front doorstep. Fresh cooked meals, lasagna, whatever. Imagine what that
00:26:12does. The church and good people in the community now realize that mom needs help, and she's suffering.
00:26:18An unbelievable connection with so many layers that I couldn't even sit up here and articulate to you
00:26:24just happened because you have good people who wanted to help, good people in need of help,
00:26:29and now they're together. And that does so much not only to put food in the refrigerator and to get a new
00:26:34refrigerator, which they ended up doing. It does so much for their soul. And you know what it provided?
00:26:40Hope. That's what this is all about. It's about hope. Giving somebody a helping hand to be able to
00:26:47find hope and happiness. So we've been able to do that to his point. It doesn't just, you know,
00:26:52pertain to single moms. It's single parents. It's children aging out of the foster care system,
00:26:56foster and adoptive families. It's our veterans, elder affairs. Just imagine if the church knew that
00:27:02there was a senior citizen sitting at home by themselves and they were sad and alone and didn't know
00:27:07where to turn. If the church knew that that person were there, don't you think for a second you guys
00:27:11would show up with a plate of lasagna or whatever? I say lasagna, but whatever. It might be, you know,
00:27:17something to say, hey, how's it going? Or different non-profits that are out there that provide these
00:27:22companionships. But imagine if you're suffering to try to go to Google or DuckDuckGo or whatever it
00:27:28might be to figure out what pieces you have to put together. It's confusing. You can have the best
00:27:34resources in the world. You can have the best programs in the world. But if you don't know that
00:27:38they're out there, what good are they, particularly if you're suffering? So as you follow this path,
00:27:43right, is this philosophy, this idea that we can do better, that we can legitimately help people.
00:27:49That's what it's rooted in, helping people. You can see that as we evolve, we meet immediate needs.
00:27:55We triage those needs. We involve the faith-based community. We also provide something that's really
00:28:01powerful, which is mentorship. So for a single mom, let's say, she's, you know, holding down a job.
00:28:07She's getting her skills. She's trying to do everything. We say, oh, and by the way, you know,
00:28:10there's a really good mentorship opportunities for your child. Take a child fishing, big brothers,
00:28:16big sisters, whatever it might be, and think about now what that does. Because I can tell you,
00:28:20the one thing that you can do to change the trajectory of a child who is suffering,
00:28:25or who has troubled beginnings, or, you know, has dealt with, you know, just difficult times,
00:28:31is to be able to provide mentorship. I've actually worked with our juvenile justice system,
00:28:37and I've had a chance to meet kids who have gone through tough times and have come out successful
00:28:41on the other side. And many of you have heard me say this, but I will ask them all the same question.
00:28:45As a matter of fact, I just did this last week. I asked them all the same question. I said,
00:28:49how did you get here? Because I was meeting them at the governor's mansion. So they really
00:28:52accomplished great things. They're entrepreneurs. They're class presidents. They're going to college.
00:28:57They're doing all these things. And they all give me the same answer, every single one of them,
00:29:01in a different way. They don't know that they're doing it, but they do. They say,
00:29:04somebody took an interest in my life, and they gave me value. They gave me worth, and they gave me hope.
00:29:10And that changed the trajectory. But then I got to thinking, because I was talking to a lot of these
00:29:14people, and, you know, with the children, I'm thinking, you know what Hope Florida's doing?
00:29:18It's providing mentorship of people who are struggling. Just because you're older than 18
00:29:23doesn't mean you don't need a mentor too. And having that person to be able to lean on,
00:29:28to cry on their shoulder, to get through tough times, man, I don't even think that people realize
00:29:34what that does. That gives you so much hope that you can do it. And to have somebody on the other
00:29:39end of the line when you're struggling as a single mom say, you got this? You can do it? Let me show you
00:29:44all of the jobs. Let me show you all of the skills. Let me show you Santa Fe College, great college,
00:29:48where they literally will show you how to get skills for a job that is already in the workplace.
