Mount Pleasant Youth Council

MOUNT PLEASANT YOUTH COUNCIL Thursday, December 7, 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 5:07 p.m. Eli Barker, Rose Dillon, Evan Nussbaum, Rowan Rucker, Mia Weis, Addison Utsey, Lane Yarbrough and Jackson Naylor were all present. Layla Giddens, Ainsley Scarlett and Porter Yount were all absent. 2. Public Comments [None] 3. Approval of the minutes from the November 2, 2023 meeting Ms. Griffin moved to approve the minutes, seconded by Ms. Dillon. All present voted in favor. 4. Continued discussion and approval of priority project for the session Ms. Griffin stated at the last meeting it was decided that the priority project would be an application for mental health, and that the idea for a summit had been nixed. Ms. Utsey asked if this was going to be an application or a document. Ms. Griffin stated she thought it would be a website with resources for teachers across the county. Youth Council members present agreed with just a website. Ms. Griffin asked Mr. McLawhorn what type of approval would be needed to proceed. Mr. McLawhorn stated that would be a question for the Assistant Town Administrator or the Communications Department and he would check on the approval process. Ms. Griffin said she thought the next step would be to start laying out ideas and making a presentation. She asked the other Youth Council Members to think about the presentation over the next month and  Mount Pleasant Youth Council December 7, 2023 Page 2 of 5 bringing ideas in January to have a presentation completed by February. Ms. Howard asked if everyone uses Google Drive so they could all be working on the presentation rather than just one or two people, and the response was in the affirmative. Ms. Griffin said we need to decide who would be asked for information and assistance. Ms. Dillon asked if we wanted to go to the school district directly for the information or work directly with individual counselors. Ms. Griffin said that would be something to think about over the break, and if anyone knows anyone that would be willing to help. Ms. Howard asked if they thought it would be possible to have this presentation done by the next meeting. Ms. Griffin said she thought the next month should be dedicated to research so that by the end of January it could be mostly complete. Ms. Howard asked if the presentation could be completed by the February meeting and Ms. Griffin responded in the affirmative. Ms. Griffin said that the task for December to January is to locate people to assist, and in January the presentation can be written. Mr. Nussbaum asked if a layout for the website could be determined this evening. Mr. McLawhorn said that discussions would need to be held with the Town’s web designers as there are formats that will need to be followed. Ms. Griffin said the discussion this evening can be about what type of information will be included. Ms. Dillon said when getting larger organizations involved, and medical and psychiatric advice is given, there is liability. Ms. Griffin said there would be guidelines from qualified psychiatric individuals with links to pages regarding specific conditions or situations. Ms. Yarbrough asked how it would be organized and Ms. Griffin stated that is what we need to discuss this evening. Ms. Dillon said it could possibly be organized by issues or general categories, for example school or relationship related issues.  Mount Pleasant Youth Council December 7, 2023 Page 3 of 5 Mr. Barker said he thought Questions and Answers for a website like this would be important so that students could be able to ask questions and get answers back from professionals. Ms. Griffin said that could also be made private for psychiatric issues. Ms. Weis asked if that meant there would need to be always someone available live to chat. Ms. Griffin said perhaps it could be more of a contact list based on specific issues. Mr. McLawhorn said it was starting to sound like this was a much bigger project that would require a lot of infrastructure and people working full-time and it may be better to work back to more of a resource repository. Mr. Nussbaum asked if there were people that worked for the Town that could make a website. Mr. McLawhorn said he would look into it, and he did not know if Youth Council was thinking about having this be part of the Youth Council or Town page. He said a separate page would need additional financial resources for things like web hosting and design. Mr. Nussbaum said the Youth Council budget for the year is $1,000 and asked if anyone knew how much hosting a website would cost. Ms. Dillon suggested asking parents if they have sites or know of the cost. Ms. Weis said no one is going to go to the Town website looking for mental health assistance. Ms. Griffin said advertising needs to be part of the priority project. Ms. Utsey asked if the information we are trying to provide is already out there. Ms. Griffin said we are attempting to put together all of the information in one location. Ms. Dillon said maybe we could put together a survey of our classmates and have that information available. Mr. McLawhorn said the idea is to get the information from peers about their needs and wants. Ms. Yarbrough asked if this is going to be on the Town’s website or a separate website. Ms. Griffin said she thinks it should be on the Town’s website, especially if we are using the Town’s name, and we would not have to worry about purchasing a website.  Mount Pleasant Youth Council December 7, 2023 Page 4 of 5 Ms. Weis asked where it would fall on the Town’s website. Ms. Griffon said we would need to discuss it with the schools and counselors and get it advertised. Mr. Barker asked if there are any ideas for advertising. Ms. Griffin said posters can go up with a link to Instagram or Facebook. Ms. Dillon said the counselors could pass along the information as well. Mr. Nussbaum said he was looking at the Town website, and asked what department it would fall into. Ms. Griffin asked if this could be made its own category. Mr. McLawhorn said that is a conversation to have with the webmaster. Ms. Weis said if we want this to be successful, it needs to be located in a place that is easily seen and accessible. She said she does not know where mental health falls under a government website. Ms. Griffin said that was a good list of things to think about for next month. She asked everyone to bring any donations they had collected for East Cooper Community Outreach by the January meeting. 5. Update on quarterly service projects Ms. Howard asked for the names of the committee members responsible for the Toys for Tots event. Ms. Yarbrough responded she was, along with Ms. Utsey and Ms. Scarlett. Ms. Howard said she has been in contact with them and to participate you must apply to be a volunteer. She said she had applied back in October, and the application was approved this week. Volunteers are needed to sort toys at the warehouse at 10:00 on December 9th and the 16th, but not on December 23rd. Ms. Griffin said she could not go on the 9th or the 16th, and Ms. Yarbrough said she could not go on the 9th. Ms. Howard asked everyone to let her know via e-mail what day they would want to participate.  Mount Pleasant Youth Council December 7, 2023 Page 5 of 5 Ms. Griffin said the spring and summer committees need to be assigned. Ms. Howard said January to March would be the spring service project period and April and May would be the summer period. Ms. Griffin assigned the remaining Youth Council Members to the spring and summer committees and stated they would be responsible for choosing the service projects. [Mr. Barker left the meeting at 5:38 p.m.] Ms. Griffin said Youth Council tee shirts needed to be selected. Ms. Howard said the design must have the Mount Pleasant crest on it, and Youth Council printed on it, and it would need to be approved before being purchased. After discussion, Mr. McLawhorn stated Lands’ End has the Town logo and design and a link could be sent with color selections. 6. Adjourn There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 5:41 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Christine Barrett Clerk of Council December 7, 2023