Ingham Great Start Collaborative, Birth to Five Vision Statement:
Every Ingham County child ready to succeed in school and life"

AGENDA July 9, 2008 1-3:30pm

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 549 E. Mt. Hope in Lansing

1:00pm - Opening (Chairperson: Lori Brasic, Timekeeper: Fran Jozefowicz)

- Introductions - All
- Approval of GSC Previous Meeting Minutes (6/11/08)

1:15pm - GSC Business    

-         GSC Coordinator Report & ECIC updates (Michelle)
-       2009 GSC Allocation and Grant Application (8/15 deadline)
-       updated Letters of Commitment, review new requirements and organizing statements
-         ECIC Tech Asst sessions with Parent Coalitions (MC & Jaime)
-         Federal Grant Application - Home Visitation - due 7/21/08 (Lisa)
-         Updates on CAUW/CRCF Request for Proposal (Michelle & Ken)       

1:45pm - Advisory Groups: Early On (Stephanie), Jump Start (Lisa), and
Great Parents Great Start (Michelle)

1:55 pm - Action Agenda (10-15 minutes each of six Goal areas)

For each Goal Area:
    - Reports on Progress with Action Agenda Strategies & Objectives
    - Discussion of related workgroup and agency upcoming activities and ideas
    - Discussion on next steps, additional resources needed, etc

1)     Goal I - Physical Health (Infant Mortality, Safe Sleep)
2)     Goal II - Social-Emotional Health (KEEP)
3)     Goal III - Early Care & Ed (QI, Kindergarten Transition)
4)     Goal IV - Basic Needs (Ad Hoc Transpo, Lead Coalition)
5)     Goal V - Family Support (Parent Ed, Parent Coalition, EC Literacy Coalition)
6)     Goal VI - Infrastructure (Operations Committee, Public Awareness)

3:00pm - Part III – Action Agenda, Building Links – featured Agency/Programs
          (Tentative) Immigrant & Refugee Resource Coalition (IRRC)
          Shirin Kambin Timms, Director Refugee Development Center

3:30pm - Reminder next GSC Meeting August 13, 2008.   Meeting officially ends.

The next Ingham GSC Meeting will be on 8/13/08 from 1pm-3:30pm at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church,  549 E. Mt. Hope in Lansing (1 block East of Cedar).  Child Care will be available by Reservation Only - Call 371-1347.

Ingham Great Start Collaborative, Birth to Five Vision Statement:
Every Ingham County child ready to succeed in school and life"

Meeting Minutes - July 9, 2008

Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 549 E. Mt. Hope in Lansing
 
Present:  Lori Brasic - OYC, Lisa Chambers - ICHD/Jump Start/MIOP, Barry Kaufman - CEI CMH, Fran Jozefowicz - CEI CMH, Keri Keck - ICHD Teen Parenting, Jennifer Lamphere - Cristo Rey Community Center, Lucy McClintic - CACS Head Start, Michelle Nicholson - Ingham ISD, Stephanie Peters - Ingham ISD Early On, MC Rothhorn - Parent Coordinator, Ken Sperber - Ingham GSC, Debby Starnes - ICHD PHN, Beany Tomber - WKAR, and Jamie Yeomans - Parent (GPGS)

Opening and Approval of 6/11/08 Minutes

Operations Committee members continue to chair the GSC meetings.  Lori Brasic chaired the meeting, and Fran Jozefowicz acted as the timekeeper.  Members each introduced themselves to the group. The Minutes from the previous Ingham GSC meeting on 6/11/08 were approved without correction.  The meeting Minutes will be posted at the Ingham GSC website www.cacvoices.org/birthtofive .

GSC Business   

Michelle requested and the GSC agreed to change the order of the Agenda in the GSC business section of the meeting.  Also it was announced that Sharlina Pye-Mack gave birth to a baby girl on 6/25/08, and a greeting card was passed around for GSC members to send her congratulations and well wishes.

 Federal Grant Application - Home Visitation

            In our previous GSC meeting a subcommittee was formed to consider applying for a Federal grant to improve Home Visitor programs in our area. The competitive grant: Supporting Evidence-Based Home Visitation Programs to Prevent Child Maltreatment (CFDA Number: 93.670) offers $100,000-500,000/year over the 5 year grant period. As the subcommittee began meeting locally it was made known that several State agencies and the ECIC were planning on submitting a statewide proposal for this grant application.  Subsequently Michelle and Lisa met with representatives from ECIC, MDCH, and DHS to talk about all of the great programs and collaborations that we have in place here locally in Ingham County and the grant application.  It seemed that they were impressed that we wove so much of what we do together to braid funding and services.  However, these State agencies, with the likely addition of the Children's Trust Fund, decided to collaborate at a State level to submit one statewide proposal for this federal CAN/ home visitation grant using several pilot sites.
            The State agencies felt that the grant application proposal would be strengthened if it were to be a 'statewide' effort focusing on four best practices (Nurse Family. Partnership, PAT, Healthy Families America, and Early Head Start).  After much discussion the Ingham GSC subcommittee decided not to try and submit a separate proposal to the Feds from our area.  The State of Michigan will submit a application for consideration, with the idea that Ingham County carries out many of the best practices described in the RFP, and would therefore, be a "strong candidate" for consideration as one of the pilot sites in the statewide project, if federal funding is approved.

