AGENDA and MINUTES - Pillar 5 subcommittee meeting, August 28, 2024

Illinois Commission on Poverty Elimination and Economic Security

Subcommittee on Pillar 5: Support Trusted Community Based Providers to Serve the Needs of those In Deep Poverty

Meeting Agenda and Minutes

Wednesday, August 28, 2024, 2:00-3:00 PM

Recording

*Members of the public are invited to attend. For those who would like to make public comment, we request that those comments be submitted in advance of the meeting to Priya Khatkhate by email at Priya.Khatkhate@illinois.gov. Please send all comments by 8:30 AM on August 28, 2024.

Agenda:

  1. Welcome Roll Call
  2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance
  3. Approval of Meeting Minutes: February 7, 2024 and May 1, 2024
  4. Development/Review of FY25 Goals
  5. Next Steps
  6. Adjournment

Minutes

Subcommittee members in attendance:

  1. Lauren Wright - Chairperson
  2. Kimberly Tate - representative of Senator Kimberly Lightford, Commission member
  3. Juan Calderon - Commission member
  4. Jennifer Hebel - IDoA, IWGP member
  5. Amy Brennan - public member
  6. Courtney Hedderman - public member
  7. Becky Salazar - public member
  8. Meredith Byers - public member
  9. Lesley Schwartz - IDHS SME/public member

Administrator: Priya Khatkhate, IDHS-Chief Policy Officer

Facilitators:

  1. Matthew Rodriguez - Institute of Research on Race and Public Policy (IRRPP)
  2. Kaitlin Devaney - IRRPP
  3. Nancy Toure - IRRPP

Proceedings:

