NEOCH Annual Meeting Looks Toward 2014
Photo by Norman WolfeAt the NEOCH Annual Meeting last week approximately 30 people attended to enjoy Interim Executive Director Gino Scarselli's home made lasagna. We have to thank Ohio City Pasta fo
Photo by Norman Wolfer donating the pasta for the Annual Meeting. The NEOCH Board gave out awards which can be seen elsewhere on the blog. Gino also gave an overview of all the work we did in 2012, and the important role the Coalition has in the community. Every 2013 Board member was present at the meeting and they selected new officers for 2013 to include:
- Roy Love as the new President of the Agency
- Brenda Gray is the new Vice President of the Agency
- Norman Wolfe is the new Secretary for the Corporation and
- Marcia Bufford is the new Treasurer for NEOCH.
We were fortunate to have a number of social service providers attend including some previous Social Justice Advocates of the Year including Jim Schlecht, Toni Johnson, and Michelle Russell were present. It was great that five members of the Homeless Congress attended the Annual Meeting, and a few of our members came to the meeting. All the current staff were present including William the Golden Voice of NEOCH, Gloria our early morning smiling personality, and Larry Davis gave his view of serving homeless people at NEOCH. The main purpose was to lawyout plans for 2013. Marcia Bufford (pictured above with Jennifer Kocan receiving her volunteer of the year award) who was the Board President at the beginning of the meeting, laid out the plans for the next year and talked about the importance of NEOCH in the community.
"In the face of many non-profit organizations going out of business over the last five years in Cleveland, our primary obligation will be to manage the organization through these tough economic times. The Board has outlined goals to stabilize the organization, find the funding for an Executive Director, and expand membership to include additional religious organizations, and charitable groups to sustain NEOCH. We want to work to find funding to sustain the critical programs we oversee including the Street Card, the Memorial Day, Stand Down, outreach collaborative, and Homeless Congress. We intend to do a better job of publicizing the work of the Coalition and expanding the number of supporting members.
Our primary advocacy agenda item for the next year is to improve the shelters so that there is oversight and an effective grievance procedure.
- We also intend to work to improve access to the ballot box for homeless voters.
- NEOCH will work to expand access to the Housing Cleveland.org website in Ohio.
- We will continue to educate the public about the myths associated with homelessness especially through social media.
- NEOCH will continue to forward solutions to homelessness including the creation of a missing person’s database, a virtual furniture donation website, and an urban homesteading program"
Brian Davis
Posts reflect the opinion of those who sign the entry