Recording in progress. Okay. Welcome to the May 5th, 2025 meeting of the Yarmmouth Board of Health. Uh this is a hybrid meeting which means you could be here some people are and present or they
can call in to participate and I can give you the phone number slowly if anyone is out there or here and wants to leave and call in. The phone number for that is 253 215 8782.
Backup number is 1 13126266799. And apparently you then need to enter a meeting ID number. Here we go. 8711526 3955. That's 87115263955. Um, and if you want to speak while
you're on the phone, uh, you'd have to press nine on your phone to be recognized. The other alternative is to zoom in. Um, and I suggest going to the website for the town and the instructions are pretty straightforward. Okay. How about
attendance here? I'm Hillard Bosski. Hi, Eric. Are you present? Present. Larry. Yes. Okay. So, we do have our quorum. Um, and we can we can start. The first item is public comment.
If there's someone would like to speak speak up, questions, comments, this would be your opportunity. And if anyone's calling in or zooming, excuse me, let me know if
someone's seeing it on the screen. There anybody raising a hand out there? Okay. So, apparently not. Um, that would place us at number four. We got someone on Zoom. We have someone. Yeah.
Great. Thanks for coming out. Okay. Do we have a question or comment? Can anyone hear me? Yes, now I can. I was um unmuted. I just wanted to make sure you could hear me because I'm on the agenda tonight. Stephanie Bry from Behavioral Health
Innovators very clearly and welcome. Thank you. Okay, we'll speak to you soon then. Um, number four here is with John Hughes, 25 Hawks Wink
Road and excuse me, this is an application for variance approval. And um, this is for inspection of a uh, IIA or innovative um, alternative
type of septic system. something that's different than the standard title five system or a closed tank. Um that's something Larry may not be familiar with the IIA system or are you? No. Barry, maybe just educate us a
little bit. Yes. Um I IA innovative alternative and different ways to help the system break down the bad stuff that's going into our water into our ground system. It has uh different kinds of filters in them. It also has uh UV
lights. They're and they're a lot more expensive to put in than a traditional system, but a lot of times if you're in a zone 2 or is it like a bioclear system? Yeah, I'm familiar with that. Yeah, cuz we had to have one at our animal hospital. Yeah. Um, so then with
these IIA systems to make sure they are um actually working and functioning properly, you have to get them tested quarterly. Those tests go to the county and to us and they're they are expensive to do. So this isn't the first time I've
been asked for a variance um to reduce down from four times a year down to quarterly. So, John, if you want to come up to the Yes, I'm here with Come up to the Yeah, you need to come. Wife, Alinda. You both can come up if you like. Just have a seat. All right. Okay.
We're not offended. And um just introduce yourselves for the record. Okay. Sure. I'm John Hughes. My wife Linda is behind me. Great. Welcome. And we are here to uh request a variance or a reduction I should say on the testing
which is currently done now four times a year as you said uh 300 $310 per test. That's in addition to the $570 contract which we have with the company that does the testing,
Wastewater Treatment Services. uh they're out of reum and we have been in contact with them regarding the numbers and they suggested based on the improvement in the numbers over the last three years
that we come here to ask for a reduction in the number of tests that are currently being done. Our preference would be, if you folks agree, would be to test it once a year, but obviously that's up to you guys and
you folks. Uh, it's expensive. We understand completely the need for it. It was installed with the house when the house was built, which is 15 years ago. So, we basically have been doing this for 15
years. We're asking for a reduction hopefully from at least four times a year to hopefully one time per year and uh we're here to see what you say. Interesting that 15 years ago someone
was motivated to do this. I guess it's uh their property is located in a zone two. That's where we the town gets it drinking water from. So they're a lot of them in the zone twos areas. Barry, can you just go over the results
a little bit that you in our packet the fronts uh back at 424? What page is that? We'll start on the first two of 15. Two of 15. Okay. Um the
few things they test for BOD, the nitrates, nitrites, pH, the solid suspensions. You can see the results 36.82 82 one was non detected um 76 the next set of
tests down to 14 5.26 4.09 so there was a good reduction there um on the 1223 uh December 20 and the 2023 it went from
36.8 down to 30 the which was good 11.4 4.98. So overall results is even though it's a 15-year-old system, it looks like it's still doing its job. It's maintaining and reducing the amount that's going
into the system. I don't see any major high fluctuations going up. Um they're all pretty much the same across the board for the last few years doing these. So I would I'm you want me to tell you my
opinion? What is there standard frequency that generally is accepted when in this situation? State regulations say four times a year. That's just to maintain um to make sure the the the system isn't going bad. Um to make sure the filters
are still good and all that good stuff. That's why you don't want to gunk them up. Um, in my history I've not I've not seen it go down to one time a year. Mo most of the time that's by annually u down to two. That way just in case you
forget like to check your filter, maintain your filter or something happens that it still works and it's good still clean and stuff like that. So okay. Is there an alarm on on the system? Yes, there is. That light green
light. Yeah, there's a audio and visual. Yeah. So we we used to have I think Down Cape Engineering did ours or you know does ours. I'm not sure if they're still doing Do you have a pump system or do you have Yeah. Yeah. So that that's a little different but it's kind of the
same big. It looks like a the a head of a space capsule in the backyard. Call it a bio. I think there's one at the real estate office. Yeah. Um then the some of them like I like if you open up the hood there's um especially at night if you
see it at night it's this glows with a with a ultraviolet light that helps kill any extra bacteria. Yes sir. Um, so the quarterly testing that's specified in title 5, is that specific
to an IIA system or specific to systems that fall within a zone 2? No, it's just the the quarterly testing is IIA systems. Okay. Not a regular system like that. Not a pump system or anything like that. Just IA systems just to make sure
they're being maintained and they're actually doing what they're supposed to be doing. So this is called a singular system system. Y that's that's the brand. So uh okay I had one more question on the lab
analysis here under parameters. It says BOD. What does BOD stand for? What is um I think it's biological I I apologize. I have to look that up for you.
Anybody want to chat it or Google it? Can you do that while you're on? Let's get educated. I don't think we can here. Can you Google it? No, I don't think we have internet here. I haven't been able to. I don't mean to put you on the spot, but it's be nice to know what it means.
Or oxygen demand. biological oxygen demand. So that's agree. So what does what does that mean? That's the amount of oxygen. What it does? It agitates the fluent and gets that oxygen
in there to um help produce good bacteria. Okay? Which breaks it down. That's why you shouldn't, if anybody out there listening, uh I know you see the commercials for redex and stuff like that for your septic systems. Do not use that. in your system that's not good for them. What that does that kills all the
bacteria, the bad bacteria and the good bacteria. So you need the both bacterias in your secular system to balance off and to have a healthy system. So So are the filters what contain the beneficial bacteria or is that is that the filters
just are to keep it from moving to the next part of the next component of the system? Okay. the the there's air raators in there that blow in the oxygen and stuff to help keep it circulate, keep it moving around. So that result
should be uh it's a high value. That should be a high value. That's a good thing, right? So what on a normal system that's just most people have in their house, it just goes from the tank, it settles to the distribution box out to your leeing field. With the IIA system,
it recirculates it multiple times within the beginning tank before it goes out to the distribution boxes and then out to your field. So, with the standard uh system, it's really the white pipes that we see on people's properties that brings oxygen in. Is that what those are
more for the leeching field? Those are just to help. Okay. Yes. To bring just to airate a little bit just to help bring in that that good right that good air and good stuff like that. but not all. And that's those are usually when you see the the candy canes and those
are usually high water um systems. Okay. That so they can't be that deep in the ground. So they do that for the aation. Okay. Any other comments, questions, board members? You just have to decide what we
want to do on this variance. Well, I'm wondering if we should consult with Do you think it would be worthwhile consulting with that lab to find out what their opinion is of their system if or do you feel I'm comfortable I'm comfortable with it. I I've seen these
before. So, yes. So, you feel like it would be okay to go like twice a year. I in my professional septic opinion, yes. I think twice a year and then we can revisit it again in x amount of time, x amount of years to see if it's still
being maintained again. So sounds good to me. What do you think might be a reasonable amount of time to in which this two to three years that way that' be enough time to give
it 6 to 12 two years before testing. So yeah. So you you want to give enough time to to test it, get um good results. Okay.
Okay. So I I I'll move that we accept the application for variance approval at 25 Hawkswing Road to reduce the number of annual inspections to two inspections per year.
um with the opportunity to revisit this in a two-year time frame to reassess and maybe make a decision at that point in time. Great, Sarah. That's okay. As a
motion, I second. Thank you. Any other further discussion? See, there none. So, why don't we vote? All in favor for the motion, raise your hand, say I. Okay. So, there we go. So, we made some progress for you. Great. Thank you very much. Okay. Now, when was the last
inspection? Uh, good question. I think, Linda, it was, uh, you can figure that out and let the health department know. Just so you space out that it is twice a year. Okay. Yeah. Now, would you folks notify the company? Um, if you want them to give me a call, you can. And that's
more on you than Yeah, they they work for you. I see. You're paying them. I don't think Barry, you're not picking up the tab on that. Not this time. Okay. I say do come for 100 bucks. So you can pick up the tab again. If they want to call me just to confirm, that's fine with me. That's I I can
confirm with them to do that. And then we'll um we'll get it over to the county also and let the county know or they can let the county know. And do we receive uh copies of the inspections? Okay.
We haven't I know they sent it to the county. Yeah, it's the county. It's a county program. Did you want it you personally for anything? No, I was just curious given the fact that it's a title five rag. I didn't know if our department it's through the county.
Okay. Okay. Great. Right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Uh number five here and this is the human services grant applications.
Um the select board uh decided on I guess giving us money to hand out to uh organizations here that are related in some way to health
services. And uh we've got 14 applicants so this may take some time. Uh, I'll ask that everyone just limits it to 10 minutes and you don't need to fill it in. Um, looking at uh the the
applications that look great. It's very clear and that's helpful. Thank you for that. How much do we have available for uh it's at the bottom there if you this was in your packet here in the green here. Okay. Okay. Yep. I have it. So the the
to make it fair how we did this to decide who goes first and who doesn't. We just went alphabetical. We figured that was the fairest way to go. Um 10 minutes and then after nine minutes I'll just I'm going to let everybody nicely know we got a minute left. So we do have
16 proposals tonight. So 14. So, you know, can apologize for the Y and the V. Probably in school, you always went last. You know, people at the end of the alphabet. So, next year, let's try to reverse it. Okay, Sarah. And what the A's
weight? Uh, so it's difficult for us, so to speak, that um, you know, all these organizations need need money, need funding. So, we do the best we we we can. So, first up
um would be the AIDS support group of Cape Cod. So, just have someone come forward or if they're online just to speak up and we get started. There may be some people who are not coming or organizations don't have someone which is fine.
[Music] Um they may not know or they may choose not to come in which which is fine. It's not you know it's not a requirement for sure. Any reason to believe someone's calling in or not? Zooming in. Up there. No.
Okay, we're in the bees now. Behavioral health innovations innovators. I'm sorry. Okay. Somebody on the online. We have someone. Okay. So, welcome. Just introduce yourself.
Can you hear me yet? Yep. Perfectly. Great. Um, my name is Stephanie Bry. I am the executive director of Behavioral Health Innovators. Our work is to create a
continuum of supports for the 13 to 17 population of students um on Cape Cod who struggle with mental health andor substance use challenges. The program for which we're seeking
funding and uh thank you for providing some funding last year for this program is called the positive alternatives for student support program. Just trying to see if I can see you but I'm talking to myself. Uh it it
started in May 2022 um with Barnstable High School, Dennis Yarmmouth High School, Falmouth High School, and NSET High School um highlighting the program. So May 2022. So the first full school year was 2020
uh 2 to 23 uh and then we had obviously um 2020 uh 3 to 4 and now 2024 to 25. So to date uh in the high school positive alternatives for student support program
382 students have come through the program. And let me tell you just a little bit about the program. If you are heading to the program the way you would get there is in school uh you would go to your guidance counselor, adjustment
counselor or they would identify you in school as needing some type of support. Perhaps you got caught vaping or were having a really tough um mental health day. Uh it started the program started as an alternative to suspension but the
schools asked us not to wait for an actual suspension to be implemented but to bring in the students earlier because the schools know which students need that support. So, um, the way you would
get to the PASS program is a DART bus would pick you up at your home, uh, and bring you to this to the Centerville Recreation Building in Centerville, Massachusetts for the high school program. Uh, you would go there for 5 to
10 days. Um, and you would receive your schoolwork in real time. you would be supported by um a school academic person in our program that works really as a tutor for the students. You would also
receive a clinical assessment from a clinician from Outer Cape Health Services. And that's really the crux of the program and the importance of the program is um only 30% of this
382 number of students. um only 30% when they come into program and get assessed for mental health, substance use, trauma, serious kinds of conditions, only 30% have received services before.
