Social Services Advisory Council Agenda and Minutes - 02/13/24

Agenda

Social Services Advisory Council Meeting

February 13, 2024

1:00 PM

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Access Code: 2633 913 4738

Welcome
Public Participation *
Approval of Meeting Minutes: October 19, 2023
Membership
1. Introduction of New SSAC Members
2. Request for Additional SSAC Members
Presentation - IDHS Asylum Seekers Work
Presentation - Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC's)
Feedback Session - Medicaid Customers' Experiences in their Healthcare Journey
Feedback Session - DHS Customer Experience Improvements
Adjournment

* If you would like to submit a public comment, please email your comment to Clare.Fisher@illinois.gov by 8:00 AM on Tuesday, February 13, 2024.

Minutes

Welcome (Approx. Start Time: 1:05PM)
1. Chair Hamilton welcomed the SSAC and introduce Secretary Dulce Quintero
2. Secretary Dulce Quintero said hello and welcome to the SSAC.
3. Associate Secretary Rodrigo Carrillo also introduced himself to the SSAC.
4. Vice Chair Hampton will do roll call:
  1. Adenekan, Dayo - Present and approved
  2. Camper, Mary - approved
  3. French, AJ - approved
  4. Gasner, Ireta - approved
  5. Hamilton, Christa - approved
  6. Hampton, Angie - approved
  7. Harris, Barbara - approved
  8. Kelly, Niya - approved
  9. Lopez, Yesenia - approved
  10. Lustig, Dan - approved
  11. Martin, Jodi - approved
  12. Mote, Bela - not present
  13. Negron, Maralea - present
  14. Ortiz, Dulce -present
  15. Paredes, Jose Marco - present
  16. Reyes, Frances - not present
  17. Shalabi, Itedal - approved
  18. Simmons, Loren - approved
  19. Tiania, Sandy - approved
  20. Woods, Tony - present
  21. Wright, Lauren - present
Public Participation * (Approx. Start Time: 1:15PM)
1. No public comments were received.
Approval of Meeting Minutes: October 19, 2023 (Approx. Start Time: 1:15PM)
1. Roll call served as an approval of the meeting minutes.
Membership (Approx. Start Time: 1:15PM)
1. Introduction of New SSAC Members
  1. Chair Hamilton welcomed the new members:
    1. Maralea Negron from The Network: Advocating Against Domestic Violence
    2. Jose Marco Paredes from The Resurrection Project
    3. Tony Woods from Public Equity
    4. Lauren Wright from Illinois Partners for Human Service
  2. Request for Additional SSAC Members
    1. Clare Fisher made an announcement to request recommendations for SSAC members.
Presentation - IDHS Asylum Seekers Work (Approx. Start Time: 1:30PM)
1. Presentation by Emerson Wells, Senior Policy Advisor and Mahi Mahmood, Asylum and Refugee Lead
2. AJ French: Did I understand correctly that 50 million was being added to the budget for persons experiencing homelessness for FY24? And where did the money come from?
3. Emerson Wells: When we got our allocation in FY23, we worked to determine the amount of funding providing per capital for the existing city shelter system and provided commensurate funding in that amount for people experiencing homeless. The money was allocated in the last state budget.
4. Jose Marco Peredes: Concerned with the 60-day policy and not having enough shelter space. What is the strategic plan that the State has been working on with the city of Chicago? Are there any updates on ASERAP?
5. Emerson Wells: We are creatively thinking about how we can continue to support people across the city, county and state and are advocating with the federal government for more funding, support, and policy changes. Additionally, we will share some of the questions you have with the policy forums to see how we can support forward movement for people who are and are not eligible for ASERAP. Continuing to deploy IDHS caseworkers to help people sign up for VTTC (The Victims of Torture Trafficking and other Serious Crimes) victims. We have expanded the VTTC's used to meet this populations with continued efforts to improve operations. Also working with the Illinois Coalition of Immigrant and Refugee Rights for cash assistance.
6. Jose Marco Peredes: Concerning the contract- we are under the impression that the contract has been devised with the goal of reaching as many arrivals as possible but required that case managers were spending less time with individuals. Have you seen what they are missing and what gaps we need to pay attention to?
7. Emerson Wells: There is a difficulty in balancing the most comprehensive services and providing services at scale. We did work with ISR to think through the case management model to ensure we are able to streamline and reach as many people as possible across the shelter system. There is a more specific focus on applying for these items and there is a long list of referrals for when people are not able to have their needs met by their case manager. We hope as we go into this budget cycle, we are able to expand support for our providers.
8. Yesenia Lopez: I was wondering if you can provide additional information on collaboration with local elected officials within the city and collar counties.
