AGENDA and Minutes - Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security 12/5/22

December 5, 2022

2:00pm - 3:30pm

Recording

Desired Outcomes:

• Review Subcommittee Formulation and Launch - Motivate Participation
• Review Regional Convening Roll Out
• Review IWGP Strategic Plan Action Report
• Generate Initial Concepts for FY2024 Strategic Plan Goals
• Communicate Next Steps to Guide Work Ahead

Agenda:

1. Welcome Roll Call (5 mins)
2. Approval of March 28, 2022 Meeting Minutes (5 mins)
   • Roll Call Vote
3. Public Comment - Open (5 mins)
   • Subject to written comment in advance
4. Subcommittee Structure (10 mins)
5. Regional Convening Structure (10 mins)
6. Overview of Interagency Working Group Report Out (20 mins)
7. Establishing Priorities for FY24 (30 mins)
   • A. Breakout Discussion
8. Next Steps and Adjournment (5 mins)

Minutes

Commission Members in Attendance:

Interagency Working Group Members in Attendance: Deputy Director Marc Staley, Illinois Governor's Office of Management and Budget

Administrators in Attendance: Grace B. Hou, Secretary, Illinois Department of Human Services; Dana Kelly, Senior Public Service Administrator, Illinois Department of Human Services

Guests:

1. Director Caronina Grimble, IDHS Office of Strategy, Equity and Transformation;
2. Awisi Bustos, Senior Policy Advisor, IDHS;
3. Colleen Burns, Illinois Commission on Hunger;
4. Roberta Vojas, IDHS;
5. Jeremy Rosen, Representative of Shriver Center on Poverty Law;
6. Kim Drew, Heartland Alliance;