So these students are, you know, the high school students are are in in trouble and we do have kind of a crisis for sure, a mental health crisis and a substance use problem uh for sure in this age population. So, uh, the other
thing you would do during the day other than your schoolwork in real time is you would have psychoeducational groups with the director and the clinician. Um, you would be with peers from other schools on Cape Cod. And that's really where the
magic happens because um, being outside of school has been described uh, as a golden opportunity for kids to self-identify. It's very hard for them to talk about this stuff inside school. Um, but with when they come to the
program, the environment is very safe, supportive, teen friendly, and they really are very willing to talk about what's going on and to start um receiving some kind of tools with which to go back to school. before they go back to school, there's a Zoom meeting
with parents, um our staff, the school adjustment counselors, and any teachers that are involved to go over a re-entry plan. How is it going to be different? Um what's going to happen differently at school so this student feels supported and um and things can you know they can
be served the way uh it school is intending to serve them. So, um, we opened a middle school pass program. Again, the schools are telling us we know who these kids are very early on who need some extra support. And, um,
Dennis is sending middle school students to the middle school program, which is happening at the YMCA in West Barnstable. Um, about 3 to five days is that program we call them for the littles. But all all I'll kind of
describe for you is what the student support director in that program said is that it's alarming um the degree of trauma and anxiety and um yeah mental health
challenges that these littles are coming in with. And it's similar. They're assessed. they're they're referred to services and a re-entry plan is um completed uh so that they can go back to school with the supports they need. So
um I'll stop there. I can't tell you enough um I could talk yeah for hours about the problem on Cape Cod and it's not not just Cape Cod but to date 17 different schools are sending kids to our high school program. We have the the
five that started out in the high school program referring to the middle school program. We even have students coming from Nantucket on the ferry to go to the past um high school program. To date, there are 32
uh Yarmouth resident students that have gone through the high school program and one one brave soul from Yarmouth has gone through the middle school program. And I'll stop there. Okay. Thank you. Uh board members, I
just want to clarify we do have a a small uh typo on that amount requested. Add a zero on that, please. Yes. Right. Great. Uh Eric, Larry, any question? What funding where's your funding come from
besides uh situ uh committees like us? So the towns are all um most of the towns definitely lower and um yeah um midcape are providing opioid
um yeah remediation funding. Also um the schools pay a nominal amount to attend. Barnstable does not pay for the high school program because we have an inkind uh kind of arrangement with them to use the Centerville recreation building. um
we don't pay rent and they don't pay for program but most of the large high schools DY uh Falmouth and Barnstable not Barnes but um what's the other one NSA pay $10,000
a year the tech pays $5,000 a year um most of the smaller schools pay 5,000 we're now serving kids from Wearham High School are coming um so most of our funding honestly comes from
foundations. So, the Tower Foundation is a big supporter. We got a three-year grant from them to open up not only the high school program, but the middle school program. So, we write a ton of grants to in order to make um budget, which is about
$450,000 for this program. [Music] Does that answer your question? Is there any uh federal or state funding? Uh that's a very good question. Um there could be some state funding um depending
on how the priorities um of the the national priorities um land in the state coffers. So where there is some money for um I don't know if you've heard of recovery high schools. So there are five in Massachusetts. We don't have one on
Cape Cod, but recovery high schools really provide that environment that we're providing in the past program um to students. And they have been funded at a $500,000 level. And there is a a a grant that is available to be applied for I
think in August for um another recovery high school. Thanks. Did you say a minute? Yep. Yeah. I just want to tell you that um the staff we have at at this program and we also have another program that we refer these kids
with substance use um challenges to called the alternative peer group program. Um the staff are like born and bred Cape Coders and and they're very credible and relatable to the kids. So, if you can put yourself back to when you were in high school and you you saw
somebody um you know in a program like this that remembered that teacher that you have that problem with or had the same kind of experience in high school as you're having um that really goes a long way and we can't say enough about um the people the staff we have on the
Cape. It's just just incredible. Great. Thank you very much. That was very informative. Thank you. Just so everyone knows who's listening from these organizations, when will they hear from us?
You know that I would say the board needs to make a decision. Sure. And then what is the due date? Um we need to put this in for the budget for FY26, right? So um by the end of you know June, we
would hopefully notify people. So maybe at the next meeting we could Well, I expect we'll have that next meeting, figure out do the math and so on, but just to let the individuals know end of June or Yeah, by end of June because then we have to have them sign
the contracts and such. Okay, great. Okay, thank you. Okay. And looks like Big Brothers, Big Sisters of Cape Cod and the Islands is our next organization. I don't see anybody on the [Music]
screen. Okay. Anybody have any questions about it? Looks like we have in your armor 371 onetoone mentoring friendships that's relevant to us here in this town.
Okay. I guess not. All right. We can capabilities looks like it's up next. Anyone tonight from there? Somebody on the screen there. Okay. Someone from Cape Abilities
here to present uh their organization to the board of health. Hi, can you hear me? All right. Yes, absolutely. Great. Thank you so much. Uh my name is Leanne McMaro. I'm part of the development team at Capabilities. I'm a grant writer
there. I wrote the application and submitted it to the town. Feel free to ask me any questions that you have about it as we go along. Um, I'm really passionate about capabilities because of the unique opportunities that we offer to individuals with disabilities across
the Cape. Many of you have probably shopped at uh Capabilities Farm or Capabilities Thrift Store and know um some of the vocational training opportunities that we have there for individuals with disabilities. Um and they're also just really wonderful
community organizations where we're able to connect with the community and the community is able to connect with us and that is a very important part of all of the programs that we have at capabilities. I want to take a minute to thank the town of Yarmouth for their
long-standing partnership and support of capabilities. We currently have uh 55 individuals that we've supported in the town of Yarmouth over the last year. It goes across all of our programs. Many individuals participate in more than one
capabilities program and I'll get into that a little bit more. Um but let me talk a little bit about our mission statement. The mission of Capabilities is to support individuals with disabilities on Cape Cod by educating, counseling, and providing residential,
therapeutic, social, and employment supports that empower individuals to achieve meaningful and valued roles in the community. We've been um on the Cape since 1968, offering programs and
opportunities to individuals for over 50 years. We have an a very extensive range of programming that we offer including um dayhabilitation programs, our vocational program. We have um
residential homes across Cape Cod including three residences in the town of Yarmmouth. And we offer transportation to community services and to all of our programming to make it easy for individuals with disabilities
to get wherever they need to go. Uh I mentioned Capabilities Farm and Capabilities Thrift Store, two of our social enterprises that offer vocational opportunities to individuals with disabilities and an opportunity um for
the community to engage with us. We also have over 20 um vocational partners, community, local businesses across the Cape that um offer vocational training. So, we're thankful for our partners like
Rogers Grey Insurance and Cape Cod Linen. Um and we also have a lot of other community partners across the Cape that support us and offer unique opportunities to individuals in various ways. I would like to um suggest the
YMCA as a great example where we have lots of individuals that are over there participating in swimming and other recreational activities. Um the two main things about our programs that um make them so effective are our commitment to
a person- centered approach which is has been endorsed by the centers of Medicare and Medicaid services as the gold standard of care and we really focus on um helping individuals achieve create and achieve goals that are important to
them. And um so we we just really want to focus on what it is that that individual uh wants to pursue and focusing on helping them get there. And then we also have a real community emphasis um throughout all of our
programs including all of our community partners. um our individuals are often volunteering across the community um and just participating in the community in a variety of ways.
Um, I think I mentioned before we have about 55 individuals that we are supporting now in the town of Yarmouth and we are just requesting support for all of the highquality programs that our organization offers um individuals in
Yarmouth um supporting the program so that they can can continue uh running and that we can offer um something that's really really high quality and exceeds the state requirements and the state funding that our organization
receives. Staffing is also really important. We experience a lot of staffing shortages like many other organizations and businesses on the Cape and um funding for staff salaries so that they are able to earn a living wage
um is a very big priority for us at Capabilities. Um, we know our programs are important to the area because there are limited opportunities on Cape Cod and across the state of Massachusetts. Um, programs like ours. And I'll just
close uh with just a quick anecdote of um a recent thing that uh occurred with an individual. We had an individual who uh was really passionate about traveling to Ireland and had always wanted to go
there. And we helped that individual create a goal to be able to travel there and worked through um the travel planning and the money management and everything that kind of goes into a big trip like that. And we were able to um
help that individual make that a reality for themselves. and that was just really exciting for for everyone involved. Um, I think that's a very quick short snapshot. I'm happy to answer any questions that you might have from the
application. Eric, you ready? Okay. Thank you. Yeah, that was excellent. Appreciate it. Thank you. Okay. Stay healthy. Bye now. Okay. Okay. So, this is Cape Cod Bright Lights is next.
Great. And welcome. Come on up. Sure. Thank you. [Music] Just introduce yourself. Sure. I'm Holly Handerhan and I represent the board of directors for the uh Cape Cod Bright Lights program organization. Welcome.
Um, we currently provide backpack uh food for uh students in our local high in elementary school Emmy Small and at Station Avenue. The number of backpacks has increased almost tripled in the last three years since our inception. So,
it's really important. We partner with the um school counselors and we put together backpacks um every Wednesday night locally and then we deliver them to the schools on Thursday and the counselors decide on who is in need for that um you know food for the weekend
where children may not actually have resources for it. So uh we're not state or federally funded. We're kind of a boots to the ground and it's been a passion from our um I'm a local Rotarian and the Rotary Club of Yarmouth. We've been doing private and private funding
and also some grants and we're 100% volunteer. It's been a passion of the Rotary Club for a long time. Um so we continue to do it and like I said the number has increased over the years and we just started doing some more um donations at the intermediate school for
some hygiene products and stuff that again um young folks may not have resources for. Well, are you just elementary and middle school? Correct. These are generally in the start of the year in September. Yeah, we do them uh
every week throughout the whole school year. We have groups of um volunteers that will come. We have local high school kids. We have our Rotary Club, Interact, um you know um local organizations where we just get managers together and we'll put everything in the
backpacks. We get a lot of donations from um local like Stop and Shop will give us a couple of donations here and there for fruit and things like that. So, You're handing out the backpacks to start the year. Is that No, it's it's it's a weekly backpack with uh food for
weekends. So, it's kids who may not have resources to have any weekend food because of uh they get school lunch. What does a typical backpack look like? What does that consist of? It's like 12 to 16 items, mostly non-p perishable,
fresh fruit, um shelf stable, juices, milks, things like that. So, we put a little assembly line together and we get donations for bags because they're not technically backpacks. We call them backpacks, but they these bags are pretty um simple. They go into the kids'
backpacks before they get on the bus so that the counselors basically don't single anybody out. Everybody just kind of gets it in their backpack and off they go on Fridays. So, is the need identified by the school? Correct. By the counselor and so it's not just a they're not sitting out on a table like
a grab and go. Okay. It's a it's a partnership that we've had with um the local schools. And are do you have a sufficient number in our schools? Are you you're able to produce a sufficient number to meet the need right now? Yeah,
it's about 52 kids over at Emmy Small and um about 20 at uh station right now. And then some hygiene products that we provide over at um the intermediate school. It's great. Yeah. I had a whole another image the backpack and whether stigma and all that. Yeah. I got it now.
