Chippewa County Multi-Purpose Collaborative Body MINUTES of February 21, 2017.

1)Betsy Huggett called the meeting to order at 11:35a.m. with introductions

2)Present were: Barbara Reed (United Way of the EUP),Teresa Dwyer-Armstrong (War Memorial Hospital), Rochelle Menominee (UP Kids), Jeannie O-Brien (UP Kids), Betsy Huggett (Diane Peppler Resource Center), Sheldon Kranendonk (Alcona Health Center), Nikki Dowd-McKechnie (EUP Community Dispute Resolution Center), Squeak Birgy (American Red Cross), Barbara Weber (Weber & Devers), Cara LaFaver (Great Start Collaborative), Andrea Osborn (CHAC), Len McKeen (True North), Melanie Greenfield (Great Start Resource Center), Laura Tucker (Great Start Parent Coalition)

3)Minutes

Nikkimade a motion seconded by Sheldonto approve the minutes from December 20, 2016 with a correction to the date that is on the minutes and adding CHAC as paid for their dues on the financials. Motion carried.

4)Financial

The Financial report was reviewed. There is enough funding to cover the final quarter for the Coordinator stipend. In July, a new invoice for dues will be sent out. At that time, be sure to get your dues in right away. This funding is used to cover the Coordinator’s position. Nikki made a motion seconded by Squeak to approve the financial statement. Motion carried.

5)Spotlight: VITA Program, Mindy McCready

The title is Volunteer Income Tax Assistance. Mindy is a CPA and a professor at LSSU. This is their 10th year of running the program. Students who volunteer for this have already completed an Income tax course. This means they are a Junior or Senior in college and are certified through a training they take in January. It runs from the end of January through the middle of April. This is for lower income families and must be a very basic return. Mindy reviews each tax return. This year they have 16 students working on taxes where last year they had 12. The client stays until the return is done. Last year they were able to do 85 and this year will be 100. The returns brought in $61,000 into our community last year with $26,000 in Earned Income Tax Credits. The students receive a credit to do this program. They do have to work with difficult clients at times, but that is not the majority. The returns are done every Monday from 3pm to 5pm. They are also able to do the home heating credit and the homestead tax credit. The United Way Volunteer Center does all of the scheduling and sending out reminders. United Way does the marketing through the United Way website, facebook, posters. When there is a situation that they can’t handle, it is referred to a local accountant. Jennifer Dunton contacted Mindy ten years ago to get this program started. Anyone can be a Site Coordinator, but you must go through the training.

6)New Business-

  1. Update the Membership list. If anyone has contact information on SAIL, let Barb know. She would like to have them present at one of our meetings.
  2. Sault Area Public Schools is working on a grant for Mental Health Awareness. If awarded, they would receive $5,000 for training educators and improving services to school age children. They currently have 1 counselor. This would provide the funds to pay for additional counselors. They are going to reach out to other schools in the hopes of being able to provide this service throughout the tri-county area. The grant would allow for teaching signs and symptoms, plus greater access to mental health care. The grant was submitted by Amy Kronemeyer through the Community Foundation of the UP in Escanaba. It was due 2-17-17. There will be community events and mental health awareness night.

7)Unfinished Business-none

8)Workgroups:

  1. Executive Committee: none.
  2. Community Assessment for 2016: It is done and being finalized. It will be posted to the WMH website. Hope to have it up next week. WMH will be working on a Strategic plan, which will utilize the Community Assessment.
  3. Tobacco Free Living Coalition: February 19th - 25th is Through With Chew week. The Nurse Practitioner from the SHACC and the Health Dept. will be providing mouth checks and cessation tips for students at Sault High and Malcolm.

The Tobacco-Free Living Coalition has tentative plans for a Kick Butts day event. That's the 3rd Wednesday of March - I will provide more details as we have them. The TFLC will be at the Teen Health Fair March 21st. This year's health fair is at Sault High.

