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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWomens Commission - Minutes - 09/20/1999Commission on the Status of Women Minutes September 20,1999 Present: Rita Anastasio, Haemi Cha, Tam Frager, Bobbie Gonzales, Lisa Gorham, Annmarie Evans(Chair 223-7957), Lena Sunthankar, Sara Lamia. Liaisons: Laurie Fonken-Joseph, City Staff (221-6871) Diane Gregg, Crossroads Safehouse Excused Absences: Joann Ginal, Ruth Weatherford, Lisa Hembloom. Unexcused Absence: Susan Crowe, Debbie Tamlin. I. Call to order: Meeting was called to order 6:10. II.. Minutes: Approved as written. III. Review Agenda: Bobbie will not be giving a legislative report. IV. Announcements: A. Tam and Deb talked about having name tags for members of the Commission members to improve visibility at meetings etc. Members were interested in exploring this option. Annmarie will make some contacts to find out the cost. Laurie will contact the City Clerks office to see if there is protocol for this. B. Annmarie complimented Tam on letter to Mayor Martinez as a follow up to the presentation to City Council. C. Annmarie complimented Bobbie on her soapbox addressing the issues regarding the study and senior women. Also acknowledged the letter and information from Marjorie McTaggert which members received in their packets. D. September 16t° article on Boards and Commission by Kyle Henley. Discussed the comments of council and Ruth's comments. May want to have more discussion about what to do when the press contacts us in the future. Discussed speaking to Karen Wykunat about the consistency of attendance by the Commission on the Status of Women members. Annmarie was concerned that she may have misled Karen when they met. Will follow up with a letter to her, and a phone call. Tam will do the letter and Annmarie will work with her on follow up. E. Discussed inviting more council members to our regular meetings and will look to doing this in the near future. There is great interest in having more involvement with Karen on a regular basis. F. A member of the Colorado State University Commission on Women and Gender Equity contacted Laurie to see about creating a liaisonship. Will see if they would like to have a liaison from our group and their meetings and a liaison from their group at our meetings.. Lena is interested in being a liaison. G. Mail was passed around. V. Business Items A. Report on Marcile N. Wood Award: 50 people were in attendance. Mary Benanfi did a great write up in the paper on the award and the winner. Charlotte Roberts was thrilled. Proclamation was read. Still need to look at how to get more participation in the future and more nominations, as well as getting started earlier in the year. Need to get it out in the public more so the community is more responsive. B. Discussion on Domestic Violence: Diane wanted to follow up on how the question by Council was not responded to at the presentation of the Study. Wanted to give the Commission some ideas they can pass along to Council about issues of Domestic Violence. If this is a target issue then we need to know how to respond. We were not prepared for that question. It would be helpful for Diane to know what the Commission on the Status of Women needs to know on the issues of Domestic Violence. The Commission will need to know more about what Crossroads does and then see how the Commission can work with Crossroads. What do you feel would be some positive directions to move in in looking at violence against women? One of the major focuses of Crossroads is looking at the outreach they do. The Crisis intervention is more like a Band-Aid and they are clearly seeing that this can only be one part, that the bigger part for them is working with kids on safety plans for their homes and encouraging the schools to be more receptive to the education of kids around these issues of safety. The Commission could help here. Outreach is the focus. Working with human services agencies to help workers gain tools in how to support families in which there is violence. Also PVH ER staff. Crossroads is working with the police department and connecting with them and giving more ongoing education. There is a program called Domestic Abuse intervention project and a task force which does education and there is routine training for the Police. The sheriffs dept. has some training. Colorado State University PD does not have any program and they never use the response team. There is also a program for perpetrators. The Hope Center works on issues of violence as well as substance abuse. Dr. Linny Medoff has a program called PROVE that works with perpetrators. Primarily Court ordered programs. Some people do go voluntarily, but that is not common. What help do the victims have? Primary focus is to give them safety, in addition they receive direct support counseling and looking at options. They are provided with basic knowledge and resources which can help them. Many of these women are so isolated they don't know what is out there. If they choose to they can receive support in looking at their own beliefs and have support groups to do reprogramming. Women supporting other women is also a piece. Women can be worked with one time or up to five years. How many involve substance abuse and is there encouragement to use support such as ALANON? Yes, however they separate the issue of violence from the chemical use. The chemical use intensifies the abuse. There is a program called HEART which is based on 12 step but is not based on spirituality or powerlessness. How do counselors respond to the question of whether or not they have been through it themselves? Encourage staff to talk about this as an issue of oppression and that we live in a society where women are oppressed and give examples of this and then say I have experienced oppression, abuse and have been victimized in this society. Most of the cases of abuse go unreported. Crossroads does not have to report, which then encourages women to trust that they are not part of the system. They do provide facts about abuse, about what will happen if an arrest is made and educate women on what may happen if they decide to file a report. Crossroads does have a legal program for restraining orders primarily, and to help with the Criminal justice system. Are there specific things that we can do, letters etc. to encourage them to partake in the programs? What support can we offer? Working really hard to get the community to hear this information and to see that we need to be more collective in meeting the needs of women. There is a goal of opening a resource center and right now they need money. The resource center would be a place to offer counseling for people who are not residence. Community awareness and verbal support to have people support the development of a resource center, a building where they can offer services to all their clients, teens, children and women. Crossroads is doing fund-raisers and public outreach. Contact Mary Ann Martell about the fundraising efforts. Ideally would like a center of their own. They deal with a large volume of clientele and need more space. Discussed use of the Women at Noon Series to get more exposure and information. Possibly on the topic of Campus Women's Safety. Commission could support efforts through sending letters etc. At this point what might work is that when Crossroads sees that they might need some support from the Commission Diane will bring that request to the Commission. C. Discussion of Work Plan/Subcommittees: Marcile N. Wood, Women's History Month, Public Relations Committee, Child Care subcommittees. ■ Public Relations: Annmarie, Tam, Joann, Haemi, Lena, Lisa G. ■ Marcile N. Wood: Lisa G., Debbie, Joann ■ Women's History: Susan, Sara, Lisa H. ■ Child Care/Legislative: Bobbie, Annmarie, Debbie ■ Child Care/On-site: Lisa G., Sara, Lena ■ Child Care/ Community Outreach: Rita, Haemi, Susan Future meetings will be structured in such a way that we have a business meeting for the first 45 minutes to hour and then break into subcommittees to work for the next hour. D. Multicultural Commission report: Bobbie. Talked about merchant awareness and the revenue they are losing because they do not carry products for the diverse populations in Fort Collins. Renita is helping to develop a survey that students will distribute to merchants in town. Contributed money to Hispanic Heritage Month. Coffee Connection is doing a Celebration of Diversity for December 11, 1999 and Multicultural Commission will be participating. Will be looking into the immigrant population of Germans from Russia. E. December Retreat: Discussed the retreat options, doing it at the Edward's House or having a pot luck. Decided to have a potluck. Rita offered her home. Confirm with Jody Donovan for December 13, 1999 from 5:00-9:00 p.m. F. Day Care provider panel at the November meeting. Invite all City Council members. Reserve CIC room. Send council letter and follow up with phone call. Cherry Trine, day care provider will be contacted and asked to pull together a panel. VI. Adjourn 8:15. Next meeting Monday October 18, 1999. Refreshments by Susan Crowe and Annmarie Evans!