May 3, 2022 Council Youth Services Committee

Video

Transcript

[00:00:01] Christine: And Margaret or Sally, who would like to go ahead and step in for Ellen. Okay.

[00:00:10] Member Sally Lieber: Well, um, I can. Um, like to welcome everyone to the council youth services committee. Uh, this is our special meeting of May 3rd with uh, video conference with no physical meeting location. Uh, during this declared state of emergency, this meeting will be conducted in accordance with California government code section 54953E is authorized by resolution of the city council. Please contact city. clerk at mountain view.gov to obtain a copy of the applicable resolution. All members of the Council Youth Services Committee will participate in a meeting by video conference with no physical meeting location. Uh, members of the public wishing to comment on an item on the agenda. May do so in the following ways. Uh, email comments to Greg. Milano. At mountain view.gov. Uh, these emails will be forwarded to the committee. Uh, provide oral comments during the meeting. Uh, online. You may join the Zoom webinar using this link, HTTPS. Colon slash slash mountain view dot gov slash meeting and entering webinar ID 898-481-66758. Uh, you may be asked to enter an email address and a name. Your email address will not be disclosed to the public. Uh, when the chair announces the item on which you wish to speak. Click the raised hand feature in Zoom. Uh, speakers will be notified of their turn shortly before they are called on to speak. Um, by phone by dialing 669-9009128 and entering webinar ID 898 481-66758. Uh, when the chair announces the item on which you, which you wish to speak, dial 9. Phone participants will be called on by the last 2 digits of your phone number. When the chair calls your name to provide public comment, if you are participating via phone, please post star 6 to unmute yourself. Okay,

[00:02:33] Christine: we do have Ellen on. Um, so we got through the necessary read. Um, and so thank you for that and Ellen, if you'd like to, uh, resume the chair responsibilities and we can call the meeting to order. Great,

[00:02:49] Member Ellen Kamei: thanks. So I let I let Greg know, that is coming from the city. I commute on the train from work, so great, thanks. So we'll move to item two, which is roll call, right? Or call, yeah. Yeah.. We

[00:03:08] Christine: still need to call the meeting in actual order. So if you'd like, you can do that, and then we'll go into roll call. So

[00:03:13] Member Ellen Kamei: she, so Calcium and reliever read the item, but didn't call the meeting order. I feel confused. Why did we have the reading if we weren't calling the meeting to order then? I

[00:03:23] Christine: apologize. I think I missed that misspoke, so if we can go, sorry about that. Okay,

[00:03:28] Member Ellen Kamei: no worries. Got it. The meeting to order. 408? And

[00:03:40] Greg: then roll call, um, committee members. Here. Libra. Here. And Cherrica May. Here. So

[00:03:50] Member Ellen Kamei: we went to item 3, which is minutes approval, minutes for the October 19th, 2021 meeting have been delivered to committee members, as attachment one and a copy was pasted online. If there are no corrections or additions, a motion is in order to approve these minutes. To approve? I'll see. Great. So a motion from Councilor Rave Koga, secreted by Council member, Leaper. Shall we? Can we do a raise hand? We don't need to roll call. Is that right? You

[00:04:23] Member Sally Lieber: want to take public comment? Yeah,

[00:04:26] Member Ellen Kamei: let's see. I don't see any public. Oh, we have 2 attendees. Any public comment? All right, that's seeing any. Shall we do a raised hand vote then? Sure. Great. All right, that looks unanimous. So we'll move on to item 4 oral communications from the public. This portion of the meeting is reserved for persons wishing to address the committee on any matter, not on the agenda. Speakers are limited to 3 minutes. State law prohibits the committee from acting on non-agenda items. And I see we have a hand, so, um, shall I time, Mr. England, or? I can do that. Sure, if you'd like to, that'd be great. Okay. Shall I start? Hold on, I'm gonna get my timer for you.

