MINUTES

BLUEPRINT FOR MANSFIELD’S CHILDREN

LEADERSHIP WORK GROUP MEETING

            Thursday, June 19, 2008,

Town Hall, Council Chambers

5:30-7:30PM

Present:  J. McLaughlin, M. Perkins, J. Stoughton, A. Bladen,                           F.   Baruzzi,

 K. Grunwald, M. Sieve, T. Berthelot, M. LaPlaca, M. Feathers, M. Baker,

 G. Bent, L. Young, B. Fields, K. Paulhus, R. Mocanu, B. Tanner,                   M.  Kelly,

S. Baxter

 Regrets:  C. Paulhus, K. Russo, C. Guerreri, J. Greene, M. Capriola,

 M. Barton, S. Renfro, S. Zacharie, J. Osleeb

Desired Outcomes:  Introductions-members will introduce themselves to the group and tell one thing they would like to get out of this experience

Members will become aware of the purpose of the planning grant

Members will have an understanding of the grant process

Members will understand MAC’s oversight role with the grant

Members will have an understanding of their function in the process of this grant

Members will meet the consultant and have an awareness of her function in the process

Members will make a selection of the Chair Co-chairs for the Leadership Work Group  

WHAT	HOW	WHO
Opening Dinner What members hope to get out of this experience and what they hope to share	-Welcome: Members introduced themselves and gave reasons they are motivated to work on this plan. Reasons covered a broad range: To alleviate feelings of isolation parents of children Birth-3 experience  themselves and their children, especially those with special needs, to find ways to make transportation more responsive to needs of community, to find ways to develop a plan for participation of all people in the community, especially those who are not usually involved, to find a more unified progression for B-school age so that school staffing can be more effective and so that there is a smooth progression for the children as they transition from early care to public school, to fill gaps in services to support families, to find ways the BOE can support the schools and families in the community for children’s’ success, for members in services to children and families to become a better resource for their clients, to represent the voices of families not often represented-alternative voices or voices of those underrepresented, to find out about resources for young children, to be a better resource for families needing section 8 housing, to help fill the gap of services for children 3-5, to find ways to work more effectively with UCONN, to identify ways the CT Girl Scouts can support families in this region, to encourage all parents to use all resources to develop good literacy skills, to work toward a seamless process for children Birth to Kindergarten and beyond, to make the most of all of the talents at this table for the benefit of all of Mansfield’s children.	All members
Planning Grant Review	Kevin reiterated that this is a ‘planning grant’.  Part of the process will be a needs assessment to understand the needs and the present resources available.  Data and information collection to identify needs and to identify resources will be a big part of this work. Implementation is not part of this phase.  The intention is to link this plan up with the Town Wide 2020 strategic plan, that connection will make the implementation a more realistic possibility. This grant funding represents a unique partnership between State of CT and the Graustein Memorial Foundation.  At present the State budget is on hold, but we plan to move forward because of the short time span for this work (12 mos.)and because we want to know what we can do to support families in Mansfield.	Kevin Grunwald
MAC	Anne clarified the role of the Mansfield Advocates for Children in this plan.  MAC is the overseeing agent and champion of the plan.  Sub committees of MAC who have been working on gathering information/data that would prove helpful to this plan will be reporting to the LWG especially the Infant/Toddler ad Hoc group and the MAC Parent’s Committee. The minutes and updates will be shared with MAC.  Access between both groups will remain open.	Anne Bladen, Chair of MAC
Plan Consultant	Malia is our Planning Consultant and she will be here to facilitate our process.  She encouraged us to remember that the plan must be owned by our Community and those around this table.  This time line represents a very tight timeframe in which to accomplish the amount of work necessary to achieve the results we are looking for. She is delighted to know that two important pieces of work have already been initiated: MAC’s two sub committees’ work (Infant/Toddler and Parents), and the Town-Wide 2020 strategic plan.  This work will need to be put into the information we gather and we will need to digest that and see how it fits into the whole.  This is a great deal of data/information still to be collected in the next 4-6 mos. She is here to keep us on task and focusing on the time line.  She will be working with the co-chairs, Sandy and Kevin to be able to guide the LWG with questions and developing agendas.  She will be developing instruments for focus groups, surveys to inform what we want to learn through these tools.  She will share what the Community Results Center has learned as they worked with other Discovery communities around data analysis, and common needs assessment.  She was staff on the original State Early Care and Education Cabinet and staffed the Early Care and Education Research and Policy Council so she is intimately familiar with the goals and hopes of that group.		Malia
Group’s Function- Charge of  Leadership Work Group	See pink sheet “Charge of the LWG”:  This is a job description for this group.  This group is considered a steering committee/ oversight committee responsible for moving the work along.  We will link back to the MAC council and connect with the 2020 Town-Wide strategic plan as well as the Board of Education and the Town Council.  Expectations for members are:  Be at all meetings, maintain contact with Malia and Sandy and co-chairs, be a Champion for the group, be a leader and take responsibility for the work of the LWG.  You hold a broader vision and deeper understanding of where the group is going. Malia is the Consultant to facilitate the actions of the group. Sandy is the project coordinator and liaison with Graustein and MAC (Sandy and Anne meet regularly with Graustein liaison and MAC) Kevin is a liaison with other offices in Town like the Town Manager and Town Council.	Kevin Grunwald
-Chair Selection -Calendar -Contact Sharing	Joe M. recommended that a parent be either the chair/co-chair as a leader who is most impacted by the work of the group.  Discussion and nominations followed and the group chose co-chairs:  Raluca Mocau and Terry Berthelot Blogging was discussed as a way for the LWG to communicate.  The blog would be closed to the LWG at this time and may be open to others at another time.  Raluca has worked with blogs and will work with Sandy to have it ready for the next meeting on July 24^th.  Kevin recommended that Raluca and Sandy talk to Jamie the Dir. Of the Town I.T. Department. Sandy requested the right to share LWG members contact information (mailing address, phone, email address) with all members of the LWG.  There were no objections.	Sandy
Adjournments	Meeting was adjourned at 7:30PM	Sandy