00:29:53They kind of work backwards. And by the way, this college is really great. They provide child care
00:29:58for you and your family while you're sitting there getting these. So there's all these things that are
00:30:02out there. So you have the navigator who's really trying to put all of the pieces together to help
00:30:06on this pathway to economic self-sufficiency. And so I would just say from the bottom of my heart of
00:30:13everything that everybody is doing to try to make a difference, what we are doing is good.
00:30:19What we are doing is just. Sometimes you have to put on the full armor of God and you fight because
00:30:25you know what you're doing is righteous. You know that you're fighting for somebody who needs someone
00:30:30to fight for them, that they might not have felt that. But I would say to all the navigators that I've
00:30:35had the opportunity to meet in particular, you're doing good. And we're proud of you standing up
00:30:40every day. I mean, I've met some of these navigators and they really are the secret sauce,
00:30:44right? To be able to take this interest. These navigators are spending their weekends,
00:30:49their time off, their holidays, going around to people's homes. If it's, if they don't think that
00:30:54they're going to have a Thanksgiving meal, literally doing it on their own dime because they believe in
00:30:59the mission. We have a 93% retention rate with our hope navigators. And why? Because for the
00:31:05first time they're within government, right? These are a lot of people, 93% also, by the way,
00:31:09have been repurposed. So they were processing grants and payments in the beginning. Now they're
00:31:14navigators. They're a part of the solution. And when I talk to them, they say for the first time,
00:31:19I feel empowered to make a difference. Prior to this, I felt like, you know, it was just,
00:31:25here's your check and, you know, hope it goes well. And, you know, I wanted to do something,
00:31:28but I couldn't. Now they can. Now they can be a part of the solution. Now they can feel empowered
00:31:35to be a difference maker in their life. And I think that that is incredibly powerful.
00:31:40And so we're going to continue to fight. We're going to continue to, to work on how we can leverage
00:31:44our faith-based communities to help with daycares. We're going to look at how we can help kids with
00:31:48unique abilities in schools, because I'll tell you, there's a lot of kids and parents, when they find
00:31:53out that their kid has a unique ability, they don't know where to turn. Sometimes they don't know the
00:31:57questions to ask. They feel like they're on an island. How about we bring it all together?
00:32:02How about if your child needs help? Maybe they need a wheelchair. How about instead of going
00:32:06to the taxpayer, let's go to the faith-based community? Because I can tell you in two seconds,
00:32:10if you see a care port on trees saying this child, your congregation is going to raise the money and
00:32:15they're going to get it done. That's just what you do because that's in your soul. That's why you guys
00:32:20do what you do. And so that's why we wanted to leverage that to work collaboratively with government.
00:32:25And so the last thing I'll say is no matter what, you know, is written, don't ever let politics get
00:32:32in the way of purpose. And at the end of the end of the day, I would just ask, you know,
00:32:37the media to really do one thing. Just give the number, okay? 833-GIT-HOPE. Because you know,
00:32:44people who are watching, people who are reading, there are people who are suffering and they do not
00:32:49know where to go. And if they knew that that was there, that someone was willing to listen and help
00:32:56them on a pathway to whatever they want, happiness, prosperity, self-sufficiency, purpose, volunteering,
00:33:04job, whatever it might be, it's there. So I would just say your call to action would be 833-GIT-HOPE.
00:33:12And again, it's just a privilege and an honor to fight for some good folks who deserve someone to
00:33:17fight for them.