Yeah, I'm sorry. It's We call it We call it backpacks, but it's just bags of um you know, it's some oatmeals and like cereals and things like that that are non-p perishable for the weekend. And this is only during the school year. Correct. Okay. We start in September and we end um in in June, right? Okay. It's
once a week delivery. Yeah. We actually manu produce, put it all together and and deliver it. So, the school it's really just we just ring the doorbell and drop it off as a group. Okay, thank you. So, uh the gift cards given to the uh police department and
the chamber of commerce and they issue them out to a needy student or people they Yeah. And then the student redeems them at the high at the school. Correct. So, how do they determine how would they
make that determination? Do do you know it's basically based the counselors will seek children out you know between um interventions or okay applic you you know identifications and things like that. I mean most schools try to keep some sort of food and clothing on hand
for children who are in need. Um and that's usually how they identify them. How would the chamber of commerce get involved in that? Um just because we have the ch a lot of us are board of directors in different I see you know on on different boards. So the chamber helps identify anybody that might come
in. Sometimes I'll go into a chamber of commerce and say, "Hey, I have a need and I don't want to go I don't want to go to the school or I don't want to go to the food pantry, but where else can I go?" kind of thing. So we kind of all partner together. Okay. Anyone else questions? Great.
Thanks for coming in. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks so much. Thanks for what you're doing. Okay. So, uh, we have the Cape Cod Council of Churches, Hands of Hope Outreach Food
Pantry. Great. Hi. Hi. My name is uh, Katherine Driscoll and I work for the Cape Cod Council of Churches. I'm the director of the Hands of Hope Outreach Center and we've been working with the town of Yarmouth for about 20 years
um applying primarily for funding to use for health and human services. We provide um help from Haritch to Mashby and Sandwich and all the towns in
between. and um Yarmouth and Dennis are the two biggest towns of applicants that we have. Um the other towns are a smaller portion of the help. So it's it's close to 80%
from for Dennis and Yarmmouth and maybe 18 to 20% for all the other towns. And most of that we think is just a transportation issue. The particular programs that I'm talking about tonight
are um you don't have to be present. If you if you wanted emergency food, we would suggest you come and choose what you want because we do have a a full pantry there. But if you're looking for emergency assistance with rent,
utilities, um oil, heating oil, personal products, um other other ways to help you, um if you're have an instability in the house as far as a hoarding situation or a
cleanup situation or trash collection, you don't have a sticker, you have no way to get your trash out, that kind of thing, you can just call us. We we do all of that on the phone. Um for particular uh what we ask
for is for help with rental situations that don't uh have anything to do with community preservation. We also have a contract with the town for funding for that. And we can only help Yarmouth residents um within the town. So they have to
either be living in Yarmmouth or they have to be moving from one part of Yarmouth to another to get the benefit of community preservation. But there are some people who are in the town who are either getting um already they're on a
voucher, so they're have a lower rent um and they don't really need the funding from community preservation, but they do need a little help with their rent. um or there's been a court judgment already and they are being evicted and
it could be a peaceful eviction. It it's not necessarily an eviction that uh is traumatic to the family or the household. It's just that the landlord wants to sell the property or whatever. And then they might need a little bit just so that they don't have a debt
which prevents them to get into another unit somewhere else whether it's in Yarmouth or not. We also help with utilities. People can go for quite a long time. It's hard to imagine, but they can live for quite a
long time without electricity or or heat. And uh they also have had water shut offs. We've helped them clear up that and as I've said uh get some trash collections going. Personal items they may need that
they uh cannot afford to pay for. Uh some of which could be on in the medical um they've been asked to go and purchase a humidifier or dehumidifier that kind of thing we we can help with. and I have terrible
allergies. So, I understand that um some people really do not need that extra assistance. Um our funding comes from the uh churches that are part of the Cape Cod Council of Churches. There are over over 40
um individuals. We have a a very big donor group of individual donors. Grants, we write grants as well. foundations and um civic organizations
that also help us. And um in the numbers that I sent you, as I said, Yarmouth is our second biggest grouping of people that do get help from us. And I listed all the the numbers
there. I would say that um the of the 93 families and the 196 residents that we helped financially this year, the vast majority was for
utilities. Gas and electric regulated utilities have a winter moratorum. So you cannot be shut off as long as you notify the company that you're having a financial hardship and you can't pay your bill. So people can go six months without paying and then it's a huge
disaster in April and May when the company will will shut you off. So it's that is a big burden on organizations such as ours because you know you can't have a household with children in it um
going without power and it does happen. But that's one of our biggest ways that we try to help. And if you have obviously if you have a furnace and you need an oil delivery, you can't go without that either. So most of the
funds I will say that we get are for to cover those things. Also water bills. You have any questions? Thank you, Larry. No.
No questions. Um, I don't either. That was very good presentation. Thank you. You learned a lot. Thanks for coming in and thank you. Keep up with the great work. Okay. Okay. So, we have one more for the first
round here. Just uh little clarif um on Duffy Health Center. Add a zero to that one, please. Okay. And then on the the bottom one, visiting nurse association at the bottom. Yeah. Add a zero to that
one. Yeah. So then that brings your total up to 105 even. Yes. Okay. Sorry. All right. Everyone have that? Let's assume so. Yeah. Math is done. Great.
Okay. So Duffy Health Center. Anyone? Great. Welcome. Thank you. Hi, good evening. I'm Jane Cokernack. I'm the grants officer at Duffy Health Center. And hi, good evening. I'm Daniel Rodriguez. I'm the director of substance
use disorder and outreach programs at Duffy. It's a pleasure to be here. And uh this feels a little bit like the bottom of like I don't know the seventh, eighth inning where we got to get some energy in the room and you're sitting across from a social worker. So in a different world, we do some fun stuff, but we're here to talk about proposals.
Um, but honestly, it's a privilege and an honor to be here and thank you, uh, Sarah and the team for obviously continuing to keep us in the know with these funding opportunities. Um, just to catch folks up to speed, uh, Duffy Health Center, if you don't know us, uh, very well, we are a federally qualified
health center in the heart of Hyannis. Um, our goal is to serve our most marginalized community members. Um, so we serve roughly 3,500 community members across Cape. Uh, the bulk of those being in Barnstable and Yarmouth. And our our model is to be
an integrated health care system uh where we have access to primary care, behavioral health, substance use disorder treatment, case management, uh recovery support. I could go on and on and on, but the intention is to become a almost one-stop shop for individuals and
their needs. uh what we see when we talk about unhoused communities and in marginalized communities here on Cape. Um oftent times there's a very um clear and distinct image of what it is to be someone who's experiencing homelessness or housing instability. Uh but what we
see is that it is very um complex and comprehensive and that a lot of individuals that are here on Cape Cod in some uh capacity of their lives are either on the verge of or are in um housing unstable status. Um, so our intention is not just to serve our
actively homeless folks, but to really broaden our reach uh to uh other community members. So how that translates out to our work with Yarmouth is that we've had also a very long relationship with the town of Yarmouth. Um, our human services funds in the past
has served to pay um the salary fringe and benefits of recovery support navigator who's doing boots on the ground work um here in in the town. Um we've kind of shifted and u moved some stuff around over the years to maximize the funds that we have um whether that
be through state grants um other reimburseable methods um but also to focus on remediation funds and just alternative approaches. Um so over the past few years we've reduced our um need for the town of Yarmouth to pay for a
staff member's time. And what we're really trying to do is to figure out how do we broaden our footprint and really meet with our individuals in the community and look for funding opportunities where we can have um funds allocated to be able to make sure that we're meeting folks truly in their own
backyards in their own communities um through interventions such as our reach mobile unit um active street outreach and partnerships um such as the one we have with the police department. Um so at least for the last eight years or so we have worked really closely with
Yarmouth police uh to be the recipient of referrals that come from them for individuals who have either experienced an opioid overdose or um as an officer has responded to a home. um if there is some form of substance use disorder kind
of in that call um for us to be a nonbias and and neutral party to do active outreach and to touch base with them to see if there's anything that we can offer or get them connected in the community. Um what that has um kind of uh blossomed into is uh an opportunity
for us to look beyond our typical population of unhoused and unstably housed community and to offer our resources more broadly to any Yarmouth resident. Um so we have over the past few years served folks in all different economic brackets with all different
lived experiences and stories where that thread is um experiencing a substance use disorder. That could be access to our own care. That could be treatment at another acute care setting. That could be linkage to other resources. A theme that you've heard tonight is um housing
instability, um food insecurity, access to basic needs. Um we work really hard to identify those social social determinants of health and navigate and support through that. Um, so our ask for tonight, um, is to be able to have those
additional funds to truly, um, operationalize what we're doing in the community, um, to expand our work within Yarmouth and to really hopefully change some of the tides that we're seeing primarily with our folks experiencing alcohol use disorder. Uh, because right
now, uh, we there are there is some funding opportunity out there for folks with an alcoh excuse me, an opioid primary diagnosis. Um but federal funds and state funds for alcohol use disorder, it's very slim to none. Um so the proposal talks about how we would
use these funds to um increase again um our cost associated with our um our van, our outreach supplies, uh community events. Uh we've attend a ton of them here in Yarmouth. um and have used it as opportunities to engage the community,
hand out Narcan, have access to um staff members who can help those community members navigate. Um and I'll stop kind of yapping at you, but I will say these non-traditional um settings where we have these community events, you may not anticipate
having a recovery based provider there. Um I think of um we've done the national night out. We have done uh the trunk or treat uh event with the um congregational church. But what we have seen is as we're there to have fun, as we're there to engage the community,
folks are curious, they're coming to us, they're asking for resources, and oftent times uh many referrals come from those interactions. Um so that's us and our intervention in a nutshell. and we're happy to answer questions about either these interventions, our recovery support navigation interventions and any
questions about our larger organization. Can you talk about the um the reach mobile unit? Explain a little bit what what that looks like. I would love to. Um I lean in because I'm a nerd at trade and
transportation was my first uh career. And uh one thing that we had noticed early on is that it's one thing to ask folks to come to a brick and mortar and it's another thing to figure out how you get into the community and do you serve folks again within their own walls of their community. Um so in August 2023
after a few years of planning we were able to launch our reach mobile unit which is about a 32 foot um custom design RV that goes out into five different communities. Uh Yarmouth and Dennis being one of those or two of those I should say. And uh what we
wanted to do was not to be a traditional health center on wheels. We wanted to be an access point for our individuals to come to us um to build safe relationships, get their basic needs met, and then to identify who is the right community partner to serve your continued needs, whether that be us or
whether that be one of our our colleagues. Um so what that unit looks like is that it is um again an RV that has I kind of break it out into three spaces. The front area I call the living room. It is the connecting point with kind of the kitchenet and the dining table and the area where folks can come
in and just sit and talk and um we can um you know provide harm reduction supports or or ties to additional um uh care. Um we have a fully functioning back bathroom on the unit where we're able to provide in real-time showers for folks in need. Um so on any given day we
may have somewhere between u five to 15 individuals who are showering on the unit. Um we're able to provide access to clothing items and other things to get them feeling good once they've had their shower. Um we also have access to um uh food bags um through a relationship with Falmouth service center. So they provide
um us those uh bags and actually the bulk of those bags goes directly to Yarmouth residents. And then the final thing is in the back we have an area that is telealth capable. So, if someone wanted to get onto a medication for their opiate use disorder or an additional um appointment with one of our providers, we can sit them down
right then and there and get them via teleaalth in with a provider as well. Yeah. So, is this do you have like an outpost you use or are you totally mobile? Yep. So, we have I call them host sites. Um so, right now our host site is on on Mondays at Yarmouth
Comprehensive Treatment Center. Um that being said is um it's one thing to have a a lovely unit to be able to kind of have those outpost host site locations. Um but what we're also hoping to do is to expand beyond that through having
kind of nimble um uh nimble smaller vehicle like our transit van where it's a little bit more um um quiet, right? It's a little less obnoxious with all of the beautiful colors that show Duffy. um and we can uh get out to do post overdose harm reduction knocks um all of
those things. Um so we use that as a strategy as well. Very cool. I think a nice thing that I've learned from you and from Melissa Payne who supervises the RSNs is how this regular
route and the regular outreach, the right people coming to meet with people, the building up of a trust relationship by supplying people with things that they need creates a trust path that eventually people can ask you for more help or be open to more help on their
recovery path. So I have found that really touching. Thank you. Yeah. People might not understand or immediately get that from the specific facts that we had in the grant. What happens if someone has uh Medicaid, Medicare or another kind of coverage? What happens with that
where they could pay for some services? Yep. So those reimburseable services again this the these funds do not go to providing those direct services, right? So we're not um using these funds to offset a medical visit or something along those lines. Um just like any other health center, we would see them
and um obviously bill appropriately. Thank you. Um what these funds are used for are more of like I call them like in the trenches type work where if you're working with someone and they haven't eaten for 5 days, how can we work on getting that basic need met? Um, if you are uh possibly going to have a
placement at a uh a detox unit, but you have a three-day gap until you can get there, let's wrap around you and get you to one of our trusted local hotel um partners to have you in a safe space for three or four nights until we can get you there. Um so that's the translation of it. And again, you know, fuel cost,
operational cost, maintenance of having a vehicle out on the road. Um those are areas that we have eaten costs associated with that because we want to provide that intervention. Um, and funds like this would help us kind of become whole and expand beyond that. Great,
Larry. Anything? No, that was great. Thank you. All right. Thank you, gentlemen. Thank you, Mr. Appreciate it. Right. And have a wonderful night. Cheers. Stay well. Thank you. Okay, I think that's the first group. This is true. So, uh, we are going
to shifting gears. Little bit of a change here. Yes. All right. Hold your breath. We're starting again. Okay. How about number six? This is the green home burial vote on the application
approval. Barry, you just want to say so a word or two just to get us. This is uh the application that will be on our open gov site. Uh Sarah worked very hard uh creating this. Again, we had to create it. We had no We
used kind of a a mix and match of our other applications. We printed you guys out one just so you could see um it's basically the bullet points of what is in the regulations that the board decided on and then they'll just go down just tap each one and it they won't let
them move forward unless it's been done. So, they can't do half of it and then submit it. So, this will be it looks a little long, but it's very quick, very easy to upload and to to utilize. If people need
assistance, they can always call in to our office. We can help them walk them through it. So, but these are all the highlights and bullet points from the regulations that we came up with.
