Visual Eyes

S2 Ep 08 - Empowering Communities: Nonprofit Collaboration and Impact with Councilmember Ray Martin

• Visuals by Momo • Season 2 • Episode 8

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Councilmember Ray Martin, a retired 22-year military veteran turned Vice Mayor of Lauderhill, joins us to unpack the incredible impact of nonprofit collaboration on community welfare. Discover how Ray's military background has shaped his insights into the crucial role nonprofits play in addressing the gaps that government support often leaves. He opens up about his memorable collaborations with organizations like ICNA Relief, which provide essential support during natural disasters, and underscores how nonprofits are vital assets in enhancing community resilience.

Explore the transformative power of partnerships and the immense potential for greater impact when public officials and nonprofits join forces. We spotlight initiatives from Women in Distress, Warm Hearts Foundation, and Healthy Mothers, Healthy Babies, exploring how they are making a difference by supporting families, mentoring youth, and offering essential parental services. Ray delves into his vision of creating a network akin to a BNI group, where nonprofits can come together to optimize resources and avoid duplicating efforts, ultimately strengthening their service delivery and fundraising capabilities.

In our conversation, Ray offers invaluable advice for nonprofits seeking funding, emphasizing the importance of connecting early with city officials and presenting compelling stories that illustrate their impact. Learn from the successful collaboration between Joy's Roti and Farmshare, a testament to the power of coordinated resources in feeding those in need. As Ray shares his aspirations for Lauderhill, he passionately advocates for policy changes to support struggling families and seniors and build a legacy of increased homeownership and improved life quality for all residents. Join us as we explore how nonprofit collaboration can build stronger, more vibrant communities.


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Special Thanks to Stacy Daugherty for the beautiful wall artwork in the background. Socials: @artographybystacy

Chris Baker:

Welcome to another episode of Visual Eyes, where we work on collaborations to help nonprofits. Today we are welcoming to the show Councilmember Ray Martin. Ray, could you share a little bit of your journey from your 22 years in the military career to becoming part of the City Council of Lauderhill?

Ray Martin:

Yes, thank you, chris. I want to first start off by saying thank you to you and Momo and what you guys do for our community, and thank you for having me here. My first name is Sarai, spelled S-A-R-A-I. Most people can't pronounce it or understand what it means when they see it written, so I typically go by Ray.

Chris Baker:

Oh, fair enough, Ray Martin.

Ray Martin:

Commissioner for the City of Lauderhill, currently serving as the Vice Mayor. The Vice Mayor is a position that rotates annually between the other four commissioners. This year, I'm the lucky one. I just was reelected in 2024. My first election was in 2020. The very first time I ran was in 2018. I lost my first election. Got elected the second time I ran, which is in 2020. And again, I was just reelected in 2024.

Chris Baker:

So how.

Ray Martin:

I got here. I grew up in South Florida. I joined the military at the age of 17. I served for 22 years. I retired in 2025. In 2025, I kind of wanted to figure out what I want to do when I grow up. I had been in the military for so long that I didn't know what it was like life outside of the military, so I wanted to continue to serve. And then I learned about the local politics. I started serving on our local boards. I started serving on our local housing authority board, then I served as chairman of the Lauder Hills Community Budget and Advisory Board and as I continued to learn the city, then I decided to run for office, and that's how I got to where I am now.

Chris Baker:

So I just want to make sure that we clarify you said 2025. Did you mean 2015?

Ray Martin:

Oh, I'm sorry, 2015. Yeah, so I was like, wow, you're like in the future. It came back so no, that's all right.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, so it's 2015 is when you decide to start making this change. Perfect, okay. So what inspired you? And besides that, is there anything else that inspired you to help make an impact in the community? Besides really kind of want to stay in?

Ray Martin:

Well, when I was in the military, I was kind of isolated from a lot of the struggles that the average community goes through and I did not really fully appreciate or understand how nonprofits, as well as churches, contributed to the community. In the military, everything is provided for you food, housing, counseling services, chaplain services, everything you need and so we just kind of think everybody has those same tools at their disposal. And when I got out, I realized, and I started even encountering struggles myself. I met other community members who were going through a lot of things. I had more time to spend with family members that I hadn't spent with as much time with because I was away in the military.

