Welcome everybody. Thank you for sticking around. The time is now 3 p.m. and welcome to our closing
session. We really hope that you found the 10th annual Monroe County Childhood Conditions Summit sessions
to be enlightening, informative, and really useful for your work, your family, your community member
hat, whatever you're bringing here today.
We do know that there are some folks that might have to leave early, some folks that have left early
already, but we are really grateful for everybody that's here in this room who's both willing and able
to join us here. Our shameless housekeeping reminder that before you leave, please do fill out that
evaluation form, drop it in the little bin on the registration table where it's designated below. If
you don't have an evaluation form at this point, you can scan the QR code,
It'll be available. It's on your table tents. It's also in your program. And in this final hour together,
we want you to have some time to reflect on all of the things that you've learned throughout the day,
how it relates to the conditions that you are currently experiencing, and to share and connect with
the people that are at your table. So you may want to consolidate at some point over the course of this
hour. We are not coming up with action plans. We're not tasking anybody with one more thing to do.
when we know that you're already at a lessened capacity, or many of us are at a lessened capacity in
many ways. But as a recap, this morning we talked about the guiding principles of MC3, so the SSNREs,
the safety, stability, and nurturance in our relationships and our environments, the social ecological
model of impact. Again, these are on page two of your program.
But when we think about the spheres of influence and what impacts us, we know that each one of us here
in this room is going to have an impact on a different level of the SEM. And we're going to influence
conditions differently depending on what our specific roles are in the community. And it's not productive,
I don't think, to think that even in the best of times that every single person in this room can be
impactful or influential at every single level all the time. We're not doing all things at once.
But if we do think about all of the influence and all of the different roles that we have in this room,
or the influence and the roles that the people in our networks have, just how are we using that to move
towards better conditions for youth? I think that I can safely say that all of us here in this room
have a collective interest in the well-being of young people, and we are stronger together, especially
if we can maintain our relationships at all level of the SEM.
whether that's interpersonal relationships between organizations and also between communities. I don't
think that we have to look very far to consider some really heavy conditions that are shifting and changing
really rapidly in our community right now. Things like SNAP benefits, the longest government shutdown
in history, funding sources that are changing, sometimes in the focus, sometimes in the way that we
talk about programming, and sometimes eliminating jobs altogether.
And while this is really heavy, I think that it's impacting us all, either personally, our friends,
our family members. I know that it's impacting a lot of people that I know, our employers, the institutions
that we're relying on. So we do want to acknowledge that that's the context of what the conditions are
right now. And these are the conditions that are impacting our ability to collectively impact young
people, families, and the community at large. So even though MC3,
The future of that is even in flux, but we thought it was important to take this last hour for connecting,
not necessarily making plans, but understanding the conditions that each other are facing. There's those
big ones that I mentioned, but I am sure that there are all sorts of things that are going on in all
of your different contexts, all of your pockets of the world that aren't necessarily a headline in a
newspaper.
welcome Tara. Yeah so we're gonna do some discussion activity together in just a little bit and our
goal for this is to give you a moment before you move out of here and into the other parts of your lives
where other things will be on your mind and taking up your attention and energy give you a moment to
reflect on your experiences today
Maybe you were fortified in things that you already felt comfortable with and learned before or knew.
Maybe you had chances to share that with other people in your sessions. Maybe you had experiences or were
given chances to connect to ideas that were new to you. So just a moment to reflect and synthesize that
before we move on and start thinking about other things. And then the second thing we'd like to accomplish
in the rest of our time together is connection with each other. So in our table conversations in a little
bit, you'll get a chance to share about your different sessions. You may be seated with other people
who went to different sessions, and they may have some insights that they gained from their sessions
that you guys can share around the table.
The third thing we'd like to accomplish is to give you a chance to share about how conditions have changed
for you. As Melanie mentioned, a lot of funding changes have changed conditions for a lot of organizations
in this room, and I think it'd be good for us to kind of get updated on what those changes mean at a
practical level for different folks who are here. So those are the three things that we want to accomplish.
Reflection.
sharing of what your experience was today, and then sharing about changes and conditions within your
organizations or the ways that you impact childhood conditions. So we're going to put up some discussion
topics that we'd like for you to consider. But before we get into the sharing amongst your table, we're
going to ask that you take just a couple minutes to just have quiet reflection, because some folks need
a few minutes to
to gather their thoughts and to reflect back on the day. So we'll take a couple minutes to just be quiet
together. And then Melanie will ring a bell and let us know that it's time for us to move into discussion.
And then we'll ask for you to share with those that you're seated nearby. If you're at a table with
just a few people and you'd like to join in with more people, just add yourself to a table and join
into a larger conversation if you like. And then when we're done,
in discussion in our table areas, we'll offer the opportunity for anybody who wants to share back to
the whole room. So we'll pass the mic around. And if anybody wants to share,
a main takeaway from either your table discussion or something from your day. You can do that in a minute
or two. Or maybe some of you are just feeling a word or a phrase or a parting thought that's more brief.
