HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-YBAB-2012-12-11 youth Bureau Advisory
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December 11,2012
Meeting Minutes
Attendance: William Murphy,Shannon Terry,George McGonigal,Steve Smith
Patrick Hollister and Chris Milner
Excused: Mark Darling and Jody Hallett-Harris
Staff: Allen Green,Jen Handy and Linda Cimakasky-Barr
Absent: Eric Nichols
Meeting called to order by Shannon Terry
Review and approval of Minutes:
Introduction of Linda Cimakasky-Barr was made to the Board Members. Allen advised that Linda recently received
the quarterly recognition award from Common Council.
The Minutes from November 11,2012 were approved unanimously—Chris Milner made the motion and Shannon
Terry 2nd the motion,all were in favor.
Linda Cimakasky-Barr gave a PowerPoint presentation as well as a wonderful description of the College Discovery
Program(CDP). Linda Cimakasky-Barr is the Coordinator of the College Discovery Program and has two staff
members,Johara Malcolm and Jobe Zulu,who is also the basketball coach for the varsity boys. CDP started as a
small pilot project 8 years ago and those students are now in college. They now have a group of middle school
students and high school students. Their program does a variety of things including visiting colleges,the high
school students have already visited 8 colleges and they are not even juniors yet,they see a range of schools to see
what's out there. They had a grant for a few years from the Tauck Foundation and that funded these trips,this grant
has since been discontinued. They have a Pal Group and community service, summer academy in the summer;they
have mentors,homework clubs,tutors,and family dinners four times a year. These dinners have a wonderful
turnout. Trips and fundraisers,advocacy in the schools,Johara and Jobe are in the schools everyday,the students in
middle school get together weekly and monthly in high school. CDP does all types of activities that they do not get
to do in school. They do team building, work with Outing Staff,activities for both team work and leadership. They
also do a group community service project each year. Each student is matched with a mentor and currently they
really need to have male mentors and they have to be 18 and older,can be a community member or college student
and must make a commitment of one year. They do offer trainings throughout the year. Teachers and/or principals
can nominate the kids into the program. Students form very close bonds with one another. Linda answered
questions from varies board members regarding the program. CDP provides transportation for the students and
tutors.
Allen talked about the building and discussed the fact that he met with the Lansing residential Center,looking for
possibility of collaborative opportunities. These kids are from other places and when they have completed,they
return where they are from. They will come an chat with program coordinators. Allen,Bill Grey and Edward
Vallely were recognized at the Cornell Town Gown Awards recently. Working on transition planning,figuring out
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which things will go to Liz, Karen,Jim and Allen. The City will be moving forward with hiring a Department Head
and the Board should participate with this process,particularly members that are familiar with the departments.
There will be one committee for hiring for each: police chief,public works superintendent and Director of IYB.
There are a couple of hirings here at the IYB,two people that are moving on in the next month,Darlise Singleton of
BBBS and Jhakeem Haltom,PSMP. These are both Youth Program Leader positions for two different programs,
same title but totally different jobs. These will need to be presented to the Vacancy Review Committee in order to
get permission to fill these positions.
Chris Milner gave a shout out to Cass Park employees for their great work as he did some volunteer work for hockey
over the weekend.
Staff spotlight in the newsletter on TJ Personious Cass park maintenance Supervisor,Cass Park is turning 40! Allen
will be doing a farewell video,so make sure to check it out. Jen had the tentative events of next year for the Board
to see.
Jen talked about the envelopes that were sent out from the Friends of the IYB,this year's campaign is"I Support",
people can write in whether they are donating money or not. As part of this,Facebook page has been updated,and
she encouraged everyone to"like"Friends of the IYB. Friends had a happy hour and they debuted the new"I
Support"campaign videos. Friends is still looking for boards members and committee members.
Shannon reported on the meeting between the Mayor,IYB and GIAC.A merger of the IYB and GIAC is not in the
foreseeable future. The Mayor has asked Marcia and Allen to compile information from both organizations as far as
what each does and how they are the working together now. There was some discussion regarding maybe inviting
the GIAC Board to one of our meetings.
Jen talked about the letter that goes out for recruitment for teens should be from Patrick. Jen will work with Patrick
to put together a letter specifically for teens. This will specifically target youth members for our board. There was
some discussion regarding how the current members were recruited. It was discussed that maybe instead of having
interested members just come to a meeting,to have just one member meet with that person prior to kind of introduce
them to what to expect,etc.Jen suggested that we get recruitment information out to different lists in the area.
George stated that he will send out an email,which is the First Ward and Steve stated that it would be nice to get a
college student on too.
Shannon stated Jump On Board event will be coming up again and there will be a letter that goes out soon.
Voting for 2013 officers:
Chair: Shannon Terry
Co-Chair: Chris Milner
George McGonigal was nominated as Co-Chair but withdrew his nominations. Bill made the motion and Patrick 2nd
the motion,all were in favor.
ADJOURNMENT:
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