Ray Martin:

And when, as I learned through their struggles, I ask everybody how do you, how do you get through this, how do you do that? How you know, how are you surviving? How is the community going? And the resources that they pointed me to a lot of times were nonprofits. And then, as I became an elected official, I realized I thought I would be able to help many, many people as a elected official. However, that is not the case. We can help some folks, but it's tax dollars. We can't use our tax dollars to help individual persons, it has to kind of benefit the greater community and there's still a large group of the population that's out there. That's not that we can't assist, and so how do they get by or how do they survive? I learned that nonprofits are key. It's really the backbone that's kind of keeping the whole country from falling apart.

Ray Martin:

Sometimes nonprofits are the last net of relief, or the only net that can kind of save quite a few people. And so I've learned to grow to appreciate nonprofits. And now, instead of trying to do things individually, I feel like we as a city, where we can best serve our community is by using funds, instead of trying to be a nonprofit ourselves, is to give those funds and help other nonprofits, who are already experts at doing what they do, to make them a little bit better, to help get more bang for our buck, so we're not duplicating resources out there and so so. So that's kind of what I've seen with the nonprofit space and and and some of the, the, the holes within the system of our, our, our political system that we can't, that we can't help.

Chris Baker:

So no, and that's definitely where we have noticed, as well as just you know, there is a gap and I'm glad to hear that you know you're looking at this and the city of water hill is looking at this as a bigger scope of like. How do we assist all of these other pieces of people in the community? Um, we definitely need to make that a priority. So there is a wider range of different nonprofits that are serving or a part of Lauder Hill.

Ray Martin:

Can you?

Chris Baker:

name some of those and any memorable collaborations that you guys have had with any nonprofits.

Ray Martin:

Yeah, absolutely. There's quite a few, some that are headquartered in.

Chris Baker:

Lauder.

Ray Martin:

Hill and then there are some that are headquartered in other cities, but they help many of our residents in Lauder Hill, some that come to mind, one of them where we met. You know I'll tell you what I'll save where we met for last, but I'll start off with ICNA Relief. I-c-n-a, the Islamic Circle of North America. Icna Relief is a Muslim organization. They provide a lot of free resources, whether it be financial or food or housing. They're really awesome. Some key takeaways is we had a couple of hurricanes in the past and there was flooding and because of that flooding, stores was closed. There was no food. Icna Relief brought out their own vehicles. They partner with, I want to say, the larger food banks and they bring that food to make it local to our residents and there's no cost. They give it to everyone, they serve everyone. Actually, you know what It'll be a good segue, most recently with Healthy Mothers, healthy Babies, where we met at.

Ray Martin:

ICNA Relief helped us acquire two pallets that included baby formula, baby diapers and some other baby supplies free of charge. So it was one large nonprofit organization giving to another nonprofit organization and I was able to happen because I knew the two nonprofits and just kind of put them two together and so I think they were able to help with about I don't know, maybe about 100 families just from from those two pallets alone. And I just got a call last week that they have about 10 more pallets that they're willing to give to healthy mothers, healthy babies. Uh, so that's a relationship that I hope will go into impurity. Um, just from their last meeting, um, some of the other ones is women in distress.

Ray Martin:

Um, some of the other ones, um, mentorship program with our Parkway middle school. Uh, warm hearts and warm hearts mentorship I believe that's the name of it. It's a mentorship by one of the guidance that was started by one of the guidance counselors at our Parkway Middle School. Because that guidance counselor found that there were parents of children that oftentimes we don't know that they're going without food or they're going hungry or they're going without electricity in, they're going hungry or they're going without electric electricity in their homes. And because those counselors in school are able to learn from the children some of the environments they're living in, that kind of birthed, that nonprofit, and so as a public official, what I try to do is help steer some of those fundings to those organizations that can see families in distress that maybe they have not raised their hand to the city so and they sometimes don't even know who to turn to.

