Application for Summer USDN Fellow Copyright 2014
City of Dubuque Consent Items # 12.
ITEM TITLE: Application for Summer USDN Fellow
SUMMARY: City Manager recommending approval of an application for
a summer Fellow to be placed with the Human Rights
Department to support My Brother's Keeper Network.
SUGGESTED DISPOSITION: Suggested Disposition: Receive and File; Approve
ATTACHMENTS:
Description Type
Application for Summer USDN Fellow MVM Memo City Manager Memo
Staff Memo Staff Memo
USDN Application Supporting Documentation
THE CITY OF Dubuque
UBE I
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Masterpiece on the Mississippi 2007-2012-2013
TO: The Honorable Mayor and City Council Members
FROM: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
SUBJECT: Application for Urban Sustainability Directors Network Fellow to Support
My Brother's Keeper Network
DATE: March 17, 2016
Human Rights Director Kelly Larson recommends City Council approval of an
application for a summer Fellow to be placed with the Human Rights Department. The
intern will support the My Brother's Keeper Network in its efforts to prevent summer
learning loss amongst youth in grades K-2.
If selected, the City will receive funding for one dedicated full-time summer fellow to
work on local projects 40 hours a week for approximately 12 weeks during the summer
of 2016. The individual will receive a $7,200 stipend, two-thirds of which is paid by
Urban Sustainability Directors Network ($4,800) and the remainder of which is matched
by the City ($2,400). Funding for the City's match is available in Sustainable
Community Coordinator Cori Burbach's budget for interns.
I concur with the recommendation and respectfully request Mayor and City Council
approval.
Mic ael C. Van Milligen
MCVM:jh
Attachment
cc: Barry Lindahl, City Attorney
Cindy Steinhauser, Assistant City Manager
Teri Goodmann, Assistant City Manager
Kelly Larson, Human Rights Director
THE CITY OF Dubuque
DUB E N'�Amiii itI
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Masterpiece on the Mississippi 2007.2 12 I'3
TO: Michael C. Van Milligen, City Manager
FROM: Kelly Larson, Human Rights Director
DATE: March 15, 2016
RE: Application for USDN Fellow to support My Brother's Keeper Network
The purpose of this memorandum is to forward for your approval an application for a
summer Fellow to be placed with the Human Rights Department. The intern will support
the My Brother's Keeper Network in its efforts to prevent summer learning loss amongst
youth in grades K-2.
Background
In the fall of 2014, Mayor Roy Buol joined over 100 communities across the nation in
accepting the "My Brother's Keeper" Community Challenge. In December 2014,
Inclusive Dubuque and Every Child Every Promise co-hosted a community summit with
the City of Dubuque and a group of local partners to announce the acceptance of the
challenge. The following organizations came together to form the Dubuque My
Brother's Keeper (MBK) network: The Boys & Girls Club, Clarke University, the
Dubuque Black Men Coalition, Dubuque Branch of the N.A.A.C.P., the Dubuque
Community School District, St. Mark Youth Enrichment, the Dubuque Dream Center,
Loras College, the Multicultural Family Center, the University of Dubuque, and
Northeast Iowa Community College. I serve as the Mayor's representative and
convener of the group.
In June 2015, the MBK network released an action plan focused on three MBK
milestones:
1) All children reading at grade level by third grade — the MBK network works to
connect youth of color who are not reading at grade level to resources and
supports.
2) All youth graduate from high school — the MBK network works to connect youth
of color at risk of dropping out to resources designed to keep them in school
through graduation.
3) All youth out of school are employed — the MBK network works to connect youth
of color to resources that will help them prepare for and obtain summer
employment.
The network spent the remainder of the year learning about available resources and
best practices around supporting the success of youth of color and low income youth.
For summer 2016, the network is focused on connecting youth of color in grades K-2
who are at risk of not reading at grade level by third grade with summer enrichment
activities, and connecting teen and college aged youth of color to opportunities to build
employment skills.
