Creciendo Juntos– Growing Together

Health, Housing And Social Services Working Group Minutes

Thursday, July 13, 2006 at United Way office

Present: Peter Loach, Nila Saliba, Janet Muse, Rhonda Miska, Tara O’Connor, Meg Camp

Meg opened the meeting by informing us of some statewide Medicaid policy changes. Effective July 1, 2006 every recipient of Medicaid must provide proof of citizenship and identity (eg a passport, or a birth certificate and school ID or affidavit). Only recipients themselves must provide citizenship and identity, not the parents. This does not affect emergency services for pregnant women. Meg shared that in the city of Charlottesville 75 Spanish-speaking families receive Medicaid, and that in the county it is much more.

CLARIFICATION: Medicaid applicants and recipients who receive SSI or Medicare are exempt from the new Medicaid policy. – L Hemby, 7/14/06

No further discussion was held on the question of cultural literacy training since that topic will be covered at the July plenary, and we want more input from Jon Nafziger since he broached the topic. It will be discussed at future meetings.

Rhonda let group members know that an Incarnation parishioner has been getting harassing phone calls from Ingles con Ritmo demanding he pay for an English course they say he ordered, and threatening to take him to court. Rhonda has contacted Sindy Benavides and VA Justice Center about the scam. She requested she be contacted if anyone hear about anything similar happening to Hispanics in our area.

Rhonda encouraged group members to utilize and refer people to the Creciendo Juntos website. It was also announced that sections of Cheryl Ribando’s Spanish language resource guide will be published in Nuevas Raices.

Rhonda updated the group on immigration reform since she was at an interfaith theology of migration conference and lobby day on July 12. In wanting to put a human face on the immigration debate, Rhonda is pursuing have the Daily Progress print the anonymous testimony of an undocumented immigrant living in our area. Meg Camp has a contact at the Hook in case the DP isn’t interested. It was also recommended that in the media we highlight employers at wineries, landscaping companies, construction companies (probably also anonymously) about the role immigrants play in our local work force. Also, Incarnation is currently working on a campaign to pressure the City Council to pass a pro-immigrant resolution supporting the Senate bill over the House bill. City Council meetings are held the 1st and 3rd Monday of every month. This coming Monday Incarnation parishioners will attend the meeting to encourage the resolution, Tara O’Connor expressed interest in attending and speaking as well.

The Help Fair is scheduled for 3-6 pm on Sunday, Oct 29 at Incarnation. So far, VHDA, Albemarle Social Service, Cville Social Services, PHA, CHIP, Va Justice Center, FAMIS, Dr. Tim Short (nutrition), BBT Bank, Linda Rose and the UVa Cancer Center have reserved tables. Rhonda will continue inviting agencies and making reservations. Nila Saliba is coordinating food for the day. She said that she has a budget (perhaps around $500) to perhaps pay some Incarnation members to prepare and serve food at the event. Nila agreed to print the list with agency names that would be used for the raffle. She said she could also possibility design and print promotional flyers for the event. Peter Loach will look into finding a sponsor for the day (perhaps a bank, or the chamber of commerce) to offset the costs of food, raffle prizes, etc. Again this year we will have dance and music performances during the fair.

Peter had several announcements for the group. First, he shared his goal to get CJ to be less of a ‘wholesale’ endeavor (working mostly w/ agencies) and more of a ‘retail’ endeavor (working directly with Hispanics). The group recommended networking in Southwood (Meg has a contact there) and with Judy Bartlett, who is still in Charlottesville though she is no longer serving in the capacity she once did. Next he brought up the idea of a strategic planning retreat for CJ that will tentatively be held at Incarnation on Thurs Nov 9. Peter also is part of a leadership team for the Chamber of Commerce and is looking for a Hispanic community member to tell their story at an afternoon event.

Our next meeting will be August 24 from 2-3:30 pm.