1. Introductions
   • Co-chair Evelyn Diaz welcomed and thanked everybody for attending the meeting. She asked Deputy Governor Sol Flores if she wanted to give a message on behalf of the Governor's Office.
   • Deputy Governor Flores extended her holiday greetings and said that there are a lot to reflect on about accomplishments, people who have been given help, people who shared their stories and lived experiences, and things that can serve as inspiration as everything moves into the year 2023. She added that she as well as Governor JB Pritzker are pleased to work alongside everybody in the Commission and with non-Commission members and think about the Commission's work and recommendations and working with partners in the General Assembly, in the community and with the residents of Illinois to implement and evaluate strategies and ultimately eliminate poverty and economic insecurity in the State. Finally, she extended the Governor's greetings and shared that he is looking forward to meeting everybody in the next year.
   • Administrator Kelly then laid out the housekeeping items before moving into the agenda:
     1. The meeting is governed by the Open Meetings Act and as such, the meeting will be recorded.
     2. Everybody will participate in a roll call vote on attendance and to approve the minutes of the previous meeting.
     3. Everybody should remain on mute when not addressing the group and utilize the chat anytime to provide comments or post a question.
     4. Administrator Kelly reminded those who have not completed the State required training to complete them by December 31, 2022. There are four required trainings that must be completed by each appointed Commission member that are involved in State policy. Finally, she said that anybody who has any issues with their password or log in credentials can reach out to her right away.
   • Co-Chair Diaz thanked Administrator Kelly and said that they will be presenting some of the work that has been happening since the last meeting in March when the Commission approved the Strategic Plan that is geared to cut deep poverty in half by 2026. Activities employed by the State towards the advancement of each goal in FY 2023 will be accounted and the Commission will define and put forward a set of actions for FY 2024. Co-Chair Diaz then presented the objectives of the meeting:
     1. Set out Plan for Strategic Plan and Report Roll Out
     2. Vote on and Approve Strategic Plan Brief
     3. Review Implementation Plan for Commission
     4. Communicate Next Steps to Guide Work Ahead
2. Opening Remarks
   • Secretary Grace Hou thanked everyone with special mention to Deputy Governor Sol Flores and Administrator Kelly for shepherding the work together in various ways, as well as all the Commissioners who were present in the meeting.
   • Secretary stated that it has been an extremely busy year at IDHS and across the Governor's entire administration as all continue to provide critical services needed by Illinoisans who are in poverty or facing poverty particularly in the wake of 2019. She shared that the last year was mostly spent in continuing to focus on critical challenges that individuals in Illinois have faced and being able to rise out of poverty and advanced themselves.
   • Some of the largest investments of IDHS according to Secretary, have been in rental assistance in housing support, which the agency has implemented in partnership with the Illinois Housing Development Authority, childcare assistance supports, mental health supports. She shared that IDHS has made historic investments in addressing violence in hardest hit communities that has followed decades of historical disinvestment through the Reimagine Public Safety Act. IDHS is in the process of investing 250 million dollars in a comprehensive approach to reducing firearm violence throughout targeted integrated behavioral health services and economic opportunities.
   • Secretary also mentioned the enormous effort that IDHS has been engaged with in partnership with the City of Chicago, which is to welcome over 3,700 asylum seekers who have been bused to Chicago from the Southwest border since the end of August 2022. She added that the focus has been on welcoming these individuals and families with dignity and building upon their resiliency and recognizing the unimaginable circumstances they have faced and why they sought refuge in the country. Further, Secretary said that while significant energy has been devoted to ensure that these individuals can safely settle in a way that ensures that they do not fall victim to deep poverty, the agency has also continued to focus greatest efforts on behalf of those in Illinois who have faced disinvestment in poverty in their communities per decades.
   • Finally, Secretary said she is excited to tap the expertise of the Commission on how efforts should be focused on the coming fiscal year 2024 and thanked everybody for their dedication and work.
3. Roll Call - Administrator Kelly took roll call and could not declare quorum since only eight Commission members were present.
4. Approval of March 28th, 2022 Meeting Minutes - Since quorum was not attained, the minutes could not be approved. Co-Chair Diaz asked if the Commission members present had any revision or changes to the minutes; and there were none. The approval of the minutes was deferred for the next meeting.
5. Public Comment - No written comment received in advance. Co-chair Diaz opened the floor for public comment and asked attendees to provide comments in compliance with a motion adopted by the Committee on June 7th, 2021 wherein verbal public comment is limited to 3 minutes and comments shall relate to the business of the Poverty Commission.
   • Representative Keicher thanked everyone and said that he wanted to publicly thank and acknowledge the work of the Governor's Office and Secretary Hou. He said that he reached out as the ranking Republican spokesperson on the Immigration Human Rights Committee in the House, and her (Secretary Hou) team, among others, helped organize a visit to the Venezuela refugees and they were able to have a very constructive and insightful dialogue. He noted that the refugees are here in Illinois on legal status and are fleeing the communist socialist regime in Venezuela. He mentioned that one of the consistent narratives that they heard from the refugees during the dialogue was their want and need to find employment and a place to live where they could support themselves. They did not want handouts, they did not want help from the state of Illinois but were required to take it because if they violate their status based on the federal immigration rules and refugee rules that are in place today, as Representative Keicher understands it, they cannot seek work or jeopardize their status, and potentially being thrown out of the country as a result. They have a year to 18 months on average before they're able to do so. Representative Keicher thinks that it would be very, very important for, not only the State of Illinois and bipartisan basis, but the administration, the legislature specifically, to reach out to the federal government about addressing the lack of ability of the refugees to procure work and residency while they await a decision on their case. He added that it would be a very, very important dialogue for the Commission to continue to have, especially with the numbers that have arrived in Illinois and that the refugees should have a welcomed stay and the first step in doing that is making sure that they can seek their peace and happiness outside of government support.
   • Secretary Hou thanked Representative Keicher for taking the time to meet the new residents and for offering his recommendations to which she agrees and said that they are advocating at the federal level in that regard.
6. Agenda - Co-Chair Diaz laid out the agenda of the meeting:
   1. Subcommittee Formation and Launch
