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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-02-25DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 1 of 10 Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission February 25, 2015 Members Present: Stephanie Mulinos (Chair), Kathy Gehring, Tom Fuchs, Diane Pamel, and Rick Ryan Youth Services Coordinator: Kris Bennett Town Hall Staff: Jennifer Jones, Recreation Director Liaisons: Joe Solomon, Town Board The meeting was called to order at 7PM. Discussion Items: Reading and approval of meeting minutes from January 28, 2015. K. Gehring moved to accept the minutes, R. Ryan seconded the motion and the minutes were unanimously approved. Program Reports: At the last meeting, the Commission discussed how frequently they want N. Nease and D. Hall to report. Last month, the group considered having the reports turned in quarterly, after each program session. K. Bennett is concerned that quarterly is not enough based on the amount of money that they are receiving from the Town for the programs. D. Pamel said she would like to hear more details, she would like to know how many kids are served and what worked. What are the challenges or negatives? The Commission enjoys the positive reports but it is more important that the reports contain a broader amount of information. S. Mulinos suggested that they ask for the highlights, the low lights, the challenges and the problems that D. Hall and N. Nease are dealing with. K. Bennett suggested that D. Hall and N. Nease turn in reports every other month, alternating months. K. Gehring asked about site visits as the funding application states that the DRYC has the right to visit and review the programs. S. Mulinos pointed out that we have in the past done site visits but without knowing more about the programming, she isn’t sure what she is seeing. She said that the kids looked happy and productive but she didn’t know what their goal was. K. Bennett said that the PQA (Program Quality Assessment) which is being done system wide. The programs will get two visits – one from two of their own staff which will be an internal visit and then a visit from two people in K. Bennett’s office. The group of staff then get together and provide a score for the programs. That will give the Commission an idea of what programs are working and which are not. S. Mulinos is in favor of D. Hall and N. Nease reporting every other month (opposite months from each other) as long as the reports contain more information than simply what programs they are running. She wants to know the highlights, lowlights, etc. K. Gehring recommended taking the PQA evaluation and cut it down to something that the Commission members can all understand. She also suggested asking the program participants to rate the program. S. Mulinos wants to step back from this area. Right now, the programs are running smoothly and have run smoothly for many years now. She feels that right now, the Commission should focus on their goals for 2015 and try to keep the momentum from the retreat moving forward. DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 2 of 10 R. Ryan asked what the DRYC does for the Programs other than contribute money. S. Mulinos said that some of the support comes from the Youth Needs Assessment as areas that need help are targeted. K. Bennett said the Dryden School has a middle school program because this group guided the program and when a part time employee that had encouraged programming for girls left, this group asked D. Hall to increase/ maintain some of the programming for girls. Liaison Reports: Town Board: Joe Solomon The Town Board is looking forward to seeing the DRYC’s goals. Youth Services Coordinator: Kris Bennett K. Bennett, D. Hall and N. Nease’s year end reports are attached. Conservation Board: R. Ryan The Conservation Board is working with Design Connect to create a conceptual plan for the trail from NYSEG to the east hill recreation way. Eileen Munch from Design Connect has recommended a couple of public meetings for folks that are interested in the trails but the Conservation Board needs some assistance. If the public meetings are sponsored by the Conservation Board, then some people will automatically be against the trail idea. The Conservation Board is asking the DRYC to co-host the meetings. Currently the Conservation Board is focusing on the land-owners that border the proposed trail but hope to expand. Recreation Department Report: Jennifer Jones J. Jones provided an up-date on the Dryden Lake Festival as she is on the Festival committee. The group is just getting started but have already selected a weekend. K. Gehring would like a report/recap from the Recreation Director regarding the programs that have already run and those that are upcoming. She asked that the report include some of the challenges and issues with which the Recreation Department is dealing with currently. J. Jones shared the rough draft of the spring program, mentioning several new programs including CPR training. J. Jones has also been working on the DRYC Annual Report. She hopes to have it ready by next month. As far as the Youth Needs Assessment, the last section regarding the parent feedback has not been received from Sharon Todd (former DRYC member and Professor at SUNY Cortland