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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAdvisory Board on Aging Minutes-11-08-2022_final Orange County Department on Aging Advisory Board on Aging Tuesday, November 8, 1-3 p.m. Seymour Center— Hybrid MINUTES Attendance: Heather Altman, Colin Austin, Jeff Charles, Jerry Gregory, Saru Salvi, Vibeke Talley, Sandy Walker and visitor Ann Bradford, Staff: Myra Austin, Brandi Beeker, Mike Komives, Kim Lamon-Loperfido, Shenae McPherson, Cherie Rosemond, Beverly Shuford, Cydnee Sims, Dawn Smith and Janice Tyler Absent Excused: Rachel Bearman, James Harris and Dick White Absent— Unexcused: Lucinda Poole Introductions and Announcements a. Round table introductions. Janice introduced and welcomed our guest, Ann Bradford, who has applied to be on the Aging Board. If appointed, Ann would fulfill the Carrboro representation. Everyone welcomed our new board member, Saru Salvi, and thanked her for joining the board Approval of Minutes—October 11, 2022 a. Approved Director's Report 1. Staff Updates a. Seymour Center Facility Manager position interviews to happen this week. Allie Burress has moved from Seymour Center Facility Manager to the VC 55+Volunteer Coordinator position vacated by Alison Smith. Alison moved to Care Partner Collaborative Program Coordinator vacated by Lisa Meinert, who is now the Passmore Center Facility Manager b. Program Coordinator Assistant position is posted and closes tomorrow. This position was held by Meghan Rushing, who finished out her tenure with us last week 2. Security concerns and approved additional evening staff at Seymour Center a. Janice met with the County manager who approved to have temp staff work with the evening facility manager.The position was posted. The interview team is in the process of reviewing applications. Currently using other temps from our kitchen staff until the new temp is hired. Putting in emergency alarms on doors that were being propped open and getting more security in place 3. HOPE NC Housing Summit—Thursday, November 10 a. HOPE NC Housing to host their first Inclusive Housing Summit, to explore inclusive, affordable housing that meets the needs of people of all ages and abilities b. PiAP is a grantee partnering with HOPE NC, looking at housing for those with intellectual disabilities and aging 4. Annual Veterans' Breakfast— Friday, November 11, 8:30 a.m.— Passmore Center a. During the pandemic we offered a drive-through breakfast, this year it has moved back inside. Co-sponsors: OC Dept. of Social Services and the Friends of the Passmore Center b. The new Veteran Services Officer is now in place at Orange County DSS to assist veterans, service members and family members 5. Annual Thanksgiving Celebration— Friday, November 18, 10:30 a.m. —Seymour Center a. The Annual Thanksgiving Celebration lunch is back and will be held at the Seymour Center for the first time thanks to the expansion of the Seymour Great Hall. b. The Orange County Veterans Day Celebration slated to be held at the Veteran Memorial on the Southern Human Services Campus on Friday, November 11, 2022, will now be held at the Seymour Center due to a forecast of heavy rain. Seymour staff will shuffle programs around to accommodate the celebration 6. Seymour Center 15th Anniversary Celebration —Thursday, December 1, 5 p.m. a. Due to the flooding and subsequent repairs to the Great Hall the celebration was rescheduled for December 1. Everyone is invited, mark your calendars for a delicious meal, live entertainment and a good time New Business 7. Board vacancies—Carrboro Rep has been identified and application has been submitted to the BOCC a. Applicant must be from Carrboro and over 60. Applicant, Ann Bradford, worked with Heather at Carol Woods; historically we have had someone on the board from Carol Woods and this would be a great fit. b. Vibeke moved that the Board recommend Ann for the vacancy and Jeff seconded the motion. The Board voted unanimously to approve. Janice will send the Board's recommendation and letter to the BOCC. If the BOCC approves the appointment will take place in February 2023. Ann is invited to attend the Board meetings as a guest until she is officially appointed 8. Update on Reappointment of Senior Tar Heel delegates a. Mary Warren,TJCOG AAA director, would like the Board to make one more effort to reach Keith Cook before filling his position as a delegate to the Senior Tar Heel Legislature. STHL delegate, Dick White, will reach out again, and Mary will send one more email to try to get a response. Vibeke will fill that slot if we do not hear back from Keith. b. Vibeke and James will fill two of four positions on the TJCOG AAA Advisory Board. Dick makes three and Keith would be the fourth position if he responds and returns. If not, that opens the fourth position that will need to be filled.There are attendance requirements now, as is the case on the Aging Board. 9. Update on NISC National Accreditation a. Standing ovation to Myra Austin, Senior Centers Administrators and her team for receiving a recommendation from the National Institute of Senior Centers for reaccreditation. This has been a 2+ year process which began in the fall of 2020. The National Institute changed their process and we had staff changes and more along the way. It was a long process. Kathie Kearns worked on this process along with Myra. The surveyor listed many best practices and commended the department and staff at both centers. Accreditation comes with additional funding from the state and each center is designated as a Center of Excellence. 