TheConnector

TheCONNECTOR is Youth Community Connections’ (YCC) communication tool for sharing updates and for seeking action from its partners. TheCONNECTOR contains the following highlights:

RECENT NEWS AND EVENTS
Mayor Rybak Honored as a Statewide Afterschool Champion
Nominate Youth from Your Community for a Red Wagon Award!
National Afterschool Matters Initiative Practitioner Fellowship
Teen Voices Wanted!

NEW RESEARCH AND RESOURCES
New Environment Education Toolkit for Youth Out-of-School Time Programs
Youth Development Insight Blog
Afterschool and Working Families in the Wake of the Great Recession

POLICY AND ADVOCACY
Minnesota Legislative Updates
Minnesota 2011 Legislative Session Ends Without Progress
Federal Policy Upate on 21st CCLC

FUTURE EVENTS
"Eat Well, Stay Active, Have Fun"
"Incorporate Positive Youth Development Framework into Juvenile Justice?"
Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota Final 2011 Elements of Effective Practice Training

Mayor Rybak Honored as a Statewide Afterschool Champion
Minneapolis Mayor RT Rybak was honored as a Statewide Afterschool Champion for his leadership on youth initiatives, afterschool policy and funding during the Afterschool for All Challenge in Washington D.C. on May 17, 2011. 

Congratulations Mayor Rybak for your hard work and service in improving the state of afterschool programming in City of Minneapolis.

Nominate Youth from Your Community for a Red Wagon Award!
The Minnesota Alliance With Youth is encouraging anyone who works with young people to nominate a group or individual for the Red Wagon Award.  The Award recognizes young people who have demonstrated any or all of the following: Increased academic achievement, civic engagement & service, and exemplary leadership.  To nominate a young person, click here.  To nominate a group of young people, click here.  

Applications are due Friday, June 3rd, 2011.   For more information or questions, contact Spencer Neitzel at promisefellow@mnyouth.net. 

National Afterschool Matters Initiative Practitioner Fellowship Program
The National Institute on Out-of-School-Time (NIOST) at the Wellesley Center for Women at Wellesley College, in partnership with the National Writing Project and the University of Minnesota, is seeking applications for the National Afterschool Matters Initiative Practitioner Fellowship Program in Minnesota. This fellowship is a year-long professional development and leadership initiative that aims to engage 12-15 youth workers in research and writing activities designed to increase the knowledge base and improve practice in the field of youth development and youth work.  

Goals for Practitioner Fellows:

• Become a member of a community of youth work practitioners. Fellows explore effective practice in the field of youth work and investigate how these practices reveal themselves in their own work and programs.
• Engage in action research, critical inquiry, and reflection to improve youth work practice and youth programs.
• Create and present written products that inform the practice and the field of youth work.

Eligibility for the Fellowship:

• Eligible Fellows must be working at least part-time in a youth development, out-of school time program or organization, or school setting.
• Eligible Fellows must be within commuting distance of the metro-area meeting location.
• Eligible Fellows must demonstrate interest in reflecting upon and writing about their own practice with youth.
• Eligible Fellows must be available for the entire Fellowship schedule. Meetings occur approximately two times a month over the course of the academic year. This opportunity requires the same amount of time as a graduate level course. Fellows are required to attend the seminars, two day writing retreat, and the Research Roundtable in September 2012.
• Eligible Fellows must have at least a Bachelor’s Degree and a year of experience in the field.

Two graduate credits will be available though the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota. There is no direct cost to you or your organization for this opportunity and there is a small stipend to support your participation.

Please contact Cece Gran at 612-624-9117 or granx008@umn.edu with any questions.
The application deadline is June 10th, 2011.  Download the complete application.

Teen Voices Wanted!     
The Citizen’s League is hosting Students Speak Out (SSO), a national program that brings teen voices into public policy issues, is looking for teens and adults to participate in two initiatives. 
     
What is "Achievement?”: A national project where teens are exploring whether or not we should broaden the definition of student achievement in light of K-12 education goals. The project has just begun, so join today and weigh in on how YOU think achievement should be defined!

This project allows teens and adults to enter into dialogue and discussion about achievement – exploring the issue through a series of questions.  This is a great opportunity for afterschool programs to engage youth as well.
     

SSO Minnesota GO!: Minnesota's teens are influencing the Minnesota Department of Transportation's 50-year strategic vision! Right now teens are working to create a vision of the year 2061. Once we have an idea of some possibilities, we'll map transportation needs to fit those possibilities. There are two ways to get involved: join the online discussion or have SSO bring the discussion to your class or youth group!

While SSO is teen-focused, adults are welcome to join the conversation, too! Help spread the word, and encourage teens to participate in these two important learning and engagement opportunities!

NEW RESEARCH AND RESOURCES

Check out some of the latest research on after school, youth engagement and quality improvement on YCC’s website under latest research.

New Environmental Education Toolkit for Youth Out-of-School Time Programs 
The Community POWER (Partners on Waste Education and Reduction) program awards grants to non-environmental community organizations and schools to conduct community-based environmental education projects. 

New Toolkit
Hennepin County has developed a free Environmental Education Toolkit to engage out-of-school time youth in action-based environmental education. 

