Rainier Valley Service Provider Meeting Minutes 11/15/11

Rainier Valley Service Provider Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
At Providence Gamelin House

Attendance: Naomi Chang, Seattle Housing Authority; Ron Jenkins, Seattle Housing Authority; Alicia Haskins, Rainier Health and Fitness; Minh Nguyen, International Community Health Services; Ba Cam Ma, Providence Gamelin House; Grace Scarella, Nature Consortium; Mariah Pepper, Lettuce Link Solid Ground; Thuy Nguyen, Providence Gamelin House; Sheree Robinson, Bellwether Housing Group; Laura Horan, Neighborhood House; Kate Farmer, Neighborhood House.

Program updates:

Nature Consortium – located at the RV Boys and Girls Club, Nature Consoritum offer youth programming, drumming, hip hop, etc. They will have a visual arts youth program at Rainier Vista Center starting in January on Wednesday (every other Wednesday).

Neighborhood House Rainier Vista Technology Center – Horn of Africa tutoring will use the lab for youth homework. Seattle University nursing students will hold a workshop on Thursday from 4-5pm on finding health resources online. Open lab time M-F and week-end hours. The lab is free for anyone.

SHA community builder – Winter storm preparedness event last week for community at Neighborhood House hosted by SHA and NH and Seattle U. Over 80 people attended. Residents received emergency kits. Seattle U nursing students helped coordinate the event.
Rainier Vista Multicultural Committee will host a Thanksgiving dinner on Wed, November 16th at 6pm at Rainier Vista Center.

Providence Gamelin House – Thanksgiving dinner will be held on Nov 23rd at 2pm, service providers are welcome to attend and promote events or programs. Monthly birthday party is also a good time to talk to residents and promote programs.

Seattle Housing Authority Economic Opportunity program – hiring 3 new staff for Rainier Vista, Family Self sufficiency workers. Economic Opportunity program provides case management for residents and employment assistance for residents.

Seattle Community Farm – wrap up for year, harvesting rest of crop this week. Food justice advocacy, will be writing letter if anyone is interested in joining this work. Applying for a grant this Fall. Outreach workers (bilingual) will be recruited. Farm will gear up again in March. Mariah will be ending her term of service in January. Working with Habitat for Humanity to build covered structures for tables.

Genesee House – no longer Housing Resources Group, now Bellwether Housing, internal name change. Monthly newsletter if you want to email Sheree with items to post at genesee@bellwetherhousing.org. Issue with litter and illegal dumping at dumpster.

Rainier Health and Fitness - $26 a month exercise program and $15 a month exercise class for low income residents. The club is located near Rainier Beach.

2012 planning
The providers talked about issues in the community and what providers could focus on for 2012. Discussion on Governor’s budget cuts and how it will impact residents. What are most important issues and focus on 3-4 topics per quarter for 2012. In January, Providers will meet and choose which topics to work on for 2012. There is a meeting with Homeowners from Rainier Vista Community on Monday, November 21st at 6pm if any providers would like to attend and talk about youth concerns.

Providers discussed following issues:

· Littering issues – community clean up 2nd Saturday of the month for 1-2 hours, encouraging youth to get involved.
· Homeowners/renters – youth issues—teenagers hanging out in park who are littering, bullying, and other activity.
· Develop youth leadership group to help combat littering, bullying and youth issues in community. $ for scholarship (Homeowners).
· Phase 3 – over 100 homes will be completed with Phase 3 of the Rainier Vista project. More residents will need services.
· Welcome Wagon – We had a welcome wagon in community in the past through funding by NH, which is now gone. It would be nice to have a directory or program of services in the community to give to residents. There is a resource directory of service providers that needs to be updated that could be simplified and given to residents. We could give to SHA Management to give to new tenants. Or residents could apply for a grant to get funding for new welcome wagon.
· Bed bugs- this has been an issue in Seattle and some of the rental properties in the area. Work on education of community.
· Health Fair – that was a big hit in 2011 and Seattle U nursing students helped with this project.
· Intergenerational – How to connect seniors and youth together more often.
· Emergency Preparedness – NH and SHA and Seattle U nursing students just sponsored a Emergency Preparedness fair in November so not sure if we want to do another one in 2012?

