WEBVTT 00:00:13.602 --> 00:00:22.301 - The first recommendation and I think the most important recommendation from the youth programs group 00:00:22.301 --> 00:00:30.914 - is that either the city or a joint city county commission be established for youth. We believe that 00:00:30.914 --> 00:00:39.526 - there are a number of important initiatives that can be identified and that can be implemented over 00:00:39.526 --> 00:00:43.230 - time, but without some coordinating force. 00:00:44.290 --> 00:00:52.256 - to really identify and become, if you will, a clearinghouse for information and identifying and highlighting 00:00:52.256 --> 00:00:59.637 - things to the public that we won't get the progress that we need. Mayor Fernandez has, in principle, 00:00:59.637 --> 00:01:07.238 - agreed to this request. I think some of the county commissioners are enthusiastic. We want to hear what 00:01:07.238 --> 00:01:11.550 - everyone has to say later today, but this Youth Commission 00:01:11.778 --> 00:01:20.725 - as you'll hear later, is really a centerpiece in what we're proposing because we believe that there 00:01:20.725 --> 00:01:29.941 - must be a way to help coordinate all of these diverse efforts throughout the community. And you'll see 00:01:29.941 --> 00:01:38.888 - here, again, outlined in writing, a great deal of the rationale and how we feel that might be done. 00:01:38.888 --> 00:01:41.662 - The next recommendation is for 00:01:41.858 --> 00:01:52.133 - the gathering centers for youth, really. Again, a number of really excellent things being done. Rhinos 00:01:52.133 --> 00:02:03.106 - is a very good example of something that is probably the best gathering place at the moment in the community, 00:02:03.106 --> 00:02:09.790 - at least in the evenings, doing a number of things with computers, 00:02:10.114 --> 00:02:17.405 - also creating an atmosphere where there is some adult supervision but the children don't feel as though 00:02:17.405 --> 00:02:24.767 - they're imposed upon something they want to do. One of the notions that needs to be discussed is whether 00:02:24.767 --> 00:02:31.918 - there should be an attempt to identify one youth center that would be comprehensive in scope and that 00:02:31.918 --> 00:02:38.718 - would be able to house a variety of different activities or whether there should be a variety of 00:02:39.074 --> 00:02:47.732 - well, multiple youth centers throughout the community, with the notion there being that no one youth 00:02:47.732 --> 00:02:56.389 - center is going to appeal to everyone, and we need to get all of the different elements and interest 00:02:56.389 --> 00:03:04.961 - groups with the youth. We are recommending, well, the evident question here is funding. And the key 00:03:04.961 --> 00:03:08.990 - impediment to funding is certainly going to be 00:03:16.354 --> 00:03:24.128 - as part of this process in the paper which is in the appendix here, asking for input from the community 00:03:24.128 --> 00:03:31.752 - and asking to identify any possible location or locations for such a youth center or centers. Nothing 00:03:31.752 --> 00:03:39.526 - has been forthcoming yet, but if the Youth Commission is enacted, the hope is that we can identify some 00:03:39.526 --> 00:03:41.918 - real estate so that this can be 00:03:45.506 --> 00:03:55.898 - But again, the notion here is very imperative that there must be a place after school in the evenings 00:03:55.898 --> 00:04:06.902 - for youth to congregate, if at all possible. The next recommendation here is mentoring program coordination 00:04:06.902 --> 00:04:15.358 - forums. Actually, it looks to me like the next one here is the parenting resource. 00:04:15.842 --> 00:04:24.525 - master list that doesn't correspond to this. The parenting resource information distribution really 00:04:24.525 --> 00:04:34.077 - has two aspects. The first is identifying the resources in the community and the second is then disseminating 00:04:34.077 --> 00:04:42.760 - that data. The best resource so far that we have seen is the Sunrise Parenting Place Guide. Sunrise 00:04:42.760 --> 00:04:44.670 - spent over a year and 00:04:45.090 --> 00:04:52.158 - with two different people doing a lot of research, identifying for each different type of activity, 00:04:52.158 --> 00:04:59.438 - all of the providers in our community, their phone numbers, a list of the services and the costs. This 00:04:59.438 --> 00:05:07.001 - is all set forth here. It's been, there's quite a prestigious committee that has been on this and reviewed 00:05:07.001 --> 00:05:11.454 - it. It is actually this commitment from Sunrise, the result of 00:05:11.746 --> 00:05:19.038 - what I'll call a clarion call from by Telly and Farrow to recognize that gangs do exist here in Bloomington, 00:05:19.038 --> 00:05:25.996 - that there is a youth problem, we can't be complacent. So Sunrise has really focused on this. The other 00:05:25.996 --> 00:05:32.886 - aspect of this guide is for each of the different notions, whether it's gang involvement, senior care, 00:05:32.886 --> 00:05:38.974 - latchkey children, there are a series of questions that each parent should ask themselves. 00:05:39.298 --> 00:05:46.413 - We're not saying what the answers are, but these are the questions. So that if a parent has this type 00:05:46.413 --> 00:05:53.389 - of problem in the home, they'll know what to do and where to go to have the right information given 00:05:53.389 --> 00:06:00.644 - to them. There's also, well, this is the information, the best we can do. This will be on the web. This 00:06:00.644 --> 00:06:07.550 - will be updated annually. We want to solicit additions to this database. So this is your baseline. 00:06:08.034 --> 00:06:15.695 - Then how to disseminate it. There are a variety of ideas, one of which is to create parenting programs 00:06:15.695 --> 00:06:23.580 - with local employers. The Sunrise parenting program is the best example. There's a brown bag lunch almost 00:06:23.580 --> 00:06:31.092 - weekly on either wellness or a parenting issue. We purchased a variety of professionally made videos 00:06:31.092 --> 00:06:36.894 - on drug abuse, on youth violence prevention. All of this need the prevention. 00:06:38.178 --> 00:06:44.268 - not intervention, which is a little too late in many cases. And we've really tried to encourage that. 00:06:44.268 --> 00:06:50.418 - I was a keynote speaker at the Chamber of Commerce two weeks ago, and we're trying to really get a lot 00:06:50.418 --> 00:06:56.866 - of businesses in the community involved at a grassroots level in making this kind of information available. 00:06:56.866 --> 00:07:03.434 - There will certainly be other ways to do that. This could certainly be improved. But we need to do something. 00:07:03.434 --> 00:07:06.718 - The notion that it takes a village to raise a child is 00:07:07.298 --> 00:07:14.747 - a correct notion, we believe. And the question, therefore, is ways to disseminate this type of data 00:07:14.747 --> 00:07:22.420 - to the people that need it. We'll look forward to looking at other recommendations in that regard. The 00:07:22.420 --> 00:07:30.391 - mentoring program coordination forums, there are currently over 30 mentoring programs here in Bloomington. 00:07:30.391 --> 00:07:36.574 - And one of the things we tried to do with the youth programs was really understand 00:07:37.218 --> 00:07:45.278 - different types of youth that we need to address as a community. It may be easier in many cases to help 00:07:45.278 --> 00:07:53.338 - people who want to help themselves, but what we will call the at-risk youth are a different and special 00:07:53.338 --> 00:08:01.320 - type of problem. Many things that need to be done, but mentoring, among others, is probably the single 00:08:01.320 --> 00:08:06.590 - biggest thing that can be done to help many of these at-risk youth. 00:08:08.450 --> 00:08:18.294 - And you'll see here a program or a list of suggestions to bring together the community and family resources 00:08:18.294 --> 00:08:27.865 - to the department. And again, representatives from all of the different mentoring groups to really enter 00:08:27.865 --> 00:08:37.982 - into a coordinated program. Wherever there are mentoring groups that have someone to follow up a social worker 00:08:38.210 --> 00:08:45.639 - can really work to see if there's an effective dialogue being created between the big brother and the 00:08:45.639 --> 00:08:52.995 - little brother, if you will. These are the ones that are the most successful. This is what we'd like 00:08:52.995 --> 00:09:00.351 - to try to work with. The support piece for that is a coordinated mentoring training program. Because 00:09:00.351 --> 00:09:05.886 - there are certain principles of mentoring that we really got to understand. 