that had one of her classes work on this component of the Assessment. If J. Jones doesn’t get that part soon, she will put the report together with the information that has been collected. Action Items: a. Needs Assessment - still waiting on the parent section b. Community Grant Program See attached. T. Fuchs asked if the guidelines are set in stone or is the DRYC going to revisit them again next year. S. Mulinos responded that she anticipates reviewing the application each year depending on funding. c. Identify goals/ objectives for 2015 - 2018 1-3 year goals Trail Development DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 3 of 10 Dryden Lake Fest - already in the works Annual Report Centralized Location for community Information/Marketing Plan teen/youth commission member Increase adult programming youth employment readiness skills programs Needs assessment recreation master plan seek grants 3-5 years trail development winter festival Needs assessment 5+ years facility S. Mulinos sent an email to Sandy Sherwood (Dryden Schools) who forwarded the message to Brian Ford. Mr. Ford responded late this afternoon so S. Mulinos has not yet responded. 2015 Commission Goals 1. Prepare and distribute annual report 1st 1.5 school district liaison 1.5st 2. finish and present needs assessment 2nd 3. Trail Development - work with Conservation Board to complete design 3rd 4. Support the Dryden Lake Festival Event 4th 5. increase number and variety of adult programming 5th 6. teen youth member 6th 7. Define Commission mission and responsibilities 7th 8. begin DRYC marketing plan 8th Open Discussion: S. Mulinos suggested that at the March meeting, the Commission identify action items related to the 2015 goals. K. Bennett verified that the Commission wanted D. Hall, S. Lester and N. Nease to join the group in April. The Commission would like the visit to cover topics such as the major events (events that stood out to them) of 2014, what they can change in 2015 and what their goals are in 2015. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:37PM Respectfully Submitted, Erin A. Bieber Deputy Town Clerk DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 4 of 10 Report to the Dryden Recreation and Youth Commission From Kris Bennett, Liaison from Tompkins County Youth Services Department February, 2015 • I have been working closely with Shelley Lester from Cooperative Extension to clarify and confirm budgets for the 3 DRYC funded CCE programs for 2015 and to wrap up 2014 budgets. • After sending out report requests and reminders, I received the 2014 annual reports for the 3 CCE programs (as well as those required by the Villages of Dryden and Freeville to show use of their NYS funds). Since Jennifer Jones had agreed to prepare the DRYC annual report for 2014, I sent her copies of the 3 annual reports. • We have finally received the reports for the biannual student survey that was done in Oct. 2014. Dryden Middle and High School participated. I am helping, along with staff from BOCES, my department, the Alcohol & Drug Council, and the County Health Department, with Data Day on March 3. This is the day when we share the countywide and district results with school administrators from across the BOCES region. I will be supporting the team from Dryden in reviewing their student data. • Staff from my department have begun our PQA visits. (You may remember that all CCE staff working as part of the Municipal Youth Services System will be receiving two Program Quality Assessment visits, one internal, done by CCE RYS staff, and one external, done by staff from my department. Info gleaned from the PQA visits will help identify training needs and areas of strength and those needing improvement. Staff from CYS and CCE received training on PQA in the fall.) I did not volunteer to visit either Dave or Nikki since I have done so many times in the past; instead, I have visited staff from Lansing and Danby and will soon visit others from Trumansburg, Groton, and the Joint Youth Commission. • Follow us on Twitter! You can now find the Youth Services Department on Twitter @TompkinsCoYouth. Please follow us to learn about upcoming events, resources for parents, youth workers and agencies, updates on research and much more. Feel free to mention us in your tweets at #ToCoYouth DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 5 of 10 Dryden Youth Report January 21, 2015 David Hall Finished Programming 1) Winter Overnight (a) Participants: 7 plus 2 volunteers (b) From the morning of January 2nd to the afternoon of the 3rd 7 Dryden Youth, 2 veteran volunteers, myself and a crew from Trumansburg winter camped at Hammond Hill State Forest. This was an excellent experience for everyone involved complete with a visit from Shelly Lester. Because of minimal snow we opted for a more traditional camping experience where we used tents, tarps or just slept under the stars. Because we didn’t spend our time constructing snow caves we were able to head out tracking and adventuring. We saw lots of great animal sign including coyote prints, squirrel, deer and an actual barred owl. For many students this was a first time winter camping. I was especially proud of my 7th graders. Each of them soloed, one in her tent and the other two under tarps. We stayed warm, ate, made tea and