City of Salem
Youth Commission
Meeting Minutes
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
5:30 pm
In Attendance: Peter Baglioni, Mary Manning, Zachary Broughton, Eileen Dunn, Ryan Heath, Tom Watkins
Introduction & Outreach
The group introduced themselves to all present. New to the group was Ryan Heath, who is the Teen Outreach Program Coordinator at HealthQuarters in Beverly and which services many of Salem’s teens.
Tom had mentioned that Dianne McGrane gave him the name of two more Salem High students – Crisanthe Theodorakakis and Eric Fiahlo. He has left messages with both but has had no formal contact. It was mentioned that the group may want to outreach to students from all various groups (i.e. alternative/goth kids). Zack will talk to Ms. Mary Decourvey about this.
Child Safety Day
It was discussed that Child Safety Day was a great success. All in all, an estimated 100 people showed up, even though it was a rainy day (the event was moved indoors to the Collins Middle School from the soccer fields at the Willows due to the inclement weather). Deb and Mary had talked about making the Collins Middle School the permanent location for next year’s Child Safety Day because it presents both an adequate indoor and outdoor location. Some things which need to be improved upon are better supervision and signage at the event which will help to better direct and guide adults and children. Also, a more efficient layout plan will have to be put in place, so as to disperse the crowd around a lot more.
Planning for Future Events
The group began preliminary discussions for some future events. One of the main events discussed was to host a “Youth Week” during the school’s April vacation. The group would like to hold events on each day of this week which would span towards all ages. Some of the events discussed include: a teen dance, Health Fair, Youth Sports Day (i.e. 3 on 3 basketball tournament), Battle of the Bands, fashion show at the mall, make your own sundae on Sunday, open mic night, movie at CinemaSalem.
It was mentioned that it is important to have events for all ages. Possibly hold one event for each age group per each day of the week. The group will need to properly identify what the actual age groups will be and how many events they will want to have per day.
It was mentioned having this event for February vacation but was found not a good idea due to the possibility of snow and inclement weather.
The next scheduled meeting is set for Tuesday, November 13th.
The Meeting adjourned at 6:30 pm
Meeting minutes recorded by Tom Watkins
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