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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-YB-2000 ITHACA YOUTH BUREAU Board of Advisors January 10, 2000 Minutes Attendance: Jim Walker, Cathy Currier, Joan Spielholz, Bill Murphy, Gould Colman, Amity Weiss, David Delchamps(joined at 7:25 p.m.) Staff: Allen Green, Marilyn Hall Meeting was called to order at 7:05 p.m. by Vice Chair Cathy Currier. A motion was made, seconded and carried unanimously to accept the December 13th minutes. H. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 1) Youth Development • Mechanical All-Stars —Allen gave background history of the MAS program beginning with its origin in 1977. Initially the program was funded primarily by the City but later as more rural kids joined we applied for and received funding from the County and from the school district for a short time to support the program. In 1997 the Transition Task Force looked at all youth development to figure out the most appropriate funding match for each program. MAS was one program that came in at a low priority for County funding with the recommendation to approach BOCES or Ithaca School District for funding. BOCES was very encouraging in terms of feedback for the program and wanting to work with us but was not able to work out funding. During 1998 we changed the focus from auto repair and added computer recycling (recommended by former Board member Chuck Bartosch) to help students with computer technology and be able to provide local families with donated repaired computers in their home. Currently we have three components within MAS: the traditional automotive program during the school day where a fee is charged to the schools;the after-school program that is targeted for City youth that involves both automotive and computer work; the summer program is used as a work site for Youth Employment Service youth that are interested in learning/working on cars. We are in the second year of a 3 year descending grant from an anonymous donor that supports the Computer Recycling Program. Initially we had a good response from schools throughout the county that paid the fee on behalf of their students, however our in-school automotive program has dwindled. We have now begun to shift the focus to the after school hours and doing less programming during school day. We are also exploring funding options. We will be working together on a proposal to possibly form a partnership with Tompkins County Solid Waste and Recycling. We will continue to build up the after school program and look for different revenue possibilities to replace the descending grant. Sheila Hemani has agreed to serve on the MAS planning group during the upcoming transition period. W. Murphy: asked if it's possible to auction off a car that has been fixed up by MAS participants, similar to what BOCES does with the house the students build. Although this is a good idea Allen explained if someone donates a car,the only way you can really auction it is through DPW/highway department auction that is held for surplus goods. • One-to-One: The Ithaca Housing Authority and One-to-One are working on a proposal to provide expanded mentoring services to IHA residents, mainly at Northside Housing complex and at Southview. They are particularly interested in trying to get boys(particularly youth of color) within those complexes matched up with adults of color. We work hard to try to bring in a diverse Tube Conley Holcomb City Clerk ITHACA YOUTH BUREAU ADVISORY BOARD t�E�. t�. a� � A Ithaca Youth Bureau Building 1 James L. Gibbs Dr. First Floor Activities Room I. Call to order/approval of minutes IL Special Item: Guidelines for Field and Facility Use and Donations (see attached) H. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 1) Youth Development • Youth Development Stats(see enclosed) • New One-to-One Planning and Development Council Members • Program Updates 2) Recreation Items • Program Updates • Rec Partnership Updates 3) Director's Report • Restructuring - Update • Charter School - Update • Staff Changes • Scholarships, Echo and Outreach IV. REPORT FROM GIAC LIAISON V. REPORT FROM SCHOOL BOARD LIAISON VL BOARD COMMENTS/ISSUES VII. OLD BUSINESS VEIL NEW BUSINESS IX. ADJOURNMENT i volunteer pool but it has been difficult to get males and we haven't had large numbers of men of color. If money is received we will go to the B & A committee this month to talk about it with Common Council. The idea would be to have one of our staffto work with a group of volunteers meeting with each other weekly and will be offering a small stipend to the volunteers to cover the costs(--$15/wk). Overall this proposal is for$9,500 and this will cover some staff time, stipends for the volunteers, supplies, and part-time seasonal staff. IHA has been very enthusiastic about this program and will explore ways to keep this program going if it is successful. IHA will also provide us with some funding to support the work that Mimi Melegrito has been doing at Northside with younger kids; enabling the children to continue with field trips. 