Emmet County Empowerment Area - DOC

							                       Emmet County Empowerment Area
                              Board Meeting Minutes
                                November 17, 2008
Attendance:
Board: Dorothy Christensen, Ron Smith, Don Leach, Katie Hanson, Gina Lowman-Hall,
Jennie Knudson, Paula Mart
Coordinator: Beth Heifner
Guests: Diane Smith, Lynn Beisch,

1. Call to Order: Christensen called the meeting to order at 5:30 pm. Introductions
   were then done.

2. Additions to the Agenda: none

3. Approval of Minutes: Board was asked to review the minutes from the previous
   meeting and look over to see if there were any questions or additions from the
   minutes. Christensen then asked for a motion when there were no additions or
   questions. Motion: Leach, Second: Mart Motion Carried.

4. Financial Report: Christensen asked if there were any questions on the financial
   report. The boards questioned on what the total of preschool children were that were
   covered on the preschools. Motion: Hanson, Second: Knudson Motion Carried.

5. Report from SMILES Program: Diane Smith talked to the board about last years
   data on the SMILES program. She said that there wasn’t any confirmed child abuse
   cases which they were very proud that they could say that. They do developmental
   screenings in the homes. She worked with 28 families and an average of 63 children
   each year. The parents are asked to evaluate the program and fill out a service
   survey. The average with each family is 10 months with the family. Still high on a
   lot of issues like child abuse, poverty level, etc for the state of Iowa. There are times
   that they will work with a parent and after they are done with that family, they may
   need to go back into the house to help the family at a later date. All the families that
   Diane works with are at high-risk families. Diane asked for Beth and one board
   member to go to their Credentialing visit from state. Hanson said she would go and
   Christensen would be back-up if Hanson isn’t able to go.

6. Redesignation Meeting Review: Christensen went over the redesignation meeting
   with the state and said that there were a good mix of people between board members
   and community partners. We as a board had missed one portion on the community
   plan which they had on their matrix but the coordinator was not given the same
   matrix to follow. After discussion by the state with the state empowerment board
   they decided that we could still get a 3 year designation and they would just use the
   matrix that was given to our coordinator. The one that were questions on reporting
   data was that of Childcare Resource & Referral. There isn’t enough information on
   the data that was received. The board needs to be specific on what we want them to
   do and data that they need to provide in their contract. Shanell from the state has
   offered to come and help the board to develop a new contract and requirements for
   UDMO/CCR&R. There is a plan for Beth, Shanell, Jeanine & Kieja to meet to
   develop a matrix for them to follow on reporting for the boards’ annual report.

7. NGA (National Governor’s Association): Beth Heifner, Gina Lowman-Hall, Diane
   Smith, & Karen Gage attended a meeting which was set up for the empowerment
   boards to discuss on things that the board could change or work on as a board to make
   it a better board. The board discussed the things the group came back and all 5 things
   need to be addressed within a year or so. The five items are: condense mission
   statement & vision statement, board webpage, all providers at the table: DHS person,
   equal amount of business from both sides of the county, community service
   representative, diversity on the board, i.e. Minister, deacon, or elder. Smith proposed
   that we do something in the paper about what the Empowerment Board is so that
   people understand what we are and what we represent. Beth needs to get a website
   up and running by the end of the year.

8. CCNC (Child Care Nurse Consultant): The board was presented with a letter from
   the Child Care Nurse Consultant Cheri Hinners with request for some funding to help
   with the cost of the consultant in Emmet County. Previously she is getting funding
   from the maternal child health & Title 5 money through the state. They help the
   providers in Emmet County through illness, safety, & QRS help. They are asking for
   $7,750.00 from us and also PAK empowerment for the same funding to help fund this
   program along with the Nurse Consultant. Smith thinks that as of this year since the
   our budget is done lets wait and see how many they actually serve for this year and
   then if they come to us within the budget time and provide us with what they actually
   done within Emmet County for this year. We will meet with the providers and see
   what services they were given from the Nurse Consultant.

9. Childcare Consultant: Kieja went over her program and discussed how many
   providers she visits and what she has done for the past month. Kieja went through
   how difficult it has been to get a training certified through DHS.

10. Community Input: The board had no community input at this time.

11. Next Meeting: December 15th at 5:30pm

12. Adjourned: Motion: Smith, Second: Mart Motion Carried

Respectively Submitted by:

Katie Hanson