00:33:18Hi, good morning. It is an honor to be here today at the Anchor Faith Church,
00:33:41along with Governor DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis, with Hope Navigators and so many others
00:33:47from the St. Augustine community. My name is Taylor Hatch and I have the pleasure of serving as the
00:33:53Secretary of the Florida Department of Children and Families. It is an agency and a constituency
00:33:58which I am honored to represent. Promoting strong, resilient and economic self-sufficient families
00:34:05is our department's mission. To deliver on this mission, we challenge ourselves to be as proactive
00:34:11as possible and as agile as the people that we serve. Empowering people with dynamic and various
00:34:17needs to achieve their goals and in turn deliver outcomes that have generational impacts. Hope
00:34:24Florida is an exemplification of this mission and this vision and began as a way to answer the call
00:34:31to deliver Floral Floridians, oftentimes when it matters the very most. Through the bold leadership of
00:34:37Governor DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis, the Hope Florida program is being woven throughout our DNA
00:34:44as a philosophy, one of which can be replicated through navigation and going beyond the four walls of
00:34:51government to provide meaningful and lasting connections, breaking governmental dependency,
00:34:58achieving person-centered goals, and providing hope to Floridians and their families. I want to thank the
00:35:05Governor and I want to thank the First Lady for their leadership and for continuously challenging rigid
00:35:11governmental infrastructures where they exist to deliver for the people that they were created to
00:35:17serve. This event is another example of their leadership in action. Their commitment to the people of Florida,
00:35:25it goes beyond words. Their commitment is told through the stories of people's lives,
00:35:30some of which we are going to highlight today. Embracing the role that we all play in supporting one another
00:35:36and strengthening communities, their visionary leadership is building lasting and meaningful
00:35:41support systems that utilize government to act as a catalyst, make connections to resources, and
00:35:48equip individuals and families to move forward, overcome barriers, and reach their full potential.
00:35:55When an individual is connected to Hope Florida, our dedicated Hope Navigators begin identifying
00:36:00not only what that individual or family needs immediately, but also what their goals are,
00:36:06and how we can assist them in connecting them to resources to accomplish those goals.
00:36:12Hope Florida serves as a powerful connection point between individuals who need help and the many
00:36:18organizations who are ready and waiting to help. Every day we hear impactful testimonies from Hope Florida
00:36:26participants whose lives have been forever changed by the solution that is Hope Florida. Today we are honored to
00:36:34be joined by Katrina and her mother Cynthia, whose story I had the pleasure of getting to know during my time
00:36:40serving as the Director for the Agency for Persons with Disabilities. Through outreach, a Hope Navigator from
00:36:46the Agency for Persons with Disabilities named Yolanda Rowling, who is also here with us today, connected with
00:36:52Katrina and Cynthia, who expressed an interest in connecting to behavioral health services and additional
00:36:58community involvement for Katrina. Through active listening and relationship building, the Hope Navigator
00:37:04also learned that Katrina loves horses, as it reminded her of fond childhood memories. Hearing this,
00:37:11the Hope Navigator immediately went to work to connect Katrina to Hope Therapy, which is a local not-for-profit
00:37:18who provides equine services and therapy for children and adults with disabilities or unique abilities,
00:37:24which for Katrina combines Katrina's love for horses, her memories from childhood, and the need for
00:37:30therapeutic supports all in one. With her immediate goal addressed and a boost in confidence as well as
00:37:38continued support from her mom and her Hope Navigator, Katrina went to work on her next milestone of
00:37:44combining her talents and goals, which was to consistently operate a small business in which she sells
00:37:51her tie-dye t-shirts and beaded jewelry. In fact, Katrina now sells her work at the Hope Therapy Farms,
00:37:58where she has also stayed committed to volunteering with the horses. Katrina's mother was so inspired by
00:38:05the spark that she saw in her daughter that she has started her own not-for-profit, which is called the
00:38:10Friendship Project. She developed this as a platform to advocate and to bring awareness for the disability
00:38:17community. Just like Katrina's story, there are so many Floridians served through the Hope Florida
00:38:23philosophy that are receiving supports and direct connectivity to community resources and partners
00:38:30in their own backyard. The Hope Florida philosophy is built on the fundamental belief that all Floridians
00:38:37can achieve their God-given potential. At the department, our role is to connect individuals and families
00:38:45with local community-based supports, including not-for-profits, private sector, the faith-based community
00:38:52to create lasting connections, then get out of the way and let them build their lives that they have dreamed of.
00:38:59Thank you so much for the opportunity to be here today.