had an awesome time. Megan Ludgate and Connor Roberson, both Dryden graduates, volunteered for the experience and were great help. 2) Health and Wellness Day (a) Participants: 24 (b) On January 12th I helped out at the Health and Wellness Day that was held at the Dryden Middle School. This was an early dismissal day with the morning spent in various health related activities that students could sign up for. I ran a snow shelter workshop. Despite the relative modest amount of snow at the school we were able to make several small and complete shelters. Students learned about hypothermia, how to stay warm during the cold months as well as how to construct 2 different types of snow shelters. The youth that signed up for my program had a great time. Most of them were new to me so it was nice to pass on some of my lore to new students. http://www.ithacajournal.com/story/news/local/2015/01/12/dryden-school- health/21650437/ Ongoing Please note that all programs are full with waiting list for everything but Winter Hiking. 3) Primitive Pursuits – Winter Session (a) Participants: 16 Primitive Pursuits teaches youth the basics of wilderness survival, nature awareness and stewardship. Through challenges, games and activities, participants learn critical skills such as how to stay warm, create a matchless fire, procure safe water and find food. As time and circumstances permit we introduce crafts such as cordage making, basketry and bow making. Winter Primitive Pursuits has been going great. This is a very large group with an expanse of knowledge. With the newer students we are starting with fundamental skills such as fire making and shelter building. With more advanced participants we are pushing their edges by challenging them with setting awareness traps DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 6 of 10 (non-lethal spring poles that are set in a game trail) to learn about placement and tracking. As we get more snow we will be focusing on snow shelters in preparation for a February campout. One student who was brand new to my programs said that this was the most fun she had had all year. This was said after a frustrating afternoon of unsuccessfully fire making. 4) Winter Hiking (a) Participants: 9 (b) Winter Hiking encourages getting active, engaging with nature and becoming more confident. The goal of this program is to help participants gain skills while outside so that they can go into the woods with confidence. We focus not only on hiking and snowshoeing but proper clothing choices, first aid and safety, orienteering and food. This program has been going great. We spent our first afternoon learning about better clothing and gear choices for the upcoming weeks. With our clothing as primary shelter this topic was very important. Upcoming weeks will take us to Hammond Hill where we will snow shoe. When we don’t travel from school in a van we will go to our woods to track, cook and learn to find water. This program is great on many levels. One of the best things about it is that it has so much to potentially offer that I can really cater to the kid’s interests as well as blind spots. 5) Lunch Bunch a) Participants: 45 and growing b) Lunch Bunch is hugely popular and once again I am finding it hard to keep my numbers from getting to big. I have split each lunch period into 2 groups that each get 2 days a week. Each day when we get together we decide as a group what we will do. We have been fortunate in that the Middle School gym is generally available to us to play active group games. Many of the students who have joined my in-school programs have also become involved with my after school programs. It is great to make these positive connections and get to know so many students. 6) Monday Makers Upcoming (a) Participants: 11 (b) Monday Makers begins on Monday January 26th. 7) Iron Chef – Session 1 a) Participants – 13 b) Begins on Jan. 20th DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 7 of 10 Dryden OURS Report + Dryden Youth Employment Report Winter Programs: Dec. 2014 – January 2015 Nikki Nease, RYS Program Manager Partnership and collaboration is the theme of the New Year with regular meetings to refine new and innovative systems for reporting, data-basing, and sharing information and resources, to organize upcoming volunteer trainings, and to design monthly special events and future programs that coincide with several grants that OURS is currently cooperating with. 2015 Grants include; DYOF for KICKs (year 4), Tech Wizards 2015 (year two), two Women Building Community Grants; Girl Ventures, which is a year-long project that encompasses teenaged girls from 8 RYS municipalities, as well an expansion of Girl’s Circle Programing in union with educators/ long–term partners from the Advocacy Center, and a recently awarded grant from the Cornell Partnership Board in support of a semester long commitment to Cultural Diversity and STEM related projects that will culminate in a field trip to New York City this Spring! Winter Programming is reaching its climax with finale programs the last week in January. Please enjoy the descriptions below and look forward to the spring semester of OURS and YOURS, set to start off the 2nd week in February. Summary: An opportunity for folks to embrace their creative energies and choose from an impressive