00:09:08.962 --> 00:09:16.475 - And if we have a coordinated process of working with a different mentoring, then we believe that many 00:09:16.475 --> 00:09:24.062 - of the people who are going to act as mentors can come together, receive a certain amount of training, 00:09:24.062 --> 00:09:32.016 - which will make the whole process much, much, much more effective. So we feel that this is a very important 00:09:32.016 --> 00:09:37.246 - plank, if you will, in the platform here. And again, really the notion 00:09:43.938 --> 00:09:51.208 - later as we open this up to each of these recommendations. That's something we clearly need to ask. 00:09:51.208 --> 00:09:58.769 - What else can we do for at-risk children? Community youth information boards. Again, the notion is many 00:09:58.769 --> 00:10:06.258 - things are happening which are very, very positive. How do you disseminate that information? There are 00:10:06.258 --> 00:10:13.310 - a number of recommendations here for the community youth information boards to act as one of the 00:10:14.786 --> 00:10:23.060 - that particular information. We think that those can be used effectively at rhinos, malls, YMCA, city 00:10:23.060 --> 00:10:31.821 - government, county government, school corporations, and selected downtown locations and of course involving 00:10:31.821 --> 00:10:40.176 - the media. If we can make the youth aware in addition to the parents of all the resources that we have 00:10:40.176 --> 00:10:44.638 - available here and what is happening, then we think we 00:10:45.890 --> 00:10:57.642 - A youth exposition, same type of process. How do you disseminate information? How do you connect people? 00:10:57.642 --> 00:11:09.394 - Last year we had the youth boozas and it was very successful. But the notion is to expand on this annual 00:11:09.394 --> 00:11:15.550 - exposition and perhaps make it an even broader mission 00:11:16.418 --> 00:11:25.777 - not only bring together all the crews that are involved with youth programs and facilitating youth issues, 00:11:25.777 --> 00:11:34.786 - but you also bring together some of the prospective employers and make it a bit of a job spare. Again, 00:11:34.786 --> 00:11:43.620 - the, for me, Perry Metz actually from IU here said something early on in this process that I thought 00:11:43.620 --> 00:11:45.982 - was important. Many of the 00:11:46.338 --> 00:11:54.515 - freshmen at Indiana University who don't follow through their freshman year or who ultimately drop out, 00:11:54.515 --> 00:12:02.535 - do so probably because they haven't found some support group, some identity that helps them to really 00:12:02.535 --> 00:12:11.106 - center themselves with the winds that buff a youth today. And I think those same issues need to be addressed 00:12:11.106 --> 00:12:15.902 - for the high school youth as well, youth at all levels here. 00:12:16.482 --> 00:12:25.327 - The attempt to disseminate a lot of this information, whether it's the youth centers, the expositions, 00:12:25.327 --> 00:12:33.914 - or the bulletin boards, is a way to allow the youth to stimulate their imagination to see what else 00:12:33.914 --> 00:12:43.017 - is happening here in the community and to try to connect in a meaningful way with others who have similar 00:12:43.017 --> 00:12:44.734 - types of interests. 00:12:45.058 --> 00:12:54.290 - Indiana University student group volunteer guide is again a way to try to connect the town down, 00:12:54.290 --> 00:13:04.378 - if you will, to recognize that there are many resources at the university that can be tapped. This really 00:13:04.378 --> 00:13:11.230 - exists. It's just a way of better focusing it and bringing it together. 00:13:21.474 --> 00:13:31.026 - begin looking to inform them of the guide and the fact that there are resources at the university that 00:13:31.026 --> 00:13:40.021 - need to be tapped. Here again a question of finding ways to better coordinate existing programs. 00:13:40.021 --> 00:13:49.666 - A coordinated school volunteer program, there's really a wealth of resources available in our community 00:13:49.666 --> 00:13:50.686 - of retired 00:13:51.874 --> 00:14:01.050 - semi-retired adults who could provide a wealth of information and help to the schools. I think that 00:14:01.050 --> 00:14:10.317 - Steve Blanchak-Rock mentioned something that struck home the other day, and that is that many of the 00:14:10.317 --> 00:14:17.566 - things we're talking about are important not to be lost sight of, but the main 00:14:26.402 --> 00:14:34.459 - Therefore, how can we promote a better dialogue between parents and the school? How can we make the 00:14:34.459 --> 00:14:42.676 - school a more child-friendly and parent-print-friendly environment? The same notion was brought up in 00:14:42.676 --> 00:14:50.974 - terms of precisely some of the at-risk children whose parents may not be in the best situation to deal 00:14:50.974 --> 00:14:55.486 - with the school corporation, don't know how to get into 00:14:56.514 --> 00:15:04.812 - know how to address it. They feel disenfranchised. How do we promote that? And the notion there is really 00:15:04.812 --> 00:15:12.876 - to look at different ways in which we can make the school corporation or suggest that they become more 00:15:12.876 --> 00:15:20.783 - user friendly. And that goes both to a volunteer program, which we give in different faces. And then 00:15:20.783 --> 00:15:25.950 - I believe the next recommendation, which is to create some videos 00:15:27.554 --> 00:15:34.831 - pages so that there could be more information disseminated about the school corporation, about its message, 00:15:34.831 --> 00:15:41.905 - its mission, putting in the face of some of the administrators there, putting together guides that would 00:15:41.905 --> 00:15:48.710 - be given out to the school children so that if there is a problem, at least the parents would have a 00:15:48.710 --> 00:15:51.742 - variety of options in terms of trying to get 00:16:11.138 --> 00:16:17.591 - rest I think is this the report and on me yeah the rest is the appendix which includes information about 00:16:17.591 --> 00:16:24.105 - the youth survey that the committee conducted with 520 youth in the middle school and in the high schools 00:16:24.105 --> 00:16:30.312 - in Bloomington as well as the Harmony school and also some of our research into youth commissions in 00:16:30.312 --> 00:16:36.519 - other cities the let's see the editorial that Mike wrote and then some information about the Sunrise 00:16:36.519 --> 00:16:37.502 - parenting guide 00:16:46.786 --> 00:16:55.640 - we can give people a little bit of time to look over some of this data. Again, I wanted to go through 00:16:55.640 --> 00:17:04.755 - very quickly an overview of the highlights of what we think are action plan items for more or less short 00:17:04.755 --> 00:17:13.609 - or intermediate term implementation. I should also stress that we have in our notes probably at least 00:17:13.609 --> 00:17:16.126 - 20 other ideas that we think 00:17:16.450 --> 00:17:26.238 - have merit. But our recognition here is that without some social coordinating body and without some 00:17:26.238 --> 00:17:36.025 - community support and in fact probably some charismatic leaders stepping forward who are interested 00:17:36.025 --> 00:17:46.302 - in this type of function that many of these other ideas won't really come to the light of day. And so we 00:17:46.466 --> 00:17:53.674 - go back again to the Youth Commission, the notion being that this would be something that could always 00:17:53.674 --> 00:18:00.811 - celebrate success, encourage further improvement, as we look into other ideas that even go beyond the 00:18:00.811 --> 00:18:07.879 - scope of what's here. So this scratches the surface a lot more to come. I think what we'd like to do 00:18:07.879 --> 00:18:14.876 - next, then, is ask the question, and you can phrase it a couple of different ways, that Chuck Bonds 00:18:14.876 --> 00:18:15.646 - are asked, 00:18:16.130 --> 00:18:25.392 - Have we hit, well, have we made a mistake? Is there, first of all, I guess, is there anything on here 00:18:25.392 --> 00:18:34.473 - that we feel shouldn't be on here? Have we missed the mark with any of these recommendations? Let's 00:18:34.473 --> 00:18:43.554 - phrase the question all the way first. Do any of these seem like they would be problematic? No. The 00:18:43.554 --> 00:18:44.734 - answer's no. 00:18:45.730 --> 00:18:54.555 - I think the next question, the next two questions for me would be what have we missed that would be 00:18:54.555 --> 00:19:03.733 - important to add? And what are the comments about each of these in terms of ranking them as priorities? 00:19:03.733 --> 00:19:12.911 - Which would you prefer to go on first, Kathy? Maybe what we missed to start with. Let's start with what 00:19:12.911 --> 00:19:15.294 - we've missed because we've 00:19:16.578 --> 00:19:26.525 - How do you take the whole time reviewing these particular ideas? I'm not sure that we've missed it because 00:19:26.525 --> 00:19:35.915 - I haven't read the entire report. But one of the things that we noticed in June's report is that the 00:19:35.915 --> 00:19:45.118 - peer group is so influential. And how we deal with shaping or changing or redirection of the group 00:19:45.602 --> 00:19:52.848 - or assisting a child, or saying to a child, get rid of all of your friends or pick new friends, which 00:19:52.848 --> 00:20:00.449 - is sort of unrealistic, is very much of a challenge. So as we do this, I hope we will look at that factor, 00:20:00.449 --> 00:20:07.695 - which as we know is a very important one. Maybe there are some activities where you could involve the 00:20:07.695 --> 00:20:10.750 - group. And I just wanted to throw that in, 00:20:20.738 --> 00:20:27.953 - Well, it seems, when I was looking at, and I think the survey is wonderful, I haven't had a chance to 00:20:27.953 --> 00:20:35.096 - look at it, the survey of youth, because it's important to know what children think they need. And I 00:20:35.096 --> 00:20:42.311 - noticed that one of the activities, and the one that has the charts on it, I don't know the page, I'm 00:20:42.311 --> 00:20:49.950 - getting close to it. Page 39. I'm sorry? The charts, 39 and page 40. I noticed that sports ranks very high. 00:20:50.594 --> 00:20:57.230 - And that's not only important because as a nation we seem to be so interested in sports, but it gives 00:20:57.230 --> 00:21:03.736 - the young people an opportunity to demonstrate that they can excel in something and feel good about 00:21:03.736 --> 00:21:10.307 - themselves. But it also can combine role modeling and mentoring if we take it very carefully because 00:21:10.307 --> 00:21:16.812 - there's an awful lot that can be done, not just using sports, it's whatever the activities are. And 00:21:16.812 --> 00:21:19.870 - generally speaking, the whole group of friends 00:21:20.322 --> 00:21:26.706 - interested or could be interested in that same activity. So that's one way I think that we could approach 00:21:26.706 --> 00:21:32.910 - it is trying to arrange activities around people's interests. It's sort of like getting people to read 00:21:32.910 --> 00:21:38.994 - if they don't like to read and find out what they're interested in and give them a book about it and 00:21:38.994 --> 00:21:45.137 - I'll have their reading skills improved. One statistic here that really floors me is that City Parks, 00:21:45.137 --> 00:21:48.510 - that you only have nine people that use the City Parks. 