00:39:16Good morning. My name is Aaron Pallone and I'm a Hope Navigator with the Florida Department of Veteran
00:39:19Affairs. And first, I'd like to say thank you to Governor DeSantis and First Lady Casey DeSantis for
00:39:25inviting me. And we had some last-minute changes, so please apologize. I wasn't able to wipe the red
00:39:31Kool-Aid off my upper lip here, so please forgive me. No, but at least for me, you know, being a veteran
00:39:37myself and serving as a Hope Navigator for the Florida Department of Veteran Affairs, at least for me,
00:39:43it's really about making that connection with veterans that, you know, I assist and come into contact
00:39:48with. I hear all too often, really, I had no idea that existed. And so you can see on the graphics here,
00:39:56help finding help, that's really what we do as navigators, because there's a lot of programs out
00:40:02there that are just lesser known because they're not advertised. And so I'd like to highlight just a
00:40:06couple of veterans that I've come in contact with and partnered with faith-based, you know, community
00:40:13partners. And through the Care Portal program, like Mrs. DeSantis had spoke about earlier, I'm seeing
00:40:21some friendly faces. Sorry, I'm getting distracted. No, but no. So, you know, due to hurricane impacts
00:40:28for a single mother in the Tampa area, you know, her home had got flooded and, you know, she didn't have
00:40:35a washer and dryer to wash their clothes for her and her children. So reached out to Care Portal,
00:40:43Church came in, removed the damage washer and dryer and gave them a brand new one. So it's actions like
00:40:49that where it's about putting our arms around the veteran community. And, you know, I was talking with
00:40:57our executive team earlier today, actually. And, you know, he was talking about, hey, you know, with a
00:41:04service officer, you know, assisting a homeless veteran isn't really in their purview and what their scope
00:41:10of what their day-to-day operations are. So until the expansion to the Florida Department of Veteran
00:41:15Affairs, as Hope Navigators, we can make contact with those community partners and organizations
00:41:20that can get a homeless veteran off the street and get them into sustainable housing.
00:41:24So that's just a highlight of a day-to-day what I experienced through veterans and community
00:41:31partners. And we're only as good as our partners. So we really rely on them to be able to wrap their
00:41:37arms around veterans. And another example is, you know, a veteran who had gotten out of the service,
00:41:45you know, back in the 70s, didn't have any documentation or his DD 214 say, hey, yeah,
00:41:51I know I was a service member. So got a referral for him. And it's little things like that of like,
00:41:58just knowing where to go to get that information is what I find to be impactful as well. Because
00:42:03when I transitioned out of the Air Force, I had no idea what a service officer was until I got into this
00:42:08position. So since then, I've been able to get service connected and benefit from the information that
00:42:14I've received just being in this Hope Navigator position. So again, thank you everybody for
00:42:20attending today. And I'd like to just continue to let people know Hope Navigators are there to
00:42:27step in and assist and help guide you along the way. So thank you again. Thank you.
00:42:44I am Cynthia Brown. And this is my daughter, Katrina Daly. First, we want to thank you.
00:42:58Governor DeSantis in first place. Thank you for having me.
00:43:04Trina had planned to speak. So Trina runs her own business. Trina runs, it's called Tie Dye by Trina.
00:43:10She does Tie Dye. Do you want to? Oh, I do Tie Dye and Blacelet.
00:43:16Let's see.
00:43:20And then I work at Madonna's for three years.
00:43:28Trina has really come a long ways. So our story did not start out that way. Trina is
00:43:34what was considered a mentally vulnerable adult. She was diagnosed with IDD, intellectual developmental
00:43:40delays. Trina became a victim of online. Some people got a hold of her online and coaxed her
00:43:52into leaving home, four times total. So we were one of those people that were kind of left,
00:43:59not knowing what to do. I mean, when you wake up and your kid's not in their bed,
00:44:03it's very scary. Obviously, our first thing was law enforcement. Thankfully, our law enforcement
00:44:10understood the need to get her home safely. They went through any barriers they had to do. She
00:44:17has been bankrupted. And through that, we learned really what Florida had to offer. As silly as that
00:44:25may sound, we did not understand the connections our community had. We really felt that island of
00:44:32aloneness. And I do believe that God works miracles. That is, we have learned so much. We have become
00:44:40so connected since this. Getting Katrina home from, so she was found in Orlando. Getting her home
00:44:49was one thing. And then we did not even know where to go. We contacted APD. And Yolanda called us and
00:44:59let us know, hey, we've got you. You're fine. You're going to be okay from here on out. What is your
00:45:04immediate need? Because during that time, you don't really know what your immediate need is. So she said,
00:45:09look, look, what do you need today? And then we're going to work on what you need six months from now,
00:45:1412. And we've been doing this for two or three years now. And she has worked with us along the way.
