Mount Pleasant Youth Council

MOUNT PLEASANT YOUTH COUNCIL Thursday, November 2, 2023 5:00 PM Mount Pleasant Municipal Complex Council Chambers 100 Ann Edwards Lane, Mount Pleasant, SC 29464 MINUTES 1. Call to Order Ms. Griffin called the meeting to order at 5:02 p.m. Rose Dillon, Eli Barker, Lane Yarbrough, Layla Giddens, Mia Weis, Porter Yount, Evan Nussbaum, Jackson Naylor, and Addison Utsey were all present. Rowan Rucker and Ainsley Scarlett were absent. 2. Public Comments [None] 3. Approval of the minutes from the October 5, 2023 meeting Ms. Griffin moved to approve the minutes, seconded by Ms. Giddens. All present voted in favor. 4. Discussion of permission slips Ms. Griffin said there were 5 outstanding permission slips that need to be submitted. She asked for those to be e-mailed by the end of next week. Mr. McLawhorn added the acknowledgement of the bylaws and attendance policy needed to be returned as well. 5. Continued discussion and approval of priority projects for the session Ms. Griffin said a priority project is something that will have a lasting impact on the community. She said at the last meeting it was discussed that doing something with mental health or Wake Up Carolina were of interest. Ms. Utsey said that they could participate in the Toys for Tots sorting event and Ms. Griffin said that would be more of a quarterly project, and there are two more quarterly projects that need to be finalized. She said that could be a side project, along with the reef project.  Mount Pleasant Youth Council November 2, 2023 Page 2 of 8 Ms. Griffin said she likes the idea of starting an annual mental health summit to connect the counselors, making a network across the schools to share ideas, and then future Youth Councils can continue it. Ms. Dillon said it could be open to the public focusing on building connections in the schools. Ms. Griffin said this would be our priority project and the timeframe would likely be toward the end of the year as it will take a while to plan, with the hopes that it would become an annual event. Ms. Howard asked the Youth Council to describe what this would look like. Ms. Griffin referenced the narcotics event that was held at Town Hall, where they had several organizations that had tables, and a guest speaker. She said she envisioned counselors coming together where each of the schools were represented and they could sit down and discuss issues and share resources or set up an on-line platform. Ms. Dillon added that could be a starting point, having an event where people could socialize, talk, have a speaker, and discuss making a new platform or some sort of outreach. Ms. Weis said they could share what things are going well. Ms. Griffin said she liked the idea of a platform where they could talk to each other throughout the year. Mr. McLawhorn suggested making it where Youth Council is driving it, and instead of having people come in and speaking to students about this, have people come in and the students could tell them what they need. He said as we get older, we lose touch with what issues youth are facing. Ms. Dillon suggested sending polls out to the schools to gather information on important issues they would like to be addressed. Ms. Griffin said student improvement councils from the schools can be brought in as well. She said students can be brought in from the various schools to form a panel.  Mount Pleasant Youth Council November 2, 2023 Page 3 of 8 Ms. Utsey said most of the schools have a psychologist and she thought it would be good to bring them in as well as most students do not know they are available. Ms. Dillon asked about bringing in the School Resource Officers as well. Ms. Utsey said if there is room, she felt it would be beneficial. Ms. Weis said she feels like we are trying to focus on too many things. Ms. Howard said for clarification of the direction in which Youth Council is trying to go, the intent is to create an attainable resource center for students, but also for counselors and school staff to have one place where they can get ideas for resources and share their resources. Ms. Griffin said we are trying to create a place where everyone can be connected and help each other. Ms. Dillon said perhaps an app could be developed. Further discussion was held regarding a student panel and the size, and counselors from public and private schools, which schools should be included, and finding a central location for the event. Mr. McLawhorn said they could focus more on the people who live in the Town and not so much about where they go to school. Ms. Howard said it would be beneficial to define what is the problem you are trying to solve and go from there. Ms. Griffin said this is about sharing ideas and bridging the gap between the schools and having them working together for the good of all the students. Mr. McLawhorn said it sounds like there are two different paths, one for mental health and one for guidance counselors. He said he thought it would be better to split these into two and choosing one path. Mr. Nussbaum said he thought mental health was a more pressing issue. Mr. McLawhorn said if the focus is on mental health there would be more of an opportunity to help more people.  Mount Pleasant Youth Council November 2, 2023 Page 4 of 8 Ms. Yarbrough said mental health is more practical and Ms. Weis agreed. Ms. Griffin said it seems like everyone agrees that mental health should be the focus and creating some kind of connection between the mental health counselors in the schools, and expanding that to the community. For example bringing in a psychologist who is not associated with a school. Ms. Dillon stated she may have someone in mind. Mr. Nussbaum asked if we are still contemplating a summit and Ms. Griffin responded in the affirmative, or even creating a website or platform. Mr. Nussbaum asked how we would ensure the longevity of that. Ms. Griffin said it would be made an annual event. Mr. Nussbaum said it might be good to include teachers as they interact more with the students and are seeing more than the guidance counselors. Ms. Utsey asked if it would be more important to focus on students since this is about mental health. Ms. Griffin said we could make this a summit where students talk to the counselors. There are several options for accomplishing this. Further discussion was held. Ms. Yarbrough asked if we are contemplating an in-person or on-line event. Ms. Griffin said that is up to the entire Youth Council. Ms. Weis said a web-based collection of resources could be assembled that anyone could reference to help deal with the issues. Ms. Griffin said she envisioned having a meeting of counselors to facilitate creating an on-line resource that anyone can access. Ms. Howard said she liked the idea of creating an on-line resource. She said that is tangible. Ms. Weis asked if we are having a summit or publishing a resource list. Ms. Griffin said it may not necessarily be a summit but a gathering of counselors and pitching the idea to them and asking them to be part of creating this resource.  