Next meeting will be in January, Kate will touch base with Boys and Girls Club and see if they can host and will move meeting to 1pm and see if we can get more youth providers to attend.

Rainier Vista Service Provider Meeting Minutes 9.20.11

Rainier Vista Service Provider Meeting
Tuesday, 9/20/11 at 10am at Neighborhood House

Attendance: Sheree Robinson, HRG, Laura Horan, Neighborhood House, Kate Farmer, Neighborhood House, Bev Johnson, Seattle University, Ba Ma, Providence Gamelin House, Naomi Chang, Seattle Housing Authority, Ed Pottharst Seattle Dept of Neighborhoods, Ron Jenkins, Seattle Housing Authority, Nelson Lopez, NeighborCare Health, Diana Vergis Vinh, Public Health, Hannah Spencer, REWA, Mariah Pepper, Seattle Community Farm, Amy Tseng, NeighborCare Health Rainier Beach, Lauren Arnesen, NeighborCare Health, High Point

Seattle U – Nursing Students will be at Rainier Vista community again for Fall 2011 and would like help from RV Service Provider on useful products. Students will be in community from Sept-November every Thursday.

Ed Parthouse – Neighborhood Matching Funds are available. Small Sparks Grants of $1000, Small and Simple Grants for $20,000 and Large Project funds for $100,000. September is Emergency Preparedness month and residents can apply for funding to help organize and plan for emergencies.


Neighborcare Health– Offers Dental care for children, and adults, regardless of insurance status. they are taking new children clients. The annual Pumpkin Push run and walk in October. Feast at the Market on October 4th is fundraising event at Pike Place Market in October.

Diana Vinh – RV Eats Group coalition of Seattle Tilth. Grow/share food and bulk buying. Grants are available. Oct 24th is World Food Day, hope to have food event in community on that day (canning, potluck, etc). $ is from United ay.

REWA – Mentoring program and also youth programs for Fall 2011. Hannah is leaving REWA in 2 weeks.

Seattle Community Farm- volunteers from RV community have been helping with harvesting. They receive a free bag of food. Food is also being donated to RV Food bank. Community Farm is also working with various youth groups.

Ron Jenkins – He is the new Employment Opportunities Coordinator for SHA and working out of High Point. Recent reorganization so new case managers in SHA communities with new case loads.

4/19/11 Meeting Minutes

Rainier Vista Service Provider Meeting Minutes
4/19/11

In attendance: Kate Farmer, Neighborhood House; Abbie Zaher, ICHS; Morris Wright, B&GC; Angela Smith, Seattle Parks and Rec; Mary Lechner, Wellspring Family Services; Denise Lewis, B&GC; Thuy Nguyen, Providence Gamelin House; Colin Sexton, Neighborhood House.

Low attendance – We really encourage all providers to come to this meeting, we have had low attendance at this meeting this year, not sure why. Having more providers attend is beneficial and helps us share program information and resources, outreach, planning, etc. If this meeting is not working for you or the time is not good, etc. please let Kate Farmer know, it would be helpful to have that feedback.

International Community Health Services – Health Fair will be held in June. Health screenings, education, etc. will be provided. If you know of clients who are losing insurance or need access to health care, contact ICHS. ICHS offers diabetes support, women’s health, community advocates, etc.

Providence Gamelin House – Low income housing for seniors. They have ESL classes, cooking. They would like to connect more with community to get seniors out and active and participating. It would be great to connect with youth groups and have youth and seniors come together for Bingo, etc.

Seattle Parks and Rec- Lots of senior programming going on for people ages 50 plus. Exercise programs, intergenerational activities, and more.