00:45:21Trina, since then, her therapy has been horse therapy. She found, along with Yolanda, found her way of
00:45:28what is her release? What allows her to become, continue to be Trina, but find who Trina is meant to be
00:45:35through all this. So Trina has, we joined forces with Hope Therapy. She now has her own horse. Do you
00:45:40want to speak on that? Yes, I have my own horse. His name, his name is Roni. And I train him,
00:45:51it's kind of hard to say. You feed him? Oh yeah, I feed him some hay and carrots and apples. And then
00:45:58Becky, she, she taught me how to follow the horse everywhere I go, behind and front.
00:46:10So through that, Trina has learned to gain trust in herself, confidence in herself, respect in
00:46:17herself, but also in others in the community. So being, and we've explained this to her, being able
00:46:21to gain trust from an animal that size is huge. So now she's working on her goals with the horses.
00:46:31She's going to start doing demos. She has a friend that works with her. Trina does her tie day. Her
00:46:37best friend does photography. So now what we do is we build that community. The biggest thing when we
00:46:42got Trina home is I said, why? What happened? Where did, where did I fail you first? And what can we do
00:46:49to fix this? And her response was, I don't really have anywhere to hang out. There's nowhere I can go
00:46:55to just be me. I can't hang out in the local places, you know, not that she's not quite accepted,
00:47:01but it's not her thing. Um, so we had to find Trina her thing and her own little group of people.
00:47:06So now that's why we did the friendship project. Um, we are based on finding a safe environment
00:47:15for our local vulnerable adults and even children, families, um, to come together. We have provided
00:47:22over 15 families with Christmas and we're talking the full family, not just the adult. Um, the full
00:47:28family with Christmas, we have done Easter. We've done a Valentine's dance in our neighborhood where
00:47:33we provided dinner, a DJ, all of us dance together. We do crafts with the neighborhood kids. We just egg the
00:47:39whole neighborhood with plastic eggs. Um, and then I go to night to shine every, every year. Yep. We do
00:47:46night to shine with her group. And so we sponsor her group to get their hair done, nails, um, all their
00:47:53dresses. Um, we've actually teamed up with some of the local churches. We found out that some of them
00:47:58will provide dresses too. Um, and amazingly enough, listening to how this all came together, I didn't
00:48:05realize how, and I told my family, I don't know how we connect here. Listening to, I do, I get it now. Um,
00:48:14when, when Trina was first come up missing, one of my things was I didn't know what to do. Um, as a mom,
00:48:21you want to outrage, you want to act out. You, I had somebody come to me and say, Hey, let's, let's get off the
00:48:28streets. Let's talk this out. Let's get to church. And so at, I was actually third in line to get
00:48:36baptized. I had never been baptized. It was my only dream. Um, and I was third in line when they
00:48:42called me and said, your daughter's been found. I, I lost it. Um, Trina has since been baptized at the
00:48:54same church. Um, we, I've gone through freedom there. I've gone through a lot of different
00:49:01programs to help me as a mom, as a woman, as a wife, as just as a person. Um, I wasn't always
00:49:08the person that was mellow headed to give back, to want to do for others. But now that is what our
00:49:13family does. That's, we want to give back. Trina does her bracelet. She turns them, Michelle Cook,
00:49:18she gives them to all her sheriffs in the community. Um, she's got a detective. She works very
00:49:24closely with, she just adores him. He has been a saving grace in our family. Um, so a lot of things
00:49:30we realized that it took the community to tie together, um, to allow us to heal. Our family
00:49:38would not be where we are today if it weren't for people like you giving back to people like us.
