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YMC Family Services scores an A

Photo by Jody Isaackson Rae Ann Keeler-Aus and Melissa Helgeson from Family Services reported to the Yellow Medicine County board of commissioners that they had received a reimbursement check in excess of $70,000 for their work with Native American children last year and a bonus check from SNAP in appreciation for their good reporting efforts.

GRANITE FALLS — Family Services director Rae Ann Keeler-Aus and associate Melissa Helgeson reported to the Yellow Medicine County Board of Directors Tuesday that they had received the results of their department’s audit report and had passed with flying colors.

“We received 100 percent on nearly every item,” Melissa said. “And, items where they made recommendations, I responded that we were already working on resolutions.”

The recommendations they had been given by the state to improve upon were to get better at asking about clients’ dreams and aspirations, expanding opportunities and providing additional support for staf and caseworkers.

The board complimented the women on their Family Services work and efforts to adhere to state requirements even though some reporting processes were not as in-depth as others.

In example, there were two different worlds in recording requirements, she said. For one, we need to record a plan for achieving their needs such as glasses and a plan to achieve that, whereas the other does not require a plan for future action.

Keeler-Aus reported on the out-of-home placements and the budget.

“The out of home placements have dropped by two as two children are to be adopted,” she said. “That brings the number down from 29 to 27.”

County Attorney Keith Helgeson concurred that the adoption case was in court that same day.

“The budget is a little high,” Keeler-Aus said. “The good news is that we received a $70,692 reimbursement for some of the costs we incurred over the course of 2016 working with Native Americans. We’re pretty happy with that.”

She went on to say that the work was done with eight children and that the reimbursement should be received in 2018, so she would not be including it in this year’s budget.

Keeler-Aus went on to say that her department had also received a bonus from the SNAP program in the amount of $6,125, which is supposed to be spent on the staff for all their hard work.

“With the board’s approval, we intend to spend it on stand-up work stations for the staff,” she said, and included on two new headsets, a couple of monitors and two new office chairs.

The commissioners voted unanimously to approve the shopping list.

Keeler-Aus also reported a parental support outreach program grant in the amount of $17,244. Last year’s amount was $8,600, she said.

Helgeson went on to report on the comparisons of waivers YMC Family Services serves compared to cohorts across the state.

The report also included how many disabled persons were gainfully employed outside of a disability center.

“We were ranked 22nd out of 87 counties for clients earning more than $250 per month,” Helgeson said. “We were ranked third for those clients who earn more than $600 per moth. We work really well with our employment providers, and that’s huge.”

Helgeson went on to mention some of the places their clients work, such as Norcraft in Cottonwood, at the local college and Wal-mart.

“The number of options out there have increased,” she said. “And, 64.7 percent of our consumers live at home. We do have quite an aging population among our consumers. One was 103 years old that just went into the nursing home.”

She explained that living on their own did not include staff coming daily to help. Those clients that needed that extra help were categorized as living in a facility.

“Our capacity to serve clients with high needs is much higher than our cohorts,” Helgeson said. She then went on to list a number of organizations they also worked with, such as the ambulance crew.

Helgeson stated the YMC Family Services is a good example for their cohorts and that they have published their reports on the Department of Health Services website.

“I was impressed when I read that they asked you to be open for other counties to learn from,” YMC Board Chair Gary Johnson said.

“Excellent report as usual,” Commissioner Ron Antony said.

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