00:21:52.770 --> 00:22:01.489 - So when you think about the calendar purchasing plan recently, thinking about purchasing land for a 00:22:01.489 --> 00:22:10.207 - park, and the city's parks, and the budgets that we have in those areas, and just to have nine kids 00:22:10.207 --> 00:22:19.275 - who say they're using this. It's remarkable. They have to look at who was asked, and that's pretty much 00:22:19.275 --> 00:22:20.670 - the older kids. 00:22:20.930 --> 00:22:27.327 - Well, this was middle school and high school cross-sectional. But I mean, high school doesn't tend to 00:22:27.327 --> 00:22:33.786 - do that. That's what I'm saying on middle school. That's what I'm saying. But what I think, and I have 00:22:33.786 --> 00:22:39.682 - to probably go to something else in a minute. One of the things that has struck me very much, 00:22:39.682 --> 00:22:46.329 - and unfortunately, we don't have it. We had five middle schools. We finally created an intramural between 00:22:46.329 --> 00:22:50.782 - the five middle schools, grade four, five, six, grade four, five, six. 00:22:51.170 --> 00:22:56.813 - positive because the kids could stay in our community, participate around, and whether it was, you know, 00:22:56.813 --> 00:23:02.187 - baseball or soccer, I don't know, it doesn't matter what. And if sports is something they like, the 00:23:02.187 --> 00:23:07.723 - high elementary ages and the middle schools is the most important place to get that started. And we're 00:23:07.723 --> 00:23:12.990 - not doing much of that. Most of the kids who are participating are going somewhere, are on a team 00:23:28.002 --> 00:23:35.164 - One of the big dilemmas that we had in this, and one of the issues if there's a youth commission, is 00:23:35.164 --> 00:23:42.397 - precisely the extent to which you second-guess the MCCSC. Because there's a whole list of things that 00:23:42.397 --> 00:23:49.630 - we talked about that could be implemented at the MCCSC level. Or it can be done with all three parks. 00:24:05.026 --> 00:24:11.036 - You said you had to leave? Yes, I did. With this commission for youth that Michael's been talking about, 00:24:11.036 --> 00:24:16.759 - one of the things, I'm not sure if it's actually written in the recommendations or not, some of the 00:24:16.759 --> 00:24:22.540 - meetings was having it be somehow a combined county-city commission. It needs to be universal. We're 00:24:22.540 --> 00:24:28.436 - going to be able to attract just MCCSE and Harmony Kids, but also originally being awesome. One of the 00:24:28.436 --> 00:24:34.846 - questions is that dilute the power? We would like this commission to have status like planning commission, like 00:24:36.162 --> 00:24:50.206 - missions that have some teeth and if it becomes a city-county thing does that dilute the potential? 00:25:08.994 --> 00:25:14.800 - I mean, since it is from the youth committee's recommendation, it really is from the youth committee's 00:25:14.800 --> 00:25:20.663 - recommendation. It would be nice to have an office for youth, and then have a commission that goes with 00:25:20.663 --> 00:25:26.526 - that, and where that should be is something we can talk about, and if that is county-wide. But I think, 00:25:26.526 --> 00:25:32.332 - for instance, an office for youth makes probably a budget attached to all that. A commission for youth 00:25:32.332 --> 00:25:35.038 - doesn't need a budget, I mean, we're wide open. 00:25:37.058 --> 00:25:42.182 - I don't know maybe at some point, but what we're trying to do right now is not have a bogged down with 00:25:42.182 --> 00:25:47.256 - funding questions or legal and jangling questions. We want to get it established as soon as possible. 00:25:47.256 --> 00:25:52.330 - The question is what steps we need to take to do that. We're better off just working with the city or 00:25:52.330 --> 00:25:53.822 - we should look at the county. 00:26:06.178 --> 00:26:17.234 - I think that there are a couple of them. I think your question needs a little bit of research because 00:26:17.234 --> 00:26:28.289 - one of the things that the city and the county do together that I don't actually know any commissions 00:26:28.289 --> 00:26:34.142 - that are city-county commissions. So what I would do, 00:26:43.522 --> 00:26:52.135 - I think that from the point of view, just speaking for the youth programs group, that we'd like to see 00:26:52.135 --> 00:26:59.326 - this, as Fox said, be the highest priority. And I know that Tom Fernandez is prepared 00:27:17.730 --> 00:27:26.152 - important issue because this report and the report that was just given, the county report, the study 00:27:26.152 --> 00:27:34.742 - on youth, all talk about coordination and cooperation and if we do not at somehow address working with 00:27:34.742 --> 00:27:43.998 - the city and the county the concerns of the young people in Monroe County we have missed a golden opportunity. 00:27:45.378 --> 00:27:52.133 - So however we structure it, I don't know the answer, but this is an opportunity that's going to slip 00:27:52.133 --> 00:27:58.955 - through our hands and probably won't have again for quite some time. We do not somehow rather develop 00:27:58.955 --> 00:28:05.709 - a program that is comprehensive enough to deal with children who come from Ellisville, who come from 00:28:05.709 --> 00:28:12.866 - Steinsville, I think that's wherever it is, Gossport, that park in Monroe County, in the city or wherever, 00:28:12.866 --> 00:28:14.270 - because we deal with 00:28:14.498 --> 00:28:24.205 - These are all actuals. Well, I don't think that we can, I'm not prepared to make specifics, but I think 00:28:24.205 --> 00:28:33.726 - the general question is how do we move forward in what type of timeline to put together a commission. 00:28:33.726 --> 00:28:41.566 - And again, speaking with John in some meetings, he's very happy to make it a point. 00:28:41.954 --> 00:28:48.993 - Well, I'm sorry, but it has to be county-wide, because if you're going to do something for the kids, 00:28:48.993 --> 00:28:55.823 - you can't just do it for the city kids. Absolutely. Well, the city kids are county kids. Exactly. 00:28:55.823 --> 00:29:03.349 - I mean, you can't separate them. He had the idea to get this started, and it was wonderful, and we wouldn't 00:29:03.349 --> 00:29:10.388 - be sitting here today if Mayor Fernandez hadn't done it. But in any event, I think moving forward, I 00:29:10.388 --> 00:29:11.294 - would guess, 00:29:12.002 --> 00:29:20.790 - probably in different ways, a lot of different appropriations that just need to be reallocated and retained 00:29:20.790 --> 00:29:28.927 - available. Because he's prepared to do something with the family and what's your department called? 00:29:28.927 --> 00:29:37.145 - Community and family resources. Community and family resources. And that would have an office for it 00:29:37.145 --> 00:29:41.214 - in that kind of setting. One of the comments that 00:29:43.426 --> 00:29:50.595 - in the coordination with MCCSC and as an outsider just coming in and told it just strikes me as a really 00:29:50.595 --> 00:29:57.628 - key part of this whole deal is from a taxpayer's point of view a large part of my money goes to Monroe 00:29:57.628 --> 00:30:04.729 - County School Corporation and they have a huge amount of resources in terms of physical resources we're 00:30:04.729 --> 00:30:10.942 - talking about finding a building for sports and your mural all of that stuff they have the 00:30:14.178 --> 00:30:22.024 - me that getting them on this program on this commission is essential. Right. To avoid duplicating building 00:30:22.024 --> 00:30:29.503 - another building. We've already built all these buildings. Well, the first step is probably as simple 00:30:29.503 --> 00:30:36.982 - as getting the commissioners together, but then figuring out the role and the relationship there. The 00:30:36.982 --> 00:30:44.094 - commission would establish a really incredible bully pulpit. And again, one of the notions being 00:30:44.418 --> 00:30:51.245 - not just to follow through on certain ideas that we have, but to celebrate the successes that are there. 00:30:51.245 --> 00:30:57.941 - And I think that's a message that we have to keep coming back to because there are a lot of successes. 