00:49:44And we wouldn't be allowed to give back to the other people that we're finding that need it. Um,
00:49:49if it weren't for people like you. So we, in closing, I just want to say I am so very thankful
00:49:54and we are not done. We are, our goal now is to build a food truck to employ special needs adults.
00:50:00That's what we are working on and we will get it done.
00:50:06Thank you guys so much.
00:50:13Come on up.
00:50:24So it takes a lot of courage and passion to be able to come up and speak to you all. So I just want to
00:50:34again, tip my hat to both of you. You did great. And thank you for sharing that because we can talk
00:50:41about Hope Florida all day, but to see the everlasting effects is something else. So thank you. That was
00:50:49amazing. Um, good morning. I want to first thank the governor and the first lady for allowing me the
00:50:56opportunity to speak today. I've had to take a few notes because if you know me, you'll know that if
00:51:01I don't, I will talk your ear off about Hope Florida for hours. And I know we have things to do. Um,
00:51:08my name is Liz Phillips and I have been employed proudly with the department of juvenile justice
00:51:14since 2007. In that time, I have seen some truly amazing things happen with state government. But I,
00:51:23I have to say in the two plus years we've been doing Hope Florida, I have never seen anything
00:51:32as transformational, um, within our agencies. Never. This is not just a program. Hope Florida truly,
00:51:43truly reimagines how we serve people. It gives families something that so many systems just can't.
00:51:51And that's a person, a real connection, someone to walk alongside them from the moment they call
00:51:58to the moment they find their version of self-sufficiency, peace, happiness, however you
00:52:04want to call it. When they find that is when, um, we know that we've done what we needed to do.
00:52:10The first lady mentioned it, but I really want to hit on it again. In government, we often work in silos,
00:52:18side by side, but rarely working hand in hand. Since Hope Florida has begun, we have really begun to break
00:52:25down these walls. It allows us to collaborate up across departments and agencies with navigators
00:52:33who aren't just names on our referral list. These are experts. These are partners. These are problem
00:52:38solvers. At DJJ, our hope navigators are well versed in walking alongside families, dealing with some
00:52:47serious youth behaviors, some real challenges, truancy, running away,
00:52:53other behavioral issues that are just when you're in that moment. It's hard. It's hard seeing the
00:53:00person that you love most in this world start to go sideways and you not know how to help them.
00:53:07We understand how overwhelming this these situations are. And when families also include veterans,
00:53:15a senior, or somebody with a disability, we don't just hand them off and say,
00:53:20have a good day. When we're done with the DJJ related concerns, we reach out to our sister agencies
00:53:27where other hope navigators exist. And they have that expert knowledge. They have that institutional
00:53:33knowledge of their own agencies. And then together, we build this truly amazing wraparound system for the whole family.
00:53:42I get a little emotional because it's been a lot. But I want to say we have real families in real crisis.
00:53:54We get calls every day. These are parents, sometimes grandparents working hard. They're working multiple jobs.
00:54:01They're doing everything they can to just hold it together for themselves and most importantly for their children.
00:54:09They're not looking for handouts. They're looking for somebody to listen.
00:54:14They're looking for somebody to help them navigate through the hardest times of their lives.
00:54:20They're looking for a lifeline to preserve their family. Hope Florida is giving them that. A single number,
00:54:30a dedicated navigator, and a system built around walking with them step by step. This is not a sprint.
00:54:38You don't just snap your fingers and everything is fixed. It's a journey. But they are not by themselves.
00:54:45And they have somebody to walk alongside them until real, local, viable solutions are found.
00:54:53But that's not just it. It's not just about connecting families to services.
00:54:59Hope Florida is truly about building relationships between navigators and families, but also between
00:55:06families and their local communities. Because we don't want government to be the forever solution.
00:55:11We want to help people build lasting support around them. These are neighbors. These are faith partners.
00:55:19These are mentors. This is the schools. We want to do that so that we can get them connected, supported,
00:55:29and then we as government can get the heck out of the way and let community step in. I know that there's
00:55:35been some media tension and some misunderstanding about the program, but I want to say this clearly.