So, just almost a check a checklist. Yeah, I'm sure everyone took a look at it. Anything to point out or No, Mr. McCert's on the line. I don't know if he has his hand up or anything. So,
if you can hear me, welcome again. Um, you're certainly dedicated to this. Um, I had a question on the health and safety requirements. So, it's probably the way
it is probably page four. These are really minor things that should not get in the way of a vote under health and safety requirements. um the second paragraph um and it's saying only biodegradable
materials like wood should say hardwood wasn't that or soft wood rather in other words someplace else in here we talked treated okay some to qualify what kind of work wood it is in other words so mahogany is not being put in is there an
adjective that would be appropriate to put there we could we have untreated cardboard board. We can also probably want to say untreated wood. Um soft wood. Tough is what I would do. Yeah. Like you know, thinking that we'd want pine is what you know, it's a very
traditional one is to use pine wood. Simple enough. That's So we'll just add that one word soft. Um and go down one more paragraph. That's the burial death and process. Line four. One, two, three. Line four. There's a number four in
front of infectious disease control. Is that there for something? No, I have removed that on the online. That's so it doesn't need to be that fine. Okay, we are going to vote tonight. Oh, we have a hand up.
Sure. Hello. Boss. Hello. Right there. Uh this is Ross and I just wanted to say thank you uh for going through this and I noticed you saw that I was on here. I just wanted to make sure that I was like here and with you guys uh here in Rhode Island on Zoom.
If you weren't, we'd miss you. Okay. So, appreciate you being here. Um this may be a big evening for you. Anything else? This looks great. My my only concern was uh second
page. Um the first question there is, is your property located in zone 2? If your property is in zone 2, this is not a permitted zone for green home burials.
If we revisit the regulation, it specifies I'm I have it right here in front of me under approval requirements. It says no green burial sites/plots will be allowed within zone
2. So my concern is that the wording is inconsistent from this should say burial applied. Yes to not property. Yes, that's my concern is the word property. Um, if it were changed to site slashplot
or either one, what's it say in the regulation? It says site slashplot. We'll we'll mimic that. That was my only concern. Change it to burial site or plot.
Okay. Do you want both? Well, it would keep it consistent. Yeah. I think I think that would be good. Larry, you're okay with that? Yes. All right. So, that's three edits. Anything else? Last chance. Everyone,
I wish Mary was here. Well, she has a keen eye. Yes, she's had this for a while also. So, I'm sure we would have heard. Yes. Um, she's with us in some way or another. Yes. I mean, it's she's in the room
somewhere. That's great. Yeah. No, she she's worked at this along with us for sure. Okay. Um, so what would we be voting on now? To accept the application to move
forward and then we would Is it a separate vote that we have to make? I mean do we need to vote for this regulation that would be the and then granting or something I mean can we boo do both tonight? How does this party approved the regulations at the last meeting? So
it's just the application the application and then we would have an open meeting to have the public you know to advertise it to let people know that the application and the regulations and the fee and then that would be the approval for everything. Yeah, we need public. So
after that we can then vote on it. In other words, we have vote on this tonight, right? So we voted on that. You're saying this mean the application? Yes. Fine. So we voted on last meeting. We voted on the regulations and the fee, right? This
was the next one, the application. Okay. You approve and you you basically you're voting to approve this, right? For sure. And then the next meeting is to approve the whole thing for open public meeting.
There'll need to be a vote after that or not. Well, it goes to public hearing. So, I mean, it goes to a public hearing. So, unless there's any issues or anything, then no, I wouldn't think so. Right. You vote it and then it goes to the next, you know, then it goes. Yeah. Okay. That's okay. That's what I
thought. Great. Um, so just need a motion with the three edits for the application. Okay, don't rush to it, anyone. But um, uh, I move we approve
the green home burial uh, application pending the at its specified. Yes. Here tonight. Second. Okay, let's assume there's no discussion. All in favor, raise your hand, say I. I. I. Okay. So, the
application asks, "Thanks for creating it." All right. Three down, one more to go. Steps. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Take care now.
Okay, we're up to number seven. That would be round two for human services grant applications. So, okay. First, so just to let you know that we did when we sent it a round two
out, we thought the first round would go a little longer. So, we let them know like around 6:30 to jump in. So, do we want to go to like review minutes and stuff like that first and then jump back in or do we person in the room possibly here to make a presentation? Yes, I'm
from Nurturing Foster. Could that person possibly come up front and let you go? I don't know if you were planning on spending the whole night with us or not, but at a courtesy to you, maybe. Let's go for it. I didn't know what to expect, so I figured I'd come early. Okay. I saw
you out there a long time. Thanks. My name is Sharon Palmer. I'm the co-founder of um Nurturing Foster Families and we operate as Cape Cod Foster Closet and we're based in Orleans. My husband and I um started we're a very new organization. We
started our nonprofit in 2021 and we've been foster parents since 2017. We've had 30 babies through our home um in that time and we decided that we wanted to support foster families. So our
mission is to provide um sorry nurturing and compassionate support to foster and kinship families for the benefit of the children in their care. And we do that by providing material goods as well as opportunities for um to create community
by um hosting free events for the kids. We also have three big giveaway events every year and we want to create that social emotional support. So we support kids in foster homes but also kinship
grandparents raising grandchildren um which when we started the organization we didn't realize quite how many grandparents are raising grandchildren and they're not always through an agency. So they don't have the support that say a typical foster family may
have with having a social worker and all of that help. So um we get most of our donations through private um individuals. We do apply for grants from like local
churches um um civic organizations, women's clubs, things like that. But the the majority do come from individuals and we get a lot of inind. Um so we keep an uh an Amazon wish list and we'll put
out you know what we need and we just hope that we get what we need. But um every year our numbers have increased. When we started in 2021, we served a total of 223 kids between the foster closet and our three
big giveaway events. Last year, that number was 862. So, in four years, we've we've really increased. And so, I had um we've applied for the funding from you for our back to school event, which we
hold in August. And um the kids register uh for that and they receive a new backpack, their choice of school supplies, and um a brand new pair of sneakers. And we hold it at a time when all the families can come together. They
get to know each other and it's it's just amazing how excited they are to be able to choose their school supplies. We don't prefill bags. We let them if they want markers and not crayons. um it's their choice because we feel like kids
in care don't get much say in what happens to them. So we think it's really important to create a really fun time for them and allow them to just get what they need. Um we're comp well we're completely volunteerrun um we except for
an executive director. I have been serving as the interim um in for the past six months but our new executive director started today. So, I'm very happy. Congratulations. Thank you. Uh, so we're just so dependent on our, you
know, the the community in CA of Cape Cod is just so generous and whenever we have a need, we put it out there and most of the time it gets filled. But as our numbers increase, we just know that we can't continue um just, you know,
counting on people following us on Facebook and getting us what we need. So that's why we're coming to you this this time. That's great. Thank you. Who who's the new uh director? His name is Joe Sandagado and he comes from um he's
worked in foster care for years and years. He knows all the all the people and um I think he's going to really lead us to that next level. So we're I'm excited about it. Eric,
other ages of any age? Yes. So, we um we have newborns right through age 18. Um we work very closely with the Department of Children and Families from the Hyannis office. Quite often, if they have had to do a removal
of a child from their, you know, a dangerous situation, they'll call us um and say, "We just did a removal. We couldn't bring any of their belongings. Um, these are their sizes and we have volunteers who will go in and fill a bag. Um, we give them a week's worth of
clothing and sneakers and um, whatever the need might be. But for that initial call, especially with the social workers, we just get them enough things so that the foster parent has one less thing to think about for that first week
because we found out that when when you get a child and you're, you know, you never know. It's and it's usually late at night. Um it's there's so many things that happen in that first week or two after they arrive and it's you know especially for the people like I live in East Ham and for us to get to Hyannas to
get certain things it was just kind of it was difficult. So we cover the whole Cape Islands. Um usually with the islands the social workers will come and get what they need and bring them over when they're going you know to to do a visit um at the home. But um we have
people who drive for us and deliver if needed. We're going to be opening a satellite location in Felmouth next month. So we're really growing by leaps and bounds and um there's such a need. So we're glad that we can just help a little. We've heard so many comments
especially from the grandparents who said they never knew anybody in a similar situation. Um, so it's having these events like bowling or like a hip-hop dance class or um Nerf battles.
By giving the kids something to do, it gives the the caregivers time to um get to know each other and to realize that they're not in this alone. There are resources for them and we try to provide, you know, as much as we can um
for that also. and just and with me being a foster parent, it just is um I'm able to at least point them in the right direction for for some of those resources. When was the You probably already mentioned this, I apologize. When was
the organization established? Um February of 21. 21. Good. All right. Okay. Well, thank you very much presentation. Thank you for coming in. Thanks for doing what you're doing. Thank you. Okay. So, maybe we'll work our way down
till 6:30. Why don't we do that? Uh, next item would be number eight. That's review and approved minutes from April 7th, 2025. Anyone have any edits to make?
I did not. Anyone else? I did not. Mary already sent hers in. So, okay. Anybody want to vote on this? I'm on a roll.
So, I move we approve the minutes from the April 7th, 2025 meeting of the board of health, the Yarmouth Board of Health. Second. All in favor of the motion say I. Raise your hand. Everyone can see it at home. Great.