2) Recreation • New Year's Eve Millennium Party: although the event was very loud, everyone agrees it went very well and attended by approximately 300. Chaperons included staff from Youth Bureau and GIAC. Also helping out were two officers from Ithaca Police Department, Council members Joan Spielholz, Pat Vaughn and Mayor Cohen. DPW staff created an outdoor no exit"court-yard" area for those wanting to get fresh air. We did have at least one complaints about the content of certain songs and remarks the DJ's made that included colorful language. There was a meeting held this morning to "process the event"that we will report on later. • Recreation program updates were distributed(see attachment A). Tot Spot, a very popular program held four days a week was explained. David pointed out that both the Tot Spot and Fencing programs were started by people outside the Youth Bureau who came with an idea and asked if there was a way to make it work. • Comment on inter-municipal planning. David reported on comments from the County Youth Board meeting: re the Recreation Partnership and Cass Park Rink. We will be trying to get a better profile of rink users(not just who is buying ice time). Cass gives away a lot of ice time to after school programs, girls hockey(practices and games), etc. Cass is a regional facility. Discussion followed on the need for ice surfaces. The City is interested in the broader question of the waterfront parks in general and public access to the parks. 3) Director's Report • The local charter school proposal was not granted. A total of—20 out of a total of 98 were granted mostly in metropolitan areas. Ellen Baer will check with her committee to see if they want to continue to explore additional funding; $100,000 has been raised and is still available to support the charter school. There is strong interest in having a charter school closely connected to school district. • Restructuring- we had a meeting of coordinators and some staff to update on what's going on. Generally people are focused developing a structure that starts with the needs of the kids and enables us to work with kids without having to spend energy on imaginary boundaries. How do we get there— Everyone is aware of how complicated this all is. It was stressed how important is to have the City seats represented on the County Youth Board. and also people to serve on Youth Commissions or be a Youth Board rep. The staff expressed an interest in getting together with this Board to have an annual dinner event. David remarked one of the most useful tools is having Youth Bureau staff do presentations explaining their program functions. If someone out in community asks what does the Youth Bureau do—we can relate to recent presentations. Joanie S.—it's important to realize there is a developmental mission in mind when we do recreation programs. • Recreation Supervisor position—7 or 8 have applied for position. Human Resources has now posted both the position and exam. LEL GIAC Liaison Report- (Joanie Spielholz) '` _� • The annual Martin Luther King, Jr. breakfast will be Saturday morning at GIAC. Sunday morning there will be a Martin Luther King march going from AME church to Presbyterian Church with a gathering at the Presbyterian Church following. On Monday Jan. 17th there will be a Martin Luther King, Jr. program running from 1-5 p.m. at GIAC for entire community. IV. Ithaca School Board Liaison Report(Gould Colman) • Referendum includes update technology repair roofs. The principal issue before board now is try to determine what constitutes affirmative action in Ithaca. There were charges against HR Dept. (I.C.S.D.)and those are being investigated by the Personnel Committee(open meeting on 18th)which time there will be a summary of what was said following the charges and aspirations that were expressed at the Dec. meeting. Basic question underlies, how much inequality do you need in order to provide equality of opportunity? V. Comments: Bill M. stated many people view the IYB as recreation and he agrees that it really is extremely beneficial to have IYB staff attend Board meetings to discuss various aspects of their programs. Member updates: Deb Traunstein has been very busy and Sam will be talking with her to see if she will be resigning. Sheila Hemani has been out of town and returning and willing to work on the MAS planning group. JoAnn Kingsley-Wells is teaching at Elmira College and not able to attend Monday meetings for a few