Ray Martin:

So just kind of summary Women in Distress, warm Hearts Foundation, the ICNA Relief, and then the Healthy Mother, healthy Babies and one of the initiatives with Healthy Mothers, healthy Babies, excuse me. Well, there's a few things. They're helping a lot of single parents, whether male or female. They provide counseling services for men, help them get back on track and reconnect with their children. One of the things I think the healthy mothers, healthy babies, want to improve on is premature birth or the death I can't remember the exact name of it but a mother who loses the child prior to birth. They believe that it can be. Those numbers can be reduced if they get the education and they get healthy nutrition and get their services ahead of time.

Ray Martin:

but they don't know that these services exist and get their services ahead of time, but they don't know that these services exist. But there's a lot of mothers that are suffering from postpartum syndrome and if they knew these services exist we can probably reduce some of those infant mortalities.

Chris Baker:

There could be a lot of yeah, lives saved. Lives saved yeah, yeah, definitely. So it's actually kind of beautiful that you were talking about ICNA and Healthy Mothers, healthy Babies and that connection, because that's really what has inspired us to make this podcast.

Chris Baker:

Okay, it's really trying to figure out how, like, two nonprofits can either work together or four profits to work with nonprofits so that they can do bigger, better things. So I'd like you to dive a little bit deeper in how you made that connection and because, like right now you're saying, that's evolved and they're going to be able to help sustain each other longer.

Chris Baker:

And that's very valuable and, I think, to anybody that's watching future podcasts. Like we're wanting to hopefully give them ideas so that they can either reach out to the right people or think of a different way to build that collaboration.

Ray Martin:

So if you could do a little bit, Absolutely, and a lot of people call me for help. Even prior to coming here, there was another phone call that was requesting some financial assistance, and what I found is, through the platform, being an elected official commissioner here in the city of Waterhill, what I found is I'm not the expert, but I've become a point of resource and, as a result, when people are asking for resources or for help, as I mentioned before, there's a lot of times that the city just simply can't do it. However, when I open up the Rolodex and look to the left and right, I said I can't do it, city can't do it. The city can't do it. But guess what? I just heard about another nonprofit they can do it, and so what I'd like to do in the future is work with people like you, bring all our nonprofits together.

Ray Martin:

So this nonprofit is not trying to do car washes to raise money and this profit another nonprofit around the corner is selling fish dinners to raise money and guess what? It's all for the same purpose. But if we come together we can do a lot. What did I say Team? Together each achieves more, instead of everyone trying to do it themselves. So if we can get nonprofits to kind of function like what's one of those organizations where they have one discipline, it's one of those organizations where they have one discipline. They might have a realtor, a banker, a plumber, an AC, like a B&I group.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, like a B&I group yeah.

Ray Martin:

And so they come together so that it's one of each area. And I think if we can do that with our nonprofits and say, okay, if you work with infants, you come to the table and now we're looking for someone that works with adults, okay, now we look for someone that's working with, uh, housing, another one that works with food sustenance, and if we can uh bring all the pieces together and we operate kind of in in unison. And our calendars are another problem. When we're trying to raise money, we'll see a lot of organizations have the events around the same time and it's hard for for-profit organizations to donate to each one because they're all at the same time.

Chris Baker:

Right.

Ray Martin:

If they were like spaced out and we had some synergy on how we collect money, how we get the message out, I think is the way to go. So I'm really looking to continue to work with our nonprofits bring them to the table, so we're not duplicating efforts. We can maximize fundraising opportunities as well as being a one-stop shop, so to speak.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, and one of the things that I have talked to other people like I've talked to Kathy Brown at the community foundation of Broward, and it's finding ways to have some of the maybe even a larger nonprofit. They start another program, pillar, however you want to do it, but that smaller nonprofit is really niche in that area and maybe that becomes part of that program and so it's like another-.

Ray Martin:

Spoke on a wheel, yeah.

