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HomeMy WebLinkAboutBlock Grant Meeting Minutes 8_31_2023 Franklin County Human Services Block Grant Committee Meeting Minutes Thursday, August 31th, 2023 10:00 am - 12:00 pm Hybrid Meeting Voting Members In Person: Brenda Lamar, Doug Wilburne Virtual: Kim Crider, Kim Wertz, Lorna Blanchard, Zachary McCauley Absent: Sherri Sullivan, Rev. John Kratz, Rev. James Fox, Mike Straley, Greg Colbert, Thomas Reardon Staff Members In Person: Stacie Horvath, Hali Finniff, Glenda Helman, Cori Seilhamer, Stacy Rowe, Ashley McCartney, Zachary Gantz, Dan Brown, James Eagler, John Thierwechter Virtual: Charity Gorman, Janelle Friese, John Gerak, Katie Becker, Leslie Bowers, Tobin Kercheval, Tawnya Hurley, Danielle Beaver, Erin Nye Guests Virtual: Julia Dovey Acronyms: C&Y = Children & Youth HSDF = Human Services Development Fund D&A = Drug and Alcohol HUD = Housing and Urban Development DHS = Department of Human Services I&R = Information & Referral EI = Early Intervention MH/IDD/EI = Mental Health/ Intellectual & ESG = Emergency Solutions Grant Developmental Disabilities/Early Intervention FY = Fiscal Year SCCAP = South Central Community Action Program HCP = Healthy Communities Partnership TMCA = Tuscarora Managed Care Alliance HSBG = Human Services Block Grant HS = Human Services Meeting Documents Sent Out: ● HSBG Agenda - August 31, 2023 ● Block Grant Meeting Minutes 4-18-2023 ● Addendum - Email Vote 5.30.2023 ● Narrative - Draft Plan - Franklin County HSBG Plan Submission 2023/2024 Fiscal Year ● Draft FIscal Appendix C-1 - Franklin County HSBG Plan Submission - 23-24 Fiscal Year I. Welcome and Introductions: The meeting was called to order by the chair, Stacie Horvath at 10:00 AM. ● Stacie introduced the new voting member for At Large, Brenda Lamar. ● Voting Members, Sherri Sullivan, Reverend John Kratz, Reverend James Fox, Mike Staley, Greg Colbert, and Thomas Reardon were unable to attend this meeting. ● Reverend John Kratz has resigned from the Faith Based seat. ● Reverend James Fox asked Stacie to proxy for his vote. Greg Colbert asked for a voting member to proxy on his behalf, Kim Wertz stepped up as proxy. II. Review of Meeting Minutes and approval: Upon a motion by voting member Kim Crider, and a second by voting member Lorna Blanchard, with and all in favor, the minutes of the April 18, 2023 meeting were approved along with the addendum. Addendum to meeting minutes that happened on May 23, 2023. An email vote that took place which was unanimous. The email vote count includes 9 Yes (in support); 0 No; 0 absent. They were seeking approval to transfer $20,000 in funds to help offset costs for HSDF for ongoing support and maintenance fees for the Data Warehouse. Following the review of minutes. ● There were five members whose terms were up May 1, 2023. 1. A need for a motion to approve Lorna Blanchard for a second term. Zach McCauley made the motion followed by Kim Wertz who seconded the motion for another two year term. All in Favor with 8 Yes (in support), 0 Absent, and 0 No. 2. A need for a motion to approve Zach McCauley for a second term. Lorna Blanchard made the motion followed by Kim Wertz who seconded the motion for another two year term. All in Favor with 8 Yes (in support), 0 Absent, and 0 No. 3. A need for a motion to approve Greg Colbert for a second term. Kim Wertz made the motion followed by Zach McCualey who seconded the motion for another two year term. All in Favor with 8 Yes (in support), 0 Absent, and 0 No. 4. A need for a motion to approve Kim Crider for a second term. Lorna Blanchard made the motion followed by Kim Wertz who seconded the motion for another two year term. All in Favor with 8 Yes (in support), 0 Absent, and 0 No. 5. A need for a motion to approve Reverend James Fox for a second term. Kim Crider made the motion followed by Lorna Blanchard who seconded the motion for another two year term. All in favor. 7 Yes (in support), 0 Absent, and 0 No. Stacie Horvath stated Reverend James Fox may be stepping away. Once Stacie Horvath is able to speak with him she will announce if he has resigned or will renew his nominated term. ● The new term will run from May 1, 2023 - May 31, 2025 III. FY 2023-2024 Human Services Block Grant Plan Submission / PowerPoint Presentation and Plan Discussion: Glenda Helman Grants Coordinator: Stated, once Stacie Horvath received information from the Department of Human Services, the Appendix B was sent out to all of the department heads. The department heads reviewed and answered all questions. This information was returned to Glenda Helman. All the information was pulled and placed in one document called the Narrative. Glenda completed assembling the Narrative and Stacy Rowe proved budget information. The