   2. Planning for Regional Convenings
   3. Develop FY2024 Commission Action Plan
   4. Issue Report to General Assembly on Progress - Commission
   5. State Response to Strategic Plan - IWGP
7. Subcommittee Structure
   • Co-Chair Diaz reminded Commission members of the several communications from Administrator Kelly requesting to fill out a subcommittee interest survey which asks members to join at least one subcommittee which will be responsible for the deep thinking around each strategy and corresponding tactics. The subcommittees will also define and track Commission actions towards the goals, thus, it is critical that Commission members drive the subcommittees' success. The subcommittees will meet quarterly for an hour.
   • Co-Chair Diaz mentioned that only 10 out of 21 Commission members have responded to the survey and so Administrator Kelly will send out the survey again to give members the chance to pick their preference. If responses are not received after a specific time, Co-Chair Diaz said they will assign the members randomly to the different subcommittees. In addition, two chairperson positions are still vacant for two subcommittees, pillar 3 Ensure Illinois is Best in Nation for Raising Families and pillar 4 Address Barriers to Paid Work, Education, and Advancement. Anyone who wants to volunteer for the position can reach out to Administrator Kelly. Co-Chair said they may reach out to specific members who may be willing to serve as a chair of the subcommittee who knows how to lead meetings, know how to elicit of response from folks and pull it all together. She added that they are also going to give some thought to how they can get stronger engagement from committee members because even while it's hard to get to meetings, the subcommittees will only have a couple of meetings and they need to produce results.
   • Co-Chair Diaz also mentioned that Administrator Kelly also made some outreach to the Inter-agency Working Group on Poverty (IWGP) and some outside stakeholders to have more folks to join the subcommittees as contributing non-voting members.
   • Administrator Kelly then shared the spreadsheet that showed the current subcommittees makeup. She mentioned that some people have signed up for more than one subcommittee and she appreciates it. She reiterated that they asked IWGP members to sign up for at least one subcommittee and so they will be contributing as well. She mentioned that they received recommendations as to which public stakeholders can be members of the subcommittees and will be great contributors. She encouraged anybody to join the subcommittees and send recommendations if they have.
   • Co-Chair Diaz reminded that the non-Commission members can't vote but they will be able to add valuable expertise. She stressed the importance of having a good balance of Commission members also attending because they can vote ultimately on what will be recommended going forward. Also, she said if there are anybody with recommendations, they can send the name and contact information to Administrator Kelly so she can include them in the meeting invites. Finally, she shared the dates of the upcoming meetings of the subcommittees and that the meeting invites will be forthcoming.
8. Regional Convening Structure
   • Administrator Kelly said that the Regional Convening initiative is a follow up from the first Commission meeting in March. One of the feedbacks from the listening sessions was that poverty is experienced differently across the State and that there would be a need to continuously re-engage at a regional level and solicit feedbacks from the regions especially the regions with the highest levels of deep poverty including Cook County, Alexander and surrounding counties, East St. Louis/St Clair Co, Peoria and Surrounding Counties, Rock Island/Moline, and Champaign/Urbana/Danville.
   • In relation to the feedbacks, Administrator Kelly said that in turn, the regional convening is also a way to provide the regions with how their feedbacks are being addressed and what are being done about it. She added that during the regional convenings, the Commission will also report locally on accomplishments and solicit more regional feedback on activities and goals. The regional convenings will be done annually and much like a listening session with each region.
   • Administrator Kelly also mentioned that the Commission will partner with the Hunger Commission, the Homelessness Task Force and the Immigrant Impact Task Force when they have things they want to understand or gain feedback regionally.
   • The first convening is set for January 2023 in East St. Louis and Mark Eichenlaub will host and take the lead. The specific date is still being finalized. Administrator Kelly is in the talk with Senator Lightford's staff and Representative Robinson's staff to take the lead for East St. Louis, Senator Fowler for Alexander County, and Pam Davidson for Peoria and surrounding counties.
   • No leads have been identified yet for Danville and Rock Island. According to Administrator Kelly, the two areas don't fall squarely on top of somebody's district or where a Commission member currently resides, so she asked for suggestions from the group. She added that they are talking with some potential food bank partners about the ability to help identify who can partner on the initiative.
   • Administrator Kelly said anybody else who wants to volunteer to be part of the regional convening can reach out to her. She added that what they need help with is getting the word out and letting people know and getting people to attend and really making sure to get robust feedbacks.
   • Co-Chair Diaz asked how the information or feedback especially recommendations for FY 2024 from people with lived experience get back to the Commission. Administrator Kelly said she hopes to incorporate committee report outs and in future Commission meetings as well as reports from regional convenings. She added that she may use a previously used format where notes and feedbacks are coded in terms of priorities. Feedbacks from the regional convenings may also be aligned with the subcommittees' works and so Administrator Kelly said they may ask for particular people from the regional convenings to contribute to the subcommittees which will be a good form of continued engagement.
   • Commission member, Pam Davidson volunteered to help with the Rock Island County since she works at John Deere in Rock Island, live in Knox County and she knows a lot of organizations that work on poverty especially the Riverbend Food Bank.
9. IWGP Report Out - FY23 Commitments
10. Co-Chair Diaz introduced the next topic and discussant, Mr. Marc Staley as the representative of the Inter-agency Working Group on Poverty (IWGP) to discuss the State's response to the Commission's FY 2023 Strategic Plan. Dir. Staley oversees the human services portfolio at the Office of Management and Budget. Co-Chair Diaz shared that the Governor has reviewed the Plan which was submitted in March and has asked the IWGP to formulate a response from the regarding what activities the State has committed to and will commit towards achieving each strategic pillar. Dir. Staley and Administrator Kelly will preview what will be included in the report will be issued to the Commission by the end of 2022 or early 2023.
11. Administrator Kelly said that the Strategic Plan was designed as a set of recommendations to the Governor, the General Assembly and the people of Illinois and so the Governor sees it as his responsibility both to respond in writing to the Commission, and as part of the budget process. The Governor has tasked the IWGP to formulate a response to the Strategic Plan which Administrator Kelly hopes to be issued back to the Commission and to the Governor by the end of the month.
12. Dir. Staley first presented the State Actions for Pillar 1.
    1. Pillar I - Ensure Illinois is Best in Nation for Raising Families