Great. Uh we on to new and old business. Appears to be that. So um in collaboration with the county health department, they we are doing um a measel ms vaccination clinic. There is
one May 7th at Naset. you can go on to the county website and they get all the information how to register for that. And then Dennis Yarmmouth is doing is collaborating with one at the Dennis Senior Center on May 28th. Um please go
out. This is if you think that your shot has been a few years get a new booster. So it's a if you go on to the once again onto the uh Barsville County Health Department website, it's it's a link. it's very
easy to get to it um and go from there. So, we highly recommend people show up for this. So, measles are becoming an issue again. So, how long how long does the vac measles
vaccine is it for life? Generally, it is. If someone uh doesn't know for sure that they received it, there's no harm in getting another one. uh most people gone to school uh in the United
States and most countries as well that it's part of uh requirements schools. Um that's a good chance that you've had it. Um there's probably anyone recall what year this started in other
words of that would be an important year to have in mind whether how old someone maybe it's not relevant. Um anyone know offhand in other words to make sure that everyone after a certain
year was vaccinated. That's um I remember back in 56 getting a vaccine. Yeah, early 50s definitely was. I don't So will I mean there are people born obviously who were still alive in from the 40s. I don't
know the answer to that. They should certainly speak to their caregiver about that. Um but yes for life generally otherwise um unfortunately there's more resistance to that vaccination um and
um it's become a bigger problem as the number of cases in this country is is is growing um and measles is one of the most contagious viruses there is period. Is it true like if somebody has it in an
elevator and they leave it's you can still get it like a few hours after that? Yes, you can. Wow. Yeah. And it's uh people get pretty sick. Very sick. I mean there certainly brain damage associated with it. Mortality rate is
high. Uh and it's preventable. Definitely. Okay. So once again those dates NSET is May 7th and the Dennis Chararmath at the Dennis Senior Center is May 28th. So okay, any other new business? Um some
other new business. You know we have uh the issue of hoarding. Yes. Um probably in the next meeting or so, we're going to be bringing up some more hoarding issues um to the board on how [Music]
to help solve these uh these sensitive situations. um we have the resources, we have the ability, it's getting the the per the people involved in these homes
to comply. So, um hopefully I'll be meeting and reaching out to uh one of the residents in Yarmouth in the near future. I will get with um the board, let them know if they'd like to come out with me and we can work together on
this. So, I did send you guys some pictures and then some an address. You can drive by and take a look at the situation yourself. So, yeah, I just I'd be happy to to go with you. I'll try to schedule that and
hopefully perhaps speak with the person. Uh I did set a link. Everyone get it? It was just a um Yes. from MLAN's Hospital. They do a great job there. The article is is really clear and the video is fabulous. very knowledgeable person one is being asked
questions on uh hoarding disorder just it's interesting complex and pretty sad in many respects. So for anybody in the audience listening um if it's always nice to get the neighbors together and go assist assist
a neighbor if they have a hoarding issue but I have to emphasize you can't just go onto their property and start cleaning it up. It's trespassing. It's stealing what you and I might think is rubbish. That's a treasure to them. So,
uh, make sure your neighbor is completely aware and willing to take the assistance. That's before and it's always nice to offer help, but we have to do it right legally through the way. So, okay, good
point. You have anything, Larry? Anything? Um, as for the next meeting, we're looking at June uh 2nd. Is that correct? Yep. Then we just have the October 23rd minutes that Okay, you're right. It's
here. Um, that we need to vote on. I looked at it. We just had a little uh another glitch in the system. That's why we have to re Yeah. Yeah, for sure. No, it look fine. This was uh the the
minutes from October 23rd, 2023 meeting. So hopefully everyone took a look at it. Um I didn't have any changes. I mean look look fine to me. Anyone else? The district pass obviously.
I was absent so I have to abstain from this one. Oh, so we I think I could still make the motion though. I don't know. Voting for with two people then is is uh a problem. I think that's not a
quorum for a vote. I guess we can hold off until then. I think we have to. No, I don't want you to lie. Um so, okay, let's get the vote next time. All right. Sorry. Sorry, it's on
the agenda. Okay, if you want just send it electronically. I mean, just so if you want instead of putting in the packet or whatever you want to do. Um, okay. So, let's go for the second group.
Starting with the family table collaborative. That's great. We have someone here. Good. Welcome. Just introduce yourself to the for the record. Yes. I'm Harry Henry. I'm one of the co-founders of the Family Table Collaborative and I'm here in support of
our grant request for uh $3,500 for the upcoming year. Um, as background for those of you who may not know us, we are a nonprofit, 5 years old. We provide prepared, nutritious meals to people who need
them. They're already prepared. They bring them home, cook them, and heat them up. We operate out of the riverway over here on 28 in the kitchen over there. Um our on an annual basis last year we
did about 30,000 meals. So we do um a fair amount specifically for the get some figures here for the town of Yarmmouth. We supply meals on a weekly basis to the Arman senior center and to the housing
authority over on Minsel Gray. We just bring them over there and then they distribute or hand them out to their clients or their programs or whatever it may be. Um last year in Yarmouth we did somewhere around
2170 meals uh to Garmouth residents. Um, as I said, we're a nonprofit. We receive no federal funding. We receive no state funding, private donations, grants, uh, such as this,
um, private company grants, and then a fair amount of revenue from our own operations is what keeps us going. Um being in the riverway, we um hold events, we do catering because we have the facility and we can generate revenue
that way and that goes into uh funding our operation. Um we're a volunteer organization. We have three and a half employees. Those are the chefs. Everything else we do is all volunteers.
We've got about 470 active volunteers. We take in about a ton and a half of food a week from farms, from Whole Foods, from people who donate food to us and we use that to prepare the meals and then we have to buy what we don't get
donated. Typically, we have to purchase protein and we always have to pro uh purchase packaging. No one ever donates packaging. We'll get produce, we'll get pasta, uh, rice and all the starches, but protein and packaging is what we
wind up doing. So, um, the cost of a meal going out the door for us is just under $7. So, what we ask for from towns or service organizations or um, organizations we provide meals to is
that you come up with a way to provide half, we'll find a way to get the other half. So, it's not we're not asking to cover the whole cost of what we're providing. We're asking for approximately half. Um, we do not deliver or
distribute to individual homes. All of our meals go to group homes, associations, senior center, the veterans council, the veterans outreach center, um shelters, those kind of organizations, and let them distribute
the meals to the people who need them because they know the clients the best. Um yeah, so that's a the basic blueprint of who we are and what we're doing and what we're looking for. Any questions or
specifics? I'd be happy to answer. Do is all your foods delivered or to can people just stop in and purchase? No, it's all distributed out. So, we don't periodically we've tried to um open up a front counter and put meals up for sale
or put different kind of food items for sale. We haven't figured out the right mix to do that yet. Um, you know, we sort of operate it as a business, but with such a volunteer organization, that's pretty hard staffing model to do. So, it's it's much better for us to
bring it bring the the meals where where people need them. And, you know, like I mentioned last year in Yarmouth was just under 2,200 out of 30,000. So, it's not like people are here locally that can come and get it easily, right? We're
going to Sandwich. We're going to Falmouth. We're going to Eastam. So, it's really a capewide distribution. It' be impractical to have them all come here. Do you do anything for the school age kids at all? Say again. Anything for the
school age kids? Um, we provide meals to anybody who wants them and then that includes families. On the school age kids, it's reverse. They come in and help. Okay. So, every Thursday there's a group from Monoy High School that comes
in and they're in there helping package the meals, writing labels, putting in boxes. Every Wednesday there is a um uh one of the chefs, the culinary instructor from Cape Tech. He brings in a crew, usually eight to 10 kids that
are in the culinary program, and he's teaching them the whole the whole process in the in the kitchen. Nice. with a big-time volume operation. Um, on any given Thursday is our distribution
day and you walk in and you'll see 700 meals going out the door to like 30 different agencies in town. So, you've got a mass of people packaging food, you got a mass of people writing labels, boxing it, drivers coming in, picking up, bringing out. It's um it's a bit of
a show. anyone? That's great. Thanks for coming in and keep up with the great work. Yeah, it's interesting, I think. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, next organization is the housing
assistance corporation. See anybody up there? No. Okay, we can get back to that. We'll see. Um, Independence House is next up. Okay. Uh, next organization will be
sight and loss site loss services. Anyone? Okay. of the Yarmmouth food pantry. [Music] We have a winner. Okay.
Where's Nora? Thank you for your presence. I think she's sailing. Okay, we'll let her slide this time. But she still is involved. Um, my name is Susan Martin. I am the executive director of the Yarmouth Food Pantry.
Every year I come before you and hope that we've gone out of business and that's never the case. Um, our organization has grown more than we can believe. Just I was on vacation last week and the week after Easter
um while I was there, we registered 11 new families just from Yarmmouth. So that was shocking that so many people are coming in. But we believe that with the food stamp cuts um and the cut in USDA foods and a lot
of the programs that people have been getting are being um cut. So we're seeing more business. The USDA has cut the amount of food that the Greater Boston Food Bank gets and it is distributed to all the organizations in
eastern Massachusetts. So that's affecting us. We used to get a lot of free meat and produce and um vegetables, cheese, and what was what was interesting about the USDA is they would buy up whatever there was a
surplus of. Last year it was nuts. We got all kinds of free nuts. The year before it was cheese. So we can always see that the USDA is buying surplus product and making sure it's not going to waste and sending it out to us to distribute which is has been fabulous
but a lot of that program has been cut. So we're dealing with that. The other thing um that we have continued with our meal of the month program which I think you're familiar with. We still give out our children's snack bags. We have a new
person on the board. They may not know what you're referring to. No. Well, our meal of the month is a program where back in 2013, the pantry was able to get a lot of free turkey, ground turkey, and we couldn't get our clients to take it.
So, we decided that we would come up with like a blue apron type bag where the recipe was in the bag and everything someone would need to make a recipe with ground turkey. So the first one we did was chili and later in the year we did
turkey meatballs and later in further on then we would do meatloaf. And now our clients will come in and ask us for ground turkey. They just didn't know what to make of it and how to use it. And ever since 2013, every month we put
together a meal in a bag with the recipe, the frozen meat, vegetables, and starch, and give that out. And it changes every single month. So all the things that go in these bags, maybe absent the spices, um,
is usually available at the pantry. So people kept these recipes or at least remembered they could come in and get the products off our shelves to make them all the time. And we usually have a nice assortment of frozen meat so they
could interchange ground beef which we we try to have in stock because a lot of things at a food pantry you can use ground beef for. You know, like remember the old chicken chop sooie where you would fry up the ground beef, canned tomatoes, things like that. We have all
that. So, ground beef has been we try to keep that in stock, but we have to buy that. Um, what do you think what else I can tell you? Um, do you have any questions so far? I I don't. So, these surpluses that the
U USDA used to bring in, so nobody's picked that up. So, in other words, these surpluses still must be available. They must be, but the program, the federal government has cut the money that the FDA can use to probably buy up
all these surplus goods and they don't get trickled down to us anymore. So, our our like last year in fiscal year 2024, we received over $110,000 worth of USDA products.