9. Emerson Wells: We cannot speak specifically on the Alders as we partner with the City of Chicago and most of that information goes through them. We do partner with Alderman Rodrigues in Little Village. As Mahi mentioned we have released bot SMASS (Supporting Municipalities for Asylum Seeker Services)1 and 2 where we provided funding to places including Urbana, Lake County, Oak Park, Elgin and a few others who are in the pipeline. Making sure funding resources and technical assistance are available to those areas and organizations who they partner with.
10. Niya Kelly: One thing to lift up is with VTTC (a TANF like program), is thinking about making sure that custodial parents are being made aware that they are not required to put their child's other parent on child support if there is a safety concern. We have seen some challenges with this particularly for VTTC eligible families.
11. Emerson Wells: We will follow up on this request it and make sure the team is proactively communicating this and setting customers up for success.
12. Unknown Speaker: How can we get involved in these initiatives and welcome our Asylum seekers into these programs, what are the best approaches?
13. Emerson Wells: The Latino Policy Forum is leading an initiative for where the week is going and how to get engaged on a recurring basis. New Life Centers are also great to direct in- kind and monetary donations. There is also a volunteer program being created by the city. We do not currently have funding opportunities but will share if they become available. Additionally, Catholic Charities has a list of available units and has moved near 5000 households through it. This is a one-time grant that is given to the new residents and is paid directly to the landlord in 3 months of rent.
14. Ireta Gasner: Not a question but a reminder for service providers that there are many early childhood programs (prenatal to 5) where immigration status is not a barrier to enrollment. We are working with DCFS and others to help clarify what enrollment documents might be needed and how some of our existing policies for enrolling children experiencing homelessness can be strengthened for all children.
Feedback Session - DHS Customer Experience Improvements (Approx. Start Time: 1:50PM)
1. Facilitated by Amanda Elliott, DHS Chief of Staff
  1. They conducted customer listening sessions at local offices with the goal of incorporating customer voices and meeting them where they are. Opened the floor for feedback.
  2. Clare Fisher expanded on the idea being open ended and was built to incorporate feedback from this group on DHS communications, programs and services, customer journey.
  3. Clare Fisher shared a PowerPoint with a proposed structure for collecting feedback and will take notes "live" on the slides.
Feedback Session - Medicaid Customers' Experiences in their Healthcare Journey (Approx. Start Time: 2:10PM)
1. Facilitated by Melissa Black, Associate Administrator - Medical Programs, Department of Healthcare and Family Services
2. Introduced Dana Kelly, Chief of Staff at HFS
3. They are very interested in interreacting with customers directly and lifting up the voice of the customer. They have identified the idea of filtering the voices of customers through different sources. Shared a slide presentation on Medicaid 101
4. Mary Camper: Are we also capturing the experience for providers? She shared an example for challenges in navigating systems flaws.
5. Melissa Black: Will connect Mary to a group that is helping new and nontraditional providers (Doula, Midwives, etc.) to navigate the system.
6. Unknown Speaker: IDPH used to convene regional advisory groups of consumers in regions that met on a regular basis. There may be a way to partner with IDPH. They will do research on where the group is now and follow up.
7. Lauren Wright: When people are ineligible for services, what resources are we able to connect them with so that the time to get services and the frustration is minimized? An additional challenge is how to get a message to the consumer in an effective way.
8. Melissa Black: We need to cultivate trusted community partners to bring us into the work to validate presence and intentions. We need to break down barriers and filters.
9. Lauren Wright: Illinois Partners facilitate many of these conversations. They have facilitated with consumers for IDHS and other agencies historically. Community providers are often willing to work with us but there needs to be a forum for their experiences and challenges.
10. Itedal Shalabi: Many providers are not accepting Medicaid due to the stigma around customers. It is especially difficult to access Arabic and other language speaking providers. How do we create a pool and invest in culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach and services?
Presentation - Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHC's) (Approx. Start Time: 2:30PM)
1. Presentation by David T. Jones, Chief Behavioral Health Officer
  1. Had to be pushed to the next meeting of the SSAC due to timing restraints.
Adjournment
1. Yesenia Lopez made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Ireta Gasner.