00:30:57.941 --> 00:31:04.573 - And making that public and making this in the forefront of everyone's mind, we see as an equal plank, 00:31:04.573 --> 00:31:06.718 - if you will, of this commission. 00:31:56.578 --> 00:32:03.883 - I think that the status, if you will, I hate to use that, of having a recognized commission, that something 00:32:03.883 --> 00:32:10.647 - that can approach people with credibility and say, we would like for you to be involved. When I ask 00:32:10.647 --> 00:32:18.088 - people in my neighborhood, go over to Highland Park and talk to the principal and ask if you could volunteer, 00:32:18.088 --> 00:32:24.446 - they won't take that admission. But I really think that there was some way to touch the lives 00:32:28.258 --> 00:32:36.242 - a tremendous need here. I don't want to belabor this, but your point about, and I don't know exactly 00:32:36.242 --> 00:32:44.621 - how you said it, but there's an element of parents, I hate to say it, parents from dysfunctional families 00:32:44.621 --> 00:32:53.000 - perhaps, who are intimidated by school. They won't even run in the front door. They won't walk in because 00:32:53.000 --> 00:32:57.822 - they think they're too far removed from them. And it's up to 00:33:25.442 --> 00:33:35.172 - dysfunctional family but I see the potential of a little boy and that's what it takes the closer you 00:33:35.172 --> 00:33:44.902 - can get one-on-one small groups I think that's fine if I can get two or three kids together hard and 00:33:44.902 --> 00:33:51.934 - work with fine but the closer you can get one-on-one again I'll be later 00:33:59.714 --> 00:34:06.805 - week after week, I'm too stupid, I'm so stupid, and I said, don't just say that anymore, then he would 00:34:06.805 --> 00:34:13.758 - slip and he broke himself for saying I'm stupid. And I went into that school once, I worked with him 00:34:13.758 --> 00:34:19.678 - and I had done something, I said, boy, I'm really stupid, he said, you're not stupid. 00:34:29.506 --> 00:34:36.346 - closer we can get to one-on-one. We agree. We got a chance. Couldn't agree more. Do you think involving 00:34:36.346 --> 00:34:43.054 - seniors is an area that we've missed in these recommendations? Well, I know. It's actually one of the 00:34:43.054 --> 00:34:49.763 - recommendations. I just know what my experience is with my neighbor. And it's like pulling teeth. And 00:34:49.763 --> 00:34:56.405 - people retire, and they think, I'm not retired, but people think it's time for me now to enjoy life. 00:34:56.405 --> 00:34:59.102 - And I try to, we're in a whole different 00:34:59.202 --> 00:35:06.390 - We're not living in times like we were 30 years. Times have changed, and it's time for adults, I think, 00:35:06.390 --> 00:35:13.439 - to get more involved in the lives of children. And we have that opportunity. When I was first matched 00:35:13.439 --> 00:35:20.627 - up with this little boy, boy, I was really uncertain about this. But he and I are, I mean, we're really 00:35:20.627 --> 00:35:28.022 - close, and that's what I want. Do you think that the notion then of a coordinated school volunteer program 00:35:28.022 --> 00:35:28.990 - in particular 00:35:29.186 --> 00:35:35.686 - I think there's a lot of wonderful things there. I mean, I think when I first sat down, I thought, well, 00:35:35.686 --> 00:35:42.248 - the Youth Commission has, and so I heard discussion about, and saw the courts pulling this stuff together 00:35:42.248 --> 00:35:48.625 - and giving it some pronounced credibility. So you're back to reinforcing the notion of the commission. 00:35:48.625 --> 00:35:54.878 - I'm anxious to get down to parenting resources and things like that. I was on the school registering 00:35:54.878 --> 00:35:58.654 - committee. When I hear people say, put those kids on the bus 00:35:58.786 --> 00:36:06.025 - Presmont's in the university school. Personally, I think that's the worst possible thing you could do 00:36:06.025 --> 00:36:13.193 - if you expect their parents to be involved in the school. The worst thing those parents would see on 00:36:13.193 --> 00:36:20.360 - that school is university because they're just too far removed from it. Now, I'm not going to get in 00:36:20.360 --> 00:36:25.470 - a big argument about it. Good choice. For 14 months, we beat our heads. 00:36:30.114 --> 00:36:37.914 - But I think if we can reach, and we're going to have more and more low income people. We're going to 00:36:37.914 --> 00:36:45.868 - have more and more disenfranchised parents and their children if we don't reach out and help them. And 00:36:45.868 --> 00:36:53.746 - it's going to take people more sophisticated and educated to reach out to them if we care about them. 00:36:53.746 --> 00:36:58.302 - Because they're too many of these people in public housing 00:36:59.234 --> 00:37:06.490 - They're afraid of the official system. They're suspicious of activities of government or the school 00:37:06.490 --> 00:37:13.890 - system or whatever. They don't know how to, they don't have the sophistication to do even some of the 00:37:13.890 --> 00:37:21.581 - elementary things and maintaining. And we really, and this is difficult. I don't know quite how to impact 00:37:21.581 --> 00:37:27.966 - my students' parents. But I really think I've made, got my foot in the door. Thank you. 00:37:28.578 --> 00:37:38.775 - what you're seeing now of course it's a lot of our notion. Hi I'm Liz Isaacs and like Jim I wasn't on 00:37:38.775 --> 00:37:48.772 - a committee a friend of mine told me about this and I've worked with adverse populations before. To 00:37:48.772 --> 00:37:55.070 - touch on what Jim said do you think it would be a good idea to 00:37:55.970 --> 00:38:07.609 - to also target some of the at-risk areas, whether it's Crestmont, Highland Park, or other areas to build 00:38:07.609 --> 00:38:19.138 - that trust. I was involved with the Tenants Association up at Crestmont and the Family Center up there. 00:38:19.138 --> 00:38:24.126 - And then it takes a long time to build trust 00:38:24.354 --> 00:38:34.854 - And unfortunately, I was able to do that with some. But a lot of them, of the people of the Tenants 00:38:34.854 --> 00:38:45.459 - Association, really, they want to see a change. And then they do care about their children. They may 00:38:45.459 --> 00:38:54.174 - not know how to ask the questions or whatever. And maybe that's a way of doing it. 00:38:55.458 --> 00:39:05.705 - do county-wide and all that. As Kathy summarized that right, targeting at-risk areas for mentoring or? 00:39:05.705 --> 00:39:15.951 - Yeah, mentoring or parenting. I think it makes good sense to target with the volunteer programs in the 00:39:15.951 --> 00:39:24.606 - schools, too, obviously. Right. You know what's important about what we've just heard? 00:39:24.738 --> 00:39:31.352 - They talked about real people. The programs that we talk about are wonderful, but the people who are 00:39:31.352 --> 00:39:37.966 - actually served, this is what is most important. If you don't mind, I'd like to share just one thing 00:39:37.966 --> 00:39:44.514 - with you. I had a lady in juvenile court and we'd spent quite a bit of money trying to do something 00:39:44.514 --> 00:39:51.063 - with her son who submitted a number of delinquent acts. And after about two years of trying to help 00:39:51.063 --> 00:39:54.206 - her son, she came in and looked at me and said, 00:39:54.370 --> 00:40:01.472 - The system has failed me. The system has failed me. And when I came down about 15 minutes later, I was 00:40:01.472 --> 00:40:08.780 - absolutely livid. We'd done everything we could do. And then after I thought about it, she wasn't talking 00:40:08.780 --> 00:40:15.744 - about the court. She wasn't talking just about the court. She was talking about her frustration with 00:40:15.744 --> 00:40:22.708 - trying to deal with government official schools. And I'm sure she was talking about those things. So 00:40:22.708 --> 00:40:23.742 - as we do this, 00:40:24.418 --> 00:40:36.040 - As we talk about these programs, it's nice to put a face in there. I agree. Yeah, and talking to these 00:40:36.040 --> 00:40:47.324 - people, regardless of their education or socioeconomic level, they'll tell you what's going on. And 00:40:47.324 --> 00:40:49.694 - it's very important. 00:40:50.402 --> 00:41:01.170 - You know, to listen. If we're going to be their voice or their ears or whatever. Yeah. Let's go back 00:41:01.170 --> 00:41:11.831 - to the question we were on. What else have we missed? Anything else? I see several things here that 00:41:11.831 --> 00:41:19.934 - are of use, good ideas. Anything else? Well, this isn't an idea, but then I 00:41:20.098 --> 00:41:29.239 - I appreciate her remarks about the sports element, but also to reach children who are not, they're not 00:41:29.239 --> 00:41:38.203 - in sports, and they feel the pressure of being left out. And I know this is very complicated because 00:41:38.203 --> 00:41:47.966 - all emphasis is on sports. No, I know that, but no, no, but I'm saying, I saw this letter a few days ago from 00:41:48.738 --> 00:41:55.944 - four or five little girls in Hyden Park talking about the Hyden Park Riding Club, the Hyden Park Riding 00:41:55.944 --> 00:42:02.942 - Club. I think I know that school inside out, but I know I had a riding club. That's after school for 00:42:02.942 --> 00:42:10.147 - children, I guess. And you know, we have to find some way to lift up children who aren't athletes also. 00:42:10.147 --> 00:42:17.630 - They also have a right to lead. While we don't have it listed here, there are a variety of different ideas. 