Date:  

January 15, 2009

Facilitator:  Courtney Lamport

Location:

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

Recorder: Becky Black

Attendees:

Diane McGarry, Cindy Dort, Sue Costanzo, Kelley Bayer, Dan Tallman, Michael Piccirillo, Colleen Carroll, Jack Sandler, Liz, Samenfeld-Specht, Rev. Eleanor Stanton, Brenda Quinn, Bill Bomenke, John Kelly

Materials Distributed:

Adirondack Tobacco Free Coalition passed around material for Partnership members to read.
Diane McGarry passed around information regarding cutback on Youth Programs. The pages included ideas for letter writing and Talking Points on Proposed Youth Block Grants.

Overview

Discussion

Decisions/Actions

News and Announcements

 ·  Welcome Colleen Carroll! (Stephanie’s successor)

 ·  Diane McGarry talked about Governor Patterson’s budget cuts and how these cuts will affect prevention-based youth programs. Money will be dedicated instead towards existing detention programs. 

Doing away with positive youth development means that money is going towards kids who are already in trouble rather than preventing the trouble from happening.  Some programs that these cuts might affect are the summer recreational programs, giving children nowhere to go and creating a bigger chance that they will get into trouble.   Diane asked everyone to write letters regarding these cuts and how prevention programs are truly beneficial. 

As of January 1^st, Saratoga County Youth Bureau and other prevention programs have been told that they will have no funding.  Please keep your letter writing simple and show proof of how a prevention-based program helped a student(s). Show a program that has been in existence for a long period of time and how it has made a change in the community or in a child’s life.  If you have any questions please feel free to contact Diane McGarry at the Youth Bureau.
 

Partnership Updates

·   SPP Sustainability Plan is due March 2, 2009.  A small committee will come together to create the plan.  The Committee will include, Courtney Lamport, Mike Piccirillo, Rev. Eleanor Stanton, and Cindy Dort.

·   Sustainability Plan:

Courtney is looking for key people from each committee to join forces and develop a sustainability plan. Can the current programs sustain themselves if the Partnership were no longer available?  If so, how?

What would happen if the Partnership staff were no longer available to run the programs and facilitate and organize the monthly meetings?  Would these programs be sustained without funding?

The Partnership needs to locate an additional $10,000 in actual dollars this year, as proof of our ongoing efforts at becoming self-sufficient. Courtney asked partners to consider what other funding sources might bring in money and in-kind donations.

Also:  The Partnership is in need of business partners.  Local business owners don’t have to attend every meeting, but there are other ways for them to be a part of the coalition by making a donation or via in-kind support.  Businesses might also consider scholarshiping a student to camp or helping us run an event.  We would attach their names to the event or scholarship.  Many companies have money allocated for these purposes and it would also be a  tax write-off.

Possible ways of reaching out in to the community for donations are through a letter writing campaigns, where students write letters to family members and/or friends to make a donation to the committee they are involved with, explaining how their donation could keep that committee running.  We might also reach out to local franchises such as McDonalds or Stewarts. We also need more marketing to get our name out there.

In order to bring new Partnership members up to date with current committees; members feel that having a write up to pass out would be very beneficial.  There is so much going on in members’ lives that a handout is a great way to keep people informed without the added time of another meeting that would bring new members up to date.  Items to include are the different committees they could become involved with, how the community looked before the Partnership and show how local drug and alcohol statistics have gone down, finally what the Partnerships message and mission are.

Group discussed the need to revive the Partnership's Elevator Statement: How can members give a brief overview of the Partnership and its work to someone else in the time it takes to ride an elevator.

The group agreed on this as our updated elevator statement:  The Partnership is a coalition of community leaders from various sectors who meet once a month and come up with ways for positive youth development in the community.  We come to the table with a verity of ideas and tangible resources that can be used to continue the positive growth of our kids.

Committee
Updates

·    Youth Committee

Courtney and Becky had a meeting with the National Honor Society and the Student Council at SSHS to recruit more students for the Peer Leadership Committee.  We had a great turnout and many interested students.  The committee has many up and coming projects, including an alcohol advertising photograph project to be presented at the Youth Summit in the spring.

The Youth Summit is scheduled for May 9^th from 8:00a.m. – 12:00p.m. Another topic that will be discussed at the Summit is prescription drugs; the committee is hoping to get a person in recovery to come and speak.  We are also hoping to have a community art project where students can display their art in the community.  Starbucks is on board along with the Saratoga County Art Council. 

Part of the Peer Leadership Committee is to help send a “No Use” message in the high school community.  We want to change the high school norm that drinking is “cool”.  Therefore, another project that we would like to work on with the Peer Leaders in helping to spread the “No Use” message is setting up a web page with local info, community activities, etc. 

We are also looking for a funding source to help with costs associated with these projects. Any possible grant or funding ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Next Meeting

The next Partnership meeting will be on Thursday, February 7^th at 12 p.m. in the school district administration offices. Committee updates will go out by e-mail between now and then.