Commission on Family Services

Commission on Family Services Meeting Minutes – Skokie Village Hall Sept 7, 2022 7:00 pm Present: Commissioners Harold Primack (Chair), Michelle Friedman (NC), Marjorie Goran, Jo Hammerman, Shajan Jose, Linda Lara (NC), Daniel Mann, Annie Shear, Phillip Shefren, Daniel Stalilonis, Michael Stiehl, Melissa Versch (Liaison), Absent: Commissioners Laila Iqbal, Wendy Katznelson, Heather O’Donnell, Arnie Oskin, Nichole Perry, Valerie Riley, Nancy Schwartz, Naadirah Shapley-Wells, Edie Sue Sutker I. Call to Order at 7:00pm A. Approval of Agenda – Amendments to Agenda: Early Childhood Alliance (EFA), Boomers and Beyond, Meeting with Chamber of Commerce Roundtable, Skokie Community Foundation, FindHelp. Approved as amended by consent. II. Approval of June 1, 2022 Minutes A. Amendment to minutes: Dan present at June meeting. Minutes approved as amended by consent. III. Chair’s Report: Chair, Harold Primack A. Welcome back, it's been several months. The Commission welcomes three new commissioners, two whom are present: Michelle Friedman and Linda Lara. There has been one resignation: Yolanda Bender. Commissioners introduced themselves. B. Over break, commissioners were invited to fill out a survey to help get an idea about whether the commission is meeting the mark, are there opportunities or improving and are there other things people are interested in. Commissioners are always welcome to talk with Harold or Melissa about thoughts. IV. Health and Human Services Report: Staff Liaison Melissa Versch A. HHS had a volunteer luncheon for volunteers who help residents with SHIP and Benefit Access. B. The Oakton Workforce Program continues. A new group of students were selected for the fall semester. The program provides funding for eligible residents to complete certificate programs at Oakton Community College. C. HHS handed out 80 school supply kits. Hygiene kits were also obtained, which are on hand for those in need. D. The health dept is holding flu clinics in October for residents at least 4 years old. Covid booster shots are available for children. Vaccines are also provided to homebound residents. E. Commission brochures and Skittles were handed out at National Night Out, Festival of Cultures and at farmers market. 1000 brochures were printed. Brochures list the dates for the Clothing, Toiletries and Food drive. F. Three donation drives at the farmers market have been completed, with over 120 bags and boxes of clothing collected. Donations are taken to the clothing closet at St. Paul Lutheran Church. This week, the clothing closet sent a Thank You card to the commission. Shajan asked if people who donate can get a receipt. Melissa stated receipts are not available. V. Old Business:  A. Produce Initiative - At the end of farmers markets, leftover and donated produce is collected from farmers and provided to the food pantry. So far, over 2000lbs have been collected. Volunteers have been from St. Paul, the commission, the library’s teen volunteer program. Ann Tennes has been helpful in advertising. B. Farmer’s Market Food and Clothing Drive – Discussed during Health and Human Services Report C. 4th of July Parade - Brochures with Skittles were prepared for the parade. Due to the tragedy in Highland Park, we were unable to hand them out D. Subcommittee discussion - postponed for time VI. New Business: A. Survey results, Staff Liaison, Melissa Versch There were 12 responses to the survey sent to all commissioners. Q1: How long have you been on the Skokie Commission on Family Services? 4 less than 1 year, 4 people 1-3 years, 1 person 3-5 years, 1 person 5-10 years, 2 people more than 10 years. Q2: How long have you lived in Skokie? 1 person 1-3 years, most are 10-20 years or more. Q3: Have you volunteered to help with any of the following commission activities? 7 have helped with produce initiative, 5 with food and clothing drive, 1 with Boomers and Beyond, 4 within 4th of July Parade, 3 with Festival of Cultures, 4 with other. Q4: Are you on a subcommittee? 4 people on the Seniors subcommittee, 4 people on At Risk Youth and Families, 4 people not on a subcommittee. Q5: Would you be interested in joining a subcommittee addressing needs of people with disabilities? 6 people said yes. Q6: What type of meeting format so you prefer at this time? 5 prefer in-person, 2 prefer virtual, 5 say either. Q7: Is the day and time of the meeting convenient? 11 say yes, 1 person said no. Q8: What were your reasons for joining the commission? Giving back, being involved, making a positive impact. I love living in Skokie. Wanting to help others. Q9: Are the commission activities meeting your expectations? 10 said yes, 1 person said no. Q10: What do you like best about commission activities and what are opportunities for improvement? Produce initiative and clothing drive. Would like to do more. Impact on families in the community. Donation drives have been a great way to foster community participation. Meetings are well-organized. I like having a concrete activity that we can participate in like the produce initiative. We spend too much time trying to decide what to do next and never make a decision. Q11: Are the commission meetings on par with your expectations? Everyone said yes. Q12: Please comment on speakers, topics, subcommittee breakout sessions, and discussions. What are opportunities for commission meetings? Speakers have been excellent. Sometimes not enough time for breakout sessions. Still learning. Record meetings - Meetings are recorded and minutes are posted on Skokie.org. Explain parliamentary procedures and selection of guest speakers and purposes. Commission could host speakers just 3-5 times per year with rest of meetings focused on discussion and planning. Speakers are excellent, so far have enjoyed. Monthly meetings are not enough time for subcommittees to get organized. Make sure we set a time limit for speakers. Q13: Are there needs the commission should be discussing that we are not currently addressing? Homelessness in Skokie. Survey the community for what they need. There are endless needs that can be addressed on the mission statement, so it’s appropriate to limit efforts to a few ideas at a time. Maybe a Google drive folder would help organize ideas for initiatives. Current goals are enough for making progress. We have too many issues that we’re considering. Q14: Any additional comments? Compliments. Harold stated he appreciates the participation and comments. Regarding too many issues, sometimes the approach is to generate several ideas. Some will not be for us to address. The hope is that 1 or 2 will get people interested. We don’t want to tell people what to do. Annie stated that one of her main concerns is people with disabilities, which is how the commission started. Therefore, I brought my two friends to join. I think we need to address disabilities Michelle added that the topic of disabilities does cross every other population. Harold explained that subcommittees have been created based on people’s interest - Youth and Families at Risk and Seniors. The hope is that the subcommittees can spend a little time during commission meetings and also as needed meet outside the commission as a small group. The open meetings act states that a meeting with more than half of a quorum (about 5 people) must be publicly announced. Annie suggested having a speaker talk about disabilities and how Skokie addresses the issue. Harold shared previous efforts that included; (1) sponsoring a performance at a local high school titled, "Handicap This" with two men, one severely disabled and the other his care giver, (2) establishing a yearly award to a business or service provider who has gone above and beyond with making their facilities accessible, and (3) providing through JJs List, disability awareness training to local companies. Michelle states she is the board chair of Keshet and does a lot of disability awareness training, which might be the first step. What does it mean to be welcoming and inclusive? That might be a place to start. Shajan noted that there are still many issues with accessibility to businesses. Harold suggested that a subcommittee for disability issues could be created. Several commissioners expressed interest. Harold will follow up with an email. B. Boomers and Beyond 2023 Harold explained that Boomers and Beyond is a senior’s resource fair that the commission has put on in the past, taking place every 2 years. The last fair was in 2019, and 2021 was canceled. There was a steering committee with several organizations. The event was held at Oakton Community Center with about 40 vendors and about 350 attendees. There was very positive feedback. There were also speakers. One speaker was from Northshore University Health System talking about pain management. We have talked about getting a steering committee back together to plan an event for 2023. Mike learned about a healthcare roundtable with the Chamber of Commerce. Jo and Harold attended their first meeting today. Jo reported there were about 15-20 people who primarily  work in healthcare and aging. The mission for Community Healthcare Connections is to provide education and resources to Skokie and surrounding communities. Participants brainstormed what they would like to see the group do. People were interested in health fairs in Skokie. Topics include mental health services, accessing government benefits. The first event will be Taste of Alden in September to bring more awareness to the roundtable. More information is available on the Skokie Chamber of Commerce website. The group meets quarterly, but a section meets monthly for planning. It would be helpful to have a liaison from the group for planning a seniors resource fair. C. Early Childhood Alliance Mike recalled that the Early Childhood Alliance shared that there is a discrepancy between funding between Evanston and Skokie. There is a 2-year runup for an application that would allow Skokie to get more funding. EFA needs additional support, including a grant writer. Mike happened to mention this to someone with Skokie Community Foundation and they expressed interest as a potential funder. In thinking about what the commission can help with, maybe we can put in an application with the 2024 funding cycle to make sure they get what they need. D. FindHelp.org Mike recounted that at the last meeting he shared FindHelp.org. There is an upcoming training to learn how to use the site. There is a local rep who can provide training. The City of Evanston has a license with FindHelp to send and receive referrals. It might be interesting to talk to someone runs it there. This might be a speaker topic for a future meeting. E. Chamber of Commerce Nonprofit Roundtable Mike: The Chamber wants to bring back a group of non-profits to discuss issues. It might be something for us to get involved in. F. Oct. 5 meeting cancelled – Yom Kippur VII. Citizen Comments: None VIII. Adjournment at 8:20pm Next Meeting: Nov. 2, 2022, 7:00 p.m.