The Chippewa County Health department is still offering training and information on providing tobacco cessation interventions to clients and medical patients. The information is great for any medical providers or social service staff who have any contact with patients or clients. The training goes over how to identify and address tobacco use, tips to get people started with their quit attempt and different resources that the individuals can be referred to for continued support. There's a lot of information on the different services and eligibility for the MI Tobacco QuitLine as well. Usually takes 30 minutes to an hour depending on the agency. We also have QuitLine materials if anyone would like some to post at their office or agency. No cost, please contact Steve Carey at the Health Department if you have any interest or would like more information ()

TFLC meets the 1st Wednesday of each month at 1 o'clock - usually at the Superior Cafe. Anyone is invited to join us at meetings

  1. Chip Co Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition: The Substance Abuse Coalition will be meeting on March 8th at 8:30 at the Chippewa County Health Department. During this meeting, we will be discussing a couple of evidence-based coalition models in an effort to better structure community-based substance abuse prevention activities and programming. We are hoping to review and adopt a coalition model at this meeting and would welcome anyone interested in attending or participating in the coalition. If you would like more information, please contact Steve Carey at the Health Department ()
  2. Suicide Prevention: Pirates and Princesses will be coming up on May 13th. A flyer will be sent to Barb to distribute. Bonnie Kaunisto is in charge of this event. They are going to be training Cassidee Retzloff for the QPR. The Do It For Daniel event will take place next year. They have been in the schools a lot and don’t want to create a problem for them.
  3. EUP Continuum of Care:Betsy stated that she has applied for the Project Connect grant in Chippewa & Luce Counties with Lori Pieri working on the one for Mackinac County. They have a sponsor for the mobile pantry with Feeding America for the Chippewa event and are hoping to do the same for Luce. September 21st is Chippewa at the Big Bear gym from 10am to 2pm. There will be a free store and they are working on transportation. Maybe the LSSU bus or Casino bus. Big Bear will have tables and chairs. Luce County is at the School from 10am to 2pm on August 17th. Hoping to have a sponsor for the mobile pantry here also. August 30th is Mackinac County. Lori Pieri will have the details for this one. Still have not heard on the grant yet, but they are proceeding no matter what the outcome. The amount received will determine what things will be provided. More organizations applied this year than last. They are also adjusting the by-laws. They reviewed the PIT Count, which is the homeless count. They were looking at ways to improve it for next year. Talked of doing their own and more often.
  1. EUP Pre-Birth to 5: Early On referrals are coming in.
  2. EUP Gr. Start Collaborative: They are working on the Strategic Plan this year. The MI Dept. of Education uses Able Change. This format is guiding their process. Currently they are gathering data. Then they will work on a Parent Survey to see if the feedback matches the data. Cara will send a Survey Monkey link for Barb to send out to the MPCB. These surveys are due the end of March. The plan needs to be submitted by September 15th. Let Cara know if any parent needs assistance.
  3. Community Health Access Coalition: They have been busy with Open Enrollment season from November through January. Clients approved for Medicaid assistance received services with an annualized value of $61,000. Medicare recipients received services exceeding $48,000 in savings. Marketplace enrollees were found eligible for advanced premium tax credits totaling $71,000 monthly during open enrollment; the annualized tax credits amount exceeds over $854,000. They had over 550 appointments during that time. As a reminder, individuals can sign up anytime for Medicaid. There are special enrollment periods for the Marketplace. Medicare beneficiaries become eligible throughout the year (due to aging in or being deemed disabled). CHAC is available to assist them with understanding Medicare and enrolling into cost savings programs at any time. If you know anyone with healthcare questions, have them contact the CHAC office.