This year it might be half that. You think that might change or do you does it look like it won't? If anything, I think it might get worse. I think that they'll cut this further and try to save more for Medicaid, things like that. But food stamps have
been cut. So, we're seeing a lot more people come in that never would have probably have come if it wasn't for the cuts that are being made um to the people who need it. And I'm not sure, but even I think school
lunches might eventually be impacted and the free breakfast programs, things like that. 30% of our clients right now are children and that amazes us. We were down to about 24 25%. Now we're up to
over 30. So that's a sad thing, but it's cute. We have fun when they come in and see them all. The other thing that our volunteers do, and it wasn't at my behest, they just started doing it, is they put together um gift bags and put
in it everything a parent would need to throw a birthday party for their child. And because we have the children's first names and ages on our computer, we can tell who's having a birthday what month and give the parents. Now, I know this is the board
of health, but once a year, I think we they can have cake maybe, but um yeah, we're pretty it's a nice gesture. We have, you know, the plates are in it, the napkins, everything a parent would need to have a birthday party for their child. So
that's an little extra thing that we've been doing lately. How many locations do you have? Just one. Just just the Artha. There's other pantries though, right? There's there's a large one in um Haritch, the Haritch family pantry. You know, Tip O'Neal started that years ago,
helped to start it. Um and then there's another one in Felmouth, and I think we're probably the third largest now, unfortunately. And can you let the audience know your hours? And it's on our website, yamathfoodpantry.org. Um, the other
thing that we're doing is our senior food distribution. I reported last year we started that with the help of the senior center. That's been very successful. The seniors come, they come about a half an hour early because they've all gotten to know each other
and it's like a little social hour before we give out the food. So, that's been very pleasant and it's wonderful to help them because getting them in there has been the hardest group. They're so proud to um that they haven't wanted to come, but once they go to their groups
or maybe bingo, whatever they do, hairdressers, they find out that um we're a decent place to go and get help. And we're seeing more and more of them come. The other thing I'd like to tell you about is our marketing. We have um
decided that we are going to start to do business as the Cape Cod Community Pantry. As you know, um when we started the pantry, we named it the Yarmouth Food Pantry. And it got to the point that we
couldn't turn away a mother and children from another town. So, there's a hundred of us collectively. We just didn't have the stomach for it. So we decided that we would serve anyone who came through our
doors. And so that's how we have ended up serving all of Barible County. But all of our volunt we have volunteers that come from all over the Cape as far as MASHP and Orleans. We even have a pilot that flies to American Airlines
that lives in Orleans and comes up and volunteers with us one day a week, which I find to be wonderful. So we're going to start changing our name. We're going to do business as the Cape Cod Community Pantry. And we decided to do it because
we tried to do fundraising in Barnstable and people would walk right by us and say, "No, no, no. I want to keep my donation dollars in Hyenas if we were there." So, we decided, you know what? We're going to start to we're going to come up with a
name that represents really what we do for the county, which is we're Cape Cod. We serve Cape Cod, but a lot most a lot of our clients are from Yarmouth, most of them. But we
just couldn't turn people away because of geographical lines on a map. And plus, we are Dennis Yarmouth school district. So, we just didn't feel right about saying, "No, you you don't need food from us. Go somewhere else." We just couldn't do it.
So that's how we came to serve all of Boswell County and we're quite proud of it. We've helped over 13,000 people since we opened in 2010. Those are distinct individuals
that we've helped and we still have on the books over 6,100 households and it grows every year. But we're very proud of what we've achieved and with your help every year
it's a huge shot in the arm for our organization. We have we still have no paid staff. I volunteer um about 35 hours a week doing what I do there and everyone else volunteers. It's over a hundred of
us. So thank you Larry. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. to keep up. Nice. Thank you. Someone here from the VNA, the Visiting Nurse Association of Cape Cod.
I guess not. So, gonna zoom in late. She's here. Oh, there's me. Someone from the DA. Oh, sure. Yeah. Welcome. Hi. Hi. It's your time. All right. Uh, thanks for having me. Um, I
don't think you can see me though. Sorry about that. Um, my name is Meg Payne. I'm the director of public health for the visiting nurse association of Cape Cod. Um, I've been in my role over nine years and I've really enjoyed the relationship
that we have um, with the town of Yarmouth. We provide an array of services for Yarmouth residents um, from all ages. So, our public health division is separate from our home care and our hospice division, although there are
some similarities. We do try to um serve as a safety net service and serve a more vulnerable population. So, I'll just run through um our programs and I can give you some statistics on what we've provided the town of Yarmouth um this fiscal year up
to this point and we hope to continue that into next fiscal year. Um, so we have a town public health nurse who will make home visits for people who don't qualify for traditional home care. Um, so there's a kind of a
checklist of items that um, you need in order to qualify for home care. Um, some of which include having to be homebound. Um, there has to be a certified skill involved. Um, you know, you have to have the right insurance and all these
things. it has to be kind of like this perfect storm for people to qualify. Um so we serve people who don't qualify. So um there are many people who are not you know by the Medicare definition homebound um but need
clinical oversight or clinical help. Um there are many people in the town um or across the Cape I should say that need home care but maybe their insurance doesn't um have a home care benefit. So that's when our nurse can go in and
really spend time with the individual and their support system and kind of um get them set up so that they're better able to navigate what's going on in their world um health-wise. So in everything that we do um I'll go through
the whole list, but in everything that we do, it's all about education and connection. So, we're constantly trying to find and connect with new local resources to get people kind of um embedded into the community and um
engaging with uh local resources. So, in addition to her town public health nurse, um she's also a diabetes educator, I should say. So, um she does a lot of visits to people who need um extra support around their diabetes diagnosis.
Um we have a town physical therapist. Um and it's a similar service as far as you know we're trying to target the people um who don't qualify for traditional PT home care. Um so our
physical therapist is also certified in lifestyle medicine. So she does a lot of um education around um things that impact your health that you don't wouldn't necessarily think of initially. So she spends a lot of time looking at the
entire home environment, not just the individual. She looks um and talks a lot about healthy relationships um quality of your sleep, hydration, avoiding risky substances um etc etc. In addition to her home
exercise programs and all that, um we've also seen several patients who have had like multiple falls, multiple visits um to the hospital, so she can go in and and assist. And particularly there's a long wait list for outpatient
PT right now. So until somebody's able to get in with outpatient PT, she's been able to go into the home and kind of um get them better prepared for outpatient So, in addition to our town nurse and
our town physical therapist, um we also have a maternal child health program. We visit um moms prenatally. We particularly are interested in um mothers who don't speak
English as a first language. um mothers who are on Mass Health or don't have insurance, young parents, so anyone who's 26 years and younger, um also anyone who has a history of um substance
use or mental health issues. And then also anyone in a military family. So, we specifically target those demographics for our prenatal home visits because um the data shows that those people are at higher
risk for perinatal mood and anxiety disorders and that's kind of the new fancy term for postpartum anxiety and postpartum depression. Um so, we do look to serve those um folks prenatally. Again, it's a lot of education, a lot of
reassurance, a lot of connecting to resources. A lot of these families that we see um don't have a car seat and they don't have blankets and they don't have um diapers and wipes and clothes. So, we get them set up with all of the wonderful resources that we have um
locally. So, um when they're heading into, you know, birth and beyond, they're they're already um a step ahead from where they were. um our our maternal child health nurses are um perinatal mental health
certified and they're also certified lactation counselors. Um so we do receive all of um the people who everyone who gives birth at Cape Cod Hospital does um is offered a visit from one of our um maternal child health
nurses. So uh for postpartum home visits, we do go in with a baby scale um and we weigh the baby. We treat mom and baby as our couplet patient which I think is really special. Um also giving mom the attention that she deserves um
postpartum and um as well as baby. So we check vital signs on both mom and baby, baby's weight, um answer any questions they have, education, um if there's any concerns around baby's weight, things like that. We can make
multiple visits um any concerns around feeding. Again, we can make multiple visits and um communicate directly with the pediatrician, the provider, um whoever just to to make sure that um everyone is
thriving. Um in addition to the prenatal and postpartum home visits, we also um partner with an organization called Sharing Kindness. Um and it's a wonderful nonprofit organization all around grief support and suicide awareness. uh we partner with them to
offer uh perinatal loss support groups um here on the Cape. So all of our Yarmmouth residents are able to participate if they wish. Um the the groups do take place in Harwitch and also on Nantucket um for anyone
interested. Um we also have some uh exercise programs. We haven't had one in Yarmouth yet, but I would love to be able to implement um some of our our prenatal or postpartum exercise uh classes in Yarmouth at some point. Um that's a goal of
mine. Um and then we also have um a baby clinic at Baby Center in Hyana. So again, that's one of our wonderful resources that we try to link people to. Um I'm on the advis I'm on the advisory board for that too. So um just really trying to get people um connected. leave
and we'll deliver goodies um to families if they if transportation is an issue. Um so that's our maternal child health program. We also have a child immunization clinic that we run regularly out of our dentist office and
also um out of a location in Sandwich. Uh we are part of a VFC program which is called vaccine for children. uh we work with the state to offer free vaccines for children who um are not established with the
pediatrician. So usually um these are kids who have recently moved here from out of the state or out of the country and they need certain vaccines in order to attend school or camp. So we work very closely with the school nurses in Yarmouth. Um they get us connected with
people uh who need to be caught up on vaccines um in order to attend school. We have a an array of exercise programs. We actually have an exercise program going on right now at the senior center. It's called Fit and Strong. It's an
evidence-based um exercise program uh meant to address people with lower extremity osteoarthritis. Um it's twice a week for an hour and a half. That's an hour of physical activity and then 30 minutes of education. Um I there's like over 20
people in the class that show up regularly. Um we have offered this in the past and it's always been a huge success in Yarm. Um in addition to exercise programs and presentations, we also do
the we track the communicable disease in the town of Yarmouth um and collaborate with Barsville County and also the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. Um so anytime a resident in the town of Yarmmouth is diagnosed with um a communicable disease, we're
notified and then we follow up um and do an investigation. Really what we're doing is collecting data for the state and trying to minimize spread. So sometimes um there may be restaurants involved, there may be businesses involved, there may be like a large
party or event um where we need to con connect with multiple people and try to educate on how to reduce um the spread. So, that was a really long- winded um kind of highlevel overview of what we
offer um as a contracted public health arm uh for the town of Yarmouth. Uh we do contract with all of the towns in Barnstable County offering these same services. So, I think it's uh there's one town that we don't contract with, which is the town of Barnstagle, but I
do think that, you know, having a really wide view of what's going on outside of town lines does really benefit um everybody. Um and I do have some statistics if you're interested. So um
for our child immunization clinics um we so far from July to now we have vaccinated 10 children who needed vaccines in order to attend school. Um we have almost 20 hours accumulated for
communicable disease surveillance and investigation. Uh which is pretty normal. I would say that's not like um totally out of the norm. Um for our home visit hours, it's been a little over 10 hours. We've been able to serve 20
residents. So included in that actually is our um our homebound vaccine program. We do offer flu and COVID vaccines for individuals who have a difficult time getting out of the home. It could be transportation. It could be mobility. It
could be mental health. It could be that they're a caregiver for somebody who uh has a difficult time getting out of the house. Um so we did vaccinate 20 um homebound individuals. Meg um just to be
fair to everyone else, there was a limited time. I'm not sure you could hear the little ring that that happened. Oh, I'm sorry. Not not a problem. Not a problem. I couldn't hear. I can I can stop there, but if anyone has questions, um, feel free. Any questions? I had a question.