[00:05:19] Bruce England: Okay, yeah. All right, I need a timer. You

[00:05:22] Member Ellen Kamei: have 3 minutes. Go ahead. Thank

[00:05:24] Bruce England: you, Alan. Bruce England, Wisman Station Drive. I manage, well, 4 different groups in Mountain View, and there is a, there's regular discussion about youth engagement, and I wanted to share some thoughts with you from myself and also that has been shared with me. I, uh, this is about the youth advisory committee. I know you're doing the appointments today, so I think this is timely, but it's also timely because there's increased interest in safe routes to school, Vision Zero, the upcoming active transportation plan, which will blend the existing bicycle and pedestrian plans into one, as Sunnyvale has already done, and other cities have already done. And also mental health crisis response. These are really hot topics. And one of the feedbacks that I hear from former yak members and also from parents and other members of the community is concerned that yak members might not actually be working enough on some of these issues and maybe more on events and such. So I'm curious, I know you can't answer. It's not an agenda item, but I'll just put it out there. What kind of steps do you do or consider? And I see staff is here, which is great. On engaging the yak members to work on things that might go above and beyond what you typically work on. Are they encouraged to do that or is it just allowed? I'm not sure I see Christine nodding. So anyway, I'd be interested in having that conversation. We could do it offline. so we don't violate any of the rules, but also if you want to respond to it, that's great too. But I wanted to bring this up. Thanks. Great.

[00:06:55] Member Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Anyone else wishing to give public comment? All right, I'm not seeing any, so we can bring it back. Um, to the committee, item five. We don't have any unfinished business, so we can move on to item 6, which is new business. Item 6.1. is our youth advisory committee appointments. The committee will review a recommendation for appointments to the youth advisory committee. So I think we'll turn this over to stuff. Yes,

[00:07:27] Christine: thank you. Um, so for this item, I'd like to introduce Lauren X, she's our recreation coordinator and staff liaison for the youth advisory committee. Hey,

[00:07:37] Lauren: everybody, um, here today just to provide a little summary and update on the memo you received prior to the meeting. Hopefully you had a chance to look it over. We went into depth on kind of the members we selected for next year as well as, you know, school and great breakdowns. Um, and just to summarize that we had 33 applications received this year, um, which is up about 10 from last year. Um, and for those 33 applications, 16 different schools were represented. So while they were all mountain view residents, some go to schools all the way up north of the city. So it's a pretty good representation from 16 different schools. Currently, 6 of our current members are graduating, so we'll be reappointing the remaining 9 and then appointing 6 new members and including in that one of our members at large will be promoted to a member. Um, additionally, also, we will be asking for 8 members at large for the next year's term. Um, and in total, we have 11 schools represented in between our members and members at large and the 23 total students. Um, and this year, I'm happy to say that we have all of our grades represented. So we actually have 2 current 6th graders, so they'll be 7th graders next year, either a member or member at large. Um, we will be taking this for um, full council approval at the June 14th council meeting. Does anybody have any questions? Yes, council

[00:09:08] Member Ellen Kamei: member Abby Coca. Thank

[00:09:11] Member Margaret Abe-Koga: you. Um, I just was hoping you could remind me. Do we try to, um, you know, give priority to, like, the higher level students since they have less time involved or is there some kind of prioritization we do or is it really pretty open? Yeah,

[00:09:30] Lauren: so um, all of our applicants are interviewed and then, um, we take their, um, interview performance as well as their, um, application, which includes letter, letters of recommendation and then a questionnaire that they fill out on, on kind of why they want to be on yak, how committed they will be to it. Um, and Definitely, we, we, if, you know, juniors applying, you know, it would be their last year to be on, so we do try to allow them to be on either as a member or a member at large. So that's why sometimes you see the younger kids on the member at large. Um, this year we had a ton of junior supplies, so that's kind of distributed both late on the members and members at large. Great. thank you Great,

[00:10:14] Member Ellen Kamei: thanks. Any other question from committee members? Okay, I am not seeing any questions, so I think we can turn it over to public comments if our public has any comments? I am not seeing any hands. So I'll bring it back to the committee and I think this, does this need a, I think, formal action from the committee and needs a vote, correct? Okay, great. So I'd be happy to entertain emotion. So moved? Second, great. Great. So we have a motion by council member reliever, 2nded by council member Abby Coca, so I think we'll just do a raised end vote if that's possible. Great, unanimous. Wonderful Thank you. All right, so we'll move on to item 6.2, which is our youth wellness updates. So staff will provide an update on our city youth wellness programs. You

[00:11:12] Christine: so much. The last time that we met as a committee was back in October, when we approved the youth advisory committees, we're planning at that time, we provided an update of items that we have completed, in relation to our wellness efforts for youth and teams, when we wanted to use this opportunity to provide additional update, what has been completed in the last 6 months, which is actually quite a lot. And so I'll turn it over to Lauren, who has a short PowerPoint presentation to share what we've been working on. Thank you, Christine.

