Travis County Commssioners Court
March 16, 2004
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Item 24
...[One moment, please, for change in captioners]
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>> ...working together to form a partnership and selected aisd as that lead agency. They were also selected because of the availability of their facility, access to students, they also have a fully developed infrastructure, and they have the capacity to act as the fiscal agent. They also have the resources needed to collect, track and evaluate the program. Understanding that in a -- in a collaborative such as this, we have six different agencies of different sizes, providing different services, then it can be a challenge to actually collect data and to be able to report on the activities of -- of the program. So aisd that way, I think that all of the collaborators in the process agreed that they were the one that's had the capacity without having to add additional resources or to bump up their administrative functions in order to do that. Also providing support to those smaller community based organizations, because as it was noted at our last meeting, we are concerned about community based organizations and their participation in this effort. And we find that in this way, working with the larger agency, like aisd, they are able then to strengthen those smaller community based organizations and it -- it becomes a lot more -- programs that are made a lot more aware to students and parents in those communities. The program structure, basically, again it's -- it's comprised of six different agencies, all of which have very specific activities and service that's they provide. We have representatives of some of those agencies here this evening. We had a lot more from this morning, but some of them had to leave. And I have to make particular note of -- of dave martin with boys and girls club, who wanted to let you know that he was disappear pointed about not being able to stay and participate in this discussion. We have communities in schools. Aisd. And I think that's it. For this afternoon. The other collaborators to the processes, council and at risk ruth, adrienne Moore was also here this morning, wasn't able to return this afternoon. The ywca and -- and big brothers, big sisters.
>> we apologize for not being able to get to them, but as you can see, we had several serious items that required discussion beyond expectation to be honest.
>> absolutely. We thought at this point, if you had specific questions of -- of the provider agencies, because our goal last week was to present information on the results of the request for proposals. Which we did. And I think that in order to -- to answer any real specific questions as it relates to, especially program structure, that it would be helpful to hear from the agencies themselves.
>> beginning versus summer beginning versus fall of '04, what's the difference some.
>> well the difference is basically we would have two months of the regular school year remaining and that would be April and may if we started early. Then that would give us an opportunity to ramp up to have --
>> impact on kids.
>> I’m sorry.
>> impact on kids.
>> well the impact --
>> what's the difference.
>> same number of kids that we have identified that we would be in a position to serve, obviously, we won't be able to buy those offices.
>> as a result of that, we would expect that some of the same risk factors that we have already identified that are prelent in those schools, in that area would obviously continue. The sooner the better, but there are constraints. Also concerned about making sure that we are able to give our best effort.
>> all factors considered. Should we start in the summer or aim for the fall? All factors considered, I think we should start in the fall.
>> everybody in agreement. [indiscernible]
>> nobody has really been organized I think judge. Now that we have something going, it's going to take time to organize this thing, get it done right. I think you get it done right by the fall. I’m not sure by the summer. They started working on the summer programs two or three months ago.
>> do we need to vote any money today to begin in the fall or should we spend our time between now and then gathering the money that would indicate our intention to gibb the program in the fall?
>> does stephen at least, judge, need to have authorization that he can use the one-time funds that we has scooped together at least to get this thing started up until September 30th.
>> how much do you need?
>> actually, what I would use is one-time moneys that are about $48,000 from August to September.
>> my motion is to authorize the use of $48,000 of money available to mr. Williams.
>> second.
>> in the health and human services department and indicate our intentions to begin this program in the fall.
>> second.
>> to diligently work between now and then on doing whatever is necessary to make the program work. Seconded by Commissioner Davis.
>> is that www.moneytalks.org that is already in your -- is that part of your $6.5 million in social services more or less.
>> yes.
>> so that's coming out of that as part of that.
>> yes.
>> just a clarification, in the rest what was is going to have to be necessary in order to implement this would go through the '05 budget process?
>> exactly.
>> that's absolutely correct.
>> what is the total?
>> the total --
>> required to start in the fall? 387317.
>> yes, that's the annual amount. 387. If you exclude the summer months, it will be 307.
>> I think we ought to look at whether we ought to plan the summer. We will have the fall and spring to evaluate it. For the summer the problem is you got to keep all the money. What I like about that, it will give us two semesters to look at it. The end the question is whether this program is making a difference in the lives of those that we are serving. Based on what we know about the programs today, the answerness should be yes, answers should be yes, right.
>> yes, absolutely.
>> are we evaluating other programs as well to see if that isn't working as well maybe this one would work after the pilot?
>> as a matter of fact one of the reasons that I really wanted to see this program work is because it is a collaborative effort and what you have is an after school program with -- with additional support. It's actually a collaboration of several agencies, in the last few years, we have seen our best results from collaborative efforts such as this. So we are actually, a member of our other initiative to move in this direction.
>> any more discussion? All in favor? That passes by unanimous vote. Thank you all very much. Appreciate your patience.
>> thank you very much.
Last Modified: Wednesday, March 24, 2004 1:40 PM