narrative will be published on the Franklin County Website after this 1st meeting. Stacy Rowe Fiscal Highlights: Appendix C-1 is also a part of the PowerPoint. Total budget allocation has been flat since FY 12/13. The State approved a small increase to Mental Health base funding for FY 23/24, awaiting our allocation to see how much was awarded. Base allocation has been a little over 6.4 million. With the 6.4 million dollar budget it is estimated 7,660 individuals across Franklin County Human Services Departments will be served. The breakdown of individuals is as follows: 6,310 Mental Health Services, 155 Intellectual Disabilities Services, 355 Homeless Assistance Services, 415 Substance Use Disorder Services, and 425 Human Services Development Funds. A recommendation was requested to move forward to be able to present this to the Commissioners. Kim Wertz made the motion. Lorna Blanchard seconded the motion. All in Favor with 8 Yes (in support), 0 Absent, and 0 No. PowerPoint Presentation: Purpose of the PowerPoint: Provides an overview of items that need to be brought to the public and the Commissioners. The narrative is huge, so the PowerPoint will provide an overview to give the key points to the Commissioners for items/planning that need to be brought to their attention. Background: The Block grant was established in FY 12/13 as a pilot program. Franklin County is one of the original 20 counties who accepted. FY 17/18 Children and Youth Services was removed from the Block Grant. They did have another change in FY 17/18, the carry over was changed from 3% to 5%. To date Franklin County has reinvested $1,643,567 back into the community, which includes $105,997 carry over from FY 22-23. In addition term limits were established in FY 17-18 along with member roles, voting capability/requirements.They do have a formal member request form that is still used to this date. Plan guidelines and template were released on Wednesday, July 19th 2023. The first public hearing was set for Thursday, August 31, 2023. The public notification was published on the website and in the newspaper Monday, August 21, 2023. A Public Hearing will be held at the Commissioners’ Meeting on September 13. At Commissioners’ Meeting on September 13, Final Draft will be reviewed and signatured. The final plan will be sent to the State Wednesday, September 20th, 2023. Stacie Horvath stated the Human Services Block Grant monies are categorical and have to be used for a specific purpose and do have restrictions as to how the money can be used. The categories are: Mental Health Community Based Funded Services, Behavioral Health Services initiative, Intellectual & Developmental Disabilities (IDD) Community Based Funded Services, Act 152 Drug and Alcohol Services (D&A), Homeless Assistance Program Funding, Human Services Development Funds (HSDF). Stacy Rowe stated the graph on the PowerPoint shows where almost 1.6 million has been spent over the years. The largest piece of reinvested funds have been used for Drug and Alcohol at 23%. When the block grant started, the Drug and Alcohol Program was very underfunded. Previously County share was utilized to supplement under funding. Block grant funds were able to be redistributed to areas of need, and also helped to reduce County share. Mental Health Services is a close second at 22% for supplemental services. Where regular state and federal dollars have a gap in funding, the Block Grant does allow for those costs to be covered. IDD services is at 7%. Children’s Services is 6%, while the Children and Youth Special Grants Program is no longer in the Block Grant. The HSDF funds do have the ability to serve children under that category. The Block Grant has provided additional support with children’s evidence- based programs, foster care recruitment, and start-up costs for the Children's Advocacy Center. Aging services were supplemented for a period of time and are currently at 11%. Aging was in a place where they were underfunded as well. The I&R/Outreach program is currently at 5%. Professional Development is at 4%. This is for the Human Services training day. Housing Services to date is at 19%, over the last few fiscal years there has been an increased need for shelter support. A few years ago Block Grant Funds were able to implement the Military Share program, which has been highly successful and is currently at 3%. The director of Veterans Affairs is finding other funding opportunities for this program to help support as well. Community Investments covered by Stacie Horvath Aging personal care services, a program to help aging individuals remain safely in their homes has received reinvestment dollars. This has covered $67,000 in funds to be able to assist the aging adults in our community. Some