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Programs_Committee

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MINUTES OF OCTOBER 17, 2000 PROGRAM COMMITTEE MEETING
Held at Youth Guidance Center Community Resource Rm, 311 375 Woodside Ave

The Minutes of this meeting set forth all actions taken by the Commission on the matters stated, but not necessarily the chronological sequence in which the matters were taken up.

1. (ACTION) Roll Call
The meeting was called to order at 5:20 pm by Comm. Rice Larson. There was no quorum present so an informational meeting was held until 5:37 pm when Comm. Dupre arrived.

2. (ACTION) Review of Program Committee meeting minutes of September 19, 2000.
Action on this was deferred until a later meeting.

3. (ACTION) Discussion and possible recommendation to full Commission for contracting with the Youth Guidance Center Improvement Committee in the amount of $115,065.00 for the following vocational and educational programs
a. Juvy Java
b. GED Plus
c. Focus II Advanced Computer Literacy
Cheyenne Bell introduced Liz Jackson-Simpson, who is the current President of the Board of Directors for the YGCIC. Then John Knox, an Employment Specialist with FOCUS, described the 3 programs. Juvy Java is a training program of food service and sale. It also provides a canteen for the Dept. staff and visitors. GED Plus is an enhancement of the regular GED program, providing early morning study sessions. Referrals for the program come from the Dept and 1950 Mission (Pupil Services; community county day school). They have graduated 4 with GEDs and target 20 GEDs a year. The Focus II program gives further instruction on operating various computer applications. They are currently teaching Excel. Scheduling is a problem since students have many other time commitments. Presently, it runs in the afternoons, from 3-5 pm.
Upon motion and seconded, the Program Committee approved recommending this contract to the full Commission.

4. (DISCUSSION) a. Report from Community Boards Program
b. Report from Edgewood Children’s Centers
          Sheila Arcelona reviewed the previous meeting regarding CB contracts, and reminded that it was a Commissioner’s request that 90 days into the new contract year, 3 organizations return to give updates on how they were doing. Two of the three appeared (as listed above). Arcelona referred to the written assessment she did about the progress of these programs and said that things appeared to be settling in and progress being made.
          b.) Edgewood: they have 3 staff sharing 2 FTE positions. They have been doing extensive contact with the Dept and POs, encouraging more referrals. They will be talking to the Parenting program, the schools, and DHS. Their target service level was 40 families. To date, they have served 29 families, consisting of 66 youth and 21 adults.
a.) Community Boards: program is called the Juvenile Victim Offender Reconciliation Program (JVORP), it is modeled in the manner of Restorative Justice models, where they attempt to bring a reconciliation between the offender and victim of any crime. The staffing problems (and facilities rental issue) facing Community Boards has subsided and they are now actively building this program, and the POs awareness of it. This is a particularly difficult program because so many factors need to be present in order for it to work; the main ones being victim and offender willingness to meet face to face to resolve issues. Questions were raised as to the impact and implications of this program on the offender’s disposition. It was acknowledged that there are technical issues involved in this program; whether involvement could be made a condition of disposition (even though participation in it needs to be voluntary), or can it be a diversion prior to formal disposition. Can JVORP staff get police reports on the offenders?
Question: will data from this program be part of the PRIDE program evaluation? It has a much more comprehensive survey instrument, but relating to a much shorter term of service. It is a unique kind of program vis a vis the other community based programs. Outcome measures will have to concentrate on numbers of successful completions of cases, and levels of satisfaction as reported by participants.
Question: how many have they served. Answer: From January to date, 2 successful conclusions. Comm. Dupre suggested that they hold celebrations for each success, as a way to promote it and bring wider awareness to others about the program.
The Community Boards rep said that he was going to be in touch with the DA’s office and Mentor Court.
There were no public comments.

5. (DISCUSSION) Public Comment on any matter within the subject matter jurisdiction of the Juvenile Probation Commission.
There was a short discussion between the Committee and Liz Jackson-Simpson, regarding the YGCIC. Comm. Dupre asked for a list of the Board members of the YGCIC, and a breakdown of the amounts for each of the 3 projects listed under this contract. It was agreed to have them by the Thursday meeting of the Commission.
Comm. Dupre noted and commended the extraordinary work of Liz Jackson-Simpson, both with the YGCIC, and in her role as Associate VP of the Youth Collaboratives for the PIC, in helping bring into the City a grant of $7 million for a citywide employment collaborative.

6. (ACTION) Adjournment
          The meeting was adjourned at 6:31 pm.

Meeting Information

Programs_Committee