Service Groups and Faith Alliance

9/23/24

In attendance: Noelle Marino, St Andrew; Katie Forunato, St Andrew; Jillian Bohinc, St Andrew; Phil Welch, Housing Advisory Board; Ginger Bradley, Just Serve; George Bradley, Just Serve; Derwin Warren, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity; Danica Coleman, Apex PD; Danny Berrer, Apex UMC; Boudewin “BP” Hanrath, Jordan Lutheran Church; Mike Merker, Jordan Lutheran Church; Jimmy Torres, Town of Apex; Michael Noel, Cornerstone Fellowship Church; Crystal Byrd, Apex PD; Cyndi Aragon, Shield NC; Karen Morant, Wake Co Health & Human Services; Kenneth Ragland, Apex PD; Niki Miller, Shield NC; Alexis Christein, Sheild NC; Victoria Carter, Apex PD; Michele Chassner, Kids Peace; Deputy Chief Trevor Materasso, Apex PD

Speaker: Michele Chassner – Customer Relations Liaison of KidsPeace, 516-819-4323, michele.chassner@kidspeace.org

The Hope Center

The meeting opened with everyone introducing themselves and their organization/church/position and answering any questions about their organizations.

The speaker introduced herself and described the mission of KidsPeace as serving behavioral and mental health needs of children, family, and communities. One of the ways KidsPeace is expanding to better serve the Wake County community is through The Hope Center for Youth and Family Crisis. Partnering with Alliance Health, KidsPeace opened a Behavioral Health Urgent Care (BHUC) and Facility Based Crisis (FBC) center in Fuquay-Varina. The Hope Center offers timely, specialized care to youths experiencing psychiatric crisis. There is no Involuntary Commitment at the Hope Center. If IVC is necessary, they can start the process and refer to an approved IVC facility.

Michelle gave a presentation on the three-pronged services provided by The Hope Center: Mobile Outreach Response Engagement and Stabilization (MORES), Behavioral Health Urgent Care (BHUC), and Facility Based Crisis (FBC). The MORES team is composed of trained crisis responders that goes to meet families where they are to address immediate psychiatric, developmental, and behavioral crises while also connecting families to case management and referrals for ongoing care. BHUC acts as an alternative to a hospital emergency department for youth seeking urgent behavioral or mental healthcare services. Patients receive the same physician contact they would in a hospital emergency department but are connected to behavioral health specialists. Patients are allowed to stay at the BHUC for 23 hours and 59 minutes. FBC is a 16-bed mental and behavioral health inpatient crisis service that provides a staff-secure, therapeutic setting that allows for patient stabilization. If your organization would like additional information on resources for distribution, contact Michelle at the email address above.

Service Groups and Faith Alliance

6/18/24

In attendance: Noelle Marino, St. Andrews; Eddie Mullins, Hope Community; Mindy Buchanan, United Church; Brianne Gill, Town of Apex; Porsha Green, Called To Peace Ministries; Regina Issa, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints; Shonquella Terrell, Be SHE/CPTM; George Bradley, Just Serve; Ginger Bradley, Just Serve; Dr. Atoya Hodges; Western Wake Crisis Ministry; Lane Tomey, Peak Beginnings; Kara Matthews, Apex UMC; Larry Eckart, Chaplain Apex PD, Danny Berrier, Apex UMC; Ofc Victoria Carter, Apex PD; Ofc Kenneth Ragland, Apex PD; Niki Miller, Shield NC

Speaker: Selina Murrell of Her PLAN (Pregnancy & LIfe Assistance Network), 919-430-0435, smurrell@herplan.org

www.herplan.org

The meeting opened with everyone introducing themselves and their organization/church/position and answering any questions about their organizations.

The speaker introduced herself and described Her PLAN as playing a supporting role for the organizations that are assisting pregnant women and mothers with young children who are in crisis. Her PLAN is a free online directory of service providers. It allows for direct service providers to assess the needs of a mother in crisis and find resources available in her area.

Selina gave a demo of the robust platform which is free to use and free to join.Currently there are over 4000 service providers listed in the directory. If your organization would like to be listed as a resource provider on the Her PLAN platform, email Selina at the address above. Selina suggests creating a user account to be able to save your Needs Assessment results. After your organization is listed on the registry, you have the ability to update the listing as needed. 

Answers to Alliance members’ questions:

• Unfortunately, the platform is only available in English at this time.
• Anyone can use the tool and it is accessible on the website. (herplan.org)
• There is a vetting process for agencies that want to be listed.
  • Answer screening questions
  • Her PLAN employee will follow up 
• Her PLAN is funded by the organization Susan B Anthony (501c4)located in Virginia. Her PLAN is part of the Community Outreach initiative

Service Groups and Faith Alliance

3/26/24

In attendance: Stephanie Thurm, Meals on Wheels Wake; Bethany Wilkins, Meals on Wheels Wake; Kathleen Lee, White Oak Foundation; Pamela Manning, White Oak Foundation; Dana Devane-Webster, Called to Peace Ministries; Phil Welch, Apex Housing Advisory Board; Brianne Gill, Town of Apex; Jai Whittington, Summit Church; Michael Prince, Apex PD; John Spitzer, Apex PD; Khea Morton, Apex PD; Larry Eckart, Jordan Lutheran; Steve Chriscoe, F3 Peak City; Keith Fortier, Agape of NC; Officer V. Carter, Apex PD; Mike Noel, Cornerstone Fellowship Church; Niki Miller, Shield NC; Leslie Lockhart, Shield NC; Officer K. Ragland, Apex PD, Chief Jason Armstrong, Apex PD; Deputy Chief Mitch McKinney, Apex PD

• Officer Ragland called meeting to order, and all attendees introduced themselves and gave announcements. Phil Welch announced the April 27th Apex Housing Fair, at the Apex Senior Center 9-1pm. This was expanded from last year’s home repair fair. He also encouraged attendees to sign a petition for keeping manufactured home communities as is in Apex. Keith Fortier mentioned there is an upcoming breakfast with pastors. Khea Morton announced an April 18th breakfast for Apex Connections with churches and non-profits together. 

