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Minutes of the Steering Committee Meeting

11th Meeting

January 09, 2007 1:00 – 02:30 pm
Banff Avenue Community House

Present:

1.     Mike Justinich, Crime Prevention Ottawa
2.     Sara Dwyer, Coordinator Russell Heights Community House
3.     Matt Perkins, City of Ottawa
4.     Kevin Shantz, City of Ottawa
5.     Mohamoud Abdulle, Youth Services Bureau
6.     Leslie McDiarmid, Manager BBBF and Community Services
7.     Constable Eddie Wong, Ottawa Police Services
8.     Abid Jan, Project Coordinator, No community Left Behind Project, SEOCHC
9.     Sylvie Manser, Banff Ave. Community House Director
10. Sue Skinner, South Ottawa Community Legal Clinic

Regrets:

1.     Maria McRae, City Councillor
2.     Superintendent Charles Bordeleau, OPS
3.     Eileen Dooley, Vice President, Community Services, United Way
4.     Nick Zeis, City of Ottawa, Parks and Recreation.
5.     Florence Brake, Ottawa Community Housing
6.     Scott Bradford, Executive Director, Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa
7.     Andrea Thompson, Confederation Court Community House Director
8.     Cst. Jason Arbuthnot, OPS
9.     James Williams, Board member SEOCHC (Chairman)

1.    APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA

Agenda was approved as presented.

2.    APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES FROM October 31, 2006 MEEETING

Minutes from October 31, 2006 meeting were approved as circulated.

3.    NCLB PROGRESS REPORT

Abid Jan presented progress on the youth component assessment and planning phase and on implementation of the work-plan since November 1, 2006. A summary of the progress is as follows:

a)    Community multi-cultural dinners are in progress at all four communities. In 1455 Heatherington, special breakfasts are being regularly held to attract more tenants to meetings for discussion of community safety and development related issues.

b)    Community participation in Russell Heights is very encouraging. Staff from the Children’s Hospital (CHEO) are also participating and plan to regularly join community dinners to provide information sharing sessions for the residents. A list of important topics has already been developed and prioritized in consultation with community leaders. CHEO staff plan to undertake similar outreach sessions in other communities as well. NCLB activity plan has been shared with CHEO staff.

c)     Csts. Eddie Wong and Jason Arbuthnot, who have replaced Csts. Mario Bergeron and Lisa Briggs, are still in the introductory phase. Csts. Wong and Jason have already attended community dinners and Christmas events at Banff Community.

d) As part of the planning phase for youth component of NCLB, partner organizations have held several meetings. The last meeting was held with Scott Bradford and Kim Seguin on December 8, 2006. In the December 8, 2008 meeting it was decided that:

i.    Due to budgetary and program constraints Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa will not shoulder the burden of coordination at this time. Nevertheless, the lack of effective coordination of youth programming in South East Ottawa will be kept in mind so that partners may continue to focus on this need and look for opportunities to fill the gap.

ii.    The Boys and Girls Club will continue the bus pick-up service for youth in Banff and Confederation Court, and look into the possibility of including Blair Court in the program as well.

iii.    As a first step towards effective coordination, it was suggested that information about youth activities in South East Ottawa should be complied in a way to give a better picture of the opportunities currently available to different groups. The suggested template is available at: http://www.nocommunityleftbehind.ca/youth_prog.htm Information about the available programs in this template will be regularly updated and linked to the concerned agencies web-sites for additional details.

iv.    This working group will meet on a quarterly basis to monitor progress on the youth component.

v.    At this meeting Directors of the four community Houses requested Boys and Girls Club to take the lead in providing direct youth programming(12 & Up) in or near their neighbourhoods.

e)    Tenants’ Association elections in Banff and Heatherington communities are planned for January 25 and 23, 2007 respectively.

4.    Partner’s Reports

Ottawa Police Services

a)    Cst. Eddie Wong, who took over from Cst Mario Bergeron briefly described his introduction to the community so far. He informed the committee that Cst. Jason Arbuthnot could not participate in the Steering Committee meeting due to a court date.

b)    Both officers are still working different shifts. However, they will soon begin the routine of working together and will meet the community members in various activities organised under NCLB.

c)     Cst. Wong may now be accessed at the same cell phone number which Cst. Bergeron used. Whereas Cst. Arbuthnot may be reached at the cell number formerly used by Cst. Briggs.

Boys and Girls Club

Abid Jan informed the committee on behalf of the Boys and Girls Club that the Boys and Girls Club would continue to offer direct programs in South East Ottawa and would work closely with NCLB partners.

The Boys and Girls Club would continue the bus pick-up service for youth in Banff and Confederation Court, and look into the possibility of including Blair Court in the program as well.

Other programs offered by the Club will include summer leadership camps, transportation to leagues and other activities at the Club’s facilities. It will also continue the ongoing homework clubs as long as the houses do not receive funding from United Way for continuing this program on their own.