Chris Baker:

It just adds more value and there's more ability to just do more things. And that other nonprofit that's smaller and niched into what they're really really good at, can do more. Right Because they have more resources, they have more you know, potentially more staff. That wasn't even there to like hey, can you make a couple calls?

Ray Martin:

Yeah.

Ray Martin:

We could save and make a huge difference, and that brings up a good example that comes to mind, as I mentioned, the partnership with ICNA, relief and Healthy Mothers, healthy Babies. Like I mentioned, I got another call. It says they have 16 pallets of supplies and materials for young parents and, as you know, we met at healthy mothers, healthy babies. They don't have a lot of space, they don't and so we have a larger nonprofit that's bringing in the supplies, but we don't even have the storage capacity to even hold it. So partnering with another nonprofit that maybe have storage space or that they can partner together or share that storage space, can, can, can increase each niches capacity. And so, right, we it'll be a great thing if we can all come together and, hey, we need more space over here. Hey, you guys got food over there. How about we exchange this? You exchange that, we. We need a lot more of that, and so that's what I'm hoping to work with you on, and to work together with other nonprofits.

Chris Baker:

Yeah, I'm so grateful to hear that. You know you're thinking about this. You know we're thinking about this. One of our recent individuals that came on our show recently was just thrilled about trying to actually talk more about collaboration and so I really do feel like this is a need, and we all need to kind of figure out how we can help each other as community awesome, um.

Chris Baker:

So now let's let's switch the gears a little bit and let's talk about some of the challenges, so as supporting nonprofits, and we had a really hard time through COVID, and so that was probably very demanding. How did you manage that and what were the key lessons that you guys learned as the city that really can help organizations through tough periods like that?

Ray Martin:

Yep. So um, we, when I got elected in 2020, we were just getting ready to come out of COVID Um, what I found at that time, there was an uh profit for profit organization and I'd like to give them a big shout out called Joy's Roti. Joy's Roti is a restaurant, uh, located at the Lauder Hill Mall in Lauder Hill, and Joy's Roti partnered with, I want to say, farmshare, and every week and I went out there and I worked as a volunteer with them every week for about six months, we must have fed about 500 people every weekend, and so we were out there in the sun. We had pallets and tents and I realized by the number of people that came through the line that everybody was affected. There's a lot of families that's struggling and that there is no one typical stereotype type person who needs help.

Ray Martin:

We provided food, from my observation, to people from all walks of life, whether they drove up in a Corvette or they might've drove up in a we used to call them hoopties. You know a car that's just making it. Some people had multiple family, multiple generational families inside their vehicle. These families were truly struggling. They would sit in line for two to three hours just for some groceries. So it it warmed my heart to do that. I was. I was impressed by how much joys got involved and how much money they put behind to fund a lot of this. They put behind to fund a lot of this and it just showed me that we have a large population out there that has a lot of needs and there's not a lot of resources to fill those needs, or there's not a lot of coordinated resources to fill those needs.

Chris Baker:

Right, what is basically some advice that you've gotten from that time period that you could give to other nonprofits, so that we can all kind of try to figure out ways to work together?

Ray Martin:

So one of the things that I advice that I would give that I have been given to some nonprofits. As an elected official, what I learned is we have a budget every year but a city of Laurier Hill ours is a little over 200 million dollars, but every year we'll'll probably allot about $150,000 worth of our budget to different nonprofits. That includes like Aging and Broward. Aging and Broward provides some foods to our senior community. Sometimes they provide bus and shuttle service. And so what I learned as an elected official that there's an opportunity our funding cycle starts in April that nonprofits would come to the city, they would pitch their story and the things that they do and they would also make a request, be asked and then, by the towards the end of the funding cycle in September, the commissioners with the staff would review all of the packets that have been put in and then the staff would make those recommendations to the commissioners and the city manager as to how much funds we may have available and how much we can afford to give to each nonprofit. Sometimes we can give a little to all of the nonprofits, sometimes we give a lot to just a few, but what I've really been making a claim to fame to do is really educate the nonprofits out there, to let them know that there are some funding sources available from the cities, but they have to make the ask. I give them example packets on what a package should look like and I also kind of give them a cheat code and tell them this is how our staff will score you, and then I let other nonprofits know hey, that's how you can come to the city of Lauderhill. But guess what? We're just one city.

