Youth Service Bureau Advisory Board

City of Middletown Youth Services Bureau Advisory Board REGULAR MEETING May 21, 2019 Middletown Youth Services Bureau 6:00 PM Notes Attending: Grady Faulkner, Seb Giulliano, Melinda Brainerd, Mike Awdziewicz, Brian Farrell Staff: Justin Carbonella, coordinator; Katie Kesten, Admin. YIG: Jewel Lucien, Jack Higgins A. Call to Order – Stand-in Chair, Justin Carbonella called the meeting to order @ 6:08 p.m. announcing that we did not meet quorum. B. Approval of November 18, 2018 Meeting Minutes, January 15, 2019, and February 19, 2019, March 19, 2019 Meeting Notes This agenda item was held due to lack of quorum. C. YSB State and Local Budget Updates Justin shared with the Board that the Youth Services budget has passed approval with the Common Council and that the Youth Worker position has been reappointed to our budget D. Police & Youth Report No police or police reporting were present for this meeting. E. Updates & Announcements a. YSBAB Board Vacancies – Justin shared with the Board the current vacancies and briefly discussed the makeup of the Board for recruiting. b. Laura McCargar – Justin mentioned that he took a group of students to a workshop at Wesleyan with Laura McCargar. c. Legislative Sessions – Justin brought 2 students to the Capital to speak at the Legislative Hearings on the subject of YSB funding. While there, they heard of another hearing taking place on African  American and Latino studies being part of the educational curriculum. They asked to testify and did an amazing job. d. Restorative Circle – Justin shared that MYSB ran a successful restorative circle for 6-7 MHS female students that were in a fight at MHS. It was a challenging 4+ hour conversation with an amazing outcome where all of the families came together and resolved a long ongoing issue. Justin was contacted by Cassandra Day to be interviewed about Restorative Practices for an article. e. Oddfellows – Grady Faulkner mentioned that he is very happy that Oddfellows Playhouse has returned to their roots in the way that they program. f. Youth Talent Show – Grady Faulkner talked about the talent show that was held in Middletown recently. Participants came from all over CT to compete. The outcome is that many stories were gathered from the participating youth and there is a plan to make a play out of the stories for the spring. The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 p.m. Submitted by Katie Kesten