The Health & Human Services Committee of the DeKalb County Board met on Monday, March 5, 2007 @ 6:30p.m. in the Administration Building’s Conference Room East. Chairman Robert Rosemier called the meeting to order.  Richard Osborne was the only member present.  Ms. Fullerton, Ms. LaVigne, Mr. Metzger, Sr., were absent.  A quorum was not present. Others present were Mary Olson, Dan Templin and Paul Stoddard.

APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

          The minutes from January 8, 2007 and February 5, 2007 could not be approved because there was no quorum present.

APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA     

The agenda could not be approved because there was no quorum present.

REVIEW OF PAST COMMITTEE DISCUSSION/EFFORTS IN ASSISTING HUMAN SERVICE AGENCIES ON GRANTWRITING

Chairman Rosemier briefly reviewed for those present what the committee has been working on with regards to the human service agencies and grantwriting issue.  He stated that he sent out a survey to approximately 30 agencies on grant writing last year.  From the results of the survey he and the committee have tossed around ideas of how to assist the agencies with their grant writing issues.  He recently met with Mr. Greg Sparrow at the Kishwaukee BID Center to discuss his findings from the survey and get input on how the County could assist these agencies.  They agreed that they would hold a joint dialogue exchange with these agencies in April 2007.  Mr. Sparrow pointed out to Chairman Rosemier that these agencies are feeling a “pinch” because of the decreasing funds that they are receiving. 

Chairman Rosemier also stated that the DeKalb Community Foundation

has had experience in working with grant writing and will also collaborate on this exchange in April.  Chairman Rosemier then introduced Mr. Dan Templin with the DeKalb Community Foundation.  Mr. Templin stated that he was present this evening to brief the committee on the needs assessment initiative that they are currently conducting.  He passed out a summary, which shows some of the variables that the assessment will contain and the other covers what they will be studying for the needs assessment (see pages attached to these minutes).   In August of 2005 a group of funders (The DeKalb County Human Services Initiative or DCHSI) gathered together to seek information on the quality of life assessment.  They wanted to update the needs assessment for the community and then they would also look at overlapping services.  This group of funders that comprised this initiative granted funds equal to $3 million a year.  He and Ms. Mary Olson, DeKalb County Community Services Director, pointed out that the City of DeKalb has a Community Development Block Grant, which is different from the one that she receives each year.  Mr. Templin said that there are other organizations and some communities that also are doing grants too, but DCHSI wanted to start out small. 

Mr. Templin continued that there are three phases to this project.  They will be using the quality of life assessment, which is based on United Way’s State of Caring Index, which is a national model.  They also would be holding a quality of life and human services workshop too. He started to separate out the quality of life assessment as a stand alone project.  They wanted to continue to do some things with the human services issue too.

In Phase I the County was an equal partner who contributed one-fifth of the cost from the Senior Services Tax Levy for the needs assessment.  This allowed N.I.U. to actually collect and populate the data for our quality of life assessment for DeKalb County.  They have completed that task and now the group is in the final version, right up to the final revision stage, and waiting to get the final draft of the document that the group will review before making it public.  It will be made available on everyone’s website.  On the County’s website it will appear under the Community Services Department section.

Mr. Templin further stated that part of the contract with N.I.U. was to have them facilitate a morning workshop that occurred on December 7, 2006.  They had around sixty people who represented human services agencies, elected officials, front line staff, and consumers.  They gathered some information about priorities related to human services in DeKalb County.  Part of that workshop was to tell these people about the quality of life assessment and what DCHSI was doing.  They then spent the bulk of the time asking people to give their responses to a basic question, which is, “What are some of the key issues facing the human service delivery in DeKalb County for the next five years?”  Everyone’s input was recorded and people could vote on what they felt was those key priorities. They have that data collected and organized and will get it out to the people that were present.

Those priorities are not, in and of themselves, the priorities that they may move forward with, said Mr. Templin.  They are finalizing the quality of life assessment and planning Phase II of the Initiative now.

Mr. Templin continued by stating that with Goal #3 the real issue relates to capacity vs. need, under the overlapping services issue.  For example, let’s say that you are driving down Sycamore Road and see the Ben Gordon Center and Family Service Agency there and something in the paper said that they both offer counseling for kids.  Just because they both offer counseling for kids, doesn’t mean that they offer it in the same way. 

Chairman Rosemier said that on that same subject Ms. Carney of the Mental Health Board has carried forth something that started at this committee level, when we first became aware of a new interpretation of an existing law relative to senior abuse.  There is a new definition of self-abuse now that is to be treated as if it were elder abuse, he continued.  That involves a whole series of events, investigation, resolution and punishment if necessary.  He asked Elder Care Services, who is the licensed investigator for elder abuse to come and tell us about their interpretation.  He invited all of these other agencies to attend, too. After that meeting convened, Ms. Carney asked them to meet again to see where the County is going with this. As our committee is distributing senior tax levy funds, we could have all six agencies saying, “We need to do this because we are going to be treating them - no we need to do this, we’re going to be treating them, etc.”  So Ms. Carney’s group is attempting to ask, “What are the parts?  Who is going to provide them?  Who’s going to apply for funds in order to provide this?”  They have gotten some sort of a resolution that will be seen in our county board packet.  That is an on-going thing, they will next meet on the 13^th of March, explained Chairman Rosemier.

Mr. Templin then passed out an updated Narrative from the one that Ms. Olson produced a few months ago on the initiative. 

Under Phase III, Mr. Templin said that it will answer, “What do we know now?  How does this change the way that we do things now?” 

So, strategic planning will be primarily funding, that is, how to spend your money? Asked Chairman Rosemier.

Mr. Templin said that they are not sure just yet. 

Ms. Olson said that as they study the needs of the community they may find little pockets where there is a need, then as a group of funders, they may need to focus on these pockets for a little while. 

Chairman Rosemier thanked Mr. Templin for his very informative presentation.

MARY OLSON, DEKALB COUNTY COMMUNITY SERVICES DIRECTOR: HISTORY OF SENIOR TAX LEVY, THEIR USE & DISTRIBUTION FOR COMMITTEE REVIEW OF THIS YEAR’S REQUEST FOR FUNDS.

          Ms. Olson passed out all of the proposals for senior services for the Senior Tax Levy Hearings that will be held in April.  She said that Elder Care has submitted three different proposals and that she placed them first on the agenda.  She pointed out that they will need a little more time for their presentation because of these three proposals.  She continued by stating that the committee will begin the meeting on April 2, 2007 @ 5:30p.m. and then the second meeting will be held on April 9^th to award the funds.  The committee agreed with her schedule and to begin the meeting at 5:30p.m. in Conference Room East. The second meeting on April 9^th will begin at 6:30p.m. in Conference Room East.

Senior Tax Levy 3^rd Quarter Report

          Ms. Olson then passed out the #3^rd Quarter Report on the Senior Tax funding.  She said that some of the agencies have expended most of the money.  Family Service Agency has not spent everything just yet.  The agencies should have spent around 60% of their funds by now and Family Service Agency has only spent 46.75% so far. 

          Ms. Olson reminded the committee members to remember that the intent of these proposals, submitted for the Senior Tax Funds, is to prevent premature institutionalization of senior citizens. 

ADJOURNMENT

          The committee could not adjourn because they were no quorum present.

                                                Respectfully submitted,

                                                _________________________________________

                                                Chairman Robert Rosemier

RR/mcs