Discussion
On March 7, 2016, Sustainability Coordinator Cori Burbach received notification from
the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) of the 2016 USDN Building Diversity
Fellowship. The fellowship is an opportunity to host a full-time summer fellow to help
advance inclusion goals related to sustainability and to support emerging leaders who
may bring new perspectives and potentially diversify the field of local government
sustainability practitioners. If we are selected, we will receive funding for one dedicated
full-time summer fellow to work on local projects 40 hours a week for approximately 12
weeks during the summer of 2016. The individual will receive a $7,200 stipend, two-
thirds of which is paid by USDN ($4,800) and the remainder of which is matched by the
City ($2,400).
Sustainability Coordinator Cori Burbach and I discussed this opportunity and potential
local connections, and ultimately agreed that I would present this at our monthly MBK
network partner meeting on March 15 for consideration. I shared this opportunity with
the partners who helped to identify needs that could be met by a summer fellow and
create the parameters for a fellowship. I put together the attached application based on
input from Cori Burbach and the MBK partners, including St. Mark Youth Enrichment.
The details are set forth in the attached application, which will be submitted by the due
date of March 18, 2016.
Budget Impact
The budget impact will be a match of$2,400, which is available in Sustainability
Coordinator Cori Burbach's budget for interns.
Action Requested
The action requested is that you approve us moving forward with this positions if we
receive funding for the application that will be submitted on March 18, 2016.
cc: Cori Burbach
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USDN Member Name: Cori Burbach
Jurisdiction: Dubuque, Iowa
Title of Fellowship: My Brother's Keeper Grade Level Reading Fellow
What would the fellow accomplish during the summer fellowship?
In 2015, the City of Dubuque achieved a 4-STAR rating under the STAR Community
Rating System. A noted area for continued improvement included increasing the
percentage of students reading at grade level. See
http://www.citVofdubuque.org/DocumentCenter/View/23753. Additional areas for
improvement included workforce readiness, equitable service delivery, and the need for
community wide plans related to both poverty and equity. This fellowship will be
intentionally designed as a pilot demonstration of practical ways that sustainability
directors can leverage local government staff and funds to support community based
programs focused on achieving more equitable outcomes in three areas: 1) grade level
reading; 2) workforce readiness; and 3) equitable service delivery. The results of the
pilot will be shared with Inclusive Dubuque, a network of nearly 60 individuals and
institutions working to further equity and inclusion in Dubuque, see
http://inclusivedbg.org/.
In order to promote culturally competent implementation of the fellowship, the City will
work collaboratively with the Dubuque My Brother's Keeper (MBK) Network. The
network was formed in late 2014 when Mayor Roy D. Buol accepted the President's My
Brother's Keeper Community Challenge. The network is specifically focused on
connecting youth of color and low income youth in our community to opportunities to
raise grade level reading scores and to opportunities to develop employment and career
skills. See https://ia-dubugue2.civicplus.com/2268/My-Brothers-Keeper Partners in the
MBK network include local government, the local community foundation, public schools
and institutions of higher education, community based volunteers and service providers
actively serving impacted youth.
Grade Level Reading
One of our MBK partners, St. Mark Youth Enrichment, participates in the campaign for
Grade Level Reading and offers a Summer Heroes Academy with a morning program
serving youth in grades K-2 that includes opportunities to improve reading scores.
