Youth Map meeting: Wednesday, March 2 at 11 a.m.

There was some confusion at the end of the last meeting, so I wanted to send this reminder out early.

Thanks,

Rachel

Rachel Heerema, Executive Director

Citywide Youth Coalition, Inc.

PO Box 354

New Haven, CT 06513

(203) 464-7838

@NHV_Youth
www.cwyc.org

Use #nhvyouth to tweet NH youth news!

Building a Courageous Community in which All Youth Can Succeed

Families Support Youth meeting: Wed. Apr. 28 at 11 a.m.

At last week’s meeting:

• We decided to invite participants from the Parent Leadership Training Institute (PLTI) to speak at the April 21st Coalition meeting.
• We talked about how to support the Public Allies CT New Haven team’s parents workshop series

Next meeting: Wednesday, April 28, 11 a.m., location to be determined.

At that meeting, we will discuss:

• how we can collaborate & prepare for next year’s United Way funding opportunity for family involvement
• what other resources we might secure to help support families & help families support youth
• any new ideas arising from the PLTI conversation

Please call me with any questions.

thanks!

Rachel

Rachel Heerema, Executive Director

Citywide Youth Coalition, Inc.

PO Box 354

New Haven, CT06513

(203) 786-5970×322

www.cwyc.org

Building a Courageous Community in which All Youth Can Succeed

Families Support Youth: 2/24/10 meeting notes

Next Meeting: Wednesday, March 24, at 10 a.m.

In attendance: Jackie Morse (Children’s Community Programs of CT), Sarah Perkins (Music Haven and Public Allies CT), Amy Townsley (United Way), and (Rachel Heerema (CWYC)

Sarah reported that the New Haven Public Allies team service project will be a series of 3 workshops for families; topics include Real Life, Real Talk by Planned Parenthood and a school change panel. These topics are subject to change. The first date is 3/29/10. They will be held at Wexler Grant School.

Music Haven has engaged 48 students. Family members come to lessons; Music Haven uses the Suzuki method which involves a triangle with the parent, teacher and child. They host four performance parties/year. Most successful family involvement is the performance parties which is a celebration potluck dinner with performance. Children are not allowed to perform at the event unless a family member is present. The parties are participatory with singing and plays, etc. Family involvement is a support system for the youth. Board members and donors attend.

At United Way, the civic engagement work always seeks volunteers. The web-based Volunteer Solutions database can be searched for family opportunities. There are lots of requests for family-based volunteer opportunities. UW goals around youth graduating high school, and they are seeking to involve families in this. Just beginning to look at how that will play out. For Success by 6, the strategies for educating parents is about Born Learning in getting parents involved in comfort, knowledge and pride in parenting. This has been happening with early education partners; quick hand-outs, connecting family members to programs for children.

Children’s Community Programs runs a therapeutic foster parenting support program. A lot of the work is training foster families. They host a monthly parent meeting. From 12 to 15 parents run an auxiliary board to help develop the program. Programs are offered for day and evening events. They offer fun activities such as pizza nights. They will provide transportation as necessary. Parents don’t just want to sit in a room and receive information. The events need to offer activities for kids at the same time. CCP has a park with baseball field.

What Next Can We Do to Involve Families:

• Open up our program events to families from other programs in specific collaboration.
• Share information on the CWYC email group about family events that support positive parenting.
• Public Allies is creating a pilot directory of family support programs. It would be great to have this updated and re-distributed annually. (Many families don’t have internet access.)
• Parents from the Parent Leadership Training Institute will be speaking at the 3/17/10 coalition meeting.
• Quarterly check-ins on which youth-serving programs are hosting family events

• At least once a quarter, some youth-serving organization in New Haven should be hosting a family-friendly event.
• How successful was it? Lessons learned?

CWYC can host speakers that talk about best practices; perhaps a panel of youth-serving organizations which are effectively engaging families.

Notes on increasing family involvement

At our December 16, annual meeting, members and partners brainstormed how we can increase family involvement toward youth success.  Here are the notes.

What we’re doing now & what we want to do in 2010:
• Model positive programming for parents (Young Audiences)
• Provide secure homes for families (Neighborworks New Haven)
• Work on a project that addresses this issue (Public Allies’ Team New Haven)
• Hold public hearings addressing family supports and effective programs (Rep. Toni Walker)
• Create more parenting groups in the urban community (Street Outreach Workers)
• Provide more creative/artistic information that attracts urban and community families
• Incorporate parents and guardians in programs (Solar Youth)
• Constant communication with families (Solar Youth)
• Season-end celebration where families can see what youth have learned and accomplished (Solar Youth)
• Provide family learning (PACK) and engagement to over 45 families (Neighborhood Music School, partnering with Creative Arts Workshop)
• Secure $200k to assist families in the Hill and Fair Haven with a focus on family involvement, school success and family economic/financial stability
• Host 2 more family night out events for students and their parents to promote family involvement (Family Learning Center)
• Collaborate with the BOE efforts reaching out to parents, PTA, etc.
• Create more mentor groups for young men and women (Street Outreach Workers)
• Continue to increase funding and partnerships to achieve this result
• Create a plan for doing more effective outreach to families, rather than just hope they get involved (Solar Youth)