2021-01-20 Youth Commission MinutesPage 1.1.1
Youth Commission Meeting Minutes, 1/20/2021
Commission Members Present:
Chair Owen Lee
Treasurer Sydney Pearson
Secretary Brook Roberts
Grace Kamila
Co -Chair Jacob Sawyer
Finn Paynich
Brooke Rinehimer
Audrey Lim
Aaron Nateephaisan
Commission Members Absent:
Zane Marulitua
Hunter DeLeon
Staff Present:
Casey Colley
Councilmembers Present:
Laura Johnson
CALL TO ORDER
Chair Owen Lee called the meeting to order at 6:00 pm over Zoom.
Grace read the land acknowledgment statement.
DISCUSSION WITH MINDY WOODS
Mindy is the Human Services Program Manager for the City of Edmonds. This program offers
resources for individuals in crisis or who are having trouble paying for rent, mortgages, or food.
As a former homeless individual with her son, she testified before Council for the need for this
position, and ultimately ended up getting the position. She started this position when the COVID
pandemic began and was able to immediately utilize the federal CARES act money to distribute it
to Edmonds residents. This program has helped several hundreds of residents over the eight
months that it has been running for. She's dealt with many scenarios where people are going
through mental health crises, becoming unhoused, or have nowhere to go to sleep, and has
been able to successfully help these folks. To clarify, she is not a social worker, but she manages
the overall program, and can relate to many of the folks that are experiencing such dangerous
scenarios. It is also important to note that Council is in the works of approving a Social Worker
position which would allow the City to help more individuals and allow Mindy to resume her
normal managerial roles. She's looking at the factors of what the best options would be for
implementing a Social Worker within the Human Services Department, as well as organizations
to partner with to bring medical, food, and COVID preventative resources to vulnerable Edmonds
residents.
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Questions:
Do you have any advice on reaching out to individuals who might not be able to be
normally reached through phone, email, or social media?
o Think about the immigrant population and reaching out to them. Most tend to
live along the Highway 99 corridor, so mailing out or going to apartments and
businesses in most represented languages can be helpful. Secondly, using the
school district and reaching out to Student & Family Advocates who are in touch
with families in need. Reaching out to the Community Health Center where the
underinsured and uninsured populations go to for medical and dental care to
spread information about services. The Police Department and South County
Fire District also get phone calls for help that aren't emergencies but issues that
can be referred to Human Services. Waterfront Center, and the Edmonds Food
Bank, providing information in any packages from either organizations.
Organizations who also do weekly check -in calls like Sno-Isle Libraries, Lynnwood
Police Department, Verdant Health Commission/Hospital District No. 2.
Is there a database maintained to keep track of residents?
o For the most part, there are already existing lists of residents and organizations
that service Edmonds residents. Mindy acts as a contact point for Edmonds. She
hopes to transfer all of this to the Social Worker and work on the other side of
things in her manager role.
How are organizations found by her and how does she keep track of them?
o Her past community engagement and serving on boards and commissions within
cities. She's met different people and kept track of who does what in terms of
resources. Her goal is to make these organizations easier to find once she takes
on her manager role. Additionally, she wants to focus on creating systems to fill
in the gaps where there aren't enough services for residents.
How often is the resource guide updated on the Human Services page?
o There is a community resource guide on the Human Services page on the City of
Website. It is kept up to date, but it is hard to know when programs run out of
money. Her goal is to keep it updated by every Monday or Friday. When she
hears of food distribution sites (farm to family foodboxes), she will have it
posted on the city's Facebook and website pages, in addition to many local
Facebook groups and her personal page. She would love to collaborate with us
to post this information and get this to students.
What other suggestions does she have for approaching underserved POC residents?
o In households where money is an issue, the internet was probably cut from the
household budgets. Always thinking of who would be the most vulnerable
(those with disabilities, low-income, senior citizens, etc.) and most affected by
closures of services. Many folks ask about hard copies and she has printed a lot
of things and mailed it off to those in certain groups.
Has she ever thought of reaching out to student or adult volunteers to distribute hard
copies of information?
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o It has been in discussions recently, and she thinks finding "on -the -ground"
volunteers is crucial to distributing information. There is a ton of collaboration
that is possible between the Youth Commission and the Human Services
program in terms of participating in something similar.
III. YOUTH COMMISSION UPDATES
Would be great to have the Social Media Committee draft the Instagram code of conduct by the
next meeting and have it reviewed then. Can be done at a Social Media Committee meeting.
In order to avoid conflicts with the Diversity Commission meetings, Laura has suggested that we
move our meetings to the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays of each month at the same time (6-7:30
pm). This could also offer more collaboration between the commissions. Everyone is fine with
this change. It will be rewritten into the ordinance and this change will take place in March.
Mayor Mike Nelson has approved the pronouns request document as a strong request for city
staff, however, he cannot request that board or commission members adapt the pronouns. He
would like the Youth Commission to present to the Council the request as they are the group
that hold the power to request board and commission members to include their pronouns.
Presentation could just be simplified from the request that we submitted to Mayor Nelson. We
will be doing this presentation at the February 23rd Council meeting at 7 pm. Brooke, Jacob,
Owen, and Sydney will be doing the presentation.
IV. ESTABLISHING COMMITTEES WITHIN THE YOUTH COMMISSION
Based on previously set Youth Commission priorities, it has been suggested by Brook Roberts
that we develop committees to help the Youth Commission complete projects at a faster rate.
Committees will include: Youth & Government (focusing on involving youth in local government),
Mental Health (identifying resources and reaching out to groups to help spread those resources
and initiatives that have potential to help youth mental health), Environmental (promoting
sustainable environmental practices among youth), and Diversity & Equity (ensuring that all
youth are represented in every initiative in an equitable way). All are in addition to the Social
Media Committee. Each committee will have 3-4 commissioners with everyone serving on 1-2
committees.
➢ Youth & Government Committee: Brook, Aaron, Audrey, Jacob, and Hunter
Mental Health Committee: Grace, Sydney, Brooke
Environmental: Owen, Brooke, Jacob, and Finn
Diversity & Equity: Sydney, Grace, Finn, and Aaron
Committees can independently create a GroupMe chat and will be able to meet during Youth
Commission work blocks. In general, committee meetings will be held outside of general Youth
Commission meetings regarding what projects to take on. Each committee will have a chair (who also
takes notes and guides the direction of the committee) who is a non -officer for the Commission.
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Each committee should come up with an action idea to present at the next meeting with the chairs of
each committee presenting it to the Youth Commission.
Chair Owen Lee moved add the WAKIT statement discussion before final comments
Secretary Brook Roberts seconded the motion
Motion passed unanimously
V. DEBRIEFING THE WAKIT STATEMENT OF SUPPORT
We should find out what we want to do with the statement of support, whether we should post
it on Instagram or via press release.
For the press release: it is sent to Casey, sent to an editor, checked by Shannon, sent
back for final edits, then sent as a press release.
Instagram: only 90 followers currently, but would be away to do something with our
Instagram account.
VI. ADJOURNMENT
Chair Owen Lee adjourned the meeting at 7:30 pm.