Meeting minutes from May 5, 2016
Attendees: Melisa Brumley; Jennifer Haney; Jana Nelson, Mission of Hope; Marie Abraham-Robinson, Wings of Hope Family Crisis Services; Christine Cleary, Healthcare for Homeless Veterans; Earlene Click, CDSA; Sandie Hamilton, Hope Outreach; Nathan NewellSalvation Army-Enid; Melisa Brumley, United Way Ponca City; Amanda Doran, DVPNCO; Teresa Benson, First Christian Church, Ponca City; Emily Hays, Payne County Youth Services; Joanna Moats, YFS Enid; Nikki Pinkerton, Mission of Hope; Tammy Richmond, Mission of Hope; Jana Nelson, Mission of Hope; John Dessauer, CSC/BRRX4VETS
Call to order:Meeting was called to order at 10:00a.m.by Jennifer Haney
April meeting minutes:Earlene motioned to accept the April minutes; Joanna Moats from YFS Enid second the motion
Agency Reports:
Earlene Click from CDSA reported lack of funds equals lack of services. They’re making many job referrals.
Sandie Hamilton from Hope Outreach(Enid) reported 32 individuals are assisted on average per day.
Nathan Newell from Salvation Army (Enid) stated there are 7 men and 3 ladies in the program; 3 families; Bridges of Poverty program is on-going.
Amanda Doran from DVPNCO reported theirannual fundraiser went well. There were several successful Sexual Assault Awareness month events held in April.
Emily Hays from PCYS reported there are two teenage girls in transitional housing. Ms. Hays is preparing for rest of school year.
Teresa Benson from First Christian Church (Ponca City) reported the church provides the Friendship Feast, which is free to the community. Each day of the week, a local faith based and other community program volunteers prepare and serve the food at the church. They provide utilities support when there is ample funding. Jennifer Haney announced that First Christian Church (Ponca City) is being awarded the “Whatever it Takes” award at the Mayfest celebration today, sponsored by Edwin Fair.
Joanna Moats, from Youth and Family Services (Enid) reported there are 4 in shelter and four in transitionalhousing. The Junior Service League recently donated food to shelter.
Marie Abraham-Robinson reported there are 6 women and 9 kids in shelter. Most of the women are working or looking for jobs. Sexual Assault Awareness events in the community went very well.
MelissaBrumley reported she finalized the Point in Time report. Everyone should have received a copy. She is working with the vendor. Note: There will be changes in HUD in October 2016. Vendors should have alimony part fixed on the reports.
Jana Nelson from Mission of Hope reported having 57 clients this month; 4 in permanent housing; none moved to transitional housing this month. Ms. Nelson and the staff/board are planning annual fundraiser. MOH lost funding for veterans’ support ($46,000).
Christine Cleary- from the VA reported on the shelter outreach project, which includes rural outreach. The program is fully staffed and is located in the OKC VA. Ms. Cleary answered members’ questions about the outreach program’s services. She is the point of contact/resource for veterans and has been to Enid, STW, and Ponca City working with homeless veterans. Ms. Cleary passed out national hotline numbers for literally homeless individuals. Hotline calls should be forwarded to her or co-worker; in rural communities, individuals are recommended to local resources. She can make medical and dental referrals, though resources are limited.Note: Standown in Lawton in May 6, in September in OKC- others are not scheduled;
John Dessauer from CSC/BRRX4VETS summarized program and reported they’re integrating new staff.
Jennifer Haney reported they completed CARF accreditation and were successfully approved for three years. Several programs are in transition and the shelter is busy, though not full. Youth seem to need more support than usual, and staff are supporting them and connecting them with local resources;
HMIS Report- Vendor will start work order on alimony section which is affecting your reports; repair should take a couple of weeks. Numbers run the same. ThisContinuum collectively saw over 1000 clients in the past year.If your program has closed something out, there should be no clients in there; on children’s column, if your agency is not a youth shelter, there should be no children in the youth column; children should be linked to parents’ worksheet; one agency has to start using 2015 reporting info in HMIS. Just to clarify: HMIS IS service point. The same program is used state wide. Most Continuums use VI SPADAT. Some agencies use it, but it is not required in rural continuums.
