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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-04-07-HSC-min.pdf MINUTES HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE April 7, 1993 Present Donna Hooper, Chairmen; Eva Glick; Eva Havas; Ann Irving; Rick Safford; Steve Baran, Human Services Coordinator (Recorder) Absent Ruthie Liberman; Dennis Murakami Minutes of April 7 The February minutes concerning the report of the Human Services Committee to be sent to the Selectmen, further revised in the March minutes, were finally corrected to read as follows It was agreed that the Human Services Committee will submit its Annual Report as its report to the Board of Selectmen The remainder of the Minutes of March 3 were accepted as presented Chairman's Report 1 Donna met with Leo McSweeney on 3/17 He supported the direction in which the Committee was going, would like to attend the May meeting 2 Donna and Steve met with Judy Zabin, Chairman of the Board, and Bill Blout, Executive Director, of RePlace about their FY ' 94 budget request They expressed the hope that the Committee would support their request for $71,940 rather than the $67,840 originally recommended by the Committee to the Board of Selectmen At the Selectmen's meeting of 4/22, RePlace claimed that the Committee was underestimating what its utilization would be in FY ' 94 The Selectmen had left the door open for Replace to seek a reserve transfer appropriation during the year were there to be "extraordinary expenditures" necessary for either their collaboration with the Support Committee for Battered Women or expansion of their sexual assault program RePlace Eva Havas felt too much time was being spent by the Committee in discussing RePlace issues, particularly since RePlace was not providing drop-in services for which there was a need Moreover, the whole program needed to be evaluated Human Services brochure The Committee decided that it would use available funds from the Minutes, Human Services Committee, 4/7/93 Page 2 Human Services Fund account to pay for bulk mailing Steve was asked to investigate labeling procedures and bulk mailing costs Linkage testimony at Council on Aging Donna and Steve had presented recommendations on linkages to the Council on Aging (attachment to previous set of Minutes) U S Census Needs Assessment Subcommittee The subcommittee distributed a first draft of its report and asked members to offer comments Disability Subcommittee Rick Safford reported on the planning process going forward on Metropolitan State Hospital land use The Fair Housing Committee and Alliance for the Mentally Ill have been supporting housing for low and moderate income families Rick is bringing together a group of people who would like to test equipment options to enhance accessibility for the hearing impaired in Cary Hall Planning for the next six months Eva Havas expressed an interest in planning on services to children and adolescents advocating an approach which would involve talking directly to kids and observing what they were doing She believed that clinical services did not respond to the need for prevention and that a drop-in program would Steve mentioned some of the preventive services offered by RePlace LexCAPP, peer counseling, collaboration with the Support Committee for Battered Women Eva Havas also felt the high school's Life Skills program had real opportunities as a program to emphasize prevention, but it was presently lacking focus Her experience was that parents at Diamond were increasingly requesting that their children be excused from the Life Skills program She understood that the program was conducted by physical education staff Steve recommended that the Committee sponsor a youth forum to which a number of youth constituencies would be invited including, most particularly, youth themselves The Committee showed some interest in this concept and, in general, getting answers to the questions, "What are we buying in youth services? 1 Minutes, Human Services Committee, 4/7/93 Page 3 Why are we buying them?" Groups that could be invited to answer these questions include • youth groups • Martha Queenin, high school social worker • Life Skills program • Youth Commission The Committee thought a guided interview approach would help to elicit answers Eva Glick volunteered to assist Donna offered the whole Committee as needed Other related issues how would data relate to U S Census, poverty indicators such as the number of parent households? Membership List Steve was asked to provide a membership list to be sent out with the Minutes F