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.
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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.