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Human Services Advisory Commission
Meeting Minutes
December 8, 2009
7:40 - 9:25 p.m.
Glenview Mansion
| Members Present: | ||
| Rachel Carr Tina Cheatwood Bob Dorsey | Cindy Griffiths Stephen Huang David L’Heureux | Scott Robins Agnes Saenz Eric Wang |
| Members Absent: | ||
| Kim Dawkins | ||
| Staff Present: | ||
| Mary Lou Jacobs | Sarah Gicale |
Re: Call Meeting to Order/ Introductions
Cindy Griffiths called the meeting to order at 7:40 p.m.
Re: Approve November 13 Meeting Minutes
Eric Wang moved that the minutes be approved as written. Scott Robins seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Re: Services Available to Rockville Residents from Montgomery Works
Guest: Barbara Kaufman, Director, Division of Workforce Services, Montgomery County Department of Economic Development
Barbara explained that she works in the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development and oversees Montgomery Works. This program has two customers: individuals wanting to find jobs and businesses that need to find employees.
Currently Montgomery Works has locations in the Westfield Wheaton Shopping Center, the Upcounty Regional Service Center in Germantown and the Correctional Facility in Boyds. The Upcounty location has been open a little over two months. Services were moved from Lakeforest Mall and the program now has more space so both adult and youth services are provided from one location. In addition the County saves on rental costs.
Services available to walk-in clients include large computers for working on resumes, job searches and job applications. More and more positions are offered through an on-line format. Staff is available to assist the job seeker for all of these tasks. Montgomery Works locations also offer workshops on topics such as resume writing, interviewing, conflict resolution and applying for federal jobs. Counselors also help job seekers identify barriers preventing them from locating a job. For example, job applicants needing additional English language instruction will be referred to language programs in the County. In addition, Montgomery Works has companies doing ongoing recruitment at their centers, e.g., United Parcel Service. Staff also provides job fairs throughout the year where they work to match individuals with job openings.
A 30-person board is responsible for oversight of the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development. The board is business-led and has members with various skills. Some seats are specific to certain sectors, e.g., education. Once or twice a year a term may expire in which case anyone can apply to fill the opening.
In response to the Commission’s question as to how Rockville residents are being served, Barbara said that she checked the statistics for Montgomery Works from July 1 through November 30, 2009, and found that 20% of the people seen during that period came from Rockville zip codes, specifically 20850 and 20851. Last year Montgomery Works saw 13,000 people, a 21% increase over the previous year.
With respect to funding, Barbara said that 70% of the funding for Montgomery Works comes from federal funds that flow through the state to seven workforce areas in Maryland and are dispersed according to a formula. The other 30% of funding comes from other state grants and county government. The budget is just under three million dollars, although currently about 4 million due to Recovery Act dollars. (A good portion of Recovery Act dollars is being used in Montgomery County to prepare materials in different languages.)
On the topic of promoting Montgomery Works’ services, Barbara said that they often have a table at different events. They have not done a lot of outreach through marketing as that is expensive plus the program is bursting at the seams and can’t take on much more.
David L’Heureux asked about services to people with disabilities. Barbara responded that one of their partners has been Transcen, Inc. so that when an individual with a disability comes in, the location has accessible equipment. Another partner is the Division of Rehabilitation Services (DORS). St. Luke’s is in the one-stop center at Wheaton as is the Jewish Council on Aging. David suggested using InterACC/DD to get the word out to provider agencies.
Eric Wang then asked about the needs of unemployed persons who don’t speak English. Barbara responded that Montgomery Works will pay for people who are income eligible to get English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) training. It’s essential to get language skills to a certain proficiency level. There continues to be a need in this area; many people are on the waiting list at Montgomery College, for example. There is a need to figure out a way to do both ESOL and occupational language skills at the same time, not sequentially.
Rachel Carr inquired as to the unemployment rate in Rockville. Barbara responded that she did not have figures for Rockville but the rate in Montgomery County is 5.4%.
Mary Lou Jacobs said she was concerned about the disproportionate rate of Rockville residents seeking employment (20%) and asked if Montgomery Works sees many people from the Men’s Emergency and other shelters in Rockville. Barbara said that can’t be determined. She added that many shelters offer their own employment services.
Stephen Huang asked Barbara what services she would add if she had a blank check. Her response was additional job centers and staff. She said that Montgomery Works needs more outplacement of staff and resources, which translates to more centers. There is also a shortage of space for training needs. One advantage of using centers for employment assistance is that they still receive emails from partners advertising available jobs. Agnes Saenz asked what would be needed to open a satellite office in Rockville. Barbara said it would be difficult to provide a staff person. One idea might be to post information and have a computer available that links the user with the Maryland Workforce Exchange. The new Rockville library staff is fabulous at helping their customers with some job search. Possibly Montgomery Works could prepare information for them and help train some people who could then train others. Mary Lou asked if she had considered the Twinbrook Library as a site. Barbara responded that she was not familiar with it and asked if there was space there for a computer class. One issue with the Rockville library is parking. Both Wheaton and Germantown have free parking.
Follow up: Barbara agreed, in response to a question from Tina Cheatwood, to provide information on income eligibility for employment services; to research the unemployment rate in Rockville; to provide a list of electronic job postings; and to make certain that InterACC/DD was on their list of partners.
Re: Old Business
Letter to Mayor/Council on Affordable Housing
After discussion it was agreed that the letter should be sent quickly in order to encourage the Mayor and Council to include affordable housing in their vision statement, which they will be completing in January 2010. David L/Heureux moved and Tina Cheatwood seconded a motion that the letter be sent to the Mayor and Council with a few edits and a final sentence that “we strongly encourage you to include affordable housing in your vision statement.” The motion passed with one abstention. Cindy said she would send the edited letter to everyone in an email.
Recommendations re: Creating Subcommittee for Reviewing Annual Reports from Caregiver Agencies
Scott Robins said that, after meeting with Tim Stranges and Mary Lou Jacobs to discuss the 2009 Year End Report for Outside Agencies, he thought it would be helpful to create a subcommittee to review the six month utilization reports from the outside agencies and come up with a list of questions that panel members could ask during the grant application process. Mary Lou added that the subcommittee could also potentially ask the Caregivers for additional feedback, as, for example, the agency that did not explain why it administered just three satisfaction surveys last year. Scott said he was looking for Commission volunteers to join him. Stephen volunteered to serve on the subcommittee.
Cindy said that she would like to adjourn regular business meetings at 9 p.m. and break into subcommittees. In addition to Scott’s concept, she listed the other subcommittees previously identified by Commission members: Youth Services, Employment, Faith-based Services, Safety Net Services, and the 20850 issue (access to services) and encouraged uncommitted Commission members to decide where they would like to serve.
Re: Plan Agenda for January Meeting
Re: Adjournment
David moved to adjourn the meeting. Agnes seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 9:25 p.m.
The next meeting of the Human Services Advisory Commission will be held Tuesday, January 12, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in the Black Eyed Susan conference room at Rockville City Hall, 111 Maryland Avenue.