Note next meeting date change: While we typically meet on the first Monday of the month, for December we are changing the date due to some conflicts for committee members. So the next meeting is on Monday, December 14, 9:30-11:00 am, DMH Haskell Building, Northampton.
Minutes of 11/2/09 meeting
Attendance: Jane Banks, Chris Haley, Andrea Miller, Wanda Rolon, Dave Modelewski, Dave Havens, Pamela Schwartz
Decisions:
- Andrea will send out MHSA assessment form to all grantees.
- Discussion occurred around the issue of when “the clock starts ticking” in terms of billing ICHH for engagement with chronically homeless individuals. This quickly raises the question of defining the distinction between “engagement” and “enrollment”. It would be helpful to find out from all grantees what your contract states about this issue. Please come prepared to exchange information about this at our next meeting on December 14th.
- In the context of creating a directory for use within the individual services community, Andrea will share whatever materials she can find around “matching factors”, e.g., housing preferences, affiliations, income requirements, health and safety, and a diagram that demonstrates how these factors could be matched up with available services. We will discuss more at our 12/14 meeting.
Program Updates:
- The Brien Center is about to hire its case manager who will likely attend next Berkshire REACH meeting on 11/10.
- Mental Health Association: HUD Shelter Plus Care contract hopefully to be signed by 12/1. 16 individuals have been identified for 11 slots; engagement getting underway.
- ServiceNet: 3 individuals in line for being housed in Greenfield; 1 in Northampton; remodeling of apartments underway
- CHD: one individual housed, support services ongoing; engagement with other individuals underway
Housing First Training
Dave M. will pull together the ‘original’ group that discussed training (Gerry McCafferty, Peg Keller, Dave Havens, Andrea Miller, Jay Levy) to flesh out a training curriculum that was previously drafted. The group hopes to provide the initial training session in December. This training will be for line staff for the five pilots but also open to regional programs that are working on housing stabilization i.e. McKinney providers, DMH CBFS agencies, Eliot and others. As soon as we have a draft 1st session and projected date, time and place we will pass that along to the pilot providers for further discussion and agreement.
Andrea Miller, Dave Havens, Jay Levy and Dave Modzelewski will be participate in a One Family panel discussion on the topic of Housing Stabilization at Holy Cross College on November 16th.
Next meeting: Monday, December 14, 2009, 9:30 -11:00 am, DMH Haskell Building, Northampton