Featured speaker for the meeting was Stephanie Thurm, Asst Director of Program Services for Meals on Wheels Wake. 

• Stephanie started at MOW in 2020
• Due to the pandemic, they shifted and grew meal options
• Meals are delivered 5 days a week to homes, mainly to Seniors, there is no income basis
• They also have a frozen program, which is 5 meals a week
• They also have Friendship Cafes located around the county for dining in, including in Apex at White Oak Foundation
• They also provide activities and education events at the Friendship Cafes
• If clients are unexpectedly not home to receive meal, they have a daily check-in process for a wellness check
• They have many resources, contacts, and partnerships for their clients for other needs like the SPCA for pet needs, or Med Assist for OTC meds
• They focus to keep clients safely and healthy in their own homes as long as possible
• 3 new sites have opened in pandemic, which were first new in decade.
• They strive for quantity over diversity with their meals
• They serve approx 1300 meals a day consisting of a standard american diet
• They can not accommodate special diets yet like gluten free etc
• The Apex Home Delivery program is housed at United church
• Meals are primarily delivered by volunteers
• Meals are prepared centrally and taken from there
• Work with Food Runners Collaborative and Interfaith Food Shuttle
• Volunteers are not officially background checked, and there is no certain commitment
• They have a MOW Scheduler platform, and Mobile Meals app to track clients, locations, homes, and notes
• If a client misses a delivery, they are put on hold until a well check call can be made and reach them
• The demand pre-pandemic was about 1000. It goes up and down but in general has risen to 1300 avg.
• They are currently on a waitlist of about 30-40 people which can worked thru in 3-4 weeks with current staff 
• The community can help by: volunteering, doing food drives, breakfast bags, host activity, present a topic, holiday gifts, greeting cards
• They are mostly government funded, plus some fundraising

Apex PD has a well check program that can be opted in for Apex. It is an automated call or text daily, then a call to the emergency contact, and finally a home visit

Chief Jason Armstrong spoke about his support and encouragement of the SGFA.

Deputy Chief Mitch McKinney introduced himself. From Colorado originally and came here for job.

Service Groups and Faith Alliance

12/12/23

In attendance: Jim Ahler, AUMC/WWCM; Phil Welch, Apex Housing Advisory Board; Larry Eckart, Jordan Lutheran; Eddie Mullins, Hope Community Church; Seaira Green, Western Wake Crisis Ministry; Keith Fortier, Agape of NC; Officer V. Carter, Apex PD; B. Nunez, Apex PD; Kara Matthews, Apex UMC; Niki Miller, Shield NC; Officer K. Ragland, Apex PD

The purpose of this final meeting of 2023 was to allow participants to update us on the occurrences of 2023 and share details about their organizations’ upcoming events scheduled for 2024.

• Officer Ragland mentioned they are finishing up their annual Christmas with a Cop campaign. He also informed us that APD Crisis Counselor Khea Morton and APD Officer Spitzer have teamed up to form a Response Team to respond to crisis situations. For 2024, the Apex PD is working with area service providers to create an “Anchor Office” in Apex where citizens can go to learn more about resources available to them.

• Phil Welch of the Apex Housing Advisory Board told us that 164 Affordable Housing units are being built in Apex, across from Walmart. These 1, 2 and 3 bedroom apartments were purposefully located walking distance from the bus stop on Hwy 55. Tax credits are covering more than ½ the cost of this project, which is the norm. Individuals can go to the DHIC website to file an interest form to be notified when the apartments are ready. People earning 60% or less of the Area Median Income will be eligible. (The Area Median Income for Apex is $117,000)

84 senior affordable homes (apartments) are scheduled to be built by the Post Office.

The community will be called Abby Springs.

Phil also warned that the residents of the 3 manufactured home (mobile home) communities in Apex are at risk of having the land their homes are on sold by the landowners. When this happens, residents are forced to move but currently, there is no affordable place to go. Phil is working with the Town Council to make sure the land continues to be zoned for manufactured homes.

• A possible solution may be to replace the manufactured homes (mobile homes) with modular homes. If this is done, residents would be able to get a mortgage on their home which would allow them to spread payments over 30 years, making the homes more affordable.

• Seaira Green with Western Wake Crisis Ministries described the services they offer including:
  • Food pantry with home delivery or curbside pick up
  • Financial Assistance to people in financial crisis
  • Case management-developing goals, budgeting, planning, financial counseling, accountability
  • Assistance with utility bills through a Town of Apex initiative

They deliver “food, hope and conversation” to about 80 people every week with the help of local churches

• Keith Fortier of Agape of NC described his organization as a Christian Foster Care agency. They work with foster families across NC and equip churches to get involved. Keith provides trauma training to foster parents to help them understand their foster kids better. They have recently been awarded a grant specifically to create collaborative opportunities such as the Care Portal. The Care Portal is technology the alerts faith communities in the system of needs of local families The faith communities are then able to meet those needs. This portal will just cover Wake County at first but will hopefully grow to include other counties.

• Eddie Mullins of Hope Community described the operation of their food distribution center that is housed at the Apex campus of Hope Community. Eddie also told us about their Backpack Buddies program that assists Wake County students. Finally, he told us about their partnership with the Tim Tebow Foundation to offer Night to Shine to those with special needs. During Night to Shine, those with special needs enjoy a prom while their parents remain on campus to enjoy a dinner date.