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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-YB-1998-01-12 Ithaca Youth Bureau Advisory Board Meeting January 12,1998 Attendance: David Delchamps, Chuck Bartosch, Cathy Currier,Joann Kingsley-Wells, Katie Osborn, Joan Spielholz,Tzvetana Tochkov, Deb Traunstein Staff: Sam Cohen, Allen Green, Marilyn Hall I. Meeting was called to order at 7:36p.m. December minutes were distributed with a motion made,seconded and carried unanimously to approve these minutes. The Board extends congratulations to Sam and Martha Walsh Cohen on the recent marriage December 11w. II. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 1) Youth Development(Allen Green) • Craft Shop-Allen displayed a ceramic mural that teens from GIAC designed and worked on weekly with Chet Salustri, part-time Craft Shop Coordinator,and Marisa Wald from GIAC. After the mural is finished it will be displayed at GIAC. • Mechanical All Stars— Allen reports a number of schools have responded to the November 24th letter and we've been talking with them about the kids who were working in MAS during the fall that would like to continue in the spring. Barbara Hurlburt,(Middle School Principal from Dryden)called to say Dryden was not aware that the MAS program was accessible for their students and are real interested for some middle school kids who don't fit with a traditional program. Michelle Kannus and Scott Anderson(Dryden Middle School guidance counselors) visited the shop last week and are quite interested in using the program. They see it as having some flexibility in terms of how we're setting it up that some of the other alternatives don't have. A discussion followed on the registration form/billing procedure form that was proposed. This is a major change for us since we have never charged the schools and we want to make this as user friendly as possible. We are open to feedback from schools and revisions can be made in the future. One concern might be the notification time to the Youth Bureau if a student won't be continuing. Supporting letters have also come in from Ron Acerra (Principal at DeWitt)and Mary Bente (Principal, Lansing Middle School)who have already completed forms for their students that are currently attending. Newfield reported that they are interested in enrolling the two students that participated in the fall. Sam has been and will continue to be in touch with the Ithaca district. Cy Weller will also be leaving but relayed to Sam that he will make sure the superintendent knows that we want to have a meeting with Ithaca, other districts and BOCES and that he would let Sam know when the person had been assigned. Groton has indicated that they would like to attend a meeting with BOCES and YB to see whether we could set this up under the auspices of BOCES so that districts could access this at a lower cost to the district because of the state aid factor. Gordon Klumpp(Superintendent from Groton)was interested and willing to get involved and will come down next week to tour the shop and meet with us. All in all this has been quite positive. Continuing enrollment? Too early to predict since we're just returning from the holiday season and it's been difficult to communicate with all the schools. In order for BOCES to be involved there would have to be 2 or more districts who are interested in seeing it happen. Our fall semester was fully enrolled t = and confusing children in both play and violence. High tech simulation puts young people 'almost there'. Unlike the proposed catharsis from witnessing a classical theatrical tragedy, graphic television and simulated video game violence desensitizes our children to the reality of violence. Our children, and ourselves are being lulled into viewing violence as normal and without deep emotional stirrings of empathy. When violence mixes with masculine socialization the matter intensifies. This combination leads to winning being synonymous with being the only one standing, the fastest to destroy, and acting aggressive over empathetic. With this in mind how can we expect from boys, and later from the men they become, to be anything more than isolated, quick to fight, and self-serving brutes? With the world so rich with beauty and wonder how is it we can stand by unmoved as our children get drawn into the dark fascination with violence? How is it we can be apathetic to witnessing our children's senses dulled and their spirits depressed by the confinement and content of a world as experienced in an arcade? By considering implementing guidelines limiting children's exposure to violence, especially as it is experienced from video games, the Youth Bureau is demonstrating courageous care for the children of the communities they serve. Please let them know how you feel about this important community issue. although Ithaca District is taking less advantage of the program. During the school day we handle 5-6 students per session(two sessions per day). 10-12 kids during school hours,then 5 or 6 after school hours. During the summer we have 6-8 kids who work there through the YES summer jobs program. • One-to-One -a laurel appeared in the Ithaca Journal thanking people from several area businesses for helping out with December's annual One-to-One International Dinner with thanks also to Coconut Therapy for providing music for this special event. • All Youth Development Programs are busy working on Annual Reports which need to be to the County during the next few weeks. Statistical information should be available by February's meeting with narratives available in March. • Paul Schreur's Memorial Program—we are moving forward on finalizing the member item grant($15,000)for the PSMP. We have submitted an application that has made it though the State Education Department;then it will go through the Controller's and Attorney General's offices. 