CAUW/CRCF Request for Proposal Updates

            Ken and Michelle met with Sharon Granger (Capital Area United Way), and Brad Patterson (Capital Region Community Foundation) on 7/9/08 about the CAUW/CRCF Youth Initiative.  Overall they liked the revisions made to the Component Area Charts and Budget, and they accepted the draft of the narrative for their review and comments.  They suggested a few more changes in the charts, and they said they would give us their feedback on the narrative sections by Friday 7/11/08.  They requested that we have a final draft of the RFP submitted to them by 7/18/08.  The RFP would then be shared with the CRCF Board for their approval at their meeting on 7/22/08.  If all goes well the funds could be available to be spent on the project activities beginning in September 2008.

 ECIC Updates from TA Sessions

            Jaime, MC, and Michelle attended the quarterly ECIC Technical Assistance meeting held in Petoskey on June 24-25, 2008.  Jaime attended several sessions with other parents from around the State who were also members of local GSCs and Parent Coalitions.  Jaime commented that she felt very fortunate that parents here are included in all parts of the Great Start Collaborative.  In the sessions parents from some other communities expressed concerns about tensions and confusion between parents, their local GSC, and the ISDs.  MC added that here parents are included in all workgroups, and leadership positions such as on the Operations Committee, and chairing GSC meetings but that is not the situation in other local GSCs.  MC passed out copies of the booklet “Parent Leadership on the Great Start Collaboratives” distributed by ECIC.  MC shared the observation that there is an apparent paradox in trying to create a grassroots movement from the top down.  MC encouraged us to all keep innovating and meeting local needs.
            Michelle reported on the information that she received about the FY2009 GSC funding application process.  The budget and workplan must be submitted to ECIC by 8/15/08.  The Ingham GSC allocation from the ECIC has been increased by $5,000 from $160,000 to $165,000.  Ingham GSC has been given a six-month extension to complete the Finance Project activities.
            Other ECIC updates included plans for the reorganization at ECIC.  Joan Blough will become the VP at ECIC and a new Director of Technical Assistance will be hired, other TA staff have been re-assigned.  Future quarterly TA sessions will be on a regional basis, with only one statewide meeting held annually.  ECIC has hired a new accountant and there will be a webinar for local GSCs and ISDs on ECIC accounting procedures next week.    

Advisory Groups: Early On, Jump Start, Great Parents Great Start

Lisa reported that Jump Start lost their appeal and the Children’s Trust Fund is slated to cut the Jump Start secondary prevention grant by $135,000 beginning 10/1/08.  Lisa will be forwarding an email alert to the GSC urging members to advocate for support of these Jump Start funds.

Action Agenda Updates

Goal I - Physical Health - Lisa reported that the Infant Mortality Initiative has moved their meetings to the NICU Conference Room at Sparrow Hospital on the 4^th Thursday of the month from 1:30-3:30pm.  The Safe Sleep Coalition did not meet because Carol Buzzitta went on leave when her ex-husband passed away; members expressed their condolences.

Goal II - Social-Emotional Health - Barry reported that the KEEP Task Force will be meeting tomorrow in the MSUE Conference Room to expand on the ideas in the Social Emotional Component of the RFP

Goal III - Early Care & Education - The Quality Initiatives workgroup has been looking at coaching and mentoring models, and agreed to take the lead on the development of the child care scholarship component of the RFP.  The Kindergarten Transition Committee will be meeting on 7/23/08 to sort out the Transition Summaries from Head Start and Early Childhood Special Education.  MC offered that the Parent Coalition would be interested in helping with this task.  Lucy said right now the most important information to give parents of  Lansing School District new incoming kindergarteners is to enroll their children this summer at the PACE Office in Hill Center on Wise Road. {PACE office can be reached at 755-2820, or by entering Hill Center west side door #41 and going to Room C-112.}

Goal IV - Basic Needs - The Ad Hoc Transportation Committee continues to refine the transportation needs agency survey and the client survey. The agency survey will be on-line at Zoomerang.com and will be pilot tested in August.  The Asset Independence Coalition committee of the Power of We Consortium has launched a “Bank on Lansing” campaign.  At the initial meeting Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero and Ingham County Treasurer Eric Schertzing spoke about efforts to coordinate City and County resources to help remove barriers for low-income people to use banks.  Following the GSC presentation about the new on-line application system for MI Child, OYC received additional training for their staff and now can offer parents calling OYC the opportunity to enroll in MI Child, Healthy Kids, and MOMS while talking to the OYC staff.

MC shared a flyer “Take Action for Children's Environmental Health” a civic engagement training for parents and professionals on 7/16/08 with the GSC Parent Coalition.  MC will send Ken an email version to share with the GSC mailing list.