Um, on on the application, it says the total budget of the organization is $250,000. Does that correct? Okay. That is an accumulation of all of our town contract funding. So, some towns I think it is included in the application. our largest
contract is almost $50,000. Um, okay. So, when you combine all of our contracts, that's the total. Yeah, I'm not sure. I quite understand that. I had the I was wondering whether there was Yeah, especially with the
full-time 243 people. So, I'm not sure what the 250 represents yet. Perhaps you can describe it a different way. I think it's when you say 250 people, well, full-time and part-time employees
are are considerable for that budget. Oh, yeah. So, that's just um those are employees of the VNA, not just public health. Um we do we do pull like for example, some of our presentations, we do pull experts in other areas. Um, we
do have like VNA educators, for example, that are not part of our department, but we do utilize them to pull in for different presentations. We do have a pertium dietician for the VNA. She's not part of our department, but she does um assist with a lot of our
programs. Um, so I guess that's it is uh for the VNA as a whole, not just our our public health department has 10 people. Okay. Anything else? Okay. Great. Thank you. Thank you very
much. Thank you. Thank you, Meg. Okay. Um I see we have three individuals out there. Um I assume they're here for the same reason. We'll do an order of arrival. I think you were the first. Why don't you come up, introduce yourself
and your name and organization. And once again, there's excuse me, there's 10 minutes. All right, that's where we've been offering people. It's been a long list of people who need funding. I've been here before. Hi everybody. I'm
Patty Mrostus. I'm the senior director of strategic funding at housing assistance and this is our first proposal, I think, to the board of health. Um, we embarked on a project
about a year and a half ago to try to gain town support for all of our programs. And so far, this is town number 12 that we are asking for support. We have secured support which is listed in our proposal from 11 other
towns. Yarmouth is actually our third highest served town on the Cape. Um, ahead of us is only Barnstable and Felmouth. We served 6,500 households last year. I mean, does anybody not know
about the housing crisis, right? We um we recently, you probably saw we were on the front page of the Sunday paper. We had a development that we built, excuse me, in partnership with POA, the preservation for affordable
housing in Bourne, and we had 42 affordable apartments. and we received 950 applications. So that gives you an idea of the scope of the need. Um in Yarmouth last year, we invested
um over $700,000 on the 180 residents that we served. The the bulk of that funding was for what we call homelessness prevention. And that can be anything from helping those who
are truly homeless to preventing somebody from losing their home because they can't pay a rent. They can't pay a utility bill. Um they need funding for first, last, and security deposit if they have found a home. We also invest a lot of money in our energy department,
our energy audits that and also in terms of repairs. We find a lot of excuse me and primarily it's elderly folks who when we go to do energy audits have such extreme needs in terms of
repairs that they can't afford. Oftentimes their homes are paid for but their roofs are leaking, their plumbing is faulty. So we invest a lot of money for that as well. We do receive funding for a lot of these programs from National Grid from Capesafe but it's
just not enough. And if you look at our budget, you're going to see that's $48 million. And you're going to say, why are they here asking us for money? $30 million of that money passes through our organization right to landlords. So primarily for section 8 housing. We're
the only se section 8 voucher purveyor on the cape. So much of that money passes right through us. So it's not operational money. Any additional services that are not state funded all rely on fundraising. And if you see our
list of public funds on the last page, it's not that plentiful for what for the numbers of people that we serve. So we are asking all the towns for some general funding across for their residents um who utilize our services.
Okay. I could go on and on, but I I'll leave it for questions because I'm sure folks have many, Eric, Larry. No, it was very clear. A good presentation. Yeah, it's really concise and helpful. And again, even the dollar amounts I
like to include because it's it's hard to believe really that this, you know, that this many people need help. I mean, even often we're astounded by that. Um and again only second to Barnstable receiving paid services 780 residents
and then Falmouth 428 and Yarmouth with 402 so the third highest on the Cape and the islands for this year. Um I'll also add that prior to the pandemic we were serving about 5,000 households a year and now we've averaged in the last three
years 6,500. So, it just shows the the need. Last year, um, our homeless outreach teams that are across the Cape served 300 people. This year, which doesn't end
until June 30th, excuse me, terrible allergies. Um, they're already up to 550 people. So, it's almost doubling every year with the homeless people. And those are folks that are technically and chronically homeless actually living on
the street, living in cars. Um it's really it's I mean who is sh in the face of homeless are different. It's primarily the elderly and the disabled and that's mainly because they can't afford their rents. They just landlords
are taking advantage of the market are raising the rates or they're selling their homes that were year- round rentals for years. So, we're seeing people literally show up in our lobby with li living in their cars. So, um again, there's not a shortage of need
for services. So we again we're trying to um convey that to the towns because I think folks don't realize that we serve people across the Cape. I think they think it's just Barnstable or that we're the housing authority. So I think coming
before you and giving you a sense of what you know what we're doing in the community is important. Thank you. Keep up the great work. We appreciate you coming in. Thank you. That was easy. Thank you. Thank you. And for the folks that just came in,
we'll be would we decide like the end of June there'll be notifications notifications go out like toward the end of June. So okay, we're going to continue in order. I think someone is here from Independence House. I think
they were the next person to come in. I'm recognizable because I've been here before. this house. Um, I'm going to put my timer on, but I know that I won't go 10 minutes. So, good evening everyone. I am Lisa Hurge Putnham, the executive
director of Independence House. And uh I think the first thing that I want to say is thank you for the support that you have um or I I should say your commitment to survivors of domestic and sexual violence over the last many years
where the town of Yarmouth has um supplemented our funding uh to provide services to survivors. And so today I come before you to request uh $10,000 um to help us to provide free
services and I'll describe what those are in a moment to survivors of domestic and sexual violence uh from Yarmouth. Um I did write some statistics down and I just want to look at them quickly so I don't make them up. So, um, last fiscal
year from the town of Yarmouth, we served, um, 968 residents of Yarmouth specifically. Um, some of those are duplicated. 234 of those were brand new people that we had never worked with
before. But we do find that, um, survivors do come to us for services and they're, um, they come they're ongoing services. Um, so that that's about 10,000 units of services is about what we would describe
it. So if you really look at the cost, I was doing the math and it's probably about $100 per client. However, that's not one meeting. That's unlimited. Um, so someone there is no
charge ever. You could come 20 times or 100 times and there is no additional charge for services. So why is the work we do important? What we achieve, what we hear
from our clients who usually come to us initially when they're in crisis, meaning that there has been um some type of violence in the home. Um what we hear is that we are there to support them, that we help them, that they don't know
what they would do without us. Um but to put in perspective, the work that we do goes from um around the age of five up until 80. So we serve across the lifespan. Um depending on what the needs
of the um we we like to use the term survivor more than victim. And so what we help people achieve is safety, uh, well-being, meaning that after they're done, you know, uh, with our
services, to put it simply, they feel better. And again, I never like to present things in a way as to say, you know, someone comes in and then they're perfect after they're done. And that's not the truth. The truth is is that it takes time
um often several visits in our community based program before um someone can truly say they feel like they've turned a corner. So the work that we do is really focused on um what people need
and you know we're known as a women's organization but we really think of ourselves as an organization that serves survivors. So, someone um you know, it doesn't matter what your gender is. If you have been assaulted or you're a
victim of uh domestic violence or sexual violence, we will serve you and we always have. It's not new. It's something we've always done. Not to say that domestic violence is not rooted in in in one's gender. That's how it rape and sexual violence or gender based
violence, but um there are many different types of relationships. And so we want to honor and recognize that. And we know that often um men also experience um sexual assault in childhood. And if someone wants to come
and receive support for those services, we're going to also provide that support. And in fact, we have the work that we do um with children um has to do with the violence that they might witness at home or even directly experience. So, we provide
counseling, support, referral, connections with other resources if they need it. We have a a shelter for domestic and sexual violence survivors and um anyone well if when we have space, which we don't always have, um
can access our shelter for safety. Um we have, you know, staff in the courts, all of the courts across Cape Cod. We've been on Cape Cod since 1979. We're homegrown, founded here, we've been here, and um we're I like to think of us
as a wonderful resource for the community. Uh so, you know, I just don't know if we weren't here. I'm not sure what would happen to survivors of domestic and sexual violence. I'm sure they'll that sounds like a big overstatement, but that's we that's
where people come to us for that um type of um assistance. And we have um we're very well connected with the town of Yarmouth. We have several collaborations. We work um in fact we just had um sexual assault
awareness month and the Yarmouth chief of police showed up at our event. Um they did a a rap on their one of their cruisers um taking a stand against um you know sexual assault and so they they
we participate with them. We know Annie Catalano. They're um well, Annie used to work for us. They're a domestic violence um specialist that works in the town. And so we work closely together to collaborate to provide services for um
you know victims of domestic or sexual violence, the Yarmouth um healthy aging. We are connected with that. We are connected with the Yarm well DY school uh district or YD. It's probably the proper way to say it in this meeting. Um
and so uh we're obviously well known, well connected, work with many other organizations in the community just to um you know try to provide that safety and support and to help to bring um uh to put it quite in a nutshell well-being
for people who are seeking that support. So I'll stop there and ask for questions. All right, Larry. Three minutes to go. Good. Complete synopsis here. Yeah. No, it's it's it's completed as usual. Yeah.
Barry, Sarah, anything good right now. Thank you. Nice to see you. Okay. Thank you. Keep it up. Thank you very much for coming in. Thank you. It's always nice to see you guys. Hopefully, we don't have to see you again, but I'm sure we will. Yeah. I know. Yeah. at least for
until we solve the problem, which I forgot to mention. We do do prevention work as well. So, how's that working? How's that going? Well, you know, we actually had some funding to do prevention from the Department of Public Health and that funding is now gone um
because the CDC cut the funding. Um, but the way that we try to approach our work is it's our mission and so we're always going to try and raise funds in one way, shape or form. So how is it going? We think it's effective. We've been going
in particularly with well as effective as one can. How do you measure something that didn't happen? And so what we're hoping, you know, what we try to do is to talk about healthy relationships, what the red flags are, how to be a bystander. Um, if there is something if
you're say on your on your camp your in your school surrounding or even in a social setting and there is something that is that seems inappropriate, we want you to feel empowered to be that person that says, uh, this is not okay.
how this is, you know, let's let's try something else. In other words, someone is, I don't know, calling someone a name or bullying someone or it looks like there could be some type of an assault. We want um young people to kind of design the world and
the future that they envision for themselves, which is one where these things really don't happen. So we're trying to uh get at that underneath that before we come to the you know way upstream
further upstream where it's already too late. So but it's a tough it's tough. It's a lot of societal and um other factors that contribute to why we still have domestic and sexual violence. Thanks. Hopefully that answers.
Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you so much. Thank you. Take care. Okay. I think we have one more person here. Welcome. Hello. Just so we can find the paperwork. What organization
are you you from? I am from Sight Loss Services. Okay. And just tell us. Okay. My name my name is Rhonda Garin. I am the executive director at Site Loss Services. Um our office is located in Dennis. However, we serve the entire
Cape and the islands. Um, start by thanking you for your past support. Um, I'm pretty sure this is pretty complete. The chairman of our board prepared this for you. Um, for fiscal year 2024, we serve 253
unduplicated Yarmouth residents, providing a total of 1328 units of service across our eight um service areas. Uh the one that uh we feel is the most important are the self-help support
groups. Um Yarmouth continues to be our largest service area. You would think it would be Barnstable, but it's not. It's Yarmouth. Um so to that end, we have three support groups that meet in the town of Yarmmouth. One meets over at the
senior center, one meets at Thurwood Place, and one meets at Heatherwood. um you pretty you have everything I think in in um in the proposal. The the one thing I wanted to talk about tonight that's not in the proposal is we had
launched a medical transportation program and that program was for anyone over the age of 60 who needed to get to cataract surgery, coral transplants, something where they were going to be under anesthesia and where the COA
couldn't give them the ride. They couldn't have an Uber or a lift. They don't have family or friends here or anyone available to take them. So, we had applied for a grant through elder services to provide that service. And then it went a little further for folks
who were legally blind or visually impaired and we would take them to things like colonoscopies, day surgeries, and then even things that didn't require anesthesia like mammogs. So that was um a federally funded
program and we were invited to reapply again for the next fiscal year and within a few days of submitting our letter of interest we received an email back saying that next year's grants were being put on pause and then within a few days of that came the next email saying
the current year's funding was now also on pause. So we are not sure that we are going to be able to provide that service. Um it's kind of really important in Yarmouth because Heatherwood has discontinued medical transportation for their residents. So
we were providing some service to residents at Heatherwood. So um we have a a small matching grant from a private foundation but they will only cover uh people who live between the towns of Provincetown and Harwitch. So I
it's going to be particularly important for the towns beyond Haritch um to consider our request for funding this year because we will probably be using that a lot towards the transportation. It um was amazing how many people were using it. Um we were
taking folks as far away as Boston. Um, we had done, I think, a total of 18 rides before the funding was cut and five of them were for Yarmouth residents. Um, so we're pretty um sad to
lose that funding for such an important program. Um, and we are looking for ways to um to be able to continue that program. Other than that, I know I'm probably last and you probably want to go home. So, if you have any questions,
I'm happy to answer them. I'm I think everything is in here that you might need. Um but if you have any questions, I'm happy to answer them. There must be a lot of visits that the person needs transportation for either based upon age and not driving or any
time to see an opthalmologist or optometrist. Their eyes are dilated, right? So that's so because this grant was so small, we couldn't just do the regular checkups with the opthalmologist. This was for things that
were requiring anesthesia or or some way that they um that they wouldn't be able to transport themselves home. For the legally blind and the visually impaired folks, we went beyond. So, a visually impaired person who is being dilated would certainly be able to get a ride
with us. Larry, sir Barry, any questions? Um, anything else? I mean, this is the time, that's all. If you have anything else, so we're not rushing out the door. Okay. Yeah. No, I just um Anything else that we should know? We're just like I
said, Yarmouth is our biggest town. Um, we're super busy. Every week I um every week I have a at least two, sometimes three office visits or home visits. Um, we're staffed very part-time. and we each work 10 hours a week. So, we run
the organization on 30 hours a week. We're pretty proud of what we can accomplish with our 30 hours. Um, we just the need just keeps continuing as the population ages. Macular degeneration is a huge thing
here on the Cape and it just seems like I mean I wish people didn't need us but they do and unfortunately they need us more and more. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um let's just have a a discussion
a little bit um about how to go about uh setting some rules for how we should fill out the uh Google sheet here. Um I can I interrupt you for a hot second, please? Uh this might help. Um yeah, when we decided the next meeting, we said June 2nd, but the next meeting
should be May 19th. May 19th. That's the third Okay. Monday. So that might give you an one extra meeting together to discuss. So okay. Um well decide how we want to um some
guidelines for us to fill it out and uh I guess a timetable. How do you want to handle that logistics? I know last year we came up with some system everybody gave me it and I just ran the numbers through.
