Youth Consortium
BACKGROUND: The East Palo Alto Youth and Young Adults Serving Agencies Consortium (EPAYYASAC or Youth Consortium) was established in the summer of 2004 by One East Palo Alto and four partner agencies in fulfillment of requirements for a major umbrella grant awarded by Peninsula Community Foundation. It currently includes several nonprofit partners representing local youth and young adult serving agencies, Ravenswood City School District, Sequoia Union High School District, One East Palo Alto, and the City of East Palo Alto (EPA) Community Services Department. In addition, a mapping project funded by the PCF grant and conducted by Marsha Pendergrass, identified over 60 local agencies who claim to serve EPA youth and young adults.
Through discussions that established the EPAYYASAC, as well as those taking place during bi-monthly meetings during the last two years, the identity of the Youth Consortium has been defined and refined. The sections below describing identified needs, mission and vision statements, and goals represent important components of the Youth Consortium’s identity. Identified Needs:
• Identifying where to refer youth and families.
• Muscle power with high schools
• Increased familiarity with existing resources
• A common/shared youth development model
• Better coordination of services
• Improved mechanisms for sharing information
• determining how to add new services and or models in the community
• establishing a continuum of services
• ability to speak with one voice regarding youth programming
• improved capacity to do the work
EPAYYASAC Mission: The mission of the East Palo Alto Youth and Young Adults Serving Agencies Consortium is to share with one another our collective best practices and resources for serving youth in East Palo Alto (EPA). We will focus on sharing organizational information, and strengthening organizational capacity.
EPAYYASAC Vision: East Palo Alto youth and young adult serving programs and agencies coming together to work toward the following common goals:
• making sure that we have influence on the types of youth programs being funded,
• making sure that funding continues to be provided for youth programs,
• making sure that EPA youth have the best possible programs, and
• making sure that the all the needs of EPA youth are met.
EPAYYASAC GOALS: Following are goals associated with the work of the Youth Consortium:
• Share training information and resources.
• Access past youth and community development efforts and processes. Learn about past community/youth mapping efforts. Develop a repository of information.
• Plan the structure and for continuation of the Youth Consortium regardless of players and funding.
• Establish a community wide youth plan. Include evaluation and review of past plans, adopt and implement.
• Share information about each agency and program at each meeting.
• Enable youth involvement in process. Of the goals listed above, that of establishing a community-wide youth plan has been given the greatest attention.
Significant efforts have been conducted to achieve this goal, but more needs to be done. For example, the evaluation of existing programs in East Palo Alto by fall of 2004 generated much discussion around the development of a Shared Future Youth Development Plan that focuses on youth and young adults between the ages of 12 and 24. The following areas were discussed:
• Creating a comprehensive youth plan
• Establishing common languages
• Consolidating meetings
• Leveraging larger grants
• Developing programs for youth & Young Adults to become part of a larger community
• Working together to help each other
• Establishing working relationships between school districts, the City of East Palo Alto and youth based organizations
Subsequently, the Future Search conference held in March 2006 produced areas of focus for a community-wide youth plan, as well as committees assigned to implement objectives developed for these focus areas. Follow up on the work of the Future Search process is underway, Proposed EPAYYASAC Sustainability Structure and Activities:
• Create a steering committee of seven members, including representation from the Sequoia Union High School District, City of East Palo Alto, Ravenswood City School District and One East Palo Alto. This committee should begin to determine the consortium's long-range goals.
• This committee should report to the Youth Consortium membership.
• Seek financial sponsorships from the City of East Palo Alto and the Sequoia Union High School District to pay for a part time coordinator.
• Create an organization membership fee structure for Youth Consortium.
• Establish a Youth Consortium office to serve as a clearinghouse for collection and exchange of information among Youth Consortium members.
• Hire a coordinator (at least .5 FTE) to oversee and coordinate Youth Consortium activities, staff the steering committee, staff the Youth Consortium meetings, send reminders of meetings to Youth Consortium members, maintain and update the youth serving agencies contact information list.
• Produce and distribute a monthly calendar of events (including grant application deadlines) related to children, youth, and families