AGENDA #5a
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TO: |
Roger L. Stancil, Town Manager |
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FROM: |
Human Services Advisory Board Larry Daquioag, Chair |
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SUBJECT: |
2008 Human Services Needs Report |
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DATE: |
January 28, 2008 |
Each year the Human Services Advisory Board presents a report to advise the Town Council on human service needs for Chapel Hill residents.
The Chapel Hill Human Services Advisory Board, created in 1981, is charged with the responsibility of assessing human service needs of Chapel Hill residents, identifying service gaps and ways to fill them, and advising the Town Council on funding needs at the beginning of the budget cycle.
Each year, the Board facilitates a request for proposals process and invites local human service agencies to apply for Town funds to serve Chapel Hill residents. The Board reviews agency proposals and prepares recommendations to the Town Council on funding levels for local human service agencies. For fiscal year 2007-2008, the Council approved Town allocations totaling $250,000 for 41 nonprofit agencies to address human service needs.
The Board appreciates the valuable services that local human service agencies consistently provide to Chapel Hill residents. Nonprofit agencies operate successful programs with severely limited staff and resources. During agency hearings and interviews, the Human Services Advisory Board is impressed with the high quality of agencies’ work as they struggle with the financial burden of offering services. The Board appreciates the Town Council’s support of the human services agencies and believes that these programs benefit the Chapel Hill community.
Again this year, the Board supports the Town’s participation with the Orange County Partnership to End Homelessness which is charged with developing a plan to prevent and end homelessness in ten years. Many Town resources allocated to human service agencies are consistent with the goals to end chronic homelessness. The Board is also concerned with mental health services as the impact of mental health reform continues to stretch limited resources. Over the past several years, Board members have also noted that reductions in federal and state funding have impacted all of the nonprofit agencies serving the Town’s needy and that funding at the municipal level is often the last refuge for many agencies and their clients.
To continually evaluate the allocation process, the Board is submitting project proposals to the UNC Master of Public Administration Program again this year. One proposal includes a request for a student team to research and evaluate the funding application process including ways the process can be improved from both the government and agency perspectives. As the Board explores ways to integrate and collaborate more effectively with the other governments, student research can assist the Board in this process. In a separate project proposal, the Board is asking MPA students to consider a project to research and evaluate ways that agencies might share resources.
The Board will continue to recommend allocations to those agencies that can effectively address:
The Board will review agency proposals based on documented needs, agency capacity, program goals and the evaluation of outcomes for Chapel Hill residents.
Larry Daquioag, Chair
Glenn Gerding, Vice-Chair
Lew Borman
Virginia Brown
Norm Fieleke
Thomas Nixon
Ernie Roberts