Creciendo Juntos – Working Together

Human Services Working Group Meeting Notes

October 19, 2-3:30, United Way

Present: Rhonda Miska, Nila Saliba, Sue Moffett and Janet Muse

Hosting the January Plenary: Nila reminded the group that we are responsible for arranging the presentation for the January ’07 CJ plenary. Nila, Janet and Fanny Smedile (of the Church of the Incarnation) will be attending the Latino Health Summit in November in Richmond. It was agreed that they will look to invite a speaker from the Health Summit to the plenary, or gather information to present themselves. The group agreed it would be good to have a general overview of the health of Latinos in Virginia with statistics and trends – information that would be general enough to be of interest to anyone who works with Latinos.

IMPACT/Hospital Interpretation: At the Sept 26 IMPACT (Interfaith Movement Promoting Action by Congregations Together) 15 Hispanics from Incarnation were in attendance, and they raised the concern about a lack of access to interpretation at UVa for Spanish speakers. The group seemed to be in agreement that this is a concern that we as a CJ Working Group could address and collaborate with the hospital to improve access. Nila said she had been in touch with Peter on the issue and that she had sent Peter the name of someone at UVa to contact. The next day at the plenary session, Rhonda got the name and contact info of the administrator of Patient Assistance Services.

Strategic Planning Retreat: There is a CJ Strategic Planning Retreat on Friday Nov 3 from 9-3 at Incarnation. Besides Rhonda, no one present at the meeting was planning on attending the retreat. It was recommended Peter use the Help Fair as an opportunity to touch base with participating agencies and invite them personally to the retreat.

Advocacy for Comprehensive Immigration Reform: Rhonda shared that she met with Chris West of the National Justice for Immigrants campaign (a Catholic campaign for comprehensive immigration reform). Chris recommended that we have community forums to educate and engage the public. Rhonda shared that one could be held at the church and focus on the moral/religious reasons to support CIR, while another one could be held in a neutral space (eg the library meeting room) that would give secular reasons to support CIR. The Working Group recommended we work with Karen Waters from Quality Community Council who hosted the University of the Poor last year to see that if we could collaborate with QCC to host such an event. On Oct 20, Rhonda talked with Peter about the idea, and Peter said he would follow up with Karen.

Help Fair: Rhonda distributed a list of the 28 agencies that are signed up for the Help Fair on Sunday, Oct 29. Sue said she could come early to help set up tables between 1-2. The agencies can set up from 2:00 on, with the fair beginning at 3 (or perhaps a little earlier depending on when Mass gets out).

Sue graciously agreed to contact all the agencies to confirm their participation, inform them of set up time, and note who is bringing what do donate in terms of food, beverages and raffle prizes.

Nila will make up 200 sheets w/ the names of participating agencies that will be used for the raffle drawing. Nila will also ensure that there are plenty of bags for those who attend the fair to store all the literature they pick up. The UVa Cancer Center is providing funds that will be used for Incarnation parishioners (led by Carol Rivera and Jorge Galvis) to purchase and prepare food in the church kitchen. El Puerto is donating chips and salsa, Pepsi has donated several 2 liter bottles of soda, Golden Corral has donated gift certificates to be raffled off, and Wood Grill has donated chicken and rolls. Agencies will be encouraged to donate healthy food (eg fruit or vegetable platters, or fruit juice and milk to drink).

Rhonda will confirm with the dance performers.

NB: On Friday Oct 20, at the CJ plenary session after Tim Freilich’s presentation there was a brief gathering of the working group with several people who haven’t been able to attend any of the other working group meetings. It was reiterated that the Working Group needs to focus on concrete actions, access to hospital interpretation was mentioned again.

Recommended next meeting date (since we forgot to set one at the meeting): Thursday, December 7, 2-3:30 pm (to focus on planning for the January plenary, evaluating the Help Fair, and moving forward with hospital interpretation access)