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Human Services Advisory Commission
Meeting Minutes
June 8, 2010
7:35 - 9:40 p.m.
Rockville City Hall
| Members Present: | ||
| Rachel Carr Bob Dorsey Scott Robins | Tina Cheatwood Cindy Griffiths Eric Wang | Kim Dawkins David L’Heureux |
| Members Absent: | ||
| Agnes Saenz | Stephen Huang | |
| Staff Present: | ||
| Mary Lou Jacobs | Sarah Gicale |
Re: Call Meeting to Order/ Introductions
Cindy Griffiths called the meeting to order at 7:35 p.m. She welcomed Crystal Carr, Community Services Director for the City of Gaithersburg, and asked members to introduce themselves.
Re: Guest: Crystal Carr, Community Services Director City of Gaithersburg
Crystal explained that in the City of Gaithersburg, Community Services is housed within the Department of Community and Public Relations. The Division’s responsibilities include running the scholarship program, facilitating meetings for the Providers’ Coalition, representing the City at the Gaithersburg Business Alliance, and overseeing funding to nonprofit agencies.
During the past year the City of Gaithersburg has worked on transitioning from non-competitive grants to competitive contracts for nonprofits serving City residents. The Community Advisory Committee, which consists of ten members, set the process for allocating funds to nonprofit agencies. This committee reviewed best practices, examined needs in Gaithersburg, reviewed grant applications and made recommendations to Gaithersburg’s Mayor and Council. Each member of this committee is appointed by the Mayor and Council; members do not have to be residents of Gaithersburg. One is an executive director of a nonprofit agency while another member is employed by a nonprofit and two members are employed by the federal and county governments respectively.
In the past, Crystal said, the grant application process has not included a statement of the human service needs in Gaithersburg. She wanted to see a coordinated service approach and thought the City should have more control as to where dollars were being directed. Gaithersburg had done a needs assessment every year. This past year they also surveyed providers to assess increased needs and then established priority areas. As an example the Community Advisory Committee determined that Gaithersburg has 150 homeless adults each year. In the RFP process, they asked agencies to respond specifically as to the services they would provide to meet this need. The priority areas of need identified by the City were: Homeless Assistance for Families, Homeless Assistance for Singles, Homelessness Prevention and Emergency Assistance, Food Assistance, Health Services, Mental Health Services, Workforce Development and Training, and Positive Youth Development Services.
Crystal said that, as much as possible, they tried to use a business model for the new RFP process. This included:
The Community Advisory Committee’s solution was to create partnerships among programs and agencies that provide the same kinds of services. The Request for Proposals had stringent criteria that had to be met. For example, responding agencies had no choice but to collaborate.
The total amount provided through the City’s grants process this year was the same as last year. Crystal is hoping that, in time, the City will have multi-year contracts so they will only need to go through the process once every three years. In addition to reducing the City’s administrative costs, this gives the nonprofits greater security. However, that change was not possible for the first year of the new process.
Tina Cheatwood asked if money is available for evaluation. Crystal said that the lead agency is granted money for administration, which does not necessarily include evaluation. This is something else Gaithersburg may need to look into. The federal government has a different administrative rate than the county, which has a different rate than other jurisdictions, etc. She thinks there should be a specific process for determining this rate.
Her vision for the future includes connecting more with the business community. As an example, banks are required to donate a certain amount of money back to the community. A review team model is already in place, which makes it possible for businesses to contribute dollars while City staff provides due diligence. Crystal pointed out that this is not solely her idea; it is also the new approach taken by the United Way.
Re: Approve May 11 Meeting Minutes
After discussion the second sentence in the first paragraph under “Old Business” was amended to read: “Tina Cheatwood also testified as the Commission’s representative on the Grant Review Panel. She suggested that every Caregiver agency have an outside evaluation every several years and offered various methods of accomplishing this on a pro bono basis.” Bob Dorsey moved that the minutes be approved as amended. Tina seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously.
