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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1980-06-02-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE June 2, 1980 Present Carol Perez, Ruth Nablo, Ruth Butler, Nicky Osborne (late) also Elizabeth Pressman Absent Howard Levingston, Stephen Baran The meeting was called to order at 7 35 p.m. by Ruth Butler She introduced Sherry McCann, Executive Director of CMARC, and two CMARC board members, Mr Irwin Alterson and Mr Reginald Hebert Members of the HS Committee then introduced themselves Ms McCann related some of her professional experience to the Committee Immediately prior to coming to CMARC, Ms McCann had developed a sheltered workshop in Framingham. When she left, the number of clients served had grown from 30 to 115, and the number of work levels was eight. Next, Ms McCann updated the Committee on CMARC Twenty-three priorities have been set There are nine staff members, all full time except for the secretary and bookkeeper The staff is pulling together Half positions include the director, also serving as the program director, a workshop coordinator with four supervisors, and a day program coordinator with two instructors Thirty clients are in the workshop and fourteen in the day program. Discussion included how clients are funded, whether there are any private clients (no) , and the present status of the agency with the State (in good shape) Ms McCann indicated that the three area offices with whom she deals have been very helpful The Concord office of Mass Rehab. has been especially helpful CMARC is presently working toward accreditation by CARF and expect to be ready for this within a year In discussing a salaried contract procurement person, Ms McCann felt this would be a very useful position. Board members agreed, adding that the advantages of such a person, instead of one working on commission only, had been explained to them by Ms McCann She felt that this position could be advantageously combined with those of job development and placement. Ms Butler asked about Staff development. The Director replied that a number of in-service training sessions have been scheduled for her staff, using area resources to contribute leaders Every Tuesday from 2 45 to 4 00 p.m. has been designated for in-service training Two days each week have been set aside for case conferences, also a training tool There will be an additional 2 to 4 full days of in-service training Some staff also will be attending State-sponsored Title XX training sessions Further discussion touched on CMARC performing consulting services for organizations and groups hiring mentally retarded employees In terms of preventive work, CMARC is involved in early/Identification and work with toddlers A contract with Lexington for FY 1981 will be drawn up by the Lexington legal counsel and/or Board of Health. Ms Butler thanked the CMARC people for coming to the meeting Ms McCann invited members of the Committee to visit the CMARC facility any time She and the Board members then left. HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE -2- June 2, 1980 The Committee raised the question of who would do the quarterly reviews- of CMARC and what information the agency would be asked to provide? The Chairperson asked Ruth Nablo to draw up a sample contract. Mrs Nablo agreed Questions might include the following. 1 How many clients? 2 By whom are clients funded? 3 What is the staff to client ratio? 4 How many outside contracts are there? 5 What is the average weekly pay of the clients? 6 What is the monthly income from contracts? 7 For the first quarter, a resume of the contract procurement person should be included What percent of that person's time is spent on contract procurement? The minutes of May 27, 1980 were accepted as written. Under new business, Ms Perez reported that she had received a copy of the elderly needs assessment done on the Cape She will give it to the Town Manager's office Included are the pitfalls that were found in the study after it was done Ruth Nablo reported that her Minister, Peter Meek, had offered to enlist other clergy in recruiting volunteers to work on a survey A letter from Howard Levingston re Steve Baran's draft proposal was read He felt that the language needed to be simplified so that it could be easily understood by the population at large The Committee concurred Ruth Butler feels the need to focus on the official statements to and by the Committee, in order to give some objectivity to the Committee's present position These statements include 1 The charge to the Committee by the Selectmen 2 Carol Perez's introduction to the Committee's reports 3 Nicky Osborne's objectives 4 Steve Baran's draft proposal. Some discussion followed on the rationale for a preventive model Ruth Butler would like to introduce some kind of reporting system for human service organizations She wondered how the Selectmen would feel about that In this way a fact base, systemitized in an orderly way, could give, for example, some idea of whether or not human services are accessible. Much information is gathered by the agencies anyway, such as source of referral, nature of the problem, and individual's home town If it is not stored and used in a systemitized fashion, of what use is it? Without such formal reporting, Ms. Butler holds that duplication and fragmentation of services will continue Such facts are a good base for continually identifying unmet needs The prevention mode does require a data base Some discussion followed on the difference between the "vulnerable population" focus by the Selectmen in their charge, and the Committee focus on prevention Two aspects of prevention were stated first, reenforce that behavior which is working well and second, early detection of problems to prevent serious deterioration HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE -3- June 2, 1980 In presenting the Committee views to the Selectmen, Nicky suggested beginning with the change in perspective of the Committee to one of prevention Mrs Pressman suggested that the Committee should have a specific project in mind. Ruth Butler agreed and said that an operational mechanism is necessary Mrs Pressman indicated that the Committee could choose a few specific things that need to be prevented and develop programs around then. Ruth Butler thought that model development would be a good place to invite participation of other groups such as the school system or the clergy There should be planned discussions with other groups after the Committee has met with the Board of Selectmen and gotten their approval to proceed. The objective of such meetings would be that human services be understood and supported by a variety of groups Ruth Nablo said that better public relations is needed to inform people about what human services actually are providing Human services should be looked at to see how they benefit a community,Ruth Nablo stated. Nicky suggested periodic meetings with the public Ruth Nablo offered that perhaps the League of Women Voters would jointly sponsor such meetings She then read the year end report of the LWV Human Resources Workshops Returning to the Committee presentation to the Board, the agenda might appear as follows 1 Introduction - shift in focus to prevention 2 What needs to be prevented? What would it require in the way of support? To what extent would such support be feasible? Generate a model designed for Lexington What mechanisms would be utilized? 3 A dialogue with the Selectmen on the goals and objectives of the Committee Ruth Nablo suggested that the Committee could plug into the elderly needs assess- ment if it had specific information to be gathered. In addition to the agenda already set for June 9, Ruth Nablo's draft of the CMARC contract will be presented. A discussion of whether the evaluation criteria should be presented to the Selectmen on June 23 will take place. Finally, the summer meeting schedule of the HS Committee will be set up. The Committee hopes that the Selectmen will fill the vacancy on the Committee as quickly as possible so the Committee can move ahead on its work The meeting was adjourned at 10 20 P.M. Respectfully submitted, Elizabeth H Pressman