New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community

January 29, 2008 is the "Afterschool Day" at the Legislative session. A special presentation will be held at the Capital building in Santa Fe from 8:00am till 1:00pm, with a Press Conference from 10:00am to 11:00am.

Program Providers will set up displays to highlight their programs in the East and West hallways adjacent to the Rotunda. Please try to make it so that we can let our Legislators know that Afterschool is a priority in New Mexico.

We look forward to making this event a success and letting our state legislators know that Afterschool is here to stay.

Scholarships Available - Patty Iron Cloud National Native American Youth Initiative

The Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP) is now accepting applications for the 11th Annual Patty Iron Cloud National Native American Youth Initiative which will be held in Washington D.C. , June 21 - 29, 2008. American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) high school students, ages 16- 18, who have an interest in the health careers and/or biomedical research are encouraged to apply. The NNAYI scholarship pays for travel, lodging, and most meals during the program. NNAYI's curriculum is strategically designed to prepare students for admission to college and professional schools, as well as for careers in health and biomedical research.

To accompany the students, AAIP is also accepting applications for counselors, age 21 and older, to serve as role models during the nine-day program. AI/AN college students and health professionals are encouraged to apply.

Deadline for student application is April 18, 2008; deadline for counselor application is March 21, 2008. Please visit the NNAYI website for more details by clicking on this link (www.aaip.org/programs/nnayi/nnayi.htm). To access the applications, click on the "Student Info" or "Student Initiatives" links.

Do you know a high school senior who is planning to enter the teaching profession? The Golden Apple Foundation is looking for high school seniors to participate in the Golden Apple 2008 Summer Institute. The summer institute is a six (6) week training program in Albuquerque, NM for prospective teachers. Students qualify for room and board, and also receive a $2,500 stipend. Applications are due February 1, 2008.

For more information please go to the Golden Apple Foundation website (www.goldenapplenm.org), or download the information brochure by clicking here.

The New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community has added several new initiatives, including organizational development supports as well as leadership and professional development. These supports, in concert with, and connected to, existing activities (youth engagement, network management, resource development, policy supports, practitioner training, program development) comprise a comprehensive framework for positive youth development.

The Leadership and Professional development efforts includes the Leadership 2010 initiative via From Public Allies (affiliated with the national Public Allies). The Organizational Development supports will result in a number of new offerings available to the youth development community in New Mexico.

Concurrently, the NMFYC has added new staff to support these efforts, including Michael Lujan (Out-of-School Time Network), Michael Brown (Leadership and Professional Development), Celestina Garcia (Forum Public Allies), Michael Garcia (VISTA Cadre Program), and Eduardo Martinez (Organizational Development). Some existing staff have expanded their roles (Dr. Wendy Wintermute, Training and Network Evaluation; Marsha Freeman, Administrative Services)

June 15-16, 2007. The New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community participated in a training for approximately 30 parent/community leaders from seven rural communities throughout New Mexico. “Developing the Community School Yard,” sponsored by The Center for RelationaLearning under a contract with the Public Education Department (PED), provided the parent/community leaders with concepts and tools to enhance their leadership roles and to increase parent involvement in education.

The training incorporates key elements of the PED manual, Working Together: School Family Community Partnerships Toolkit. Topics included: Relational Learning; Positive Youth Development (renamed by participants as “Positive Human Development”); Assets for Healthy Youth Development; Involving Community in Service Learning; and Community Leadership. Each participant received a certificate acknowledging their expertise and commitment as community leaders in education. More information about The Center for RelationaLearning is available at their website: http://www.relationalearning.com/.

Dr. Wendy Wintermute with information collected at the Taos OSTN Community Conversation.

The Taos Youth Collaborative invited the NM Forum for Youth in Community to facilitate community conversations around goals, resources, gaps and opportunities for collaboration to extend and enhance opportunities for positive youth development in three northern New Mexico communities. Wendy Wintermute and Eduardo Martinez met with community members in Peñasco on May 21st and Taos on May 22nd.