In addition to distributing the toolkit, the county has the resources to provide 15 to 20 youth programs with transportation to a field trip, environmental education training and activity resources. 

To apply, download the program guidelines and application.

Learn more through the Community POWER Networks Program.

Youth Development Insight Blog
You are invited to join the conversation on the Youth Development Insight blog.  This discussion of youth work and policy issues is led by 15 faculty members and educators in the University of Minnesota Extension Center for Youth Development. New posts appear every Wednesday, and the conversation continues throughout the week. Leaders of the Next Generation Youth Work Coalition, a national organization, appear monthly. A sample of the topics now being discussed:

• How do your ethics inform your youth work practice?
• What makes a good learning environment?
• Should we be building a youth development system, or building good programs?
• How can media literacy fight childhood obesity?

Join the conversation! Enter the Youth Development Insight blog here!

Afterschool and Working Families in the Wake of the Great Recession
During the past three years of economic hardship, a challenging uphill battle has developed for afterschool programs to maintain funding and function well in the wake of the failed economy.  Afterschool Alliance has published an issue brief regarding the current status of afterschool programs, the consequences of the recession, and their necessity for the well being of the nation’s youth.  Click here to read and gather more information on the effects of the recession on afterschool programming on a national scale.   

POLICY AND ADVOCACY UPDATES

Minnesota Legislative Updates
Youth Community Connections’ has been monitoring the legislative session for bills impacting youth in the out-of-school time.  To review these updates visit the website.

Minnesota 2011 Legislative Session Ends without Progress
With the 2011 session deadline officially passed, lawmakers still have yet to come to an agreement on the FY 2012-2013 budget.  The primary goals of the Legislature were to eliminate the state’s $5 billion budget deficit and create/improve job opportunities. 

Leadership in the State Legislature and the Governor remain committed to their own budget balancing ideas and not a budget compromise.  Consequently, the House and Senate passed state budget bills in the final days of session that the Governor indicated he’d veto – essentially forcing a special session. 
 
After vetoing the budget bill, the Governor instructed his cabinet to prepare for a government shutdown.  If leadership in the House and Senate cannot agree upon a compromise with the Governor before June 30, 2011 the government will shutdown – except for essential services.  The courts will rule what services are considered essential and must remain open during a government shutdown.  All other non-essential services will remain closed until an agreement can be reached.  This action will have significant impact in the lives of families, communities and businesses statewide. 

Youth Community Connections will continue to track progress and report to you in a timely manner.   




Federal Policy Update on 21 CCLC
After congress agreed on a final budget bill for the remaining months in the FY 2011 budget (Federal fiscal year runs October - September), the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) was charged with determining how they would implement the required cuts to programs.  On May 16th, DOE finalized the fiscal year 2011 spending levels for 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) and ended up cutting $12.3 billion from the overall budget. As a result, Minnesota received a reduction of $1.1 million in 21st CCLC funding.  It is estimated this cut could lead to an inability to serve 1,055 youth in afterschool programming. 

FUTURE EVENTS

"Eat Well, Stay Active, Have Fun"
Date: June 1
Time: 12:00pm - 1:00pm CST
Location: Online
Cost: FREE
Learn More & Register

This webinar is based on Harvard's mentor guide, "Eat Well, Stay Active, Have Fun," which provides mentors with information and guidance on how to make healthy eating and physical activity natural parts of the mentor-mentee relationship.  Featured panelists will include Susan Moses from the Harvard School of Public Health, Niall Murton from the University YMCA and Becky Reichel from Bolder Options, one of MPM's Expert Partner programs.

For a schedule of all MPM trainings and events, as well as those of MPM's partner organizations, check out the MPM Event Calendar.

"Incorporating Positive Youth Development Framework into Juvenile Justice"
While a strengths-based approach is advocated when working with youth, what does that look like when working with at-risk or justice involved youth and in the day-to-day operations and practices of a juvenile justice system?  This one-day workshop will introduce participants to comprehensive youth justice strategies based on the principles of positive youth development, and hands-on training in a practical, research-based framework and in assessing the quality and delivery of programs and practices.  Dr. Jeffrey Butts and colleagues identified a framework and six practice domains specific to working with justice involved youth using the positive youth development model.  The Youth Program Quality Assessment (PQA) is a field-tested approach for assessing the quality of organizational practices for youth and for identifying staff training needs in the promotion of positive youth development. Participants will learn how to incorporate the new framework and the PQA for continuous quality improvement in youth justice settings and discuss strategies for use in their own communities.  

When: Monday, June 27th 
Training time:  9:00am-3:30pm 
Location:  Earle Brown Center - Garden City Room 
                  6155 Earle Brown Drive 
                  Brooklyn Center, MN 55430 
Cost:  $40 per attendee and $30 for students. Scholarships are available 
Register at:  www.jjcmn.com/jjc-community/ 
Agenda for the day:  Positive Youth Development agenda.doc

Mentoring Partnership of Minnesota Final 2011 Elements of Effective Practice Training

Youth Community Connections
200 Oak Street SE, Suite 270B ~ Minneapolis, MN 55455
PH: 612.627.0160
WEB: www.youthcommunityconnections.org