1982-01-17-HSC-rpt.pdf - Laserfiche WebLink

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Report of the Human Services Committee to the Board of Selectmen IIS' Lexington, Mass , January 17 1982 $186,097 was requested by human service agencies located in Lexington from the Town of Lexington for fiscal year 1983 beginning July 1 The newly constituted Human Services Committee after evaluating these requests, is recommending an expenditure of $143,321 More specifically, our recommendations are as follows Council on Aging Whereas the Council on Aging requested $48,102 we are recommending $47,284 We are recommending as well that the Council pianist become a volunteer position rather than being salaried Also, Senior Citizens' recreation should be realized in the future from private funding Our sense of the program is that many elderly are served and served well but we would like to see more vigorous reaching out The Telecare program, for example, which checks up on the chronically ill and shut-ins, according to a late report in the Minute-man, is reaching only seven citizens at the present time Hence we recommend $2300 be earmarked for consultation on how outreach can be best implemented. RePlace Most of the Replace request for $68,428 seemed well reasoned This is a highly i utilized agency, strongly emphasizing prevention in a variety of ways drop-in ( center, telephone response, street work, education emergency housing We applaud them for their strong grass roots support and their excellent volunteer training program As we considered the possibilities and probabilities for funding being realized from a variety of sources we felt it made sense to recommend $51,628 rather than the full $68,428 requested Mystic Valley Mental Health Center Mystic Valley requested $10,000 for the Safehouse program Total expenditures for this emergency shelter from all funding sources will amount to over $200,000. A contribution from Lexington is likely to be matched by the Department of Social Services and, therfore represents a good investment While very few Lexington youth have used the facility up to now, it is important to recognize that a number of youth were in touch with Safehouse and appropriately referred elsewhere We were well impressed by the Safehouse program and its manager Moreover, many Lexington residents use other Mystic Valley services. We do not recommend funding a proposal on friendly visiting to the elderly or clinical services to F the elderly We have recommended making it possible for the Council on Aging to purchase consultation on friendly visiting from an agency which would best meet their needs The remainder of the request was not well documented or well formulated As in the past the Committee encountered problems in getting answers to all of its questions and will continue to work with Mystic Valley, particularly in looking at its administrative and accounting practices CMARC The Central Middlesex Association for Retarded Citizens continues as last year to clearly represent its pre-vocational and vocational programs through quarterly reporting and fully responds in relation to the criteria for good services outlined by last year's Human Services Committee The money previously