Ray Martin:

In Broward County there's 31 cities and each city has a funding cycle, and each city I want to say most of them give some money uh to uh nonprofits, whether it be the children's Service Council. There's a lot of organizations out there that provide services to our community and the funding they get is received either from the county or Broward Sheriff's Office or other cities like ours. So I'd like to tell nonprofits you don't have to always cook fish or chicken or dinners to try to raise money. There are organizations out there that will donate to you, but you have to kind of make sure that your paperwork is in proper order and we give you the map or the route to try to secure some of that funding, and so we'll try to help as many organizations as we can, but sometimes they'll come up in October or September and say, hey, can I get some money? I heard Nextdoor got some money.

Ray Martin:

Yeah well, they started eight months ago. So start early and if you don't get it the first time, go around, continue to make your efforts known, and then also what cities like to hear. So, for example, before our city gives funding, we want to know how many residents within our city that you have served. So it does well, if you can serve some of our community before coming to ask for money Doesn't have to be a whole lot, but at least you can demonstrate that you've helped our community, helped our city, and then it makes your ask a little more easier to receive once you kind of demonstrate that and bring that to us, and so I try to share that with nonprofits on how to get funding.

Chris Baker:

Sure, no, that makes a lot of sense. So actually, before we switch to the next topic, one of the things that we do is we help tell stories for nonprofits and a lot of the times that we create that narrative to show their impact that they're making on the community the testimonials, the success stories, all of these pieces that they can really you know how important is that to kind of help with that potential of getting that funding.

Ray Martin:

Well, you actually just hit the nail on the head and from now on I want to tell people what they can do and I'm going to say go see Momo so that you can get your story together and then bring that to us here at City Hall. So I think that is a challenge. There are a lot of people who, a lot of directors of nonprofit organizations who mean well, who does a great job at what they do, but sometimes they don't know how to tell their story.

Ray Martin:

And a lot of times, the individuals that are leaders of nonprofits or volunteers and nonprofits, most of them what I've seen as a character. They're very humble, they're not out front and they don't always tell their story. Uh, not because the story doesn't exist just because they don't do it for show. That's not why they do what they do, and so I think they oftentimes need an organization like yours to come pull that information out of them and tell the real big story, because they have a lot of accomplishments, but they may not know how to tell it because that's not their profession. Their profession is to help people, not tell stories, and so tying the two together, if you can help tell their story, make it understandable and palatable for political folks like myself, so we can give funding and make it easier to approve funding for those nonprofits.

Chris Baker:

I think it's great what you do, thank you, thank you. Yeah, one of the things that we haven't even is most non-profits are come from either lack passion, like there's there's some reason that's coming there, but you're right, and they don't always have the storytelling and the video component to really tell that story what they need. So thank you for that. Um, let's talk about one other initiative that you guys have, um the united lauder hill community association.

Ray Martin:

What is that aim to do? Yes, so within a city of lauder hill, a lot of people. We have homeowners associates and hoas. However, there's a difference and let me just explain a little bit about that difference. There's voluntary hoas and there's involuntary HOAs. Obviously, if you drive into a community and the gate goes up and there's a guard there, that's typically a involuntary. It's a mandatory HOA that those homeowners pay fees to belong to. The HOAs that we're talking about, which is our community association, and actually I changed the name from because it used to be homeowners association. But we as a city and and and my personal belief, we have renters, but those renters, just because they're renters, does not mean that they don't belong. So we took homeowners out of the name and made it community association so that we can encompass everyone, Because what we found was when you call it a homeowners association, renters don't feel welcome, they won't show up and although they

