Connecting Network Resources to The Housing Court
On September 22, Network Coordinator Pamela Schwartz met with Judge Fields, a member of the Network Leadership Council, Judge Fein and all housing specialists and Assistant Clerk Magistrates of the Western Division Housing Court to discuss the Network’s efforts in general and specifically how the funded providers can connect with Housing Court staff in the joint effort to prevent homelessness. It was an excellent start to what promises to be an ongoing dialogue and collaboration. Next steps include a meeting with the Network’s funded agency staff and the Housing Court to gain further understanding of the available assistance and how to maximize its effectiveness in the Housing Court environment.
Individual Services Providers Meeting Minutes for 9/21/09
On September 21, we convened our first meeting of all ICHH funded individual service providers in the western region. Our funded providers include: Mental Health Association serving Springfield, The Carson Center serving Westfield, ServiceNet serving Hampshire and Franklin Counties, Center for Human Development serving Amherst and The Brien Center serving Berkshire County. It was an excellent conversation and we will continue it on either Oct. 5 or Oct. 7, the date to be confirmed by the end of the week.
In attendance: Jane Banks, Cathy Bennett, Kathy Damon, Dave Havens, Jay Levy, Andrea Miller, Dave Modzelewski, Chris Muldrew, Jerry Ray, Wanda Rolon, Pamela Schwartz
Discussion: First, thanks to Dave Modzelewski for facilitating the meeting. The purpose of this first meeting was to get further acquainted with the REACH program as a whole and to exchange what each program was funded to do as part of this pilot project. We had a great exchange about the goals of REACH, its successes, its challenges and how this project provides an opportunity to further test and implement it. We discussed the “tiers” as defined by ICHH and agreed on the need to be flexible as to definitions per se, staying focused instead on how best to serve each homeless individual. We agreed we needed to meet again soon in order to discuss the data and reporting needs, along with other start-up issues. We will schedule a meeting on either Monday, 10/5 or Wed., 10/7, 9:30-11:30 am at the DMH Haskell Building, depending on when Chris and Dave of the Berkshire providers can attend.
