ORDER-2022-40 : Title III b Grant Award FY22

Transcript (~10 min @ 2:32)

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▶ 2:29 Jeff McNaught: Sure, 1st, order is order 2022 dash 42 and appropriation in the amount of. Oh, I'm sorry I skipped 1 order 2022 dash 40, but the title 3 B grant award of 22.

▶ 2:54 Jeff McNaught: Do we have anyone here to speak on that? Mr clerk?

▶ 2:57 Speaker 1: Yes, so we have Stacy from the Council on aging. Stacy. Can you hear us?

▶ 3:01 Speaker 2: Hi, I can hear you. Good evening counselors.

▶ 3:04 Jeff McNaught: I miss financial. How are you? Good. Good.

▶ 3:07 Speaker 2: Refresh my memory. Is this where I speak about the grant? It is. Okay. I apologize. I don't know why my video is not working.

▶ 3:17 Speaker 2: I mean, so I found it, so I applied for a title 3 B grant that's through the federal, um, older Americans act through mystic Valley and we were awarded 6,220 dollars to. Um, expand our social programming, offer different events, um, reach out to underserved populations and hopefully, um, gather some interest from the LGBT seniors.

▶ 3:45 Jeff McNaught: Thank you. Ms. and do any counselors have any questions for Ms. in this order? I'd also like to point out that vice chair Eccles is now with us. So we are 11 strong.

▶ 3:58 Speaker 3: Councilor Jamaleddine.

▶ 4:03 Maya Jamaleddine: Good evening. Thank you so much for being with us and thank you for applying for this grant. I'm sure it's going to benefit my, you know, our vulnerable population and our senior as well. What is your plan in terms of the outreach and collecting all those data to see what's best to use that money for that?

▶ 4:29 Speaker 2: So, for for outreach, I don't want to say believe it or not. I don't know why I start with believe it or not, but the Council on Asian is becoming very popular, which helps us with our outreach because the seniors are reaching out to us. But we now offer free newsletters, meaning that they don't have to buy a subscription or the postage is paid for. And we're, we're almost closely 1000, 1000 mark, which is pretty high compared to about a year ago. was sending 300 out. But because of the pandemic, we needed to be more creative on how to actually reach them, and it just shows up in their mailbox. I have a great relationship with the networks in the area, too, so the housing coordinators receive our information in a bulk mailing distribution letter, and we're partnered with Melrose-Wakefield Hospital and the YMCA for for our activities and programs.

▶ 5:25 Maya Jamaleddine: And you've mentioned that this grant, will be basically used for our LGBTQ population, right? So how are we targeting our LGBTQ individuals so we can help and make sure to inform them that there is some support that they can use

▶ 5:52 Speaker 2: Right, so I reached out to the LGBT aging project, which is in the Fenway. The family group in Boston, and they gave us some tips on how to do it, but basically some of the stuff is really simple. Like, we have the rainbow flag. On the front of the senior center, so that just alerts people that were friendly and then we advertise in the newsletter. We call it the rainbow events, and some seniors who don't understand that do ask, and it's open to all. But I think that when we have a certain section in the newsletter that says LGBT, it's sparking interest and people are calling. But also with, I call it care transitions. Like, if there's an elder that was recently visited the hospital and said that they were lonely or, you know, discloses their status, then they have our card. They know to call us. Okay, can you explain to us what is exactly the services that you can support our LGBTQ older adult population? So it's mostly social events, so it could be, but it also has like a health and wellness component to it, so at the end of the, so even if we have like a karaoke night or a band, or I try to, we're not open yet, So, the, everything has been remotely lately, but then we would do a survey to ask them health and wellness questions and see how they're doing and then go from there because the grant is very specific about which statistics I have to report. Okay, okay. So we don't have anything like. Yeah, like plan in place. Or customized specifically for this grant yet.

▶ 7:41 Maya Jamaleddine: Not yet, we would have to, we have to specifically schedule it. Okay. Awesome. Well, congratulations. I'm getting open to all. Yeah, absolutely. And thank you. Congratulations on getting this grant and looking forward to hearing. More about, you know, how it was used and please let us know if there's anything we can help. To to spread the word or in the outreach.

▶ 8:09 Jeff McNaught: Sure, thank you. Thank you. Council. Jamal Dean. Councilor Thomas.

▶ 8:12 Cory Thomas: Thank you. Mr. chairman. Ms. Michelle. Thank you for being here and thank you for your continued hard work for the seniors and numbers. Where are we with the community meal? And is there any, um. Anything on the, on the, on the horizon to bring that back to the community. It was such a popular program. I just want to see what the status of that is. Well, I have you here.

▶ 8:36 Speaker 2: So, it's a very tough thing to discuss, because, as you can tell the seniors miss it, and they're upset about it. But what I've been telling folks is that we can have a. Older adults community dinner at the Milano center any time. If we're going to go with, so that's like reframing or recreating the program. If we were going to follow the funding that supports the community. Dinner, then I have to follow the rules of that fund, which is for all ages and it basically is an integrated expression of feeding the poor. So, it, I don't want to get into the business of screening for income. But I have to be careful about making sure that it's inclusive and if you keep community dinner at the at the senior center, it becomes exclusive. Because it's viewed as only for seniors. So, um, and I, you know, it's like, as we had a drive through 1 of the seniors came up to me and said, well, how can you not talking about that in your newsletter? And I said. I don't have the answer yet, so I'd rather put out a great answer that says, you know, the community dinner will be hosted. It can be hosted at the senior center, but it has to be pretty well. You know, manage that it's all ages inclusive and those in need, but I was talking to administration about possibly bringing it to different community places. So that basically under aged and low income feel comfortable coming.

▶ 10:09 Cory Thomas: Thank you so much for that answer. Um, but in the greater in the greater landscape of it, though, has it been talked about bringing bringing it back? It's some extent now that the pandemic is hopefully lessening.

▶ 10:23 Speaker 2: As far as timing of as far as having people congregate for meals. Or the program itself. Well, I think. Right now, even in the council and aging network, there are less. They're, they're still not back to full time meals because I was really struggling because, you know, the, the in the Milano center is being repaired. As we speak, and I was really upset, not upset, but really concerned about that. I was going to be going into the 2nd. Holiday season, Hanukkah, Christmas, the December months of not having a congregate. Event, you know, a community event sitting down, but we felt that working with the and all that, that it just wasn't we weren't there yet and we're not at that point. So we're going to continue with the drive through events. Um, continue with the zoom events, um, we're at memorial hall, um, and then January, hopefully knock on what will open. And then I would say probably the Valentine's day might possibly be the 1st community. Meal, whether it's lunch or dinner or whatever it is.

▶ 11:32 Cory Thomas: That's great to hear. Thank you so much. Thank you for being here.

▶ 11:36 Speaker 3: Thank you. Thank you. Councilor Thomas. Do any other councilors

▶ 11:45 Jeff McNaught: have questions for Ms. Minchella? Seeing none, what is the will of the committee?

▶ 11:52 Jeff McNaught: Motion to recommend? Second. Motion to recommend for passage made by Councilor Garipay, seconded by Councilor Tramontozzi on discussion. Seeing none, Mr. Clerk, we please call the roll.

▶ 12:03 Speaker 1: Chair McNaught? Yes. Vice Chair Eccles? Yes. Councilor Tramontozzi? Yes. Councillor McMaster?

▶ 12:19 Speaker 1: Yes. Councillor Garipay? Yes. Councillor Grigoraitis? Yes.

▶ 12:27 Speaker 1: Councillor Migliorelli? Yes.

▶ 12:33 Speaker 1: Councillor Stewart? Yes.