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National League of Cities Youth LeadershipTF~E CITY OF DUB UE Masterpiece on the Mississippi MEMORANDUM May 29, 2007 TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager SUBJECT: National League of Cities Application for Technical Assistance - Municipal Leadership for Disconnected Youth Housing and Community Development Director David Harris recommends City Council authorization to respond to a request for proposals for National League of Cities technical assistance in support of youth leadership development activities. David Harris proposes a collaborative sponsorship of this initiative to include the City, the Greater Dubuque Community Foundation and Mississippi Valley Promise. This project is designed to complement the activities of the Shared Vision project, a federal application recently submitted by the Community Foundation. This has been designed as a pilot project to increase partnerships, build capacity and integrate services and resources to improve outcomes for youth ages 14-21 who have been involved with the child welfare/juvenile justice system. t concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council approval. ,'2 , (~' i Mic ael .Van Millige MCVM/jh Attachment cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager David Harris, Housing and Community Development Department Director Mary Moothart, Executive Director, Mississippi Valley Promise Nancy Van Milligen, President and CEO, Community Foundation of Greater Dubuque THE CITY OF DUB E Masterpiece on the Mississippi 22 May 07 MEMORANDUM To: Michael V,a\\n Milligen, City Manager From: David Horns, Housing and Community Development Department Re: National League of Cities application for technical assistance - Municipal Leadership for Disconnected Youth Introduction The purpose of this memorandum is to request the City Council's authorization to respond to a request for proposals for NLC technical assistance in support of youth leadership development activities. Discussion The National League of Cities, through their Institute for Youth, Education and Families (YEF Institute), is offering an opportunity to request technical assistance to focus on the needs of "disconnected youth." Specifically, the RFP calls this an "Initiative to engage mayors, city council members, state municipal leagues and partners in building cross-system collaborations and implementing effective strategies to re-engage disconnected youth." We are proposing a collaborative sponsorship of this initiative to include the City, the Greater Dubuque Community Foundation and Mississippi Valley Promise. This project is designed to complement the activities of the Shared Vision project, a federal application recently submitted by the Community Foundation. This has been designed as a pilot project to increase partnerships, build capacity and integrate services and resources to improve outcomes for youth ages 14-21 who have been involved with the child welfare/juvenile justice system. Specifically, we are requesting NLC's technical assistance to help train youth in leadership and civic engagement; disseminate information on successful national models to improve transition outcomes; develop `navigational tools' for youth; and develop successful strategies to increase private-sector business and industry opportunities for system-involved youth. Three to six cities, nationally, will be competitively selected to participate in an 18-month project. Selected cities will receive YEF Institute assistance in developing and implementing action plans tailored to each community's needs. Action Step The action requested of the City Council is to submit the attached narrative application to the National League of Cities for YEF Institute technical assistance. att National League of Cities Institute for Youth, Education and Families Municipal Leadership for Disconnected Youth Proposal Narrative 1. What does the City-ted cross-system collaboration for disconnected youth look like in Dubuque? Which key stakeholders are engaged and involved; who else should be involved? An application recently submitted to the Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning, for a Shared Youth Vision project -Iowa Phase III funding, describes the collaboration currently in place in Dubuque. The application was sponsored by the Greater Dubuque Community Foundation, in partnership with the City of Dubuque and Mississippi Valley Promise -the local America's Promise chapter for Dubuque County. It represents a vision to expand local efforts of the State-wide network of agencies working to improve youth outcomes -the Iowa Collaboration for Youth Development (ICYD) - through a pilot project in Dubuque County. Other partners in this project will include the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau; the Iowa Division of Criminal and Juvenile Justice Planning; the Youth Policy Institute of Iowa; and the Iowa Department of Human Services. Locally, Dubuque's support network is informally led through the efforts of the Community Foundation, Mississippi Valley Promise, Dubuque County Human Services, the City's Community Development Department, County Extension- AmeriCorps Program, Workforce Development Center, State of Iowa Juvenile Court Services and Department of Correctional Services, the Dubuque Community School District, Northeast Iowa Community College-Downtown Learning Center, and a coalition of service providers, educational and health institutions and local government agencies known as the Friends of the Community. Dubuque's key stakeholders are represented in this coalition. What is requested in this proposal to NLC's Institute for Youth, Education and Families is assistance to better develop a means of communication and coordination of service delivery to system-involved youth. The goals for the Shared Youth Vision project include the following: a. Align policies and coordinate resources and efforts to effectively address complex youth related issues and achieve shared results. b. Build the capacity of local youth-serving systems to improve their services and collective ability to achieve shared results. c. Work collaboratively across systems so that all youth have access to the services, opportunities and supports they need to become engaged citizens. What is needed is abetter-established, coordinated and financially-sustained working coalition to committed to achievement of these goals. 