Background:
The Conway Community Advisory Group was formed as a result of the local
community protesting the City’s initial handling of privatization plans for the
Conway Recreation Center. That initial handling included no notice given to the
community about the plans, and refusal of the Mayor’s Office to meet with the
community to hear its concerns. In response, the community mobilized a public
relations campaign that resulted in the Parks Department attending a large
gathering (150+ people) to hear and respond to local concerns. The outcome was
a temporary stoppage to initial city plans, a new process to include community
input in selecting partners for public facilities, and the assignment of the
local neighborhood group to facilitate that new process. This included
responsibility to select members of an advisory group and to run the meetings where
the RFP (request for proposals) would be developed. The District 1 Community
Council took applications for membership on the advisory group and was
responsible for the final make-up of that group. The objective was to have
members that were representative of the immediate community – families who used
the facility, both renters and homeowners, those concerned about youth, elders
and the general public, and that represented the ethnic diversity of the
facility’s current users. The advisory group also included representatives from
Parks and Rec, the Library, and from Council President, Kathy Lantry’s, office.
Members were selected who were committed to an open community process, as well
as for their diverse perspectives. The development of the RFP was constrained
by City requirements, but reflected community values. We note here that, to our
knowledge, this model of involvement has not been applied elsewhere in the City
– yet.
Purpose of
this meeting: Four months into the year-long transition from public to private
management of the facility, it was time to update the advisory group on the current
status of programming and future planning for the Conway Center. This is a first
step in the on-going assessment of the partnership. Such an assessment by the
Community Advisory Group was a written requirement of the RFP.
Present:
Gjerde (Chair and facilitator), Van Patten, Rosbacka, Martin, Biales (Lantry’s
office), Wittgenstein (Senior Community Education), Spring (SP Public Library),
Korum (SP Parks), Whaley (SP Parks), Young, Staples, Peterson (SP Parks),
Herskovitz (Sanneh Foundation), Dollar-Simmons, Melendez, Turner, Ware, Leach
(scribe – D1)
Welcome
and reintroduction - Chair Kris Gjerde: The Chair welcomed attendees, briefly
outlined the purpose of the meeting and had members introduce themselves.
Update
from Sanneh Foundation provided by Tod Herskovitz, Program Manager. They are officially
in month 4 of the partnership and had told Parks officials that they would take
6 months to get lay of the land so they could see how the facility had been
used, could be used, and how it fit with their programming. They are in the process
of looking at facility upgrades and program related work, assessing scheduling
and facility use options. They have just initiated an AAU spring/summer
basketball program with 60 boys enrolled. This will be a traveling team. There
are two 14U teams and one 16U team that are meeting Tuesdays and Thursdays from
7 to 10 p. This program includes homework help as a part of the program. The
Foundation is looking at gym activities after the senior program finishes its
early-day activities. Some of the new programming includes adult soccer, an Hispanic
soccer league with 100 players. These activities occur between 2p-10p in gym Tuesday
through Thursday evenings. There is basketball for men between 20 and 30 years
old on Saturdays in a structured response to what was already happening. One of
the things that the Foundation is helping facilitate is a memorial tournament
for one of their friends who died – they will collect funds for donation to an
eastside charity in the friend’s name. As a part of their efforts to upgrade
the interior of the facility, they are holding a Comcast Cares Day, April 26. This
will involve volunteer engagement to paint the halls, lobby and part of gym to
paint with 50 volunteers from Comcast. They will then follow up with kids doing
some follow-up service. They are trying to prepare for summer – taking staff
from their Dreamline (school-centered) program to be at Conway full time in the
summer. They are working on a joint garden project with D1 and have made
initial inquiries with Urban Roots to work in the community garden. Question
regarding activities for Girls – they are working with Ebony from D1 staff to
bring more girls into the center (there is a challenge to keep older girls
engaged in physical activity at any center – girls activities tend to be
concentrated at Battle Creek). Question about family activities – They are
working on a foster care appreciation day that will include foster care
providers from Ramsey, Hennepin, Anoka, maybe Washington counties probably in
late August. Question about unstructured time - weekends tend to be drop in.
Question about total hours – They are open M-F 9a to 10p, and on weekends are open
10a-6p. Question about the success of the AARP tax program – They instituted
some rules that help control wait times and expectations. They are able to
assist about 15 people per evening.
Update
from Saint Paul Parks and Recreation - Kathy Korum, Gwen Peterson, Mike Whaley –
In response to the questions regarding girls’ participation, there are challenges
with older girls often needing to care for younger siblings. Whaley is the new supervisor
of this part of the recreation system. Rec Check is continuing to go with after
school programming here. As the transition is completed, there is a good chance
that Sanneh will take over this responsibility with a similar program. Basketball
teams have a history of being here. They are currently doing registration for
summer sports. Harding Area football has also had a long history here. They will
work out whether they will practice here or elsewhere. Saturday morning
football for 10U program is still a question of whether it will continue here
or go elsewhere (formal games will likely be at MacMurray fields or Jimmy Lee
where there is upgraded artificial turf; practices will continue on the
eastside – just where needs to be determined). Park staff will start a dance
class here in a few weeks (an instructor is coming from MLK center). They are
also trying to tie in with Eastview or Battle Creek or Daytons Bluff centers.