[00:11:44] Lauren: Um, and like Christine said, um, this is everything from November of 2021 until the present. Um, I'll kind of go through, um, starting off by just. Bringing back the recommended actions that were in the work plan for CYSC a few years ago. Um, so maybe talking about 2 of the short term ones that we, um, have accomplished or continually accomplishing, um, as well as the the long-term goal for that wellness retreat. Um, so that 1st short term goal was to provide educational wellness workshops. And I know there's a lot of information on the screen here. But we've kind of done that in 2 ways over the last year in a few months. So, um, the wishing you on up workshop series. And if you aren't familiar, I'll give you a quick update on that. It was a series that was started in February of last year. Um, that provided it was kind of the kickoff for mental health and wellness programming in the recreation division. Um, it was workshops provided virtually and then transitioned into in person, um, when we were able to for teens, parents or teens and their parents. Um, so a variety of workshops and these are the ones that we um, did since November. Um, the health eats on a budget and this support youth to call to action to to bridge parent and teen relationships and you can see the attendance numbers for those. Um, and then at the end of last year, we kind of took a look at the wishing you wellness workshop series to see how we could improve it and keep it going into the new year. Um, the main goals were to focus on resiliency skills and lifebuilding skills for teams. Um, we also took into consideration feedback from the wishing you want us participants, both parents and teens to kind of see what we could do going forward. And that, um, was the adulting 101 workshop series. So this workshop series kicked off in January. It's a twice a month series that's currently still running. You can see some of the workshops that staff or outside organizations have come in and done. It's been very, very successful. We've got a lot of great feedback from. So it's, it's still, Most of them are still kind of in that wellness, mental health and wellness coming and giving kids a space to learn something new and gain confidence skills, whether it be from, um, public speaking or managing their money. So, We plan to kind of keep this going throughout the school year next year and and offer more, improve on some of the ones that we've done already that the kids really enjoy. The

[00:14:07] Lauren: next short term item was to schedule quarterly meetings with the school district. So city staff, uh, Greg, Christine and I, we meet, um, Quarterly with some of the counselors, wellness coordinators, PD and school, resource officers, um, and these meetings are actually really, really great. Um, I think all of us come out of them feeling really refreshed and motivated, um, to attack some of those mental health challenges and programs that we're trying to do and, um, whether it be bouncing ideas off of each other or, um, getting, uh, contacts for different organizations and and supporting each other's programs through advertising or um, partnering. So, um, those have been going really well and we have a meeting um, at the end of this month. And that long-term goal was to um, conduct a wellness retreat for teens, um, which we were able to accomplish last November, and it was held at the senior center. It was a 6 hour event. Um, we were lucky we had a very beautiful day. Um, Council member, um, Kame was there. She gave a really great pickoff to the event. Welcome. We had 8017s in total attend, which was really great. It was a packed house that day. Um, we had 2 guest speakers, one in the morning, one after lunch, and then throughout the day, the kids got to choose from 18 different workshops and activities and support groups to um, participate in. It was kind of a choose your own adventure. Um, with the event, we partnered with 12 different organizations to um, offer those support groups and workshops. Um, we're already in the planning phases for, um, this event to happen again, um, this upcoming fall and we, uh, city staff, we do plan to make it a yearly event. And then here's a list of some additional programs that the recreation division and the team center has done, um, while some of these maybe don't fit into that mental health and wellness directly. They do, you know, have a tie to, um, offer a program or a space where teens can come into, um, and learn a new skill or just kind of be with their peers and, um, you know, and enjoy something like the elevate dance or, um, you know, we just completed the high school job for his last week and, um, we have some really great activities coming up, like the mental health proclamation, and we're doing a de-stress vest for finals at the team center. And then does anybody have any questions on anything that I spoke about? Great.

