The City Club of Cleveland held a virtual forum on March 27, at the ideastream studios, with Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish. Moderated by the Chief Executive Officer of the City Club, Dan Moulthrop, the hour-long forum focused on several issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. “This is a disaster. It’s tough,” Budish began, noting...
Author: William Tarter, Jr.
February 24, 2020
Cuyahoga County HHSA committee approves foster children, homeless services contracts
The Cuyahoga County Health, Human Services and Aging (HHSA) committee met February 19 to discuss two new contracts, one for the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) and another for the Office of Homeless Services. Additionally, the committee heard a presentation from the Western Reserve Land Conservancy. Children and Family Services Christine Alexander, from...
February 24, 2020
Calling out systemic racial disparities and responding to inequality: What will our legacy be?
It’s all right to tell a man to lift himself by his own bootstraps, but it is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he ought to lift himself by his own bootstraps. ― Martin Luther King Jr. Earlier this month, the staff at The Center for Community Solutions had a conversation about...
February 19, 2020
Committee approves public funding for temporary staffing agency serving people recently released from prison
The Cuyahoga County Health, Human Services and Aging (HHSA) committee met on February 5, with a three-year contract between Cuyahoga County and Towards Employment (TE) on the agenda. The contract, worth $750,000, runs from February 2020 to February 2023. The contract, worth $750,000, runs from February 2020 to February 2023. TE is a nonprofit, headquartered...
February 4, 2020
Cuyahoga County HHSA committee approves contracts for foster care and senior services
The Cuyahoga County Health, Human Services and Aging (HHSA) committee met January 22 to discuss two contract-approval requests for the Department of Child and Family Services (DCFS) and one contract-extension request for the Department of Senior and Adult Services (DSAS). Cuyahoga County is currently dealing with a significant increase in the number of children in...
January 27, 2020
Homeless services, multi-system youth contracts approved by health and human services committee
At the first 2020 meeting of the Cuyahoga County Council Health, Human Services and Aging Committee, the committee members heard updates on three homeless services contracts. The committee also heard one contract for at-risk youth. The first contract up for discussion was a one-year extension with Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries (LMM) worth $2,231,635. LMM operates the...
January 21, 2020
GCRTA CEO discusses future of public transportation with Human Services Advocacy Network
Approximately 40 guests attended the winter meeting of the Human Services Advocacy Network (HSAN) on December 10. The event featured special guest India Birdsong, General Manager and Chief Executive Officer of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority (GCRTA). Birdsong, who came to Cleveland only a few months ago from Nashville, reflected on her time in...
December 23, 2019
Cuyahoga County budget passes
Introduction The 2020-2021 Cuyahoga County budget passed at the December 10 meeting of Cuyahoga County Council. At the same meeting, the new health and human service (HHS) levy was also placed on the March 2020 ballot. Going into the new biennium budget, Cuyahoga County faced a number of questions about the state of the health...
December 9, 2019
Nearly $2 million in contracts approved by Cuyahoga County HHSA Committee
The Cuyahoga County Health, Human Services and Aging (HHSA) Committee heard testimony from four agencies looking for county contract approvals or extensions before the end of the calendar year. The committee meeting on November 20 was chaired by Pernel Jones who is vice president of county council and vice chair of the council’s HHSA committee....