AGENDA and MINUTES - Interagency Working Group on Poverty Elimination, December 18, 2024

Interagency Working Group on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security

Meeting Agenda and Minutes

Wednesday, December 18, 2024

1:00-2:30 PM

Recording

Statutory Members:

Name Title Organization Attendance
Dulce Quintero Chairperson, Secretary Illinois Department of Human Services Present
Elizabeth Vogt Senior Policy Advisor Illinois Department on Aging Present
Tyler Bohannon Bureau Chief, Legislative Affairs Illinois Department of Agriculture Present
Isabel Velez-Diez Deputy Director of Policy Development, Planning, & Research Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity Present
Anna Koeppel Director Illinois Department of Labor Present
Marc Staley Deputy Director Illinois Governor's Office of Management and Budget Present
Dr. Janice Phillips Assistant Director Illinois Department of Public Health Absent
Jennifer Saba Chief Education Officer - Operations Illinois State Board of Education Present
Alyssa Williams Assistant Director Illinois Department of Corrections Absent

Invited Members:

Name Title Organization Attendance
Emily Mueller AD of Policy and Research Illinois Housing Development Authority Present
Carrie Thomas Deputy Director, Business Services Illinois Department of Employment Security Present
Dana Kelly Chief of Staff Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services Preset

Administrator: Priya Khatkhate, IDHS-Chief Policy Officer

Facilitators: Kaitlin Devaney - Institute of Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP)

Guests: 

  1. Erik Turner - IHDA, Policy and Research Specialist
  2. Grace Martin - IDHS, Private Secretary

Agenda:

  1. Meeting ice breaker / conversation starter - (5 min) Administrator Priya Khatkhate
    • Roll Call - (3 min) - Administrator Khatkhate
      • Introduction of new member: Ms. Isabel Belez-Diez (2 min)
  2. Welcome - (3 min) Secretary Quintero / IWG Chair
  3. Public Comment - (2 min) subject to written comment in advance
  4. Approval of Meeting Minutes: September 18, 2024 (2 min)
  5. IWGP Housekeeping - (5 min) Administrator Khatkhate
    1. Subcommittee participation
    2. Posting of IWGP FY24 report to member agencies' website - complete
  6. Celebrations: Sharing annual accomplishments - (10 min) All
  7. What's Top of Mind - (15 min) All
    1. Key priorities
    2. Adjustments for the future
  8. Looking Ahead - (15 min) All
    • Ideas for how we can theme our four sessions next calendar year to align with these emerging needs and opportunities.
  9. Next Steps (3 min)
    • FY2025 meeting dates:
    1. Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM (invite will be sent)
    2. Wednesday, June 18, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM (invite will be sent)
    3. Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM (invite will be sent)
    4. Wednesday, December 17, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM (invite will be sent)
  10. Adjournment (2 min)

Minutes:

Meeting ice breaker/conversation starter - led by Administrator Priya Khatkhate.

Roll Call - led by Administrator Khatkhate. Seven statutory members were present out of nine. Quorum was declared. All three invited members were present.

