Mansfield Advocates for Children

Meeting Minutes

Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Mansfield Public Library

6:30PM-8:00PM

PRESENT: K. Grunwald (staff), S. Daley, L. Dahn, J. Stoughton (staff), J. Goldman, J. Higham, C. Guerreri, K. Russo, A. Bladen (chair), S. Baxter, N. Hovorka, J. Soroka

REGRETS: J. Buck, B. Lehmann, A. Bloom, M.J. Newman

 

Time

Item

Discussion

Action

6:30-6:35

Call to order and Announcements

  • Joan Buck resignation

 

 

  • Update re. Collaborative Agent

 

 

 

 

 

  • Membership Cards

Chair A. Bladen called the meeting to order at 6:35 PM.

S. Baxter read a letter from Joan  Buck announcing her resignation from MAC.  J. Goldman suggested that she be recognized; flowers were suggested.

 

S. Baxter explained that Eastconn had not formally notified Graustein that they will no longer serve as the Collaborative Agent.  United Way will notify Graustein; some discussion as to how the United Way will function as a fiscal agent.  This still needs to be clarified with Graustein.

 

The use of the membership cards will be integrated with the one-on-one training that will be piloted with this group to practice the interviews.  J. Goldman questioned whether or not there will be enough time to do this in the meeting. 

S. Baxter will arrange for flowers to be delivered to Joan.

 

 

 

 

K. Russo will notify the United Way that the check will be sent to S. Baxter.

 

 

 

 

Parent Group will make a suggestion about when to best conduct these interviews.

6:35-6:40

Approve minutes of 2/6/08

Clarify that A. Bladen and S. Daley are the co-chairs of the infant/toddler group.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The minutes were approved with that correction.

 

 

Time

 

 

Item

 

 

Discussion

 

 

Action

 

6:40-7:00

 

MAC Parking Lot Items:

Week of the Young Child: Committee formation, Activities to plan, & Flyer.

First committee meeting date.

 

S. Daley clarified that S. Baxter will be part of this event.  J. Goldman raised a concern that there is so much focus on Community Center membership; have we lost the focus of having Parks & Rec. programs?  Will they be willing to do something for no fee or a minimal fee?  A. Bloom had an idea about doing a fun health and wellness activity.  Can we get some funding to support an activity at the Community Center?  C. Guerreri pointed out that there should be a way of collaborating around the use of space; see if the school can offer space as an in-kind contribution.

 

There will be representation from each Center on the planning committee, and N. Hovorka will work on the brochure.  Center Directors will send two dates to S. Baxter for the planning meeting for this event.

K. Grunwald will contact Curt Vincente to see if they can support an activity during the Week of the Young Child. 

K. Grunwald will follow-up to see if it is possible for the school to provide space.

 

Needs Assessment

Review samples and consider possible

format and questions for ours and whether these questions should be included in the 1-on-1 conversations.

S. Baxter suggested that the parent engagement committee review the Colchester needs assessment; consider possibly incorporating questions into the one-on-one interviews.  This may be a way of collecting data for the infant/toddler group from utilizers of unlicensed care, such as who is receiving kith and kin care.  J. Goldman suggested tying this in to our consultation with the data collection consultant.  C. Gurreri stated that the consultant probably would not have access to this type of information.  Other communities are looking at ways of collecting this data (Derby: study on non-users).  J. Goldman feels that there should be ways that we can work with the Town Clerks’ office to get this information.  Infoline may be a source of information regarding how many requests are made in Mansfield for infant/toddler care.  A. Bladen asked if we are talking about the needs assessment regarding anything besides infant/toddler care?  S. Baxter said that this should come from the small groups.  There was some discussion regarding the purpose and intent of conducting a needs assessment.  S. Baxter directed it again to the small groups. This will be tied into the data profile that was presented on Mansfield, and we will then have to decide what it is we want to determine.  J. Goldman stated that she feels that this fits into the community planning initiative, which is much broader than infant toddler care, but then we would need to determine what we would do with the data that we collected.  C. Guerreri pointed out that a community assessment is a component of the local capacity building initiative, but we would address that separately.  J. Higham pointed out that it seems that we are continually adding new activities and initiatives to this committee, without following through on issues that have been brought up previously.  S. Daley suggested that we table this issue for now. J. Soroka feels that some of this information will be obtained through the one-on-one interviews.  J. Goldman referred us back to considering our goals, and what we are trying to accomplish.  The University Work-Life Council is already convinced that the need for infant/toddler care is already well-documented; what is the next step?  It appears that we may need to collect additional information from people who are not affiliated with the university.  S. Daley feels that the goals and objectives of the infant/toddler group need to be articulated and focused.  How will we know when we have enough information; what do we want to know?  

Determine whether or not we want to conduct a needs assessment, and what the purpose is. 

7:00-7:45

Small Groups Meet

Action Plans & Timeline for next steps.

 

A. Bladen questioned where we are going with the small groups?   S. Baxter suggested that each group come up with a goal and an action step; touch base with members of the small group to take advantage of the time that we have tonight.  L.Dahn feels that she needs to have a better sense of the “big picture”, and this discussion has provided some assistance with that.  Feeling that it is important to determine the interconnectedness of the individual issues that the small groups are working on.  J. Stoughton raised the fact that this group does not have formal authority to take action, and we need to determine what MAC can do with the information that we have.  S. Baxter feels that decision-makers have been accessible, but we need to determine what we want to communicate to them.  J. Goldman explained that the next steps of the action plan involves identifying alternatives and then determining what the next steps are.  General agreement that the collaborative needs to find a focal issue to be working on that focuses all of the energy and activities of the group.  We need to be intentional in our efforts and use of resources; look at using the WOYC to conduct one-on-one interviews, raise profile of the group, but tie this in to larger initiatives of the collaborative.  J. Soroka suggested that members need to identify what the priority issues are that they are most concerned about.  C. Guerreri suggested that we stick with our action plan; become more purposeful and planful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Communicate more electronically; post minutes and discussion of small groups, create a distribution list for members who are interested in a specific topic.

Ask members of sub-committees to read minutes prior to attendance at meetings.

7:45-8:00

Small Groups report out to Council

Groups did not meet.

 

 

Meeting Adjourned at 8:10 PM

 

Respectfully submitted,

Kevin Grunwald