of these services include things such as a caregiver going into the home for a few hours to help clean, care, assist with daily living, or any activities. Aging had an additional $4,000 that was invested in the co-partnership with RSVP. This is to provide part-time employment for seniors working through the Grandparents Partnerships Program. The Community Co-Responder program has served about 1,900 unduplicated individuals with about 9,000 contacts. This program was funded $27,276 and has three co-responders. Leah’s Legacy Bags received $3,000 in funding to assist females that have entered recovery housing that don’t have any personal belongings due to substance use. This program has been offering care bags, with hygiene products. They have also assisted with some classes to help the individuals rebuild their lives. An example of one of the classes is a financial class led by local bankers. They do have other classes for individuals to learn new skill sets. Leg up Farm is a York based non-profit.The Block Grant was able to move $20,000 in funds to help get them established in Franklin County. Where they are in York, they do have families traveling from Fulton and Franklin Counties to participate in this program. They are still looking for an opportunity to move closer / in Franklin County to get a building setup here to extend the program. Military Share Program: They were able to repurpose $20,000 in Block Grant funds to provide no- cost food boxes to Veterans and their families in need. They now are able to find different funding sources within the county as well to help offset those costs, from TMCA, and Aging. TMCA can provide funding for those who are medicare recipients. Aging is able to help provide funds for those over the age of 60 with left over ARPA funding. The cost of food boxes has gone up. They were $10.00 a box and are currently about $14.00 a box. They have seen an increase in costs due to the cost of food prices rising and transportation/fuel costs. South Central Community Action Program (SCAPP): About $136,000 has been used to provide financial support for shelter beds or other needs related to housing and homelessness within Franklin County. Which in total has helped fund about 3,000 nights of shelter to individuals within our community at about $46.00 a night. Strengthening Families Program (Healthy Community Partnerships): $18,000 of Block Grant funds has been invested to provide evidence based family skills training programs for high risk and general population families. This has helped families learn how to be better parents, effectively communicate, have fun, share a meal together with other families in the program/community. Healthy Community Partnerships offers classes through-out Franklin County. They are web based as well. *These examples are of repurposed Block Grant funds. If these funds were not used, they would have gone back to the state and not helped so many lives, families,and community members of Franklin County. IV. Fiscal Review Update (Current 2022-2023 FY): Cori Seilhamer (MH/IDD/EI): IDD Mobile Community Nurse Program will continue with this new FY coming up since the first FY was a success. The nurse will meet with the family to provide well-checks and medication checks. This position will also do presentations, training, and other small group consultation activities. MH Kidz Therapy Zone provides 3 hour blocks of respite for families with special needs.This program allows for families (parents) be able to take their children to a safe location while they can do things they need to do. Some examples are shopping, cleaning their home, taking a nap, or going out on a date night. This program is offered twice a month in Chambersburg and once a month in Waynesboro. In FY 22/23 Chambersburg site had 179 participants with 39 new referrals and Waynesboro had 35 participants with 5 new referrals. The Crisis Intervention Team has celebrated their 10th Anniversary with Franklin County. They have trained about 300 individuals to date. They are getting ready for their upcoming training in September. James Eagler (D&R): Recovery Liaison Position was funded by Grant dollars over the past 5 years, the grant money has disappeared and funding was not available. A Recovery Liaison is a person in recovery who has a certified recovery specialist certification through the PA Certification Board. There is a lot of course work that goes into this position, and a state exam that they must pass before providing services within the community. Looking over the data from this program it was very successful by deflecting people from the criminal justice system and into care and services within the community. There is evidence that suggests those receiving care in the community have