       • Strategy/Tactics	State Actions
         Ensure Access to High Quality Early Childhood Services, Including Early Intervention, Home Visiting and Affordable Childcare Find a Method to Replicate the Federal Child Tax Credit for Families Raising Children Expand Access to Free and Reduced School Meals Increase Participation in WIC by Improving Accessibility for Those Who are Eligible	CCAP reimbursement rate increases Increasing the CCAP income eligibility limit to include families with incomes below 225% of the Federal Poverty Line. COLA for Early Intervention Eliminating copays for families experiencing homelessness. 2022 Income Tax Rebate + Dependent Tax Rebate Maintaining PEBT and SNAP maximum benefit allotment

       • Dir. Staley mentioned that childcare has been a very large priority in the Governor's Office and many different things have been done over the years. Continuous coordination has been done with SEIU, the union that represents the home and license exempt workers, on childcare rates for their group of providers. The administration mirrors the percentages as best as they can with the center-based care. A series of increases for FY 2023 has been done - a 3.5% increase effective July 1 and a 4.5% increase effective December 1. Along with it is the change in eligibility and childcare to increase the income limit for families to have access to the program. The FPL is now at 225% for the front door application which used to be 185% a few years ago. COLAs have been given to early intervention providers, the last one being approximately 3%. A lot of work has been done on eliminating and reducing co-pays for families and homelessness and others who have been impacted by the pandemic with temporary job loss. There's also the income tax rebate and the dependent tax rebate that was 50 dollars per taxpayer, $100 per dependent and up to a maximum of $300 for property tax relief as well.
       • Administrator Kelly added that efforts have been done to extend the benefits received during the pandemic thru the P-EBT and the maximum SNAP benefit programs.
       • Administrator Kelly and Dir. Staley both said that the list is not exhaustive, and additions are still welcome. They added that they are still waiting for responses from other agencies such as ISBE with regards to the free and reduced school meals.
       • Co-Chair Diaz said it will be nice to know what actions have been taken for each tactic because it can serve as bases for FY 2024 goals. Administrator Kelly said the subcommittees will provide reports and will be used in the next set of subcommittee meetings as bases for FY 2024.
    2. Pillar 2 - Stabilize Homes and Communities

       • Strategy/Tactics

         State Actions

         Reduce Homelessness by Half and Ensure Housing Affordability and Accessibility Invest in High-Quality, Specialized Supports for Persons Experiencing Mental Health and Substance Use Related Crises Invest in Interventions that Address Cycles of Trauma and Violence in our Communities

         $15M in additional funding for homeless prevention. HOME ARPA allotment finalized - to distribute $62m in affordable rental housing and non-congregate shelter building 988 implementation Beginning influx of Opioid Settlement funding Behavioral health workforce investments (SB 3617) Increased funding for mobile crisis response Increased funding for domestic violence services $65M + in community violence interventions and youth development services LIHEAP centralized website and new programming for utility assistance

