MINUTES

Blueprint for Mansfield’s Children

Leadership Work Group Meeting #2

Thursday, July 24, 2008

Mansfield Town Hall, Council Chambers

5:30-7:30 PM

PRESENT: K. Grunwald, F. Baruzzi, S. Baxter, M. Sieve, R. Mocanu, T. Berthelot, S. Renfro, R. Fields, K. Russo, J. Osleeb, B. Tanner, M. Capriola, C. Guerreri, M. Barton, M. Baker, J. McLaughlin, S. Zacharie, J. Greene, L. Young, J. Stoughton, R. Miller, G. Bent, M. Perkins

REGRETS:  M. Feathers, M. Kelly, P. Michalak, M. LaPlaca, K. Paulhus

Item	Discussion	Outcome
Dinner, Announcement, Minutes	The meeting was called to order by Co-Chair T. Berthelot at 5:50 PM; members introduced themselves.  The Chair reported that the recommendation is to have a consistent person keep the minutes at meetings, and requested a volunteer to do this.  The minutes of the June 19 minutes were reviewed. S. Baxter announced that we have received a formal notice of the award of this planning grant in the amount of $40,000 for the period July 1, 2008- June 30, 2009.  This will include supports such as institutes and training, starting with training on “Results Based Accountability.”  She asked for 3 volunteers to attend this training, and a handout on RBA was provided. Participants should represent the Town, BOE, providers, etc.  C. Guerreri said that the state is using RBA model, and it would be beneficial for communities to begin using it as well in order to work better with the state. This is an approach that we will be able to utilize in other venues.  M. Sieve echoed the value of this training.  S. Baxter asked for feedback on the format of the agenda.	Gloria Bent agreed to take minutes from now on.  K. Grunwald will take minutes for this meeting. Minutes approved as written. Anyone interested in attending this training should contact Sandy. Future agendas should include a reflection of where the LWG is in the process.
Review Project Time Line	S. Baxter referred the group’s attention to the proposed time line.
What Do We Know About Mansfield?	M. Capriola provided a brief overview of the Mansfield 2020 strategic planning process and current status.  This is a community visioning process that identified 9 key vision points for the community.  A wide range of stakeholders were involved.  The draft plan will be presented to Town Council on Sept. 8, and they will then prioritize the action items.  K. Grunwald reviewed the Action Items that relate to early childhood and education.  M. Capriola pointed out that many of these vision points will require collaboration with other organizations. -What has been learned in the MAC committees so far?: CT Parent Power has provided training on conducting 1 on 1 parent interviews identifying gaps, vision, etc.  The goal is to complete 30 interviews, and the next step is to pull information together from that process.  Anyone who is interested can be interviewed; esp. parents.  25 interviews have been completed thus far. - Infant/Toddler group: This group has explored the enrollments, waiting lists, and the needs in Mansfield’s early care settings? M. Sieve asked why there is a distinction between Mansfield residents affiliated with UConn or not affiliated. The answer is that UConn needs to assume a role if the needs are primarily for UConn faculty/staff.     - M. Sieve started by asking the question: why is everyone here: Identify what the problems are; are there children not ready by 5 and fine by 9, and if so, why not? Try to link all of the distinct, stand-alone assets in a more cohesive way for children birth-8 in Mansfield. Make sure that steps being taken will have a positive impact on all children and families. Link assets in a deliberate, planful way. Do some perception checking; are people’s needs being adequately met? Increasing awareness of the needs; educating the whole community about needs, and what the resources can support.  How can existing resources help individual families? Ultimately we will improve the well-being of children and families as individuals but also as members of the community; make sure that we have the resources and they can be accessed without barriers.  What do we know? Reputation that this is a good community to raise and educate kids. 562 families with 740 children under the age of 6; these are the people we want to impact.  This is a finite number of families that we should be able to reach to survey. Some of these families feel isolated from each other; don’t feel supported, esp. families of very young children (prior to entering the school system). Families in need here are much more difficult to find. There is a lot of cultural and educational diversity among families. Families of young children are looking for activities to connect with each other.  Combination of not enough and not knowing what’s available, how accessible is it (time, transportation, flexibility on a drop-in basis etc.). A lot of transient families who will be here for a short period of time. We do not have a proper town center that facilitates meeting people; very few neighborhoods; community center is not seen as a resource to help individuals to connect with each other. Limited family housing on campus. Census data does not separate out UConn students, and many of them are “long-term transients.” Getting older; growing economic gap between families who can afford to live here and those who can’t. Need to develop an inventory of the resources that are currently in place. Families in need are much more difficult to identify than those in urban areas.  These are the people who have the least ability to take advantage of available assets.  There are 149 families on the Section 8 program; the majority with children. Programs and services need to be more integrated and visible within the broad network of the community; accessible. There is a need for a level of cultural sensitivity as to what families need and want; what works for everyone.  Transportation is an impediment, which is part of living in a rural area.  Third Thursday is an example of how people can come together. Library programs are free, and drop-in is a plus for families People feel safe No neighborhoods, bike paths, sidewalks Community Center geared toward teens; times are inconvenient; not a sense of community Town is becoming less affordable for moderate income families There are organizations that can help to identify families that are difficult to reach Festival on the Green is well attended, but only annual	Contact Sandy if you know of anyone interested in participating in one on one interviews. As we move through the next few months these expectations will be modified with input from the community.