Um, so people have some ideas, uh, rules just to keep it on target. What What is the total amount? We'll get you tomorrow. We'll get you an updated. Yeah, that's what this was. Well, that 60,000. 60,000. Oh, I mean, but it's
Yeah, that's right. What's available is 60,000. Yeah. Okay. Um the first thing that comes to mind for me is um should there be a limit on how much a
board member um can put in for? In other words, putting in let's say someone wants $18,000. Should there be a limit of a certain amount that a organization would
get? just trying to think if things will get skewed or not. The other is should it be anything based upon the number of board members who want to do something? In other words, if one person wants to support one organization and four
others don't or let's, you know, or the other way around, you know that. So, should that make any difference in trying to figure out how to divide this up? Um, you know, whether it's the number of board members have anything to do with it.
Um, I think we can make our own decisions a little bit. Maybe there's an organization you don't think needs it versus, you know, that kind of thing. U think just free associating here. I think everything we heard tonight sounds like they're Oh, for sure. They need it. Especially with the reduction in the
funding that's it's got slash for health. My first impression was with was leaning toward uh people that buy food. I mean that seems to be a the first
necessity and of course housing is another obvious issue. Um I mean those are my that would be those priorities would
seem to come to the forefront for me anyway. Okay. I I think like if you use the worksheet and then we turn all the worksheets into you Hillard. Okay. You kind of take an average. Yeah. 10,000 10,000 5,000 12,000 and then
divide that by however many people vote on it and then work your way down. You had a good formula last year. You came up with a pretty good formula that seemed to work pretty well. I think I can't remember what it was, but I I could look go back and look it up. You might have it. Okay. If you thought it
worked, whatever. I I um did. All right. I mean, it seemed reasonable considering that we obviously don't have enough money to fund everything, right? Uh, and they're very different. I
mean, they're ones I mean, $3,000 would be a tremendous amount of money for some of these smaller ones where it's nothing for these major ones. It's something I think to keep in mind. Some of them don't really get any
funding. um right that it's you know they're just not set up that way. Uh it's just it's difficult I mean with what's happened with health and human resources and just funding. Yeah.
Um so what what do people want to do? They just want to put amounts. You think we should give any priorities to the people that came in and made a presentation? I I was a little hesitant
to say that, but um I think it's perfectly reasonable to come in to have the expectation that somebody if you're asking for a large sum of money. I mean, I understand that people have other
things going on, but I would tend to give priority to those who were available tonight, right, to present a case with that, you know, so that'll be reflected in your individual
or mind. Yes. Of how it's something that to keep in mind and you've mentioned certainly food and housing. Um, so the amount of money we have available is 60,000. 60 6.
Okay. That's I think that's what we had last year. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I don't I don't really have an opinion on setting caps. Okay. Um, for it can only be as highest as whatever. What's the highest that an
organization was? Was it the food pantry or 19,000? Food pantry was was the highest I think. Yeah. 19 Okay. Um, which is a third very large percentage, right? Really hard.
Um, okay. I mean, I think it's difficult to try to develop some type of a formula that that works. I mean, the only thing I had mentioned it last, the only thing I could possibly conceive was that there's five board members
and if you divide $60,000 five ways, everybody has a certain amount to allocate. And I'm not advocating for that, but that's one way to look at it. But I think I think what we did I think we were in general
agreement last year when we all took the sheet home and like Barry said it seems like you took a percentage you know what we had and then what um what percentage of that amount was of
the it's 78,500 is what we need. Is that correct? No, that was that was at the bottom of the typo 105. You're you're looking at less than 60%,
right, of the of what we could do. I mean, I guess if you wanted to just keep it fair, you could just take 60% of of each amount. And I think seems like you leaned that way the last time, but I
can't recall. I mean, I I don't know. I I um I still lean more toward housing and and basic needs. Basic needs. Yeah. The the the 60,000 then or 60% is a place to start. Then
you're suggesting maybe that would work that you you mentioned three things. Um you were just talking about the food, housing, and who and who made a a personal appearance would be three things that may affect how you're going to Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. It's going to be subjective no matter which
way you look at it. Yeah. Where where did that 60% come from? Can you're just saying that we of the 105 thou we have 60,000 to give and is a request for 105,000. Okay. So that's whatever that so it's
less than 60%. So essentially if you look 58% or something like that it's if you added everything up we can only give 58 about 58 or 59% of what's requested. So you could actually you
could apply that 58 to each bill did okay it kind of made sense and I that would be more of an objective way to look at it but then again you're not looking at each you know the role that each of of
these organizations plays as far as their vital role goes you know and what what the impact of of a of us not giving them the requested funds would be on that organization, right?
You know, I think some organizations with a real large budget would probably notice it less. Mhm. You know, I mean, the ones with millions of dollars. I mean, if if I was I'll probably make my own spread. Do you Is this um She gave
us a couple of two copies here. Well, you're going to get you're going to get a an updated copy tomorrow. Yeah, we'll email you updated copies of of what? The what? The typos from the ones that said a thousand that we're asking 10,000. So, are you going to send the electronic
version of this that that we can enter our numbers into? Yes. Would would you be able to I mean, for me at least, it's important. It's kind of important to see the budget of the organization. I mean, I can add it in, but I'm not sure what
you're saying. Well, I'd like to see next to the amount requested. It's important to me to see what their their bud their annual budget is for you because and I know that's a bit arbitrary to just look at the the total budget of the organization, but you
know, if if uh if an organization has an operating budget of $48 million and they're requesting $10,000, right? you know, the impact that they might have by not receiving the funding is
going to be different than an operation that has a budget of a h 100,000 and is requesting 10,000 from us. So, I think that's the other issue, for example, with the food pantry, they lost all their federal funding. I mean,
that was a big deal. I mean, like she said, all their protein came from the USDA. That's gone. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, that's a big a big loss. Yeah. Yeah. Huge. So, I would I mean, I'd have to
lean in their favor in that case, you know, whereas I will say I didn't understand that the VNA. I I don't think that that was a reflection of their total budget, their two 200 people they
had. I agree. I had the same question. So yeah, that would mean that everyone was making $1,000 a year with 250 employees. So yeah, but she explained how was it that that's probably one area that I
wouldn't feel as guilty about not giving them I might cut that down quite a bit. Whereas the food pantry I' I'd like I'd love to see them get what they're asking for. Yeah, it's just a reminder of how
many organizations are are doing just that is providing food. A number of them. Um, but it may be a place to start when you're of that 58% and then start making adjustments and that that's a good idea to how everyone could start.
Yeah. So, you want to just then we'll send it in do it send it to you if you want. Um, four of us can send it in to you if you want to do it that way. Is that easier? Does anybody use the Google platform? You bet. Because we can all
edit the same sheet unless you want to keep it private at this time. Yeah, that's what I did last year. Um I think we all sent them to you. Yeah. So, let's do that again. I I guess maybe more work. If everybody feels comfortable, send it
to me. Yeah. Um, in one way or another, you can if you don't feel comfortable with using a sheet, then just type it out and send it in. And, um, that's all in some matter to me. Just send her electronically or shove it in my mailbox. I don't care. We can do it that
way. Um, Charlie just needs to be worked with some talk to him. So, I'm happy to update the spreadsheet including the total budget. Is that what you want? And you'll send that. Okay. Thank you. I'll do it right this
time. I think you did a great job as it was. Yeah, absolutely. We can we can add a few zeros. That's all right. Um, one thing I just thought of, I had sent out a link for uh from Plains Hospital about hoarding. I don't think I sent it to
you. I got forwarded. Please forward it over. Barry, send it. Um, I want to make sure I'm using your correct email address. That's one thing. Okay, it didn't come up the way I wanted it to. So, I do want that. Uh, but yeah,
uh, take take a look at it as well. Uh, so, uh, anything else besides, uh, I wish the Knicks a lot of luck tonight, um, against the Celtics. Uh, anything else? So, the we are meeting the 19th then 19th. 19th.
Yes. Um, I don't know about you guys, but just listening to these folks just kind of depressing. We realize it's awful. Just uh what's going on out there? It's getting worse. So I Yeah.
Um so something to think about. Um and this is probably just the tip of the iceberg. Yeah. Yeah. But as an or you know as a board we need to start thinking differently a little bit and in the way we've had to before
uh you know to maintain the health of people in town. Um and figure out other things we can do. I mean $60,000 is is nothing compared to what the problem is. And we have all these how is that funding
appropriated? select word under their main budget. So they just looked at what we made last year or took last year and kept it the same. It usually has at one point it was a little higher a couple years ago. I thought a little higher both all the years I've been here and
this is my second year doing this. It's been 60. So we did better but and then it has to be it's voted on at town meetings. Yeah. Yeah. It's pretty straightforward. I was pretty impressed with some of the things that Duffy Health Center is doing. I seem to be
taking a a innovative approach to community engagement and so I mean these are all resources for people in the community but getting connected and that that's I like that they're going to all of these events where you know it's a
non-threatening environment um versus showing up on somebody's doorstep. Yeah, you made an excellent presentation as well. Oh, I like the foster parent one and she was and that that's just a mom and pop sort of that and my wife and I did we fostered kids
for a long time and literally 2 o'clock in the morning on a Tuesday that can you come grab these three kids. Yeah. Like uh it's it's a difficult that that's a it's a very hard. She's
Yeah. They have a quite a history. a couple and taking but that's a good example of a small budget you know not asking for a ridiculous amount of money either you know so I mean certainly consider that I don't think we were uh
quite as generous with this last speaker last time I seem to remember the the um the blind uh do you want us to get together what we gave last year you you mentioned that. Yeah, why not? It doesn't mean we're
going to follow it, but I know in the past years we've we've had a list of what we uh gave the previous year. So, that that may be helpful. Yeah, I have that information. Yeah, I think there's a tendency to sort of
um let that impact or at least myself let that impact my decision on how I would allocate the funding this year. But that's not to say that's right. Right. Uh, one thing that changed and Bruce was saying, but at the same time,
if we didn't give them anything and we were impressed with that presentation, maybe we could take that into consideration as well because it seemed to be that this um, site loss service last year, we didn't we weren't as generous as
other services. and she made an excellent presentation, I think, plus the loss of some of their funding to get people to these appointments. Yeah. And sometimes they're going to see specialists means going up to Plymouth
or up to to Boston Massioneer or whatever. Yeah. Okay. Anything else? This tough. It's It's really upsetting. Um but once again, let's keep in mind
there's some other things that the board should be doing and the health department be doing because things have changed or are changing. Um you want to adjourn? Anyone want to do that at this point? I move we adjourn. You're doing well tonight. This is a seat. In favor?
Okay, everyone. We're jouring. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.