       • Dir. Staley reported that there was a heavy investment in affordable housing as well as maintaining housing for people (including mortgage relief packages) who were at risk of losing it to job loss and not being able to make the rent. Additional investments were also made to increase homeless prevention programs. Sixty-two (62) million dollars has been allotted under HOME ARPA to be distributed for affordable rental housing assistance. The implementation of 988 was also started to address some mental health support issues which should help in reducing traffic going to 911. 
       • Opioid National Settlement Funds are coming, and 80 million dollars are invested on the FY 2023 budget. Not all of the cash has arrived, and the State will receive funds on a periodic basis. The Attorney General's office is working to implement plans and the Governor's Task Force looking at methodologies to address the opioid crisis. Investments were also made for substance abuse rates providers.
       • Dir. Staley also mentioned the 65 million dollars Reimagined Public Safety Act (RPSA) funding to help address gun violence across the State. The funding for domestic violence services increased by 50 million dollars this year and there was a continuous funding for other programs such as deflection programs. He also pointed out the Low-Income Heating Assistance Program (LIHEAP) run by DCEO which has been working on updating their system and availability for utility access through federal funds. They were also able to expand to help low-income individuals who are at risk of having their water shut off.
    3. Pillar 3 - Ensure Just and Equitable Access to Economic Security Programs

       • Strategy/Tactics	State Actions
         Create a Single, Accessible Platform for Individuals to Enroll in All State Benefits Increase Uptake, Access, and Value of Existing Public Benefits for Those in Extreme Poverty Deploy Direct Cash Assistance Programs to Lift Families Out of Deep Poverty	Code for America potential partnership Application mapping across programs - GCFD CTC/EITC outreach Guaranteed income pilot- homeless Earned Income Credit expansion Updates to TANF rebase

       • With regards to TANF, there was direct cash assistance to help families out of deep poverty. Because the program is required to update its award amounts based on the current State median income, the Commission is proposing to increase the cash award targeting a 50% FPL. Dir. Staley also mentioned the Guaranteed Income Pilot Program which is still in development and discussions are still going on with the sponsor to finalize some details. Meanwhile, a lot of outreach is also going on re earned income tax credit, the administration has made investments over the last several years to increase the refundable portion of the earned income tax credit for state taxpayers and families who are low income.
       • Administrator Kelly added that one of the biggest goals of the Commission is to create a single accessible platform for individuals to enroll in all State benefits. One of the main focus is mapping and streamlining the similarities between different benefit programs and its associated applications in order to build one system where individuals can apply for several benefits all at once. The potential partnership will be between IDHS, HFS and DoIT and the organization Code of America which has developed systems for other States that have increased benefit uptake. Administrator Kelly shared that the potential project value is about $7 million in pro bono services from Code of America. The project is estimated to be launched by end of the fiscal year.
    4. Pillar 4 - Address Barriers to Paid Work, Education, and Advancement

       • Strategy/tactics

         State action

         Address barriers that prevent consistent work at a living wage by investing in transportation, childcare, paid leave, broadband, legal aid, reentry services, disability and rehabilitation supports, and immigrant and refugee services Invest in apprenticeship, work-based learning and barrier reduction programs so individuals can learn and train while supporting their family Expand access to legal counsel for Illinois and insure equitable access to court and legal processes

         Home service provider and childcare collective bargaining agreement Increase in Access to Justice funding Illinois broadband expansion. SAFE-T act reductions in permanency of certain types of convictions Ongoing minimum wage increases Aging - wage increases for in home caregivers

