Alliance for Wisconsin Youth, Advisory Council Meeting

Alliance for Wisconsin Youth, Advisory Council Meeting Meeting Minutes September 22, 2005 Madison, WI

Members Present: Kathy Thomas, Tim Belleau, Sue Allen, Kathy Wolf, Kathy Ames-Sherry, Rick Peterson, Bette Wahl, Shannon Wilber, Greg Hutchins, Mark Flottum, Christine Danielson, Shelly Grellar (for Steve Fernan), David Knutson Staff Present: Stephanie Legro, Greg Levenick, SSgt Debra McGough, Gabrielle Smith Member Updates: . Wisconsin Clearinghouse (WCH) adopted a family from New Orleans and is accepting contributions. . Strengthening Families Training at the Mead Hotel to take place 9.28-29.05. A few registration slots are still available. Call Nancy Kendall at WCH for details. . Eau Claire is developing a Youth Alliance to teach youth the skills learned at Venture Forward. They also received 3 AmeriCorps members though Project Forward. . Coulee CAP is doing a community readiness survey through CESA 4 . CARE Council (of Crawford County) created a Methamphetamine Task Force. . The following Council members received a Drug Free Community Support Grant: o CARE Council in Crawford County (Continuation) o Marquette County o Coulee CAP o CESA 5 . DHFS is working diligently on the $26 million dollar application for the Substance Abuse Block Grant from the Substance and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Twenty percent of the $26 million must be spent on prevention (commonly referred to as the “set-aside”). . Christine Daniels – The Volunteer Center of Brown County received school-based mentoring grant from the Department of Education. The Volunteer Center will be participating as a research site on the effects of mentoring and the mentoring relationship on youth. . The Boys and Girls Club of Milwaukee operates a full-service Club at the Ethan Allan School for Boys. Has a program for mentoring children of prisoners, too. BGC-Milwaukee has received a grant for Individual Development Accounts (Total of $1 million for Milwaukee which must be matched). The grant matches any child’s savings account 3:1 towards their education. Updates and Briefings: DHFS Final Reports for 2004-5: PYD (including SYLC) – Gabrielle Smith and Stephanie (SYLC) . Awarded 7 - $10,000 Promise grants and several $500 - FACTS and LNL mini-grants to local Alliances. . The Alliance administers $144,300 of Safe and Drug Free Schools funding; all of it is competitively awarded in a three-year grant to the Girl Neighborhood Power program in Madison (in the middle of its second year). . Statewide Youth Leadership Council (SYLC): 42 active youth from 16 counties. SYLC held an educational event in Madison, where members learned the legislative process and how their voice can be heard at the state level. Just completed a strategic planning meeting and created a constitution, bylaws and developed committees. Project Forward Youth Engagement Program – Stephanie Legro . 13 community’s have Youth Engagement Plans, which to date have impacted approximately 1500 youth. AmeriCorps Program – Stephanie Legro . All program objectives have been met or surpassed.

1 . For the 2004/2005 service year, Project Forward AmeriCorps retained 100% of its members, which is a milestone for any program and is considered very successful by the State Commission. . Members recruited 193 new volunteers within the Project Forward Communities. . Project Forward AmeriCorps was ranked the top program for performance when reviewing applications for funding for 2003/2004 year and was awarded the Governors Services Award for program impact in 2004/2005. . 25 awarded slots were filled on time (5 members from the 2004/2005 year commit to a second term of service) Wisconsin Prevention Network (WPN) – Sue Allen . Chris Wardlow was re-elected for another year as chair and Gabrielle was elected for chair-elect. . The WPN’s priorities are: (1) build additional connections for advocacy groups with common goals so they can collaborate on their work; (2) in support of the WCH and sustaining their resources, WPN will be writing letters of support to maintain WCH resources for the state; (3) to help prevention groups have a better understanding of what we can/cannot do around advocacy and lobbying. They are looking to potentially partner with AWY. The Council was receptive to this idea. It was suggested that Alliance staff approach CADCA to see if Sue Thau might be able to do this for free as part of our membership benefits. Mark Flottum noted that the CESA ATODA Network might also support such a training (they are also CADCA members). AWY staff will be planning and holding an advocacy training in this budget year (before June 30, 2006). Youth Engaged in Services (Y.E.S.) Awards – Gabrielle Smith Gabrielle shared a proposal from Rick Brooks of the SHARE program. SHARE, a statewide community- building, food and service program, is looking for partners to help redesign, fund and promote this award program. These awards currently give $1,000 and $500 prizes to honor young people in two categories: 10-12 years old and 13-18 years old. The purpose of these awards is to promote the spirit and practice of meaningful service and civic engagement by recognizing outstanding young people whose examples inspire others, to encourage and facilitate further service and learning, and to promote youth-directed service and understanding across artificial barriers such as age, ethnicity, politics, religion, gender, ability/disability and place. Website Update . 