Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board

National League of Cities Site Visit & Our Cities Children Forum

Last year, Minneapolis, via the YCB, was selected to receive technical assistance on the Minneapolis Children and Youth Agenda from the National League of Cities’ Institute on Youth, Education and Families (YEF Institute). Minneapolis was among 6 cities selected to receive technical assistance from September 2005 – December 2006. As part of the technical assistance process, the NLC will conduct a site visit to Minneapolis on August 9-10th. During their visit, NLC will meet with YCB Board members and other elected officials to discuss issues of youth violence prevention and youth development.

Another highlight of the NLC visit is the community forum, Our Cities’ Children, on Wednesday, August 9, 2006 from 4:30 pm – 6:00 pm. Hosted by the Minneapolis Children’s Advocacy Network, the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, and the Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board, it will be held at the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute at 301 19th Ave S in Minneapolis.

The forum will focus on the expanding role of cities in the healthy development of children and youth. This panel discussion will include national and local experts from the Minneapolis Youth Coordinating Board, the National League of Cities, and the Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs.
RSVP to: Susie Brown at susie.brown@fcsmn.org or (612) 341-1615.

YEF Institute’s goal is “to assist municipal leaders in developing and implementing city-school youth planning strategies that: can guide future city and school investments, programs, and activities; develop and enhance community programs, activities and initiatives that support positive outcomes for youth; promote youth participation and youth support by highlighting stronger youth voice and involvement in municipal government and schools; and enhance city-school collaboration.” More information on the NLC’s YEF Institute can be found on their website http://www.nlc.org/IYEF.

Step-Up Intern Alicia Gaynor

This summer the YCB has been fortunate to have an intern through the Step Up Summer jobs program. Alicia Gaynor has been working with Jan Fondell with both the Youth Coordinating Board and the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support. Ali will be a junior at Southwest High School where she is active in sports and music. Ali is an active participant in her community, volunteering her time at her church, her local park and in community service organizations. During her time with us, Ali played a key role in identifying and mapping public facilities and public programs for youth in Minneapolis. Ali made vital contributions to our work at the YCB this summer. We wish her the very best.

The Power of Engagement: Parent & Community Summit Announced

The Power of Engagement: a Minneapolis Parent & Community Summit is planned for Saturday, September 30, 2006 from 9 AM-2PM. Co-sponsors of the summit include the YCB, Hennepin County School Success, Minneapolis Public Schools, and the Mayor’s Office. This summit, to be held at the Minneapolis Community & Technical College, will bring together parents, community members, community organizations, educators and elected officials to discuss ways that we can all better engage with our children and youth to ensure they become more successful learners.

The event will be unique in that it will use "open space" group dynamics to bring Minneapolis citizens together around common goals for education. The audience will include community members, parents, student support programs, youth and public officials who are working to improve learning outcomes in Minneapolis. The open space process operates much like a political caucus: it is an organic process that empowers attendees to name their areas of passion and to assemble fellow attendees in small groups to strategize action steps.

This is just one of many efforts planned in Minneapolis to stimulate parent and whole community engagement around learning and education as part of our strategy to achieve the Minneapolis Children and Youth Agenda 2020’s goal that all Minneapolis children and youth are prepared for, take advantage of and transformed by learning opportunities in school and the broader community. The summit will be a day of listening to parents and community members and participating in joint problem solving to remove obstacles to full engagement in learning for children and youth from 0-18. But beyond one day, the summit will be a starting point for continued engagement. Everyone can play a role in creating a community of learning in which learning is valued and parents and community actively participate in children’s learning. Call Danielle Grant at (612) 673-2131 for more information.

YCB to convene a meeting with the new MPD Juvenile Unit

The vision of the new MPD Juvenile Unit goes beyond traditional police work; they want an interdisciplinary team that could attend to the whole child – not just the trouble he or she got into. That could mean physically co-locating services in the processing center; potentially having a young person there to work with young people brought in by police but not booked, to get them engaged in positive things back in their neighborhood. The goal is for kids to feel a sense of hope when they leave the Juvenile unit and to start to improve the perception young people have of police.

The YCB offered to convene a meeting in August with Bryan Schafer, Juvenile Unit Commander for the Minneapolis Police Department that would bring together key representatives from the County, Parks, School District, City, and youth serving community who understand the necessity of creating supports, opportunities and services for young people in their community. The purpose of the meeting will be to examine the array of public and private resources and determining the most effective and strategic way of realizing the goal of more positive outcomes and interactions between juveniles and police in Minneapolis.

YCB Board Selects Out of School Time as Policy Priority

The YCB Board formally endorsed Out-of-School Time as their policy priority at the June Board meeting. The Board first made the determination at the Board Retreat in May, and formally voted to endorse this priority at the June Board meeting. In endorsing the policy priority, the Board committed to “bring leadership to the City and within their own jurisdictions to align and strengthen the infrastructure to support quality out-of-school time experiences, ensuring that all Minneapolis children and youth have access to quality Out-of-School Time programs that support their learning and development.”

Upcoming Action Conference on Educational Neglect Announced
A county-wide Action Conference to explore ways to improve the response to educational neglect for the children of Hennepin County will be held on September 21, 2006 from 8:00 AM-3:30 PM at the Coffman Union at the University of Minnesota. At the conference representatives from Child Protection, Children’s Mental Health, Community Agencies, the County Attorney’s Office, the Courts, Schools and the Hennepin County School Success project will work to accomplish the following goals:

Understand the system-wide processes

Learn about relevant research

Celebrate and learn from innovative practice

Improve options for action

Charter a Design Team to re-imagine the county-wide process.

This conference will focus on the coordinated community, school and family response to educational neglect and how the systems can improve the supportive processes to better serve the needs of children and families. Contact Nancy Schaefer at Hennepin County School Success for more information at Nancy.Schaefer@co.hennepin.mn.us or (612) 348-2805.