       • Director Staley said a series of rate increases has been done for providers who directly provide services to individuals along with providers who do services through the Department on Aging's Community Care Program. Funding was also increased to the Access to Justice Program with a total of $20 million in the FY23 budget. He also mentioned the Illinois Broadband Expansion Project with programs ran by ISBE to help schools with internet access, infrastructure programs at DCFS, and the recently included in the FY23 budget is funding for DHS to begin an assistance program to help families with broadband access. The DHS program is still being finalized but is forthcoming.
       • With regards to the third strategy, DCFS has implementing a lot of programs including trade programs and small business development.
       • Another State action is the ongoing minimum wage increases; the minimum wage is currently at $12 per hour and will increase to $13 by January 2023 and will continue to increase until it hits $15 in 2025. Director Staley also mentioned the wage increases for in-home caregivers for seniors.
       • Finally, through the SAFE-T Act and RPSA, there is additional access to legal counsel. Federal funds were also used to help legal counsel mostly in the realm of helping landlords or tenants and ensuring tenant rights with evictions and other related processes.
       • Administrator Kelly added, with regards to the SAFE-T Act, the reduced permanency of certain types of convictions on people's records have made them employable, more employable or easily employable. She also added the work that is being done by DCEO in providing some barrier reduction programs that help people with children, people that face transportation challenges to getting to work be subsidized so that they can remove those barriers preventing them from getting to or obtaining work. 
    5. Pillar 5 - Support trusted community-based providers to serve the needs of those in deep poverty

       • Strategy/tactics	State action
         Support our caregiving workforce by ensuring equitable wages and develop meaningful supports for unpaid caregivers Provide community-based providers with consistent and equitable access to State funding that adequately keeps pace with rising costs	Provider COLAs Substance use and mental health services, Medicaid rate increases

