HomeMy WebLinkAbout2005-04-12-YSC-min Youth Service Council
4/12/05
In attendance were Helen Cohen, Lauren MacNeil, Sheila Butts, Elaine Sterzin, Bill
Blout, Amy Berger, Jennifer Wolfrum, Ehza Duncan, and Becky Rushford. We took a
moment to welcome a new member to our council, Eliza Duncan. She is a junior at
Lexington High School.
My update included the private school network meeting, which consists of Lexington
Christian Academy, Armenian Sister's Academy, Community Therapeutic Day School,
Coifing School, Pelham Academy, Waldorf School, and Lexington Montessori that was
co-facilitated by Jane Franks, Coordinator of Health Services and myself. We held a
meeting last month in which participants were able to share what each of their schools
offer, population served, and services available to community We also want each school
to feel connected to our community resources. There was a great bit of sharing and
learning and all participants were invested in conducting such informal gatherings a
couple-several times a year
Julie Fenn, substance abuse prevention specialist and myself spoke at the League of
Women Voters meeting on April 1st The focus was around youth issues, risky behavior,
and programming along with family, community, and cultural influences. I also took the
opportunity to introduce my position, the council, and our initiatives Great
dialogue lots of questions.
Everyone at the meeting received a copy of the snow tubing survey results. Out of 97
student participants, I received 56 surveys back. Overall the responses and comments
were extremely positive A thank you to the recreation department for their help in
pulling it off and making the event successful. Next time I would like to leave a space
for parent's comments, as some wrote in at the bottom of the survey
As a group we then began to talk about what is the council's role in planning more half-
day initiatives, or does it belong somewhere else, is it something the recreation could
carry as part of their programming?? Sheila spoke about what they may be able to help
with(registration/money/advertising),but taking on such initiatives is another story and
the cost for events would be raised if it were under recreation.
Lauren then raised concerns about the initiatives)becoming something that I'm solely
responsible for and that not being possible We then spoke about a larger collaborative
approach (to include multiple parties/town/school/students), trying to keep it simple, and
that it takes the commitment of many people to pull of something like a field day Even
Sheila and I spoke about the work in planning, organizing the snow tubing trip though
next year it would probably be a little easier
Some group members shared their viewpoint of the council's role a catalyst, the work
should fall under the on-going sub-committee or a broadened sub-committee, advocacy
for youth needs The conversation led us to define our next meeting as a time to just and
only discuss structure of the council, mission statement, and goals. It will continue
forward from that point. Again Bill raised concerns of the lack of police presence at our
meetings or the possibility of including someone from the clergy in our council. It will
be discussed as part of our structure in next month's meeting.
Our next meeting is Tuesday May 17, 2005 2.30-3.30pm... the third Tuesday, not
the second.
See you then.
Happy Spring,
Becky