2014-04-04-LHRC-min - Laserfiche WebLink

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Lexington Human Rights Committee Meeting Minutes April 4, 2014 Present: Linda Vine, Albert Zabin, Emily Levine, Fuang-Ying Huang, and Sean Osborne Meeting at Parker Room—Town Hall, was called to order at 8:1 OAM Welcome guest, Phyllis Strimling, who has applied to be a HRC member. Human Service Dept. report on homeless families in Lexington: Currently there are 31 homeless families live at Quality Inn in Lexington with 12 children attending Lexington schools and 18 non-school aged children. The number is down from 31 families from prior year. Lexington school dept. had hired a half-time social worker to support these families which include kids on METCO program. Community United organizes play groups twice a month as well as field trips for the families. Lift Up Lexington, an interfaith group drop off food, toiletry to the families. Since most of them do not have transportations, they also coordinate with local churches on community meals. And, they organized a Valentine party for the families. Ways to help the families solve transportation issue including expend Lexpress routs, offer Lexconnect taxi vouchers and Charlie cards. The committee wonders how the cross walk(or lack of it) at Hartwell Ave. impacts the families at Quality Inn, with the town's plan to expend Hartwell Ave, it will be a good time to add cross walk at the location for the families' safety and other pedestrian. Various Lexington departments including health, fire and police are also working together to better serve the families. The HRC committee will work with the Human Service Dept. on poverty on local and regional base. Human Service Dept. will distributes HRC's brochures on Lexington's Discovery Day on Sat., May 24, 2014. There were a few anti-Semitic incidents in neighboring Bedford. Some Bedford residents speculating it may be the result of high turnover of residents at Hanscom air base that the base personnel came from all parts of the country with different backgrounds. The committee decided to meet quarterly except when there's an incident that needs immediate attentions. The next committee meetings time and location are to be determined. The meeting adjourned at approximately 9:00 am.