YCB Welcomes New Board Member, Judge Tanya M. Bransford
The April board meeting marks the arrival of another new board member.
Judge Tanya M. Bransford, presiding judge of Hennepin County Juvenile
Court, joins the board, replacing outgoing board member Judge Herbert
Lefler. Judge Bransford is a graduate of Gustavus Adolphus College
(B.A., cum laude); Hamline University School of Law. She previously
was an associate attorney, Spicer, Watson & Carp (1983-87); workers'
compensation judge, State of Minnesota (1987-89); and a district
court referee, Hennepin County Juvenile Division (1990-94). She
was appointed to the bench on July 1, 1994; elected 1996; and then
reelected in 2002 in a contested election. Judge Bransford
is the recipient of several awards including the Distinguished Alumni
Award from North St. Paul High School, the Distinguished Alumna Award
from Hamline University School of Law and the Hennepin County Star
Performer Award for promoting diversity within District Court.
Judge Lefler was a member of the board from 2005 to early 2006.
We thank him for his service.
YMAP Update
Youth in Minneapolis After-School (YMAP) programming dollars have
been awarded for 2006. Funds have been awarded to MPS Community Education
for after-school tutoring, youth leadership development, cultural
and arts activities. MPS Middle-School Athletics received funds for
its after-school sports programs and the Minneapolis libraries received
funds for its Homework Helper programs.
In order to engage an even greater number of youth into quality
youth development programming in Minneapolis, theThe Libraries and
Parks have received YMAP dollars to increase and support their outreach
efforts. This is particularly exciting as the Minneapolis Libraries
prepare to unveil the new Teen Central in the new Central library.
Additionally, funds have been awarded to Yo! the Movement and to
the City Wide Youth Action Crew led by Beki Saito to continue youth
resource mapping and support youth leadership development activities.
Funds will be used to train additional youth mappers and to create
and pilot a set of youth-led strategies to increase participation
in three Minneapolis neighborhoods.
YMAP funds will also be used to hire a student for the summer through
the Step-Up Summer jobs program. Funds will also be used to support
PHAT summer, an evening summer recreation program through the Minneapolis
Schools and the Minneapolis Parks.
We are looking forward to great year of high quality programming
for youth in the city of Minneapolis and look forward to engagement
of even more youth participants in all that the city has to offer.
Doing Juveniles Justice Conference
On March 9, 2006, the Juvenile Justice Committee of The Alliance
for Families and Children for Hennepin County sponsored a working
forum Doing Juveniles Justice: Transforming Minnesota’s system
for working with troubled youth. The forum drew 235 local, county
and state policymakers, judges, attorneys, foundations, and public
and private professionals working in juvenile justice. The Juvenile
Justice Committee (JJC), chaired by Judith Kahn, held this conference
with the goal of developing a set of recommendations that could serve
as a blueprint for transforming Minnesota’s juvenile justice
system. A paper was commissioned that presented best practices and
a framework for developing recommendations, which was adapted from
the Blueprint for Juvenile Justice produced by the national Youth
Transition Funders Group. Recommendations generated during breakout
sessionsby participants will be incorporated into the paper and disseminated
throughout the state. The JJC will use the recommendations to focus
their work for the next several years.
Minneapolis Children and Youth Agenda Update
Since December, we have been working on four strategic objectives
designed to move the Children and Youth Agenda forward. The
following is current information on our work to achieve these objectivesa
brief overview of our work in the past few months; additional detail
can be found in the Communiqué.
Objective 1: Engage wider range of stakeholders
Progress has been achieved primarily through the re-structuring of
the leadership teams around the four goals and the expansion of those
teams to include other stakeholders outside of the YCB partner organizations.
In May or early June, we plan to convene organizations and coalitions
that have a strong change agenda they are trying to move forward. The
purpose of this convening will to bring them more deeply into the
Children and Youth Agenda and help them determine what part they
can play to help achieve the Vision and goals.
Objective 2: Create accountability measurements and methods for tracking
The team that was formed to identify indicators for monitoring progress
has completed its wWork has been completed on selecting a set of
indicators for each of the four long-term goals. The group
created three lists of indicators: 1) those that would go in the
report card, 2) those that will be tracked because they are useful
in making strategic decisions, and 3) those for which no instrument
exists but are of enough importance that innovative data collection
approaches will be developed.
A template for the report card has been developed and data are being
collected. Drafts of the report card will be shared with the
Board and with outside organizations as we progress. The goal
is to have the report card ready forto release the report in June.
Objective 3: Finalize and implement strategic focus of each of the
four priority areas
Progress is being made in each of the four long term goal areas.
I. Connected to family, caring adults, peers and organizations in
their community:
This leadership team is being co-convened by the YCB and the Minneapolis
Public School’s Safe Schools/Healthy Student’s initiative. They
have engaged in data collection and analysis and have identified
two areas for strategic focus: 1) increasing youth participation
in positive activities, and 2) creating consistent quality “standards” for
all sectors working with children and youth. They are in the
process of developing a strategic plan for moving into action on
these two areas.
II. Physically and psychologically healthy:
This leadership team is will be being co-convened by YCB and the
Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support (MDHFS), with
MDHFS taking the lead. MDHFS has already begun setting the
groundwork for supporting an “Urban Health Agenda,” which
is will intentionally related to both the City of Minneapolis Comprehensive
Plan and the YCB’s Children and Youth Agenda.
III. Prepared for, take advantage of and transformed by learning
opportunities in school and the broader community.
The initial planning team identified five categories that capture
the issues. 1) Early childhood education, 2) K-12 system (i.e. curriculum,
environment), 3) Out-of-school time, 4) Building community support
and family capacity and engagement, and 5) Issues correlated to being
able toassociated with being able to learn (i.e. physical and mental
health). Our initial thoughts Initial suggestions are
to have a dual focus on early childhood education and building community
support, family capacity and engagement. The leadership team
will convene in April.
IV. Fully prepared for and engaged in building their future.
An initial planning team for this goal proposed proposes tapping
into the emerging work of Achieve!Minneapolis which is in the process
of developing anwho is creating an on-line tool for children and
youth to develop a personal/career plan. The tool is part of
an ambitious public-private effort to coordinate efforts inside and
outside public schools to prepare students for their postsecondary
education and career goalswill be brought into the Parks, Libraries,
alternative schools, after school sites and juvenile corrections
facilities. Achieve!Minneapolis will co-convene the leadership team
with the YCB.
Objective 4: Create brand and social marketing strategy
A marketing consultant is beginning to work with the YCB and Team
2020 on the development of an “initial” marketing plan. We
are on schedule to launch a new brand in June.
