Diversity Committee Meeting Minutes

August 19, 2016

Eden, Wisconsin

Attendance: Cathy Scheier, Denise Johnson, Sandy Hardie & Thai Vue

Interpreters: Amy and Nicole

Welcome and introduction: Cathy welcomed everyone! A brief self-introduction was made.

Approval of Meeting Minutes: Denise made a motion to accept the July meeting minutes with the minor modification. Sandy seconded the motion.

Website: The Committee discussed that members should review the Protocol for Culturally Responsive Organizations report and be ready to vote at the next meeting--poste on the Diversity webpage or not? Denise suggested that the “Protocol” be put in one section and break down the report by putting a link to each different section.

Diversity Application Package: The materials are with Gail. She will need to review and finalize it. A brief discussion was held on recruitment. How do we recruit people? One way to recruit is at the annual Mental Health and Substance Abuse Conference coming in October--have application information available at the DMHSAS table as well as the video introductions. Sandy will draft a Q/A sheet and send to everyone for feedback. The Q/A sheet will include the following questions: How does this benefit me or how will this help me? Why would I join Diversity? What difference will I made? What are my responsibilities? How do I join?

Diversity Workshop and Video Updates: The workshop submission was completed. The Diversity Committee will have its own evaluation at the workshop. Denise will draft the evaluation form and send to everyone for feedbacks. All three panelists (Gail, Cathy and Denise) will submit one night’s lodging for the conference.

Video Updates: Cathy got three individuals (ex-offenders who are African American, Hmong, and not sure of the background of the third person yet) and received approval to use work time to do the video. Denise finished taping but will have to redo the video because the captions are too close to the face. Thai has identified a few people and will conduct the interview.

Diversity’s Annual Report: Members reviewed the draft presented to them and added more activities to it. Staff will revise and submit to be included in the September Council report. In addition, members review the existing goals, held a brief discussion on the challenges of its work, and added a few concrete goals for next year’s goals. Please see Diversity Goals: July 1, 2016 – June 30, 2017 sheet for more information.

Some challenging data questions discussed include: What are we doing with the data we received from Mike? Is our data radar picking up wide and deep enough? How do we educate consumers regarding access to services? As of now, it looks like we (our system) just push dirt under the carpet. Should we adopt some of the diversity guidelines in the WI Healthiest 2020 Plan? Members agree to read this report and discuss it again at future meetings.

Others: A couple of items came up for discussion.

Federal vs. State Definition: Why has the state not used the federal term (Substance Use Disorder) instead of AODA. Suggested answer: the state legislature language may not have been changed yet.

Diversity representation at SCAODA: A brief discussion was held on the need to have consistent representation at the SCAODA meeting. It is understandable that with the police demand from local police agencies, it is hard to ask Tina to be active in Diversity Committee activities and to have consistent representation at the Council meeting. It was suggested that Thai consult with the Council Chair on this issue. Thai agreed to contact the Chair of SCAODA and will report back at the next meeting.

Tour: Sandy gave a tour of her new facility from 2 – 3 p.m. Sandy’s program provides transitional housing, case management, and therapeutic services using horses. The members met her beautiful horses.

CLAS Standards: How does the Committee monitor the implementation of CLAS Standard per the motion made in December 2015? A few suggestions discussed were: Diversity Committee periodically write a letter to DCTS (formerly DMHSAS) about its implementation status and explore if GLATTC and ROSC could coordinate and conduct train-the-trainer CLAS Standards trainings for state staff and providers.

Adjourn: The meeting was adjourned at 2 p.m. The motion made by Sandy and seconded by Thai.

Next Agenda Items:

·  Prevention Coalitions Presentation

·  Peer Specialist Presentation

·  Workshop and Video Updates

·  Diversity Chair Updates

·  Review and Approval of Diversity 2016-17 Goals

·  CLAS Standard Implementation

Note by Mai Zong Vue, 608-622-1842, August 20, 2016

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