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Minutes of the Steering Committee meeting
12th meeting

Date:   Tuesday, March 06, 2007
Place: Banff Community House, Banff Avenue, Ottawa
Present:

Sara Dwyer, Coordinator Russell Heights Community House

Matt Perkins, City of Ottawa

Michael S. Pranschke, Supervisor, the Children’s Aid Society

Pat Murphy, Councillor Maria McRae’s Office

Inspector Al Burns, Ottawa Police Service

Kevin Shantz, City of Ottawa

Mohamoud Abdulle, Youth Services Bureau

Leslie McDiarmid, Manager BBBF and Community Services

Constable Eddie Wong, Ottawa Police Services

Abid Jan, Project Coordinator, NCLB, SEOCHC

Sylvie Manser, Banff Ave. Community House Director

Maria McRae, City Councillor

Superintendent Charles Bordeleau, OPS

Florence Brake, Ottawa Community Housing

Kim Seguin, Boys and Girls Club of Ottawa

Cst. Jason Arbuthnot, OPS

Shaun Simms, TCW, Ottawa Community Housing

Regrets

Mike Justinich, Crime Prevention Ottawa
Sue Skinner, South Ottawa Community Legal Clinic
Andrea Thompson, Confederation Court Community House Director
Eileen Dooley, Vice President, Community Services, United Way
Nick Zeis, City of Ottawa, Parks and Recreation
James Williams, Board member SEOCHC (Chairman)

Call to Order:       The Chair called the meeting to order at 1:00 p.m.

MINUTES

1. It was moved and seconded

That the minutes of the meeting of the NCLB Steering Committee held on Tuesday, January 9, 2007, be adopted as circulated.
CARRIED

2. NEXT COMMITTEE MEETING DATE

The next meeting of the Committee will be held on Monday, May 7th, 2007 at 1:00 p.m. at Banff Community House.

3. PROGRESS UPDATE
(Oral Report)
Abid Jan reported on the following matters from the past two months:

(a) Progress at the Community Level:

New Tenants’ Associations are in place in Banff and Heatherington communities.

The Community dinner activities are well-attended and going well in Russell Heights, Banff, and Heatherington communities.

The special breakfast activity in 1455 Heatherington was also well attended.

In the Confederation Court community, ensuring community participation is a bit challenging. Despite that, meetings are regularly conducted and police officers participate regularly.

A special safety meeting was held at Russell Heights community on February 27, 2007.

Because of the consistent meetings of the NCLB-established forums, other agencies are taking full advantage of this opportunity to reach the community.

Doctors from the Children’s Hospital (CHEO) regularly visit community dinners at Russell Heights and engage the community in information-sharing and formal presentations.

Other partners who take advantage of these forums include Big Brothers/Big Sisters, Election Canada, Social Planning Council, University of Ottawa, and OCH.

(b) Progress at the City Level:

Presentation by Professor David Hawkins from Washington at City Hall on January 16, 2007 scientifically validated the effectiveness of the approach adopted by NCLB.

Superintendent Charles Bordeleau and the NCLB Project Coordinator made a presentation at a forum in Vanier, where residents, Crime Prevention Ottawa, a local counselor and some other agencies have expressed interest in launching an initiative for crime prevention through a social development initiative.

A representative from NCLB will attend follow-up meetings for mutual learning and information-sharing.

(c) Program progress:

Work on the youth component of NCLB is in progress. A working group meeting was held on March 1, 2007, to discuss a model for effective coordination of the Community Houses, City of Ottawa Parks and Recreation, and other youth service providers. Sylvie Manser and Matt Perkins shared details with the committee.

Versaterm, Inc. provided financial support to NCLB through Ottawa Police Service. This funding will be utilized for continuing community mobilization activities in Russell Heights and Confederation Court.

(d) Information sharing:

Abstracts have been submitted for sharing the experience of NCLB at the United Way’s Sharing our Strengths conference and also at the Association of Ontario Health Centre’s annual conference in June 2007.

(e) Identified needs

There is a need to look into the status of CEPTED audits of the Heatherington, Confederation Court and Russell Heights communities. A follow-up is needed to find out if their recommendations are still valid so that concerned partners can be mobilized for necessary action for implementing the recommendations.

Banff Avenue Community is advocating for Neighborhood Watch signs to be posted although they do not have 50% or residents signed up. It is unlikely that 50% of the residents will sign the application forms. The Tenants’ Association is doing its best to mobilize the community for signing more application forms.

4. PARTNERS’ PROGRESS REPORT

YOUTH SERVICES BUREAU (YSB):
Mr. Abdulle reported that the Youth Council at Banff regularly meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. The “Reading Club” activity is in progress and members of the Council plan to submit a proposal to United Way for its continuity.

CITY OF OTTAWA PARKS AND RECREATION:
Matt Perkins informed the members about the activities and management of the outdoor rink. Under the new strategy, the focus is not only on proper preparation and management of the rink but also on increasing youth involvement.

OTTAWA POLICE SERVICE
Cst. Arbuthnot, accompanied by Cst. Wong, provided an update on their progress since they took over from Cst. Briggs and Cst. Bergeron towards the end of 2006. Cst. Arbuthnot reported:

- The two officers have visited every community house and met with House Directors and tenants several times.