Goal V - Parent Education and Family Support - The Parent Education workgroup has been focusing on expanding play and learn groups targeting four populations: teens, refugees, homeless, and food bank clients.  They have also agreed to take the lead on developing the strategies for the oral/dental health strategies in the RFP.  The Early Childhood Literacy Coalition is planning the fall literacy events at the Lansing Mall (10/18/08) and the Meridian Mall (10/19/08), featuring Gordon from Sesame Street.  The ECLC is also organizing two weeks of events featuring costumed characters such as Clifford.  Barnes and Noble at the Lansing Mall is joining in as one of the event sponsors. Beany reported that WKAR will receive a Parenting Counts grant with these designated partners: Early Head Start, Clinton County Extension and Early On, and Easton County Extension.

Goal VI - Infrastructure - The Operations Committee continues to discuss the revisions to the CAUW/CRCF Request for Proposal.  Ken reported that he had been trying to contact the League of Women Voters (LWV) to offer GSC co-sponsorship of some legislative education events in the fall.  Debby Starnes offered, that since she was a member of the LWV, she would contact the LWV and have them contact Ken.
{Following the meeting with Debby’s help the President of the Lansing Area LWV did contact Ken, and discussions are now under way about jointly sponsoring events}.  The Public Awareness workgroup has requested additional members to join in helping plan public will-building and outreach activities.  The Public Awareness workgroup meets on the 3rd Monday of each month at the MSU Kellogg Center in Room #6 from 1:30-3:30pm. 

Action Agenda, Building Links, Featured Agency/Programs

Shirin Kambin Timms, Director Refugee Development Center (RDC) and member of the Immigrant & Refugee Resource Coalition (IRRC) was the featured agency speaker.  Shirin explained that the Refugee Development Center (RDC) is a compassionate center of learning for refugees and the people who serve them throughout the Lansing area. Refugees find a menu of traditional and self-based learning opportunities, tutoring programs, cultural and community orientations, and resources to use at their own speed. The center is an open and inclusive place for the community to welcome newcomers and for refugees to locate the existing resources they need to flourish as independent residents of Lansing. More details are on-line at:  www.refugeedevelopmentcenter.com/index.html

Shirin talked about the three main refugee groups to the Lansing area are now from Burma, Burundi and Iraq. She explained that St Vincent Catholic Charities meets new refuges relocating to Lansing area at the airport and works with them for the first 6 months on re-settlement issues from homes to jobs and school.  Shirin commented that there are many challenges since six months is not adequate time for a complete transition.   The families often still need help with health care, financial planning and many other issues.   The most obvious problem is language, but DHS subsidies only pay for hours worked, not for time in language classes learning English.  Most refugees come, literally, with only the clothes on their backs - so they can only afford to live in the toughest parts of town, often with the worst housing conditions.  Most of the refugees re-settled here face mental health issues, many were victims of torture and trauma.  Around 80% are women with children - female heads of households (very different than their traditional cultural models) now forced into the role of child disciplinarian, bread-winner, and financial decision maker.  In terms of child rearing, often corporal punishment is expected, they have not previously learned any other ways to discipline children in the refugee camps where they grew up.  Often young siblings age 7-10 years old would be typically responsible for caring for their 2-3 year old brothers and sisters.

The Resource Development Center’s mission is education.  After 6 months of re-settlement they help refugees with two signature programs: ESL (English as Second Language) classes; and Youth Activities.   The RDC also provides homework assistance, leadership development, and addresses emerging issues (for example:  Burundi refugees have been born and raised in refugee camps since 1972 - literacy, truancy, and hygiene are a few of the many issues they face). 

According to Shirin there is a lack of interpreting services in our community.  The IRRC has begun discussions with MSU to develop plans for interpreting services for these new waves of refugees.  Without

Communication, most of the refugee problems seem insurmountable.  Shirin commented that there are many profoundly sad stories, but that she is always re-energized when seeing how many Lansing area community members volunteer to help these refugee families.

In reply to a question Shirin stated that in the 1980’s re-settlement happened thru a lot of the churches in local communities, but because of issues around proselytizing nationwide the funding was shifted to agencies that would separate out religious issues.  Shirin said that through Lutheran Social Services, Michigan resettles more unaccompanied minor refugees than any other State.  Within Michigan Grand Rapids is first, and Lansing is second in the number of these re-settlements.  Although the scheduled GSC meeting time had passed, Shirin stayed and answered additional questions from GSC members.  Shirin said she is open to talking more about how we can work together to focus on improving services for parents with children at ESL classes, perhaps mentoring childcare volunteers, or advise on choosing play equipment to purchase for children to use while their parents are in ESL classes.  Several GSC members stayed and talked further with Shirin after the GSC meeting ended.

Next GSC Meeting 

The GSC meeting officially ended at 3:45pm, with a reminder that the next Ingham GSC Meeting will be on 8/13/08 from 1pm - 3:30pm at the Bethlehem Lutheran Church, 549 E. Mt. Hope in Lansing (1 block East of Cedar).  Child Care will be available by Reservation Only - Call 371-1347.