Ray Martin:

might make up 40 to 50% of the population in that area, and so we turned it to community association and it's voluntary, which means it's a geographical area invisible lines that we've drawn on a map, just by the way the streets are lined up but they don't have to pay to become a member. It's for the community, anybody can come in, and it's an opportunity for us me as an elected official to meet with our constituents, share those resources that are available in the city, update them on new coming policies or development, as well as take in their issues, concerns or complaints so that I can go back to City Hall and our staff to make it work. What I found is it's best to meet people where they are. Not everybody is going to be able to come to City Hall and sit there for four hours to talk to their commissioner. Not everybody is going to get off work and be able to come do those things. However, we make it easy and go to the community where they live and make it easy bring refreshments, food, provide child care. They'll come out and they can hear from our elected officials, and so I make myself available and what we've done with the United Lauder Hill Community Association, the city of Lauder Hill probably has about eight to nine voluntary associations.

Ray Martin:

Sure, there are gated communities where there are mandatory associations, but this is just where the community gets together. We use our community park and our community rec center and the homes that are in that area. Those are the homes that we call that particular community association. And so for United Lauder Hill Community Association, they meet the first Tuesday of the month at the satkin center, which is next to wolk park in city of lauder hill, near 12th street and 441. What we do is the the community gathers there. We establish the board.

Ray Martin:

That board provides information to the community and some of those board members come to the city hall meetings. They collect the information and take it back to the community and share that information. And then, when myself or other elected officials are available, we attend those meetings and make ourselves available to the community as well. And so for this particular one, it serves about, I want to say about 3,000 homes, 2,000 homes, and it's a voice for the community. And if they need anything, that's the route that they can get access to me, because I can't knock on every single door, but I do come to the community so that they can come once a month meet. We'll have donuts, pizza and sit around and have an informal conversation like we're having now.

Chris Baker:

So one of the things I love about that so much is it makes it more inclusive, like you're really inviting the community to kind of be a part of the city as a whole, so I think that's fantastic. Well, john, I hope a lot more cities out there start looking at that If they don't have something similar that would be amazing.

Chris Baker:

Now the other question to add to that are you inviting any of the nonprofits, Because maybe they can get some knowledge of what they can help with in the community? If the community is already speaking about that, right then and there, yeah we have not.

Ray Martin:

There's been times where nonprofits have reached out and asked can they attend? And we've allowed them to attend. But me personally have not made a concerted effort to call in the nonprofits. I'm still in an infancy stage of trying to create a nonprofit database. There's a lot of nonprofits and just trying to correlate that data into a single database where I can send invitations out to say, hey, listen, like I mentioned, we have about eight voluntary associations that meet at different times of the month.

Ray Martin:

Some of the nonprofits obviously maybe not all of them can come Right, they all can't come on the same day, but if we gave them a list of dates and the locations and whenever they can come, they make their way to it, but still building the database of the nonprofits to be able to reach out to to invite them, but I don't, I don't have that now.

Chris Baker:

OK, so I'm going to actually take a moment. I'm going to have you look at that camera and do it. Ok, call to action to those nonprofits that they want to contact you. So just go right there.

Ray Martin:

All right, listen, if you're a nonprofit out there, I'm asking you for your help because I've seen firsthand the needs of the community and they need your help, and there's a lot of things that you guys can do that we as a city cannot do so. Number one attend your local city meetings. Let them know that you exist and the services that you provide. Number two if you need funding, reach out to Momo. Get your story together and then present your story to everybody that's willing to listen. There's 31 cities in Broward County. Broward Sheriff's Office has funding and Broward County has funding. Find out what their funding cycle is. Office have funding and Broward County has funding. Find out what their funding cycle is. Learn when they are accepting applications or packets for funding or requests for funding. Tell your story through Momo. Tell your story and go get some funding. If you don't get it the first year round, keep trying. It will help. And then, lastly, learn about your neighborhood community meetings, because there's a lot of people that need help that may not always call the city hall, they may not call women in distress, they may feel like there's no one out there to help them, and so the more you make yourself available, the more people will feel comfortable to reach out to you, and I believe as we fill those gaps, our children will learn better in school, crime will be reduced.

