HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-11-13 CYF Minutes APPROVED
Caldwell Youth Forum Subcomm ttee ----
Minutes, November 13, 2018Date _. •
___
Present: Donna Shines, Ron Bonneau, Kelly Emry, Rebecca Plummer (VHS student), Zach
Hoag (VHS student), Patrick Precht, Toni Brinegar, Scott Herdegen, and Angie Point.
Meeting called to order at 10:15 am. Donna motioned, and Toni seconded the motion to
approve the minutes from the October 2, 2018 meeting. Motion passed.
Ron asked Rebecca and Zach (VHS students) to tell us about the impact the Forum had for
them.
Zach stated that a large part of the VHS It's On Us group had not attended a Forum prior to
this year. This year, most of the group went to the Forum and everyone is motivated to get
projects going.
• Created a mission statement, which is read by a group member at the beginning of
each meeting to keep the group focused on why they are meeting.
• Zach summed up the goal of the group as: "we want to do big things, but we need to
remember to bring it back to WHY we are doing it. We want to leave behind a
willingness for Vallivue students to get involved in making a change."
Rebecca added that there is a great deal of interest from students, and many ideas are coming
out of the excitement and energy generated from attending the Forum.
• The It's On Us group coordinated 4 presentations to the Freshman class that included
games, one of the videos shown at the Forum, and information on little things that
individual students can do to help promote a kindness culture at school.
• Underclassmen are doing more of the project work, while the Seniors and Juniors are
coordinating the activities.
• The group leadership wants to make a name for the club as one that can make a
difference using everyday people — you don't need to be specially talented —just
everyday people working together to make a change.
Upcoming projects:
• Bucks for Beanies: students pay $1 per student to wear a hat for the day. The money
raised goes to Boise Rescue Mission to buy beanies for their residents. Last year the
group raised $200; they are hoping to increase that number this year.
• Coat drive to help with the YMCA coat drive efforts.
• Blanket drive organized by a VHS student who has personal connections to the foster
care system. Her vision is to impact other students to become passionate about helping
others with the blanket drive. Toni suggested to Kelly that the organizers get in contact
with the Linus program to see if they would partner with them as well.
• Random Acts of Kindness week in February. Last year, teachers helped promote
sending encouraging messages to friends or others that might be struggling. Mr. Emry
screened them for appropriateness, then the It's On Us group would deliver the
messages to classrooms. This was fairly popular, and they are planning to do it again
in February 2019.
When asked what they would like to see done differently at the Forum, Zach stated that the
messaging was great, but he would like to see more direction on how to raise funds for a
project, and perhaps how to plan an event — and does it always take money.
Donna asked the students where they can take it from here. Rebecca replied that she would
like to be a part of expanding it to college and the coffee shop. Zach would like to bring the
experiences and motivation and energy from the high school club to a similar college club and
environment —to make a ripple effect with their own lives.
Scott asked about whether they might consider working with another school — Ridgvue has a
RAKtivist club; maybe the two schools could coordinate events at both schools. If interested,
Mr. Emry could get in touch with Scott.
Old Business:
• Made a couple of changes to the 2019 meeting calendar; updated schedule is attached.
• One final correction to the budget sheet for the 2018 Youth Forum; it is also attached.
New Business:
Green Dot Initiative: Ron has been looking for information about this; he has heard enough
about it to be curious if it might be something to look at. Kuna High School and Melba High
School are using it.
Scott has heard more about it:
• 'It's on Us' on steroids.
• All about countering the bystander effect and using effective ways to intervene without
losing your own credibility and personal safety.
• How to defuse a situation and/or intervene appropriately.
• Red dot represents bad things happening. Replace with a green dot for positive things
that are happening.
• Ron would like to look at it in terms of whether it fits our mission, and finding out if could
we partner with them.
• Scott will check in with the contacts at Columbia HS and Kuna HS, and bring back
information to our next meeting in January.
• Kelly will contact Bob at Melba HS with the same purpose.
• Toni will ask the Green Dot organization if they would send someone to give a
presentation to our group.
Caldwell Youth Master Plan Foundation: If approved, it will become a funding mechanism to
raise funds for youth programs.
A visit to the State Superintendent of Education is being planned to see if we can get some
state buy in for possibly expanding the Youth Forum to other cities.
Toni motioned, Kelly seconded the motion to adjourn at 11:12 am. Our next meeting will be on
Tuesday, January 15th, 2019 at 10:00 am. It will be at Caldwell High School, 3401 S. Indiana,
in Caldwell.
Respectfully submitted,
Angie Point