GA-506 Marietta/Cobb Continuum of Care

Board of Directors Meeting

January 19, 2016

Minutes

Members Attending: Jeri Barr, Carolyn Bridges, Tyler Driver, Chris Fields, Veronica Sigalo, Bryan Stephens, Holly Tuchman, John Shereikis, Karen Carter, and Jim Hartsfield

Guest Attending: Rachel Castillo

StaffAttending: Lee Freeman-Smith, Joan Toder

Welcome and Introductions

The meeting was called to order by Holly Tuchman, Co-Chair, and introductions were made around the room.

Attendance and Minutes

Jeri Barr confirmed attendance and quorum was in place. She presented the November 17, 2015 minutes.

Motion: To accept the November 17, 2015 minutes as presented

Moved First: Holly TuchmanSeconded By: Bryan StephensNone Opposed

Proxy

Judge Greengavehis proxy to Jeri Barr.

Updates

Chronically Homeless – The final definition of Chronically Homeless has been published and is in effect. All organizations with programs targeting CH persons must use the final definition. There are new requirements for documentation and record keeping that must be followed that are going to be challenging for staff. Organizations with beds dedicated for CH persons were urged to make sure their staff is well trained on these in order to meet the requirements to serve individuals or families under the new definition. There was a webinar held recently if you want to review.

HMIS Privacy Policies – The HMIS Steering Committee has approved new Privacy Policies for sharing of data. An implementation committee is being formed to develop a timeline for implementing them across the state. Each person who uses Pathways will be required to take training on the new policies.

Monitoring – The Monitoring Committee has completed its duties and monitored each organization receiving CoC funding. Our Monitoring policies state that monitoring will occur every two years, so we will not need to conduct full-scale monitoring this year. However, we will need to consider some type of review to use for rating and ranking for our next CoC application process.

Coordinated Entry/Written Standards – Coordinated Entry and Written Standards are required by HUD and go hand-in-hand. We need to move forward this year with Coordinated Entry. The processes we develop for that will help us in formulating our Written Standards. Carolyn gave a brief overview of Coordinated Entry at our combined General Membership and Cobb Collaborative General Membership meeting in December and received inquiries after the meeting from people who are interested in CE and would like to work with us on developing CE in Cobb. We are encouraging the CoC Board to also identify someone from their organization to participate. Chris would like to see funds assigned for someone to help with CE.

Point In Time Count Trainings (1.19 2-4 and 1.21 10-12) – It has been our process to do a full-scale sheltered and unsheltered count every two years and a sheltered count annually along with our Housing Inventory Update. This year we are scheduled for a sheltered count only. This means we will send out surveys to all organizations providing housing regarding their program populations, beds, units, etc. and the number of persons sheltered on January 27, our PIT count night. Two trainings will be held on how to complete the survey forms, Jan. 19 from 2–4pm and

Jan 21 from 10–12pm. Each organization must appoint one or more persons to complete their surveys and attend training on one of the two dates.

HMIS

Joan Toder presented the Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR) from October 1, 2014-September 30, 2015 which is a requirement for HUD. The AHAR data has been accepted since 2007. She can share report with anyone that is interested. She reviewed the 7 performance measures which we will be collecting data for 6 of them. She will be able to gather data for the CoC using Pathways. The gray sections are blank for the first year.

Our goal is to reach functional zero. We want the resources to have the capacity to serve those identified as homeless and for their homelessness to be brief and rare.

We have added report reminders to the agenda for 2016. At each Board meeting, Joan will share the upcoming reports due. The APR is due 90 days after project ends. The following are due:

Zion Keepers- End of January

YWCA- February 15 (she is aware of the Apricot issues)

CFR- February 15 for off-site

MUST- March 15 for SSO; April 10 for S+C; April 15 for Veterans

The ESG report is under major changes but not done at this time. Cobb’s CAPER report is due March 30.

Advisory Council

The council is continuing to meet. Their focus is awareness, fundraising, and advocacy.

Holly gave update that the Executive Committee met to discuss next steps for the council. We have created a list of potential funders to approach but wanted to share with Board first before any action was taken. Which foundations through the banks can we approach? Who else to add? Tyler asked if foundations would be less likely to give to capital campaigns if approached for this as well.

Please share any ones to add or anyone you would like removed by February 1.

Chris Fields asked if we needed a strategic plan or needs assessment? Karen Carter feels the needs assessment should be broader and not just homelessness. Jeri suggested we keep them separate.

We need a needs assessment for our work with ending homelessness but feel an overall assessment for the county is beneficial as well. A needs assessment would be helpful for the CoC Advisory Council as they seek funding.

Announcements/General Discussion

  • Cobb Collaborative will conduct 2 RFP meetings for the Cobb County Non-Profit Grant, must attend 1 of them to apply for the grant which is due March 31 at 12pm
  • February 23, 9am-11am, Riverside EpiCenter
  • February 25, 1pm-3pm, Cumberland Community Church
  • Cobb Collaborative is seeking volunteers to serve on the peer review teams for the Cobb County Non-Profit grant process. If interested, please contact Karen Carter .

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be March 15at noon at the Mansour Conference Center.

Action Item / POC / Closure Date
Attend PIT training / Group / January 19 or 21
Send suggestions for company list / Holly Tuchman / February 1
Review chronically homeless definition and requirements / Organizations serving CH / February 1
Send minutes / Lee Freeman-Smith / March meeting
Identify someone to serve on CE committee / Group / March meeting
Complete APR reports / Joan Toder / Dates listed in minutes for Zion Keepers, YWCA, CFR, and MUST
Convene rating and ranking committee to consider type of review to use for our next CoC application process / Carolyn Bridges / May meeting