01/20/2023 HUMAN SERVICES Minutes

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HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES FRIDAY, January 20, 2023 PRESENT: Lynne Barbee (Chair), Sam MacDonald, Heidi McLaughlin, Christine Willander, Gail Wilson, Director ABSENT: David Weeden CALL TO ORDER: 11:03 AM PUBLIC COMMENT: None OLD BUSINESS Review of Minutes from December 16, 2022. Motion to approve by Lynne Barbee, seconded by Gail Wilson. NEW BUSINESS Guest Presentation/Gail Walsh, President, St. Vincent De Paul Society Gail Walsh spoke to the Committee about the 14,000 individuals that the St. Vincent De Paul Society served over the past year. St. Vincent De Paul gives out food, gift cards, trip vouchers to the Christ the King thrift shop on Route 28 as well as diapers and pet food. Over the past year, they have given $89,000 in gift cards. In some cases, they go as far as delivering food to the homebound. The Society was able to benefit from connections with the Boston Food Bank to only spend ten cents on the dollar. In part, this is one of the reasons they have been able to be so generous. However, as of late they have seen inflation cut into their purchasing power. Furthermore, SNAP is due to cut back extra COVID funding, which may mean an influx of new applicants and increased demand overall. Human Services Contracts Gail to send out list to everyone with the current list of contracts and dollar amounts. Director's Report Substance Use Task Force recently met. Gail reported that there were eleven Narcan administrations over the past year as well as three fatalities according to the latest report given by the Mashpee Police. The fatalities were an increase over the previous year. The age range of the reported overdoses were as young as thirteen years old. These are the statistics given by the police department and does not include any overdose without police involvement. They also discussed the article that Dawn Thayer recently drafted and sent to the Town Managers office for the appropriation transfer. These funds would be placed under the Human Services Department in a specific Opioid Remediation account. Town Council must review and then it will be shown to this group so that it can be finalized for the February deadline for town meeting. Once the three-member panel approves an application to get funding, the Human Services Committee will have to give final approval for the designation of the funding. Currently, the three member panel, Gail, Corinne Wickel of Parents Supporting Parents and Wayne Taylor are working on the Application for funding. The funding will be open to nonprofits that work with Mashpee Residents and are not currently being funded by MassHealth.Any funding over 35,000 will need to be reported on an annual reporting form. Gail also mentioned that they discussed the possibility of a recovery support navigator. ADDITIONAL TOPICS None NEXT MEETING SCHEDULE February 17th. 2023 ADJOURNMENT Christine Willander made a motion to Adjourn which was seconded by Sam MacDonald.