October 24, 2025 Minutes

Human Services Advisory Commission - Meeting Minutes

Meeting: October 24, 2025

In Attendance: Stacey Casteel, Ernest Cienfuegos-Baca, Stephanie Foos, Stephanie Gausch, Jodi Hartmann, Andrea Hernandez, Enita Kearns-Hout, Kelly Martinez, Lynette Peppler, David Reyes Jr., and Gillian Smith

Absent: Vincent Ornelas and Adam Turk

Department of Human Services (DHS) Staff in Attendance: Tami Grant, Carol Salter, Julie Witkowski, and Lesley Cobb

Recording Secretary: Lesley Cobb

Welcome

The meeting was called to order at 8:21 a.m.

Presentation

David Reyes, Assistant Director of the Family Center and Culture of Excellence for Greeley-Evans School District 6, presented an overview of the Family Center.  The Family Center was originally created to be a one-stop-shop for refugee families to do school registration and become familiar with the school setting. Families are able to get backpacks and school supplies as well as a list of their teachers and language acquisition testing if needed. The Family Center has grown over the years and is now currently staffed by eight (8) that support highly mobile students such as students experiencing homelessness, foster care students and migrant students.  They also act as a referral hub in providing community resources to adults. 

Introductions

Review of Minutes from July 18, 2025

Motion to approve the minutes from July 18^th, 2025, was made by Jodi Hartmann and seconded by Enita Kearns-Hout. The minutes were unanimously approved.

2026 Membership, Officers, and Meeting Dates

Julie Witkowski informed the Commission that the current bylaws allow members to serve up to two (2) consecutive years in the officer positions of Chair, Vice Chair, and Secretary. 

The current 2025 officers confirmed that they would like to continue in their positions within the Commission as follows for 2026:

• Chairperson – Stacey Casteel
• Vice-Chairperson – Stephanie Foos
• Secretary – Jodi Hartmann

A motion was made to approve the continuation of the three current officers as noted above by Gillian Smith and seconded by Stephanie Gausch.  The 2026 officers were unanimously approved. 

The 2026 HSAC meeting dates and times noted below were presented.  A motion was made to approve the dates presented by Enita Kearns-Hout and seconded by Stephanie Gausch.  The dates and times were unanimously approved.

2025-26 Core Services Program Plan

Ryan Traylor reviewed the 2025-26 Core Services Program Plan. This plan was submitted to the State to give them a breakdown of how we anticipate the allocation of our Core funding, as well as to add any program areas that we would like to spend our Core funding that are unique to our area.  This year the Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST) and the Functional Family Therapy (FFT) were taken out, and the Housing Navigation program was added.  Ryan reported that the submitted plan has been approved by the State. 

Community Services Block Grant (CSBG)

Expenditure Report – Julie Witkowski presented the CSBG Expenditure Report as of September 2025.  She reported that the Department is monitoring CSBG federally as it is potentially at risk or reduction or elimination. 

Strategic Plan Update

Julie Witkowski presented the DHS 2025 to 2027 Strategic Plan that the Department released.  She discussed the Strategic Priorities of the Department and how we are going into the next three years.   

Contracted Services Update

Lesley Cobb provided an update regarding DHS contracted services for the 3^rd quarter of 2025.  She also updated the Commission on the Request for Application (RFA) process, which is a new method that DHS is using to seek providers for various Child Welfare professional services as well as other services needed within the department.  The Department has received one application, and it was reviewed by the Review Team.  The Review Team made the final determination to reject the application due to the applicant’s physical location distance from Weld County.

Division Audits/Evaluations/Reports

Kelly Krause, Foster Care Supervisor, reported on the Certified Kinship and Foster Care Annual Audit.  This audit occurred in May and sampled 26 initial certification files and 25 recertification files.  From that audit the Department received three (3) perfect certificates of appreciation.

Sherry McCary, Assistance Payments Operations Manager, talked about the recent SNAP Management Evaluation (ME) review that took place in June. During this review the State’s target areas were SNAP Able-bodied Adult Without Dependents (ABAWD) work requirements, contact through the Call Center, fiscal compliance, household reporting requirements, initial certification processes, payment error rates, case and procedural rates, program access, recertification processes, claims management, Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card inventory, EBT security, and EBT customer service.  In all these areas, the State did not find any errors.

Department Updates

Department updates were received from:

• Julie Witkowski – Serving opportunity at the Cold Weather Shelter. 
• Julie Witkowski – Volunteer opportunity for Foster Care Holiday Party, December 3^rd and 4^th.

Community Updates

Community updates were received from:

• Stephanie Gausch
• Jodi Hartmann
• Ernest Cienfuegos-Baca
• Enita Kearns-Hout
• David Reyes Jr.
• Stephanie Foos

Meeting Adjourned

Meeting adjourned at 10:44 a.m.