DeKalb County Community Mental Health Board Diversity Equity Inclusion (Dei) Ad Hoc Committee met Oct. 7.
Here is the minutes provided by the committee:
Committee Members Present: Marilyn Stromborg, Robert Cook, Perry Maier, Jane Smith
Other Persons Present:
Office staff: Deanna Cada, Kathy Ostdick
1. Call to Order
Ms. Smith called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m.
2. Agenda Approval
Mr. Cook moved to approve the agenda; seconded by Mr. Maier. The motion passed unanimously on a voice vote.
3. Discussion of Committee Make-up, leadership Structure
Ms. Cada explained to the Committee that she had spoken to Dan Templin, Executive Director of the DeKalb County Community Foundation, and Terry Spartz, Community Liaison Officer for the DeKalb County Community Foundation, about their organization joining the Mental Health Board on the DEI Committee. They liked the idea and would bring in one of their Board members also. The Community Foundation is already working on some of the same items. Mr. Templin said they have a road map of their ideas that they could share. Ms. Cada said she felt that there needed to be more diversity on the Committee and suggested two more members from the community or our funded agencies. The make-up of the Committee would be four members from the Mental Health Board, three members from the Community Foundation, and two members from agencies or the community
Ms. Smith told the Committee that she felt this Committee should have a mission statement.
Ms. Smith will remain as Committee Chair until the entire Committee is formed.
4. New Business
A. Current County DEI Landscape
Ms. Cada gave the committee a list of other DEI events taking place in DeKalb County. NIU is working with the City of DeKalb on a presentation by Dr. John Powell entitled “Belonging”. The Ben Gordon Center has been looking at how to provide services to people of color in our community. DeKalb County put on Implicit Bias training. The County is discussing offering that same training to the community and have it facilitated by the Mental Health Board. The State of Illinois DHS has put out a grant opportunity called the Healing Illinois Grant Opportunity. The Ben Gordon Center is interested in applying for this grant.
B. Update on other state Mental Health Board work
Ms. Cada asked other Mental Health Boards if they were doing any work on DEI type Committees. Ms. Cada received answers from about ten that said they were not.
C. Purpose/Goals of Committee. The following items will be discussed further after the Committee is formed.
• Position Development/exploration
• Board/Committee Education
• Committee Priorities
5. Date of next DEI Ad Hoc Committee meeting
The next meeting will be October 28, 2020 starting at 5:00 pm.
6. Adjournment
The meeting was adjourned at 6:07 pm.
https://dekalbcounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/min20-mhdei-oct.pdf
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