00:42:18.978 --> 00:42:26.466 - we have that we think that you could follow along. No, I saw you. You had written, I think, sports-wise, 00:42:26.466 --> 00:42:33.883 - other actions. But, I mean, a good example of that's Wonder Labs. I mean, we've spoken with them. We're 00:42:33.883 --> 00:42:41.157 - trying to encourage a whole variety of programs at a multi-dimensional basis. Well, and then, doesn't 00:42:41.157 --> 00:42:46.078 - the Arts Center offer a lot of diverse, like, arts programs for you? 00:42:46.242 --> 00:42:52.258 - Exactly, Liz. I mean, what we said at the beginning, you've got all of these hundreds and thousands, 00:42:52.258 --> 00:42:58.274 - in fact, of resources. It's getting the awareness out and trying to encourage involvement. It's also 00:42:58.274 --> 00:43:04.349 - very low on the schedule. It's building more and more parks. Right. And I would also encourage people 00:43:04.349 --> 00:43:10.365 - to look at the Mitigating At-Risk Situations Committee's report, because they focused a lot of their 00:43:10.365 --> 00:43:15.070 - recommendations on youth. And they were specifically targeted to at-risk youth 00:43:15.266 --> 00:43:21.478 - both elementary school and middle school youth. So there's a lot of overlap between these committees. 00:43:21.478 --> 00:43:27.872 - And I think, you know, we can implement a lot of these recommendations together. Something that we might 00:43:27.872 --> 00:43:34.083 - have missed was transportation problems that the kids have. Isn't it true that there's no city bus to 00:43:34.083 --> 00:43:40.477 - Batchelor? And so this means students can't participate in campus school programs unless they have rides 00:43:40.477 --> 00:43:44.862 - from their home? You're right. And also the city bus system shuts down. 00:43:45.538 --> 00:43:52.921 - at an early time in the evening, so evening activities. I don't know where they're going. Kids are straining 00:43:52.921 --> 00:43:59.831 - to write us all the time. OK. But to be realistic, they can get where they want to go. But I think we 00:43:59.831 --> 00:44:06.672 - could increase. Yes, we can increase them to get where they maybe should be going. Exactly. But they 00:44:06.672 --> 00:44:10.398 - can get there, believe me. And again, I wouldn't. Yes. 00:44:10.946 --> 00:44:16.885 - Again, I would encourage you to look at the mitigating at risk situations, because we know this is a 00:44:16.885 --> 00:44:22.647 - huge issue. And they did have one recommendation where they recommended looking at an alternative 00:44:22.647 --> 00:44:28.527 - transportation network. That's a specific one. Yeah. That's the value of having a youth commission, 00:44:28.527 --> 00:44:33.054 - because the little boy that I work with, he would not have been able to play 00:44:44.194 --> 00:44:51.783 - automobile and we just left that off same thing redistricting people think people can run all over the 00:44:51.783 --> 00:44:59.371 - community you can't if you don't have way to get there. Carl Salsman did mail this one on the head and 00:44:59.371 --> 00:45:06.886 - there is a whole report in as Captain said in that one and this was one of his meetings. You're about 00:45:06.886 --> 00:45:11.454 - to set that second name in the group's report. Anything else? 00:45:13.442 --> 00:45:21.063 - Shall we then go back over the different ideas that we spoke about and talk about priorities, implementation, 00:45:21.063 --> 00:45:27.714 - pluses and minuses of each of those? And we've got some people here. I wish he hadn't actually, 00:45:27.714 --> 00:45:34.781 - but I mean, do we want to spend more time talking about the idea of the commission, Joyce? I mean, is 00:45:34.781 --> 00:45:40.254 - this a proper forum to do that in, or should we just postpone that and let you 00:45:41.250 --> 00:45:48.524 - John and others do that behind closed doors. I don't want to- We don't do anything behind closed doors. 00:45:48.524 --> 00:45:55.518 - Well, I could say without the television cameras on, you're quite like that. No. I think everyone's 00:45:55.518 --> 00:46:02.581 - interested in seeing that happen. I think we get so many commissions in the community that one thing 00:46:02.581 --> 00:46:09.575 - we have to stay focused on is our goals and have some short-term goals so we can accomplish so that 00:46:09.575 --> 00:46:10.974 - everyone feels like 00:46:11.074 --> 00:46:39.646 - from my point of view just reiterate what I consider to be the bullets that stimulated this idea 00:46:41.250 --> 00:46:50.594 - Unless we can raise community awareness, nothing happens. And the best way to do that is to celebrate 00:46:50.594 --> 00:46:59.937 - success in a very, very prominent way and then correspondingly identify those problem areas which are 00:46:59.937 --> 00:47:10.014 - susceptible to improved coordination, communication, and then action. And absent a way to effectively do that 00:47:10.786 --> 00:47:17.743 - The notion is that all of these ideas may be great, but it's a moment in time, and they're lost. And 00:47:17.743 --> 00:47:24.838 - the reality is that the commission is therefore a way to perpetuate a momentum. And without it, I will 00:47:24.838 --> 00:47:31.864 - go on record, at least, since I don't have anything to lose, saying that we will have missed a golden 00:47:31.864 --> 00:47:39.166 - opportunity, and we will fail at the community to achieve whatever level we could have otherwise achieved 00:47:39.810 --> 00:47:53.534 - in terms of making the whole village support it to you. It's just my strong opinion. 00:48:15.394 --> 00:48:21.970 - it was for this group and you'd mentioned earlier to come out with an actual timetable for this to make 00:48:21.970 --> 00:48:28.547 - as part of our recommendation what the date is that we want this Youth Commission for Youth established 00:48:28.547 --> 00:48:34.870 - by. That's where you're talking about these goals and if you don't set up those timelines and goals 00:48:34.870 --> 00:48:41.320 - it's very easy all of a sudden three months are gone. I agree. I think that's exactly my choice. It's 00:48:41.320 --> 00:48:44.798 - a choice that's been taken because I've been on enough 00:48:45.026 --> 00:48:50.717 - committees throughout the years, that they have nothing against the ideas of the people involved, that 00:48:50.717 --> 00:48:56.353 - they have these wonderful ideas about doing this new program, but they really don't think things out. 00:48:56.353 --> 00:49:02.099 - They look at the whole picture instead of the short-term goals. If we're going to be realistic for this 00:49:02.099 --> 00:49:08.011 - to work, we want to get it done in a timely manner, but we also wouldn't need to be realistic and thorough 00:49:08.011 --> 00:49:13.150 - about it. Tony's point was a good one, when you really stop and think about this strip fair, 00:49:24.770 --> 00:49:32.314 - Well, I think what we're hearing is the notion is, yes, we need it. I like the idea of establishing 00:49:32.314 --> 00:49:39.858 - a timeline for any specific recommendations. Is the notion that it should be joint city-county? And 00:49:39.858 --> 00:49:47.402 - is that a fair? I think it is. And what I hear in this group, and I just say it is because the city 00:49:47.402 --> 00:49:54.494 - took leave. But we do have two townships and another school district, and they must be a part 00:49:54.754 --> 00:50:01.577 - We agree. I mean, the only caveat with that would be if it delays the establishment of it, or if it 00:50:01.577 --> 00:50:08.741 - dilutes the power of it. Well, fair enough. Yeah, fair enough. But let's assume that if there's a strong 00:50:08.741 --> 00:50:15.700 - recommendation in the push that the powers that we can get together and solve that, because it should 00:50:15.700 --> 00:50:22.523 - enhance it, not diminish it. What's a realistic time date, do you think? Do you have something like 00:50:22.523 --> 00:50:24.638 - this? We can get a resolution. 00:50:25.858 --> 00:50:37.105 - Well, then what we could ask for would be a resolution to implement it and then within a certain amount 00:50:37.105 --> 00:50:47.918 - of time to determine the real mission because you're not going to be able to determine and agree on 00:50:47.918 --> 00:50:53.758 - the mission within that period of time realistically. 00:50:54.338 --> 00:51:02.305 - How about a resolution for the school system? What kind of time do you have? I mean, realistically, 00:51:02.305 --> 00:51:10.511 - won't it take a couple of months even if it gets established in principle to determine the mission and 00:51:10.511 --> 00:51:18.637 - the composition? Because it needs to be multidimensional. I was speaking of June and July 1st to have 00:51:18.637 --> 00:51:22.302 - these resolutions so we know you can have it. 00:51:22.434 --> 00:51:31.153 - I think June took a revolution to do it in principle, yes. And three months later to have a framework 00:51:31.153 --> 00:51:39.957 - done. At least by September 1, it seems to me it's doable. And secondly, we've made a lot of movements 00:51:39.957 --> 00:51:48.847 - toward city-county cooperation anyway. Right. In fact, it's very good. So remember that city and county 00:51:48.847 --> 00:51:51.582 - budgets happened in the summer. 00:52:00.994 --> 00:52:10.000 - Do we want to actually delegate any tasks? Well, I mean, I think I'm not sure what you have in mind. 00:52:10.000 --> 00:52:19.273 - Well, I for one, along with Dr. Pizzo, I'm sure would be happy to put in some research on a cooperative 00:52:19.273 --> 00:52:28.279 - youth commission between the city and county. So I'll say I'll work on that. I will research what we 00:52:28.279 --> 00:52:30.686 - can do. We'll get started. 