Employment Programs Committee Minutes - October 13, 2004

EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS COMMITTEE

10/13/04

Wayne Black, Co-Chair of the committee welcomed attendees. Mr. Black passed around attendance roster and informed the committee that he had compiled this list from the most recent Director's Association listing of directors and their designees to be on the committee. Informed group if their name was not on the list and they were a designee or desired to be they would need to have their individual county director contact Sharon Scott, President of Director's Association. Minutes from the 8/11/04 meeting were approved with no revisions.

Old Business

• Marva Scott shared that the Work First caseload for the month of October 2004 increased by 369. All parent cases increased by 428 and two parent caseloads decreased by 59. Benefit Diversion cases are down by 212. Applications for September were down by 829 and terminations down by 2,091. Marva states that altogether statistics appear normal. Mr. Black asked committee members for information on trends in Family and Children's Medicaid, Health Choice, and Food Stamps. He noted that in Surry County last month they had the largest one month increase in Food Stamps in a year yet their unemployment rate is going down.

• CAREER START- Mr. David Prince noted that participation in the Food Stamp program has increased some but not as much as it should. North Carolina is the second lowest state for Food Stamp participation for eligible people in the Southeast. He reported that there will be some additional efforts to increase Food Stamp participation in North Carolina. Wayne Black asked how did we rank four years ago? David did not know the answer to that question. Mr. Prince reported that Career Start was up and operational in 34 counties. Wake County will begin Career Start on October 18 th and Craven County will begin on October 19 th . The reason for these later starting dates is lack of space at community colleges. Mr. Prince also informed the committee that he has received favorable responses from almost all the counties in reference to Career Start. He also informed the committee that October 27th thru October 29 th is the North Carolina Work First Development Conference in Greensboro and all individuals that are in Work First programs are invited. He informed committee that the Career Start training session to be presented at the conference had been canceled. There will be a Career Start workshop during the conference but not a training session. This is in order to prepare for the second annual Career Start Staff Development, which will be December 9 th and 10 th , in Clemmons, North Carolina. He stated that counties will now be responsible for the reimbursement to their staff for attending. If that becomes an issue David asked to be notified. He further stated they had met with Dean Duncan and UNC Chapel Hill staff about evaluations of Career Start which will begin during the month of November - December of this year. The first five counties that will be evaluated are Scotland, Catawba, Lenoir, Hertford, and Rockingham. Mr. Prince informed the committee that the evaluation would consist of interviews with the Career Start clients, DSS staff, Community College staff, and ESC staff. He stated that even though the goal of Career Start is to help individuals to find jobs, we've started out in these labor surplus areas where there are technically no jobs. The committee was also informed that there is informative data on each county which is updated monthly about Food Stamps and E & T on the website http://ssw.unc.edu/foodstamps . A letter will soon be sent to counties with this information. There is no projected date for Career Start to be state wide. 34 counties are currently participating and the contract with ESC and the Community Colleges ends June 30 th . Informed committee that his goal was to have Career Start state wide.

• DSS/DVR MOA – Sara Mims shared that the committees have signed off on the Memorandum of Agreement between DSS and VR. She stated that it is in the process of going up through the chain of command at DSS and are hoping to have the signatures on it shortly and being able to get it out to counties. Sara stated they are planning to continue the work group which will meet quarterly so they can keep dialogue going especially if counties see the Memorandum of Agreement and make some similar agreements at the local level. Ms. Mims stated that when Work First began, Vocational Rehabilitation and DSS had a Memorandum of Agreement. Terrye Fish of VR approached them in January wanting to revisit and talk about how the two areas could work together to best serve clients. So, a work group was developed. She informed the committee that the committee was made up of members of VR and DSS and originally addressed Work First but now represents all of DSS. She further informed the committee that the hope was that by having this at the state level agreement it will become sort of a model for local communities to connect together to make similar types of agreements at the local level. She shared some of the barriers that exist because of the difference in the programs. For instance, VR doesn't serve an individual that states they don't want to participate. DSS staff develops an MRA with the client that indicates what they are required to do. Likewise if a client comes in with a form that says they can't work and hands it to VR, VR is not going to serve them. It would be best for DSS staff to send clients to VR without a medical form and let them do their job. She also highlighted the positive results of working with VR.

• Transportation – Marva Scott, Co-Chair of the committee informed the committee of some concerns expressed during the August meeting about new coding of Work First transportation and the new requirement of opening the case in SIS. Marva informed the committee that concerns were taken to the executive committee and they supported county thoughts on this matter. Consequently, the decision was made to rescind the policy requiring counties to complete the SIS entry for Work First families receiving transportation assistance. Sara Mims informed committee there will still need to be a way to track transportation costs. Ms. Mims asked if counties have suggestions to please contact her. There have been suggestions but they would require major program changes to the state system and would be extremely costly. Nancy Brandt requested that decisions be reviewed by committee before becoming policy.

• Revision of Medical Forms – Ms. Wilson asked about the state revised medical forms. Ms Spears informed committee that Ms. Carla McNeil was working on a draft form. Carla is setting up a meeting with Medicaid and Food Stamps with hopes of having a medical form that can be used by all programs. Mr. Black added that it was a work in progress.

New Business

County Plans - Mr. Black stated that counties have until November 1 st to get their 2005-2007 Work First Plan into the state office. Carla McNeil stated that there are 11 electing counties at this time. Sara Mims informed the committee that a few counties have sent their plans to their Board of Commissioners. There are counties that are not able to get plans in on time because Board of Commissioners will not meet until after the November 1 st deadline. Ms. Mims says that as soon as plans are in they will identify a committee to review and begin the process of developing a state plan. She further informed the committee that TANF Reauthorization has been extended to March 31, 2005. She stated it is HR 5149.
Goals Report of 2003-04. The state exceeded goals for 2003/2004.
Work First Goals of 2004/2005 – Sara Mims informed committee they met with Hank Bower about concerns with the formula for Benefit Diversion. She said it will continue to be determined the same way as in years past. Any questions in reference to Benefit Diversion should be directed to Mr. Bower. She stated we do need to look at performance measures in the future in reference to child only cases. She brought out that 61% of our cases in TANF are now child only. Discussion was introduced about finding out how many cases are “true” child only cases. Mr. David Prince made a motion to approve Work First Performance Report Goals for 2004/2005. Ms. Cindy Wilson seconded the motion. It was unanimously approved by the committee.
Work Central – Sara Mims opened discussion about Work Central and that maybe the committee would want to hear and know more about it. The idea was discussed that maybe a presentation was possible.
IVE Review (Foster Care) will be conducted the last week of April 2005. Between now and November 10, counties should review all cases to ensure they are IVE eligible. If the cases are not they will need to be moved to a different funding source.
General Discussion – Tuesday Advisory to go to a quarterly meeting. Can meet more after meeting if necessary.

The meeting was adjourned with the reminder that the November meeting is on 11/3 from 1:30-3:30.

Respectfully Submitted,

Cindy Wilson

EMPLOYMENT PROGRAMS COMMITTEE

10/13/04

ATTENDEES

Wayne Black, Co-Chair Columbus County

Marva Scott, Co-Chair Surry County

David Prince State DSS

Cindy Wilson Cumberland County

Deanne Singleton Rutherford County

Gwen Price Orange County

June Medford Wayne County

David Troutman Randolph County

Pat Spears Rowan County

Carla McNeill State DSS

Sara Mims State DSS

Carl Breazeale State DSS

Barbara Harris Wake County

Rhonda Stevens Durham County

Renee Hannah State DSS

Karen Peters Rutherford County

David Prince State DSS

Kathy Evans State DSS