10. Opioid Advisory Committee update a. NC will receive an opioid settlement and the BOCC appointed an official Opioid Advisory Committee. Janice has shared information about the situation and high number of older adults affected. Recognizing the importance of Aging being at the table, Janice requested and applied to be on the Committee. The BOCC has since amended the advisory committee's appointments and the Aging Director or their appointee will officially be on the committee. b. Heather thanked Janice for making this a priority 2022-27 Master Aging Plan 11. MAP Steering Committee— Monday, November 14 from 2:30—4:30 p.m. Carol Woods Retirement Community a. Everyone invited to attend 12. MAP Workgroups First Quarter Reports a. Community Supports and Health Services (MAP CSHS)— Kim Lamon-Loperfido/Shenae McPherson i. CSHS has held two workgroup meetings. Additional classes/programs have been scheduled and community partners have stepped up to provide additional exercise, mental wellness in the rural community ii. The Hoarding Taskforce has met. Clayton Foster, OCDOA Outreach Coordinator has been hired. More than 50 community partners attended the first Hoarding Taskforce meeting. Dr. Annette Perot, nationally recognized therapist specializing in hoarding was in attendance, along with OC Animal Services staff that deal with animal hoarding in our county. b. Communication and Information — Beverly Shuford L Upcoming events are shared with NC Reading Service for a monthly podcast shared on NCRS radio and NCRS/OCDOA websites and social media ii. Orange County Community Relations—Community Relations Specialist position was approved and advertised. This position will help support departments and connections to the community iii. OCDOA Outreach Coordinator, Clayton Foster was hired. His position will impact communication outreach at resource fairs, underserved communities and faith based organizations iv. OCDOA site map and review completed in preparation for web upgrade and improvements, including, embedding documents in our web pages. Allowing the web translation tool to translate key documents and blind/low-vision reading technology to work on key documents v. OCDOA brochures have been videotaped (with captions) in English, Spanish and Mandarin.These recordings will be used in future projects to assist and inform low- vision and non-readers vi. Multilingual "Welcome" mural installed at both senior centers vii. Programs are now identified in the Endless Possibilities activity guide as "Programs that can be enjoyed by anyone, regardless of language." viii. New monthly Orange County Government Gazette is included in the News of Orange County newspaper and includes 1-2 OCDOA programs, services or resources each month c. Outdoor Spaces and Buildings— Myra Austin i. Workgroup met and discussed strategies for outdoor spaces and how to advocate for and create dedicated spaces on town boards for older adults ii. Workgroup includes representatives from Carrboro, Chapel Hill and Hillsborough. Working to bring in a rep from the Town of Mebane iii. Planning "how do you advocate" workshops and opportunities to speak at public meetings iv. Outreach to several groups inviting them to the workgroup, and worked to ID others who should be on the group but who are not v. Increased accessibility and inclusivity by highlighting one of the outdoor programs from Towns of Chapel Hill and Carrboro in Endless Possibilities vi. Highlighting a different park and it's amenities in Endless Possibilities vii. Continuing to put up exercise tips at bus stops in Hillsborough and working to get Chapel Hill to put them up viii. Starting an Invasive Species Removal Group d. Social Participation, Respect and Social Inclusion—Cydnee Sims/Dawn Smith i. New workgroup leaders, Cyd & Dawn, welcome! ii. The workgroup met. It was a small group, but good vibes & partners iii. Offering 2-3 programs in dual languages at Seymour. Virtual and in-person programming at both sites, distributing our flier and info in multiple languages iv. Working closely with other locations offsite and here to offer programming throughout the community v. Utilizing volunteers to assist and lead programs vi. Created more intergenerational programs with emphasis on multicultural/ethnic programming vii. Tech volunteer comes in every other Saturday, students work with seniors to help them with technology viii. Racial & ethnic participation is going up ix. Social Respect & Inclusion 1. Trainings offered on County level for all staff a. Large group from department involved in One Orange Campaign b. Department— RE Team within the department to keep us on track 2. Welcome mural, volunteers that help with translations and bridge language barriers. Staff have access to language translators. Some of our staff are bi- lingual 3. Printed materials, information materials in multiple languages. Tabling events in Spanish 4. Will look at and define/develop respect & inclusion classes/workshops 5. Working with outside community centers to offer classes that focus on this workgroup's focus 6. In future creating a course to offer to teach younger generations about the aging process—connect with schools. Develop curriculum. MIT Age Lab e. Housing—Cherie Rosemond i. Town of Chapel Hill (TOCH) policy changes to expedite the permitting process for affordable housing ii. Working with HOPE NC and supporting their work to build affordable housing for older adults and people with intellectual disabilities. Advocating for open space and affordability. iii. Rebecca Buzzard hired by Town of CH to serve as the manager of community connections, will help us move the MAP process forward iv. PeeWee homes just opened a new duplex for people with less the 30% of AMI. For people over 55 with very low income v. Promote stable housing, livable design has risen to the forefront. It is challenging but bringing many people to the table to offer affordable housing vi. PiAP & OCDOA are now convening Solo Agers. 