Staff from community-based organizations, schools, service clubs, and the media, as well as parents met to envision positive outcomes for young people in their communities, map out current resources, identify gaps, and begin to discuss ways to work together to extend opportunities for positive youth development in out-of-school times (before- and after-school, weekends, holidays, summers, and during school-time for those out-of-school).

On May 18^th, the Farmington Public Library, one of the Forum’s ten Regional Partner Organizations, hosted a gathering of area youth practitioners who shared a wealth of positive youth development opportunities for area young people over the summer holidays. Flo Trujillo, Youth Librarian, and Billy Tsabetsaye, VISTA Volunteer, led off with a presentation of the summer activities hosted by the Library’s TeenZone (see accompanying article from the Farmington Daily News).

Everette Hill of NM Forum For Youth Executive Director Participates in Panel Discussion at National Afterschool Alliance Conference

Everette Hill, NMFYC Executive Director (2nd from left) at national Afterschool Alliance Conference panel with representatives from Baltimore, New York, Florence (SC)

Conference Highlights: City Afterschool Efforts in Push for Increased Federal Funding
by Bela P. Shah

The efforts of four cities to expand high-quality afterschool opportunities for children and youth were highlighted at a recent Afterschool Alliance conference to help advocates make the case for increased federal funding of afterschool programs on Capitol Hill. The Afterschool for All Challenge on April 23-24 also provided an opportunity for hundreds of parents, educators and advocates to honor city leaders who have championed afterschool programs in their communities. City officials joined participants in urging members of Congress to fund the 21st Century Community Learning Centers (CCLC) initiative, the chief federal funding stream for local afterschool programs. CCLC was funded at $981 million in 2007, which represents a $20 million decrease in real terms since 2002. A panel of municipal leaders from Albuquerque, N.M., Baltimore, Florence, S.C., and New York City underscored the importance of funding for afterschool and discussed the ways in which city-led initiatives to deploy municipal resources have made an impact in strengthening their local afterschool programs.

In response to growing concern about the city’s dropout rate, Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez has established a council to examine afterschool standards and curricula and to ensure that programs are of sufficient quality to contribute to students’ academic success. The city currently invests $2.5 million in afterschool, and the school district has also begun looking at ways to boost afterschool funding. “Everyone has a role to play in the continuum and cities are part of the spectrum,” said Everette Hill, executive director of the New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community, an Albuquerque-based statewide intermediary organization working to improve conditions and opportunities for youth.

Baltimore’s citywide afterschool strategy began 10 years ago when 7,000 residents attended a citizen summit that identified out-of-school time programs for youth as a priority. To create new programs and train staff, the Baltimore Safe and Sound Campaign worked with the City Council to raise additional revenue. With a budget surplus in 2005, the city was able to invest $6 million in afterschool programs. This month, the city will host another large citizen summit to focus on other ways to support afterschool.

Without the resources of larger cities, the City of Florence has relied on strong, broad-based partnerships to expand access to afterschool programs. In response to violent incidents involving youth, Mayor Frank Willis joined the police chief and school superintendent in convening representatives of the local chamber of commerce, major hospitals, parks and recreation department, faith community, juvenile justice system and youth development organizations. The Mayor’s Coalition to Prevent Juvenile Crime grew out of this collaboration, and began by collecting data on neighborhood indicators to gain an understanding of where resources were most lacking. The coalition has helped create new youth employment opportunities, parenting courses, computer labs and afterschool programs that are accessible through schools and low-income housing units. Recently, the city received $500,000 in state funding for job training, mentoring and placement for 200 youth.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg is leading the largest municipal initiative in the country to strengthen afterschool programming. With the merging of several city departments’ resources into a stronger Department of Youth and Community Development (DYCD), the city now uses 515 school sites for afterschool programs. New York has undergone two years of planning and moved toward a data-driven process of directing resources toward areas of greatest need. By 2008, the city’s investment of $121 million in afterschool will serve 80,000 children and youth in 550 locations. The city has also made progress in standardizing programming hours for elementary school students as well as the number of hours program providers must serve high school students annually. A new online tracking system for participation holds programs accountable for the funding they receive from the city.

