MINUTES
SOCIAL SERVICES ADVISORY BOARD
Downtown Library- SMALL Conference Room
5:15 PM – Monday – April 18, 2011
MEMBERS PRESENT: Joanne Scmidt, Eva Bennett, Suzanne Dutson & Bill Dillon.
MEMBERS PRESENT: Marilyn Doyle & Carol Browning.
STAFF PRESENT: Angelica Lopez-Campos
PUBLIC PRESENT: None
I. CALL TO ORDER: Joanne Schmidt called the meeting to order at 5:17 p.m. A quorum was present.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES: Eva Bennett moved to approve the minutes from the Special Meeting on March 28, 2011. Bill seconded the motion. Hearing no discussion or amendments, the minutes were approved as written.
III. CHANGES TO AGENDA: There were no changes to the agenda
IV. OLD BUSINESS: There was no discussion of old business.
V. NEW BUSINESS
1- Work session to discuss: - Best practices for addressing the problem areas hi-lighted in the COMPASS report, also known as the United Way indicators (on the United Way web site http://www.unitedwayseak.org/), - Quarterly reports (including copy and pasting), - Mission and goals for next year.
Many long-standing issues have been identified in the COMPASS report (aka Juneau Indicators); homelessness, substance abuse, domestic violence, other criminal activity, abuse and neglect of minors, etc. The United Way report classified the issues/problems in 3 main categories: Health, Education & Income Stability.
Strategies were discussed on how to deal with these problems. There was consensus among the group that throwing more money at the problems without a clear plan was self-defeating. Duplication of efforts, lack of synergy, and “holes” (lack of affordable housing, which contributes to all of the indicators) were identified as the reasons why progress is slow in the above mentioned areas.
One strategy was to vet the grants to determine where efforts are being duplicated and making hard decision to not fund those grants. Additionally, ending funding for grants that meet all of the goals of their proposal, but just don’t contribute to a positive change in the community, was discussed. The Board felt that it could intervene in duplication of services but not in “consumer choice”. In the case of duplication, these monies could be diverted to other programs that might be more impactful and/or meet the needs of a broader segment of the population.
Another strategy was to create sub-committees on the Board in the areas of health, education, and income stability. This would allow the opportunity for the members of the sub-committee to get a deeper understanding of every grant proposal, where there maybe overlap, and where there are areas with their sub-section that needs more attention.
A third strategy was to add performance measures for all grants. If Grant applicants do not meet their goals/measures, or cannot explain why goals/measures are not being met, funding should be pulled. The Board asked Angelica to please email a copy of the Board Resolutions to each member so they can research what kind of authority the Board used to have before the new resolution repealed the old one.
2- Have guidelines on applications to deal with budget changes.
No discussions on this topic as time ran out.
There was brief discussion regarding finding new board members to fill the empty position the SSAB has right now.
Suzanne Dutson made a motion to schedule another work meeting for the sole purpose of restructuring the SSAB and its role, updating the application process for this coming Dec 2011, and discussing quarterly reports deficiencies received from agencies. The motion was seconded by Eva Bennett. The date of May 9, at 5:15 p.m. was proposed and accepted. The meeting is scheduled to last 1 hour and 30 minutes.
VI. SET AGENDA FOR NEXT MEETING
Restructuring the SSAB and its role, updating the application process for this coming Dec 2011, and discussing quarterly reports deficiencies received from agencies.