Prairie State Wire

Illinois Department of Children and Family Services African American Advisory Council met Oct. 17.

Here are the minutes provided by the council:

ATTENDEES:

Carmen Walker

Keith Smith

Patrushka Sampeur Thigpen

Kara Hamilton

Jere Murray

Lakayia White

James Bracey

Lynette Berry-Weston

Felicia Jackson

*Attendance validated by chat sign-in and verbal roll call/confirmation from attendees.

There being a quorum present, the October 17, 2024 meeting of the African-American Advisory Council was officially called to order by Co Chairperson, Keith Smith at 10:09 A.M.

ORDER OF MEETING:

AGENDA: The agenda was provided and accepted without modifications.

REVIEW OF MINUTES:

August minutes were tabled.

CHAIRPERSON REPORT:

Chairperson Tracy was absent, therefore Co-Chairperson Keith Smith presided over the meeting.

NEWSLETTER COMMITTEE:

Per Keith, Tracy will provide an update on the newsletter at the next meeting.

TRAINING COMMITTEE: Tabled

STATUS REPORT-HOST FAMILIES/CARE PACKAGES: Tabled

MEMBERSHIP: TABLED

LEGISLATIVE:

Patrushka Sampeur Thigpen provided the legislative committee report. Per Patrushka, a couple of committee meetings were held. Patrushka shared updates the Black Caucus Foundation event held in September in DC. Per Patrushka, the event was an exciting experience filled with much energy. There were many workshops for all industries. Patrushka reported that she would provide a report to attach to the minutes. Patrushka mentioned a workshop, Bridging The Gap that focused on housing affordability and creating affordable housing units. In addition, workshop discussions included topics on creating wealth and housing for communities. Per Patrushka, Representative Maxine Waters spoke about (billionaires) how are pension are connected to capitalism. Patrushka recommended that a council member should attend next year. Critical to process on a national level to use as leverage locally.

Patrushka shared information that qualitative research is in the process relating to the sharing of family’s stories and upscaling stories in order to get funding. Per Patrushka, there were seventy-six new interventions approved (interventions meaning services, for example parenting) related to evidence-based interventions. Of the seventy-six interventions, only four were related to culture and two were related to African American culture. With this, there’s a lot of work needed. Patrushka shared updates as to legislative advances within the states. For example, why we can’t have our own Iqua. There’s currently work being done in Minnesota related to Iqua. Patrushka will provide more information. Excited about the advances of the legislative committee. There were questions or concerns presented from the council.

REAL TALK: Tabled

BUSINESS UPDATES:

NEW BUSINESS:

Progress Partner Action Team – Per Patrushka, the team is currently revamping as meetings were not occurring. Currently meetings are every second Tuesday of the month. Council member James Bracey and Patrushka are co-chairs. A meeting was recently held, and Chief Judge Cavanaugh from Cook County joined. Currently processing agenda items.

There were transformation teams developed to addressed issues on a macro level and action teams were developed to addressed issues on a micro level. Action Teams were created to address the issue of disproportionality. Action teams are held across the state and Progress Partner Team is one of the teams. A focus of the action team is to keep families from entering the child welfare system. Effort is being made to get the action teams up and running again.

Lakiaya White – spoke about children in the office and will share information.

Lynette Berry-Weston asked if Foundation training is the only platform to introduce AAAC? Co-Chairperson Smith responded if Lynette wanted to draft something about other platforms and give to chairperson, she can do so.

Christopher Towers – Spoke about the upcoming celebration of Black History Month. Chris mentioned an issue with procurement – there’s a new rule that limits DCFS payment to events with only DCFS attendees. Chris mentioned moving a youth symposium to the month of February access to funding would be easier. May have to consider a Saturday afternoon event.

Next Meeting: AAAC 11/21/24- Virtual

ADJOURNMENT:

The meeting adjourned at 10:45 A.M. by motion of Jere Murray. Seconded by Chris Towers. The motion unanimously carried.

https://dcfs.illinois.gov/content/dam/soi/en/web/dcfs/documents/about-us/impact-public-policy/documents/aaac/aaac-minutes-101724.pdf