Community Action Agency Board
Community Services Division 612 N. Church St. 61103
Agenda — 30 items
- I. CALL TO ORDER
- II. ACTION ON MINUTES
- 2 A. The CAA Board Meeting was called to order at 12:00pm.
- 3 Approval of Minutes held on August 18, 2026.
- 3 B. Staff Present: Anqunette Parham: Executive Director of Health & Human Services, Owen Carter: Deputy Director of Health & Human Services, Christopher Greenwood: Community Services Director, Faniqua Hughes: Head Start Director, Linda Mitchell: Fiscal Accountant, Te’Airia Robinson: Community Action Programs Manager, Director of Legal, Kim Thompson: CAA Executive Board Clerk
- III. PROGRAMMATIC REPORT COMMUNITY SERVICES
- 4 Quorum Established @ 12:01pm
- 5 Community Services Programmatic Report
- IV. PROGRAMMATIC REPORT HEAD START
- 7 Head Start Programmatic Report
- V. PROGRAMMATIC REPORT FISCAL
- 9 Fiscal Programmatic Report
- 9 A. Karen Hoffman asked about on-line Liheap applications being available. The Executive Director explained that the funds for this were amended though council since the application was delayed due to the LIDR (Low Income Discount Rate) through Nicor and ComEd was no communicating well. We are still advocating and plan to go through council again once this may be established.
- VI. EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS REPORT
- VII. OFFICERS REPORTS
- VIII. GUEST REPORT/PRESENTATION
- IX. GENERAL DISCUSSION
- X. NEW BUSINESS
- 14 A. Linda Mitchell was promoted to Principal Accountant and will no longer be working for our department. Linda and Patty Rohde will train the new person once they have been hired.
- XI. APPOINTMENTS AND RESIGNATIONS
- 16 A. Upcoming Retirement: CSBG Advocate, Cyndi McGovern, will retire on September 18th, 2026, after nearly 37 years of dedicated service in social services. Her hard work, compassion, and commitment have made a lasting impact on our office, clients, and community. We are grateful for her many years of service and look forward to celebrating this milestone with her.
- 16 A. The new Director of the Office of Head Start (OHS) recently presented at a national conference where she stated the Head Start is not a daycare program. She requested additional input/advocacy for our Head Start program. She also recognized the benefit of Head Start being a part of a CAA.
- XII. ADJOURNMENT
- 17 B. Currently the OHS performance standards are "open for comment". Unfortunately, the new proposed standards eliminates the original purpose and meaning of Head Start.
- 18 THE CITY OF ROCKFORD INTENDS TO COMPLY WITH THE INTENT AND SPIRIT OF THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT. IF A SIGN LANGUAGE INTERPRETER, PERSONAL P.A. SYSTEM, OR OTHER SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS ARE NEEDED, PLEASE CALL THE LEGAL DEPARTMENT AT (779) 348-7391 AT LEAST 48 HOURS IN ADVANCE, SO WE CAN BE PREPARED TO ASSIST YOU.
- 19 A. Mary Cacioppi discussed the Getting Ahead Program. With the laid foundation, it is our hope that the next 10 years will see a reduction in poverty from 21% down to 17%. This percentage hasn't been seen since 2000.
- 20 1. Launching a campaign in late October to raise money for the Getting Ahead program which costs $340,000/year.
- 22 A. No guest was present.
- 27 1. Mayor Neal attended to present "Key to the City" to Cyndi McGovern. Cyndi was unable to attend so this was recorded in her honor.
- 29 End time 12:56am. Total time 56 mins. The next Community Action Agency Board Meeting will be held on 12:00pm November 17th at City Hall Conference Room A.
Watch Rockford
This is one agenda. Rockford publishes another every few weeks, and the thing you care about is rarely on the one you happened to find. Name it and we will email you when it appears.
Free for 14 days, no card — and nothing charges itself: at day 14 the emails simply stop unless you choose to subscribe ($19 a month). One email when something matches, and nothing else. Unsubscribe from any of them. Searching stays free — it is public record.