Aging Advisory Committee

Recent Meetings:

The Aging Committee met on March 25th & reached consensus on the following Committee priority items:

1. Increase access to information about services that help and support older adults.
   a. assessment of existing resources
   b. information and education dissemination
   c. build on aging friendly communities
   d. CHW training and utilization
   e. build network with volunteers
2. Increase access to home visits and integrated case management.
   a. identify geographical gaps in service provision (assessment)
   b. identify organizations providing single point case management and identify models to expand
   c. link case manager to volunteer network
   d. strengthen case navigation process / system, integrate (one stop shopping)
   e. increase coordination among all providers

Priorities to monitor and be ready:

1. Stay connected and aligned with Maine Council on Aging's (MCOA) work in advocacy and public policy
2. Identify and evaluate funding opportunities

Status Updates or Announcements:
At the 3/25 meeting, the Aging Committee decided to join forces & merge with the Aging Advisory Committee of Cross Cultural Community Services (CCCS), as many of the same people are involved and the goals or priorities of both are similar. Chairs of both committees will meet to explore how these 2 committees can come together for great efficiency & effectiveness.

Upcoming Meetings:
TBD

Clinical Advisory Committee

Recent Meetings:
The Clinical Committee met with HealthInfoNet on March 20th. Chad MacLeod, Director of Product & Communication, joined the meeting to share an overview of Maine’s Health Information Exchange. HealthInfoNet (HIN) is a non-profit 501(c)3 supporting the healthcare community in creating lasting improvements in the value and quality of patient care and population health.

Status Updates or Announcements:
The Committee is continuing to have conversations around how HIN will help the Committee meet its objectives and goals to support health equity.

Upcoming Meetings:
May 29th, 12-1pm via Google Meet

CHW Committee

Recent Meetings:
The Committee met with members virtually and in person on March 26th. The group took the opportunity to talk about two of its priorities:

• Provide cultural competency training
• Support the Aging Committee

The module of Cultural Competency training that is currently under construction will be specifically assigned to CHWs. The aim of the training is to address systemic issues and explain the American health system in plain language. It will also consider all factors of cultural competence, including accounting for different cultures, languages, communities, religions, and all other points of diversity.

Status Updates or Announcements:
The CHW Committee decided to combine two training modules, one from MCD Global Health and one from the City of Portland Health Equity Program, in order to create one custom module of Cultural Competency Training for Alignment CHWs. The Committee then plans to host CHW Panels with trained CHWs for organizations & their providers, which will be tailored to their specific needs & populations.

Upcoming Meetings:
May 29th, 11-12 pm, virtually & in-person at 39 Forest Ave.

Community & Faith-based Advisory Committee

Recent Meetings:
The Committee last met on January 23rd; virtually and in person. The Committee's 2 current goals are:

• To create a resource list/directory of the Committee to see who is on board as well as what connections and expertise they bring.
• To develop a road map for how other committees can seek the help or input they need from the Community & Faith-based Committee.

Status Updates or Announcements:
At the next meeting, the Committee will review a draft of a form for collecting the necessary data from members to create a directory, and a draft of a road map for the other committees to use when seeking support.

Upcoming Meetings:
May 16th from 9:30-11am at 353 Cumberland Ave and via Google Meet

MEG Committee

Recent Meetings:
March 26th:
The Committee welcomed new member Nylab Noori, an intern at the Greater Portland Immigrant Welcome Center. The Committee debriefed a recent data walk, during which positive feedback was received from Cross Cultural Community Services (CCCS), prompting discussion about repeating the exercise with more lead time. Committee Priorities were then reviewed, with a focus on providing opportunities to disseminate, discuss, and inventory data, as well as creating a directory featuring demographics and partner organizations with which MEG collaborates. The Committee's work plan for 2024 was then discussed, which could include initiatives such as determining data collection processes for the Alignment, and building out a logic model with short, medium, and long-term outcomes for each committee.

Status Updates or Announcements:
The first proposed project under the work plan is to create Data Profiles with the Alignment, centering on priority populations. To do this, the Committee is entertaining an interactive activity at the next Alignment Quarterly Meeting to help mock up profiles. The activity would focus on posing questions to Alignment members regarding data availability and organizations possessing the data. The proposed activity would be conducted through a polling effort. The importance of clarity regarding the purpose of data collection, particularly for grant purposes, was emphasized.

Upcoming Meetings:
May 28th from 1-2pm via Zoom

SDOH Committee

Recent Meetings:
March 21st:
The Committee primarily discussed its priorities around transportation & housing. The group also discussed the idea of cataloging transportation resources available via public/private partners as well as eligibility to use, and identifying gaps in existing resources/data and whether resources identified are still operational. Potential partners were identified, including United Way, who is looking at ability of operational funds to help support this need, Moving Maine Network, & Maine Council on Aging (Jo Cooper). The Committee intends to identify addditional local partners. The group discussed the unreliability/inefficiency of Motivcare and discussed potential options for advocacy and leverage at the State level. The SDOH Committee agreed that they would like to work with other committees that are focused on information exchanges and data inventories, since a significant amount of data is being collected in Cumberland County that is not reflected in the larger/population-based data sets. SDOH would like to be working on building trust and relationships & to bring major partners or systems together (HealthInfo Net, Gravity, CCR, findhelp) especially in order to bring data together to better understand the intersection of housing with public health.

Status Updates or Announcements:
The SDOH Committee would like to propose that the PPH Alignment team set up a way for those committees that are focused on exchanging info and data to work together (Clinical, Aging Committees)

Upcoming Meetings:
May 23rd from 12-1pm via Microsoft Teams

Student & Academic Advisory Committee

Recent Meetings:
Since March 26th, the Committee has defined its top 2 priorities:

• Ongoing Professional Development
• Diverse and sustainable teacher recruitment programs

Chairs have continued reaching out to Committee and community members throughout this time. On 4/12, chairs requested ideas on who, from Commitee members' towns and districts, can further assist with the the Committee's goals. The group recently sent out a survey to all members to detail this information.

Status Updates or Announcements:
The Committee's next step is looking to identify members in neighboring towns such as Gorham and Windham.

Upcoming Meetings:
May 30th from 4-5pm via Zoom