So you'll have a chance to share back if you'd like as we pass the mic at the end of the day.
And of course, if you don't have anything you want to share at the mic, you don't need to take the mic.
We'll just keep passing it on. But that'll be a chance for us to hear kind of where everybody is as
we're concluding our time together. So Melanie will talk us through our discussion
discussion topics already there. So the plan one or two minutes of self-reflection. So this morning
we asked the question of what would it look like if we did have optimal conditions for youth development
in our community and what would it look like if our community was the best place to be a child.
So the questions that we'd like you to talk through are up here on the screen, and we'll leave them
up, as well as this rough schedule. So the questions of what are some takeaways from today? What are
some things that you learned or heard about? What are some perspectives or experiences that were shared
in your sessions? Using things that you've learned or people that you've met today, where does it feel
realistic or possible for you to have an impact? And what are your own conditions in your work or life?
How are things changing and impacting your ability to support youth and families?
So like Tara said, wait a couple minutes. I'll time us, and then I'll ring a bell, and then you can
engage in discussion. So a couple minutes of quiet reflection. We've got paper on all the tables. There's
also some sticky notes. If you need a pen or anything, just wave us over. But two minutes of reflection,
and then we'll hop into this discussion. OK.
Let's bring it back together for the whole room for a little while. It was fun walking around and hearing
some of the discussions each of you guys were having. You could probably use this time to keep talking
for a long time. We'd love to hear what main ideas kind of came up. We think it'd be really valuable
for you to hear from each other in the room.
You may want to keep on the topic of conversation you have with your table people. So if you haven't,
you can take a chance to exchange contact information. Or in the coming weeks, Melanie will be sending
out a contact list of everybody who was OK with sharing their contact information. So that'll be a good
place for you to look back through the list and see if there were people you wanted to connect with
again. But for now, let's hear from those of us who stayed, those of us who have main takeaways, either
from the sessions
or from your discussion here at the tables. Or maybe you want to share about changing conditions in
your own work. So whatever's meaningful to you, we'll pass the microphone around. I'll come down. Melanie
has one too. And we'll just pass it around. If you have something to share, you can take a minute or
two. Or if you just have a word or a phrase or something that you're parting with today. And we'll do
that for a little while. Any takers on starting?
I feel like in my work I'm working directly like with people or schools day to day new programs education
kind of boots on the ground which I bet many of you are as well. So it's nice to almost take a step
back and get the big picture whether it's a data walk with the trends and seeing how that work has played
out over the years. And I always always always appreciate the advocacy and economic sessions that.
show what this work can do, will do, and how we can plug in and feel a part of that bigger picture.
So thank you for those. Thank you. Thank you, Melanie. I'm Greg Moore with Sylvan Learning. And we've
had an opportunity to help just a small pocket of kids in the county over the last 20 years I've been
involved. And we were talking about the incredible changes we've seen with the youth.
and just the pressures they feel now and the difference in their social skills and their interactions.
So I take heart by everyone in this room and the resources you bring to bear. But I think what cautions
us a little makes us wary is that these kids are not always availing themselves.
to the resources they have. And so we talked a lot at this table about conflict resolution, how they
go from zero to 10 without any skill set in between to be able to take that down a level. And we think
a lot of that is just the social interaction skills are not where they need to be. So I think everyone
in this room plays a valuable part in trying to help them as they work this out. Thank you.
I'll share a takeaway as other people are thinking. I was in the TC panel, one with the youth. And I
know a lot of people might think that kids who live through hard things may have some cracks and be
broken in some ways. But man, those kids showed their strengths. They showed how they've developed assets
through tough things. They used a phrase that we are more than our circumstance. And that's a really
key takeaway for me. At our table over here,
with a couple of community groups. We were talking about in the years of birth to 18, we often have
a lot of compassion for the things people are going through and we give them a lot of grace. But then
when they turn into adults, all of a sudden the compassion we show them turns to shame and guilt for
not doing things differently. And I'd like
you know, for us to figure out a way to help bridge people into adulthood, understanding that they've
lived through difficult conditions, and sometimes our life circumstances are not based on our individual
choices. And when we can move out of that blame and shame space, we can see people as being more than
maybe the assumptions we make about them. I'm wondering if others of you have perspectives on that to share?
know I've been walking around with a camera all day and not talking to people much. But I will say that
I was in a vulnerable position as a youth and came to Youth Services Bureau shelter as a 16-year-old,
and then later obviously went to work in this field. So they're not their circumstances. But
their circumstances and you guys helping them through that will, will,
inspire a lot of them to go back and do the same thing. So I just want to let you guys know that it's
really important what you do. Thanks for sharing. Hi, everybody. My name is Winnie. I'm an MCY student
councilor.
member, if you guys didn't know already. So as a youth myself, I just want to thank you all for being
here, because you guys are the resources that we come to as youth. And I can't imagine me being here
without a lot of your support. I know a lot of youth members of our council aren't here right now. But
as a group, we really look up to you guys for our support. I know that some people in this room have
shared experiences.
of coming to these resources. And I wanted just to say that in our group, we've talked about how we
can conflict and resolute. But also, I just want to say that a lot of people feel bad, like pity, for
some of our youth members that don't have the same opportunities as some other kids. But I just want
to say that, like,
As somebody that does come from low income, that does come from these opportunities that aren't always
given to these children, we are so incredibly fulfilled. We don't compare ourselves to other kids and
think that, oh, they had things that we didn't have. They were like, oh, stuff like that. And sure,
there are some kids out there that have those thoughts occasionally, because it's in our daily lives.