Mount Pleasant Youth Council November 2, 2023 Page 5 of 8 Mr. McLawhorn said many government agencies publish a “List of Lists” which is a list of resources with hyperlinks. He said that might be the direction they want to go, creating a list tailored for youth mental health. Ms. Addison asked if we are gong to go with the list idea or with guidance. Ms. Griffin said we are combining the issues and recruiting guidance counselors to help us create the list. Ms. Griffin said we can discuss how to advertise and summarize it as we move along. Ms. Howard clarified that the direction the priority project is going is an on-line resource center for mental health. Ms. Griffin responded in the affirmative. She then asked if anyone from the fall drive was in attendance this evening. Mr. Nussbaum said a donation drive to collect everything was decided on. He said East Cooper Community Outreach is probably the best option, but Dee Norton and Uplift Charleston are also good options. He said all three accept all kinds of donations, but there are certain lists, so he wanted input on whether or not to create flyers with specific needs, or just collect everything. He said we need to pick an organization to be the recipient. Ms. Griffin suggested giving ideas for donations such as non- perishable food items, children’s clothes, toiletries. She said friends can donate, and we can go to local businesses and talk to them about putting up collection bins. Mr. Naylor asked if we are thinking about collecting certain things from certain schools or grades. Ms. Dillon suggested making it a competition and Ms. Griffin said that would be up to the schools. Ms. Yarbrough asked if service hours could be given to those who donate. Ms. Griffin said if it is possible, everyone would need to have a bag with their name on it, and there would be a certain requirement. Ms. Utsey said for the holiday cards, she went to the study halls and the students had to give her their cards along with a service sheet with their name on it. Ms. Utsey said she brought it to town hall for signatures.  Mount Pleasant Youth Council November 2, 2023 Page 6 of 8 Ms. Griffin said they would need to have a secure bag with their items in it, and they can put a form inside of the bag. She asked if there are certain restrictions for donations or if each organization would accept everything. Mr. Nussbaum said Dee Norton accepts mostly children’s items and toiletries; East Cooper has a specific list of food and toiletries. Ms. Weis said she worked with East Cooper Community Outreach in the past and they sent a list of what they needed, and they also accept feminine hygiene products. Ms. Griffin said food may be difficult to collect at businesses, and it would be hard for students to carry cans of food to school. Mr. Nussbaum said if we are going into businesses we can create a separate flyer for them. He said people may be more likely to have cans of soup available to donate rather than extra boxes of toothpaste. He thinks people are more likely to bring in food. Ms. Griffin said we would need to do this within the next month. After further discussion the consensus was to collect donations for everything from the schools. Mr. McLawhorn also suggested putting boxes in churches and reaching out to homeowners associations. Mr. Nussbaum suggested reaching out on neighborhood social media platforms. Ms. Weis said East Cooper Community Outreach accepts donations all year round, and Ms. Griffin said she thought it needed to be completed by November 30th, to be able to deliver the donations on December 1. Mr. Nussbaum said he just looked at the wish list and some of the items on it are beef stew, shelf stable milk, pasta, pasta sauce, cereal, grits, bagged rice, laundry detergent, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and paper towels. Mr. Barker said his neighborhood does not have an HOA but he goes to the Circular Church downtown and they are always looking to hold donation drives, so he could assist with that.  Mount Pleasant Youth Council November 2, 2023 Page 7 of 8 Mr. Nussbaum said if we are going into churches, there may not be enough times for collections. Ms. Griffin said it would be four Sundays if we could get the bins in by this weekend. [Mr. Yount left the meeting at 6:00 p.m.] Ms. Griffin said the fall quarterly project is an “everything” drive to benefit East Cooper Community Outreach in high schools, local businesses, churches and neighborhoods. Mr. Nussbaum asked about a flyer, and Ms. Yarbrough said she could make one and send it via e-mail. Ms. Griffin also suggested posting it to Instagram. Ms. Griffin said to put the bins in the churches this Sunday and in schools on Monday. Ms. Utsey asked if we had an answer as to if we could incentivize donations and Ms. Howard responded in the affirmative. Ms. Howard said she would be in contact with everyone and asked them to check their e-mails. Ms. Griffin reminded everyone to bring in their permission slips and said the winter committees would be discussed at the next meeting. She asked the representatives to be prepared. Ms. Howard stated she still needs volunteers for the Old Village 5K on November 11 from 7:00 a.m. to 11:00 a.m., and service hours will be provided. She said she would send an e-mail with the link to sign up to anyone interested. Ms. Howard said it is a requirement for Youth Council members to attend at least one Town Council meeting and she would like to have the group attend together. Ms. Griffin said a date could be decided on in the group chat. 6. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 6:09 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Christine Barrett  Mount Pleasant Youth Council November 2, 2023 Page 8 of 8 Clerk of Council November 2, 2023