YCB Welcomes Three New Board Members

The YCB is happy to welcome three new board members in February.

Elizabeth Glidden is the newly elected City Council Member representing the 8 th ward. CM Glidden is an attorney specializing in employment and civil rights law and a longtime community volunteer. CM Glidden is a violinist with and past-president of the Civic Orchestra of Minneapolis . She is also the vice-chair of the Hennepin History Museum , a small social history museum that, among other programs, provides public exhibits at the Hennepin County Government Center as well as other locations. She received her Bachelor of Arts from Augustana College , her Juris Doctorate from University of Iowa College of Law and her Masters in Public Affairs from the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota .

Betsy Hodges is the newly elected City Council member representing the 13 th Ward. CM Hodges has a bachelor's degree from Bryn Mawr College and a Master's degree from the University of Wisconsin . CM Hodges has served as Development Director for the Minnesota Justice Foundation and on the staff of Hennepin County Commissioner Gail Dorfman. She was on the board of the Linden Hills Neighborhood Council for four years, including two as co-chair. CM Hodges also founded the Dinner Network, helped start the Legacy Project, and was the co-chair of c-17, the commission appointed by the City Council to examine the feasibility of a privately funded ballpark.

Laura Waterman Wittstock is the new Library Board of Trustee representative to the YCB. Trustee Wittstock recently won election to the Library Board after serving since 2002 as the mayoral appointee. A leader of organizations in the non profit sector for 35 years, Trustee Wittstock is former president of MIGIZI Communications, which started as a place for Native American journalism students to train and has evolved to include broader media goals, such as closing the “digital divide.” A journalist and writer of non-fiction and children's books , she serves on the boards of the SE Asian Refugee Home, Greater Metropolitan Housing Corporation and National American Indian Development Corporation. Trustee Wittstock was the recipient of the 1998 FOIA Finnegan Freedom of Information Award and is currently writing three books.

We are excited to have the expertise and perspective of all three new members on the YCB .

Minneapolis Children and Youth Agenda 2020 Update

Leadership Teams

Over the past six months, our work has been organized around four priority areas - Health, Positive Activities, Attendance and Literacy/Learning.  Lately, we began to discuss whether this is the best way to organize our process: some priority areas have gained momentum in the year since we selected them while others have lost steam.  Some areas were easy to understand and communicate, while others were not as comprehensible for those who are not as familiar with children and youth issues.  This is the time to make any course corrections before taking the MCYA to a more public level. Therefore, after extensive internal discussions and conversations with Team2020 and the consultants from the Forum for Youth Investment we decided to reorganize our leadership teams around the four long-term goals: Children and youth are (I) Connected to family, caring adults peers and organizations in their community; (II) Physically and psychologically healthy ; (III) Prepared for, take advantage of and are transformed by learning opportunities in school and the broader community; and (IV) Fully prepared for and engaged in building their future . 

These are substantive changes and not change for change's sake.  They are designed to make communicating our Agenda as easy as possible with as broad an audience as possible. 

How will we track progress and measure success?

Identifying indicators to measure long-term “success” and to track progress along the way is an essential component of the Agenda. To that end, the YCB has formed an ad-hoc workgroup to help identify key indicators and to address some of the thornier challenges of data collection and translation for a broad audience. The workgroup is co-led by Judith Kahn and Pat Harrison, research director at the Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support (MDHFS). David Johnson, epidemiologist with MDHFS is also playing a significant role in this project; he has already completed the first leg of this work, which involved identify potential indicators for each long-term goal and then identifying existing local data sources, assessing their validity, their periodicity, determining whether and how we could access the data, and identifying any limitations of using the data.

Workgroup members include research staff from YCB 's partner entities, Greater Twin Cities United Way, University of Minnesota , and community organizations that track demographic data on communities of color. The workgroup has two tasks to complete. One is to identify the most important/useful indicators from available data sets. The second is to identify a set of indicators we wish were available but don't currently exist. The group can then explore potential methods for obtaining these data, e.g., school or household or phone or internet surveys or other novel approaches. The group will also guide the selection of indicators to use in a Report Card as well as any qualitative information that will help tell the story of how Minneapolis children and youth are faring. The goal is to have the first base-line Report Card available by early summer. An extensive dissemination plan will also be developed.

Phase II Mapping

As a second phase of work on community youth mapping, the YCB offered grants of up to $4,000 per neighborhood/neighborhood cluster that finished mapping the resources in their neighborhood. The purpose of this Mapping Phase II funding was to engage young people in developing and implementing a plan to address one of the areas of concern identified during the neighborhood mapping process.

Four projects were funded and completed between September and December of 2005. These projects included the development of a prototype for a youth developed and operated newspaper featuring information about issues, activities and resources for youth in the Lyndale neighborhood. In the Hawthorne neighborhood, funds were used for the development of a teen coffee house and performance space called the Connection Café. In the Central neighborhood, outreach was conducted by youth to gain information about the types of programs and activities that young people would like to participate in. Youth outreach workers also disseminated information in the neighborhood about activities and resources for youth. In the Whittier neighborhood, funds were used to create a map of youth programs and signs to identify youth programs in the neighborhood. Maps were distributed widely in the community, door to door to families, businesses and community organizations.

Phase II mapping projects have provided young people another chance to think about their communities in a deeper way and have an opportunity to make a significant contribution to young people in their neighborhoods.

Thank You to Outgoing Officers

With the election of new YCB board officers at the February Board meeting, we recognize the contributions of our outgoing officers, Mayor R.T. Rybak, Chair; Minneapolis City Council Member Natalie Johnson Lee, Vice Chair; and Hennepin County Commissioner Peter McLaughlin, Secretary. During the two years that they served as officers, the YCB completed the transition from a program to a policy entity and launched the Minneapolis Children and Youth Agenda 2020. The outstanding work of the Board officers was instrumental to these achievements.