Champaign County Birth to 6 Council

Minutes

Attendance

Mary Anne Wilson (Mental Health Center of Champaign County), Jessica Lofu (CFC #16),  Cheri Adams (CCRS), Teresa O’Connor (U of I),  Beverly Baker (United Way), Nicole Seidman Sikora (Mental Health Center), Betsy Shea (Champaign Public Library), Lou Anne Burton (CCRS), Mark Driscoll (CC Mental Health and DD Boards), Mary Alayne Hughes (UIUC), Teresa O’Connor (UIUC), Lynn Watson (Headstart), Debbie Burch (CFC #16), Felicia Gooler (DSC), Barry Chapman (DSC), Jennifer Sampson (Crisis Nursery)

Discussion

Some concerns were noted regarding receiving the emails that have been sent out.  Several people said that they were not included in the emails and some key people were missing from the email list.  Jessica Lofu suggested that there may be a problem with the list serve.  People asked how to join the list serve.  Deb Fuoss is the person that needs to be contacted in order to add people to the list serve. 

Announcements

Mary Anne Wilson asked the group if anyone had any announcements that they would like to share. 

Beverly Baker shared that United Way will act as lead agent for a System of Care Grant Request for Proposals from the Illinois Children’s Healthcare Foundation to focus on children’s mental health. Up to $300,000 is available for a planning grant and only 3-5 communities will be selected.

Mark Driscoll shared information about “Project ACCESS.” The state has been given 9 million dollars for six years.  Project ACCESS is a collaboration of agencies dedicated to helping children from underserved populations overcome barriers to accessing services that they need.  The Mental Health Board is a subrecipient of the agreement.  This funding will be used to develop a seamless system of care – keeping kids in school and home and out of trouble.  The targeted population is children in the juvenile system in addition to the families. 

Jessica Lofu shared information regarding the Early Intervention Clearinghouse at the University of Illinois.  They are hosting an open house on Thursday, November 5, 2009, from 2:00 to 4:00pm, at the Children's Research Center in Champaign. For location and parking details, visit the EI Clearinghouse Web site at http://eiclearinghouse.org.

Approval of Minutes

Mary Anne Wilson discussed the minutes from the September meeting.  Several changes need to be made.  The line,“There was no prepared agenda,” needs to be taken out.  In regards to the social/emotional group, kindergarten readiness calendars need to be included in the second paragraph.  There was also a misspelling that needed to be corrected.  Beverly Baker made a motion to approve the minutes with the mentioned changes.  Mark Driscoll seconded the motion.  All were in favor of accepting the revised minutes. 

The LIC members also suggested that a sign-in sheet be produced with their names on it so they can verify attendance without rewriting all of the information at every meeting.

Review/Discussion of By-Laws

Mary Anne Wilson thanked Mark Driscoll for revising the bylaws.  The Bylaws Committee met and made several revisions since the last LIC meeting.  The changes to the bylaws were in italicized print.  Suggested changes to the bylaws were reviewed and discussed.  Additional changes were made to the Mission Statement to include all families with young children.  Additional changes were also made to the Vision Statement.  The LIC group agreed to change the name of the group from Birth to 5 to Birth to 6.

Mary-Alayne Hughes is going to check with Diane Rothenburg, who assisted with our web site development, to see if she has the master copy of the LIC logo so the change can be made from 5 to 6. 

When looking at the bylaws, some questions arose regarding the Child Find aspect of the LIC.  Jessica Lofu stated that the Child Find Committee should relay data that is obtained from the CFC monthly in terms of referrals and caseloads.  She stated that these statistics will be provided at the LIC meetings.

Some of the committee members mentioned that they have not seen the Annual Plan.  Jessica Lofu stated that this plan is required each year by the CFC.  She stated that she had a copy of last year’s plan and will share it with the committee.  Felicia Gooler stated that she had plans from years past that she will share with the plans with everyone. 

The Bylaws Committee will meet again before the next meeting to incorporate the additional suggested changes. The revised bylaws will be available for approval at our next meeting. 

Next Meeting

The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, November 16th, 2009 from 12:00-1:00 at the United Way of Champaign County at 404 West Church Street in Champaign.

Respectfully submitted by:
Jessica Lofu