Meeting Public Comments

Brooke Olson

Brooke Olson, Black Hawk County Service Provider: There currently is not an amendment to HSB623. Proposed changes would gut home visitation dollars which account for 43% of Black Hawk County's allocation through ECI. There is no reason to rush this legislation since we are not able to draw down federal IVE dollars at this time. Taking our time with this legislation allows for citizens and the legislature to review any amendments affecting our families. The concern is how removal of these funds will affect children and families in Black Hawk County and the service providers, not about preservation of ECI directors jobs.

Marie Miller [Concerned community member]

I'm very concerned with the seemingly unreasonable pace the sponsors of the bill are trying to push this through. It makes me suspect of the care and concern that would be taken in centralizing the proposed services. It makes me suspect of possible intentions to just "move money around" at the expense of our most precious members of our communities. In Pottawattamie County, children are not faceless numbers, they are our future. The nuances of different types of communities are often diverse and sometimes fragile. A giant umbrella is a liability in a big storm. Our children absolutely deserve the best protection and greatest chance of success we can afford them. Pushing this bill without even entertaining input and concerns from successful, longrunning programs, sounds like the perfect storm to allow our children to fall through the cracks. Our communities will suffer the longterm effects for years and generations to come.I respectfully urge you to oppose HSB 623/SSB 3111 and slo

Jessica Rayment

I am not opposed to thoughtful improvements, but changes of this magnitude should not move forward without meaningful input from the people implementing these services and the communities relying on them. We need time to understand, evaluate the impact, and ensure that local voices remain part of the decisionmaking process.

Tabbi Melby

Respectfully, PLEASE slow down. As a family support worker of 17 years in a rural county, I have seen ECI evolve into a program that provides much needed services for our state's most valuable resource Iowa's children. Dismantling local programs that have developed working relationships with other local providers will be detrimental to the services needed by these families and children. Additionally, Iowans deserve clarity on amended bill language from the lawmakers they have voted to have in place. The family support workforce is full of dedicated, longterm employees employed locally and a change to that system may result in a loss of seasoned and instrumental changemakers. These workers have working relationships within their communities and understand the resources available to families at a local level. Iowa's children and their caregivers deserve clarity and established, local support. Change is sometimes good, but it needs to be done with more forethought and insight.

Elizabeth Anderson

Change is a part of our democratic system. But this is not being done in a thoughtful, methodical or intentional fashion. Our most vulnerable have experienced the damage to our systems when a bill is pushed through under these conditions. The Managed Care Organizations, as an example, came into play under this same push and hurry without fact gathering from the people in the field doing the work. Many law makers I spoke with in meetings and town hall sessions said they could not undo this. Please do not let this happen again. I worked in the mental health and disabilities field for 18 years until that dismantling happened. Please learn from our history and do not repeat the same mistakes. Iowans deserve clarity on amended bill language from the lawmakers they have voted to have in place. Slow this down, gather facts and information from those in the field doing the work out in these districts.Dismantling relationships at local levels is detrimental to service for families & children

Kristie Nixon

I respectfully urge you to oppose HSB 623/SSB3111 and slow down the decision process. Jumping into dismantling a system without anything in writing is careless and detrimental to Iowa's children and families. Families already are skeptical of HHS and not having local control and services will put more families at risk in our state. Please do the research family support does not have to be under HHS in order to draw down 4E funding.

Annie McKinley

I want to share a story from right here in rural Page County. A mother in a local family support program once described meeting her Parent Educator as fate. She called her the one and only lifeline who saved their sinking ship in other words, her family. From the first conversation, she felt warmth and trust. She told me that if someone with a state title or from Iowa Department of Health and Human Services had approached her, she would have felt defensive and never opened her door. For many families, there is a real stigma attached to state agencies. When they hear HHS, they fear someone is coming to find their weaknesses. Family support programs do the opposite. They enter homes to identify strengths, build confidence, and provide support so families never have to become part of the HHS system. Please do not try to fix something that is not broken.