Wellspring Family Services – Housing program including Homelessness Prevention, call 211 and tell them you are at risk of losing your housing. Also have Homelessness Intervention where they can help homeless families and individuals find housing and maintain long term stability. Clients must be referred by a service provider.

RV Boys and Girls Club – Morris Wright is new to the team at the club and will be working on recruiting within RV community and strengthening and bridging the gap to get more youth involved in programs. The club has an Egg Hunt this Friday and Saturday for youth. Also have a new Choir group on Tuesdays and Drumming for teens and fashion design. Also, they have a Zumba class for adults during the week which is $5 and open to all adults.

Neighborhood House – Litter season is once again upon us. It would be helpful if the youth providers, could talk to their youth about littering. This is a good time to remind kids about not throwing their trash on the ground and making sure they use a garbage can, especially when they are in the park. Litter was a big issue in the community last summer. Also, trespassing was a big issue last summer and residents complained about kids jumping fences and running through yards, kids may not know that it’s not ok to climb over a neighbors fence and cut through their yard. Youth providers can educate kids about these issues to help combat the problem.

Outreach – Providers talked about outreach and how to better work together to support programming. Some ideas were improving the current provider blog page, getting notification of large events so that you can attend and do outreach, bulletin boards at agencies to promote community programs, connecting with community leads to get the word out. Word of mouth seems to be most successful tool in this community. Also, working more closely with other providers can help with promotion. Group discussed first steps. Hosting an outreach table in the park across from Neighborhood House once a month in the warm weather. Lots of youth and families utilize the park late in the day and it’s a good way to be out and meeting people. Providers agreed that this would be a good first step. Kate will send out a meeting request to schedule a date for this for the month of May.

Summer resource fair – Providers talked about doing this again in June, it was successful last year. Held at the Boys and Girls Club. Kate will send out meeting request to schedule a planning meeting to talk further about the fair.

Service Provider Meeting Minutes 2.15.11

RV Service Provider Meeting
February 15, 2011
At Neighborhood House

Attendance: Mariah Pepper, Solid Ground, Scott Behmer, Solid Ground, Mary Lechner, Wellspring Family Services, Naomi Salinas Burton, Bike Works, Colin Sexton, Neighborhood House, Naomi Chang, SHA.

Seattle Community Farm – large meeting February 28th at 6pm at Neighborhood House. Translation will be provided. Talk to residents about work trade program, volunteer on farm for 3 hours and they receive a bag of vegetables. Work party days will be March – November. Want input from residents about what to plant. Farm is for low income people but all residents can volunteer, but for those residents who are not low income, they could donate the bag of produce. Flyer will go out shortly.

Wellspring Family Services – located on Rainier Avenue, they have housing services, domestic violence, early learning center, counseling, homeless intervention program. Most of clients are referred by calling 211.

Bikeworks – Earn a Bike program for youth. Students ages 9-17 years of age learn bike safety, maintenance, and community service and earn a bike. Bike touring camp, Riders club, Street Burners and more. All programs offer sliding fee scale.

Neighborhood House – College attainment/readiness event on March 12. Middle school and High school youth will learn about financial aid, scholarships, FAFSA and preparing for college.
Technology Center has Saturday hours (every other Saturday). Call 461-4568 ext. 202 for more info. Health Fair will be held on March 2 from 5-8pm at the Boys and Girls Club. Large community health fair. Seattle U nursing students are at NH every Wednesday morning through February from 11:30am-1:30pm. Please refer any clients who may need health questions or information.

SHA –cultural Celebration was held on Sat, Feb 12 to celebrate lunar new year and black history month. Many RV residents attended, a lot of food was presented and performance by Lion Dance group. Celebration was coordinated by RV Multicultural Committee which works to bridge the gap of the diverse community of RV. The committee meets monthly. The RV Traffic and Safety Committee meets every other month and discusses parking issues, crime, etc. Naomi coordinates both community meetings. Translation is available at these meetings. Tamarack Housing is open and 83 units are leased. Phase 3 is underway and will be completed in 2012.