array of materials to make gifts for their friends and family. Every craft supply deep within the storage racks and cabinets came out to play and “show and tell” at the end proved that there had been something for everyone. Some gifts included hand-painted holiday ornaments, beaded garlands, jewelry, embellished wooden shapes, picture frames and coat hangers, a paper-airplane-making kit and more! Youth shared resources and ideas, gained skills with new crafting tools like glue guns, jewelry making tools, stamps, and special paints, and certainly took advantage of the free- for-all smorgasbord of craft supplies! Crafting Gifts, December, 2 sessions, 11 Participants With swimming on the agenda – this was the most popular program on the flyer! And not surprising at all was the fact that they really loved the opportunity to get out of house and splash around for two Thursdays in a row! This program was an attempt to bridge the connection that Shelley and Frank Towner of the YMCA had discussed back in September. 8 out of 11 participants had never been to the YMCA before, so we successfully introduced them to an excellent community resource with common ground as advocates of positive youth development. OURS stepped out of their normal boundaries of 4H Acres to share a new environment and experience another part of their community. We met the challenge of both gaining comfort in an unfamiliar space, and practicing respect and awareness with different expectations and limits. Stay Fit at the YMCA, January, 2 Sessions, 11 Participants Local Artist/Musician/Performer and Music Educator, Judy Stock reached out to OURS last Fall. She was referred to us while communicating her mission to connect with underserved populations. She offered to facilitate music-making programs this season at a 50% discount of her usual rate and under the auspices of our Tech-Wizards grant, we are on the brink of our 3rd musical session with Judy. We start off each program day listening and learning about a new instrument, identifying its keys parts and sounds, understanding its history in the world, and Music Wizards, January – February, 4 Sessions, 11 Participants DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 8 of 10 singing some classic tunes, make-up-as-you -go-along tunes, and just banging or strumming along to experience the difference between harmony and cacophony! The second half of each session, students create their own instrument made with upcycled materials; Single-stringed Sound Bizarroes that were experiments with different types of string, tin cans, beads, and plastic containers; percussions instruments with decorated clementine containers and cloth/stick mallets; and next up is the “Tube-Tar” – a more advanced, three-stringed instrument utilizing sections of heavy-duty card board tubes, fishing line, aluminum cans and blocks of wood - Can’t wait! The younger folks burst into song and sound uninhibitedly, but their slightly older peers are watching and gradually gaining enough confidence to let down their guard and play along… Dryden OURS Report Winter Programs: Dec. 2014 – January 2015 - CONTINUED Nikki Nease, RYS Program Manager With an overnight adventure, the re-scheduled snow date for which is TBA, an invitation to the Youth Employment/ Empowerment Training (a fuller description provided below), and with a date to organize MIT supplies and gear up for the Spring Semester, OURS teens are getting together this winter and they are much obliged to celebrate structured, quality face time together outside of school and social/virtual networks. This season provided a perfect juncture for getting feedback from OURS teens about their Autumn MIT experiences, Q&A about our upcoming Teen Leadership projects and NYC fieldtrip, to brainstorm future Thursday Program activities, and to safely discuss teen topics like healthy choices, confidence and anxiety, social media pros and cons, pressure and expectations from peers, parents, and teachers, and applying for jobs and colleges. Just for TEENS, January, 4 sessions planned, 11 Participants Many thanks to the Dryden Youth Opportunity Fund for this well-rounded program and lovely dynamic between seasoned KICKs participants and newcomers! Our favorite 4H volunteers set the stage for 6 sessions of Kids In Charge of the Kitchen. As our fourth version of this traditional program, youth experimented with a variety of crust recipes, new toppings, and different ways of cooking appetizer, entrée, and healthy dessert pizzas. We practiced all the life-skills that cooperative cooking in a shared kitchen encompasses, reveled in many first –time experiences from tasting new foods to baking and chopping, and once again applied a leadership component for the eldest KICKs members. Several participants’ families joined us in our community meal the evening of January 19th; KICKs catered for their families and we celebrated our accomplishments by awarding certificates to youth, acknowledging each volunteer’s dedication, and we put the proof in the pudding of the dessert pizza that KICKs gained proficient culinary - skills by sending everyone home with bellies full of deliciousness. Our final program day will take us to Pizza Hut for a career expo and behind the scenes tour of this favored restaurant that KICKs participants are telling their friends at school all about! With dinner number 6 down the hatch next week – we will have fulfilled many pizza-loving appetites with new skills and recipes to repeat. 