27% of people over 65 are living alone. Prevalent solo agers and need, therefore livable design important vii. Transforming the Triangle Grant, support operations and building in PeeWee homes viii. Affordable Housing Coalition in Orange County, 25 organizational members come together monthly to advocate and promote affordable housing for seniors ix. Accessory Dwelling Units— revitalize the Aging in Community Speakers Series for January event highlighting Alison Smith's journey to build an ADU at her home. She documented the process carefully and plans a panel discussion to share 1. Our new planning director, participated in MAP, he reached out to Janice to make sure that he knew the size of the ADU's being proposal for consideration to help with the housing affordability issue and equity. ADU size: up to 1500' or 50% of home size; mobile homes allowed. Efficiency unit remain in the primary residence ownership, up for approval on Dec. 5 f. Civic Participation and Employment— Mike Komives i. 142 individual meetings via phone calls, zooms, in-person. Helping with resumes and identify opportunities ii. Opportunities to inform and communicate with Orange County businesses that OCDOA has the resumes and knowledge about many people who are available for hire. Providing this information to business at no cost iii. Sharing "Why hiring people 55+ makes good business sense (10 reasons)" with the area chambers of commerce, and other people to convince business that we are a good source for hiring needs iv. Improvements on our website to be easier for OC Residents to use, for job seekers, volunteers and entrepreneurs. Blending in the need of Orange County businesses looking to hire by identifying the essential qualities of a potential hire that businesses need to know v. Worked with NCBA on how to qualify Orange County Residents to receive job training and a salary up to 17 weeks by securing a NCBA job with a non-profit or faith based organization at no cost to organization. This training/job opportunity then becomes a qualified place to receive training, salary and experience for those who have little or very low income vi. Confirmed date & location for "Working and Volunteering After Retirement" workshop. Workshop will be a series of 20-30 minute classes (multiple consecutive classes) on March 10, 2023, Durham Technical Community College—Orange County Campus. Working with OC Aging's Transportation Specialist to provide transportation to workshops g. Transportation — Brandi Beeker i. Workgroup met the end of September and were very excited to have representatives from a public transit user in Chapel Hill and southern Orange County. Moving towards having representatives across the County ii. Orange County Public Transportation (OCPT) under new management, working to figure out the new policies so that it can be communicated through the Transportation helpline. Met with new director and discussed what we want to accomplish. iii. Updated materials and getting programs in place iv. Interest in trips outside of CH & Hillsborough. Working on a draft for a marketing and programming calendar v. Updating the Transportation Guide for older adults, last update was 2018. Many of the services after the pandemic are no longer available vi. Working with public transit providers Go Triangle, CH Transit, OCPT. This is a difficult time for public transportation due to driver shortages vii. OCPT transportation cost down from $23.50 to $6 roundtrip if 60+ and in rural area outside of city limits (except CH which is covered by CH Transit) viii. OCPT doing great things for transportation. Goal for every senior to have free transportation. 1. Concerns: People for people in rural areas using motorized wheelchairs and scooters, using bike lanes. Electric cars and how to charge for seniors in the future, tech issues. Education of senior drivers to accommodate new, electronic and fast/different driving cars 2. Offering: CarFit with Marie, occupational therapist ix. Public Transportation offices to get schedules out to the community x. Real-time travel information, hopefully coming January online xi. 2-3 calls per day on Transportation Helpline, uptick in registrants to be riders on volunteer driver program which fills in the gap for seniors. Volunteer Transportation program has 8 drivers and 1 new driver in Q1. 394 one-way trips in Q1. 118 seniors total registered for volunteer driver program. xii. Need drivers Committee Progress Reports if needed: 13. Dementia Friendly Business Campaign 14. Senior Tar Heel Legislature— Dick White 15. Adult Care Home Community Advisory Committee 16. Nursing Home Community Advisory Committee—Vibeke Talley a. Waiting on Training materials for the additional 35 hours of training implemented during COVID 17. Friends of the Passmore Center—James Harris a. Holiday Market, Saturday, November 12 from 9 a.m. —2 p.m. 30 vendors and food. Lots to shop for! 18. Friends of the Seymour Center a. Friends Week, see the Winter Endless Possibilities activity guide 19. Nov 16, 5-7pm, Death Cafe. Register by Nov 11 20. Hosting Mental Health Advanced Directive Training for anyone interested. Nov 10, 12-1 pm 21. NC Serious Illness Coalition. Virtual Serious Illness Seminars, details to come from Heather Adjournment Next meeting: No meeting on December 13. Next meeting January 10, 2023 from 1:00-3:00 p.m. at the Passmore Center.