Rockford Sun

City of Rockford Community Action Agency Executive Committee met April 23.

Here are the minutes provided by the committee:

I. CALL TO ORDER

I. Call to order

a. The regularly scheduled meeting of the Community Action Agency Board of Directors Executive Committee meeting was called to order at 11:05 am

II. Attendance

a. Karen Hoffman, Jerimiah Griffin, and Dorothy Redd.

b. Staff Present: Anqunette Parham: Director of Health and Human Services, Owen Carter: Deputy Director of Health and Human Services, Christopher Greenwood: Community Services Director, Faniqua Hughes Headstart Director, Patrick Murphy: Community Action Agency Board Clerk

A quorum was established at 11:05 am.

Attendee Name	Organization	Title	Status	Arrived
Karen Hoffman	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present
Dorothy Redd	City of Rockford		Present
Jeremiah Griffin	City of Rockford		Present

II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

1. Approval of Minutes

Approval of Minutes June, July, August, September, October, November 2023 & January, February, and March 2024

i. Motioned Karen Hoffman Second Jerimiah Griffin.

ii. All Approved, Motion carried.

RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS] AYES: Karen Hoffman, Dorothy Redd, Jeremiah Griffin

III. GENERAL INFORMATION

a. Summer is bringing conferences training and monitoring. We are working with the state to confirm the dates.

b. Homelessness:

i. Angie Walker presented Built for Zero at a conference in Chicago and has a presentation scheduled for the National Health Care for the Homeless conference

ii. We have a goal of 30 housed in the 100-day challenge as of 4/23/24 Have housed 15.

c. Filled a position in Weatherization.

d. LIHEAP

i. LIHEAP is slated to end at the end of August, but more likely it will end at the beginning of June.

ii. Next year will look at changes to LIHEAP, with funding going back to pre-pandemic levels.

iii. Comed established a new billing system, which slowed our ability to process applications.

iv. Representative West, sponsored a bill to ban disconnections with Comed if the client has completed a LIHEAP application. Passed out of the House, and on to the Senate.

e. Headstart:

i. Going to revamp the training program. Planning on bringing in Highscope Training for Headstart Boot Camp.

ii. Will develop a training calendar.

iii. Going to be having a staff/ Teacher Appreciation week, with food and awards for those groups.

iv. School to prison pipeline is a very real, threat to students. We have seen that through the use of Headstart and parent involvement, we can reduce this. But it is hard when Headstart parents can’t get into Headstart classrooms.

v. Have systems working against us, that we need to combat if we want to move forward.

1. Karen Hoffman: can we use some of the Regorw Money for Headstart?

a. There is a possibility, but we don’t know what is available to us, and can’t plan unless we know the amount. The CAA Board could form a committee to explore options and present it to the council.

f. Questions

i. Dorothy Redd: What is Rockford Regrow Money?

1. Rockford Regorw, is a collection of 3% of sales taxes on sales of marijuana that was earmarked for programs in the city for rehabilitation. Director Parham was on the staff for the program but due to funding issues. She is no longer on the program and doesn’t know how money is being distributed.

2. Karen Hoffman recommends money go to children and rehabilitation programs.

IV. CLOSED SESSION

a. Jerimiah Griffin made a motion to convene to closed session to discuss threatening or pending litigation matters. Karen Hoffman seconded the motion. Motion Carried with a Roll Call vote.

i. The meeting convened to a closed session at 11:45 am.

ii. The meeting returned to open session at 1:45 pm.

V. OFFICER REPORTS

a. Karen Hoffman: planning on attending the training of housing. Rockford is about 10k short of affordable housing units. Looking at other communities handling the housing issue, there is a lot of interest in building small bungalows around community areas.

VI. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was closed at 2:10 AM

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