Minutes
Tuesday September 8, 2009
12:00pm at Mansfield Town Hall
Conference Room B
Board Members
Present:
Ethel Mantzaris, Chair
Frank Perrotti, Co-Chair
Patricia Michalak, YSB Coordinator
Kathleen McNamara, YSB Senior Social Worker
Kevin Grunwald, Director of Human Services
Jay O’Keefe, Parks & Recreation
Jerry Marchon, Police Officer
Lauren DiGrazia, Graduate MSW Intern
Absent: Eileen Griffin, Candace Morrell, Sheila Riffle, & Amber Hoyt
Proceedings
-Announced the arrival of the three graduate interns and distributed their profiles to the board members
-Briefly discussed the concentrations and backgrounds of each Graduate Intern
-YSB Senior Social Worker, Kathleen McNamara, worked this summer to get financial assistance for kids to attend camp and worked with families in crisis
-Explored new methods of making COPE announcements by using press releases to various newspapers. The decision was made that the best way to get the information out there was through the schools, but will continue to explore other options.
-There was a follow up to locate Mansfield children who have a parent incarcerated. Ms Hayward, a prison family advocate, agreed to send us updates from the Bergin Prison. Information on this population is hard to find.
-Continuing to work on record keeping and data collection in the “My Senior” software
-Multifamily Group continued over the summer and there was a strong turn out
-Handed out the quarterly report for the Department of Human Services
-The report ended in June 2009
-Discussed the Results Based Accountability (RBA) model (define results and then work backwards)
-Discussed how this report was written. It was based on the mission of the department and then by identifying the means of accomplishing results. This was then broken down into five categories.
-Discussed the birth through 8 grant and handed out the “Mansfield’s Plan for Young Children.” The goal of this project was explained as well as the opportunity for continued funding for the next five years once the project was finished. There is still one area that needs to be worked on before this proposal can be submitted.
-There was a discussion on revamping the meeting. It was decided that board members would receive a phone call the Friday before the meeting to remind them of the meeting. This will enhance the capability of knowing who will be in attendance and who will not.
-There will be a copy of the previous month’s minutes at each board meeting along with copies of the agenda. Both the agenda and the minutes will continue to be sent to the board members via email.
-The board wants to encourage student input on the board
-The Director of Human Services, Kevin Grunwald, suggested that maybe there should be a focus on one area for the year.
-The chair, Ethel Mantzaris, suggested that if there was going to be one focus she would like to see there be more emphasis on summer employment for kids to keep them out of trouble. We will further discussion on this topic in the future.
Meeting adjourned at 1 pm
Minutes submitted by,
Lauren DiGrazia Graduate MSW Intern