Planning Committee

Meeting Notes
March 8, 2001
Hismen-Hinnu

Attending: Yejide Ankobia (USC), Matt Beyers (USC), Michelle Clark-Clough (Youth Employment Partnership, Eric Cone (SACDC), Stan Gentle (Harbor House), Darryl Hamm (Nat'l Center for Youth Law), Jennie Mollica (Lao Family CDC), Hari Peramal (SACDC), Elena Serrano (East Side Arts Alliance), Karen Stevenson (KYS Communications), Junious Williams (USC), Betty A. Williams (SACDC), Anne-Marie McReynolds (Youth Employment Partnership), Stephanie M. Lindsey (Intertribal Friendship House), Bonita Roxie Aleja Sizemore (Intertribal Friendship House), Tracie Haynes (T.E.A.M.S.)

Facilitator: Elena Serrano

The sign-in sheet was passed around. Introductions were made.

Announcements

• LSA is at the end of their six month contract
• The Planning committee met recently and decided to have Urban Strategies Council continue as the coordinating agency for an additional six months. An informal vote was taken at this meeting with no dissenters. Stan Gentle suggested that a the Council submit a budget and role update by the end of the six month period with the goal of accountability and task assignments at the fore. Junious Williams asked that the Council be provided with feedback on its first six months prior to the end of the next six-month period. The Council will send a simple survey to LSA members to gage Council performance satisfaction. Don Davenport suggested a revisiting of the scope of work.
• Site Visits- Slobodan invited all interested parties to an informal meeting at the ART Ship. Elena Serrano did attend the ART Ship tour. Note: It was suggested that all agencies offer site tours to interested LSA members. Don Davenport urged the Council to create sign-up sheet for such a list. Karen Stevenson suggested that the LSA create a notice of tour times and juxtaposition it with all LSA meeting dates in order to avoid conflicts in scheduling.
• Lunch with Annie E. Casey Foundation President Doug Nelson at Hismen Hinu on March 15, 12 - 2pm. People were urged to attend even if they had not previously signed up for the luncheon.
• Jennie Mollica announced the May 17-18 conference, "Creating Multi-Tenant Non-Profit Centers" at FortMason, SF.
• May 17-19, Phoenix, AZ Race Conference - San Antonio CDC is the fiscal agent for the event. Casey will subsidize with $4,000 to include travel, lodging and food (an estimated cost of $634 per person including registration). Those interested in attending should contact Don Davenport as soon as there is a March 15 deadline for early registration.
• Saturday, March 10, 4-7pm - lecture on genealogical research on the net. Limited space for 100 only.
• Friday, March 16-17, Matrix retreat
• Saturday, March 24, 7pm - East Side Arts Alliance hosts "Listen to Your Momma" - featuring Kathleen Cleaver and others.
• March 28-30 - LLP Data warehouse work group with LSA Collaboratives, residents & agency members with data. Collaborative members interested in attending should see Junious Williams. Delia Carmen of Casey will make money available to the Collaborative for members interested in attending. Don Davenport and Darryl Hamm will attend as part of a work group.
• Race and Media Update -Members that did attend the planning meetings felt there was a safe environment to address the impact of racist reporting done and how it impacts the ability to do the work. Members said that they are looking forward to the next session and that there are feelings of optimism after the initial meetings. Karen Stevenson commented on the need for a balanced panel and said that she would focus on bringing in conscientious reporters to keep the dialogue flowing at the conference in Los Angeles. It was suggested that the workshop be held in the Bay Area instead of Los Angeles. Karen said that she would look into this, but cannot promise the venue would change.
• The Intertribal Friendship House offers assistance on homeless, employment and education issues. They also offer the following:
  • Tutoring, M-W, 530pm-730pm for 9-12^th graders
  • Dance on Thursdays
  • Arts Classes
  • Dinner, 630pm - 830pm the last Wed. of each month

Housing and Economic Development

Michelle Clark-Clough presenting

Michelle discussed the possibility of Youth Build partnering with the Housing and Economic Development work group to create a program that focuses on comprehensive skills instead of vocational training in the building of homes. Trainees operate in two groups; one in the classroom while the other is at the construction sit learning on the job. On-site workers make $8/hr. Students in the classroom earn competency pay. Although there is drug testing in the program, the participant is not removed from the program if he/she tests positive for drug use. Instead, they are sent to counseling. Right now, the group is searching for revolving loan fund to buy blighted property for the program. The loan would be repaid after the home sold as low-incoming housing. The idea is to provide single family and multi-plex units.