[00:16:32] Member Ellen Kamei: Thank you. Well, turn it over to the committee and maybe we can, do you mind if we stop sharing the screen so I can, we can all see each other if that's all right. And then do committee members have any questions or I think we'll take comments too if you do, um, for staff. Council member Liever. Um,

[00:16:49] Member Sally Lieber: I don't have a question, but I think that's great participation for the day long event to, um, have 87 kids with all the, the demands that are out there for their time. to come and participate. And about how many were participating in the adulting 101.

[00:17:11] Lauren: Depending on the class, I think our lowest was 12 and our highest was like 26. So kind of in that range.

[00:17:19] Member Ellen Kamei: Okay, super. Great,

[00:17:23] Member Ellen Kamei: thanks, council member Abi Koga.

[00:17:27] Member Margaret Abe-Koga: Yeah, I just wanted to, um, say thank you to staff for, for all of this, this lot of activity going on and, um, I appreciate the teen center being well used and, um, it seems like there is a lot good participation. So thank you for all of that. Um, I don't know if this is going off on the tangent, but you had mentioned the 2nd um, item was the meeting with the school districts and is that underway or are we thinking in the fall we'll start that up?

[00:17:59] Lauren: Yeah, so we um, we've met this year a few times and then we have a meeting at the end of this month. Again, we'll take a break in the summer and we'll probably have a meeting either late August or September again. So

[00:18:11] Member Margaret Abe-Koga: is that with staff, staff to staff? Yeah. Okay. Because, um, you know, in the past, we had, um, School trustees, we've invited them to join us in this committee to share, you know, updates on what's going on. And I would like to do that if we can. I think it was helpful. Um, you know, we have some school city issues actually quite a bit these days. Um, so that was a, you know, the idea was that we could reconvene this forum, for opportunity to have that exchange. So, um, if we could maybe look at doing that starting in the fall. That would be great. Thank you.

[00:18:58] Lauren: No problem.

[00:19:01] Member Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Um, so I have some questions and comments. I think council member, Abby Koga, was asked a question that I have on my mind, which is, you know, this topic is related to youth wellness, and I think it's wonderful that staff in the school districts and the partners in our community are meeting quarterly. I think that's something that we had encouraged, um, in this committee, um, for quite some time and it's great. I think perhaps adding it to the agenda would be helpful for us, maybe as a separate item to keep us like updated on, you know, be wonderful to hear like what, what they're doing and, and, um, you know, maybe that's something we can have in the fall and just having like an annual update from our school districts and and the programs that they're doing. Um, I don't know if committee members are open to that idea that I think that that would be helpful. And then, um, The other, um, kind of question that I had was, um, for our community partners, I think one of the things we realized when we prioritized as a council, youth wellness, is just kind of how many different programs are out there. I don't know if it's also an opportunity for us to get an update on what all of our like nonprofits and like healthcare providers are doing, and we could maybe get, I don't know if that would be part of this like youth wellness update. Um, or it would be like a separate agenda item, but I would be interested in that, particularly, you know, last week, I think council looked at the CDBG grants. Um, you know, when we often get budget requests from some of these nonprofits. I think it would be really helpful for us to get an update at least annually. I don't know if that's possible.

[00:20:50] Christine: Can I ask a clarifying question? Um, but the preference be for the community partners to come and present, um, similarly how we how we did it before when we were doing our, um, more of learning of what's available. Would that be an ideal situation or would it be preference for staff to provide the update? I'm

[00:21:11] Member Ellen Kamei: I'm open to like the committee's feedback. I just, I know that council gets budget requests from our different partners. And so, you know, I think I don't necessarily need like the PowerPoint that we've received in this committee before, but I think just like an annual check-in would be nice. I don't know Councilman reliever Councilman or Awaycogo. I don't know if you have thoughts, but I'd love to hear them. Counselor believer. Yeah,

