MINUTES
Moraine Township Board of Trustees
Thursday, September 25, 2008 7:30 PM
Moraine Township Office
MINUTES OF REGULAR MEETING
September 25, 2008
The meeting was called to order at 7:35 PM by Trustee Zaluda in Supervisor Barnes’ absence. Upon roll call the following members were present: Trustees Bryna Gamson, Margoth Moreno, Cynthia Plouché, and Jeff Zaluda. Also Present: Clerk Ellen Gussin, Director General Assistance Tracy Coleman.
Approval of Minutes
The Regular Meeting Minutes of September 11, 2008 stand approved as written.
Approval of Bills
Trustee Plouché moved, seconded by Trustee Moreno, approval of the bills. Upon roll call, motion carried.
Public Comment
None
Agency Presentations
Zacharias Sexual Abuse Center (formerly LaCASA) – Jeff Blumenfeld, Grant Manager, thanked the Board for the opportunity to speak and invited everyone to visit the Center in Gurnee. They have 17 full-time staff members and are the only rape crisis center in Lake County. All services are provided free of charge and focus on three distinct areas:
Counseling to both individuals and groups for children and adults, including loved ones of survivors of sexual abuse;
Advocacy, with focuses on medical and legal programs in both emergency rooms in local hospitals and the circuit courts in which the sexual abuse cases are tried. The court proceedings sometimes take as long as three years to resolve;
Prevention Intervention Program, which brings education and awareness to schools with both students and parents in the classroom.
This year the agency has served 500 children who reside in Moraine Township, as well as 70 different Moraine Township individuals in the advocacy and counseling programs including attendees at civic presentations. Volunteers undergo a 40-hour training program, and the agency has 100 volunteers on-call. There is a full-time bi-lingual counselor and a full-time bi-lingual advocate prevention specialist on staff. Jeff stated that he would appreciate any help the Township could give his agency with the Highland Park Hospital and Police Department, who he stated are not as cooperative as they would like to foster greater collaboration and success for victims of sexual abuse.
Cancer Wellness Center – Lissa Anderson, Volunteer Coordinator for the past six years at the Center, advised us that the Center is celebrating its 20th anniversary this coming January. As one of about 100 such groups nationwide and about 5 in the Chicago area, Cancer Wellness enjoys the greatest longevity and breadth of service offerings. The Center is located on Revere Drive in Northbrook and contains 13,000 square feet. Services span social and psychological support for cancer patients and their families. They have a large clinical staff, and there are many customized approaches and programs. Three categories of service include:
Support groups and individual counseling for both cancer survivors and their significant others
Wellness programming which spans healthy lifestyle, yoga, Tai Chi, massage, and Healing Touch programs
Educational programs dealing with how to address and cope with cancer, the experience of cancer as a chronic illness, Ask the Expert, help with insurance issues, and programs in the local schools on cancer awareness.
The Center serves approximately 400 Moraine Township residents, and the funding received from Moraine Township will help to fund a nutritionist on staff as well as to enhance the Lifestyle programming and possibly the addition of retreat-type programming. They have recently opened up Cancer Wellness North in Grayslake and plan to hire a Spanish-speaking counselor at that facility.
Trustee Gamson mentioned the upcoming program on October 10 from 11:30 AM to 1:30 PM entitled “Achieve Local Fund Raising Success,” open to all interested agencies and social service organizations in the community.
Assessor’s Report
None
Supervisor’s Report
Trustee Zaluda noted the Pioneer Press article in today’s issue citing the grant funding for West Deerfield Township, which has been increased to $10,000 for the coming year.
Supervisor Barnes has sent a letter to Maureen Hager, Superintendent of Schools for District 112 announcing the annual food drive for the holidays and inviting volunteers, both students and parents, to visit the Township Office and get a sense of the Food Pantry. Included in the letter is a suggested list of food donations.
Committee Reports
Food Pantry – Trustee Moreno reported that she had been to the Food Pantry during the past week; there is food on the shelves and a few volunteers have been busy maintaining an organized display and distribution of food rations. More volunteers are always welcome.
Latino Advisory Committee – Trustees Plouché and Moreno reported that they are canvassing the community to identify members of the Latino community who may want to serve on the Committee.
Grant Committee – Trustee Gamson repeated the upcoming program on October 10 cited above and invited all interested parties to attend.
Talk of the Township Newsletter will be out later this fall.
Election announcements were made by Clerk Gussin, referring people to the Moraine Township website at www.morainetownship.org for answers to all questions regarding voter registration, early voting and absentee voting.
Old Business
None
New Business
Trustee Moreno suggested the Board pick up their folders at the office prior to the meetings now that we are meeting at the Township Office to save mailing costs.
Clerk Gussin suggested a change in the November meeting date from the 20th to the 13th. There will be one meeting in November on the 13th at 7:30 PM at the Township Office.
Adjournment
With no further business to conduct, Trustee Moreno moved, seconded by Trustee Plouché, the meeting be adjourned at 8:23 PM. Motion carried.
Respectfully submitted,
_______________________
Ellen S. Gussin
Moraine Township Clerk
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