Learning More About the Issues	-What do you need in order to learn more about the issues and how they impact Mansfield’s children and families?  The timeline indicates how this will take place.  We will continually solicit feedback from members of the community.  By Nov. /Dec. we should be able to determine if there is more information that we need.  For the plan to work it needs to be owned by a broad representation of community members.  -What data/information would you like to have?: Inventory of resources/assets; what is available? What is the ability to access medical care, dental care, transportation, etc.? What is the affordability of existing resources? What are the demographics of our community? Where are people located, and how long have they been here? Transportation # of families in DSS programs # of children participating in town activities -Who are the people (individuals and groups) that you need to talk to? Housing Authority can distribute information through their Section 8 housing program; many of these people are not from this area. -Who, on the LWG, has access to this data/information/people? J. Osleeb: CT State Data Center F. Baruzzi: Public Schools: Free/Reduced Meal participation data; immunizations; health data; 3 year old screening Town Dept. of Human Services: NANC data; # in School Readiness programs; # participating in Holiday Party (including contact info) Early Childhood Center: info on children in program Housing Authority: data on families in housing Birth to Three: families they serve 2-1-1: services families are seeking; childcare enrollment data; childcare costs data Health Department: Blood/Lead levels of children	Need to identify what we all know, and what the information is that we have access to and to what end are we collecting the data.
How Do We Organize this Work?	Large group or small group? Co-Chairs discuss options with the group; how best to proceed? The size of the group is somewhat unwieldy; we could break down into smaller groups to have this discussion. M. Sieve agreed to compile all of the data that we collect and present it to this group for analysis.  A suggestion was made that we need to learn how to gather data effectively; M. Sieve will be the one to do this. We need to first identify what it is we’re trying to find out; the issues need to be identified.  RBA: what are the indicators that will tell us how close we are to achieving this result, what are the strategies that we need to employ to achieve that result? We need any data/information you may have that can help provide a context around the state of Mansfield’s children Birth-8.  We are collecting aggregate information on kids, not individuals.	· Email any data that you have to S. Baxter by 8/7. · A small group will look at data and send it to the full group in Aug.: K. Grunwald, M. Sieve, R. Mocanu, J. Osleeb, S. Renfro, C. Guerreri (email) The question is: what info do you have to provide context of families with children birth through 8 in Mansfield? · Please get this to Sandy by August 7^th · Small group will meet during the week of August 11^th.  K. Grunwald will organize.
What Do We Want to Achieve by 8/28	Discuss what we want to accomplish to move the work forward by the August meeting.	· Craft a results statement to define the rest of the work.
Next Steps	Action Plan for the next month.  Who will do what?	· S. Baxter will email the Discovery website address to all members, and R. Mocanu will post on blog. · Data Group will meet and disseminate their findings. · K. Grunwald will explore community asset mapping software. · Members will get back to S. Baxter with their interest in participating in the RBA training. · Members will continue to think about assets in the community to support families with young children.
BLOG	Raluca Mocanu distributed copies of the BLOG she created recently and gave some tips on how to use it.  The intention is for this BLOG to be used by this LWG only as a way of locating information and discussing it.  At this point, if there is something you would like to add to the BLOG, please send  to Sandy or Raluca	BLOG Address: http://leadershipmac.blogspot.com
Using Available Resources Graustein Workshop	Sonya Renfro and Raluca Mocanu participated in a Graustein workshop on July 15^th called:  “Community Planning and Decision Making:  Strategies to Achieve Results”.	Both felt it was a wonderful opportunity to network with other communities involved in this work at many different stages and build connections.  Strategies discussed were about systems thinking and change within systems and the need to get as many parts of the community involved as possible. Identifying promising practices:  what’s here and what’s needed-build on what we have.  Developing a comprehensive community structure with people who have a stake in the results.  Implementation of strategies:  all must be ready to change or alter their roles.
Next Meeting	Meeting adjourned at 7:55 PM. Next Leadership Work Group Meeting – August 28, 2008, at 5:30-7:30PM in Town Hall, Council Chambers.  Light dinner available.	Please RSVP to help with food count.  Thank you.

Respectfully Submitted,

Kevin Grunwald