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Town of Lexington Human Services Committee Meeting Minutes June 20, 2017 Attendees: Gail Fields, Co -Chair; Pam Joshi, Bonnie Tempas, Helen Walsh, Doug Lucente, Selectmen Liaison, Kristie Demirev, Youth and Family Services Social Worker, Charlotte Rodgers, Human Services Director and Carl Valente, Town Manager Gail called the meeting to order at 7:35 pm and everyone introduced themselves. A brief discussion was held to give an overview and history of the Human Services Committee and discuss its' mission. The current boards and committees that also address the needs of Lexington residents were discussed: • Youth Commission • Human Rights Committee • Youth Services Council • Coalition for Youth Carl explained that Town leadership is exploring the role of Lexington Town Government in providing mental health services. The "Coalition for Youth" has formed in response to concerns from the Youth Risk Behavior Survey, and has 3 goals — it may be that these goals and initiatives are not in alignment with Town and School programming, and thus the work of the coalition could be confusing to residents. Also discussed was the staff time involved with Coalition activities and meetings, which competes for staff time. While this new coalition initiative is going strong, staff are dealing with a dramatic increase in referrals and cases, and Carl asked the question, is staff pulled too thin in different directions? It was suggested that it is time once again to take a look at how the Human Services Department is organized, and perhaps this could be done with a "Mental Health Summit", that would be a broader discussion with the BOS, School Committee, Town and School key staff and the Human Services Committee. The upcoming Board of Selectmen (BOS) goal setting will have a proposal from the Senior Management Team to take a closer look at these issues, and answer the following questions: 1. What is the role of Lexington Town Government in providing mental health services? 2. Who is driving the coalition initiative? 3. Is staff pulled too thin? Members of the Human Services Committee expressed a desire to be actively involved in this work, and also, to have a "voice" in Community Center programming. The committee also voted to approve the following goals to send to the BOS goal setting for FY 2019: