February 1, 2010 Meeting Minutes
Town Hall Room 10
North Reading Youth Services Committee
Committee Members:
Judy Hall
Terry Blade
Tracy Helms
Christine Fisher
Frank Ferraro
Jean Moubhij
Attendees: Judy Hall, Terry Blade, Tracy Helms, Christine Fisher, Frank Ferraro, Jean Moubhij, Jenny O’Leary-Youth Services Director, Kathy Dardeno – NRYSSA representative, Joanne Pawlowski-NRYSSA representative
- Meeting called to order: 6:09 pm
- Minutes of September 4, 2009 and January 4, 2010 were both approved.
- Introduction of all members and new member.
- Youth Services Director update:
Jenny gave a thorough program update which included the following:
Teen Workshops: Workshops are held two times per month, unless it’s a vacation month and are not held in the summer months. These workshops are derived from a list from the youth on what they are interested in. Jenny works with business owners to narrow the topic towards youth. These workshops are free of charge. They focus on building self-esteem for the youth. They are educational and allow youth to explore what is available for them to become involved in. Open to MS/HS youth. Well advertised.
Mentoring: HS mentors work with elementary school children. Elementary School psychologist recommends to Youth Director students for this program. Each school recommends five youth. There are wait lists on students who need extra help and could benefit from this program. Need more mentors in order to take on more mentees. Mentors are high school age and recruited by Youth Services. Mentors are trained by Jenny on necessary areas in order to work with the elementary-aged students such as role modeling and appropriate behavior. Meet weekly on Wednesdays at the library. It’s the parents’ responsibility for transportation of mentees. Focus on homework and then play games after homework is done. HS
mentors are beginning to recognize behavioral changes and areas of concern and are reporting to Jenny. Jenny then follows up with the school and families if appropriate. This program has seen great results. The program runs November to June. Sept/October months is when mentors are sought and trained. This year there are 15 mentors and 15 mentees. Program is run with youth librarian as well as Jenny. HS youth can receive community service hours. HS youth mentors are proud of what they do.
Question was brought up of the growth of this program. Jenny can definitely see it growing to a maximum of 30 mentors/mentees in the future while still being held in the library activity room. She would like it to potentially grow successful enough to be held at each individual school location with the assistance of the school psychologist and perhaps parent volunteers who would be trained. This might be necessary if it grows to over 30 mentors and 30 mentees.
Peer Assistance Leadership (PAL): Jenny has trained all of the HS mentors for this program. It consists of HS students mentoring MS students. PAL is a school-sponsored program with around 10 mentors and 10 mentees and more on the wait list. Two other collaborations with PAL will be coming up in the future. The first is a resource booklet for parents and teens which Youth Spreading Information and the Youth Services summer interns have worked on putting together and now passed on to PAL to look over and help with. The second is a potential Peer Education group who would be trained on specific topics and then go into Middle School
classrooms and hold focus groups with youth. Just began discussions about these ideas with PAL.
* Kathy Dardeno brought up the subject of bullying in the elementary schools and how this needs to be a focus point in town. Jenny is meeting tomorrow with Youth at Risk where bullying will be discussed. Another issue that needs attention is ultimate fighting at the MS. These two issues are significant and need to be addressed in the immediate future. Jenny has discussed an ultimate fighting workshop with the police.
- Youth Services Director continued update:
Youth Spreading Information: This is a HS program which meets weekly and focuses on issues facing teens in North Reading. This group researches teen topics, one per month, and provides detailed information on each topic,
interviews adults to assist with the chosen topic and displays posters relating to the topics on the bulletin board and throughout the school. A future goal would be to have the posters in the MS the following month. This program consists of six students. They are working on a resource booklet and working on a peer group also. Very ambitious group. They are collaborating with PAL on some topics.
There are many other educational programs that are ongoing including:
~Jenny is presenting tomorrow to a boy scout troop on substance abuse
~Bullying-Jenny is working the both schools and police
~Community service is offered to all youth. Some youth call for community service and Jenny sets them up with regular activities. Other youth have mandatory community service hours for criminal acts and can serve those through Youth Services as well. Upcoming Community Service events include a Blood Drive, the Lowell Wish Project and Operation First Response Backpacks.
Weekend and vacation activities: These activities are compiled from the youth on what they are interested in doing. At this time the February vacation schedule has low numbers. There are two day trips, one night trip to SAD Café and one game event planned.
Support Services for children/families: Youth Services will have resources prepared for meetings as well as multiple answers for meeting conversations. There is a large amount of time spent in preparation for meetings with families as well as follow up with phone calls and additional meetings.
The Youth Service Department’s focus this year is on the growth of each individual program that is already in place.
Joanne Pawlowski discussed the Parent Advisory Group stating she received an e-mail to attend & brought up the suggestion of a committee member attending. We have already made a presentation to the group per Dr. Troughton’s suggestion. Joanne thought this group would be good advocates for the Youth Service Department as well as the committee. Jenny suggested we only present annually to this group as well as annually to all town organizations.
Jenny briefly reviewed the FY08 and FY09 figures with the committee stating she would e-mail the financial report to the committee.
Further discussion to be held on the outreach campaign at the next meeting. Tentative date of Feb 8 discussed to review outreach ideas.
Next Meeting: Monday, March 1 @ 6:00 p.m.
Town Hall, Room 10
Meeting adjourned at 8:15 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted,
Tracy Helms
Secretary
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