We had 15 people who stayed after the Non Profit Forum's "Deep Partnering" workshop on March 20, to talk specifically about working together to serve youth.

Some highlights from the conversation include:

• Partnerships and collaborations require deep listening as they are complicated processes
  
• Shared culture and/or shared goals are important starting points
• Any partnerships should play to our strengths
• Collaboration allows us to address gaps in services in new ways
  
• Communications and networking continue to provide opportunities to learn from each other and plant the seeds for future collaboration

Thanks to the following organizations who participated: City of New Haven Board of Aldermen, Clifford Beers Clinic, Easter Seals Goodwill Industries, Music Haven, Neighborhood Music School, New Haven Family Alliance, New Haven Free Public Library, Solar Youth, United Teen Connection, and Youth Continuum.

We had a highly successful Summer Summit on Wednesday, March 25, a half-day conference to support youth-serving programs and organizations in preparing fun and effective programming for youth this summer.  

The Summit was hosted by Gateway Community College, and the event opened with welcoming remarks from the Dean of Academic Affairs. Mark Kosinski.  Mr. Bill Graustein and the City of New Haven were sponsors.  

Approximately 75 people attended, representing youth-serving organizations, various departments within City of New Haven and area businesses and community resources for youth.  

We honored Deb Stewart, long-time community leader in promoting positive youth development.  Ms. Stewart works as the Director of the Youth Development Training and Resource Center and champions many youth development programs and activities in our community.  Also honored were Paul Hammer of BEEEP! and Sharon Henninger of United Teen Connection, for their long-standing volunteerism on behalf of New Haven's youth.

We have posted photos of the event.

YOUTH AS LEADERS at Casa Latina, operated by Easter Seals Goodwill Industries

Neighborhood and Ages Served: Primarily Hill neighborhood middle schools, with high school volunteers

The Youth as Leaders Program at Casa Latina is an after school and summer program for middle school students that focuses on academics, leadership development, civic engagement, artistic expression and career exploration.

Youth as Leaders is based on serving a small group of youth and serving them well.  We always ask youth for their input for our activities and work to develop their skills.  We build strong positive relationships with youth and families in traditional and creative ways. 
 
One of our most successful projects was The Experience Project, where we partnered with the Channel 1 Collective, the City of New Haven and the Mayor's Community Art Grant to create a mural based around the word Experience.  Our success can be viewed in the Acme parking lot between State and Church Streets on Crown Street.  Our youth had a blast and have left their mark on New Haven in a positive way.  Our focus on arts has produced theater and dance performances, an anti-violence comic book and various visual arts projects.  Our leadership development component uses PeaceJam and Overcoming Obstacles curriculum to teach life skills and service learning.  Civic engagement projects have included a neighborhood clean-up and making Halloween goodie bags for the homeless shelter on Sylvan Avenue.  Our dedication to our youth's education is evident in our daily homework time.  Career exploration is a component of almost every project--we want our youth to know that there are a lot of options for them, come high school graduation day.  But really, what we do best is love our youth and help them develop into citizens for tomorrow.

Monthly coalition meetings are held the third Wednesday of each month at 10 a.m to 12 noon at New Haven Family Alliance, 370 James St, 2nd Floor.

The next member meeting will be Wednesday, April 15 from 10 a.m. to 12 noon.

Please come and invite your colleagues.

NOTE: We do not meet in July and August.