The Boys and Girls Club will look into effectively utilizing the available community assets, such as local school gyms, for youth programming. In this regard, the Club will seek help from its Board, the NCLB Steering Committee and Councillor Maria McRae’s office. Organizing local activities will also provide the assigned officers from Ottawa Police Service the opportunity to build relationships with local youth.

Kim Seguin will attend future meetings.

Banff Avenue Community House

a)    Sylvie Manser, Director, Banff Ave Community House, expressed full satisfaction with all the ongoing activities and level of community involvement. She informed the committee that the House has hired a program coordinator for children and youth related activities. The newly hired coordinator works 20 hours a week. Programs for youth are improving greatly. Sylvie said, “we have partners coming to the table and putting money where their mouth is which helps the programs reach their full potential”.

b)    Sylvie Manser explained in detail the working relationship with the City of Ottawa Parks and Recreation and how this particular partnership is working together to respond to community issues. Back in 2004, with the strong support of Councillor Maria McRae, this new approach to city services came about. City staff met with Sylvie and addressed the gaps in services for the Banff community. Once the priority age group was identified (7-12yrs of age) the program coordinator and Sylvie planned how to offer cost-shared activities. Another key factor to the partnership was providing free on site programming. Usually, the City does require cost recovery programming, however, the City re-evaluated the impact its services could make to at risk neighbourhood in the Banff community and decided this was not required. Obviously the cost sharing arrangement minimized the expenses and all benefited, especially the participants.

c)     Youth continue to request some kind of organised sport league and tournament like activities. This continues to be looked at buy various programmers.

d)    Members of the Steering Committee thought that this was an exemplary model which could be used in other at risk communities.

Russell Heights

a)    Sara Dwyer informed the committee that the Community House is shuffling things around with regard to youth programming. She said the new youth staff required some kind of orientation. The committee suggested she get in touch with Boys and Girls Club for training.

b)    Homework club activities are in place and French homework assistance is now offered twice a week.

c)     NCLB-related activities are going well and community participation is increasing. She expressed her satisfaction with the work done in collaboration with partners.

City Parks and Recreation

Matt Perkins from City Parks and Recreation described how closely working with Banff Community House and jointly running various youth programs has led to a successful partnership. Mr. Perkins and Ms. Manser have implemented staff and cost sharing arrangements for running effective youth programs. Several examples were shared with the committee where the City either provided staff and the community house arranged for the program funding and vice versa. This approach to partnership maximizes the mutual value of investment.

Kevin Shantz from Dempsey Centre told the committee that presently he was not able to offer as much programming as was occurring in Banff. The committee suggested that the City and other partners might be interested in looking into the pattern of working relationship between the City Staff and Banff Community House. If the model is workable, it could be implemented elsewhere as well for leveraging resources (staff, funding, space) which has always been a constraint. It was suggested that Abid should organize a meeting of the concerned staff from the City and Community Houses to look into this model and make recommendations before proposing it to the City for other areas.

Youth Services Bureau

Mohamoud Abdulle updated the committee about all youth activities, specifically highlighting youth Reading Club activities on Tuesday and Wednesday nights. He invited the Ottawa Police Service staff to these and the youth council meetings.

Funding update

Leslie McDiarmid updated the committee about the funding status. SEOCHC is still awaiting a response from NCPC. A proposal is under consideration with the United Way for providing short-term coordination support. Another proposal has been forwarded to Telus through the United Way for activity funding. Community Foundation has also referred this program to a potential donor. World Vision has expressed interest in looking into supporting the neighbourhood restoration component of the NCLB initiative. Ministry of Children and Youth (MCYS) is planning to fund staff positions for youth outreach activities in Ottawa. It is anticipated that those positions that are designated to South-East Ottawa will be mandated to work closely with the NCLB.

Decisions

1.     All community Houses, Boys and Girls Club, Youth Services Bureau and the City Staff from Albion Heatherington, Jim Durrell and Dempsey facility to provide information about the ongoing youth activities, age group, venue ad other relevant information so that Abid can develop a summarised catalogue of information (at this link: http://www.nocommunityleftbehind.ca/youth_prog.htm) and share it with all the communities in south East Ottawa.

2.     Cst. Eddie Wong will get in touch with Cst. Lenny Vaz and follow up on the football coaching issue which he brought to the committee at a previous meeting.

3.     Abid will organise a meeting to study the working relationship between the City of Ottawa and Banff Community House.

4.     Abid will also follow-up with Councillor Maria McRae’s office about the project/funding which she mentioned would be forthcoming after the municipal elections.

6. Adjournment:

The meeting was adjourned at 3:00 p.m.

Next Meeting: Tuesday, March 6, 2007
1 p.m.
Location: Banff Avenue Community House.

Tel./ Tél: (613) 737-5115 Ext. 403 Fax/Télé: (613) 739-8199 TTY/ATEM: (613) 739-819