Point in Time- Submitted last week before May 2nd deadline. Total number served were 131- less than last year. There were changes in some transitional programs, some were closed, which may have affected the numbers between last year and this year. See page 7 of the packet, it is the summary page. Note: Kids in youth shelters do not count because we cannot count children who are in state’s custody; Be sure to count all clients who were in shelter on the nightof the survey even if they left the following day. Shelter counts need to be accurate.
Several members asked Ms. Cleary from clarity on VA services. She recommended that programsrequest local housing authority to vote to give veterans priority and not be on wait list, OKC does this; relies on barracks for Vets. She receives calls from rural areas, but most callers refuse to come to shelter in OKC. Enid has a lot of local resources, but no official housing authority; CDSA provides similar services as housing authority; Catholic Charities (St. Vincent DePaul provides rent and utilities on occasion).
New Business- Northern Oklahoma Youth Services (NOYS) requested ESnaps’ permission- user name and password given to serve as lead agency- deadline May 11th. COC grant opened and May 11th is the deadline to submit the first part of the grant, so they need a password to submit. Process is very slow; it takes 7-10 business days to get a question answered.
ESG Updates: Re: 2016 ESG application- see Rebekah’s emails which have been sent by Melisa Brumley; April 30th final progress report was due- be sure yours was turned in. End of program performance report is due May 30th, but it is a new report.
Reminder:Last month Cheri Ezzelfrom CDSA recommended the rating and ranking committee will make the final grant decisions; Nathan Newell, Melisa Brumley, Terrie Hill and Stephanie from CBG will be on the rating and ranking committee. Jennifer Haney must submit a letter before they can participate in a webinar. There is criteria from ODOC which they must follow.
The plan is fortwo people to read the grant and score it separately; if there are additional questions, the Rating and Ranking Committee members may call agencies to get clarification. This Continuum received a lower amount of money this year. CDSA is going to apply on their own. This year’s applicants: CDSA; SDVS; DVNCOP, NOYS, PCYS, Youth and Family of Enid and MOH will be applying for $200,000.00. Rating and Ranking Committee will consider members’ participation and use of funds. Applicants may want to include how many people were served with the previous years’ funds, age, disability, how funds were allocated and how much was left from previous year; include how many you propose to support and how many you have actually served. Budget revisions are no longer allowed
Amanda from DVPNCO recommended that the Rating and Ranking Committee use consistent criteria when reviewing and scoring grant applications.
Nathan inquired about disseminate money to groups. The group discussed whether or not to put a cap on the grant. The group discussed the pros and cons of putting a cap on the grant. Then there was a motion:
Motion: This year, applicants will not adhere to a cap. We will leave the ability to make the decision for funding to the Rating and Ranking Committee, with the recommendation that there should be a cover letter that summarizes the previous year’s use of funds, how many people were served, how it was used, and how each agency plans to use this year’s funding. This information should be emailed to Melissa Brumley by June 3, 2016. Jana Nelson made the motion; Joanna Moats seconded the motion.
Melissa Brumleysuggested everyone review the System Performance Measures – An introductory guide to understanding system-level performance measurement from May 2015. This is how HUD will be monitoring. This is a series of 7 HUD training videos. It encompasses length of time of homelessness; return to homelessness; total number ofpeople experiencing homelessness; income growth; if clients are newly homeless; housing placements and successful placements. They want to know how this looks now, six months from now, etc.
Bill Wright announced that all grantees meeting will be on June 8th.
The next meeting will be held on June 2nd at NOYS. Rating and Ranking team will meet thereafter.
Meeting was adjourned at 11:40am. Sandi Hamilton motioned to adjourn; Emily Hays seconded the motion.