Youth Service Advisory Board

NORWICH YOUTH & FAMILY SERVICES ADVISORY BOARD MEETING JANUARY 12, 2010 ROOM 335, NORWICH CITY HALL (860) 823-3782 - FAX (860) 892-6031 Email: nyfs@cityofnorwich.org MINUTES The Norwich Youth and Family Services Advisory Board Meeting was held on January 12, 2010 at 8:30 in Room 335 in Norwich City Hall. Those in attendance were as follows: Kay Eyberse-Coordinator Soledad Metcalfe Lisa Maclure-Staff Debbie Kievits Connie Labasi Duncan Profitt Jodi M. Vara Janet Paton The meeting was called to order at 8:30. Kay started the meeting by having everyone introduce him/herself, sign in and update any email information. The adopted minutes from the October 13, 2009 meeting were distributed and the accepted minutes were approved. Kay announced that she is continuing to work with the City Manager and the Council to get new members approved. Program/Collaboration Updates~All youth programs were briefly discussed. The highlights of some of the programs discussed were as follows: • Parent (VFF) and Youth Leadership Programs- The active recruiting of both youth and adults is going well. Due to a conflict of scheduling with student SAT testing, the retreat date is being moved from 1/23 to Saturday 1/30. • Adopt a Family-The annual Christmas program assisting financially needy families by matching a sponsor to a family to provide gifts for their children served approximately 350 youth and their families this year. • Hire-a-Teen-All of the paperwork, including applications and liability waivers are currently being reviewed by the City attorney. Once they are approved, the program will be ready to recruit both employers and youth workers. • CFN-The design team continues to work on the Enhancement Plan for Norwich. The continuing funding grant is due in February. • Juvenile Review Board and the Families with Service Needs team are both active, meeting monthly and processing referrals from the Police and School system. • Aspire-career exploration- Patti will continue at Kelly Middle School working with 8-10 youth. They will be exploring career opportunities and continuing their work on the school store. • Kelly Diversion group-Angelo and Connie are considering expanding the current group and recruiting new young people.  • Youth Net-The prevention collaborative is working towards a spring week of youth activities across the City. All activities will be advertised when the final list is solidified. • Clinical-Referrals continue to come in. Kay and Angelo’s caseloads are full. The current waiting list has only two families on it. • Young Parents Program-Lisa met her first quarter expectations and is actively working with 12 young parents. New Business • Kay and Angelo were working with a collaborative on the Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant, but just found out last week that there will be no money for the upcoming year. • New “Summer” Youth Employment $$-Extra money has been released for SYEP which must be used by 6/30/10. This will allow 25 previously certified youth to be recalled and employed part-time until the end of June. • CFN/School Readiness Regional group-Held a Legislative breakfast in early December which was attended by nearly 80 participants. The topic for Legislators was the future of early care and education and the importance of preparing youngsters for successful school experiences. • Staff facilitated a series of three workshops for the residents of Thames River Family Program on anger management and child abuse prevention. 20 young mothers participated. • Budget Woes-Advisory Board members were informed of upcoming budget concerns. A 25% potential cut to all Department of Education Youth Service allotments was reject recently by the State Legislature. Currently, DOE covers $87,000+ of the 2009/2010 NYFS budget. The City of Norwich has asked the Human Services Director, Beverly Goulet to submit ideas for a mid year %3 budget cut and additional %5, %10, and %15 cuts to possibly begin July 1, 2010. Advisory Board members were reminded that Youth Services sustained a %54 decrease in the City’s financial commitment to Youth Services when the Director of the agency was cut in July 2009. As the budget situation becomes clearer all Advisory Board members will be asked to advocate on behalf of the agency. • Youth Services Blood Drive-Kay has been approached by the Red Cross to host a blood drive. Both Jodi and Debbie volunteered to assist. • Debbie Keivits from Bully Busters took a few minutes to update the membership on projects she is working on in the community, most specifically World Youth Day on 5/7/10. Wrap up at 9:30 The next Advisory Board meeting will be held on March 9th at 8:30 in Room 335 in City Hall