  1. Welcome Roll Call - members put their names and organizations in the chat.
  2. Public Comment - subject to written comment in advance; none received.
  3. Approval of Meeting Minutes: February 7, 2024 and May 1, 2024 - Ms. Courtney Hedderman moved to approved the February 7th and May 1st minutes seconded by Chair Wright. The group unanimously approved the February 7th and May 1st meeting minutes.
  4. FY24 Recap
    • Chair Wright gave a recap of what the purpose of the subcommittee and the main goals of Pillar 5.
    • Chair Wright also briefly discussed the accomplishments of the subcommittee for FY24 including the work on building a network of community-based providers in collaboration with IDHS; bringing in new members; and supporting the Illinois Partners for Human Service on their work on drafting the legislation on Human Service Equitable Pay Act.
    • The purpose now is to set goals and prioritize for FY25; what needs to be accomplished, identify who else should be part of the subcommittee to help move the goals forward.
    • Matthew stressed the urgency reminding the group of the overarching statutory goals of the Commission which are to reduce deep poverty in the state by 50% by 2026, eliminate child poverty by 2031 and eliminate all poverty by 2036.
  5. Development/Review of FY25 Goals
    1. By June 2025, Pillar 5 Subcommittee will design and implement a collaborative work plan with key stakeholders to advocate for appropriations to support unpaid family caregivers in addition to supporting cost of living increases for frontline workers serving those in deep poverty. This partnership plan will outline:
      1. Engagement with the Illinois Family Caregiver Coalition, including having representation from this coalition on the Pillar 5 Subcommittee, to amplify the needs and experiences of family caregivers and support appropriations in the FY26 state budget. (Amy Brennan of the Illinois Family Caregiver Coalition is already a member of the subcommittee.)
      2. Work with IDHS to understand what types of services have/have not received COLAs in the past 5 years, and work to rectify disparities in the FY26 state budget.
    2. By June 2025, Pillar 5 Subcommittee will create an integrated network of trusted community providers in Illinois. The elements of this network will include, but are not limited to:
      1. Research on best practices on how to add value to providers servicing those in deep poverty;
      2. An established meeting schedule with providers to discuss needs from the network, share important information, and develop a collaborative plan to address needs.
    3. By June 2025, Pillar 5 Subcommittee will provide appropriate feedback to inform the Human Services Equitable Pay Act, including but not limited to:
      1. Narrowing the scope of this legislation (in comparison to FY24 language)
      2. Identifying problem areas in partnership with IDHS
      3. Developing a plan for the full Commission to support this Act during the 2025 legislative session.
  6. Discussion
    • Ms. Lesley Schwartz wanted to make sure that childcare providers/workers are included in goal 1 as frontline workers/family caregivers.
    • Chair Wright confirmed and added that the group can also make sure that childcare providers are represented in the integrated network that the group is building.
    • Matthew informed the group that there are a series of goals related to childcare availability and affordability advocacy in both Pillars 1 and 4.
    • Ms. Jennifer Hebel raised the importance of transportation and the benefits cliff and how these affect paid and unpaid family caregivers. The Department on Aging is participating in a national effort to look at direct care workforce issues especially in the aging and persons with disability fields and they will also be doing a rate study in the next year to see how their rates are matching where they should be.
    • IDHS, thru Administrator Khatkhate and Deputy Director Taneka Jennings from the Office of Legislative Affairs will be collaborating with Pillar 5 to determine specific areas of interest and get more information where COLA has not been received in the last five years or so.
    • Ms. Schwartz shared that childcare has a cost model already, EI and home visiting are finishing up cost models as well. She noted that some programs are so far behind that even if they received one COLA in the last five years, it would not bring them up.
    • Chair Wright said that the five years was just to provide a time frame and to narrow the period for research but it is open for changes.
    • Commission member Juan Calderon suggested to add home care aides as frontline workers who have not received significant increases in the last few years.
    • Chair Wright said it would be best to add home care aides in goal 2 in building an integrated network of trusted community-based providers to make sure they are represented in future conversations.
    • Chair Wright suggested to add another bullet in goal 2 that would list specific types of work/providers needed to be represented in the integrated network. Illinois Partners has a full recent study that could be referenced for this goal. Members suggested to include:
      1. EI service providers, childcare providers and home visitors (evidence-based early childhood home visiting)
      2. Area Agencies on Aging, Care Coordination Units who work with people with Medicaid, in-home providers who work with people with private insurance, Senior Health Insurance Program (SHIP) workers
      3. Community-based healthcare providers such as federally qualified health centers
      4. Local transportation providers
      5. Social workers
      6. Include provider types and if there are positions within those providers that are needed
      7. Cultural-designated district providers to capture a lot of home care aide organizations
      8. Veterans Assistance Commission
      9. LGBTQ community providers
    • The list of providers from Illinois Partners will be cross-referenced with the list previously provided by IDHS while making sure to give special focus on providers that work on deep poverty areas that have been previously identified by the Commission. There is a challenge however, because the list from IDHS does not have the information on the areas where the providers provide their services though it might contain the location of their headquarters; though having the counties and zip codes are good starting point.
    • Matthew and team could explore, depending on the list, and try to study where those providers are providing services.
    • Chair Wright raised that a form might be needed to ask the providers if they want to participate in the integrated network and that there are clear parameters for what the conversations would be like to not waste anybody's time. Also, it should be clear what kind of feedback is warranted from those providers i.e. what do they need to better serve the needs of those living in deep poverty? It may take two meetings before the next fiscal year to jumpstart the integrated network.
    • Chair Wright could facilitate the conversations and be part of the planning but having representatives from IDHS would be important so the providers would feel that there is a space to give feedback. Priya can work to have IDHS representation.
    • To make sure that there is no duplication of efforts, in case similar conversations are already happening somewhere, Priya suggested looking at geographic groups specifically the counties with the highest rates of poverty and deep poverty and connect the providers working in those areas to join the meetings and talk about specific issues.
    • Also, Goal 2 was updated to "…will identify and/or create…" instead of "will create" and tap into what networks are already existing.
    • Priya further suggested that Goal 2 could even take the shape of identifying those folks, making contact/relationship, and then maybe administering a survey or something regarding areas of greatest need/concern, or something of that type. Matthew will make the necessary modification on the goal.
    • On Goal 3, Illinois Partners have a meeting with the IDHS Policy Team to begin conversations about what would work and be more possible as a legislation. A draft is targeted to be completed by November that the subcommittee can review and give feedback on and then get the Commission's support for FY25 thru a letter of support.
  7. Adjournment - Ms. Hedderman moved to adjourn the meeting seconded by Chair Wright. The group unanimously agreed to adjourn the meeting at 2:59 PM.