http://www.stmarkyouthenrichment.org/about-us. The fellow in this position will spend
30 hours per week serving on-site as a one-on-one mentor for students in grades K-2
participating in this program, with occasional support being offered to youth up through
grade 5. St. Mark staff will orient the fellow, identify youth in need of additional support
and at risk of not completing the program, and will assign the fellow to work directly with
those youth. Tasks will be focused on supporting both academic and social-emotional
development, and on identifying environmental barriers to continued participation. The
fellow will:
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• assist the teaching team with preparing and implementing lesson plans and
program activities,
• model appropriate behavior and encourage children to develop positive social
relationships (including settling disputes or arguments and providing
opportunities for socialization)
• work with a teaching team to develop and support the mental, physical, social
and emotional abilities of individual children,
• supervise the youth as they engage in structured, educational, and fun
programming
Workforce Readiness
The person serving in this position will develop skills necessary for the 21 sc century
workforce, including:
• hands on experience in a field related to their career choice
• experience working with a diverse range of students and professionals, including
(but not limited to) women and African-Americans in leadership positions
• the opportunity to reflect on and present what they have learned to a broad
group of community leaders
• culturally responsive teaching - the ability to learn from and relate respectfully
with people of your own culture and other cultures in an educational setting
• Program development and youth management and development
• How to identify ecological barriers to education
Equitable Service Delivery
As the fellow works with students, he or she will be asked to identify student strengths
and ecological barriers to student success. Throughout the summer, the fellow will
network with MBK partners to address barriers to the extent possible. The fellow will
write three reflection papers, each of which will begin with a challenging interaction with
a youth being served, identify barriers to success, propose one conceptual and one
practical resource that were or might have been employed to help overcome these
barriers, and identify personal competencies that either need further development or
were used to meet the challenge. The fellow also will describe in these papers how the
fellowship is improving their educational skill set, ability to work with youth, and
improving their cultural competence. These papers will be reviewed and commented on
in face to face meetings with at least three of the mentors listed below. At the end of
the fellowship, the fellow will share what he or she has learned in a 10 minute
presentation to MBK network partners and to Inclusive Dubuque, including
recommendations for improving the educational experience for youth experiencing
reading challenges.
Cori Burbach, City of Dubuque Sustainability Coordinator, will oversee the general
management of the fellow and will meet with him/her on a bi-weekly basis. Amanda
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Avenarius, Associate Director of St. Mark Youth Enrichment, will serve as the site
supervisor for the 30 hours per week that the fellow will spend at St. Mark Youth
Enrichment. Amanda will be responsible for tracking hours of work and deliverables at
her site and sharing that information with Cori Burbach. Kelly Larson, Human Rights
Director and Mayor's Representative for My Brother's Keeper, will be responsible for
tracking hours of work and deliverables for the ten hours per week that the fellow will
spend on professional development and on working with MBK network members and
mentors.
What skills and experience will you prefer in considering applicants? What
cultural competencies are required to fulfill this position?
Applicants who are pursuing degrees in elementary education or a closely related field
will be preferred, as will experience working with youth in kindergarten through second
grade. Applicants should demonstrate excellent communication skills and be able to
adjust methods to the needs of youth and demonstrate a positive respect for the dignity
and basic rights of children. Applicants should demonstrate curiosity and humility in
terms of their own cultural identity and the identity of others, including an awareness of
the ways in which their identity influences their own behavior and their expectations of
others. Applicants also should have an understanding of the disparities that exist in
student success in elementary education, and a demonstrated ability to build
relationships with people who are significantly different from them in terms of race,
color, ethnicity, life experience, or socio-economic status. Personal experience living
with limited financial resources and/or living or working closely in situations where the
applicant was in the minority in terms of race or ethnicity will be taken into
consideration.
Why is the fellowship needed, and how will you measure success of the
fellowship and project(s)?
Students enrolling in the St. Mark summer program must be willing and able to agree to
the five bullet points below:
• participate in the common elements of the St. Mark program without causing
disruptions due to inappropriate or unsafe behavior;
• Follow the instructions of the St. Mark staff;
• Respect self, others, and property;
• Stay with assigned group while in the school building and on learning excursions;
• Not act inappropriately or aggressively towards other students, staff, or guests.
This position would assist students who may have difficulty with these areas to increase
the likelihood they will successfully complete the program. Success of the project will
be measured based on youth completion rates and barriers successfully removed.
Success of the fellowship will be measured by asking the fellow to submit three learning
reflections that will be debriefed with an MBK network partner. Success also will be
measured by the extent to which the information shared with Inclusive Dubuque
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influences community equity plans and/or results in other institutions adapting the
internship model for their purposes.
What do you expect the fellow to gain from this opportunity? What other
resources or professional development opportunities would be provided your
fellow?
