Youth Service Advisory Board

NORWICH YOUTH & FAMILY SERVICES ADVISORY BOARD MEETING May 12th, 2014 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 was held on May 12th, 2015 in Room 335 in Norwich City Hall. Those in attendance were as follows: Jodi Vara-President Angela Rae Duhaime-Community Member Kay Eyberse-Community Coordinator Kevin Saythany-Secretary Erin Wood Calla Tetreault Katie Wagner Guest: Deb Kievits Absent: Mark Irons-Juvenile Probation Mike McKinney-NPD Duncan Profitt Staff: Sherry Bryant The meeting was called to order at 8:40am. Review of meeting minutes: The minutes from January 13th, 2015 and March 10th were unanimously accepted. YBS Programs:  Sherry Byrant of Children First Norwich updated the Board about the activities and potential future of Children First. She informed the Board about the upcoming Help Me Grow project, designed to screen young children ages Birth to Five for being on point for their developmental stages. She talked about health screening for children who might be at risk of developmental delays or behavioral problems. She discussed the future strategy of the Graustein Foundation as it begins to shift towards working with social justice and equity issues in Connecticut communities. This dovetails with the new “Two-Generational” model being introduced at the state wide level.  SYEP applications are out for this summer and recruitment has begun for Summer Jam. New Business:  Kay discussed continued State wide budget concerns as they related to all youth programming and the obvious fact that no one will know until the very end of the session where they stand financially for 2015-2016.  Jodi discussed issues with attendance and it was suggested a By-Law subcommittee be formed to review membership, in particular and meeting times, in general. That subcommittee was scheduled for June 1st at 3:30 at Jodi’s office at NFA. Jodi, Angela, Erin and Kay will attend and report back. Norwich Prevention Council Subcommittee:  The “Take the First Step” 3rd annual suicide prevention walk was a complete success this year with attendance increasing yearly.  NPC continues to work with the Norwich Police Department to run alcohol compliance checks before the end of June.  Kay will be writing the LPC report for the end of the year and needs the group to think over the summer, what they want to focus on next year.