Rockford Sun

City of Rockford Community Action Agency Board met May 28.

Here are the minutes provided by the board:

I. CALL TO ORDER

A. Roll Call

Attendee Name	Organization	Title	Status	Arrived
Karen Hoffman	City of Rockford	Alderman	Present
Gina Meeks	City of Rockford	Alderman	Absent
Gina Delrose	City of Rockford		Present
Dorothy Redd	City of Rockford		Present
Jeremiah Griffin	City of Rockford		Present
Laura Snyder	City of Rockford		Excused
Tiana McCall	City of Rockford		Present
Mary Yoho	City of Rockford		Present
Markayla Herbert	City of Rockford		Absent
Mary Cacioppi	City of Rockford		Present
Ken Oliver	City of Rockford		Present

Other Attendees:

a. Present: Jeremiah Griffin, Mary Cacioppi, Dorothy Redd, Karen Hoffman, Ken Oliver, Mary Yoho, Gina DelRose, Tiana McCall

b. Absent: Steve Booth, Gina Meeks, Markayla Herbert

c. Excused: Laura Snyder

d. 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 (12:30), Linda Mitchell: Senior Accountant, Finance Department, Barb Chidley: Neighborhood Specialist, Community Development, Angela Hammer: City Attorney, Patrick Murphy: Community Action Agency Board Clerk

e. Quorum Established 12:05 PM

II. ACTION ON MINUTES

1. Approval of Minutes March 26, 2024

a. March Minutes Approval

i. Motioned Jeremiah Griffin, Seconded Tiana McCall

ii. All Approved, Motion Carries.

RESULT: APPROVED [UNANIMOUS] AYES: Hoffman, Delrose, Redd, Griffin, McCall, Yoho, Cacioppi, Oliver ABSENT: Gina Meeks, Markayla Herbert EXCUSED: Laura Snyder

III. PROGRAMMATIC REPORT COMMUNITY SERVICES

1. Programmatic Report Community Services

a. CSBG:

i. Ebron Tyson has been promoted from Intake Specialist to CSBGAdvocate. We do not intend to fill the Intake Specialist position atthis time.

ii. We received nine (9) scholarship applications, all fromWinnebago County residents. On April 25, 2024, interviews wereconducted with all nine (9) candidates by the ScholarshipCommittee. After a thorough review, two (2) candidates were notselected, and seven (7) advanced to attend the recipient's ceremonywith Mayor McNamara on May 9, 2024.

iii. Our Community Gardens program has twelve (12)locations across Winnebago and Boone Counties.

iv. CSBG Modification 1 has been submitted and approved(pending DECEO Finance). The modifications include an increaseof $13,500 in Direct Client Assistance for the Skills TrainingProgram and $2,936 for Housing Placements. There is a decreaseof $5,000 in Indirect Client Assistance for Gardens and $8,500 inDirect Client Assistance for Scholarships.

v. Effective April 30, 2024, we began utilizing the HP fundsfrom Hope Haven, totaling $108,964 in rental assistance.

vi. We began the Annual Community Needs Assessment inearly May. Surveys were sent out to the board. The 2024CAA/CAP plan are due to the State in August.

b. Homelessness:

i. The homeless numbers currently are listed

ii. Winnebago County Community Mental Health Board-4 positions hired, 1 remaining. Received renewal grant for 1 year. Contract signed and to start 6/1 with Rosecrance for “clinical supervision” for any crisis situations.

iii. Landlord Engagement person has started working. He has convened a group of other agency stakeholders to try to set up a coordinated approach for agencies to use to engage landlords and the get more/better units for our homeless population. Has met with several landlords and has created a unit list that has been shared with the mentioned stakeholders. Working on marketing materials for landlords. Also looking at ways to fund this position moving forward.

iv. We were selected to participate in 100 Day Unsheltered Challenge through the state and Re!nstitute. Kick off was Feb 6-7 and we wrapped up this week (5/23). Goal was to house 30 unsheltered persons in that time-we housed 28. We also had a goal that at least half would be over 50 years old or have a disability. We were well over half.

v. We continue to work with partners in order to get a Medical Respite Program up and running. We are planning to have 4 beds available before the end of June. This will be for literally homeless persons who have been hospitalized but are too well to stay there but too sick to return to an unsheltered location or general population at the shelter. This will give them a place to stay while recovering. This is a partnership with our department, UW Health, RFD MIH, Rescue Mission and Crusader Health. 