2) Director's Report (Sam) • Task Force—Community Issues Committee meets Wednesday, January 14th,and it would be helpful for Board members to be part of that discussion since this is a key issue for the future for youth services in the City of Ithaca. If the Community Issues Committee decide to establish a group to work on the GIAC request for separation the organizational structure aspect of the task force should begin at the conclusion of this work. The service to Ithaca children and families side of the task force should begin as soon as possible. It is important to coordinate task force efforts with the Mayor. He is talking about a Community Task Force. It is also important to coordinate task force efforts with the new Common Council Program Analysis Committee which will look at programs and budgets of all City department's and make recommendations for the future. • Rollersports Park—the Parks Commission has been discussing various concerns with the new Rollersports Park. They are planning on sending a memo addressing these concerns to the Mayor, Common Council and other interested parties. A key question which must be addressed is the need for a staff person on duty at all hours the park is open based on projections for high usage. This would allow for people to use bathrooms in the building, an adult available to help with emergencies,telephone available for emergencies, and other activities to take place in the building. • Greenhouse—the Parks Commission took a strong position that a separate standing greenhouse facing Stewart Park was not acceptable aesthetically and they would not approve it. There was some suggestion that the only way you could go was that if it was attached to the building and designed by professional architect. • Walkway to Stewart Park and Youth Bureau from Boynton—Sam has been told that there is going to be a walkway and the State is working on it. Cornell has agreed to support and provide assistance financially in terms of staff if the lake water cooling system is approved. A big problem is how to get everybody across the roads safely. Will keep us posted as he learns new information. • Issue on how employees get paid for emergency snow days—Common Council will be looking at this City policy issue at their next B&A meeting. • GIAC is hosting the Martin Luther King,Jr.breakfast on Saturday, Jan. 18. There will be a Martin Luther King,Jr.celebration at GIAC Monday, January 19, from 1 —5 p.m. followed by dinner and entertainment from 5-7 p.m. 3) Recreation(Sam in Alice's absence) • Participation Charts for 1997—will be available at the next meeting. We continue to have large enrollments,although it is down approximately 1,000 from last year. We will be looking at what was the basis for this decrease. One problem was during Kiwanis there was some difficulty with coaches forgetting to register youngsters who went directly to the team and not to the Youth Bureau. Enrollment for Sports Camp registration down because of the difficulties with the school and getting temporary quarters. Recreation Partnership Board is reviewing summer plans and looking at fees and new program proposals. One multi-faceted proposal discusses the possibility of gardening programs for all different ages. One key element which would be related to Youth Development is to have a work project for teenagers during the summer to take some part of the Youth Bureau grounds for beautification. Programs that took place on a one time basis with a decision-making about whether they should continue are Girls Outdoor Adventure and Sewing Workshop. Girls Outdoor Adventure was solid success from point of view of participation and enthusiasm but it's very expensive to run and ways to modify this will be studied. There is a strong interest from the Board in continuing with programs for girls. We are beginning a new year and need a liaison to the Recreation Partnership Board from the Youth Bureau Board. Joann Kingsley-Wells will commit for this appointment for one year. Joan Spielholz will continue on our Youth Bureau Board although will not be able to attend all meetings. • Bantam Basketball—for grades 3-8 has 90 boys and 35 girls enrolled. • Family Swim—one member remarked that it's discouraging for a family to go to IHS for family swim after it has been advertised in the paper to find the pool not available due to a special tournaments being held. We are providing the service but one of the difficulties with it are 1)that we don't control the pool. There should be an agreement that this is a regular program unless we actually advertise that way. If we can't get the district to agree that there will be Family Swim every week then we have to advertise that we meet on such and such dates every week except when it's superceded by the district. All in all this program very worthwhile to provide for families and inexpensive to run. • Sponsor search —we're trying to get John Doyle to take over the search for sponsors (since he's been doing that for the rink with good success)for Special Olympics and Kiwanis baseball and Small Fry Football. We should look at a sponsor for Family Swim program also. • Hiring a new staff member—we're in the process of hiring one new person to work both in RMS and in General Recreation. The division of responsibilities will be six months in each department. • Search for Kiwanis Coordinator—we're looking for someone who can take over Tim Little's role and have put$1,600 in the budget to hire someone from outside who would then work with our staff and also on field help. III. Board Comments • Question about the Teen Center—Patrick Walkinshaw is still the person staffing the Teen Center and is still working on getting a more permanent home for the center. Allen, Sam and Patrick will meet to discuss