News about monkeypox is spreading and people are looking towards health experts for guidance. Our friends at the Minneapolis Health Department recently sent us some recommendations for people with kids. These recommendations are current as of August 9, 2022. You can download a PDF of these recommendations below.
We're going to be at Open Streets MPLS! Come visit us on Saturday 8/13 on a car free East Lake Street. Our focus will be to spread awareness on Child Rights and we'll have information on the Minneapolis Youth Congress (MYC). Applications are being accepted for the 2022-23 cohort of MYC. HERE is the Open Streets MPLS website. HERE is a map of the event with all the vendors.
A big thanks to Kare 11 for shining some light on our Outreach Team! They recently did a story on Hard In The Paint Hoops which combines community outreach, mentorship, and basketball. Please come say hi if you see our Outreach Team in your neighborhood with their yellow shirts on!
You can find the video report HERE.
Starting July 19, anyone in the United States can text or call 988 to access a national suicide prevention hotline. The service gives people experiencing a mental health crisis access to counselors 24-hours of the day. The previous number to get mental health assistance was 1-800-273-8255 which made it difficult for people to remember. Please spread the news about this new hotline to your network. HERE is 988's website.
The YCB strives to be a data driven organization. We value both quantitative and qualitative data to help inform our decisions. Recently, we produced ward summaries for all 13 wards in Minneapolis. In these ward summaries you will find information like youth population by age, youth population by race, and maps showing youth spaces in each ward. We hope these ward summaries are useful to you and that we can all work together in the future to collect data and better understand our city. Please find PDF versions of all 13 ward summaries HERE (scroll down to the bottom of the page).
On April 30, 2022 we helped host the Minneapolis Teen Job & Opportunity Fair. The Minneapolis Park & Recreation Board hosted us at their headquarters on a rainy day, but that didn't stop a bunch of youth and families from coming out to power up their summer job search. Uncle Franky's food truck came out and provided lunch for everyone in attendance as well. A big thanks to all the employers that came out to share exciting summer opportunities with young people; Minneapolis Parks for sharing their space; CPED for taking the lead on planning the event; and to the Minneapolis Youth Congress for adding youth voice to the planning and providing entertainment the day of the event. Please check out the photo gallery.
We are delighted to announce we received a Greater Twin Cities United Way grant in partnership with Youthprise, the Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth, and Sprockets. Our partnership will work individually and collectively to launch Youth OnBoard in each of our cities, which creates equitable opportunities for young people to have a seat at decision-making tables and have a voice in decisions that affect their well-being and that of their communities. Youth OnBoard works at the program and systems levels. Programmatically, Youth OnBoard will serve youth directly, providing training, mentoring, coaching, and other activities that develop leadership and life skills. Systemically, Youth OnBoard will disrupt structures and systems by preparing local government agencies and nonprofits to share power with young people by including them on boards and commissions and in other advisory capacities. Stay connected for future updates and opportunities to collaborate as this project develops. Read United Way's full announcement HERE.
As you may have heard by now, negotiations between Minneapolis Public Schools (MPS) and the Minneapolis Federation of Teachers (MFT) did not conclude and a strike began on March 8, 2022. Our immediate concern is finding safe places for our children and young people to be. We are working with partners to provide the most up-to-date information and as many resources as possible. Please click the PDF on the right to read our full statement and for a list of resources. Thank you for joining us to ensure our young people have everything they need during this time.