a lot more benefits than those in the jail setting. The D&A Department was able to locate funds to continue this position within the community. Collaborating with Franklin County Jail: A few months back D&A had reached out to the jail to see about providing Operation Save a Life Training. This training teaches individuals how to use Naloxone (Narcan), their department provides Narcan free of charge to individuals.They have contracted with Pyramid HealthCare to have a certified recovery specialist go to Franklin County Jail to provide this training for those who are incarcerated. Once the training is completed, they will be provided Narcan upon their release. This will also allow these individuals to sign up for recovery support services from the CRS. They have started a monthly recovery support group which is led by a CRS. These individuals do have to sign up and register. The support group discusses any needs they may have, homelessness, recovery, help with applications etc. The end goal is to help them create a recovery plan to have a successful transition to the community. These groups have been maxed out everytime they have been hosted. Stacie Horvath asked for a recommendation to move forward to provide the presentation to the Commissioners with some adjustments to the slides. Doug Wilburne made the motion to approve. Zac McCauley seconded the motion. All in Favor with 8 Yes (in support), 0 Absent, and 0 No. V. Human Services Program(s) Review: Stacie Horvath informed the departments will be speaking about any updates and crucial information going on. This is to keep the public and the Block Grant Members informed. Mental Health, Intellectual Developmental Disabilities, and Early Intervention with Mental Health Housing (MH/IDD/EI): Cori Seilhamer spoke on behalf of the MH/IDD/EI Department: Mental Health has received a grant and are beginning updates on their Mental Health Crisis system for both Franklin and Fulton County. This will allow individuals to have somewhere to call, somebody to answer, and somewhere to go.They will be proceeding forward and may reach out to see about stakeholders within the community. They have an assessment scheduled to move towards the SAMHSA model. September is National Suicide Awareness Month and Recovery Month- They are trying to get everything displayed in local communities. Purple light bulbs and glow sticks are available if you reach out to the Mental Health Association or MH/IDD/EI with Franklin County. They are displaying lights downtown along with ribbons for suicide awareness and the lights are for recovery month awareness. There will be a proclamation in Franklin County and one in Fulton County. Area on Agency of Aging: Administrator Tawnya Hurley Master Listening Sessions have ended, they are wrapping up their notes to forward to the PA Department of Aging. A Keystone Health Nurse goes into the senior centers every month. A second nurse is coming onboard at the end of September, possibly the beginning of October. They will be holding a Flu Vaccine Clinic at all of the senior centers. This will be convenient for some of those seniors who are not able to make it out to other places than the senior centers. Franklin/Fulton SCA Drug & Alcohol: Administrator James Eagler A lot of the services are just being continued; they have not received any increase in funding. A lot of their funding goes towards treatment. They provided free services for those in the community that are under insured or not insured. Recovery month starts September 1, 2023. There will be a Franklin County Proclamation set for September 6th at 2pm at the Commissioners’ Meeting. There will be a press release Sheena Baker will be sending out on the 6th or the 7th to highlight some recovery events taking place in Franklin County. Large chain pharmacies (Walmart, Walgreens, CVS) will be carrying over the counter Narcan within the next week or two. They cost $44.00 a package. This is ahead of schedule, but they are going to reach out to the pharmacy to see if those individuals who may not be able to afford the cost can reach out to the D&A Department to get one free of charge. Every six doses provided has saved one life. The Drug and Alcohol Advisory Board has three positions available. Franklin County has the business category anyone that is an employee or a resident of Franklin County is able to be on this board. Fulton County has two open positions, one for the Education sector and one for a Consumer who has utilized D&A services, or has a family member who has received D&A services or is in recovery. VI. Community Comments or Discussion N/A VII. Next Scheduled Meeting: 2nd Public Meeting for the HSBG 23-24 FY Plan submission County Commissioners’ Meeting: Wednesday, September 13, 2023 11:00am