MANSFIELD DEPARTMENT OF SOCIAL SERVICES

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

MINUTES

 

Thursday, October 7, 2004

 3:30 PM

 

AUDREY P. BECK BUILDING, CONFERENCE ROOM A

 

PRESENT:  K. Grunwald (staff), M. Hauslaib, J. Peters, J. Heald (chair)

REGRETS: J. Krisch, E. Passmore

 

 

I.                MINUTES: Minutes of September 9, 2004 meeting: accepted as written.

 

II.               NEW BUSINESS:

A.     Social Service Advisory Committee: A draft of the Annual Report from this advisory committee was reviewed by the members present.  It was suggested that the report should mention the Veteran’s recognition that took place at the Senior Center, and plans for the event for this year.  Plan for the report: 1) include something about advocacy for an Assisted Living facility, (2) Identify opportunities to partner with the Community Center around responding to social service needs of members of the community.   

B.    Substance Abuse Task Force: K. Grunwald reported on the status of this committee and concerns in the community about the impact of substance abuse issues.  General feeling was expressed that there needs to be leadership from the State and political pressure brought to encourage Uconn to deal more effectively with this issue.    

C.    Report on the State of the Young Child: Information was distributed on data collected on young children in Mansfield.  M. Hauslaib reported that restrictions around funding for School Readiness have been significantly relaxed, and suggested that we look at exploring the possibility of securing State funding.

D.    Advisory Committee Membership: J. Heald raised a concern about the fact that the impact of members missing meetings is great because of the size of the Committee.  M. Hauslaib suggested that we make a proposal to the Town Council to add two new members to the Committee.  There was discussion about also including representatives of other advisory committees.   K. Grunwald will send a memo to the Council requesting permission to expand the committee by 2 additional members. 

E.     Other: none

 

III.                 OLD BUSINESS:

A.      Linkages to other advisory committees/proposed meeting schedule: no discussion.

B.      Parks and Recreation Scholarship Fund: no discussion.

C.      Agency Funding Requests: The suggestion was made that this be tabled until the issue of membership of the committee is resolved.

D.      Other: none

 

IV.       COMMUNICATIONS/REPORTS: 

A.     Review of Department activity and other items in packet and discussion with SSD Director:

           

B.          Program updates

·        Graustein Foundation Discovery Grant: subcommittees and Discovery Workshop

·        LWVCT Community Conversations: proposed follow-up meeting

·        Adult Services

·        Senior Services: Development of a long-range plan

·        Youth Services

 

C.    Other

 

V.        PLANS FOR FUTURE MEETINGS

 

A.                 November: “Youth Service Bureau Advisory Board”

B.                 December: Commission on Aging- Long Range Plan

C.                January: Agency Funding Requests

 

VI.       ADJOURNMENT

            Next Meeting: November 4, 3:30 PM; M. Hauslaib announced that she will not be able to attend this meeting.

     

Meeting adjourned at 5:00 PM

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Kevin Grunwald, Director