the whole question of teen programming,getting together with people who work with teenagers,and having an ongoing dialogue and creative thinking about teen programming. Patrick will be attending the next Youth Development meeting as well as the Tompkins County Youth Bureau's staff meeting. • Bill Murphy's son, David, will be on the Tompkins County Youth Board as a City appointee. • Reminder to try to make Community Issues meeting on Wednesday. Meeting was adjourned at 9:07 p.m. kek- 273-O7 ‘ On February 9th the Ithaca Youth Bureau board will discuss implementing guidelines concerning acceptability of violence portrayed in video games installed in Youth Bureau facilities. This is an important step forward for the well being of our children and an issue for our community to engage in further. As a parent who accompanies children to Cass Park skating rink regularly, it has been upsetting to see young children, mostly boys, playing violent video games. One game there puts a child in a simulated fighter jet cockpit and to 'win' means to pursue at high speeds another jet till it crashes to the ground in a burst of flames and noise. The next game over children manipulate two male fantasy hulks fighting with swords until only one is standing alive. One more over and a child manipulates two more distorted versions of masculinity in a pit fight with a simulated hysterical crowd cheering on the combating till the win, till one dies. Early in the season there was a game which children actually held pistols and with the drama of Hollywood, (or the horror of reality). The children 'pop off rounds' at various villains until the video people collapse into their electronic deaths. To my relief this game was replaced one day. Talking to the man installing the new game I learned that he felt it was a shame that the pistol game was removed for "it made the city a lot of money". When I told him how I found the game appalling and how I believe our children's psychological health came before the city's wealth my comments were returned with a hard gaze. His gaze seemed to convey the very attitude that makes such games acceptable at all in our culture, namely, that they are just games, and they are just children playing them so what's the big deal. The big deal is that in this country an estimated 135,000 children take handguns to school each day. Every fourteen hours a child under the age of five is murdered. Homicide has replaced auto accidents as the leading cause of death of children under the age of one. The leading cause of death in black men between 18 and 25, one young man in four, is murder. Violence is the number one killer of boys and young men. Our children are not just playing! Although some theorist search for the roots of violence, especially male violence, in our ancestral past, it seems more obvious that violence is inculcated in boys through exposure to violence. The National Coalition on Television Violence estimated that by the time the average television watching child is 18 they have watched up to 26,000 television murders. Children with cable and/or VCR's will witness around 32,000 murders and 40,000 attempted murders. Video games represent a new level of engaging Julie Conley Holcomb City Clerk ITHACA YOUTH BUREAU ADVISORY BOARD Agenda for Monday,January 12, 1998 Meeting, 7:30 p.m. Ithaca Youth Bureau Building 1 James L. Gibbs Dr. First Floor Activities Room Call to order/approval of minutes II. Special Item. Video Game?alley .. . and Rie*Sys1em (sue attached) III. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 1) Youth Development • 97 Participation Review Statistics 2). Director • City Youth Service Structure and Task Force • Common Council Program Analysis • Diversity 3) Recreation Items • General Recreation: - Participation Summary Report Spring/Summer fee recommendations - New Program proposals • Cass Park: - Girls Hockey-IHS - Program Updates • Recreation Mainstreaming Services - Program Updates - Camp Iroquois Changes IV. BOARD COMMENTS/ISSUES V. OLD BUSINESS VL NEW BUSINESS VII. ADJOURNMENT J - CITY OF ITHACA ;`-'`{ tF ,+¢,/ 1 James L. Gibbs Drive Ithaca, New York 14850 Firi MA YOUTH BUREAU Po��O Telephone: 607/273-8364 Fax: 607/273/2817 To: Community Issues Committee of Common Council From: Sam Cohen,Director for the Ithaca Youth Bureau Board Re: Request to set up City Youth Service Task Force Date: January 6, 1998 The Youth Bureau Board and staff have created a list of questions that we think a City task force could help Common Council to answer in making decisions about both the services and structure for providing services to children and families in the City of Ithaca. The Youth Bureau Board wants to emphasize that it's important in this process to have the needs for support and services of City of Ithaca children and families lead our decision making. In this sense taking a close look at the present state of affairs of families, and making service decisions appropriately begins the process and the question of structural changes must flow from there. The Board also asked me to emphasize that they do not take a position on the GIAC Board request to separate from the Youth Bureau and create a separate City Department. The Youth Bureau Board feels this is an issue to be decided by Common Council in direct communication with the GIAC Board and that the City Youth Service Task Force is necessary in any case. QUESTIONS THAT COMMON COUNCIL MIGHT WANT ANSWERED BY A CITY TASK FORCE I. Services for City of Ithaca Youth and Families 1. What services need to be in place to support children and families in the City of Ithaca adequately? 2. Which of these services should be provided through City funding and City supported agencies? 3. What services should be provided by other agencies and schools? 