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Public Comment
From:George Gilliam <creativeidentityanaheim@yahoo.com>
Sent:Tuesday, August
To:Public Comment
Subject:\[EXTERNAL\] Public comment on approving the Annual Action Plan at the City Council
meeting tonight
Warning: This email originated from outside the City of Anaheim. Do not click links or open
attachments unless you recognize the sender and are expecting the message.
Dear City of Anaheim Public Comment Staff,
Please provide our Public Comment to the Mayor Pro Tem and Council Members for tonight's City
Council Meeting. Please let me know you received this Public Comment. Thank you in advance.
Best regards,
Dr. Cynthia Smith, MT-BC
Program Director
Creative Identity
August 8, 2022
Dear Mayor Pro Tem O’Neil and Council Members,
My name is Dr. Cynthia Smith, and I am the program director of Creative Identity, a non-profit
therapeutic music and expressive arts program which has been serving the fine arts and
prevocational education needs of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD)
in Anaheim since 1996. I am writing in support of the approval of the Fiscal Year 2022/2023
Annual Action Plan.
Creative Identity has previously been awarded the CDBG grant for our Prevocational
Empowerment Program, and this has helped strengthen our ability to carry out our mission of
improving the quality of life and societal perceptions of adults with IDD by providing
therapeutic and educational interventions that cultivate personal and social responsibility,
prevocational skills, independence, and creative potentials.
The CDBG funding has been very important to Creative Identity by supporting our ability to
maintain skill staff members and to provide our program participants opportunities to perform
concerts and demonstrate their developing fine arts skills through community concerts and
art exhibitions. These events also include the opportunity for our participants to engage with
the public and with other non-disabled musicians and artists, as well as the opportunity to
earn commissions on the sale of their art and ceramic ware. Additionally, we support the
CDBG funding recommendations for all the non-profit organizations in the Annual Action Plan
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as they all provide important services to the members of our community. Thank you in
advance for your consideration in approving the Fiscal Year 2022/2023 Annual Action Plan
and the CDBG funding recommendations.
Sincerely,
Dr. Cynthia Smith, MT-BC
Program Director
Creative Identity
200 N Harbor Blvd Suite 210
Anaheim, CA 92805
657.208.3350 phone
www.creativeidentity-oc.org
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