2. What aspects of the disconnected youth problem are of particular concem? What additional data are needed? Of particular concern is the target population of youth ages 14-21 who are involved in or have aged out of Iowa's combined child welfare juvenile justice system. Statewide, approximately 3000 youth enter this system each year, either because of neglect and abuse or through adjudication hearings for delinquency cases. More than 5000 Iowa youth in this age cohort are in out-of-home, foster care placement each year. In 2006, less than 60% of Iowa youth in foster care were reunified with a parent within twelve months of their home removal. Nearly 500 of these young people "age out" of Iowa's system each year at age 18. These "system-involved youth" face numerous obstacles and challenges. Many have health and mental health problems; they frequently struggle in school and too often do not complete high school, and have little or no family support to help them access resources and navigate the transition to adulthood and indepen- dence. Research studies conclude that these young people fare much worse than other youth in a host of outcomes, including education, employment, health and housing. It is clear that coordinated efforts of multiple systems are needed to improve results among this population, including greater efforts to engage families and communities in supportive efforts. 3. What is the existing coordinating body currently in place to support and encourage cross-system collaboration for disconnected youth? How will this existing capacity be enhanced through the proposed NLC program? Iowa's shared youth vision team has been operating as the Iowa Collaboration for Youth Development since 1999. Agencies within ten State departments representing all the major public systems addressing the needs of more than 625 000 Iowa youth and young adults (ages 6-21) actively participate in ICYD. A policy level steering committee of agency administrators and a work group of State program managers comprise the core collaborative team. This team will work with the existing network of Dubuque public-private coalitions - sponsored by the Dubuque Community Foundation, the City of Dubuque and Mississippi Valley Promise -- to implement the Shared Youth Vision project. This will increase partnerships, build capacity and integrate services and resources to improve youth outcomes. This local network, supported by the YEF Institute during the proposed 18 month NLC project, will complete a specific sustainability plan to identify resources and develop financing strategies. This plan will support continuation of efforts and expand the Shared Vision approach. Existing capacity will be expanded through inclusion of private business and industry leadership in the Dubuque service delivery network. We propose to use YEF technical services to help to devise strategies for recruitment of area corporate interests to sponsor shared vision activities. We must involve and sustain the involvement of the private sector in order to access the resources it can provide to system-involved youth. A successful strategy will demonstrate the value to these business leaders of providing opportunity to young persons, both as a means of gaining employees and to directly address quality-of-life issues for this population of under-served youth. 4. What are other steps we propose to take in the next 18 months to re- engage disconnected youth? The following key activities will be implemented as part of this project: a. Establish and broaden amulti-sector partnership to focus on addressing the needs of system-involved youth in the community, and reduce fragmentation and barriers to services, through collaborative efforts. b. Assimilate system-involved youth into leadership and decision-making roles to help inform local efforts, giving youth a voice in decisions affecting them. c. Build capacity for facilitating youth-centered planning and development of individualized courses of action and comprehensive transition plans for system-involved youth, through adopting the child welfare family team meeting approach. d. Engage private sector partners to increase access to community resources and opportunities for youth, especially in the areas of work experience, job shadowing, career exploration and other employment- related opportunities. e. Improve and integrate strategies and services to prepare system- involved youth for adulthood by connecting them with positive role models in long-term relationships. f. Develop a sustainability plan to identify resources and formulate financing strategies. 5. How can technical assistance from the YEF Institute enhance and strengthen our efforts to implement this planning? YEF assistance will include the following a. Training of local neighborhood leaders, youth advocates and other volunteers in promoting youth engagement and youth-centered planning activities. b. Leadership and civic engagement training for all youth participants. c. Dissemination of information from successful national models for improving transition outcomes for system-involved youth. d. Assistance in development of "navigational tools" for youth, for use in identifying and accessing local services and supports. e. Assistance in developing outreach strategies and actions to increase private-sector business and industry opportunities for system-involved youth; including successfully implementing career exploration, job shadowing and work experience and other employment-related activities.