00:52:30.946 --> 00:52:40.337 - with Dan Sherman and see if we can work up the resolution in the next couple weeks. I think that one 00:52:40.337 --> 00:52:49.634 - of the things that we might do today is identify what we think is competition in that commission. I 00:52:49.634 --> 00:52:57.630 - mean if there are any ideas this is a moment for community input because it does need 00:53:03.522 --> 00:53:10.477 - I would also be a model commission that was in the appendix. And having a larger community of us, almost, 00:53:10.477 --> 00:53:17.365 - is very good. Yeah, I would encourage everybody to look at the appendix. Karen Lanning, who's a graduate 00:53:17.365 --> 00:53:24.058 - student in journalism, did a lot of research into different youth commissions around the country. And 00:53:24.058 --> 00:53:30.750 - just kind of what membership they had, how they got their funding. And that's in, I think, the second 00:53:30.750 --> 00:53:33.374 - appendix. So that's the starting point. 00:53:33.538 --> 00:53:50.177 - 20,000. 20,000. Can we actually make a recommendation in terms of composition? It says on page eight, 00:53:50.177 --> 00:54:03.390 - we're talking about commission 10 of 12 members with at least two to four places 00:54:04.162 --> 00:54:16.323 - But we also would welcome any more input. We kept it pretty general. Well clearly the city and the county 00:54:16.323 --> 00:54:27.796 - each need to appoint some members. I would recommend that someone from the juvenile justice area be 00:54:27.796 --> 00:54:31.582 - appointed. I mean that's just my 00:54:32.386 --> 00:54:39.727 - school systems obviously school systems gotta have some you know the city and the county you know with 00:54:39.727 --> 00:54:47.068 - the county's youth services bureau and the city it within parks and recreation and their youth program 00:54:47.068 --> 00:54:54.694 - bureau probably already have a process that we can work for the people who are dealing with youth directly 00:54:54.694 --> 00:55:00.894 - I guess my main concern about this commission is that the people on the commission are 00:55:01.250 --> 00:55:08.817 - deal with youth directly and that there are a large number of youth from areas of the city and county. 00:55:08.817 --> 00:55:16.310 - Not just, you know, we go to Ellisville and we actively recruit, you know, we go into the schools and 00:55:16.310 --> 00:55:23.656 - actively recruit kids and people from these different, you know, we're talking about at risk and at 00:55:23.656 --> 00:55:30.782 - risk areas of town. Folks, every kid in this town is at risk. And every area of town is at risk. 00:55:31.298 --> 00:55:39.746 - I see kids in trouble from every socioeconomic level and every geographic area here in town. If we're 00:55:39.746 --> 00:55:48.194 - seriously going to get the community involved in this, we need to be able to get a nice comprehensive 00:55:48.194 --> 00:55:57.470 - commission of everyone involved. Some of the children end up in the juvenile system and others do not. Exactly. 00:56:00.130 --> 00:56:07.018 - I don't have a real strong feeling about this strength. I do have a strong feeling about the 00:56:07.018 --> 00:56:14.425 - Youth Commission. My question is this. Would this commission be concerned with the recommendations? 00:56:14.425 --> 00:56:21.980 - That's what I want to know. Which recommendations? The other recommendations we have. I know that one 00:56:21.980 --> 00:56:28.350 - of the recommendations is to establish a Youth Commission and the others are programs 00:56:28.770 --> 00:56:34.821 - So what would be the concern, in other words, what would be the concerns of the Youth Commission? And 00:56:34.821 --> 00:56:40.812 - your research, what have they generally focused on? That's a really good question. This one seems to 00:56:40.812 --> 00:56:46.922 - be really using youth and incorporating youth. An example I can think of is the city's art commission, 00:56:46.922 --> 00:56:52.854 - which may have some artists on it and it may not. I'm not saying that I'm taking a position that it 00:56:52.854 --> 00:56:58.430 - should be heavily populated with youth or not, but I think that really needs to be discussed. 00:57:00.450 --> 00:57:09.967 - I think my feeling is that there's a minimum baseline and then for what the Commission would want to 00:57:09.967 --> 00:57:19.391 - achieve and then after that there are a variety of things that would be optional depending on those 00:57:19.391 --> 00:57:29.662 - actual grants of authority and funding because they go and you can't but I mean well I mean minimum to me is 00:57:30.178 --> 00:57:37.695 - is to act as this coordinator of information, and then a disseminator of this bully pulpit. Does it 00:57:37.695 --> 00:57:45.588 - sound like it's 50-50 years? I don't see it as 50-50 years. We're not suggesting. That's what this model 00:57:45.588 --> 00:57:53.180 - is. We're not suggesting that at all. I think two to three is probably better than four, personally. 00:57:53.180 --> 00:57:59.870 - I mean, that's just my opinion, although two to four was the consensus of the committee. 00:58:00.098 --> 00:58:06.953 - out of 10 to 12. But I think if it's going to be 10, it needs to be two. If it's going to be 12, 00:58:06.953 --> 00:58:14.232 - maybe four. But with almost every one of the things that we've talked about here, the Youth Commission 00:58:14.232 --> 00:58:21.723 - could play a major role. Because they can be the ones that bring together the trainers for the mentoring. 00:58:21.723 --> 00:58:29.214 - I mean, that training program really should be under the auspices, for example, of this Youth Commission. 00:58:30.530 --> 00:58:35.736 - Yeah, and I think the Youth Commission is actually in the implementation plan of quite a bit of our 00:58:35.736 --> 00:58:41.254 - recommendations, especially something like community youth information boards. If this is a clearinghouse 00:58:41.254 --> 00:58:46.667 - for information, the Youth Commission should be a major force behind helping get this started. Michael, 00:58:46.667 --> 00:58:51.977 - a lot of this also sounds like administrative work and data gathering and sorting, but it seems to me 00:58:51.977 --> 00:58:57.183 - that if such a commission is really to establish its legitimacy and prominence in the community, it 00:58:57.183 --> 00:59:00.254 - also needs to think about actually sponsoring programming. 00:59:00.578 --> 00:59:06.337 - vision that is a role for it or not. For example, I could see the Youth Commission sponsoring the youth 00:59:06.337 --> 00:59:11.986 - exposition that you described. Absolutely. And having a role in the identification, maybe even in the 00:59:11.986 --> 00:59:17.579 - governance of some of these gathering places that you talk about. It needs to be, you know, posters, 00:59:17.579 --> 00:59:23.338 - you know, with a big event sponsored by the City-County Commission on Youth. If you look at the details 00:59:23.338 --> 00:59:29.374 - within each of the bullet points, you'll see that the Commission, as Kathy said, touches almost every one of 00:59:29.890 --> 00:59:36.918 - The information boards, I mean, who's going to do it? I mean, if it's going to be done, it really needs 00:59:36.918 --> 00:59:43.879 - to be done at that type of level. I think one of the reasons we have this community is having too many 00:59:43.879 --> 00:59:50.840 - people. For instance, you have the Youth Services Bureau. You have all these things in place. And that 00:59:50.840 --> 00:59:58.206 - deletes because you have so many different missions. One of the problems needs to be to sort out who's doing 00:59:59.362 --> 01:00:08.446 - This umbrella fix. Yeah. We call that eliminating redundancy. And we couldn't agree more. Because I 01:00:08.446 --> 01:00:17.620 - think the problem though, what amazed me as an outsider coming into this was the fact that there are 01:00:17.620 --> 01:00:26.794 - so many different vested interests. And any time you suggest a bringing together or a consolidation, 01:00:26.794 --> 01:00:28.702 - it rumbles feathers. 01:00:28.834 --> 01:00:36.087 - And you know that much better than I. But what did I get burned a couple of times? So we'll just have 01:00:36.087 --> 01:00:43.412 - to see what that means. But coordinating it, certainly, wherever you can eliminate redundancies, there 01:00:43.412 --> 01:00:50.523 - are just so many ways. But one comprehensive training program for mentors, we think, is a very good 01:00:50.523 --> 01:00:56.638 - way to eliminate lots of redundancies and establish a minimum criteria for mentoring. 01:00:58.882 --> 01:01:04.860 - Is there someone from this commission who's going to the Phoenix project meeting this week? I don't 01:01:04.860 --> 01:01:10.958 - know if we're aware of the Phoenix project. This is exactly what they're trying to do as well. In the 01:01:10.958 --> 01:01:17.295 - five years that I've worked with youth in this community, I've seen maybe 10 of these kind of commissions 01:01:17.295 --> 01:01:23.691 - or ad hoc committees trying to get together to coordinate. And then the minute someone talks about sharing 01:01:23.691 --> 01:01:28.414 - resources or, God forbid, sharing funding, it breaks apart again. Right. John? 01:01:28.962 --> 01:01:35.434 - You stepped in, so why don't we throw out the quicksand. One of the ideas that has come up again is 01:01:35.434 --> 01:01:42.100 - the Youth Commission, which we've obviously discussed. And there's actually a recommendation that will 01:01:42.100 --> 01:01:48.637 - come out that both the city and the county, by June, establish a joint resolution in principle to do 01:01:48.637 --> 01:01:55.238 - it. And by September, with some of the frameworks involved, and I took the liberty of saying that you 01:01:55.238 --> 01:01:57.374 - supported the idea in principle. 