April 21, 2023 Minutes

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Human Services Advisory Commission - Meeting Minutes

Meeting: April 21, 2023

In Attendance: Human Services Advisory Commission Members: Elizabeth Barber, Stacey Casteel, Stephanie Foos, Stephanie Gausch, Stanley Graffis, Jodi Hartmann, Scott K. James, Tammy Phillips, Lisa Taylor, Tom Teixeira, Adam Turk, and Melanie Woolman

Absent: Human Services Advisory Commission Members: Enita Kearns-Hout

In Attendance: Weld County Department of Human Services Representatives: Julie Witkowski, Lesley Cobb, and Kristen Sigg

Recording Secretary: Lesley Cobb

Welcome

The meeting was called to order at 8:17 a.m.

Presentation

Melanie Woolman shared that United Way Weld County (UWWC) is going to go through a comprehensive Strategic Plan. During this time, they will seek community and stakeholder feedback. Melanie gave an overview of where and why UWWC invests their funding: health determinates such as housing and transportation rather than healthcare itself. This decision was based on feedback from health care leaders and organizations in the region. Melanie then gave an overview of the five main initiatives of UWWC: Reading Great by 8, Thrived by 25, Weld’s Way Home, Aging Well, and Connecting Weld. Melanie explained that they have paused their own distribution of diapers due to a decrease in funding and increase in demand, however, they are still providing diapers to their partners who then distribute the diapers to clients. They plan to restart the diaper bank next year when they receive State funding to support it. Melanie then spoke about the shelter. The cold weather shelter has closed, but the day shelter is open for people to have a place to be during the day.

Introductions

Review of Minutes from January 20, 2023
Motion to approve was made by Jodi Hartmann and seconded by Elizabeth Barber. The minutes were unanimously approved.

2022 Core Services Family Preservation/Placement Alternative Commission Report

Ryan Traylor explained that the purpose is to look at the quality and capacity of core services in our area. He then presented results of this year’s report. Availability of services is okay, but they have seen capacity decrease, especially for mental health and substance abuse treatment services. Currently we do not have any providers to treat youth for substance abuse, however there is a need for that service. We do not have day treatment facilities in the area, there are very few in the State. They are also looking to be more inclusive from a diversity, equity, and inclusion standpoint. They are hoping to achieve this by contracting with additional providers and updating language in our contracts. Ryan explained that although we have over 80 providers for Core services, many of those are one single provider with one specialty, and there are capacity challenges, so it is hard to get all of the services that we need fulfilled, especially for mental health services.

Jodi brought up the need for mental health professionals for many of the services in the community and the need for a community wide push to find these professionals.

Community Services Block Grant Financial Report

John Kruse presented the Community Services Block Grant Financial Report for 2022 and the first three months of 2023. Last year, there was about $700,000.00 available, the majority of which was CARES Act funding. This year, the funding has been reduced because there is less COVID funding available. The Department has therefore reallocated

Anti-discrimination training opportunity

Julie shared this training opportunity with members. It is not a required training. Information about how to sign up for the training is included in the handout.

Child Abuse Prevention Month

Julie shared that April is Child Abuse Prevention Month. The Board of County Commissioners did a Proclamation at the start of the month. The chalk art event is open to the community.

2022 Annual Achievement Summary

Kristen Sigg introduced herself, she is the new Strategic Coordinator for the Department. Kristen presented the 2022 Annual Achievement Summary. The summary includes statistics and success stories with our clients. Additionally, there is a thank you to our community partners.

Strategic Plan Update

Kristen Sigg explained that they have restructured how they will be facilitating the Strategic Action Plan. In the past, there were three separate teams focused on different initiatives. Moving forward, there will be one large team who will meet quarterly and then smaller teams that focus on individual projects more often. There are currently 22 staff who are part of the Strategic Plan team.

Housing Stability Program

Julie shared that this program has been formed out of the Emergency Rental Assistance Program. Rather than providing just financial assistance, this program will more support. They are hoping to do eviction prevention and to send clients to housing navigation. The effort will be to keep people stable in their home. The funding for this program will go through 2025.

Contract Services Update

Lesley Cobb provided an update regarding contracted services. During the first quarter of 2023, Contract Management completed 120 items. Lesley highlighted some of the major projects that were completed within that quarter. This included two Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Area Agency on Aging, the response for Case Management Agency services RFP, and the Core and Contract Services RFP proposal.

Youth Programs

Karina introduced Jeff Smith who is the new Employment and Training Operator in the Employment Services Division.

  • Summer Voucher Program
    • They distribute vouchers for $175.00 to youth to participate in various programs. So far, they have distributed 440 vouchers and they do not have a limit in the number of vouchers they can distribute.
  • Weld Works for Youth
    • This program pays $13.65 an hour and offers “bonuses” for youth who attend workshops.
    • Their goal is to serve 80 individuals with this program.
  • Pillars of Successful Independence
    • This is for youth who are in foster or kinship care.
    • Workshops are provided to teach the youth skills for independent living.
    • There are also social skill developments where they take youth out to restaurants or to outings such as free days at the Art Museum in Denver.

Community Updates

  • Stacey Casteel
    • Through the Weld Faith Partnership Council, they are working with someone who is involved with youth rodeo. The Council is trying to highlight a lot of his work. They are also focused on the Foster Care Awareness event in May.
  • Jodi Hartmann
    • Jodi said they submitted their application for the housing project. They will find out at the end of May if they are awarded the project.
  • Elizabeth Barber
    • Elizabeth shared that they celebrated their 35th anniversary as a non-profit organization. She announced that starting next fall, they will be serving Kersey in addition to School District 6.
  • Adam Turk
    • He shared they are doing mass hiring.
    • They signed up and were accepted for a program Active Bystander for Law Enforcement (ABLE) through the Georgetown University School of Law. They are the 17th agency in Colorado to be accepted into the program. The program requires you to evaluate your policies, trainings, and every member of the organization is required to go through a certification to learn how to intervene. The goal is to empower the new officers that if they see something, to say something. It doesn’t matter what their title or rank is.
  • Enita Kearns-Hout
    • Julie shared an update on behalf of Enita who was unable to attend today as she is covering for a staff member who is having emergency surgery. Enita wanted to share that
      since the closing of the cold weather shelter, they have been very busy with not only overflow families but also single women who are working with our Coordination team of shelters and DHS to provide triage planning.
    • Julie explained that to accommodate overflow, they will turn any space into a location for someone to sleep. That can include conference rooms.
  • Stanley Graffis
    • Stanley shared that the VFW 2121, is looking to vet volunteers who come in so they try to work with the Veteran’s Resource Center. They will be hosting the State VFW convention in June. There will likely be 300 to 400 people coming in for that four (4) day period. It will take place at the Greeley post and Garden City.
  • Commissioner James
    • Thanked everyone for their service to the citizens of Weld County. Commissioner James is concerned about the lack of availability of mental health services in the County. He would like to continue this discussion with anyone on the Commission who would like to discuss further. He shared that mental health is at the top of his list of priorities and he would like to use his position to help.
  • Lisa Taylor
    • Lisa reminded everyone that Bright Futures deadline is May 15th and asked everyone to spread the word to our County Youth.

The meeting adjourned at 9:45 a.m.

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