DCFS Latino Advisory Council Met Feb. 17.
Here is the minutes provided by the council:
Present: Nancy Rodriguez, Julia Monzon, Evelyn Martinez, Jose Lopez, Vanessa Castro, Jennifer Contreras, Juanita Calderon, Jose Garcia, Azalea Mejia, Beatriz Ramirez, Yeni Rojas, Dennis Delgado, Liliana Romero, Daizy Salgado
Excused: Sydnie Juarez, Patricia Aguilar
Guests: Anabel Michal, Rosa Maria Molina
A. Welcome
Participants were welcomed and introductions were made B. Review & Approval of January 2020 Minutes
The January 2021 Minutes were reviewed, amended and approved by majority of vote and one abstention.
Committee Reports: Council discussed LAC mission and focus on advocating on behalf of Latino community and staff.
a. Final Committee Selection
Members discussed each committee and role. Members decided which committee they will take part in. A discussion was held regarding two committees collapsing into each other because their focus and work appear to overlap each other-CRRS and Child Safety committees were agreed by majority to become one committee. A person was selected from each committee to take the lead temporarily to hold a meeting with interested members within the next 30 days (before the next LAC meeting of 3/17/21) in order to formulate SMART goals and vision casting as well as selecting chair, co-chair and scribe for each committee. See below for members and leaders.
b. Child Safety, Risk Reduction and Permanency/Child Safety: Temporary Leader Beatriz Ramirez, Jose Garcia, Yeni Rojas, Azalea Mejia, Liliana Romero, Daizy Salgado, Patricia Aguilar
c. Data Analysis, Disproportionality and Staffing (DADS)– Temporary leader Nancy Rodriguez, Anabel Michal, Juanita Calderon, Rosa Molina, Azalea Mejia, Richard Echevarria, Jose Garcia
d. Strategic Communications – Temporary leader Julia Monzon, Evelyn Martinez, Vanessa Castro, Juanita Calderon
e. POS –Temporary leader Jennifer Contreras, Jose J. Lopez, Daizy Salgado and all POS LAC members Jennifer Contreras provided an update on the POS committee. The last POS Collaboration meeting occurred in December 2020. They will continue to focus on planning for the 2021 DCFS and POS Professional Development Day.
C. Affirmative Action Reports:
The Office of Affirmative Action will be posting 3 PSA positions. The positions are LBGTQI, Indian Child Welfare and Asian Child Welfare Administrator. All positions will be posted in Cook County. Staff continue to work on recruitment by continuing involvement in DCFS and community events to make contact and collect possible applicants from outside of DCFS.
D. Old Business: Bylaws final reading is not complete until committees can submit current written description of each committee to be included in the bylaws. A meeting by each committee will need to be held outside of this general council meeting for members to meet, discuss SMART goals and submit these to LAC for approval and inclusion into the bylaws at the next LAC meeting on 3/17/21.
E. New Business:
a. Employee Recruitment –
An ADHOC committee is being developed to address
recruitment of staff as a result of LAC meeting with the Director on 2/10/21. The committee will develop a recruitment report and provide to the Director. Members interested in the committee are Jose Lopez, Nancy Rodriguez, Juanita Calderon, Azalea Mejia and Vanessa Castro. It was discussed Evelyn Martinez sent an email to all LAC members with a power point on this subject presented by LAC to the Director and Deputies in 2006 as a reference to be used for discussion and ideas to be generated.
b. Virtual Meeting Protocol: Strategic Communications will be working on developing a virtual meeting protocol.
c. Distribution list of bilingual staff-it was discussed this needs to be updated and shared. Nancy Rodriguez said she was working on it.
d. Open Forum: LAC members recently met by virtual means with DCFS Director Marc Smith and his Deputy Chief of Staff on 2/10/21. Some members not present wanted to discuss a debriefing of this meeting. It was agreed it will be discussed in the March 2021 LAC monthly meeting.
F. LAC Officer and Member Nominations
Rosa Maria Molina was nominated and voted in, by majority vote, as a new member of LAC. Anabel Michal was nominated to become a new member; however, voting will occur at March 2021 meeting to allow her to fill out proper nomination application and consult with Supervisor for approval.
Committee members discussed nominations for Chair-elect and Scribe. Azalea Mejia, Yeni Rojas, Jennifer Contreras, Beatriz Ramirez, and Vanessa Castro were nominated for Chair Elect position. Azalea Mejia, Beatriz Ramirez, Jennifer Contreras and Vanessa Castro declined the nomination. Yeni Rojas accepted the nomination for Chair-elect. There were 4 nominations for Scribe and co-scribe, which were Vanessa Castro, Daizy Salgado, Jose Garcia and Rosa Molina. All accepted the nomination for this position except Jose Garcia who was unavailable to confirm.
G. Open Forum for Members and Guests
H. Next Meeting: March 17, 2021
https://www2.illinois.gov/dcfs/aboutus/policy/Documents/LAC/LAC_Minutes_021721.pdf
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