  1. Meeting ice breaker/conversation starter - led by Administrator Priya Khatkhate.
  2. Roll Call - led by Administrator Khatkhate. Seven statutory members were present out of nine. Quorum was declared. All three invited members were present.
    • Introduction of new member: Ms. Isabel Vélez-Diez
  3. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance; none received.
  4. IDHS Secretary Dulce Quintero, IWG Chair provided the welcome remarks; mentioned some programs implemented/started for FY24 that addressed/addressing generational poverty including expanding access to early childhood programs, child tax credit and court-based rental assistance; and stressed that agencies need to continue to work together to fight generational poverty.
  5. Approval of Meeting Minutes: September 18, 2024 - Ms. Dana Kelly moved to approve the September 18, 2024 meeting minutes seconded by Secretary Quintero. The group unanimously approved the September 18, 2024 meeting minutes through a roll call vote.
  6. IWGP Housekeeping - Administrator Khatkhate
    1. Subcommittee participation - there is a good amount of participation from the IWGP members but all are still welcome to participate in other subcommittees where they can share their expertise. Members can email Administrator Khatkhate or Len to become a subcommittee member.
    2. Posting of IWGP FY24 report to member agencies' website - completed.
  7. Celebrations: Sharing annual accomplishments
    1. GOMB
      1. Continuation of COLA for the cash assistance portion of the TANF grant
      2. 2nd year implementation of Home Illinois
      3. Increase in the percentage for the refundable income child tax credit that state revenue will issue
      4. Continued rate increases for childcare to allow higher reimbursement, wages/salaries for childcare workers
      5. Increasing and maintaining the access and eligibility for families to enroll in childcare programs
      6. Passing on rate increases to other home providers (DD and Aging/Home Services Program)
    2. HFS
      • 1115 waiver approval - giving Medicaid authority to cover services including housing, food and nutrition, violence prevention and reentry services; all the deliverables that CMS needed have been provided so that everything will be in placed by the time the new federal administration takes over
    3. IDHS
      1. Digitalization
      2. OFVP has seen a decrease since 2021 in Chicago area by 35%, down 12% since 2023; 195 decrease since 2023 in Greater Illinois
      3. New state agency of Department of Early Childhood with incoming Secretary Teresa Ramos
    4. IDES
      • Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment Program - an unemployment insurance program specifically for unemployment insurance (UI) claimants who have been identified as likely to exhaust their benefits before getting reemployed so putting them at risk of further economic insecurity. These individuals are required to participate in one-on-one employment services. Congress made the program permanent a few years ago with a permanent authorized appropriation to the State and has resulted in increased funding. For FY24, a total of 18,000 UI claimants were served by the program which is 35% more.
    5. IHDA
      1. Maintaining the annual goal of doubling the annual support housing units
      2. Release of non-congregated shelter RFA in FY24 - IHDA is hopeful to allocate $37.5 million towards the projects in FY24
    6. ISBE
      • Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (SEBT) Program - a new federal meal assistance program under USDA; first implemented in Illinois during the summer through collaboration between ISBE and IDHS; to date, over 1.25 million eligible students have received over $152 million in SEBT benefits
    7. Agriculture
      1. Launch of Illinois EATS Program - funded by USDA with $28.8 million in grant funding for underserved farmers; a joint partnership between the Department of Agriculture and IDHS.
      2. Roll out of the Resilient Food System Infrastructure program which is a cooperative agreement with USDA and with a $6.4 million in competitive grants available to help strengthen the Illinois food supply chain.
  8. What's Top of Mind - Key Priorities
    1. IDES
      1. Projects on improving business processes and internal work as well as on understanding equitable access to unemployment insurance.
      2. Under the Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment Program, IDES is building out a number of online self-service programmatic options that will be built into the Illinois Job Link platform which is the State Labor Exchange System - to be implemented in the next calendar year.
      3. Under the Home Illinois Plan, piloting the matching of IDES' administrative records (employment and reemployment records) with the Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) records thru collaboration with the Chicago Continuum of Care to understand some of the labor market experience of people experiencing homelessness who interact with the homeless response system. Data analysis is expected to come next year.
      4. Deauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act which is the umbrella law overseeing the four core workforce and education programs (at IDES and DCEO) and includes significant changes.
    2. HFS
      1. Scenario planning for the upcoming new federal administration.
      2. Getting authority before the current administration ends to ensure security of programs such as state plan amendments for coverage of doula services and the 1115 waiver.
      3. Thinking through legal implications and coverage implications that would come with holding federal funding to the Medicaid program, taking away certain funding for providing certain types of services like gender affirming care.
      4. Working on financial support and agreements to help ensure continued sustainability of HFS' reproductive health partners providing care to out-of-state constituents.
      5. Taking a harm reduction approach in navigating items included in the ACA to ensure/maintain coverage for as many people as possible in the state.
    3. DHS
      1. Looking across DHS ecosystem for vulnerabilities to federal transition.
      2. Ensure communication around immigration, LGBTQ, TGNB, etc.
      3. Also looking at budget and core programs for food, livelihood, and shelter.
      4. Looking to coordinate a framework and strategy to support on-the-ground providers regarding deportation issues and needs.
    4. IDoA - planning ahead for federal transition and federally-funded programs including Older Americans Act, triple AAA services, 1915C Medicaid home and community-based waiver programs, and ensuring communications are in place with stakeholders.
  9. Ideas for succeeding meetings
    1. Invite Dir. Teresa Ramos to talk about what they are doing at the Department of Early Childhood.
    2. Budget priorities - possibly in June.
    3. Elimination of certain kinds of data collection per Project 2025; some federal resources may be taken down off of federal agency websites.
    4. GCFD was asked to do a project related to the public benefits program and they have do it in the spring - might be a good meeting presentation in June.
    5. Members can still send suggestions thru email.
  10. Next Steps
    1. FY2025 meeting dates: (Len will send meeting invites)
      1. Wednesday, March 19, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM
      2. Wednesday, June 18, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM
      3. Wednesday, September 17, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM
      4. Wednesday, December 17, 2025, 1:00-2:30 PM
  11. Adjournment - Mr. Bohannon moved to adjourn the meeting seconded by Mr. Staley. The group unanimously agreed to adjourn the meeting at 2:05 PM.