47 Alliances have updated their webpage. Due to the website being down for quite some time, this number could have increased. Youth as Partners in Civic Leadership Conference (YPCL) . Alliance is providing $4,300.00 toward the Youth as Partners in Civic Leadership Conference, November 4 – 6, 2005 at the Green Lake Conference Center in Green Lake. . Teams of youth and adults are being recruited for registration. The maximum capacity is 150 participants. Registration forms can be found on the 4-H website and will be posted to the Alliance website as well. . Now partnering with the Wisconsin Rural Challenge, who, rather than hold their separate conference, will be joining the YPCL conference. Summary of WI Prevention Conference Scholarship Program – Stephanie Legro . A total of 34 scholarships were awarded for the Wisconsin State Prevention Conference to members of 18 local alliances totaling $9,985.00. Safe and Drug Free Schools Grant (SADFS) – Kathy Thomas . SADFS requires states use a competitive process to distribute the grants. This is why DHFS is going to release an RFP for the funding that currently is awarded to WCH non-competitively. It has nothing to do with the quality of the WCH or what the state wants. The plan is to give WCH the equivalent of 6 months of funding, which WCH can spend over a 12-month period. The RFP will go out between the middle of October and beginning of November, and the award announcement will be made before January of 2006. The award amount in the RFP will be made prior to knowing the final outcome of the federal budget. The RFP grantee will receive funding July 1, 2006 and will be 2 responsible for technical assistance, website, newsletters, and the Prevention Conference. Initially, DHFS was counting on receiving 75% of the current SADFS monies, but there’s no guarantee. . Greg recommended that Kathy Wolf incorporate the State Prevention Conference evaluation results into the upcoming RFP. Partnership for a Drug Free America – SSgt Debbie McGough . The Partnership has a public relations focus and wants to connect local Alliances with the media. Through her position with PDFA, Debbie has made many contacts with media players and they want to contribute community service in terms of providing media outlets for Alliances. Debbie has met the Milwaukee market and will be meeting with the following markets: Green Bay, LaCrosse, Madison and Eau Claire. . Debbie would like to connect members of the Council with the media players. . Wisconsin Community Papers is a non-profit newspaper agency that distributes all community newspapers. They contributed $12,000 for PDFA and $3000 for the State Prevention Conference. They are a great contact to provide media for local communities. Status of Media Partnership Committee – Greg Levenick . Media Partnership Committee: It was initially sponsored by the Governor but Greg is having trouble passing it through the department. Greg and the PDFA will proceed to re-convene the committee through the Key Market Coordinator in Milwaukee (Larry Swanlund of BVK). Greg’s Role as a Director – Greg Levenick . Greg’s role as a director is much different than Claude’s role when he was the director. Greg’s workload does not allow him time for the day-to-day running of the Alliance. For this, he relies on the Alliance staff. Greg’s specific role is to promote AWY through his department at DHFS; make sure the Alliance is on the forefront of prevention activities (he views it as the primary prevention source in Wisconsin-the local coalitions are the most important place prevention gets done). . Greg is looking at how the Alliance can shape policies and decisions on how prevention dollars are spent. He does value the Alliance and all of the coalitions-he’s asked that the Alliance staff ensure there is a registered Alliance in all counties-currently we’re in 52 counties. This is important because Greg wants an infrastructure in place. Greg feels there needs to be a better way for the prevention dollars to be utilized in the communities, so there may be necessary action to regionalize. He’s looking at ways to make prevention dollars go further. . The Wisconsin Certification Board (WCB) functions are being transferred to the Department of Regulation Licensing. Wisconsin prevention professionals were included in that transition. If you have prevention credentials, make sure they are current so they transfer over. . The Prevention National Outcome Measures (NOM) will be mandatory in 2007. Go to SAMHSAs website and click on “NOM” if you are unaware of what they are. www.samhsa.gov . There is the possibility of WI receiving federal epidemiological funds (up to $250,000.00) to create a system to determine needs of local communities. The overall system will help obtain funding and achieving outcomes. To accomplish this Greg needs staff time. Currently, the Alliance provides $70,000 in grants (Promise Grants)-Greg sees them as “one-time” grants. To build the infrastructure, Greg suggested using $35,000 of the $70,000 (Promise Grant funds) to fund a half-time position. Greg would eventually make it a full-time position by using some money from the epidemiological fund. This position would work directly with the Alliance. . DHFS does not know what the exact amount of the Block Grant dollars will be. Greg doubts the amount will increase, but thinks it might decrease. If it decreases more than $40,000 to $50,000, budget cuts will be necessary (program funding, admin. time, etc.). If it decreases less than $40,000 Greg will be able to absorb it and nothing will change. . The Drug Abuse Program Improvement Surcharge (DAPIS) dollars have decreased because they’re not collecting as many dollars as they have in the past. The funding level is adequate to cover the Alliance at this point. The Alliance is funded entirely through DAPIS (except for the SADFS $144,000). 