00:55:41And my voice is shaking, but my words could not be any more true. The impact of Hope Florida,
00:55:49this is real, and it is deeply human. To any legislator or leader who has questions
00:55:56about how Hope Florida works on the ground level, I would be honored to spend a morning or an afternoon
00:56:02with you. Come see the work. Meet the navigators. Witness the impact. Watch what happens when a parent
00:56:10who is feeling hopeless meets someone who simply refuses to give up on them. This work speaks for
00:56:19itself when you see it up close. I am one person and I stand proudly before you as a navigator,
00:56:26but I do not stand alone. I am standing up here for the Courtney's, the Emily's, the Beth's, the Nishira's,
00:56:33the Gigi's, the Erin's, the Rachel's, the Zandra's. These are real navigators across the state housed in
00:56:41different agencies who wake up every single day ready to bring hope to somebody. This isn't just
00:56:50government work. This is human work. This is the kind of work that builds stronger families,
00:56:56stronger communities, and a stronger Florida. Thank you very much.
00:57:16Well, good morning everyone. I'm Pastor Earl Glisson, the pastor here of Anchor Faith Church,
00:57:21and I thank the governor and first lady for being here. It's such an honor to host this event today,
00:57:27because what's going on is really important. You know, there is a term that's used here,
00:57:32hope Florida. Biblically speaking, hope means a confident expectation. However, most of the time
00:57:39in the world when someone says hope, they say, well, I hope so. And they really aren't confident
00:57:45that it may not come to pass. In fact, hope to most people is like winning the lottery. We may,
00:57:51or may not. However, uh, our governor and first lady through this administration has brought the
00:57:58biblical word of hope back, which is confident expectation that when you call 833, right? Get
00:58:07hope. You will have a confident expectation that I am going to be helped, that someone cares for me,
00:58:16and that someone's going to do something. And the brilliance and insight and wisdom that they
00:58:21had to be able to connect with faith-based communities is, I mean, it transcends, uh,
00:58:28what other states are doing. I want to read you one passage of scripture before I give you some real
00:58:33experience from us as a church. In Luke chapter five, verse seven, Jesus Christ, the head of the
00:58:39church said, he, he told Peter to go out and launch into the deep and let out his net. And he said,
00:58:46look, I've done this all night long. We've caught nothing. He said, just do it. He said,
00:58:49that's your word. I'm going to. So he drops down the net and he starts to catch so many fish,
00:58:53he cannot pull them in. So he calls his partners in verse seven, signaling his partners. The other
00:59:00boat came. And as they brought in all these fish, not only did it fill up his boat, but the boat of
00:59:06his partner so full that by the time they finally reached the shore, they were almost both about to
00:59:11sink. You know what that tells us? There are so many fish out there that not one boat can handle the
00:59:18supply. And these, our governor and first lady had had the insight to be able to recognize there's
00:59:25another boat out there. There's another partner. And this partnership that they did with the faith
00:59:31based community was so full of wisdom because listen, we live in the community. This is where
00:59:37we live. We live here. We connect here, but we also have relationships here. And the next thing the
00:59:44church has is that we are a culture of serving because the head of the church says, if you want
00:59:49to be the greatest leader, be the servant of all. And so they tap in to a group of people who are
00:59:56eagerly waiting to be deployed to help others in need. And so what we have done since we became part of
01:00:04the care portal process, we began really active in the month of August. There was a little bit of
01:00:10onboard training, but we have, because again, it's based upon counties. And so you understand we've
01:00:15had, uh, we've responded to 15 requests. The church, uh, met 10 of those particular needs. There were 17
01:00:23children that we specifically served during this eight month process. Financially, this church has
01:00:31made an impact of $15,821 just this church alone. As first lady said, there are 20,000 faith-based
01:00:42people, uh, communities out there are different organizations. If you take our number times it by
01:00:48that 20,000, we get them involved. That's three, three, 316 million plus that could have been added to,
01:00:58uh, areas in our state that the government did not have to be a part of. And the church loves to be
01:01:07a resource. So this partnership's powerful. I remember Kenny and Kay here at our church, they,
01:01:13uh, responded to a call of two, uh, boys, uh, Kyle and the other one was Ashton and both of them
01:01:20needed clothes. It was a, a situation. I remember after service said, Hey, pastor, we've got to run.