months; she is attending Executive Committee meetings. We will be updating our member vacancies. Cathy Schiater and David Delchamps are regular attendees from the City to the County Youth Board. Sonya Hicks is officially appointed but is on sabbatical and now working for Southside Community Center which would be a conflict of interest. There are 5 City seats on Co. Youth Board; 1 or 2 City reps openings on County Youth Board. It is the Commissions or Municipal governments that appoint people to these boards. Discussion on quorum. Upcoming we will look at the by-laws to see if a"vote by proxy" system is in place. Adjourn 8:45 p.m. Ithaca Youth Bureau Board of Advisors March 13,2000 Minutes Attendance: Cathy Currier, Sheila Hemami. Bill Murphy, David Delchamps,Gould Colman Staff: Sam Cohen,Allen Green,John Doyle Guests: Mike Murphy,Ed Harwood,Larry Owens,Art Watkins,Denise Pritchard,Lisa Wible,Gary Miller, Bill Bryant 1. Meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM.A motion was made, seconded and carried unanimously to table approval of the minutes of the January 10,2000 meeting until the April meeting. 2. Guidelines for field and facility use and donations. Our guests included representatives from Women's Softball,Ithaca United Soccer,CNY Senior League, Men's Softball,and the Ithaca City School District. The guidelines were distributed and reviewed. Questions and discussion centered around: interpretations of the criteria,timeline for advance notification re: decision-making, process about making decisions about fee increases,how the guidelines for donations dovetail with guidelines for scheduling priority, benefit tournaments.There was some discussion as to criteria for determining field maintenance fees. A motion was made, seconded and carried unanimously to adopt the guidelines for field and facility use and donations. 3. Staff and Committee Reports a) Youth Development •Allen went over 1999 participation numbers. 1353 young people were served by the Youth Development Division.Charts summarizing demographic information were distributed and reviewed.The 1353 total is roughly a 7% increase from the previous year.About 50%of the young people were boys and about 50% were girls. Close to 50%were between the ages of 10-15.About 25%were between the ages of 5-9,and about 25%were between the ages of 16- 20.About 50%of the young people were youth of color and about 50%were white.Charts were also distributed that focus on those of the Youth Development programs that are county- funded. •A motion was made,seconded and carried unanimously to appoint Lambertis(Lenny)Gibbs and Jill Vaughan to the One to One Planning and Development Council. *Allen updated the board re: a Community Development Block Grant proposal related to the Mechanical All Stars Program,a Service League Grant that was awarded to the Youth Employment Service,and a proposal for funding that we've been working with the Mental Health Association on,that relates to the Paul Schreurs Memorial Program. •Allen reported that March 20,2000 will be a Superintendent's Conference Day for the Ithaca City School District. We'll have about 100 students from Beverly J.Martin and Enfield Schools as our guests at the Youth Bureau for a Rural-Urban Adventure Day.This project will take place under the auspices of the Twenty-First Century Learning Center Grant.The Coordinator here at the Youth Bureau is Karen Anderson and we are looking forward to an exciting and fun filled day. b) Recreation •Sam reported on recent developments in relation to Recreation Partnership planning. It seems likely at this point that the basic organizational structure with respect to programming will remain the same.There are ongoing discussions including the City,the Town of Ithaca and Tompkins County about regional cooperation,cost sharing and decision making in relation to parks and facilities. c) Director's Report • Sam reported on recent developments with respect to the Charter School Proposal.The denial of the Charter provides the community with an exciting opportunity to offer something through the School District. Boynton and BJM were mentioned as possible locations.The hope is that the school will enable us to better serve certain students who have historically not done so well. •Sam reported on the addition of Terry Tuminea to our staff as a Recreation Supervisor, and the addition of Nancy Bowers to our Front Office Staff. •Sam reported that our successful outreach efforts have resulted in many scholarship requests. He plans to work with the Executive Committee to brainstorm ways to build up the,Echo Fund. 4. Report from School Board liaison •Gould reported on several steps that the School Board and District are taking to assure that all students will be as successful as possible. 