July 24, 2018 Task Force on Developing Opportunities for Youth and Young Adults Who are Jobless and Out-of-School *Policy, Program and Finance Committee

Policy, Program and Finance Committee

Audience

Members of the Statewide Task Force and Staff. The public is welcome to attend.

Date/Time

July 24, 2018
2:30pm to 3:30pm

Location

  • Conference Call: 888-330-9549, enter code 230540#

Agenda

  1. Call to Order
  2. Roll Call
  3. Review and approve minutes from June 7th meeting
  4. Review hearings
    1. June 25th (South Suburbs)
    2. July 19th (Peoria)
  5. Discussion about program, policy, and finance research
  6. Other
  7. Adjourn

Minutes

  1. Call to order
    Reyahd makes the motion to call the meeting to order.
  2. Roll Call
    On call: Jack Wuest, ASN; Cynthia Levi, YCCS; Sheila Venson, YCCS; Andrew Wells, Chicago Urban League; Caitlyn Barnes, ICCB; Reyahd Kazmi, NYAP; Jennifer Simmons, Senator Chuck Weaver's Office; Karina Ayala-Bermejo, IDPL; Sen. Chuck Weaver. 
    Not on Call: Paul Vallas, Amrit Mehra, Thrive; David Whittaker, CAP; Karrie Rueter, DHS; Leslie Glotzer, Thrive. 
  3. Approval of Minutes 
    Review and approve minutes from June 7 meeting. 
    Motion to approve the minutes by Reyahd. Jack Wuest seconded the motion.  Minutes from June 7th meeting approved.
  4. Review hearings from June 25 (South Suburbs) and July 19 (Peoria)
    1. June 25: Aunt Martha's organized; it was a good turnout. Panel of 4 or 5 local municipal mayors; Will Davis and Kelly Burke showed up. Will is the key architect on the school evidence based model program and Kelly is a chair for higher education in the House. Video footage of the event is being sent to Grace from Aunt Martha's.
      1. Need for transportation, need for more programming.
      2. Young people said they needed support for issues of trauma
      3. Similar to what we had seen in Granite City.
      4. Get summary from Kenny Martin-Ocasio.
    2. July 19: Hearing in Peoria organized by Kathleen Kelly and Senator Chuck Weaver. Four panels and 70 people in attendance. A wide-range of people, some involved in literacy, young people, etc.
      1. After each panel there was open discussion with the audience.
      2. Young people discussed small programs that had helped them come back to school and be re-engaged. Young people described their struggles and how important it was to have personal connections to stay focused and to stay in programs to completion.
      3. President of community college expressed that they had 30 calls or contacts from small businesses from the area because they cannot find workers. This confirms what we've thought from the state and nation.
      4. Senator Weaver had 2 PowerPoints - one showed the up and down of the economy and in the near-depression from 2008 to present, there has not been much recovery in terms of employment for youth.
      5. Try to get video from Facebook livestream of the event to put on the Task Force website.
    3. May 14: Granite City organized by Reyahd Kazmi and Debbie Valencia. Attended by close to 70 people.
      1. A diverse amount of people: kids who had been employed through an internship program; a group of students involved in their school district - sophomores and older - an entrepreneurship club.
      2. Construction and trade employers spoke.
      3. Youth were not recognizing all of the different organizations that provided opportunities - there was no communication between organizations, schools, and young people.
      4. Employers from St. Louis came over - expressed they'd be interested in hiring youth from Madison County.
    4. Upcoming hearings - August 7 in Mt. Vernon (Kathy Lively and Lisa Jones), September (3rd week) in Rockford (Kerry Knodle).
  5. Discussion about program, policy, and finance research.
    1. Senator Chuck Weaver: A group of youth working and training for leadership and civic projects in Peoria. One group is looking at vacant lots and community farming.
    2. Our strategy is to go through this list of research and compile information for the end of August/early September. It will give ideas for policy, financing, and programming at city, state, and national levels.
    3. Regulations for a process for programs that offer high school diplomas. Goodwill Excel Academies are charter schools, and they get attendance funding for people over 21 to be in the high schools. We are looking at this as an example, looking for other programs using similar funding streams.
    4. Senator Chuck Weaver: Followed up with 4-5 key people at the hearing and had dinner.
      1. Collective impact model - get a group of people together, on-going for input; communicating across groups
      2. Skills gaps
      3. How do we do aptitude interest assessments earlier in a student's life?
  6. Other - None noted.
  7. Next meeting: Thursday, August 30, 2:30pm
  8. Adjourn
    Motion to adjourn: Jack makes a motion to adjourn, seconded by Caitlyn. Meeting adjourned.