2015-03-31_HRA_Agenda_Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

1 businesses community and their interest in raising awareness for fair housing practices. Ms. 2 McDonald noted that part of her role was to find grants that were applicable to this work. 3 4 Chair Maschka noted that the work of ECHO was an outgrowth of work to-date by the 5 Roseville Police Department and HRA, and the Roseville School District, especially with the 6 Karen community in the City’s SE corridor; opining that the HRA contribution would serve as 7 seed money to get this part of that project going. 8 9 Ms. Kelsey advised that if the HRA leveraged $10,000 in seed money from its Family Housing 10 Fund budget, it would provide a start for Ms. McDonald to apply for grant funds to fulfill the 11 remaining projected costs of $30,000 to $55,000 to cover all the elements proposed. 12 13 Ms. McDonald concurred, noting that it was much easier for her to approach other potential 14 partners and grant providers to invest in the remaining balance. Ms. McDonald noted that 15 other surrounding communities were struggling with this same issue, and suggested she may 16 cast the net wider into those communities rather than make the program Roseville-specific, 17 providing a more regional approach and other funding opportunities. Ms. McDonald noted 18 that, at this time, there was a six month minimum wait to apply for grants; and advised that she 19 would be willing to accept RHRA funds with a restriction that balanced goals needed to be met 20 before expended, and as growth expanded and funds were found to finish projects. 21 22 On this specific proposal for funds, Ms. McDonald noted that the strategy was to leverage 23 funds for the most popular media source for this group, that of social media, with digital shorts 24 also on web platforms. Ms. McDonald advised that ECHO worked with 100 different agency 25 partners to spread the word through ethnic, social or other resources, and made the messages 26 generic enough that they remained relevant, and served to complement English Language 27 Learning Curriculum (ELL) opportunities as similar issues came up in the classroom setting. 28 Ms. McDonald advised that ECHO had a good history with the Roseville School District and 29 received good responses from immigrant residents having problems in housing units. 30 31 At the request of Member Etten, Ms. McDonald advised that the actual range of funds (e.g. 32 $5,000 to $10,000) depended on the amount of products delivered, such as the number of DVD 33 copies,and were made available as requests came forward from libraries and school 34 classrooms and other distribution points expressing interest in the products, once programs 35 were developed. Ms. McDonald advised that ECHO incentivized teachers to user their 36 product, many of whom they retained a long-term partnership with, since they knew the 37 product that ECHO would deliver and how it fit well with their other curriculum products. In 38 other words, Ms. McDonald advised that the cost was commensurate with how much product 39 was needed to satisfy the needs of its clientele and educational partners. 40 41 Member Etten asked, if the scope of the project was broadened to a larger audience than 42 Roseville, would it result in a loss of communication to Roseville’s Karen residents. 43 44 Ms. McDonald responded that the information and laws were broad enough to cater to a larger 45 audience, specifically to provide an awareness for tenants of the housing rights that protected 46 their rights, and outlined the minimum responsibilities of landlords and tenants. Ms. 47 McDonald advised that tenants were alerted to the fact that laws changed, and provided 48 resource information for them specific to their city and/or suburb. Ms. McDonald noted that 49 these short, educational pieces were often state or regional safety related, with clear and 50 consistent laws for public safety issues, and when different resources were available among 51 jurisdictions, ECHO catered the message in common to make the program work. Ms. 52 McDonald noted that each culture was resourcedwith some government group specific to 53 assist them, often health-related; but until the projects were developed with partners around the 54 table, it was hard to tell which people groups needed to be reached. 55