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HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
Minutes of the Meeting of November 8, 1982
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Present Steve Baran, Judy Zabin, Roberta Black, Stan Finkelstein, Howard Reynolds,
Nancy Zarle, Ilene White Bea Phear
The Minutes of the meeting of October 25, 1982 were approved as mailed.
Replace
Roberta and Judy reported having met with RePlace staff and the Board chair and
treasurer regarding their funding request The Replace board strongly feels the
need for a 12% increase in staff salaries, since they are coming from behind compared
to other agencies Right now the agency is running at a deficit, with a very tight
cash flow In addition to staff salary increase, Replace has written a new position
into the budget that would form the 'prevention program work with the drop in •
center, develop peer counseling and develop an expanded information and referral
system Currently the drop in center is mostly unsupervised and runs by itself
The peer counseling component would be able to use innovative techniques, such as
dramatization around specific topics, with audience particiaption and use of cable
Judy and Roberta feel they have done some careful looking at their program and are
being responsive to client need
Bea raised a question regarding the emphasis on therapy, and asked why a current
staff person couldn't do the 'prevention" program, and reduce the individual therapy
load A second part of that question was whether the town wanted to pay for the
individual therapy, when our emphasis was on prevention Judy responded that they
were addressing client demand, and that the town does have precedent for paying for
therapy through the 766 program. RePlace put in a request to the schools for $6,475
based on consultation, but is not being written in to ed plans, and therefore won't
be getting reimbursed for therapy She also said they are doing a lot of group work,
as young mothers and adopted kids
Stan asked about voluntary contributions, and why they were assuming the same level
Judy said they are working hard on fund raising, and will do two mailings this year
Steve felt the whole.,program could be looked at as preventative and perhaps it was
self defeating to put it in as a gimmick add-on", when what they were doing was a
variety of methods for prevention as an agency that really reflects need
Stan thought he would say we are willing to support what we gave them last year
plus an inflation factor based on line items, and what we are now debating is the
difference, which he feels would be affected by what other proposals we receive
Ilene said they asked (screamed) for an extra staff position last year, and they are
now using a different tactic for the same request, but it is clear they think there
is a need Judy added that since they didn't get the person last year, they have
had to cut, eg the hot line and volunteers also she is worried that the money may
not come from the schools
Bea and Steve felt that the upshot of the meeting with the schools last March had
been a statement that Replace should now start to bill for that consultation, why
weren' t they doing that? Steve also asked if they had pursued DSS Judy thought
there was a problem with going into regional programming
Stan had another kind of reaction, feeling that this is the second time at which
Bill Blout has sent a document saying he doesn't like to do a lot of paper work,
and perhaps what they need is help with fundraising
Roberta and Judy will go back to RePlace and discuss all these issues further
Mystic Valley
Stan spoke of his involvement as an advisor to the search committee He is
bothered by the waste he has seen, but somewhat optimistic about the search process,
and favorably impressed by the new board people He wants to keep the positive
realtionship he is developing, and will probably recommend no funding this year,
while they stabalize the organization, but with an inclination to refund next year
Nancy said Tom is also leaning towards recommending no funding until they clean
up their act
Stan said he also feels positively inclined towards Frank Donnelly, who's heart is
in the right place and who is trying to be objective Perhaps it will work out
that Mystic Valley withdraws their request for this year rather than run into a
situation where they would be turned down
Charitable Trusts
Bea distributed a summary of the town's charitable trusts that address human service
subjects The committee asked her to find out what the accumulated income is, and
how distributions had been made in the last few years
Funding Requests
No other written requests have been received as a result of the press release however
Bea had one telephone conversation with the Woburn Council for Social Concern, and
Roberta had a conversation with a teacher regarding an MR choral group It is
expected that both of those will submit by the 19th
Town Report
Steve distributed the text for the Committee's section of the Town Report There
were no changes
Enablement
Bea reported that the last Enablement meeting was very poorly attended, and that
Dave is planning to try to get confirmation of people's willingness to participate
The committee suggested looking for other people through community groups church,
temple, Chamber of Commerce VNA, Minuteman Home Care, local doctors etc
Next Meeting
November 22 5 00 - 6 30
December 6 immediately after Providers meeting 4 30 - 6 00
Respectfully Submitted,
nti. f V im.C"
Beatrice Phear