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Home My WebLink About1983-06-13-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE Minutes of the Meeting of June 13, 1983 Present Steve Baran Roberta Black, Howard Reynolds, Judy Zabin, Stan Finkelstein, Bea Phear The Minutes of the meeting of May 23, 1983 were approved as mailed. Cable TV The meeting convened at the cable studio of Adams Russell to view a videotape produced by Somerville's Peabody House The tape demonstrated various ways in which cable could be used for human services teaching, advocacy, community organizing, evaluation, etc There was a sense on the part of Roberta, Judy and Bea that the tape was somewhat fragmented in its editing, but that it stimulated thinking Thinking about using cable in Lexington, Steve said he had several underlying themes 1) several agencies are needed to be involved for most problems and they can work together, 2) the public should get an image of the aliveness of social workers interacting with clients 3) there should be a preventative theme, 4) people can get help from their peers in addressing the stresses of normal life cycle, and it is not just devients that need help Judy thought it was good to focus on lifecycle issues, and avoid the word 'probelms She also suggested not having lots of interviews, but rather keeping the film lively Steve thought an interview need not be deadly, and had an intrinsic value of showing the professional expertise of a social worker His format suggestion would be to have a social worker interviewing a client, and follow this with a panel discussion by agency people Roberta suggested always having a tag line printed at the end of each segment with information and referral names There was discussion about prioritizing among the suggested programs, and consideration might be given to the demographics of the viewing audience which we could probably get from Adams Russell Stan pointed out that the most productive program would be the one that the actual producers were most excited about, and that should be the guiding force in selecting priority It was suggested to get a variety of people on the production committee agency, technical consumers, clergy Several names were suggested The committee unanimously endorsed Steve's proposal for a cable series Providers' Council Bea distributed a brief summary of the meetings, attendance, and responses to the questionnaire It was felt that after the initial meeting, with big attendance and a weaker program, there had been a lack of a strong discussion leader Also it was felt that the role of the Committee has been very ambiguous Bea felt that she wanted to continue some providers meetings, and welcomed the involvement of the Committee, either as conveners or as advisors Her plans would be to have four or five next year, with an educational focus, and treat them more as mini-conferences She feels the variety of interests among the providers does not really allow for the kind of planning discussion groups that had origionally been envisioned, but that these groups! could evolve out of contacts made at larger sessions It was suggested that the larger group could also break up into discussions It was also suggested that continuing education credit might be offered. Bea will investigate what is involved in offering continuing education credit for a series There was a feeling that more advance publicity was needed setting a calendar with topics throughout the year• having an intern telephone possible attendees prior to each meeting The commitee will think about what role it wants to play, and providers meetings will be discussed again in the fall Mystic Valley Steve reported that he had had a positive meeting with Richard Weiss, and he distributed the letter he had sent as a follow-up It was decided to invite Dr Weiss to the next committee meeting to discuss possible collaborative efforts and the focus of a contract for the FY84 appropriation. Replace The draft contract was distributed, and there were no changes CMARC The draft contract was distributed, and there was discussion about what to request for reporting in terms of the treasurer's report Steve has a copy of a CMARC treasurer's report (which we have not requested as part of the contract in the past) , and the Committee will discuss this at the next meeting There was a questions about the legitimacy of asking what proportion of charitable contributions come from client families Next Meetings Monday, June 27, at 7 30 pm room G-15 (with Richard Weiss) Monday July 11, at 6 30 pm room 111 (with Jim Crain) Respectfully Submitted l tecael Beatrice Phear Human Services Coordinator