5. Board Comments/Issues •Bill reported that there have been discussions about Lansing(Town)possibly joining the Recreation Partnership.They are working with Steve Colt,Lansing's Recreation Coordinator, and others on this. Bill reported that there was a lot of enthusiasm about the recreation outreach initiatives...drama programs reaching out to the rural areas,etc. at the Recreation Partnership Board meeting. 6.Adjourn at 8:50 PM Ithaca Youth Bureau Board of Advisors September 11,2000 Attendance: David Delchamps,William Murphy,Joan Spielholz,Amity Weiss,Jim Walker Excused: Cathy Currier, Sheila Hemami Staff: Allen Green,Alice Green, Marilyn Hall The meeting was called to order at 7:10 p.m. A motion was made was made, seconded and approved unanimously to approve the minutes from May,June, and July meetings. Note that the attendance will be added to the July meeting. II. STAFF AND COMMITTEE REPORTS 1) Director's Report(Allen Green in Sam's absence) • City Planning update—Sam spoke with Marcia Fort about getting together jointly with YB, GIAC, Southside and including Common Council rep participation to begin more work with City Planning. The first step will be getting the two administrative teams together and then plan a joint staff meeting to talk about city youth needs with the intention to have a group emerging from that to follow up on those conversations. • Change to By-laws: at the recent monitoring visit made by NYS Office of Children and Family Services we were not in compliance with the membership section of our by-laws, (Section III,b.,c.,). Allen reviewed each original section as written in the by-laws followed by the proposed amendment change as indicated in bold print following each designated paragraph(i.e.(b)special representatives from at least 2 local groups....., (c) 1 rep from Common Council and one from Board of Public Works...and (d) there will be at least 2 youth representatives.) The State reg states that we have 2 youth(under age 21)appointed to our board(which could be in addition to the nine mayoral appointees). It was moved, seconded,approved and carried unanimously to accept all three proposed amendments under section III as stated on page 1 in the revised August 2000 version of the Board By-laws. • Youth representatives to Board—members reviewed resumes of Claire Cutting and Christopher Brown and unanimously approved the appointment of both applicants to our Youth Bureau Board. • New Facility and Program Policy for Dealing with Behavior Problems—we are asking for help from the Facilities Committee for help in formalizing a policy for people with behavioral problems that are enrolled in our programs or use our facilities. We need to publicly post what our expectations are as well as what the consequences will be if those expectations are not met. Community Dispute (Choices Program)might be able to help in an ongoing way with a mediation approach. 2) Youth Development • Paul Schreur's Memorial Program staffing update—we currently have a vacant position in PSMP. Sylvia Beneway, former Youth Worker in One-to-One and more recently joining PSMP,has moved to a position at Lakeside Nursing Home. Human Resources will be accepting applications until September 13th and then we will begin our interviewing process. We have hired Kevin Thompson to the part-time position in PSMP based on a grant we got from the Mental Health Association. Kevin is also involved with Ithaca United Track • Program Updates—currently minimum wage is$5.15/hr.and there is now proposed legislation for an increase of$.50/yr.to$5.65 on 1/1/01 and$6.15/hr. effective 1/1/02. There seems to be bipartisan support for this. When we submitted our budget proposal we did not project a minimum wage increase so there will be implications to YES Municipal Jobs Program because we hire approximately 100 kids at minimum wage,thus creating a need of$6,000 for additional funding in order to keep the program at the same level. • Three-on-three for One-to-One basketball update: we continue to look for both teams and sponsors to participate on October 14th at Ithaca High School. Allen distributed recruitment flyers and BBBS "quick facts"info sheet. • Dr. Kenneth Hardy will be coming to Ithaca to do an all day workshop called "Dying to be Saved"—part 1: addressing adolescents violence and part 2: intervention strategies on Thurs., Oct. 19th. Although the cost of the entire workshop is$55 there is a free evening presentation on Wedneday, October 18th at the Holiday Inn from 7-9 p.m. which is open to the public. 