The preference currently is for football to be on the artificial turf.
Wittgenstein
and Korum updated the group on senior activities. There has been some
reshuffling of space and movement of some activities to Battle Creek. There
continues to be some uncertainty about how things are going to work out, and
some expected discomfort with changes in what has been routine. One of the
biggest issues is the need to have schedules set far in advance in order to
meet publication deadlines for Community Ed (and Parks) catalogs. This need is
conflicting with the Foundation’s need to recognize and understand how to best
schedule programming for the entire facility. Communication is identified as a
key to success for all efforts.
Update
from Library - Leslie Spring. The hope is that the new library will be open in
September, ahead of initial schedule. This will mean that the Conway facility
will be closing down sometime in the summer so that staff can assist with the
move back. At Conway, the library brought public wifi and internet stations to
the building. They are working with Public Arts SP on the reading garden – a space between
Conway and the library where the new children’s area will open to outside. At
Conway they are open M through Thursday from 10:30a to 7p, with hold for pick
up on books, cds and dvds. They have a computer lab and classes on site – attendance
at these seems to be picking up with cross use from the on-site senior
programming. They have homework help from 4-7p with work study and volunteer
tutors helping 10-15 regulars and with families coming in, including some new
faces. There are 30-40 people per day coming to the location. Job search help
is available with free printing offered (since no money can be handled at this
location. There is no faxing available (but this can happen at D1 office when
it is open). They see about equal numbers of boys and girls in homework help.
Discussion
- Question and answer period;
Is
programming for the local community? (this was a concern of the Advisory Group
when it was developing the RFP) and how is it advertised? For the new basketball programming, it is word
of mouth advertising at this point. Sanneh had not specifically supported teams
before, such as the Hispanic team, but they will be providing coaching training
and certification. They are trying to support and improve what was already
happening here. NOTE: a later question came back to the issue about local
community participation and how that was tracked. The Advisory Group is asking
that it be supplied with that data.
Is Parks
sending Right Track workers to Sanneh this summer? (a youth job program through
Parks) They have submitted an application and Parks will make sure that they
get some of this help.
Is Sanneh
still collecting used sports equipment? Yes – they are sending equipment to
Haiti and to the Dominican Republic. There is a chance that Parks can supply
some used equipment, but there should be communication about any drive to
collect it.
Comment -
Drop in programming is appreciated, not just structured programming; it is good
for kids to organize themselves.
What
other Community Ed sites are near by? BC is the overflow and seems to be
working out. Eastside HUB center has drivers safety classes for the summer with
limited parking. But it doesn’t work during the school year.
The new Library
will have two closed off areas.
AARP tax
help – serving 15 people per night one night a week; sign up starts at 3:30
One
concern has been about costs to participant, how are these structured? – most
of Sanneh programming is free, but AAU program has a cost and has always had a
cost – those programs work with families to scholarship kids; Parks programs
have minimal fees but there is also always scholarship help available.
Young Mens
Group – 35 kids in program, with 25 in attendance on Culvers night. Question of
whether the AAU basketball program can share some of its Thursday evening gym
time with these youth – there should be some discussions about this to see how
it can happen. Those discussions would be between YMG organizers and the AAU
organizers.
Concerns
were expressed with relationship between the foundation and the local community
(this also relates back to how many of the participants are from the very local
community); some kids are roaming the neighborhood - how do they connect with
the programming – how do we pull in info requests from neighbors about what is
needed?
These
concerns raise issues of how communication works among various partners, with
the community, with participants? How do we assess the effectiveness and
outreach? This led to a discussion of a variety of preferred modes of communication.
The key will be to have the maximum number of modes of communication repeatedly
available.
Signage
issues along Ruth Street – this is a part of the communication strategy. An
overall communication strategy, with a network needs to be established.
There was
a lengthy discussion of the fact that most of what was discussed in terms of
programming is focused on boys’ sports. In the RFP, the need for a variety of
girls’ activities was called out. There must be more options for girls with
acknowledgment that girls have different dynamics in their social relationships
and there are different social expectations and demands on girls than boys.
Addressing those will take a long time and a concerted effort. Ebony (D1 staff)
spoke about her efforts to build relationships person to person with young
women through local schools and other efforts.
Next
Steps – We will need to reconvene to further assess progress and this must
include some hard data based on using the RFP to develop a tool. We must deal
with communication issues in multiple forms and with everyone committed to open
communication. Parks will look into providing youth workers for this site, there
will be summer meal training at this location and it will be a site for summer
meals. Following a reconvening (probably at around 6 months), we will think
about a community-wide meeting to update on progress (could this coincide with
National Night Out???)
Meeting
adjourned at 8:05p
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