Date:  

October 11, 2007

Facilitator:  Maureen Cary

Location:

3 Blue Streak Blvd., 2^nd floor, School District Administrative Offices

Recorder: Robin Ambrosino

Attendees:

Robin Ambrosino, Kati Behrens, Bill Boehmke, Maureen Cary, Judy Ekman,
Dianne Greene, Michelle Hadden, Deb Lagoe, Courtney Lamport, Stephanie Lang,
Brenda Quinn, Tony Straus, Dan Tallman, Dave Torres, Steven Wood.

Materials Distributed:

Girls Inc. flyer about financial literacy workshop, Upcoming Health & Human Service Coalition flyers, Problem Gambling Prevention Intergenerational Training and Forum flyer, 2-page handout about types of environmental prevention strategies, handout about upcoming OJJDP-sponsored audio conferences for October, November and December, handout about Partnership objectives for 2007-2008.

Overview

Discussion

Decisions/Actions

News &
Announcements

·     There will be an intergenerational training and forum about problem gambling on Tuesday, October 30, from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. in the Community Room of the Saratoga Springs Public Library. An acting troupe from Shen will lead a lively discussion after their presentation. A free dinner from Panera will be available to all participants. To RSVP, contact Michelle Hadden at 581-1230 or michelle@preventioncouncil.org.

·     The next Health and Human Service workshop will take place on Thursday, November 1, from 9:30 – 11:30 a.m. in the Cornell Cooperative Extension training room at 50 West High Street in Ballston Spa. This will be the new location for HHSC workshops, to avoid parking problems in downtown Saratoga. The topic will be, “Our Growing Elder Population: Trends, Myths, and Best Practices,” presented by Edward J. Kramer, M.A., CTRS, from the Consortium of NY Geriatric Training Centers, NY University College of Nursing. To register for this free workshop, call 581-1230 by Oct. 25.

·     The Prevention Council will host two workshops: “Unfulfilled Dreams:  Women and Substance Abuse,” in October, “Relationships Make the World Go Round” in November, and “Growing Up Unheard,” in December. For more information or to register, please click here.

·     Robin asked participants to complete in-kind contribution forms for April – June 2007 and July – September 2007. Please return forms to her in person or fax back to 581-1240 by Friday, October 19.

·     Girls Inc. will host a financial workshop for mothers and daughters age 10 -14 on Saturday, October 20^th from 10 am. – 2 p.m. to increase financial savvy – budgeting money, borrowing, credit, saving, etc. It will be held at the middle school library at Shen. For more information or to register, call 374-9800, ext. 224.

Partnership
Updates

·     The School District and DA’s Office will co-host a Community Summit on Youth on Saturday, November 3^rd from 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. Registration deadline is Friday, Oct. 26^th. The event is free and starts with a hot breakfast. Adolescent brain development expert Mike Nerney will be the presenter. Afterward, workgroups will discuss pertinent topics. This workshop is meant as the first step in a larger process. For more information, click here.
 

·     Another Strengthening Families (SF) parenting course just started at Maple Avenue Middle School. Staff is looking for community volunteers to help with childcare. Courtney suggested PIG students.
 

·     Another parenting program, called Parenting Wisely (PW), will be piloted online in late October. This program has broader application than SF and is intended for ages 9-16. Will also help families who can’t commit to an evening program for multiple weeks. There is also a preschool version being adapted for Head Start Families. Families currently taking the SF course are also interested in piloting PW. Will be good to have feedback comparing the two. Lake Avenue will be offering the facilitated version of PW later this year.

·     Three audio conferences are available over next few months. Interested participants signed up to attend. October’s topic is Reducing Underage Alcohol Incidents, November’s is Social Host Information, and December’s topic is a continuation of the parent disconnect issue discussed at the September meeting, called Parental Involvement in Preventing Underage Drinking.

·     Several people who can’t make noon Partnership meetings have asked about revisiting the meeting time. This is something that could be planned several months in advance so people can plan ahead. If no objections, we’ll start alternating.

·     Partners took brochures to invite parents, coaches, anyone else interested. Looking for a good cross section of people.

· Staff will e-mail pertinent info to Partnership members for them to forward to their own contacts.

 

·     Dan Tallman and his sister are interested in PW online course. Dan will contact Maureen for more information.

·     The December audio conference will take place instead of a December Partnership meeting. For more information about upcoming audio conferences, click here.

Group agreed to alternate meeting times. The November meeting will take place at noon, and the December meeting will move to 3:30 p.m.

Workplan
Planning

 ·     The Partnership’s fiscal year began October 1, 2007. Maureen passed around the current goals and objectives as a way to revisit parenting issues that came up at the September meeting and to see where to plug partners’ interests into the upcoming grant application, due in March or April 2008.
 

·     Michelle suggested the Partnership focus on two existing goals:  developing a parent resource library and increasing perception of harm for marijuana use. Brenda liked the idea of creating something tangible with an end product. Judy suggested including a third goal: conducting a needs assessment of parents of 8/9 graders about the high school transition.
 

·     A suggestion was made to go back to the subcommittee format for Partnership meetings and have three subcommittees address each of the above goals. Group also discussed changing the meeting format:  first half hour for updates, then committee work for the remaining time, possibly time to report out at the end.

·     Dave suggested that Partnership members submit announcements ahead of time. Then we don’t have to spend ½ hour making announcements.

·  Suggestion was made about having a “blog” or a message board where people can raise ideas, talk together.

·  Partners chose a subcommittee to work on and signed up for one of the following:

1. Parent Resource Library
2. Increase Perception of Harm – Marijuana
3. High School Transition

·     Maureen will e-mail Partnership members to let them know about subcommittees so they can decide where they fit ahead of time.

·     Next meeting will start with summit debrief then committee groups.

This has come up before with parenting programs and internally at The Prevention Council. Robin will bring this up with The Prevention Council’s technology committee to see about sharing information in a message board format online.

Next Meeting

The next Partnership meeting will take place on Thursday, Nov 8^th at noon at the school district administrative offices. The December meeting will feature the audio conference on the 18^th from 3 – 4:15 p.m.