Agenda and Minutes - Pillar 1: Ensure Illinois is Best in Nation for Raising Families, October 12, 2023

Illinois Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security

Subcommittee on Pillar 1: Ensure IL is Best in Nation for Raising Families

Thursday, October 12, 2023 2:00-3:00 PM

Recording

Members:

Appointment Member Affiliation
Chair Audra Wilson President and CEO Shriver Center on Poverty Law
Commission Member Representative Jeff Keicher Illinois State Representative
Commission Member Kate Maehr Greater Chicago Food Depository
Commission Member Senator Kimberly Lightford Illinois Senator
Commission Member Annie Hewitt
IWGP Member Tyler Bohannon Illinois Department of Agriculture
Public Member Sophie Milam VP of Policy and Advocacy, Greater Chicago Food Depository
IDHS SME Stephanie Bess Associate Director, Office of Family Wellness, IDHS-FCS
IDHS SME Lisa Cohen Program Manager, IDHS-SUPR
IDHS SME Patricia Rooney Associate Director of Child Care, IDHS-DEC

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

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: July 10, 2023
  5. Discussion: Implementation of FY24 Action Goals
  6. Next Steps and Adjournment

MINUTES

Subcommittee members in attendance:

  1. Audra Wilson - subcommittee chair; Commission member
  2. Representative Jeff Keicher - Committee member
  3. Tyler Bohannon - IWGP member
  4. Stephanie Bess - IDHS SME
  5. Lisa Cohen - IDHS SME
  6. Patricia Rooney - IDHS SME

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

Facilitator:

  1. Matthew Rodriguez - Equity Imperative
  2. Ni'Shele Jackson - UIC
  1. Introductions/Welcome Roll Call
    • Administrator Kelly led the introductions and roll call. Out of 9 members, 6 were present. Quorum was declared.
  2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance.
    • None received. No public comment made during the meeting.
  3. Housekeeping - Administrator Kelly
    • Audra Wilson has accepted the position of Commission Co-Chair and is now asking other subcommittee members to step up as the subcommittee chair.
    • The role of the subcommittee chair is open to anybody from the group. The chair would meet with Administrator Kelly and Mr. Rodriguez's team in advance of the subcommittee meetings to discuss the agenda and make sure that the meeting is running according to the needs of the subcommittee. Apart from that, the chair would work just like a regular member.
  4. Approval of Meeting Minutes: July 10, 2023
    • Representative Keicher moved to approve the July 10, 2023 minutes, seconded by member, Tyler Bohannon. The group unanimously approved the July 10, 2023 meeting minutes.
  5. Discussion: Implementation of FY24 Action Goals
    • Administrator Kelly explained the objectives of the meeting which is to review the FY24 goals and assign members to work on each goal.
    • Mr. Rodriguez gave a recap of what has happened since the approval of the FY24 goals and Ni'Shele discussed the outputs of their research about work that has already been done or underway in relation to each goal. Mr. Rodriguez shared the online working document to the members.
    • FY24 goals and related works:
      1. Design an advocacy strategy toward the continuation of funding for the WIC food package prescription (federally funded) at a level of $25/month per child, to purchase fruits and vegetables thus securing increased purchasing power towards a healthy diet.
        • 2019_MakingWICWork.pdf (everthriveil.org); Ni'Shele is condensing the recommendations
      2. Analyze the findings of the year-long study (also here) conducted by the Commission to End Hunger identifying points of collaboration across commissions to reduce barriers that prevent families from taking advantage of WIC and other benefits
        • WIC Participant and Program Characteristics 2020 (azureedge.us)
        • IDHS: Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) (state.il.us)
        • IDHS: From Food Insecurity to Food Equity: A Roadmap to End Hunger in Illinois (state.il.us)
        • Ni'Shele is proposing to make a fact sheet for members to distill the information due to the report (by Commission to End Hunger) being very long
    • Much of the issues in the Making WIC Work report has been addressed and the report is not timely at this point according to Ms. Bess. She suggested either updating the report or putting something else out there and meet outside of the subcommittee meetings to talk about WIC-related matters.
    • Gaps:
      1. Current goals do not focus on access to early childhood education - Pillar 4 is already doing work around access to early childcare so it might not be an area that Pillar 1 would need to focus on
      2. Current goals do not focus on the replication of child tax credit
      3. Current goals do not focus on access to free and reduced school meals
    • Administrator Kelly suggested adding another goal for child tax credit and leverage the momentum from the National Press which released the latest poverty measures that shows the child poverty rate has doubled between 2021-2022. Chair Wilson agreed and added that there is a need to identify the cause of the huge increase in child poverty rate.
    • As for the access to free and reduced school meals (gap 3), the Governor's Office has an interest on working on this and the work that will be generated can potentially be leveraged for the Commission. Administrator Kelly has been working with member Sophie Milam on a related work on this initiative.
    • Mr. Rodriguez shared another online working document where the goals and gaps were listed and members signed up to a working group that will work on a particular goal. Workgroups are expected to report progress or even areas they are stuck on in the next meeting.
    • Mr. Rodriguez also explained how succeeding subcommittee meetings will be structured: a portion will be dedicated for the workgroups to discuss by group and then come back to the meeting as a whole group. But workgroups are free to meet when they want, they will be provided with the email addresses of their workgroup members.
    • Members can also identify any colleagues or other experts who can be invited to the meetings and speak of the gaps and share information.
    • The online working document will be sent to other members who were not able to attend the meeting so they can indicate which areas they want to focus on as well.
    • Chair Wilson has some colleagues working on some of the goals/gaps, she can make the connection and will just indicate in the spreadsheet.
    • Ms. Bess highlighted the value of EITC and how it can really help families and mentioned that they were helping families sign up for it during COVID through their WIC centers. She wondered if there could be two goals for EITC, one to improve it and one to help families access it or increase awareness on eligibility. Ni'Shele shared that those goals are being captured by Pillar 3 but she is going to share the information to Pillar 3 to see how they can incorporate it into their advocacy strategy. Ms. Bess added that it was the Catholic Charities who was working with Ladder Up and came to the WIC Food Centers in Cook County and invited people to sign up to EITC.
    • Administrator Kelly agreed and said that it might a way to replicate the child tax credit. The approach will be two-fold, how to influence policy to make the benefit greater or distribute the benefit in a different way and how to increase uptake from people especially those encountering barriers such as filing taxes.
    • Administrator Kelly will reach out to the Governor's Office and invite somebody to join the subcommittee for gap 3.
  6. Next Steps and Adjournment
    • Administrator Kelly informed the group that the full Poverty Commission meeting was moved to early December. The subcommittees will meet again in November and can produce some tangible report that can be shared with the Commission.
    • Members were encouraged to share progress that they know on any of the goals or even on the gaps that Ni'Shele and team were not able to find.
    • Chair Wilson will send the names of her colleagues who can join the subcommittee.
    • Administrator Kelly moved to adjourn the meeting and Chair Wilson seconded. The group unanimously agreed to adjourn the meeting at 2:55 PM.