Re: Report on Recent Site Visit
Interfaith Clothing Center: Cindy said she attended this site visit with Sarah Gicale on May 13. Cindy said the current program director, Sabrina Wilson, has implemented several changes. There is now a separate entrance for donors to bring clothing; the hours for shopping have been expanded; clients are able to come every month to shop and can take as much clothing as they want. Cindy thinks the program is making a real effort to serve low-income clients. The only problem found during the site visit was with record keeping. The program had been using an old database, which was not keeping accurate records. Sabrina has a new solution in place and is now keeping better track of client data. Cindy was also impressed with the way Interfaith Clothing works with other programs in the community to recruit, train and use volunteers.
Mary Lou told Commission members that the Executive Director of Interfaith Works, the parent agency for Interfaith Clothing, has just taken a leave of absence in order to run for County Council. They have also recently announced that the satellite clothing center in Gaithersburg will be closing due to lack of funding. This may impact the Rockville site.
Manna Food Center: Tina and Bob said they had attended this site visit with Sarah on May 18. Bob said they were all impressed with how organized every thing is at the new location, which they toured. Cindy asked how the program was managing without a director. Bob responded that Angela Whitmal, the interim director, pointed out that Manna operates like a machine; each staff member knows their role. Tina told Commission members about the Smart Sacks Program, which supplies a backpack of food for needy children to take home on Friday for the weekend. There was discussion as to the kinds of foods that are used. Manna staff told the site visit team that fresh fruits and vegetables could not be included because the contents for the backpacks are usually picked up every two weeks from Manna. Nevertheless, this children’s program has been highly successful and is in place in several Rockville elementary schools. The site visit team also learned that Manna is now distributing food one evening a week at Lincoln Park Community Center in an effort to reach out to Rockville clients. This site replaces the former church site, which, according to Angela, was difficult for clients to find.
Helping Hands Shelter: Scott Robins reported on this site visit, which he attended on May 18 with Mary Lou. He said that the house is quite small with space for 7-8 women and their children at any one time. It is owned and operated by Mt. Calvary Baptist Church. During the visit Scott asked the director, Ann Chapman, what the ideal size for the shelter would be. She said they would like to expand to allow 16 people but have not been able to get approval from the City. Mary Lou said she was not sure as to what the reason is but from the City’s perspective, the shelter serves very few City residents. Scott said they seem to be using their grant very judiciously.
Elderly Ministries: David L’Heureux said that he had attended this site visit with Scott and Mary Lou on May 25. David commented on the new office space for Community Ministries of Rockville, the parent agency for Elderly Ministries. He said that the program now has two part time staff, one of whom, Barbara Smith Brady, is new since the last site visit. Scott said that he told Sylvia George, the program director, that he liked their reports. He had gotten a good sense of the program from their reports.
Mary Lou said that Elderly Ministries is one of the programs that receives the most money from the City. As people age, they may need in-home support. But how is this determined? The program currently assesses income eligibility and then does a functional assessment, i.e., can the person take care of him/her self in daily living. Sometimes people may need these services initially but then are not tracked sufficiently after they begin receiving services for staff to know whether the need continues. It appears that staff wait for the senior to inform them they no longer need services. Mary Lou feels there is a policy issue involved as to whether the City wants to require an annual assessment of each client. Mary Lou thinks it would be appropriate for staff in the Senior Center’s outreach program to be involved in an assessment of that type.
There is also a question as to how Elderly Ministries interfaces with the County’s program, which provides the same services. Initially Elderly Ministries was started to provide services to seniors who were waiting to be served through the County program. But County funding has decreased for this program over the years. In addition, the County continually re-ranks their waiting list based on the needs and resources of clients so it is impossible for Elderly Ministries to know when one of their clients will be accepted into the County program.
Re: Plan Agenda for July 13 Meeting
Re: Adjourn
David moved that the meeting be adjourned; Scott seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 p.m.
The next meeting of the Human Services Advisory Commission will be held Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 7:30 p.m. in the Black Eyed Susan conference room at Rockville City Hall, 111 Maryland Avenue.