MHAC

• Mollica discussed with the history of the neighborhood, i.e. gentrification, with Bart stressing the need to equip residents with the tools needed to become home owners, which give them a vested interest in the neighborhood outcomes. One of the topics she and Lubow discussed was leverage funding. They also talked about ways in which to use data provided by the Council.
• Mollica also said that to connect with residents unable to take advantage of some resources, Lao Family needs to do targeted outreach utilizing specific language services.
• Mollica came away from that meeting with several questions to be addressed by the LSA?
  • What role should Casey be asked to play? Do we want the agency's involvement?
  • Is the idea feasible?
  • What role can Urban Strategies Council play?
  • What are the first steps for the collaborative, or for Lao Family?
  • What other partners should be involved?
  Mollica added the idea of a center to the discussion. It would be in the neighborhood and be staffed by trusted community members.
• One idea for Casey involvement was centered on them funding a training program for non-English-speaking community members.
• Junious suggested that Casey provide TA funding on imminent domain and on leveraging the pot. He also suggested doing a forum to increase the literacy level of the entire group around housing issues.
• Elena suggested bring the broader community in for this forum as a form of outreach.
• Don Davenport suggested the collaborative raise their knowledge level first and then include the greater community.
• Jennie pointed out the need for a core of multi-lingual staff to deal with residents on an individual level.
• Eric Cone said that housing and homeownership should be the ultimate goal but added that the group should provide housing assistance in order to draw residents to the program and then provide them with the homeownership information.
• The question arose: Is homeownership realistic?
• Don Davenport said that there are two populations: renters and those who are trying to get out of renting into homes. He added that Casey might consider funding field trips to other areas in order for collaborative members to observe similar phenomenon or 'model projects'.
• Jennie, at Bart Lubow's urging, suggested that the collaborative employ a part-time staff person to deal with the OaklandUnifiedSchool District and imminent domain issues. A job description should be put together in anticipation of bringing in a new person.
• Although Jennie said she would take these questions back to Bart and report back to the group, Karen Stevenson suggested she chat with Casey President Doug Nelson when he comes to Oakland in the coming weeks.
• Junious added that the collaborative should consider asking Doug Nelson for money so that the community can begin to purchase available property in the Lower San Antonio. Otherwise, he said, family strengthening will be a moot issue.

Working Group Reports

Newspaper - Eric Cone

• They are in the process of getting the first issue out and will have a definite publication date later.
• Anne Marie with Youth Build offered to work with the Newspaper group on the upcoming issue.
• Workshops have been tentatively identified

Art & Culture - Elena Serrano

• They are searching for a building and have their eye on the Bank of America building or an open lot next to it, and the bottom of YEP building.
• They are preparing to go over the numbers in order to get an accurate picture of the building costs.
• Classes continue and they are attempting to do more events with the community involvement such as forums and cultural events.
• The Jazz Festival in San Antonio Park is scheduled for May 20. Volunteers are needed. Contact Elena.

Education - No representative in attendance

• Don Davenport did report that the small schools issue is at the fore right now, especially where the Montgomery Ward site is concerned.
• The city announced a new small school site at the Hawthorne site to open by Sept. 2001.
• One concern is the shifting in the student attendance zone and the effect the students' moving will have on schools in the Lower San Antonio.

23^rd Avenue Action Team

• VOA, Lao, ART Ship, SACDC, and ESAA all gave ideas from their own perspective of how they might involved in the 23^rd Avenue Action Team.
• Heather ___________of UC Berkeley's ____________ will share useful information with the action team members doing the survey in the 23^rd Ave. area.
• Don Davenport said that a private investor will help to work on the Garfield building. With the additional aid of Gus Newport, they are attempting to take on the entire building and are in the first stages of escrow.
• For the next meeting:
  • Define geographic boundaries
  • Create strategy for Outreach team to engage the community
• The next meeting is scheduled for March 14 at 3005 E. 12^th.

Outreach - Jeff Sunshine

• Jeff passed to all attending a form designed to help collaborative members identify and gather information on community leaders. Everyone was asked to fill in as many names as possible along with contact information so that the Outreach group could follow up. The form will be emailed to every collaborative member with an email list on file.
• Jeff also passed out a Making Connection brochure for the group to look over. The brochure, which will be the information given out to the greater community, was missing a map defining the LSA borders, a list of partner organizations and a contact phone number. Urban Strategies Council is working on a phone number for the collaborative.

Local Learning Partner Update

• Urban Strategies Council introduced a new member of their Research Unit, analyst Owusu Amoakohene. Owusu will be the community liaison with answers to questions on housing and land use information as well as data sets.
• Junious Williams explained the three primary roles of the LLP. This information is posted on the LSA web site for those who need to review the principles.
• Ultimately, the test will be to bring neighbors in to 'test' systems to see if they can utilize resources, Junious added.
• It was announced that a Laney College librarian will assist in the LLP workgroup.
• The Council is in the process of
  • Multi-level mapping
  • Boundaries of Lower San Antonio
  • Asset Mapping
  • Organizational mapping in a database
  • Identifying all programs that relate to family strengthening for Casey purposes
• Don Davenport and Jeff Sunshine will join the LLP work group. Youth Build's Anne-Marie McReynolds, a professional _______, will assist with the documentation.

TEAMS - Tracie Haynes

• Tracie made herself available to the collaborative for questions.
• She explained that TEAMS had received a grant from the Casey foundation to do work in the LSA and they are interested in doing work to generate community inclusion.
• TEAMS is willing to work within the LSA Collaborative construct w/collaborative members.
• One of their major goals is identifying neighborhood leaders and supporting them as they take a seat at the table. Don Davenport suggested TEAMS develop a relationship with the Outreach group.
• Junious Williams informed the group of the United Way interest in the LSA. Casey funds UA across the nation. Their local fellows, Carole Watson, Regional VP of UA and Brendan Leung with the Social Services Agency should be invited to the table. SSA could be a valuable resource. The United Way is restructuring the way they are doing funding.
• Tracie said that TEAMS is looking for two residents with projects that TEAMS can support.