01:01:25We're going to go by and pick up the boys and take them shopping and took these boys shopping.
01:01:30Uh, we provided Publix cards and we've done a lot of gift cards to be able to provide different
01:01:34resources to people. In fact, there was one particular testimony where, uh, a grandmother
01:01:39had received a custody of a child or at, uh, grabbed her grandchild. And so she was in need of a car seat.
01:01:45So we responded to that. Uh, we purchased that. And then, you know, again, in our community,
01:01:51we already have relationships. And so that person who responded a couple of days later,
01:01:55reached out again, asked, how are you doing? What's going on? Prayed with them. Well,
01:02:00they ended up going to court and when they came to court, you know, the prayer time that he had was,
01:02:05you know, I, uh, we need to be able to keep full custody and we definitely want to be able to restore
01:02:10my relationship with my daughter. That day she went to court. Her daughter was there. The judge gave her
01:02:15custody. Her daughter had a, was restored in a relationship with her mother that now lives with
01:02:21her in her home. And the judge says, can you take this child home? And because of the car seat that we
01:02:26were able to purchase because of care Porter and hope Florida, she was able to confidently tell the
01:02:31judge, yes, we can. And so I cannot say enough about how hope Florida has streamlined and made things
01:02:40available for the faith-based community and government. When people say there should be a
01:02:45separation between the two, it doesn't happen. It is, it is a farce. The, listen, the church is never
01:02:51going to come into government and tell you how you should write things for us. Neither is a government
01:02:57coming and telling us what to do. However, as just humans, we come together and we make a difference
01:03:04in our communities. And they had the insight to not leave a boat on the shore, but said, there's
01:03:11plenty of people out here and this group's already been deployed. Let's help them help us. And together
01:03:18we can do more together. And I cannot be more excited to be a part of hope Florida and helping
01:03:24this process along. Thank you again, governor. Thank you. First lady.
01:03:27Well, I mean, that was, that was some inspiring stuff. I really want to thank everybody that has
01:03:41been involved and continues to be involved. We're going to continue the momentum. We understand there's
01:03:46a lot more that needs to be done. We understand that the success is great, but ultimately you can't
01:03:53rest on that. You got to keep going forward. So we're going to be doing that. You're going to see some
01:03:57great announcements coming up in the next days and weeks. And I'm confident it will continue to
01:04:03to really make a difference in people's lives. So thanks everybody that's been involved. Okay,
01:04:07I got time to take a few questions back there. Anybody?
01:04:09Governor, can you clarify how the $10 million donation for hope Florida is separate from that $67
01:04:16million settlement last fall involving the Florida agency?
01:04:20So ACA put out the, they put out the letter with all the documentation. So I would just look at
01:04:26that. It totally debunks the bogus media narratives that were out there. ACA had to do this. They did
01:04:33it appropriately and it advanced the policies of the state of Florida. And I think those were very
01:04:38important documents to see. The documents that ACA put out, they were told this was coming. Partisan
01:04:53journalists were told this was coming and they still tried to produce these phony narratives.
01:04:58Then the documents came out and it showed basically what was done by ACA, how they negotiated it. And it
01:05:05also even had the documents from the company. So that debunks the phony narrative. Why are they doing
01:05:10narrative? They're not doing it because they really care about that. They're doing it to try
01:05:15to impugn hope Florida. They're trying to smear this program. Some of them, you know, some of these
01:05:21lefty journalists don't like it. They don't like you working with the faith based community.
01:05:25Some of these people, you know, view it as a way to attack the first lady and all the great things
01:05:29she's done because they view her as a threat. So, so that's what's, what's motivating this.
01:05:34Uh, and so the reality is this has done an enormous amount of good. Uh, and I'm proud of the program.
01:05:40Uh, soup to nuts. All right. Thanks guys. We'll see you soon.