1. Karen Hoffman would some one who is released fromprison that had a minor injury be able to utilize thisprogram?

F. Director Parham: this program would be more usedfor some one released from a hospital, that needsextended care and is unable to return to the streets,in their condition.

c. LIHEAP:

i. LIHEAP:

1. All Applications that were on hold for COMED transition issues that should have resolved February 21, were finally resolved in May. This was over 300 affected applications. At this point, there are still issues at COMED and theyclaim to not be disconnecting service at this time. Thisresults in very little Reconnect Assistance funds going toCOMED at this time.

2. Nicor began disconnecting households in April, and we have fully expended our Reconnect funds for Nicor twice in the last few days. Each time DCEO was able to shuffle designated DVP funds to RA funds.

3. If we are able to shuffle the COMED designated unobligated funds to DVPs, and COMED does not start disconnecting households, our funding should last through June - and possibly into July.

4. We had our final Outreach day of the season this week, and it was well attended.

ii. PIPP

1. PIPP continues to have COMED transition issues that are affecting customers who are appealing a drop andcustomers who have moved. Additionally, the PIPP interventions were affected by the transition, and some PIPP customers were dropped for non-payment, but they actually were current with their bills-COMED did not communicate this to our STARS system and auto-drops happened. This is why we are having so many appeals, and having difficulty re-instating them in PIPP. Now that we are aware of this issue, we are manually intervening in the process to keep the auto-drop from happening.

2. We lost our PIPP temporary employee who was doing the recertifications, so our PIPP Intake Specialist is finishing up the 2024 Recertifications on his own, as well asattempting to resolve all the COMED enrollment issues.

iii. Furnace

1. We are not starting any new applications at this time, and trying to wrap up the existing outstanding invoices. The program officially ends May 31.

iv. Staffing

1. We started the program year with 5 temporary employees and 3.5 full time staff. We are ending the program year with 2 temporary employees and 3.5 full time staff. Our budget for 2025 only allows for 4 full time staff and possibly 1 temporary employee.

2. All staff will be on the call center at some point during the day. At this point, the PIPP and LIHEAP andFurnace/Weatherization calls are handled differently. With the reduced staffing, we will have to havePIPP/LIHEAP/Furnace calls all go to the same number - which will be handled by one assigned staff person on a rotating basis. The goal is to have the person answering the call handle the issues if at all possible, so further crosstraining will be happening. The call volume is huge, andall staff cannot get any work done if all staff are on at thesame time. There will be a lot of calls waiting to beanswered.

v. Future

1. NICOR will be introducing Low Income Discounts (LID) program beginning October 1, 2024. Income levels willbe tiered with varying discounts per tier. DCEO is busytrying to incorporate this discount program into theLIHEAP assistance program and the PIPP program. Itappears that there will be a large need for our services inverifying income for clients to receive the discount, andthat the benefit to the client from LIHEAP will be reduced due to less of a need for assistance. This disrupts thecurrent funding stream that we have for paying staff which is calculated on the amount of LIHEAP benefits issued.

d. Weatherization:

i. Only 5 weeks left in PY24

ii. We have stopped sending out new work orders and begun wrapping up with final inspections to allow time for any call backs and closeouts.

iii. We are projected to have 33 homes completed this program year.

iv. Our State quality assurance monitoring visit was 2 weeks ago. It went as expected. No major issues/concerns but there is room for improvement from the LAA side as well as the contractor side. Still waiting for the official report from OCA.

v. Our State fiscal monitoring is commencing this week.

vi. The IGA between COR and RHA is almost 100% complete. Just waiting on signatures and approvals from RHA. OCA has given us their blessing to move forward with partnering with RHA to weatherize their scattered sites. This agreement will ensure that we exhaust all of our PY25 funding and assist a population that we have not served in Weatherization before.

vii. PY25 Wx Policy and Procedures workshop will be June 4- 5th

viii. The data entry system vital to the Wx Program “Weather Works” will be permanently shut down in July and the “IWX” system will take its place. The transition process is unknown and OCA doesn’t have a Plan B in place if it fails.

ix. Our new Weatherization Specialist is half way through his training and doing very well.

x. Weatherization Implementation Plan was submitted and kicked back by OCA for follow up.

xi. Biweekly calls with OCA continue.