  4. United Way of the EUP: The Citizen Review Panel is on March 23rd from 7:30am to 1pm at the Big Bear. There will be an orientation for the CRP on March 14th from 8am to 9am at the EUP ISD. We are looking for volunteers to sit on this panel to help us determine funding levels for the Agencies.
  1. Agency Sharing:
  1. MPCB additional notes: Nathan Grenfell from the Michigan State Police will be speaking to us whenever we need him. UP Kids would like to speak in June, so I may have Nathan share in August. The Michigan Community Service Commission is looking for nominations for the Governor Service Awards.
  2. EUP Community Dispute Arts, Crafts, and Family Fun Fair that takes place on Engineers' Day (June 30 this year) has its own website... The registration form for artists, crafters, and food vendors is on the vendor page of that website. Non profits who are willing to provide a fun children's activity can fill out that same form, but ignore the charge. If you are a craft/arts vendor, they must be home made products. She is hoping to do a Murder Mystery Dinner Theater in October. Parents with a custody issue can do mediation for free due to a grant that Dispute has received. Special Education mediations are also free. These are for the tri-county area. Nikki will get a flyer to Barb.
  3. True North still has funding for utilities. They must have a late notice but do not need a shutoff. They also need 30 days proof of income. They processed 11,500 applications last year at this time. This year they have done 20,000. With so many coming through, they may have to shut off the emailing of applications for a few days. Len will keep us aware of what is going on. They are processing 300 to 500 a day. If you are emailing an application, watch for a bounce back in case the email is shut off.
  4. War Memorial Hospital has safe toothbrushes if we could use them for Project Connect. Teresa will get them to us. Thursday on 2-23 at 7pm is the Capstone Training (Improving your employee experience) at the Bayliss Library. There is a blood drive on March 2nd from 11am to 2pm at the WMH Medical Library done by the UP Regional Blood Center. All of the blood donations from this drive stay in the UP. There will be the WMH Community Baby Shower on April 21st from 6pm to 8pm at the LSSU Cisler Center. The heart health screenings have taken place every Monday in February. There is one more on Feb. 27th from 7:30am to 9:30am at the WMH Medical Library. The 100 Women with a Heart raised $5,000 and was donated to the Soo Theater. There were three Agencies to choose from: Soo Theater, Girls on the Run and Road to Recovery. They may do another one in the fall.
  5. UP Kids has a new program, the Reunification Program, for children coming out of Foster Care through DHHS. They will send Barb a flyer to disburse to the MPCB. A class of students at LSSU are putting on a carnival fundraiser for them on April 15th from noon to 5 at the LSSU Gym.
  6. Great Start Collaborative has a playgroup every Friday at 10am at Big Bear for the zero to 5 year old. They also have a lending library there.
  7. Great Start Resource Center, Melanie Greenfield, works with individuals to ensure that we have quality day care in our area. They also have a lending library.
  8. American Red Cross is working on the Home Fire Prevention Campaign. DTE has stated that if they can place 10,000 smoke detectors by the 29th of April, they will receive a grant for a half a million. They are looking for places to hold a Rally Day to give out these detectors. Hulbert is doing one for them. It was suggested Eckerman, Strongs, Pickford, Sugar Island. She will get a flyer to Barb. Her home phone is 906-293-1676 or her cell is 906-322-1535. Nikki was going to connect them to the JKL Girl Scouts for a presentation.
  9. Diane Peppler Resource Center is having the Dolly & Me fundraiser on April 2nd at the LSSU Cisler Center. Cost is $20 per person. A raffle is going on for the American Girl Doll of 2017. March 18th from 10am to 5pm at Kewadin is the Women’s Expo by Eagle 95.1. The booths are $199 that includes radio spots and advertising. In April, Betsy will not be able to join us. Nikki will chair that meeting. The Federal government is looking to cut the DV program. It will affect the Tribal shelters as well. They could lose their training funding and the attorneys that are free to their clients. It also provides the equipment that the Police Departments use to investigate cases. Check their website for more information, dprcenter.org.

The meeting ended at 1:35pm.

The next meeting is Tuesday, April 18, 2017 at the Avery Square Community Room on the 2nd floor with Jeff Hagan from Michigan Works! as our speaker.

Barbara Reed, recorder

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