4H KICKs (Kids In Charge of the Kitchen), December – January, 6 Sessions, 10 Participants DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 9 of 10 Into the great, white, wide open; we have been bundling up on the weekends for three Sundays in the daylight hours of the 4H Acres “back country”. With several new participants who had yet to venture too far from Kiwanis Hall at our main program site, people are gaining a scope of what is really available to us beyond the walls and boundaries of the creek. Though the familiar stretches of the creek proved a key site for photographing animal tracks and speculating details for the pieces of nature scenes imprinted before us, we strayed from the usual path to discover groves of different tree species that house different types of animals and provide excellent terrain for our own games and fire-building challenges! Through hiding, seeking, fire-building, brewing wild-tea, mapping, and tracking, we are breathing hard in the fresh air and giving the concentric rings of birds something to chirp about! Animal Tracking and Geocaching, January, 3 Sessions, 11 Participants There is one teen currently gaining an employment experience through the Dryden Youth Employment Program. One of his teachers was referred to us by Tompkins Workforce, and they are elated to have connected their student with the opportunity to earn money and help the Art teacher prep for classes afterschool. Steven also volunteers during the school day by assisting with elementary art-classes. Meeting monthly with other Youth Employment Program Managers is very helpful for planning and revamping documents and resources as I gear up for more trainings, info sessions at the high school, and begin connecting with summer job-sites and setting up interviews with interested students. We are lucky to be able to learn from one another while restructuring our programs to be as well-rounded, high-quality, efficient, and as intentional as possible. Dryden Youth Employment, December – January, 1 Worker, 9 Training Participants Dryden OURS Report + Dryden Youth Employment Winter Programs: Dec. 2014 – January 2015 - CONTINUED Nikki Nease, RYS Program Manager As soon as we manage to deliberate the number of work-experiences we plan to provide this year, I will feel confident to move forward by maintaining a presence within the high school again. Ithaca Youth Works joined forces with the Dryden Youth Employment Program for an all-day teen empowerment and career exploring bonanza on Saturday, January 17th! 17 teens gathered at 4H Acres for a youth employment version of a professional development opportunity that Beth Bannister and I recently experienced that utilizes the Lakota Medicine Wheel to help us identify our personal strengths as they relate to the variety of communities that we are a part of, such as school, at work, our peer group, and our families. As a precursor to a planned, future resume-building workshop, we organized this event to empower teens by encouraging them to recognize their positive traits and abilities in goal-oriented situations, and to communicate to others those aspects of themselves that represent their aptitude through storytelling, identifying with archetypes from nature, and through group activities, writing, and artwork. The second half of this training took place at Dynamic Ceramics where we glazed personalized mugs with images to represent our strengths and the business owner offered her story as an entrepreneur and gave answers to the stellar questions that teens brainstormed on the way to the mall. The day was capped at Smart Yogurt for a delectable treat and behind the scenes sketch from one of the co- owners, who also shared the story of his business and answered teen-generated questions such as, “What inspired you to create your own business?”, “What sets you apart from competing businesses?”, “Did you have to go to school to have your job?” and “Who do you employ?” DRYC February 25, 2015 Page 10 of 10 To: Dryden Town Board From: DRYC Re: Community Grant Program Guidelines Date: February 13, 2015 The DRYC discussed the community grant program at its January meeting, and agreed on the following guidelines for the 2015 grant cycle. These will be included in the announcement and application instructions. 1. Applicant must be a 501c3 or be sponsored by one. Proof of this status must be provided with the application. 2. The maximum request considered will be $1000 3. Requests may be for programming and events only. The following cannot be funded through this program: a. Infrastructure or equipment repair/upgrades. b. Operating costs such as salaries, newsletters, postage or website maintenance 4. The following items will be considered when making funding decisions*: a. Number of residents reached or that will have access to the program/event b. Participation cost to residents c. Community impact d. Percentage of total funding represented by the grant request *These will not be advertised in the press release or application documents. These are general guidelines that the commission will use to evaluate applicants and make funding decisions.