[00:21:39] Member Sally Lieber: I would really value kind of a summary of what they have going on. Um, I don't want to make them feel like they have to put together a whole huge PowerPoint, but just kind of giving us the, the landscape of who's, who's providing um, services. Uh, would be, would be great and and very helpful. Great. Thank you, council member Abbe Koca. So

[00:22:10] Member Margaret Abe-Koga: I guess I, I'm, I would prefer to, if we can, and we can invite them. I know everyone's busy, but, um, I think it's important to just at least, you know, see folks once a year, especially if we're funding them. Um, to, you know, get a sense of what's going on and, right, just being transparent with our funding too, to to understand, um, how that funding is being used. Um, So, yeah, in all honesty, there's some organizations that I haven't heard from in years now, and I know the pandemic made things, um, challenging, but as we try to get back into normalcy, I think it would be helpful to actually have them join us at one of our meetings and hear from them directly. Great.

[00:23:07] Member Ellen Kamei: And so I think that would be. So, I think that the, I want to unravel that a little bit because I think that would be the, those that we fund, for the update, which I think, is what Counselor Abiko is saying, but I think when we were doing our research, There's a lot of different organizations that are out there. I would say maybe like on the staff level if you want to update us or I don't know. I mean, um, Because I think maybe mental health awareness month, us hearing from a lot of providers about what they're doing related to like wellness for youth, um, it would just be great to have an opportunity to hear and like the update. Um, but I think Kazamaraba Koka brings up a break point, which is there's others that we actually fund with city dollars, which would be nice to have a touch point at least once a year to hear about. Um, And I don't know, I think those are kind of a little bit 2 separate things. So I don't know, maybe staff can work to unravel that a little bit.

[00:24:09] Christine: Yeah, and the funding partners were speaking of the ones that are the CDBG funding, correct?

[00:24:14] Member Ellen Kamei: Okay, all through review. Well, those are the ones, those are the ones that come to mind, but I think organizations like Chat don't, I think that's like a separate budget line item. So I would actually think that maybe reach out to finance because that comes. I think some of our funding actually came from like our ARP dollars. Um, Okay. Yeah. Does that sound good to you, uh, counselor Robert Koger and Council member Leaper, to get an annual update from those that we fund? Okay.

[00:24:46] Member Margaret Abe-Koga: I could add, um, you know, MVPal. I'd love to hear from them too. Oops like that. I guess we kind of fund them, right? They were more internal, but that would be I think that'd be really interesting to hear from them. Great. Thank you. Council member Leaper. Yeah,

[00:25:06] Member Sally Lieber: I think, um, is it would be great if we had the understanding with them that we don't want them to, like, we're not rendering judgment on whether or not they should be funded from, from this committee. So, um, they wouldn't need to have like an hour long PowerPoint to prove what, how many unduplicated cases they've worked with and, um, et cetera, but just kind of, uh, a base touch for, um, information I think would be very helpful. Yeah,

[00:25:39] Member Ellen Kamei: great. And I think we try to tend to, I think, schedule these committee meetings to be an hour. Um, but I think too, perhaps we can, if staff doesn't mind kind of sending an, an, maybe an update of like the youth wellness stuff just so that the whole committee can get a refresher. Um, I think that that would be helpful. Um, if that works. Great. Okay, any other questions or comments on this item?

[00:26:11] Christine: I just want to say thank you to Lauren for all of her hard work with providing teen programs. Lauren has been with the city of Mountain View for just over one year and has already accomplished a lot with us, so we're very fortunate to have her. Um, and I appreciate the programming that she's developed. It's very unique and different and really cater to what the teams are looking for. Yes,

[00:26:33] Member Ellen Kamei: I'm sorry. I got so excited thinking about what else we can do. Lauren, thank you. I, these programs are incredible, and I think one of the other really great things is staff has been so proactive on social media to reach out to the youth. I've like really noticed an uptick. And I think it's really great to see how we're meeting our youth where they're at, which is like, you know, on TikTok, on Instagram, everywhere, and um, I think that's been really great, and it's just, it's exciting. I just think this is really great. So thank you. Thanks for that reminder. Council member reliever.

