Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1993-06-23-HSC-min.pdf C Human Services Committee Minutes June 23, 1993 at RePlace Present Donna M. Hooper, Chairman; Eva Havas; Ann W Irving; Steve Baran, Human Services Coordinator; Bill Blout, Director, Replace; Suzanne Larsen, Board member; Pam Wilson, Director of CAPP program; Cara Lee, director of peer leadership and counseling; Mary, Kristen, Eugene, Alec Absent Eva S Glick; Ruthie Liberman; Richard W Safford Minutes of 6/2/93 The Minutes of the meeting of 6/2/93 were approved Chairman' s Report 1 Strategic planning Strategic planning is getting underway following decision at Town Meeting Donna Hooper has been attending preliminary meetings Up to 20 citizens 'meetings will take place beginning this fall 2 Candidates for Human Services Committee At present, there are three candidates for the Human Services Committee Interviews will take place in September RePlace Bill Blout, in an introduction to Replace, said that he welcomed communication which is a good thing to maintain throughout the year Questions from the Human Services Committee focused on the peer counseling program Training is conducted through a twelve-week course which features team building, appreciating diversity, handling hot line calls The main benefit of the program is growth for the peer leaders The components of the peer counseling program which is managed on a part-time basis by Cara Lee are 1 Peer counseling (mainly through the Hotline) Hot line calls are from kids who are depressed and lonely; young adults who are concerned about how to transition into Minutes, Human Services Committee, 6/23/93 Page 2 adulthood; occasionally adults who are concerned about parenting issues Many calls are for information on AIDS, condoms, girl friends, boy friends; many callers just want to talk without necessarily stating that they have a problem 25-30 teenagers are trained in peer counseling During this past year, 15 freshmen were trained; in the past, training began with sophomores The Hot Line is available to callers on a regional basis; it is advertised in the Waltham area/West Suburban phone book It is not connected with other hot line of which there are very few The Hot Line, which has a form to record calls, takes two or three calls each evening Each call is usually handled by two volunteers, one who conducts the interview and one who listens The emphasis is on listening, empathy, making a "connection" , giving each other (the peer counselors) a lot of support Mary and Alec, Hot Line volunteers, discussed a call they had received that evening from a young man in his 30s or 40s He seemed "very, very lonely" , has called the Line before It was their impression that he was not suicidal 2 Peer outreach Cara Lee has met with the assistant principals at the Clarke and Diamond schools where RePlace outreach volunteers will be available in the lunch room and study rooms using their skills to "connect" with students Asked about the distinction between the RePlace outreach and the peer counseling program conducted by the schools, Bill explained that Martha Queenin, School Guidance Counselor, trains students to go into the high school classrooms as part of the life skills program whereas RePlace peer counselors will do outreach this year in the middle schools including publicizing the availability of the Hot Line Friends of the peer leaders come to them with problems The Drop-In Center has responded to the need for young people to meet in an enclosed, protected, unobtrusive place It has couches and a radio It was felt that the no-smoking rule (reached after much Board discussion) , recently ( instituted, had decidedly affected attendance It was suggested that more advertising may serve to draw youth back to the Drop-In Center 1 Minutes, Human Services Committee, 6/23/93 Page 3 3 Peer mediation The outreach volunteers may meet with the "AA" (advisor/advisee) groups to do workshops and presentations with some consultation from the Support Committee for Battered Women Deficit Bill Blout noted that RePlace anticipated a deficit in the coming fiscal year due to diminishing contributions The Agency is discussing approaches to the deficit including cutting back on salaries There was mention of managed care and what Replace is doing to deal with it He passed out "A Plan for Meeting the Budget Crisis in FY '94 (see attached) (_ Minutes, Human Services Committee, 6/23/93 Page 2 captioning phasing in The Committee agreed to give its support Introduction Leo McSweeney Leo McSweeney was introduced to the Committee He expressed his desire to be helpful Replace Battered women services in FY ' 94 budget RePlace was proposing substituting conflict resolution within the schools rather than training and services from the perspective of needs of battered women and their families RePlace had been advised by the Human Services Committee to explore further within the School Department, particularly in terms of the impact on life skills programming ( The Committee was concerned that 1 RePlace was already being reimbursed, albeit according to contract, for services it was not yet providing; 2 they had moved away from the understanding reached with the Selectmen about collaborating with the Support Committee for Battered Women RePlace said they were unable to adhere to the contract since the Support Committee had not made available a staff person who was expected to work with them Youth services RFP/RePlace services / The Committee was not prepared to formulate a youth services JRFP At the same time, they had reservations about having RePlace proceed in FY ' 95 with the same profile of service components presently being offered and wanted to see more outreach and a drop-in capability There was a sense that Replace did not have a clear sense of need, had become too comfortable with what they were doing, were lacking in a sense of direction with utilization down and insulation from accountability On the other hand, LexCapp is successful The model should be marketed RePlace chart A chart sent by Bill Blout, RePlace Director, showed per • Minutes, Human Services Committee, 6/23/93 Page 3 capita expenditures for youth services in Lexington and other comparable towns It was noted that the kinds of services being offered were not shown on the chart, and, therefore, it would be difficult to draw conclusions from the data RePlace subcommittee The RePlace subcommittee will include Donna Hooper, Roz Gittleman, Eva Havas and Rick Safford Youth needs assessment The Committee decided to collect data on needs of youth from the following School Department Police Department Clergy ( Recreation Hayden Bob Miner, Director of Guidance (Donna will approach through the Superintendent Martha Queenin parents and families, e g , PTA, kids in study halls and in other informal gathering places Subcommittee reports Met State Leo McSweeney reported on the status of efforts to reach resolution on the disposition of Met State property At this time, open space, a golf course and reuse of existing buildings were under consideration Demographics Steve Baran, after conferring with Bob Bowyer, Director of Planning, suggested that it might be desirable to allow the Planning Department to issue a forthcoming report that would contain much of the same data that had been prepared in Minutes, Human Services Committee, 6/23/93 Page 4 (- draft form by the Human Services Committee He suggested further that if the Human Services Committee were to issue such data it should be in the context of advising on human services policy and need for services Special Needs Recreation No report Local Officials Human Services Council Steve Baran informed Jolley Anne Weinstock, in response to her question, that a group did exist to discuss events in municipal human services This was the Local Officials Human Services Council (LOHSC) of the Mass Municipal Association Steve said that he would send Jolley Anne materials about LOHSC Ann Irving resignation The Committee, with Leo McSweeney joining in, expressed its gratitude to Ann Irving for her many years of hard and useful work with the Committee