RPRC Minutes – November 2011
RICHMOND POVERTY RESPONSE COMMITTEE – Minutes
November 3rd, 2011
Present: John Roeder, De Whalen, Alex Nixon, June Humphrey, Cecilia Hudec, Bessie Li, Janice Lambert, Margaret Dixon, De Whalen, Lynda Brummitt (staff)
Chair: Janice Lambert
Recorder: Bessie Li
- Introductions and speakers
This meeting started with a presentation from Volunteer Richmond Information Services, as a follow up to our discussion at the October meeting regarding the need for a wallet size resource card for community people who on occasion work with people in crisis.Presenters – Sydney Kuo, Marcia Mackenzie (Childcare Resource & Referral) and Carol Dickson (Seniors Information and Referral) – see details of presentation at end of minutes.
Advice and discussion regarding our project idea:
If doing a wallet card, make sure the Volunteer Richmond Info Services phone number or website is present.
What information is most helpful? – depends on crisis- housing/food/income – individual needs vary so widely, so personal voice-to-voice connection is important to facilitate connecting to most appropriate top 2-3 organizations The hope of VRIS is that they are the 2nd-last place a person needs to visit. The art of I & R cannot be replaced, but the card is another resource.
After hours: VRIS does not have an after-hours service; CHIMO after-hours is what everyone is relying on. MCFD provides an after-hours line, but in the case that we heard about last month, there was difficulty finding the correct phone number.
De: Generation Next – retired professionals, needing people power, the retired 50+ crowd to help launch, it’s not operational yet, but in development.
Summary:
If we were to do the project, keep it simple and target the community point people- Ministers and who else? What info would help them?
- An after-hours card mostly? Shelter list and also the MCFD line? the double-headed problem of finding shelter and then getting there
- an opportunity to allow faith groups to be involved
- Subcommittee to be set up: talk to point people and bring the info back…
- an 8.5” X11” poster to be made that can be posted, to go with wallet-sized card
- When ministers change, and when new people rotate, youth pastors and associate pastors, most churches have more than 1 staff member, how do we reach all of these people?
- Where are the community bulletin boards? A lot of them are contracted and the contractors come and clear the board once/week, Richmond Centre has a big bulletin board where Sears is…
- there is an Emily Carr student who is interested in designing the card’s graphics, all we need is the information that goes on them
- next steps: chart out tasks and include input of community point people, De will talk to Margaret Cornish.
- Agenda approved as circulated
- October minutes approved as circulated. They will be posted to website.
- Gaps in services
Volunteer Richmond support person cut . Seniors without family/friends, need help to fill out forms, need someone to walk through the access of services, etc. Example: June working with a person with dementia and it is difficult to elicit information for completing forms.
Richmond Health Advisory Committee – feedback at public meeting identified the need for a “navigator” to help people work through the system when receiving treatment. There is a decrease in services that will be needed more with an aging population – volunteer drivers for medical appointments, home visitors, phone call services as a few examples. - Project Coordinator’s Report
Homeless Connect- about 40 volunteers for the day of the Homeless Connect day, 13 on planning committee, 27 providers of services, 15 people with agencies that had displays. Financial support included $500 from Homeless Action Week fund, $100 Emmanuel Community Church, Coast Capital gave $150, $500 Sunrise Rotary Fun. Had some expenses not normally encountered because of short planning period. At Homeless Connect new connections are made, or connections are re-made for those attending. There were 21 men and 6 women served, but not everyone who attended is captured in these numbers. St. Alban’s seems to work a people who are homeless are familiar with the shelter and those who are not are introduced to the location.
Extreme Weather Shelter- had 2 training session for volunteers, an orientation for the St. Alban’s shelter specifically – over 40 volunteers attended.. Diane, CHN gave presentation on MH populations, how to work with them,etc. Larry wants to have 60 or so volunteers on the roster as another cold winter predicted. They are hiring a food coordinator for 2 hours/day while shelter is open. Four people indicated interest.
Richmond Homeless Homelessness Coalition- visioning meetings done, terms of reference continue to be developed, will be staying with 2-meeting format, next meeting: Dec. 13th Tuesday at 1500 hours, and again an evening meeting, terms of reference aimed to be finished by January
Rental Connect- Funding received for this project today. An application has been made to BC Housing for Renal Connect to be an Access Point (one stop shop) for subsidized housing applications. Concern expressed regarding using volunteers as there is a database that requires personal security passwords that would have to be changed each time a volunteer left. The other aspect of Rental Connect is creating a housing directory for Richmond of affordable rental basement suites, apartments, etc. Chimo is developing a Rental bank to help people with security deposits, utilities, etc . Rental Connect and a rental bank are a good fit.