- Reports from OPS and OCH security confirm that Banff is quiet right now. According to OCH security statistics, calls for service are at the lowest in the last number of years.

- Russell Heights is also quiet. It has problems but nothing major. One arrest was made.

- Confederation Court has drug problems and a few troubled units. The officers are in the preliminary stages of information collection and pro-active policing.

- The officers have focused their energies in 1455 Heatherington for the past two months. They visit the building and walk down from floor to floor both in uniform and in plain clothes. People have problems. They are threatened, buzzed in and harassed. The Community Newsletter has published the officers’ names and contact details. The building gets busy towards the end of the month when people receive checks. The officers have targeted a few individuals but enough information is not available to lead to arrest warrants as yet. The officers had a 3-hours long meeting with the community on January 30, 2007.

- The officers have met Crime Stoppers and planned do have an information session on how to take advantage of the Crime Stoppers program in each community, beginning with 1455 Heatherington.

- The officers met John Dube, head of OCH security and a few other security officers. A Proposal for a joint patrol is under consideration.

- OPS is planning on doing follow-up on calls to OCH security as well.

- Trespassing notices do not come to the notice of OPS. OCH security will be sharing this information with the two officers from now onwards. This will help fill the vacuum between the OPS and the OCH security.

5.   YOUTH PROGRAMS AND PARTNER COLLABORATION MODEL FOR SOUTH EAST OTTAWA

Mr. Perkins and Ms. Manser shared progress on the recommendation from the January 6, 2007 Committee meeting about studying the working relationship between the City and the Community House. The committee was told about the meeting held on March 1st, 2007. Ms. Manser informed the committee about the conclusions of the meeting:

The participants agreed that that the high priority need to address is the effective coordination among all service agencies for outreach, communication, and information sharing and coordinated programming. Meaningful interaction with the City Parks and Recreation is another area that needs to be addressed.

The participants agreed to form a sub-forum of the NCLB. This will be a network of the community houses, the City and other service providers to regularly meet and work under the broader umbrella of NCLB to focus on children and youth related issues effectively.

The sub-group titled “Children and Youth Service Network” will report progress to the NCLB Steering Committee.

Representatives from all the Community Houses (Banff, Russell Heights, Confederation Court, Blair Court), the recreation facilities (Dempsey, Jim Durrell, Heron Road Centre, and Heatherington), BBBF, Boys and Girls Club and Youth Services Bureau will be invited to a subsequent meeting on April 2, at 9:30 am, at Banff Community to further brainstorm and come up with a coordination model that will serve all stakeholders well.

YOUTH PROGRAMS FUNDING OPPORTUNITIES

Telus Funding through United Way:
A proposal was submitted to Telus from United Way on behalf of the youth component of NCLB. Abid Jan briefed the Committee about the proposal and the concept and approach of the initiative, which would support Youth Councils being formed in the four communities. Banff already has a Youth Council. Similar Councils will be established in Confederation Court, Heatherington and Russell Heights in collaboration with Youth Safety Net to engage youth in positive competitions and presenting the positive aspects of youth in these communities. Achievement awards will be given. At the same time a positive ticketing system will be introduced in South East Ottawa with slight variation from the work that is currently being done in Richmond BC and Scarborough, Toronto. Abid Jan will be sharing information with concerned partners to further discuss feasibility and planning for the “positive ticketing.”

New Youth Outreach and Youth Employment positions at Boys and Girls Club and YSB respectively:
Ms. Seguin briefed the committee about the newly funded positions. Complete details of the program outline are not yet known. Ms. Seguin promised to update the committee after her planned visit to Toronto.
Presently the area covered by this outreach component of the initiative does not include Russell Heights. Members expressed concerns about excluding Russell Heights. This will be discussed further when more information about the program is known.

6.           FOLLOW-UP ON THE DECISIONS OF LAST MEETING
Progress on the decisions of the January 9, 2007 meeting was reviewed.

Section on Children and Youth program activities in five communities is now available on the NCLB web site. It will be regularly updated and further improved.

A sub-group meeting on youth issues and an effective model for coordination and communication with the City and among all service providers has already taken place. The next meeting is scheduled for April 2, 2007.

Councillor Maria McRae was busy in the City budget issues and has not yet communicated information about the project she promised for announcement after the municipal elections in November 2006.

7.         DECISIONS

OPS will look into the possibility of Neighboorhood Watch status for Banff Community.

CPTED audits for Heatherington, Confederation Court and Russell heights will be revisited to assess the needs for follow-up.

Abid 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.

Abid will also share information about the concept and approach of Positive Ticketing with the committee members to make further progress towards introducing the program in South East Ottawa under the upcoming youth program.

ADJOURNMENT
Moved and seconded. Meeting adjourned at 2:30pm. Carried.

Next Meeting Monday, May 7th, 1 pm at Banff Community House.

Tel./ Tél: (613) 737-5115 Ext. 2403 Fax/Télé: (613) 739-8199 TTY/ATEM: (613) 739-819