Ray Martin:

And I'll say something else that is sometimes overlooked as I go into some of the schools and ask the children there how many children in this classroom move to this school this year, and a lot of times about 75% of the hands raised go up. And what? What that tells me is the it's a lot of transient. The children are moving a lot and because they're moving a lot, sometimes the schools are getting ding. Their scores are not high. It's not necessarily it's a bad school, it's just simply the kids have been moved so much that there's no consistency in their learning and that's resulting in lower grades.

Ray Martin:

And so if we can help families to become more stable, I think we will increase the economy, I think our grades will do better, I think crime will go down and I just think overall it's great and we need you, as a nonprofit, to do your part and collaborate with others and reach out to your local elected officials. I'm Commissioner Ray Martin for the City of Lauderhill and I don't have a problem without giving out my information. My telephone number is 954-644-0578. Please text me first so that I know who you are and then I'll answer. But I hope that answers your question.

Chris Baker:

That is fantastic. So one more time, can you give the ways to contact you? I don't know if you want to provide an email website phone number.

Ray Martin:

Yes, feel free. My official contact information, my official cell phone, is 954-907-4503. 954-907-4503, 954-907-4503. My official email is rmartin at lauderhill-flgov and I'm also available on all social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram as Commissioner Ray Martin or Sir Ray Martin, and it's spelled S-A-R-A-I Martin, m-a-r-t-i-n. Feel free to reach out to me via text, email or social media or give me a call, or you can come by my city hall, 5581 West Oakland Park Boulevard, lauder Hill, florida, 33313. And if there's anybody else that want to send any funding for any of the nonprofits that you know in the city of Lauderhill, you can feel free to mail it to our city hall and just attention me and I'll make sure that that check gets to the nonprofits that are out there.

Chris Baker:

Fantastic, all right. So as we wrap up today's show, I wrap up with the same question. So what is the legacy that you hope to leave behind through your work right now in the city, and how do you envision it to better the future generation?

Ray Martin:

Legacy, what I'd like to leave behind or what I'd like to see. So let me give a couple of numbers.

Ray Martin:

We have probably about around. We'll just say about 50% of our city is renters. I'd like to increase our homeownership. Increasing homeownership again will increase our stability. I'd like to reduce the number of times our children change schools. I'd like to reduce infant mortality. We want to. We got a lot of health issues, social determinants in our city that is not meeting where it should be, and so I'd like to get our nonprofits together to increase our health awareness, offering more healthy initiatives, whether it be food farmer's market within our city or our region. Really, you know what it comes back to, what we started off with. There's a lot of struggling families. I want to see our struggling families do better. I want to reduce the struggle as much as possible. There are some. I mean, we can go on and on. For example, there's funding available for some of our seniors and the process that they use They'll, they'll take in. What's your home value? What's in your bank? What's this?

Ray Martin:

And if you exceed a certain number, you don't qualify for those resources.

Ray Martin:

Well, just because grandma lived in this house for 20 years and the house is worth three hundred thousand dollars more than it used to be because the the the market has gone up, does not mean that there's more money in her pocket, correct? And so grandma is still struggling. House may be worth $400,000, but because she's a senior, it's not like she can get a home equity line of credit. She can't get no home loan. She's on a fixed income and is she supposed to give up her house so that she can qualify for some extra funding? I don't think so. So what I do think is we, as elected officials, need to change our policies to ensure that it's keeping up with the times and adjust those requirements so that, just because your home value may have been artificially inflated now, which can go down next year or two years, from now that our policies and those policies of our state leaders are written in such a way that it takes into account for those things and we can still help those struggling families.

Ray Martin:

So, really, what it's all about the legacy is improving the quality of life for our families and our children, for the city.

Chris Baker:

I love that. That's fantastic. Thank you so much, thank you Thank you for being on our show today and I just want to wrap up. So thank you for tuning in to VisualEyes and stay tuned for our next episode. Thank you again. Thank you, Ray Martin, for being here today.

Ray Martin:

Thank you. I don't think I gave a big shout out to Chris. I know I've been talking about Momo, but Momo couldn't do this without Chris Baker. So thank you for what you do. We can't do it without each other. So thank you so much, thank you. Happy to be here you.