01:01:57.602 --> 01:02:05.444 - we're in favor of either city but preferably City County. I think we could do a supporting resolution 01:02:05.444 --> 01:02:13.209 - certainly by June July and then you know work together with the county over the summer to refine the 01:02:13.209 --> 01:02:20.975 - mission statement administrative system is in the whole nine yards. I think that it's important that 01:02:20.975 --> 01:02:23.358 - it is a City County initiative 01:02:25.026 --> 01:02:33.222 - My only concern is making sure that wherever it's home is, is that it has the adequate resources to 01:02:33.222 --> 01:02:41.665 - administer the initiative so that it doesn't fall by the wayside. And I'd certainly be willing to make 01:02:41.665 --> 01:02:50.353 - sure that happens. If we can get the resolution in place prior to July as we go into our fiscal 98 budget 01:02:50.353 --> 01:02:52.894 - process with the city council, 01:02:53.602 --> 01:03:03.209 - we can make sure that the resources are there if it's going to be at the city. The only other comment 01:03:03.209 --> 01:03:13.098 - though is I picked up on the end of Steve's comments about programming. I think sponsorship is different 01:03:13.098 --> 01:03:20.350 - than program implementation and I'd be nervous about program implementation. 01:03:20.994 --> 01:03:27.693 - because then the commission gets in a position where it's competing for limited resources with all the 01:03:27.693 --> 01:03:34.391 - different service agencies. And that's something that the city, my administration is trying to get out 01:03:34.391 --> 01:03:41.025 - of that process. We went through the whole evolution of our human resources division that started out 01:03:41.025 --> 01:03:46.878 - as a coordinating group, a policy analysis group, a catalyst group, then sort of went off 01:03:47.202 --> 01:03:53.826 - into the direction of direct program service implementation. And now we're trying to rein it back in 01:03:53.826 --> 01:04:00.385 - so that we focus more on what Brad's talking about is pushing forward, you know, real from a policy 01:04:00.385 --> 01:04:07.206 - side, trying to eliminate redundancy, trying to build capacity throughout the service provider network, 01:04:07.206 --> 01:04:13.437 - but to help them and not compete with them. And I think the commission could really be helpful 01:04:13.437 --> 01:04:16.126 - in benchmarking things, making sure that 01:04:16.514 --> 01:04:22.611 - gaps are filled in helping agencies coordinate but not compete with them for resources. And that was 01:04:22.611 --> 01:04:28.768 - something we definitely discussed in our committee and I think we came to the same conclusion that it 01:04:28.768 --> 01:04:35.227 - would be good to sponsor programs but not provide programs because there's a lot of great programs already 01:04:35.227 --> 01:04:41.505 - out there and there's no need to compete. How would this fit? Maybe I missed this discussion and you've 01:04:41.505 --> 01:04:43.678 - already talked about applying them. 01:04:44.162 --> 01:04:51.176 - with the recommendation last week on the juvenile justice group. It's almost exactly the same. Can this 01:04:51.176 --> 01:04:58.123 - come together? Yes, very much so. I mean, there's the whole juvenile probation recommendations of last 01:04:58.123 --> 01:05:05.002 - week's meeting that I think we probably would not want this group to get too heavily involved in. But 01:05:05.002 --> 01:05:12.286 - it seems like there's potential synergy here that the missions might come together fairly closely. They do. 01:05:12.610 --> 01:05:20.186 - The recommendation on the provision of programming during after schools is one that definitely addresses 01:05:20.186 --> 01:05:27.618 - that in our report. That's the juvenile justice task force report. Parenting is recommended. They call 01:05:27.618 --> 01:05:34.833 - it professional parenting, I believe. Coordination of mentoring services wasn't mentioned, but they 01:05:34.833 --> 01:05:41.182 - do talk about that need that children have. Also, the report on the juvenile task force 01:05:43.266 --> 01:05:49.479 - truancy program, which fits perfectly with the increase in adult participation and community support 01:05:49.479 --> 01:05:55.877 - for the school. There was also the recommendation for a group, a group similar to the Youth Commission, 01:05:55.877 --> 01:06:02.275 - it's not titled that way, but really to raise the consciousness level of the community. And in my view, 01:06:02.275 --> 01:06:08.673 - what that group would be doing, and I think the Youth Commission could too, is not sponsor a particular 01:06:08.673 --> 01:06:11.934 - program for people to do or not do something, but to 01:06:12.066 --> 01:06:20.072 - sponsors, speakers, and workshops to address issues that young people have, drugs, alcohol, peer groups, 01:06:20.072 --> 01:06:28.306 - whatever. I think it's a wonderful opportunity that came alive for us. And I don't see that much difference 01:06:28.306 --> 01:06:36.160 - between those two groups. As we move forward then, in terms of refining mission and administration and 01:06:36.160 --> 01:06:38.142 - all those kinds of items, 01:06:38.722 --> 01:06:45.570 - the councils, city and county councils, the commissioners, mayor and the judges and the folks working 01:06:45.570 --> 01:06:52.351 - on that juvenile justice project. We all get together and figure out the best way to do this so that 01:06:52.351 --> 01:06:59.064 - it's supportive and synergistic and not do a lot of duplication. I think you're right and certainly 01:06:59.064 --> 01:07:03.294 - I think that your leadership in getting this set up was really 01:07:08.994 --> 01:07:15.555 - to undertake our project from the Criminal Justice Institute, we were able to get $20,000 from our council. 01:07:15.555 --> 01:07:21.690 - And we're studying the same group of children. And we're talking about the same issues and problems. 01:07:21.690 --> 01:07:27.765 - And it was just interesting that there was no coordination between the group that did our study and 01:07:27.765 --> 01:07:33.961 - the committee that came out with this and how the recommendations are so similar. So I think we could 01:07:33.961 --> 01:07:35.358 - really, the community, 01:07:41.570 --> 01:07:49.949 - Listening to all of this and one of the questions we were focusing on John was composition. I'm going 01:07:49.949 --> 01:07:57.754 - to make a proposal that would change the recommendation here. And if the committee would have, 01:07:57.754 --> 01:08:06.051 - let's say, 10 or 12 members, what I would recommend to get broader participation of youth is a youth 01:08:06.051 --> 01:08:08.926 - advisory board for the commission. 01:08:09.730 --> 01:08:16.376 - and only one person who's selected by that youth advisory board sit on the commission. So you had one 01:08:16.376 --> 01:08:23.087 - youth that represented a broad diversity of youth opinion so that they would, that the function of the 01:08:23.087 --> 01:08:29.863 - youth representative being to communicate and then build an opinion and then represent that. Otherwise, 01:08:29.863 --> 01:08:36.574 - I think you do a disservice to getting a broad cross section of youth involvement. It's just a notion. 01:08:37.090 --> 01:08:46.656 - but it speaks to what we're trying to do. What it was like, I know, was last year or two years ago, 01:08:46.656 --> 01:08:56.413 - where they had the youth summit. A couple of years ago, in response to the stuff at People's Park and 01:08:56.413 --> 01:09:05.118 - other issues that youth were related, they were, from parents of youth that were involved, 01:09:06.850 --> 01:09:15.529 - the feedback that I got that it was a very positive experience, regardless of the outcome or whatever, 01:09:15.529 --> 01:09:24.545 - because they got a chance to speak. So I think it's a very idea to get, you know, to have a youth advisory 01:09:24.545 --> 01:09:33.308 - board. With one representative? Yeah, yeah. Any other way, Ms. Linder, one that you're cross-sectioning 01:09:33.308 --> 01:09:36.510 - to? Right. And like perhaps inverted? 