       • Director Staley mentioned that the State has been able to increase funding for providers so that they may be able to provide COLA to their workers. Adjustments have also been made to substance use and mental health services through Medicaid rate increases. He also mentioned the continuing effort to increase wages of people who care for individuals with developmental disabilities who live in nursing homes or community-based placements.
       • Co-Chair Diaz asked Dir. Staley if the same level of commitment in terms of budget can be expected for FY24 and what outlook should the Commission take in planning.
       • Dir. Staley advised to approach planning in a cautiously optimistic way. He mentioned the recently released fiscal and economic report that detailed a surplus of $3 billion which was only due to the timing of recent specific economic activities like Black Friday sale, and which they do not expect to be the same for FY24. He added that they are expecting a modest balance to work with for FY24, maybe a couple $100 million which is the amount before filling in agency requests and that they are also making plans to respond to pressure from community providers to increase the minimum wage rate for their employees.
       • Administrator Kelly asked how the Governor's Office is thinking about relief funds such as the ARPA and COVID relief funds that are about to expire and how will the commitments and gaps be filled in relation to the expiring relief funds.
       • Dir. Staley shared that they tried very hard from the start to work with everyone to make sure there was a fair and clear understanding that a lot of the federal money was relief money. It was designed to take care of one-time issues and that people should not think of it as a sustainable source to pop up any programs or projects. The COVID relief fund and the supplemental appropriations are about to expire in December 2023 while the CARES Act and ARPA funds are to expire in December 2024 and 2025. They are in the process of right sizing the appropriations where agencies receive a large federal award through the relief packages; as agencies have spent those dollars, they are reducing the approach to what is basically more in line with remaining funding. There will be pressures as the funds are about to expire and there will be discussions with the Governor's Office and the General Assembly about priorities on some packages continuing, or what should be done in the future
13. Establishing Priorities for FY24 - Breakout Discussion
    • Co-Chair Diaz said they decided to stay in the larger group instead of doing breakout sessions due to low attendance and the subcommittees are still populating. The subcommittees are supposed to define a set of actions that can be taken in FY24 starting with identifying some initial actions and defining additional information and resources needed by each subcommittee to be successful. She reminded the group that the recommendations for FY 2024 should be approved by the Commission by March 2023 and that the Action Plan will be submitted to the Governor and the General Assembly by end of March 2023.
    • Co-Chair Diaz asked for people's thoughts, if they have questions that need to be answered before the subcommittees start meeting in January, or if there are information needed before starting work in January.
    • Commission member, Dr. Charles Montorio said they need data, as much as can be provided, that can inform them how to look and review the work that the subcommittees need to do. 
    • Mr. Jeremy Rosen said that there are other things that the Commission may want to push for that will have budgetary impact particularly in the employment context such as in the paid sick days or paid family and medical leave which are also important pieces of legislation. Administrator Kelly agreed and said they should include it in the action items. She also said that anything can be discussed in terms of the action items such as places where people want to advocate for, a particular piece of legislation or action by the General Assembly, a place where we want to make a recommendation to an administrative rule, or a process or technical changes that need to happen at the State that are like looking at the way that we communicate as a State to the public; things that have smaller price tags but are also impactful.
    • Commission member, Ms. Kate Maehr voiced out her worry about the sustainability of the committees given that everybody is busy and getting a quorum is difficult. She volunteered to support any committee in any way and also asked how she can support Administrator Kelly or Co-Chair Diaz in terms of the structure. She also wondered if there can be ways to streamline the discussions between the committees though she understands that each committee has a specific focus area. Administrator Kelly said that one of the strategies behind trying to bring in people who are non-Commission members into some of the committees was to ensure that they could operate in a robust way without relying fully on Commission member attendance. However, she emphasized that Commission member attendance is still needed when it comes to votes. She recognizes that she does need support in terms of convening people. When it comes to streamlining discussions, Administrator Kelly said that the advantage of having five subcommittees is that it keeps the work really focused on that kind of a particular set of activity, or that particular goal instead of objectives but added that she is open to figuring out where they overlap. She also said that once the committees identify their different strategies, there maybe overlaps in strategies putting them in more than one pillar.
    • Secretary Hou added that there are opportunities for other State agencies to also play a leadership and guiding/facilitation role in terms of the five pillars. She will talk with Administrator Kelly, Dir. Staley and Deputy Governor Flores to see how DHS' sister agencies could help generate ideas and to lead some of the work with members of the Commission and other folks. As even though DHS is charged with administering the work, Secretary said, there is an Interagency Task Force of State agencies that they work with and they will make sure that the responsibility is spread across State agencies.
    • Co-Chair Diaz asked how the action items outlined in the report contribute to the Commission goal of decreasing poverty in half by 2026. Further, she asked if the programs that received funding are being prioritized for families in deep poverty and if the agencies are making sure that the programs are helping the Commission achieve its goal.
    • Administrator Kelly shared that they have worked at the State level to try to identify a partner who could help the Commission in evaluating its progress and to figure out how to drill down to where the biggest impact is needed. She agrees that the Commission's recommendations should guide funding in that direction. She also mentioned that they are working with UIC to evaluate whether the strategies are actually working towards the goal and suggested that these could be discussed for FY24. With regards to Dr. Montorio's comment about the need for more data, Administrator Kelly said that there are a lot of data that can be brought to the subcommittee conversations that would actually share where the investments are needed, where the action items should be directed, to what population or region - points that can prepare the subcommittees for the January and February meetings.
    • Secretary Hou shared that there is data from Child Trends which shows that the social safety net supports such as SNAP, childcare and Medicaid has been proven to work and address child poverty. However, while they have a lot of influence on child poverty, they do not have a significant impact on child deep poverty. The one program that had the greatest impact on child deep poverty was actually AFDC, now known as TANF, which has dissipated as of the late 1990. She recommended to keep looking at the cause-and-effect link to see whether these interventions have "moved the needle" in Illinois knowing that there is data that demonstrate that investments in these social safety net programs are effective in decreasing poverty. Secretary also asked Administrator Kelly to share the data Child Trends data with the Commission.
    • In looking at the immediate term and priorities for the coming year, Ms. Kim Drew raised the question/challenge for the group to think through about what support for these priorities means and how the Commission will engage and express their support for any of these policies or priorities to move it beyond the strategic plan. She added that identifying action steps that the Commission can take to really get behind any of the policy priorities can be part of future discussions. Co-Chair Diaz agreed and said that it is important to know the bills that can help advance the goals of the Commission and engage elected officials in the Commission to think about how the Commission can support their movement.
    • Administrator Kelly shared that there have been proposals submitted in the past by IDHS and the Commission such as legislature support for TANF as well as eliminating sub-minimum wage for those with disabilities. Although she added, there are still more that IDHS can submit as well as the Commission.
14. Next Steps
    • Administrator Kelly will be sending more information to the Commission about the Regional Convenings.
    • Administrator Kelly will be setting up a draft of the Commission's Annual Report early January 2023 and will be asking Commission members for feedback. She will also be sending the IWGP's State's Response to the Strategic Plan by end of December.
    • Next meeting is tentatively scheduled on March 16th, 2023.
15. Adjournment - Commission Member Kate Maehr moved to adjourn the meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 3:26pm.