Living Wage- Open Letter to Municipal Candidates – Richmond Poverty Response Committee is now listed on the website as a supporter.
Link re: Coalition for Migrant Workers
https://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&pid=explorer&chrome=true&srcid=0B8kyFINxxjGCM2E2MmQ2MDAtMTBkMS00ZDE0LWI2ZDktNDEyMzY1OThkOGVm&hl=en&pli=1
Cecilia will bring this initiative back to our table after the coalition as decided their next steps.
Announcements from Richmond Community Services Advisory Committee- Salvation Army needs volunteers for their their kettle campaign (most of donations received are throught this initiative. It has had trouble getting volunteers to do shifts in recent years, they have some capacity to pay, if needed. Contact Richmond office.
Garrett Holmes – new pastor at Towers Baptist Church, would like to get church involved in community mission, connected with Lynda, told her a bit about their facility, has room, shower and kitchen. They are in the planning stages, considering personal packs, drop-in showers and making soup available, etc. Will start slowly and see how it goes.
- Task Force Reports
a. Finances- received $10 000, from Vancity for the Rental Connect project. Like other PRC projects we will work with the community to develop this model then hopefully find an agency willing to take it on once it is developed.
b. Affordable Housing Task Force –during the development of Richmond Homeless Coalition AHTF will continue to meet quarterly to monitor the development. At some future point it is anticipated that AHTF will fold as the Richmond Homeless Coalition becomes fully developed. Next AHTF meeting is January 18th, 2012
c. Transportation Task Force – Meeting this coming Saturday at Minoru. De attended the November meeting Richmond Seniors‘ Planning table. PRC hasbeen invited to join. Seniors alternate transportation is a concern of this table. The United Way has funded STAR (Seniors Transporation Access and Resources who are developing a business model to help agencies provide trasnprotation to their services for Seniors. STAR is an initiative of BEST (Better Environmentally Sound Transporation) Transportation as a needed service was featured in “Boomer Angst” series in the Province. The North Shore Go Bus is an example of an alternative transporation service for seniors.
d. Communications – a temporary poisiton is now possible to help out while Robin is on sick leave. De has offered to create a job description and then a job posting can be circulated. - Community Notices
Fair Trade Fair event on Dec. 3rd, 2011– PRC invited to have a display. Our display board was updated for the Salmon Festival. It will be checked to make sure the information is current and will be set for information.Richmond Women’s Resource Centre– 35th anniversary gala went off really well made $3600.
Family Place Fundraising – Janice reported that they are going to focus on 2 major events per year – raffle and also golf tournament. She has tickets for the raffle which run until March
Next meeting: Thursday, December 8th, 2011 @ 1630 hours
Potluck at Deneanne’s.
Presentation by Volunteer Richmond Information Services
Presenters – Sydney Kuo, Marcia Mackenzie (Childcare Resource & Referral) and Carol Dickson (Seniors Information and Referral)
Volunteer Richmond Information Services (VRIS) – provides information services and maintains database that is available on-line http://www.yourlibrary.ca/findall/community/csd.cfm. Database is updated annually, and tries to ensure that it’s as up-to-date as possible, people welcome to contact VRIS front desk to be put in contact with most appropriate person. The difference between BC 211 and VRIS – they mainly serve people in Richmond,
Child Care Resource and Referral Information – child care, support for child care providers, provided with home visits, not an affiliated licensing body, for parents, one of most important pieces of info, providing info on Child Care subsidies, also have a specialist filing forms and faxing them through, provide parents with training, and with support groups and network groups, Mandarin-speaking group for example is providing the English-speaking drop-in
Seniors Information – works with seniors, provide information and also how to promote people staying on at home, more than passing on a piece of information, they explore other possible needs such not filing income taxes, not able to provide for basic physical needs, housing, home support, transportation, loneliness, gambling & drinking other programs. There is a senior peer counseling and senior peer support program, support for caregivers, I & R for all of those, people helping their neighbours, wellness clinics and through community centres.
Shelter Information – VRIS gets an updated list of where spaces are twice a day, as does CHIMO
Information booth at the Richmond Food Bank, every Thursday with volunteers stationed there, and also at Richmond Centre.
INFORMATION RESOURCE FOLDERS – copies are available. If you would like one, see Lynda Brummitt
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