01:09:36.770 --> 01:09:45.109 - some of the other aspects of the commission. So. Well, maybe two. Just because it's hard to talk when 01:09:45.109 --> 01:09:53.367 - you're young. It's just hard to talk in a group. If there's one young person in this group, it would 01:09:53.367 --> 01:10:01.542 - be very hard for them to speak up. That's true. And so it's a little kinder to have two. Kind word. 01:10:01.542 --> 01:10:06.366 - As far as some of the other composition of the commission, 01:10:06.946 --> 01:10:13.588 - sense to make sure that it includes, and here I'm unfamiliar with what programs exist, but for example 01:10:13.588 --> 01:10:20.165 - use services board. Wouldn't it make sense for that person to be on the Commission rather than people 01:10:20.165 --> 01:10:27.000 - spend even more time hearing the reports from the Commission and then having to answer back and to really 01:10:27.000 --> 01:10:33.578 - actually get the people who are already involved in providing the services and involved to make this, 01:10:33.578 --> 01:10:36.286 - get them on the Commission to start with. 01:10:37.602 --> 01:11:07.166 - I just wanted to say one other thing about the school thing. This is going way back. 01:11:07.714 --> 01:11:12.637 - I certainly agree that the school should be really, really involved. But in terms of their facilities 01:11:12.637 --> 01:11:17.463 - for activities, I know that their gymnasiums are overbooked now. So we really can't look at that as 01:11:17.463 --> 01:11:22.386 - a place for activities, because there's so many, you know. Well, that's the point, though. That's the 01:11:22.386 --> 01:11:27.357 - exact point. There's so much overbooking. There's so much overlap. Nobody's taking control of that and 01:11:27.357 --> 01:11:32.328 - trying to coordinate that. So if the schools were actually very involved with this commission and say, 01:11:32.328 --> 01:11:36.382 - OK, we're going to have this much program, and we're going to do this on the other, 01:11:36.802 --> 01:11:45.378 - I'm only talking in terms of space. Don't look there for space. Because their gyms are highly utilized. 01:11:45.378 --> 01:11:53.707 - What are you talking about for gyms? The rest of the space is very, very underutilized. What schools 01:11:53.707 --> 01:12:02.366 - are you speaking of? According to Parks and Rec, they say that they can have fun because they come to us 01:12:12.354 --> 01:12:19.480 - Are we assuming that the schools are permitting people to use their facilities? Oh, yeah. We are. Yes. 01:12:19.480 --> 01:12:26.606 - Yes. Well, the Boys Club, Girls Club, Parks and Rec, definitely. Boys Club, Parks and Rec, definitely. 01:12:26.606 --> 01:12:33.663 - I remain unconvinced. I was simply addressing space needs. I understand. Well, I think an interesting 01:12:33.663 --> 01:12:41.342 - point is kind of coming in all this, is that we really need the support and cooperation of the school systems. 01:12:41.506 --> 01:12:49.981 - Not just lip service to it. So many of the issues in here as far as parenting skills and daycare and 01:12:49.981 --> 01:12:58.540 - so much of society is looking to the school as daycare and all these other things that we don't have. 01:12:58.540 --> 01:13:07.434 - Our parenting skills have diminished and we look to schools more and more to fill a role that they aren't 01:13:07.434 --> 01:13:11.294 - designed to fill. What I'd really like to say 01:13:12.450 --> 01:13:18.921 - table or set aside the Youth Commission. Any other comments on any of the other ideas? Can I make one 01:13:18.921 --> 01:13:25.455 - more about the Youth Commission? Just one more? I don't think that we've really decided that it's just 01:13:25.455 --> 01:13:31.546 - City County. I think that we really need to decide whether it's going to be school systems too. 01:13:31.546 --> 01:13:37.890 - As far as... Right. Well maybe they should be asked to pass a resolution. If they don't. If they're 01:13:37.890 --> 01:13:41.950 - unwilling. If the school board are. Yeah. And maybe they won't. 01:13:42.242 --> 01:13:56.022 - Well, again, my experience has been that there are a lot of turf wars going on, and I suspect that there 01:13:56.022 --> 01:14:09.278 - will be one between the MCC and Syrian Commission. I think you can expect it. Who's driving the car? 01:14:11.490 --> 01:14:16.843 - What's the say on that? I'm not going to argue, but I'm just saying it's kind of the point now that 01:14:16.843 --> 01:14:22.730 - the school board needs to take an actor's role. I think the school administrator, I think the superintendent, 01:14:22.730 --> 01:14:28.404 - by his participation, what I've seen is he deserves that. It's going to take the school board, and you're 01:14:28.404 --> 01:14:33.810 - right. It is going to take that. It will be. Because to a certain extent, if someone's looking in an 01:14:33.810 --> 01:14:39.163 - official capacity, it creates a watchdog. And you're going to second guess. Now they have to accept 01:14:39.163 --> 01:14:40.126 - that proposition. 01:14:40.610 --> 01:14:48.244 - one way or the other, if it's to exist, it seems to me. It's just to address the issue, and I think 01:14:48.244 --> 01:14:56.184 - you make a good idea. I request a companion resolution from the MCCSA here. Can I have a comment about, 01:14:56.184 --> 01:15:04.048 - very spunky, and I agree that the schools are probably have the right, not the right, but I agree that 01:15:04.048 --> 01:15:08.094 - they probably express to you that it's not their job 01:15:09.986 --> 01:15:16.252 - We all take these children as they come to us. And if children in our society have certain problems, 01:15:16.252 --> 01:15:22.581 - then the institutions that serve those children will have to get busy about addressing those problems 01:15:22.581 --> 01:15:28.475 - or asking for help. So it's time for us to stop merely mouthing about what we can't do because 01:15:28.475 --> 01:15:34.927 - of dysfunctional families, because the children don't have this and don't have that. They are what they 01:15:34.927 --> 01:15:38.526 - are. And they're here, and we must do something about it. 01:15:39.266 --> 01:15:45.150 - recognize that we can't go back and teach the way we did in the 30s. I agree. And I think back to Rock's 01:15:45.150 --> 01:15:50.866 - point, all the rest of this is fine, but the schools have the majority of the impact on the children. 01:15:50.866 --> 01:15:56.862 - They have the facilities. They're there. The community needs to be able to reach in there and underutilize 01:15:56.862 --> 01:16:02.522 - the solar system. And in the not too distant future, they will be parents of children. That's right. 01:16:02.522 --> 01:16:08.349 - Right. And hopefully, the school system will be done as a resource. Let's not anticipate problems. Your 01:16:08.349 --> 01:16:09.246 - watchdog thing. 01:16:09.826 --> 01:16:17.369 - I think there's a certain concern about that, as a parent of an eighth grader. But hopefully they will 01:16:17.369 --> 01:16:24.838 - see this as a resource. I think they will. But it's inevitable that the commission, if you're looking 01:16:24.838 --> 01:16:31.942 - at youth, community youth issues, will want some of their resources. And there'll be a dialogue. 01:16:31.942 --> 01:16:36.702 - I'm sorry, Perry. One thing that we did not discuss in our group 01:16:38.434 --> 01:16:46.198 - think about it because of the survey. On page 41, if you look at the question six about participating 01:16:46.198 --> 01:16:54.038 - in organized activities, 21% report that they go to church-related activity. And we did not talk about 01:16:54.038 --> 01:17:01.878 - how to involve the churches in the community in this kind of effort. And I wonder if people think that 01:17:01.878 --> 01:17:07.358 - there is some potential there for people who may not have been involved 01:17:07.810 --> 01:17:15.507 - to try this avenue. Oh, yes. I think they're really important, and they ought to be involved. I met 01:17:15.507 --> 01:17:23.898 - with the minister this week to talk about how we could do some of these things. His group is real interested 01:17:23.898 --> 01:17:31.826 - in the whole disability initiatives as well as youth issues. But I think they're a very important part 01:17:31.826 --> 01:17:37.214 - of the community structure. And we try to invite many of the churches 01:17:37.346 --> 01:17:44.258 - through the Interfaith Council to participate in this process. We have participation on sort of off-again, 01:17:44.258 --> 01:17:51.042 - on-again basis, but as we get into implementation, I think they're a very relevant part of the community 01:17:51.042 --> 01:17:57.760 - to have master participants. And also, there's so many church schools these days. More and more parents 01:17:57.760 --> 01:18:00.926 - are putting their children into private schools. 01:18:07.938 --> 01:18:14.755 - Do we know how many people are homeschooled in Monroe County? No, we don't. And we not only do not know 01:18:14.755 --> 01:18:21.376 - how many. Well, I shouldn't say that. I don't know the answer. We certainly do not know what kind of 01:18:21.376 --> 01:18:27.342 - homeschooling they're getting. Well, one of the things acknowledged even by people who are 01:18:27.342 --> 01:18:33.438 - fans of homeschooling is that the children tend to lose two things no matter how good it is. 01:18:34.146 --> 01:18:42.282 - the socialization and laboratories because you can't have that at home. I wonder if we shouldn't also 01:18:42.282 --> 01:18:50.497 - include under the religious aspect offering something for people who are homeschooling their children. 01:18:50.497 --> 01:18:58.633 - And some do a great job too. Some do a very good job. You're right. That's a very big issue. But tied 01:18:58.633 --> 01:19:02.302 - to homeschooling for some parents is truancy. 01:19:03.362 --> 01:19:12.684 - Some parents withdraw their children from school when their children are short. So whatever we're talking 01:19:12.684 --> 01:19:21.654 - about here, we have to talk about truancy. It is the greatest problem that we have in this community. 01:19:21.654 --> 01:19:30.448 - Other than drugs. Any other comments on any of the other initiatives? Sorry to keep harking back to 01:19:30.448 --> 01:19:33.086 - that. I think our time is up. 01:19:33.794 --> 01:19:38.660 - I think our time is up. I think we really hit the highlights and there's some very good ideas here. 01:19:38.660 --> 01:19:39.390 - Thank you all.