3 . Methamphetamine coalitions have developed in the western region of the state. If you’re interested in finding out more about these coalitions, you’re encouraged to contact Fred Hefling, DHFS Western Region Area Administrator. Alliance Charter . Mark Flottum was appointed in 2003. . Need at least one new local Alliance representative member. . Alliance team has been discussing the expectation that Council members would not miss more than one meeting per year. . Greg would want local Alliance representatives, DFCSP representatives, WATODEN, UW-Ext-4H, Urban, Rural, DPI, DOT . There needs to be a SCAODA prevention committee for the SPF SIG application coming out in January/February 2007. A discussion took place regarding the question: “Can the Council become a sub-committee to the Prevention Committee so it can provide more input to SCAODA?” The overall consensus drew up more negatives than positives to the idea. May Meeting Briefing/Questions for Discussion . Gabrielle and Stephanie briefed the Council on the results. This briefing and summary of results will help guide the Councils recommendations for future membership services. . We need a list of youth trainers to post or link on the Alliance website. . Council (Alliance) will drop America’s Promise logo since we do not belong to them or have a formal relationship with them. The Alliance will continue to support multiple approaches to positive youth development and prevention. . Debbie suggested the Alliance needs to advertise who we are or develop a slogan. Expansion plan . Christine: We need an infrastructure that works and need to strengthen communication methods before we “expand”. In addition to Alliance staff identifying existing coalitions, local members may be able to do that as well. . Bette: it’s very difficult to find out where the prevention dollars are within the community. The 20% set aside from the State goes to the County Department of Human Services AODA coordinator. . Greg agrees with Christine about increasing communication, but more so, he is looking at the bigger picture in order to establish Alliances in all counties. . Recommendations/Ideas for communication structure improvements: Regional roundtables can be done in conjunction with a variety of agencies that already have existing regional meetings (i.e. AODA Coordinator meetings; regional WATODEN meetings, etc.). Development of Council Recommendations (Questions to Consider) What is the framework and foundation of the alliance’s mission and vision? Is it ATODA prevention, positive youth development, the Five Promises of America’s Promise, or some combination or other framework? . Greg: Prevention is important. A blended framework. . Christine: support and strengthen the capacity of local coalitions. . KathyT.: The Alliance needs to support local coalitions but not tell them how to operate (different things work for different coalitions). What services does the Council most value that Alliance staff provides? . CADCA . PDFA . Can the Promise grant funds be pooled as new tools/resources so all local Alliance’s can benefit (i.e. local PSA messages)? Use it as a recruitment tool as seed money to expand new Alliances. (Repooling the $140,000 monies) . It could impact direct services at the grassroots level, especially for smaller communities. . State Prevention Conference scholarships What types of programming and activities does the Council prioritize for funding in the 2006-7 fiscal year? 4 . Improving communication infrastructure and better market the Alliance . Lobbying/advocacy training . Expansion effort Commitments . Alliance Team: Create draft of Alliance Charter to bring to next meeting. . Council will respond via email to Gabrielle regarding the three questions about the May meeting by 10.31.05. . Council: if anyone is interested in finding out more about media possibilities in their area, contact Debbie McGough directly at 608.267.7793 or [email protected]. . Council: send questions related to Greg’s informal proposal regarding the epidemiological funds and be prepared for formal recommendation at the next Council meeting. . Council: will email completed meeting determination chart to Gabrielle by 10.6.05. . Council: need volunteers for meeting minutes-email Gabrielle by 10.6.05 if you would like to volunteer. . Council will email Gabrielle their recommendations/suggestions for Charter changes/adaptations. Those recommendations will be brought to Greg and a proposal will be formed and brought to the next Council meeting. . Council: By 9.30, Kathy Thomas would like a letter or email describing the most important services “a clearinghouse” can provide to assist agencies essential functions. Send suggestions to [email protected] . Gabrielle will forward letters and emails to Kathy Wolf that she received after the State Prevention conference. . Gabrielle will talk to Shannon and Bette about the categories assigned on the charter since neither of them have received the letter or the charter. . Gabrielle will do an informal survey to determine what regional meetings already exist. . Gabrielle will send May meeting survey results and three questions to Council members, so that those who were not present for the discussion can have input. . Greg will mention the AODA coordinators that they might be contacted by their local Alliance looking for ways to increase communication and coordination. . Kathy Wolf would like individual letters supporting the State Conference. They can be emailed to her at: [email protected]. . Stephanie will post the YPCL registration forms on the Alliance website. . Stephanie will email Council members notifying them that meeting minutes have been posted to the website. . Stephanie will email meeting determination chart to Council members in order to determine future Council meetings. . Stephanie will contact Shelly Grellar for a resource list of available trainers and post it to the Alliance website. . Stephanie will find a list of all county AODA coordinators to post on the AWY website. WCHSA: Wisconsin County Human Services Association Items for Action . There was a general consensus from the Council that the Alliance (as a sponsor, in collaboration with WPN) would provide another workshop on advocacy from CADCA. . Council recommends individual council members suggest to their individual agencies that they write well-thought out letters in support of the WCH once RFP is announced. Gabrielle proposed that individual support letters from agencies around the table be sent to kwolf@wisc .edu . Christine made a motion that a new letter is sent to Council members under the new membership so everyone is on the same page.