4. How do existing programs both funded by the City and funded by the schools and other agencies fit to these necessary services? 5. What services can we provide with existing City dollars? 6. What are the priority services if the dollars were to shrink? 7. What are the priority services if we have any money to add to existing funds? "An Equal Opportunity Employer with a commitment to workforce diversification." Z�� Julie Conley Holcomb City Clerk ITHACA YOUTH BUREAU ADVISORY BOARD Agenda for Monday, January 12, 1998 Meeting, 7:30 p.m. Ithaca Youth Bureau Building 1 James L.Gibbs Dr. First Floor Activities Room L Call to order/approval of minutes H. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 1) Youth Development • Mechanical All Stars Updates • Program Updates 2) Director • Community Issues—Request for Youth Services Study(revised memo beginning on back) 3) Recreation Items • General Recreation: - '97 Year End Report • Cass Park: - Program Updates • Recreation Mainstreaming Services - Program Updates IV. BOARD COMMENTS/ISSUES V. OLD BUSINESS VI. NEW BUSINESS VII. ADJOURNMENT II. Structure 1. What is the best structure for optimally providing services to the children and families of Ithaca including: a) the best possible relationship between the City financed Youth and Family agencies— Southside, GIAC and the Youth Bureau? b) the most effective administrative structure financially and for efficiency of programs? c) the structure that will most effectively deliver services? d) the structure that will most effectively represent and model for the City of Ithaca community? e) the structure that will most effectively advocate for the children and families of the City of Ithaca? f) the structure that will work and communicate well with Common Council? 2. How should the City financed agencies relate to other agencies and schools that provide youth and family services? 3. How do we assure that programs and services serve the most appropriate audience? (i.e. a neighborhood,the City,the Ithaca School District, the County). a) Related to the question of appropriate service area is the question of the appropriate funder. How do we set up a structure that will best match the appropriate funding sources to the services that children and families need? 4. How do we move from where we are now in administrative structure to where we should be without undue upheaval,while making necessary adjustments along the way? III. Timetable for Recommendations 1. What is the best timing in regard to the City budget process in which difficult decisions will be made in the next year? 2. What is the best timing for long term planning of services and structure that will best serve the City of Ithaca community? In regard to these two questions we are suggesting two phases: 1. In order to be helpful to the City budget process we recommend an intensive effort on the part of the new Task Force to answer basic important questions related to services, structure,and City funding levels in time for use in the 1999 City budget process. These recommendations should-be in place by June 1998. 2. We are recommending that this committee have a long-term commitment to continuiilgto work on all important questions, making long-term recommendations both fir service provision and for refinements of the best structure and the best funding for these services. IV. The make up of the Task Force Given the need to both examine structural issues and make recommendations for services, we are recommending a two-tiered approach in establishing the Task Force. The first tier would involve making recommendations regarding City dollars, City agency provided services, and the structure of City supported agencies. We suggest that this tier of the Task Force be made up of Common Council members, GIAC Board and staff members, Youth Bureau Board and staff members, and Southside Board and staff members including both administrators and direct service staff. Tier two would involve making recommendations regarding which services should be provided for City youth and families, who should best provide those services, who should best pay for those services. The membership for this tier would include some members of the first tier with the addition of youth and family representatives from the community, representatives from agencies who serve City youth and families, such as Cooperative Extension, Ithaca Housing Authority, Ithaca School District,the juvenile justice and court system, etc. This should include direct service staff, administrators, and Board members. We believe that a group of knowledgeable youth, families, and community members can sit down together and with the foundation already available come up with an excellent plan for future services for children and families in the City of Ithaca. This foundation includes: 1. The knowledge and understanding that young people and families have of their own needs for support and services. 2. The Children and Youth Report compiled by the Tompkins County Youth Bureau on the State of Children and Families in the City along with a variety of surveys of families in their neighborhood communities regarding needed services. 3. The expertise and understanding of direct service staff and administrators in agencies and schools, interested community members and community leaders on what is happening in our community and in the City of Ithaca and what we need to do about it. 4. The work of the recent short term City Youth Planning Group. We are all enthusiastic about this effort. We are convinced that a commitment on the part of all of us to work together,to look at our community, and answer questions about the needs for services within our community will be very helpful in the long term planning of programs and in the end will play a very positive role in the good health, life and vitality of the City of Ithaca. Rev. 1/6/98