Agenda and Minutes - Pillar 3 Subcommittee Meeting September 18, 2023

Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security

Subcommittee on Pillar 3: Ensure Just and Equitable Access to Economic Security Programs

Monday, September 18, 2023 3:30-4:30 PM

Recording

Members:

Appointment Member Affiliation
Chair Kate Maehr Executive Director and CEO Greater Chicago Food Depository
Commission Member Senator Dale Fowler Illinois State Senator
Commission Member Senator Kimberly Lightford Illinois State Senator
Commission Member Audra Wilson President and CEO Shriver Center on Poverty Law
IWGP Member Marc Staley Deputy Director, Illinois Governor's Office of Management and Budget
IWGP Member Jenny Aguirre Assistant Director, Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services
IWGP Member Carrie Thomas Deputy Director, Business Services, Illinois Department of Employment Security
Public Member Sophie Milam VP of Policy and Advocacy, Greater Chicago Food Depository
Public Member Erion Malasi Director of Policy & Advocacy, Economic Security for Illinois
Public Member Meredith Byers UniServ Director, Illinois Education Association
Public Member Misuzu Schexnider Program Director, Inclusive Economy Lab
Public Member Niya Kelly Director of State Legislative Policy, Equity and Transformation, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
Public Member Meegan Dugan Adell Fellow, New America Chicago
Public Member Elizabeth Ojeda-Jimenez NEA Director, Illinois Education Association
Public Member Jeremy Rosen Director of Economic Justice, Shriver Center on Poverty Law
IDHS SME Leslie Cully FCS Associate Director, Office of FCRCs

Administrator: Dana Kelly, IDHS-Associate Secretary of Disability Services and Education and Facility Operations

Guest/Facilitator: Matthew Rodriguez, Equity Imperative

Agenda:

  1. Introductions/Welcome Roll Call
  2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance
  3. Housekeeping
  4. Approval of Meeting Minutes: June 29, 2023
  5. Discussion - Implementation of FY24 Action Goals
  6. Next Steps and Adjournment

FY24 Goals:

  1. By June 30th, 2024 Pillar 3 subcommittee will develop an interagency map that links eligibility criteria across benefit options provided to help inform future work to enhance access to benefits and reduce barriers to all state benefits.
  2. By June 30th, 2024 Pillar 3 subcommittee will collaborate with IDoR to include the basic elements for confirming EITC eligibility in the ABE application to analyze current deficits in uptake and create a simplified filing process in order to increase the number of people in deep poverty who receive their state and federal EITC (Currently federal EITC uptake is 77.6% in IL, highest is 84% in Rhode Island, lowest is 70% in Alaska. National average is 79.3).
  3. By June 30th, 2024 Pillar 3 will design an advocacy strategy toward securing guaranteed income programming beyond FY-24.
  4. By June 2024 Pillar 3 will coordinate with the Commission to End Hunger to develop/support a dissemination strategy to amplify the impact of designed materials so as to increase the uptake to important programs and benefits, especially those where gaps are most evident.

Minutes

Subcommittee members in attendance:

  1. Audra Wilson - Commission member
  2. Marc Staley - IWGP member
  3. Jenny Aguirre - invited IWGP member
  4. Carrie Thomas - invited IWGP member
  5. Erion Malasi - public member
  6. Misuzu Schexnider - public member
  7. Meegan Dugan Adell - public member
  8. Niya Kelly - public member
  9. Sophie Milam - public member

Facilitators:

  1. Matthew Rodriguez - Equity Imperative; facilitator
  2. Ni'Shele Jackson - University of Illinois-Chicago
  3. Karlia Brown - University of Illinois-Chicago

Administrator: Dana Kelly, IDHS-Associate Secretary of Disability Services and Education and Facility Operations

  1. Introductions/Welcome Roll Call - Administrator Kelly led the introductions and roll call.
  2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance, none received.
  3. Housekeeping - the group was informed that the next full Poverty Commission will be on October 24, 2023.
  4. Approval of Meeting Minutes: June 29, 2023 - the group unanimously approved the June 29, 2023 meeting minutes
  5. Discussion: Implementation of FY24 Action Goals
    • Achievement of FY24 action goals is basically having conversations, sharing and reporting program updates, monitoring programs, activities and pilots that are already happening around the state and sharing that information with the group.
    • Pillar leads were identified for each goals.
    • Pillar 3 FY24 Action Goals:
      1. By June 30th, 2024 Pillar 3 subcommittee will develop an interagency map that links eligibility criteria across benefit options provided to help inform future work to enhance access to benefits and reduce barriers to all state benefits. Pillar leads: Dana, Misuzu, Sophie, Jenny
      2. By June 30th, 2024 Pillar 3 subcommittee will collaborate with IDoR to include the basic elements for confirming EITC eligibility in the ABE application to analyze current deficits in uptake and create a simplified filing process in order to increase the number of people in deep poverty who receive their state and federal EITC (Currently federal EITC uptake is 77.6% in IL, highest is 84% in Rhode Island, lowest is 70% in Alaska. National average is 79.3). Pillar leads: Meegan, Erion, Marc
      3. By June 30th, 2024 Pillar 3 will design an advocacy strategy toward securing guaranteed income programming beyond FY-24. Pillar leads: Erion, Audra, Dana, Niya
      4. By June 2024 Pillar 3 will coordinate with the Commission to End Hunger to develop/support a dissemination strategy to amplify the impact of designed materials so as to increase the uptake to important programs and benefits, especially those where gaps are most evident. Pillar leads: Audra, Sophie, Carrie
    • Matthew gave 2 options for the logistics with regards to doing the conversation: option 1 is for the groups to find some time between now and the next meeting and option 2 is to dedicated maybe the first 30 minutes of the subcommittee meeting and do breakouts and take the last 30 minutes to come together and have a discussion. Dana suggested to do breakout session at present since there was still time to do so which the group agreed to do.
    • Member Niya Kelly joined late due to a prior commitment. Matthew gave her an update on what has happened and what is currently happening. Niya picked goal 3 as her main interest.
    • VI. Breakout session - Matthew shared the document to the members where they put in their ideas on each of the goals that they worked on. The breakout session groups were according to the goals and members were grouped according to the goals they picked as their main interest (pillar leads).
    • Matthew recommended that option 2/3 would be the best way given the members' busy schedules. He encouraged members to keep adding on the spreadsheet in between meetings, even put in resources that they think would be useful for any of the four goals.
    • He also encouraged members to list down subject matter experts and their email addresses that they think are really needed on the table. They can reach out to these people directly and copy Dana or him so they can do follow ups. Dana agreed and mentioned that the subcommittee is open to new members.
  6. Next Steps and Adjournment
    • The next subcommittee meeting will be in November after the Poverty Commission meeting.
    • Len will send list of members with email addresses so members can email each other and work behind the scenes.
    • Members can also reach out to Matthew, Ni'Shele and Karlia if they need any research support.
    • The meeting ended at 4:28 PM.