Experiential, reflective/analytic, and mentoring elements of this fellowship will all
contribute to the fellow's learning. He or she will have the opportunity to work directly
with youth in an educational setting and will learn to recognize and continue to foster
their strengths in order to develop both academic and social-emotional skills. The fellow
also will learn to identify environmental barriers to student success, and will begin to
develop an understanding of the necessity of networking not only to remove barriers for
the short term but also to raise awareness of the need to address barriers on a
structural level.
How do you plan to advertise this opportunity to attract applicants? Is this
different from how you advertise other opportunities in your office?
We intend to actively recruit from our local colleges for this position. MBK Network
partners include local colleges that have a total student population of 6,981 , and
approximately 1 ,000 of these students are students of color. In one partner institution,
nearly 30% of the students are domestic students of color and 37% of first year students
are first generation college students. This institution has committed to actively reaching
out to potential applicants and encouraging their participation. We will focus on
students majoring in education and related fields. This approach is different than how
we normally advertise because it includes networking with a group of professionals who
have actively demonstrated their commitment to ensuring youth of color and low-income
youth are aware of, and have access to, educational and employment opportunities.
Is your office committed to addressing equity and inclusion in your work? Please
offer specific examples.
Yes. As sustainability coordinator, I have continually advocated for equal attention to
the equity and social/cultural vibrancy elements of Sustainable Dubuque. I served on
the City of Dubuque Intercultural Competency Steering Team when that team was
developed in 2007, and transitioned to serving on the City's "ARSR" (Attract, Recruit,
Support, Retain) committee when that group was formed to focus on recruiting and
retaining a diverse workforce. I completed the USDN equity workshops in 2015, and
am currently investigating with the equity core team in our City how we might better
align our sustainability grant opportunities with efforts to advance equity.
In addition, this partnership demonstrates a commitment to equity and inclusion by
partnering with those who are working on the ground to deliver culturally competent
services. St. Mark Youth Enrichment demonstrates a commitment to equity by serving
our community's most vulnerable youth, particularly those attending Title I schools.
Student data for 15/16 school year programs: 48% Female, 52% Male; 81% eligible for
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Free or Reduced lunch; 31% are students of color with 20% identifying as African
American. Student data for 2015 summer program: 55% Female, 45% Male, 75% eligible
for Free or Reduced lunch; 47% are students of color with 30% identifying as African
American. St. Mark's philosophy is that every child deserves the chance to succeed both
academically and social-emotionally, and they set goals and measure progress for both.
They are committed to responding to the diversity of needs and learning preferences of
every student in their programs, and one of their strategies includes connecting students
to our broader community and vice versa. St. Mark staff also have demonstrated an
openness to continuous learning by partnering with racially and ethnically diverse board
members and service providers, some of whom are direct competitors for funds, in order
to collectively focus on delivering the most culturally competent services possible for all
of our youth.
How will your office provide mentorship for your fellow?
The fellow will be provided the opportunity to shadow professionals involved in a variety
of roles related to sustainability in the equity and social/cultural vibrancy realm. In
addition to spending time with the leadership team at St. Mark's, the fellow will spend a
minimum of 8 hours with each of the following people through the course of the
summer:
• Farris Muhammad, Multicultural Family Center Director. Farris completed his
PhD with a focus on resiliency in African American youth.
• Kelly Larson, City of Dubuque Human Rights Director. Kelly is a civil rights
attorney and has several years of experience in civil and human rights work in
the United States.
• Cori Burbach, City of Dubuque Sustainability Coordinator. Cori has a Masters in
Public Administration and several years of experience leading Dubuque's
sustainability efforts.
• John Stewart, Multicultural Family Center Board Chair. John also serves as
Special Assistant to the President at the University of Dubuque, has a PhD in
Communication Arts & Sciences, and expertise in effective interpersonal
communication.
In addition, the fellow will debrief three reflections with three different MBK network
partners as part of the mentoring process.
Is your office able to provide guidance on housing for the fellow?
Yes, by connecting the fellow to area college students seeking roommates.
Is your office able to provide requested matching funds, or are you requesting a
scholarship?
Yes, we are able to provide matching funds.
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