[00:27:08] Member Sally Lieber: Yeah, and I think it's just so valuable for youth to have a venue that's outside of school. That's a completely different venue where they can get skills and express their their leadership and, um, you know, I still remember my youth group. advisors and I'm still in touch with them. And um, it's just, it's just really, really important as part of belonging to the community. So I really appreciate everything that you're doing.

[00:27:42] Member Ellen Kamei: All right. So I'll bring this to public comment. Do we have any comment? Okay, I am not seeing any. So I'll close this item and bring it back to committee for item 7, which are committee, staff comments, questions, and committee reports. No action will be taken on any questions raised by the committee at this time. Um, but we can still bring anything up. Yeah,

[00:28:07] Greg: I'll give you guys some updates real quick on what we're working on. So our summer session is coming soon. So, registration numbers for camps and classes are fantastic. Not full yet of like all accounts, but there's definitely room and some of them. Um, you know, parents still have about a month before summer starts and we we get raw until we're really excited about that. Um, last Thursday, we had our 1st spring park pop up at Wyandotte Park. So we had just over 75 families come and enjoy. We hired like a contractor that did bubbles and he's been at our all our most similar events recently. Arts and crafts, chalk, um, DIY kites. So that was pretty cool event. Um, it's next, our next one is next Thursday at Wyandott Park. No, not at Windott. Where is it? Um, Climb Park. I'm so excited about that. And then the rest of our busy season is coming, concerts on the plaza, starting next month, every Friday night through September, 6 o'clock to 730 concerts. Lauren and I will be doing movie night starting in July. Uh, kids talk, May 21st on the plaza. So we're, we're staying busy, getting ready for the community. Christine, anything else?

[00:29:43] Christine: I think you've got all of the events. Um, we are in the process of um, getting very close to 2 park openings. Um, one of which is Mora Park. Um, it's a smaller mini park. I'm located on Ortega Avenue. We're just waiting right now for some gates. Once the gates are installed. We can go through the playground inspection process and hopefully pass and open that park. And then the 2nd one is Pyramid Park. It's getting very close as well. We're planning on doing a soft opening as majority of the park elements. We'll be in place. Our playground equipment is stuck on a boat. Um, and so we do need for me to wait for it to come into um, Harvard and go through customs and everything. And so, um, we're going to try to get the park, um, majority opened, um, for the public and then we'll do a true grand opening celebration once the playground equipment is installed. So stay tuned. I'll be reaching out to each of you for your availability as well as the rest of the council members. for both of those events. Um, but we're very excited. We're really getting the feel that, um, the community is excited about our programs and our events. And as Greg highlighted, We have really strong enrollment right now. We had a very successful multicultural festival on March 26th. Um, and we feel that uh, we're, we have some really good momentum. So moving in the right direction.

[00:31:13] Member Ellen Kamei: Great. Thank you. Does any committee member have any questions about these staff updates? Okay. Sounds good. All right. Um, I just had a quick question. Um, so, I know that our, our youth have helped us work towards, um, being pronoun inclusive as well as, um, working on a, uh, transgender visibility day. I believe that's coming up in June. I was just wondering if there's, um, anything else that the, that yak is foreseeing doing or anything council can do be supportive of that.

[00:32:01] Christine: That is a great question. I'm going to look to Lauren 1st to see if there's any any conversations from the advisory committee related to this topic.

[00:32:09] Lauren: We had a conversation last fall. Um, I asked them, um, as well as some of the members that come to the team center just how we can make the space more inclusive. Um, we, um, there used to be 2 staff bathrooms. One of them now is a gender neutral restroom. Um, we have the vens in the women's, then we have that gender neutral restroom. Um, and then we have a few different places around the teen center where we have, um, um, inclusive posters up with a little note that say, um, if you have any ideas how we can be more inclusive. Please let us know. So we're working to try to make the space of the team center as inclusive as we can.

[00:32:44] Member Ellen Kamei: Wonderful. That's great to hear. Thanks for that update. I know that, that, that was a, something that they brought up last year, so I just wanted a little update. awesome. All right. Uh, do we have any public comment on the item 7? Okay, I don't see any. So we can move on to item 8 our adjournment. Does that sound good at 437 PM? Thank you to stop. This is really exciting. Okay, thank you, all good.

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