HomeMy WebLinkAbout1985-10-07-HSC-min.pdf HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
Minutes of the Meeting of October 7, 1985
Present Judy Zabin, Stan Finkelstein, Leonora Feeney, Marion Shepp, Sheila
Martin, Sylvia Perlman, Jan Eustis, Bea Phear
The Minutes of the meeting of September 23, 1985 were approved as mailed.
Coordinator' s Report
1. The planned staffed apartment on Evergreen Lane will be holding an open
house on October 16 Committee members are welcome They expect clients
to move in about November 1
2 A group met at RePlace to discuss the adolescent study There was reluctance
to plunge in with a direct survey, and the group will start with a literature
review and interviewing key informants It was decided to focus on Junior
High aged kids, and look at a variety (as yet unspecified) of behaviors
The next meeting is Monday, October 28 at 3 30 p.m. Judy suggested PTA's
3 The Visiting Nurse & Community Health senior monitor program will be reporting
on Monday, October 28 at 1 00 p.m. They have added one client (now 25) in
Lexington, and have funding to expand to Arlington They have designed a
new assessment tool that the state is interested in. Bea will know more
after the meeting
Goals/Structure of Committee
In the past several years the committee has concentrated on agency relationships
and contracting It was decided to put more energy into three general functions
that will become the subcommittees
1 Strategic Planning To consider how to develop an ongoing process/system
to monitor changing needs and potentially how to act on that Jan & Sylvia
2 Research To select a study that is "doable" and that has some comparative
element, either among agencies or with other communities Lee & Marion
3 Community Relations Thinking about how to relate to others - Town Meeting,
other agencies - and being the first place to receive requests, comments, and
problems Judy & Stan, plus the new appointee
Sheila will wait to be assigned, depending on what subcommittee interests Harvey
It was decided that the subcommittees will meet in the beginning of each meeting
and then report to the larger group Several suggestions were put forth, including
that the Strategic and Research Committees might work together, that we could
compare Lexington Human Services with other municipal structures, and that the
purpose of the Providers Council is networking and that a directory might become
a planning tool
Agency Monitoring/Budget Planning
Since the focus of the committee will move somewhat from day-to-day monitoring of
funded agencies, Bea expressed concern that she would become the only source of
information about agencies, and recommendations would become filtered through
her perspective only She thought that was dangerous It was decided that each
committee member would have one agency to keep track of in a less formal way -
including receiving minutes of meetings, copies of the quarterly reporting,and
only occasionally attending a meeting This assignment will also be for the
first round of looking at FY87 budget requests
Mystic Valley Mental Health Center - Lee & Jan
RePlce - Sylvia & Sheila
CMARC - Marion & Harvey (?)
Council on Aging - Stan & Harvey (?)
Hospice - Lee & Jan
Cooperative Elder Services - Judy
Everyones Youth Group - Sylvia & Sheila
Stan and Judy prepared an outline of guidelines for evaluating agency funding
requests (enclosed with these minutes) Material is available from Bea's files,
and committee members are welcome to come in and look through them at any time
(Telephone ahead to make sure the office is open.)
Bea also suggested having a regular contact with the State agencies, such as Office
for Children, Department of Social Services and Department of Mental Health She
will get lists of the membership of these area or regional boards
Lee mentioned that the Woburn Council has a food pantry, with participation by
eight Lexington families This might be an area for the Trustees to help fund. Bea
said that there was a Lexington familiy that was interested in working for a food
pantry in Lexington, but the numbers were very small to make it worthwhile It
could be located out of the Senior Center
Symposium
Marion arranged for a donation of the wine from the Wine Cellar of Silene
Stan brought a draft invitation which was approved, and a response card.
Judy arranged for cabel TV coverage Bea will warn the participants
The guest list was expanded to include all Town Meeting Members
The only hand-out will be a list of registrants
Sylvia and Harvey drew up a draft statement for the Housing Issue module, which
was enthusiastically approved. This will be distributed to tha panalists in
advance
Lee and Sheila will create a similar statement revolving around family issues They
may frame it in terms of a case study, from RePlace They are also gathering data
on adolescent issues This will be presented at the next meeting for discussion.
Next Meetings
It was decided to schedule meetings for the first and third Mondays The next
meetings are
October 21
November 4
November 18
December 2
December 16
Respectfully submitted,
Beatrice Phear
HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE
Guidelines for Evaluating FY 1987 Agency Funding Requests
Activity Timing
1. Review background materials, contracts, October 8-31
and other previous experience of the
Human Services Committee with the agency
being evaluated
2 Review current agency proposal and develop November 1-15
questions for agency management and board
members Questions should include, but
not be limited to inquiries about agency
committment to Lexington and anticipated
changes in program or funding in the
coming fiscal year
3 Meet with appropriate agency personnel November 16-30
4 Develop a recommendation for Human Services December 1-7
Committee action in consultation with Com-
mittee chairs and Human Services Coordinator
5 Full committee discussion and decisions December 8-15