RESULT: DISCUSSED

IV. PROGRAMMATIC REPORT HEADSTART

1. Programmatic Report Headstart

i. We still have several positions available:

1. 5-Family Support Specialists - 49 weeks

2. 1-Family Support Specialist - 37 weeks

3. 1-Bilingual Family Support Specialist-37 weeks

4. 4-PACE Teachers

5. 1-Head Start Teacher

6. 1-Early Head Start Home Visitor Teacher

7. 1-Community Partner Coordinator

8. 1-Family Services Team Leader

9. 1-Maintanince Technician

10. 1-Coach

11. 1- Professional Development Coordinator (finishing thejob description)

ii. Currently we have posted Family Services Team Lead.

Will be posting for Professional Development Coordinator andCPC

iii. As of end of April 2024, we are at 92% of enrollment, 660of 714 slots are filled in both Head Start and Early Head Start. Inthe Early Head Start option we currently have 25 openings. InHead Start we have 29 openings.

iv. June 7 last day for students

v. Currently taking applications for 24-25 school year.

1. Karen Hoffman: How are we marketing Headstart?

F. Director Hughes: engagement events with RPS,community events, word of mouth.

2. Karen Hoffman: Do we serve the southeast side?

F. Director Hughes, we service all of Winnebago Co.

vi. Headstart Self-Assessment will be June 21.

RESULT: DISCUSSED

V. PROGRAMMATIC REPORT FISCAL

1. Programmatic Report Fiscal

a. Monitoring/Auditing

i. HUD monitoring was completed on May 10th. Preliminaryfeedback was positive, and they commended David on hisdocumentation for the award. The report should be deliveredwithin 30 days of the end of the monitoring event.

ii. DCEO monitoring was completed on May 22nd.Preliminary feedback was positive.

iii. City-wide audit is complete. The final draft of the AnnualComprehensive Financial Report (ACFR) will be completed andfiled by 6/30/24. The final report is not released to the public viathe Rockford website until it has been presented to City Council,which is slated for 7/22/24. The Single Audit is in progress, but isanticipated to be complete before the 9/30/24 filing deadline.

RESULT: DISCUSSED

VI. EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS REPORT

a. We have lots of moving parts, and staff is facing unique challenges. We are figuring out what we need to do to serve our community and how to do so creatively.

b. Efforts are being worked on to achieve Full Enrollment Initiative and Change of Scope.

i. We would be looking at serving less children, but keeping the samefunding. Which would mean more money for staff pay, classroom engagement and other things as required by the program.

c. State Legislation has passed to prevent disconnection as long as the client is enrolled in LIHEAP.

d. Bill passed, that allows reduction of Board members from 15 to 9. This will require rework of Bylaws and have bylaws approved by IACAA.

e. We are part of the American Poverty Fighting Network, and the Poverty Reduction Initiative, but it will take all powers, to be part of that process. 

f. At the State of the City, Mayor stressed the impact of poverty in our community, and how we can step forward.

g. Proclamation at City Council for Community Action Month, Scholarship Recipients, the Family of Distinction, Teacher of Promise, and a Challenge Coin, and there will be refreshments afterward.

h. Once we have he the Bylaws updated, we need to focus on strategic planning.

VII. BOARD MEMBER REPORTS

a. Mary Cacioppi:

i. Working with community members to form a plan to combat poverty.

Looking at 24 matrixes, then groups will whittle it down to 2-3 matrixes. Research says it takes 12-18 months to combat poverty to get to that point. ii. Bridges out of Poverty provides Getting Ahead Class. Bridges will provide funding for facilitator planning and participant attendance in 10-week classes. Classes run 2 ½ hours 1 per week. Helps participants torealize their resources and network.

b. Jeremiah Griffin

i. Northwest Neighbors now hiring a Vista Position with Ameri Corps. So, if anyone knows a young person who would be interested, please pass them along.

c. Mary Yoho

i. West Gate neighborhood, had a town hall meeting with two doctors.

Looking for further town halls with more community memberinvolvement in the fall and spring.

ii. Community Foundation will be presenting scholarships to twoAuburn students.

iii. Community Foundation will be Serving brats/ hotdogs atJuneteenth.

d. Dorothy Redd

i. Unity fest will be August 10th with a picnic at Levin’s Park.

VIII. GUEST REPORT/ PRESENTATIONS

IX. APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS

X. NEW BUISNESS

XI. ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was closed at 1:17 PM

http://rockfordcityil.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=12&ID=2554&Inline=True