SSAC/Outreach, Engagement, Equity, and Policy Committee Agenda and Minutes - 01.25.23

January 25, 2023

1:00-3:00 PM

WebEx Video Conference

MEETING AGENDA

  1. Welcome/Introductions (Niya)
  2. Approval of Meeting Minutes: November 9, 2022 (Taneka)
  3. Legislative Update (Taneka)
  4. Approval of Committee Charge (Niya)
  5. Committee Priorities for 2023 (Niya & Gloria)
  6. Adjournment (Taneka)

MINUTES

Council Members in Attendance: Christa Hamilton, UCAN; Barbara Harris-Woodard, Center for Community Academic Success Partnerships; Niya Kelly, Co-Chair, Chicago Coalition for the Homeless; Jeremy Rosen, Shriver Center on Poverty Law; Itedal Shalabi, Arab American Family Services; Gloria Yen, Co-Chair, University YMCA

Committee Members Not in Attendance: Quiwana Bell, Westside Health Authority; Sherie Crabb, Arrowleaf

IDHS Staff in Attendance: Kari Branham, Special Projects Administrator; Taneka Jennings, Deputy Director of Legislative Affairs

Welcome/Introduction

Taneka Jennings introduced Kari Branham, IDHS Special Project Administrator who will take over as lead staff for SSAC.

Approval of Meeting Minutes: November 9, 2022

Christa Hamilton moved to approved and Itedal Shalabi seconded. The Council voted unanimously to approve the November 9, 2022 minutes.

Legislative Update

  • Taneka will invite Budget again to be on the next Committee meeting to speak about the budget allocated for IDHS.
  • Two different sessions have passed since the SSAC-OEEP met. A critical thing for IDHS during the veto session was extending different report deadlines, task force and commission deadlines to make sure all mandates are met. A piece of sunset legislation passed and all of IDHS' mandates were included except for one.
  • On the other hand, IDHS' 5-pronged piece of forensics legislation was passed even though not everyone was in favor of it. But IDHS' number one priority is to make sure folks are in the most supportive environments as possible and move folks who do not need to be in jails into the most humane settings as possible.
  • There are 10 more different initiatives that IDHS is looking to move in the spring that IDHS is still socializing with the Governor's Office.
  • Niya Kelly mentioned the $90 million that is going towards supporting migrants arriving in Illinois; the $75 million that is going towards homeless and housing services; and the Supplemental Budget Implementation Bill that they have been working on with partners including Heartland Alliance which is around assistance for needy families and getting child support directly to families as opposed to retention by the State. The policy is already in effect and the money will be held from January 1st, 2023 until July 1st, 2024.
  • Niya also mentioned that ban on assault weapons which is one of the biggest successes of the Governor's Office over the last session; and other pieces of legislation including strengthening reproductive rights in Illinois.
  • Jeremy Rosen and Taneka mentioned the paid time off law that passed which ensures all Illinois workers will at least have 5 days of paid time off and that some of the funding will go to a Guaranteed Income Pilot Program that will be implemented by the City of Chicago, Cook County and IDHS.
  • Itedal Shalabi also mentioned the increase of budget for domestic violence from $20 million to $70 million.
  • Niya mentioned the TANF program as part of the guaranteed income conversations and that it is a program that can be improved in the new year as it has been proven to work for poor families.
  • Christa Hamilton raised the issue on the changing amount of SNAP as one of the issues that the group can talk about. Itedal asked if there's a way to look at the federal budget for Illinois for SNAP and Medicaid and how budget can be shift from one budget item to another; to understand more the policies on these benefits.
  • Taneka mentioned in response to Christa that folks will get the pandemic allotment for January and February but effective March 1st, they go back to the regular determination process as well as the amount they typically received based on their eligibility. She added that IDHS is working with community partners to get the message to communities to get their information updated specifically on income to make sure that they are getting the maximum possible benefit they could get.
  • Taneka also shared the effort of IDHS on being conscious around language access and that material is forthcoming that will cover the top 6 spoken languages in Illinois including Arabic, Tagalog, Mandarin in addition to English and Spanish.
  • Jeremy said it would be ideally important to have the actual notices to go out on those other languages.
  • Niya shared that they have also been working with Illinois partners in Springfield around accessibility and testimony to make sure that there are still opportunities for people who may not be able to take a day off from work to come to Springfield to express their support to efforts or legislation or budget.

Approval of Committee Charge

The Committee Charges were unanimously approved by all present.

Committee Priorities for 2023

Recommendations/Suggestions/Issues:

  1. What are some actionable steps that the group should be taking over this year based on the charges?
  2. How is the group going to make the decision of what things are going to be taken up this year?
  3. Maybe plan for the long term since the members of the committee will be serving for the next four years.
  4. Identify specific member to work on a specific charge
  5. Use POP - Purpose-Outcomes-Process
  6. How to structure the meetings to get to the outcomes
  7. Frequency of committee meetings
  8. Use the space and the committee to develop recommendations for improving communication with impacted communities in a timely manner especially when there is a Federal policy change (recommendation)
  9. How to respond to clients that are coming to IDHS while a change is being communicated
  10. Tap "community ambassadors" to get feedback from the ground
  11. Use SNAP as test case
  12. Is there a policy on how policies are disseminated to the community?
  13. Taneka will prepare a simple document that members can use for brainstorming and will send out end of the week or early next week and members will be given a time frame to complete the document. Members will also be asked to identify tasks or working groups that they want to volunteer to do/be part of. Members will be asked to share their contact information.
  14. Explore use of MOCHA - Taneka, Gloria and Niya will work on this

Adjournment:

Motion by Niya, seconded by Jeremy. The Council voted unanimously to adjourn at 2:09 PM.