Vermont Coalition of Teen Centers

2006 Fall Quarterly Meeting

Northern: Common Ground, St. Albans, 10/25/06

Southern: Brattleboro Boys & Girls Club, 10/26/06

Attendance

Northern

The Living Room, St. Johnsbury: Derek Murphy

B&G Club of Burlington: Jeff Thompson

Williamstown Teen Center: Cheryl Rouleau

Common Ground, St. Albans: Colleen Kelly-Kestenbaum

Milton Family Com. Center: Jeff Hess

Vermont Works For Women (Rosie’s Girls): Jennie Date

Winooski Teen Center: Erin O’Neil

Future Middlebury Teen Center: Paul Forlenza

The Hub, Bristol: Gerrie Heuts, Ena Backus

Swanton Teen Center: Cindy Cook

VCTC: Trevor Tait

Southern

B&G Club of Brattleboro: Ricky Davidson, Beth Baldwin-Page, Danny Hescock

B&G Club of Brattleboro, Bellows Falls Unit: Ellenka Wasunz-Lott

B&G Club of White River Valley, Northfield Unit: Tony Moulton

B&G Club of White River Valley, Randolph Unit: Felicia Dieffenbach

Right Foot, Springfield: Vanessa White

VCTC: Trevor Tait

Teen Center Tours

Northern: Common Ground

o Colleen gave a tour of the center, which is on the second floor of the St. Albans Recreation Department Building. The newly renovated space has; a main room with snack bar, lounge area, café tables, and stage; a homework room with computers and teen council office.

Southern: Brattleboro Boys & Girls Club

o Ricky gave a tour of the Brattleboro Boys & Girls Club. The center is housed in an old parking garage giving it the a lot of room and many different spaces including: snack bar, lounge area, indoor basket ball court, indoor climbing wall, indoor skate park, computer room, bike shop, activities room and music room.

Announcements, Updates, Discussions

2006-2007 CBI Grant

o Applications out, deadline Monday November 13^th 4pm (the WCYSB office is closed on Friday 11/10).

Teen Center Check-in (North)

• St. Albans stopped using florescent lights and found that youth disturbance levels dropped considerably. Reorganization due to stigma attached to old teen center.

Teen Center Check-in (South)

o Bradford Teen Center had dramatic increase in attendance this fall, reasons unclear.

Current Issues Discussion (North)

• Youth Diversity: how to facilitate attendance of variety of youth populations (academics, athletes, artists, etc…)
• St. Albans has gotten great diversity by placing the responsibility to make the center welcome to all on the teen council. But, the center is challenged with special needs youth attending. How to handle situation (including adult helpers) when center does not have capacity, and situation affects center environment. Generally discussed that center’s mission is to provide safe place for teens, governed by teens. It does not have the responsibility to serve all teens. Communication with parents and aids to clarify center’s role and how limited attendance, or other avenues can meet the needs of the youth.
• Murph in St. J, is in schools a lot as part of his job and notes that outreach is very successful at increasing diversity.

o Parents

• Cheryl in Williamstown has had parents of some youth be especially challenging with some showing a lack of concern or responsibility for their children. She also struggles with getting volunteers.

Current Issues Discussion (South)

• Enhancing girl attendance.

o Vanessa of Springfield notes that Right Foot activities are very boy heavy, and what are some strategies to encourage girls to attend. Some ideas explored were; having women facilitators and role models lead or participate in center activities; canvas girls as to what they would like to see the center offer; other centers have had success with having same sex activities (boys only and girls only). Noted that girls want different activities than boys such as discussion groups (talking about their changing bodies i.e. periods or social issues).

Presentation/Discussion: Asset Based Community Development

• Trevor presented the topic of Asset Based Community Development.
• The basic concept is to look at your community as a collection of assets and people with gifts, and what concerns do they have that are important enough for them to act on; rather than a community with a set of needs and deficiencies to which external resources and solutions are to be applied.
• The approach is local in scope, relationship driven, and internally focused.
• Rather than looking for what you need, find out what the community has. Not only as resources but also as motivation to make changes or act.
• Teens themselves are a huge asset and having teens participate, or better, lead the outreach strengthens the effort.
• There are several web sites that have much more information.
• http://www.northwestern.edu/ipr/abcd.html
• http://www.mike-green.org/

Next VCTC Meeting

• The next VCTC quarterly meetings will be held in early January. Stay tuned for more information.