Executive Committee Meeting
November 1, 2012
In attendance: Gizane Indart, Ali Terry, Mike Johnson, Steve Siegel, Irene Blatnick, Cathy Phelps, Rebecca
Gershten and Becky Bulllard.
Welcome Ali Terry of WINGS our newest executive committee member. The committee is waiting to
hear from Linda Loflin Pettit regarding executive committee membership.
Steve summarized the challenges of this year such as, Denver’s new police chief, politics, economics and
how this has impacted the VSN agencies. Most agencies are functioning in survival mode rather than a
growth or creative mode. In addition, EDs and their agencies are being represented at the Domestic
Violence Center meetings, SAIC meetings and VSN meetings. There is great work being done while
people are being stretched to capacity.
With this climate, we are also witnessing a deterioration of relationships, apathy and lack of enthusiasm.
It is the charge of the Executive committee to take on a leadership role to reach out to all EDs. We must
recognize the positives and determine the solutions.
Action: Steve will meet with all EDs before the next VSN Quarterly meeting in January. One question to
be asked: Are your goals and objectives in alignment with your mission and our VSN mission?
Action: For the next couple of Exec meetings, we will spend time on determining tangible solutions and
creating a plan of action for VSN and the committees.
Linda Loflin Pettit and Barbara Martin Worley are engaged in a collaborative Elder Abuse Forensic
Center project.
Rebecca Gershten presented VSN committee updates. In relation to the above conversation, the ideas
of creating a mentoring plan. Such as, when a new person/agency plans to attend a meeting, we assign a
contact person from another agency to welcome and mentor them. This connection would be available
for questions, create a personal contact, a welcome packet, a list of acronyms and all descriptions etc.
While discussing the concept of collaboration which resulted from the SFTF meetings, Mike gave us an
overview of what conversations are happening. What does true collaboration look like, how does it
impact finances, employment, succession planning, health and sustainability of agencies. Beginning
dialogues about being very intentional about grant seeking. How do EDs have collective impact when
making clear decisions with clear intentions?
Ali Terry highlighted her perception of the SFTF as a vetting process for grants which is not the intention
of the SFTF. The committee also discussed the pitfalls to more than one grant being applied for from
the same area such as Denver.
Cathy wanted to understand the mission of the SFTF. Steve described SFTF as an overarching umbrella
for grants. Initially, the SFTF committee was to look at the needs of families and somehow, the
committee shifted away from the focus.
The concept of collaboration is varied and every situation is different. How do we address these
variations and meet the needs of the small, the large, the engaged and/or the disengaged? How do we
integrate collaboration in an ongoing culture? How do we create programs before grants arise and not
let the grants drive the programs or the collaborations?
Becky Bullard gave an update on Human Trafficking. She spoke about how COVA did not receive funding
and how the State Human Trafficking Task Force (Sandy Sayre) was also not funded. So in response the
FBI has taken over the task force without funding. They are calling it the Colorado Trafficking and
Organized Crime Coalition or C-TOCC. This will be a state wide coalition looking at all forms of trafficking
and will involve monthly meetings with law enforcement and quarterly meetings with NGOs. Since
COVA is no longer funded, there are gaps is services. There are now more faith base organizations
surfacing and as a result, there needs to be a response from Denver agencies and VSN who are already
working with trafficked victims. There is nothing wrong with faith based agencies however, the
motivation is a desire to restore the victims through some kind of religion rather than victim centered
and trauma informed services. Becky will create a vision document and will meet before the end of the
year on December 12th.
Our next meeting will be on December 6 at 7:45am at DCCV.