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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1983-07-11-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE ( ^ Minutes of the Meeting of July 11, 1983 Present Steve Baran, Judy Zabin, Roberta Black; Howard Reynolds; Guests, David Enman and Astrid Kasangian of Enablement Committee; Jim Crain, Chairman of the Board of Selectmen and Liaison to the Human Services Committee ; Eileen White, former member of the Human Services Committee Meeting with Jim Crain Jim Crain saw no impediment to officially making the Enablement Committee a subcommittee of the Human Services Committee with David Enman, Chairman of the Enablement Committee emphasizing the intent of that Committee to work in partnership with the Town Mr. Crain saw no conflict of issue problem Should funds be voted on for disabled activities, subcommittee members would desist from voting should they be full members of the Human Services Committee. Interviewing of candidates to the Human Services Committee to bring its membership up to its full complement will be carried out by the Selectmen with input from the Human Services Committee and will be completed by Labor Day There will be an effort made in the future to alert the Committee when final decisions will be discussed on the part of the Selectmen regarding appropriations recommendations of the Committee As to better preparing the Town Meeting members on the issues behind these recommendations, this issue should be discussed with that body. Mr. Crain, however, recommended issuing a report at the beginning of the year rather than at the time of Town Meeting in order to obtain maximum exposure while making use of the Minuteman and other media Eileen White, speaking for the subcommittee on elderly, felt that a message had been given to its members to "tread lightly" and not ask too many questions or seek a departure from previous year' s funding patterns Mr. Crain thought that this may well have been a function of a lack of professional leadership of the Council on Aging since a professional manager would be more accustomed to out- side bodies asking que ,tions. A letter will be sent to the Town Clerk informing her that the Enablement Committee has been made an official subcommittee of the Human Services Committee. when asked for a reading on his impressions of the Human Services Committee Mr. Crain commented that he fiewed favorably the Committee ' s creativity, especially in locating new sources of funding, and its ability to draw the line on funding decisions. The public was more prepared to accept such an action from the Selectmen when their action was backed by an advisory committee. The Committee could be especially helpful to the Selectmen in acting as an early warning mechanism since it had the potential of being on the leading edge of new developments in the community Human Services Committee, Meeting of July 11, 1983, page 2. Minutes of the Meeting of June 27, 1983 Stan had suggested that the $1,000 be spent from Mystic Valley on developing "performance" indicators, not "meaningful" indicators. Contract with Mystic Valley Steve Baran proposed that the $1,000 be devoted to MVMHC allocating ten clinician Hays for consulting on forthcoming cable television series being sponsored by the Human Services Committee on family issues. Howard Reynolds felt that this use of monies, particularly in a time of fiscal stringency and after the Committee had voted against Mystic Valley funding, might be misunderstood by the public and considered frivolous. It was decided instead to ask Mystic Valley to persevere in its intent announced by Richard Weiss at the last meeting of the Human Services Committee to operationalize goals and objectives of that agency and tell the story of the services it provides to Lexington residents Steve will draft a contract that 1 he will distribute for comments to Richard Weiss and members of the mental health subcommittee. Enablement Committee Report The Access Study is proceeding with considerable participation by volunteers. High school students under the leadership of Alan No- vember will be getting credit for their participation during the coming school year with the results of the Aceess Study first put on word processor and then reproduced for mass circulation. Minuteman Press may be approached for help with the latter or the printing might be done directly by word processing. Steve Baran thought the same approach might be used for data collection and reproduction of a resource directory. In both instances the computer would allow continual updating. Allocations and Prioritizing Steve hopes to have a United Fund representative (staff and/or volunteer) come and speak with the Committee regarding the United Fund methodology for prioritizing, evaluating, and recommending funding. Charitable Trusts The Committee was informed that theTrustees of Public Trusts had approved the recommendations of the Human Services Committee for Cooperative Elder Services ($2, 500) and Choate/Symmes Hospital ($900) but had questions about Sing-Along-Chorus and the Home- sharing Program It was agreed that it would be constructive to meet with the Trustees at an early date. Next Meeting The Trustees are not prepared to meet with the full Human Services Committee, but they would like to meet with its Chairman at 7 30 p.m. on August 15. The Human Services Committee, therefore, will meet on August 15th at 8 p.m. in Room 01.