Partnership & Service Coordination Committee

Meeting Minutes

Tuesday September 11, 2012

10am to 12pm

WoodGreen Community Services

815 Danforth Ave, 3rd Floor, Room 5

Agenda

  1. Welcome and Introductions
  2. The Good of the Community
  3. Discussion – Review of generated ideas/potential ideas to pursue
  4. Website (i.e. possibly coordinating with 211 – from Sandra)
  5. Review of ideas generated from partner LIPs (separate sheet)
  6. Discussion – Common Tools
  7. Evaluation and Assessment Tool (i.e. feedback suggestion form Newcomer Advisory Committee)
  8. Frontline Staff network
  9. Intake forms
  10. Referral Protocol
  11. Next meeting

Attendance
Peter Chiu / The Cross-Cultural Community Services Association (TCCSA)
Eleni Samartzis / Fred Victor
Allla Minasova / YMCA of GTA
Bob McLellan / Neighbourhood Link Support Services
Rosa Ribeiro / Parkdale Community Health Centre
Stella Osagie / The AIDS Committee of Toronto (ACT)
Sherry Phillips / City of Toronto, Social Development Finance & Administration
Natasa Boskovic / Newcomer Women`s Services Toronto
Lily Chan / University Settlement
Nasima Akter / Bangladeshi-Canadian Community Services (BCS)
Diane Dyson / WoodGreen Community Services
Staff
Tom Zizys / WoodGreen Community Services
Sandra Guerra / WoodGreen Community Services
Haweiya Egeh / WoodGreen Community Services
Regrets
Stephen Morrissey / Fred Victor Employment & Training Services
Bill Sinclair / St. Stephen`s Community House
Cassandra Wong / Parkdale Community Information Centre (PCIC)
Lynn Cullaton / Dixon Hall
Rochelle Fine / The Hincks-Dellcrest Centre
Salma Jaffer / The Four Villages Community Health Centre
Cindy Himelstein / Children's Aid Society of Toronto
Andrew Reddin / ACCES Employment
Adriana Vucetic-Odorico / Centre for Education and Training
Jim Fremlin / Centre for Education and Training
  1. Welcome and Introductions

Committee chair, Tom Zizys, welcomed the members of the committee and members introduced themselves.

  1. The Good of the Community

All members spoke about upcoming and/or ongoing projects happening within their respective agencies

  1. Discussion – Review of generated ideas/potential ideas to pursue

The expected outcomes of the meeting were discussed at the beginning of the meeting. The plan was for the meeting to consist of follow-up on the results of the Dotmocracy exercise (what should we now pursue?), as well as discussingsome ideas generated by the former LIPs and possibly incorporating these into the work of the committee.

Website

Sandra gave a brief orientation to the Toronto South LIP website. When discussing the “Services Near Me” tab, a member suggested that in addition to the filtering categories already available (i.e. Housing, employment, etc.), adding the categories of “Orientation” (i.e. orientation to the city, transit, etc.), and “Training” (i.e. category consisting exclusively of training programming in different areas – i.e. bridging programming, language skills training, etc.) would be very helpful given that newcomers are often most interested in these opportunities. An update was also provided on the possibility of working with 211 in developing a centralized database for all LIPs to utilize.The idea was brought by 211 to all Toronto LIPs and while some LIPs are hesitant (they’ve already committed resources to their own website), Toronto South LIP has left the lines of communication open to possibly pursue this in some way in the future given the benefit of this project (efficiency in disseminating information as well as centralizing sector information). A membercautioned that 211 is not updated often therefore is limited in it’s usefulness to frontline workers. The suggestion was made that if pursued, there may need to be a devoted IT person to handle the information on a regular basis (Alla from the YMCA mentioned that they have a department devoted to updating their inventory and this happens every 2 months).

Projects generated by former LIPs

The chair outlined some projects generated by former LIPs (provided on a separate sheet) for discussion. Members agreed that a series of professional development workshops and/or trainings would be a good idea to pursue by TSLIP. This provides opportunities for frontline staff to train in different subject areas (especially mental health) as well as network with each other.

Members also thought that the idea of the Frontline Staff Networkand the idea of a project researching private career colleges (institutions that often target newcomers and are fraught with fraud and other abuses) are two projects worth pursuing as a committee.

Other projects that came up in discussion and may be revisited in future committee discussions included the suggestion that conversation circlesbe more informal and include more “native” English speakers who can speak with newcomers in informal settings (i.e. coffee shop, someone’s home, etc.), and a suggestionto incorporate the results of the upcoming WoodGreen research report on informal economy into the work of the Partnership and Service Coordination Committee. Another member suggested that while job fairs for newcomers tend to be popular, they may not be the best option for helping newcomers integrate into the workforce. The committee should think of ways to incorporate newcomers into the decision-making process when deciding events to take on that are meant to help.

Next Steps:Staff will plan to make changes to the website. Staff will also collect and provide to members any existing information on the projects discussed that were generated by former LIPs for revision and discussion during the next committee meeting.

  1. Discussion - Common Tools

The committee discussed feedback that came out of the Newcomer Advisory Committee regarding a common evaluation and assessment tool(i.e. survey) to provide feedback to agencies on newcomer experiences with settlement services. The committee requested some clarification on what the intention behind this suggestion was (members mentioned that agencies already have mechanisms for feedback); questions that came up included:

  • Can we have an idea of what issues the newcomers are experiencing with respect to being able to give feedback?
  • Do they prefer a “check-in” by workers every meeting or is a periodic feedback form enough?
  • What is not currently present that they would want added?
  • What type of system do they prefer?
  • What types of newcomers are on the committee? (i.e. are they newcomers who have been utilizing settlement services for a while in which case they wouldhave had opportunities to provide feedback through exit interviews/surveys, or newcomers who have just entered settlement services who have not yet had an opportunity to provide feedback?)

Members agreed that the partnership template is important for TSLIP to develop. This would provide a document to refer back to for agencies entering into agreements as well as a mechanism to avoid liability. A partnership template could also be a tool to document partnerships therefore clearly showing funders the work that is being done and the partnerships being created.

Developing a directory of services for the LIP area was discussed. Members thought that this was a good idea in electronic form, however TSLIP would likely be duplicating other material available if the LIP were to develop a hard copy version(i.e. City of Toronto services directory, which includes settlement services, is available in hard copy). This is also an expensive proposition (East Toronto LIP has tried this, and printing cost were quite expensive).

A common intake form was discussed also. Members agreed that a common intake form was probably not the most plausible given that, as a function of their work, agencies often prioritize different things when assessing the “fit” of potential clients into their program. However, members agreed that developing a common referral form would be a project worth exploring as a committee.

Next Steps:Staff will collect information on the projects discussed that were generated by former LIPs for discussion during the next committee meeting. Staff will also communicate with the Newcomer Advisory Committee to get clarification on the questions arising from the feedback suggestion.

  1. Next Meeting

Next meeting has been set for Thursday October 18, 2012 from 10am – 12pmat WoodGreen Community Services, 3rd floor, Rm.5

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