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####### *A taskforce of the National Rural Development Partnership*

### 

# June 14, 2001

### 2:30pm EDT

### 

### Minutes

#### I. Welcome & Introductions

-   Sarah Vokes, (old) Truman Fellow, Department of Health & Human
    Services

-   Sandra Chapin, (new) Truman Fellow, Department of Health & Human
    Services

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-   Karen DeRosier, Executive Director, Florida State Rural Development
    Council and Chair, Welfare Reform Taskforce

-   Ann Barbagallo, Office of Family Assistance, Administration for
    Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health & Human Services

-   April Bender,

-   Kim Brown, Montana

-   Ram Chugh,

-   Bruce Dahlquist,

-   Cornelia Flora,

-   Kim Brown,

#### II. Business Items

-   **Summer Conference:** The NRDP Summer Conference will be held in
    Duluth, Minnesota from July 22-25^th^. For detailed information,
    please visit the Joint International Summit website at
    http://www.mrs.umn.edu/2001summit

-   **Registration:** for the summer conference has begun! The "Early
    Bird" deadline is June 21^st^. Register soon for the discounted
    price!

#### III. Discussion

-   **Future Conference Call** topic ideas (Education, Childcare,
    Transitional Services)

Education at the federal level- encourages states to support/allow folks
to allow to go to school (GED, AA, BA), this is crucial.

Childcare issue- increased funding is needed, streamlining and access

**Bruce:** In massachusetts, there is a tremendous push to have a
battery fo tests to graduate. GED is changing from reading to thinking
test. The impact on young people is pretty significant. What happened
when they switched to a work-first philosophy here, the welfare
admissions in the community colleges went down 82% (one example).
Traditionally that's been a vehicle for remedial work, easing into the
higher education system. We're not sure what's going to happen when
these new standards kick in. We're not going to have the funds to deal
with it. All of the issues we've had before are going to be exacerbated
because we'll have a large group of people who won't be able to get into
higher education. We've had some cases here very early on where vendors
literally did not respond to statewide proposals, because they knew the
success was not going to be there. Most of them are performance-based
contracts. I'm not sure if other states are facing things or if its on
the horizon. We did some work with the national institute for literacy.
In this state the working-age population in the state is 20% illiterate
(?). we're going to see some catastrophes, I think. We're not going to
see people eating cat food and sleeping on the streets, but we have
enough of that now. We don't have any federally recognized tribes.

**April:** The amount of money that states are putting away -- holding
in reserves in case of an economic downturn. I think we should pay
attention to hwo some of those states are spending the money. Are they
using it to prevent poverty, to ease the burdens of poverty,

**Kim:** In our original plan for this next round of reform, we built in
a 5-year plan using our TANF reserves. There was so much negative
publicity, our legislature directed us to spend our reserve in the next
15 months. So that's creating a spending frenzy on programs that won't
be supported after 15 months.\
**April:** Are any of you going to the workforce conference that US DOL
is hosting at the end of June. Workforce Security Issues in the States.
June 26-27 call 202-693-3165 Esther R. Johnson. The foremost thing that
came out of our research is that Congress' obligation doesn't end with
appropriating money -- some rural areas are not getting the money. They
don't have the human resources to access the money or don't have the
resources to monitor the programs, to secure funding from the state. If
the assumption is that rural America has accessed the funds and so there
should never be a problem. Radisson Hotel on 2121 P Street.

**Bruce:** June 20, The Secretary of Labor has a conference on MCI
Center-on 21^st^ century workforce. They'll be doing a job fair as well.
Career Centers: When the feds hand off to the states. They want to have
one-stop career centers and they want them to provide childcare, but
without additional funds (the state legislature).

-   **Reauthorization**

Reauthorization can be a theme running throughout all of the conference
calls this year.

If they're not overwhelmed with comments, they do pay attention to them.

-   **Mission Statement**: focus on reauthorization?

Who what where when why

End up with a mission statement from that

**[IV. Future Meetings]{.smallcaps}**

-   **July Conference Call**: Scheduled for July 19^th^ at 2:30pm EST.
    Topic: Educational Opportunities & TANF

Do you have any questions, comments or concerns? Please feel free to
contact:

> Sandra Chapin

####### NRDP Truman Fellow

> Department of Health & Human Services
>
> Phone: 202-690-6093
>
> Fax: 202-690-5672
>
> Email: sandra.chapin@hhs.gov