But we are so fulfilled by what we do have.
and the resources you have given us. So I just want to shout out Melanie and everybody who came to this
meeting, because you are the difference you make in our daily lives. Hi, everyone. I just wanted to
give a quick
rundown of our takeaways. I feel like our group talked a lot about just the gaps between organizations
and sort of like we have a saturation of resources in Bloomington. But generally, I feel like we really
just talked about how we could pair together better and that these spaces are super just great in doing
that. We can talk about what resources each of our organizations have and how we can pair. For example,
I run the Monroe County Youth Council and we were talking about how we could potentially pair with an
organization like Girls, Inc.
And I just think that it's really encouraging to be in this space and talk to other people and kind
of band together with one another in this, but also just really provide that space. And so it's really
encouraging to hear all that. Hi, I'm Lee Muser. And one thing that we were talking about in our circle
is that the presentations really invited participants to lean into vulnerability. It's a ripe time.
for us to be feeling into and moving into challenge, the challenges that we're all experiencing.
And that, yeah, there's just a showing up of increased vulnerability and a willingness to show that
aspect of our humanity.
So I think I've been thinking a lot about community and are seeing my TC youth up there talking about
their relationships and seeing how they're what they're absorbing from an intentional community and
that they're finding a way to feel safe enough to develop their sense of selves but also recognizing
that that gives them the safety and the ability to push out of their
safe zones and engage with people who don't think like them or don't have experiences that are similar
to theirs and how important that is to them. I just felt really proud of them and it kind of reminded
me that, yeah, I need to keep pushing because I tend to kind of want to be in my safe spaces. So they
were pretty inspiring.
I just want to say that Judge Gavin, when he was saying that how this got started, was saying that,
you know, some of the, that he knew people that were, you know, CASAs, and then he also knew people
that were in the child protective services, but they didn't know one another. And so the whole purpose
of starting
this MC3 was so that people could come together and network together. And I'm distressed to hear that
there may not be funding for next year. And so somehow I think it's really important for the Bloomington
community to still continue to come together from our various areas. And so I just would
You know, I think we have such wonderful people working in all different areas. And I guess I had lunch
with one person that said, you know, one of the things that was missing in all of the things that we
do have is some kind of helping people get transportation, because even the broadest aspect of, you know,
public transportation still can't get people to their jobs at night or full-time job. And then family,
you know, you can't get back home to your family. So, you know, we still have, we have a lot of work
to continue and we have a lot of work to still do. I just want to say, you know, a lot of things that
impact child conditions are going to happen up at the State House starting soon. And I just encourage
people to be part of that process. There have been a lot of people that have been incredibly loud and
obnoxious and aggressive that have not had children's best interest at heart.
And I think that those of us that do and that work in the field need to be loud and obnoxious and aggressive.
I'm just going to say that.
I know that we're focused on conditions in Monroe County, but one of the big takeaways for me following
directly from what you said is how can we build meaningful and lasting partnerships starting with those
that are closest by kind of in the regional area, and how can we expand those partnerships across the
state? I don't think that I have the answer, but I have this burning question.
Any other thoughts? I just want to make sure I'm not missing anybody. Does anybody have any leftover
parting thoughts, things that you'd like to share among the group? All right. Thanks for those who were
willing to share back from their tables and share
what you were thinking about today. Melanie, you want to wrap us up? Sure. Maybe you can get us out
a couple minutes early. Our closing thoughts were just there are many ways to take care of ourselves
and our community and our children right now. And for some of us, that might mean stepping into a new
space. And for some of us, that might mean stepping back to become more fortified in the ways that we
do engage. And any of those versions are OK.
whatever you're feeling right now. And our collective survival really depends on our ability to collaborate
and connect. And sometimes we just need each other personally, and sometimes we need each other
professionally. And I know that I have changed roles, and I know people personally and professionally,
and it's been very helpful to have all of those networks over time. So just no matter how the conditions
change, none of us have to be here alone. Each piece adds to our collective impact and our ability to
impact the kids that we're working with in our community and our world. So I think those are my closing
thoughts. Shameless plug to please fill out your evaluation form. Thank you so much for being here,
though. Really, really, it means a lot. I mean, this is my first time being a part of the executive
planning part of this. So I just really appreciate everybody's willingness to share and stick around
until 10 till 4 on a Thursday.
Thank you so much. Congratulations to you. Thank you, Melanie. Thank you for leading us.