3) Recreation • Ithaca Children's Garden—Common Council has given conceptual approval to move forward with the development of its plan to have the Ithaca Children's Garden located at the southern end of the Cass Park site. In many ways this would enhance Cass Park as a regional facility as opposed to just a city park (copy of Resolution is available). • Recreation Partnership Update—Common Council did unanimously pass the proposal for the programming side of the Recreation Partnership proposal. We learned also that the County has included the County contribution to the new Rec Partnership plan in 2001 budget as well as$10,000 towards the cost of hiring a consultant who will look at facility issues including Cass Park. Every other municipality that has been a partner in the past has indicated they will continue as members and the Inter-Municipal Planning Group continues to invite Towns of Lansing and Newfield to join to make full county wide recreation participation. • Recreation and the Youth Bureau Board—the new Partnership governing group will only have jurisdiction over recreation programming. A consultant will be hired by a city-town-county facilities committee that will look at who should be paying for the facilities and how should they be managed. The Rec Partnership Board will no longer be setting fees for general admission programs at the rink or pool,or setting policy on the field use. These decisions now revert back to this board's jurisdiction until the facilities committee that has been ro constituted of city,town and county representatives come forward with a proposal for another way of managing it.) This new committee will need to be more active because it is going to be setting policy for the next year or two for general admission programs or public use of Cass Park. • Staff changes—we lost Jill Adams in the Recreation Leader position in August. Jill's job had evolved to a records management support person in our front office and we are now looking at reclassifying her job to more accurately reflect the data management portion since our registrations have doubled. To help assist with the big sport league programs we have a half-time year round recreation staff(Kevin Foresti)who is replacing Karina Murphy who split her time between RMS and Recreation. • Suggested Program planning-David mentioned a very low overhead sport would be to offer a formal ultimate Frisbee league for summer/fall. Alice states • there is a Cornell league group that is renting Cass fields currently and there is interest among teens for Ultimate Frisbee. 4) Recreation Mainstreaming Services • The Youth Bureau ran a new week long young adult day camp program designed for teens in the 16-19 yr. range who have disabilities who are too old for day camp type programs but who really need supervision and some assistance. Based on the positive feedback we hope to offer the camp for a two week slot next summer. • Upcoming this fall is a mural project—there are two artists in residence at Risley College at Cornell who have experience doing large outside murals and they would like to work with adults who have developmental disabilities in creating a mural. Tomorrow they will go to the Parks Commission to approve possible sites: painting directly on the side of the IYB on the basketball side, having a giant stretched reinforced art work piece that could be affixed to the outside of the building, or another option is the storage building. III. REPORT FROM GIAC LIAISON—there was a very productive meeting last week with GIAC Executive Committee, Mayor,Council members from B&A to talk about a lot of the issues that build and to discuss communication breakdowns which seem to happen periodically in all City departments. The building needs to have a consultant come in to go over what needs to be done to improve and upgrade it. There was an inquiry into why the floor which was a capital project three years ago is still not down yet. There were a lot of good points discussed that have to do with Sr. staff meetings,etc. IV. BOARD COMMENTS: • Amity asked about the downtown Commons area being patrolled by mounted police officers. Alice reported that Council voted down the mounted officers program. • Bill asked about the Cass Park small playground capital project recommended 2 years ago. Alice reported that she just received a report from the Planning Department that this did go out and bids are being drawn up. We hope we can do construction in the spring—the pieces of equipment that are currently next to the BBQ bit are slated to be disassembled and that is the site where the Children's Garden would be installed. • Additional comment: Alice reports that the City is applying for a grant to build a waterfront trail at Cass Park. The plan will be to eventually link that to a trail that begins at the Visitor's Center,goes through the Youth Bureau, Stewart Park,along the Newman Golf Course, Farmer's Market, Inlet Island, returns to the Cass facility and links with the Black Diamond trail which nms out to Taughannock. Meeting adjourned at 8:40 p.m. Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, October 10th! Ithaca Youth Bureau Board of Advisors October 10, 2000 Attendance: David Delchamps,Jim Walker,Amity Weiss,Claire Cutting,Christopher Brown, Cathy Currier. Staff: Sam Cohen,Allen Green I. The meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM H. Staff and Committee Reports 1) Youth Development •Mechanical All Stars/Computer Recycling—Allen Reported on a meeting with the Cornell-Ithaca Partnership related to a possible grant proposal.The folks from the partnership have been exploring Hewlet Packard's Digital Village Program. HP is working with East Palo Alto,CA on a Community Technology Partnership plan.They will select two(additional)"underserved communities"in the United States.The Cornell-Ithaca Partnership intends to apply and it is likely that the Mechanical All Stars/Computer Recycling Program would be one element of a larger proposal.Cathy suggested that we coordinate our efforts with the Sciencenter as they are working on a similar project. •Allen reported on staffing changes in the Paul Schreurs Memorial Program.Amy Rand has joined our staff as a youthworker in this program....Welcome aboard Amy! •Allen reported that the"3 on 3 for One-to-One Basketball Tournament"that was scheduled for October 14 has been postponed.A modified tournament will be held at Barton Hall on the Cornell University campus. Christopher,Claire and Amity all made suggestions for increasing public awareness about IYB programs,particularly among High School students. Cathy suggested that Christopher,Claire and Amity meet with a small group of staff people to follow up on this topic. •TCAT has agreed to let us put up One-to-One Big Brother/Big Sister volunteer recruitment posters in all of their buses(about 40).This seems like a cost effective way to get the word out to folks that we are looking for volunteers,in that there is no cost beyond the initial cost of generating the posters and then they'll stay in place for quite some time. rAti 2) Director's report •Sam reported that there was no news on the budget front as the Mayor was scheduled to release the proposed 2001 budget at the same time that this meeting was taking place. •Sam announced that he is exploring an early retirement incentive program that is being offered by the State. Sam described a proposal that has been presented to the Mayor, City Controller and Human Resources Director.The proposal involves restructuring the administration of the Youth Bureau along lines that would work well for the Youth Bureau and meet the guidelines of the State's program. David expressed the debt of gratitude for Sam's work and leadership on behalf of the Board and thanked him for his many years of dedicated service. •City Planning meeting with GIAC staff will need to be rescheduled. Sam's feeling is that education continues to be a top priority that we can focus on. Sheila asked about the balance between resources devoted to the general youth population vs. needier youth. Discussion followed re: school success: aspects that schools need to address,aspects that individual students need to address,etc. •Sam asked Board members to think about people that they would like to invite to join the Board. •Behavioral policy—Staff to work on a draft for Board consideration. 3)Recreation •Sam reported on a meeting with Ithaca City School District administrators re: facilities and fields trades. We want to address the instances of"bumping"and explore the prospects for assistance with transportation. •Sam spoke to the role of the Board given the evolution of the Recreation Partnership.The IYB Board will have a key role in relation to the Recreation Department: oversight,advocacy etc. 3) RMS •Sam reported that Joby Cardamone Knewstub has joined the RMS staff.Joby has specialized in the arts and in working with mainstreaming aides. Welcome aboard Joby! •Summer Camp Mainstreaming is a component that we developed about 6 years ago. We hire"camp buddies"for children with disabilities(emotional,physical,developmental)that attend Cass or Stewart Park Day Camp. In 1995 we attempted to mainstream 5 children. In 2000 we attempted to mainstream 19 children.The budget includes enough funding to hire about 10 assistants. We need about 20.Joby supervises the assistants at Cass.Joanie does what she can to handle this at Stewart. We also have to cover pre and post camp hours and we went over budget for this component in 2000. There were multiple issues and many children need one on one assistance the entire day.Concerns: need for more staff,need for an on site supervisor at Stewart Park,need for as much training as possible to deal with severe behavioral issues. III. Meeting adjourned at 8:45 PM