Minneapolis Children and Youth Agenda Communiqué
July 2006
There has been a great deal of progress in each of the four long term
goal areas since the last edition of the Communiqué. The
following is a summary of this progress by goal area.
Minneapolis Children & Youth are…..
I. Connected to family, caring adults, peers and organizations in their
community.
This leadership team is 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: increasing youth participation in positive
activities and creating consistent quality “standards” for
all sectors working with children and youth.
To increase youth participation in positive activities, the YCB began
a second round of Youth Asset Mapping. This year, Yo! the Movement
will conduct Phase I work (mapping formal and informal resources;
youth interviewing youth), with four mapping teams funded by the
YCB. The neighborhoods to be mapped this summer are Bottineau, Cedar-Riverside,
Jordan/Hawthorne and Longfellow. The community partners with Yo!
are:
- Bottineau: MPRB/youthline
- Cedar-Riverside: Youth Worker/Cedar-Riverside resident
- Jordan/Hawthorne: Hospitality House
- Longfellow: MPRB/youthlinev
Saito Consulting will lead Phase II projects (working with youth to
create a map, conduct research and a grass roots marketing campaign),
with three mapping and outreach teams funded by the YCB. Phase II neighborhoods
include Cleveland/Victory/McKinley/ Lind-Bohanon/Shingle Creek; Near
North; and Central /Kingfield.
The community partners with Saito are:
- Cleveland/Victory/McKinley/ Lind-Bohanon/Shingle Creek: Camden Alliance
of Neighborhoods
- Near North: Kwanzaa Church
- Central/Kingfield: MPRB/youthline
Phase II training with youth took place in June with Phase I training
occurring in July. Mapping of Phase I neighborhoods is taking place
in July and August, and Phase II mapping is due to be completed in
July. The Phase II mappers will then focus on marketing and map creation
in August and September. Data from the mapping will be available in
September with a planned Youth Town Hall Forum to share the information
tentatively scheduled in October 2006.
In addition, the Positive Activities Leadership Team is working with
our partners to ensure quality standards for youth activities. The
High Scope Youth Program Quality Assessment training will ensure quality
standards are consistent throughout the city.
II. Physically and psychologically healthy.
This leadership team is being co-convened by YCB and the Minneapolis
Department of Health and Family Support (MDHFS), with MDHFS taking
the lead. There are two focus areas of this work, the Urban Health
Agenda and Youth Violence Prevention. MDHFS has already begun setting
the groundwork for supporting an “Urban Health Agenda,” which
is intentionally related to both the City of Minneapolis Comprehensive
Plan and the YCB’s Children and Youth Agenda. The main activity
in the second focus area, youth violence prevention, has been the seven
Youth Violence Prevention Grants which the MDHFS awarded in June. MDHFS
was fortunate to have a knowledgeable and diverse group of community
representatives who volunteered their time to read and review proposals
and make recommendations for funding. MDHFS received 68 proposals requesting
a total of $3,252,456. It was a challenging task for the reviewers
to choose from the many worthy, well-written proposals to make seven
awards for a total of $250,000 per year for two years.
Funded programs are as follows:
Minneapolis Public Schools Broadway School received $38,000 to hire
a .75 Associate Educator to reduce the number of students who are suspended
or administratively transferred due to violent behavior in the school
and to develop a Peer Jury program.
Plymouth Christian Youth Center was awarded $39,800 to implement a “Positive
Cool” initiative to reconnect youth with a positive future through
arts, technology and positive connections with healthy adults.
Little Earth Residents Association was awarded $46,000 to develop a
targeted mentoring program for youth attending Nawayee Center School.
The Confederation of the Somali Community of Minnesota received $21,200
to expand street based outreach to Somali youth and expand staff to
facilitate home visits to parents of high risk Somali youth.
The Southeast Asian Refugee Community Home was awarded $20,000 to expand
recreation and enrichment activities with older Hmong youth in the
Southeast Asian Diversion Program.
The Division of Indian Work was awarded $40,000 to hire a .75 staff
person to expand the cultural collaborative of Cante Ma Waste’ (My
Heart is Good).
Kwanzaa Community Church was awarded $45,000 to expand staffing for
community outreach and opportunities for youth to work for the Teen
Connection Café in north Minneapolis.
III. Prepared for, take advantage of and transformed by learning opportunities
in school and the broader community.
This goal area has a dual focus on early childhood education and building
community support, family capacity and engagement. Early childhood
education is being addressed through the YCB’s Early Childhood
Work Group. The broad challenge of increasing parent, family and community
engagement in learning is being addressed by a team working on an upcoming
event called The Power of Engagement: A Minneapolis Parent & Community
Summit.
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 in an open format ways that we can all
better engage with our children and youth to make them more successful
learners.
The event will be unique in that we will use "open space" group
dynamics to bring Minneapolis citizens together around common goals
for education. Audiences will include citizens, parents, student
support programs, youth and public officials who are working to improve
our education climate 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 we are planning in Minneapolis to
stimulate parent and whole community engagement around education.
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. 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.
IV. Fully prepared for and engaged in building their future.
As noted in a previous edition of the Communiqué, Achieve!Minneapolis
and Minneapolis Public Schools are in the process of developing an
on-line tool for high school aged youth to develop a personal/career
plan. The tool, called MyLifePlan, 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 goals. The leadership
team, co-convened with Achieve!Minneapolis, has explored the opportunities
the planning tool presents for libraries, park recreation centers,
residential institutions and other places where children and youth
spend their time to help them prepare for and be engaged in building
their own future. By the end of August 2006, Minneapolis Public Schools
will be ready to train staff at parks, libraries, and alternative schools
to use the MyLifePlan tool.
There are many activities and events planned in the next couple of
months to further the work of the Minneapolis Children and Youth Agenda.
Here are just few examples of upcoming activities.
- The YCB will convene a Youth Town Hall Forum in October to review
the results of the second round of Youth Asset Mapping that is ongoing
this summer. The survey data and inventory of programs will help the
community identify issues facing children and youth which the YCB will
then provide assistance in addressing.
- The Power of Engagement : A Minneapolis Parent & Community
Summit will be held on September 30, 2006 and will bring together parents,
community members, community organizations, educators and elected officials
to discuss in an open format ways that we can all better engage with
our children and youth to help them become more successful learners.
- Achieve!Minneapolis and Minneapolis Public Schools will launch the
MyLifePlan tool and begin training Park and Library Staff to use the
MyLifePlan tool.