To learn more about NLC’s efforts to help cities expand afterschool opportunities, visit www.nlc.org/iyef or contact Bela Shah at (202) 626-3057 or shah@nlc.org.

National League of Cities 1301 Pennsylvania Avenue NW Suite 550 • Washington, DC 20004 Phone:(202) 626-3000 • Fax:(202) 626-3043 info@nlc.org • www.nlc.org

A panel of young people provided a living example of “youth voice” in a workshop on the Positive Youth Development Approach at the Head to Toe 11th Conference on School Health, held April 18, 2007 at the Albuquerque Convention Center. Tessa Medina-Lucero, Adolescent Health Coordinator at the New Mexico Dept. of Health, led the workshop, along with Lanny Leyba and Wendy Wintermute, Forum staff members.

After a brief introduction to positive youth development principles and the Youth Alliance, a panel of youth, including three Youth Alliance members, testified to their positive youth development experiences in their communities. The panelists included Youth Alliance members Jorge Mendoza (South Valley Academy), Joshua Contreras (Rio Rancho High School), and Linda Pierce (Cibola High School). Also on the panel were Orlando Reed (Mountainair HS and School Health Advisory Council member), Denise Mendoza (Roswell Middle School, School Health Advisory Council member), and Doreen Smith (Laguna-Acoma High School, Youth Advisory Group member).

Their amazing accomplishments put a face to the principles of positive youth development for the approximately 50 educators, community leaders, and health providers in attendance.

Youth Panelists (L-R): Doreen Smith, Denise Mendoza, Orlando Reed, Linda Pierce, Joshua Contreras, Jorge Mendoza.

April 4, 2007
In an ceremony held at the Martineztown House of Neighborly Service (Albuquerque), New Mexico Lt. Governor Diane Denish signed three youth bills into law. These included:

Lt. Governor Diane Denish signs youth legislation
(shown here with state legislators and youth advocates)

Visitors From Turkmenistan Explore “Civics Education in a Multi-Cultural Society”
February 7, 2007

Four visitors from Turkmenistan met with the staff of the New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community to share ideas on preparing and engaging young people in community and civic affairs. Accompanied by their translators and two members of Albuquerque’s Council for International Visitors, the group questioned Forum staff on each of the Forum projects: The VISTA Cadre program; the Out-of-School Time Network, the Centers for Community Service-Learning; the Youth Violence Prevention Network; and the Youth Alliance. Everyone agreed that further cross-national conversations would be of benefit to both groups. The Turkmenistan visitors invited the New Mexicans to come to Turkmenistan and offer workshops, technical assistance, and information sharing. The Forum invited the Turkmenistan group to an international conference on “Learning in Communities,” hosted by the Center for RelationaLearning and co-sponsored by the Forum, to be held in Santa Fe, January 6-9, 2008. (For more information about this conference, contact the Center for RelationaLearning at 505-983-1469 or visit the Website www.relationalearning.com )

On February 8, 2007, Santa Ana Pueblo Department of Education hosted a “Youth Summit” for 60 young people, in grades Kindergarten to High School. The young people were asked to voice their wishes regarding out-of-school time activities. A separate group asked parents about their concerns and suggestions for positive out-of-school time activities for their children and youth. A team of facilitators from the New Mexico Forum for Youth in Community led the participants through focus groups, “dot-voting” on current activities, and envisioning new opportunities for positive youth development for Santa Ana Pueblo youth. The young people capped off their day of deliberations with skateboarding, rock-climbing, and other fun activities.


	924 Park Avenue SW, Suite D Map and Directions (next to Java Joe's @ 10th/Park) Albuquerque, NM 87102	Phone: (505) 821-3574 FAX: (505) 242-2776